Saturday, December 31, 2011

24x7x365.something

The elapse of another year.

We here the echos of history rhyming with the present. We hum the same old tune too often.

This may be the "Year of the Jackpot", Heinlein may have got that right, Potiphar Breen seemed to figure out that if everyone does the same things and that isn't working the likelihood of all that insanity added to coincidence could be well, nuts!

So we have a major election year ahead, maybe the Mayan's will be sort a right. One can never tell if prediction lead to result or just suggest a wackier direction than would have been taken.

Stay safe, Happy New Years.

Eck!

Sunday, December 25, 2011

For all good and kind of heart people..

A very happy Yule, Merry Chrstmas,Happy Chanukah and all.

Stay safe everyone.


Eck!

Monday, December 19, 2011

Wow, year of the jackpot?

Well its that time of the year. The news people will start reflecting on the events of the year passed and how the changes will no doubt affect us. Let me be first to celebrate da4 bian4hua4 [big change].

We have Drones, I foresee the Copseye Corp having a very good decade.

We have martial law in a can, that being the ability of the military to arrest any citizen and detain them for any reason, for any amount of time, anywhere. Civil rights, and then there were none.

We have a political season of depressing and madding proportions with candidates of luze not previously seen.

The fundies will help us accept that all is lost and they should get it all anyway.
To insure that they are helping the great loose or is it luze.

Reminds me of about 50 years ago, duck and cover.


Keep your powder dry and well hid before they come and take it.

Eck!

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Freedom, i won't

That's from: And Then There Were None, Eric Frank Russel, worth a read.

It's an interesting tale of civility, responsibility and what freedom means.

With that as context, tomorrow is the 9/11/2011 and ten years after 9/11/2001. It's also about what we have become rather than how we dealt with an attack by terrorists on our soil.

In short we became sheep. We never did what was needed to continue our lives unhindered and free. If anything we went the other direction so that we not only fear the terrorists we fear our governments overhanded reactions. I do not support that.

Ten years ago tomorrow a lot of people died. We can't bring them back. We have for the most part extracted revenge and it tasted of sand. it was needed and may have bettered the world but it is joyless. Better to honor them and those that died saving others as that has a better taste and a longer history of good. How should we remember 9/11? Honor those that died, take care of the ill and wounded survivors.

From another time, Beware those that claim they have your best interests in mind for they are the problem.


Eck!

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

power recovery after Irene..

I'm not power company person or electrician. This is observation of those in the demanding and dangerous trade of maintaining the power grid.

The power companies have a good triage system and it's time proven. Fix the biggest failures and work your way down the list till you have only the few that have had the wires ripped off the house and need an electrician. Its and exponential decay to near zero. The last 1000 will take much more time to get fixed than the first 100,000. I've been watching them and they are tired and have been hustling. Still its about equipment and bodies as often a few people are needed to handle some problems and other require whole crews and specialized gear. It's fairly amazing that the industry has evolved that guys from Wisconsin, Vermont and the like can roll in with trucks and bodies and go to work effectively and safely.

The actual damage repair is interesting. They find a break or blown interrupter and the first thing they do is follow the line for other damage. The initial information comes from police looking for downed wires or poles and other trained eyes as well as phone reports of outages. If the damage is a side road they will break the link to that and then keep searching. If they have cleared all the faults they go back and power up the section and work their way down the line to the shut off sections. Sometimes like our area they have to power the section down to work on the fault before they can bring it all up safely. In our case the top line is 7.8KV and hacking tree limbs near that is very unsafe. To do that the lineman has to go to the source point and open the interrupters (fuses or pole mounted switch) and safe the line by installing a big fat jumper to ground in case someone else powers it due to improperly installed generator, other line faults or some lineman coming down to help and closing the switch. Once the line is safe the fault can be dealt with in our case a tree limb on the wire acting like a short circuit. Once that mess was cleared the lineman has to move back the cutoff point, remove the safety and restore (close) the interrupter. If all goes well the lights work. Repeat until relieved or too tired to be safe.

That said I'm watching Katy's kid, TS Katia now. I'm not putting the generator, cables, aux power sources, or other tools and gear away just yet! I will refill the gas can.

Be prepared, prepare before the first hint of trouble, and keep your power dry.

Eck!

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Trap Line

a shot at a Flash Fiction challenge.. find it here.. terribleminds.com

Trap Line


Saturday, 2 PM and a fine if not warm summer day.

I was down at the Rod and Gun for our weekly round of Trap. Had my Ithica M37 12ga and a big bag of number 7 trap loads, my ammo bag, a shell bag for the brass and a vest.

Yep, dressed and ready.

Always struck me odd that out here in the boonies we enjoyed the civilised sport of trap shooting. We've been doing it so long it's just what we do every Saturday afternoon. Beats a day of farming or ranching. Some say its recoil therapy.

We are a mixed group. We at most have in common that we farm or ranch and the trap shoot. Almost twenty years shooting trap and talk. On occasion we all go for a bird hunt or maybe a feral pig hunt. But Saturdays we are always at the club and we'll shoot if its' not raining or snow. I guess we are all hard core gunnies. We have that common line of farm tools, ranch tools and guns as part and parcel of both.

The other four shooters on the trap line were outfitted like me more or less.

Angie sprayed on jeans and her sharp tight vest her shooter is the Mossberg pump. Always liked the mossie. Shes a horse person and does the show riding thing.

Mack with the fancy engraved over under and looking like an Outers catalog. He was serious about his shooting and believe after years of it that he deserved a proper trap gun. His other toys were just as cool.

Thats a fine Benelli. He let me shoot a round with it. I'm in lust with a shotgun.

Stu had an old Remington pump that shot well but looked like it had been his dads and was short on finish and bluing but no rust. He was more for rifles but he claimed this was this something he did beacuse.

He was never specific on because of what. His farm was hard hit by floods last year. I brought a box of reloads for him.

I always joked I'd borrow his gun and refinish it. He'd laugh and say it would be a terrible thing bein too purty to shoot then.

Liana was older than the rest of us and always with the farmers jeans, a belt and two old cloth bags for the shot and brass. She was one of the real old timers of the area. The farm was a family farm going back to the indians. As usual her Stevens single was in the bag. I've seen her shoot doubles with that. I've noticed that her shooting position was by far the most refined and natural. She never missed, least in my memory. When we went for game or varmint shoots the rifle was a Remington bolt action a 30-06 and she was very good with that too.

We'd get there early and set the trap machine and talk. Usually about the farms, the going on in town or guns. This week it was the varmits and guns. Everyone has em, those pesky coyotes, racoons, chucks and the feral pigs. There's plenty to go 'round. Too much so this year. Angie asked if we all might get to her place for a chuck hunt. They were getting to be too many again. I thought that would be fun to drag out the 06 for that. Stu offered that an AK might be better there's so many. Mack suggested we bring what suits us and suggested the fifty he splurged on. We all agreed we'd put into the ammo pot to shoot the MaDuce at chucks. We had a good laugh and started waving twenties for ammo.

Stu started complaining about the city folk wandering about sometimes trespassing mostly small stuff. Mack noted they were worse this year too. I'd had my share of them. I usually had some of them too. Angie and Liana were not quiet on that problem either. We agreed the economy was making the two legged coyotes more wide ranging.

Up on the Trap line we all take places, load, yell PULL, and shoot. On a good day I hit every one.

What makes it fun is usually Mack gets the sneezes, often they come in threes, the microphone for the trap launcher doesn't know the difference and usually after the first sneeze we have a free for all of shooting the clay birds. Why waste the targets. Then we settle down for the round. Load, pull, shoot and a kill. After the round we call the day go back in the club have a coffee and talk. Often the rare miss comes up but we're still on varmints.

Angie mentions two legged varmints tried to break into her place. We've all had that. Usually they get scared away. Angie mentioned she fired off a few near the barn but they got away. Occasionally we have a break in or other theft in the area and someone gets caught or shot for that. The sheriff is usually short enough on men and far enough away that the call is usualy answered maybe an hour later.

I've taken a shot at one ow two. Actually caught one once, had to turn him over to the sheriff. If I had my way he'd have done thirty days working and sleeping in the barn.

Liana, said the trespassers were over her place. She didn't say much but I did notice she opened two boxes because the one box was one shot short.

I thought I heard her say, it's best to shoot, shovel and shut up.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Bachman, here's your sign!

THE MARRIAGE VOW
A Declaration of Dependence upon MARRIAGE and FAMiLY[sic]

A screed on how the rights see wrongs and how the rethugs will rule. Note that the source is one of the offshoots of the radical christian right.

The bracketed numbers are their referecnces to what justifies their "vow" excuses if you will for a special brand of thuggery. They run the gamut but are the usual screed and rad-right cruft that allows them to be bigots and anti-tolerant while having a "reason" that they are protesting things wrong. It's he old song of the First amendment allows me to say horrid things about those that also rely on the other nine.

I call Bullshit.

Some selected excerpts.

*Respect for the marital bonds of others.

Yep, so long as your not gay or... I call that an intro into the intolerance of
the very wrong tolerance. They try to make it look like we will keep out marriage out of yours. They exclude those that do not fit their model. What the wrong one and why? MYOB is the their wrong one. Read on.


*Vigorous opposition to any redefinition of the Institution of Marriage – faithful monogamy between one man and one woman – through statutory-, bureaucratic-, or court-imposed recognition of intimate unions which are bigamous,polygamous, polyandrous, same-sex, etc.

NOTE: bigamous,polygamous, polyandrous, are illegal and in many cases already criminal. The act of including those in the same sentence as same-sex is a form of propaganda that plays on association of bad with "bad" where the latter bad is defined by the propaganda source or this case the radical fundi-right.

*Earnest, bona fide legal advocacy for the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) at the federal and state levels.
*Steadfast embrace of a federal Marriage Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which protects the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman in all of the United States. [16]

Newspeak for we hate gays, single with child, divorced and use any old logic to deny their rights as humans like themselves and their associates. "WE" {those of the vow} have _dog on our side so therefore "they" {gay, and others already defined that support} are wrong. While DOMA has law form it does not have have support or any legal weight. It was legislative opinion and not supported by any Constitutional stake in the ground.


*Humane protection of women and the innocent fruit of conjugal intimacy – our next generation of American children –from human trafficking, sexual slavery, seduction into promiscuity, and all forms of pornography and prostitution,infanticide, abortion and other types of coercion or stolen innocence.[17]

*Rejection of Sharia Islam and all other anti-woman, anti-human rights forms of totalitarian control.[19]
*Recognition that robust childbearing and reproduction is beneficial to U.S. demographic, economic, strategic and actuarial health and security. [20]

Doublespeak for anti-abortion. In their opening section not quoted they talk about birthrates of minorities and whites. Guess which are lower and needs improving.. If you haven't read "Handmaids Tale" the crib notes are here "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Handmaid%27s_Tale". On one hand they say Sharia (Islamic law) is bad then go on to suggest in doublespeak we know better for you. IE: theocratic christian law is the correct one.

They do present the idea of elitist theocratic dystopian republican world as so appealing. Not if you read the lines between the lines. Especially not if you don't meet their criteria of their "us".

Hey, powder up, heads down, and stay safe, there are nuts out there.

Eck!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Traitors and critters

Well we have a nut job out California way that want to repeal the Second Amendment.

We have another doing the perves version of Betty Ford. What makes him think he's entitled to be a criminal and not be incarcerated?

Makes me ask why these and so many other people hate the country so much they would destroy it? I come up short for answers on that. I get the feeling they think they are sincere but haven't ehough about the effects further than the end of their nose. I'll go as far as to consider these people are cognitively impaired. It's not that they can't think, I believe they have long forgotten how.

Find cover this upcoming election may be more than interesting.


Eck!

Monday, May 30, 2011

In memoriam

To those that served and did not return.
In memory.
Our memory.
For our country.

Thank you is not even close to adequate.



Eck!

Thursday, May 26, 2011

when I feel crabby

Warning by Jenny Joseph

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

WTFO, huh edition

Well, One oddity is at my age I'm not so connected to family. Hell I've outlived most of them. A polite way to say that is I've learned not to enable them and realized it was pointless to communicate with the few remaining.

Well, from about the edge of space I find my dead of some twenty plus years kid of my sibling left a kid. That one wasn't very self controlled, didn't have a lick of sense and well who knows how many more there are.

Now what am I supposed to do with that? Damn thats crazy. All the usual checks says likely related and already doing a who's the family thing for the rest of the woebgone clan. Dang,
it kid just become yourself, who the rest are will only disappoint and hurt. The crazy goes on.

Heyah, stay safe and watch for the crazies..

Eck!

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

IT is broke again

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I call bullshit. their crap is broke again.

Eck!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Mine, Mine, mine, well not really!

A while back, say over a year we had a legal entity running around suing bloggers over copyrights..

At that time I said..

"But before you claim ownership one better make sure it's both theirs and unencumbered. I propose titles for copyright, if you claim copyright you have to prove you are the title holder if there is any dispute."

Guess what.. they lied. Seem they didn't own it and may not have been an actual authorized litigant.

Thank you EFF for that one.

Eck!

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Tee Many Martini

A flash fiction challenge, based on the name of a cocktail.


Y'all have to excuse me if this is a bit random. I've had a few Martinis. Likely to have a lot more.

We started years ago hunting in the back woods. A larger group then. Now only a few of us remain.

Seems we were tired of the usual game. Well, it seemed that way at the time.

Fact was, Tim wandered out in the wood drunk one night and found himself one of those creatures in the back wood. He ran for it, when he got back he was all cut up and looked like he'd been stomped by an elephant with a switch blade and put out for bait. A bloody mess. We decided whatever could do that was a worthy hunt.

Since then we meet, go out into the back wood and hunt for that thing. As many times as we have gone we only get a glimpse, maybe a few shots. We thought they were misses.

After the first year we never hunted in groups smaller than three.

Hell after that some of us armed up with .50BMG or .454 with big mags. Seems Alf's .308 only annoyed it and it got even. Ed saw that. After the hits it took I was trying to buy a Ma Duce. The BMG was what could be carried.

Its big, 7 foot long and we know it's not friendly. Did I mention it's damn fast.

Body armor was added too. That happened after the second year when we got a look at it using night vision.

The noise it makes is just something humans can't do.

`Bout every other year we lose someone to the thing, or their nightmares. Hell, last year Fred saw the thing and returned to get seriously liquored up. He ate a 12ga a week later. Ed too, he spotted it and charged it with a .45 after a full clip of '06 from his favorite Garand. We knew it was too fast to outrun. Tough critter.

We're down to three of us after 10 years. We all have nightmares. But we owe it to those we lost, even Mikey in the bughouse, to get this thing.

It's been a long hunt, we got it last night and we had to round up a few locals to help haul it out. I was the lucky one, emptied the Barrett, when I was done 10 rounds of mixed ball, AP, Tracer, a few sabot rounds. I started shooting at about 400 yards, it stopped at pistol range. But it was down and not moving. My shoulder hurts like hell.

Imagine, eyes of a gator. Nearly 350 pounds of claws, fangs, smelly, and most scary, female. There may be more out there. The joke was it was a mother-in-law and genetic experiments gone wrong. We're not so sure it's that far from the truth.

Anywho, I'm putting down my fifth drink I can still see its eyes.

The bar's buying, I'm drinkin' Blood Martinis.


BLOOD MARTINI

* 1 1/2 ounces Ketel One Citroen Vodka
* 1 ounce Ginger Liqueur
* 1 ounce Dark Grape Juice
* 1/2 ounce Blackberry Syrup
* Blackberries and raspberries for garnish

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Bilgewater on the Mount

Over 20 years ago I was reading how the Radical Christians as we now call them and before then they were the Moral Majority and Family Values passing the message to their flock that civic involvement is crucial to gaining the upper hand and defeating the godless. They actually had a "guide" that specified that even the lowly PTA was important but the school board was prime place. Of course they also pushed for more FV/MM/RC members to be part of other parts of government even the seemingly backwater parts like building and planning as they got to say if a Shrine or Tabernacle was permissible. Everyone can be the christian conscience, and indeed they are.

Fast forward to today. We have revisionist Barton being hailed as a speaker of the true words and endorsed by Huckabee his equal in the religiously fervent. Liars, preachers and revisionists, oh my. We looked at that that stuff from twenty plus years ago and laughed and now we see. If you don't that re-education camp will be more comforting pablum for the sheeple.

Me I'm for teaching Orwell, and the other masters of dystopian orders so the oblivious little kids of today have some clue what, Four legs good two legs better, really means. Maybe Mein Kampf should be critically read to see how those that want to control do so my inches. Of course Mao's little red book as well. After all everyone should know the rules and have the right words when challenged. then again if you have read them you know where and how words like them are created.

In the end if you don't not watch this you certainly will be will be sheeple. Don't forget the wolves are discussing dinner tonight and well, you are not on the dinner planning board, but likely on the cutting board.

As always keep your ears open, eyes pealed, powder dry and you head down.

Eck!

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Fire, shoot. Ready?

There are a profusion of anti- gun bloggers that have commonality.

They hate guns. Their belief system is wrapped around a negative view of a machine.

They exhibit negative bias toward those that use/own them.

They will ignore facts where they conflict with any held belief.

They lie often, sometimes knowingly, more often as a result of steadfast adherence to mistaken beliefs.

First truth: Guns have no morality, they will perform their designated task of propelling a projectile at target, game, or human or any other object pointed at. The use of metal, plastic and wood imparts no intelligence and therefore no willfulness in the machine.

Second truth: Guns are mechanical devices,they must be pointed and the firing mechanism must be operated or they will do nothing on their own by design.

Third truth: When you pick up any firearm what follows is your responsibility, completely. It's use can make you a hunter, marksman, hero, or criminal and all are a choice.

Forth truth: Firearms are property like all property, homes, cars, or a can of gas. Taking any of those is theft. Lawful taking of those requires due diligence and due course.

Fifth truth: Laws punish criminals they do not prevent them. No law prevents that. Law is the tool used to punish those that willfully do not obey.

Sixth law: incorrectly crafted law can create criminals out of law abiding people, they can also make it easier for criminals to escape punishment. Bad law is an offense to those would obey and useless to those who must enforce.

Seventh law: Well meaning people are often no better than dictators and despots. See Fifth law. Also see the the law of unintended consequences.

Supreme law: The United States has a founding document and also The Constitution, our supreme law that identifies both citizens and governmental rights, responsibilities and controls. This is not a document to cherry pick which ones you like or not.


Eck!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Running with scissors!

This is not about evolution. it is about devolution.

When I was a kid I was told to not run with scissors or knives because if I fell
I could get hurt. It extends to other things like watch where your going!

News noise this am..

The locals of the NYC area (and even Arkansas) want to ban walking and texting and also idiots and their Ipods listening with earbuds. Why? They are oblivious to the surrounding and have fallen into fountains, open manholes, and in front of buses! Seems to me if these people are so disconnected and unaware then Darwin should win as in they are unfit to survive and pass those so stupid it hurts genes to their kin.

I call nanny state. Oh, and bullshit. If you are that stupid to be code white and walking around then being robbed, run over, falling into a fountain, or falling in a hole is deserved for that level of being so stupid it hurts. I don't advocate violence to them. I do advice protect your self as they are dangerous to others in that their actions may trigger others. For example if a dumbshit is walking on the tracks with a loud Ipod and the train hits the emergency brakes all those unknowing in the back now have sprains, breaks and cracked skulls for proving inertia is real. Its all the worse likely the train couldn't stop anyway for the Darwin candidate.
I'd bet for the bus riders the same result if that bus had to stop hard.

When law makers pass this level of protective nanny there is only one solution for the aware, flee the area as it is a high danger area. After all the most dangerous place on earth has the following signs;

No Cell phones, No Texting, No cameras, No guns, No knives,

as likely there are No Police Either!

Or for that fact way to call them, photograph the perp, photograph the carnage, or defend yourself or others.

Run [Where permitted] do not walk to sanity and safety.


Eck!

Saturday, January 1, 2011

I once read about the future..

We are now officially in the year 2011. So big deal!

When I was 10, computers were big and a big deal.

When I was 16, we put our feet on the moon. But we haven't since.

Now I'm approaching 58, I can put that computer in my pocket. We still aren't going to the moon or any damn where else.

We don't fly faster than we did in 1969 either.

Every possible idea I've read about in shiny science fiction pretty much hasn't happened. Well that not true. Seems all the dark things, maybe even dystopian ones are more like what we are looking at.

The flying cars, space travel they seem to be incrementally slow in coming. What was known then and forgotten now, or seemingly so, is to do this requires energy (besides that of oil). More correctly, cheap, clean and abundant energy so that even inefficient methods can work. Cheap energy is infrastructure. However what was sometimes missed in the SF world is energy is in our current world, the equivalent of money.

Nope, the future is not yet here, and it sucks. You want to read SF then that has a hint of now, read the short story anthologies, seems some of that is here.


Eck!