Tuesday 11 February 2025 12:35:54 PM CST





Friday 7 February 2025 10:39:02 PM CST

Ice-cold hearts of charity bare describes a lot of people today. Queen's second album is my favorite but I liked NATO and some after that and then got kinda blah for a while before Jazz came along. Then it was kinda blah for a while. The Prophet's Song and 39 are probably my faves. Bohemian Rhapsody is pretty clever and humorous and more famous on account of being played in Wayne's AMC Pacer. The Pacer was one of them weird things and maybe only American Motors could have had whatever it took to make such a thing (the Gremlin could have given us a clue) but the station wagon was pretty cool. If I ever got super-rich I'd probably restore old cars that I liked - pay somebody to do it actually - like '75 Trans-Ams and '78 LeBarons (had a seriously cool one of those once) and maybe a Pacer station wagon.

What, Chris?

It wasn't just any LeBaron. It was a 2-door with all the buttons including a power sunroof or moonroof or whatever. Crushed velour upholstery (no Corinthian leather here) and aluminum wheels. Plain with no spokes or anything just a smooth wheel with a fancy center cap. Funny story about how I bought it but I'd rather tellya about what I done to it. Had the usual 318 but it got a clicky lifter after I'd had it about a year and it got worse and we opened it up and looked and it had a couple of bad ones and chewed up the camshaft so I's looking at a rebuild to be safe. Cousin on Mom's side of the family was one of those specially talented gearheads and worked for a Chrysler dealer. Had a Dodge Magnum he upgraded to a 360 4-barrel and he had another engine just like it and I had him drop it in. I'd just passed up a '73 Satellite with a 400 and was regretting it when I bought the LeBaron so I was happier with the upgrade. Tellya the story about me and the salesman another time.

What was I talkin' about afore you interrupted me? Queen and Wayne's World? Okey-dokey, let's get on with it.

Over in Memphis they thought some unused federal buildings might be for sale but then they took them off the list. Not like there ain't already enough empty buildings. Why Elon decided to put a data center there - big empty buildings. Back in the day Memphis had about everything - International Harvester, Malone and Hyde (AutoZone - a former subsidiary - is still there) Firestone, bunch of others either based there or had big operations. I growed up in Cross County and...

What, Chris?

I got older in Cross County and lived there until I was about twenty and had a place there all my life. I mainly live there now and back in the day there was bunches of people worked in Memphis and even if it was an hour or more drive it was a good deal because it paid good. Not any more. Anyway the Memphis news folks keeping us informed of the destruction being wrought - to hear them tell it - by the Trump administration. I got a feeling there will be buildings being sold or leases ended in Memphis like a lot of other places. Seems there some in St. Francis County (Forrest City) here in Arkansas going away.

Mayor of Jonesboro did the state of the city speech. I'm just going by the Jonesbororightnow article so it may not have everything but there weren't anything about crime of any kind - not the crime by people comin' over from Memphis or cops maiming citizens. He just got elected again so no need to worry about stuff like that until next time. Figure he'll want to stay in there as long as he can and be there when the population goes over 100K.












Saturday 8 February 2025 10:52:12 PM CST

Dunno if some banks don't pay attention or what. What all the banks I do business with make you do to open an account these malefactors don't look smart or industrious enough to get it done and opening sixty-five accounts? Something should have set off some alarms. I know how set things up to have dozens of email addresses and social media accounts and all but banking supposed to be a little tighter. I haven't ever tried to do open an account without going to the bank so not sure how works. I do business with some small regional banks around here and Arvest is one of them big ones. Owned by the Walton family.

Gettin another solar farm here in Cross County south of Wynne this time. We got windmills all over and big sun farms north of town. Guess if I live long enough I get to see the old windmill blades wherever they dump them. 300 million for this one.

Governor talking about doin' away with sales tax on groceries and that seems to be a good thing. Wonder what the overlap is between the ones that don't want to and the ones that also don't want to stop SNAP cards from buying junk food. Wanting to do away with property taxes too but the schools wanting more money from that. If enough people abandon the government schools for private and homeschooling - something that's happening more now with the new laws - the schools would need less. Something like 12-13K for each pupil per year compared to about 1K for homeschool and dunno what private gets but that seems high. 144K for twelve years.... 150-200 for college... okey-dokey. Talking to family plugged into the socio-political scene here says Wynne continues to lose students to the beanfield school and to make matters worse Cross County beat Wynne in football.

The professor dude tells us that eliminating income tax on tips is a bad idea. I could be like Democrats and say "Professor, why do you hate people with low-wage jobs?" but then I'd be acting like them. Cartoon pretty funny but maybe not the way intended. Zelenskyy was back groveling within 48 hours of the beatdown. Whether that is a delaying tactic (probably) remains to be seen but Ukraine is over and they better get the best deal they can.












Sunday 9 February 2025 11:32:34 PM CST

Theoretically an infinite number of parallel universes might exist, with differences between any two of them so small that they are nearly indistinguishable. Badlands is set in a post Civil War USA and the people are the same but the Earth has two moons, the horses have small horns, the firearms are different, etc. Balance of Power is in a universe with even smaller variations.

Erik

This may be the first fatality associated with the Cross County wind farm. I haven't seen any news of people perishing in the construction work but it seems this fellow was in a traffic mishap. The KAIT article says he was driving a 2017 Chevy Silverado and the company doing the work got a while bunch of crew cabs or some sort or other - any time I'm driving around I usually before long meet one or two or get one behind me. Haven't paid much attention to whether they Fords or Chevys but ain't never seen a Dodge. Had a couple of near-close encounters with their equipment all over the place. This happened on highway 64B which is a loop off of US64 that goes into the center of Wynne. It's a twisty piece of road you have to be careful on - I had a few scares there back in the day. Big truck on a road like that you need to be extra careful.

It has to be painful to write news at a time like this. No matter how they spin it it's bad news as they seem to be saying that the NATO cabal is now effectively if not officially NATO minus the USA and have skipped to the final stage of acceptance:

With the growing conviction that they will now have to fend for themselves, countries that have faltered on defense spending for decades held emergency talks in Brussels to explore new ways to beef up their security and ensure future protection for Ukraine.

The move underscored a sea change in geopolitics spurred on by Trump, who undermined 80 years of cooperation based on the understanding that the U.S. would help protect European nations following World War II.

KAIT8/Associated Press












Monday 10 February 2025 09:12:03 PM CST

Book of the day is Death of a Citizen by Donald Hamilton. Mainly because I was converting the digital data into my private format. Back in the day a tech sergeant who worked in intel was a housemate in Iswich. Ipswich is a city in England (and Massachusetts and Australia because colonization) about 100K back then. Our base - bases actually as RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge were part of the same unit) had housing shortages on account of it was 1980 and the evil empire and all the British and German U.S. Air Force bases were being built up and the population overflowed. Even us junior types (I was an E-2 when I arrived) were encouraged to find off-base housing and if you split a pad with one or two guys you make a couple or three hundred extra off the housing allowance. My E-6 roomie worked in intel and knew all kinds of stuff and got cool pics of airplanes and stuff. I often wondered but never asked if he was anything more than just an analyst. He had an old Underwood typewriter that was probably from a DOD auction and was the same type that was in most of the offices where I worked. I was in the CO's office and had a new IBM Selectric II with the correction tape but most of the others had old WWII gear.

What, Chris?

It's a feature I'm adding. Not like there's much news to talk about. Be done in a minute... so TSgt Garrison PCS'd back stateside and left a me a whole bunch of books and among them were the James Bond books and the Matt Helm books up to that point. The Bond books mostly share only the name and a few characters and plot elements with the movies and are kinda dull if you seen the movies. As spies go Nick Carter is my favorite. He's pretty realistic as the books were contemporaneous with the subject matter (Vietnam, Middle East and such) and the action is pretty realistic and gadgetry is minimal and within the realm of feasibility. Matt Helm is probably even more realistic and is pretty rough at times. In the premeire Matt (a WWII spy) is manipulated into going back into the spy business and ends up slicing up (fatally) a pretty female spy (one of the baddies of course) to make her talk. Nothing like the movies with Dean Martin. I figured if you wanna do Matt Helm properly David Janssen would be the way to go. Or whoever the equivalent is today. Anyhow I ended up reading DOAC again and was up late. I commented that I didn't find John Sanford's guy as authentic as Travis Mcgee - I find Matt Helm to be the equal of Mcgee in realism.

Okey-dokey, what we got today?












Tuesday 11 February 2025 09:12:03 PM CST

One would think - since that data available to all AI engines is about equal - that Google would get fewer things wrong and more things right. Unless it's intentional - this being the search engine appendage it could be deliberate but on something so trivial it makes no sense. Naturally there will be "errors" and missing data on subjects where the facts conflict with the Google agenda but things like this make no sense. The 1956 incident I was not aware of but the one in 1980 is well better known. Maybe Google doesn't like the data on this one. I may or may not have mentioned in this here blog that I was at RAF Bentwaters on that occasion and personally knew the officer in the Wickedpedia article. He was the deputy base commander and I saw him frequently while working in the commander's office and can tell you he was as sane as any other officer I knew and more than some. Maybe it is too touchy for Google to point it out. Think I'll Google Henry VIII and see if he still had six wives and two had their heads chopped off. Actually one chopped and one lopped since Anne got the French sword method. That's Anne Boleyn as most people know - he had another one named Anne briefly and just had that one annulled. Guy has six wives and two named Anne and two named Katherine and one of the Annes and one of the Katherines got decollated.

What, Chris?

I say it some. 'This here' just means 'this' in southern. Arkansas southern anyway. Like 'that there'. I got in the habit because the guy that runs Executed Today says it a lot leading me to suspect that he's either an American or a Brit that affects American lingo for humorous effect. Speaking of humor - morbid humor - Executed Today is a fascinating and fun treasure trove of people being judicially - and occasionally non-judicially slain. Or is it extra-judicial. There's a lot of extra judicial in about everything these days, especially people being punished for murder. Or for non-murder. Take the fellow in South Carolina that selected the musketry option. It's hard not to be flippant sometimes so I'll go ahead and be flippant this time - for malefactors who choose the death by fusillading should do like Gary Gilmore and say "Let's do it."

Dunno if there's a lot more bodies turning up or not but it sure seems like it. Apparently this one was floating in one of them big ditches runs through Paragoud. Think it may be what used to be the 8 Mile Ditch - next time I'm over there I'll see if they changed the sign.

Looking more like the state may take over the Memphis schools - I thought that had died down some in Nashville but.... this fellow is from Memphis so color me suspicious:

He said the proposal, based on action taken in Houston, Texas, would create a nine-member board of managers that would have supervisory authority over the next couple of years to 'right-size' the district.

The nine-member board would be comprised of local leaders from Shelby County, making it different from state oversight of the district.

"It's really Memphis fixing Memphis," White said.

WREG.com
First a note to the writers - it ain't "comprised of". No such thing. Maybe you meant "composed of" but so many people these days trying to sound smart say what they heerd some other pseudo-smart person say and figure it'll make them seem smart. Sadly too few people even know enough to call them on it - what El Rushbo called 'losing the language'. OK kiddos, things comprise whatever they are composed of. Got it?

Excuse me for being annoyed by midwits being paid more than competent people but as Harlon Ellison said "if you hear me sobbing once in a while it's because you're killing me too". I don't try to make people think I'm smart but then I don't care what people think of me and I don't have to find or keep a job. Anyhow I'll give Mr. White credit for good intentions - he's a Republican so at least corrupt isn't his default setting - and he may believe what he says but Memphis ain't gonna fix Memphis. Memphis ain't fixed itself in fifty or more years - exactly the opposite - and it ain't gonna happen now. There's a slim chance that a board of locals carefully vetted by competent people in state government could make some improvement but it is a slim one. The problem with Memphis schools is Memphis.

Jonestown paper got the usual editorial stuff. They update the opinion page and sports more than the news. "Breaking" news a week or more old, I'm guessing the obituaries are kept current. Ain't no classified any more except some legal notices. Dunno why they have so many from this one - whether it's AI-generated or copied from someone else's AI-genned stuff it's pretty much the same:

When a president speaks of a "golden age" on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we must name the idolatry in such rhetoric. Golden ages, historically, have always been golden for some at the expense of many. Dr. King didn't dream of a return to any past era; he envisioned a future yet unrealized.

The Fulcrum
Have they now? Care to cite an example or two? And whose definition of 'Golden Age' are you using? What would your Golden Age look like - the heyday of the welfare state and the recent DEI/LGBTQX+QWERTY madness? Okey-dokey.
Trump's executive orders aren't mere policy shifts; they're moral earthquakes that shake the very foundation of our interfaith commitment to human dignity. When government policies separate families, marginalize minorities, and dismiss environmental stewardship as optional, they don't just challenge our political preferences -- they assault our core religious convictions.

The Fulcrum
I rather doubt that this clown has read even one of the executive orders he mentions - I've read some and part of some and most so far have been reversing the destructive and indeed Satanic ones issued by the former infestation of the office of the president. The writer is "reverend" something-or-other that seems to see everything through the lens of his perceptions of race. Whatever the case if he bothered to acquaint himself (presuming pronouns here) with the facts.... nah, gotta stop making sense.















































I dreamed I saw on a moonlit stair Spreading his hand on the multitude there A man who cried for a love gone stale And ice-cold hearts of charity bare I watched as fear took the old man's gaze Hopes of the young in troubled graves "I see no day, " I heard him say "So grey is the face of every mortal" Oh, oh, people of the earth Listen to the warning the prophet he said "For soon the cold of night will fall" Summoned by your own hand

"Have you heard anything lately about an ISD agent getting whacked?" asked Sarah. "Of course I have," Oscar replied. "Woke me up at four on a Sunday morning. You know anything about it?” Neither replied, Oscar swiveled in his chair and moved a mouse on one of the four computers. The screen woke up with a proverb. Abig red banner with the words 'That which does not kill me has made a grave tactical error. Like Clay. These guys like their philosophy. I like that one. Oscar moused and clicked for a few moments, opened a window showing a screenshot of the Knoxville News Sentinel website. ‘Parkside Mall homicide victim was ISD agent’, it proclaimed. "Amarillo called me not an hour after they found the body,” said Oscar. "It probably would have waited until a decent hour if a security guard hadn't got curious about the car. Then, before it got into the regular news, we find out somebody decided to play Dirty Harry. You're both a little young to remember that. “Let me guess,” he continued, “one or the other of you picked him up in a bar, like in the movie, got him to a good place to kill him. Not that a shopping center parking lot is a good place. Is that about it?" "Where would a good place be?" Sarah asked "A back street or a restaurant?” "You've got a point. And probably not knowing your way around Knoxville... you both live in Jonesboro?" Balance of Power (2022)

“It was your brother, Sarah. And Alexis - Jeremy Hendrix was your significant other. They're running all that through their computers now, and their names will turn up. And yours. And since they're both dead, they'll be looking at next of kin. And significant others. “In fact they'll be looking at anyone even remotely likely to take umbrage at their little killing spree. But you two are very close. I'm surprised they're not already after you. "Or maybe they are. I'm going to alert Felix in Amarillo, have him put some eyes on you. It's likely you're on their radar. And forget about Crawford.” Sarah and Alexis stood up. "No way," they both said at once. "Sit down," said Oscar. "Now isn't the right time.” "They killed my brother,” Sarah said. "And Alexis' fiance.” "Hold on,” said Oscar. "I said it isn't time...now. Let me finish. Balance of Power (2022)

"Need to know," Oscar said. "You didn't need. In any case the operation was unauthorized, Hawk isn't going to be happy. At all.” "How about we transfer to Quebec, whatever it is?” asked Alexis. "Quebec Niner. You don't just ‘transfer’. I probably shouldn't even be talking about them. What they do is seriously mission-critical stuff. Personal revenge... look, what they did to you was... I can't pretend I know how you feel. I have an idea, but they've killed so many innocent people, and thousands more are being brutalized in the gulags, we don't have the resources to track them down and deal with them.” "We're volunteering,” Sarah said. "And you said they're probably going to whack Crawford. Why not let us take care of it?” "Like I said, you were lucky. What you're talking about you'd have to get lucky four more times, and now they're onto you. Do you really think you can pull that off?” "Just let us be the shooters," said Alexis. "It will save you exposing a couple of agents.” Oscar turned back to the computer he has using. Sarah and Alexis looked at each other, and waited. "Can I buy you a drink?" Oscar asked. "Knowing what happened to the last guy that did?" Sarah looked over at her. She was smiling. I don't know if that's good or bad. Balance of Power (2022)

Reply +3 (4+ ]-) Chemical Youth 1 hour ago Zelenskyy was backpedaling probably before he got the cartoon finished. Actually Trump tried to be nice but some people you just can't help. Some people are like Slinkies -- not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs. Reply Mack Bolan 1 hour ago Reportedly some Democrat congresspeople prepped him and gave him some really bad advice. For every action there is a reaction, for every good an evil, for every strength a weakness, and for every injustice there is somewhere a final justice. Reply 194 [-) Count Smiorgan 1 hour ago That makes sense - there was a meeting. But Zelenskyy is nothing but a tool and does what he's told. His handlers miscalculated. America is at that awkward stage; it's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards. (Claire Wolfe) Reply +5(+]-) Civil Whites 1 hour ago How long will it take for them to get that Trump 2.0 is different? Or will it matter? I Would Rather Be Governed By the First 2,000 People in the Telephone Directory than by the Harvard University Faculty. — William F. Buckley Jr. Reply Belushi Speedball 49 minutes ago Probably not since they have nothing but the playbook they've been using for years. Those who are inclined to suffer fools gladly should plan to spend a lot of time suffering. Reply +9 7]- Terminus Est 33 minutes ago Giving hin the benefit of doubt but maybe he didn't bother to watch the whole 40 minutes - just watched the sound bites. Too clever is dumb. ~ Ogden Nash Reply +3 (4+ ]-)

KaliforniaDreamin 1 hour ago As always facts don't matter. Does this clown even know the facts? The facts according to CNN, MSLSD, etc maybe. Life is a lemon and I want my money back. ~ Meat Loaf Reply +194] - Sinanju Master 1 hour ago The way things are looking so far the economy may be the only thing the dims can run on. This time around they failed to convince the people that it wasn't awful - if the Trump administration manages to improve things noticeably they will have nothing. Before you can learn anything, you must know what you are studying Reply +8 C+ [ - Nikki Niner 1 hour ago They succeeded - barely - in 1992 by convincing enough people that it was bad. They have nowhere near that influence now. Clinton only won because of Perot. I remember now I remember how it started I can't remember yesterday I just remember doing what they told me Reply +6 (4 ) Jawbreaker + hour ago With the government no longer slaughtering millions of chickens and resuming oil production a couple of the main ones become non-viable. This guy will have to console himself by drawing caricatures of Trump. 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 +3 (4+]-) Willow Kane 1 hour ago The economy being their only argument they will do everything possible to cause damage. The problem is they have zero control over the levers they need and the ‘news’ media is nearly lost to them. If Trump makes a couple of peace deals - looking likely - and prices come down or at least don't go up they have nothing, The 1992 ‘crisis' was entirely in the minds of the gullible - it was actually improving in the last two quarters of the Bush administration. Compassion is no substitute for justice. ~ Rush Limbaugh Reply HG