Monday Musings...
Welcome to 2012...which is many respects kinda seems just like a continuation of 2011...weird how that works, isn't it?
With that said, let's see what we might have missed last year, and in the process, become better acquainted with what we might well expect THIS year, fair enough?
*** New Year's Eve around my part of the (...all together, gang...) SOUTHEAST side of Fort Wayne aka the ghettohood was typical of past years.
Lots of illegal "celebratory gunfire", I believe is the term that's usually coined when explaining the asshattery that imbues much of what this part of town has become when lazy-ass folks are given free stuff on YOUR dime.
In some ways, I would really not want to have any veteran that is prone to "flashbacks" around when these idiots start their gun-related monkeyshines.
It always sounds like a busy night in Kandahar...or Baghdad...or the Tet offensive of '68...or pick whatever battle that contained lots of small arms fire...and well, you get the idea.
I DID hear a few FWPD calls for gunshots (signal 113), but as is always the case, I never saw ONE cruiser roll over the two streets that intersect our property.
The gunfire began around 2000 hrs (yeah, THAT early), and went on until AFTER 0130 hrs the following morning (Sunday), but it was just the testosterone-challenged minions of mayhem that were practicing the "I wanna shoot my gun off FIRST or LAST" syndrome. Like the kid that ALWAYS had to have the LAST CLAP in school...(and we're not talking STDs here, but applause...LOL).
Anyone recall the days when POTS, PANS, and CLACKERS (noisemakers) worked well enough to usher in the New Year?
(I sure as hell do...)
Mrs. Bobby G. and I supped on a nice cheese and beef stick platter, with some cocktail shrimp as "chasers"...the standard fare for us.
And we washed it down AT MIDNIGHT with some Andre cold duck...(haven't had that in a LONG time...it tastes better than I remember).
Sunday was something of a more traditional meal (for me, anyway)...corned beef brisket with potatoes and sauerkraut - you have to add some peas into the 'kraut...it's a Pennsylvania Dutch "good-luck" thing that Mom always did. And it was good, rest assured of that.
Besides, around HERE, the more luck you can scarf up,...the BETTER (it helps with the experience and guile...LOL).
So, that's pretty much OUR festivities concerning the advent of the New Year...except for ONE, small thing...like having to REPAIR a section of our (SOON to be replaced and made MUCH STURDIER) privacy fence...as the sun was setting, thanks to some marvelous WIND that blew our way Sunday afternoon and evening, placing that section on our backyard lawn ...(oh, joy...).
That was fun (Wifey helped and "she done good" ), and goes to show that this year will (again) be nothing if not "interesting"...
Still, none of that prevented me from coming across some noteworthy items during the transition from 2011 to 2012, and I think you'll be glad I mentioned them (if you didn't already read them and get PO'ed all by yourself...lol)
*** America IS the land of plenty..no denying that.
We've got PUH-LENTY of damn near everything...such as:
-Crime
-Drugs
-Illegal Aliens
-Stupid People
(that DOES include those either walking, biking, or driving)
-Welfare Leeches
BUT...there is also the "up" side...
We have plenty of:
-Natural Resources
-Food
-Water
-Housing
-Transportation
-Stuff to buy
And about a bazillion other things, but let's focus on resources...for a minute or two.
America loves to GIVE stuff to others...as well as SELL stuff to others...doesn't matter WHERE in the world it is.
Hell, we sold ARMS to IRAQ to fight IRAN...then we slid into bed with IRAN to beat IRAQ, and now we're back on the side of IRAQ against IRAN.
We sell MILLIONS of bushels of CORN overseas, and then ALSO use corn to produce the wonderfully inefficient fuel source known as ETHANOL.
And then we (rightly) bitch a fit when we don't have enough (you guessed it...) CORN to feed our cattle, or to CONSUME ourselves.
But, as much CORN as we sell overseas, that was NOT the LARGEST EXPORT from America in 2011.
Wanna know what it WAS?
(you might not like it...I'm just warning you)
It was...(drum roll, please...)...
FUEL!!!!
Okay, this is officially the FIRST "WTF???" moment of the New Year...
We sent MORE FUEL to other nations than any other item..and I do mean ANY.
Here's the source article that will either make your eyes bleed OR your head explode (so keep the tissues or duct tape handy):
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20111231/BIZ13/312319953
I had to read the damn thing THREE times, and every time I read it, I got a little MORE pissed the hell off...!
(Gee, wonder WHY?)
And OUR gas at the pumps hovers around $3.25 a gallon....for what POSSIBLE reason?
We SEND our fuel overseas, and then IMPORT (foreign) fuel back?
Isn't that just a wee bit f$cked the hell UP?
Amazing that more people aren't bringing this to our attention...like we're NOT supposed to KNOW what these schmucks are doing with OUR fuels.
Do they honestly believe for a moment that ALL of us are THAT damn STUPID to NOT notice this?
Well, that's why I'm here, friends...to LET YOU KNOW...the TRUTH, plain and simple.
If there is a New Year's Resolution in the mix, it would be that I resolve to become MORE AWARE of what the hell is going on around me (in America), and that can never do anyone any harm, you can bank on that.
But wait, there's more...
*** The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette published it's annual "homicide list" (Sunday's paper).
Here's the link to THIS story:
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20120101/LOCAL07/301019896
Now, based on MY "predictions" last year, I said we'd have TWENTY-FIVE homicides (in Allen County, including those in Fort Wayne proper)...we had TWENTY-FOUR (damn close, Bob...or should we call you "Svengali" ?) It's not clairvoyance (think I dated a Clair Voyance in high school)...it's common sense.
I base my estimates on population, trends in specific areas, demographics, past years, and the like.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics states the crime is going DOWN...(yawn)...could have fooled me.
--With deaths of LEOs UP 13%, death (to officers) by gunshots UP 15%, where precisely is the "down" part?
--You reclassify certain crimes to place them in a misdemeanor category, so THOSE crimes appear to go DOWN, but isn't that just an obfuscation of the REAL facts?
--And then there are the UNREPORTED crimes (due to intimidation, fear, etc).
I would maintain that crime is STATIC at best, and in many cases is on the RISE, despite what some people "want" you to believe.
Because if you DO believe what "they" say without question, rather than trust you OWN eyes and ears, you WILL become complacent (and a prime target FOR crime). Maybe that's WHAT they want?
Helluva way to "decrease the surplus population", hmm?
Too much of that kind of "small sh*t" gets under-noticed, or just plain ignored, and although ignorance MIGHT be bliss, it sure as hell ain't helping normal people get on with THEIR lives, is it?
It's not as though small crimes are falling through the cracks...it's more like the cracks have been WIDENED to accommodate them all.
Maybe THIS year could be a time to CLOSE those cracks, toughen the laws (which I might remind you ONLY apply to the LAW-LESS), and hold those accountable that refuse, ignore, or otherwise sidestep either obeying the laws, or enforcing them (and that would include the politicians, and command staff of any law-enforcement department).
MY prediction for THIS year should pretty much be ON PAR with last year (if not increase - we already had our FIRST homicide in Huntertown - gunshot wounds), and I say that due to growing ethnic populations and immigrant cadres within certain parts of the city. I'll stick to around 25 (possibly MORE)
But that's fine, unless you're a young black male (the majority of last year's homicide victims)
Unless there is a SUBSTANTIAL shift in the status quo, especially in MY section of the ghettohood, I see little change.
*** Lastly, you might notice a different "banner" quote at the top, and that as done purposely and with some thought.
I promise that 2012 at the "Erudition", I will continue to bring all this to the forefront...so YOU can know what you need to, in order to be prepared.
If it cheeses some folks off now and then...oh, well...the TRUTH sometimes has that effect.
(it's just the unenlightened people's way of dealing with it...attack the "messenger")
We'll be informed, get PO'ed, become indignant, smile from time to time, and through it all (and then some), we'll remember what this nation STANDS for, and how UNCOMPROMISING we must become in order to KEEP our country from bowing to external or internal forces that would change the face of our nation from what it was intended.
So, here's to 2012...lots of "piss and vinegar" to go around, my friends.
In the meantime:
Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay safe out there, America.