Yeah Well, One Thing Leads to Another

Sometimes a blog topic just falls into your lap. The event just happens, or the news story is written in such a way that comments are tripping over each other fighting there way to the keyboard.

And other times...

Not so much.

Then you need to go looking for a topic. I have my set bunch of sites that I visit, for just such an emergency. And of course, the Borderline Sociopathic Blog for Boys is one of those sites. Lots of good stuff there this time. I could have blogged about this, which reminded me of how long its been since I've done that, or maybe this, which also brought back old memories. Or even this, which kinda struck my funny-bone.

But I reached this post and just had to give it a wider distribution. Well, assuming my readership is greater than his, or at least that I have a couple of readers he doesn't.

If I have ever seen a greater example of folks with too much time on their hands I don't know what it is. Well, maybe people who watch golf on TV. At least these guys are a little creative.

This also reminds me of an old game called 'Beer Hunter', that if memory serves, was a SCTV skit  featuring Bob and Doug McKenzie.

Anyway, the premise of Beer Hunter was to take a 6 pack of beer and shake one up (I mean REALLY shake one up) and then through it in the cooler with the other 6. Of course the loser was the one who opened the exploding beer.

Well, it was funny when I was younger.

And drank cheap beer.

Well, You Didn't Hear it From Me

So yesterday I went to a family reunion and had a great time.

Listening to the old family stories and jokes; looking at the old pictures and eating watermelon.

The best part?

It wasn't my family.

I have a a long standing commitment to a work related extra curricular, and yesterday part of my job was to attend another family's reunion.

Obviously I can't say too much, or go into too much detail, but it was a great time. I found out some fantastic information to help with my project and met some absolutely fabulous folks.

And there something about being a relative outsider at what is, very basically, a very insider function. It's not like they sell tickets to those things you know.

I was a very honored guest, and very honored to be that guest.

This is killing me. I hate having this 'secret life' that is incredibly interesting, and I can't (usually) talk about it.

I feel like I am in the CIA or the FBI.

Or maybe the Witness Protection Program.

But I swear you all will be on the mailing list when the book comes out!

The Heat Ain't Just From Miami

What is there to blog about?

Obamacare; The Heat; Libyan Elections; THE HEAT; the Zimmerman deal down in Florida; THE HEAT; the Western wild fires; THE HEAT; Unemployment; THE....

But I guess you get the idea.

I have about as much interest in stepping out ot my air conditioning as I do voting for Obama.

Twice.

On the same day.

But what can you say about the Heat? More importantly, what can you do about the Heat?

Well, nothing that ain't been said already, and flat nuthin'.

Interestingly enough, did you know that you cannot make cold? Cold is simply the absence of heat, and is created by using the Law of Convection (heat will always travel from a warmer to a cooler object).

Basically, you chill a refrigerator, or a room, by using something cold to suck the heat out, and them dumping that heat somewhere else.

Where am I going with this?

Elephino (say it real slow). The heat blew me off my train of thought five paragraphs ago.

I just got home from a work related function, and I am toasted already. I stopped at McDonalds for a cup of their ice tea, and I don't know what happened, but the guy in front of me took forever to pick up his food. So I sat and fried and got madder and madder.

I have got to get the AC fixed in that car.

Damn this heat wave. It's uncomfortable, dangerous for man and beast, and worst of all it's ammunition for the damn Global Warming idiots.

That's it. I'm done. I need to find a cold beer and a cool seat in front of a few dozen fans.

And maybe a good John Wayne movie. One where its cold.

Island in the Sky might just be the ticket.

Well, So Much For That Promise

Today is July 6th, and this will be only my 4th post.

In my defense, I did take on a project for work that has eaten into my time more than I expected. And the 4th of July was a day long affair.

Literally.

My oldest boy and the #1 grandson showed up at 9:30 on the 4th. And they weren't the first guests.

Some folks came on the 3rd and camped out. So, technically, we had company on the 4th at 12:00 midnight.

Folks came and went all day long, right through the last of the fireworks about 10:00.

It's kinda hard to leave your own party to do a blog post.

The Young'un asked what was so special about July 4th. So I started reciting the Declaration of Independence. She looked at me a little sideways and said: "Really?".

It made me realize how hard it is to explain our freedom to somebody who has never known any other way of life. And it is equally as hard to explain what we are losing to the youngsters who never had it.

I guess that's because so much of what used to a FREEDOM has been redefined as a RISK. Like smoking inside and actual building. Or riding a bike without a helmet. Or not wearing a seatbelt. Or riding in the bed of a pickup truck.

Each of these activities is a risk, but a calculated one. Yes you can get hurt, but what are the odds?

And individual behavior would moderate the risk. Like riding in the bed of a pickup. Sitting with your back to the cab while the truck is in motion minimizes the risk involved. Walking around with a beer in your hand while on the entrance ramp to the expressway tends to increase the risk.

Guess whose activities were cited when making this activity illegal? So the millions of folks who minimized the risk are criminals, and the idiots with the beer are still dying. Sure, they're dying as criminals, but the law has not modified their behavior, just the behavior of the folks who were modifying the risk anyway.

And now we have a precedent for the next step.

That is the interesting thing about Freedom; we win it all at once, and lose it one little piece at a time.

The Magna Carta was in some respects a Declaration of Independence for English Noblemen. Those freedoms eventually migrated down, as the noble class increased in size and their descendents became less noble and more common. And then they started disappearing. Especially in the colonies. Freedoms that were once held as inviolate, became violate.

The trouble was, at least for the King, was that the people KNEW what they losing, and fought to keep the Freedom they had.

A percentage of the Founding Fathers did not want to found a new country. They wanted to stay a part of Britain, but as an equal partner, not a slave state. The King had a choice, and he choose unwisely.

And over the last 70 years those hard won Freedoms have been chipped away at. Always for good reasons (remember- Never Let a GOOD Crisis Go To Waste), and but never, in my opinion, is there a reason good enough to stifle Liberty.

Well, maybe next year we will have more reason to Celebrate.

Or, possibly, won't be able to celebrate at all.

Hot Enough Fer Ya?

I mowed my lawn today.

Well, I ran my mower around the yard anyway. About all I really did was knock down some tall weeds, clip the heads off of a bunch of white clover  and vacuumed up the leaves.

Yeah, all of the boxwood trees are starting to drop leaves already. About the only way I knew where I had traveled with the mower was the track of missing leaves.

I has been hot. This is I think our 8th day in a row of over 90 degrees. And July just started. This is August weather, not June weather.

I said all winter that we would pay for the mild winter we had; I just wasn't sure how we would pay for it.

I think I know how now.

We are planning on having a little family get together here on the Fourth, and the last few days of getting things ready has been pure Hell. I am getting about half of what I wanted to get done accomplished, because I am spending half my time recuperating from heat stroke.

But we will be party ready, come party time.

At noon tomorrow the preparation stops and the party begins, I won't have everything done, but I'll be the only person that knows that.

Unless I tell the Young'un.

Then EVERYBODY will know what didn't get done.

Changing Times

Last weekend the wife and I took the Young'un down to Fort Boonesboro for a day trip. On the ride down we decided to take a few back roads, and stay off the expressway if we could.

It was a beautiful ride through North Central Kentucky. Two lane blacktop road through fields and farms,  dotted with farmhouses and barns, both old and new, and the occasional house trailer surrounded by a jacked up car or two.

The one thing I did not see was a tobacco field. I saw cattle pastures and corn fields, hay fields and soybeans.

But not a single stalk of tobacco.

It was rather sad. Tobacco used to put a lot of money into the Commonwealth of Kentucky; money that worked its way down through the entire economy. Local Merchant charge accounts and bank loans were payable "when the tobacco sold'. Many a youngster bought his first car with tobacco money, money earned by planting; hoeing; cutting, housing and stripping tobacco. At first for pay, and later by renting a tobacco base and being responsible for the crop himself, and the business of hiring workers, paying the expense of seed. fertilizer and fuel, and being responsible for profit or loss of the crop. A lot of responsibility when you are 17-18 years old.

And another loss for today's youth.

There are probably similar opportunities today in the agricultural world, but I haven't been involved in farming for a while, so I don't know for sure, but I doubt it. Tobacco is a very labor intensive crop, and most of the others, like corn, grains or beans, as far as cash crops go, are not. They have had entire systems developed to make the production of these crops as labor free as possible. Tobacco never did, or probably could.

One thing we did see that was new were the vineyards. I'll bet we saw 3 or 4 vineyards on the way south. This is interesting for two reasons, to me anyway.

One, this is kind of a throw back to the 1860's- '90's, when this area was a major wine producer.

Two, apparently the farmers in Kentucky have just traded the production of one vice for another.

And, if memory serves, another labor intensive one, plus one with the disadvantage of long lead times and investment before any income can be realized.

I wish them luck.

The world is changing, and I suppose we need to change with it. It just seems like to much is changing too soon.

But then my grandparents were born before the Wright Brothers flew, and saw men land on the moon.

That was some CHANGE.

And I'm worried about grapes replacing tobacco.

And I don't even farm.

Cheers to a New Beginning! again...

Late last month I decided I would try to do 31 posts in July. Yesterday I wrote a excellent post.

And then forgot to post it.

Yeah, life is like that.

Any rate, here is yesterday's post. Today's will go up later today.

I figure its a good time to pick up blogging again. Times are becoming interesting.

The election coming up will without a doubt be the most important of the last 60 years. It will determine whether we will remain a (semi) free country or descend into socialism.

I am hoping the pendulum will reverse its 70 year swing to the left and start back right again.

I am also looking at the weather for blog topics. It is the first of July, and we are August hot and dry. What will August be like? 110 degrees and NO rain?

And then the coming winter the forecast I looked at said to get ready for 77-78 again.

It's not bad enough we have the Carter economy back again, we have to put up with his weather too? And I can't wait to hear the weather wizards explain how 25 below zero and 4 feet of snow all over the Midwest is just more evidence of severe Global Warming.

Interesting times; Interesting times.

I am also looking to make this blog a sort of diary of the next 4 months. My reactions to the things that are happening on the campaign trail, both Presidential and Congressional, the economy as it 'recovers', the housing market, as it 'recovers' and anything else that catches my fancy.

I think it is safe to say that grand changes are on the way. The question is whether they will blow right or left.

Hopefully I'll still be standing when the wind stops in November.

John Roberts Did WHAT!?!?!?!

I'm not sure yet how I feel about yesterdays Supreme Court decision on Obamacare.

One side of me is adamantly, virulently opposed to the very existence of a law that controls a very personal choice. That side says the court made a horrendous mistake yesterday. And just the fact that Roberts joined the Dark Side of Kagan, Sotomayor, Ginsburg and Breyer is kind of disturbing.

But, some of the legal commentators I have been reading say that Roberts' opinion has gutted the power of the Commerce Clause. If that is true, then maybe the whole fargin' Obama Presidency has been worth it.

Barely.

The Commerce Clause is probably the most bastardized clause in the entire Constitution. Second would be the 14th Amendment, which somehow manages to have 'emanations from a penumbra'. But, I digress.

In order to get the Constitution adopted by the several states back in 1787 several of its framers wrote a series of pieces, called, collectively, The Federalist Papers, to be published in the newspapers of the day to explain the reasoning behind the various parts of the new Constitution to aid in its adoption.

One thing not made clear to a lot of folks today is the power the states had at the time. The power of the Crown did not devolve to the Continental Congress; it devolved to the various states. Each state became its own Nation, and adopting the new Constitution would cede some of that power to the new Federal Government.

The European Common Market and the Euro are a modern example, with the exception that countries did not lose their autonomy and the ability to remove themselves from the Common Market. It is solely an economic confederation. The Constitution created an economic and a political country, out of once were independent states. Four score an seven years later it was conclusively proven that the states did not have the power to secede. But again, I digress.

I have a copy of The Federalist Papers. 648 pages in paperback, including the index, notes, a copy of the Constitution, the Articles of Confederation and the Forward. This is the men who WROTE the Commerce Clause explaining what it meant. How many of the 600 pages deal with the Commerce Clause? 8.

Yep. EIGHT. The single most powerful (in modern interpretation) clause in the entire Constitution earns about 1% of the comments.

It goes back to the realities of the post- Revolutionary States. Each was a sovereign country, and each had the powers of a sovereign nation, including the authority to set tariffs and have its own Customs House. Virginia would have its own tariff on goods from Europe, as well as import restrictions on, say, corn from Maryland or North Carolina,

Obviously, if we became a single country there could not be import and export duties between the several states, and the new Federal Government would set the rules for trading with foreign partners.

Like the majority of the (original) Constitution, simple and logical. And it took 140 years for this simple, logical language to become twisted.

And yeah, a Democrat was responsible. In my opinion the second worst President in the history of the Union; Franklin Delano Roosevelt; FDR. (First is of course Obama. Third and Fourth are LBJ and JEC- James Earl Carter). During FDR's 12 years in office he managed to persuade the Supreme Court that a farmer growing grain on his own land to feed his own cattle- in which neither the cattle nor the grain crossed any state lines- had an effect on interstate commerce, and was therefore subject to Federal Regulation.

So much for the plain and simple language of the Constitution.

Well, apparently I have once again taken the long way around the barn.

So, to bring this home; if the commentators I have read are correct, and this is another Pyrrhic victory for Obama, then maybe I can live with this decision.

One blog I read this morning (which I of course found through Instapundit) Five Possible Silver linings in the Obamacare Decision also lists as a Silver Lining the idea that by keeping Obamacare alive will energize the Republican base this election season, and create the perfect climate for its total repeal in Congress.

I guess I am too multi-faceted, because there is one side of me that's wants Congress to do a total repeal. I am totally against the Courts legislating from the bench, so maybe Congress is where the death of Obamacare needs to happen.

Now all we need are the votes to make it happen come next January.

FINALLY!!!! A USEFUL iPad App

The greatest App in the world!

The downside? Now I want a flippin' iPad!

And, well...

It's only the Light Lager.

No Dunkel.

And no pretzels either.

I Remember Them Days

You have to wonder if it was intentional, accidental or a useful by-product of something else.

Oh; sorry; you don't know what I am talking about, do you?

I just read this post over at Truth About Cars, and it hit a nerve. Basically, masculinity ain't what it used to be.

The question is, where did it go, and why? Was masculinity intentionally forced out of the American male; was it's demise an accident, and not an intended consequence, or is this new lack of masculinity something that will be happily accepted as as a by-product of some other nefarious scheme?

 It used to be the gender roles were pretty well assigned, and everybody knew their place. I don't mean that in a chauvinistic way, I mean that a man held a door for a woman; she accepted the courtesy and we all went home happy.

Then came Feminism. And what was once a courtesy became an insult.

So now what's a poor guy to do? Say you have two boxes to carry with a female co-worker. In the old days it was easy. YOU DIDN'T HAVE A FEMALE CO-WORKER!

Sorry; just kidding. In the old days it was easy. The man stacked the boxes and carried them both, chatted with the woman and handled opening the doors with his foot. It wasn't chauvinistic (the dreaded "C" word); it was masculine (the accursed "M" word).

Then came Feminism. Obviously, the man only carried one box; to do all of the work was the "C" word. Then it became more complex; do you carry the heavy box (damn "C" word again), or the light one? Do you see where, possibly incrementally, being masculine made you chauvinistic? But, the obvious choice- let her carry both boxes- was also seen as the dreaded "C" word.

And of course you still had some woman who considered you a neanderthal if you expected her to carry either box, or even open a few doors on the way. So, instead of a decisive, masculine, American Male, we became Wilbur Milquetoast, waiting for the woman to determine our next course of action, so we could avoid causing any offense to anyone.

This has become the default mode. Men went from getting haircuts to getting hair styles. Then came the facials. And now most males are considered Metro-sexual; feminine right down to their Manis and Pedis.

And cars have not helped; they have hurt. Once upon a time a Man spent a Saturday afternoon getting dirty. The car needed something done to it; oil change; grease job; tune-up; new bearings or bushings or brakes or bulbs. it was always something, and something you could do in the driveway.

Now checking the oil (never mind changing it) requires a factory trained service technician. Everything is covered up with a plastic shield, held down with a fastener you have never seen before, undone with a tool that is $49.95.

On Sale.

At Pep Boys.

Which is another damn thing. Auto Parts Houses used to be a bastion of masculinity. Now? Unicorn shaped danglely air fresheners instead of bins of lock washers and pink frou-frou floor mats and seat covers instead of creepers and jackstands. Oh they still carry creepers and jackstands. They just hide them in the back of the store, like their ashamed that they actually still are forced to sell actual, you know.... tools.

Sorry, but everything feminism has touched it has drained the masculinity out of; Auto Parts Houses are just one of them.

And now, apparently Lamborghini. No more testosterone fueled engine and steering wheel loosely coupled together by some low and sexy bodywork capable of screaming down a twisty two lane.

Now we have room for a couple of car seats and a DVD player for 'Lets Learn to POTTY!'.

Yep. Masculinity is dead.

Where Do We Go From Here?

This whole Trayon Martin situation is disturbing to me.

I don't understand how anybody can make a decision on who was right and who was wrong based solely on what they have been told by the media. And yet millions have done so.

And who was right and who was wrong hinges on so many little things we don't know.

the problem is, those points aren't making news; just things that will force a certain opinion are being promoted. Simply; we're being played.

Take the photo issue. The picture we are told is Mr. Martin is actually him at 13, not 17. Is that the most recent photo they have, or does it just portray him the way he is supposed to be portrayed- as fresh faced, small muscled kid?

And the descriptions of George Zimmerman as white. Never mind his Jewish father or Hispanic mother. Doesn't fit the narrative. So he becomes a white Hispanic. A what?

Then there is the 911 call about trailing Mr. Martin. Mr Zimmerman tells the dispatcher he is following Mr. Martin, and the dispatcher states that 'we don't need you to do that'. Media filters are saying the cops ordered him not to follow Mr. Martin. False; he is only told that the dispatch center doesn't 'need' Mr. Zimmerman to follow Mr. Martin. But having Mr. Zimmerman disregard police orders to follow Mr. Martin makes him appear very aggressive, which fits the narrative.

Here is what I think happened, based on the facts I have heard. Is this the truth? I have no way of knowing.

Mr. Zimmerman lives in a gated community that has had a few robberies lately. As a self appointed community watch captain he is patrolling the community with a legal firearm. He sees a stranger, dressed in the universal uniform of the troublemaker, and follows him to see what, if anything, he is up to. Mr. Martin objects to this, and confronts Mr. Zimmerman. we will probably never know what was said in this confrontation, but we do know Mr. Zimmerman wound up on his back at one point, and suffered a bloody nose and cuts to the back of his skull.

And Mr. Martin wound up dead.

The local police looked at all of the facts at the time this incident happened (a month ago), and concluded Mr. Zimmerman acted properly.

Slowly some additional information about Mr. Martin has come out, since the explosion of interest in the case pushed by the national race-baiter coalition. Mr. Martin has been suspended from school at least 3 times, the latest- and the reason he was in Sanford FL instead of his home in Miami- was 10 days for possession of a baggie with pot residue and a pot pipe.

So Mr. Martin is not the innocent lad with an ice tea a Skittles the narrative is meant to lead us to believe.

So what is my point?

The point is we can't try a case like this, or any case, in the court of public opinion. Media fails to provide all of the facts. Some through poor reporting, some through missing information, and some through pushing a narrative. I have no more interest in convicting Mr. Zimmerman than I do convicting Mr. Martin.

But I am curious as to why all of the interest in this case a month late.

And the complete lack of interest by the Media and the Sharpton crowd in the multiple deaths in the rest of the nation of young black men, killed by other young black men.

I guess Sharpton waited as long as he could for a cop to shoot a black teen, and had to settle for a neighborhood watch captain.

So, There I am, Minding My Own Business...

All it takes sometimes is a few minutes with nothing else to do.

So, just like in a Doctor's waiting room, you look for something to read.

So, it's off to do a few blogs.

And then you run into this.

Did you ever wish you could unsee something?

But that's not why I pulled this down from the Ethernet.

Read the comments, if you can. There is one comment that has to be read aloud for it to make any sense at all.

But, if you have a weird sense of humor, like mine, it will be worth it.