Sunday, July 24, 2005

why bother?

I see APOD has an excellent photo of my right eye today! Thanks guys, I tried to take one a while back and the flash drove an icepick through my skull. Photo washed out and there's no bleeding way THAT will be tried again!

If you've not come across the link below, give it a try and download the audio file. If you are only using the little soup-can speakers that generally come with PCs, it'll be a disappointment as it's all bass rumbles.

Eerie Underwater Recording of Deadly Indonesian Earthquake


This is from the Telegraph so you already know the slant. It's still an interesting read and besides, Britain has a couple of hundred deployable nukes.

One in four Muslims sympathises with motives of terrorists

However, six per cent insist that the bombings were, on the contrary, fully justified.

Six per cent may seem a small proportion but in absolute numbers it amounts to about 100,000 individuals who, if not prepared to carry out terrorist acts, are ready to support those who do.


(note: the Telegraph as copied by self forbids inserting blockquote html or other html. Microsoft and the Telegraph seem to have a bug.)


For fun and games, this link on Brit nukes is interesting:
British nuclear forces, 2001

"Several factors will determine the number of warheads in Britain's future stockpile. We assume that Britain will produce only enough warheads for three boatloads of missiles, a practice it followed with Polaris. As stated in the Strategic Defense Review, there will be "fewer than 200 operationally available warheads" in the stockpile, and no more than 48 warheads per SSBN. If all four SSBNs were fully loaded (MIRVed with three warheads) that would total 192.

A further consideration is the "substrategic mission." A Ministry of Defence official has described a substrategic strike as "the limited and highly selective use of nuclear weapons in a manner that fell demonstrably short of a strategic strike, but with a sufficient level of violence to convince an aggressor who had already miscalculated our resolve and attacked us that he should halt his aggression and withdraw or face the prospect of a devastating strategic strike." (snip)


Always consider the source. There were a lot to pick from and I just rather admired the quote. For general interest, the Brits presently have just slightly less than twice as many nukes as the USSR did during the Cuban missle crisis (extremely hard to verify! ;o) and the French have twice as many as the ivans did! Then, of course, we've got the US, China, Indians, of course the Pakis, Israelies (?), and who-knows-what in the former USSR bits and pieces. A case of piss-off will undoubtably lead to something unpleasant.

Forty or fifty years ago the United States would probably survive a major nuclear strike with all the Soviets could muster. I doubt seriously that it would make it through a single fat firecracker now. Back then this country was much more de-centralized, now it is a full-blown welfare state with all commands uselessly and expensively executed by whatever $2 1/2 trillion a year beaurocracy will buy. It'll be nothing but dead meat and riots, every slight experienced, every perk or non-perk will be up for adjudication. Just as an observation, the clicky-doodles of the old cold war and a potential nukey (I probably need some good nukey! Did I spell that right? Too pricy anyway.) are more than likely slim in the forseeable future. Besides, we are raising our kids to be totally dependent on the Chinee and the Russians are only up to the robber baron level of capitalism. The evil red Chinee are catching up and they've mastered Detroit's "planned obsolescence" with a vengence. To date, there isn't a single item, even the higest priced, that has functioned three years if it had the tag "made in China". There is only one country that makes sorrier products and that's Mexico. French is pretty good. Crude but durable. German is for keeps and is actually repairable. Japan; better hope it keeps working 'cause when it craps out, instant dumpster. Damn. The good Japanese stuff no longer exists. "Made in" where? The Japanese outfits don't much bother with customer service.

Here's a rather neat link to what we WW II boomer kids enjoyed in grammer school. Can't quite remember the last "duck and cover", most of us already were sure we were gonna die by the 3rd grade anyway. That link takes you to many options and I tested the dial-up. If you are over 50, even the teeny version will give you a "hello!"

American made? What's left? Algore had a serious and now proven handle on the future of America when he was campaigning on this country being a "service economy". "Service" being what? A nation of lawyers with a government of lawyers and "civil servants" to write them. Tiny item: a bunch of years ago I went to build a deck on my shop. 30,000 pages, 8,000 applicable on just exactly HOW it should be built. Five permits (with fees) required. The fees alone cost more than the building materials. In order to rent the finished studio, more than 30,000 OTHER legal pages with huge hoopla on MANDATORY must-do beyond building code and G-D forbid I slight illegal aliens or druggies.

"All rental facilities must have handicap access". That was kewl. As long as I was into the database, got the specs. Good 'ol Lowe's. They had a design calculator for such. My normal staircase was to be replaced by a 110 yard-long ramp. Material cost (back before CCA pressure-treated lumber was banned after a half-century+): $18,000. Kewl. A guestimate by a friend in the trade was the mandatory installation of the ramp would run about $9,000. Lots of concrete piers and lots of Tampa ties. Oh, the deck price went up $1,600 and became 1/4 the size.

Yes, old crippled-up me built it. Took the toughest building code and tripled all the specs. Took a while. O solo fuck you. Sometimes I go sit on the deck.

The studio is much nicer than my house. It was fit for occupancy in 2001. Oh, I forgot. There's another oddity that did not exist in my many years when I rented. It seems I need a liability insurance policy so that a renter could retire on the Riveria if it gets a splinter in it's foot. Oh yes, I checked THAT out. The policy was substantially more than I would ask for rent.

Rent at a reasonable rate. Shoot 'em if one develops a splinter and haul the carcass down to the IRS / lawyer quicksand pit.

That doesn't play any better than the landmine/ITT stock does it?

I wish it did.

* * * * * *

I'm not going to bother linking any of the noise about the jihadi members of the Religion of Pieces whacking out a big chunk of Egypt, we already know they eat their own. Damn, those sand flies eventually may piss off some of their own. Just observing the various world news sources, I'd kinda guess an awful lot of the world is a bit P.O.'ed. Edgy. Unfortunately until things like this are no longer around for a bunch of years, the idiocy will continue. Hitler, Stalin, and the Democrats all had (have) it right; catch 'em early and brainwash the little bastards with what you want them to be. Just out of curiosity, why in hell isn't NOW, the dems, and their ilk totally up in arms with the way females are treated under the misogyny inherent in Sharia? Could it be the grrrls from that collective don't like other women to be free? Just blinders? ...or just as programmed as suicide bombers?

* * * * * *
Sunday morning

Oh good lord, Dick Durbin was on "Meet the Press" this morning. He is beyond just being an idiot. I now withdraw any thoughts of being human for the folks that voted for that unit. ILL has now joined Mass in the collection of diseased countries that need to apply to Libya for statehood.

I'm going back to bed.

Friday, July 22, 2005

sleepless in the swamp

I wonder if this comes in a Lorena Bobbitt version?

Today is the 20th anniversary of the last time I've seen 'Bessie Sue' (and sue and sue). Three pair of professional parasites (lawyers) in three states with a fourth for the IRS amusement were highly "educational". Of course by having the lucrative "Y" chromosome, all those worthless maggots had to be fed by me. If a male child reads this, marriage isn't a particularly good idea and if yer "unbridled love" for your Bessie Sue lets a tiny bit of reason leak in, check out her mother. Too damn bad I didn't. Foul, hypocritical creature. Control freak. Her poor hubbie was totally pussy-whipped (nice guy away from that harridan). I get a bit of amusement from Rob's postings and every now and then he'll let loose (warning: highly opinionated, rough language, and truthful!).

Wonder if my 'Bessie Sue' wound up as ugly and foul as her mother? Actually I don't want to know. There were a few nice times during the decade we were married, three or four depending on one's judgement of 'nice' and it would blow the tiny bits of happier memories if I knew.

* * * * * *

My karma is screwed. At least I didn't have to soak the right eye open this morning, the lid came loose with just a bit of prying. Good thing as the deep-well pump seems to be dicky-doo and there was no water pressure. 164 feet deep submersible, been down there for 25 years. Dipped into the hurricane supply for the morning ablutions and tea, went to do the morning critter feeding and got an unpleasant suprise as the largest pup was stone cold. All four had been raising puppy hell last night. Parvo can kill them that fast but they're all still nursing full-time. I've lost two over the years to parvo after the vaccinations and prefer not to vaccinate until they are pretty close to weaning as the instructions suggest. Tomorrow I'll take my diseased carcass up to the farm supply if I can remember my way outa here and buy a new batch, the survivors are almost old enough anyway. SIDS for canines. Could be any number of other things but I just didn't have the stomach to do an autopsy today. Then it'll be time to finish finding out what has happened to the water supply. It's isolated to three possibilities with only one that isn't a total disaster.

I desperately need a bath. Need to wash a bunch of gunked-up pillows and pillowcases. The sink is full of nasty dishes. Pot needs flushing as well.

It's all Bush's fault!

* * * * * *
This sounds like something that might help! Too bad the price tag is so high.

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

I thirst

Alcohol was once considered the solace of the aging, a gentle crutch to carry them to the darkening horizon. If the Bible is to be believed, Noah drank (and plenty) into his eighties. When a Viking became too old to plunder villages for booze, he was issued a standard ration of mead to ease him toward Valhalla. And wasn’t it William Faulkner who said, “A man shouldn’t fool with booze until he’s fifty; then he’s a damn fool if he doesn’t.”?

No one has entered the "comments" for quite a while. Can't say I'm surprised. I don't much care for myself or what I've posted for a while either. Having Chinese mutant eyeball maggots shipped to Pakistan, delivered by a pretty Russian dawg, then admistered by commie/islamic ticks has made me just a tiny-bit cross. The few emailers, well, what can I say? (other than I don't love you a bunch either! ;o)

Did you catch the
Greenpiece video
on Drudge today? Sheesh. I was amused by the Dems reaction to the prez's nomination and the immediate lefty screeching reaction to his thoughts on the "endangered" arroyo toad. Here's the 62 page pdf of the critter's Federal Register fret list. Toads actually like people. Most people kinda like the little warty bastards.

I've got to replace Bronson. He was my roommate for most of seven years but passed on to the great pond in the sky back in Feburary. Without a doubt one of the finest co-habs ever. Well, except he dropped his roach-turds a bit random. Swamp life comes with bugs. With my slim-to-none tolerance of the various bug poisons, Bronson kept this place pretty clean. Way back in the beginning I fretted he'd go hungry. ..brought him bugs when they got scarce. He was a toad. No food, no problem. Sleepytime. His low-feed times were actually rather rare as when he'd normally be under a rock waiting out the winter, I was hauling in firewood. A very rich source of yummy, crawling protein! Rather amazing what over-winters under bark.

The other best source was the two times I bought bags of potatos from Wal*Mart. Chock-full of German cockroaches. Haysus H. The first time was so outragious I went outside and brought in a helper for Bronson. The second time was just as bad.

There has not been a third.

Also, it's not a good idea to buy catfish from said store. There is something else besides the funky taste. If God is nice to you, the urps and squats will end before a week passes. It's probably like everything else from said establishment since the old man died; from China or the sewer-flats outside of Mexico City. If it's manufactured, expect an absolute lifetime of 3 years (typically 90 days if it works at all) or digestive difficulties if foodstuff. It's a very good idea to read the labels on canned stuff. Hey, it's your gut..

No reason to comment on the Plame creature. That was cut-and-dried back when Clinton was still having his cock sucked. MSM is having fun with it probably due to the situation that bag of used food has been in for a long time. Buy Kos and DU, run that for the mindless ones to soak up, well, it worked well for Adolph, oughta work again (it is unfortunately). Do you send yer kids to gummit skool? Dey be lernin' da good shit. I wanna grow up big and strong, learn to wear my britches at below pube-height, do de fake African-chanting 'bout killin' evbebody, 'an fuk all dos hos! ..such a wonderful culture. $8.412 since Lyndon Banes Johnson set up the "Great Society" programs. Such a wonderful award the society has generated.

No reason to comment on the O'Connor replacement. Most anything would be more useful. I was suprised with it's (SDO'C) final case, could be she wanted out of the job without looking like the total lifetime asshole she'd been. Voted that way due to knowing the lib brain-sucked majority of SCOTUS had the usual Dem "fuck the peons" bagged. I jus' love those bastards. Can't wait till I can get a reservation in the cafe' where shit-for-brain Souter's house used to be. Did you notice his home is carried on the local tax roll as being worth $100,000? Gee, if the circulating photo is real, THAT abode would bring easily 5 times that in the sorriest swamp county on the worst road in Florida.

The new boy? No idea. G. Bush isn't near what one would hope for as prez. His little bro is a class act. I'm a shotgun libertarian which means I've not voted for a dimwit since the age of 21. GW has proven economically and national security dim, just far, far better than the treasonous opposition. The new supreme? I'd much prefer Karl, Ashcroft, or Ann. Boortz would be entertaining except he's probably not going to live long enough to churn the pot properly.

* * * * * *
'nuff of that. The A-rabs and that diseased excuse they use for a "religion" (insert good linky here) is never going to get better. The Koran even in the most moderate translation makes "Mein Kampf" a sweet read. If you've not read it, it really is an interesting document. I've read the Koran through completely four times, parts many times. That collection of "stuff" makes the not-so-good Old Testament look like "Crissy and Bo fix Bambi's Owie". The premise is simple. Worship Allah the way the pedophilic, murderous, illiterate pile of shit called mahhamed (lots of spellings but all the poor bastard males have to be named after the old goat-fuck) or get hacked into small parts. Wonderful, totally psycotic way to raise your sons. BTW, your daughters, if they do the suicide bomb routine, they get to be the FIRST virgin in the harem of 72 for a "hero".

It seems a shame otherwise wonderful children have to spend their young lives in madrassas. If you have broadband, there are quite a lot of teaching videos available. I've watched a few, made me understand why the kids murder themselves so readily. Linkies are available but only if requested. I have to preview the site again and the poison inside honestly makes my not-wonderful feelings go down the tube a bit. Any bastard(s) that do that to kids does not need oxygen. Not. One. Damn. One.

Muslim theology=total shit-for-brains

Madrassa=programming center for psychotics

Damn-shame the half-billion kids (girls not allowed) have been so poisoned. War-lord religion. Cult-of-death religion.

No, there's no decent cure. It's like the Black Plague and the Spanish flu. It will react to spot checking somewhat but it'll probably just have to run the course. Like all major epidemics, it'll die out when the host population has been diminished to the point it can't thrive.

Unlike usual diseases, this one may piss-off a country with old, hairy thermonukes. ...might shorten the plague. The other "repair job", well, it's not "politically correct". The "muslim" religion is protected but G-D help you if you bow your head and think grace over your Big Mac.

Pakistan. Nuky al-Queida country. Interesting especially since they've got a bunch of the buggers sitting in muslim bunkers. Mushirriff is a dickhead, won't live too much longer. How many did he pop when idiot India did it? Got lots. One (1) tiny Hiroshima-equiv in NYC or DC will be amusing. Chuck Yeager's time in Pak (re-read bio). Unlimited breeding. Why 'fo those that are the least able to tend have so many? It's god-awful in this country (ultimate welfare state) and unbelievable where second-world states have gone below third-world status. African males require 6 regular women to be normal (wives?), monkey sex other times. Live 8, Live Aids. Yeah. Put it in your pocket. "Cultural" differences. Kewl. I lived in Cali for many years and got a bit of amusement of observing "monkey sex". Free love, I think it was called. Way back then, all but the virals could be fixed.

I knew three folk (other than self) that were not diseased. AIDS had not gotten into SF back then.

Of course this is rambling. That's all I have these days. Gluey, diseased eyeballs, 12 foot weeds, triple-bagged trash that hasn't been hauled for a couple of months don't count. Oh, forgot about the bad attitude. I don't even like me a whole bunch.

Oh, what can I say! ...from Drudge:

U.S. investigators have been told that Aswad attended the Khalden camp in Afghanistan, favoured by foreign terror trainees. British shoe bomber Richard Reid is among those who attended the camp and it has been reported that London bomber Khan also went there.

Developing...

Aswad? G-D, the sumbich must be another pissant fer muhhammed!

I've got a few new puppies around. Three are male. Asswad. Asswipe. Asshole. Good muslim names! I'll assign Asswad to the one I'll keep.

All the old mines I installed around this place are probably a bit unstable by now. 14 were removed but I was never exactly sure where Larry placed the other 28 and I just avoid those areas. They have fence cover anyway and the HE in them will be pretty useless by 2080. It's contact sensitive now (old dynamite, leaks ng), not on hiking paths. Fenced. Hopefully all.

If you believe the above, I have some 1898 ITT stock to go along with it.

* * * * * *
"Deep down in his private heart, no man respects himself much."
Mark Twain

* * * * * *

Sunday, July 17, 2005

A poke in the eye with a sharp stick

Sometimes it's a good idea to proof before posting. Without correcting the wording of the tail-end of the previous, just before dawn randomness, a bit about the Shoemaker kids:

I first met Carolyn and Eugene at Mount Palomar. I was installing a video tracking system for the 200 incher, having a fine-'ol-time, and enjoying all the Cal Tech folk even more than I had over the last couple of years. Bumper sticker time: "Astronomers Do it all Night. Engineers Come When Called". Lame!

One evening whilst the duty crew were getting ready for the big scope's use, I wandered up the hill to see what was going on at the little Schmidt scope. Eugene and Carolyn were preparing the gadget for another night of part of their Northern Sky Survey. I've never met two more delightful people, naturally very happy, natural teachers, joie de vivre was invented to describe them!

* * * * * *

Damn-good thing I've bagged the continued part of the prev. post. Stuffed into the 'won't be ever used CD', filed in the wood stove. Cross-as-Hell, had been up most of the night with the godamnittohell right eye again. Itching, stinging, godamnitto hell. It's Sunday now and it's all dicky-doo. Chronic. YaHoo'd "conjunctivitis", lots of information. Seems a lot of sites spec pinkeye (such a 'nice' name!) as a STD. Doesn't play here as it's been (I'm not proud of it) >10 years since and that was with my former wife where it had been >20 years since she'd been happytime with a vector. ...plus a full blood-screen when my first nasty reaction to tick bites took me down 2 years ago. Repeated about a month later, full screen. Zip or normal on all pages except for blood grease. Damn. I like biscuits and gravy. No sex, no B & G, just a chronic eye infection and (as of today) $10.30 to last me until 7 August (next expected client payment). I won't promise work I don't expect to deliver other that my very best effort and God knows, the little bit I've done in the last couple of months ranges from 'enlightened really neat but sux' to 'go elsewhere'. All scanned-in, archived. Won't touch finishing it until the frigging 40-grit leaves my eyeball.

* * * * * *

This morning's collection of MSM and pundit shows were ever so amusing. C Image hosted by Photobucket.com Bob Schieffer is sooo anti-American he makes poor Dan look patriotic! I suppose it works for their prime audience that has caused them to be the lowest-rated for years. MoveOn, Deaniacs, the various creatures from New York and Massachusetts have really screwed-up again.

Is it possible for the poor Dems to make even bigger fools of themselves? It's a sadness. The saddest part are the poor dems that believe Chuckie and crew as if it were the divine 'Word of the Prophet'. **sigh** What's a mother to do? If spouted from the faces of such, it's jihad. Idiots.

* * * * * *

I got a bigger kick out of listening to the usual semi-local (Tallahassee) shows on 'local' affairs. Another giant **sigh**. Usual crap. More and more funding for things that have absolutely been proven NOT to work over the 29 years I've been back in Florida. BTW, except for really rare circumstances (gov, prez), Florida has been overwhelmingly Dem since "Honest" Abe was prez. This morning was not a bunch different on the PBS channel listened to. Another (BTW, I'm touch-typing. Got the monitor turned off, eyes closed. It'll get checked before posting. The eye irritation is awful. Can't read, typing with the screen working makes eye movements.) Another bit of foreveridiocy is the use of the "single-moms" as wonderful authorities on damn-near everything. Jesu H. God. Decades of those bloody successful-users-of-the-system owning the PBS and MSM editorials. What IS a "single mom"? Why is she such an absolute authority? Are ALL males such justifiable pigs they should be dumped down the chute of abject shithood? Whyinthehell has the family turned into a vile, nasty, repressive disease?

Poor little almost-28 year old Laquitsza, mother of 7, had a few of her munchkins (ages from 17 to another in the gut) got hit by a car driven by (God help us!) a white teacher when Laquitsza was out scoring crack (or having the device serviced). The newspaper report had her (schoolteacher) driving home after a later than usual after-school normal workload and going through the black, paid-for neighborhood. Laquitsza's "career" consisted of one (1) 3-month job in her life. As far as she could recall, she could only identify a couple of the kids with a known possible father. She "kinda thought" that she knew who was the daddy of the latest Department of Families and Dependent Childrens' charges was. Her mama, sheesh. No known fathers. Lots of litters. Lots and lots of gummit meds, feed, housing, air conditioning (mandated in FL). Education only for self-esteem as 4th and 5th gen total welfare cases have none at all. Grandmother? LBJ is God.

It's fun when folk like Judge nigger Cane Kennedy and his ilk get in the loop. Any decent shrink could indentify folk like that who use the full action of the "supreme judicial prejudice", totally allowed by our system of law. All judges may make judgements based on their own prejudices. Go check the law. 'tis true. Cain Kennedy purely hated "whitey" and made a career of making his supreme position Hell on Earth for all things white.

All white things owe everyone else "reparations". Cool. Smarter? Jeez, I don't think so. My corticals were tested a few times before I got disastrously married, rated as low genius. Hell, I was very good at quantum sensing tech, utterly useless with wimmin! The number was a touch under 150. I've had the privilege of directly working with a hatful of Japanese, 2 Koreans, and 3 Chinese. Their brains seemed to have been MUCH better organized. Well, one of the Chinese committed suicide. She was a very close friend. Yeah, I pretty-much know what caused her to kill herself. Another person did the same shortly thereafter without any knowledge of her work. He had found out the nature of the project. My guess is it caused him to loose all faith in humanity. A third had his life plug pulled a few months later but in his case, he'd been living with it for over a decade. Kinda tough being on the top-of-your form, extra good at one's job, been at it since college with some impressive projects, very happily married, comfortably well-off, in best of health, then dropping stone-cold dead as roadkill at the ripe old age of 43 whilst moving the research crew to a better lab. Kinda sucks. Especially since he had selected me as part of the new team at the other lab. Got his death notice about the same time I got the nigger Kennedy bit of legal shit and just before the IRS parked on my butt for the ex-wife's crimes.
It's too bad the "ethnics" have pissed in the well. Obviously at the furious rate they are making more of the same without even a modicum of sense, it won't be long before what is the USA will be a new version of "A Canticle for Liebowitz" w/o the nuke war past. I've seen Lima, Peru, I've seen Detroit, I've seen Washington, Baltimore, East Palo Alto, and a whole bunch of LA. Welfare cities. In my previous very travelled years, I Always spent time where "living low dressed" could mine society. Uncontrolled birthings, all gummit funded. Have another bastard, have another half-grand a month. Run the border? Instant citizenship plus free meds, food stamps, and welfare. Goddamn, that's kewl!

It has been many years since the last pass. Back then all I had was sadness for those that were going to lose (Boston surburb, did loose. White. Wonderful folk. Hard-as-hell working, delightful but scared. The rest of the story sucks.)
I need some med care. Old toof is painful; mexi drug gang fucked-up my shoulder, both wrists, cracked my skull where the vision, balance, and hearing leaked out, ought to get BROWN and run the border! With a bit of repair, I'd probably be as good as I was when I spent the first 30 years of my life building things in the sun and enjoying my fellow human beings. Nah. Chuckie Schumer and Hillary are the new ruling elite. Too bad Madaline L'Engle isn't with us anymore. The sound is the same as that from "A Wrinkle in Time".

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

almost dawn musings

Sometimes it feels like 100 years ago, other times, live and in person mostly right now. 41 years ago my father and I were on our way to the site of the air field he and 2 friends were developing near Theodore, Alabama for another day of good stuff. It's a lot of work to get an airfield graded and the hangers were all to be built out of concrete. Gee! Alabama Gulf coast! Hurricanes jus' LOVE that little bit of the Gulf Coast and Lord have mercy how many times we had to fly those kites out of the path of God's Bad Breath.

Just a perfectly wonderful Saturday morning, humming down the long, curvy road in the old (even then) International pickup listening to the radio. Roy Orbison was singing his new "Pretty Woman" and dad was a big case of smiles! I'm 14, he's 35. Damn. Nobody is that young. Nobody is that happy.

About a mile or so before the airstrip site was the abode of one of my father's friends. Dad had made arrangements for me to spend a bunch of time with him. I'd known the old man for a few years and dad wanted me to live with him and his family for a few days. He went home that evening and I stayed with the old gent, his wife of forever, had dinner with a passle of sons, daughters, grandkids, and great-grandkids. The old man farmed some mighty fine dirt with a walking plow behind a mule. He'd been doing it since before my father was born. After all these years, I can't tell you what all the kids did other than they didn't notice I was white. Frankly I didn't know I was white either. The previous 14 years had all us kids doing mostly what kids in the deep 'souf always have done. Lots of fishing, mostly from folk's piers and boathouses. Sometimes we'd borrow a skiff. I liked Mr. Snook's on the Bay, Jeff preferred Mr. White's on Fish River. Us "older" kids would teach the young'uns how to bait hooks, don't recall ever being able to teach the gals how to dress the catch, girl yuccy is timeless! The only odd part was we were obviously "confused".

That is what Reverend Martin Luther King taught us. Damn! You're white.

End of finest lovingkindness. Lots of confusion for a while. Apparently we were supposed to take sides, at least in the part of rural Alabama I was raised in. 1964. Death-knell. Federally mandated. Blacks are now 'officially' too damn stupid to compete. Ramp up de weafah. I couldn't believe a decent culture could decend so fast.

The semi-official tally of all the federal "lovingkindness" from 1964 to 2003 is $8.4 trillion. Since the present level is substantially over a trillion a year, that's probably seriously low.

Do you think we've gotten our money's worth?

If you want to fuss around with various gummit stats, a good starting point is Uncle Sam's Reference Shelf - Mini Historical Statistics

I've a rather large folder of specific sites but that one is decently linked and a good start point.

I've also a box-full of rather delightful stories involving meself, a bag of kids, and very little adult supervision! We were taught to swim really early, learned sex by watching critters, teen boys wound up with round indentations in their wallets due to the condom one had to buy at the Red Stop Truck Stop in Theodore (you really didn't think you were gonna get to use that thing, didja? ! ;o). BTW, they cost a quarter. I STILL have my wallet from back then. Yup. It's ringed. Just for kicks and giggles, those that depend on condoms for contraception have a 18% chance per year it won't work. Glenn's daddy and mom did. Last count was six kids. They kinda liked each other a lot. They also liked kids a lot!

I'd love to go back and visit my now old friends. Something over 15 years ago a black judge (who defined the true definition of "nigger"), truly hated anything in the form of a white male, set up a one-way valve. I saw the Mobile County jail when I was 12. No desire to occupy a cell. That sorry son of a bitch walked through a list of ten cases before me. Poor #3, that was beyond a travesty. That poor old guy really got the staff. He lived in Mobile County.

By #7, I wanted drugs. Been well over 10 years since I'd had a local. Yup, #11 needed serious neural blocks. Nigger Kennedy pronounced death to everything I had done from the age of 16. Judge Cain Kennedy was (had been, continued to be), the ultimate racist.

I've lived so far a bit over 55 years. Lots and lots of rather wonderful folk have been part of my life. The names of the super cool, well come visit after I heal and the ticks are gone. There are two folk very precious in my memory that are difficult to share and those are the Shoemaker kids. Damn! I was only 23 and newly married. Those folk would embarrass us! A year later, I met them again most of 12,000 miles away.

Astronomy is a passion. Shared, it is wonderful. It's not anything at all when all the lights go out.

Kinda like a kiss.

Monday, July 11, 2005

Monday, Monday, so good to me

Monday mornin', it was all I hoped it would be

Not.

Soggy and steamy. Drizzly. Mudded out. Rima decided to dig a crater precisely where the buggy would fall into it when I elected to start smoking again and wanted to light the booger in order to acquire a pouch of Bugler. Been outa 'bacca for a while. The Rimaholes were full of water of course. That's OK, she has to live outside and I'd dig holes to live in down in da 'souf in the Summer except I've already done it. Over a quarter of a century later I can give a bit of advice; if you can't afford dehumidification, don't even consider building an earth-shelter. The ceilings, walls, floors are always much cooler than outside and when it's semi-tropical Florida with daily temps of 95° and 90+% humidity, each time one opens the door, a minor ocean condenses EVERYWHERE. This place is completely coated with a fine film of gray fuzz where there's not big black blotches or active fungi growing through the tiny bit of carpeting that is left. The photo I'd posted earlier:

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

..is a week and most of a foot of rain ago. Every frond and every leaf has a tick on it. With me having had such a bad time with conjunctivitus, there's not a snowflake's chance in Hell I'd allow anyone into the fungus factory [zero ticks; strip and get bathed in DDT before entering. Bring yer own DDT, I gave mine to the mexicans (true. My last can of sheep dip)] before I get caught up with where I was 2 months ago. Quarantined. No one needs to get ill from the massive tick infestation and I sure as Hell don't want anymore brought in now that I am no longer immune.

There were 4 things that Absolutely Positively Must Be Done today. I did none of them. There were a couple of things on the list that kinda needed doin', have to be done eventually, just not important. So I did them instead. Fucked one of them up. 's OK. Mondays suck almost as bad as Tuesdays.

During early morning wakey-time, I read a handful of my favorite writers and there were a couple of inspired and semi-inspired essays that lent themselves to linky goodness. Since the day has left me soaking in a pot of cynic soup, interest has flagged.

* * * * * *

If you want to hear God laugh...tell him your plans.

_________________________

Saturday, July 09, 2005

notes from Beltsy, Mildewrova

The first of the significant feeder bands started over here a bit over an hour ago. The wind came up to probably around 30 mph, then a huge toad-strangler of a rain started. Lasts just a few minutes, then tapers to a light shower, then ramps up, down, fades out, back up, then time to strangle the toads again. There's a pattern in there if one could read it! I keep promising myself I'll pick up a microphone to remote outside in order to record outside stuff (swamp nights are amazing!) and would really like to have done that with a few of last year's 'canes. Hell, it's early in the season, probably will have plenty of opportunities in the next few months. 'cane winds are awesome to listen to, especially the counterpoint of huge trees going toes-up and the sound of limbs being ripped-off with the constant banshee wail of the wind and the machine gun rain. You should see the mess left on this 40 from last year. 30 acres are climax hardwood, got enough hickory, oak, and beech to furnish a cabinet factory for life.

Cookie's moved her pups from the cavatorium to the front eve. Probably got a bit too damp for her and no, nobody is coming inside for the bit of Dennis that'll pass by here. Poor Pensacola. They've had a year with their FEMA-roofs (blue tarps) where they still had housing, now they have a #3 coming to say hello.

update: just checked NOAA and they have 'landfall' right at the mouth of Mobile Bay just about dawn. Used to have most of my family in and around Mobile. Those that might still be there and alive know all about 'canes.

7:20 AM: I misread a 2 for a 7, change to this afternoon. I've GOT to get new specs (these are from 1973). Cat 4 now? Sheesh.

Friday, July 08, 2005

stuff

..lifted from the Free Republic

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

That's supposed to be Woody with a bad case of "Sunday morning"; it's been me most every morning for the last 2 months. Between back-to-back cases of tick fever, a couple of cracked ribs, and conjuntivitus, I'd have liked to look that good! The last post was still pretty disconnected but at that time I'd pretty-well kicked the tick fever, ribs were decent, and other than feeling sandpapered, both eyes were working. Finally felt it might be possible to go see Discovery lift off. I'm a native Floridian, have lived here half my life, been a space-nut for over a half-century, and I've never seen a live launch. Wellllll, Sunday morning I awoke with the pillow glued to my face again. Got it peeled off w/o soaking it off as I had to do a bunch of times before, left eye swollen nearly shut, right eye swollen and glued shut. Soaked the goo off, right eye solid red. Just damn. Today I'm almost back to where I was last Saturday. ***sigh*** It would be totally foolish to consider the 500+ mile round-trip to the Cape for next Wednesday's launch. Takes a couple of days to prepare for such especially not knowing what Dennis will hand out over the weekend. That chart (plus the sat photos) leads me to believe it'll just get real wet here Sunday and Monday.

* * * * * *

I've certainly missed a lot that's been going on on the blogosphere while my eyes have been makin' lemon pie fillin'. Haven't missed much on the radio, have missed everything on teevee but THAT abortion was given up a year ago other than for kicks and giggles even when the eyes were fine. Lots of Radio Margaritaville, a old bluegrass station, and a couple of "classic" rock stations have amused me when not listening to Boortz and sometimes he'll go off on such a rant even he has to go! He'd make a fine supreme court justice as would Ann Coulter (she's got the qualifications) and John Bolton (also qualified). It's a toss-up whether I'd prefer Neal or Ann for Chief Justice!

* * * * * *

Live 8? Another ***sigh***. Idiots never learn that welfare always leads to worse conditions, especially when ~80% inevitably winds up in warlords' pockets. "Teach a man to fish..." There's an excellent interview on the uberlefty "Der Speigel" that's worth a read:


"For God's Sake, Please Stop the Aid!"


The Kenyan economics expert James Shikwati, 35, says that aid to Africa does more harm than good. The avid proponent of globalization spoke with SPIEGEL about the disastrous effects of Western development policy in Africa, corrupt rulers, and the tendency to overstate the AIDS problem.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Shikwati, the G8 summit at Gleneagles is about to beef up the development aid for Africa...

Shikwati: ... for God's sake, please just stop.

SPIEGEL: Stop? The industrialized nations of the West want to eliminate hunger and poverty.

Shikwati: Such intentions have been damaging our continent for the past 40 years. If the industrial nations really want to help the Africans, they should finally terminate this awful aid. The countries that have collected the most development aid are also the ones that are in the worst shape. Despite the billions that have poured in to Africa, the continent remains poor.

SPIEGEL: Do you have an explanation for this paradox?

Shikwati: Huge bureaucracies are financed (with the aid money), corruption and complacency are promoted, Africans are taught to be beggars and not to be independent. In addition, development aid weakens the local markets everywhere and dampens the spirit of entrepreneurship that we so desperately need. As absurd as it may sound: Development aid is one of the reasons for Africa's problems. If the West were to cancel these payments, normal Africans wouldn't even notice. Only the functionaries would be hard hit. Which is why they maintain that the world would stop turning without this development aid.

SPIEGEL: Even in a country like Kenya, people are starving to death each year. Someone has got to help them.

Shikwati: But it has to be the Kenyans themselves who help these people. When there's a drought in a region of Kenya, our corrupt politicians reflexively cry out for more help. This call then reaches the United Nations World Food Program -- which is a massive agency of apparatchiks who are in the absurd situation of, on the one hand, being dedicated to the fight against hunger while, on the other hand, being faced with unemployment were hunger actually eliminated. It's only natural that they willingly accept the plea for more help. And it's not uncommon that they demand a little more money than the respective African government originally requested. They then forward that request to their headquarters, and before long, several thousands tons of corn are shipped to Africa ...

SPIEGEL: ... corn that predominantly comes from highly-subsidized European and American farmers ...

Ruandan President Kagame has over a million deaths on his conscience, says Shikwati. Zoom AFP Ruandan President Kagame has over a million deaths on his conscience, says Shikwati. Shikwati: ... and at some point, this corn ends up in the harbor of Mombasa. A portion of the corn often goes directly into the hands of unsrupulous politicians who then pass it on to their own tribe to boost their next election campaign. Another portion of the shipment ends up on the black market where the corn is dumped at extremely low prices. Local farmers may as well put down their hoes right away; no one can compete with the UN's World Food Program. And because the farmers go under in the face of this pressure, Kenya would have no reserves to draw on if there actually were a famine next year. It's a simple but fatal cycle.

SPIEGEL: If the World Food Program didn't do anything, the people would starve.

Shikwati: I don't think so. In such a case, the Kenyans, for a change, would be forced to initiate trade relations with Uganda or Tanzania, and buy their food there. This type of trade is vital for Africa. It would force us to improve our own infrastructure, while making national borders -- drawn by the Europeans by the way -- more permeable. It would also force us to establish laws favoring market economy.

SPIEGEL: Would Africa actually be able to solve these problems on its own?

Shikwati: Of course. Hunger should not be a problem in most of the countries south of the Sahara. In addition, there are vast natural resources: oil, gold, diamonds. Africa is always only portrayed as a continent of suffering, but most figures are vastly exaggerated. In the industrial nations, there's a sense that Africa would go under without development aid. But believe me, Africa existed before you Europeans came along. And we didn't do all that poorly either.

SPIEGEL: But AIDS didn't exist at that time.

Shikwati: If one were to believe all the horrorifying reports, then all Kenyans should actually be dead by now. But now, tests are being carried out everywhere, and it turns out that the figures were vastly exaggerated. It's not three million Kenyans that are infected. All of the sudden, it's only about one million. Malaria is just as much of a problem, but people rarely talk about that.

SPIEGEL: And why's that?

Shikwati: AIDS is big business, maybe Africa's biggest business. There's nothing else that can generate as much aid money as shocking figures on AIDS. AIDS is a political disease here, and we should be very skeptical.

SPIEGEL: The Americans and Europeans have frozen funds previously pledged to Kenya. The country is too corrupt, they say.

Shikwati: I am afraid, though, that the money will still be transfered before long. After all, it has to go somewhere. Unfortunately, the Europeans' devastating urge to do good can no longer be countered with reason. It makes no sense whatsoever that directly after the new Kenyan government was elected -- a leadership change that ended the dictatorship of Daniel arap Mois -- the faucets were suddenly opened and streams of money poured into the country.

SPIEGEL: Such aid is usually earmarked for a specific objective, though.

Shikwati: That doesn't change anything. Millions of dollars earmarked for the fight against AIDS are still stashed away in Kenyan bank accounts and have not been spent. Our politicians were overwhelmed with money, and they try to siphon off as much as possible. The late tyrant of the Central African Republic, Jean Bedel Bokassa, cynically summed it up by saying: "The French government pays for everything in our country. We ask the French for money. We get it, and then we waste it."

SPIEGEL: In the West, there are many compassionate citizens wanting to help Africa. Each year, they donate money and pack their old clothes into collection bags ...

Shikwati: ... and they flood our markets with that stuff. We can buy these donated clothes cheaply at our so-called Mitumba markets. There are Germans who spend a few dollars to get used Bayern Munich or Werder Bremen jerseys, in other words, clothes that that some German kids sent to Africa for a good cause. After buying these jerseys, they auction them off at Ebay and send them back to Germany -- for three times the price. That's insanity ...

SPIEGEL: ... and hopefully an exception.

Shikwati: Why do we get these mountains of clothes? No one is freezing here. Instead, our tailors lose their livlihoods. They're in the same position as our farmers. No one in the low-wage world of Africa can be cost-efficient enough to keep pace with donated products. In 1997, 137,000 workers were employed in Nigeria's textile industry. By 2003, the figure had dropped to 57,000. The results are the same in all other areas where overwhelming helpfulness and fragile African markets collide.

Click here to load our interactive African development aid map.

SPIEGEL: Following World War II, Germany only managed to get back on its feet because the Americans poured money into the country through the Marshall Plan. Wouldn't that qualify as successful development aid?

Shikwati: In Germany's case, only the destroyed infrastructure had to be repaired. Despite the economic crisis of the Weimar Republic, Germany was a highly- industrialized country before the war. The damages created by the tsunami in Thailand can also be fixed with a little money and some reconstruction aid. Africa, however, must take the first steps into modernity on its own. There must be a change in mentality. We have to stop perceiving ourselves as beggars. These days, Africans only perceive themselves as victims. On the other hand, no one can really picture an African as a businessman. In order to change the current situation, it would be helpful if the aid organizations were to pull out.

SPIEGEL: If they did that, many jobs would be immediately lost ...

Congolese line up for a United Nations food delivery in 2002. Zoom AFP Congolese line up for a United Nations food delivery in 2002. Shikwati: ... jobs that were created artificially in the first place and that distort reality. Jobs with foreign aid organizations are, of course, quite popular, and they can be very selective in choosing the best people. When an aid organization needs a driver, dozens apply for the job. And because it's unacceptable that the aid worker's chauffeur only speaks his own tribal language, an applicant is needed who also speaks English fluently -- and, ideally, one who is also well mannered. So you end up with some African biochemist driving an aid worker around, distributing European food, and forcing local farmers out of their jobs. That's just crazy!

SPIEGEL: The German government takes pride in precisely monitoring the recipients of its funds.

Shikwati: And what's the result? A disaster. The German government threw money right at Rwanda's president Paul Kagame. This is a man who has the deaths of a million people on his conscience -- people that his army killed in the neighboring country of Congo.

SPIEGEL: What are the Germans supposed to do?

Shikwati: If they really want to fight poverty, they should completely halt development aid and give Africa the opportunity to ensure its own survival. Currently, Africa is like a child that immediately cries for its babysitter when something goes wrong. Africa should stand on its own two feet.


It's interesting to note that on the interactive map linked above, more than 50% of Mugabe's "Democratic Republic of the Congo"'s GDP is "development aid". Want to send that murderous, thieving asshole (and his brother murderous, thieving assholes) more? You do? Explain.

* * * * * *

For a little humor, this is what happens when one is unable to mow one's front yard down in the swamp for a couple of months:

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

Gonna have to hire a native tracker to find my way out!

* * * * * *

Saturday, July 02, 2005

No, she's 10, not 15! Sorry about that, I was thinking about
Audrie, SHE was 15 and had THE ATTITUDE! ;o) 40 years ago. Best pitcher in our sand-lot team, 2 older brothers, 3 younger siblings, finestkind ma & pa (he let us roving band of jd's full access to his shop & tools, his shop and tools were ALWAYS left spotless!

Ignore the timestamp on the previous post. Old men have to get up and pee, some of us are kinda grumpy. On the way back to the rack I'd been thinking about the feeble post, "send, delete, or put in the shit file". The shit folder is ~7 years old, occupies 5 CDs, and has never been opened. There is some good "stuff" on the 1999 one. I keep THAT one in the wood stove in the summertime. Eventually I'll forget one Fall and it'll join the autumn smoke plume.

Yesterday evening at second feeding, I elected to spend a bunch of time with poor neglected Rima. She really is a fine and gentle hound. My being ill for so long has reduced me a lot. Her and I spent a while last night back being gentle puppy and non-growly old man. She's had a fine day, her old fart still lives and still loves her. Old fart gets wounded, ill, crawls under a bush and waits it out.

On second feeding this afternoon, time to check Cookie's pups. I'd gotten down on hands and knees to crawl into the CookieMonstercaveorium and Rima was totally panic struck! She's firmly of the opinion that Cookie (her grandmom) will treat me like she does her. Cookie was the 9th pup from a 8 teat mom plus being the runt of the litter. Waaay back then Nina, my wife, went somewhat sideways. "She's gonna die!" Dina (mom shep) had given birth on the shop day bed, moved them under the west workbench, was mostly ingnoring "stuff". Yea, Cookie would have died as a normal course of events, Dina only had 6 spigots at full till. I showed Nina how one removes the fat boys and girls from the rich tits and install the smaller ones. Nina still went out and bought the "home nursing" kit. Cookie Monster's infant bottle is STILL in the lower right-hand drawer in the kitchen!

Three pups. Poor Rima, she was beside herself. Cookie was calmly munching dinner but the line was drawn. Rima could not under any circumstance pass this line. I'd washed myself quite well, soaked my arms up to the elbows in the bleach solution used regularly down here (bacterial conjunctivitus, pups don't need that), then did the hands and knees. Cuter than all get-out. As usual! Took my 1973 specs off and inspected each one. All the right parts in all the right places, tummies full, little puppy noises when handled. No paracites. 6-7 days before eyes open. 77 dawg year old mama, 89 dawg year old papa. Papa was MY first choice to be Cookie's daddy!

Friday, July 01, 2005

NOT ALWAYS MAN’S BEST FRIEND

Dog Owning Is Not A Chinese Culture, Says Protest Committee

NOT ALWAYS MAN’S BEST FRIEND… Islam forbids its followers from touching dogs, and it is considered unhygienic to keep a dog in the house.

By Noor Shamsiah Mohamad

Low considers dogs a nuisance because of the barking and howling at all times of the day and night, especially in the mating season, and this bothers the neighbours and disrupts students' concentration, as when a child is trying to do his or her homework for school the next day.

As for the danger involved, he said, dogs not only frequently attack, maim, and sometimes kill humans, but they also spread dangerous diseases via a virus that is extremely hard to destroy.

Therefore, Low salutes Prophet Muhammad because he forbade his followers from touching dogs, and with good reason too; there is a disease spread by lice that carry a virus which is terribly hard to get rid of, and these lice live on dogs.

Prophet Muhammad's concern was well-founded and proven by a number of cases, including a new one in Xinjiang, China whereby two siblings aged 12 and 18 and who had lived in the same area as dogs since they were little, suffer from a condition that involves the spine, and now they are paralysed.

"When they were taken to hospital for treatment, doctors found a type of worm (Dipylidium Caninum), the virus of which is spread by dog lice, in their spines!" he said.

Then, in Canton, several babies came down with epilepsy due to being exposed to the sound of dogs barking and genrally making a noise, while they were still invitro.

"Actually Prophet Muhammad was alot more intelligent than most of the modern scientists, including Einstein, because he knew the terror and torment caused by keeping dogs as pets," he said. (snip)


---------------------------------------

I jus' LOVE de followers of the "Religion of Peace" . All de blak fok down hea seem to be be wussipin dat dude an blok in to dat good rap shit.

---------------------------------------

The fearful part is most of the rest of the children have adopted the speech and life style. All of those kids go to government schools.

There is a 13 part serial of the above. It is lightened on chapter 6, resumes gloom until 13. Then it goes to hell.

----------------------------------------

Cookie gave birth a week ago. I was only able to be vertical for <4 minutes. Still don't know what she has under the hillside, can't be many. Her fertility ran out 3 (21 dawg years) ago, no sign, no mating. She's damn-near excavated the outside of the West wing wall, ... I've heard the pup sounds. Up until yesterday, I've been too damn sick and dizzy to go check her earthshelter. She's finestkind mama. I'm still too feeble to wander into her den. No fret. I'm still very weak, hard to get gracefully horizontal, damn-near impossible to get vertical again. Cookie Monster is a 15-year-old growly monster! Poor Rima needs a LOT of head-scritch and lovin'!

I'm done. Diseased, nigh-on 2 months. Still have uncured conjuntivitus. Broken ribs, tick fever, pus-exuding eyeballs, sheesh! Burn that hut down!

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?