Monday Musings...

Welcome back to another fun-filled, adventure-laden, excitement-enhanced week.
(unless you live where I do and am operating in "bachelor-mode" again).
More on that anon.
Our Hoosierland weather will (again?) see highs reaching near 80 degrees (where's the effin "cool down"?) with mostly sunny (or partly cloudy) skies with mild breezes. Tonight, a chance of a shower, and it gets cooler (oh, NOW we get it...about time).
I mean when you get a $62 electric bill for the previous month, you tend to get "spoiled" REAL fast...lol.
What the hell, right? What say we get that morning drink and set about seeing what else has been going on, hmm?
*** First out of the coffee pot is our "What the hell happens today, Bob?" feature:
June 6 -
---Today is NATIONAL EYEWEAR DAY.

(hell, that's every frigging day for these old peepers - regular and reading glasses. More to misplace...lol)
---It's also NATIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION DAY

(some, like me,  call it "secondary propagandist conditioning" of our youth)
---And, it's NATIONAL APPLESAUCE CAKE DAY

(now that is good)
---It's NATIONAL DRIVE-IN MOVIE DAY

(shouldn't that be drive-in movie NIGHT???)
---And, it's NATIONAL GARDENING EXERCISE DAY

(yeah, but it's not a "zen" experience like those stationary bikes at the gym...lol)
---It's also NATIONAL YO-YO DAY

(the TOY and not the feeling when going through life, nor a certain CELLIST.)
*** Next up, yes, Wifey is off visiting her Dad in Vincennes again. She made it down there without a hitch (I can breathe again), and is expected to return Wednesday afternoon.
I told her I'd TRY to not shoot anyone (that makes her feel at ease...sorta).

Doing what we do BEST.

So, it's just me and the cat...two old men living together (I feel like Jack Lemmon with the cat as Walter Matthau).
We're not THAT grumpy, really.
*** Next, and speaking of shootings, it wouldn't be a weekend here in Fort Wayne WITHOUT one (or more) would it?

Here's the story link for one that took place late Saturday night:
(Chris, cue up the Bay City Rollers, please)
http://www.21alive.com/news/local/Southeast-Side-Shooting-on-Winter-Street-126180243.html

Yeah, 3100-3200 blocks of Winter St. - prime ghettohood real estate there.
And, just to put some icing on this cake, there was a car that rammed into a house there.
No one was found in the car (just some blood), and a juvenile showed up at a local hospital suffering gunshot wounds (helluva graduation gift). The juvenile was taken in another vehicle and not by ambulance.

Talk about your parking violations!

Naturally, NO suspects, no arrests, and, in all likelihood, no witnesses either.
*** Next, I mentioned this in passing last week...I read where the FWPD is sending THIRTY-FIVE officers to the RNC in Cleveland (paid for by a grant, I hear),
Funny, ANOTHER department feels differently, like in this story:
http://wane.com/2016/05/28/police-department-wont-send-officers-to-rnc-cites-concerns/

Got DOWNTOWN covered, though.

Now, while I would feel that a larger police presence is needed at this venue (for obvious and violent reasons), WHY does it fall upon OUR city's shoulders to send THAT many officers.

Just another day on the SE side.

Didn't our PSD (Rusty York) just say that crime HERE was UP (across the board) and that they were changing "tactics" to deal with that.
To me, that would make me believe that more officers will be around down on the SE side, but HOW the hell can you swing THAT when you're short-staffing the department for the damn RNC?
We're already under-staffed for a city our size (hence the new rooks going through academy), so where is the "up" side to ANY of this clusterf*ck?
I'm just not seeing it.
And we haven't heard word one from our FWPD chief through ANY of this crap, have we?

see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Yeah, right.

When democrats (liberals) rule, this is the result...it's inevitable.
Would not surprise me one damn bit if crime goes higher when our officers are in Cleveland.
*** Next, when I heard that Muhammad Ali was going in hospital last Thursday, I had this feeling he wouldn't be coming out...

I hate being right in matters like this, but we all know it was coming, considering what he was going through with his health.
I liked him when he was one of our Olympians, but he got on my nerves when he changed his name from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali and took to taunting all his opposition incessantly.

And I was glad when (the late) Joe Frazier won his first fight against Ali (Frazier was a Philly boy and we gotta stick together).

Here's the WIKI for the life and times of Ali:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali
Funny thing, after Ali quit the ring, I started to like him again, and not out of pity. He was a better man when he kept his mouth shut a lot more.
(sounds familiar in a semi-political sense).
He WAS the greatest for his time...can't fault the win/loss record (and three titles), BUT I'd bet good money that Ali couldn't stand up to Joe Louis, or Rocky Marciano. My late father would agree were he here, because he told me as much when he was alive.
There are champions of every era, and Ali was the one for his time, make no mistake.
I just wonder how he and Howard Cosell are getting along...again?
*** Last back to the landing craft, today marks the72nd  anniversary of the allied invasion of Normandy back in 1944.

And, here's a good commentary on "The Longest Day".

http://dailysignal.com/2016/06/05/72nd-d-day-anniversary-all-who-serve-are-a-part-of-the-greatest-generation/
Now, we see that we're losing our WW2 vets at the pace we once lost our WW1 vets at, and that should be a sobering reminder of what this nation stands for.
Back then, we sought to save the world from dictatorial rule from the axis powers.
With the help of our allies, we managed to make the world a safer place.
Today, we face similar threats from similar evils.
But what has changed in those 70+ years?
I would have to say that "WE" have changed. It's often said that time changes but people do not, and in many ways, I do agree with that statement.
Yet, people have changed, after a fashion...we no longer all rally around that common cause to eradicate evil where we find it in the world. The part of humanity that HAS stayed the same is it's ability to wage war. That is always a constant whether it's found in some sand-encrusted base in the Middle East or on our very own city streets.

Maybe the players have changed, but the purpose behind them has not.
Our nation has accomplished great and noble things in it's short lifetime, and not just for ourselves.
We don't refer to those who fought in WW2 (and those at home supporting them) as "The Greatest Generation" for nothing, do we?
What we need is to recapture that "spirit" that made that generation what it was, and if history is our teacher, than we should be paying more attention in our everyday "classroom", lest we find ourselves with a less than passing "grade".
And that type of failure, or any failure for that matter, should never become an option for this nation.

Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay SAFE out there, America.