Humpday Happenings...
I'll bet you think that today is nothing special - that it's certainly not a day that's remembered.
In most circles, you'd be correct...today is like any other day, except for the following highlights:
1766 - In London, James Christie holds his first sale (later to become the most famous auctioneer in the world)
1847 - Jefferson Davis is elected to the U.S. senate - his first political post.
1932 - German-born physicist Albert Einstein is granted an American visa.
1933 - Prohibition in the USA ends (have a drink to celebrate).1943 - WW2 - USAAF begins attacking German secret weapons facilities in Operation Crossbow.
1955 - Labor unions merge to form the AFL-CIO
1978 - The Soviet Union forms a "friendship treaty" with the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
...And that's just some of the goings-on.
Today is the birthday of Little Richard and Andy Kim (among others).
Today is Discovery Day in Haiti (thanks to Chris Columbus), and for all you out there subscribing to AGENDA 21, today is the International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development (better living through currency manipulation and eugenics).
Now who says today is anything but boring?
At least the weather will be nice in the Heartland - sunshine and temps reaching into the mid-40s - maybe a slight chance of showers later.
So, with that dispensed with, let's get busy with our Military Quote of the week aka WHO SAID THAT?
" For the first time in my life, I have seen 'History' at close quarters, and I know that it's actual process is very different from what is presented for posterity."
So...WHO said that? The answer at the top of tomorrow's post.
Meanwhile, back at the salt mines...
*** Down here in the ghettohood, I've often described how the "locals" find ways to amuse themselves, much of it entails SOME form of criminal activity.
Case in point - those nasty SHOPPING CARTS that (somehow) manage to "exscape" (sic) from the nearby stores and always find their way to OUR neck of the woods. And there will always be some youngster finding said cart and wanting to play with it.
Well, yesterday a young boy was doing just that, and as ADHD-ridden children will do, became bored with it and decided to dump it on OUR property.
So, as I was watching him, I already KNEW what he was going to do (you just know this after a while - they're predictable in that way), and as SOON as he dumped the cart, I was out the door and shouted : "HEY"...and motioned with my curling finger to "come back here".
I told him "You forgot your cart...it DOESN'T BELONG HERE."
The boy grudgingly began pushing the cart away, and I actually THANKED him.
And, as is the usual result, he merely pushed the cart to ANOTHER property and left it THERE.
So, I suppose I'll have to call Kroger and notify them that another one of their carts has gotten loose and is resting "comfortably" along a street nearby our "Fortress".
Every year we go through the same sh*t...carts taken from Southgate, winding up in OUR area...carelessly abandoned.
Wonder if our mayor, King Henry would like it if it was done in HIS neighborhood?
Merry Christmas, Mayor...and here's YOUR cart!
*** And speaking of typical behavior, there's this story of a failed robbery.
Here's the story link:
http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/crime/Police-nab-three-in-connection-with-attempted-armed-robbery
The perp didn't get any money, nor did he and his friend get far, thanks to WITNESS DESCRIPTIONS of the getaway vehicle, which was pulled over in the 3500 block of Reynolds St (another nice SE part of town...not).
Two men were in the vehicle, and while one bailed and attempted to flee, both were taken into custody.
Deshawn T. Boykins, 19, was charged with felony armed robbery, resisting, and had an outstanding warrant for probation violation.
His partner, Eligha L. Billingsley, 29, was charged with robbery.
What some media source needs to do is run a ten year history of the last quarter of the year in Ft. Wayne, and see what trends surface regarding crime.
A GOOD investigative reporter could determine IF in fact, we can attribute a rise in business robberies to the HOLIDAY season (I think not).
While I could understand vehicle break-ins rising, it doesn't make sense to rob businesses which would tend to be BUSIER at this time of year
To me, that's like ASKING for trouble.
You would WANT to hit a place when NO ONE is around (like the early morning bank-opening holdups).
Then again, no one ever said that all criminals were SMART, right?
*** Now, imagine your child is coming home from school, and the bus they're riding in comes under fire, taking out some windows.
How to allay their fears?
Well, here's a story about JUST THAT:
http://www.indianasnewscenter.com/news/local/Shots-Fired-At-School-Buses-Full-Of-Students-182090931.html
Granted, it was only a high-powered pellet weapon, but many of the airguns out there can have muzzle velocities from 200 FPS all the up to over 800 FPS, so we're not just talking about a Daisy Red Ryder BB rifle, Ralphie.
Some of the air rifles can send a lead pellet (either .177 or .22 caliber) a damn good distance, and let's face it, a big orange SCHOOL BUS is a fairly LARGE target.
The numbnuts that did the shooting need to be taken to justice on this, because those children COULD have been injured.
Taking a pellet to the face or head is bad enough, but if you splinter or shatter "safety glass", the shards multiply that possibility of injury many times over. We don't need to start placing ballistic-grade glass in school buses...the expense ALONE would be staggering.
*** Here's a story that got little attention, even though it was on the city's EAST side (the growing ghettohood):
http://www.indianasnewscenter.com/news/local/Ground-Broken-for-New-Recycling-Center-182024071.html
Seems a new RECYCLING facility will be located near Meyer Rd at Allen Martin Drive.
We NEED retail and get recycling...typical city knee-jerk.
And up in high retail areas (which is pretty much everywhere else) people DECRY the fact that retail is SO thick, it's actually encroaching on the residential areas, thanks to ad-hoc rezoning (that many people never really find out about until after the fact).
Well, I'm sure that this new EAST side facility will UP the numbers from that pitiful 46% that ALREADY recycle down here (like US) in the ghettohood...
Yeah, I can dream.
If you want a good representation of just OUR zip code in Ft. Wayne, here's a link that's most interesting:
http://www.city-data.com/zips/46806.htmlAt the very bottom, after all the household information is a small block with the BUSINESSES located in our zip...damn near one of each, and considering the density of the population, that ain't all that much, kids!
*** Lastly today, I'm still having trouble with the whole holiday season thing. I should be putting up decorations, but my mind's just not into it.
I look at the troubles that abound, near and far, knowing I can do little to minimize most all of them, and I think of times when we didn't HAVE all this crap flying at us from every direction...and I want those times back...at least to some small degree.
I think we ALL need that level of "breathing room"...the ability to stand back once in a while to catch our wind while thinking about how best to plan our next move in life.
So often, we look forward to the holidays...for that time of renewal.
To me, it's becoming a time of mixed emotions, and I suppose that the lack of personal control in that, is what is most bothersome.
Back in the day, Dad always put on a "brave face" for the holidays...and so did Mom. Times were tough some years with Dad's place being on strike (unions love to do this sh*t at Christmas for some strange reason), and our money was tight. I might have been a youngster, but I still could hear what they talked about and I remembered what they would do to make the season nice under the circumstances.
Considering how Wifey and I manage today, my folks would have KILLED to have what we have now...seriously.We're not "rich" by today's standards, but we're well off by yesterday's...how do we manage that?
Perhaps we need to reassess the "standards" by which we perceive those who have and those who have not?
But even if my parents were never financially rich or well-off back then, they were rich in the SPIRIT they possessed.
And I think riches such as THOSE are the basis for the season, and not the sole accumulation of things.
I can understand and appreciate the SPIRIT of the season all too well.
Trying to wrap the rest of me around the "festivities" might be something to work on...
And I will keep trying, but not to fool myself into a sense of false well-being.
It must be real, and it must be valid to mean anything...to anyone.
Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay SAFE out there, America.
4 comments:
I know what yopu mean about the holidays. Working for a major holiday gift place like VB and the accompanying OT don't make it much better.
Hey, I wanted to ask you as an expert on all things military: I mentioned the other day about the Max Hastings book I'm re-reading. His opinion of Ike was that he was a better diplomat than a general, and things may have been sped up considerably if Bradley or Patton ran the fighting and he stuck to babysitting Montgomery. Which was funny too, because I just finished Churchill and he thought that the Civil War would have come to a swifter conclusion if left to McClellan and Lee and Lincoln and Davis stayed out. Opinions on Ike? Churchhill?
CWM:
Yeah, with things a lot different than in times past, I tend to become a lot more "pensive" than usual.
Could be worse...I could also be "vacant"...lol.
As to Ike?
Hard to say with him. Depends on how you WANT to view him.
I believe he WAS a very good diplomat, considering he had to deal with Montgomery AND Patton - both of whom had wonderfully LARGE and vocal personae.
As to his actual COMMAND abilities...well, he DID organize OVERLORD...no easy feat.
I think of him like MacArthur, only not as given to bouts of dislike of the government handling of things over his authority.
Both very good strategists.
Ike, however knew "when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em".
MacArthur...not so much.
History says that Ike was a good President, too. I agree.
Churchill is quite another unique person.
He was "left out" of a meeting between STALIN and ROOSEVELT (early on) and that got his British up, understandably.
He was never excluded after that.
Also, being as instrumental as he was rallying both the TROOPS and CIVILIANS during the Battle of Britain AND the Blitz, it strikes me as "odd" that Parliament tossed him "under the lorry" so soon AFTER WW2.
Some shine in war, but less so in peacetime.
McClellan probably WOULD have been a damn GOOD FIELD GENERAL..if you could just GET HIM out fighting MORE, and not have him always overestimate the number of the enemy (which he did with amazing regularity) and constantly want to resupply and train our soldiers.
That's where a man like GRANT stood out...he would put his head down and wade into battle...
(Lincoln knew as much).
Hard to think that Lee, Lincoln OR Davis would stand on the sidelines, though...
But that's just what I've come to believe having read accounts about all these men.
Thanks for stopping by today to comment.
Stay safe up there.
Bob G:
You know that you always hit my hot button when you go off on your recycle binge. I happened to agree with the approach where we get the government out of the recycling business.
n 1998, Reason Magazine published an article on the great urbanologist, Jane Jacobs whose ideas on recycling need to be explored further. She disliked central planning, and preferred to leave trash collection and recycling to a multitude of entrepreneurs as opposed to our predominately government-controlled socialized recycling that is usually performed by a single monopoly appointed by fiat.
Jacobs did not … propose that the family be forced to separate its trash. Indeed, she implied that this would defeat the purpose of the enterprise. “The aim must be to get all the wastes possible into the system–not only those that are already valuable at a given stage of development, but also those that are only beginning to become useful and those that are not yet useful but may become so,” she writes. “A type of work that does not now exist is thus necessary: services that collect all wastes, not for shunting into incinerators or gulches, but for distributing to various primary specialists from whom the materials will go to converters or reusers.”
An interesting idea. But trying it means allowing the new work to grow from the old work. That cannot happen if garbage collection is socialized, or if the government contracts with a single private company to do the job. It can happen if households hire people to haul away their refuse. At first, the private haulers might give the garbage to landfills; as opportunities to sell different sorts of trash develop, they’d diversify, much as homeless people collect cans for profit in places with deposit law. Except, of course, that the trash collectors would be responding to an actual market incentive, not one jerry-rigged by the state.
Gadfly:
Hey, you know me well enough by now...I love to promote social discourse.
I think that MUCH of the recycle programs COULD be better run BY PRIVATE entities.
(As they already do with contracted trash pickups).
Adding a CITY trash and recycling aspect to the list of departments will ONLY cause trouble when the unions get involved and we have to (again) deal with retirement pensions and contractual agreements, which tend to break city coffers (ask California).
I would like to see someone take the lazy-asses to task for NOT recycling.
And I think private businesses could do that, or not pick up from houses that don't comply or levy a fine.
There's a LOT of market incetive out there.
(Otherwise, we'd be hip-deep in bottles, cans, and styrofoam...like the locals would LOVE to see.)
But since the city dumps TONS of cash into worthless programs, wouldn't they miss the revenue from recycling?
Hate to see another catch-22...we've plenty enough as it is.
Hey, thanks for stopping on by today and commenting.
Always gets me thinking.
Stay safe out there.
Post a Comment