Friday, December 31, 2010

Blogging Suffering Due To Government Red Tape

Words Suitable For Public Consumption Few And Far Between...


Sorry for the lack of posting this week, but...

I have a good excuse, and it comes in the form of a question...

Anybody out there but me already totally PISSED OFF from having to fool around with "end of the year" financial issues i.e. tax bullshit?

I swear the agony of opening the mail and anticipating filling out forms makes me want to pull what hair is left out of my ever greying, ever balding head.

State Corporate Registration.

State Sales and Use Tax.

County Business license.

State Corporate Income Tax.

Federal Corporate Income Tax.

Would someone tell me where there is supposed to be time left to actually MAKE SOME MONEY in this process for the next couple of months?

Hello...

I'm listening?

OK...time to get back under the pile of files and continue calculating...

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Let It Snow (And Snow And SNOW)

White Christmas Gone Awry...


After a nice Christmas spent with some of Pat's family at my Mom's place in Lower Alabama, we decided to extend our return trip into two segments stopping again in Atlanta and completing the final leg to Knoxtown Monday afternoon.

We had flurries on and off since yesterday in Alabama and then drove into a two inch coating today in Georgia.

Rumors from our Knoxtown Neighbors indicate they had between four and six inches in our neighborhood and we were concerned about road conditions.

Hopefully the Georgia and Tennessee DOT troops will have gotten de-icing materials down and traffic will have run over things enough to make travel safe by then.

I have a busy week ahead and some more work to do here on the computer thus I'm to call it a day regarding blogging for now.

Wish us a safe journey and until next time...Regards Y'all...

Saturday, December 25, 2010

WHAT CHRISTMAS ISN'T ABOUT

Well...You Know






Thanks for the link Rodger

Friday, December 24, 2010

Christmas Humor

I Can't Resist...


I think I used this one last year but I still love it...




And I found this one online this year...



Heh...

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Secret Service Comes Knoxing

Come Out With Your Hands Up...


I was infuriated to see that not one but BOTH of my Senators from Tennessee broke ranks with the Republicans and voted for the new START weapons treaty.

Here's the text to the E-mail I fired off (after removing the profanity) to Senator Bob Corker  and Lamar Alexander

How can you justify voting for the START treaty working with the Democrat idiots during the Lame Duck session while the America public is distracted with Christmas?

We're going to watch and remember and if you keep this kind of crap up you're going to find yourself sitting back here in Tennessee watching CSPAN full time.

If I disappear in the next week from Blogging please consider taking up a collection and come try to bail me out if you will...

I Give Them Five Years...

And They'll Be Coming After People Like Me...


The government just can't stand a good thing. 

It's against their very nature these days it seems.

Start doing something that works well or is popular or makes people a bunch of money, and it never fails that the elected shitheads (or in this case their appointed representatives at the FCC) will step in and start writing rules and put the kibosh on the whole program in the end.

Take the Internet, for instance; and more specifically the new so called "Network Neutrality" program which just passed down at FCC headquarters:

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday approved a plan to regulate the Internet despite warnings that it could strangle industry investment and damage an economy that is still struggling to recover.

 The 3-2 vote fell along partisan lines with Democrats capitalizing on their numerical advantage.

 The rules would prohibit phone and cable companies from abusing their control over broadband connections to discriminate against rival content or services, such as Internet phone calls or online video, or play favorites with Web traffic.

Lawmakers in both parties have been arguing for months that Congress, not the Obama administration, should take the lead role in deciding whether and how much to police the web. But despite a brief backing-off earlier in the year, the FCC pushed ahead with its new regulatory plan.

President Obama said in a statement that the plan "will help preserve the free and open nature of the Internet while encouraging innovation, protecting consumer choice, and defending free speech."

I don't know Ladies & Gentlement...YOU pick the euphemism...

"Slippery Slope?"

"Foot in the door?"

You name it, I guaran-damn-tee you that if this thing holds that it's just the beginning of the government installing a 21st century version of the old Radio "Fairness Doctrine" into the Internet where if you say something cranky that is right leaning or conservative you have to "BALANCE" your commentary with an equal amount of left leaning liberal/progressive bullshit else have the government come in and silence you--probably by making your ISP turn off your Internet service.

All of you out there that make your living on the Internet or spend more than a few hours a day better be very concerned with this development, even if you are not a real Blogger but instead just Twitter or blab on Facebook because Big Brother has been watching and now they're getting their slimy tentacles in the process with things like sales tax on purchases and now this "Net Neutrality" bullshit and I give them another five years before they're knocking on my door asking questions and making treats.

And of course like the DADT and START treaty this week in the Senate these useless "useful idiots" do this in a lame duck session of Congress at Christmas while a bunch of people aren't paying attention.

My two Republican Senators from Tennessee are going to get an ear full for breaking with the party and 11 other Republicans in voting with the Democrats on the START treaty limiting our ability to produce DEFENSIVE missiles which wouldn't blow up anything but incoming nuclear missiles launched by Russia or Iran or North Korea or now even possibly the idiot Chavez down in Venezuela.

It's a screwed up world in my opinion, but try to have a Merry Christmas anyway.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

On The Road Yet Again

Headin' South Looking For Warmer Weather...


We're heading to the Atlanta Suburbs this morning...stopping in Cumming around lunchtime and ending up in Fayettville for the night.

Then its on south on Wednesday across southern Alabama to the Farm for Christmas.

I refuse to be cranky for the next 72 hours unless intentionally provoked.

I hope that everyone has a blessed week with friends and family, safe travels by land or sea or air, and remembers that we only have a short time here on the planet and in the process make the most of the experience.

(yes I can be an asshole...but sometimes I get all soft and mushy and right now I'm feeling sort of easy to get along with but be aware and don't push me too far...)

Regard's Y'all...

Monday, December 20, 2010

Even More DumbASSED Government Insanity

Courtesy Of Your Taxpayer Dollars...


Check out this story of more feckless TSA inepitude at airport checkpoints and get back to me because there will be a pop quiz later.

For those of you too lazy to click on the link...here's the meat of the story.

The effectiveness of security at U.S. ports is being questioned after a businessman accidentally travelled on a flight with a loaded handgun in his luggage.

 Iranian-American Farid Seif was screened by Trasport Security Administration officials at Houston airport in Texas. His hand luggage was also X-rayed before he took off on his international flight.

 It wasn't until Mr Seif arrived at his hotel several hours later that he realised that he had forgotten to unpack a loaded snub nose Glock pistol from his luggage before he embarked on his journey.

And you want these same morons running this program from congress to be responsible for you next brain surgery or colonoscopy?

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Lunar Eclipse Coming Up

More Nerdy Stuff You Might Like To Know


My regular readers and occasional "stoppers by" might have noticed my link here on my blog to a Website called Spaceweather.com

They do a great job of keeping me up with things like meteor showers and space station/space shuttle flyovers and they will send you e-mails letting you know when interesting things are happening up overhead in the sky if you are interested in that kind of thing.

So any way, a cool thing which is coming up is a total Lunar Eclipse which will occur on December 21st.

What is really interesting besides the moon passing though the shadow of the Earth causing the eclipse is that the event will occur on the solstice for the first time since the year 1638.

It will be in full form a little after midnight here in the eastern time zone and if the sky is clear enough I plan on being outside with a coat and the camera mounted on a tripod to record the event.

If you miss it you'll have to wait until 2094 to see it again on the solstice.

Just saying...to all my nerd Buddy's out there...

Tryin' To Maintain That Christmas Spirit Here Boss

Real Life Get's In The Way Of The Holidays...


OK...I'm trying my very best to not be cranky, BUT...

It's real hard because every day my ever greying, ever balding head causes me to become more of a Curmudgeon.

For instance...

In a fit of insanity we ran out yesterday with me expecting to risk life and limb in a traffic jam to go to Kroger for some stuff and by intentionally cutting the day short and stopping to eat dinner at about 3 PM we somehow avoided the rush.

I'm pleased to report that I didn't have to rip anyone's arm off and beat them to death with it.

I came close a couple of times, but I was somehow on my best behavior with my low Testosterone levels and high Christmas Spirit so everyone came home unscathed in spite of a couple of people deserving a little vigilante justice.

Pat was off all day Friday and we will both be semi-officially off all of next week so we have infinite time to finish the details up...

but still...

when we ran out to dinner Friday night and had a good meal we found that coming home the Pike was literally "Bumper to Bumper" going toward the Turkey Creek shopping district for three or four miles so I've started getting all grumpy and paranoid and antsy in the process worrying about close encounter of the "stupid holiday consumer" kind.

Don't get me wrong here.

I love Christmas.

I love (most) of my fellow humans.

But gosh darn it I hate when I have to go out and do things I need to do and in the process I'm forced encounter more than about 0.00000000002% of them in a single day and/or event...particularly when they are trying to operate an automobile and a cell phone in a single instant.

Sigh...taking a big breath here boss...

Even the ones that are related to me by blood/birth get to me sometimes.

But any way...we're down to the wire regarding "holiday Stuff" here at the Turbo Pup Compound on the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River, yet in the spirit of Christmas later (actually earlier like 9 AM) this Sunday morning we're going to sneak out and do some final running around buying some stuff...

did I mention that little Missy the Turbo Pup turns FOUR YEARS old today???

Time flys and our little tiny miniature long haired dachshund gets better every single day.

So then we're going to come home and hide before the unwashed masses get into full holiday frenzy spending time finishing wrapping boxes and getting ready to head south down to Atlanta for an evening and then on to the farm in lower Alabama for the Christmas weekend.

I hope the weather man gives us at least dry weather for the Christmas weekend and possibly high temperatures in the 60's or possibly even in the 70's so we can enjoy some fishing in between eating excess quantities of ham and other stuff.

That's about it right now, and other than that...y'all have a LOVELY Sunday....

Friday, December 17, 2010

Niagara Falls Is FALLING ? ! ? !

Early Government Stupidity...


I'd forgot about this story of idiocy use of taxpayer money.

Back in 1969 the US Army Corps of Engineers decided to dry up the western branch of Niagara Falls so that they could test if the face of the rock was stable.

Apparently someone in the government--probably goaded by concerned geologists and environmental whackos--thought it was a good idea to try to stop it (the falls) from moving if it was or something.

It seems that the pointy headed idiot government do-gooders wanted to preserve the falls in its "present state" for visitors just like the eco-terrorists want to prevent the extinction of animals/plants and the "climate changers" believe that the perfect temperature for the planet earth is what it was when they passed the Kyoto Treaty...no warmer or no colder.

Problem is that anybody that has visited Niagara (and anyone that thinks clearly for that matter) knows that the falls have been moving upstream for millions of years to their present position through the process of erosion. There's even a display of the falls showing where they were at different times through history.

Yet the Imperial Federal Government of the By-God United States of 'Merica spends money trying to think about stopping the falls from moving further in order to "preserve" our natural beauty.

Here's a link to some photos of the process.

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/day-Niagara-Falls-ran-dry/ss/events/us/121610dryniagara#photoViewer=/ydownload/20101216/photos_net_web_yn/1292537554

I'm surprised these same morons haven't spent money trying to keep the Grand Canyon from getting any deeper or possibly silting in when Global Warming causes the Sea levels to Rise.

I wish instead of doing stuff like this they'd lower my taxes so I could have the money to put a new roof on my house and buy a new central heating/AC system, but the Government as usual today has better ideas on how to spend my money that I have.

Is it just me?

Too Tired To Blog Right Now

Assignment For The Day...


Here's an Idea.

Think of something you find offensive--thought, word, or deed--and put my name on it.

Pissed off now?

Good.

That will be all...for now...




Heh.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

In The Words Of Commedian Steve Martin...

"WELL EXCUuuuuuusssSSSSSS....MeeeeeEEEEEE!!!"


So...Ladies and Gentlemen...it seems that now our Military...that would be the military of the United By-God States of 'Merica...has gone out recently and managed somehow to "offend" the stupid towel heads   dune goons sand niggers people that used to refer to themselves as "Perisans" before the British and French screwed everything up after WWI and renamed Persia  new places we know on the map or your globe as parts of Iran and Iraq and Turkey and some of  the "Stans" (Afghanistan and Pakistan and Ubekestan and "whatever i-stan.")

OK...as we get started remember I'm a blogging terrorist from a place in the southern US called Alabamastan originally, and having lived in Georgiastan and Floridastan and now Tennesseeastan...don't start hating me because of my use of the politically incorrect terms for people of "Arab" descent because I'm the kind of Redneck that will draw a cartoon of Mohammad with my feces using a pork bone as a paintbrush on a piece of toilet paper just to piss you off when you start bitching at me.

O Tay?  And since comments are still turned off you just have to fester in your own pants you pissed in when you read the first paragraph of this rant and look for powder to prevent diaper rash.

Any way, here's the link to the story about the US innocently starting to call the Persian Gulf the Arabian Gulf and that little Capuchin Monkey Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Mullah idiots running Iran--the same idiots threatening to wipe Israel off the face of the planet and  supporting worldwide terrorism --getting...

O F F E N D E D.

WaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAA...I'm So Sad......

What's in a name? Apparently a lot, when the name in question is synonymous with the ancient culture and heritage of a fiercely proud people.


The U.S. military found this out the hard way after the Navy shifted its official policy and began referring to the Persian Gulf as the "Arabian Gulf." The name change provoked outrage from the easily provoked government of Iran -- which was known as Persia from around the sixth century BC until 1935. The move also drew fire from Iranian advocacy groups. Many outraged partisans of the old name took to the Navy's Facebook page to slam the American government.

[Iran says key site has higher uranium ore reserves]

The usage of "Arabian" rather than "Persian" fuels existing U.S.-Iran tensions, Jamal Abdi, policy director an Iranian-American advocacy group, told Fox News. "This is an ethnically divisive term. ... It's very troubling."

The Navy says it has used the term for many years and no one complained until officials recently posted the Navy's official style guide online. In a statement posted to its Facebook page, the Navy said that it continues to respect the "long and proud history of the Persian people" and reassures Iranian readers that Navy officials haven't done "anything out of malice or disrespect for your proud heritage that has existed long before we were even a navy." The Navy's flacks went on to explain:

"The use of the term 'Arabian Gulf' vice Persian Gulf is used by naval forces including our regional partners there for years. We use this term in press releases, news stories, and photos coming from the Navy in the region. The often cited Navy Style Guide that says to use the term 'Arabian Gulf' vice Persian Gulf is really only applicable to them since commands in their area would be the only naval forces publishing stories in the region. In most other respects (nautical charts and publications, for example) the historic name of Persian Gulf is used. We value and respect the partners with whom we serve around the globe, and mean no harm or insult to any people or country."


So I say that we can call any body of water on the map or globe or Google Earth a toilet bowl or a fish bowl or whatever the hell we want to call it while at the same time not caring what people that insist on their women and much of their male population live in conditions we had here in America in the 17th and 18th century think about us in the process.

And you can shove your objection to my language here in this posting into the deepest depths of your neither regions if you don't like it.

And no, I'm not angry or stupid, I'm just an insensitive bastard that's tired of every idiot on the planet running around with their feeling spread out on the ground waiting for Americans in General and me specifically to make a wrong step or utter a word or sentence which they find offensive.

And in closing...look at this video and feel free to not stop back by here if you don't laugh...






Heh...

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

31 Cards And $13.64 Postage Later

Holiday Greetings Accomplished


Dang it...

I lost my Excell Spreadsheet I did a couple of years ago and updated last year that had all of the addresses for all of my Christmas Card list.

I also tracked what kind of card I sent to each recipient so that I didn't sent the same card out two years in a row to the same person.

Thus I was forced to close my eyes when I used up the last cards in the old boxes and there may be some people out there which received a redundant "Merry Christmas" or "Season's Greeting" again.

Sorry.  How pedestrian of me.

I know many people don't worry about that kind of thing, but for some reason I do and it bothers me to think I was so shallow so as to not offer an genuinely unique sentiment each time the month of December comes up on the calendar.

And of course this year I was too lazy to design and print my own cards or even put a picture of the Turbo Pup out in the process, but then again I'm quite busy professionally and my spare time has to be reserved to doing things like sleeping and writing blogs pissing off minority groups.

So sue me...

Monday, December 13, 2010

Dionne Warwick's Birthday

Memories From A Long Time Ago...


My blog Friend and Idol Paul Mirengoff over at Powerlineblog reminds me this morning that singer Dionne Warwick celebrated her 70th birthday yesterday.

Stop by over there and take a look at Paul's writing...being the avid music aficionado that he is.  He and his fellow bloggers also produce some pretty good political commentary which has gained national recognition.

But any way, what brought the event of celebrating Miss Warwick's birthday home to me personally was some early memories of me riding to 1st grade school with my beloved Father in his 1963 vintage Red Volkswagen convertible listening to WOZK's AM radio broadcast from Ozark, Alabama every morning...driving across the US Army's "Aviation Center" at Ft. Rucker Alabama...with songs like Henry Mancini's "Baby Elephant Walk"  following along with songs like Dionne's "Walk On By"



The editor of that video added clips of Vietnam War scenes which seem somehow appropriate based on my own experiences growing up outside a military base during that era.

Those were the days...GOOD or BAD they happened and they're part of our national history.

Winter Weather At The Turbopup Compound

19 Degrees And Still Falling...(Snow and Temperature)


We got a pretty good little snow storm here starting about noon Sunday. 

In a way it was nice because we had bought a Christmas tree Saturday and were in the process of decorating it as the snow fell.  Being from the south I've only had a few seasons with a true "White Christmas" so it's sort of neat to see snow on the ground during the holidays

The real part of the storm started falling around dark and looking outside it's still coming down lightly and the wind is blowing things around.

I'd guess maybe 4" total so far but it's hard to tell because the first part melted because everything was warm from the mid 50's temperatures yesterday.  That bit of warmth will hopefully save us from a major power outage and keep the insanity on the roads and turnpikes to a minimum.  I hate it when the weather is bad and people have to set out on the highways and airlines to travel for the holidays and someone ends up hurt or dead in the process.

I haven't ventured outside since the storm started but maybe I'll get on the parka and ski bibs and wander around after sunrise and take some pictures and put them up here on the blog.

I wish I was back somewhere sitting in the Sun in Florida or on our Little Island down on the Georgia Coast right now, but in the mean time...

Y'all stay inside and put an extra log on the fire and let things melt a little before you head out if you can.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

A Bunch Of Nekkid Women Are Following Me On Twitter

Where Were They All When I Could Have Used Them?


Being a seasoned Blogger now for over SIX years, some people might notice that I take a little different approach to things here on the computer than some of my friends and peers.

Take this new stuff like Facebook and Twitter, for instance.

Facebook?

Blogging lite in my opinion. 

You log on...

then blab a little about whatever it is that's going on in your life or bothering you, then you log off.

Twitter?

Same thing...

except you have to limit your thoughts and opinions to 140 characters.

Thus I spend little time on Facebook and even less time on Twitter because generally what I have to say takes more bandwidth and words to spout forth than either of those platforms allows and supports.

So any way, for some reason the ladies over at Twitter...mostly women without clothing...have decided to send me messages recently indicating their desire to "follow" me on Twitter and in the process sending me pictures of their breasts and other body parts for my perusal and enjoyment.

Thing is...

I refuse to peruse said fotos because I'm fairly certain I've seen similar structures made of flesh and uncovered or covered with hair in the past many times, and the websites attached thereto will probably give my computer some virus or worm or other digital infestation or malady causing the shaking shuddering heebie jeebies and I'll spend three days and nights fighting to regain control of the situation.

Thus to all of the young women out there...many if not most old enough to be my daughter or even my grand-daughter...

keep your private parts covered and stop following me offering pictures of same because I'm too old to care anymore.

Twenty or thirty years ago it would be a different story, but still...we haven't been properly introduced...

O Tay?

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Happy New Year...EARLY

The Month Is Over With For All Intents and Purposes...


Dang it but time is flying by on the calendar these days.  Before we know it it will be 2011, and I have a ton of stuff to accomplish between now and then.

I spent part of yesterday doing yet another home improvement project...enclosing the "portico" entrance to our basement under the front porch.

I'm installing one sash of the window I tore out of the back of the house when I put in a French door going out to the Turbo Pup's deck along with the old front door from the living room into a new short segment of wall so that we will in effect have a little vestibule area about 6' x 10' where I can keep some yard stuff and possibly store some plants inside in the winter.

I'm also looking at grow lamp options now and possibly some form of thermostatically controlled heat capability.

Somebody somewhere once said that "being a homeowner means that no matter where you sit and what you look at you can't help but see something that needs doing..."

I AGREE.

Meanwhile, back in my kitchen, I made my first test batch of Chocolate Truffels this week using some flavoring oils I bought last year and didn't have a chance to try out before.  I'm afraid I'm going to hurt myself this stuff is so good.

Pat and I have been walking into places and people are actually questioning me as to when my truffles are going to be available.  Apparently they remember that cold dry weather means Truffel season at our house.

I wish I had the patience to put my original scheme into operation and make Truffles for profit, but it's either just too hard or I'm too lazy so once again this year I'll just settle for making ten or twelve dozen and handing them out to friends and acquantences.

Feel free to stop by about 2 PM today and you might be able to get a few samples...

Thursday, December 09, 2010

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Never Forget

"A Day That Will Live In Infamy"





Say thanks to a Veteran today on the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor...especially the few left from WWII.

There's only two left in my family...thanks for your service Uncle John and Aunt Mary.

Monday, December 06, 2010

Cold Morning In Knoxtown

Oh To Live On St. Simons Island Again...


We're really missing our Little Island this morning.  Even little Missy the Turbo Pup limits her time spent outside to trotting across the ice on the deck and stays outside only long enough to do her "business" and then she's blasting back inside through the doggie door.

I have a ton of stuff that I managed to not get done out in the yard before it turned cold and now it's just not my style to go out and work in the crunchy dusting of snow we've gotten over the past 24 hours.

The remnants of my poor old Tomato Plants are still slouching on their cages and supports in the back yard, my Crepe Myrtles need pruning along with a bunch of other shrubs, and narry a Christmas light has been put up on the porch rails and in the evergreens out Front.

I should be in three dirrerent places at once this week, one of them being Indianapolis. Since it's a trip to take another  PLC programming class and I've screwed around and not bought a plane ticket so I'll probably scratch the event and reschedule for later in the winter or better yet wait for spring.

Then a client in Atlanta might need me down there and I have another new Injuneering Project I'm trying to close this week and of course the shop is full with three PLC panels which need completion and there's a couple of pneumatic valves that need tearing down and rebuilding and SooooOOOO...

...Blogging will be hit or miss this week, but I promise to be nice and not piss off any minority groups or diversity groups or endangered feces species as best I can.

But then again...you know me...a grouchy old angry, partly crippled, ever greying, ever balding slightly past middle aged white guy...

...sometimes I just can't help myself keep quiet and then all bets are off. So until next time



Regards Y'all

Sunday, December 05, 2010

I'm Not Here Blogging To Make You Feel Good

You Can't Control What I Think Or Believe Either...


So the regular readers (and a zillion troll gay rights activist readers) may have noticed that I took the Blog down for a while this weekend.

Prior to that I disabled the comments section and I also had second thoughts about the viability of leaving a series of postings and comments up about some politically correct crap going on out there in the world which I personally happen to disagree with.

After thinking about things for a few days and actually offering an apology for the coarse verbiage and manner in which I first addressed the subject, and with said apology not stopping the unrelentless, escalating barrage of equally insulting comments here directed at me personally...including several threats of violence...

I've decided to bring this near 6 year old blog back up on line for pubic public access...

but with the comments thread still turned off for now because I'm tired of listening to what I consider to be the same old worn out liberal pablum calling me an eco-terrorist or a bigot or a racist or a homophobic no-neck Neanderthal (things I've been called over the course of my blogging experience.)

Frankly I don't give a crap what any anonymous moron or rocket scientist or even well intended "liberator of all things oppressive" thinks about me out there in the ether of cyber space and they're not going to change the way I think and my beliefs at this late point in my life.

BUT...

What last week's experiences with the coordinated landslide of opposition commentary here did reveal to me was the scope and range my commentary really had here on the Internet.

Thus, I again offer my apology for the way I addressed the subject in a public forum. Beyond that I will remain mute on the subject from here on out.

To all of the comment trolls and activists which stopped by to share your love and opinions, I suggest that you consider policing the attitudes and opinions and actions of those in your own ranks because the commentary I received was at least equal to and in many cases way more over the top--issued in my direction--than anything written by me here.

And finally, I offer that the actions taken against and in disagreement with me only served the purpose of making me realize that I was jeopardizing my participation in several upcoming VERY PROFITABLE business opportunities in the new year and in reality I don't want someone in those enterprises reading a thread like last weeks and dumping me because of the controversy.

So you see, my dear readers and haters, it's not FEAR or COWARDICE under your hysterical onslaught driving my decision making, it's a profit motive which guides my actions and decisions

Not your silly insults and threats.  Got it?

So you can add the label of HARD CORE CAPITALIST to your list of things you hate about me, because I'm going to make as much money in 2011 as I can--more than probably 95% of you--and keep voting to give as little as possible to the government so they can support people sitting on their lazy butts cramming themselves into other peoples lives and wallets.

Y'all have a LOVELY day now...if you will...

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Whacky Weather

Someone Call Owl Gore...


The temperature was near 65 degrees here yesterday as it rained all day.

Then when I finally got up about 8:30 this morning it was 32 degrees on the digital weather station and snow was accumulating on the deck and shrubs in the yard.

Meanwhile my back and right leg is killing me with this latest bout with Sciatica...something that's been coming on and off for the past five years or so...

so you will have to excuse me if my blogging and Internet presence is limited for the time being.

Y'all have a LOVELY day, regardless of my affliction's symptoms

Sunday, November 28, 2010

US Officials Finally Catch Dangerous Terrorist at Mexican Border

"Trying To Tell Their Ass From A Hole In The Ground..."


Man oh Man do I feel safer this morning...Ladies and Gentlemen...

I just learned that they (they being the local and Federal "Officials" of Hudspeth County Texas and the United By-God States of 'Merica) arrested Willie Nelson near the US Mexican Border after finding him with six ounces of Pot in his motor home. 

He wasn't driving the motor coach, by the way...and the youngest occupant of the crowd of malfeasance's and malcontents was apparently over the age of 50.

Taking a big breath here boss...

It makes me crazy that these stupid rocket scientists can't keep criminal Mexicans out of our streets and off of our door steps but they can preen their feathers and crow about keeping an old Hippy from possessing and smoking some Dope.

Isn't that %$#@! amazing in this day and time?

Meanwhile, here's a link to a list of things we can as Americans all still be thankful for this Holiday season...and here's the last couple of things the writer David Boaz mentions:

Freedom of religion. Church and state have been bound together since time immemorial. The state claimed divine sanction, the church got money and power, the combination left little room for freedom. As late as the 17th century, Europe was wracked by religious wars. England, Sweden, and other countries still have an established church, though their citizens are free to worship elsewhere. Many people used to think that a country could only survive if everyone worshipped the one true God in the one true way. The American Founders established religious freedom.


Property and contract. We owe our unprecedented standard of living to the capitalist freedoms of private property and free markets. When people are able to own property and make contracts, they create wealth. Free markets and the legal institutions to enforce contracts make possible vast economic undertakings–from the design and construction of airplanes to worldwide computer networks and ATM systems. But to appreciate the benefits of free markets, we don’t have to marvel at skyscrapers while listening to MP3 players. We can just give thanks for enough food to live on, and central heating, and the medical care that has lowered the infant mortality rate from about 20 percent to less than 1 percent.

A Kenyan boy who managed to get to the United States told a reporter for Woman’s World magazine that America is “heaven.” Compared to countries that lack the rule of law, equality, property rights, free markets, and freedom of speech and worship, it certainly is. A good point to keep in mind this Thanksgiving Day.

Grab ahold of your own Butt and your insurance card and hang on because it's going to be a wild ride in the year 2011 I think...

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Simple Things I Miss On Thanksgiving

(Also Known as STIMOT for short)


I was just thinking about "the "good old days" a little bit here on this Thanksgiving morning.

You know what?

I remember back in the "good old days" when my Pa and Mama Rushing were still alive and every year we literally had brown paper grocery bags full of fresh pecans sitting around in our garage and basement waiting for me to sit down in the floor with a hammer and crack them.

"Eat two...put two or three halves into  the recycled Cool whip or Tupperware bowl."

That was the way things worked.

If you wanted a fruit cake or some other holiday delicacy which contained Pecans you didn't go to the store...

you walked out into the Garage and started cracking fresh nuts.

Even my Grandfather's black and white "Tri" colored Collie dogs--first a majestic beast named "Champ" and later a friendly fellow named "JoJo"-- would crack their own pecans and drool all over themselves from the taste of the bitter shells if you were picking pecans and didn't crack open a few extras for them.

Knowing a couple of real good professional working farm dogs was a singular pleasure unto itself outside the culinary aspects of pecan harvesting...but I digress...

So I really miss the days when we had so many pecans around our house that we used to dump last years' left over inventory out down by the fence in the back yard for the squirrels and chipmunks to eat because we had more coming in the house from this years' crop.

I probably watched $10,000 worth of pecans go to waste back then at today's prices.

Isn't it funny how people can be rich in so many ways, spiritually and physically,  and not even know it at the time?

Happy Turkey Day

A True AMERICAN Holiday...


Hope everyone has a chance to chill out and visit with family and friends today and forget for a few minutes how screwed up the world is in general and how screwed up a bunch of so-called Americans want to make our country if they get their way.

Then when the dishes are washed and put away and the football games are all over with until the Bowl games start...

LET'S GET BACK TO WORK SMACKING SOME DEMOCRATIC RATBASTARDS' ASSES INTO SHAPE.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Saying What You Mean...And Meaning What You Say...

It's All Slowly Becoming Illegal Today


I'm not sorry this morning, Ladies and Gentlemen, but this Thanksgiving Season finds me more than a bit perturbed.

I'm afraid that I'm more likely to just sit around sulking to myself rather than running around publicly giving thanks for stuff I benefit from in what up until now has been a fairly good life.

Let me see if venting here on the Blog this morning will relieve a little of the pressure on my Spleen so I can take a complete breath and relieve the pain that proceeds up my spinal cord from my rectum to the base of my cranium...

Here goes...

You see, it's like this to this middle aged, ever greying, ever balding white man of Anglo Saxon descent.

It seems to me that all of the professional "do-gooders" and elected "busy bodies" i.e. the self proclaimed philanthropists and politicians have taken away--slowly, and incrementally-- much of what I consider to be most everything fun out of living life here in America.

And the stuff that you can still do that could be considered fun they've installed handrails on and passed laws and installed placards with instructions indicating why and how I can't have fun using the aforementioned things which are supposed to be fun to use.

I present as evidence the 99.9 percent of the hotels out there with swimming pools which are either only 4 feet deep else are 10 feet deep but instead of a fiberglass diving board today only have some caulk or epoxy filler sealing up the holes where the diving board was in the 1960's.

Further, in business and personal relationships, we can't call an asshole an "asshole", we can't call a useless-nigger-wife- beating-son-of-a-bitch a "useless-nigger-wife-beating-son-of-a-bitch," and now on an international basis...when towel headed Iranian Mullahs build Centrifuges we have to have "multi-lateral talks"...

...or when the the slanted eyed idiot shit headed communist North Koreans...

the same slanted eyed idiot shit headed communist North Koreans that were lobbing artillery shells across the 38th parallel in the early 1950's over my uncle's heads during our so-called "police action" in that area...

YES...when those same slanted eyed idiot shit headed comunists yesterday started lobbing artillery shells again across the so called "de-militarized zone" around the 38th parallel....

all we as Americans get in response  is bloviating by the President and Secretary of State while everyone looks at their watches and wonders what time to put the turkey in the oven and if they need anything else from the Grocery store before Thursday noon.

All of that said, I'm here this morning to set a few things straight for anyone that doesn't have a cranium full of cranberry sauce and/or hasn't shoved so much stuffing up their ass and down their throat that all of their blood supply is diverted to their intestinal tract for the balance of the year 2010.

THERE IS SOME SERIOUS SHIT HAPPENING OUT THERE IN THE WORLD, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.

RIGHT NOW.

And we need to take ACTION...

RIGHT NOW.

Just because it's the "holiday season" doesn't mean that we can change TV channels and wait until January 3rd to catch up on what went on while we were at the airport having safe sex with a TSA worker wearing blue latex gloves.

Further, and more specifically, sitting around watching College Football games and picking your nose and going deer and turkey hunting after goofing around the yard with the kids and grand kids while burping the essence of left over Green Bean Casserole isn't going to get you any further away from the inevitable.

We all voted recently for a group of people which we hope will make some important changes in the way this country conducts it's financial and foreign affairs, but unlike your automobile you just can't point the government down the road and put things on cruise control and wait to see what destination you arrive at.

There's still a whole lot of navigating and management that has to be accomplished, and I'm not quite certain that the crew we have in the American cockpit is competent and up to the task yet.

Am I the only one that watches the news and gets more concerned and agitated every day while looking at the crap being foisted on the world in general and blamed on or placed in the lap of America and Americans in general?

There's not enough liquor in the liquor store and Marijuana in Mexico to numb me enough to dull the sense of anger and anguish I feel right now...

...and that's the way it is...November 24, 2010


(and screw Walter Conkite in his moldy grave...)

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

New Years In November

Cranky Holiday Contemplations...


For some reason it occurred to me today that as America and more specifically, Americans, head into this Holiday season that I haven't had a real job from whence to take "holiday vacation" from but a single year since 1990--that being the year 2008-- when we moved up here from our Little Island in Georgia to Knoxtown before the idiots running Lambert Engineers decided to close things down December 19th, 2008.

All the other years before and after (post 1989) I was un-employed "self employed" so the days and weeks leading up to the holidays were no different on a schedule basis to me personally from a day or week in March or June or September.

Maybe that's the reason I get so cranky now in late November and December...

...because I generally find that it's virtually impossible to get anything done professionally between the week before Thanksgiving and the week after the following January 1st.

It seems that all of you regular people out there with "real jobs" are busy taking time off in order to burn your left over vacation days...not to mention taking the regular scheduled holiday days off on the calendar.

CAN'T YOU HELP ME AND STOP IT...

As a business man and entrepreneur, I might as well wipe the six weeks encompassing late November until the end of the College Football BCS season in January out of my Daytimer Microsoft Outlook Calendar because of your behavior.

Dang IT...

Unless you sell something holiday related like turkeys or Christmas trees or fake snow or something with the word "seasons" or "Yule" in the title...I can't find anything I want or need in the Engineering department of most firms I call or e-mail because the person responsible is home spraying fake snow on fake trees else bouncing grandchildren on knees while looking at the aforementioned fake snow laden fake trees.

So let me just go ahead and issue my first hearty "BAH HUMBUG" of the 2010 Holiday season and get things rolling...

Is it just me?

Monday, November 22, 2010

I'm Cranky

Why...Don't Ask...


Blogging is at standstill until further notice.

I'll sear everyone's eyeballs with rhetoric later when I feel like it.

Government employees are on notice of risking life and limb if they annoy me in person.

Friday, November 19, 2010

mUCH aDO aBOUT nOTHING

TSA Efforts Useless...


Regular readers of this blog know that I'm a avid listener of daytime talk radio.

I start my mornings listening to Neal Boortz on Atlanta's WSB AM 750 radio website, and then in the afternoon I either listen to Rush Linbaugh on Knoxville's Newstalk 98.7 radio  or stream it live on their website.

So any way...yesterday Neal brought up something which I think is very relevant when thinking and talking about the current bru-ha-ha about the new enhanced TSA "security" screenings at our nation's airports.

Let me ask you the same question Neal asked.

OK?

Name a single instance where, since it's inception in post 9/11/2001, that the TSA and their merry band of panhandling manhandling security screeners has actually caught anyone in the act of trying to board an airplane with anything resembling a real threat to the aircraft?

Yes, they've caused a bunch of people to dump bottles of water and packages of breast milk and containers of shampoo and perfume larger than 4 ounces, and no one can legally have a cigarette lighter on board a Boeing 737 any more, but as to stopping a real terrorist threat...

...has anyone seen a headline announcing the thwarting of a plot where wild eyed Muslims were collared by some former fast food restaurant employee wearing a TSA uniform?

Wait...let me Google this subject for a moment...

OK...here...look at the top results from 220,000 results returned from my search on Google...



All of that, but not ONE SINGLE NEWS STORY about someone working in a TSA checkpoint actually doing anything but annoying business travelers and pawing on Nuns and Grandmothers and three year old Toddlers.

This is all INSANITY, ladies and gentlemen.

Stupid, retarded, inbred, GOVERNMENT insanity, designed by the government to make "the traveling public"--people that get on an airplane once every one or two years--feel safe.

All at the expense of people like me that have to use our air transportation system as a tool to make a living, and in the process subject innocent AMERICANS to processes and behavior which could be and is considered criminal if I tried to force it on another citizen myself.

Forget about the "Bush Tax Cuts" expiring and Chucky Rangle's Tax returns, I say that the misbehavior and feckless, obtuse management policies of the TSA system and it's employees has to be addressed in a significant, meaningful manner between now and the end of 2010 else we all just as well get ready to act like we live in Germany in 1944.

I'm sorry, but I have to admit that if I am subjected to some of the crap I see on the blogs and on TV these days at an airport screening area...or if someone touches my girlfriend Pat in the manner I'm being led to believe is acceptable under the current policies...

you're going to have to take up a collection to acquire funding to bail me out of jail because I'm going to place a knee in the groin of a TSA employee...

call it a "knee jerk" reaction I guess. 

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

"Don't Touch My Junk"

Air Travel Revelations....


Picture Me...

Standing in an airport security line...







So now they are worried about my shoes and then my underwear and most recently me shipping some printer ink cartridges around, when all the time Andy and Barney had it right...

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Alive...But Still Not Well...

Just Say NO (To Illness)


I think I'm in the process of proving some sort of weird concept of Mind over Matter stuff that really matters.

At least half the battle is mental, and the other half seems to be somewhat physical.

I assert here that when and if you think you are coming down with something which is contagious and yet isn't deadly...

just lay down and play dead for a while.

Then, in my past and present experience, the crap will ease up and just pass you by and go on to infect someone who will play the game of actually getting sick and wallowing around in misery.

To wit...I laid around at my own leisure in my bed and on the sofa for much of the past 24 hours, only exiting to check e-mail and fool around when I wanted to on the Internet, and after about 12 hours of rest I'm sort of feeling better and am able to fool around in the shop getting some work done and do some laundry and fiddle around with some other stuff I needed to to.

Of course it helps that it's been raining for the past day, keeping me from climbing up on the roof or wandering around in the yard, and the current forecast is for more rain until sometime Wednesday.

So if anyone needs me and I'm not sneaking around in front of the computer while this malady isn't looking trying to get a hold on my lungs and immune system,  just give me a call and if I'm awake (and coherant) I'll answer the phone.

I credit my apparent rapid recovery/limited affliction to the use of one the newer over the counter pharmaceutical products...

Something called "Zicam."

We stopped at the CVS pharmacy on the way to Staples yesterday afternoon and bought some more of their spray product.

That stuff works...in my considered Redneck opinion.

You should give it a try if you haven't given it an opportunity to save you from stuff like I find drifting around waiting for an opening to my head and chest every winter.

That said...Later Y'all...

Monday, November 15, 2010

Where's My Zicam?

Interfacing With The Public Yields Creeping Crud...


Well, I'm pleased to report that I'm back home this morning, happy to sleep in my own bed for a few hours,  but at the same time having to start to admit to myself that I must have caught some sort of respiratory crap during our journey.

I woke up yesterday morning with a scratchy throat and a little head and chest congestion and spending the next 12 hours in denial hasn't caused the symptoms to go away.

I've been squirting Zicam up my nose and eating Tylenol along with a healthy dose of alcohol hoping to stave off further deterioration of my mental faculties and physical condition because I have a darn busy week ahead catching up on stuff and replying to some proposal requests that came in as a result of my Atlanta adventure.

When I'm sick I pretty much have the option of staying home and hibernating until I'm at least past the contagious stage of any given malady, but unfortunately most of the "general pubic public enjoys running around sneezing and snotting on everyone they come in contact with and sending their crumb crunching rug rats to daycare and school to spread the love infections around the population.

That's probably the single greatest benefit to being unemployed self employed is the ability to voluntarily avoid contact with the usual seasonal stuff like colds, typhoid and tuberculosis, and possibly the latest strain of Bovine, Equestrian, Porcine, or Chicken Flue/Fever and of course the West Nile Virus.

(Speaking of West Nile...can anyone tell me what the heck is going on over on the eastern Side of the Nile River which makes them immune to stuff like the Egyptians are suffering from on the opposite bank of the river?)

Let me know if you can find out because it bothers me...but I digress...

Of course instead of staying home and avoiding the various plagues out there I have to go out and wander around to places like Home Depot and Staples and Kroger at least every few days (not to mention the bars and restaurants) and risk infection in spite of my occupational advantage(s).

Maybe I should learn my lesson, but then again I'm hard headed.
So any way, time to shuffle some more paper and take a nap and see if I can shake this bug.

Y'all have a LOVELY day now...If you will...

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Back Home In Knoxtown

Suffering From Hotlanta Traffic Trauma


After 5 nights spent in the "Atlanta Metropolitan Area" I have to say this...

"Good God but we're glad to be home to the Turbo Pup Compound here on the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River.

Not that I didn't some Forensic Injuneering done and we had a good time with Pat's family, but still...

After living in downtown and northwest Atlanta for 27 years and being absent full time since 2003, the seven years in between being a resident and happy non-resident have taken their toll in further exasperating my patience with the traffic and crowding and general hub-bub that goes on there day and night.

I'm not sure I'd move back there if someone offered me a job paying six figures, because what good would the money be if I have a heart attack every day like some sort of mutant caucasion version of Fred Sanford?

"It's the BIG one 'Lizabeth..." 

So any way, we did business and ate real good and visited, and I even got to go to an Atlanta Thrashers/Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game for free and caught a Thrashers T-shirt that they were shooting out of air cannons into the crowd.

But then negotiating the swarm of people exiting the stadium and sitting in the parking deck waiting for the traffic to start moving at a snails pace took a chunk out of my soul and spirit.

I just can't handle the crowds and traffic congestion any more at my ever greying, ever balding age.

So we blasted through downtown Atlanta in the middle of the day today and cruised into the driveway and unloaded the car and sorted the mail and now it's time to go have a couple of stiff drinks and some dinner.

I promise to get back into the Blogging mode this week because I have a bunch of crap on my mind, and until then...

Regards Y'all...

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Delinquent Travel Blogging

Live From "South Metro Atlanta"


Sorry about the silence here on the blog this week, but I really just haven't had anything much to say.

That, and until late this afternoon I had crappy Internet access.

The hotel we stayed in in north Atlanta Tuesday night had so many problems including poor Internet service that we canceled our Wednesday night portion of the reservation and came on down to Fayettville to visit with Pat's family earlier than planned having completed our work with the Lawyers a little after noon.

Having seen things from both side of the conference table in a law office a few too many times in my lifetime, it was interesting to see how it felt to spend three and one half hours talking to two lawyers and my Forensics partner and HAVE THE LAWYERS PAY ME FOR THE VISIT.

I figure that that single meeting was worth about $1,000 per hour to the clients, or $3,500 for the time spent having the discussions...not including the half week of preparation time spent getting ready to talk this time.

Then late today I managed to get our host's wireless Internet connection working so now everyone can be on line at once from different areas rather than hovering in the office competing for the single available cable modem connection.

So any way, with that done I'm sort of just lounging around the house while everyone else worked or went to school today and then tomorrow the girls and Missy the Turbo Pup and I are going to wander around south Atlanta and do some shopping and lunch.

Time to go now but after I done some more news reading I might work up a good head of steam on something and possibly come back and do a little ranting later.

Regards Y'all...

Monday, November 08, 2010

Gettin' The Heck Out of Dodge Knoxtown

More Forensic Injuneering Ensues...


I was busy this past weekend getting ready to travel to Atlanta this week to do a bunch of business stuff, thus the light posting the past half week.

First and foremost I have to attend a "pre-arbitration" meeting with a bunch of pointy headed lawyers to explain some of the stuff we've been writing and talking about on this steam accident investigation for the past nearly three years.

I have some advise for you if you are ever injured in an industrial or other workplace accident.

GO AHEAD AND DIE EARLY IF YOU NEED TO DIE...

...because the lawyers and OSHA and the Department of Labor will make you wait so long to get your financial settlement that you will wish you were dead if you really need the money to pay bills.

Seriously, THREE YEARS OF INVESTIGATION...and three and one half years after the accident and we're still fooling around explaining the obvious.

Someone screwed up a design/installation of some fairly simple stuff and as a result something exploded (I have pictures) and someone was badly burned in the process, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and expert testimony later we're still basically saying:

Shazam...it went and blowed up and the guy standing beside it got burned...

It makes me crazy sometimes, and what is even more frustrating is I'm probably the least credentialed and lowest paid guy at most of these events and I know more about what I'm looking at than most if not all.

There are firms out there that investigate everything from car wrecks to airplane crashes to baby bed disasters and washing machine fires, and they show up at an accident scene claiming to know everything about anything.

Sort of like the guy they called "The Professor" on the TV show "Gilligan's Island"...except most of these oafs are more like Mr. Howell or even Gilligan than they are "The Professor."

On the other hand, my Partner and I don't do anything but steam plant accidents and after spending twenty plus years looking at smoldering broken steel and cast iron tanks and pipes we know a thing or two about what's going on and the possibilities of how things went wrong.

So any way, Travel on Tuesday afternoon and Forensics on Wednesday Morning and possibly a meeting or two with a couple of clients on Thursday and Friday, and then a weekend visit with some family, and as usual Blogging will be hit or miss based on my mental attitude and the available Internet connections.

Sunday, November 07, 2010

No More Tomatoes

Some Sort Of Record...


We harvested the last of our tomatoes this afternoon...November 7th.  The heavy frost and freeze over night finally did the plants in.  Some of them still had blooms on them yesterday afternoon.

I got a dozen or so ripe fruit which wasn't damaged and a ton of green tomatoes which I'll either batter and fry or possibly pickle if I have the time and energy.

I'm saddest about the three Roma plants I raised from seed this spring.  I remember them when they only were an inch tall and had two leaves each.

The pepper plants took it on the chin also.

Thus goes the ebb and flow of the tides and the seasons, I guess.

The frost makes my old bones hurt too...maybe someone should consider frying ME after I get through pickling myself...

Thursday, November 04, 2010

Living "Large"

Classy People...


Check out this story about an average blue collar Canadian couple that won over $11 million in the lottery and GAVE MOST OF IT AWAY...


A retired Canadian couple who won $11.3 million in the lottery in July have already given it all away.


"What you've never had, you never miss," 78-year-old Violet Large explained to a local reporter.


She was undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer when the couple realized they'd won the jackpot in July.


"That money that we won was nothing," her tearful husband, Allen, told Patricia Brooks Arenburg of the Nova Scotia Chronicle Herald. "We have each other."

The money was a "headache," they told the paper...

Of course they probably had to give about $5 million of the cash to the government in the form or taxes, so that was basically wasted, but still...see...some people do manage to let sudden wealth not totally destroy their lives.

I don't know if I could do something like that myself, but I'd like to think that I would try...

I Have An Idea...

Bring 200,000 Indians Here?


Somewhere I saw or heard that President Obamarama's trip to India was going to cost something like $200,000,000 per day.

That's TWO HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS for those of you that went to the University of Georgia and Florida State.

The three day stay will cost over a HALF BILLION DOLLARS based on that estimate.

Here's the story I was reading this afternoon which prompted this posting:

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/34-warships-sent-from-us-for-obama-visit-64459

New Delhi: The White House will, of course, stay in Washington but the heart of the famous building will move to India when President Barack Obama lands in Mumbai on Saturday.


Communications set-up, nuclear button, a fleet of limousines and majority of the White House staff will be in India accompanying the President on this three-day visit that will cover Mumbai and Delhi.

He will also be protected by a fleet of 34 warships, including an aircraft carrier, which will patrol the sea lanes off the Mumbai coast during his two-day stay there beginning Saturday. The measure has been taken as Mumbai attack in 2008 took place from the sea.

Arrangements have been put in place for emergency evacuation, if needed.

All I want to know, as a simple southern man, is this.

If the President of the US wants to talk to people in India (those especially who are not already handling call centers and customer service for American companies)...people like the leaders of India...

Hey...Why not bring said Indians (Indians from India, not Cherokee, NC or New Mexico or North Dakota) to Washington DC for the event?

By my estimation, spending the same amount of money, the president invites between 50,000 and 100,000 residents of India on an all expense paid trip--business people and politicians--to come over here to talk and dance and eat fancy food wearing elaborate silk attire all the while.

Then in the process of spending between $2,000 and $4,000 PER DAY per person, he might just manage to create some jobs byselling a few hundred convenience store and dry cleaning franchises, some Dairy Queens, and a bunch of Days Inn and Econolodge properties in the process.

Talk about an effective use of "Stimulus Funds."

Is it just me?

Histerical Hysterical

Versus Hersterical?


Sorry Ladies and Gentlemen, but I'm quite worn out this morning and exasperated from worrying about and working on some professional stuff all day yesterday and tonight... after staying up most of last night watching the election returns.

Political concerns aside, my personal emotional pendulum is wildly swinging between laughing hysterically and being near murderously angry as hell at a couple of personal and professional issues which have been festering for a few months in the background and will be forced to come to a head by the end of this year, and it's up to me to force the issues and bring things to some sort of conclusion.

That said...

Y'all have a LOVELY day now...if you will...

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

I Say We Repeal The 17th Amendment

Why Let The Public Dumbasses Rocket Scientists Elect All National Officers?


Needless to say I am a Fairly Happy Redneck Blogger (or FHRB for short) this morning based on the landslide turn which the membership of the US House of Representatives apparently took yesterday

I wandered into the local middle school to cast my Vote a little after 1 PM yesterday and was out the door less than 15 minutes later.

It's going to be funny as hell to watch that Left Coast psyco-bitch, now soon to be "former" Speaker of the House Nasty Pelosi, have to pack up the contents of her elaborate office full of tens of thousands of dollars of taxpayer funded flowers and catered food next January and hand over the keys to the US Air Force Gulfstreams and Boeing 757 she's commandeered to fly between DC and California since she ascended to her stinky gold plated toilet her position in charge of the House and started banging a Gavel around on unsuspecting white men's heads.

Unfortunately Nevada Senator and Senate Majority Leader "Dingy" Harry Reid managed to gerrymander his way into keeping his seat while another half dozen candidates as far away as Hawaii and in places as amazing as West Virginia (former Robert "Pretty Pretty" "KKK" Byrd's seat) came darn close to pulling off upsets.

Speaking of upsets, anyone who is familiar with history earlier than the first Super Bowl or possibly World War II knows that as our founding Fathers envisioned things the members of the US Senate were appointed by the Governments of the INDIVIDUAL STATES and had the job of protecting the rights of states against crap like the current John Holder lawsuit against Arizona and the ObamaramaCare mandate that states expand Medicare/Medicaid and individuals buy health insurance.

Here's the link to Article 1, Section 3 of the US Constitution text which says:

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof (emphasis mine), for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote.


Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second Year, of the second Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and of the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one third may be chosen every second Year; and if Vacancies happen by Resignation, or otherwise, during the Recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary Appointments until the next Meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such Vacancies.

But then the idiots running the Senate itself, aided and abetted by a population almost as silly as some of the people we have out there today, passed the Seventeenth_Amendment in 1913 saying:

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.


When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.

Thus today we see the continued erosion of states rights by a bunch of elitist assholes who once are elected get to sit around for SIX year terms and impose their wrath on the unwashed masses.

And while I'm at it, I'd say that passing term limits on the House and Senate at both the state and national level--two consecutive terms and three total lifetime would change the flavor and color of the drinking water and the cost of living in most places here in the good old By-God United States of  'Merica.

And finally...while on a good rant...

I want the politicians to stop all of this "concentrating on creating JOBS" crappola and get the $#@%* out of my way and let me create my own employment opportunity, and then let me keep enough of MY MONEY as a member of one of their so-called "working families" in order to eat and pay my mortgage and utilities and take an occasional vacation and possibly retire in the next 10 or 15 years if I don't die of a ruptured blood vessel in my forehead in the process...

Got it?

That will be ALL...for now...





OK MORE 4:01 AM:

Here's the MSNBC Dumbass Chris Mathews showing his IQ in a post victory interview with Republican Politician Babe Rep. Michele Bachman (R MN)





I wish someone would stomp that silly idiot's ass just once and give him a good attitude adjustment and make him unsuitable in appearance for Prime time TV crap like he does...

Monday, November 01, 2010

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Halloweweneeewne

I'm Building Stuff To Scare Kids...


Photos to follow, but this year on the verge of the "Trick or Treat" season my biggest concern is keeping young children from diving head fist off my front porch when I turn on a few switches.

Those of you out there that know me in real life know what I mean.

Time to go back into my laboratory shop to finish things up.

It's going to be pretty good I think...

Friday, October 29, 2010

More Random Ramblings & Cogitations

It's EASY To Make Me Cranky These Days...


In addition to being busy as crap professionally, I spent yesterday afternoon helping my neighbor Danny install a "floating" laminate floor in his new sunroom which I designed a few months ago.

We both huffed and puffed and grunted and groaned going from standing up to kneeling to sitting on our butts for what seemed like a thousand times each, and after five hours we had eight of twelve rows of flooring installed.

This morning at 7:30 we'll start again and hopefully after an additional three hours of effort we will be finished.  We have to limit ourselves to that time limit because Danny has a lunch date with his golfing buddies followed by a round of 18 holes at a course some distance away from West Knoxtown.

After doing what we have to do to finish the job, I would be so tired that I couldn't play a round of putt-putt golf or "Pick-up Sticks" with any enthusiasm.

But Danny's trying to save a few bucks on the end of the project and (he pours a mean Crown Royal on ice at the end of the day) and if he wants to tile and golf in the same day that's his business.

So any way, now I'm back alive after a good Blackened Grouper dinner and six hours sleep and I want to catch up on what's been going on in the world.

Let's see...

Oh... Yahoo News has this story which gave me pause to do a little mental ranting as I was logging back in to my E-Mail account...see if you agree with me...

Classy New Jersey coach gives skid-breaking game ball to foe

By Cameron Smith

Last Friday, South New Jersey was host to a heated battle between two struggling teams. When the game was finally over, Sterling (N.J.) High coach Jarod Claybourn had to decide what to do with a game ball from his program's first win in two years. According to Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Phil Anastasia, he chose the least-likely recipient in a choice which testified to Claybourn's class: He gave the ball to the other coach.

"I don't even know if I can put it into words," Gateway coach Mike Karp, the ball's recipient, told Anastasia. "We're two struggling programs. Somebody had to lose, and we came up on the short end of the scoreboard.

"But for him to do that, it just shows that we gained some respect that night. That means so much to our kids."

...snip...

Both teams were shooting for respect while carrying the baggage of epic losing streaks. Sterling entered having lost 17 straight games, sitting at 0-5 in 2010. Gateway was also 0-5, and the 20-13 loss it absorbed on Friday pushed its own losing streak to 17 games.
While the game had to have a winner and loser, Claybourn said there was no reason why his team deserved to win any more than its opponent. (emphasis mine) Leading late in the fourth quarter, Sterling declined to punt on a fourth down near midfield to try and salt away a rare victory. Instead, Gateway's defense held strong and earned the ball back.

The coach says "there was no reason why his team deserved to win any more than its opponent???

Say WHAT???

Coach...your team has won only one of eighteen straight games, and I'm pretty DARNED sure that I could go to your next school board meeting and tell them why your team is a laughing stock of the area.

Yes YOU...Coach are the problem, because any decent coach or player (or even entrepreneur) knows that to win in any game...football...or business or just LIFE in general...

there are a number of  reasons besides just plain LUCK or possibly GOVERNMENT REGULATION i.e. INTERVENTION that one individual or team or business owner comes out on top in the game they elect to play.

Still with me here?

What about things like BASIC TALENT for the game?

I was a good student and a crappy athlete (if you don't count playing Frisbee), so I never played on a Championship High School or College or Super Bowl team,  but I did graduate from college and I have designed several hundred million dollars worth of industrial equipment and managed the fabrication and installation of millions of dollars more.

And in spite of the "Coach's" mindless blithering, there was a REASON why I won the bids, just like there is a reason Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have a few more Pesos than I have this morning.

To say and believe otherwise would be to show my own stupidity or possibly let it be known that I'm the victim of a creeping insanity which I say is insidiously coming over the American Educational System, and most younger citizens by default.

Oh...and  "Coach" Clayborne, how about another reason winning teams win...something called TRAINING AND PREPARATION (otherwise known as the "coaches" primary job)?

No matter how good of an athlete someone is, they just can't put on a helmet and shoulder pads and show up in a high school football stadium on a Friday night or on a College Gridiron on Saturday afternoon and expect to be on the winning side of the scoreboard after watching the final minutes click off the game clock.

And if they are on the afore mentioned football teams and they don't spend time conditioning and weight lifting and running a few wind sprints each week, when they trot out past the goal posts under the stadium lights, if the other team HAD spent time in the weight room each week...

I say that there's a pretty damn good reason that the disciplined team of well conditioned athletes should be able to prevail over  so-called "Coach" Claybourn's  eleven players in any given four quarters of play.

Are you with me, Ladies and Gentlemen?

See, this is the same crap that they've apparently been teaching in grade school and even little league sports for twenty years or so...playing games and teaching kids that there should be no winners or losers after the dust settles and the game has been played.

It started out with the elimination of things like kickball and tag on the playground because losing might make the pasty little pansy assed kids or the over weight kids "feel bad" and have lower self esteem because they lost a GAME.

Heck, in some areas of the country they've stopped KEEPING SCORE in kids football and baseball and softball games for the same reason...it makes some children (and more importantly, their sniveling, booger eating, tye died, Kumbaya singing, patchouli stinking, tree hugging parents by default) FEEL BAD.

And in my opinion it's the public schools GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS intent to do this for a reason, so the kids believe that they need the government to "level the playing field" and protect them from the results of their "God Given" inabilities and/or poor life decisions.

Problem is, when these same kids grow up and are running around later in life, having dropped out of high school or whatever, they're going to wake up in the morning in the trailer park and wonder why they aren't living in a gated country club community and driving a BMW 5M...and  I guess that they are going to wish their beloved "Coach" Clayborn was there to hand them the "Game Ball of Life" because...

...after all...Coach Clayborn said:

"there's no reason his their team deserved to win any more than their opponent their neighbor across town."

You know?

And I say that if the government has their way, that within the next generation this thinking is going to take over our society and "income tax" system in ways we have not even managed to think of with the idea and ideal of "equalizing everything"...

because in the minds of the progressives liberals there should not be winners and losers in life in general, and if they get their way the government will start coming to your house or your work and then take away ANYTHING that they want which the politicians and "authorities" believe is above and beyond the standards which THEY SET.

What started as the federal income tax system and more recently mileage standards for cars and rules governing how much water your toilet uses to flush and how much water your shower head can spray on your glorious naked body and what kind of light bulb you can bUy at Home depot will soon apply to EVERY SINGLE THING you have in your medicine cabinet and closet and garage and night stand in your bedroom.

It's coming...Ladies & Gentlemen.

We can still stop it, but like a cancer we have to identify it, and then go in and cut it out of our lives and society WITH AGGRESSIVE MEASURES.

So go VOTE next Tuesday, with your brain clear and working instead of with your heart looking for any more of that "Hopie Feelie Changie Thing" we've been living with for nearly the past two years.

You Know?

I have to go now and get some work done and think about something else before my ever greying, ever balding head explodes.

Regards, Y'all...

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Internet Woes

Can't Live With It...Can't Live Without It...


You'll have to excuse me this morning, Ladies and Gentlemen, but my hands are still a little shaky due to the withdrawal symptoms I'm still experiencing.

You see, our Internet provider, Comcast, had a Fiber Optic cable failure here in West Knoxtown about 1:30 AM this morning and both our cable TV service AND worst of all...our Internet connection were down until about 8 AM.

I was probably one of the few people trying to work at that time of the night, so I guess that me and all of the Porno perverts suffered together in some sort of strange digitally deprived silence.

I finally gave up and went to bed about 4:30, hoping that like the experience of major surgery my current bout of information deprivation would be eased if I slept through the rest of the event. 

I just got back up and I feel like I've had a near-death experience or something.

Time to go get some work done I guess.

If you pray, pray for my quick mental recovery...

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Six More Days To...

The "BEGINNING"...or "THE END"?


I don't know about you Ladies and Gentlemen, but I'm so tired of the "News" and inherent stupidity associated with this current 2010 "election cycle" I want to go dig a hole under a rock somewhere and not crawl back out until next Tuesday in time to cast my vote while staggering past some Black Panthers or SEIU Union thugs in the process.

And of course next Wednesday morning after the last spit has stopped flying (except for the lawsuits and crys of voter fraud by the Democrats)...

I fully expect the "pundits" and the news persons to pause long enough to cover the fallout from the results of the World Series and possibly the next person getting bit by a shark on a beach out in California before cranking up new polling and discussions and predictions about the next Presidential election in 2012.

And in the mean time I guess I'll just continue to work my ass of earning as much cash as possible so the IRS can stop by next April 15th and pick up their share of my largess.

Time to take a nap after being up all night working again.

Regards Y'all...

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Gregory Isaacs Passes Away...

" The Border "

 



Age 59 is too young.

RIP Mr. Isaacs...and say hello to Mr. Marley from all you guy's fans..

By The Way...Seen This?

Nail Gun Art...

Seven Days To Destiny

Upcoming Election A Critical Moment....


I don't know about you, Ladies and Gentlemen, but I personally believe that the outcome of next Tuesday's election will determine if our country turns back toward it's Constitutional underpinnings or continues out of control as it spins right down the Crapper.

I've been temped to go do "early voting" but there's something about showing up on the day of a vote and looking the election officials and your fellow citizens in the eye--geniuses, idiots, or otherwise--and exercise the most fundamental Right we have as citizens...or more specifically LEGAL RESIDENTS/CITIZENS...in this country.

In other local news, I continue to be distracted with recovering from last weekend's trip to the north Georgia Mountains to visit with old High School buddies, and I have a ton of work to do here this week so the volume of Blogging could continue to suffer.

In the mean time feel free to read something stupid in the political news and get angry or otherwise entertain your self.

Regards Y'all...