Oh Fer Christ's Sake

One of those stories you read and go WTF!? How the hell could displaying the Globe and Anchor and patriotic sentiments on your car with window decals and bumper stickers be considered "advertising"?



Notice that, of course, political, health and other PC-like opinions are not targeted, just the military stickers and expressions of love of freedom. This reminds me of the thugs from the Black Panthers that were deemed not to be intimidating voters at the poles by standing in the doorway dressed in paramilitary uniforms, thumping a baton in there hand and telling people to get use to the country being run by blacks as not being worthy of prosecution. (one rule for thee...)

My parents lived in a HOA run development for a while. They thought they knew what they were getting into when they bought the house. One of the bylaws was that the front of the houses had to have a uniform apperance...no problem, they thought.

Their front door was half way up the side of the house and not visible from the street. There was no screen door originally and living close to the coast they wanted to be able to leave the door open to take advantage of the ocean breeze to cool the house, and couple of houses had been burglarized, so they installed a security screen door. Nice looking. After a couple of months they got a letter from the HOA stating that the screen door was out of compliance and had to be removed. You couldn't see this door unless you walked up the pathway and turned a corner. The reasoning was that it was the "front door" so it was considered part of the front of the house.

Idiots!!

It took another two months to get the bylaws amended to allow security screen doors (only off an approved list of screen doors), all the while my parents were racking up penalties, eventually set aside, for not removing the door.

The person who was trying to enforce this rule was the only one on the board that fought to keep her interpretation of compliance, the rest of the board and the homeowners all were for the change.

Cases of some busybody trying to exercise their supposed power over those they rule.

OK! Now I'm Starting To Worry

I posted a month ago that my boy was going to be stationed at Camp Humpherys Garrison, Korea. Tension with North Korea were high at the time, but back then it seemed like it was just one of those periods that we go through with them every couple of years.

Now it seems to be serious.

The Dear Leader Demented Asshole that runs the country is old and ailing and there doesn't seem to be an heir apparent lined up. They've already had a group of high officials "retire". The country has gone nuclear and has a semi-reliable transport system for it working. We're stuck in two wars on the other side of the globe...and in July, my son is going to be part of the trip wire in place to slow down the invasion if/when it comes.

Chris will be sitting about 100 miles from the DMZ...not a long distance for the NorKo's to traverse when they start throwing wave attacks across the border. I don't think the NorKo's beleive that Obambi will commit to defending South Korea (and frankly, neither do I), which will leave my boy in a bad situation.

If things go bad, I know Chris will be one of the best AirOps there, but 25,000 U.S. and 560,000 ROK troops they may have a rough time if a major portion of NorKo's 700,000 troops, over 8,000 artillery systems, and 2,000 tanks, postured within 90 miles of the Demilitarized Zone come pouring down the peninsula.

I Wouldn't Have Guessed This

I got a link to this quiz sight: Which soldier type are you?

You Scored as Special Ops Special ops. You're sneaky, tactful, and a loner. You prefer to do your jobs alone, working where you don't come into contact with people. But every once in a while you hit it big and are noticed and given fame. You're given the more sensitive problems. You get things done, and do what has to be done. You are competent, resourceful, and resiliant. "VULCAN NECK PINCH!!!" "owww.......(slump)"

Well maybe it does fit. It would explain why I love working graveyard shift. I'm at my job for 12 hours by myself, gates closed and no one to interrupt what I'm doing. I can pretty much decide my own project for the shift, or week. I'll pick up on a project from someone else if it needs to get done.

Bad news is that I could never be Special Ops. I learned from my son's enlistment that the color blindness he inherited from me would rule out any infantry assignment, but I'd give it my best if asked.

My God! They're Going To Do It Again!!

I heard last night that the government has taken over GMAC, the lending arm of GM. The news was that now they can make low interest loans on automobiles. Isn't this what happened to the housing industry?

Of course they'll be able to offer low interest loans...this is the government, they don't care if they make a profit...they don't even care if they lose money as long as the loan was given without any discrimination. It'll be more important that they have the proper percentage of minorities and low income loans so that no one is denied a loan just because they can't afford it.

Driving a car will be a RIGHT!!!

I wonder what name will be hung on the new "Peoples Car"?

We'll now be able to buy the overpriced piece of crap cars that the government will mandate GM and Chrysler/Fiat build in order to keep getting bailouts. More NINJA loans to people that can't afford the payments, but don't worry, the loan will be guaranteed by the government.

They keep saying they don't want to run business, but right now gov't controls banking, the auto industry, loan companies and insurance companies. Soon to control Health Care, salaries of ANY company executive (your salary won't be far behind) and the States of California, New York, Vermont, Massachusetts and any other high tax liberal state that is going to need federal money to continue to prop up their social experiments (so much for Federalism).

Ding Dong< The Wicked Witch Is Dead

After decades of having to put up with this shrew "representing" ME, I think I can finally see the end of this.

Pelosi, after all these years has had her equivocating and lying pile up so deep, she can't dodge it any longer.

Pelosi: CIA misled her on waterboarding

WASHINGTON – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi bluntly accused the CIA on Thursday of misleading her and other lawmakers about its use of waterboarding during the Bush administration, escalating a controversy grown to include both political parties, the spy agency and the White House.

"It is not the policy of this agency to mislead the United States Congress," responded CIA spokesman George Little, although he refused to answer directly when asked whether Pelosi's accusation was accurate.

But the House's top Democrat, speaking at a news conference in the Capitol, was unequivocal about a CIA briefing she received in the fall of 2002.

"We were told that waterboarding was not being used," the speaker said. "That's the only mention, that they were not using it. And we now know that earlier they were." She suggested the CIA release the briefing material.

She says she was informed that waterboarding could, but wasn't, being used at the first briefing. What the hell did she think they even brought it up for if the CIA wasn't considering it's use. If she believed it to be wrong at that point, why didn't she raise the point then?

I can tell you why. One of three things:

1) She really did get briefed on it and supported it. ("Are you sure we're doing enough?")

2) She did get briefed on it, but didn't want to look like the wuss she is about protecting, or caring, the citizens of the U.S. from another attack.

3)(most likely)She was there, but just didn't hear it. She was just stuck in another of those committee meetings that look good on her resume, and wasn't listening to what was happening around her.

She has now altered what she's said so many times, she can't even remember what the truth of the moment is:



She was just informed by her aide that a briefing had taken place...nothing important...nothing you should worry your pretty little empty head about Senator.

She now is accusing the CIA of lying to her and misleading Congress.

"Yes, I am saying that they are misleading - that the CIA was misleading the Congress," Pelosi said.

She's kicked a dog that isn't going to take it lying down. If she believes the CIA is going to let this aspersion on their reputation sit, she's crazier that I thought she was. I think it shows in that last clip that she's just treading water now with no shore in sight.

About Face

I don't know if Obambi has whiplash yet, but I can say that his rapid 180's have caused a major pain in my neck.

I've never trusted what any politician has said, but My G-d!!! In just the first 100 days of Obama's term, I'm having a hard time remembering any promise he made during his campaign that he hasn't reversed. (Well he did get his kids a dog)

IMMEDIATE withdrawal of troops "occupying" Iraq...that now turns out to be 18 months...the same time frame that Bush had.

Signing an order on his second day in office for the closing of Gitmo, then asking for the funds to do it and having no plan for how to carry it out. No idea of what they are going to do with the "poor innocent farmers that just got swept up on the battlefield and aren't so dangerous". Seems no one wants them in their backyard. Not ever the Euroweenies that were bitching at us about holding them.

As said by one of our allies: "If they are not so dangerous, you keep them."

NAFTA: He was going to "HAMMER" out a new treaty...now, that was "overheated and amplified rhetoric".

Electronic Surveillance: He was a agin it, now he's for it.

Lobbyists: There will be NO lobbyists in his administration...except for those lobbyists that are soooo damn smart we can't do without them.

Sacrifice:

May 2008

"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK," Obama said.

Like I care whether other countries give me their OK. I think the Fwench should bathe more often and people who live in the desert should move their asses out of the desert to a place that they can grow food...but I'm not allowed to judge their stupid decisions.


January 2009

WASHINGTON — The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat. “He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. “He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.

I'm born and raised in SoCal...O.K.? When my Heater/AC works, I run it at a temperature that just keeps the house tolerable. Right at that level where you wonder if you should put on a sweatshirt or not during the winter, or all the windows are open and there is no breeze, so seal up and get the house down to where you aren't just sitting on the couch sweating, say mid 80's in the summer. I pay for it with the wages from MY job. I worked for it and I'm not asking the Gov't to subsidize my utility bill. If it's too expensive, I'll put on the sweatshirt or shed clothing to compensate.

You don't want me sitting naked on the front porch with a beer in my left hand and a hand fan in my right, but I'm at that point in life that I will. Neighbors be damned.

On and on it goes.

On one hand I would like to beleive that Obamabi's maturing into the position, but I really fear we have a President that is a complete liar that will say anything to a particular group now and the opposite two hours later to another group. It's either that or he could was so incredibly naive while running for the office about how the world operated that we'll get four years of a man that has no stand, no plan and no goal other than having held the office.

Quit a while ago I just thought that his eligibility for being President was just an interesting sidetrack, but now I'm wondering. If he's willing to lie about so many things, perhaps he's lying about that. He's spent an awful lot of money on lawyers fighting off the release of his Birth Certificate and College Admission records. Something that would settle that "tout suite".

And Now For Something Completely Different

Back to Politics!

As I've mentioned before I really am an easygoing guy. I can take a lot of grief without getting ruffled. I have my values and beliefs and if you don't agree with me, I may think you're wrong, but mostly I'll turn the other cheek. If they want to be an idiot, that's their right.

However, over the last month I've HAD to listen to this ad:



Sounds great, doesn't it? Can-do Americanism!

Any time this comes on I scare my animals and the neighbors ask themselves "What the hell keeps happening over at that house?", because most people just don't remember this:



This is the real message. "You will do as we say or we're going to hit you with taxes and fees so hard you can't survive, Damn the consequences."

It doesn't matter whether the technology exists, or even if it can be developed. Doesn't matter if this "change" can be met on the bureaucrats schedule or not..we'll just punish you and reduce your income so that your R&D funds are gone. Most likely in taxes that will subsidize the "poor" (all of us after paying our utility bills) that can't afford $3/Kwh bills.

Don't consider that 70% of our electrical needs come from coal.

If you still believe that the eco-nazi's or "workers of the world" really want (or care) about "green power" read this:

Solar Energy Meets Greenies and Big Labor

A chance to go to one of their chosen power sources that will save the world...but there ain't no where they will allow it to be built.

The first problem was the squirrel, or more specifically, the Mohave ground squirrel, which is considered to be threatened. While the squirrel has never been found at the project site, nor was there any evidence it had ever lived there, it could decide sometime in the future to live there.

I may, at any moment, decide to live in Texas. Maybe I should start paying taxes and registering my car there.

Maybe Life Can Be Good

Damn! I was PO'd yesterday. I'm usually very easy going, but yesterday just seemed to be one turd piled on another...I'm much better now!

It turns out I got all worked up over things that settled out on their own. Two "Good News" things greeted me this morning. We start the 4/12 schedule next Tuesday (although that means I work five 8 hour day shifts then go right into four 12 hour night shifts back to back).

The other "Good News" thing is I am now straight Night Shift. (YEEEEHAAWW!!!) I have always been a night person. Even when I was young (6-14) I would stay up and watch Johnny Carson. I just like being up at night. 3:30 AM is when I thing about going to bed, not getting up.

I'll be working with the Foreman and he needs to be there on daylights, so this is Nirvana for me. The other crew rotates day and night. It'll probably change if we get our finances straightened out and they can hire another Operator, but today, I revel in my luck, due I'm sure to my clean and upright living. (Mheh)

It's always said that it's always darkest before the dawn, and that may be, but I do know that it's always coldest between 3:00 and 3:30 AM.

OK...Now I'm Getting Pissed!!!

Did you read yesterday's post?

If not you may now.

I was almost in a good mood about work. Now I'm just pissed and don't want to deal with two of the three guys I work with.

The guy I relieved this morning is the only one against going to a 4/12 shift and he moaned about it all though shift report. Not what I wanted to deal with at quarter to 5 this morning. When the Foreman came in, his understanding was one dissension and no schedule change (crap!). Later, when the Foreman talked to the owner, it was the guy will have to deal with it or he can quit. We'll hire back the guy we just laid off.

Fine.

Then my relief shows up and announces that he's not doing any work anymore and is not supporting the sked change (that he's lobbied for over the last year) because our health insurance is only going to cover the employee, dependents are out of pocket.

It's not fair (to him) because if he has to pay for dependent insurance, I'll be making more than him. He doesn't seem to grasp that because I'm single (separated) and my boy is Gov't property, starting this year, this bozo has been getting a yearly bonus that works out to him making a hell of a lot more than me over the last 5 years.

My company kept us on for over 6 months with no production, another year and a half when we couldn't produce enough to pay the bills and right now we have an income that can buy chewing gum OR baling wire...but not enough for both at the same time.

I am a human float switch!

I've effing had it with people that can't bend a little or grasp the reality of what's going on around them. I don't like the (lack of) Business Plan that our company operates under any more than they do, but I here I am, and I'm going to give my time on the job to making money for the company as best I know how. I'll carp as much as the next guy about how it would be better if I ruled the world, but I don't! So I get up at 3:30 AM tomorrow and drag my butt into work again.

Could be worse.

How?

Could be raining.

Good News...Bad News

I've still got a job for the time being.

That's the good.

The bad...I can't be sure for how long.

My company laid off one guy today, which sucks, but they are curtailing operation hours at our other sight and sending one of the Operators over to our yard (my sight produces more oil and gas).

A little more good news is that we're going on a shift schedule of 4-12's. Four days (7AM-7PM)--four days off--four nights--four days off. This has got to be better that the rotating shift I've been on for the last 5 years.

This is the schedule I've been living with (click to bigifiy if you want to see hell):



I'll still need a printed schedule to know when I'm where, but the 4-12's should simplify things a bit and I won't have to radically alter my sleep cycle on a weekly basis anymore.

Last night I was flopping from right side to left at least until 1:30 AM. I do remember watching "Red Eye" from 12 to 1, then dozing off after that, but I had to get up at 3:30 AM to make work by 5 AM. That makes for a llooonng day.

More bad news is that a percentage of our medical insurance is going to be shifted to the employees. The amount hasn't been set yet, but rumor is 20%. I can't say I'm thrilled about this, but I do still have a job.

Good News: I'll be working my shifts with someone I get along with. We know what's expected of the other and can hash out problems.

Bad News: My concern is our opposite shift. Are we going to walk into 4 days of the things that should have been done being left for us to do? I won't worry about it until it happens, but it's floating around in the back of my mind.

Unknowns: For the first time in my working career, I've got 3 weeks vacation..there is a rumor that we will be limited to two weeks. I'll find out tomorrow. The other unknown is I'm bottom of the list seniority-wise, unless they decide to count the 2 years I worked as a contract worker. In that case I'm 2 months ahead of the next guy. That will depend on who the owner and Foreman consider the most expendable.

If I get laid off, that's just the kick in the butt I need to get the hell out of California. I can be broke anywhere and I know I'll find another job somehow.