Chicago (thank GOD I don’t live there, but I do get their TV and radio) has a Beverage Tax. Something like a penny per ounce of sweetened soda…or sports drink. Or Tea. Or any beverage that uses sweetener.

The tax was sold as a way to reduce obesity. But now that folks are bitching complaining about their increased soda cost to their local Councilpersonages demanding a repeal of the tax,  there is a concerted push to convince folks that the hotfoot they are getting is, after all, in their best interest….all “paid for by none other than Michael Bloomberg”. Which I find odd, ’cause he isn’t (AFAICT) a part of the Chicago Political Machine….and he is spending HUGE money buying ad time on radio, TV Newspapers, billboards, etc.

What is he getting out of it. Where is his payoff payback? He’s investing tens of millions, and I doubt that is is just because he really thinks that the tax will really prevent heart disease, kidney disease, obesity, diabetes and halitosis.

Is this just Social Engineering? I mean, the Cook County politicians never met a tax they didn’t like, and they need the money so they can keep lining the pockets of their friends and relatives the City from going broke…..Without it, they will have to lay off something like 1 in 5 useless workers…All of whom vote.

But how/where does Michael Bloomberg come to this party?

I mean, if cotton causes her to freak out, does she only wear artificial fibers?

Or does she wear jeans? T-shirts. Does she sleep only on bamboo sheets. Rayon? Nylon? Does she wear blouses and shirts made from any natural fiber like linen?
‘Cause linen and cotton were picked by slaves…In her world cotton is offensive, and I am sure linen would be too if she knew what it looked like.
How about leather shoes and belts and jackets? Slaves raised cattle too.

So,  again, is she wearing and using only rayon, nylon and polyester?

Or is it only cotton…. ’cause she was raised and educated that slaves picked cotton….and she is trying so desperately to find something to be offended by?

At some point someone needs to just bitch-slap these folks.

Stalls are FUN! Easy too.

No landing yet, but did several smoother descents and one approach.

I’m getting much smoother with the controls and some things are becoming automatic. Seems as if my workload is decreasing.

Starting to really like this.

ETA: Oh, and I made my first radio call on Unicom today.

So in St Louis there are protests over the acquittal of a police officer for shooting a black dude. Now, the community waited since 2011 for “justice”. It does appear that there was evidence planting and some other shennanigans. But Anthony Smith was no angel either, so there is room for doubt both ways, really.

The protests there,  as protests do, turned violent. Yet the organizers claim that THEY are peaceful and that the violence was perpetrated by “a group of agitators”….And the media is pushing this story.

Of course, when it was right leaning protestors, the entire group was castigated for violence, even though it also was blamed on an outside group of agitators….but that was given no credence by the left leaning media.

So my oak and walnut trees are CARPETING my lawn with nuts. I mean, so many acorns that it is sometimes difficult to walk, like walking on marbles in the grass.

According to the old men, those who (supposedly) have forgotten more that I know, this presages a very cold winter. Which makes sense since the previous winter was unusually warm. (or last year was just a surge of glowbal warmenizing. (although we didn’t set any records that year)).  This fits with what my Dad’s Dad always told me prior to his passing. (and the older I get, the smarter he seems)

Nature finds balance,  I think this gonna be a really cold winter. And I think that the deer and the skwirelz and the other forest denizens will need those acorns and walnuts hidden in the snow.

You heard it here first. Plan accordingly. Or not. 

So Grandpa gets tired of having a standoff at his house: He gets a ladder and climbs up and pushes the dude causing the standoff off the roof.

One wonders why the cops couldn’t have climbed the same ladder or gotten one from the fire department and simply done the same? Or arrested the dude on the roof?

That, when a Leftist is losing the argument in a conversation regarding immigration, crime rates, poverty, or racial quotas in workforce, or other stuff where race is a factor..

That they ALWAYS fall back to calling the other side a “Racist”…..even when it is obviously not true? (sometimes directly and sometimes in thinly veiled hints that shows their cowardice)

I mean, if you disagree that illegal immigrants should be allowed to come over the border any time choose and that they should immediately get Free Shit like welfare, food stamps, ObamaCare and other state benefits…..You must be a racist….Even if you are hispanic in heritage.
If you think the Wall is  a flawed, but acceptable part of the counter to illegal immigration, not perfect, but indeed, a part of the overall solution….then you Must also be a racist.

If you point out that in (most)larger cities (and many smaller ones), crime is nearly 80% black crime (much of it black on black), yet there are only 22% blacks in the population and tossing large amounts of (government) money at the problem doesn’t seem to help and hasn’t for 50 years… you are a racist.

If you think that Affirmative Action demeans black people because it says that they are somehow lesser, and cannot compete on their own merits, then you are, somehow, a racist.

If you point out that a black person (and to a lesser extent, a hispanic person) with an education, who speaks decent english, and who doesn’t have (much of) a criminal record can go VERY far in life……who will have opportunities that white folks would not, merely based on the color of their skin….Then you are a racist…because it is unfair to expect those folks to not have records or speak decent english….or get an education.

If you point out that NO ONE in your ancestry has ever owned a slave, yet you are being blamed for slavery, that marks you as a racist.

And the folks, the leftist, the ones that brand you a racist, are (generally) white. Yet they don’t apply those same criteria to themselves, nor the folks who talk like, and vote like them. Sadly, this overuse of “Racist” waters down the epithet that it once was, and when it is used against REAL racists, no one even bothers to care.

At least it makes it easy to tell when they are losing the  argument and got nothing else.

Or is the news Media showing all the crowds protesting in St Louis composed of mostly white girls and a few white men with a smattering of black faces? Chicago media was nearly exclusively videos like this.

Murphy said the same thing about protests in New Orleans.

Not saying the protests aren’t for a good cause…(Maybe they are, and maybe they aren’t there is doubt either way, but the folks killed by police weren’t choirboys) but you’d think, since it is Black Lives Matter, that there would be a majority of black folks instead of young white girls….

to my logbook. This time in a C150.

Oddly, I had issues taxiing this time. I found the 150 hard to steer. Maybe ’cause it is a higher time airframe and  a bit worn. I dunno.

My takeoff was good, even with a LOT less power to climb with. My climb out was good.  I got straight and level down. Turns, (level,climbing and descending) were OK. I got the concept, now I just need practice.

Pracicing descents was ok. it was windy, and I fought the changing wind a bit.

Landing? Nope. I got behind as we descended and was chasing the damned thing. Ended up giving up and going around and letting my instructor do the landing. He bounced. Twice. The gusts were straight out of 180, but they were on and off. I didn’t feel too bad that I had to go around.

Monday is 30% chance of precipitation, so maybe I will and maybe I won’t. We shall see. 

Likely, as you read this, the Cassini probe is beginning (or, has ended, depending) it’s final portion of its mission, diving into  the atmosphere of Saturn.

Just shy of 20 years….and everything (mostly) still works. Pretty good engineering for a VERY harsh environment.

And, despite the protests, it hasn’t polluted the earth with Plutonium 238.

Instead, it has increased our knowledge about our solar system immensely.