Believe It...Or Else...

Welcome to our first Thursday edition of the strange, unusual, and the bizarre.
And today's forecast is gonna make you think we're into JULY rather than May. Temperatures expected in the mid to upper EIGHTIES.
Break out those shorts, show us your skinny legs and bony knees, and keep that suntan oil (that smells of coconuts) nearby.
*** And we'll have a take on THAT in a bit, but first....the answer to yesterday's WHO SAID THAT? military quote:

"Men with a sharpness of mind are to be found only among those with a penchant for thought."
This was spoken by Shiba Yoshimasa, The Chikubaso, 1380 (Ideals of the Samurai, tr. William Wilson, 1982)
Here's the WIKI on Shiba and his writings:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushid%C5%8D_literature#The_Chikubasho
Now, I've read much on the code of Bushido, but even I did not hear of this man until recently.
But it makes sense that SOMEONE would come along and get all the "good stuff" down on rice paper.
Sadly, there are no paintings, etchings, carvings or ANY real picture OF Yoshimasa (and Polaroids were still several HUNDRED years off), so one can only surmise that he appeared much like some feudal lord in an Akira Kurosawa epic movie from the 1950s (think Throne of Blood or Seven Samurai).
Moving on...
*** Has everyone seen this mom with the TANNING ADDICTION?

Here's the story of this "other-hued" (person from the New Jersey dot com site:
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/05/nj_tanning_mom_i_love_to_tan_b.html
Now, a nice, HEALTHY looking tan is to be admired in many circles...BUT...one can always carry a good thing TOO FAR (and most times, ONLY in New Jersey...lol).
Shades of the book BLACK LIKE ME (a good read, BTW)
James Whitmore played the lead character in the 1964 movie.
We've all spent hours in the sun, (so don't deny it) working on "that look"...and no "farmer's tan" (unless you were a farmer...or a truck driver) and definitely (for the ladies) NO "bikini lines", right?
Hell, I got toasted in Daytona Beach ages ago...couldn't wear shoes or socks for like THREE days - talk about a buzz-kill holiday, but that's what happens when you nod out in such a beautiful venue.
But, nabbing a tan down in ARUBA is a much nicer experience than that...well, it used to be back in the late '70s before Dutch murderers kidnapped young girls.

Yet, in THIS case from "Joisey", we have a woman fixated on making herself look like Al Jolson's illegitimate sister.
Cripes, she's got George Hamilton beat by a DOZEN shades.
What it up with THAT?
I'm sorry, but I think THIS is a case for Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson...((ROFL!))
Isn't there some kinda LAW (or ban) against "black face" these days?
I mean, this sure isn't the era of Archie Bunker showing up in black-face at the hospital to see his grandson born after leaving his lodge's MINSTREL SHOW. Are not the uber-sensitive race-baiters out there foaming at the mouth on this, crying some sort of race-hatred?

And if not...WHY not (probably too busy committing assaults on other-raced folks)?
And her child is in the mix, too, although "mom" has stated she did NOT place her daughter in a tanning bed.
Then explain WHY she was SO sunburn, and WHY protection wasn't used to keep her from becoming a "crispy critter" when outdoors?
Cripes, even Snooki calls the tanning mom "crazy"...so what does THAT tell you, hmm???
Jersey IS...as Jersey DOES...that much is certain.
(and WEIRD is a way of life there)
*** An update to the shooting at Foster's Sports Bar along Clinton St (at the McKinnie "5 points"):
http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/crime/one-person-in-serious-condition-after-shooting-at-fosters-sports-pub-parking-lot
*** And STILL nothing further on that Winter St. shooting that sent one to hospital back on 17 April...curiouser and curiouser.
Someone doesn't want anyone to know WHAT went down, and if it required a person to be transported to a medical facility, it MUST have been a bigger deal than we're being led to believe. The media buried this story faster then people drop bad habits.
*** Yet out in Warsaw, Indiana, they ARE making drug busts...like THIS one:
http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/crime/cocaine-bust-nabs-illegal-alien

Imagine THAT...and ILLEGAL ALIEN...here in INDIANA...dealing COCAINE (of all things)...!
(who knew?)
SOMEONE knew, and took his sorry ass the hell DOWN.
Police there received a tip that Ernesto was selling ILLEGAL drugs (as opposed to selling those LEGAL drugs...like Metamucil and Pepto Bismol?)
Gee, this guy reminds me of the one living across the street from us, next block up...the Hispanic working at the Tin Caps concessions with all those body tatts...(gee did I say that? I was just thinking out loud). Nah, we probably don't have ANY illegals here in Ft. Wayne...right?
(...and I'm slated to become the next President instead of Romney...LMAO!)
The FWPD better start keeping closer tabs on those who "could" be illegals, because the area down here is becoming more "se habla Espanol", and less "whuddup, dawg?"
*** And now for something "different"...
I really LIKE the AMISH...I admire their devotion, their ethics, even if the men are a tad overbearing when it comes to how they treat their women-folk, and the clothes are a bit "dated".

They DO make nice furniture and houses...and barns, lots of barns. Good SOLID constructs.
They also make some good FOOD, too (scrapple being among them...don't ask...you don't wanna know what it contains...it just TASTES good, trust me.)
And I think those buggies they drive around are fine with me on the roads.
Apparently, some others don't think as "highly"...
WANE TV had a multi-part story about the buggies and the "hazard" they might cause along the roads of Indiana...
It was a decent story, and the reporter did well by it, but I think some people are trying to make mountains out of mole hills here.

The story came right on the heels of a fatal crash between a van and a buggy, which left THREE of the children in the buggy DEAD...the horse injured (later put down), and the van driver who had ADMITTED to TEXTING just before the accident unharmed.
Here's the initial story:
http://www.wane.com/dpp/traffic/incidents/crash-kills-one-sends-five-to-hospital
And here is a followup with the third victim dying:
http://www.indianasnewscenter.com/news/local/Van-Rear-Ends-Buggy-1-Dead-3-Injured--147800045.html
And the multi-part story from WANE:
http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/15-finds-out--whos-holding-the-reins
Okay, so we have YOUNG people driving the buggies around the counties...what's the problem there?
Aren't these "kids" TAUGHT a lot more responsibility at a YOUNGER age than "our" kids?
And what exactly IS the TOP SPEED of a buggy? About FIFTEEN MILES PER HOUR?
I don't see the hazard they are supposed to be causing, as long as the REST OF US are PAYING THE HELL ATTENTION behind OUR wheels as we drive around. Sure, we might be stuck BEHIND one and get bent out of shape because they're slowing US down, but still...what's the big deal? We can almost ALWAYS go AROUND them (when traffic allows), right?

I ask you...WHO presents more of a hazard on our roads...the Amish buggy driver doing 10-15 MPH along the RIGHT SIDE of a road, or some driver with more attitude than brains behind the wheel of some 3000+ lb chunk of steel, rubber and plastic, motoring along over the legal speed limit (and texting or doing something that diverts their attention FROM the road ahead)?
Now, if the bishops of the Amish churches wish to impose an AGE restriction as to WHO can drive a buggy, that's on THEM and them alone...it's not for US to decide how THEY are to live THEIR lives. We don't need to intrude in THEIR culture anymore than they on us (not that they ever would WANT to).
We are the real hazards on the roads today...period.
And there are a myriad of reasons WHY we're not "on our game" while driving, that are too numerous to mention here.
If we're not IMPAIRED in some fashion, we're busy with something ELSE and not devoting our full sensory involvement with driving our vehicle.
I say let the Amish be...THEY'RE not running buggies headlong into convenience stores, and NOT causing 6-buggy pileups on the Interstate, and definitely NOT creating havoc while running from police in some high-speed pursuit through several counties.
*** Lastly today...we need to tend to our OWN problems, and not necessarily every issue regarding others.

And we need to tend to such things FIRST, if we're ever to become able to even advise others on THEIR problems.
We need to step back a bit, and not be in some all-mighty hurry ALL the damn time, because time will move at the same pace, regardless at whatever speed WE feel compelled to travel at...and our destination will usually ALWAYS be there when we arrive.

Whether it's an Amish buggy, a motorcyclist, bicyclist, or even a pedestrian, we ALL need to give THEM the break they deserve in the hierarchy of travel, because if you're in a car, truck, van, or SUV, you're pretty much at the "top of the food chain", and everyone else below you has "the right-of-way" over YOU, due to the fact that YOU are supposed to control your vehicle BETTER than they can control theirs (or themselves)...

That's just the way it's supposed to work.

And when it works in such a manner, we ALL win, and that means that we ALL get back home intact...the manner in which God intended.

I like when that happens.

And so should we all.

Be well, make a difference to someone, and...

Stay SAFE out there, America.