Home of the "Little Known Blogger"
Impaled on my own self-effacement
I had worked on some reports for another area some 2 or 3 months in the past. The young lady (39 years of age) whose area it is had moved all but one of the reports into production. She asked my help this morning in moving the last report. I replied, “I would need to refresh myself with the report, as being 78 years old I do not remember what I had for breakfast this morning.” She looked at me funny for a minute and replied, “You’re not 78… are you?”
Sigh.
I was at the golf course the other day and I found myself singing —
“Blue despair and agony on me
Deep dark depression, excessive misery
If weren’t for bad golf, I’d play no golf at all.”
Hee Haw was a big part of my life when I was young, could you tell?
As an outsider looking in at the situation in Egypt it is very confusing. I am going to explore my thoughts via this piece. It would be appreciated if anyone who had thoughts on this would comment. It just seems like awful conflict with both sides wrong.First allow me to admit that most of my news comes from NPR. While many folks rant about NPR’s “Liberal” slant I find it one of the few news sources without a large bias. So many of the news sources of our time are more opinion than news and/or have a definite bias. Since I almost never watch TV news, my other source of news is the Internet, so much of which must be taken with a grain of salt. I do tend to browse the more liberal news/opinion sites. To counterbalance this I do browse the BBC site almost daily to get a point of view from outside the United States. On very rare occasions I will look at Al Jazeera site. Like most folks I am stuck in my bias silo, but I do attempt to make the occasional foray into other arenas of thought.
I have a love/hate relationship with my country. Continue reading “Egypt – The Withering of the Arab Spring”
I think I understand why Amtrak is having business problems.
I would love to be able to take a train a lot of places I visit. First and foremost, there are not passenger trains to many places. If there is the travel time is much more than it would be by car and the real kicker is that the tickets are more expensive than driving. At least that has been my experience every time I have checked for an upcoming trip.
We recently returned from a wedding that was held in downtown Chicago. We took Amtrak from St. Louis to Union Station in Chicago there and back. The tickets for the two of us ran around $245. Gas for the trip would have ran from $100 to $150 depending on which vehicle we took and how much additional driving we did. However overnight parking in downtown Chicago would have cost us at least $60 per day. To the above figure add $120. Because we were splitting cabs with other attendees to the wedding, cabs probably ran another $20 or $25 while we were there. Double that if we had not split.
Our train was due to leave St. Louis Friday morning at 7:55 a.m. The Texas Eagle was behind schedule. Continue reading “Amtrak Could and Should Do Better”
I will admit to liking one or two Ted Nugent songs, but on the whole I am not a fan. My musical tastes tend toward Americana, singer/songwriter, jazz and classical music. However, Ted Nugent as a political activist I categorically do not like. It is an actually aversion. I am a big supporter of free speech, but part of me cannot help but thinking in a sane society this individual would be receiving heavy psychiatric counseling.
My aversion to Mr. Nugent stems from his attitude towards guns and his support of seeming absolutely no gun control.
To state the obvious, guns are designed to kill, period. They have no other function. They are meant to either kill humans or animals. Of course, there are effects that stem from this function.
They have been and are used for agents of gathering meat. This use has limited functionality now, as most folks who hunt for food in the United States will readily tell you that it is not cost efficient. While I personally do not hunt, I can understand the desire. It is not something I would wish to take away from people. Continue reading “Hey Ted Nugent…Guns are not toys.”
…yeah I know you did not ask!
Women are like cats. When they want attention you had better give it them, and when they do not, you had better leave them alone.
Men… well men are just dogs!
Virginia Foxx: Congress Doesn’t Need To Make College Affordable 
Talk about an elitist attitude…if it were not for Pell Grants (from the federal government) and a supportive wife I would never have made it through college. I would have spent my life working in warehouses and factories for not very much money.
And do not get me started on these for profit colleges like Phoenix. There have been multiple studies showing that they fail to prepare students for jobs and are exceeding expensive. If we are to spend tax dollars at these for profit schools, there should be some accountability.
And why I am at it, why have they privatized the student loan program?
Are For-Profit Colleges a Rip-off?
For-Profit Colleges Hemorrhaging Students
For-profit College Graduates Barely Earn More Than High School Graduates
In a different vein
Education Pays
Tonight I had to explain to my urban, Jewish girlfriend the significance of BR-549. I mistakenly told her to give me a call at that number.
Of course, that is the phone number of Junior Samples Car Sales from Hee Haw. I then had to remind her what Hee Haw was. I went on to expound that there is also a country music group called BR549. The origin, however, is deeper than either Hee Haw or country music. It originated with the International Harvester BR–549 engine which was used in larger farm trucks. It was a Broad-Ringed (BR) 549 Cubic Inch monster of an engine.
I am still wondering how to get the glazed look off of her face.
Ted Nugent’s response to the Zimmerman case: http://rare.us/story/nugent-zimmerman-verdict-vindicates-citizen-patrols-self-defense/
This is some scary sh**! Ted Nugent is some scary sh**! Anyway you look at the Zimmerman/Martin encounter, it was a huge tragedy.
I really do not know anything about Travan Martin, but looking at his face he appears to be a really nice young man. I think of myself as pretty much non-violent and I do not recall ever starting a fight. A few times when I have been backed into a corner I have fought, and I was pretty much nuts and was determined to do great damage. That is probably where Travan was at, backed into a corner. It is a real shame there was a gun in the mix, otherwise it would have probably ended with two guys with a lot of bruises and scraps. I really wonder if George Zimmerman would have had the “courage” to stalk this young man if he had not been carrying a concealed weapon. I am guessing, no.
The thought of so many folks running around with concealed weapons chills my bones. I don’t own a gun, and I really cannot think of a reason why I should unless I suddenly get the need to hunt for food.
I used to know a fine fellow named Jack. Jack was very smart, very rough and a gambler. He spent a lot of time in places I would not have the courage to go.
I asked him one time if he was not a little scared and did he carry a gun.
His answer has stuck with me to this day. He said,” If you carried a gun and pulled it out and used it you were in trouble. If you carried a gun and pulled it out and did not use it you were in another sort of trouble. So why carry a gun, it was just trouble either way.”