Basically 80 at 8. Gonna be hot!
Interesting what is finally getting out into the larger zeitgeist.
Civil war 2.0
Coming financial collapse
Illegal immigrants are illegal
Couple that with the return of nationalism, the EU fracturing, PC pushback, etc.
Like I’ve said before, big changes coming.
n
I’m in downtown Arkadelphia, where everything is Klinton, on a gig with MrsAtoz. She likes to watch CNN in the hotel. I saw “United Shades of America “ for the first time which, is far as I can tell, is a reality show about a Black comic I never heard of, traveling around telling us how rayciss, sexist the FUSA is and how WHITEY! Sucks! Last night he was in Kanada where the first interview was about how tRump is rayciss, sexist and sucks. Well O’Kanada can suck it. If you hate the FUSA so much, don’t come here for medical care and vacay.
I’m in downtown Arkadelphia, where everything is Klinton, on a gig with MrsAtoz.
From what I understand, Hot Springs has some interesting things to see, but, yeah, Klinton grew up there so you will be inundated.
We were going to head out on a road trip to Memphis and back this Spring, but the new job came up, with the start date a few weeks before my kids’ Spring Break.
In Houston for ASHRAE conference. Spent yesterday with my step daughter in Old Town Spring.
The heat has been fine. It has already been this hot in Wisconsin this year so I am OK.
Enjoying this great city!
Is America headed toward a civil war?
ISTM that we’ve been at war for at least the last 25 years.
I wish nationalism wasn’t such a 4-letter word in today’s MSM. Sure, it can have its downside, but the lack of nationalism is one of the reasons why so many countries in the Middle East and Africa have so much inner turmoil. It’s all about this tribe or that sect and nobody gives a shit about the nation as a whole. In moderation, nationalism is needed for unity.
Nationalism is the bugabear of the Transnational Progressives, who we generally call lefties. If you have pride, if you think of yourself as belonging to a higher group, with a glorious history, instead of being a downtrodden loser who everyone picks on, you are much harder to propagandize and convert….
n
Strunk at 100: A Centennial Not to Celebrate
Poppycock and balderdash! EoS is like Algol: An improvement upon nearly all its successors.
66º and sunny on the Great North Coast. It looks to be a pleasant day, as will tomorrow. It’s possible to step outside and not break a sweat. I like it.
I’ve never read the Strunk manual. I’ve just had it drilled into me by years (and years) of reading well-written works.
My favorite error? Look for a hunk of granite in someone’s yard. On it is inscribed: “4235 Main – The Smith’s”. That kind of error induces murderous rage in yours truly. Were I to commission such a work, I would refuse payment and demand a refund of my deposit. There are two such representations of ignorance within a mile of my house. Only good manners prevent me from tipping them over like a cow at night.
Don’t be using words with more than two syllables. Remember us poor folks from TN don’t use, nor understand, such big words.
I’ve never read the Strunk manual. I’ve just had it drilled into me by years (and years) of reading well-written works.
I first read it at a relatively advanced age, by which time I had already absorbed its contents as a result of voracious and omnivorous reading.
ADDED: Apologies for the polysyllabics, Ray! 😉
Don’t be using words with more than two syllables. Remember us poor folks from TN don’t use, nor understand, such big words.
Heh – “syllables” – 3. “Remember” – 3. “Understand” – 3.
Yer brakin’ yer own rules.
Bet I could make your head explode with antidisestablishmentarianism.
Don’t be using words with more than two syllables. Remember us poor folks from TN don’t use, nor understand, such big words.
Except “Jesus”. Use as many syllables as you believe necessary when you say His name.
Juh-ee-uh-eh-sus.
Not the way there are pronounced here.
sylbulls, member, stand are all used instead. All words in the south can be shortened to two syllables or less.
At least it cleared up my congestion from the affliction I got on the trip.
supercalifragilisticexpialidocious would kill mere mortal down here.
Apparently what I got is easily transmitted by air. My wife got it, our friends in Atlanta got it, I probably infected half the airplane. Had one person complain about my coughing and asked why I few when I was sick. I asked if they wanted to pay the fee to change my flight, three extra days in a hotel, and meals I would gladly take another flight.
If this is true, why are his followers not joining those sailing across the Mediterranean towards Spain and Italy for salvation in white Europe?
I’m working on a post WRT recognition codes for pre and post SHTF.
Something like what you might say in a normal conversation the could lead to identifying a fellow traveler.
Challenge…………………………………………………….Counter
“Never can have too many flashlights”- “two is one and one is none.”
“man, Mountain House is expensive” – “yeah the LDS center is much cheaper”
“gotta get more of the three B’s” – “man I hate beans but I’m good on the others”
“d@mn fiat currency” – “zimbabwe” or “we’ll be wiping out @ss with FRNs”
Can you guys think of some more phrases that capture the mindset??
n
and having thrown that out there, I’ll be away for a couple hours….
nn
Can you guys think of some more phrases that capture the mindset??
I’m probably quoting Dr. Pournelle inaccurately:
Unregulated capitalism — Human meat for sale at the supermarket.
Also from JEP:
Want more of something? Subsidize it.
Also from JEP:
Want more of something? Subsidize it.
Build three: one to crash, one to fly — And one to hang in the Smithsonian
Doing something with a Mac is either easy — Or nigh on impossible.
Bubba has aged (badly!) but there is no evidence that he grew up.
Floccinaucinihilipilificator.
“We just want to register your guns in case of emergency.” — BLAM!!!!! BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM!!!
[snip] “gotta get more of the three B’s” – “man I hate beans but I’m good on the others” [snip]
I was taught that there are four Bs: Bullets, Beans, Bandages, and Boots.
“but, yeah, Klinton grew up there”
Bubba has aged (badly!) but there is no evidence that he grew up.
Oh, sure. I’m from Old South families on both sides, and my father and brother both have that BJ Klinton “rascal” personality that allow them to get away with anything.
Some more surveillance action on the scanner tonight. Run of the mill undercover buy, something to do with burglary….
Some action on the shortwave, but lots of noise too.
Waiting to get to bed, if that makes sense.
n
Spent a three day weekend with the parents down in Port Lavaca. Man, the three of us are getting old. They got married when Dad was 20 and Mom was 17. Dad will be 80 in a couple of months. I was born 11 months after the wedding. In fact, Mom told me recently that I was four years premature. You know, it is hard to think of your parents stepping out and having plans, they always seem to be so sure of where they are going.
Mom has not bounced back from her endometrial cancer as she is still weak and is having problems with balance and walking. She has been in remission for about 18 ??? months now. Still, she was cooking all weekend. I don’t even want to see the scale in the morning. I showed up Saturday evening and she was just pulling a beef tenderloin out of the oven. She made me a cherry cobbler from scratch for my upcoming birthday. Lots and lots of butter in the crust. It was to die for so I went whole hog.
Dad and I went to see Jurassic World, Part II today in Victoria, TX. It was good but Chris Pratt kinda phoned it in. Lots of action, lots of dinosaurs. What did you expect ? Mom stayed home (she dislikes action movies) and she made supper for some church friends since the Mom had surgery last Friday. And she had taken it over to their house by the time we got back. So we went out to a high rent restaurant in PL called “The Wagon Wheel”. Great cheeseburger with average fries.
Alexa and I finally got on speaking terms today. I said “Alexa turn on KTRH radio” when I was getting in the shower. And it worked so I listened to Rush for a while. And Alexa turned off the radio when I told her/it to. Dad has eight of the Amazon Echos scattered throughout the house, his theory is if one of them falls, they can tell Alexa to call for help. But Alexa does not work for Mom very well, I’m guessing that she needs to train Alexa better.
Sent off another postcard to OFD. Anyone heard anything? News from Liz? It would be nice to know if he’s still in the same place, if address is still valid, but the hospital won’t give out any sort of confirmation to random people calling up on the phone…
@Nick: Any updates on the OFD project?
Dad and I went to see Jurassic World, Part II today in Victoria, TX. It was good but Chris Pratt kinda phoned it in. Lots of action, lots of dinosaurs. What did you expect ?
Shoulda seen “Supertroopers 2” at the dollar movie like we did Friday night. 🙂
The first 10 minutes of the original is comedy gold. The sequel? Not so much, but there is a cool sequence at the end, shot on the Universal backlot, which, in addition to putting in a few jabs at the producers of “The Wonder Years”, shows you the current sad state of the house from “The Munsters” in the background.
Broken Lizard is simultaneously genius and cr*p.
Also, the sequel to “The Incredibles” works, thanks to Brad Bird’s endless tweaking and sly references (I swear he hit “The Blues Brothers” with the elevator scene), but Pixar films will never be as good as when Steve Jobs was still alive to tell John Lasseter, “This is sh*t.”
Pixar had an amazing run for the first 9-10 movies. Sadly, Jobs is gone and Lasseter is packing his Disney office thanks to some poor personal choices and #MeToo.
Watch the ‘making of’ feature and commentary on Monsters, Inc. to see how close it came to being crap. They changed the whole focus and direction of the movie. The amazing thing is that they had a culture where they could do that.
No word from Liz, and I’m stalled on the lappy. Too many cables and some quirks of the machine to deploy reliably to an unsophisticated user. BUT it’s what we’ve got so I guess I’ll just have to double down on the troubleshooting docs.
I’m chagrined to say that after hitting the physical issues, I got busy with the kids end of school and swim season, and haven’t put in the work I should have.
The main issue is lack of a USB 3 port (with sufficient power to reliably drive the sensor.) Everything cascades from that. To get a port, I added a pc express card. The quirk is that there isn’t a way to fasten it into the lappy, unlike other cards that have an ejection mechanism. So when the cable moves (and it’s a long, really thick and stiff cable) the card gets pushed in enough to eject, or gets pulled out.
To get enough power to the sensor, the adapter card has an external power supply port. Normally you jumper that to a USB 2 port, but USB2 doesn’t have the juice; so I’ve added a 5v USB charger wall wart with appropriate cord and adapter. This does actually work to power the sensor, but is a horrible kludge fest of cable with different lengths, and non-locking connectors.
Another problem I hit after all that, was my own eye. Turns out I have a weakness in one eye that causes me to squint with that eye, and the tracker sensor ‘loses’ the eye and accuracy goes to pot. My eye has actually been improving and I think I can start testing again.
If I can clean up the wires into something reliable, and pick a few more apps (there is a conflict between the alternative mouse drivers, of course) it will have basic functionality and should be sent to one of you to test the instructions. Then off to Liz, perhaps via SteveF?
Some ifs and arm waving in there….. I don’t think it’s insurmountable, and maybe just getting a voice app and not worrying about the rest is the way to go for now. My biggest concern is frustrating the user, thru hardware issues and constantly changing or evolving software fixes, and the very low level of local support.
Gotta make the donuts, back soon.
n
No word from Liz, and I’m stalled on the lappy. Too many cables and some quirks of the machine to deploy reliably to an unsophisticated user. BUT it’s what we’ve got so I guess I’ll just have to double down on the troubleshooting docs
I’m still in a legal limbo with the vendor of the T440 … who shall remain nameless.
I hope to get that resolved this week since we will be in FL next week with spotty cell/WiFi coverage … by choice.
WRT chili and whether to “bean” or not:
Discussing beans and chili is akin to discussing politics and religion, however, you are treading on even more delicate ground and folks have very strong/violent opinions.
Another touchy area is what kind of beef and if ground beef can be used (not in my chili pot). Evenly cut 1/2-inch cubes of chuck is my preferred.
@Dad makes it both ways (with and without beans). What I consider most important is the freshness and quality of the ingredients. In my experience, only the most experienced cooks should try beans (they take longer to cook) as there is an art to getting them just right, not too soft and not too crunchy. And no amount of spices can make up for bad beef.
I’m in North Carolina for the summer, on a contract. Didn’t I mention it?
Oh, I see the problem:
You’ve been busy physically hitting the kids. Man, you got issues.
(And wouldn’t our parents be puzzled by that perspective. When I was a kid, it wasn’t so much that other parents looked askance at parents who didn’t hit their kids, but no one thought twice about it and thought that the whack-jobs who said you should never hit your kids were whack-jobs.)
Cubed chuck is my preference, but I’m not too picky. Fatty-but-not-too-fatty pork is good, too. Ground meat in a pinch.
I usually cook chili with beans, usually kidney but I’m not particular. There’s seldom a problem with them, as I throw dried beans and water into the crock pot along with spices, then a few hours later add the meat and more spices (more spices only if my daughter won’t be eating it; when it comes to spicy food, she’s as delicate as a little girl), then the onions and tomatoes and more spices (as above). It usually comes out fine, though that’s a matter of having made it dozens of times this way; I couldn’t give you more precise quantities or times without running through it and taking notes a time or two.
On the one hand, you’re right.
On the other hand, for those on a budget, chili and other stews is a good way to make use of a cheap piece of meat.
On the third hand, those who seem like they ought to be on a budget by and large have more spending money than I do. This has been observed before, on these very pages. Furthermore, those on a budget lack the wherewithal or the desire to cook from scratch and save money that way. They’re more likely to get a container of chili from the grocery store deli. And pay with their EBT card, of course.
On the third hand, those who seem like they ought to be on a budget by and large have more spending money than I do.
And have attitude at the grocery store. Lawdy help you if their WIC card hadn’t re-loaded yet. Or their food stamp card. Expecting you to let them take the stuff and hope they return to pay later. Ah, no. Then they drive off in a new Tahoe or Escalade.
It appears that being on welfare lets one buy a $40K plus car.
Chili…. I start with the recipe on the Gebhardt’s chili power bottle. No fresh onion, I use dried. No beans. If someone wants beans, they are on the side. HEB sells “stew meat”. It looks like they chop up ugly steaks and roasts. Works for me.
@paul, the stew meat is usually about $7/pound! I can usually find choice steak for that, certainly select, and every once in a while (like last week) I get prime on closeout for $4.77 / pound for sirloin. Yes, I did buy the limit.
n
I tend to go for the low cost cuts when cooking a pot of red. No point in using a good cut when you are going to either simmer it for hours or (my preferred method), pressure cook it for some fraction of an hour.
The magic is the sear, spices, good (important!) tomatoes, chilies, beer. One of the best things I picked up was from one of my TV mentors (AB) – add some tortilla chips late in the game.
I really like it without beans but I also really like beans – so I make it both ways. Tend to pair it with rice if it turns out to be a bean free day.
My wife’s mother was Norwegian so it has taken me 30+ years to get her to like a proper bowl of red. But I have achieved it! Like boiling a frog…
Among a lot of other things.
The big scam running here is with young girls getting pregnant. They don’t get married. Thus they are a single mother, birth is covered by the state, pre-natal and post-natal doctor visits are all covered, food for the baby is covered, supplies for the baby are covered, car seat for the child, clothing, basically everything is covered along with some extra money for the mother.
The father is around, lives with the mother except for enough time for the mother to qualify for the “free (to them)” stuff. Father moves out for 30 days to once a year to stay within the rules for getting the aid. After about two years, about the time the benefits run out, the father and mother will marry. Meanwhile they have raped the state for tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars.
The money they should have spent on the child has now been spent on 4-wheelers, a fishing boat, generally a large screen TV and associated sound system, a vacation or two to the beach, and a new vehicle. They don’t have $3.00 saved in any account for future problems. Emergency Room is the doctor of choice as they simply don’t pay the bill and nothing can be done to them. Local doctor won’t take them because of such practices.
They are well known at the local grocery store as they have their WIC card and EBT card (you can tell by the number of button pushes) through which they purchase expensive food. The amount of stuff in the buggy indicates how close they are to the refill date. Meanwhile the second buggy is loaded with beer and wine and cigarettes are purchased with the money they saved by being on the government dole. Lottery tickets purchased as they are leaving the store.
Meanwhile I am having to deal with a local medical provider running a nice scam. Went to an in-network facility but none of the physicians, technicians, etc. are in the network. Thus insurance pays next to nothing even though maximum out of pocket has been reached leaving me stuck with a huge bill.
Same procedure code one time I am charged $600.00. Next two times, exact same procedure code and I am charged $1200.00. Only difference was a different tax number was provided to the insurance company. No one can explain why the different charge to me.
My maximum out of pocket is supposed to be $8,000.00 per year. Odd how my expenditures on medical last year exceeded $18,000.00, well above the maximum out of pocket. Using in-network facilities that use providers that are all out of network and thus can charge what they want is a huge scam.
However if I was on welfare, the public dole, I would pay almost nothing if anything. Seems TNCare (TN’s version of medical welfare) limits what any provider can charge regardless of network affiliation. Why am I not provided the same cost? Instead I am supporting those leaches, that are capable of working, that are too damned lazy to work, who think the world owes them everything.
Cold & heartless – support the child. Help the parents out only if both live in the same household. Let Mommy & Daddy starve, but feed the kid. If that means a state-run house, so be it. Mommy & Daddy can have junior back when they can afford to feed him.
I love children. I want more of them. I want the children to grow to be responsible adults. If they get mad at Mommy & Daddy because they couldn’t afford them, they may be motivated to support themselves to they can keep their own children.
Welfare is a career choice, a lifestyle.
I, along with the spousal unit, had more than one kid in school who refuses to do anything. We tell them they will not be able to graduate. If they don’t graduate they will have trouble getting a job.
The response is usually along the line of “neither of my parents work and we have money”. They see their parents living on welfare, “free” food, housing, clothing, utilities, cable TV and spending money. Seem to be doing OK.
We have had other kids ask us why we work. Their parents don’t work and have money to buy things. The concept of working for something is completely foreign having never been taught by their parents.
Society is producing a complete generation (maybe more) of people who think money from the government is free. The government provides them everything. Working is not an option as any minimum wage job will reduce what they get from the government and their net income drops. Not working produces the most income. The concept that the money they are receiving comes from the pockets of other people is completely abstract to these people.
A few states have more people on welfare, not working, not producing anything, just consuming. This is not sustainable if it continues to spread. At some point people working will just quit or move out of state.
My older brother is moving to Idaho from California. He is fed up with the welfare system, support of illegals, taxes that are out of control. He will save several thousands of dollars a year in just taxes alone (property, sales, gas, etc.) that in three or four years will pay for the cost of moving. He is not the only one fleeing California.
In WA State, as in many others, EBT holders are able to get up to $25.00 cash money each time they use the EBT card because it is unfair that the parasites don’t have any cash money to spend. So what they do is get cart 1 that is full of stuff for the baby/babies using their WIC (woman infants children) checks (notice I say checks as they always have a handful), cart 2 is the allowed EBT items, after cart 2 they “withdraw” their $25.00 cash to pay for the beer in cart 3. Then they wheel out the load and load up their new big ass SUV with lots of chrome and custom wheels.
Sorry folks, I don’t believe you have a right to procreate. Having children is your responsibility, not mine.
I am aware of a number of 4 generation welfare families. They have conned the gooberment and the “churches” that also “care” for them.
I live next door to a church. We occasionally get people in our driveway that think we are the parsonage. They ask for money for food for their kids, have a job waiting in the next town and don’t have gas money, utilities will be cut off, etc.
In all cases I say no but offer to take them to the nearest store for $20.00 in food or $10.00 in gas, or drive to the utility company and make a small payment on their bill, or go to Walmart and get clothes for their kids. In all cases they say no they would rather have money. I then tell them to leave or I will call the police and press trespassing charges.
MIL tried to help when Kelly AFB was used for New Orleans evacuees. Apparenty bologna sandwiches were not good enough. The wanted pizza, hamburgers or steak. Really pissed my MIL off and opened her eyes to the leaches these people are. Too damned lazy to help themselves and felt others owed them whatever they wanted. MIL told one family to just starve.