01 June 2016

Humpday Happenings...
It's the middle of the week (already?), start of a brand new day AND a brand new month.
And another day of pre-summer heat is coming our way.
Our Hoosierland weather for today sees us with a partly sunny (or partly cloudy, whichever floats your boat) sky and temps reaching back into the middle 80s. Got a nice mild breeze out there, and some rain showers (possibly) moving into out area later on. Plan accordingly.
So, now that we have that under our belts, let's get that morning drink parked close by as we see what has been going on elsewhere...
*** First out of the doghouse is our WHO SAID THAT? quote of the week:
"When complaints are freely heard, deeply considered and speedily reformed, then is the utmost bound of civil liberty attained that wise men look for." 
Let it not be said that everyone in our nation wasn't striving to attain WISDOM, right? I'm seeing less of it.
We should BE so lucky to have that trend reverse itself, right?
So, WHO said that? The answer at the top of tomorrow's post.
Meanwhile, back at Christ's College in Cambridge...
*** Next, let's see what things are happening this month:
JUNE -
Aquarium Month
Fight the Filthy Fly Month
LGBTQIA Pride Month (seems they have something EVERY damn month)
National Accordion Awareness Month
National Adopt a Cat Month
National Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Month
National Candy Month
(dentists are loving this one)
National Camping Month
(just don't burn down the tent along the way)
National Country Cooking Month
National Dairy Month
National Great Outdoors Month
National Iced Tea Month
(make mine sweet tea raspberry, please)
National Papaya Month
National Soul Food Month
(coulda had this one back in February?)
Rose Month
Turkey Lovers Month (let's move this one to November)
*** Next up, is our "What the hell happens today, Bob?" feature:
June 1 -
---Today is NATIONAL OLIVE DAY
(Give me the green ones - the black ones are too bland)
---It's also NATIONAL GO BAREFOOT DAY
(not in OUR neighborhood with all the litter scattered about)
---It's also NATIONAL HAZELNUT CAKE DAY
(should go good with hazelnut coffee, hmm? Where can I get one?)
---It's NATIONAL HEIMLICH MANEUVER DAY
(and Heimlich just used it at the nursing home the other week)
---It's NATIONAL PEN PAL DAY
(They still DO that...with real PENS...filled with INK??)
---And, it's NATIONAL SAY SOMETHING NICE DAY
(okay, how's about "Today I don't think I'll have to shoot anyone"?)
---It's also NATIONAL RUNNING DAY
(I'd best leave that one to the younger ones in the crowd. I'll take the car.).
*** Next, some updates on the latest shootings in our fair city.
---The first has to do with some of what I already said - homicide number 13. Here's the story link:
http://wane.com/2016/05/31/man-killed-by-girlfriends-ex-husband-idd/
Once again, we have a "lover's triangle" at the heart of this latest killing. Usually, such things account for about 80% of ALL homicides. This was a case of Latinos involved, rather than blacks. The shooter was later found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. That was ruled a suicide.
I just have to ask: "Was all this shit really worth it?"
---The other story has a very irate MOM whose house was shot up. Here's that story link:
http://wane.com/2016/05/31/4-people-shot-in-pawawna-drive-shooting/
Imagine that...UNINVITED people over for a party that should have never taken place, but DID, thanks to social media.
People will "invite themselves" when this kinda crap hits the old "fakebook" scene.
And then to have some people asked to LEAVE the party, only to have them shoot at the house, injuring four people INSIDE.
This is also a case of Latinos acting out.
When will the stupidity end?
*** Next, and speaking of stupidity, there's THIS story:
http://wane.com/2016/05/31/fort-wayne-city-water-users-worry-about-smelly-dirty-water/
Something smells HERE.
Let's just say this is a case of the city telling it's citizens that they're too stupid to "know" anything OTHER than that the city water is perfectly fine. I agree with the residents in the story. There IS something "wrong" with our water.
It has a "musty" smell to it, like maybe someone tried to dump some cleaner in it or something.
Water should not HAVE a smell...or taste, but I know the ice cubes in my Dr. Pepper are making the soda taste funny.
(and that's not "funny ha-ha", either. It's funny-PECULIAR)
We're being told there is an issue with our river...how so?
We haven't had any floods, so nothing from that got in there from either here or someplace else.
Have we had some "tampering"?  Someone mix the wrong quantities of stuff (alum and carbon) in the filtration plant?
Vicky Zehr (water department supervisor) seems to be a might out of touch with what has been going on.
What's flowing down to us from (dare I say it?) MICHIGAN, anyway?
Why isn't the HEAD of that department (Kumar Whatshisname) making a news statement instead?
All this AFTER Fort Wayne city "leaders" brag about how GOOD our water is.
Careful when it comes to speaking TOO SOON, people. It might come back to bite you all in your big fat taxpayer-sponsored asses.
*** Next, and STILL riding whole stupidity carousel, we have THIS:
http://www.journalgazette.net/news/local/police-fire/22-year-old-accused-of-setting-trash-can-fires-13341339
Marquel Jamar Wattley was the 22 year old arsonist-in-training who set trashcan fires over at Southgate Plaza a couple evenings ago.
The story says "he didn't have anything else to do"...well, that's BULLSHIT!
What about that nice McMillen Community Center?
What about the "I'm Hood" program?
Well, this young piece of crap IS "hood"...as in GHETTOHOOD!
So, he "amused" himself by setting fires...how "quaint".
Police confronted Wattley when he went back into the BK nearby. (Blacks LIKE fighting In there, BTW)
Wattley resisted and had to be tased. One officer had minor cuts from the scuffle.
Hey, I got a job for "Marqueer" - cleaning out ALL the crappers in  the ACJC and the ALLEN COUNTY JAIL...and that's JUST for starters!
*** Next up, a wonderful Letter to the Editor in today's paper - short but OH, so sweet:
(( City leaders turn away from signs of decay
Mayor Tom Henry, Chuck Surack and their committee have great plans for a bigger and better Fort Wayne. If they look around, they will see very few following.
Average citizens are concerned with the lack of adequate funding for public schools, the public library and other cherished institutions. Homelessness, mental illness and criminal activity have a firm grip on our coattails and are pulling us back.
A bigger and better city cannot be built successfully on a foundation of decay.
SUSAN ARCHIBALD STONE
Fort Wayne ))
My God, Susan also "gets it"...kudos to her marvelous call on saying what needs to be said...because it's ALL TRUE..
*** Last back to the kennel...is there a problem with telling the truth and being "up-front" with people these days?
It would appear so, and that's NOT a good road to spend a lot of time traveling down.
Whenever we find the attention of the people being diverted for whatever purpose of those DOING the diversion, the people will allow (by design) things they would once never entertain the notion of allowing.
Our social media is a HUGE culprit when it comes to such tactics.
Where such a technological advance SHOULD be used for the acquisition of knowledge, it's used for outrageous videos...like the show "Jackass" on steroids. Sure, there's some "cute" stuff, too, but again, this is all meant to keep our eyes off of what's really going on behind our backs.
Add in all the other ridiculous things we see and hear on what passes for news today, and it's little wonder people retreat to social media because they've all but lost REAL interpersonal skills.
Few want to find out the facts, or the truth. There are fewer of us willing to be more SELF reliant than in times past as well.
It's easier to tweet than to truly discuss...or debate...or even to properly converse.
That's why, whenever I hear the news, I take little at face-value. I have to verify what I see, hear and read, JUST so I can know what I'm supposed to know, and not what "they" want me to know.
There is a big difference between those two.
Call it curiosity, call it being desirous of knowledge, call it what you will.
It's just something that a lot more of us used to chase after without hesitation.
Would we be fortunate enough to be as hungry for the truth and wisdom as we currently are for the latest overly caloric, overpriced fast-food "gimmick".
We'd find ourselves a lot better off, and quite soon.
Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay SAFE out there, America.

4 comments:

A Beer for the Shower said...

I was spoiled when I was younger, because I grew up in a town that had a reverse osmosis plant. Best tap water I've ever had. Now I have to use a filtration system, even for ice cubes. I hate water or ice that tastes like something.

I don't take anything they post on the news at face value. Did you see last week that a bunch of major news outlets posted about some Hollywood actress fleeing the country because she was being sued for $43 million dollars? Said Hollywood actress then uploaded a few videos to her Facebook account showing herself in New York and commenting that the foreign country she had apparently fled to looked a lot like NYC. She then flipped off the camera and said that no, she was not being sued, either. Crazy how people can just post news without even verifying it's true.

Bob G. said...

AbFS:
---I come from Philly, where the water's pretty decent...no smell or "taste" to speak of, and that's saying something (well, we did live close to the filtration plant - less than 2 miles).
Reverse Osmosis is THE way to go, if you can adapt home systems to it easily enough.

The BEST water I've ever had came from two sources:
1) damn near ANYPLACE in the POCONO mountains in PA!
2) a small spring my buddy and I found along Pennypack creek a log time ago.
Ice cold and was better than ANY bottled water.

---I missed THAT story, hut it makes perfect sense.
REAL journalism seems to be "gone with the wind", and perhaps using SOCIAL MEDIA to not only FIND the truth, but actually REPORT it might be this "new wave"...as long as people teach themselves to "get past all the BS along the way".

Good point.
We ALL need to confirm and verify anything we think might feel a bit "off", because it probably IS, right?
Reagan was right there.

Hey, thanks much for taking the time to drop by and comment.

Stay safe (and don't drink any smelly water) out there, guys.

CWMartin said...

Once again, I came here before blogger sent you to me...

"Fight The Filthy Fly" month- right next to LGBTEFGHIJ Month? That's funny...


Closest I come to pen pals anymore is corresponding with our sponsored kid from Guatemala. He always sends a nice picture.

Darn, did I say anything nice today? Hmmm...


Every summer we go through this water tasting thing. Ours is reminiscent of that coming through a Dollar General garden hose. I think the unannounced fact that the city is cutting back on filtering is part of that puzzle that started with "why does King Tom want that annexation money so bad alluva sudden". Just how big IS this elephant we're not allowed to see, Mr Mayor?


I think I saw a couple of Wattley's buddies walking down Washington Ctr at 5:30 this morning. After passing them, and scolding myself for stereotyping, I found that about 100 yards behind them were a row of trash dumpsters nose first in the street. "Oh me big funny ha ha" jerks.

"Susan gets it..." What are we up to, 6 or seven now? I think we could still all meet in your living room.

Bob G. said...

Chris:
---LMAO...I NEVER even thought of those two in THAT manner. Kudos, sir.
---You can always hope he becomes PRESIDENT down there. Might make a nice "getaway" from the Summit City.
---Dollar General garden hose - I KNOW that taste!
I also had Sherman set the WAY-BACK machine to March of 2015. Then, we were told it was SNOW RUNOFF...(?!?)
Other cities have had similar things happen with THEIR water. The closest thing that makes sense to me is ALGAE BLOOM in the reservoirs. And the city won't say that because it may "panic" the low-information crowd. Wha'cha think?
There is DEFINITELY more there than we're being told.
---It's NEVER stereotyping when you KNOW the "nature of the beast". It's the PC-BS crowd that lays the "guilt" card at your feet for even thinking that, which is inherently wrong.
---Hey, I'm up for that. I'll toss in the drinks and snacks GRATIS!
I tell 'ya...we got a MOVEMENT goin' on, man!!!
Power to the people! Attica, Attica!!!
(sorry, got carried away...HA!)

Thanks for dropping on by today to comment.
Always a pleasure.

You stay safe (and wise beyond your years) up there, brother.