Death, Destruction, Demons and Wooden Hands

Today is April 30.

Click on this link and then this link for a little historical side trip. Not only will you harken back to the earliest days of this blog, you will get a little "this date in history" .lesson -- all for the steep admission price of "free".

Look, it is flatter than the ice on an NHL playing surface around here.  There is no "inspiration point" where I can look out of picaresque vistas and let nature begin the beguine with my imagination. You will get a rerun from years ago and like it. Just wipe away that mold and it will be as good as new...

Blase

Bored, apathetic, jaded, disenchanted, indifferent, uninterested, weary, glutted, fed-up -- it is the old ennui writ large.

Childish

While driving through a subdivision yesterday I flipped a guy the bird. He was working in his yard, rolling a hose. He looked up just as I showed him my opinion. I bet he is still wondering what it was all about. Now that perplexed hombre has a story to tell his mates at work today.

I am giving like that.

OK, it was not a random guy, 

I bet he is still wondering why an unsmiling old guy flipped him the middle finger on a cloudy Sunday afternoon.

My wife was appalled at my behavior. It is not the first time.

For my eyes only

My current desktop background is a picture of my wife. I took it on our recent vacation. She is standing on the deck of a sailboat. We had just finished snorkeling. Her hair is wet and slicked back. She is not wearing her glasses. Her makeup has been washed away by the warm salty waters of the Caribbean near Buck Island.

The picture is a close up, I suppose it is not the most flattering picture of her, but it is one of my favorites. It shows her in a moment of pure and complete happiness.  Her smile is not for the camera, but a reflection of life in that one instant in time. Her beauty shines through. The impossible blue tropical seas in the background are a sharp contrast to the pink of her barely visible swimsuit top. You can see the faint and tiny wrinkles around her eyes, and the freckles on her cheeks and chest and shoulders.

I love the picture because it is not staged -- it is barely posed -- and it looks just like my wife. If the picture was in a Harry Potter movie, it would laugh at any second.

I smile every time I look at it.

Friday Music updated George Jones edition

George is gone now too.

Here is his greatest song -- the quintessential drinking tune.

RIP George.

Hitting Potholes

The title of this post is not a metaphor. It could be, but it is not.

Coming back from a customer visit Thursday I hit a pot hole.  A big one.  I hit it hard. My wheel cover flew by my driver's side window in a slow-motion scene almost reminiscent of the Wicked Witch flying by Dorothy Gale's bedroom window. I saw it roll across the highway in my mirror as I braked to a stop on the side of the road.

I pulled on my jacket to protect me from the Illinois wind and chill and trudged 50 yards up the highway to find my wheel cover.  It was rested broken and cracked in the gravel and mud beside the road. With a sigh I threw it in the trunk.I don't know why, it is unusable. I guess that despite my reputation as an inveterate hater of the environment, I don't like to leave my trash beside the highway,

 I bent to examine the wheel. The tire seemed fine; no flat.  That is good, the tire is less than a month old. The edge of the rim was bent, but not enough to lose the seal on the tire. I drove slowing down the highway a few miles and stopped to check the air pressure again.  It was a steady 30 psi.

I will head out today to see what a new wheel cover and rim are going to cost. I will try find a used rim somewhere, This is not how I planned on spending my Friday.

Friday Covers

The Police doing a live version of their original



I heard this John Mayer version on the radio the other day. Despite the fact I am not a huge fan of this tune in general, I really like this version. You have to skip the ad.



A Machine Head cover for you Metal fans.

Delayed Gratification

A few weeks ago the wife found a house for sale she liked.  By coincidence, they were having an open house that weekend. We went. We looked.  We loved the place. It was a bit bigger than we need at our stage in life, but it was as close to a dream house as we could get in our price range.

I called the mortgage company to see if we could make it happen financially. We scheduled another visit to the house. We liked it even better.

I spent a few days traveling on business. The wife wanted to look at some other houses, because that is the way she shops. Compare, contrast, compare again -- then think about it for a long time before you repeat the whole compare thing. That is just the way things are and after almost 30 years of marriage I know her decision making process is not going to change.

We got a pre-approval letter from the mortgage company  and finally made an offer.  So did another party. The sellers came back and said, "give my your best offer".. We upped the ante a bit. We offered the asking price.

We live in a small town and through the grapevine we learned the sellers were showing the house again Monday evening -- after they looked at the offers from the two they already had on the table. A third party offered more than the asking price and we lost out on the house. I have no doubt the sellers told the people viewing the house what they needed to offer to get the property. No one offers more than the asking price without a hint or two.

My wife cried.

I know what happened, but I cannot prove it.

The fatalist in me opines that it was just not meant to be. The realistic me is more than a little disappointed.

Condolences to my Liberal Friends

I know.

I understand your frustration.

First, the Senate fails to pass any kind of gun control at all. Then, a couple of terrorists set off some bombs and we discover the Marathon Bomber Brothers are mere religious fanatics (read Muslim) instead of home-grown, Tea Party, Hitler's Birthday, Tim McVeigh, Branch Davidian Tax Protester middle aged-white guys.

Sometimes life is just not fair. What else could go wrong? The next thing you know another "green" car company will go bankrupt, or there could be a growing "consensus" that global warming is a failed theory.

Dandelion Dreams

It is simply amazing what a little sunshine, a bit of warm southern breeze, and a few inches of rain can do. Ten days ago the trees around here were bare branches waving in the wind.  Today, they are sporting leaves.  The grass is a vivid emerald green so bright Ireland is jealous.

The lilies in the front flower garden have grown 6 inches in an equal number of days, and will begin sporting blooms in a week or two. But in all, most of the perennials and big grasses in my yard are behind schedule by at least a month due to the lingering winter. My daffodils should have bloomed in late March, not this week. Temperatures, while warmer, are still cool for late April.  It spit snow on Friday! Still, I think Spring has finally pried the icy fingers of winter from our collective throats. I suspect we are in for a wet and wild May and June, followed by a long, hot, dry summer.

I can live with that.

I spent my Earth Day mowing the lawn and pulling weeds after a long day of boring paperwork. To reward myself for a job well done, I puffed away on a fine hand-rolled stogie in the garage before supper. 

We are going to need a bigger Shop-Vac

The Mid-west has been walloped over the past week or so with lots of rain falling fast. Flooding is the result.

If flood waters were coming under your door, would you concentrate your efforts on cleaning up the mess in your kitchen and living room, or would you find a way to barricade your door to keep the water out first?

Our politicians would somehow have you believe that fixing the immigration problem lies in addressing the illegals already here, and worrying about stopping the incoming flood later.

I maintain our elected representatives have no common sense. I do not care how many towels you throw down, your carpet is still getting wet if you do not stop the water from coming in. And there is no immigration fix without closing the borders.

Block the door with sandbags and stop the incoming water, then clean up the mess. Close the border and then figure out how to clean up the immigration mess.

Sunday Muisc

Let us mellow out to a little Frank on this sunny and chilly Sunday morning.

I can't help thinking

I am glad the second Boston terrorist has been captured.

As I watched the home video of the capture last night I cannot help thinking the Boston Police must be among the worst shots in the country if the hundreds of rounds fired did not bring the suspect to room temperature immediately.

More stuff to think about

In the wake of the Newtown and Colorado shootings some have taken the position we need to look hard at the Second Amendment. We need to ask if private citizens really need guns. In fact, Connecticut and New York have put in place laws that will certainly bring about lawsuits that argue Second Amendment questions.

If the Boston Terrorists prove to be motivated by their religion what then? After all, the 9/11 attacks were carried out by religious fanatics.. So was the ill-fated attempts by the shoe bomber, the underwear bomber and the Times Square bomber. Will those who argue we must limit our Constitutional Freedom to possess firearms for the public good also argue we must limit our Constitutional Freedom of Religion for the public good? Should we be taking a hard look at the First Amendment?

Of course, I am not advocating for a limit on our First Amendment Rights, I am just asking what is the difference?

Just a coincidence

It appears the two brothers sought in the Boston Marathon Bombing are Chechen and Muslim. I am sure religion had nothing to do with the acts of terror. I also have a mountain cabin located in central Indiana for sale.

The good news is one brother is now facing eternal judgement.  I hope the other brother dies from rapid injection lead poisoning too. And soon.


Chris Mathews and the liberals who blamed right-wingers will apologize in 3...2...1...

update: According to a radio report, Dana Bash of CNN actually said even though the brothers were Chechen Muslims, they still could be affiliated with the Tea Party or other Right Wing Groups. I am trying to find verification. Clearly there is no media bias at CNN (insert sarcasm font).

Self examination

Unspeakable acts that dominate the news occasionally makes us take a look at our own morals and values. The shootings in Colorado and Connecticut has forced people across the nation to look at their guns, their rights and how the culture of violence affects common citizens. While the gun control measures proposed in Congress have failed to pass, the efforts have spurred us to look at our Constitution and individual belief systems. For the first time in almost 30 years of marriage, my wife and I had a real discussion and debate about guns and their role in society.  I am sure such conversations have taken place across the land.

This dialogue is a good thing.

By the same token, are liberals having an honest look at their own beliefs and values when it comes to abortion? The Gosnell case in Philadelphia displays in gory detail the dark side of abortions. The public picture abortion supporters want to display is of a poor teen girl, or a rape victim opting for abortion as the best option in a long list of bad outcomes. We are reminded that abortions are performed to save the life of a pregnant woman facing certain death if the baby is carried to term. Abortion is disguised as "women's health", because who wants to think about such measures as baby killing?

Do you supporters of abortion look at the details of the Gosnell practice and wonder if killing live babies by 'snipping' their spinal cord meets with your definition of "choice"? Does the evidence of late term, partial birth and botched abortions make you question your unhesitating support of universal abortion?

Do the grisly details of abortion in America make you queasy? Do you ask your self if your beliefs are right and correct? Wouldn't that discussion be good for America?

Whaaa

Did we throw a wittle temper tantwum?

The Shot Heard 'Round the World

Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

Lexington Green

He said to his friend, "If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,--
One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm."

[...]

You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the British Regulars fired and fled,---
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
>From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.

So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,---
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.
-

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I bought an unlicensed 6203ZZ yesterday..

It is clear we need to ban ball bearings.

Now.

For the children.

No one needs ball bearings.

Unless you need to eliminate friction from a rotating shaft, but still...

Perhaps we can register ball bearings and put a limit on the number anyone can buy?

Too soon? The President called for a ban on guns 24 hours after a nutjob shot little kids in Newtown. The ball bearings were as responsible for the murders in Boston as the guns in Connecticut.

On Hardball

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Let me ask you about domestic terrorism as a category. Normally, domestic terrorists, people tend to be on the far right, well that’s not a good category, just extremists, let’s call them that. Do they advertise after they do something like this? Do they try to get credit as a group or do they just hate America so much or its politics or its government that they just want to do the damage, they don't care if they get public credit, if you will?

MICHAEL LEITER: What we'll see over the coming couple hours and days is lots of people taking credit for this. We'll probably have al-Qaeda take credit for it. We'll have domestic terrorists take credit for it. And it will be the responsibility of the FBI and the Boston police to figure out if any of those are actually real cases like Timothy McVeigh destroying the Oklahoma City courthouse federal building; no one took credit for that. So it might be some time or never that someone actually takes credit for this. Lots of people will say they were responsible for it.

MATTHEWS: I was just thinking, again, it's early; it's an early situation, but going after the Kennedy Library, not something at Bunker Hill, not something from the freedom trail or anything that kind of historic, but a modern political figure of the Democratic Party. Does that tell you anything? link

What say we take a look at the scorecard over the the past 50 years? Leading the pack is foreign terrorists at least in damage and bodies. If we look at the raw number of attacks, the left-wing groups from the 1960's and 1970's are the clear victors.  As for right-wing terrorists, you have Timothy McVey.

Here is a listing. if you look back over the past 100 years the leftists have committed more acts of terror than Muslims, Right-wingers, and just plain crazy combined.

Why would anyone watch this duchebag, Chris Matthews?  His credibility is zero.Matthews clearly lacks a fundamental understanding of history.  He is blinded by his leftist political beliefs. Matthews does not even have the good grace to apologize to the 50% of Americans he slanders on a routine basis.