The other day my daughter said, "I guess I'd better start packin' heat now that I have a heat packin' license."
I said, "Do you have a good heat packin' holster?"
She said, "I've got a purse."
Me: "Pardon my French, but do you have a big-ass purse?" (Her heat is of the 9mm Glock variety.)
Her: "It fits right into the zipper part."
Me: "And an extra magazine?"
Her: "If I need more than one magazine to get to the parking lot and my car, I am in the wrong part of town."
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Parker and Barrow got around
In 2000, a man in Lamar County, Texas, mentioned the time Bonnie and Clyde came to Paris.
“The sheriff got word from Oklahoma law officers that Bonnie and Clyde were seen headed for Texas. Well, the sheriff got some men together and deputized them and sent them to various places where Bonnie and Clyde might get across the Red River. He told them to stop every car that came along.
“The sheriff took a few old boys out to the Highway 271 bridge and set up a road block. He put his new deputies behind the cars.
“Highway 271 wasn’t paved then. It was dirt and gravel, so you could see a long way off when a car was coming. There’d be a big plume of dust in the air.
“The highway was a pretty well-traveled road, you know, between Paris and Hugo. Cars and trucks made the trip every day.
“The sheriff stopped every car and every truck that came along. His deputies were real interested in what was going on, but they didn’t find anything unusual.
“Well, sometime around noon they saw a big plume of dust that meant a car traveling fast. The sheriff told his deputies to get behind the cars. He walked to the middle of the road and waited. The car slowed and then stopped. The sheriff could see two people in the front seat. He walked up to the driver’s window. There was a man and a woman in the front seat. In the back seat was a man with a bloody bandage around his right arm.
“The driver said, ‘Good morning, Sheriff. Is there a problem?’ The sheriff said, “Nope. We’re just checking cars coming from Oklahoma.’ The driver said, ‘We’re looking for a doctor. Our friend got shot in a hunting accident.’
“Now, there wasn’t any hunting season at that time, not in Oklahoma or Texas. The sheriff knew that. He looked at the man driving the car and he looked at the woman in the passenger seat and he looked at the man with the bloody bandage. He thought about the five men behind the cars. They had shotguns and never shot anything but dove and quail and such.
“The sheriff stepped back from the car and he said, ‘Paris is a few miles down the road. You can find a doctor there.’ The driver smiled and he said, ‘Thank you, Sheriff. We’ll be on our way.’”
The man telling the story said, “I think the sheriff showed good judgment.”
A few months later, I was in Honey Grove, a few miles west of Paris, in Fannin County. I don’t remember what I was covering there, but at some point an older man said, “Say, you ever hear about the time Bonnie and Clyde came to Fannin County?” I said I had not. The man said, “Well, I don’t remember what year it was, probably 1933 or ’34, the sheriff got word Bonnie and Clyde was driving across Oklahoma, headed for Texas. The sheriff deputized several men and took them up to the bridge north of Bonham …”
Bonnie and Clyde were busy people, making trips to Paris and Bonham, at both river crossings met by a rural sheriff with deputies inexperienced in all facets of law enforcement. Probably, Parker and Barrow made the same drive into Red River County and Bowie County to the east, and into Grayson County and Cooke County to the west, maybe into every county that had a bridge across the Red River.
“The sheriff got word from Oklahoma law officers that Bonnie and Clyde were seen headed for Texas. Well, the sheriff got some men together and deputized them and sent them to various places where Bonnie and Clyde might get across the Red River. He told them to stop every car that came along.
“The sheriff took a few old boys out to the Highway 271 bridge and set up a road block. He put his new deputies behind the cars.
“Highway 271 wasn’t paved then. It was dirt and gravel, so you could see a long way off when a car was coming. There’d be a big plume of dust in the air.
“The highway was a pretty well-traveled road, you know, between Paris and Hugo. Cars and trucks made the trip every day.
“The sheriff stopped every car and every truck that came along. His deputies were real interested in what was going on, but they didn’t find anything unusual.
“Well, sometime around noon they saw a big plume of dust that meant a car traveling fast. The sheriff told his deputies to get behind the cars. He walked to the middle of the road and waited. The car slowed and then stopped. The sheriff could see two people in the front seat. He walked up to the driver’s window. There was a man and a woman in the front seat. In the back seat was a man with a bloody bandage around his right arm.
“The driver said, ‘Good morning, Sheriff. Is there a problem?’ The sheriff said, “Nope. We’re just checking cars coming from Oklahoma.’ The driver said, ‘We’re looking for a doctor. Our friend got shot in a hunting accident.’
“Now, there wasn’t any hunting season at that time, not in Oklahoma or Texas. The sheriff knew that. He looked at the man driving the car and he looked at the woman in the passenger seat and he looked at the man with the bloody bandage. He thought about the five men behind the cars. They had shotguns and never shot anything but dove and quail and such.
“The sheriff stepped back from the car and he said, ‘Paris is a few miles down the road. You can find a doctor there.’ The driver smiled and he said, ‘Thank you, Sheriff. We’ll be on our way.’”
The man telling the story said, “I think the sheriff showed good judgment.”
A few months later, I was in Honey Grove, a few miles west of Paris, in Fannin County. I don’t remember what I was covering there, but at some point an older man said, “Say, you ever hear about the time Bonnie and Clyde came to Fannin County?” I said I had not. The man said, “Well, I don’t remember what year it was, probably 1933 or ’34, the sheriff got word Bonnie and Clyde was driving across Oklahoma, headed for Texas. The sheriff deputized several men and took them up to the bridge north of Bonham …”
Bonnie and Clyde were busy people, making trips to Paris and Bonham, at both river crossings met by a rural sheriff with deputies inexperienced in all facets of law enforcement. Probably, Parker and Barrow made the same drive into Red River County and Bowie County to the east, and into Grayson County and Cooke County to the west, maybe into every county that had a bridge across the Red River.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Sometimes lack leads to more
Our daughter is building a house. Today she got an email from her builder saying the refrigerator she ordered would not arrive until after she closes on the house.
Aw rats! Using an ice chest for a week, huh.
Not so fast! The builder said the appliance dealer would upgrade to another, on-hand, refrigerator, and included a manufacturer's link (GE) so she could compare the two refrigerators.
That is, if she wanted to upgrade.
Hmm. Decisions, decisions.
Aw rats! Using an ice chest for a week, huh.
Not so fast! The builder said the appliance dealer would upgrade to another, on-hand, refrigerator, and included a manufacturer's link (GE) so she could compare the two refrigerators.
That is, if she wanted to upgrade.
Hmm. Decisions, decisions.
Wednesday’s top headlines from Arkansas Democrat-Gazette online
Man found dead in Little Rock park identified
Fisherman’s body pulled from Arkansas River
Woman accused of putting gun to man’s head, pulling trigger
Man robbed girlfriend’s father, police say
Robbery injures man at Sharks restaurant in Little Rock
Jonesboro man charged with fracturing baby’s skull
Fort Smith picks builder for $8 million water park
Memphis woman gets 18 years in sex trafficking
(It's a good thing Fort Smith signed that contract; otherwise, who knows what kind of happy story the newspaper might have had to run?
(The gun misfired in Story#3.
(The 20-year-old Memphis woman got 18 years for trafficking juveniles for sex.)
Fisherman’s body pulled from Arkansas River
Woman accused of putting gun to man’s head, pulling trigger
Man robbed girlfriend’s father, police say
Robbery injures man at Sharks restaurant in Little Rock
Jonesboro man charged with fracturing baby’s skull
Fort Smith picks builder for $8 million water park
Memphis woman gets 18 years in sex trafficking
(It's a good thing Fort Smith signed that contract; otherwise, who knows what kind of happy story the newspaper might have had to run?
(The gun misfired in Story#3.
(The 20-year-old Memphis woman got 18 years for trafficking juveniles for sex.)
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Yeah, it might be one of them spy swans
Egyptian authorities are quizzing a swan suspected of being a spy.
Police detained the alleged feathered agent after a concerned citizen suspected the bird of spying.
Officials say a man brought the bird to a police station believing it to be an undercover agent because it carried an electronic device
Mohammed Kamal, head of security in Qena, said that officials examined the bird and concluded that the device was probably a wildlife tracker, not an explosive or spying device.
The swan is not alone in having difficulties with the Egyptian law, with a security guard having filed a police report after capturing a pigeon he said was carrying microfilm.
And it's not just in Egypt that birds are ruffling feathers – in July a kestrel was detained in Turkey on suspicion of being an Israeli spy.
In 2010 eyebrows were also raised after Egyptian officials claimed Turkey had sent sharks to kill tourists.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/08/31/swan-spy-egypt-detained_n_3849638.html
(Iran busted US spy squirrels and Egypt said attack sharks were trained by Mossad. Turkish-trained sharks – That’s a new one.)
Police detained the alleged feathered agent after a concerned citizen suspected the bird of spying.
Officials say a man brought the bird to a police station believing it to be an undercover agent because it carried an electronic device
Mohammed Kamal, head of security in Qena, said that officials examined the bird and concluded that the device was probably a wildlife tracker, not an explosive or spying device.
The swan is not alone in having difficulties with the Egyptian law, with a security guard having filed a police report after capturing a pigeon he said was carrying microfilm.
And it's not just in Egypt that birds are ruffling feathers – in July a kestrel was detained in Turkey on suspicion of being an Israeli spy.
In 2010 eyebrows were also raised after Egyptian officials claimed Turkey had sent sharks to kill tourists.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/08/31/swan-spy-egypt-detained_n_3849638.html
(Iran busted US spy squirrels and Egypt said attack sharks were trained by Mossad. Turkish-trained sharks – That’s a new one.)
It was a hot day in August
While sort of hearing TV news people talk about Martin Luther King Jr.’s Aug 28, 1963, speech and reflecting on the fact that their birth dates had not yet arrived, many of the TV news people who informed an audience what King meant and so many of his dreams were not yet realized, I remembered that day as particularly hot in North East Texas.
It was the end of August, the hottest part of the year, but that day more so than usual.
I was 17 and about to enter my senior year in a week. I watched the televised speech on NBC. TV news seldom gave several hours of live time to events outside manned space craft launches or national political conventions. There were World Series games, NFL championship games and the new AFL championship, but those were sports events. Political events did not get that much coverage.
But that gathering in Washington, D.C., was something entirely new in the age of television.
Not new are the things politicians and news people warp around to fit King’s “I have a dream speech.” I remember King talking about how one day white children and (Negro? African-American?) children would walk hand in hand across the red clay hills of Georgia. I remember most of all the dream that “one day my four children will be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
I am white, and believe most white people remember that part above all others.
What the wrap-arounds made a part of the dreams:
• I have a dream that one day Negro women will be paid by the government to have children out of wedlock.
• I have a dream that one day Negro families will be fenced behind psychological brick walls of black ghettoes.
• I have a dream that one day Negro families will be systematically destroyed by a government that will not allow fathers to be part of raising their own children.
• I have a dream that one day education theorists and government bureaucrats will become more important than ensuring Negro children receive good schooling.
There are more and more things we all can add to the list.
No leader’s beliefs and philosophy remain unchanged with his death.
I remember, too, April 5, 1968. I was sergeant of the guard at Fort Mead, Md. At 2 a. m. the officer of the day woke me up and said, “Martin Luther King has been killed and there’s hell to pay.”
It was the end of August, the hottest part of the year, but that day more so than usual.
I was 17 and about to enter my senior year in a week. I watched the televised speech on NBC. TV news seldom gave several hours of live time to events outside manned space craft launches or national political conventions. There were World Series games, NFL championship games and the new AFL championship, but those were sports events. Political events did not get that much coverage.
But that gathering in Washington, D.C., was something entirely new in the age of television.
Not new are the things politicians and news people warp around to fit King’s “I have a dream speech.” I remember King talking about how one day white children and (Negro? African-American?) children would walk hand in hand across the red clay hills of Georgia. I remember most of all the dream that “one day my four children will be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
I am white, and believe most white people remember that part above all others.
What the wrap-arounds made a part of the dreams:
• I have a dream that one day Negro women will be paid by the government to have children out of wedlock.
• I have a dream that one day Negro families will be fenced behind psychological brick walls of black ghettoes.
• I have a dream that one day Negro families will be systematically destroyed by a government that will not allow fathers to be part of raising their own children.
• I have a dream that one day education theorists and government bureaucrats will become more important than ensuring Negro children receive good schooling.
There are more and more things we all can add to the list.
No leader’s beliefs and philosophy remain unchanged with his death.
I remember, too, April 5, 1968. I was sergeant of the guard at Fort Mead, Md. At 2 a. m. the officer of the day woke me up and said, “Martin Luther King has been killed and there’s hell to pay.”
It's Obama's way, or ... There is no other way
When President Obama was in Africa earlier this year, leaders of at least two countries did not like his comments on rights of homosexuals.
“You might do things that way in America,” the leaders said, “but in our country, things are different.”
One leader even chastised Obama for trying to foist American ways onto Africans.
Now, the president “intends to meet with several LGBT groups during his trip later this week to St. Petersburg.”
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/319899-report-obama-to-meet-lgbt-activists-in-russia#ixzz2dqFKc9Cm
The story also says Obama will meet with several “human rights” activists. By placing homosexuals in the “human rights” category, news media have now made sexual activity equal to race and religion.
On Russia’s anti-homosexual laws, Obama said: “One of the things I'm really looking forward to is maybe some gay and lesbian athletes bringing home the gold or silver or bronze, which I think would go a long way in rejecting the kind of attitudes that we're seeing there."
(Same source.)
That is such a ridiculous statement, Mr. President. I’m not going to take it apart. Just read the parts and you will see an utterance without substance, a collection of nice phrases to satisfy the True Obama Believers.
“You might do things that way in America,” the leaders said, “but in our country, things are different.”
One leader even chastised Obama for trying to foist American ways onto Africans.
Now, the president “intends to meet with several LGBT groups during his trip later this week to St. Petersburg.”
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/319899-report-obama-to-meet-lgbt-activists-in-russia#ixzz2dqFKc9Cm
The story also says Obama will meet with several “human rights” activists. By placing homosexuals in the “human rights” category, news media have now made sexual activity equal to race and religion.
On Russia’s anti-homosexual laws, Obama said: “One of the things I'm really looking forward to is maybe some gay and lesbian athletes bringing home the gold or silver or bronze, which I think would go a long way in rejecting the kind of attitudes that we're seeing there."
(Same source.)
That is such a ridiculous statement, Mr. President. I’m not going to take it apart. Just read the parts and you will see an utterance without substance, a collection of nice phrases to satisfy the True Obama Believers.
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