They finally got me....

Identity thieves that is. A**holes.

About to write the kudzu wife a check this morning and bethought to myself to check online the status of the Vast Kudzu Fortune. (VKF)

Good thing I did.....

Some how, probably through a skimmer, my debit card # had been used 3 times in Orlando, FL. I'm pretty sure I've never even been in Orlando, but, an atm at the 7-11 located at 6994 West Colonial St. had turned over nearly $900.00 of my Obummer stimulus stash. Good thing the welfare check is due day after tomorrow, although, I'll most likely be mightily tired of Pork & Beans by then.


Did you know that the Orlando County Sheriff's Department will take your criminal complaint online now. It's so refreshing not to have to actually talk to a live human to resolve these types of incidents.

Still if by some freak of nature or perversion of the normal way of things they do actually send a contentious human out there to look at the atm video tape (assuming it actually works) they might actually be able to see who the scum-crawling septic tank resident was that hied himself (or herself) off with the sum total of the VKF, no doubt to help fund their way through Law School, which they will need as a part of the resume that will help in their aspirations to enter public service and eventually become part of the great and wonderful leadership we have in Washington, D.C.

Is this a great country or what?

I'll tell you one thing.......you may see my mug shot in the paper for vandalizing convenience store fuel pump card readers, as I'll never more slide my card to one with out making sure it is an integral part of the original equipment, and in no way can be removed by less than a blow torch and crow bar.

It's too bad that vengeance can't be applied to folks like that by the victims. I don't want justice.....

...retribution is more to my liking.

My money

Head over to Hoosierboy for a letter we ought to send to every representitive at every level.

They ought to be required to recite "It's the people money, taken from them by force" into a voice recognition device every morning before being allowed to get out of bed, and then twice before being allowed to vote on any piece of legislation no matter how insignificant or how much or little money is being authorized.

Failure of the device to recognize their voice should lead to an electrical shock of sufficient strength to knock them to their knees being applied to their brain stem by implanted device similar to those used to track missing dogs or other animals.

This would also allow the public to track their movements at any hour of the day or night.

Just a little food for thought.

Fathers Day

....is beginning to wind down to the supper time. Just turned the grill on and when it seems hot enough will tenderly place some of that ol' expensive cow parts on the rack.

The wife of my youth and I took a trip up to Dahlonega to see our friends at the Grisson Mine. Delightful folks with a wide range of mining, dredging and panning supplies, and their own pit mine which they dig out crush up and sell to the touristers in small bags or buckets to experience panning for gold themselves. What a thrill to find color in your pan.......of course if you have your own little honey hole where the only costs are getting there and a little backbreaking work, finding a small flake or nugget is even sweeter.

Our three kids all called and wished me happy papa day. I talked to Diana last week and I know she and the kids were treating Adam well today.

I kinda think I've posted the following poem before, but it hasn't been in any of the June archives I've looked at and it should be posted on a Fathers day.


Behind a Fathers Mask

To a small infant child, behind the mask of a father
is a person who is never wrong.
It seems he knows answers to all of her questions and
He is powerful and strong.
With a kiss to a boo-boo or a pat on the back, he
takes pains of the body away.
He makes pains of the heart disappear with a hug
and the words "I'm here to stay"
As the child grows older and independent she also
Grows away from the man she calls dad.
A relationship with him is just something she
holds in her heart that she once had.
Now a rebellious teenager who claims to know all
Dad never seems to be right.
And the long talks they once had now take the
form of a never ending fight.
So she leaves the masked mans arms to see
the world on her own.
And learns too quickly life could have been easy
had she only known.
After fighting the battles with him and saying
Things that weren't ment.
Thru all of the madness and tears only his
Love was being sent.
And now a full grown woman independent and
Free.
It is understood he was trying to be what she needed
him to be.
So she no longer tries to see behind her
fathers mask.
Now answers come without effort about a good and
bad past.
And she see him thru different eyes than a young
infant child and his identity comes thru.
He is not just my father, nor is he my enemy,
he is my dearest friend - forever true.

Oldest Daughter
6-17-90


We have no idea what kind of father we'll turn out to have been until we see what kind of mothers and fathers our children turn out to be.

The Kudzu Wife and I have been blessed beyond measure.

For that we can thank the children we knew.

Stormy Weather

Boy, we had some last night. Not as bad as some of the folks more westerly of us have had this spring, but quite a show of thunder and lightning with more than an inch of rain and what sounded like enough wind to carry us away.

But......I looked out the office window from my easy chair, where I'd retired to after the power flickered and the computer and monitor shut down......and the leaves and branches of the trees were as still as on the calmest day of the year. WTH??

I've never experienced anything like that.

I had a 10 inch plastic lid sitting atop a coffee pot outside the shop.........with nothing weighting it down.....it's still there this afternoon. No protection.....sitting there on a 4 ft tall military container in the middle of a small grove of oaks.....from 10 inches in diameter to 30 inches diameter. Not a thick grove. Spacing from 15 feet to 40 feet apart. Weird I tell you.

I know I wasn't dreaming cause the pooch was going ballistic with fear and the wife commented on the severity of the storm.

Have you ever heard of such a thing?

Or do I need to cut back on the meds?

Another one ............

..........Bites the dust.

Can you imagine my glee?

I needed a laugh

And tonight I got this one.

I'm sorry. Does this make me a bad person?

I just like to see examples of Darwinian Selection in action. It might happen to me one day, but I like to think I know enough to check to see if the switch is on before sticking my finger in the light socket at least.

Why?

In just less than 7 months I'll (should I be so lucky) be 62 years old. Won't be long before I can retire to a life of luxuries afforded by the addition of social security payments to our income.

Not that I'm counting on that.

For the past 42 years I've taken way too much pride (one of the churches 7 deadly sins) in being an american......a veteran and a citizen of the USA.

This Memorial Day weekend while remembering friend and comrades, amongst all the many other causalities of all the conflicts involved in founding and keeping this Nation Under God, I also grieve for those who are now being slaughtered by those who supposedly 'protect and serve'.

You may or may not be aware of the murder of Jose Guerena .

Google the information. Try to get as many facts as are available from whatever sources are available.


Posting has been light and sporadic for some time now. For many reasons.

This Memorial Day weekend I'll be remembering and grieving for a lot of reasons.

Will I be back here when I'm somewhat recovered?

Maybe.......maybe not

It'll depend on whether I can take any more self-flagellation over my foolish pride.

The world didn't come to an end on Saturday

But for some it did on Sunday night.

A tornado right thru the middle of Joplin, MO. Heartrending.

Maybe that cornball preacher just got a few of the details wrong.

Maybe if I were able to build and new house out in the country it would be all concrete, dome shaped and protected by as much earth as I could pile on it.

Folks, if you're religious even a little bit, pray for those souls in Joplin who have to pick up the pieces. If you are not religious......send food, water, temporary shelter and whatever else you can afford. Go and help if you can.

I'm gonna dig me a Hobbit Hole.

Inch by inch.......

...Step by step, slowly we creep, closer and closer, day by day.....

To being a nation completely controlled by criminals and thugs.

For nearly a thousand years of both English Common Law and the Bill of Rights amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America the police power of government has been constrained under the Fourth Amendmant to respect the sovereignty of a persons home.

Apparently the Indiana Supreme Court has other ideas about that old moldering Document.

This and other egregious assults, such as the messiah snapping his fingers at businesses
and ordering them around, along with so many more acts of a government totally out of control, leads me to wonder if it's now time for the citizenry of this country to take a page or two from the playbook of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr's. philosophy of Righteous Resistance.

If we continue to bow our head by our silence to these acts of Tyranny by a government totally out of control perhaps we'll deserve what we get.

Saturday Evening

The wife and pooch are ensconced on the Genuine Naugahyde cover couch watching the Saturday 'Brit Coms' on PBS. I like 'em as well but they were re-runs over in the ol' Blighty 10 years ago and are becoming a little tiresome in their repeats here in the KG (kudzu grotto) as well.

It's been quite a week.

Pres BHO has been strutting around like a little bantam rooster all week while al-queda blusters and threats and tv and radio talkshow hosts make much of the fact that enhanced interrogation from years before he was elected brought about Usama Bin Laden's much delayed demise.

I think it's a bit telling that BHO went to Ft. Campbell to congratulate the people who carried out the raid in Pakistan. The aircraft and crews might have been from there but they were but the bow, delivering the arrow of SEALS, who I suspect strongly were not stationed there and quite possibly refused to be part of the Dog and Pony Show, preferring not to prostitute their abilities and deeds so cheaply.

At least, so I prefer to think.

Gold and silver, especially the later, succumbed to the pressure, eased along by George Soros' selling at the peak, aided by the Commodities Exchange who, as they did in the 80's changed the margin rules weeding out those without sufficient knowledge of the market. So it goes. Remember......... those with the gold make the rules. Play their game at your peril. The old Scottish wisdom still holds true....... "Money is flat and meant to be stacked up".

The kudzu wife continues her recovery from surgery. She's sleeping thru the night now, mostly without too much aid from pain relievers. Thanks for your prayers and good wishes.

I watered the garden this evening, it having been 4 days since the last good rain. It continues to grow well...I'm ahead of the weeds so far, and I'm looking forward to the day when we can eat the first squash out of it.

Once again the music in my head took over as I stood there playing the water shower up and down the rows. Tonight's tune was always one of Usama Bin Laden's favorites.



Kinda gets you right there, doesn't it?

Clouding the issue

Much is being made these last few days about whether to show the pictures of a dead Usama Bin Laden or whether waterboarding helped produce the intelligence that ultimately led to his demise.

WTFC Th' goat F***** is dead. Good enough for me. I'm just a little saddened by the fact that they didn't dip him in pig shit before they wrapped him in the shroud before they turned him into fish chum, but other than that I'm fine with it.

Did we pour a little water over the head of a few people to get the information. So What. I'd authorize the waterboarding of every person who might ever have had even the most tenuous of contact with him or his cohorts.

We're at war with Islamic fundamentalists who from the day they first went to school were taught one thing. Follow the Koran and death to anyone who doesn't convert willingly or not.

Of course Christians have not much room to talk. We've killed our fair share over religion over the years. It's just that mostly we've grown past that.

Don't believe me.............What about the guy that hid out in the mountains for years after bombing the Atlanta 1996 Olympics and that abortion clinic. He didn't just get the idea one day and think, "that'd be fun, hear, hold my beer".

There are damn few saints that walk this earth. Get used to it.

Blasts from the past

This former Junior Bird Man was jolted today to receive a letter from Charlie Horse 40.

Mack from my old helicopter unit in Quang Tri somehow tracked my address down.

Stick a feather up my ass and tickle me silly. When they remember you from 40 years ago, it kinda chokes a guy up.

I'd spent way too many years reliving to myself those halcyon days of yesteryear. So much so that my vision was clouded for many years, although I'd have denied strenuously any suggestion that was so. Thankfully things got bad enough, and I still had sense enough, to reach out before seeking that last blissful refuge of darkness.

I remember Mack as the older new guy in our unit (he had by then 15 years service and it was his second tour). Our unit check pilot, we flew up to the unused airstrip at Dong Ha where a few auto rotations and questions established that I at least wasn't gonna kill us that day. Although I well remember the day they ordered me to take off with him in the front seat, in near zero, zero conditions and fly out to Khe Shan. I told him to make sure I keep us straight and level and when we got up to 80 or 90 knots I pulled it back slowly and climbed us up through what seemed like a mile of clouds (actually 800 or a 1000 feet)'til we popped out into the clear blue and turned west to where the monsoon was over beyond the mountains. They didn't give us but 5 or 10 hours of instrument training back then and I well remember the advice the instructor gave about flying in clouds, "don't fly in clouds, they're full of rocks".

Memories of the past.....long ago and far, far away.

Also got a call tonight from Bob Smith who was still new when I rotated back stateside.

Old times.

Common sense or Intelligent sense

Cordite high

Gonna take some doing to bring me down this evening.

"A bad day fishing is better than a good day at work", they say. I'll second that. And raise you a good day at the range is hard to beat also.

After what has been a longish period of time away from doing any serious practice, I finally broke down this morning and told the kudzu wife that I was going to get my hair cut, buy some fertilizer for the garden, drive down to Monroe, Georgia to see if anyone wanted to sell any scrap and get in some practice at The Trading Place's indoor firing range.

I won't bore you with pictures of the targets as they were pretty well shredded after a hundred rounds or so of .38 spl fired, for the sake of comfort and expense, through the S&W Mod 586 stainless .357, and the 9mm spat out by the old Browning Hi-Power. Let's just say that 2 in the heart and 1 in the head is still achievable even if I did have to adjust the S&W's sights a bit.

My right elbow is a bit tender after that. Either Carpal Tunnel syndrome, which was diagnosed a coupe years ago, or bursitis. Whichever hurts the worst. Next time I see the primary care Dr. I'll try to get something done about this. Glad I didn't try to shoot a box of the .357. I'd have to get a sling and trolley for the right arm.

The garden is doing awesomely. I put some 10-10-10 out and watered it in pretty good. We've got flowers on the squash plants, tomato plants and a few of the green beans. So far I haven't see any blooms on the pepper plants and since I'm not a big fan of peppers other than crushed red on a pizza or whatever in just past mild salsa, I haven't really looked at them.

You do know how to water a garden don't you? Well at least a smallish one like we have. You set the sprayer nozzle on cone and pretend your are a spring shower. Set a cup in the middle of the garden and when the drift has filled it about to 1 inch full you've done enough.

There is something satisfying about watering a garden that way that can't be matched by one of those back and forth sprinklers you set in the middle and all you have to do is turn on the faucet. I would say almost Zen like except my fervid pea brain keeps humming a tune. These evenings selection was........



They don't make them like that any more. Whether that's a good thing or not I'll leave you to decide.

We're due some rain and possible thunder boomers tonight and tomorrow. Ya'll keep a weather eye out.

Sleeping with th' fishes

They say our Navy Seals killed Bin Laden.

Good....it's about time that ol' Bastard met his maker. Wouldn't you like to be a fly on the wall at that meeting. Will it be a kind loving Christian God, or an angry vengeful Muslim God. Of course if you trace the divinity back far enough maybe it's one and the same. What then.

The reports say the Obama personally authorized the hit and watched it in the situation room. If so.......kudos are in order. I hope there was a mini-camera attached to the helmet of the guy who pulled the trigger. A leader shouldn't flinch from violence carried out at his behest. Again......I'd like to have been a fly on the wall watching Obama's face. Was there joy, anguish, fear....... we'll never know the truth for sure.

Will this make us safer? Doubtful. Replacements for Bin Laden are prob'ly queued up at ever mosque in the world. This'll just be one more reason for them to play jihed.

But it takes the public's mind off of the fiscal mess the banksters and politicians are foisting off on the backs of the people. Not just here but round the world. For there will always be those who wish to profit from the labor of others. Not a bad thing if they are the inventor, entrepreneur, builder of the enterprise. Not a good thing if they, through fiat currency and false promises to sock it to the rich, bleed us of our lives.

Be that as it may, let's all send up a prayer. About what is up to you.

Me? I cooking up a Salmon Puff for supper. Smelling good. Served up with a little yellow corn cooked in lots of butter with salt and pepper............Mmmmmmmmmm make you hurt yourself.

Sleeping with th' fishes

Paying the piper

As we all know if you don't pay the piper he'll pipe a merry tune and lead all you precious children out of town and into the forest, never to be seen again. I hate it when that happens. Don't you?

Not to worry........

Here's a good way to pay him.......well at least for the next year.



With a hat tip to Karl Uppiano and much thanks to Bill

Back again

Although we've not been gone far. I've been reading my favorite bloggers and visiting new ones for most of the past month. I've just not been able to work up enough of a give a damn to post something of my own.

Not that the month has been with out thing of interest........

I had an older lady run into the back of the Red Ram while I was stopped at a red light about a mile from home. Thank goodness for a nice new chromed hitch ball and bar. It centered her front bumper and only hurt Red's feelings, while bending her bumper around it and demolishing her name tag. (Inez, if it matters)

Neither of us was damaged, as I first thought, and though I'd left my license at home, since neither of us wished to make a report the nice Highway Patrol Officer gave me back my insurance card and wished us a safe trip home.

The Kdzu Wife had her throat cut. Not by terrorists, but by a young man who, looking too young, claimed to have preformed thousands of spine operations and taking cadaver bone fused a couple of her top vertebrae and relieve the pressure on nerves to shoulder and arm which had for a while threatened to paralyze her left arm. Guess you can't judge a Doctor by the apparent lack of facial hair big enough to require shaving on a regular basis. She is much improved and came home a week ago today after a one night stay at St. Mary's Hospital here in the Classic City with a much greater appreciation for pain relievers and muscle relaxers.

We have a small garden planted with two squash plants, four tomato and six pepper plants, along with two short rows of green beans. I planted them in the new topsoil I had dumped in the sinkhole that had been growing steadily bigger in the back yard. Happy to report that everything is looking good.

The recent violent weather in the south only brushed us a little bit late one night. Some needed rain and lots of rumbling and flashing but thankfully none of the Tornadoes that devestated areas to the west and north of us. I hope none of you were seriously affected. If anyone has heard from Eric SWG let me know as he's been suspiciously missing from the blogosphere the last few days. Hope he and Mrs SWG are alright. So many people are not. Over three hundred dead. Towns and communities wiped out. Many without electricity or other public services.
Say a prayer of blessing on all those affected and another one of thanks if it isn't you.

In light of these recent events the political and financial melt down of this country I love doesn't seem quite as relevant as it otherwise might. If you've been paying attention to the price of gold and silver and their reaction to the actions of the Fed Chairman Mr. Bernake and politicians of all stripes you see that my assertion that we're all screwed has not yet been discredited. The violence in places near and far including McDonalds in this country indicate that my prediction of Feb. 21st is still on track.

While you're on you knees for yourself and those lives disrupted by mother nature be sure to request a blessing that this nation will turn back to God, for that nation that turns away will be cursed until they once more remember him.

Keep well dear visitors. I'll probably be back.

Fucked

Richard Nixon declared "War on Drugs" in 1971. Are we winning?

Lyndon Johnson, carrying forward initiatives started by JFK declared "War on Poverty in 1964. Are we winning?

George W. Bush Declared "War on Terror" in 1971. Are we winning?

VA psychiatrists, psychologists, and even outside evaluators all agree that I'm not 100% correct in all my thinking. But.....are they right?

Damnifiknow.

I just have to wonder though, if we haven't all been acting a little crazy for the last 50 years or so.

We willingly cast our ballots every two or four years for politicians who say, "give me your vote and the authority and I'll solve all these and other problems".

Do you want to lesson the costs associated with drugs? Declare them legal. Stop prosecuting people for possession. Start a program of treatment for anyone who wants to quit or control their desire for mind altering substances. Is someone in pain? Let them and their Doctors use whatever gives the best and greatest relief without fear of governmental oppression.
After all that if someone harms someone else through force or fraud because of, or while under the effects of, said mind altering substances, have a simple penalty...... Death by hanging to be administered immediately upon conviction after a trial in accordance with Constitutional standards.

Do you want to end Poverty in our time. Stop paying people to be poor. But provide lands, fertilizer and equipment whereby they may grow their own sustenance, build their own housing, raise cattle, whatever. Support them in this effort for one year with whatever they require.......after that provide only the land.....that they may realize that they have to work hard, save and preserve what they can, and above all they don't eat their seed corn. If they do eat the seed........let 'em make it as best they can.

Want to end the War on Terror? Fully recognize the Second Amendment at all times and in all places. Stop trying to tell anyone else what to do, whether in this country or without. Deal honestly with other countries in full transparency to the public in every country. If anyone wants to mess with us........
Fuck 'em. Long, hard and repeatedly until they either quit.....or die.




But then they do say I need to keep taking the meds.

Whatta I know?

Just this.

If we don't change things soon......we're fucked.

Move over Ayn Rand

I have a new love of my life.
(well my ranting and raving over political correctness and idiot politicians life anyway).

Go over here and watch Anne Barnhardt Give 'em hell

Watch the second video first. I promise you you'll not regret it.

Woo haa!