Saturday, February 19, 2011

Wisconsin (And Other States) It All Started With Jealosy

About the first government workers of manage to join into protective organizations were the police departments and fire depts., for good reason, the police and firemen were on the line before most others. The others came later.

In the days when political patronage reached far into the lower ranks of government workers those with a lick of sense realized the idiocy of firing patrol officers and detectives, not to mention firemen, with each new administration. After all, it takes some time to learn the streets and how to keep fire damage and loss of life to a minimum.

So the police and firemen formed "benevolent associations" which eventually became labor unions. Along came the bus drivers, sanitation workers and, eventually, teachers. After they too formed labor unions they wanted the same pay and retirement bennies that police and firemen got, forgetting some important differences. There is a REASON police and firemen get to retire early. The common retirement used to be half pay at twenty years, three quarters at thirty. I admit to not keeping up with big city policies or gains made in the last twenty or so years.

Policing and fighting fires are young men's games. A sanitation worker does not have to chase, then fight and, finally cuff the garbage before throwing it into the truck. A city bus driver can still drive the bus at age sixty.

There are only a limited number of jobs that can still be done by the older police and firefighters. This is not that those jobs are unimportant, they are simply not physical.

The trouble is, folks like the teacher's union bosses see that cops get to retire while relatively young so they fight the tame politicians that have been elected because of union money for a benefit that simply does not apply. A teacher can still teach later in life than a firefighter can work the nozzle of a two and a half inch fire line or a bluesuit can fight a two hundred and eighty pound PCP monster.

Too many decades of that jealousy has led us to what is going on in Wisconsin now, California and Illinois next.

My fear is that police and firefighters will lose that option of retiring early. We will then see sixty-two year old officers on street patrol. Fortunately I live where we can still shoot bad guys.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

A Jot And A Tittle About Glenn Reynold's Infallible Genius

So I'm rooting around the Intertubez when I noticed Glenn Reynolds, the Infamous Puppyblender, lamenting that no one writes even a jot or a tittle about his infallible genius. Well, I have to admit I've never met an infallible genius but then I've never met Prof Reynolds. He must be purty durned smart, he's got this job that seems to pay pretty well, a real cutie of a wife, who is also pretty smart. He manages to find time to blog all day and into the night, nearly seven days a week. He managed to defeat The Alliance of Free Blogs, in spite of all the calumny and outright lies we told of him. Seems the only people dumb enough to believe our wild tales was Oscar Willis and the Daily Koz community.

After all that Reynolds just grew stronger. I almost tried to meet him, on our only trip through Knoxville but we had Captain Fatbob, The Black Pug of Doom with us so we didn't dare. And of course Reynolds won't come out here to Dogpatch, he has better sense than to come where the folks would say: "Law Perfesser? Get a rope! That should count as infallible genius. As a matter of fact that should be the first rule of geniusosity: Stay away from where they'd lynch you just for bein'. Hmm, the spell checker on this thing says geniusosity isn't a word. Is it geniustude? Nope, guess I'll just go down in history as someone who just invented two words, all in hope of a link.

Back to what I normally write about. Does anyone remember when and why Alcan Powders disappeared from the handloading scene? They had a lot of really good powders for the handgun and shotgun loader. They were really big when I was a kid, then sometime in the late '60s, or the '70s, they just went away. Anyhow it was either when I was still in the Service or shorty after, when I was involved in trying to build my life, and not so involved in handloading ammunition.

The Linda Lou front remains kind of messy. She is still is not allowed to put any weight on her bad leg and the right knee where she tore the anterior cruciate and a bunch of other parts whose names I disremember, back in '90 is still very sore and weak. She managed to fall again the other night, trying to get from her wheelchair to the couch. She was very low to the floor when she went down, thank the Lord but it still scared the foo out of me. Naturally I had to call the South Tawokoni Volunteer Fire Dept again. They're going to put a substation in our front lawn.

I do not really know, I suspect she just kind of fell asleep while trying to make the transfer, she takes her bedtime pills, including some pain, some sleeping and, I believe, some muscle relaxants, and then horses around until she's falling out before trying to go lay down. Anyhow a feller from the Volunteer Fire Dept drove the ambulance out, a great big husky guy and got her up and on the couch so she could sleep. Since then I've made her sleep in the recliner. It's higher and easier to transfer to and from. And I'm making her wait until she is absolutely ready to lie down before she takes her pills. Even fifteen years ago I could help her more. This getting old. Poo!

Only two doctor visits this week, the wound care specialist and her surgeon's physician assistant. And then Friday we go up to Plano to William's Blue and Gold Banquet. I'm praying this is the last of the long drives until payday. The next tank of gas comes on a credit card, on money we haven't earned yet.

Anyone who still believes that the Democrats are the party of the little people, please check the gas and grocery prices.

Friday, February 04, 2011

Comments Back, So I'll Comment On Some Things

People are noticing that both the Army and the FBI fell down on that Hassan case and let a bunch of unarmed soldiers die with more wounded. People are also wondering how our very expensive foreign "Intelligence" outfits missed Egypt. Um, could it be that political correctness does not work with law enforcement, the military and intelligence? Perhaps I could have shortened that to "political correctness does not work".

We had another six or seven inches of snow overnight. When the freeze started I got caught by surprise. I seldom check the weather, Linda Lou is mesmerized by it and checks it constantly so she tells me about it. I, OTH, look out the window before I need to go out and then dress. Well, Linda Lou fell down on the job and did not tell me we were getting cold into the 'teens. The pipes are frozen somewhere and we have no running water.

I shall trudge through the snow over to Patsy's and beg a few gallons, over and above our emergency drinking supply so I can flush toilets, water dogs, etc. When the cold only gets into the mid twenties I don't have to run water because our "pipes, actually PVC "hoses" run right next to the heat and air ducts under the house.

Anyhow, it's really pretty out there, I hate the idea of leaving footprints through it. If for no other reason that my feet will get cold. Anyhow, I really, REALLY, REALLY hope that my flexible "pipes" have enough stretch in them to not have burst. Won't know 'til the thaw. Fortunately, this ain't the frozen tundra where blogfaddah Harv lives so we will find out sooner than, say, June.

Later: I have trudged through the snow, twice, returning with four gallons of water each time. I should have done another trip but, to heck with it. Linda Lou's bedside commode and the toilet is cleaned out, there is a pot o' coffee brewin' and we still have a dozen bottles of drinking water.

Things are pretty nice in the modern days with electric lights, heat without having to chop and haul wood, running water and all. It's easy to forget.

I'm wondering things about modern life as I age. I have had some major disagreements with my (electronic) friend and sister in all but blood Cynthia. Cynthia, who writes better than I, plus understands computers and stuff better, disagrees with me about gay marriage and gays in the military, both of which I believe I am on the losing side. Time will tell which of us is right. Still, Cynthia's position is rooted in what she considers justice, mine is rooted in practicality. I am not against either thing out of anything but my conservatism. I do not wish to make big changes until I know the long term results of those changes. Gays in the military? Fine. Put one Army division, plus all the support troops with a like sized bunch of the other Services, into the gay-friendly mode. Let's see how those organisations far over ten years. I'm not sure exactly how to do the same with gay marriage but someone smart could figger it out.

Later: 2/08/11. I got tired of writing but shall finish torquing the rest of the world off with abortion. I believe the deplorable conditions in that Philly "clinic" and the apparent willingness of various Planned Parenthood offices to ignore the law and not report probable statuary rape cases and even assist in child prostitution rings. Life is either a precious gift (from our Creator) or it isn't. If it isn't, it's just a commodity with varying value. So, why are we acting surprised when some do not value that commodity the same way others do?

I am an equity feminist. I could not grow up to be my Mother's son without being an equity feminist. My Mother was a lot more skilled and competent than many, perhaps most, of the men promoted over her at the railroad. Yet "the rules" stopped her promotion. Yet when gender feminism came along, she ignored it. The kind of feminism that came along was a construct of soulless leftism, much of it was simply a way to get some gullible women to lie down with leftist men.

Why is abortion such a big industry? It's simple, a couple of generations of leftists has convinced a sizable percentage of the women of this country to lie down with men whom they have no desire to raise children. Of course there was the movement to create lots of men with whom no one would want to raise children. These at the same time have literally destroyed the family.

At the same time there is the myth that women were not valued, back in the day. That wife beating was common, that rape happened on a regular basis. Well, maybe. In Arabia or some faraway place. As recently as the 1950s rape carried the death penalty here. And in the 1950s people on death row did not die of old age while going through 98 rounds of appeals.

Commercially viable abortions are not because of rape. Nor are they because of failure of birth control or the unborn baby being deformed. Commercially viable abortion businesses are simply from enough women who have devalued themselves enough to lie down with those valueless men. Funny how those people laugh at those who still value themselves.

As to the idea that wifebeating was common back then, again, people still believed in punishment. Here is a thought experiment, it's 1895. Police are still rudimintary in the big cities, almost nonexistent in the countryside. People still believe in protecting themselves and punishing the wrongdoers. Now, imagine being a man and wanting to beat your wife for some minor infraction. That wife has a big iron skillet, butcher knives, the hatchet used to kill the chicken and access to the family shotgun. And you are going to beat this woman and then go to sleep next to her. Right. And just how do you plan on awakening?

Sorry, the women of yesteryear helped fend of Indian attacks and coyotes from the chicken coops. They helped stand off horse thieves and rustlers. Then came their daughters and granddaughters. Yesterday's women stood the great depression and we now think they let themselves be beaten? Worse, we think their men thought so little of them they they would beat them? That those men thought so little of themselves that they would set themselves in harness for a lifetime with someone of so little value?

Sorry, people who value themselves so little is recent. and it's on purpose. And it will destroy the last best hope of mankind if left to run amok.

The antidote is both very easy and very hard. It starts with believing that I have worth. That is easy. The hard part? I must live up to that worth. It continues with believing that you have worth, and treating you as if you do, while expecting that you live up to that worth.

This is why the self esteem craze that flowed through our "education system" a while back only got half the problem. Why, yes, it is important that kids feel good about themselves. What the "educators" forgot is that those kids must do something they can feel good about first. Why is our society heading down the tubes? Well it probably started when we became a nation of consumers, rather than producers. And it all started with the devaluing of humanity. And it will continue until humanity is valued.

Oh, if anyone cares, we got through with no pipe damage, the snow is gone and we are resupplied for the next storm which is due later today. We have milk, coffee, Linda Lou's soda, bacon, eggs, meat and canned goods, and the propane tank is over half full and the water is running enough to prevent a freeze in the pipes. Is it spring yet?

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Comments Down, Thanks To Those Waterheads At JS-kit.

As anyone who has followed these ramblings of mine for more than a few paragraphs knows, I am the next best thing to computer illiterate. Blogfather Harv helped me a lot when I started this little Blog and he's been my main go-to guy for help ever since.

To Harvey's near infinite chagrin, he moved my comments from Blogspot's system to Haloscan. I don't recall why but he saw a major advantage of some kind. Well, that advantage is gone. Seems that Haloscan was sold to some miserable examples of corporate hacks, js-kit. Well, js-kit is holding my comments hostage. Unless I pay them money, no one (not registered?) can comment here and since I haven't paid them, I can't register.

Now I called them miserable examples of corporate hacks for good reason. Why should anyone with a total readership of some sixty to seventy views a day pay for the few comments? One would think even a corporate drone could figure out that there is no money to be found in little bitty blogs like mine. I suspect js-kit is much like the Underwear Gnomes of yesteryear. Tiny little blog-???-PROFIT! Really. How dumb is that? They must have majored in liberal arts at an Ivy League University to be that stupid.

Anyhow, when Harv gets the time he's going to bring back Blogspot's comment system. He says I will lose all of the comments under js-kit. I am not sure if this means that I will lose all of the Haloscan comments from before js-kit bought Haloscan, but, whatever. Harv mentioned in his note to me how sorry his is to have told so many folks to use Haloscan, back in the day. Well, he had no idea that Haloscan would be sold to folks that seem dumb enough to go out in the middle of a freeway and play marbles. At night. Wearin' asphalt colored clothes. Talk about dumber than a bag of hammers.

It occurs to me that I should make some apologies here to those that I have unfairly insulted. I hope that all Underwear Gnomes, waterheads , folks who play marbles in the middle of the freeway and bags of hammers will accept my apology. Liberal Arts majors from the Ivy Leagues? If anyone is reading this to you, sorry. As to the management of js-kit, I hope your legs grow together.