Weekend Roundup...
Rolling on up to the weekend at last.
Going to be a bit more seasonal in temperature over the next 72 hours, with a chance of rain somewhere in the mix.


At least the rain is bringing down the leaves quicker...easier to get together for pickup starting 7 November.



We'll be continuing with the second installment of our little "road trip" in just a few, but first, some other odds and ends.


*** Finally made it to #17 on the homicide list.
They just have to TRY HARDER, that's all...
Woman shoots boyfriend dead and turns gun on self
Here's the link to the story:
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20111028/LOCAL07/310289973
At least it was on the SOUTHWEST side of the city (for a change).
And there was a suicide also involved...very strange indeed.
(( The female shooter had some minor infractions, all vehicular in nature, and several previous addresses - the male victim also had numerous vehicular infractions dating back to 1989, with the most recent in 2006. His address is the one listed in the story, so it was HIS house. ))
*** And there's also THIS:
Marijuana Plants Seized in Home
here's the story link:
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20111028/LOCAL07/310289923
And guess what? THIS story happened on the SOUTHWEST side of town, too.
Nice to know we're not the ONLY crime spot in Ft. Wayne these days.
(guess that's what happens when you allow such people to move freely and spread out)
Fairfield near Paulding Rd...200-300 plants growing inside the home (wonder where they SLEPT?), nice haul by the DEA, state & city police.
Now, about this guy that used to grow pot in his house when he lived down the block from US (I have his new address)...???
Hey, I figure as long as the FEDS are in the area, what the hell...right?
And they can feel free to check out several OTHER houses I can point them to for drugs.
(hey guys...call me...LOL)
*** We now return you to our trip...already in progress
On The Road Again (part 2)
Yesterday, we took a look at the three types of dystopic societies, as portrayed in cinema and TV, and most of them paint a pretty bleak picture of a possible future. We have either NO rule at all (anarchy), CORPORATE rule, or GOVERNMENT rule.
I don't much like ANY of those, and thank God I don't have to pick one.
Do you ever wonder HOW such societies get this way?
Sometimes, the movie will explain the CAUSE, while other times...the filmmaker will just toss you into the middle of it, and it's left to the viewer to figure things out. Doesn't matter how it happened to me. What matters is all the little things that can ADD UP over time to produce that situation.
I will use the movie V FOR VENDETTA as an example (because it's going to air this weekend on the G4 channel twice this coming SUNDAY) of HOW a society gets into the mess it finds itself.
--In the near future, we see England under authoritarian rule, headed up by the "high chancellor" (president, if you will) who is a religious zealot, and who was once a member of the conservative party. After rising in power, he formed his OWN party, broke away from the conservatives (in essence, became a radical), and placed England under STRICT (fascist) control. People are under constant surveillance on the streets.
Jews, Muslims, and other sects were promptly "herded off" to camps, away from the English populace.
The one factor that allowed this man to rise to power SO quickly was a biological outbreak that killed tens of thousands...and it was orchestrated by the government ITSELF.
Amazingly enough, it was the high chancellor who miraculously "found" a cure soon afterwards, endearing himself to the people.
With such "charisma", he turns Britain into a fascist police state, with forced curfews, total media control, and banned subject matter (written as well as music and artwork). This is what "inspires" the title character "V" into action...to bring England BACK to it's people, and away from tyrannical rule, (as well as do away with those who hurt him in the past - the "vendetta thing"). It is a intriguing movie with lots to take in, but you can't get it all in just one viewing.
This is GOOD fiction, and hopefully, this will not be anything close to the case here in America.
But we do see symptoms of an illness in THIS nation.
The worst symptom is that ENTROPY I mentioned in previous posts.
And we have a growing fondness for entropy here in the USA...not a good thing.
If you think I'm the only one that notices this, here's a really good link to read:
http://www.billoreilly.com/newslettercolumn?pid=34433
When last we defined the word ENTROPY, it went something like this:
--An inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or society.
Now, all one has to do today is read or watch the news to figure out that our society IS in a state of deterioration.
But how did we get this way?
I'll wager you already have a laundry list of things that we can attribute to this decline, but permit me to offer up a list of some of what I feel are contributing factors:
-- Decline of the family unit
-- Permissiveness
-- Over-tolerance
-- Amoral behavior
-- Lack of civility
-- Lack of respect
-- Corruption in government and business
-- Lack of self-control
-- Growing apathy
-- Lack of responsibility
-- Lack of accountability
-- Rampant substance abuse
-- Failure to recognize & obey authority
-- Lack of social graces (manners)
And these are just the specifically SOCIAL aspects of this entropy.
There are factors that contribute to the aforementioned list, such as a growing welfare system, which in many ways rewards people for sitting on their asses, being as unproductive as bumps on logs.
Welfare was meant SOLELY as a "safety-net" for those in time of need...it was NEVER designed (nor can be sustained) as a "lifestyle" for multi-generational groups of ANY ethnicity. But it has become just that.
Another interesting facet to entropy is the loss of one's distinct "culture", found in every nation.
What comprises AMERICA should be the fact that people from around the globe come here to be...AMERICANS, embracing the cultural aspects indigenous to THIS country...they add to the melting pot, as it were.
-- In Sweden, we're seeing the result of what can happen when you become TOO allowing of others to come into your country, and supplant the native culture with one of their own, refusing to assimilate and become part of that country.
Many (there) have become fearful that they are losing THEIR (unique) culture, as the Swedish people.
Same can be said here with increasing immigration.
Rather than become "part of the whole", such people form small pockets of their homeland, in essence seeking to SEGREGATE themselves from the rest of AMERICA. That can often lead to outright hatred of those people, or at the least, cause Americans to view them with disdain for not wishing to be part of this nation.
Now, when situations like this arise, the government often steps in, usually with more controlling measures, designed (as they say) to "look out for the people"...question is...WHICH people?
-- You can't walk anywhere in London without being "watched" (on CCTV). Hundreds of cameras take in all the people going through their daily routines.
And that is the beginning of this "Big Brother" syndrome we are fearful of.
It may interest you to know that here in THIS nation, the government is looking at a program already in place in FINLAND, where the streetlights are MORE than they appear to be.
Here's a link to the entire story:
http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2011/10/23/225836/
This "Intellistreet" system has some curious applications.
Here's their website:
http://intellistreets.com/
Now, "if" you want to be all-seeing and all-knowing, THIS is the way to go, right?
And it's the first few steps down that entropy road to the state of dysopia.
Of course, we're TOLD it's to watch for terrorists, or crims, or keep count of the pigeon population, or something like that, but it watches ALL of us...ALL the time.
Next, add in the fact that ALL television is now DIGITAL..so what happened to all the ANALOG bands?
Well, the government's DEFENSE DEPARTMENT scooped those all up (wonder why?).
And even now, we're being cajoled into believing that we should connect ALL our viewing into the INTERNET, rather than cable or satellite.
"It's the next hot lick", we're being told...WHY?
What was wrong with analog TV? Why do they want us ALL "wired in" to ONE source for everything?
Short answer: CONTROL.
Turn OFF the Internet, and we're all back in the "virtual" dark...nice, hmm?
We have locating devices in our newer vehicles (Onstar) that "can" track you even if you don't subscribe to them.
But suppose that all this came to a head in our own future, culminating in some national "disaster", and then someone came along, promised to "fix" it all, and then proceeded to DO SO.
How many of us would get on board with that person without thinking twice?
And then, how much POWER would that individual hold over those that follow him/her?
A lot of pieces are in place already for something like this to occur.
And to add insult to injury, we're constantly made to believe that only CERTAIN foods are good for us.
We can't have SODA because it causes VIOLENT BEHAVIOR.
Red meat gives us cancer (as does anything else whenever it suits someone to say so).
There is a duplicity at work here that we need to pay attention to...carefully.
One one hand, the government tells us lead paint is BAD - guys in HAZMAT suits will remove the siding or interior of your house if it's painted with such stuff and you want to remodel, while on the other hand, the SAME government tells you to use lightbulbs with MERCURY in them all over your house, inside and out.
Anyone else as creeped out about such things as I am?
When decisions about YOUR life, made BY YOU no longer matter, and instead are circumvented by decisions from a government, you should be backing the hell up and asking a LOT of questions...and getting the answers.
And to think, we've still only begun to reveal things about an over-reaching and over-controlling government.
We haven't even TOUCHED on the whole "entitlement mentality" running loose in America today (but we WILL).
I prefer to make my OWN decisions about MY life, thank you very much.
Good, bad, or indifferent, it's MY choice, and MY result.
*** Coming Monday...more delving into the indoctrination of our kids, who they're growing up to become, and why they're now suing colleges for "not telling them the truth" when it comes to jobs after graduation...and other fun things, like...Halloween.
Yep, it's all entropy to me.
In the meantime, have yourselves a great autumn weekend, wherever you are.
(keep the kids and small pets out of those leaf piles, too...lol)
Be well, make a difference to someone, and as always...
Stay safe out there, America.