only Liberals can be this stupid

California voted earlier this week to ban the sale of gasoline powered vehicles by 2035.

The next day the State asked all residents to save power by setting thermostats to 78F and to avoid charging electric cars between 4-9pm because demand could cause a strain on the grid and possible brown outs and rotating power outages. 

Words fail me.

mind numbing boredom

A light rain fell as we ate our supper of biscuits and sausage gravy. After I cleaned the dishes I dragged the garbage bin to the curb. Heavy clouds darkened the northern sky. Thunder rumbled as I plopped on the couch to surf the channels. I have two hundred and fifty channels and there was nothing on. Later in the evening a heavy rain overflowed the gutters on the back of the house. The gutter is too small for that much steep roof. All it takes is money to fix the problem. Around nine my phone started its nightly routine — binging alerts of incoming work emails. The Chinese work day was in full swing for customers and manufacturing. The soft ping would continue intermittently all night long. A quick glance at the screen let me know if the email could wait until morning or needed a response now. I chose to answer one from Very Big Customer. No big deal, two minutes of time from a show I wasn’t really watching anyway. My Kindle was on the couch beside me, but I never turned it on. Rain fell. Time moved. The TV flickered it’s color images of flat people doing stuff. The wife sat next to me after hanging up laundry. A bowl of fresh popped popcorn appeared. I ate a little, not really hungry. I mumbled answers to trivia questions from the worst game show on TV. My phone dinged. Rain fell. I shuffled to the kitchen and poured out pills from various bottles and swallowed them in one handful. I turned off the late local news. I climbed the stairs. Thunder boomed. Rain still fell. I rolled into bed. My phoned dinged. The wife shut off the light. Another day done.

jerks everywhere

I like animals. I like dogs, I like cats. We had a menagerie of pets when I was a kid, including multiple dogs, cats, turtles, and a chipmunk. All at once.

My next statement will likely annoy some of my readers. Dogs do not belong in a restaurant. Period. They especially do not belong in the booth with you.

What is wrong with this man?

This was the scene that greeted us as we walked into a local deli for a late lunch yesterday. 

When the guy left he carried the dog in his arms like a baby. The whole thing was unnecessary. Just like the people who insist on taking their dogs to Lowes or Home Depot, it is nothing more than a narcissistic shout of “look at me”. 

I will go further, if you cannot face the pressure of going to a restaurant without your pseudo comfort animal I would suggest Door Dash was created just for you. 

I’m torn between just venting here or contacting the Board of Health. After all, it is not the business’s fault the patron is a jerk (he was hidden from the counter). 

If you are this guy, then I hold you in total disdain. But then I’m sure you don’t care what I, or anyone else thinks, you proven that by letting your dog slobber all over a table where the next people might sit to eat. 

Road Trip

It was a nice sunny late summer day yesterday so the wife and I climbed into the Grand Cherokee for a short road trip back to the old hometown. We went to the ice cream stand for tacos. The wife opted for a vanilla Coke while I washed down my food with a diet. Don’t question why the ice cream place has good tacos, they just do. 

We went past the vacant lot that housed my old elementary school. Nothing remains but the crumbling asphalt and gravel where the playground was.  None of that soft rubber matting you find in modern playgrounds. Kids in the sixties were tough, or perhaps we were just hurt far more because safety was never a consideration. 

We played on stuff like this

We didn’t just go around, but also in and out, banging on the center pole in a churning crash. Sure fingers and arms and legs were smashed. Somehow it was fun. So was the merry-go-round that threw us out like a centrifuge and metal slides that seared our flesh on a summer day. 

The wife went to the antique shop she wanted to visit, bought nothing, and we motored home the “scenic” route. It was scenic only in that it was twisty and less travelled than the other state highway we could have chosen. The vista was flat as you imagine Kansas to be (it’s not) and corn and beans and trees dotted with farm houses and occasional double-wide trailers filled the horizon.

As we came back into the north ‘burbs of the metro sprawl we stopped so the wife could window shop a little more then grabbed a bite of supper before arriving back at the homestead in time to watch pre-season football, a baseball game, and a cowboy movie in a display of simultaneous channel flipping remote control dexterity. The wife was upstairs doing whatever she does and missed the fun.

I suspect it was on purpose.

Vintage

Fortunate Son, indeed

Gomer Pyle served in the USMC from 1965 to 1969. 

How did he avoid serving even one tour in the ‘Nam?

Stuff I think

She is one of those dark-haired Alabama girls, a kind of stringy little girl, dark, and, if you look closely, feature by feature, you see that she is not pretty. But her face is so alive all the time time that afterward you would  swear she is pretty.

If you don’t read books by John D. McDonald you should. Not just the Travis McGee ones either.

But Travis is the best. You know he had this on the Busted Flush hi-fi:

If you aren’t appalled than you probably shouldn’t read here anymore

It was a preschool class at the public school. Four and five year-olds. The regular teacher was out, an approved substitute was brought in. 

That day the sub decided to bring in her own books. She ignored the teacher’s lesson plan for that day. Instead, this young lady decided it was good and appropriate to tell little kids about pronouns and transgenderism and that they weren’t boys nor girls but whatever they wanted to be. Then she pulled out the next book and showed explicit pictures of naked bodies and identified all of the body parts. 

To preschoolers. 

These people are sick. Their agenda is destructive. 

Now the teacher and principal and school are left to answer for the actions of one childish, evil twenty-something. 

I’m left wondering what happened to common sense in this world. 

Why stop at Student Loans?

My mortgage is high and consumes a huge chunk of my bi-weekly pay. What say Joe Biden sends me $10 grand to ease my pain? 

I took out the loan, but the rest of you should help me pay it.

I say that as a person who had student loans, who has parent loans, and who has three kids with student loans. 

Asking the American taxpayers to pay off private debts, entered voluntarily, is wrong. 

In case you are clueless, the government ONLY gets money by forcefully taking it from taxpayers. 

Consider that and then feel free to try and convince me this “loan forgiveness “ is a good thing. Besides, where does Biden get the power to change the terms of a legally binding debt?

Intentions

 I had a righteous political rant queued in my head today. I have opted not to. 

Instead I suggest you hug your kids, tell your significant other you love them, and smile at your neighbors. 

We can go back to criticizing the idiocy of others tomorrow. 

The real story of LOST

 Abe and Esther are flying to Australia for a two-week vacation to celebrate their 40th anniversary.

Suddenly, over the public address system, the Captain announces,

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I am afraid I have some very bad news. Our engines have ceased functioning and we will attempt an emergency landing. “

“Luckily, I see an uncharted island below us and we should be able to land on the beach. However, the odds are that we may never be rescued and will have to live on the island for the rest of our lives!”

Thanks to the skill of the flight crew, the plane lands safely on the island.

An hour later Abe turns to his wife and asks,

“Esther, did we pay our $5,000 PBS pledge check yet?”

“No, sweetheart,” she responds.

Abe, still shaken from the crash landing, then asks,

“Esther, did we pay our American Express card yet?”

“Oh, no! I’m sorry. I forgot to send the check,” she says.

“One last thing, Esther. Did you remember to send checks for the Visa and MasterCard this month?” he asks.

“Oh, forgive me, Abie,” begged Esther.

“I didn’t send that one, either.”

Abe grabs her and gives her the biggest kiss in 40 years.

Esther pulls away and asks him,

“What was that for?”

Abe answers,

“They’ll find us!”

weekend Funny

The Democrats just passed an inflation bill that hires 87,000 new IRS agents and I just got audited.

I just received an audit on my tax return for 2021 back from the IRS. It puzzles me!!!
They are questioning how many dependents I claimed.
I guess it was because of my response to the question: "List all dependents?"
I replied: 12 million illegal immigrants; 3 million crack heads;
42 million unemployed people on food stamps,
2 million people in over 243 prisons;
Half of Mexico and 535 persons in the U.S. House and Senate."
1 useless President.
Evidently, this was NOT an acceptable answer.
I KEEP ASKING MYSELF, WHO DID I MISS?

True confession, this is a semi-rerun from 2013.

Baby, you'll come knocking on my front door

The weather has been beautiful this week. Slightly chilly in the mornings and warm and sunny n the afternoon without the excessive humidity we often have. I was sorely tempted to drag the laptop to the back patio to work yesterday afternoon. I didn’t. But I thought about it. 

I just threw some Doughboy orange rolls in the oven for a Friday breakfast treat. The granddaughter helped me put them in the pan. They are a little smashed, but that is OK. 

Have a great Friday

There is no shame.

Has anyone else noticed the media is now referring to the Inflation Reduction Act as the climate change and healthcare bill? 

Even the Democrat bootlickers in the media understand this spending boondoggle will do nothing to help inflation. They are trying to reset the perception and the expectations before the midterms. 

Humpin’ the hump

Liz Cheney lost in a big way in her re-election bid. Once again she is like a lot of politicians in that she thinks she represents Washington DC and not the people of her district. Sucks to be her. The bright side is she is the last vestige of the Bush Cheney cabal. Good riddance. If we could just make the Clintons go away forever...

Cheney likened herself to Abe Lincoln, pointing out he lost elections before becoming President. Liz, you are no Abraham Lincoln. Let me introduce you to another politician with illusions of the Presidency: Eugene Debs. How about William Jennings Bryan? Look, of you lose your primary by more than 30 points, I doubt that foretells a successful run for higher office. If the people who know you best reject you the rest of the country probably will not like you either. 

Remember, the press only likes a Republican if they serve as a useful dope. The media loved John McCain until he ran for President. 

Maybe Cheney can get a gig as the resident pretend conservative on The View. She will immediately double the collective IQ of the panel and her terminal TDS will not be a handicap.

45

 

Frustration

 A husband in his backyard is trying to fly a kite.

He throws the kite up in the air, the wind catches it for a few seconds, then it comes crashing back down to earth.

He tries this a few more times with no success.

All the while, his wife is watching from the kitchen window, Muttering to herself how men need to be told how to do everything.

She opens the window and yells to her husband,

‘You need a piece of tail.’

The man turns with a confused look on his face and says,

‘Make up your mind. Last night, you told me to go fly a kite.’

They were just a few years off back in ‘73

Whoa, this Monday came too quickly. We spent Saturday afternoon at a funeral (plus 2 hours driving time round trip) and yesterday it rained a good portion of the day. Somehow it turned into a wasted weekend. So it goes. 

I read a long opinion piece from an adherent to the global warming religion over the weekend. I won’t link because it was nonsense. The author’s premise was the recently passed inflation reduction act does not go far enough* to address climate change. Of course not, those kooks some people won’t be happy until we are living in caves eating berries. The author says the real climate change culprit is agriculture and the sooner we face it the better. The author opined that the sooner we are “forced off fossil fuels and meat, the better”. Meat is the problem and that over time we will get used to plant based food. 

I saw a movie about that once. It was called Soylent Green. 

That futuristic movie was set in 2022.

Do do dee do...

*what green energy programs have to do with inflation beyond contributing to the problem, I’m not sure. Welcome to our corrupt government.

conflicted

It is said that funerals are for the living. The one we attended yesterday was a case in point. My wife’s ex-brother-in-law passed away earlier this week. As the minister stated “there are a lot of mixed emotions here today”. I can say for my case I wasn’t there for the deceased and I can state irrevocably my wife wasn’t. We were there for her sister and niece.

It was good to see my wife’s family. As for the deceased, my mother told me not to speak ill of the dead. I guess I already have. He died with no family outside of an ex-wife who stayed married to him way too long and an estranged daughter who only reconnected after he got sick and had no one else to call. 

What abuses he piled on his family in the years before his divorce I am sure I only know the surface. 

But I knew his secrets. 

As I said, I was there for the living. 

I said a prayer for him. I’m not sure I meant it. For that I ask forgiveness.

He was a Vietnam vet. I appreciate his service. 

when Hell freezes

When gas was at its peak in June, Biden blamed greedy gas station owners. Not that gas prices have dropped slightly, I have no doubt a big thanks for not being so greedy message to be forthcoming.

I glad I’m a man and so is Lola

 This canned post was originally published Tuesday. I moved it to state my disgust with the modern American Stasi. I’m half afraid to publish anything political. Tell me I’m wrong.

If you have a Democrat for one of your Senators, you can rest comfortably knowing your Senator refuses to acknowledge that only females can get pregnant. Every Democrat senator voted that way Saturday. 

EVERY ONE.

These are the same people who are always telling us to follow the science. 

Sorry, if you tell me in the same breath that climate change is a direct threat to my existence and that a man can have a baby, I’d say I don’t believe anything you tell me.

Since it is Friday why not a little music to emphasize the point?

on the news

I think it is clear AG Garland thinks he got skipped for that SCOTUS gig and clearly blames Trump for not nominating him.

Partisan hack.

Posturing

Drug giant Eli Lilly has publicly castigated the State of Indiana for daring to follow the will of its voters and passing abortion legislation. I guess they want more baby killing. Of course the statement failed to mention the new law is not drastically different than what was the standard under Roe v Wade. It was all about sending signals to stockholders and a select group of women. No company wants protesters outside the gates, and let’s be honest, who is more likely to rant and shout and go into hysterics, pro abortion groups or anti? 

Mostly, the statement was just fluff. As indicated yesterday*, companies exist to make money. Period. There is no chance Lilly will pack up their HQ on Indy’s near south side and move off to high-tax Illinois or New Jersey no matter how welcoming those governors are, nor how free and easy it is to kill babies right up to the point of birth, as long as it is more business friendly right here in backward Hoosierdom. 

None. Ask Boeing and Cat why they left Illinois. 

Similarly, if Eli Lilly offered a nice wage and benefits package, few potential employees are going to refuse the job because they can only get an abortion prior to ten weeks in Indiana instead of 15 somewhere else. I am willing to bet that abortion falls far below the other considerations like community, property costs, commutes, and job satisfaction. 

Look, I get there are reasons not to move to the Midwest. No mountains or beaches and the crappy weather are just a few. I doubt abortion law is a deal breaker 99.999999999% of the time. 

* I know TL/DR

Once again into the breach

The new “lower inflation by spending” bill just passed will do anything but lower inflation. One of the core aspects of the bill is raising Corporate taxes. And that my friends, will go straight to higher prices for you and me and our neighbors. 

How is that says you? Because corporations do not pay taxes. Let me elaborate by actually quoting...myself. Here is an excerpt from a post I wrote way back in 2008:

Let us say you own a business. If it makes you more comfortable it can be a commune or a small company that makes environmentally-friendly organic tiny little vases that allows you to keep fresh flowers in your hair when you visit San Francisco. You decide that it costs you a certain amount to buy the raw materials. It costs you to hire workers. You need to pay for office and manufacturing space. You need to pay for advertising and marketing. Even 'green' packaging has a cost. Electricity and solar panels and wind power have to be purchased and maintained. . If you take all of the items I outlined and add them together you have COST. Hopefully you sell your little hippy vases for more than cost. You might want to actually make a little money yourself. This is called profit. It is not evil. The difference between selling price and cost is profit. The percentage of cost compared to selling price is called profit margin.

If it costs you ninety cents to make the vases and you sell it for $1.00 you have a ten percent profit margin. If it costs $0.93 to make the vases and you sell them for $1.00 you will have a 7% profit margin. If you sell 1,000 vases you will make $70. If you make $700,000 you will have sold 10,000,000 little hippy flower vases. Your profit margin is still 7%. Your profits increased 999,900%. Your margin remained the same. Did you gouge anyone? Did you have windfall profits? Should we now consider you evil Big Vase? I have probably lost you hippy liberal types here. Look up the profit margin of evil Big Oil after you are done here.

Back to your little, but growing hippy vase manufacturing company. You are cruising along making hot hippy chicks happy because they can put flowers in their hair when they go to San Francisco. Suddenly, you get a bill in the mail from the Government. You owe TAXES. These include payroll taxes, permit fees, waste fees, property taxes, warehouse taxes, income taxes, etc. etc. You divide the taxes you owe by the number of hippy vases you make and discover the taxes equal $0.10 for every vase you make. You are only making $0.07 per vase, so the extra ten cents means you will lose three cents for every hippy vase you sell after you pay the taxes. If you sell 10,000,000 vases you will lose $300,000! Your only recourse is to raise prices. To keep the same 7% profit you made last year (and you really wanted to make a little more to get that new hybrid car)your new price for hippy flower vases is now $1.07 each. Some hot hippy chicks are going to have to pay just a bit more to put fresh flowers in their hair when they go to San Francisco.

Are still with me here, my Liberal Friends? What happens if the Government raises taxes on your business again? That is right, you will have to raise your prices more (please tell me I do not have to go through the math again). Thus, raising taxes on businesses equals higher prices for the consumer -- even hot hippy chicks who just want to put flowers in their hair if they go to San Francisco.

Hey guess what? The business did not really pay the taxes to the Government. The initial .10 per vase was rolled into the selling price and subsequent tax increases were too! Businesses really do not pay taxes.

lefties cannot change their tyrannical nature

We now indeed live in a Banana Republic

This tinfoil hat gets a little warm in the midday sun

The Senate passed the massive tax hike and green energy bill over the weekend. I hope you feel good about dumping another $80 billion into the IRS, half of which will go to enhanced enforcement. We know from the last Democrat President what that probably means — going after conservatives and political enemies. Obama did it without consequences. 

On the other hand The Most Popular President Ever has screwed up everything else so why not the IRS. 

Maybe they are going to use all of those new agents to go collect taxes from the flood of illegals who are crossing the uncontrolled border and the employers who hire them? Sure, that will happen the day after People Magazine puts me on the cover of the world’s sexiest man issue.

The FBI has determined anyone who supports the 2nd Amendment, flies the Betsy Ross flag or has a “Don’t tread on me” sticker on their bumper is a potential right wing terrorist, so you judge who this administration views as people to investigate. I don’t think all that money and tens of thousands of rounds of ammo the IRS bought are going to be used to man the 1-800 tax help hotline. 

Anything

I just don’t feel like posting anything today.

I did anyway. 

Keep the Faith

Periodically Audible gives up free trials. You can grab a free “book on tape “ to listen on your device. This month I signed up yet again, so I got a free book. I chose Flight of the Intruder by Stephen Coonts. I have read the book many times. I believe that novel and its sequel The intruders are possibly the best military novels ever written, certainly near the top on any list. The tales of Jake Grafton entertained me on my quick day trip trip to Chicago his week.

I could have used my credit to purchase just about any new book out there. I certainly should have grabbed something I haven’t read multiple times already. But I didn’t and I am more than happy to ride the catapult with my old novel friends again. 

I finished off listening to the book while sitting on the patio doing nothing but watching the birds and bunnies and squirrels cavort in my backyard yesterday evening. When it was done I grabbed my kindle and re-downloaded The Intruders, even though I just reread it last fall. 

Maybe I’ll finish it, maybe not. It doesn’t matter. I am still in the middle of Barbara Tuchman’s The Proud Tower, her masterpiece detailing the pre-WWI years and the turn of the century. I also just scored a $2 deal of the day on a new Doc Ford novel. Life is good. There is always something to read.

just shut up already

Attention Global Climate Alarmists, you need to shut up for the next ten years. I don’t want to hear anymore about my refusal to get an electric car, chucking fossil fuels, or man made climate change. 

When it comes to changing climate we are pikers. Mother Nature controls the climate.

It normally takes around 2-3 years for sulfate aerosols from volcanoes to fall out of the stratosphere. But the water from the Jan. 15 eruption could take 5-10 years to fully dissipate.

’Nuff said.

 

Facepalm Thursday

I don’t know if it is hypocritical or not. I have been dabbling in social media with this blog for more than a decade and a half. But it is hobby. What I read on blogs I take with a grain of salt. That said, if you are getting your news and life advice from TikTok you are a blithering idiot. 

The pump was playing a warning when I filled up over the weekend that no matter what TikTok says, do not pour Coke in to your gas tank. Are people really that dumb? 

Would you believe me if I told you not to use Coke because it contains corn syrup. Sugar is where the energy is. Put sugar in your gas tank. Think what a Snickers or handful of Cap’n Crunch does to your kids’ energy level. A few sugar cubes will really boost your car.  

Do not put sugar in your gas tank. 

Did you TikTokers ever think that people will tell you anything? Some hucksters are very convincing. 

I watched a video this morning of a woke teacher trying to figure out what to do because one of her students decided their pronouns are rock and banana. Kudos to the kid. But why oh why is this teacher asking the genpop for advice? Didn’t anyone ever explain to her that people are basically stupid? 

Or should we point out the utter ignorance of the woman who asked on twitter if she should fear for her life to drive her car with New York plates through red states like Kentucky or Texas? How do these people even function? Do they make Granimals for adults? Do they drink their wine from sippy  cups? Do they have notes pinned to their jackets in case they get lost coming home from the store?

I’m willing to bet piercings and purple hair are in the picture. 

Too many people have become Bubble Boy — encased in a self-made bubble of social media but just as isolated as the boy inside his plastic container.

For goodness sake put down your phone, shut off the computer, close the iPad. Get a life. Do not get your news from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok. Go talk to people. Go outside. 

After you read my blog each day. 

Senseless

Over the weekend a man was pulled over in a routine traffic stop. The stop turned instantly deadly. The suspect exited his car and shot the cop multiple times before he could even get out of his car. After a dangerous chase, the murderer was finally caught. The “alleged” perp has a long criminal history. He had previously vowed to kill law enforcement. 

I ask you, if the police had shot down the suspect, what would be the reaction from the perpetually  aggrieved crowd? I should add some vital information before you answer. The cop was white. The suspect was black. 

We all know there would be press conferences, possibly protests. Likely riots. Celebrities like LaBron James would tell us how oppressed he is. 

White cop shot — crickets. The prosecutor has filed murder charges. Where are the feds? Why aren’t there added hate crime charges? The suspect has a history of black nationalism posts. 

Just asking. 

So dumb

 A lion and his wife lived in a cave, and every day there was this fox who would come sit in front of the cave and start making fun of the lion and teasing him:

“You call yourself a king? You’re nothing but a p**sy who’s afraid of his own shadow. If you’re a real lion come out here and fight me! Oh, you think you’re so fierce, you sissy!”.

The lion’s wife would get so annoyed

“Why are you letting him get away with this? If you’re not gonna do something about this, I WILL!”,

And the lion would say

“Just ignore him, he’s a freaking fox, he’s not worth it, just let it go”.

One day, she felt that she couldn’t take it anymore, and decided to handle the situation by herself.

She came out of the cave and started running after the fox.

The fox ran and ran, but the lioness was close on his heel. He entered a pipe and got out on the other end.

When she tried to get in, she got stuck, so the fox came from behind and f**k*d her in the a**.

The lioness went back to the cave, angry and frustrated.

The lion looked at her and said:

“So… He took you to the pipe didn’t he..”

Strange Days

I sometimes wonder if the evil live AI controlling my iPhone possesses a sense of irony. I was listening to my music on shuffle while mowing yesterday. Barry Sadler’s homage to the military played:

Right after was a song with a message completely opposite:

It was well worth your subscription price to read the content around here the past few days, I wager.