Your Offense Offends Me

I was on the internet looking for another article I saw today about London's Billionaires (yes, with a 'B'; apparently the Millionaires can't afford to live there any more) Row, where almost 20 percent of the houses are abandoned to rot and ruin. Apparently its a tax thing; its cheaper to let them rot for 20 years and then repair them (sales tax wise, on repairs the tax is 20%; on rebuilds its 5%). Wouldn't it be nice to be able to let your 70 million POUND house rot for a few years to save 15% on the sales tax on rebuilding it? More Dollars than sense if you ask me.

But while I as looking I found this article, going on up in New Jersey. Apparently 2 Senior boys wore a Confederate Flag to an after-school sporting event. And got permanently suspended for it. Apparently some other students found it offensive. Okay; fair enough. I can see that there may be some narrow minded folks who fail to see the historical significance of and what the Confederate Flag actually stands for, and have placed their own values on it. and those values offend them.

So what? Where in the Bill of Rights, or the Constitution, or any government document does it say you  have the Right not to be offended? If you find it, let me know; there are lots of things going on that offend me, and I want to start doing something about it.

But I said the other day, one of the things about rights is that they cost you nothing for me to exercise any of my rights. You exercising some right not to be offended, cost me my right to Free Speech; something enumerated in the Constitution, and not divined from some penumbral emanation.

Why would you have a right not to be offended? How would that right have come into being? How could you EVER exercise that right without trampling on someone else's right to something? And even if this right existed, who would determine whether your right not to be offended was greater or less than my right to Free Speech?

I know who decides; the left in this country have already determined these rules, and are working their damnedest to enforce them.

Wear a Confederate Flag and offend someone? You have no right to Free Speech. Wear a Gay Pride Flag and offend someone? You have no right to be offended. See how easy it is? So how WRONG it is?

Your right to Free Speech cannot be determined by what you will say with that right. There are limits obviously; the old Fire in a crowded theater chestnut applies. (Which is one of my goals. One day I want find a crowded Fire and shout "THEATER") but that is a safety issue, not a Opinion issue. If your right to Free Speech can be determined by those in power its not Free.

And why would you choose to never be offended? Galileo's ideas offended the Church; and he was silenced, before he was proven right. Martin Luther King's ideas offended those in power, and he was silenced, before he was proven right. Thomas Jefferson's and James Madison's ideas offended those in power, and the King tried to silence them. And failed.

And now the left is trying to silence them again.

Its up to us whether they fail or succeed.

Princess Diana Memorabilia

The Cincinnati Museum Center is currently the home of a traveling exhibit on the life of Diana, Princess of Wales. The wife has shown some interest in attending, and I have to admit a bit of curiosity myself.

After all; I was there. I was in England during the public courtship and marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales. The TV was full of the courtship and the Wedding; you couldn't walk 10 feet anywhere with out bumping into someone selling souvenirs. And this was 70 miles away.

In the City of London you literally could not move. the short stroll from the tube station to anywhere; normally a 10 minute walk was now an hour. The whole country; Hell; the whole world turned out in London for the Wedding of the Century.

I admit I bought a few souvenirs. A vendor had set up a stall in the Lobby of the NCO Club, and she was rather persistent. And attractive. Okay; she was attractive and I was the persistent one. At any rate, during the course of 20 minutes I wound up with 3 plates, guaranteed to go up in value. The whole Wedgwood Pottery thing, very collectable. It was a good spiel.

And they were collectable. Until the Divorce of the Century. D'oh! I thought future Kings couldn't do things like that?

Okay; bury these 'priceless' things in the attic; maybe one day they will be worth something again.

And now we are in 2014. The interest in Diana seems to be peaking again. Let's take a look; see if these old relics are worth anything.

 Well; they are worth something. Depending on the seller, less  than what I paid for them in real dollars 33 years ago, or what I did pay for them without an adjustment for inflation; about 10 bucks each. Persistent and attractive remember?

Stuff 'em back in the attic; maybe they'll be worth something in another 35 years.

I Want the British Press

While doing research on another post I ran into this article. Why can't we have reporting like this in the USA?

I would love to see an article like this about Obama.

Well, That Worked Out Well

By now I suppose you know that yesterday we lost Margaret Thatcher. Without a doubt the world would be a much different place if she had not had a such a prominent place in it. She was Ronald Reagan's right hand when it came to battling the Communists in the 1980's, including cleaning out a few socialists in Great Britain.

We are richer for having known her; and poorer for our loss.

Technically, Mrs. Thatcher was once my boss.

The US military overseas is usually a former conqueror. When we set up a base, we do under our rules. England is and exception, because the bases were set up during WWII, for the most part, and we came as Allies. So when  you are in the US Air Force, and stationed in England, you are not on an American air base, but an Royal Air Force base, and under the command of an RAF officer; who is under the command of the Queen (currently) and her Prime Minister.

When I was in England, that was the Iron Lady.

(Well now; ain't this embarrassing!

Here I am in the middle of a blog post about the death of one of England's greatest Prime Ministers, and I hit the Internet for a few facts.

And one of the facts I find out is that, like Mark Twain, the reports of her death have been greatly exaggerated. Well, Twain's death is no longer greatly exaggerated, but, I digress.

Apparently the entire thing was a Twitter hoax. Rather appropriate; in England a Twit is a fool.

In my defense, I heard the rumor as breaking news on Hannity's radio show yesterday, and took it as Gospel. He never said the 'BREAKING NEWS' was from a dippity-dang Twitter post.

Well; now what? Do I continue with the post, or save this for when the news of her death has NOT been greatly exaggerated?

I guess I will just soldier one in the face of adversity, in the best British fashion.)

I have another, somewhat more personal, connection to Mrs. Thatcher.

A few years ago I met an extraordinary women as a part of a special project I am connected with. As she and I were having lunch, she mentioned that just the day before she had had lunch with Maggie Thacher to celebrate Mrs. Thatcher's birthday.

I felt doubly honored.

It has been said that we anever more than 7 handshakes away from the President (I would prefer to be more than that from our current President, but, I digress); that afternoon I was not only ONE handshake away from Ronald Reagan- I was one handshake away from Margaret Thatcher.

How many other Rednecks can make that claim?

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.

Cars I Have Known V

After I bought my T-Bird I got Orders to England. I had the choice to take the 'Bird with me, but because I couldn't drive it there I decided to leave the Thunderbird at home and buy another car in England. After about 2 months one of the guys I worked with offered me his Jaguar for $1000. He would make sure it would pass the MOT (Ministry of Transport) inspection for the $1000, so I jumped at the chance.

I will say flat out this was one Hell of a Car. All the Brits would tell you that only the Yanks would buy an old Jag, because the Brits that could afford the upkeep could afford a new one; it was only the Yanks that had enough money to keep an old one running; and by inference, the lack of smarts to try.

This was the first Sports Sedan; a 1965 3.8 S-Type. 4-wheel independent suspension (same as used on the E-Type); 4-wheel disc brakes; dual exhaust; dual overhead cams; twin carburetors on a 3.8 liter engine. Inside was pure class. The dash board and all of the trim that in a newer car is plastic, was solid walnut. The door panels and seats were leather, and the carpets wool. It was a little small, but not too bad even for me.

I was having trouble with it one day; it just would not idle properly. I was talking to the British guys I worked with about how bad it was running and one asked me if I had checked the oil in the carburetors. I didn't just fall off the turnip truck. I told him that yeah I had; it was fine, and the stereo and the windows worked well too; and it still wouldn't idle.

Well, apparently I had just fallen off the turnip truck. Jags use an SU side-draft carb that has a throttle plate idle damper that uses motor oil to stabilize the throttle plate. You check it by removing a black cap on top of the bell of the carb that has a dipstick attached. If the oil runs low in the damper the throttle plate flops around instead of remaining steady, which makes the car idle poorly and run rough. We topped off the oil with about half a pint in each carb and she started idling smoothly again.

It's always the things we are sure we know that makes us look the dumbest, ain't it?