Thursday, December 07, 2006

Remember Today



We were basically at peace. We didn't really want to get involved with the problems of all those people half a world away from us. On this day we were forced to take a position. The number of dead wasn't important. The ships lost, the airplanes, the point that woke us up and showed us that there was an enemy out there and they wanted to destroy our way of life was that they attacked America herself.

Bless those. like my Dad, who at a time where we easily could have given up with our fleet destroyed, could have just given up, but instead signed up to defend the principles of our country.

The sacrifices were incredible, to our unreal beliefs of how a war can be fought today (our soldiers don't get shot and there are not civilians caught in the fights). Thousands dying in one day, but no backing down on the home front. They knew evil when they saw it and were willing to stand up and face it.

My undying gratitude and God bless you all who fought or those who worked to support this cause.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Saving My Past


Between my wife and I, we must have over 300 vinyl records, LP's. We haven't had a decent turntable to play them on in about 10 years. I have now undertaken the task of trying to digitalize our musical past.

One of the major decisions I have to make on every recording, is do I keep those clicks and pops that were a feature of this medium. To me that was how I remember listening to these songs. Without that little pop at that certain point, sometimes it just doesn't seem the same.

The crystal clear sound of the CD makes sure that you always get the same sound every time you hear it, but after a needle has drug through the grooves of a LP a few hundred times, that particular album becomes part of your personal history and all it's little flaws actually become endearing.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Just Stupid

I'm still catching up from my being away, but this is amazing. Go watch and come back, I'll wait. From Hot Air.

The idea of stereotyping another ethic group, even if you are supporting them, while making fun of another guy for stereotyping an ethic group, even if he was trying to make a point (badly) about supporting them is just stupid. I wouldn't expect anything less from the likes of O'Donnell (I don't think that's an Italian surname) who, according to librul laws, may have the right to bring up "Potato Eaters" but not "macaca", except for that corollary of librul's cannot be held to the same rules as everyone else.

Minimum Wage...Again

I heard on the news the other day that 2% of the work force make minimum wage. A majority of these people making minimum wage were either students or retired people looking to supplement their income.

Every company that has a work force in the U.S. pays more that the Federally mandated rate, even above the California state mandated rate.

For many years now, I have thought that this was just a ploy by the Unions to drive up the wages of their members, but being Union employees make much, much, much more that this wage there had to be something else.

TAXES

In the society where all people are entitled to the same level of prosperity as everyone else, regardless of your contribution, you have to have a base line to delineate what is excessive. This is the level of income that can be taxed at an exorbitant rate (think 75%) because you don't deserve to earn that much more than your fellow man, you should be required to help the less fortunate, regardless of whether they are an addict or have had 5+ children without getting their HS diploma or bothering to marry one of the men who got them pregnant.

I am amazed, that in the United States, that the government would have the balls to tell me that I have worked to much and that that I don't deserve credit for the hours and commitment that I have put in to make my life better than the ones who just show up for their job and don't bother to take the responsibilities to advance in their job.

One thing that has always stuck with me was that one of the biggest spokespersons of my generation, for equal opportunity and reward for all people was John Lennon. Where did he decided to live? In the United States. Why? I wasn't that he loved the U.S. more than his home country, as he bitched constantly that we never did enough for the poor, but in that period Britain's tax rate was around 75%, and this hero of the common people didn't want the government to take his money. Basically he was doing what the leftards accuse big corporations of doing and putting his earnings into off-shore accounts to protect them from excessive taxation.

This taxation level will not be enacted in the next 2 years. It can't be done without controlling the President's office and having a larger majority in both houses, but enacting this feel good proposal is just the groundwork for the next step.

Time Flying By

I can't believe the amount of time since my last post. Life just got kinda busy and flew by.

At work we actually got the OK to start up the site this week, but because of a shortcut taken, wee had a big problem, so now we have a work-over rig back in the yard to fix what we wasn't checked for a week and a half ago.

My Raiders have reverted back to form and are again in the run to position themselves for next years draft. Walter was sacked 7 time in the first quarter, the Seattle defense were past the offensive line and in the backfield waiting for Walters to get there.

The GOP got it's butt kicked in the election, but in what could be considered a minor victory, the Dems that were elected ran mostly on a conservative platform, so now it's a wait and see if they really were advocating what they said, or where just lying till they got in office.

The worst part of the election is Pelosi becoming Chairman of the House. The word is that most Americans don't know who Pelosi is, man are they in for a shock. I live in California and have watched this woman's policies enacted around the San Francisco area and I don't believe her assertion of bi-partisanship. I remember when Bush put out his hand in bi-partisanship to Ted "the Swimmer" Kennedy on the "No Child Left Behind" program, and *hic* Kennedy *hic* had stabbed Bush in the back before he had made it to the corner liquor store for his daily restock.

Well, I got something down, now I have to work harder to get back in the habit of scribbling something more often.

Monday, October 23, 2006

On Their Way


Well, the Raiders ruined their perfect record and actually won a game. I'm cetain with the way my luck runs, that they are going to win just enough games that they'll screw up their position in the draft.

The Bears had a bye, so the games yesterday didn't mean to much, although the Giants-Cowboys game tonight should be fun with both teams at 3-2.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Silly

This is just silly, but it got me laughing...and don't think the German's (I believe this is German) don't have a sense of humor. This is a slow loader at the home site, so it may take a bit.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

I Thought It Might Of Been Me


For most of the game last night, I was afraid that I was going to have the whole town of Chicago trying to hunt me down and kill me.

It almost seemed like I had brought a curse on the Bears by picking them as the team I will root for to bet the the Super Bowl. I know the Cardinals aren't as bad as their record, but I never would have dreamed that the game could have gone like it did. I was just about ready to shut the TV off and go to bed when the Bears had their rally.

Anyway, I feel safe for another two weeks, as Chicago has a bye next week, then have to play the 2-4 49ers at home.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Raiders Maintain Their Perfect Record



The only thing wrong is they've got the numbers on the wrong sides of the hyphen. 0-5. God, how things have changed in a few years. Ever since the playoff game against the Patriots in 2001. I felt then that that was going to be the last Super Bowl chance for a while for the Raiders, they were old and weren't likely to be able to hold it together for another year.

A rebuilding was due, but because of that loss, they tried to stick it out longer by bringing in more old players to fit into the system quckly. It didn't work and I'm paying for it now.

I'm resigned to one of those periods like the Packers went through from their glory days in the '60's till they aquired Farve and bult a team around him in the mid '90's.

Here's hoping I'm not going to be in my 80's when the Raiders field a winning team again.

Oh, and congrats to GuyK and his Bucs for winning one.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Military Capability

I've been hearing a lot over the weekend about the military capability of the United States. The consensus has been that we do not have enough to handle the problems that are facing us.

The fact that everyone overlooks is that we could handle all the problems, simultaneously, in any way we choose. We can pursue peace, or we could just make you not a problem.

The small detail that we could wipe out the entire planet and still have military capability left over seems to be dropped from the equation of what is going on.

If we really wanted Mid-east oil to fuel our military industrial complex and to keep the sheeple happy, we could take it today, and nobody could stop us.

However, the world would rather listen to the "dignitaries" from the NKPR or Iran about our country dreaming of an empire.

Our culture may be taking over the world, but that is a choice, but we have not added one square foot of territory to the United States by hook or crook, so you can just bite my ass about the "Imperilalistic American Agenda".

If I was you, I would pray we wanted your country, which we don't, cause, if we really did, you would be gone by now.

Floriduh!

I know, with where I live I shouldn't be besmirching other states...but, why does it seem that just about every nutso news story nowadays seem to be emanating from the Sunshine State? All the sensless murders, car chases and whatever has outpaced California and, if this keeps up, will make us look like a run of the mill state.

You know what, you guys are welcome to it. If we can just get rid of the 9th Curcuit (although that encompasses more than California), we could drop off the news altogether.

On Being republican in California

I registered Republican in '79. I have never received anything from the GOP in the mail outside of a few mailers from some of the local races.

My son just registered as Republican and has received nothing from the GOP.

My wife who is Democrat, and hadn't registered to vote until she was in her 40's (sorry, the ragging about her opinion didn't count cause she didn't vote backfired on me) gets at least 2 mailers or letters per day.

We can elect a Repub governor, but "my" party is so convinced that this state is a lost cause that they will not invest any money is trying to get their message out, even to those of us that could help them bring sanity to this state. They are so convinced that Feinstein and Boxer cannot be challenged on their respective dismal records, that there is no use in even trying to do battle with their socialist platforms.

I wonder why I even bother to vote for the Statewide positions. If the GOP has given up on California, why should I bother to fight for it?

I will continue the fight, but it sure would be nice tho have alittle backing of the party.

I Feel a Burst coming On

After a week of hell on my graveyard shift, I have a few things stored up. Get ready for some rapid fire posts that have been building up.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Switching Teams



Well, I've finally gotten over my depression regarding the Raiders season. It took me an extra day after I heard one of the after game analysts say that the Raiders had to be that worst team in sports, not just football, all sports, and I had to agree.

How they can come out a play a good game for the first half, then go in at half time, make adjustments and come out so inept in the second half is sickening.

I'll still watch any Raider game on TV and root for them, but this is another of those years where breaking .500 is a victory, and I'll be amazed if they make that.

So the team that I'm going to support for the Super Bowl is the Chicago Bears. What I've seen of them this year, they have the tools, a defense that won't let anything go unchallenged and an offense that can put lots of points on the board.

Another reason is I have two friends, one a Viking fan and the other a die-hard Packer fan and this will give me a good chance to needle them without mercy, being they'll each have to play Chicago twice.

Saturday, October 07, 2006

PO'd

I haven't been here in a while because I was working days. My company was supposedly going to start production, but that's off. My job over the last week was to haul solidified chunks of rotarty mud out of the cellar (16 steps), I've got weak knees and multiple trips up and down these stairs are wearing. By the time I get on-line and visit my regular sites, I'm just to burned out to care about posting.

I've written before that the production site I work at has been down for quit a while now. We have gotten the okay to start up the site again, with some limits, once we get an injection well operating. I've still got all my vacation time and was told to use some of it before we started up, so I put in for weeks worth.

Turns out the time I put in for coincided with the go ahead date given us by the State. My vacation was cancelled, and due to not getting the work done on the well that we need to inject our production water, we haven't started up either. Now I can't take vacation because the foreman is taking his vacation, and probably won't be able to take mine because when he gets back, we are into the holiday season and off time is restricted.

On top of this, last night, when I got to work I was informed that I was to go to our other site (23ed) and work there. I was originally hired to operate that site and worked there for about four months, but because of some politics, I got sent to the site I work now (Broadway). I didn't really care outside of the first site had just been gone through and had all updated equipment and the site I ended up at had by-passed just about every piece of automated equipment.

In the three years since I last worked at 23ed, the guys working there have abused all the equipment and the place is a mess. Equipment is bypassed, tanks have been run over (and were running over when I showed up last night) and equipment and procedures have been changed.

At 9:30 PM, I'm getting a tour and rundown on what has to be done. It's dark and not incredibly well lit, so I'm trying to figure out how everything ties together without being able to trace the piping from one vessel to another. On top of this I'm being told that some alarms may go off, but if it's this or that, don't worry, it isn't important.

I'll be honest and state that retirement is my goal. I love to work, but I would rather do it on my schedule, what I want done, when I want to do it. On my last job, I didn't mind the 12 to 16 hour days, because I thought the owners were serious about trying to keep the company going, turns out I was wrong, but I loved the job and I was willing to put in the effort.

The company I work for now seems to have no plan. Work on a well, hit a problem, stop and go to another well, hit a problem, repeat. Nothing gets fixed and no long range planning. We've had 8 months to fix (from what I'm learning now) anywhere from 5 to 18 years of neglect, I don't expect it all to be done right now, but the owner seems to be thrashing about trying to find the easiest way to get back to production, and it ain't working. We are no closer to starting up now than we were five months ago.

I'm pissed and I'm tired. Usually going to a new site would invigorate me with a challege, but this time I'm just fed up.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

DKos Sucks

This is just my opinion and I'll stand by it.

1078

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

I've Got To Say Something


This man is an ass. He seems to have no recollection of what really happened during his term as president. Now, he may have done no more, or no less than the ones on either side of him, but you cannot just say I did so-and-so and make it the truth. And the last thing you should do is tell people to go read a book to get the facts and then have the book say the opposite of what you just professed. Guess he never read the book, just figured the author would just parrot the points on the list handed out at the end of his term.

The other thing that has bothered me quit a bit about the video that follows, is that here is a past president just jumping into that space we all carry around with us that you just don't enter unless it's for physical reasons, either love or hate. We are not a touchy-feely society, so when someone gets within a foot of you and/or starts touching you, it's either a threat, or to be close with someone you trust. Being he was poking and speaking loudly. I would consider that a threat. I'll give Wallace credit, if someone had done that to me, they would be on their butt. Now Clinton is a big guy, 6' 1" and hefty enough to have to watch his weight, so if he was in my face talking loud (he die keep it below a shout) I would feel threatened.

Go here to watch the video: Clinton vs. Wallace on “Fox News Sunday” Update: Wallace asked Rumsfeld same question in ‘04

And if you think this is the first time Clinton has threatened the press, here he is letting that poor Canadian Peter Jennings know where he stands. Clinton points finger at Jennings, enraged at moral questioning (more video added).

I think that the message was clear, you don't question what I did with facts, because if my wife gets elected President, we've got another 4 to 8 years to make your life hell, and we will.

Louisiana and New Orleans have Seceded From the Union Again


How else do you explain this?
the City of New Orleans persisted in desperately clinging to its anti-gun agenda by contemptuously arguing just the opposite--that the Second Amendment does not apply to residents in the State of Louisiana and the City of New Orleans.

Seems to me that the only way you could argue that ANY part of the Constitution would not apply to you would be if you were no longer a part of the United States.

Monday, September 25, 2006

Youth

A few of us were sitting around the office BSing today as the site is still down and there wasn't anything to do. We started out with some of the stupid stuff we did as kids that really should have maimed us badly if it didn't kill us outright. We all said that our kids don't seem to go out and stir up trouble like we did.

One guy who's Dad was career Army said his family didn't get a TV till he was 11 and permanently stationed state side, so he would be out of the house as quick as he could. The rest of us all had TV's, but Saturdays, cartoons were over at 10:00 AM, so we'd scoot until it was dinner time.

We didn't have computers, cell phones, DVD players that seem to keep kids in the house most of the day. I lived in the mountains just north of Los Angeles, so we'd be up the canyon having BB gun wars and digging mines, or just wandering the hills.

When we got to the asinine things we did with cars, we all talked about that first POS that we bought and spent half the time repairing. The water pump, the brakes that were shot when we got it and we put another 5,000 miles on till the squeal got annoying because we didn't have the cash being we had to buy the damn water pump. A car that squealed, but ran, was better than as safe car that wouldn't run.

When we started to talk about how nowadays you can't work on cars due to all the computers, we realized that anyone we had hired that was born after the mid 70's does not seem to have any mechanical skills. Most kids you hire for working a job that involves repair work, you literally have to start at the beginning with what a tool is and how to use it properly.

There are no Shop classes in Middle School, no Auto Shop in High School. They don't offer trade clases, everything is geared towards college or the technical fields. It's good to design a new device that will catch a mouse more efficiently, but who is going to build the damn thing?

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Ah, Sunday


I'm relatively sure the Raiders were able to get through this Sunday without losing. Next week is the big test, the fearsome Cleveland Browns. a loss next week and I can pretty much give up the season.

I'm leaning for going for the Seahawks, but their 4th quarter play today unsettled me a little. Leading 42-3 going into the 4th, they proceeded to give up 27 unanswered points to win 42-30. It may wake them up to the fact that no matter what your lead, don't let up till the game is over. I'm sure that Coach Mike Holmgren will explain this to the team.

My condolences to GuyK who's team lost their QB due to a ruptured spleen. A iffy year to begin with, I guess this will go down as a training year and a chance to get some high draft picks next year. Just don't take all the good offensive linemen. The Raiders could use about six.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

One More Thing

I couldn't help it. I just had to sneak back out of bed to play with the new toy one more time.

I said in the previous post that Pink Floyd and bowie share the number one spot, so I just couldn't short-shift Pink Floyd. I picked the title track form MY favorite album of theirs. "Wish You Were Here".

Trying Some New Stuff

It's Saturday and I had a shitty day at work. All the parameters for selling natural gas were in the green, but the damn Gas Co. equipment went kaput. I had to shut down the entire site till Monday because we have no where for the gas to go. It will be a long boring shift at work tomorrow and the Raiders have a bye, so I can't just sit in the office and watch my team play. I can watch the Seahawks-Giants game and the Denver*spit*-*spit*New England*spit*(How do you root for both teams to lose?).

So anyway, here are the things that I wanted to try.

1) Putting a picture, somewhere besides the top of the post.



















That worked very well. Why I didn't think of that a long time ago is beyond me. I probably could have asked one of the other Blogsnot users that I visit how they did it, but I'm hardheaded and sometimes just like to figure it out the hard way on my own.

2) Embed a YouTube player and have it work.


This is to easy.

I picked Bowie because he and Pink Floyd are sharing the number one spot in the Rock'n'Roll category. I picked this song just because it's newer and on the album the last line during the fade out where he's listing all the people that say "hi", he includes 'Your big fat dog" which just cracked me up the first time I caught it. We had a Lab, that was a runt, so her legs were a little shorter than normal and she got very round as she got older and I would just call her "Fat Dog". A dumb story I know, but I started to give you the reason and that's it.

Well, this went well for attempting new things, so I think I'll leave off here before I try something and mess up and have to stay up all night trying to repair the damage.

New Attitude

I have a problem with my posting and I just realized what it was. I have things to say, but by the time it comes to post my thoughts, I have been to numerous sites that, I feel, have said what I wanted to say, and said it so much better.

Starting tomorrow, or maybe today, being it’s after midnight already, I’m just going to go ahead and post on whatever it is that bugs me at the moment.

For some reason I thought that people who had read something on one of the popular blogs I go to, would stop by mine and go “Oh, he just lifted that from there”. Well, I do go to a lot of sights that reflect my leanings, so yes it may be a rehash or conglomeration of other sites, but if I write it down, it means I believe it.

I’m not a writer and have never been known for my scathing commentary, but this site was for me to put down what I feel, for myself. I only have to learn to let my sarcastic side out when I write. A lot of people won’t get it, but tough, like I said, this was started for me.

Let’s see how this goes.

Friday, September 22, 2006

Hey Muslim Mo'fo's

Have I got your attention now?

I have a simple question. It's really not hard to answer, it's just yes or no, but I want the answer what is in your heart.
DO YOU RESPECT MY VIEW OF RELIGION?
Pretty simple isn't it? The only problem is all I hear is that we do not respect your religion and then you destroy someone or something. How about respecting my beliefs?

I'll allow you some time, not a lot, to decided. Are you going to let me go on and live my life as I see fit, or, because I will not accept Islam, I must be killed or degrinated by Dhimmitude?

Let me know because the way you are acting now, I just figure you want me dead because of my belief, and you ae going to have a fight on your hands if that's what it comes to.

In the mean time, don't mind if I keep you at arms length, cause I cannot trust you. Your mullahs say death me me and mine, yet you say we all should just get along. You tell me who I should believe or trust?

You may say that I'm judging all muslims by the acts that I see on TV with the killing of Nuns and burning of churches, well, yes I am. You give me a good reason to ignore your actions and "fatwahs" against everything you percieve to be a slight and maybe I'll change my mind. Like always, it'll be....*crickets chiping*.

Admitting the Truth

If you wonder why you should read blogs, I think this is a good example. To get a perspective from people that have been through what we try to grasp and nail that feeling that just won't gel, but we know is there.

From doc Russia
we are apparently doing everything but killing people and breaking things which is exactly what winning a war is all about. He who killls more people and breaks more things generally wins a war. But we are not doing that. No, instead we are talking about what kind of memorials to erect "to commemorate the courage and the sacrifice of those who died." Hey! aside from flight 93 (which certainly should be a lesson to us all), and except for maybe Rescorla, most of those people were just victims.

...And we just love our victims.


We are at war! If you do not want to recognise that fact, then I pity you and the world you are willing to leave to your children. They will never know the freedoms afforded by the system of government founded back in 1776. They will also never see the world you envisioned where every culture is equally "revered". The people we are fighting want their ideals imposed on all, and you, nor your children will never have a say in it.

Monday, September 18, 2006

The Long Season


It took me 24 hours to pull out of my funk regarding the prospects for the Raiders this year and I have resigned myself to a long and unhappy season.

At first I was blaming lack of production on Brooks not fitting into the scheme, but now it's obvious that the raiders just have no, none, nada front offensive line. They can't stop the rush for 4 seconds, they can't stop the rush for 2 seconds. If the opposing team didn't have to run over them just by their bodies being there, we could just eliminate those positions.

The high point of the game for me was the defense. Playing the whole first quarter, outside of the few plays where the offense just gave the ball back to the other team, held the Ravens to just 3 field goals.

Next week at least we have a 50-50 chance of not hurting ourselves---we have a bye. Then the test. We have Cleveland and San Francisco, if we can't win these games, then I'm going to have to pick another team for the rest of the year. I'll still be a Raider fan and watch and root for them, but reality has to take hold at some point and I can't be completely depressed for the next year hoping for the impossible.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Vaudeville Night Again



It's that time where we once again get to celebrate the old time entertainment, before TV, movies or radio. Vaudeville...the precursor to the variety show.

The thing that amazes me most about this yearly hadj to this event for my wife and I, is that my 17 year old son has looked forward to this every year.

The main difference this year is that they have a new headline act, instead of "Ian Whitcomb and his Bungalow Boys" (who are very good) they have "Janet Klien and her Parlor Boys".

Here's the lineup:
Opening the show will be
America’s enchanting ukelele chanteuse JANET KLEIN and her Parlor Boys
playing nostalgic music from the vaudeville era.

Then, live on stage will be:

Who's On First?
DAVIS & FAVERSHAM
Tribute to Abbott & Costello

Jovial Jaunty Juggling
BEEJAY JOYER
Masterful Manual Manipulations

Maestro of the Glass Harmonica
MICHAEL GREINER
Creator of Crystal Melodies

From Bulgaria!
STOIL & EKATERINA
Masters of Magical Transformations

True to the vaudeville genre, the evening concludes on the big screen with a Walter Lantz cartoon BROADWAY BOW WOW'S and Charlie Chaplin’s, 1916 comedy classic ONE A.M. starring the loveable tramp and to close, Buster Keaton in PARDON MY BERTH MARKS.


And if Lady Heather ever drops by, just to make her jealous, here is what we get in November:
Larry, Moe and Curly!
9th Annual Three Stooges ™ Big Screen Event!

We celebrate the 9th year of our popular “Stooge-fest,” a collection of five classic short subjects cherry picked from the Columbia Pictures’ vaults by our blue ribbon panel of Stooge-o-philes.

This year our theme will be:“Saving Private Curly... Stooges in Arms”

Each of the shorts has some sort of military or wartime theme.

I’ll Never Heil Again (1941)
Three Little Sew and Sews (1939)
Boobs in Arms (1940)
Uncivil Warriors (1935)
Fuelin’ Around (1949)

Plus there will be a surprise clip from a great Three Stooges™ film to cap off the program.

Come join us for the wacky Thanksgiving weekend event that has become a holiday tradition for Stooge fans of all ages.

Friday, September 15, 2006

They Expect Me To Work

After 7 months with the site being down and having no production of oil or gas (hence no company income) we got the OK from the Gas Company to start seeling gas. The main problem with this, is that the State of California won't let us start pummping the oil producing wells until next week. If we can't pump the wells, we can't get the oil and water out of the way to let the gas out. This means we get a very low flow of gas that is wet from passing through a few thousand feet of liquid.

The gas we sell has limits on BTU's and inerts. Max But's = 1150 and max inerts = 4.001. In order to get the BTU's down to where they can be sold, we refrigerate the gas through two "bundles", "A" & "B". With the low flow and amount of liquid suspended in the gas, the bundles have a tendency to freeze, so you get about two hours on one side until it freezes up, then you switch to the other. The valves are stiff as hell and about 6 1/2 feet off the ground. I have opened and closed these valves so many times over the last three days that my shoulders and neck are screaming from yanking on those bastards.

I should also mention that I am the lucky SOB on graveyard shift. Alone and in the dark (half our lights are out and "we can't afford to buy light bulbs at this time").

The "best" thing about this whole start up is that all the automated valves and limiters that haven't been used for the last seven months and were only borderline working back then, are now not functioning. This means the Operator's are now tasked with being human actuators. We get to scurry from one end of the production pit to the other opening and closing valves, trying to keep things balanced.

My best night was the second day of running the site, I start at 9 PM and at 9:30 I got my first alarm. It wasn't something big, just a scrubber was filling with liquid, I just figured the guy I relieved had missed it being we had been off for so long and it would take everyone a few days to get back into swing remembering all the things to check at end of shift.

When the same alarm went of at 10:00, I started searching for what could cause it and found that my whole gas system was full of water. This is not a good thing. Liquid causes the bundles to freeze and if it hits our gas compressor can destroy it. It took me until amost 4 AM to find where it was coming from, someone had the bright idea of running the water/gas well we had pumping through a different separator that had been non-fuctional, but "they had fixed" and neglected to inform the next operator of this change. The fix had obviously lasted for a few hours, because the guy I releved hadn't had any major problems, but by the time I came on, hell was at the doorstep.

On top of the adventure of trying to running all night solving this mystery, I got to pull a double shift and stay through to 1 PM to cover "relief day" being we had someone quit a few weeks ago and haven't hired anyone to replace him. Then it's 8 hours off and back to work. I was so wound up when I got home, I couldn't get to sleep, then the wife got home just after four and Ralph, my 83 pound dog, decided the shortest route to greeting Mom was across my stomach. so I was up, having gotten maybe three hours sleep. Back to work by 9 PM and another shift of being a human actuator. This night was not bad, just busy.

I am now on my "long change", off for 5 1/2 days and boy do I need it. I sleep for 13 hours straight on Thursday, which is amazing. If Ralph took the shortcut across me, I didn't notice.

Monday, September 11, 2006

The Case for Rage and Retribution

My first inclination was to just have the simple post below and let everyone keep their own thoughts on this day, but, going through my daily blogs, I came across as article quoted at Right Wing Nation that caused me to change my mind. this was just to powerful to not pass on.

The Case for Rage and Retribution
By LANCE MORROW

Posted Wednesday, Sep. 12, 2001

For once, let's have no "grief counselors" standing by with banal consolations, as if the purpose, in the midst of all this, were merely to make everyone feel better as quickly as possible. We shouldn't feel better.

For once, let's have no fatuous rhetoric about "healing." Healing is inappropriate now, and dangerous. There will be time later for the tears of misfortune note.

A day cannot live in infamy without the nourishment of rage. Let's have rage. What's needed is a unified, unifying, Pearl Harbor sort of purple American fury—a ruthless indignation that doesn't leak away in a week or two, wandering off into Prozac-induced forgetfulness or into the next media sensation (O.J. … Elián … Chandra …) or into a corruptly thoughtful relativism (as has happened in the recent past, when, for example, you might hear someone say, "Terrible what he did, of course, but, you know, the Unabomber does have a point, doesn't he, about modern technology?").

Let America explore the rich reciprocal possibilities of the fatwa. A policy of focused brutality does not come easily to a self-conscious, self-indulgent, contradictory, diverse, humane nation with a short attention span. America needs to relearn a lost discipline, self-confident relentlessness—and to relearn why human nature has equipped us all with a weapon (abhorred in decent peacetime societies) called hatred.

As the bodies are counted, into the thousands and thousands, hatred will not, I think, be a difficult emotion to summon. Is the medicine too strong? Call it, rather, a wholesome and intelligent enmity—the sort that impels even such a prosperous, messily tolerant organism as America to act. Anyone who does not loathe the people who did these things, and the people who cheer them on, is too philosophical for decent company.

It's a practical matter, anyway. In war, enemies are enemies. You find them and put them out of business, on the sound principle that that's what they are trying to do to you. If what happened on Tuesday does not give Americans the political will needed to exterminate men like Osama bin Laden and those who conspire with them in evil mischief, then nothing ever will and we are in for a procession of black Tuesdays.

This was terrorism brought to near perfection as a dramatic form. Never has the evil business had such production values. Normally, the audience sees only the smoking aftermath—the blown-up embassy, the ruined barracks, the ship with a blackened hole at the waterline. This time the first plane striking the first tower acted as a shill. It alerted the media, brought cameras to the scene so that they might be set up to record the vivid surreal bloom of the second strike ("Am I seeing this?"), and then—could they be such engineering geniuses, so deft at demolition?—the catastrophic collapse of the two towers, one after the other, and a sequence of panic in the streets that might have been shot for a remake of The War of the Worlds or for Independence Day. Evil possesses an instinct for theater, which is why, in an era of gaudy and gifted media, evil may vastly magnify its damage by the power of horrific images.

It is important not to be transfixed. The police screamed to the people running from the towers, "Don't look back!"—a biblical warning against the power of the image. Terrorism is sometimes described (in a frustrated, oh-the-burdens-of-great-power tone of voice) as "asymmetrical warfare." So what? Most of history is a pageant of asymmetries. It is mostly the asymmetries that cause history to happen—an obscure Schickelgruber nearly destroys Europe; a mere atom, artfully diddled, incinerates a city. Elegant perplexity puts too much emphasis on the "asymmetrical" side of the phrase and not enough on the fact that it is, indeed, real warfare. Asymmetry is a concept. War is, as we see, blood and death.

It is not a bad idea to repeat a line from the 19th century French anarchist thinker Pierre-Joseph Proudhon: "The fecundity of the unexpected far exceeds the prudence of statesmen." America, in the spasms of a few hours, became a changed country. It turned the corner, at last, out of the 1990s. The menu of American priorities was rearranged. The presidency of George W. Bush begins now. What seemed important a few days ago (in the media, at least) became instantly trivial. If Gary Condit is mentioned once in the next six months on cable television, I will be astonished.

During World War II, John Kennedy wrote home to his parents from the Pacific. He remarked that Americans are at their best during very good times or very bad times; the in-between periods, he thought, cause them trouble. I'm not sure that is true. Good times sometimes have a tendency to make Americans squalid. The worst times, as we see, separate the civilized of the world from the uncivilized. This is the moment of clarity. Let the civilized toughen up, and let the uncivilized take their chances in the game they started.

5 Years


It's been five years since the nation was shocked into reality by the barbaric acts of men who have no qualms of killing innocent people to further their goal of dragging the world back into the seventh century.

It still seems like it happened yesterday, I don't think there is a day that passes that the images of the Twin Towers and Pentagon don't creep into my thoughts.

I recommend stopping by the "2996 Project" and reading some of the tributes to the people who's lives were cut way to short that day. (Bring a hankie)

You should also go to "Never Forgive, Never Forget", particularly if you haven't seen the video before.

Friday, September 08, 2006

2996


2,996 is a tribute to the victims of 9/11.

On September 11, 2006, 2,996 volunteer bloggers
will join together for a tribute to the victims of 9/11.
Each person will pay tribute to a single victim.

We will honor them by remembering their lives,
and not by remembering their murderers.


Dale Roe has organized this. Please stop by his site Monday and read some of the posts.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Saturday Blog

This is my Saturday and it's too damn hot (over 100) to go outside and try to do anything.

We had a long discussion on the Rott about the football coach that blindsided the kid for the alleged illegal block after the play. I went and looked at the video and played Replay Official, running it back and forth and came to the following conclusions:

1. The whistle was late, the runner went down then there was a couple of seconds till the whistle. Of course these are not professional refs, but the rules are you play til the whistle and your assignment is the guy in front of you.

2. The hit occurred simulataniously with the whistle.


3. The hit most likely wasn't illegal. From the way the white shirt went down, on his back, that would point to being blocked front or side. White shirt could probably see the runner go down and relaxed, but the other guy is focused on who to block, he dosen't watch the ball.

4. A flying forearm to the back of the head was not the way to handle this.

This was an overreaction on this Dad's part. His son got up and was heading for the sidelines, his demeanor did not indicate he felt he was wronged. His first reaction seemed to be "“Where'’s Dad going?"

The answer to these things is to put your biggest fastest guy on the supposed offender a few plays later and make sure he goes down hard.

When I first saw it on TV, I couldn't hear the whistle and the block went by so fast it was hard to see what happened and I thought it was way illegal, but you play til the whistle and the refs were a bit slow. The block may have been boaderline, but not deserving of what that Dad did.
---------------------

If you've been trying to figure out the Lebanese ambulance thing and whether it was attack by missile, machine gun, axe? I ran across a couple of sites, the first one is about every detail you could want on what is know and said, The Red Cross Ambulance Incident via zombietime. The other is a simple video, but does add to the argument that the MSM is going to have to add another layer of fact checkers to the 70,000 they claim to already have. Rocket Ride (Hezbollywood Remix)
at The Jawa Report.

Saturday, September 02, 2006

It Was 61 Years Ago , Today


While the normal celebration of the victory Over Japan is August 14, the official end of the occurred today with the signing of the Unconditional Surrender of the Japanese Empire.

How times have changed. Japan attacks us, and we go all out to defeat the enemy. People died, lots of people died, but we knew this was something that had to be taken to a definite and unambiguous conclusion.

moslems attack us and we start with the navel gazing trying to figure out why they would want to do that. I do not care what their reason is, that they want my family, friends, and acquaintances dead is all the reason I need.

When someone declares war on you, you fight the fucking war to win. Afterwards you can work out the differences.

Japan hated us and were taught that we were inferior and not worthy of respect. Well, we won, so I guess we weren't inferior and Japan is now one of the most properous countries in the world and an ally. Not a bad turnout for us imperialistic Americans.

The same has to be applied to islam, as long as their creed is to subjucate us, we have to fight them until they no longer afford to attack us. Then we'll figure out how to deal with our differences.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

I'm An Idiot For Living Here?

I have had to listen to the anniversary news on Katrina all day today. The thing that has fried my bacon has been all the comments over the years about how could I live in Kalifornia with all those earthquakes?

What "all those earthquakes"? The last one I felt was the Northridge 6.7 back in 1997. There have been others in the area, but a UPS truck driving down the street shakes more. It's been 9 years since my life was disrupted by the ground moving.

What about you idiots that live in the Gulf Region? Every year you have, what, maybe five hurricanes blow through. Even if they don't hit you directly, you board up, pack up and move out.

How about you that choose to live in "Tornado Alley"? You know that many are coming every year, but you're still there aren't you? You (Eloi) even build shelters to go hide in when the sirens go off. Shelters you built because you knew the chances where good that your house was going to get blown away.

There is always the North, Central and Eastern, that are totally stunned every year when the snow falls and you freeze to death or have buildings collapse due to the buildup. Not to mention the heart attacks from going out first thing in the morning to shovel the snow out of your driveway.

See, that's the nice thing about earthquakes, no warning, they hit and then they go away. I don't have to wonder whether to evacuate or not. I'm not wondering if I have enough food to wait for the snowplow (Yes,I do have earthquake supplies that I update yearly, I'm not unrealistic). I'm not hunkering in a shelter, or trying to find one because the sirens are screaming.

One of my favorite stories is that after the Northridge quake, a couple moved to Oklahoma, because they weren't going to go through any more earthquakes. They died less than a year later in a flash flood.

So, STFU. Your choice of where to live is no better than mine. I will come to your aid and I hope you come to mine. That's America. I just don't want to hear that crap about "Well, you chose to live in an earthquake zone".

I Got Good News Today

Delftsman, who blogs on emigre with a Digital Cluebat and had gone through heart surgery a few months ago, had to undergo a new round of bypass surgery. The old coot wouldn't listen to the doctors, his family, or the people that visit his site and change his evil ways of living.

Delfts was one of the first people I communicated with over at the Rott and was an inspiration to start this backwater site (so blame Misha and Delfts if you're reading this).

My prayers are for him and his family that the recovery goes as well as the surgery.

Monday, August 28, 2006

Kidnapped FoxNews Reporters Freed

FoxNews reporter Steve Centanni and his cameraman Olaf Wiig were finally released yesterday after two weeks of captiviety. While being held they were forced to state that they had converted to islam at gunpoint.

What I want to hear now is a fatwa that states their conversion is not valid being it was made under duress.
one of the important doctrines of Islam is "la ikraha fiddeen" (Qu'ran, 2:256), meaning "no compulsion (or coercion) in religion". They believe that this verse implies that no nation can coerce another nation or individuals to change their religion.


Without this ,their lives are endangered, being one who converts then "rejects" islam is appostate and is sentenced to death.
for the Prophet said, 'If somebody (a Muslim) discards his religion, kill him.'" 4:52:260

The article on their ordeal

Sunday, August 27, 2006

This and That - Part II


Photo:IDF

Look carefully in the back of the picture and tell me what you see. No wonder the UNIFIL forces were scared of the Israeli forces coming after the hezzies.

IDF forces from the Golani Brigade blasted open a Hizbullah bunker overnight Saturday some 400 meters from the security fence near Rosh Hanikra, it was reported on Sunday. The bunker was discovered a mere stone's throw from a UN post.


From Israel.jpost.com

This and That

Had to mount a motor on a compressor at work today, so I just wanted to pass on a few interesting reads for today.

There is a movie coming out on ABC Sept 10-11 called "The Path to 9/11". FrontPageMag has a glowing write-up on it. The movie starts with the WTC bombing in 1993 and goes through to the events of 9/11.

HT:rightwingprof

It probably wouldn't surprise anybody to find out that the Useless Nitwits were posting intelligence on IDF positions and armament on their web site, often within 30 minutes of when they arrived at the position. What did you do in the war, UNIFIL? from the weekly Standard
UNIFIL--the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, a nearly 2,000-man blue-helmet contingent that has been present on the Lebanon-Israel border since 1978--is officially neutral. Yet, throughout the recent war, it posted on its website for all to see precise information about the movements of Israeli Defense Forces soldiers and the nature of their weaponry and materiel, even specifying the placement of IDF safety structures within hours of their construction. New information was sometimes only 30 minutes old when it was posted, and never more than 24 hours old. [emphasis-mine]


Once again HT:rightwingprof

On the other side of the pond, hezbollock's MP to parliament george galloway decided to go to Lebanon and give his congratulations to the terrorists in their victory over Israel. Go watch the video if you think you can stomach it. How much longer are the people of Britain are going to let this asshat go on supporting the destruction of their country?

Via Hot Air.

democracy, immigration multiculturalism … pick any two"’
American writer James C. Bennett

Also via Hot Air, some articles muliculturalismism. I particularly recommend Mark Steyn's speech which transcribed on New Sisyphus

Friday, August 25, 2006

Life Is Intruding On My Life

Haven't been posting regularly lately due to life just getting to damn busy.

I've posted about my trucks 100K overhaul, which meant I didn't have a vehicle for a couple weeks, then my water heater crapping out which, outside of the additional unexpected financial hit, extended my work day to 16 hours for a week (normal work day at the oil site plus coming home and buying supplies, mounting equipment to the wall, re-plumbing the hookups, ect.).

The thing I haven't talked about is that I have also been putting out feelers for a new job. My company hasn't produced a drop of oil since February, and I've lost faith that the owners of the company have a definite plan to get things going again. We start a work-over job on a well - get 75% of the way through - come up with a new plan - stop - move the rig - start - get 75% through - new plan.....ad infinitum. At $8 to $12K/day for a rig and crew, this is not a business plan that makes sense.. at least to a lowly site operator like me.

My search is not in panic, I have a job, but my belief is that it is better to look for a job when you don't need it, rather than have to take whatever is offered because you do not have a job and nasty phone calls are coming in about that bill that's a "little" overdue.

If anyone who passes through here knows of a job for someone who has the common sense to get a job done under all circumstances, i.e. we have the Money to do it right so fix it, or we need to make this work till we get the money and then will fix it correctly, I'm the guy you want.

As far as posts, I do have about five rants down on paper that I worked on in fits and starts, but now they're mostly old news. I thought about scanning them and posting them as a jpeg file on Photobucket, but even I have problems reading my scratching, and I know what I was thinking when I wrote it.

Right now, I think I'll just hang on to them and incorporate them into future postings when then subjects cycle through again, as I'm sure they will.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Elmo Is an Evildoer

Just cruising sites and I ran across Joel Stein's article Elmo Is an Evildoer: The self-obsessed Sesame Street Muppet is destroying all that is holy on children's TV on Jewish World Review. It had an observation I just had to pass on.

Yes, I know that children love Elmo. But children are idiots. That's why we don't let them have jobs. Could you imagine an office full of children? They'd spend all day telling dumb jokes and talking about their poop. It would be like it was before women entered the workplace.


It just cracked me up on a slow boring night at work.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

The Death of Lebanon

I believe that with this latest and greatest u.n. brokered “cease-fire” we are witness to the final turn towards the death of Lebanon, the one we middle agers and older can remember, “The Switzerland of the Middle East” with Beirut known as “the Paris of the Middle East. The Lebanon that existed before the decade and a half of “civil war”, which really was outside factions fighting each other on Lebanese soil.

With the ousting of Syria in 2005, the northern part of the country was showing the beginning of rebuilding and resuming it’s former identity, but with hezbollah allowed into the government, the southern part of the country was militarized as a base to provoke and attack Israel.

Now, with the current u.n. Resolution, 1701, which for all intents and purposes is just a rewrite of u.n. Resolution 1559 that hezbollah and the Lebanese government ignored. The toothless Lebanese army has already stated that they will not attempt to disarm the terrorists, and G-d knows that the “new and improved” UNIFIL isn’t going to do anything. They will just sit there; looking south to make sure Israel doesn’t do anything, while those mysteriously appearing Katyushas arc over their heads heading south.

Lebanon is now run by hezbollah. They have cowed the countries government and have Iran backing them. The next step will be the imposition of Sharia Law, and to either dhimnify the Lebanese Christians or drive them out. I fully expect a mass exodus as life becomes unbearable for the non-muslim population.

Oh, and do not expect the hezzies to invite the Palestinians into this “New Lebanon” to become the New Palestine. That would remove these “displaced” pawns as a reason for Israels destruction; so radical islam will gain more land and still leave the pali’s in the squalor of their refuge camps.

Lebanon, once a vital and cosmopolitan country, will be turned into another Middle Eastern Shithole that will contribute nothing more but death and poverty to the region and the world.

A Win Is A Win


Raiders 16 - Vikings 13
They really didn't deserve it with the way they played, but then the Vikings should have done a better job and proved they were the better team.

After last week with the lack luster performance and few penalties, the Raiders reverted to form this week with aggressive play, but lots of stupid penalties.

Brooks (QB) didn't impress me at all. I don't know if the guys don't feel he's a leader, of he just hasn't grasped the system, but he seems to be ineffective and about a half step slow with his decisions.

The part I liked was that they gave Walter some decent play time and he didn't disappoint. He threw a couple of interceptions, but as an almunus of ASU, every QB that has come out of there has a tendency to throw 1 or 2 a game. Jake Plummer with *spit* Denver *spit* was a product of ASU.

The end of the game was horrendous, and in the regular season, the Vikings would have gone for OT, but this puts us at 2-0, which should make the team more upbeat that they play that poorly and still pull one out, at least until they meet with Coach Shell next practice.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Israel and hezbollah and Lebanon Approve u.n. Cease Fire

O.K., now what? Everyone involved with this has agreed with the cease fire, but they all have their conditions.

Israel will not leave until the Lebononese army and u.n. forces are are in place.

hezbollah will not stop firing missiles or attacking the IDF as long as they have a presence in Lebanon.

The Lebanese army can't do anything until (and unless) the u.n. forces will back them up.

The u.n. forces cannot deploy until the fighting is stopped.

Sounds like there was a whole lot of talking and paper writing to accomplish nothing....again.

The idea that Israel agreed to the cease fire amazes me. I realize hezbollah was winning the PR war with their staged picture of dead children and Fatima's house being bombed continuously (over night). There is little coverage of the Israel's having to live in basement bomb shelters and innocents, wounded of dead, for the last month due to the rockets coming from....someplace?

The optimist in me says that Israel is willing to pull back until hezbollah attacks again and then can go ahead with their plan to just take these koranimals out, but I think it will actually just turn out to be another step in the endless cycle of islamonazi provocation-Israeli responce-terrorists getting their butts kicked-u.n. call for cease fire-condemn Israel for killing "civilians"-cease fire-terrorist re-arm-islamonazi provocation.

When..not if...hezbollah breaks the cease fire, Israel should annihilate anything that looks like it has a connection and the United States should back them all the way.

Saturday, August 12, 2006

“Long live Lebanon. Long live Hezbollah”


This is the attitude of the anti-war left. Despite the history of hezbollah, it has got to be our fault. Via Barking Moonbat Warning System with links to ZombieTimes so you can enjoy the vitriolic and racist messages these "peaceniks" espouse.

GuyK of Charming Just Charming has A LONG LIST OF ATROCITIES COMMITED BY MOSLEMS, as you might have guessed it's a long list, but only goes up to 2004.

To put you in a better mood after the above posts, from The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler, the launching of the USS Bill Clinton

Friday, August 11, 2006

Just Dropping By

Busy, busy. Project during the day and working graveyard. Gotta sleep sometime, so not much time for other things till this weekend.

Ran across a great quote over at aish.com which does a good quick video rundown on the stir over the news photos, Photo Fraud in Lebanon.

"If you do not read a newspaper, you are uninformed.
If you do read a newspaper, you are misinformed."

Mark Twain.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

I Should Have Seen It Coming

I posted earlier about having my truck hitting 100K and having my mechanic go bumper to bumper on it. It was expensive, but nothing else was pressing monitarily, so I went ahead.

Sunday night while watching the Raiders go for the best record in the league (I'll enjoy it while I can), just before half time, the wife informs me there is no hot water. I drag my butt out of the recliner and go out and down into our little cellar and as I get about halfway down the stairs, I can see that there is about 1 1/2 inches of water. Yep, the water heater had decided to go.

Search the net for prices and decided to go with an on-demand tankless model and off to Home Depot.

My local Home Depot is Fort Home Depot. It has an 8 foot high wrought iron fence all around the parking lot. Besieging the ramparts are about 40 "hispanics" waving and whistling at every car that turns onto the access road.

Inside I located my heater about 8 foot up on a shelf, with a sign that says "Please ask for Assistance when getting items from these selves", so I look for assistance. No orange bibbed people within sight. After 20 minutes one wanders buy, but "Sorry, I'm in hardware", another comes by, "Sorry I'm in garden, but I'll page plumbing". Another 10 minutes go by, so it's up to the register to find a floor manager. I tell the cashier that I'm prepared to spend around $750...or not.

That managed to get some service and I was actually out of the store in just over an hour. Any trip to Home Depot I usually figure 2 hour minimum.

Driving out of the parking lot, I look across the main boulevard at the "Employment Center" that was set up to keep the day laborers out of peoples yard and costs the city $100,000/year to operate, is deserted. Not a person even on that side of the street. Boy that was a surprise...HA!

Now I get to do the fun part, sweating pipe and threading a gas line to the heater. I'm am serious about the fun part, I love to plumb. I'm sure there will be a trip or two to the local hardware store for some minor things needed, but I expect that for every job. I'll let you know how the project turns out.

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Yeah, I'm Ready For Some Football


Raiders 16 Eagles 10
I like almost any sports, but football is the sport I love.

I know this was only a pre-season game, but I'm going to enjoy this game anyway.

We got shredded on Philly's first possession (the only one with their first stringers), and the Raiders tackling in the first half was horrendous (like last year), but there were a few positive signs in the game.

I tend to ignore football till the games start.
With the overlapping of the different seasons there is just to much to try to keep track of. So, seeing Art Shell back as Head Coach was an incredibly nice surprise, and having Al Davis *spit* admit that firing him the first time was a mistake really made me happy knowing he call pull out of the dementia he's been in the last 20 years.

Shell is a down to basics guy, so I expect to see improvement this year (like we could go lower, so anything is up). We won't make the Super Bowl this year, but if we are in the run for the wildcard berth, I've had a winning season.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Closed v Controlled

I was just listening to a discussion on border policy and, once again I heard the phrase "close the border". I don't know where this comes from except the extremes on both sides of this issue.

The Left uses it to indicate that conservatives hate people of a non-white Christian nature. The Nazi's use it in as a way to prove the left correct.

The actual truth is in the middle. Gee, surprise , surprise.

Most of the people in the U.S. want the borders CONTROLLED. We want to know who is here and why. You want a job and there is a job for you, come on in. You got TB, lets clear that up before you come in and take that job as a a cook at Denny's.

The argument that if someone wants to have control over who is in this country is a racist is just BS. Just let us know who you are and what you're gonna do to support yourself and everything fine. It may take a little time to do the paperwork, but wait till you go to DMV for your drivers license, you'll really find out about forever.

If a wall is what it takes to achieve this, then a wall needs to be built. Believe me, if you come here and participate in the opportunities this country makes available, your grandchildren will be thankful for this protection.

Monday, July 31, 2006

More Garbage





I posted on this once before, but nobody listened....or nobody read my pontification of the subject as this was back in April, before attaining my current massive following.

From the Arizona Daily Star
Crossers burying border in garbage
Despite cleanups, trash along smuggling routes piles up faster than ever
By Tony Davis
After three years of cleanups, the federal government has achieved no better than a 1 percent solution for the problem of trash left in Southern Arizona by illegal border-crossers.
Cleanup crews from various agencies, volunteer groups and the Tohono O'odham Nation hauled about 250,000 pounds of trash from thousands of acres of federal, state and private land across Southern Arizona in 2002 to 2005, says the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
But that's only a fraction of the nearly 25 million pounds of trash thought to be out there.

Go read the whole article, I'll wait for you to get back....

...You're back. good

Now do you remember that part at the beginning, nearly 25 million pounds of trash thought to be out there., that's 12 thousand 500 tons (12,500) of crap being left for us to pick up. The government needs to budget $62.9 million over five years to try to clean this up, and this number I'm sure is calculated only to deal with what they think is out there now. Without doing something about the border, it's just going to get worse and cost more.

Some have said that if they weren't forced to go through the desert to illegally enter the country, this would'nt be a problem. Well, I can tell you their habit of dumping trash wherever convenient does not stop once they hit cities. I lived and worked in the Barrio for over 20 years, my company had property scattered all through the Temple-Beaudry district of L.A. We had to have an extra dumpster just to clean up the couches, TV's, dressers, etc. That would just be dumped on our property.

L.A. Public Works has a program for heavy hauling, If it's to big to go in the trash can, call a number and they'll pick it up on trash day, no charge. They advertise it constantly in every language you could possibly run into, but the only parts of the city that won't use it seems to be the barrio sections. I've never seen the dumping in Little Japan, Koreatown, Little Armenia or Chinatown (except the sections where the Chinese are moving out).

In my younger days, I was a avid hiker and camper. I live right below the Angeles National Forest and a day trip to a waterfall with a pool was a weekly jaunt and weekend camping overnight at 10,000 feet elevation to get out of the heat and smog was monthly. I was raised with the rule "Pack it in-Pack it out+", you tried to pick up a little more and leave the mountains better than when you went in. I stopped going about 10 years ago when my son was 8 and I was trying to introduce him to hiking, broken glass in the pools, soiled diapers (oh G-d), Styrofoam containers, old couches left at campsites. Where the trip was suppose to relieve the tensions of the city, I was finding myself more depressed that the mountains had been defiled.

I know that not every piece of crap left in the mountains is not left by illegals, but from my experience, if i called others on leaving trash, 90% of the time they would pick it up. When I called the hispanics on it, nicely, as in "Hey, you forgot to take pack your trash out", i've been threatened more times than not.

I know I have wandered far afield on this, but I have been to Mexico and see the respect and/or training of there creeping across the border. I do not want to have the norm to be the trashing of a beautiful country.

The End For Fidel?

Ailing Castro Gives Power to Brother from BREITBART.COM

At long last this thorn in our side is about to be removed. Fidel has been in power since 1959, most of my life, which is about 46 years to long. I don’t know much about his brother Raul, but he can’t be any worse for the Cuban people than Fidel has been.

El Presidente wouldn’t relinquish, even “temporarily”, his hold on power unless he was really sick and most likely going to kick the bucket. Here’s hoping he has seen the cards on the table.

Israel v Terrorists


This picture sums up my feelings on what Israel has had to face in her war.
Borrowed from Michelle Malkin

Sunday, July 30, 2006

He's Proud to be an American

If you need any reason to proudly say that you are proud and blessed to live in this country, all you need is to read this post by Misha of the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler and get the perspective of some one who has lived on both sides.

He is from Denmark,and proud of his heritage, but now considers himself an American, first and last.

Read and learn. EUnuch Inferiority Complex

Oh, and read the comments, particularly by them furiners.

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Troubles Posting

Blogger has been giving me fits the last few days. I have lost two rants that took a lot of energy to write, only to have the system crash and the post lost. I don't know if it's the heat of summer or what, but it seems that the whole internet has become slower and more prone to glitches over the last few weeks, if that's possible.

Even the Emperor has had his system drop off for no apparent reason. Of course it could be that with all the kids out of school and being to hot to go outside the traffic at MySpace may be hogging bandwidth.

For the time being, I'm going to compose on Word and load posts from there. After expending time and trouble on a good rant it is just to depressing to lose it when you try to post.

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Summertime....and the..Ah, Hell It's Just Hot

I woke up today at 7 AM and the A/C was running. It's set for 80 degrees, because I'm a cheap bastard, but I knew this wasn't a good omen.

At 10:30 AM, I went out to get the mail and it was 108, that was when I decided that there was not going to be any work done today.

I went on a Turner Classic channel binge and saw some of the best and worst movies made, everything from White Commache (William Shatner in a dual role spaghetti western) to To Kill a Mockingbird.

It's now 11:00 PM and it's 90 outside...the prospects for accomplishments tomorrow and not favorable. This is southern California, it's suppose to be 70 year round.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Recruiting Terrorists

Every time there is a confrontation with a terrorist group, the yelling from the appeasers begins. The killing of these shits, that position their strongholds in apartment buildings with the knowledge that an attack is going to cause civilian casualties. Yeah...that's why they do it, they care about the life of their fellow muslims as much as they care about what Paris Hilton wore to the Emmy's.

On one side of the problem is if you fight back, you are guaranteed to have "collateral damage". The terrorists then tell the populace, "See..We told you the Great and little Satans only want to kill muslims." Thus recruiting repressed and angry people.

The other side is that if you do not respond to any provocation, the terrorists then say.."Look...the Americans and Joos quake at the might of Allah's (bees piss upon him) mighty armies. Join us and create islamic paradise."

As far as recruiting, it doesn't matter which path you take...you lose. Myself, I chose the path of protecting my family and neighbors and the hell with their "feelings". They have allowed these killers of women and children to take firm root in their homes and now they will have to deal with it. I will not sit and watch those around me be killed in the hope that the followers of the pedophile prophet will change their stated goals and turn to anything resembling peace if we would just concede one more "little" thing to them.

Now is the time to stop the 2nd Islamic Crusade!

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Streaming

If anyone still drops by, I've just been busy the last few weeks living. With access to my garage restored, I've been busy with little projects and relearning all the little techniques for woodworking that had become rusty from disuse. The pressure of not blogging was building up and I was starting to scare the wife and kid with my rants.

My truck just turned 100,000 miles. I have been putting it in the shop every day and picking it up at night to go to work so my mechanic can go over it, one end to the other, and hopefully get me another 100,000 on her. The only problem I've had is the heater core, which will involve removing the whole dashboard. I will be more attentive to replacing the anti-freeze in the future as the labor alone is going to hit me for $600.

As far as the world at large, these are just some random thoughts on (semi) current events.

*Imagine my surprise when I found out I had been lied to all these years about N. Korea. It was very enlightening when their ambassador to the U.N. informed us that the reason they were developing nukes was that it was their duty to protect Southeast Asia and prevent the U.S. from invading. And here I thought they were the bad guys.

*Proving that when hit in the head enough times almost anyone can eventually learn to duck, I actually heard a speaker for the NAACP mention that he thinks the Democrats may actually just be using them. While stating that he didn't particularly care for the Republicans, he said the Dem's were doing a "two-step" with race issues, promising everything during election years, then kinda forgetting about it till the next election cycle.

I have to wonder how long that guy will be allowed to keep his leadership position?

*After giving up "Land for Peace", Israeli cities continued to have rockets lobbied at them daily from Lebanon and Gaza. Now, with the cross border incursion and kidnapping of IDF soldiers, Israel is accused of an escalation in the violence because they finally said "ENOUGH"!

I keep hearing that the shelling of terrorist strongholds is an "overeaction" to the kidnapping of a few soldiers. Tell that to the families of the 8 soldiers that were killed getting in the way of this minor kidnapping.

The Useless Nitwits were quick with drafting a (U.S. vetoed) condemnation of Israel for responding to these provocations, yet weeks later, cannot bring themselves to think a harsh thought about N Korea trying to launch ballistic missles toward Japan and Hawaii.

Now the UN is working on another ceasefire. Why is it that the Useless Nitwits only call for a ceasefire when Israel decides to shoot back? More waste of paper to issue another resolution that will be ignored by the terrorists. There are 2000 blue helmets in south Lebanon monitoring the last resolution, UNSCR 1559. Near as I can tell, their job was to keep track of the number of Kassam and Katyusha rockets arching overhead, between molesting children and making sure not to interfer with anyone setting up a launch site.

I feel much better now.

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

A Family Night Out

Went to a Dodger game last night, me, the wife, my son and his girlfriend. This is the first baseball game in about two years I have attended. I wondered why it had been so long since I had been to see a game. At first I thought maybe it was because my work schedule had been busy for the last few years, then I walked through the gates of the stadium that I had been going to for my whole life and ran into the reason sports that I have enjoyed all my life have become a mere blip.

Every thing with a flat surface on it is sponsored. From the scoreboard (Unocal, to the cup holders between the seats (Pizza Hut). Even the space above the men's room trough has advertisements. The simple scoreboards between the decks that showed score, balls, strikes....gone. Now the whole tier between the levels is a screen that gives information and graphics that flash by while the batter walks to the plate, then goes to the advertiser that is sponsoring that inning.

Going to a game now is no longer about the game itself, it must be an EVENT The game hasn't changed all that much, but the amount of advertisement and hype has made it hard to pay attention to what you went to see.

I paid an admission fee to sit in a seat and was treated to ads on the giant TV screen in the park, I got a hot dog, fries and a beer and it cost me $21.00. My wife went to get food and missed 2 1/2 innings. I bought a beer ($8.00) and gave the "cashier" a ten and three ones, she looked at me and said "You gave me thirteen dollars." I had to explain $8 for the beer = a five and 3 ones, so you give me a five and we're even.

I did enjoy the game being we crushed the Diamondbacks, and the fireworks show (sponsored by Ameritrade) was good, but the constant barrage of advertisement on top of my paying for the privilege to have this crap foisted on me, just rubbed me wrong.

Four people to go to a baseball game.....$170.00.

N. Korean Missile Test

Now is the time to take out the missile test facilities in N. Korea. They've tested their ICBM and it doesn't work. We should give them 24 hours notice (just to be nice) and blow the hell out of the site and tell them any other launch site they construct will have the same fate. Enough with the negotiating, China Russia, Japan and S. Korea are in much greater danger from Lil Kim than we are, and should now realize that this psychopathic despot is more of a threat to them than us.

I did like the launching of a couple of medium range missiles to camouflage the ICBM launch. "We confuse you running dog lackeys of imperialist power by playing your three card Monte game. You never guess which one blow up....by accident...if it did...which it didn't".

God Bless America


Land that I love.

May all have a happy and safe 4th.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

The NY Times and Treason

Once again the NY Times has released the details of top secret operations that were in use to track terrorists sworn to destroy the West. The Time's goal, particularly in this case, was not to warn the public of violations of law, as they even wrote that there was nothing they could find that was illegal in the process. Their argument that it could have led to illegal snooping just doesn't cut it.

Personally, I would love to see the editor and writers involved in this charged and sentenced for treason, but according to the law, this cannot happen. A newspaper cannot be prosecuted for what it prints unless it's libelous.

The printing of these stories is really not what upsets me the most. What is most disturbing is the person(s) who gave this information to the press. Someone who had taken an oath not to reveal classified documents to anyone. These are the ones that should be found and tried. If not for their actions there would have been no story to print.

Once these traitors are found, they should be given what ever maximum sentence the Feds can dig out of a jury. Harsh sentencing is needed to show any person who works in State or Intelligence that regardless of their personal feelings about policy, they are only a cog and do not set policy. If they disagree so much they refuse to be involved, resign, it's a free country. At least it is now, but not for long if treason continues to be overlooked.

Monday, June 26, 2006

North Korean Missles

For the past week N. Korea has been threatening to "test" it's new ICBM. One argument have been that we should just go in a blow it up while it's sitting on the launch pad. This isn't a bad idea altogether, but it would be an attack on an soverign nation. I don't beleive that even the Chicom's would be to upset if we did it. They would rant a bit, but would probably be happy if it happened, as I doubt that even they really trust in little Kim's sanity very much.

The other argument is to shoot it down in international airspace with our still unproven SDI system. It would be a big risk in that if we shot at it and didn't take it out, it would point out that the system cannot be counted on (at least not yet) and would spur N Korea to continue it's missile program. However, if we did knock it out of the sky, even though the rocket telemetry would have been receieved by N Korea, they may have second thoughts about investing much more in rockets that will just be shot down before reaching their target.

Monday, June 19, 2006

Why?

I just heard on the TV that the guards at Gimo are now under arrest and waiting to see if they will be charged in the suicide of the jihadis that were incarcerated there.

I am trying to figure out how these guards, who are under the most intense scrutiny, could be complicity in the killing these scumbags.

The Red Cross set down the rules that the windows on the doors could be covered so the "personal space" of the prisoners wouldn't be violated, but now that behind these screened windows the prisoner decided to hang themselves, the guards are now at fault for this occurring,

Someone explain this "logic" to me>

Thursday, June 01, 2006

I Ain't Dead Yet.

Ever had one of those times in your life where everything seems to dump on you at the same time? That's been my life for the last few weeks.

It started with a busted garage door. The winds caught it, and after a couple of slams up and down, it decided to explode. To install the new door, they need 8 feet of cleared space. My garage was originally set up for a wood shop, but with the hours put in trying to save my old company, then changing jobs and going on a rotating schedule, the garage turned into unorganized storage. If I was going to clean 8 feet, I was just going to go ahead and clean the whole thing and get it back into a work space.

This would have been enough to deal with over a week or so, but now the city has decided that after 35+ years of ignoring our street, they will repave it. The only catch is that they want to put the utilities underground and will require each homeowner to come up with $7,000 each to trench and run conduit to the houses. Knowing that the city is just going to get whatever contractor is available, we have had to form a homeowners association to hire our own contractor. So far, we have almost been able to cut the cost in half, but it is time consuming trying to get a majority of 50 votes on anything.

Going back to the garage door, I had finally gotten to a point where the installers could get there work done and had called and set an appointment, when the wife called and informed me that my kid was at the dentist and needed two fillings and a root canal. In less that 20 minutes I had managed to spend $2,000. I have it, but it makes me dip into funds that I would rather not fool with (sets a bad precedent).

The good news is that the oil company I work for has finally made some progress, after 2 months, in fixing the busted well that has had us shut down. Hopefully we should be back running in about 2 weeks.

The news, what I've been able to see, has just disgusted me. I'm pissed at the Repub's, who have become a bunch of elitist's. They have adopted the same attitude as the Dhimi's of "Just sit back and we'll decide what is best for you".

Hopefully, life will start to smooth out and I can get back into the flow of my old life in the next week or so.

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Odds 'N' Ends

Lots of things to pontificate on, but covered everywhere (and mostly better than my musings).

For a little humor there's Delftman's The Guys' Rules.

rightwingprof has a tale of Feminists and chicken breasts.

Barking Moonbat Early Warning System hits The Perils Of Socialized Medicine.

The Dread Pundit Bluto leaks some information on NSA Datamining.

Sig94 has a piece on how absolutely depraved some in our society can be Testicles. Rope. Tree. Some Assembly Required. Caution: this post is on child abuse and could cause you to break things. This bastard is just evil.

And of course over at the Rott, Misha and the gang are conversing about the Seattle Publik Skools that have dictated that it was officially impossible for a protected minority to be “racist”

Enjoy.

UPDATE: I read this Friday and should have included it above. If you would like a very good explaination of how massive databases like the NSA's are used go to The Other Side of Kim and read Database ClueBat.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

California High School Diploma Now Worthless

The great state of Kalifornia in it's effort to make all people equal has made a High School diploma from here worth less than the paper it is printed on.
Judge suspends exit exam
Thousands of high school seniors who have failed the state'’s exit exam could be eligible for diplomas anyway after an Alameda County Superior Court Judge on Friday suspended the test's requirements for the Class of 2006.

So as not to hurt their little feelings by depriving them of something they haven't earned, the state is going to make sure that any moron who managed to at least show up on campus enough days will graduate. You needn't have learned anything, just have been there.

The exit exam is a real ball breaker too. You only have five tries over three years to get 50% right. I know I'm an old fart, but the pass/fail line use to be 60%, and you only got one shot. Oh, and the test is geared to an8th grade level, so you only had five years to achieve this lofty level.
Starting this year, passing the language-arts and math test was to be a requirement for earning a high school diploma. But a lawsuit filed in February charged that the requirement is unfair to poor students and to those learning English who might not have received equal preparation.

What is the state of our schools that they cannot teach to an 8th grade level over five years, even in the poorer school districts? We spend around $10,000 per student per year. I would like to know what the money gets spent on. If they would stop the BS of teaching kids in their native language and put them in an immersion program there wouldn't be this inadequate preparation for learning in English.

I watched kids on the news protesting yesterday (a school day) that without a diploma, they wouldn't be able to get jobs or go on to college. I have news for these children, with this piece of paper that signifies nothing, they still won't be able to get a job or go to college (outside of our fine UC system that will be forced to honor these pseudo-documents).

The sad thing is that now all graduates from Kalifornia will be suspect. Did this kid really apply themselves and learn at least enough to pass the 8th grade, or is this one of those who got passed on so they wouldn't suffer the shame of not qualifying?

People might as well pull their kid out of school and enroll them in a commercial GED school. A diploma from them would be worth more.