Smoking Gun

So everybody says (but the Democrats) that the 'Smoking Gun' email is out; the one that proves Obama lied about the Benghazi attack on purpose and for political motives.

Those of us who know Obama well knew this two years ago. Obama does NOTHING that doesn't have a political motive.

Like the whole Minimum Wage Senate vote. The whole thins was a sham; Harry Reid knew it wouldn't make it to the floor- Hell; I'll even bet him and McConnell had the whole thing planned out. The way the vote went plays well with both bases. So it was win/win.

But it was political.

Sorry for another short post, but my real job is breathing down my neck today, and there are only so many hours in the day.

One More Today

I had to do another quick post this morning, otherwise my Happy Easter post was number 666.

I just couldn't allow that to stand, could I?

I may expand this post later, but right now I have a chocolate bunny hidden somewhere that requires my attention.

Preparation May Not Actually Prepare Us

Well, Last night didn't work out as I had hoped. Interruptions last night caused me problems, and those same (here) nameless issues disrupted my entire day.

I don't know what I can say, or how much, but suffice it to say another sad family emergency has come to pass, and today's post will be short as well.

We sometimes think we are prepared for a loss, and don't believe a loss may affect us. We are prepared we think. This has been expected. This was a blessing; the troubles are at an end; he is at peace.

And we convince ourselves of that.

Until the event happens. and we discover just how unprepared we were.

Let's push the resumption of normal activities back one more day, shall we?

Sunday Slump

Today I had some duties I had to perform; ones I wasn't looking forward to, but ones that absolutely had to be done.

So I did them.

But the performance has left me drained. So this will be a short post.

It was a hard end to a hard week, and right now I am at what hope is the weeks low point.

It has been two weeks, but I am still suffering from the time change, too.

Hopefully a good nights sleep will make me feel better, but right now I have my doubts.

We'll both find out in the morning. If you see a full post up by 8:00 a good nights sleep worked.

If not; it didn't.

Need Some Good News?

Today being Sunday, I wanted to do an uplifting post. I spent a few minutes- and then a few hours- looking for something up lifting in the news. Well; I came up empty handed.

Well; maybe I can find something uplifting outside my window. On the upside I don't see any snow, and yesterday was over 50 degrees! we were able to spend a few minutes outside without risking frostbite; that is encouraging! I was out there long enough to see that it looks like this deep freeze has killed all of the Irises I transplanted last year. But it was warmish and sunny.

But today it's raining, and they are calling for snow. How much and when we will get it depends on which channel you watch. Yesterday it was a foot; today its an inch or so, depending what part of the area you're in and which model you want to believe. It depends on the temperature.

Amazing ain't it? they can't tell me what temperature will be in a couple of hours, but have models that tell me the whole world is warming? But it Sunday; no "Global Warming" rant today.

But still missing that uplifting something to blog about.

Well; what do you do when you are searching for something you can't find?

I hit BING! Search term; 'Good News'.

And... Did you know there is a Good News Network?

What kind of good news do they have for me?

How about this one? Some divers saved a shark- yes a SHARK- from choking to death. WITH VIDEO!!!!!

Or how about this one? Los Angeles International Airport had a problem with an invasive species of tree. So they are now selling the tress to the LA zoo to feed the Giraffes!

Okay, I admit that these pieces of news don't even begin to cover up all of the bad news we are bombarded with constantly and consistently.

But it is nice to know that there is at least ONE website dedicated to spreading if not Good News, at least Better News.

Yesterday

You may have noticd a problem with Monday's post (Now repaired). And you may hav enoticed I did not post yesterday. For some reason Blogger has been acting strange. I am working on this issue, and hope to return to consistent blogging tomorrow, as soon as I can get my home computer to access my account agian.

We Are Dismayed

There is one thing about writing; sometimes it is easy, and sometimes it is hard. Sometimes an email 10 paragraphs long is a 10 minute operation, and sometimes a few lines can take an hour. Sometimes it isn't what you need to say, but how you need to say it.

Words have meanings, and words have moods. Sometimes the use of one word will convey the right meaning, but the wrong mood. The meaningless email on procedure; easy. The simply stated email on how you feel about an recent event; hard.

Part of it is using the right word to convey the right feeling; sometimes it's avoiding the word you don't want to use. How many times have we written pages of words to avoid using one?

Sorry.

Yep; that's the one.

We need to let someone know we have erred; but we can't admit to the error.

We are dismayed at the consequences, that possibly may have, at some point, might have been caused by an unintended action, however direct or indirect, on our part, and want you to know that we are aware of the consequences, whatever little a part we may have played in the events leading to these consequences.

Maybe because sorry conveys meaning we don't want to use; like fault.

Want to start a long conversation with your kids? Find a recent event, drag them all together in to one room and ask who's fault the incident was. Guarantee the first words out of the culprits mouth will be "so & so made me do it"; shorthand for "we are dismayed...yada, yada, yada.

And then so & so will have his version of events which accounts for all of the blame, none of which happens to land on his shoulders. And will usually drag yet a third party into the fray.

Just for this entertainment value, I would usually buy some dime store bric-a-brac at a yard sale for a nickel, place it prominently in the living room, with the explanation that this was an heirloom of great value, handed down many generations; irreplaceable.

Within a week I would sweeping the shards up from the floor. Knowing what was coming the boys would make themselves scarce; hiding out somewhere. Waiting on the call they knew was coming.

And working on alibis.

The inevitable meeting would take place; the inevitable words spoken: Who's Fault?

The following conversations would take many words; some rather erudite, and probably cribbed from the Complete Works of Shakespeare  I kept on the bookshelf; others rather simple. But even the simplest speaker seemed able to go on and on without mentioning one simple word:

Sorry.

See how easy it is? I have managed to say Sorry multiple times in the last few minutes.

But then, I don't have anything to be sorry about.

Sometimes Getting Sidetracked is a Good Thing

Yesterday the Young 'un asked me to fold her a paper hat. And I couldn't remember how to do it.

Do you remember how? Without looking it up on YouTube?

Yeah; I had to search out directions on Youtube. and found them pretty readily. Do you know what that means?

It means somebody had both time and the equipment to do a video about how to fold a paper hat and to post it to YouTube.

I also didn't have the paper to fold a paper hat; there hasn't been a newspaper in this house in years.

I had a whole train of thought going on with this, but I suddenly had an emergency to deal with in the other room. Apparently the vacuum cleaner has stopped vacuuming. Should have been a simple fix; and it was. The paper filter somehow got wet and that stopped it up completely; no air through the wet paper.

Then I got sidetracked, and completely lost where I was going. (I thought about starting over, but then thought; eh- what the Hell.)

The young 'un was in the living room watching Duck Dynasty. And I just happened to walk in in the middle of the episode where Si handcuffs himself to Willie. And it is the scene where Si needs to pee. While he is riding in Willie's truck.

I don't know what's funnier; Si and Willie, or Jase making the most of this bad (for somebody else) situation.

It has been alleged that Duck Dynasty is scripted. I don't know about scripted; maybe more like Improv. I can see a producer dropping a security belt in the room, and then turning on the cameras. and standing back; definitely standing back. Especially if you have just handed Si a loaded stun gun.

And ya know what? I'll bet Si knows how to fold a paper hat without YouTube.

Well; so do I.

Now.

Twenty- One Thousand and Counting

Yesterday I happened to look at my Blog stats, just as I hit 21,000 page views. About a thousand of those may be mine, but still; that's lots of visits by lots of folks over the last 7 years. Blogging was slow at first; I had a lot going on at the time, and I also treated each post as term paper.

And it has been sporadic through the years. Was it Monty Python who had the government Bureau of Fits and Starts? That is kind of how it has been on this blog.

But I'm not alone in the blogosphere in that. Looking for a blog topic I used an old trick of mine; the 'Next Blog' button on the top of the blog. It doesn't take you to the next blog alphabetically, but randomly.

I looked at maybe 30 blogs; only about 5 had posted in 2014, and only maybe 10 more had posted in the last year. Some hadn't posted since 2010 or 2011.

Blogging is both easy and hard. The writing is easy; the finding of time to write sometimes is difficult. I admire bloggers who can post not just everyday, but several times each day. Some of those posts are just links to other sites and information they wish to promote. Only a few, or maybe one, has the blogger's own comments attached.

Some had a final post; a reason for the ending of the blog. Others just kind of stopped. You have no idea why they stopped; was it lack of time, or did they just determine they had better things to do than pound on a keyboard, spreading trite tripe throughout the internet? Or did the blogger drop dead at his keyboard late one night, when a fit of vitriol became too much for a overstressed heart?

The world may never know. Or really care.

But because of Blogger there words will forever inhabit the Ethernet, occasionally to be read by wandering minds, searching the dark and cobwebbed corners of the world wide web for a spark to ignite their own imagination.

Yeah; like I just did.

Hi; Remember Me?

Well, based on my recent posting schedule I'd say its time for my April post.

Yes, that is supposed to be self-deprecating humor. Or the truth; you pick.

The real truth is that the last few months have been... crazy. I had a son get married, have had some serious changes at my real job- some good and some bad- and have had some other personal issues to bring under control.

When push comes to shove we need to find out which activities have the short straw. It may not always be the activity we want to delete from our daily routine, but sometimes we don't have the level of control we would like.

And there was very little I really felt like blogging about.
Some things have eased, and I am trying to get back to a daily post. It may take a few weeks to ramp back up to my former schedule, but that is my goal.

So; what brought me back to the table today?

This video; found at one of my guilty pleasures, The Borderline Sociopathic Blog For Boys.

What can I say, but WOW.

Science, destruction, cool video shots and hot glass. What more could you ask for in a 6 minute video?

Cool, ain't it?

But, a component of this video is a good example for some other things.

Like the Housing Bubble.

Random activity creates stress in a system. Other random activity will dissipate that stress. Or intensify it.

Take for instance the beginning of that video; the hammer blow to the bulb did not cause the destruction; it was the vibrations set up by the blow, reacting in the other end of the drop that caused the drop to disintegrate almost as a single unit.

The Housing Market disappeared in almost the same way. Things like a weak job market created stress in the market. Folks who bought more house than they could afford added another stress. Folks with loans they couldn't/wouldn't repay added another. Folks owing more than the house was now worth was another stress on the system. Any one of these stresses could have been easily dissipated; a rise in home values; additional jobs being created; the ability for lenders to 'redline' areas or borrowers.

A lot of random actions by a group of random people could have shifted the stress and stopped the meltdown.

Or made it worse.

And, like in the video, sometimes the obvious things are the real cause of the result; there are things going on that we can't see, either because they are well hidden, or because they are happening too fast to separate the cause and effect properly.

Yeah About That Idea I Had...

Coming home from work I had a great post all worked up. The title; the setup; the final joke.

And then I with the storm of the century and lost it all.

For me writing is a mental activity. I usually am performing some physical task while my mind wanders off and occupies itself.

When it comes back it has a story to tell. All I have to do is write it down, while I remember it.

And, as Shakespeare said it, 'therein lies the rub.'

Mentally, I am done with the post. And then I sit down in front of the keyboard and  I go blank. And wind up doing a sports post like this one.

Why do I call this a sports post? Its a fishin' and huntin' post.

I start off fishin' and huntin' for an idea, and then wind spending all my time talkin' about the one that got away.

Rim shot, please? A little help here? What does it take to get a rim shot in this joint?

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.

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.

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.

Who Knew?

I just found out about a thing Blogger does; it keeps stats about page views. All time, per country. Mine looks like this:

United States 1,867
Canada 60
South Korea 59
Germany 52
United Kingdom 36
Netherlands 33
Russia 29
Ukraine 20
China 19
Spain 19

The 1,867 views from the USA I can understand. China, Russia, Georgia and the Ukraine I can understand. I have been spammed in the comments before.

Why so many views from Germany? And South Korea? What is that all about?

And I don't know if I have one fan in South Korea who has stopped by 59 times, or if I have 59 fans, using the term advisedly, as they only stopped by once, or if I have 59 fans who have stopped by many times.

And not just Germany; Spain, UK, Netherlands, and of course, Canada.

What is there about the activities and thoughts of a semi-literate Kentucky redneck that so interests the world?

Well, maybe interests is too strong a word. After all, I've had fewer visitors in 3 years than Instapundit gets in 3 minutes. During a power outage.

Starting The New Year With a Bungle

Well, Hell.

Today is January 8th, and my New Years Resolution to put up a post everyday is shot to Hell and back already.

But the bright side is I am only 7 posts behind!

Its not that I haven't had a lot to say; I have. These are historic times we are living in, and very pivotal for the future of the country. This is, I think, literally our last chance to return to our original Constitutional form of limited government. If the leftists win now the change will be forever.

Its just that since early December I have been busier than a one-armed paperhanger, as my Dad used to say. When I do have a few minutes to sit and write, I am usually both pyhsically and mentally spent. Not a condition conductive to turning out readable prose.

Today I have the morning free. I got up early enough that that the rest of the house- including the Young Un'- are still fast asleep. I have free time AND mental capacity! Hallelujah!

Where to start?

The seating of the 112th Congress. This is hopefully the turning point. My fervent hope is that the next two years don't turn out to be political theater. Yes, the House will vote to repeal Obamacare, and the Senate probably will as well. And Obama will veto it. And the Senate will not have the votes to override the veto. Obama wins.

All of the leftist programs Obama could not get through the Congress he has implemented by Presidential fiat. The House and maybe the Senate vote to defund those new programs. Obama refuses to sign the new budget; showdown ensues. When a government shut down looms, who blinks first?

I seriously think that will become the nexus of the 3rd American Revolution. It depends on who blinks first. We need to make sure Congress knows we have their back; let the government shut down, We need to also let Obama know who's side we're on in that battle. I doubt he will care; we're just ignorant rubes after all, and we have no idea how much better off we'll be after the Beneficent Obama runs our entire lives for us.

That will also be the point when we see if Congress is just paying lip service to a smaller government, or is really behind the concept of reducing Federal power.

There are a lot of new, non-political faces in the House, so maybe we have a chance.

The hard part will be the wait, while we see.

I forgot to mention that I really like this image of the historic hand-over. You can see teh gavel pass, but not Pelosi's face; its a win-win!

TV Sucks

I have spent the last week on bed rest for the most part, lying flat on my back to try and stop my nose from bleeding me dry.

So I have been forced to watch ALOT of TV. Basic Cable. Not quite as bad as straight over-the-air, but almost. I have discovered one thing that I am certain of; we need a Truth in Naming Law.

I have about 60 channels on the cable mini box I have on my bedroom TV, and I'll bet I have only about 30 different stations, and only about 10 of those are nominally watchable.

Remember A&E? Arts and Entertainment? Mostly crime reality. Nothing arty or even remotely entertaining.

Bravo? Remember when it was ballet and live plays? Mostly reality crime drama. I think; I never really spent more than 5 seconds there, but it looked an awful lot like A&E.

History Channel? Explain to me why a dog cheap reality series like Swamp People or Ice Road Truckers is on the History Channel? Pawn Stars I don't really mind; they do tend to cover some facet of history, but I would still rather have a 10 part Civil War documentary than Pawn Stars or American Pickers, especially when I have 7 uninterrupted days of lying flat on my back.

I think I counter 14 separate sports channels, including one dedicated completely to Golf. GOLF? A sport so flippin' boring you can fall asleep PLAYING it has its own flippin' CHANNEL!?!?!?!

The Learning Channel used to be decent too. Now apparently all people want to learn about is prisons, clutter and I swear this last week I saw the same woman give birth about 14 times.

You know what my standard was for not switching off of a channel while I was surfing? If I saw the GEICO guy. Not the gecko, the Guy. "Can GEICO really save you 15% on car insurance? Is a Bird in the Hand worth Two in the Bush?"

Now that right there is what I call ENTERTAINMENT!

Thank God I had my DVD collection.

Especially my 42 John Wayne movies.

Well, I Figure It This Way

I got involved in a conversation over at Althouse's blog that stated with Rand Paul and the Civil Rights Act, and devolved into a discussion of state versus individual racism.

One of the Althouse commenters, who lives in New Orleans, mentioned that she can drive to a point in New Orleans where whites are not made welcome, as well as a point out in the Bayou where Blacks are similarly treated.

I felt my response was worthy of a post here as well.

Beth, I find it interesting that in an hour's round trip drive you can find establishments that discriminate racially from both sides.

45 years after the end of Jim Crow and the passage of the Civil Rights Act.

How do you explain that?

How do you feel about it? In as much that this requires at least a percentage of blacks to be at least a little racist?

Or is it a retaliatory response to the white store owners several miles away?

I used to work in a service station, back when that meant something, in a racially mixed neighborhood. We had young black guy who did the cleaning for us at the station, and on Saturday's he would stop at a barbecue joint a block or two away and get ribs for us.

Some Saturdays I would go myself, if there were two of us on the shift, and invariably when I opened the door all conversation would stop and every eye would turn toward me.

And I knew by sight most of the folks in there. They came by the station; I had pumped their gas and fixed their cars.

I was served; conversations would slowly restart, I would talk to several about problems they had with their cars, but the whole atmosphere was strained.

And I was the only white person in the store.

Was this racism?

I don't think so; I just think it was a group response to someone different in their midst.

My presence made both sides of the situation uncomfortable, and yet we both knew we had no reason to be. I didn't go there often; maybe 3 or 4 times tops in the course of 5 or 6 years, and each time I felt the same.

Did they feel the same when they visited the white owned business I worked at? I doubt it; our place was always full of both races, so things weren't as one sided.

To makea long story short, if its not too late, maybe the feeling you get in both of these places isn't institutional or even individual racism, but only a sociological response to some one different?

A Fast Weekend

This weekend was a fast one. I relly have no idea where it all went, but I do have some clues.

I bought 2 6 packs of Hofbraus Haus beer on Friday; both of them are gone.

The piece of trim that fell of the right rear door of my car is back on, and the rust spots that had developed over the last year are gone too.

All of the flower beds are weeded, and, although I can see them, I know there are some new seeds planted that I was permitted to help the Young'Un plant. Basically that means I was the one who cleaned up the tools and got in trouble for her being muddy.

There is a new pull rope on the weedeater, so it runs now. All the sidewalk cracks have been sprayed with roundup and the concete swept.

And the balky lock on the tool shed is fixed.

I also found a new ceiling fan in the living room this morning.

And apparently at some point I got my haircut.

No wonder I felt like hell this morning!

Wow; Only my 3rd Post this Month

In my defense, May is the perfect time to be outdoors.

The weather is warm, but not hot; everything is in bloom (and needs weeding)the grass needs to be cut twice a week- if your lucky, and after a long winter cooped up in the house, I'm ready to get some fresh air- air that hasn't been breathed twice before and warmed by a furnace.

And we're not bored with outdoors yet, like we will be in September.

And I'm not the only foul weather blogger; a lot of the blogs I read have slowed down on posting since the weather turned warm.

Maybe its the languid scent of everything being in bloom that distracts us from the dark room and solitary chair.

Or maybe its a stupor brought on by hay fever; hell, I don't know

And yeah, that's my front yard.