Sunday, June 30, 2013

A little notebook from almost 100 years ago


Anyone interested in Way Back When sometimes is surprised when going through family things, deciding what to keep and what to sell or donate or just get rid of. While triaging old things in my mother-in-law’s house, I came across a 3-inch by 5-inch leather-covered notebook. I don’t know who the book belonged to – one of my wife’s grandfathers, perhaps.

On the front, centered, in gold letters:

MAYER & SCHMIDT
TYLER, TEXAS
OUR CLOTHES
ARE MADE BY

SCHLOSS BROTHERS
the great
Clothing Makers.
BALTIMORE and NEW YORK

And on the back cover, also centered and in gold:
Compliments of
Mayer & Schmidt
Leading
Clothiers, Hatters, Shoers & Furnishings
Tyler, Texas

Photograph of Mayer & Schmidt store circa 1893 in Tyler at
http://www.texasescapes.com/TexasBooks/Tyler-Texas-Postcard-History.htm

Entries in the book are from to October 8, 1918, and then June 21, 1943.

Entries include:

Undated – Montgomery Ward & Co. Chicago Il., Elk Shoes, olive color, 21/2 pounds, price $2.59; Kid shoes weight 21/4 pounds price $3.19.

Plow stock, beam 4 ft, foot 2 ft 2 1/2 in, handles 4 ft.

B.M. Davis, Lockhart Tex dealer in Mebain Cotton Seed

Tobacco man O.D. Collier, Martin Tenn.

April 15, 1916

2 gallons syrup – 1.00
1 sack flour – 1.70
1 sack flour – 1.70
1 sack meal -- .58
Bill groceries – 5.63
1 sack flour – 1.70
1 brick lard -- .75
1 sack flour – 1.70
1 galon surp -- .50
1 sack flour – 1.70
1 galon syurp -- .50

Undated

Ruston, Lincoln Parish 640 acres
Homer, Claiborne Parish 1,141 acres
Columbia, Caldwell Parish 5.413
Arcadia, Bienville Parish 737 acres

Several pages list train ticket prices and destinations, meals and rooms, but no dates.

As with many old notebooks, there are more questions than answers. Why entries end in 1918 and begin again in June 1943 – maybe the writer put the book somewhere and found it 15 years later.

There is hope for us old guys

“Counter-terrorism detectives have arrested a 75-year-old pensioner in connection with planting a home-made bomb which exploded outside a mosque.

“The elderly man was detained by West Midlands Police yesterday afternoon on suspicion of causing an explosion likely to endanger life or damage property.”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2350633/Pensioner-75-arrested-home-bomb-exploded-outside-mosque-hate-attack.html#ixzz2XiMd8ABb

At www.gatesofvienna.net

(The story doesn’t say how police connected the old dude to the bomb. Maybe he went around telling people, “I intend to place an explosive device at that bloody den of the devil” or something.)

The usual suspects

Tourism accounts for 20 percent of Croatia’s GDP.

“The most numerous visitors are Germans, followed by Austrians, Slovenians and Italians …”

(Didn’t tourists from those countries cause some problems 72 years ago?

http://ansamed.ansa.it/ansamed/en/news/sections/tourism/2013/06/27/Tourism-Croatia-principal-economic-engine_8937699.html

From www.gatesofvienna.net

A gun was the tool, a drug the aide, and a deranged mind the overall cause

“’Some 90% of school shootings over a more than a decade have been linked to this widely prescribed type of antidepressant. Harvard psychologist Dr. Joseph Glenmullen discussing SSRIs said: ‘We don't know what these drugs are doing to real life human beings. When you look at all the documents, you see a pattern of misleading doctors who then unwittingly mislead patients. This is a betrayal of the public trust in physicians behind the scenes by the drug industry and it must stop.”



“SSRIs have been widely blamed for many of the school shootings. The most detailed source I've found is ssristories.com The website indexes 4,800 violent events linked to SSRIs along with links to media reports of the incidents. Over 50 are school incidents. This site states that school incidents started occurring in 1988, when Prozac was introduced.”

http://www.newswithviews.com/Pell/rob101.htm

(For politicians and others who see a tree but not the forest, blaming a gun is easy. What is not so easy is applying judgment to something widely used by their friends and neighbors, maybe even by themselves – antidepressants.)

At www.gatesofvienna.net

Saturday, June 29, 2013

As Ex-Brad TC says …

‘Don’t be this guy’

Video. Oh, my weapon didn’t fire. Let me look down the barrel and …

http://xbradtc.com/

Exbrad’s logo is “Bring the Heat. Bring the stupid.”

One resident said homeowners did not want to see another New Orleans, but …

“And now, RCMP have admitted that they forcibly entered flooded homes in High River, ostensibly to look for stranded people and pets, and then seized firearms left behind in those homes.

“’We have seized a large quantity of firearms simply because they were left by residents in their places,’ said Sgt. Brian Topham. ‘We just want to make sure that all of those things are in a spot that we control, simply because of what they are. People have a significant amount of money invested in firearms ... so we put them in a place that we control and that they’re safe.’

“People also have a significant amount of money invested in televisions and jewelry, too.”

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Editorial+RCMP+breached+trust+seizing+firearms+from+evacuated+homes/8594935/story.html#ixzz2XfY0FOvJ

At http://ace.mu.nu/

Nanny cam suspect arrested

“A suspect wanted in the brutal New Jersey home invasion that was captured on a nanny cam was arrested Friday, authorities said.

“The Essex County prosecutor's office said 42-year-old Shawn Custis was arrested in Manhattan by the prosecutor's office and the FBI. Custis faces charges of attempted murder, robbery, burglary and child endangerment. A judge set bail at $750,000.

“The attack last Friday in Millburn was captured on a hidden camera in the woman's home. A man can be seen bursting into the home, punching and kicking the woman and throwing her down the stairs while her 3-year-old daughter cowered on a couch.

“County chief of detectives Anthony Ambrose said Friday that Custis was being transported to an undisclosed location in New Jersey.

"’It was a horrific and brutal crime and detectives and the FBI did a really good job cooperating together to bring this individual to justice,’ Ambrose told The Star-Ledger.

“Police withheld the woman's name to protect the her identity and requested the faces of her and her child be blurred when the video was aired. The woman suffered a concussion, bruises, chipped teeth and cuts around the mouth that required stitches, police said.

“The nanny cam footage shows the woman sitting next to her child in front of the TV, then getting up to check out a noise of the frame. It then shows her backing up and being attacked by a man who rushes her.”

http://nation.foxnews.com/2013/06/29/arrest-made-brutal-home-attack-caught-nanny-cam#ixzz2XfZU7QUE


At http://ace.mu.nu/

(Custis was being transported to an undisclosed location in New Jersey. An undisclosed location? CELL PHONE: Hey, Ange, it’s Tony. You still got a key to the gate at that undisclosed location?)




HR director: ‘I personally observed Danny … again praying in the name of Jesus’

A PRAYER TO ALMIGHTY GOD,
and
A PETITION TO CHAIRMAN BINNEVELD
LEESBURG REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER


Dear Sir:

We are among the people who support Hospital Chaplain Danny Harvey, who was fired by Leesburg Regional Medical Center in Florida, for praying publicly “in Jesus’ name.”

Their Human Resources Director Darlene Stone told Chaplain Harvey in writing: “I personally observed Danny at the Chaplain Steering Committee again praying in the name of Jesus, which again was not respectful of all religions… The next time there is an incident~ it will result in his termination of employment.”

When Danny said he could not deny his faith or vocation as a Christian Chaplain, and would continue to pray in Jesus’ name, he was summarily fired. “The Company is terminating your employment involuntarily,” said the memo that took away his 8-year career, livelihood, pension, and benefits.

We know you’re aware of this outrageous religious discrimination against Christian worship, and we want you to reinstate Chaplain Harvey, and allow all hospital chaplains to pray publicly “in Jesus name.”

//SIGNED//

Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt and 1200+ citizens who rallied and marched around the hospital~ and 5000+ petition signers before this blog was created~

At http://xbradtc.com/


Pentagon generals talk about gender neutral physical standards …

… in order for women to maybe qualify for combat arms jobs.

Seems to me there’s only one way to establish one-gender-fits-all: lower present men’s PT requirements, or raise present women’s requirements.

Either way, a 20-mile road march with 50-pound rucksack plus weapon plus ammunition don’t care about PT standards – You can either make it or you can’t.

‘Fear of G.I. Jane: Special operations forces are worried about adding women’

“Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said that if a service wants to keep a job as a male-only occupation because of its high physical demands, the service will have to show why those tests should not be lowered to accommodate women.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/27/special-operations-forces-are-worried-about-adding/

The headline sucks. “Fear of G.I. Jane”?? BS. Big time BS.

Friday, June 28, 2013

Obama needs to fill Bush’s shoes, African student says

“Manougou Nbodj, a 21-year-old student, said he hopes Obama will bring American resources like jobs and health care. ‘If Obama can work with Macky Sall the way that George Bush worked with Africa before him, then we will be happy,’ he said, referring to the Senegalese president.”

So a young African man says Obama must live up to the success established by former President George W. Bush.

Who would have figured?

For that mater, who would have thought the present first lady would attend “a summit on empowering African women organized by the George W. Bush Institute, with the former president in attendance.” And the former first lady.

http://hosted2.ap.org/ARLID/a5050f4ad4f44dafab85bb41a15281cf/Article_2013-06-28-Obama/id-5da3fecbd10a4cacac6e680a4d82bb0b

The most intellectual jokes on the internet

I got these.

Because they have nothing to do with philosophy or hard science.

From user disposableaccountass: “Pavlov is sitting at a pub enjoying a pint, the phone rings and he jumps up shouting, ‘Oh s***, I forgot to feed the dog!’ ”

From user Arcadian 5656: “A biologist, a chemist, and a statistician are out hunting. The biologist shoots at a deer and misses 5ft to the left, the chemist takes a shot and misses 5ft to the right, and the statistician yells, ‘We got ‘im!’ ”

From user suid: “So this classics professor goes to a tailor to get his pants mended. The tailor asks, ‘Euripedes?’ The professor replies, ‘Yes. Eumenides?’ ”

From user Watch_Closely: “It’s hard to explain puns to kleptomaniacs because they always take things literally.”

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/06/28/the_most_intellectual_joke_you_know_an_idiot_s_guide_to_the_reddit_thread.html

(Really, though, the most intellectual joke on the internet is in the topic Things You Will Never Hear a Redneck say: I don’t think you can fix that with duct tape.”)

Charge dropped against boy who wore NRA T-shirt to school

“A criminal charge has been dismissed against a West Virginia middle school student who refused a teacher’s order to remove a National Rifle Association T-shirt he wore to school.

“Logan County Circuit Judge Eric O’Briant signed an order dismissing an obstruction charge Thursday against 14-year-old Jared Marcum stemming from an April 18 incident at Logan Middle School.

“Marcum was charged after a police officer told him to stop talking, but the student didn’t.”

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2013/06/28/charges-dropped-against-kid-who-wore-nra-shirt-to-school/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Tatler

(The judge and the prosecutor finally got some sense. Of course, all kinds if not so friendly publicity brought the onset of sudden intelligence. All along, too, the judge and the prosecutor were doing things in the boy’s best interest. “It’s for your own good.”)

Found at http://www.ritely.com/

I am done with Google

No more Google searches.

Today on Google home page: "#ProudToLove: Celebrate Pride with YouTube"

I had an idea of what the You Tube videos would show.

“Pride” is code for “positive things about queer and lesbian sex.” Homosexuals co-opted the word “gay” some decades ago, and now they have taken “pride.”

I clicked just to substantiate my idea. Sure enough.

“You Tube Spotlight. Proud to Love. Show your pride. Share your love. YouTube is Proud to Love the LGBT community.”

There are a few dozen videos that I guess show the pride homosexual men have in sex with other men, that lesbians have in sex with other women, that B’s have in sex with … I don’t know, anybody? Anything? And T’s? I think that is somebody with a set of specific parts but who believes he or she is a she or he? Or maybe T stands for “tri-sexual.”

I didn’t click any of the videos.

Why does anyone base his or her identity on having sex with the same gender? Why does a male person identify himself solely on the fact that he ****s ***k, or that he has another male person ***k his ***k?

This blog is a Google blog, but it now is also an underground message, a guerrilla fighting against what this country is sliding into.

Be warned, Google.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

More on SFC Dillard Johnson

On SFC Dillard Johnson

I wrote my other post before reading a post on This Ain’t Hell. Earlier today TAH mentioned: “Several folk sent us the records of Dillard Jay Johnson, the deadliest man in the history of the world, or something. The records seem to be missing a couple of years, and his Silver Star; … His FOIA shows that he served until 2006, but his 2-1, or whatever they call it these days, seems to stop in 2004; But he is listed on the DoD website as a recipient of the Silver Star; Oddly enough, his kills aren’t listed in his records. I know this won’t clear up any of that discussion, but there it is for what’s it’s worth.”

Later, TAH has:

“So, SFC Dillard Johnson emailed us this morning for a phone call, and of course, I complied. Because we’re about the truth, no matter how it shakes out. Johnson acknowledged the fact that we were probably the most fair of the people who were writing about him. I had to remind him that we never doubted his Silver Star after he offered to send us his citation, but, I told we didn’t need it. I told him our that concerns were mostly about the 2700 kills. He told me that number came from his little pocket notebook that all of us NCOs carried. That he’d put in tick marks for the number of weapons and bodies that he counted between sandstorms on the way to Baghdad. He admitted that it probably wasn’t the best way to report “kills” after I told him that if I’d counted weapons from Kuwait to the Euphrates, I’d have beaten his numbers.

“He also admitted that the 2700 kills were a total of his troop not just him and his crew. Johnson also said that the actual book doesn’t refer to that number – it appears on the cover and in the liner notes, but not in the actual text of the book. I just bought the book today, so I’ll let you know if I find the contrary to be true.

“I told Johnson that in the future he should stay away from numbers, math sinks everyone. He said that he wanted to explain the number thing during his Fox & Friends interview, but that Kilmeade never asked the question about the numbers that they had agreed upon before the show.

“Then came the 7,000 rounds of armor piercing ammo that he’d claimed to have fired so that he got cancer from the DU. Johnson admitted that it was a pretty difficult number to swallow, especially since Bradleys only have 900 rounds on board (three hundred in the ready box to feed the gun and another 600 stowed). So 7,000 is at least 8 trips to the resupply point. But he said the number comes from the discussion he had with techs from Redstone Arsenal while he was at Walter Reed being treated for his cancer.

“So next up was the question about Johnson getting booted from the Advanced NCO Course at Benning for wearing an unauthorized CIB. He admitted that it did indeed happen. It also involved an NCO who had it out for him (a common thread through many of his stories). He sent me a copy of his DD 214 (I promised Johnson that I wouldn’t publish it, so, no you can’t see it…take my word for it) and, yes, there’s a CIB on it, along with his Silver Star and four Purple Hearts, six Arcoms seven Army Achievement Medals, 2 awards of a CAB, an MSM and a bunch of other stuff. I only see one Bronze Star Medal for merit, though.

“But, yeah, he did get booted from ANCOC for that incident, he returned in the next class and ended up on the commandant’s list, he says.

“So, that’s about the extent of our talk, I still have his number in case the rest of you have questions you want me to ask him. Trust me the first version I wrote before was better than this one, but the blog ate it during the transition to a new server.”

http://thisainthell.us/



Latvian jokes

Come on. For real? Whoever heard of a Latvian joke?**

Latvian man hear knock at door. “Who is it?" ask man. “Is Potato Man. Am delivering free potatoes door-to-door" say voice. Man rejoice. “Oh! Such a blessing! This must be wonderful dream!" Latvian open door, man say “Just kidding. Is Secret Police."


Is Latvian couple have been marry 60 years! But for long times, is no making sex. For 60th wedding anniversary, wife is buy for husband hooker for the have sex! Hooker is arrive at door one fine day and is say to husband, “Hello! I here give you super sex!” Man is say, “Oh! I will have the soup.” Then hooker is say, “What? You have soup? Why you no told this?”

Questioning: What one potato say other potato?
Anwsering: Ha ha ha!! Who have two potato?

(Why is posted jokes. Military Chanel ‘Hitler’s Collaborationists’ I recorded on Latvia. Program mentioned Latvian Legion. Duckduckgo’ed ‘Latvian Legion.’ One hit was ‘Latvian jokes.’ So now go back and Duckduckgo ‘Latvian legion.’ Again. The ‘Just kidding. Is secret police’ is a funny. One site said these work in Belarus, too.)

**Not that Latvians don't have a sense of humor or that Latvians shouldn't have jokes about living under Russian domination for almost 50 years, longer than Eastern Europe and the Balkans. I never heard a Latvian joke before.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Army sergeant has killed 2,746 enemy soldiers and combatants

I wasn’t there, so …

“With 2,746 confirmed kills, Sgt. 1st Class Dillard Johnson is the deadliest American soldier on record — and maybe the most humble.

“In Iraq, he joined Charlie Troop, 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry, going on to hunt bigger game — wiping out a truckload of Iraqis with six high-explosive rounds in March 2003 at the battle of As Samawah, his first KIAs.

“He counted the dead by tallying rifles — and human heads — among the mangled or charred wreckage left behind by the Carnivore.

“In his second tour, in 2005, he took up sniping, logging 121 kills, his longest from 821 yards, a skill that was honed hunting in Kentucky. His total is second only to the late Chris Kyle, the Navy SEAL who had 160 kills.

“After two tours in the second Iraqi war, he took home 37 medals, including a Silver Star and four Purple Hearts. He gives all the credit to his troop — call sign ‘Crazy Horse’ — whose lineage dates back to Gen. George Custer. ‘There’s not another brotherhood like it,’ he said.”

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/humble_hero_an_army_of_one_ccqcXGajsrui0A06YZ978H

From http://ace.mu.nu/


Let’s say SFC Johnson didn’t take any days off during his two tours, and he had no days processing in-country or leaving.

Two tours times 365 days is 730 days. Kills – 2,746 – divided by 730 days equals 3.76 kills a day. But if we put 5 days processing in and 5 days processing out times 2 … 20 days not engaged in shooting. Let’s say another 15 days times two for mid-tour leave, 30 days. Bradley infantry units have downtime for maintenance … Let’s figure 1 day a week, times 52 (only one year, since SFC Johnson was a sniper his second tour.)

Oh, and we have to subtract the sniper kills from the total, which knocks the big number time to 1 year.

So we have 20 days processing in-out; 30 days leave; 52 days maintenance, totaling 102 days. We subtract the 121 sniper kills from the 2,746 total, so that leaves 2,725, in one year, minus 10, minus 15, minus 52 … 288 days, divided into the 2,725 gives us 9.46 kills a day.

Quite a feat.


Protecting their own

It’s what bureaucrats do, whether they are MD bureaucrats, Gen. bureaucrats, community organizer bureaucrats …

‘Worshipping the NHS costs lives’

“Young and old alike are dying needlessly – eight a day, in what Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Health, rightly calls a silent scandal. The latest shocking revelation is that the official health watchdog suppressed the truth about baby deaths at a Cumbria hospital. Before, it was a report into hundreds of mainly old people dying in hideous circumstances in the bloodstained wards of two mid-Staffordshire hospitals. Regularly, there are stories of disabled people dying of discrimination; Mencap has logged more than 100 in six years.

“It is beyond belief that the managers who oversaw the sordid events in mid-Staffs were rewarded with the top NHS jobs. … Sir David Nicholson was the bungling local bureaucrat who failed to stop the deaths as he focused on cost-cutting and mergers – yet the entire NHS was placed in his hands. His successor was Cynthia Bower, who said the situation ‘wasn't on my radar’ and blithely told an inquiry: ‘Mistakes are made, people do die unnecessarily.’ She was put at the helm of the body protecting patients.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/worshipping-the-nhs-costs-lives-8669701.html

From http://anenglishmanscastle.com/

(Can’t wait until we get the same kind of system. Well, maybe I can.)

Crime in Arkansas

Not to be insensitive but at some point there might have been the thought: “This was not a good idea.”

‘Inmate injured in escape attempt dies’

“Officials say Tucker attempted to escape Saturday morning, suffering head trauma after clearing an internal fence and then attempting to scale a ‘lethal fence’ that carried 5,200 volts of electricity.”

http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2013/jun/26/inmate-injured-escape-attempt-dies/

“Lethal.” Too late to look it up.

It was hot, man, and the van was just sitting there, air conditioner running …

“A Searcy man was tired of walking in the heat when he decided to steal a van from a gas station Tuesday, authorities said in a report.

“Brian Reid, 44, is being held in the Pulaski County jail on a charge of theft of property.

“The Chevy Venture was reportedly left running and unlocked about noon while the owner went inside the Exxon station at 2623 Main St. When she reemerged, a white man was driving off in her vehicle, police said.

“The van was found a short time later in the 500 block of West 26th Street. Reid was getting out of the driver's side when police arrived, the report said.

"’Reid was apprehended without incident,’ officers wrote. ‘Reid stated “I was hot and tired of walking.”'"

“Reid remained in the Pulaski County jail Wednesday morning with bail set at $10,000. A preliminary court appearance was scheduled later Wednesday morning.”

http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2013/jun/26/heat-fatigue-cited-theft-van-north-little-rock/?latest

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Priest murdered, monastery looted by our future allies in Syria

“On Sunday, June 23, Syrian Catholic priest François Murad was murdered in the locality of Gassanieh, northern Syria, according to a statement from the Custody of the Holy Land sent to the Fides Agency.

"Murad (49), having led a religious life and studied in Palestine, was ordained a priest and set about building a monastery in Gassanieh, Idlib. Murad was targeted by armed militants, while he was residing at the monastery, which was dedicated to Saint Simon Stylite.

“’The world must know that the support of gunmen by the west is helping extremists in killing Syrians’, (Pierbattista) Pizzaballa (of the Vatican News Agency) said, adding that, ‘with such stances, not a single Christian will remain in the East.”

“According to local sources, the monastery was raided by gunmen, who proceeded to execute François Murad, loot and burn the building. Four-thousand people are reported to have since fled the area.

“Christians in Syria are being increasing targeted by sectarian armed groups in Syria, of which there are between several hundred and over a thousand.

“In May, a Christian village located in Homs countryside, was overrun by armed men and it’s entire population massacred.
Two Christian bishops who were kidnapped by Chechen gunmen in Aleppo earlier this year, are still missing.

“In April, the remaining Christians in Deir el-Zour fled, the church having being blown up by militants. Last week, militants massacred dozens of villagers in the province’s town of Hatla. Since then, summary executions and sectarian house-to-house raids have taken place.

“Sectarian bloodshed has increased following the Syrian army’s securing of the strategic Homs city of al-Qusayr earlier this month. Despite the overt sectarianism of armed groups in Syria, America and it’s allies have pledged to continue the transfer of weapons in an effort to turn the tide of the conflict. Advanced weapons have since been spotted in the hands of extremists militants.”

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=603521

“It was in the monastery itself, where he felt himself to be most safe, that he was killed. In the letter that Father Halim, the head of the St. Paul Region, sent to the brothers in Jerusalem, he issued an appeal to the West not to aid the anti-Assad rebels who are supporting the religious extremists that are responsible for a number of attacks against the Christian minority.

“’Otherwise’, he concluded, ‘there will be no Christians left in Syria.’”

http://www.proterrasancta.org/2013/06/25/syria-father-francois-mourad-is-killed-in-a-franciscan-monastery/



Egypt, Ethiopia and a dam across the Blue Nile

After reading several stories on Egypt’s government warning Ethiopia not to dam the Blue Nile, I wondered: Who is paying for the dam? Ethiopia cannot afford that kind of construction.

China was a first guess, given its presence in Africa – building highways and airports to better access strategic minerals and oil.

China has or will put up a big part of the money, but Ethiopia faces a difficult time finding the remaining money.

“Chinese banks are apparently underwriting the cost of turbines and other electrical equipment. That still leaves one of the poorest countries in the world a good $3 billion short. Some engineers think the cost will exceed $4.8 billion. Ethiopians are being urged to subscribe to a bond issue on patriotic grounds. But it is unlikely to generate more than a fraction of the required amount. Neither the World Bank nor private investors are willing to put up the cash, since Ethiopia has failed to create partnerships with power companies in neighbouring countries to which it could sell electricity.”

http://www.economist.com/node/18587195

Egypt will not stand by and watch its source of life dry up.

Prostitution, sodomy OK as long as they are for jihad

“News emerged a few weeks ago in Arabic media that yet another fatwa had called on practicing Muslim women to travel to Syria and offer their sexual services to the jihadis fighting to overthrow the secularist Assad government and install Islamic law. Reports attribute the fatwa to Saudi sheikh Muhammad al-’Arifi, who, along with other Muslim clerics earlier permitted jihadis to rape Syrian women.

“On the basis of this fatwa, several young Tunisian Muslim girls traveled to Syria to be ‘sex-jihadis.’

“Most recently, the Egyptian-based news service Masrawy published a video interview with ‘Aisha,’ one of the Tunisian Muslim girls who went sex-jihading in Syria, only to regret her actions.”

Not to worry. Prostitution and sodomy are perfectly all right as long as they are part of jihad.

“However, jihad comes first, for it is the pinnacle of Islam, and if the pinnacle of Islam can only be achieved through sodomy, then there is no wrong in it. For the overarching rule of [Islamic] jurisprudence asserts that 'necessity makes permissible the prohibited.' And if obligatory matters can only be achieved by performing the prohibited, then it becomes obligatory to perform the prohibited, and there is no greater duty than jihad. After he sodomizes you, you must ask Allah for forgiveness and praise him all the more. And know that Allah will reward the jihadis on the Day of Resurrection, according to their intentions—and your intention, Allah willing, is for the victory of Islam, and we ask that Allah accept it of you.”

http://www.humanevents.com/2013/06/24/the-sex-jihad/

At www.gatesofvienna.net

NRA T-shirt student threatened with gag order ‘for his better interest’

Also, reporter threatened with arrest while covering story.

http://www.wowktv.com/story/22674521/prosecution-attempts-to-silence-jared-marcum-with-gag-order-reporter-covering-story-threatened-with-arrest

The 14-year-old student was arrested after he refused to take off his NRA T-shirt. Sounds like the prosecution thinks it can unscrew what it has so far screwed up. Let's hope that dog don’t hunt.

Found at www.gatesofvienna.net

Reid will make sure Las Vegas profits from immigration bill

Sen. Harry Reid (D) and Sen. Dean Heller (R), as part of their jobs to keep casinos satisfied, dropped into the immigration bill a provision that will indefinitely extend the government-funded Corporation for Travel Promotion. Passed in 2009, the Travel Promotion Act “allows the Secretary of the U.S. Treasury to spend up to $100 million on promoting travel to specific areas of the country. If the provision Reid and Heller inserted into the proposed immigration reform legislation becomes law, the benefits of the TPA would be extended indefinitely.”

“Current law would fund the government-run program through 2015. But, now Reid and Heller have inserted an indefinite expansion of it into a bill that has nothing to do with tourism, and into a section of the bill that was supposed to be aimed at adding additional Border Patrol and U.S. Customs Border Protection officers to the current staffs of those agencies.”

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/06/22/Harry-Reid-Dean-Heller-insert-Casino-Cronyist-favor-handout-into-amnesty-bill


(Hey, Sen. Rubio! How are those amendments doing? Alaska gets more foreign fish workers, states get $1.5 billion to find jobs for unemployed yoots, and now Las Vegas gets government-paid advertising. Good work, Marco.)

Nannycam records home break-in, beating of mother

“I knew that if I started screaming, my daughter would too, and I was afraid she would get hurt,” says the young mother. “I took it.”

http://moonbattery.com/

(A better lock, a gun you are capable of using, and the willingness to shoot will stop the cowardly bastards.)

Does immigration bill give cars to unemployed yoots?

Well, no and yes.

Breitbart says the Washington Examiner says a new amendment to the immigration bill gives $1.5 billion in job money for yoots 16-24 who don’t have jobs, and the amendment also says states receiving the money may use funding “to provide supportive services, such as transportation or child care, that is necessary to enable the participation of such youth in the opportunities.”

An aide to a Republican senator said language “could easily be interpreted to mean the money could be spent buying or leasing or renting vehicles for the beneficiaries.”

“’This appears to give states authority to buy, lease or rent motorcycles, cars and scooters or anything kids want to buy to get to and from a job,’ the aide said.”

(The amendment definitely allows payment for child care, so maybe the unemployed single mother and single father yoots could be paid for baby sitting each other’s kids.)

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/06/24/ObamaCar-handout-for-taxpayer-subsidized-vehicles-for-kids-built-into-immigration-bill-too

And www.maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Who was that masked company?

$20 million in tax credits for 50 present workers and plans for 24 more. Hey, it’s Microsoft. And Iowa.

http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/06/microsoft-iowa-data-center/

“’Project Mountain’ is an expansion of Microsoft’s existing data center in West Des Moines, pushing the company’s investment in the region to the $1 billion range, says Debi Durham, director of the state agency in charge of economic development. The Iowa Economic Development Authority board approved $20 million in tax credits for the project.”

“Facebook announced a $1.5 billion data center in Altoona, Iowa last April, and Google already has a data center about two hours away in Council Bluffs, Iowa.”

(The story doesn’t say if the centers collect and store data, but there isn’t much else to do with information. With all the private companies collecting and storing, NSA’s $1 billion facility in Utah seems more of enlarging a fiefdom than a national security necessity.)

Payoff in foreign bodies

An amendment to the proposed immigration bill requires establishment of “a new federal entity called the Bureau of Immigration and Labor Market Research, which is described as ‘an independent statistical agency within U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.’ The head of the Bureau will be appointed by the president, with Senate confirmation. One of the things the Bureau will do is research and designate the occupations for which labor shortages exist, and therefore for which more low-wage guest workers will be allowed to enter the country.”

http://washingtonexaminer.com/in-new-immigration-deal-a-big-favor-for-alaska/article/2532272

“If a particular occupation in a particular area is designated a ‘shortage occupation,’ then firms employing those workers will be allowed to bring in more low-wage guest workers from overseas.”

In a strange set of specifics, the amendment orders that BILMR “’methodology must designate Alaskan seafood processing in zones 1, 2, and 3 as shortage occupations.’ The next paragraph reiterates: ‘Alaskan seafood processing in zones 1, 2, and 3 must be designated as shortage occupations.’”

Does that read like political payoff?

‘In new immigration bill, a big favor for Alaska’

http://hotair.com/

Arkansas government has 290 alternative fuels vehicles. What? 1,084?

How difficult is 1, 2, 3, 4 …?

“And the number may be higher.”

http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2013/jun/23/alternative-fuel-report-state-vehicles-am-20130623/?latest

Ever notice that most serious pagans are women and they always look and sound stupid?

And men at pagan celebrations are there for … Well, women dancing with uninhibited style, working themselves into trances or whatever.

Rites of summer near a bunch of rocks in England.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2345638/Summer-Solstice-2013-Revellers-rise-dawn-celebrate-drumming-dancing.html


http://ace.mu.nu/#341138


When necessity calls for killing a bad guy, you kill him

Comment to article: “Back in my infantry days, I used to tell my new soldiers this parable.

“Two young riflemen were having the age-old philosophical discussion about where to shoot those who would oppose them. One was a ‘head-shooter’; the other preferred the ‘center-mass’ (torso). The head-shooter asserted that if you hit him, he’s done. The center-mass guy liked the larger target area. As they were going back and forth, their Platoon Sergeant came by. ‘Hey, Sarge,’ called out the head-shooter, ‘where do you like to shoot the bad guys?

‘In the back,’ he replied.

“As many as you can, as often as you can, anywhere and any way you can.”

http://www.ammoland.com/2013/06/firearm-stopping-power-fact-fiction-and-anecdotes/#ixzz2Wlqn0JoR

At http://ace.mu.nu/

Why was this night not the same as others?

Well, the M42 Duster and M60 MG and .50 cal. ---

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2345454/Vietnam-War-photos-reveal-moment-U-S-troops-unleashed-hell-Viet-Cong-sniper-hills-Army-camp.html


From http://xbradtc.com/

Friday, June 21, 2013

Do not click pictures of lovely Russian, Ukrainian or Belarus ladies

I am looking at cities and towns in Russia from Google return of my search “Barbarossa” and finding “Images of Barbarossa” which gave me link to “Against All Odds,” German book with pictures and names of towns where pictures are made of fascist invaders and panzers taking and burning towns, shooting Jews, usual things fascists do. Every search of every city has pictures of church, of tank on pedestal downtown, of industry and of women who want to leave Russia or Ukraine or Belarus and come to USA. Every one. Must be Russia and Ukraine and Belarus are bad places for living, many lovely ladies, as pictures say, want to leave. I do not click on pictures of ladies who want to leave Russia and Ukraine and Belarus, because perhaps sites carry things I do not want computer to become acquainted with. One time I am searching steppe photographs and even there are pictures of lovely ladies who want to come to USA. Several pictures of ladies have overprint of “Dangerous Site” or other words that mean “Do Not Click.” I do not click. If web site say dangerous, I believe what is said. It is not that Russian and Ukrainian and Belarus ladies are not lovely, but computer catching something is not worth looking. So I do not look.

Germany joins 13 other EU nations in targeting Israeli businesses

Those who buy into the “Israeli apartheid” idea should be the last to get all waddypanties just because the German government is doing the same thing.

“(T)he German government recently decided to back an initiative which singles out Jewish-owned businesses and targets them for detrimental treatment. Joining 13 other European Union members, Berlin has reportedly agreed to support efforts aimed at applying special labels of origin to products manufactured by Jewish owned factories in Judea and Samaria.”

http://floppingaces.net/2013/06/17/kauft-nicht-bei-juden-dont-buy-from-jews-reader-post/

EU nazis are less nazi-like than the German kind?

I posted a couple of things on tomorrow being the 71st anniversary of the day Hitler’s war began to end (although tens of millions more people were to die before it was over).

You might think Europe would have learned a lesson by now: Don’t mess with Jews. G-d becomes very angry and causes thousands of Flying Fortresses and Liberators and Lancasters to appear in the sky and drop big and small dumb bombs, high explosive and incendiary, blasting apart or burning most of the landside infrastructure and more than a few people. And, G-d allows equal anti-Semites (Russians of various kinds from the USSR) to invade and pillage and burn and do other dastardly deeds.

It’s not that Europeans are stubborn in their anti-Semite-ness; they’re just plain stupid. They’ve been killing Jews since … Rome? Charlemagne? Well, long before Ferdinand and Isabella, anyway. And where is the Roman Empire? How wealthy is once-rich Spain? And the Thousand Year Reich … the Soviet Union …

Maybe our European ancestors came here because they knew you just can’t fix stupid.


German pictures of Barbarossa

From June 22 until the first winter.

Includes allies – Romania, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Finland, France, Croatia.

Cutline for one photograph:

“Dive bombers attack Teriaeva monastery north-west of Moscow, which was turned by Bolsheviks into the fortress.”

Shades of Monte Cassino.

http://www.allworldwars.com/Allen%20Gewalten%20Zum%20Trotz.%20Pictures%20of%20the%20Campaign%20in%20the%20East,%201942.html

Chicago teacher union boss blames ‘rich white people’

Who else is she supposed to blame? Last year she got her union teachers a $220 million pay raise. Where is the money to come from? Well, from people whose kids attend private schools rather than Chicago public schools.

Who else is she supposed to blame? She is a Democrat.

http://eagnews.org/union-boss-karen-lewis-blames-rich-white-people-for-chicagos-school-woes/

Found at www.maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com

There is a video, too, so you can hear the union boss in her own words.

Forty years ago, her statements would not have been known outside the room where she gave her speech. But we are in a not-so-Brave New World now, and everything said is possible news.

Feds seize 7-Eleven stores, allege ‘modern-day plantation system’

“Ten 7-Eleven stores in New York and four in Virginia were seized on Monday as part of the federal investigation that found the workers from Pakistan were given identities stolen from children and the deceased, according to federal prosecutor Loretta E. Lynch.”

http://news.yahoo.com/7-eleven-cracks-down-franchisees-federal-authorities-seize-012317502.html

Must have been a bunch of greedy Americans. Oh, the horror!

“Farrukh Baig, his wife Bushra, and seven others were charged with fraud, identity theft and concealing illegal immigrants to work in their stores.”

Wait, wait! Who was charged? Farrukh Baig and his wife Bushra? And most of the plantationed workers were from Pakistan?

Is that a coincidence?

If you search “Farrukh Baig,” linkedin is happy to provide a number of matches, some of the Baigs from UAE, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. One name match is listed as “Franchisee” in the greater New York Area.

Tomorrow is an historic day

On June 22, 1941, Adolph Hitler lost his war.

On that second day of that summer, Nazi forces invaded the Communist Soviet Union. More than 3 million German soldiers and airmen, -- with 3,000 tanks, 2,500 aircraft, 3,000 pieces of artillery, and 750,000 horses – crossed into steppe and forest, and the world has not been the same since.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

One of these days, we will find our pitchforks and take back our country

“For many decades it has been tacitly understood among those in both party hierarchies the role that each play in the kabuki theatre that is the American Political Establishment. For the Democrats, it has been to be the presumptive champion of the downtrodden and disenfranchised, and for the Republicans to be the promoters of free enterprise as an unending and growing source of income for the state, while maintaining some semblance of mitigating government spending. Both actors have been content in the knowledge that each party would at some point have control of various levers of government be it the White House or one or both Houses of Congress.”

http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/06/the_self-delusion_of_the_american_political_establishment.html#ixzz2WpFhjhZc

(The headline speaks of “self-delusion of the American Political Establishment.” Seems as though we’ve deluded ourselves in thinking there is a difference between the ruling Democrats and ruling Republicans.)

Army money and an old soldier

Richard called the other day and said Larkin had died. Larkin was 80. He was in the Army during the Korean War. He retired from the National Guard in 1994.

Richard and Larkin were sergeants in my National Guard rifle platoon. Richard also got his own platoon and was company first sergeant for a little more than six months.

He was relieved by the battalion commander for being “too close” to his soldiers. That was the stated reason. The real reason was, Richard didn’t go along with the then-voluntary direct deposit of National Guard pay.

One Saturday morning at first formation, Richard said to the soldiers, “I’m supposed to read this letter telling you why you need to have direct deposit.” He read the letter and then said, “You can do what you want, but I’m not going to have direct deposit. It ain’t any of the Army’s business, what I do with my money.”

He would have been better off just reading the letter and not voicing his opinion. But, he wasn’t made that way.

Neither was Larkin.

In the early 1980s, Larkin and his brother sold the family farm to a coal company. Neither wanted to sell, but all their neighbors had already sold, and Larkin and his brother could not successfully run a farm surrounded by 24-hour coal-digging devices and coal-hauling trucks.

Larkin and his brother got about $1 million each. At the time, Larkin was superintendent of a rural school district, in addition to his weekend a month with the Guard.

Larkin got caught up in the direct deposit directive, too.

One Saturday the battalion command sergeant major conducted an in-ranks inspection. When the CSM was finished and gone, all of us NCOs talked about the inspection, mostly what the CSM had to say.

Larkin said, “He asked me if I used direct deposit. I told him I didn’t. He wanted to know why. I told him it isn’t any of the government’s damn business what I do with my money.”

I said, “Why didn’t you just tell him you already had a million dollars in the bank and that piddlly National Guard check wasn’t worth worrying over?”

Larkin said, “Naw, that would have been bragging.”

'When Denmark is Free Again'

“During the Nazi occupation the Danish Resistance Movement (Danmarks Frihedsraad) issued a warning to the contemporary politicians, journalists and powers-that-be. It was titled ‘When Denmark is Free Again’ and outlined a future judicial code, stating that every person who in any way, manner, shape or form had helped or facilitated the occupation, would be held accountable and — eventually — punished. The document was published in the ‘underground press’ — the contemporary version of our present blogosphere — whose primary edition was the magazine Frit Danmark. Starting from above with the politicians and all the way down to the average John Doe it made no secret of the fact that the death penalty would be reinstated. And it was. Unfortunately the politicians managed to influence the composition of the court — ‘The Parliamentary Commission’ — so only the ‘small fish’ were executed. A lesson learned.”

(Comment on Ahmed Mohammad, member of that religion of peace, who forced a 17-year-old girl to perform fellatio and then raped a 10-year-old girl. Arrested and tried, Mohammad was sentenced to six years in prison and told he would be sent back to Somalia after he served his sentence. An appeals court, though, ruled Mohammad will not be expelled from Denmark.

(Writer Kepiblanc says events like this will lead to civil war in Denmark, where most blog comments agree Mohammad should be killed. Right Now Dead.)

www.gatesofvienna.net ‘To Those Who Break the Peace’

Make the trade

Taliban want to trade a captured Army sergeant for five of their most important people held at Guantanamo.

President Obama should make the trade, now.

The deal is a no-brainer. We get back Sgt. Bowie Bergdahl, who has been missing since June 30, 2009. The Taliban get their people, who likely will go to the top of the UAV target list.

Their guys include:

-- Mohammad Fazl, a former Taliban chief of army staff and the deputy minister of defense.

— Abdul Haq Wasiq, former Taliban deputy minister of intelligence. He was in direct contact with supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar during the Taliban rule, according to military documents.

— Mullah Norullah Nuri , who has been described as one of the most significant former Taliban officials held at Guantanamo. He was a senior Taliban commander in Mazar-e-Sharif and previously was a Taliban governor in two provinces in northern Afghanistan.

— Khairullah Khairkhwa, a former Taliban minister of the interior and military commander. According to military documents, he had direct ties to Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden and was also a friend of Karzai.

— Mohammed Nabi, former chief of security for the Taliban in Qalat, the capital of the southern province of Zabul.

Make the trade.

http://hosted2.ap.org/ARLID/a5050f4ad4f44dafab85bb41a15281cf/Article_2013-06-20-Afghanistan-Taliban%20Talks/id-f1a20a71546e42c3960b0432d242cd2f

Dude, graduate from diapers

One of these days Will Ferrell, Jack Black, Vince Vaughn and others who got famed through Saturday Night Live will figure out their ages and decide not to make any more movies that should headline actors 20 years younger.

Same with Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, and etc.

And maybe people who pay big bucks for tickets will stop, and the overage children won’t get $20 million for a movie.

$20 million! You know how many homeless dogs in Taiwan that would feed?

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

In the president’s own words

“President Obama: ‘If you are a U.S. person, the NSA cannot listen to your telephone calls and the NSA cannot target your emails.’"

“I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.”

‘I am not a “U.S. person”…’

http://ace.mu.nu/

(What is a “U.S. person”?)

P47s hit northern Italy 1944

Big jugs, big bombs, bridges.

Squadron commander – 24-year-old LTC, ops officer 22-year-old major.

41:53.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OhN5NsuEDOQ


From www.maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Or, ‘We gonna pack up all our s(tuff) and go home’**

“The Retrograde, Reset, Redeployment, Redistribution and Disposal mission (R4D) in Afghanistan will be a herculean effort. It requires innovation and creativity to meet the national objective of retrograding equipment back to the United States. U.S. Army Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC) the Army Service Component Command to U.S. Transportation Command, is committed to ensuring success of the Afghanistan R4D movement mission…

“…SDDC created the Velocity-Volume, Distribution & Retrograde (V2DR) approach to support the R4D equipment retrograde from Afghanistan. V2DR is designed to balance volume (lower cost) and velocity (moving faster) of returning equipment to include exploiting Best Value Routing, sound equipping forecasts, and maintain a free flow of carrier multimodal sites while adhering to equipment required delivery dates. The Joint Distribution and Deployment Enterprise is responsible for R4D. According to SDDC transportation experts, the V2DR approach was developed under the assumption that Pakistan Ground Lines of Communication and the Northern Distribution Network are open.”

**Here are boxes and crates. Get the stuff on the trucks.

As the man said, “It’s not like the Army has never had to redeploy large numbers of vehicles and other equipment before.”

Jargon~ Tool of a Profession, or Tool of the Devil?

http://xbradtc.com/

Philadelphia-born, not-yet-Southerner disappointed with Nashville

‘Scenes from a Nashville Convenience Store,’ or discovering your inner Goober – Wull gollee, Andy. I didn’ ‘spec it would be lak thius.

“I knew there would be poverty in Nashville—this is Tennessee, after all—but what astonished me was the utter lack of country rusticity. I wasn’t expecting Beverly Hills, but for some reason I thought the poor people would look more like Li’l Abner than Lil Jon. In short, I expected to see more hillbillies and fewer gangbangers and wiggers. But east Nashville is a place where “Music City” has a distinctly different meaning.

“Sure, there were scraggly shirtless cigarette-smoking white homeless men clustered in packs under tree shade. There were sunburned bikers wearing German helmets. There were 400-pound grit-gobbling pasty women waddling out of diners with their 300-pound sausage-gnawing ofay mates. But after a while it became evident that anyone who might fit the cultural stereotype of a ‘redneck’ skewed older than average."

http://takimag.com/article/scenes_from_a_nashville_convenience_store_jim_goad/print#ixzz2WZnGKFS2

At www.maggeisfarm.anotherdotcom.com

(He thinks the South is too black of too Indian or something. But, the piece is from Takimag, and Taki often is tacky.)

Monday, June 17, 2013

Tea Party extremist Republican agenda

From Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Headquarters:

1. Destroy Medicare and replace it with a voucher system that increases costs for seniors.

2. Privatize Social Security and turn your retirement security over to Wall Street.

3. Protect and expand tax breaks for companies that ship American jobs overseas.

4. Support a massive tax increase on the middle class while defending the Bush tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.

5. Dismantle President Obama’s Affordable Health Care Act and turn your health over to private insurance companies.

6. Defend Wall Street executive bonuses and block Wall Street reform.

7. Deny women access to basic health and reproductive care services.

8. Expand the profits of Big Oil through tax-payer subsidies and special tax breaks.

9. Dismantle the EPA and allow corporations to dump poison into our air and water.

10. Bankrupt the U.S. Treasury by refusing to raise the debt limit.

There you have it. So, next time someone says we need to lessen and reform the current government establishment, you have all the arguments necessary for a sound debate.

(Yes, Sheldon, that was sarcasm.)

McCain, Rubio, Boehner taking us on the quick-slide off the cliff

“Could someone in the Republican establishment please answer a simple question for me: What aspect of this ‘Comprehensive Immigration Reform’ bill will benefit the American people?”

http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2013/06/yo-marco-whats-in-this-amnesty-bill-for.html

Benefit? No, but we do get to pay for it. That should satisfy the Republicrats for a few days.

(Spell check on “Republicrarts” suggests “Republic rats.” HAHA, HAHA.)

At www.maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com

I thought it was a joke

The return address part of the brown envelope:

‘Nancy Pelosi
‘Democratic Headquarters’

Every other thieving bastard letter to my mother-in-law has been from an alleged “conservative” or “patriot” organization. Surely this must be an ironic twist and the letter will be a satire of Democratic/Progressive platform or stupid statements by the former House Speaker.

But no. The letter is real, from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and is the “2013 membership renewal statement.” So, if I send a donation of “$25 to $40,” I will be a member of the committee. Wow! I knew the Democratic Party was cheap, but I wasn’t aware of its true cheapness.

But wait! There’s more!

If my $25 to $40 donation reaches committee HQ by June 20, “it will be matched dollar-for-dollar by a group of committed Democrats …”

Members of the group are not named, but I’d guess they are Wall Street bankers and lawyers, who gave millions and millions of dollars to President Obama for his 2012 campaign.

And, not to be outdone by other thieving bastards, Ms. Pelosi says the country as we know it will be destroyed if the committee doesn’t get the donation of $25 to $40.

“Everything we have spent a lifetime building as Democrats is at stake.

“While President Obama and House Democrats are fighting for a balanced approach to create jobs, strengthen the middle class, grow the economy and responsibly reduce the deficit; John Boehner, Paul Ryan and Tea Party Republicans stand by their obstruction, delay, and across the board cuts that are harmful to our economy, the education of our children, and the security of our country.”

Two other thieving bastard pieces of mail each included $1. I am tempted to send $2 to the Democrats and see if I get on their mailing list.

But, no. Going through a week’s 20-50 pieces of mail addressed to my mother-in-law is job enough.

It’s good to know Democrats use the same tactics of fear and mistrust.



Saturday, June 15, 2013

'You would get arrested'

Yesterday I said to Priscilla, “I’d like to be in a room with these thieving bastards.”

She said, “You would get arrested.”

“I would be calm.”

“Really,” she said. “Like you were calm in the bowling alley last week?”

That was different.

She and I were at the bowling alley because it was John’s every other Saturday bowling day. John and a dozen others have been bowling every other every Saturday for a long time, since John’s middle school special ed teacher decided her students needed more socialization and time away from class.

John and his friends take their bowling seriously. Some do not look at scores, but they know when they bowl a good game.

Another man at the alley noticed the small Blackhorse embroidered patch on my shirt. He asked when I was in Vietnam. “Sixty-six and sixty-seven,” I said. He said he was there in 1970-71. He had been an airframe repair specialist in II Corps. I mentioned Michael had that MOS before the job was changed to a combat arms MOS. He and I talked a little more, but nothing substantial. He wanted to brag.

About the time we were leaving (Priscilla, her mother, John and I), the man said he hoped Michael had not been to Afghanistan or any place. Priscilla said, “He’s in Afghanistan now, on his second tour.”

I said, “He also has two Iraq tours.”

The man shook his head. “The Army … The suicide rate … A soldier commits suicide every day.”

I didn’t see red or anything as I often do when angry. I just pointed a finger and I said, “That’s bullshit!”

“Well, that’s what I heard.”

“It’s bullshit,” I said. “The military suicide rate is lower than the civilian rate, especially among those of the same age.” I meant the roughly 17-55 military ages.

“It’s the government,” he said.

I said, “I get tired of people who spout things before checking facts.”

“It’s the government,” he said.

Here’s what some Vietnam veterans think: “We got screwed, so every other soldier gets screwed, too.”

My three children have four Iraqs, two Afghanistans and four deployments to another desert location, and not one time did any of them say, “It’s not fair.”

Each one took the oath, just as I did, just as their grandfathers did, just as several uncles and cousins did.

Priscilla might be right, though.

Wow! A letter from Pat Boone!

You remember Pat Boone! Great-times-four grandson of Daniel; cousin of Richard?

Oh. Love Letters in the Sand? April Love? Debby Boone’s father?

OK. Boone was a heart throb in the 1950s. Good singer, bad actor. Christian, conservative, sometimes a joke.

Anyway, the letter is addressed to my mother-in-law and, oddly enough, Boone wants her to send money to The 60 Plus Association in Washington, D.C. Boone also wants my mother-in-law to sign a petition demanding Sen. Harry Reid “allow a free and fair vote that will bring about the elimination of the horrific Death Tax.”

Don’t get me wrong – I am in favor of eliminating the federal inheritance tax. But, do I think 60 Plus Association will really take the petitions to Reid’s office? Uh, no. And even if the petitions somehow wound up in Reid’s presence, would the Nevada senator read them? Uh, same no.

I will say this for 60 Plus: On the back of the petition, the organization admits donations are not tax deductable. Other thieving bastard groups say donations are tax deductable in accordance with IRS regulations, which means not at all.

Key sentence in a newspaper story on Obama Africa trip

“The Secret Service planning document, which was provided to The Post by a person who is concerned about the amount of resources necessary for the trip, does not specify costs."

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obamas-family-trip-africa-cost-60-100-million_735195.html

quoting http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obamas-trip-to-africa-poses-special-challenges-enormous-costs/2013/06/13/29d9270a-cd29-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_print.html


Leak, leak! Call out the plumbers!

At www.gatesovienna.net

Now: (1) The document was leaked; (2) the document concerns Secret Service plans; (3) The Washington Post accepted the leaked document.

(No. 2 seems a criminal act.)

Finding Bigfoot

Here’s what Bigfoot hunters say in TV documentary shows: “We know a Bigfoot is in this area, so we will spend a couple of days and set up cameras and voice recorders to possibly get undeniable proof.”

Dude, can you say Jane Goodall?

You want to find Bigfoot, live where it lives. For more than a couple of days.

Oh, you say you have bills to pay? How, by selling video to TV documentaries? Writing and selling a book on “Finding Bigfoot?”

As I said: You want to find Bigfoot, live where it lives. For as long as you have to.

The obscenity is in saying Islam is equal with Judiasm

“By now you’ve read about the rampaging Jewish mobs threatening to kill European newspaper editors for a cartoon ridiculing the religious rite of circumcision.

“What, you missed it?

“That’s because no such thing has happened. Yes, there have been angry condemnations of the cartoon run by Dagbladet, Norway’s second-largest tabloid, as anti-Semitic. But there’s been no violence, no mobs, no blood.

“Even so, Dagbladet editors are likening the Jews protesting their cartoon on circumcision to the Muslims offended in 2005 by a now-infamous cartoon lampooning the prophet Mohammed that appeared in a newspaper in neighboring Denmark. The two groups, says Dagbladet, are guilty of a “similar reaction.”

“In fact, the reactions couldn’t be more dissimilar.

“Dagbladet’s cartoon shows two Jews mutilating a blood-spattered infant with a fork and bolt cutter while professing their faith. Pretty disgusting stuff. Yet despite the sharp complaints, there’s been no violence, and no editor at the Oslo daily has been forced to go into hiding from the Jews.

“That’s a pretty sharp contrast to what ensued after the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Postand published several cartoons of the Muslim prophet, including a provocative one of him with a bomb tucked in his turban. Then we saw violent riots across three continents, attacks on Danish diplomatic buildings, attacks on Christian churches, the death of scores of people, a plot to launch a terror attack on the newspaper offices and bounties put on the heads of the editor and the cartoonist.

“We’d say the marked difference between the reactions to the two cartoon incidents represents the difference between expressing legitimate grievances and outright intimidation. If there’s an obscenity here, it’s the cheap attempt to lump them together.”

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/drawing_distinctions_WrFXxSbY5WbvnkHZVnRDPJ

(A major part of Liberal/Progressive stated philosophy is that all things are equal – animals/humans, Islam/Judaism, Islam/Christianity. Socialism/capitalism? Uh, not so much. State control/individual rights and responsibilities? Well, maybe not equal.)

Link at www.maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com


Friday, June 14, 2013

The president and his homosexual/lesbian/sexwithmoose friends

Obama Uses Children as Pawns to Advance Degeneracy

A little time back, I wondered why the president of the United States would call a multi-millionaire professional basketball player and congratulate the player for announcing his appetite for having sexual relations with other men.

Of course, for this president there could be no one-time announcement of his appreciation for people who participate in same-gender sex.

“At an event at the White House on Thursday commemorating [homosexual] Pride Month, two third-grade children introduced President Barack Obama. Zea and Luna, nine-year-old twins, read appeals from a letter that they apparently sent to the nation’s leader last December. …

“’We asked the president for his support for gay marriage, because we have two moms and they are just as good as other parents,’ Zea added. ‘They love us a lot.’

“The crowd applauded after the girls made this proclamation — and the president then took the stage to praise same-sex couples and to urge that the nation embrace gay matrimony.”

http://moonbattery.com/

Speaking of Vikings

Two boats and crews from between 650-700 found buried on Estonian island.

http://archaeology.org/issues/95-1307/features/941-vikings-saaremaa-estonia-salme-vendel-oseberg

‘New York lawmakers propose ban on anonymous online comments’

Banning anonymous comments will help end cyber bullying, they say.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-57440895-501465/new-york-lawmakers-propose-ban-on-anonymous-online-comments/


(A lot of other things could end, too.)

Found at www.gatesofvienna.net

They’re mad at Mom/Pop, maman-et-bruit and etc.

“And we unavoidably arrive at the issue of political correctness and the illogical left-liberal notion of racism which pervades the entire Western society. The MSM are always busy labelling such things as bacon being sent to an Imam or chopped swine heads being thrown at the door of mosques as ‘racist attack’ against that religion called Islam. But such appalling and treacherous acts as cooking a Christ are never deemed as a racist attack against the religion called Christianity. So interestingly enough, burning a Quran is declared to be a crime against humanity and a sign of the resurgence of ‘fascism’, but roasting Jesus or publicly burning a crucifix hardly attracts any attention by any part of the MSM.” – No Turning Point

www.gatesofvienna.net

(Defending the unusual is easy. Deforming the common is rebellion against those rules that so stymied the child. “I want it now!” “I don’t want to go to bed!” “You can’t make me!” “I am old enough to make my own decisions!”

(Rulers in Europe want to see the destruction of Western Civilization. Not just cause destruction, but witness the ruin, so they can say, “It is good.”

(The US withstood threats from Europe in two multi-million casualty world wars and a lesser casualty-producing Cold War. But now, instant communication, instant propaganda, brings the seed of destruction.)

Destruction of the West “cannot be stopped now in a rational and civilized way. The inertial energy of it is now far too powerful, and the elites are irrevocably trapped in their own ideological grip. It is like a little snowball which was set in motion decades ago.”

Don't use soldiers to make money

Priscilla checked out one of the thieving bastards, and is she mad. These particular thieving bastards claim to help soldiers, but all they do is take and bank money.

In Priscilla’s world, nobody messes with soldiers. Nobody.

Our three children have four Iraq tours, two Afghanistans and four deployments to another desert location.

Priscilla says, “Everybody in uniform is my child. They’re all my children.”

A letter asking for money came in an envelope with no organization listed, just a return address:

36585 Penfield Lane
Winchester, CA 93596

Printed on the envelope is: “Your card for a wounded, sick or disabled military hero is enclosed.” Printed in the upper left corner is an American flag.

Priscilla googled the address. Street-level view shows a small building next to a large vacant lot, with a warehouse across the street and some kind of California redneck establishment across from the desert lot.

Also at the address is a sign: “Help Hospitalized Veterans.”

https://www.google.com/maps?q=&layer=c&z=17&iwloc=A&sll=33.589901,-117.121764&cbp=13,281.6,0,0,0&cbll=33.589891,-117.121704&sa=X&ei=aiO7UeCIHIHu9AS4k4GYCg&ved=0CC4QxB0wAA

HHV is not exactly popular with organizations that keep eyes on non-profits.

“On August 9, 2012, the California Attorney General ‘filed a civil lawsuit seeking the removal of officers and directors of Help Hospitalized Veterans, a California charity. The complaint alleges that those running the organization engaged in self-dealing, paid excessive executive compensation and engaged in fraudulent fundraising and other unlawful activities. The lawsuit also seeks to recover more than $4.3 million in funds improperly diverted from Help Hospitalized Veterans. Those funds were meant to support several programs serving veterans and active-duty military, including providing arts and craft kits to hospitalized veterans. Instead, they were used to enrich the organization’s officers and fundraisers.’”

http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3813

HHV has its own ideas, of course. http://hhv.org/ shows pictures of smiling veterans who have found happiness and a new meaning of life through using leather crafts kits from HHV.

I have wondered how it is that somebody decides to make a living cheating people. I would like to talk with those people and find out what happened. Was it their parents, their schools, their friends? Or is there something wrong with the wiring in their brains?

Most people are honest, with small transgressions now and then. But the thieving bastards … Maybe one would say, “I have to make a living.”

And that is when I would slap the (----) out of him. Or her.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Today’s mail included 42 letters from organizations that want money

Some groups sent two letters, and there is a good reason (from their standpoint) for duplication.

Earlier this year my mother-in-law sent two different $200 checks to the same organization on the same day. She didn’t remember sending the first check, so when she came across the second letter, she sent a second check. Her check register shows several checks between the two, which means when she balanced her account, she did not notice the duplication. Even with her own writing as proof, she did not realize what she had done.

These organizations know their audience. They know elderly people are sometimes confused. They know the elderly often repeat an action, having forgotten the action already done. These thieving bastards literally bank on confusion and fear.

Delivered to my address today:

• National Campaign to Guarantee Social Security – “Cost of living adjustment update.” Second envelope: “Retirement guarantee notification for:”.

• No return address – “Interruption of cable programming pending … Fox News Channel.”

• No return address – “Red Alert.”

• No return address – “Priority delivery.” Same bulk postage number – 16 – and both from Fredericksburg, Va. Another with same bulk number – “Federated Overnite.”

• Amy Ridenour, National Retirement Security Task Force – “Confidential.” Second envelope: “Nationwide Survey Enclosed. Response Requested.” Third envelope: “Urgent Correspondence.”

• Political Headquarters 2013 – “2013 report on the direction of our nation.”

• Impeach Obama Campaign – “National Resolution on Impeachment.” Second envelope: “Red Alert – Postal Priority – Air Delivery – Triple Initiative.” Third Envelope: “National Resolution On Impeachment.”

• White House Watch – “Annual Commitment Now Due!” Second envelope: “Annual Commitment Now Due!” Third envelope: “Personal Congressional Correspondence Enclosed.”

• No return address – “Health Care Update.”

• United States Investigative Unit – “Two Air Delivery Envelopes Enclosed For Two Critical Reasons – Please Return Without Delay.”

• No return address – “Re: Pending Changes to Health Care And Cuts.”

• United States Health Congress – No message, but overprint of “Air Mail,” which it is not.

• In return address box: “(Name) – Did You Hear The Latest From Pat Boone Regarding The Death Tax? This Is Urgent …’

• Retire Safe: “ENCLOSED: The Social Security Protection Amendment To The United States Constitution.”

• American Federation of Senior Citizens: “Copy Of Certified Enclosed – Please Open At Once.” (Certified what?)

• The Task Force to Impeach Obama – “Sealed Congressional Correspondence Confidential.”

• No return address – “Copy of Check Enclosed. Open Immediately.

• Health Care Reform Task Force. No message.

• No return address: ”Copy Of Final Check Enclosed 10-Day Deadline.” This and the two above were mailed from the 22406 Zip Code and have the same postage meter ink.

• National Committee – “Congressional Reform Act of 2013.”

• Penfield Lane, Winchester, Calif. – “Your card for a wounded, sick or disabled military hero is enclosed.”

• No return address – “Congressional Research Survey of 1,000,000 Americans,” and, “Monitored Delivery CFJ-137-0v1,” and a bar code labeled “Tracking Code” with 137 10413 14 70 1 4137 10413

• John Linder, United States Congressman 1993-2011 – “Our Historic Lawsuit Against Barrack Obama …”

• American Criminal Justice Center – “Seal Of Authenticity Enclosed For Verification Of Identity.”

• No return address; envelope printed “Air Gram.”

• Trent Franks, United States Congressman – “This Is Urgent. I Have Just Co-Sponsored The Bill That Will Permanently Kill The Horrific Death Tax!”

• Frontiers Of Freedom – “Notice of Obama’s New $258 A Month Energy Tax Inside.”

• American Federation Of Senior Citizens – “Emergency Notification For Social Security Recipients.”

• Americans Against U.N. Control – Urgent Communication! Please Open Immediately.”

• No address – “Deadline Noted – Please Respond In 4 Days.”

• Edwin Meese III – “Join me and the historic lawsuit that will hold Obama accountable.”

• National Campaign to Impeach Obama – “Please Use The Tools I Am Sending You With Care.” Second envelope: “NCI Court Documents Enclosed.”

• No return address, no message on the envelope, but the Zip Code is unusual for these – 08057, which is Moorestown, N.J. A return envelope has “Senior Centers,” and a D.C. post office box.

• Abolish The Death Tax – “A 2103 Campaign To Abolish The Estate Tax.


Wednesday, June 12, 2013

The government as a jealous girlfriend

I’ve got nothing to hide.

Really? How about when you don't get to make that decision, but the government does?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5VAgSdGnSQ&feature=player_embedded

“I do not buy for one second that (the multi-billion facility in Utah and spying on American citizens and tracking and recording) … are merely designed and devoted to rooting out Akmed the unruly Pashtun in the back wilds of Pakistan. That may be the excuse, but that may very quickly not be the reality if the powers-that-be decide they’d rather turn their sights on you or me. Such a vast and powerful all-knowing, all-seeing intelligence gathering ‘entity’ in the wrong hands, whether now or later, would indeed be the death knell for the Republic and constitutional liberty as we know it. Can you see such an intelligence weapon being turned on American gun owners if a few folks get a bit trigger happy somewhere along the way? Such scenarios are not that far-fetched and likely more fact than fiction.”

http://floppingaces.net/2013/06/12/the-government-as-a-jealous-girlfriend-reader-post/

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Cutting government spending makes you fat

“(ANSAmed) - ATHENS, JUNE 10 - Austerity has led to Greeks gaining instead of shedding pounds, according to experts at the Hellenic Medical Association for Obesity (HMAO) who have warned of the health risks of an increase in the consumption of cheap fast food. As daily Kathimerini reports, a study carried out by the HMAO on primary school children last year revealed that 40% were overweight compared to 30% in 2003. The increase is similar for adults who have changed their shopping habits to save money.

''’One would expect that, due to the crisis, consumption would fall but the opposite is happening,'’ the general secretary of HMAO, Efthimios Kapantais told Kathimerini, noting that Greeks were buying '’cheap, bad quality food with a high calorie count.’'' (ANSAmed).

http://ansamed.ansa.it/ansamed/en/news/sections/generalnews/2013/06/10/Crisis-austerity-leads-Greeks-obesity-experts-say_8845551.html

Link at www.gatesofvienna.net

(Since when is eating out cheaper than cooking at home? Greece must be a wierd country if fast food costs more than a little meat and more vegetables at hiome.)

Wonder what the official word is now?

‘U.S. agency denies data center to monitor citizens' emails’

"Many unfounded allegations have been made about the planned activities of the Utah Data Center, ... one of the biggest misconceptions about NSA is that we are unlawfully listening in on, or reading emails of, U.S. citizens. This is simply not the case." – NSA statement.


http://news.yahoo.com/u-agency-denies-data-center-monitor-citizens-emails-004448507.html

Link at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_Data_Center

NSA, CIA, DIA, et al, should rethink spy methods

One of those things I’m not supposed to do.

The inbox this morning had a “No subject” email from Mary L. Dembeck. I do not know, nor have I ever known, a person so named. I clicked on the entry.

Yes, I know: Don’t open anything from someone you do not know. But I did. And I discovered, Mary L. Dembeck wants to give me her inheritance.

The message: “I need your help contact me now,
“I wish to pass my in`heritance fun`ds to you. Mona”

OK, so Mona, not Mary K. Dembeck, wants to give her inheritance to me. An email address followed the message, but I do know better than to use that address.

I wondered, though, about Mary L. Dembeck. Is that a name plucked from the ether, conjured from the mind of an internet identity thief? Maybe.

Mary L. Dembeck does exist … Did in at least one case; continued existence, but in another realm of Creation, if you are a believer.

A Mary L. Dembeck of Washington, D.C,. died in April 2009. She was 94. She was born in Pittsburgh, Pa. Her family included four doctors. For more than 30 years she was a volunteer with the Pittsburgh Guild for the blind.

A Mary L. Dembeck lives in Timonium, Md., with her husband Bernard J. Dembeck 3rd. The Dembecks live in a 2,097-square-foot house. Their latest house and land assessment is $359,752. Their house was built in 1962. It has one fireplace stack.

Information on those Mary L. Dembecks was available at no charge. Additional information was available for a fee.

When it comes to data mining, NSA and CIA and whichever other government agencies and bureaus are listening and watching could have saved taxpayer dollars simply by using credit cards.

Private companies have systems and organization in place. And, those companies are storing what they glean. The $1 billion NSA data storage place in Utah need not have been built at all.

Privatize, NSA. It’s more cost effective.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Now LtCol Oliver L. North, USMC (Ret.) wants my 87-year-old mother-in-law’s Social Security money

“RECKLESS LUNACY!” screams dark letters on the envelope.

Which reckless lunacy? TARP? Infusion into the economy of billions of dollars we don’t have? Hundreds of millions to Egypt’s ruling Muslim Brotherhood? Aid to Al-Queda in Syria?

Well, no. The letter from Fox News employee and retired from the Marine Corps because he admitted lying to Congress, says in a six-page letter that his organization – Freedom Alliance – needs money to fight President Obama’s plans to disarm America.

Included in the large, bulk mail envelope, is an “EMERGENCY PERSONAL REPLY” for the “2013 ANTI-DISARMAMENT PLEDGE OF SUPPORT” to be signed and returned in a (not postage-paid) envelope to North “c/o FREEDOM ALLIANCE” in Merrifield, Va. And, oh, yes, please include a small donation of $25 or $1,000. The courteous North even has a place for writing name and number of whichever credit card the supporter wishes to use – Visa, Mastercard, American Express or Discover.

Never mind that in addition to lying to Congress and shedding hundreds of documents that would have implicated him in Iran-Contra, North was indicted on 16 felony charges and convicted of three – “accepting an illegal gratuity; aiding and abetting in the obstruction of a congressional inquiry; and ordering the destruction of documents” (Wikipedia). Although the convictions were overturned, this American decided never to trust anything North said.

North will not get any of my mother-in-law’s Social Security. All her mail comes to my address. Over a three-year period, she gave somewhere between $10,000 and $15,000 to so-called lobbyists who, like Freedom Alliance, constitute “a fully qualified organization under IRS regulations.”

A “fully qualified organization.” That is a phrase those people use to make people believe their donations are tax deductible. It is a lie.

For concrete done right, use Roman recipe

Some Roman concrete structures have been around 1,200 years or more. And, archaeologists say the Roman stuff is ecologically friendlier.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130604135409.htm

From www.gatesofvienna.net and

http://www.archaeology.org/news/960-130607-concrete-rome-baiae


Hey, I’ve got an idea! Let’s be like Europe!

Businesses look to temp agencies at keeping number of employees under Obamacare hit numbers.

http://news.investors.com/politics-andrew-malcolm/060713-659167-temp-staffing-jobs-hit-record-as-firms-dodge-obamacare-costs.htm

(Remember the stories a couple of years ago, French part-time workers protesting because full-time jobs didn’t exist? Under French/union rules, firing or laying off a full-time worker was close to impossible. Most protesters were recent university graduates. Our new grads will see the same market.)

At www.maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com

It’s the truth, the whole truth

“Now I'm going to teach you a hard, but very important lesson. You see, I don't care you how feel. I really don't. More importantly, neither does anyone else. Only about 200 people on a planet of 7 billion actually care about your feelings, and that's if you're lucky. The sooner you grasp this lesson, the better off you will be. And since almost no one gives a damn what you do, say, think, or feel, appealing to your feelings when you encounter differences of opinion is not only illogical, but useless.”

http://voxday.blogspot.com/2013/06/mailvox-writing-back-to-young-female.html

(200 people actually care about how the woman feels? Does anybody know that many people? As far as caring about my feelings, maybe 20? Maybe. More like … wife, three kids, three sisters, a brother, a mother-in-law – Hey, almost halfway to 20!)

Uncovered treasure at www.maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com

Finding money

With my mother-in-law moved to an assisted living place, Priscilla and I have the job of deciding what to keep from the house before next month’s estate sale. There are more photographs than we realized, some of people Priscilla never met and she has no idea who the people are. She recognizes family members three generations back, but not some of the others.

We ran across quite a few old coins, too. About two dozen were in a cigar box with Priscilla’s father’s things from World War II. The coins are mostly from Belgium and England. Paper money is from England, France, Belgium and Germany. Some small pieces of colored paper are occupation bills for Belgium and Germany, Series 1943 and Series 1944. There are two pieces of real German money – a 1937 One Rentenmark bill and an undated Two Reichsmark bill.

Also in the coins was a 1907 British penny. Searching prices on that brought a surprise. One site had a 1907 penny valued at ₤6,000, but all others were in the ₤25 range.

The same thing happened when I searched prices on 14 silver dollars. Prices ranged from $30 to $145, with the dollars from 1880-1922.

Except – One site said the 1921 dollar was worth $145 in poor condition and $6,000 in excellent condition. That site said the 1921 silver dollar was rare.

Other sites, however, said that dollar was among the most numerous minted and was worth around $35.

In another box I found more U.S. coins – nickels, dimes and quarters, as well as two Missouri tax receipt coins. The oldest of the coins is an 1842 dime. There is also an 1853 quarter. The quarter is listed at $200, while the dime is worth $25 or $50 or $250, depending on which site you want to believe.

Of course, I would like to believe the 1907 British penny is worth ₤6,000 and the 1921 silver dollar will bring $6,000. But I’m not betting the house on it.

Priscilla and I will sell the money, both coins and paper. We don’t see any sense in having a thing we cannot use. If we kept the money, what would we do with it, other than show it to relatives and visitors?

That would be bragging. “Oh, you should see the money we found. There is lots of it and it is quite valuable.”



Sunday, June 9, 2013

Free shotguns in Houston neighborhood

The Armed Citizen Project in Houston is giving away free shotguns to single women and residents of neighborhoods with high crime rates.

Sounds like a good project for a nonprofit.

The USA writer doesn’t think so, and uses some underhanded measurers to get his point across.

“But others in Houston, while expressing support for the right to bear arms guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, question whether more guns will result in more gun-related deaths rather than less crime.”

(He quotes one “other.”)

“While some residents in the neighborhood are supportive, several officials have mixed feelings about it.”

(He quotes one official, a county commissioner.)

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/08/houston-free-guns/2404307/


Most of you folks are wrong

In how many states do people correctly pronounce “Bowie”?

http://www.businessinsider.com/22-maps-that-show-the-deepest-linguistic-conflicts-in-america-2013-6#for-whatever-reason-its-a-boo-wie-knife-in-texas-and-dc-3

Found at www.maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com

Hey, kid. You wanna play Cowboys & Aliens, or go read a book?

School has toy gun buyback, pays a book and a lottery ticket for a chance at a bicycle.

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_23406432/hayward-school-sponsors-toy-gun-exchange

Tripped over at www.gatesofvienna.net

There was this guy invented a carburetor that would get 100 mpg

but Ford (or GM or Chrysler) bought the patent and put it away and we’ll never see it. That's what I heard from more than a dozen people while in the Army, anyway. Some things, when the government is involved, maybe that carburetor is in another country.

The $9,800 GM car the govn’t says you may not buy.

http://ericpetersautos.com/2013/06/04/gms-9800-car-the-one-were-not-allowed-to-buy/

Fired up at www.gatesofvienna.net

Ridiculous college courses

The four colleges I attended (three undergraduate) didn’t have any courses as ridiculous. There were required courses I would have happily skipped – psychology, sociology, algebra and biology.

"What If Harry Potter Is Real?" (Appalachian State University) - This course will engage students with questions about the very nature of history. Who decides what history is? Who decides how it is used or mis-used? How does this use or misuse affect us? How can the historical imagination inform literature and fantasy? How can fantasy reshape how we look at history? The Harry Potter novels and films are fertile ground for exploring all of these deeper questions. By looking at the actual geography of the novels, real and imagined historical events portrayed in the novels, the reactions of scholars in all the social sciences to the novels, and the world-wide frenzy inspired by them, students will examine issues of race, class, gender, time, place, the uses of space and movement, the role of multiculturalism in history as well as how to read a novel and how to read scholarly essays to get the most out of them.

See the other 19: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-07/20-completely-ridiculous-college-courses-being-offered-us-universities

Audited class at www.maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com

Friday, June 7, 2013

Fake EPA employee wins ethics award

Richard Windsor, aka EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, was named a scholar of ethical behavior by the EPA. Windsor is Jackson’s fake email name.

Chris Horner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Chris Horner discovered the Windsor/Jackson duplicity in November.

“I like my fake employees to be of the highest ethical standards and fully up to date on the law and ethics of federal recordkeeping,” Horner told the Washington Free Beacon.

http://freebeacon.com/richard-windsor-model-employee/

From “The EPA Is The Underreported Scandal,” http://ace.mu.nu/

It’s a good thing I’m not having a cholesterol test today

because in the oven for lunch is a baking tray covered with foil and on the foil are taco chips sprinkled with a little sharp cheddar cheese and about an eighth of a can of Wolf Brand Chili w/beans, the chili left over from a chili-cheese dog, chopped onion and fries supper a week ago.

I’ve about decided we have this take care of yourself healthwise thing backward. Young people should eat healthy food and exercise and not smoke or drink or do any non-prescription drugs. Young people need muscles and minds in order to compete and make lots and lots of money so they will have retirement accounts and Social Security.

That should last until you retire, and then you can start smoking and drinking and staying out late and driving fast.

But wait!, you say. All that bad stuff means you’ll die within 20 years!

And if retirement age goes to 70 …

Do the math.

Anyway, the oven timer dinged, so it’s time for my bad deed of the day. Not that I have a bad deed to do every day, you understand. It’s a figure of speech.

I’ve got a couple of bottles of Tums and/or the WalMart equivalent, so I’m OK with the chili.