Talking out of turn

Somebody wrote a post about the current crisis developing over the situation in Syria.
In my considerable lifetime I have observed Syria and come to the conclusion it is one of the most belligerent countries (after N. Korea) on the face of the Earth.

There is a strong possibility that, if we are expecting the leaders of the Powers the Be to do something, they will look for a consensus and whatever is done will be too little, too late, and there will be much regret in the end.
The current leaders are what we have left after the people who are most qualified decided they don't need the grief one must go through to be elected leader.

Much, if not all of the strife, the despair, the hate and discontent in Syria, and other parts of the Middle East and parts of South Asia could have been avoided if nobody had meddled there in the first place.
There is also that religion thing over there that somehow rewards intolerance of other beliefs.
It seems our leaders (meaning the West) can't perceive anything from anywhere but their own point of view.
So they will never understand how those we are intent on creating nations for don't see things the same way.
I think our leaders need to be reminded those folks were there and even a little civilized long before we stopped being tribal ourselves.

So, what do I think we should do?
Well, it might help to just keep it from spreading outside of the current bounds.
Like fighting a wildfire.
Keep it contained.
That may not be the most humanitarian thing for the innocents involved.
But it could help in the long run to keep more innocents from becoming victims.
We can always send a CARE package.

I honestly don't trust any of the world leaders to make a right decision.
  

Road rage

WT...!
I was driving down the expressway
It's kind of like a highway, only there are signals space just far enough apart that you can't maintain anything like a steady speed
I'll take that back
if all of the clowns on the road in front of you are doing 10 mph less than the speed limit, you have to maintain something like a steady speed while you remember every curse word you've ever heard
Anyhow, I was driving along behind this big late model Dodge dually
That's a one-ton pickup to the uninitiated

not the actual vehicle

This clown slowed down for every signal we approached
I mean he slowed way down... from 55 to 15 mph
There was one care between his truck and me
About the third time he slowed I rolled down the window and yelled at the top of my lungs, "IT'S GREEN!!!"
That didn't affect him at all, but I felt much better
So I did it for the next four miles, until he finally came to a full stop at a green light before making a right turn.
I  noticed, as he made his turn, there was a handicap sticker on his license plate

Wow... that was refreshing

The Internet went on hiatus right after I posted the other day
So I did, too
I'm gonna do it again...

...right now

Meanwhile, whatever you do, don't click on this link

"Say what"

So... just this morning I figured out what's wrong with the public's impression of the U.S. Criminal justice system
There was TV tuned to a program called “And Justice For All”
It was obvious to me that the purpose of this show has very little to do with justice and much to do with entertainment
It is one of those courts people go to when they are too stupid to figure out the consequences of their own action and have to have someone else straighten out their mess
When this is what the general public sees as how courts work it creates a false impression of what justice is
On TV it's about revenge

How long's this been goin' on

I looked at the whatsit page
Where the statistical stuff and nuts & bolts of the blog are kept
Suddenly the numbers of pageviews are up by about 50%
I'm thinking it was that little exercise I did last month, corresponding letters of the alphabet with blog posts
I also notice I have a bunch more followers on the sidebar
I'm sorry
I think you may be disappointed
That may not be until after I have completed the current exercise
Today's post is not a part of that
Most bloggers do responses to those awards in one continuous post
I'm not prone to following rules unless I've made them
I also try to watch my language
We'll get back to answering questions tomorrow

BTW - uncle Skip stole a graphic from my sidebar the other day on Friday

Go read it

What would you do...

There was a humongous lottery jackpot last week
That is it was humongous for those who had access to purchase tickets for that lottery
Are there any states not running a ripoff for their citizens now?
How many lotteries are actually accomplishing what it was explained to the voters who approved them they are intended for?
I mean here in California they're supposed to fund infrastructure for education
Supposedly the funds would be in addition to funds already being spent
They're not
The only folks who benefit are the ones running the lottery
You don't really believe the winners benefit ...do you?
Well, maybe Suldog and HIS WIFE are entertained when they play scratch-off tickets
If a big winner was allowed to remain anonymous, they might benefit to some extent if they're able to keep from going overboard
What would you do if you won a big jackpot?
I'm almost guaranteed I won't...
... I don't buy tickets

Son of a ...

What the heck
I gotta get me a rocket launcher for my car
I was out this morning, running an errand
So on the way home I proceeded onto the on ramp for the Interstate
There were two care ahead of me
The first car accelerated all the way to 40mph by the time it entered the highway, forcing the vehicles on the highway to either brake or shift to the left
I won't even tell you the words going through my mind at the time
I imagine the car in between was having similar thoughts

Then the assweasel accelerated such that the vehicles which had shifted to the left could not get back into the right hand lane for the next exit

I hope his mother bites him when he gets home

On to the next thing

Okay, we had the moment of silence that I think was entirely appropriate ...if a little late

Now let's concern ourselves with what the NCAA Commissioner's done
First off, I in no way, shape, or form condone any of what happened at Penn State
But, to my way of thinking, it appears the claw end of a framing hammer has been used to nail down the situation
An excavator's been used instead of a hand trowel

The culture of the NCAA Large Schools created the environment where this situation arose and the school's administrators stuck their heads in the sand to protect themselves so they could seek the prize

The prize is the National Championship, the opportunity to play in the BCS ...the freakin' money

So who's really being punished by the NCAA? Not the folks who're responsible

Mostly it's the young folks who bust their tails and help make the money the schools are coveting
Oh sure, they can transfer without penalty
Who're they kidding?
Is the NCAA making room for those kids on other campuses?

I ultimately blame the NCAA because they hijacked the fun the students were having to make money for the schools

The NCAA is embarrassed so they coerce a school, which richly deserved some punishment, into accepting a terrible fate from which it may never recover

Are they going to investigate to see if any similar incidents occurred at any other schools? No, they're gonna hope that if it did happen, nobody'll step forward and report it

Are they gonna eliminate the incentives that make such cover up attempts tempting? No, they're gonna increase the number of BCS games

Effin hypocrites
Just remember when you point a finger at someone, there are three more pointing back at you
So ask, "What's my part in this?" Then act appropriately

I am really tired of this [expletive deleted]

I'm getting really jaded.
How do I know this?
Look at the previous post.
I don't usually take cheap shots like that, particularly since I know how numbers can be manipulated to show almost anything.

The real problem is us.
Far too many of us have come to expect the government to take care of problems for us, forgetting that the government is us.

Anyway, I'm gonna take a break from this active blogging and just do the stealth stuff (that's post the odd comment here or there). That way I may just get back to feeling like myself again (I almost said "normal").

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My comment yesterday (on the Timmy post), that I do this mostly for the laughs, was almost right. Thinking about it a little more, the realization is it's done to see if there will be a reaction.
This all started because I liked being able to comment on other blogs using an alias. Then Carolina called me out.
There are some of you who know who I am. Your secrets are safe with me as long as mine is safe with you.
There's a real irony about this post. I only just now re-discovered that it was two years ago the day before yesterday that I started this blog.
The most fun I have is hiding stuff in plain sight (like in the sidebar, header, or footer).

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I almost posted a really bad joke.

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My filter hasn't been working too well lately. So some of those thoughts that float around between my ears have actually found their way past my lips or through the keyboard. Once they are pas the lips there is no calling them back. Fortunately the keyboard requires extra steps to those thoughts don't always make into public.

On another note, even with the lack of activity here at the end of this month, we may have a thousand pageviews by 5:00pm local time. We only need seven more.

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Glitch

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For some darn reason, which probably has a reasonable explanation, none of the posts I had in the queue made their appearance whilst I was off frolicking in the hinterlands.
So now, dear readers, you know one of my little secrets.

Oh, well!

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About that last post

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So I mentioned that school's started.
That means there are school buses all over town all day. That's because there are two high schools, one middle school, and three grammar schools [which I wanna know why they call them grammar schools, because they sure don't learn much about grammar... or at least it doesn't take].
I've figured out that I have to allow an extra ten minutes to go almost anywhere because of the delays created by those buses stopping at places where they cannot be passed.

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Curious

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There's a post on this blog that probably has more page views (over 725) than all of the other posts combined. Well, that may be a slight exaggeration. That's not what this is about anyway.
What I want to know is why the stats tab is telling me that those pageviews are since May 2009?
I didn't start this thing until November of that year.
The real irony is that fully a third of those views have been in the last month.
What I've been able to extrapolate from the information available is nobody is looking at the current stuff.

I'm not going to tempt fate by asking why.

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Click the links

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So it looks like Mother Nature is unleashing her fury over on the other side of the country. First there was that li'l shakeup* that had folks near the capital changing their underwear. Now, she's sending a major in that direction, wreaking havoc along the way.

I like to think of Mother Nature as a benevolent entity. She does, after all, have some really superior qualities. It really too bad that she has to remind us occasionally just who's in control.


*Trust me it wasn't no big deal. I've seen and felt what the real things do (1971, 1989, 1994).

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R

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it's shorthand for are.
As in: R U kiddin' me?
I almost forgot to write a post for R!

Inadequacy

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am I good enough?

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F is for

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Feceration

Don't bother to look it up. It has only just now been coined. Just think about spreading something really, really stinky around and you'll know what feceration is. Coprophiliacs seek it.

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Why I don't forward emails and other rants

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If I think something someone sends me is worth someone's time, you will find it posted here.
I stopped forwarding emails awhile back because, despite my request that others do a little housekeeping, they were being sent as a FW: fw; fw; fw-, including all of the previous addressees and senders, and being sent in the open, rather than as blind copy.
Oh, and I was receiving about two-thirds of them via return email in less than a day.

Then there's the stuff that's ALL CAPS.
What is it with some people? Don't they realize that email etiquette applies to everyone?

Also, not even dealing with the Internet, what is it with people who have to go against traffic in stores? Fer chrissakes, you drive down the road on the left right side*... I hope... why do you push your frackin' cart down the left side of the store aisle?
Oh! While you're at it, if you stop for a cell phone call in the store, take it in an out of the way corner. Don't stop and block the aisle.

I saw a fool driving down a four lane street the other day. How do I know he was a fool? It is because he was managing to use up enough of each lane in his direction that nobody could get by even though he was traveling at about 20 MPH in a 40 MPH zone.
BTW- fool is not the word I used to first describe him. Moron was my first choice. Then I determined that I was insulting marginalizing morons.

I am gonna quit digging now, before the hole gets any deeper.

*left and right have always been an issue for me
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School Days

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I only have a vague recollection of how it came about. The three of us, Mel, Bugs, and I, became the sole members of an exclusive club in junior high.
Back in those days all of the cool guys wore Levi's. Back in those days there was only one style of Levi's. We didn't know from 501s, but that's what they were. There were a couple of other things about those Levi's, too. They didn't get washed. They could stand up by themselves. They were always worn with a white tee shirt tucked in. They were worn as low on the butt as possible. Oh, yeah we were so cool.
It started out one morning at recess. Someone pantsed somebody else. It was easy enough. The darn things already had a good start towards the ankles. This event was observed by someone else who, in turn pantsed another. It was almost an epidemic. Then as suddenly as it started, it ceased. The very next morning, Bugs (don't call him Bugsy) started it off by pantsing Mel, whose Levi's were so loose Bugs almost lost his balance. I was just standing almost minding my own business, but I laughed. In fact I laughed a lot. Mel came up swinging after he'd regained altitude on his britches.
This was all observed by Mrs. Doberman, the part-time Vice Principal. She spent part time at our school and part time at the other junior high in the district. When she wasn't here Mr. Whiney, who was okay, was at the school.
Mel's swing had found its target. It landed dead center in the middle of my face, attempting to flatten my nose. The pain was tremendous, but there was no other damage. Maybe if there's been blood I might have gotten sympathy.
Mrs. Doberman escorted the three of us to The Office, where we were told to sit and wait while our fates were determined by the Principal, whose name escapes me. I only remember that he was the tallest person I'd ever met up to that time. I also remember that I was glad my fate wasn't in the hands of the weasily little Napoleon who'd been principal at the elementary school. The Principal conferred with Mrs. Doberman and our respective teachers for what seemed like hours, but couldn't have been more than minutes because recess hadn't ended yet. Finally, they came out of his office and we were sent in. We stood in front of his desk. He stood behind it, his head seemingly almost touching the ceiling. He stared at each of us in turn, first Mel, then me, finally Bugs, and then pronounced the sentence. Every day for the rest of the school year, we were to report to the office at the beginning of each recess and lunch period and stay until such time as we were released from custody by whoever had the duty that day. The only exception was we were allowed to go to the restroom, one at a time.
The three of us became pretty good friends, which, because we were in different classrooms, probably would not have happened.
Oh! And somehow none of our parents were ever informed.

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