53F and 88%RH, which sounds about right… yesterday was overcast and grey for most of the day, with the occasional light spatter of drops. Nothing you could call rain, but it threatened all day.
I was finally able to attend another type of local neighborhood meeting, this on put on by our Houston police department. It’s called the Positive Interaction Program, and is meant to get homeowners and citizens out and talking to the cops that patrol their area. Our city council rep was there too.
Many crimes were down in our area but burglary, assault, and murder were up. (This is for the area around my neighborhood.) The officer blamed gangs for the increases. Their plan is to try to keep kids from joining, and to lock up anyone caught. Good luck with the intervention, better to spend the time locking up the others. Then the lifestyle doesn’t look so attractive.
There is also an increase in tent camping under freeway bridges and panhandling. The HPD blames TXDoT for not letting them enforce trespassing statutes. The ACLU has sued to stop enforcement too. Since many of the homeless now also have pets, it complicates rousting them. Basically the bums have figured out that state land is safe, and having a pet (that the cops don’t want to house) protects them too. So we get ‘urban campers’ under overpasses, each with a mangy pet.
It was a good chance to hear ‘straight from the horses mouth’ about some of the activity and responses in the surrounding area. And the HPD has their own version of the Citizen’s Police Academy program that I did with our Constables, with a new class forming. I’ve signed up for that as it affords additional training opportunities for graduates too. I met the coordinator, and another guy who lives in my area who helps manage the program. Meatspace!
I encourage all of you to attend any civic meetings in your area, and look for any programs put on by you local cops or fire departments. You WILL learn things, useful things, and have the opportunity to meet people, and talk with people about what’s really going on.
Keep stacking, big changes in the world are afoot…
n
There is also an increase in tent camping under freeway bridges and panhandling.
I’ve seen an increase in camping under the toll road overpasses near our house, but only within the city limits of Austin. I haven’t figured out where the homeless services are set up; something must be nearby. Austin always takes care of the homeless … even if it means having cr*p schools. That’s why all the hipsters want to live in my neighborhood as soon as the kids arrive.
I thought that some of the the toll roads were privately owned, but maybe not in the middle of state/county roads. The railroads around Austin are definitely aggressive about enforcing their no tresspassing rules. My wife’s engineer patients talk about kicking people in the head if they are anywhere within range as the train passes.
Things that make you say hmmm — I don’t see camping as much near The Domain, Austin’s fancy imitation of California “lifestyle centers”, where the city announced a sweetheart deal for a soccer stadium yesterday.
Dad is in a mood…
Just completed throwing out all Procter & Gamble products in the house and they will never return.
Now taking stock of all other products produced by companies that have bowed to the Left, Progressives, LGBTQ+, SJWs, snowflakes, and MeToos.
Looks like life is going to get a bit rough. Big Anything is no longer the friend of the common man (and “man” is the inclusive form for all human beings).
People had better wake up. We are being segregated and labeled to a level that has never been seen before. Don’t think so? Just look around at the signs on the restroom doors. Look at the other subtle signs all around. It is becoming unsafe to be a genuine person who really knows what is right and what is wrong. To prejudge anyone by gender (there are only 3; male, female, and hermaphrodite), color, race (yes, color and race are different), or ethnicity (are any of us “pure” anymore) is just plain wrong.
“By your works shall you be known” and you will be finally judged by a power greater than any on earth. Don’t think you can hide behind any specific “church” or “religion”. They have all become corrupted. We need to do more than kick the Money Changers and “Priests” out of Temple. (Applies to Politicians too.)
Can you take the heat?
Just completed throwing out all Procter & Gamble products in the house and they will never return.
Don’t forget the Braun gear.
P&G has traditionally been fairly conservative. I’m old enough to remember when they forced “Lou Grant” off the air and made Murphy Brown’s baby disappear from that series.
I’ve been considering changing my shaving habits for some time, but never got around to it. I will not be replacing my gillette products when they run out, meagre though that stack is. As I’ve noted, a pack of blades last me a LONG time. No stacks of blades here.
What is disturbing is seeing the effects of this long campaign even in loved ones. It sneaks in and subtly shapes their “unexamined” assumptions. How can a society and/or culture survive when half the population is encouraged to disparage and fear the other half?
My mom was shocked when during a discussion I said it was time to end special programs for women in higher education as they were now the MAJORITY in US schools. She hadn’t even CONSIDERED that all their multi-decade effort had actually succeeded.
I’ve been railing against the long time abuse of men on TV. Almost every show and ad has the male as the doofus, clueless, barely tolerated by spouse or other females. It’s been years of constant and intentional indoctrination, and it’s been effective.
Racial and gender stereotypes have gone WAY past representation too. When’s the last time you saw a male scientist or expert in a current TV show? (unless they were the villian…) It’s always tan-ish superbarbie….
What is the ONE ROLE where you won’t see a black male? – cast as a criminal.
This despite the fact, from the FBI crime stats, that young black males, about 4% of the population, commit about 40% of violent crimes.
Every ad has the rainbow (skin colors, one each) except the gillette ad, btw…
Despite the fact that blacks make up ~12% of the population, EVERY group in an ad or TV show has one.
Gaaah, how can a majority people be made into a persecuted group?
n
Or gays in the media. Yes, they are overrepresented in the performing arts, but still, the majority of males on ALL the New Years Eve shows we watched were stereotypically gay. With very few exceptions, all the home shows we used to watch, whether design or DIY, had at least one screaming queen. I don’t care what you do with whom, and having worked in Hollywood and other parts of the entertainment world, I have lots of gay acquaintances, and even a couple of my few friends are gay, and gay family, but for Pete’s Sake, they are a comparatively TINY part of the population. You’d never know it by watching TV though.
We need to do more than kick the Money Changers and “Priests” out of Temple. (Applies to Politicians too.)
I went to lunch with my friends Sunday as usual even though the wife was out of town visiting her father in the nursing home. My friend had a 20% off discount coupon for Sweet Tomatoes so she demanded $10 each from us so she could get the discount for all of us. I only had a $20 so I gave that to her. My buddy gave her a $10 so she gave me the $10. Oh no, we were changing money in the church foyer !!! Just another sin that I will have to explain some day (gonna be a long day !).
Greg made this comment yesterday—
“The “Brown Truck Store” in general has an apocalypse coming. Shipping costs are going to rise as well as the interest rates on the borrowed money the new generation of *.com companies used to build market share.”
–amazon is already addressing this issue, as is walmart
–amazon lockers
–this article- https://www.mhlnews.com/transportation-distribution/era-do-it-yourself-logistics — which is uber for delivery, or gig economy, or exploiting desperate people, take your pick. It’s also this:
–walmart’s answer: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2017/06/01/walmart-is-asking-employees-to-deliver-packages-on-their-way-home-from-work/?noredirect=on
Alley Oop: Doc time travels again
https://www.gocomics.com/alley-oop/2019/01/16
Wow, that is a long way just to open a jar.
NCIS has the medical examiner as a white male. The forensic expert is female, black. The technical expert is a white male.
I have noticed on a couple of game shows that when you are black your chances of being chosen is much higher. In particular Let’s Make a Deal. The audience is probably 25% black. Yet blacks will get chosen more than 50% of the time. The distribution of those chosen does not match the demographics.
I have also noticed on Family Feud that there is almost always a black family as one of the families. It also appears to me that the answers allowed are much more lenient when the black family is providing the answers.
I could probably do a spreadsheet on the numbers but that would only label me as a racist, probably vilified by anyone that would read it, and get me banned from who knows what.
I have no issues with black people or families being contestants. If they can win, more power to them. I just find the intentional bias to be somewhat disturbing. And I would most certainly hate to see any bias the other direction. Both are horribly wrong in my opinion.
I also have an issue with a show on TV called Blackish. I have not watched the show as the premise of the show does not appeal to me. I have often wondered how the reaction would be if someone were to create a show called Whiteish. I have no doubt no network would purchase such a show as it would be considered racist. But why is that different from Blackish?
There are a lot of shows that have gay people. Survivor in particular seems to go out of their way to have one or two gay people on every season. That seems to not be representative of the overall population. Unless of course 15% of the population is gay.
I have no problem with gay people if they leave me alone, don’t flaunt their lifestyle, shove it in my face, etc. If they live their lives and don’t bother me, go for it. Their right to be happy should not infringe on my right to ignore them.
Sometimes I miss Archie Bunker. Where have we gone that we can no longer joke about our differences, have some humor and laugh about each other? Oh wait, black comics can do that, white comics would be a career ending move.
I also don’t care if a mother wants to breastfeed in public, in a restaurant, or on an airplane. The kid is hungry, feed it. What I don’t like is the women that make it an issue, push the boundaries to try and offend. Make it obvious what they are doing so that someone will make an issue just so the mother can lord it over someone.
Too many people want to shove their choices and lifestyle in someone else’s face. To flaunt their difference, or their rights, and make it an issue. If they would just quietly go about their business, and other would quietly go about their business, life would be better.
NCIS has the medical examiner as a white male. The forensic expert is female, black. The technical expert is a white male.
NCIS still has Donald Bellisario’s name in the credits. Even though he’s officially retired, I imagine that he has input on casting/story decisions if for no other reason than he has made CBS a *ton* of money over the years and the network trusts his instincts.
I’ve written before that I’ve seen forensics lectures from the real-life McGee, Jesse Kornblum, who is not only a white male but bears a striking resemblence to the TV character. Purely by accident, however — Sean Murray was Bellisario’s stepson IIRC.
Kornblum worked for the Air Force NCIS equivalent, OSI (yes, the same one from “The Six Million Dollar Man”). Their biggest investigational challenge was kiddie porn. Based on what I know about the REMFs at MacDill, I wasn’t surprised when I learned that.
I am certain the truth of the real world is markedly different from what the shows portray. The stuff they accomplish smacks a lot of MacGyver-ism.
I watched one MacGyver show where the computer expert was hacking into a cell phone. On the screen was displayed COBOL code. There is so much wrong with that. There is no source code on a phone, COBOL would never operate a cell phone, and the formatting was completely wrong with PIC clauses to the right of the IDENTIFICATION DIVISION. Some idiot just pieced together something that someone told him was computer code.
That ability to scan millions of pictures, or fingerprints, in seconds. The ability to access bank records in seconds, all traffic cameras and security cameras, reading a license plate reflected off the hub cab of a ’57 Chevy into a security camera mounted 100 feet away. Lots of really out of this world stuff that unfortunately a lot of people believe. Maybe that is being done on purpose.
Meanwhile; Down In Puerto Rico
Ref.: A.F. Branco
Would it be too much to hope for an early tropical storm, tsunami, or volcanic event?
Or the Flaming Meteor of Death….
n
Unless of course 15% of the population is gay.
Somewhere between one and two percent, according to an almanac I looked at years ago.
When I’ve quizzed friends and acquaintances about the percentage of gays in the U.S. population, they usually answer 10%. The indoctrination has been very successful.
I am certain the truth of the real world is markedly different from what the shows portray. The stuff they accomplish smacks a lot of MacGyver-ism.
Cracking AES256 in an hour on Bishop’s magic laptop. Where can I buy one of those?
That ability to scan millions of pictures, or fingerprints, in seconds.
Facial recognition was scary good/fast when I looked at it six years ago. Dunno about fingerprints.
I watched one MacGyver show where the computer expert was hacking into a cell phone. On the screen was displayed COBOL code.
The original Terminator scrolled Apple 6502 source code from Apple Insider Magazine IIRC.
Subbing today and experienced another first. They (school district I think) brought in a drug sniffing dog. All the students were told to place their backpacks on the floor and leave the room. Dog came in and sat down while the handler arranged the chairs and moved some backpacks. I don’t know why the location of the chairs was important.
Then the handler came back to the dog and moved the leash from the collar and connected to a harness on the dog. The handler then tapped his own chest with his right hand and the dog immediately starting sniffing back packs guided by the handler. I just stayed at the desk and said, or did, nothing.
Nothing was found. But it got me to wondering. Is it possible there is a hand signal to the dog to alert whether drugs or present or not? No vocal commands that could be recorded. This would allow police to search a vehicle when a dog alerted based on just the handler alone. Such searches are allowed by the court. If a cop wanted to get pissy in a traffic stop he/she could ask for a drug dog and get it to alert. This would allow a search of the vehicle and the persons in the vehicle.
There was a case in San Antonio where a local pest company had a dog “Bobby Beagle” that was claimed could sniff and alert on termites. The homeowner was allowed to watch the process. Most of the time termites were found.
It was later determined that the dog was trained to respond to a specific hand signal that would cause the dog to alert. This caused several hundred people to pay this company thousands of dollars to have their home treated for termites. It was nothing but a scam.
Is it possible the same has been done to drug dogs? I know the dogs are very good at finding drugs. Is there a signal to the dog that will cause a false positive?
There are a lot of shows that have gay people. Survivor in particular seems to go out of their way to have one or two gay people on every season. That seems to not be representative of the overall population. Unless of course 15% of the population is gay.
Mark Burnett, the “Survivor” mastermind, is well known to be conservative.
If Burnett has an agenda with the high proportion of gays in the cast, he’s trying to replicate the success of casting Richard Hatch from the first season, when Hatch’s personality clashes and unlikely alliances with the other cast members made for great TV and big ratings.
Burnett was also behind “The Apprentice”. The widely held belief among the Fake News crowd is that he’s sitting on tapes of Trump uttering the ‘n’ word.
@ray, yes the dogs can be trained to false alert. Jenny knows more about training dogs in general, but from 4th amendment articles, dogs can and do pick up on cues from their handlers. Many of the dog handlers and dogs are poorly or hastily trained, because demand for them is high. Or so I’ve read. Didn’t get much time with the k9 unit in my classes.
n
Bellisario got crosswise with Mark Harmon and the PTB at CBS and got kicked off NCIS years ago. He sued CBS when they spun off NCIS NOLA to get producer credit and royalties because his contract with CBS included rights to spin offs. He won.
When I was at LockMart, they got the contract to update AFIS, the fingerprint system for the FBI. It now has hooks for other biometric data included. LockMart’s services group got it done early and under budget. IIRC, there were 3 levels of fingerprint urgency. Lowest level was run of the mill crimes and were done in 1 to 2 weeks. The second level were high priority crimes like murder. Matches were a few days. Highest level were terrorism/kidnapping/serial murder cases and the like where time was of the essence and matches were 6-12 hours.
One of the things I liked about the Bosch series on Amazon was that the investigative process took time. The lab work took time. Running down leads took time. Recommended.
One of the things I liked about the Bosch series on Amazon was that the investigative process took time. The lab work took time. Running down leads took time. Recommended.
I bounced off the Bosch books after I read the Lincoln Lawyer books (which I really enjoyed). Too dadgum detailed and gross for me.
President tRump signed the “pay back the goobermint employees on furlough” act today. Too bad they can’t all be fired. It’s almost laughable they are considered “non-essential.” Also, Bernie is upset 95% of EPA employees are considered non-essential. lol!
Unless of course 15% of the population is gay.
Somewhere between one and two percent, according to an almanac I looked at years ago.
Well…. watching TV and commercials lately it seems at least half of the population is black. Scale up that population from 13% to 50% and yeah, 1 or 2% gay becomes 15%.
Why that 15% has to be so flamey is another question.
Too bad they can’t all be fired.
Don’t be so sure.
FTA: “Has President Trump suckered Democrats and the Deep State into a trap that will enable a radical downsizing of the federal bureaucracy? In only five more days of the already “longest government shutdown in history” (25 days and counting, as of today), a heretofore obscure threshold will be reached, enabling permanent layoffs of bureaucrats furloughed 30 days or more.”
“SB Brazos River turnaround under US Highway 59 closed due to road damage”
https://www.click2houston.com/news/sb-brazos-river-turnaround-under-us-highway-59-closed-due-to-road-damage
And the Brazos River got high enough that it has collapsed the south bound turnaround underpass under the 16 lanes of I-59 / Hwy 59 bridge by my house. Again ! It is always amazing how much damage that 50,000 ft3/s of water moving at 8 mph can do.
Don’t be so sure.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/01/trumps_shutdown_trap.html
FTA: “Has President Trump suckered Democrats and the Deep State into a trap that will enable a radical downsizing of the federal bureaucracy? In only five more days of the already “longest government shutdown in history” (25 days and counting, as of today), a heretofore obscure threshold will be reached, enabling permanent layoffs of bureaucrats furloughed 30 days or more.”
No way. No way that Trump is that devious. No way.
Be still my heart! 🙂
From the above article, here is a gem: “Who’s Been Most Shut Down by the Shutdown?”
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/slate_labs/2013/10/federal_government_shutdown_agencies_with_the_most_furloughs.html
Wow, 97% of NASA is sitting at home. 96% of HUD is sitting at home. 94% of Education and EPA are sitting at home.
I am ok with this.
BTW, I would not be sitting at home if I was furloughed. I would be out looking for a job.
@mediumwave, great link, too bad the RIF criteria is folly.
I was “RIF’d in 1996 along with over 1,000 people who were senior in all the above points. We were informed we were being RIF’d #1 for not have college degrees, #2 for being 45 years old or older, #3 for being at the top of our pay scales, #4 being male, #5 etc. etc. etc.
We got a pretty good separation package: 1 month’s pay for every full or partial year of service plus full medical benefits, use of the ROC (Re-employment Opportunity Center) that provided “classes” to develop and write resumes, network, and interview. There were also classes for going into business for yourself, which is what I did. People who were 55 or older could choose to go on “Social Security” as if they had waited until the full retirement age of 65. It was complicated and rather shady, but the older guys really made out.
No way. No way that Trump is that devious. No way.
Maybe not Trump himself, but the new Attorney General is certainly capable.
Everything I predicted about the GTE/Bell Atlantic merger came true. Barr is a devious b*stard.
Btw, this guy is like freaking Rambo- from the photos he went back in and got more people out a dozen times.
Also note, while trying to commend his heroics, the news is twisting themselves up in knots to keep from saying “glock semi-automatic” and “ar-15” (which is what a “colt canada” is…)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6598189/Hero-SAS-soldier-Navy-Seals-helped-battle-Islamist-terrorists-attacking-Kenyan-hotel.html
No pictures or stories of the seal team. Unlike last time when US operators were clearly featured.
n
added- and no mention of the suppressor
added- and no mention of the suppressor
I would like to own a few suppressors for my guns. Might save what little of my hearing is left. My tinnitus is so bad right now that all I can hear in my right ear is a 100 hp 3,600 rpm motor about a foot away from me.
Yup, me too. Especially in my home defense and truck guns. Firing inside a vehicle has got to suck.
n
His rifle has these features that I can see, so it’s probably this variant–
I’m OK with it too. But the article is from 2013… I’m sure it is similar today.
@Ray
Re drug dogs
Sure. Go read up on Clever Hans.
I accidentally taught my Cardigan to watch me for clues to where the hidden article was, when we were working towards our AKC Tracking TD Title (derailed and then aged out). He picked up on the angle of my shoulders and how tight I held the longline and that I held my breath as we approached an article (usually a small bit of cloth that blended in with the ground cover). When my body language told him I thought he was near an article he would slow down, then “find” it and get rewarded. At the end of a 30’ lead. Smart boy.
An ethical and knowledgeable handler will be extremely diligent to avoid putting a false positive on cue.
Something hammered into us at Chicken Training Camp (yes, it’s real) by Bob Bailey was to be quiet trainers. Quiet physically and audibly. Animals are waaay better at body language than we are. Stuff we aren’t even aware of doing is as loud as a shout to an animal working for reinforcement.
“An ethical and knowledgeable handler will be ”
Which is where the problem is….
n
@nick
Ding ding ding
I would like to believe we have mostly ethical…
My father was a cop. Thus I will have to disagree. He got even with a couple people that pissed him off. Trumped up charges and evidence. Eventually he was terminated and became a security guard in Las Vegas. Then eventually terminated from that job for reasons I don’t know. I had no contact with my father since 1973. His choice.