You should show this to every cop you know. Good cops especially.

I have a chip on my shoulder for the cop who thinks that his job is to project power or to keep the citizens under control. Who think that rather than gently and peacefully taking control of a situation in a polite and respectful manner where possible rather than shooting or striking people who may or may not be involved in a situation is the best tactic.

I respect the cops who act like they are dealing with people, Who act as if they had a job to do, and who treat those they deal with respectfully and do their job by treating people as citizens rather than serfs. I know many, and consider some of them friends.

Doesn’t Ryan tell Biden to Shut the Hell up and wait his turn?

(and Martha too?)

I’d have been impressed if he had.

Otherwise not so much. 

One of the largest differences between the Republican leaning conservative voting block and the DNC leaning liberal voting block is the method by which they express their anger and disappointment.

Lets face it, If the conservative bunch chose to riot and rampage, the destruction and death toll would be huge.

But we don’t. We retrench and wait for the next opportunity. We don’t destroy our community and that of others. We don’t riot and loot. We just wait for the next opening to change things.

Not so with the folks who are liberal and organized by the DNC and their minions.

They’ll riot at the drop of a hat. Many of them will have nothing to lose, it’s not like you’ll lose your job if you don’t show because you are in jail if you are on welfare or receiving other “entitlements”. Nor are that groups rules for behavior the same as conservatives.

So what happens when Obama loses (if he does, if Mitt can keep from screwing up the momentum he currently has)?

Some say riots in the streets. Maybe race riots.

If I lived in a large city with a significant “entitlement” population, I’d be cautious. I’d stock some extra food and water. Maybe make plans to park my automobiles in a safer and more secure place than on the street. Perhaps make plans to be elsewhere shortly after the election.

Mobs are cruel. Mobs are uncaring. Mobs can turn at any moment from “mostly peaceful” protest to terribly violent riots.

I’d be prepared for that, if I lived in a city that was largely “Blue” and had a significant portion of the population fed and clothed and housed via government payments.

Luckily, I don’t live in an area like that. If you do, I’d consider making plans.

So a man walks into a bank.

May I help you? says the teller

“You bet yer sweet ass you can”, the man replies.” I wanna open an account in this fucking bank, sweetie”.

“I don’t have to deal with language like that, sir”, she says.

“Well, then, sweet cheeks, go get your manager!” he replies.

She leaves her station, gets the manager, explains the issue, and he comes over.

“How can I help you sir?” He asks, somewhat stiffly.

“Look, I just won 98 million bucks in the lottery, and I need to open a fucking bank account”, says the man.

“Oh, and was this stupid bitch not helping you?” says the manager….

In one of the cities I travel through frequently, there has been, for over a year, a more or less regular bunch of people who are still “occupying” the public ways in protest. They are polite and respectful to passersby, but they are always there. Some are full time, some less so. Their presence is a more or less constant, rain or shine.

They protest the fact that a some people have significantly more wealth than they do.

I understand, I really do. They are unhappy with the fact that there are inequities in the distribution of wealth in this country. They are unhappy that some people have significantly more wealth, property, money and security than they do.

Of course, the fact that those people (the “rich”) likely worked hard and made a lot of right decisions doesn’t ever enter the minds of the “Occupiers”. The fact that they (the “occupiers”) could be working a second job (if they even have one) instead of “Occupying” the town square….making more money, earning more to use to invest and grow and maybe make a good decision to use for school to get a better job, or to start a business of their own. Instead, they waste their time holding up signs that very few people read , and delude themselves that they are making a difference in the world.

I admire their determination and dedication, if not their methods nor their philosophy. They think that protesting will make a difference, will change the ways of the US and the citizens therein. Foolish of them to think so.

They fail to realize that, to a large extent, they made the decisions which put them into the position they are in right now…..maybe they were unlucky, but also more likely they chose: not to learn a skill, or a trade, or to take the easy way out….or get a worthless degree (if they even worked that hard). That they likely made short sighted decisions and do only the minimum  needed to get by to the end of the month….Most of them that I see have tattoos……. Which really are worthless, but are expensive.  Where did the money for those come from?

The really really terribly sad fact is that if they were to look beyond this country, and open their eyes, and see beyond their imagined plight and distress that “that person has more than I do and it just isn’t fair” that they would realize how very rich they actually are….and that, when viewed not just in the context of this country, but in the context of the world….

THEY ARE THE ONE PERCENT! 


That’s right….if they bother to look beyond their (imagined and mostly self imposed) plight of being in the bottom 99 percent of the population of the richest country in the world, they might realize how lucky they are to be in the top 1 or 2 percent of the wealthiest people on the planet. 

Sure, by US standards they aren’t rich. But they aren’t poor either. They have the opportunity to bitch and moan about the fact that someone else is better off than they are, to protest instead of scrabble for enough calories to feed themselves and their families. To  have the luxury of enough time to whine that they don’t have all the worldly goods they want instead of hope that they have (or can find) enough fuel to cook that food and to keep themselves warm at night. And they have enough time to bemoan the fact that they (only) have small homes to go to when they leave their site of protest… a home that is dry and (generally) secure from vandals and thieves. And that is protected by police who are (mostly) honest. 

Yeah, they whine about all those inequities. They have time to do so because they live in one of (if not the) most wealthy counties in the world. Where the poor live better than most other counties middle class, where the kind of poverty they believe they live in really doesn’t exist. Where 99 percent of the rest of the world would change places with them in a heartbeat. 

The sad part is that they cannot see how lucky they really are. They cannot see that they are really the “1 percent” that they complain about . All they can see is that they don’t have (and really haven’t done anything to earn) what some other people in the country DO have. 

If only they could apply those same complaints that they have against those better off than they are, to themselves. I bet others in the world would consider them so lucky, and spoiled, and complain that they did not earn their position and wealth…..And if they were to really apply their complaint of unfairness to themselves, and their remedy “take what those undeserving rich bastards have and give it to us, who have less” then they’d be living in a much less nice and comfy existence with less food and property. But they won’t ever help the real “99 percent”. Few of the “occupiers” will ever understand, much less apply, their philosophy to those less fortunate than them.  And they’d likely think it unfair if someone DID apply their philosophy to their wealth.

at the back end of my property earlier this week….in the afternoon.

Now the tractor has the stock Kubota muffler…not loud, but not muffled into silence either.

On the other side of the fence is a piece of property owned by some guy who is big time into some church…they use the property for outings and such in the summer on weekends. Mostly they are decent folks from a large city who think this is the “country”….

Anyway, when I was up on the hill earlier in the week, I see a small encampment. 10-12 Army tents and a whole bunch of vehicles…Hey, none of my business what they do on the other property, so I go about MY business.

Some dude walks over the fenceline and sternly tells me I am “disturbing his peace”, and I need to shut off the tractor RIGHT NOW.

I point out calmly that he is trespassing, and that it’s not like I am mowing at midnight or anything like that…(but I could if I wanted to), and WhoInTheFuckAreYouAnyway?

So, seeing bluster doesn’t work,  he then says “well, look man, I’m trying to appeal to your better nature”.

I replied that he was assuming that I had a “better nature”, (I don’t) and he’d better get back on the other side of the fenceline. He quickly did so, and I continued to water the tree I had planted over Schmoo’s grave and do some other stuff.

Since they were still there this morning (Saturday), bright and early, I decided that it was time to trim some branches with a chainsaw….So I did so this morning…. for about an hour.

They were Not Happy.

Tough.
I’m gonna get up even earlier tomorrow. Might even take the muffler off the thing. Wanna play with the big boys? Bring yer “A” game.

We play differently here, outside the city limits, past the end of the sidewalk…..

Better nature indeed.

ETA:

about THIS.

What do you want yer kids to be when he/she grows up…

Serf?

or citizen?

A subject of the Government, or the master of it?

Read.

Think

Decide. 

people in this country live in poverty.

I find that hard to believe.

I don’t see people starving to death, or at or below 5% body fat.

I don’t see people who can’t afford a cell phone, or those expensive trendy sneakers.

I don’t see people freezing to death because they can’t afford fuel to keep warm, nor because they have no warm clothing,

I do see people who are less fortunate than me.

Some have encountered bad luck, some are just lazy. Some are unable to help themselves because no one ever taught them to do anything besides lay around and wait for a government check.

Many are poor because they, (intentionally or not) choose to be.

But I don’t see people who are living in “Poverty”.

Look at the photos of the depression era citizens in this country. I don’t see fat people, or people wearing new clothing or $150 shoes(or the equivalent price then). I don’t see people living in free apartments, nor driving expensive cars or in any way wasting their meager resources.

I do today, and all these people are supposedly “living in poverty”.

And we gotta take more money from the productive sector of our citizenry to give these fat people more freebies because someone redefined “poverty”?

Thoughts:

Romney looked good, but only because Obama looked so bad.

Romney came prepared, Obama didn’t, not really.

Romney trashed the set statements and talking points Obama had memorized. All of which were crafted to set emotional hooks into people, all (or nearly) were refuted by Romney.

That was the best way to call someone a liar that I have seen in a long time.

It was nice to see someone actually let them define the differences between them. (which aren’t as great as they would have you believe)

Obama, when he isn’t given softball questions, and when the debate moderator isn’t setting the stage for him, isn’t much good at debate when his teleprompter can’t help him.

But Obama’s body language showed he really wasn’t interested in being there, and he looked bored. Romney, on the other hand, looked engaged and eager for the challenge.

While Romney may have won the debate, it wasn’t a resounding victory……and really, 40% of the electorate is gonna vote for whoever the DNC says to (and, to be fair, a similar percentage will vote for the anointed of the RNC with no questions either), so he really only needed to convince enough of the remaining 20 percent anyway… or enough to win the electoral votes.

Others think that it was the delivery

Migrane.

Bad one.

At least I can see out of one eyes, even if its multiple images from that one..

If I had a safety guy, this’d be a god time to go to the range, ’cause if I can shoot like this, then I can shoot anytime/anywhere, under any conditions. But I’d need a monder to keep me from doing someone harm….maybe me.

But…It’d be good training.

I’ll be back when I can think more clearly and can string two words together without using the backspace key more than once or twice.