Thursday 8 August 2024 09:18:47 PM CDT

Sunday 4 August

Heading out to the Highway is one of those rebel anthems of the 1980s for a lot of guys like me. Priest is a British band and the outcast/misfit/rebel experience is a little different there but mainly the US is a much bigger place and there's a lot more of everything here and more variety. My experience in the UK was during my military years so I was observing it rather than living it but even Mr. Clean-cut All-American Air Force dude got it. I was a twenty-something and you can't noticing it.

I'll fool around and write about this for an hour if I don't watch it. HOTTW was often in my mind in the late '80s. Several Priest cassettes were in the top spot in my cassette case and it was one of my favorite tracks. It's on several of their live albums and live is the best way to experience it. In recent years they made a small change to something I miss, a hook at the end of the second verse, dunno if it was Glenn or KK. It was a little something extra that isn't there in later recordings. Glenn was still with the band when it changed - I don't know if he was changing due to the Parkinson's that would eventually put a crimp in his career or just changes that come with time. Forty years is a long time to do something just so. Glenn is one of the awesome guitarists that ever lived and however he does it is fine with me. Live recordings of Beyond the Realms of Death are really good. On a good sound system of course. I'm doing some remodeling just now but some day I'll put up a pic and some specs.

Watching the video for HOTTH and the one for Turbo Lover a few years later is interesting. The band was more into the hair band thing a bit - not as much as say Cinderalla or Poison but a little more polished. Glenn and KK could rival David Coverdale for the affection of the girls. Never ditched the leather though. The post-apocalyptic desert look is there - the slow-motion fifties drag race is a little weird.

Anyway one Friday night I left work (I was the only one worked at night - long story) and plugged in that tape and cranked it up. My two weeks notice was on my supervisor's desk and it wouldn't be found until Monday morning. I had a helluva weekend with some buds. Things worked out even better than I could have anticipated and I was feeling pretty optimistic that night when I headed out to the highway to take a chance. It was one of the two best events of my career. The other one looked bad at first but worked out even better than the first.

Priest is all you need know about metal. Priest and Maiden are my favorites but I spend a lot of time listening to dozens of others, each of which has something a little different to offer. The last Priest show I was able to attend was on the Epitaph tour and even watching it now on a six foot screen with a high-dollar sound system doesn't come close to the real thing.

One thing I've noticed about the old about metal bands is that the audiences are everything from teenagers to old geezers like me and everything in between. Can you imagine a Taylor Swift show forty years from now with people from seventeen to seventy - who paid with their own money no less? Or a Taylor Swift show four years from now even happening?

Taylor Swift is like Mountain Dew. A carefully concocted brew of chemicals, most of which have a delertorius effect on your health. Invest a few million in production - writers, producers, musicians, publicists, hair and makeup - and pump it into something that looks and sounds like a teenager. No need for actual talent or creativity - focus group it and put the package together. Psychologically it's toxic as all get-out like Mountain Dew is to your body. But it makes a lot of money for the people selling it. And properly managed can have other useful effects on society in general but that's another story. ~ Mightymamba
I drank a lot of Mountain Dew back in the day. One day I saw how much sugar was in a can of the stuff and without the other ingredients that was enough to make me stop. Ironically they have to put acidic stuff in to make it less sweet or you would puke when you drank it. As for Taylor Swift it's the latest development of a product that has been tuned over the past two or three decades. It's a niche product, teenagers and their parents who pay the bills. The socio-political manipulation is a useful by-product like soybean meal used for livestock feed after the oil is extracted.

Okey-dokey. Told you I'd talk about this for a while if you got me started.

Monday 5 August

What's up with people stealing lottery tickets from their employers? I presume that I am being watched by a camera or three wherever I am, even on the side a highway between Jonestown and Harrisburg and there isn't much to watch there. I remember going into gas stations at shift change time and they were counting the cigarettes before the new employee took over. The Air Force folks got their airplane testing done with no mishaps. 130s are cool, you don't realize how big there are until you see one close up. I was at a base in the UK that had a ARRS squadron - C130s and HH-53s they called the Jolly Green Giants. The helo pilots had a patch on their flight suits with the character from the veggie cans. My last couple of years in California I occasionally got to see a C5 and those things are huge.

What else? In national news the telly folks are reporting the Kamala Crash. Guess we'll see how that goes - it's a good time to be a prepper. The Craighead Electric thing seems to have some people interested. Including me. Not just because they got their operating center or whatever it is on the highway between me and town. Constant big truck traffic, dust and stuff on the highway. That's a pretty busy road. I'll commentate some later and see what the guys and gals at Arrakus think.


OK, there hasn't been a wind farm yet that paid for itself even with government subsidies (they ALL get them) up front. It's all about the money - except for the greenie nutjobs that actually believe it. Who's getting the money here in NEA? Yeah, I know about the people with land in the right places, know some of them. I could tell you a story but someone might be old enough to recognize the subject. I seem to remember the guy died sometime back but I may be the last one living who knew the details. A lot of those wind farms are being built by foreign companies - as our friend Jessica pointed out.

Tuesday 6 August

I rarely bother to call out the Jonestown newspaper but spewing the dregs of syndication is thing and not bothering to rinse off the tubifex worms is pretty slovenly.

Just because a deranged, AR-15 loving, registered Republican attempted to kill Donald Trump, it does not mean we should "turn down the rhetoric" -- not if the "rhetoric" to be "turned down" means not pointing out the many personal and political shortcomings and felonies committed by Trump and condoned by his MAGA followers. Trump is the greatest danger, bar none, to our democratic form of government, our nation's rule of law and the American Constitution. (Jonesboro Sun)
Socio-political commmentary - however clumsy or ill-informed - is one thing and copying and pasting hard-core leftist propaganda is another. Maybe someone there should read a bit before clicking the button.

KAIT has an article about Big Lots closing some stores. I checked to see if the Jonestown store was one and it didn't have the notice they referred to. I sometimes go by there coming back from over on Parker Road on that overpass. Usually there's a few cars in the parking lot - a dozen or so if I remember aright. Haven't been in there in a long time, it not being as interesting as it was years ago when it opened. I used to go in and browse the stuff like tools and gadgets, some stuff in the electronics was interesting, the lawn and garden stuff was good in the spring and summer. Had some interesting imported foods. But there hasn't been much there for a long time. Dunno if that's a societal trend generlly, not as much merchandise or people not being interested in it. Anyway I'll get by there again and see if they're still open.

The Jonestown store is in what was a Wal-Mart a long time ago. Jonesboro has had two Wal-Marts for as long as I can remember - the big one that was on Caraway and is now on Highland and a smaller one where Big Lots is. The big store on Caraway became a Buds for a while after it was Wal-Mart moved to the new location. Buds was kinda like Big Lots but better. Named for Sam's brother Bud they had a lot of stuff that was Wal-Mart returns (repaired or inspected and found functional) and discontinued stuff from Wal-Mart and other stores. I bought a lot of stuff there - you could get good stuff dirt cheap. Eventually they all closed, I guess about twenty years ago. The building that was a Wal-Mart and then a Buds is now a Kroger. Big fancy Kroger, I don't go there. Too big and Kroger is more expensive than about anobody. Out of curiosity and boredom some day I might. Or not.

Fun fact for Enak trivia enthusiasts: I worked a a Kroger store back in the day, in high school. That was when they carried your groceries (in big paper bags) out and put them in your car. Quit and went to the new Wal-Mart - they had less than a hundred stores in those days - for a few weeks before moving on to other stuff. Sadly Alex will never have the opportunity to introduce an Enak category. Liked Alex, seemed like one of those guys if you knew would find him to be a nice likeable fellow.

That section of town isn't growing commercially, being just a strip along that street, most of it is residential. Just across the bypass where Wal-Mart is it's growing like crazy. Not like along Highway 1 but pretty good. If Big Lots closes that'll be a big empty building.

The outfit that owns Jonesbororightnow has a website for Wynne, being as they bought the newspaper there after the tornado hosed the place and the print version was discontinued. It's better than Jonesborororight now, actually being about local news. They have this bit about local politics. Not gonna comment because I don't need anyone else suing me just now but here's a little background.

A tornado came through about a year ago. I was standing out on the front porch watching the light show over Wynne a few miles away, after a while went inside and it hit my place. Couple of big trees went down, roof damage and an outbuilding had heavy damage. Scattered damage around the area, a neighbor a quarter mile away had his house totaled. Found stuff from houses further away in the field out back. It hit Wynne hard. Some big fancy houses up on the ridge were goners, business district got hit hard. A socio-economic area on the lower end of the scale got tore up pretty good.

There was some unhappiness about the way it was handled - city regulations not allowing trailers for temporary living and some other issues that as I recall were handled reasonably well. Unfortunately the people with big houses just called the insurance company and got their checks and rebuilt, businesses did the same. The less fortunate are... well. I've been there done that and got the overpriced T-shirt. But the mayor had very little to do with the way the way it was managed. Local police and fire, cleanup streets, direct traffic. I know a lot of people in Wynne and Cross County and generally the mayor seems to be well-regarded by most - her response is in the article. I don't have much use for most politicians, as my bud Jesse says they should be treated like rental cars. I agree. Yeah that link is to a commie rag but it was the first full transcript I came across. No, I don't know Jesse personally - he's only the funniest and smartest guy in the biz. Sorry Glenn Beck.

This Memphis telly station had the news about the mayor and this. Apparently the argument is that Left Memphis isn't as bad as Memphis. Hmmm, OK, got it.

Jonesbororightnow just put up this little jewel. I won't bother to commentate just yet - if they had a comments section as NEA Report does I would but they don't. Just as Fox News has a free-for-all forum for conversation for anyone who wants to participate but the other so-called news media sites don't. And guys and gals, X and Facebook links on your site are not a useful means of engagement. Since you published a carefully crafted appeal by the Libertarian Party will you invite representives of the Democrat and Republican candidates - or RFK or others - to make their case? Could it be that someone wants to dissuade people from voting from either of the two main parties because they see the Democrats losing and will to anything to convince people that no matter how bad the dims are Trump will be worse? As I said, carefully crafted and plausibly deniable but there it is.


Alright already, I'll commentate. Liberterians with political ambitions don't seem to care much what happens with the real world, the real world being that two political parties control the fate of the Republic and the Liberterian Party isn't one of them. [1] Neither is the Green Party or any other. The Democrats are pure unadulterated evil dedicated to the destruction of the Republic and the Republicans are almost all worthless and weak and cowardly but are the only thing preventing it. No libertarian can honestly profess to care about the fate of the nation if they act in a way to allow the Democrats to succeed. I do not doubt than most are naive or quixotic but not understanding that if you vote for a party with no chance of winning is the same as not voting is really dumb. If you really want to make a difference vote against the party that will do the most damage. I don't like it but I like the alternative less.

Wednesday 7 August

Lessee, tomorrow's Thursday so I'll probably be in Jonestown most of the day. Nothing big, telly says they got infrastructure problems over in Misery, paper had the usual input from someone who clearly thinks he knows more than people who actually do useful work and get paid some of the money they earn while the rest goes to his idea of solving problems. Since the debt bomb is gonna go off in a few years - probably less than a few if the wrong contestants prevail in November. NEA Report has something I won't have time for until later, and Jonesbororightnow has... OK, here we are, they approved the walking around drinking adult beverages outdoors in that place in Jonesboro, presumably there will be an economic benefit for someone, some more bad crime, and a report of vampires. I had to read that one.

CIT officers responded to the call ready to interact with the subject under the assumption that she was experiencing a mental health episode. When they arrived, the subject told them that she had called 911 multiple times today because she believed a vampire was attacking her mother and she was worried about her.

Officers spoke with the subject and determined she was not a threat to herself or anyone else, and attempted to convince her that the vampires were not a threat. (Jonesbororightnow)

Alright, but there better not be any exsanguinated bodies turn up or somebody gonna have some explaining to do. Nah, about the only thing - which I probably won't get to either, is another guy wants to be mayor. He was talking about it some time back and got some bad press, something about a conviction for a hot check making him ineligible. Did that get sorted out? May take a while to run that down. Meanwhile I looked at his website, seems to have some good ideas but I don't usually see people running for office on bad ideas - except for president and then they tell you they aren't bad:

We will work tirelessly to put the well-being of YOU, the residents of Jonesboro, first and foremost in all that we do.

We will work to run drug dealers and criminals out of our schools and our neighborhoods by enforcing strict penalties.

From day one, we will create total transparency and accountability with YOUR money and eliminate wasteful tax-dollar spending. You could end up paying less and enjoy a better quality of life.

We will work to throw out the slum lords and clean up housing projects that invite sleazy and seedy drug dealers, thieves, and sexual predators into our community.
I like it, but I don't live in Jonestown. I would like for the folks that live there to keep it from getting worse and maybe fix it up some. Avoiding the bad areas is not that hard but it would be better if the bad places weren't bad. How has the mayor you got now been doing with it? He's been there almost four years - is Jonesboro better than it was four years ago?

I'll look at it some more later. It looks like some people in Parkin want to get rid of their mayor too. I wasn't sure if Parkin was still there - I haven't gone out that way in quite a while. They replaced the big old arched bridge over the river some years back and that was how I knew I was approaching Parkin. Now it's all flat. Checked Wickedpedia and it looks there's still some people there.

Thursday 8 August

OK, about all KAIT has new is the Left Memphis attempt to get people to live there. They had a bit more that was interesting.

To qualify for the relocation incentive, you must:
  • Age 18 years or older
  • Have an associate's degree or higher
  • Earning at least $80,000
If you can live wherever you want and making 80K or better there are much better places to live than Left Memphis. A few minutes over is Marion, a much better place if you want to live in town and rural options are available in that area. And why not just move to Jonestown or a nearby town like Brookland?

The argument here - as I said - is that Left Memphis ain't as bad as Memphis. That at least is true but the further away from Memphis (or any such city) you can go the better off you are.

Seeya in a few.
















[1] Ralph Nader came close to deciding the 2000 presidential election of George W. Bush. If just a few of the Nader votes had gone to Gore he would have won Florida and the recount debacle would not have occurred. Of course Ron DeSantis barely prevailed over the Democrat the first time around - had the drug-addled pervert won history would be much different but that is a story in itself.



























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Making a curve or taking the strain On the decline or out on the wane Oh, everybody breaks down sooner or later We'll put it to rights We'll square up and mend Back on your Feet, to take the next bend You'll weather every storm that's coming at you. And I'm heading out to the highway I got nothing to lose at all I'm gonna do it my way Take a chance before | fall. Heading Out to the Highway Judas Priest (Point of Entry ~1981)
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Remo Williams 52 minutes ago NEA 7REPORT. qemieerseemnns, Wonder if someone had some problems with the wind farm boondoggle in Cross County. Word is the local electric companies are going to be buying it. Anyone know what's going on with that? That's the biz sweetheart. Reply +904 [-) Mandroid 40 minutes ago The wind farm or the guy that quit? The wind farm people have a website here. Doesn't tell you anything except the usual press stuff. Like how tornadoes are no problem (can't wait to see that) and they will recycle the blades.@ You'll find it vague and weaselly because, well they are weaselly. Electric eye, in the sky, Feel my stare, always there, There's nothing you can do about it, Develop and expose, I feed upon your every thought, And so my power grows. Reply BG DePloraBelle 31 minutes ago A while back there was a bit of conversation on Fakebook. I recognized a couple of farmers or owned farmland, I believe the one I know pretty well isn't farming now, just renting his land. They were all talking about how great it was going to be for Cross County. Because if I'm getting money it's good for my neighbors donchaknow. What difference, at this point, does it make? Reply 2G[-) Jessica Atreides Marshall 23 minutes ago Apparently it's being built by this company in Canada. Crossover Wind looks like a Delaware corporation. We have entered the time when all will turn against us and seek our lives. Reply HG Sinanju Master 11 minutes ago I don't know how reliable this - people talk and say all kinds of things - but supposedly the electric coops in the area are going to buy it at some point. Supposedly they are it's customers but whether they buy electricity for years and then buy the old wind farm... that sounds about like something they would do. Too bad, the Arkansas coops do a good job and fairly cheaply. Throwing money into this pit won't improve matters. Here's an article I put up a while back about them. Before you can learn anything, you must know what you are studying Reply oG
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Remo Williams 45 minutes ago It may be something that was sent by the Liberterian Party of Arkansas. I found a Melissa Crow on their website - Volunteer of the Year 2021 so apparently it's a real person. Maybe she submitted it as an opinion? That's the biz sweetheart. Reply 7G) Jessica Atreides Marshall 33 minutes ago There's a page on their website where you can submit a message to the editor. Max 900 characters. I tried to copy/paste it and it only took the first couple of paragraphs. So she didn't do it that way. We have entered the time when all will turn against us and seek our lives. Reply +3 (4+ ]-) DePloraBelle 25 minutes ago Calling BS. That looks like something written by a professional writer of marketing stuff. As I sit here on the porch of my home in small-town Arkansas... give me a break.D Politics is so fake. Trump's biggest problem is that he isn't a politician and hates fake. What difference, at this point, does it make? Reply 42(+]-) KaliforniaDreamin 11 minutes ago Unfortunately too many people are too dumb or too lazy or both to see through it. Life is a lemon and I want my money back. ~ Meat Loaf Reply 0G ]-) Jawbreaker 37 minutes ago T'll give them the benefit of doubt and guess it was sent some other way - obviously not through the website - email or even snail mail. And all the pressure that's been building up, For all the years it bore the load, The cracks appear, the frame starts to distort, It's ready to explode. Reply +1(4+]-) Phantasm Lord of the Dead 19 minutes ago T'll contact the Republican party of Arkansas and suggest they submit an op-ed. © No reason they shouldn't publish it. You play a good game, boy, but the game is finished. Now you die. Reply 0G ]-)
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