10:08 – Once again, I tried to convince Barbara to leave our clocks on EST rather than switching to Obama Daylight Time. Once again, she refused. I wish that North Carolina and the other “red” states would simply refuse to change the clocks twice a year. Particularly those of us who are far enough south that day lengths don’t differ that much between winter and summer. Ben Franklin suggested daylight saving time, sure, but he was JOKING. Unfortunately, morons didn’t get the joke.
I’m still working on the prepping book. Some of this stuff is really depressing, particularly for bend-over-and-kiss-your-ass-goodbye situations like a catastrophic EMP/CME event. Hey, I just invented a new prepping acronym: BOAKYAG, bow-ack-ee-ag. (Rats! I just checked the Urban Dictionary and found that it had already been coined, back in 2011.)
I cringe every time I read a news report about another young black man being shot and killed by police, as happened in Wisconsin the other day. It happens frequently, and every time it happens I wonder if this will be the trigger event that sets off widespread rioting and looting in cities and towns across America. The pressure continues to build, and these sporadic breakdowns in civil order put me in mind of the small tremors that precede major earthquakes. One day, those major earthquakes will occur. It may be a month from now or ten years from now, but it’s now a question of when, not if.
Young white men get shot by the cops, too, and a whole lot of other crime stats and reports don’t get published, either. The cities, states and Feds generate violent and property crime statistics and then they can tweak them and selectively report that stuff however they see fit; I saw it done up close and personal.
But sure, young black men are over-represented in these stats, mainly by virtue of geography and their own “socio-economic” circumstances; more urban territory is becoming no-go zones for the cops, unless they do it in overwhelming force, as with military tactics and weapons. And as you say, for each incident, blown up and magnified by the MSM, increasing violence seethes and builds.
We’ve been here before, as most of us recall, during the 1960s riots in the cities, which make the recent events, as Patrick Buchanan has said, look like a Sunday school picnic at the beach, or words to that effect. While the horror in Vietnam continued and was shown every night on the 6 o’clock nooz. But now we also have the innernet and the social network media to really juice things up; the coming summer may see a bunch of stuff unroll a lot faster than it did back then.
Hold on to yer hats.
34 and climbing today here; might hit 46 by Tuesday. This is just to jazz us a little, before Ol’ Man Winter rolls back in and kicks our asses again.
The differences being, of course, that the media doesn’t make a big deal out of it when a young white man is shot and killed by police, and suburbanites don’t start rioting and looting. Most probably figure the punk got what he deserved, black or white.
Agreed; the media work hand-in-hand with the State to produce the rubbish they feed us day to day. And unfortunately, some of the punks do not deserve to be shot out of hand, black or white. We used to have, back in the old days, a sequence of increasing lethality before the last resort in a lot of cases; shoot-to-kill was not always the default setting. This is gone now, and it would behoove more folks to recognize it accordingly in their dealings with “law enforcement” and other “security” types working for the State.
During my relatively short “career” in that field, I had guns pulled on me three times and countless knives and other weapons, yet I managed somehow not to kill anybody or even fire my weapon at them, for that matter. Very close a couple of times, with trigger finger starting to squeeze, but it never got that far. Going by today’s standards, I would have probably killed a half-dozen perps by now, at least. And the brass and city fathers and mothers would back me up 100%. As, like you point out, most of the public.
I’m afraid we’re heading into some pretty dark days ahead in this regard, on a number of fronts.
Now, if only I could get you to think about the role that religion plays in controlling the masses. It’s been that way since civilization began: a dyad of church and state, mutually supporting, and with the goal of controlling people. For millennia it was a dyad only because mass communications did not yet exist. In the 19th and 20th centuries it became a triad as the media came into its own.
Part of the problem is that the media doesn’t report race at all any more.
If they did, the public might wake up and realise that for every Tom, Dick and Harry shot or beaten by la policia, there are twice as many Levons, Shaniqs and Demonds.
We used to be able to tell by those names, but now they’ve gotten slick and don’t report those anymore, either. It’s so freaking obvious.
Yes, it’s true there are far more young black males getting mistreated or killed by the cops; there are multiple factors, most of them very un-PC. But in the main, what we have here are de facto combat zones; we send the cops into them so we can sit at home safely watching the tee-vee and pigging out on whatever and getting morbidly obese. When the cops show up, they’re clearly the Enemy and all those folks in the ‘hood are also the Enemy and away we go.
Frankly, I dunno what any kind of solution would look like at this point, but we could start by releasing all the non-violent prisoners from our industrial prison system gulag and stop busting people for victimless crimes. And end the War on Some Drugs. That would free up our cop mercenaries and courts to go after the violent recidivist offenders and also help with identifying and locating any terrorist actors within our borders now, thanks to obscenely lax immigration policies and likewise border security.
http://www.inquisitr.com/1852286/worlds-most-dangerous-toy/
On a somewhat lighter note: Fred nails why programming is a guy thing
“For guys, computing is like love at first sight, but without child support. In 1968 I came back from Washington’s stupid war of the time and found that my school (Hampden-Sydney College) had gotten an IBM 1130, little brother to the 360 series. It ran Fortran IV, which I had never heard of. I looked at it and thought, “Wow! Motorized algebra!” Which it was. I suspected that it might do my chemistry homework. It did. While I was not a greatly gifted programmer, I loved the stuff.”
“Motorized algebra” is almost exactly the same thought that crossed my mind in that very year of 1968 upon first encountering Fortran II on LSUNO’s (today’s UNO) IBM 1620.
IMO, worth your time.
(@OFD: If you hear echoes of “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” in my comment above, the reference wasn’t entirely serendipitous. 😉 )
We are talking about leaving Daylight Savings Time or making it permanent in The Great State of Texas. I doubt that anything will happen though.
http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/local/2014/11/27/texas-petition-against-daylight-savings-time/19575535/
Code to Live, Live to Code.
A day without programming is a day unfulfilled.
I’ve been writing Fortran since 1975 and still love it. I prefer C++ more but Fortran will do. I wrangle 800,000 lines of Fortran 77 along with 600,000 lines of C++ every day, cajoling and pleading with them to behave and do what the user needs them to do.
BTW, one of the best programmers that I ever worked with was a gurl. Elinor built a object system and virtual dispatcher in C code long before C++ came out. It worked too.
Frankly, I dunno what any kind of solution would look like at this point, but we could start by releasing all the non-violent prisoners from our industrial prison system gulag and stop busting people for victimless crimes.
My wife, the former social worker and juvenile probation officer for the city of Houston, says that these people copped a drug crime plea and got their lesser crimes (burglary, etc) dismissed in the process. She says that they are almost all guilty of many crimes but the drug crimes have the longest sentences. I say let them loose anyway, they are taking up space that we need for the violent criminals. I say that if all you did was a hundred heroin trips, you should not be in jail.
More basketball pictures. This time in a college gym with LED lights, 5000K light temperature, well lit, with media floor pass.
http://www.raymondthompsonphotography.com/Clarkrange/index.html
Unfortunately, the Oliver Springs girls lost. Other team had some big bruisers that need to have genitals checked along with steroid testing.
On that “world’s most dangerous toy” link I just had to laugh at this:
“…has gone on display at the Ulster Museum in Northern Ireland.”
Ima just gonna take a wild guess and figure that the locals had a bit more to worry about at that location for a long time than the radiation in a kid’s toy.
“…@OFD: If you hear echoes of “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” in my comment above…”
If you had said “Looking” instead of “encountering” I might have caught it sooner, and this implies that you had the same level of wonder at the time as did, allegedly, the very late Mr. Keats.
I kinda had a more closely related experience when I first discovered, or was taught, more accurately, how to read English poetry, in the fall semester of 1980. It was like unto a ‘brave new world’ for me at the time, and still is.
Nice pics, Ray. I especially like how the ball is squished against the floor in P3071736.
More nice pics from our resident photog, Mr. Ray!
“Other team had some big bruisers that need to have genitals checked along with steroid testing.”
Gee, I’d nominate the WH Incumbent for this gig but he hasn’t shown any particular talent for that, obviously….
Not only that, but drug crimes are straightforward to prosecute: if it goes to trial, the cop says he found 3 grams of whatever on the suspect. The defendant can claim it was planted or that the search was invalid, but basically it comes down to the cop’s testimony. Bam, conviction.
Contrast with burglary or assault charges: you need witnesses, victim statements, blah blah blah, all of may be cross-examined, and the typical victim of typical low-level street crime is not exactly a Fortune 500 CEO. They don’t always come off well on the witness stand, especially if the defense attorney is feeling aggressive.
No, much better to offer a deal on the drug charges and drop the rest. And that’s why I don’t always have a lot of sympathy for “long-term prisoners whose only offense is wanting to get high”.
Yes, of course, end the stupid War on Some Drugs. Focus on real crimes, the kind with victims, and make the lazyass police and prosecutors do their jobs and investigate the real crimes and then build a case against the perp.
Judging by what I see, I guess that’s asking too much, though. No, much easier and safer to go for traffic tickets and drug violations. More profitable, too.
“No, much easier and safer to go for traffic tickets and drug violations. More profitable, too.”
Yup, the Low-Hanging Fruit Theory of Modern Law Enforcement, pat. pending, from the old OFD playbook.
So we have a contemporary Murkan gulag filled with a majority of non-violent offenders who are gonna get damaged in there, some very badly, and come out the worse, not only for them but for the rest of us. Yes, most of them made bad choices; who among us has not, including your northern Yankee correspondent here?
Punishment, sure. Restitution, absolutely. Lock ’em up and throw away the key for decades over bullshit nonviolent crimes? C’mon. I thought we were supposed to be a “civilized” nay-shun here.
As Mr. SteveF sez; make the damn cops and prosecutors and judges do their jobs and go after the hard cases and the terrorists; if they cannot or will not, fire them, one way or the other. And if the cops and courts here really get going on punishing victims and letting the perps go scot-free like they do in the U.K. now, they will be in for a major shit-storm, some points of which are articulated in Bracken’s fictional trilogy.
Make the counties pay incarceration costs instead of having the state pay.
It’s almost like there’s a script, or something: Analyzing Wisconsin police shooting of unarmed Black teen
Yes, of course, end the stupid War on Some Drugs. Focus on real crimes, the kind with victims, and make the lazyass police and prosecutors do their jobs and investigate the real crimes and then build a case against the perp.
The “War on Some Drugs” IS a war on real crimes. Most of the euphemistically labeled “substance abusers”, either due to inherent personality traits or as a result of their addiction, are unwilling or unable to hold down a job and end up mooching off relatives and/or girlfriends to support their habit, and when those sources dry up, turning to/on strangers via crimes like burglary, home invasion, and armed robbery. Much better the public should be protected by incarcerating them, even if for the “wrong” reason(s).
I especially like how the ball is squished against the floor in P3071736.
That is my tribute to the New England Patriots.
Net Neutrality, or how to bamboozle us:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/03/06/netflix_net_neutrality_only_joking/
I’m so confused.
“That is my tribute to the New England Patriots.”
Ho, ho, ho. You bad. You a bad man. Ima gon hab Vince pay you a visit. He all done wid da Patriots now.
“The “War on Some Drugs” IS a war on real crimes.”
Okey-doke; let’s expand the War to drinkers. And if a drug user has turned to violent crimes, well then, lock them up for those violent crimes, not for the drugs, per se. Gee whiz, let’s at least decriminalize pot.
“Okey-doke; let’s expand the War to drinkers.”: Yes, indeed! I’m too lazy to look up the relevant statistics, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if the number of domestic abuse cases and fatal automobile accidents caused by alcohol at least equaled the mischief and mayhem caused by the tokers.
But as you say, let’s do treat both booze and pot equally, with the proviso that a crime committed under the influence of either automatically causes the sentence to (say) double, the rationale being that no one has ever been forced to toss back that shot or smoke that joint. The criminal has impaired himself to the point that he is a menace to society and should be penalized accordingly.
Agreed. See? That was easy.
If I’d had a nickel for every crime scene, accident or domestic I went to as a street cop where booze was the main problem, not even counting the bar brawls and biker mashups, I’d be a rich dude now. And I can count those incidents on one hand where pot was the deciding factor.
Had a weird thing happen this afternoon and I am still on the fence about it. The wife and I were at Walmart loading our purchases in my truck. A 25 year old guy pulls up next to me and parks his car in the traffic lane. We are not in front of Walmart but in the side parking lot.
Anyway, the guy gets out of his car and starts walking to the store entrance. I said, “excuse me, you are blocking the traffic lane” to him. He answered with something that I did not understand. I said, “excuse me?”. He answered again with something I did not understand. I said again, “excuse me?”. All this time I am returning my buggy to the side entrance of the store. This time he said “mind your own business”. I said to myself “really?” and walked back to my truck. I jumped in and we left. Luckily I could drive around his car.
The wife told me that she was afraid that I was going to chase after him and kick his butt. Hah, as if! I was more worried that he was going to chase after me and kick my butt. I have never been a good fighter.
So, keep my opinions to myself in the future?
If he was not blocking you in, you probably should have just continued on your way without speaking to him. If he was, then you got out OK and no harm done.
Be very careful of accosting strangers in that manner if you are not heeled and ready for battle, Mr. Lynn. You don’t know what his state of mind is, whether he has some kind of weapon, what his reaction might be, etc. Unless you’re also a martial arts expert and experienced street fighter, and preferably also armed yourself, it’s just not worth it these days. Too many wackos out there who will resort to immediate violence at the slightest, or no, provocation.
I really wish you’d CCW at least down there, since you have had the recent training.
I find it striking how blatant bias on the part of the protected groups is just accepted. A totally trivial example: we were watching some talent show on BBC last night. Singers appeared in pairs, and the jury had to eliminate one of the pair. The contestants were a very diverse group, and quite a few times the pair contained black singer and a non-black singer. On the jury was a black musician, and he always voted for the black person in the pair. After enough pairs has gone by, this became just a bit egregious – as soon as you saw the contestants, you knew who he would vote for. Yet this behavior from a non-black juror would surely have been unacceptable – indeed, once I started paying attention, it seemed to me that they were also deliberately picking more blacks than whites.
Just now in Switzerland it’s the gender issues, specifically, the number of women in top management positions. The government is apparently going to impose a quota requiring that companies have at least 30% women on their boards of directors. Yet there is no push to get more men into woman-dominated fields like nursing or teaching young children – even though these (especially the teaching) are arguably incredibly important.
Women are, on average, less likely to be adrenaline junkies who want high-stress jobs. Women tend, on average, to be more interested in people than in things. Women tend, on average, to want careers that are compatible with having children. Women tend, on average, to avoid physically demanding careers. The result is more women in social services, in teaching, and in nursing. The result is fewer women in construction, in engineering, and in upper management.
In the end, who cares? People are individuals, not just members of their groups. I know social men and nerdy women. Why can we not just treat every person as an individual, and ignore the groups?
I worry about this kind of stuff, because I fail a lot of students in my courses (I’m one of “those” teachers). When I grade exams, I deliberately do not look at the names, I mix up the exams after grading each question, etc.. I don’t want to know who did how well until the very end. Nonetheless, when I see the results, some ethnic/gender/cultural groups tend to do better than others. I teach technical courses, and the groups are just what you would expect. What happens, if the school should determine that this is unacceptable?
On the jury was a black musician, and he always voted for the black person in the pair.
The same happens here. Any time there is a black person on a panel where voting is involved the black person always votes for the black person. That is not racist, it is being progressive and open minded.
There is a show on TV here called “Blackish”, all black cast of course. Yet if a show were to be scheduled here that was called “Whiteish” with an all white cast the show would be protested and the network producers would receive death threats.
Never had understood why you can have a “Congressional Black Caucus” but not a “Congressional White Caucus”. Why you can have a society of black engineers but not a society of white engineers. Miss Black America pageant but no Miss White America pageant. NAACP but no NAAWP. The list is many.
The very people that are claiming racism are themselves racists. Selection should be color blind, end of story. The color of your skin should not be a factor in any decision for jobs, awards or anything.
Racism exists in this country but is not against blacks, it is affecting people of different skin color. If a black person wants to apply themselves, play by the same rules as everyone else, they can succeed like everyone else. I would argue that in today’s environment it is even easier for blacks than whites because of the special treatment of blacks simply because they are black. Treating anyone differently because of skin color is racist.
When I grade exams, I deliberately do not look at the names, I mix up the exams after grading each question, etc.. I don’t want to know who did how well until the very end.
Good for you. That is the way it should be.
What happens, if the school should determine that this is unacceptable?
You will be branded a racist, lose your job and face a civil rights violation lawsuit. All for doing what is right, being color blind.
The surest trigger for widespread rioting and looting would be the US House doing their constitutional duty and impeaching President Obama.
Rsy wrote:
“Other team had some big bruisers that need to have genitals checked along with steroid testing.”
Another thing we need to go back to is normal sized uniforms. Those knee length baggy shorts really look naff. When I was playing in the early 80s the ladies wore knickers over their knickers (and sleveless tunics). Looked a lot better.
Unless you’re also a martial arts expert and experienced street fighter, and preferably also armed yourself, it’s just not worth it these days. Too many wackos out there who will resort to immediate violence at the slightest, or no, provocation.
No, no, no, yes. I really need to stop being an idiot. The guy was blocking three other cars in their parking spaces but not mine. No telling if he was going in to buy something or shoot the store manager.
I really wish you’d CCW at least down there, since you have had the recent training.
I just realized that I live within 1,000 ft of a school (actually 200 ft) and am breaking federal law each time I possess a gun on or in my home property. I believe that a CHL is an adequate defense of this law. Yup, time to get a CHL.
He was blocking three OTHER cars; not YOUR battle. And correct, is he some kind of dick just going in to buy whatever or is he wack about something and gonna kill somebody? We don’t know; why even make eye contact with him. Simply note his demeanor and behavior.
So anyone who lives within some arbitrarily designated distance of a skool is supposed to remain defenseless in this country, eh?
Yeah, get that CHL. ASAP. And carry anyway. You’re a citizen; better to be judged by twelve than carried by six and when seconds count the cops are only minutes away.
I’m not familiar with any such law.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun-Free_School_Zones_Act_of_1990
“It shall be unlawful for any individual knowingly to possess a firearm that has moved in or that otherwise affects interstate or foreign commerce at a place that the individual knows, or has reasonable cause to believe, is a school zone.”
“The term “school zone” means—
(A) in, or on the grounds of, a public, parochial or private school; or
(B) within a distance of 1,000 feet from the grounds of a public, parochial or private school.”
There is definitely an exception for private property and CHL holders though.
“[18 U.S.C. § 922(q)(2)(A)] does not apply to the possession of a firearm—
(i) on private property not part of school grounds;
(ii) if the individual possessing the firearm is licensed to do so by the State in which the school zone is located or a political subdivision of the State, and the law of the State or political subdivision requires that, before an individual obtains such a license, the law enforcement authorities of the State or political subdivision verify that the individual is qualified under law to receive the license;”
So, if you are driving on a public street next to a school and you have a loaded gun and you do not have a CHL, you are breaking federal law.
So you’re not breaking any law by possessing the firearm on your property. The rest of it is unenforceable since state law always supersedes federal law.
With Republicans now controlling both houses of congress, why aren’t they repealing shit like this in batch lots? Oh, yeah, I forgot. They don’t actually mean anything they promise.
There it is.
But hey, there’s a couple of really “conservative” guys from somewhere who are really gonna do right by us THIS TIME so get your ass out there and vote for them or the country will be destroyed and it will be ALL YOUR FAULT for not voting.
Just shoot at the school a few times, off-hours or during the school day doesn’t much matter. After a few times they’ll close the school, and then you won’t live within 200 feet of a school any longer.
Just ask, any time you need more great advice. I’m full of it.
Wow, that Mr. SteveF guy sure is on the ball with good tips and advice all the time!
I would just add: use a semi-auto “assault” rifle, as the befuddled local huckleberry cops and media types wouldn’t be able to ID shotgun or handgun damage.
But they sure got the ‘assault rifle” thang down cold, so the skool will be closed much sooner than if you just blast away with the Remington 870s you recovered from the Brazos or whatever that river is.
It is the Rio de los Brazos de Dios!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazos_River
Otherwise known as the river that doesn’t flow much unless it rains in Waco and then it is Oh My Goodness! I’ve seen it rise 30+ ft in less than 24 hours.
Hard to believe that they used to run paddle wheelers up it from The Gulf of Mexico to Waco back in the 1800s.
I don’t own any shotguns. Nor have I owned any shotguns. I need to own a shotgun or two. But I don’t want to scare off the 15 ducks that just took up residence in the front pond.
That elementary school has over 1,000 kids in it. It even has ten temporary classrooms. They will never close it, they’ll just get about 600 pissed off sheriff’s deputies hunting for you.
I cringe every time I read a news report about another young black man being shot and killed by police, as happened in Wisconsin the other day.
Does it mean anything that the young man was just convicted of armed robbery? And put on probation? Really, probation for armed robbery?
Sounds to me like they’re challenging your ingenuity. Are you going to just take that? They’re laughing at you, Lynn. Laughing.
Toooooootally on another subject, it seems to me that fire takes care of a lot of problems. Speaking puuuuuurely hypothetically, someone could steal a 5000 gallon tanker of gasoline and crash it into a building, then throw a match. Mmm, fire…
Dude, you don’t even come close to the character that Donald Sutherland played in the “Backdraft” movie. Now he was creepy, especially during the parole hearing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djv5gGXEyXo
“how does he talk to the fire?”
“and you watched him dance with the animal …”
That was a pretty good flick, and yeah, ol’ Donald can be pretty creepy when he wants to be; but I’m old enough to remember him doing the hippy-dippy shit back in the day with I’m Not Fonda Jane & Co.
“… they’ll just get about 600 pissed off sheriff’s deputies hunting for you.”
In CT or MA maybe, but I doubt that many in TX. I’d try another tack, actually; something that can’t be observed from ground cameras and drone cameras, for instance. User yer sci-fi imagination, Grasshopper.
then throw a match
I would want a delayed timer as being close enough to 5,000 gallons to toss a match would probably be a final motion.
I like how we’re talking about massacring innocent widdle babies and all anyone cares about is getting away with it. sniff I’ve molded you all in my image. I’m so proud…
Actually, not ALL of us are talking about it; only three veterans and a guy whose son is a veteran. What does this say about Our Nay-shun’s veterans, eh?
Babykillers.
Dayam. OFD wins teh intartubes for today.
That was easy!
Considering it’s been pretty much just us four or five on here today so fah.
So, if you are driving on a public street next to a school and you have a loaded gun and you do not have a CHL, you are breaking federal law.
That was struck down by the Supreme Court a while back. It was the first rollback of the Commerce Clause powers of Congress. A revised version with more exceptions was passed in 1996.