Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Coming Home To Roost...

Provo might have to close it's airport because of, "The Sequester" of Federal funds.  Good!

You idiots down there keep voting for morons like Mike Lee?  You get what you deserve.

You keep TRYING to be a real city, by getting air service, and then you lose it for LACK of service.  Yet the Federal Deficit is NOT the problem. And Obama didn't cause it.

Bush did.

So you signed on to something so repulsive, that you thought the President, and the Senate would HAVE to listen to your total, unadulterated bullshit, and cave in?  Not going to happen.  You guys are CRAZY stupid!

Now?  Live with it.

You HATE the Federal Government.  Until you NEED the Federal Government!  You people are total jerks.

And I hope none of you have to fly in or out of Provo!  Could be as dangerous as flying in or out of Ambercris  Caye, Belize when I had to tap the pilot on the shoulder as we were about to take off, and tell him there was a plane about to land.  On the same runway.  He pulled off into the grass, let it land and then took off.

THIS is what you want with LESS government?  Really?

Morons.

Monday, March 18, 2013

Old Dog

She snores.  She sheds.  When you let her out late at night, and you have to, she wanders around the lawn, and sometimes just lays down in the grass for WAY too long, until you go out and find her.

She is turning gray, and she's already turned slow.  She spends most of her day on her bed, or on the carpet in front of the fireplace when there is one in there.

She parks herself in front of the vent in the bathroom in the hallway sometimes when it's really cold, cause there is a vent there and a fuzzy rug.  Spends the the night in there sometimes in the winter.  Likes it better than her bed in the dinning room.

She's slow, and old and we love her so much.

I miss sleeping with my dog.  When she was younger, we, well, MOSTLY, Deb, would get up with the kids, cause I worked nights.  And let, Solstice out and then Deb would come back to bed.  And, Solly would come into bed with us.

The, "Meth Lab" would jump up on to the bed, and cuddle down between us.  She loved being close to her, "human units".

The problem with this, not in MY mind, but in Deb's is that the Large Black Dog would sleep with us with her BACK up against her, "Doggie Daddy", and her paws next to her, Mom.  And when she had dog dreams?  She kicked the SHIT out of Deb! If you have a dog, you know what I'm saying is true.

We used to buy tennis balls by the case at Costco.  We don't play tennis, never did.  But the, "Meth Lab" would go through them like crazy when younger.  Now?  Not so much.

It's all she can to to pick on up, let alone chase it.  She's old.

She's now on her bed, and I covered her up with one of the old dogs, "blank-ies" we bought for her years ago.

Last night, I brushed her in the living room between periods of a Red Wings game, and took enough hair off this dog to make another one.  And it's only going to get worse.  Come May and June?  We have a fur lined house.  She sheds like crazy.

And all things considered?  I'm going to miss her SO much.  She's been part of the family for 13 years now.  But the truth is, she's not going to be around much longer.

The first Lab lasted 14 years.  And when we lost Samantha, I lasted TWO days before I got another one.  I don't know what I'll do when we lose this one.

But she's awesome.  And she will be missed.  And I think my kids will both miss HER a lot more then they will miss ME when I go.  As well they should.  Solstice was a better, "Person" than I ever was.

Sleep tight, old, black, dog.  We'll do our best to take care of you as long as you stick around.

Saturday, March 9, 2013

The Police Should NOT Be The Military.

We have made a big mistake in this country.  We declared, "War" on drugs.  "War" on gangs.  And then we started hiring former soldiers to carry out that war.

When I got hired by the state, I had to have a degree in Sociology, or Psychology to get my job.  Now?  Not so much.  We are hiring former military guys to be our Cops!  And this is wrong.

These guys know how to kick some ass, and shoot up the place.  But they have NO people skills!  They don't know how to talk down a mentally ill guy.  Being in the Army does NOT make you a good candidate to become a Cop, and deal with people on the street.

It makes you tough, and physically fit.  But it doesn't make you mentally able to talk a guy out of killing himself, or YOU!  It doesn't make you able to understand gang culture, or any OTHER culture for that matter.

We need men and women in law enforcement who have not just the physical skills to perform the job, but a COLLEGE DEGREE in behavioral sciences, so they understand why the people they are dealing with, are doing what they do.

Our Cops are too military.  And those guys up in Ogden, totally screwed up last January.  They were after two pot plants.  They knew who was growing them, they knew where he worked, and his work schedule.  They had NO reason to get a no knock search warrant.  They should have arrested the guy when he was going to work, and then searched his house.

But they went crazy, and it cost one of them his life.  It was a totally bungled decision.

And the guy who was defending his home?  I think he's going to get off.  Because no one knocked on his door and asked him if he was growing pot in his basement. 

I only worked in law enforcement for 18 years, so I admit, I don't know, "shit" about it.  But in my humble opinion, that MIGHT have been the place to start.  After all, he wasn't building nuclear bombs in his basement.  Just growing some pot.  You really need a no knock?  I think not.

All Cops should have a college degree in behavioral sciences.  From a REAL college.  Not some bullshit college like Strayer, or, "University" of Phoenix.  And they should have to be able to talk a gun out of someones hand before they  shoot them with a rocket launcher!

Cops need to quit being soldiers.  And to do this?  We need to end the, "War" on drugs.

Yeah, I realize we will still need SWAT teams.  There are situations which call for that type of response, no question.  I'm just saying that right now?  We use it too much.

Just something to think about.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Don't, "Like" Walmart Around Me. Please

I understand why, if you are not rich, you, "Like" Walmart.  They offer what you need to live and low prices.  Heck, lower than you can buy them anywhere else.  So it saves you money.  Makes your life easy.

But have you thought about how they do it?  They pay their employees shit wages and don't offer health insurance.  They will close a store before they will allow it to Unionize.

Costco offers low prices, a living wage, and health insurance to their employees.  And I bet you shop THERE too!

Walmart exploits Chinese cheap labor to bring you cheap prices on everything you need.  You pay less cause their employees get PAID less than a living wage.

Do you know the three biggest employers in the whole world?  I bet not.

In this order they are, The Chinese Military, The US Military, and WALMART!

As poorly as we pay our soldiers, their families lose their cars and houses all the time when one of the bread winners is deployed overseas, at least they have HEALTH INSURANCE!

Walmart keeps women down, by not promoting them.  After all, they are a CHRISTIAN company, and men should be the bread winners.  Women should stay home and take care of children.  How real is THAT in today's economy?  When corporate profits are at all time highs, yet the pay of people who actually do the labor, hasn't kept up with inflation.  Not good.

If you HAVE to shop at Walmart?  I feel sorry for you, and I understand your situation.  I wish you earned a living wage, and had health care and a retirement plan or pension.

If you CHOOSE to shop at Walmart, when you don't have to?  Fuck you.  You are destroying the Labor Movement in this country.  You remember, The Labor Movement?  The people who brought you, "The Weekend".  And kept your kids out of mines and slaughter houses instead of IN schools?

So if you, "Like" Walmart on Facebook?  You are not paying attention.  They don't like you.  But they know their audience, and they will keep you hooked in.

Next time you walk into a Walmart, and that old man, "greets" you, and offers your kid a sticker?  I want you to look deep into his eyes and try to figure out why, at his advanced age, he's not retired to Florida, or Arizona.  Try to figure out why this old man still HAS to work!  Still has to get up in the morning, put on his vest, and try to put on a happy face, while he puts a happy face sticker on your kid, instead of enjoying the warm weather in his trailer park/condo/planed development/house in Arizona.

Is it because he didn't get a pension?  Didn't get a living wage?  Didn't get retirement health care, and has a sick wife?  Even with Medicare, he still owes some money?  Why is this man subjecting himself to this?  I'll bet you dollars to donuts he doesn't WANT to be there.

And folks who run places like Walmart are the reason for it.

So don't, "Like" Walmart to me.  I DON'T like Walmart.  And if you ever see me in one, I have exhausted EVERY other place to get what I'm looking for. 

I'm pro Union, pro National Health Care, pro a better minimum wage, and pro smart people.  That's why I vote for Democrats!  And if you WORK for a living, and you're NOT like me?  You are NOT paying attention.

As the Reverend Payton (and his Big Assed Band) said, "Put your home town on the map, with four football fields of Chinese crap".  THAT is Walmart.

LIKE that, anti Union, pricks.