Thursday, March 28, 2024

Frivolous

 Watching a video about classic cars, I am reminded that we had to roll the windows down with a handle, and we had vent windows, which I truly miss, but my first car (a 1960 Ford Falcon) didn't have a radio.  I bought the car from my father, who acquired it from my grandfather, and the old man considered radios frivolous.

So, because I needed tunes to sustain my mellow, I went down to Radio Shack and purchased a 9v transistor radio.  something like this.

Hanging from the rear view mirror, tuned to the local station, that little radio gave me the tunes I needed to set the tone for the evening.  Plus, it served as a turn-and-bank indicator that I could use to coordinate my turns, so as not to distress the young lady sitting beside me on the bench seat.  I don't even remember if that car had seat belts.

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Bad Idea

 Fox News is reporting that there is a "migrant influencer" who put up some videos telling migrants how to take over a home and claim squatters rights.

That might work in places like California, where squatters have rights. In other places, it is a horribly bad idea.

If I came home from a vacation and found anyone in my house, claiming squatters rights, it would throw me into a level of pissed-off rage that might start to subside after the Sheriff showed up to drag out the bodies. If I decided to call the Sheriff.  I know people with excavators and it's a whole lot less paperwork.

I'm just sayin'.

The Election

 We're not down to the wire yet, but it is getting closer.  As the Democrats try to prop up Joe Biden, they are getting increasingly desperate in their larfare against Donald Trump.  And, like many of us, the majority of people have made their decision.

The Democrats are hoping that something sticks, and that Trump is actually convicted of a crime sometime before the election.  I don't think that even a conviction will matter. I know it won't mater to me.  If Trumps name is on the ballot, I'll pull the lever for him.

I am reminded of a quote from a past Louisiana governor, who said that the only way he could lose the election was to be found in bed with a dead girl or a live boy.

I'll tell you plainly that I'm bot sure if I'll be voting for Trump or against Biden.  I'm not giddy about the idea of another Trump presidency, but I am absolutely horrified at the idea of a second Biden term.

Monday, March 25, 2024

Prayer

 There is an old saying, "Be careful what you pray for, you might get it."

Many of us are watching the debacle with Donald Trump in New York, where the state Attorney General is trying to seize assets.  The deadline is today for Trump to post a huge half-billion dollar bond or risk seizure of his property.

But, it isn't as simple as all that.  Trump is a landlord.  He has responsibilities to his tenants, to keep the lights on, to keep the hallways swept, to pay the doorman at the front door. Running a commercial property is not as simple as it sounds.  The AG cannot simply turn off the lights and lock the doors.  If she seizes the property, she will have to run the business.

I'm no lawyer, but I an amazed that this case has gotten this far.  It's a commercial fraud case without a single victim.  No one lost money.  All of the parties to the contracts were happy with how the contracts played out.

Sunday, March 24, 2024

The Disconnect

Some cool facts about "gun control". It is fun to watch the actors when their mind realizes what they are saying.

Thursday, March 21, 2024

Eugene

 Let me tell you about Eugene, and police work in the early 1980s, Names have been changed to protect the ignorant.

When I started police work in 1980, there were no computers.  The sheriff's office still had a teletype machine. When a person was arrested, and fingerprints taken, we took those prints on cards with printers ink.

At the time, I was working as a Probation and Parole officer out of the little office in Natchitoches, LA.  One day, in court, a fellow stepped up for arraignment and pled straight up guilty to a Simple Burglary. That took the Court by surprise, so the judge read him his right, giving him the full Boykin reading, making sure that he understood what was happening. Our defendant was a black male in his mid 30s.  No one locally had ever heard of him.

Then the Judge asked him a question. "Have you ever been in trouble?"

"No, sir."

"Ever been to prison?"

"No, sir."

The judge gave him the standard sentence at that time for Simple Burglary.  Three years DOC, which was suspended and the was placed on three years supervised probation.

The judge pointed at me.  "See the probation officer."

I took Eugene to my office, got some basic information, took fingerprints and a mug shot and told him to go home, I'd be around to see him. I dropped the intake packet on a steno's desk and went about my duties.  Just another day as a Probation officer.  About a month later, I got a Criminal History from the state police.  We called it a "rap sheet", and Eugene was clean.  No criminal record in Louisiana.  So far, so good. I had seen Eugene a couple of times.  He wa living with a woman in Natchez, LA, and looking for work.

Natchez, LA is a little village in Natchitoches parish. About 700 souls, the main economic activity is agriculture and poverty. There ain't much happening in Natchez.  They do have a mayor and a part-time city marshal, one convenience store and a honky-tonk.  Plus a Section 8 project and numerous run down rental houses.

Several weeks later, I was going through my mail and found a rap sheet from the FBI.  It seems that Eugene had misled the Court.  He had been in prison in seven other states across the US, and had been convicted of no less than 12 felony offenses,  I wrote a memo to the Judge and attached a copy of Eugene's rap sheet. Before the week was out, the Judge had issued a warrant, citing clear misrepresentation during the sentencing phase, and ordering me to lock up Eugene pending re-sentencing.

The next morning, I was out looking for Eugene.  I went to his address and talked to a woman there who told me that Eugene had left about an hour or so, heading toward the store, where he hoped to catch a ride to look for work. I didn't mention the warrant.  It didn't seem pertinent. Driving out, I happened across the town marshal, a young black guy named Willie.  We exchanged pleasantries, Willie told me that he was looking for someone who had just stolen a 16 foot extension ladder from a house, Willie pointed down the road, and I could see men standing on a roof, patching the shingles.  Someone had stolen their ladder while they were on the roof.

I told Willie I'd keep my eyes peeled, and, by the way, I had a warrant for Eugene. I made a couple of loops through town, talking with residents, and decided to cross the one bridge in town, that connected Highway 1 and the Old River Road.  As I turned on to the bridge, I saw Eugene, about mid-span. He was looking to the south, and was holding a 16 foot extension ladder. How lucky can you get?

I called Willy on the radio, and told him that I was about to put the habeas cuffus on Eugene, and he could find the ladder on the bridge. I'm sure the guys on the roof appreciated it.

Later that month, the judge re-sentenced Eugene, giving him six years in prison, and cautioning him not to return to Natchitoches.

15 Days

 I am reminded that it has been four years since we started that "15 Days To Slow The Spared" bullshit..I was at a shoot in Oklahoma when we got the news that schools in Louisiana had been cancelled for the remainder of the year.

A generation of school kids had their education stunted and they might never recover.

States across the Union explored a totalitarian form of government, some lesser, some greater.  In Louisiana, our Dem governor went totally authoritarian, killing business and personal freedom. The medical profession went totally berserk, suppressing alternative ideas and debate, to the detriment not only of treatments, but also the trust of the public.  The old Hippocratic caution of "First, do no harm" was cast to the winds. The medical profession probably killed as many as the disease.  We'll never know.

Businesses shuttered, lives lost, education hammered, all from what seems to have been a lab mistake, if not actually an evil plan from the CCP.  I believe in my heart that Fauci knew that it came from a lab, and did everything in his power to make sure that the truth was suppressed.  Because he funded it with US tax dollars.

I could go on in this vein for hours.  It's the cautionary tale from this decade.  Which reminds me, I need to pick up some ivermectin.

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Finished

 That commercial Mauser 98 that I bought several months ago is finished.  I didn't have to do much to it, and I was taking my time, but it is finished and it's time to pass it along.


It's been gone through and it ha a new Vortex scope.  From here, it's up to grandson to sight it in and get ready for its next evolution.  I believe that the rifle is sound, and the 6.5 Swede is absolutely sufficient for our local whitetail deer.  Now, it's up to him to make it his own.

Sidecutters

My dad called them sidecutter pliers. As opposed to diagonals or slip joint pliers. I own other pliers, but this is the set I grabbed this morning when I wanted to loosen an oil cap on a lawnmower. 


After the chores were, I was pondering how long these pliers have been in my life.  I own other pliers, of many stripes, for several different jobs, but this is the set I grab when I just need a simple tool for a simple job.

That journey took me down memory lane, when I was a young student, recently married to my departed wife.  We lived in a crappy little apartment in the student ghetto just outside of the college and she wanted me to change an electrical outlet. I went down to the old DeBlieux Hardware in Natchitoches, LA and purchased an outlet, a screwdriver, and that set of pliers.  All this in the spring of 1974.  It's now 2024, so I've had these pliers for 50 years.  The outlet may still be in that wall, both the screwdriver and wife are long gone, but I still have those pliers.