Friday, March 30, 2012
I listen to Hank Jr.
I finally found a Hank Williams Jr. album that I like. Actually, I've been looking for it for years! I should record it. Back in the day, I recorded everything and only listened to my albums once or twice. Now I never listen to tape. My records are getting more wear now than in 30 years of collecting.
I have nothing to say...
I got up this morning after hearing torrential rain all night. I checked the river level before I went to bed. I looked out the little view corridor between my carport, the dead tractors, by brother's house and the old walnut tree to see if I could see water. I could.
The river has flooded once again.
Once again I have not moved my old IH truck. There should be a good half inch of mud in the transmission and rear ends. So... if Ralph wants any gauges or truck parts he had better let me know. Not that I will actually get around to scrapping it, but I will think about it every so often, which is just as good-except for the money/income part. It is kind of how I deal with my non-addiction to playing the lottery. I just think I might win, despite the fact that I never play...
I listened to "longhair" music at the far end of the dial last night. The wife and child are gone to the beach for spring break. That is one trip that didn't turn out quite like expected. However, the Oregon coast is pretty neat in a storm. Obviously you are not going to walk on the beach but you can go stir crazy playing pictionary in the hotel room whilst the horizontal rain blasts the windows with the force of a midlevel Harbor Freight pressure washer...
If gas was not so expensive I feel like I'm riding Mr. Garrisons bicycle every time I fill up I would drive out there.
Speaking of Mr. Garrison... I lost the check for my Disk Mower, and had to drive into Salem last night to get another one. I took the guy some spare parts I had found, which ought to pay for the "stop payment" on the old check. I do not know how I could lose a check that I was that proud of. I never let it out of my site except for that missing5 minutes hour that I can't account for.
Aliens? Hot Russian spy with mind blocking drugs?
Probably I hit my head on something... Cell phone radiation... The Ledge...
I don't know.
I guess I will wander outside and wait for the neighbor to tell me that my truck is underwater again...
I was not meant to be a farmer.
The river has flooded once again.
Once again I have not moved my old IH truck. There should be a good half inch of mud in the transmission and rear ends. So... if Ralph wants any gauges or truck parts he had better let me know. Not that I will actually get around to scrapping it, but I will think about it every so often, which is just as good-except for the money/income part. It is kind of how I deal with my non-addiction to playing the lottery. I just think I might win, despite the fact that I never play...
I listened to "longhair" music at the far end of the dial last night. The wife and child are gone to the beach for spring break. That is one trip that didn't turn out quite like expected. However, the Oregon coast is pretty neat in a storm. Obviously you are not going to walk on the beach but you can go stir crazy playing pictionary in the hotel room whilst the horizontal rain blasts the windows with the force of a midlevel Harbor Freight pressure washer...
If gas was not so expensive I feel like I'm riding Mr. Garrisons bicycle every time I fill up I would drive out there.
Speaking of Mr. Garrison... I lost the check for my Disk Mower, and had to drive into Salem last night to get another one. I took the guy some spare parts I had found, which ought to pay for the "stop payment" on the old check. I do not know how I could lose a check that I was that proud of. I never let it out of my site except for that missing
Aliens? Hot Russian spy with mind blocking drugs?
Probably I hit my head on something... Cell phone radiation... The Ledge...
I don't know.
I guess I will wander outside and wait for the neighbor to tell me that my truck is underwater again...
I was not meant to be a farmer.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
What we did Sunday afternoon and what I did today
I am weird and I guess it only follows that I would leave a bad influence on my daughter and nephews.
We spent Sunday afternoon at the river building a fort. And carving cryptic messages into willow trees.
I finished the sprayer today. Three months is not a world record. The booms now fold.
I am now setting in my easy chair listening to the Allman brothers on the Rek-o-kut and sitting in my arm chair. My speaker rebuild sounds pretty good.
I also sold my Hesston disk mower today so I can take my lengthy advert off of Craigslist. I told the fellow everything wrong with the mower as well as what new parts were on it and what he should fix in the next few years. He offered me $500 less than I was asking and I took it. I have a drill payment to make and tractor parts to pay for.
But then again, the lottery is up to a couple million. Perhaps I'll drop the five grand on lottery tickets at Dad's Market. I could use a couple million...
In the words of the neighbor boy, "hookers and beer!" His father didn't know he exclaimed that...
We spent Sunday afternoon at the river building a fort. And carving cryptic messages into willow trees.
I finished the sprayer today. Three months is not a world record. The booms now fold.
I am now setting in my easy chair listening to the Allman brothers on the Rek-o-kut and sitting in my arm chair. My speaker rebuild sounds pretty good.
I also sold my Hesston disk mower today so I can take my lengthy advert off of Craigslist. I told the fellow everything wrong with the mower as well as what new parts were on it and what he should fix in the next few years. He offered me $500 less than I was asking and I took it. I have a drill payment to make and tractor parts to pay for.
But then again, the lottery is up to a couple million. Perhaps I'll drop the five grand on lottery tickets at Dad's Market. I could use a couple million...
In the words of the neighbor boy, "hookers and beer!" His father didn't know he exclaimed that...
Back to my regular programming... Things go wrong, old stereo stuff, and so on, and on and on...
I suppose I will have to go back and delete the previous posts as the search engine will bring people who don't really care about old farm equipment and farming.
I am back to my usual activities, grinding feed, old music, dynaco stereo equipment, and sitting on my arse in the easy chair.
I had to make feed the other day and hooked up the Super. The M670 super has a lot more bottom end than the IH 656. Actually it has quite a bit more horsepower all the way around.
I've been rebuilding the PTO on the 656. It comes out in one piece. I had it all back together and then knocked it off the bench busting off top of the control rod. A new control rod costs $100. I did jump back quickly so it did not land on my feet. I suppose new feet would cost more than $100.
Later I rebuilt my baby Advent speakers. I bought a kit on eBay which was well reviewed. It came with new tweeters and woofers and crossovers and not real good instructions. The family helped me install them.
I was so enthused that I decided to take my Dynaco stuff off of the table and install it in the bookshelf. The Dynaco components are not very deep and will fit nicely on a bookshelf.
I soon discovered why those bookshelves were such a good deal... They are crap!
I am back to my usual activities, grinding feed, old music, dynaco stereo equipment, and sitting on my arse in the easy chair.
I had to make feed the other day and hooked up the Super. The M670 super has a lot more bottom end than the IH 656. Actually it has quite a bit more horsepower all the way around.
I've been rebuilding the PTO on the 656. It comes out in one piece. I had it all back together and then knocked it off the bench busting off top of the control rod. A new control rod costs $100. I did jump back quickly so it did not land on my feet. I suppose new feet would cost more than $100.
Later I rebuilt my baby Advent speakers. I bought a kit on eBay which was well reviewed. It came with new tweeters and woofers and crossovers and not real good instructions. The family helped me install them.
I was so enthused that I decided to take my Dynaco stuff off of the table and install it in the bookshelf. The Dynaco components are not very deep and will fit nicely on a bookshelf.
I soon discovered why those bookshelves were such a good deal... They are crap!
Monday, March 26, 2012
What the Treyvon uproar is really about...
I am a slow learner...
I was thinking about the whole Florida thing while loading some hay this morning and I had to come back in and post.
I would like to first apologize for anyone offended by my previous comments on the "Undeniable Virtue of the Oppressed," post.
I fell for the trap!
The reason that this shooting in Florida is all over the news is that it is the perfect tool for activism.
You have the wronged minority and there is a huge bonus in that he is underage.
BUT...on the other hand you have a Hispanic guy with a "white" name who also can put forth a defense but who used a hand gun and a self-defense law. Of course this incident gets national headlines, it is not a good example of racism.
Here I am looking at the "other" side of the story and trying to say wait a minute, but in the same time alienating my readers of color.
It brings forth confrontation and anger.
So sides are drawn and people go after each other , back vs white vs brown. No money is to be made, and no power is to be attained from everyone just getting along! Exceedingly clever. I didn't really look at it from that angle until I read Stanchez's comment on the previous blog.
Very clever... I bet no one can set their cherished personal ideals aside and look at it from that angle!
I was thinking about the whole Florida thing while loading some hay this morning and I had to come back in and post.
I would like to first apologize for anyone offended by my previous comments on the "Undeniable Virtue of the Oppressed," post.
I fell for the trap!
The reason that this shooting in Florida is all over the news is that it is the perfect tool for activism.
You have the wronged minority and there is a huge bonus in that he is underage.
BUT...on the other hand you have a Hispanic guy with a "white" name who also can put forth a defense but who used a hand gun and a self-defense law. Of course this incident gets national headlines, it is not a good example of racism.
Here I am looking at the "other" side of the story and trying to say wait a minute, but in the same time alienating my readers of color.
It brings forth confrontation and anger.
So sides are drawn and people go after each other , back vs white vs brown. No money is to be made, and no power is to be attained from everyone just getting along! Exceedingly clever. I didn't really look at it from that angle until I read Stanchez's comment on the previous blog.
Very clever... I bet no one can set their cherished personal ideals aside and look at it from that angle!
I get into the argument more but don't use an easily searchable headline
My wife was reading me more stories about Treyvon this morning.
He was wearing his hoodie up because it was raining. The bulge in his pocket was from his Icetea, he was talking to his girlfriend on the phone. I don't know how she recorded it but she has a record of the conversation.
Zimmerman is screwed. You just can't shoot the wrong guy. There is no way around it. There is a responsibility that comes with using a gun. You are betting your entire life when you pull that trigger.
It does not matter that homes were broken into or that Zimmerman helped to catch one of the robbers and that it was black young people who were doing the robberies.
Treyvon was the wrong guy.
So, was it worse than what happened in this story? I lifted the link from someone else.
Racism makes money and gives power to people and they are not going to turn loose of it. Racism will never be solved when we accept the manipulation.
I object to the manipulation. The whole hoodie argument where no one can accept the idea that a piece of clothing can take on such significance as to raise suspicion when seen at night. I would tell Hispanic kids not to wear stocking caps when it is 80 degrees at night and white kids not to show off their tattoos and wear those stupid wife beater t-shirts and a baseball cap turned backwards either.
Read the comment from stanchaz as quoted below. He could apply his own argument to himself. The example of a manipulated society is this very comment on my blog. It takes what may be a tragic mistake and turns it into racism. It is a perfect excuse for the public to be manipulated in some way. A child "victim," a Southern police department, and no possible criticism of anything sacred like the Feds or the President or the real issue of why people get uptight when they see people who fit a certain profile in their neighborhood.
He was wearing his hoodie up because it was raining. The bulge in his pocket was from his Icetea, he was talking to his girlfriend on the phone. I don't know how she recorded it but she has a record of the conversation.
Zimmerman is screwed. You just can't shoot the wrong guy. There is no way around it. There is a responsibility that comes with using a gun. You are betting your entire life when you pull that trigger.
It does not matter that homes were broken into or that Zimmerman helped to catch one of the robbers and that it was black young people who were doing the robberies.
Treyvon was the wrong guy.
So, was it worse than what happened in this story? I lifted the link from someone else.
Racism makes money and gives power to people and they are not going to turn loose of it. Racism will never be solved when we accept the manipulation.
I object to the manipulation. The whole hoodie argument where no one can accept the idea that a piece of clothing can take on such significance as to raise suspicion when seen at night. I would tell Hispanic kids not to wear stocking caps when it is 80 degrees at night and white kids not to show off their tattoos and wear those stupid wife beater t-shirts and a baseball cap turned backwards either.
Read the comment from stanchaz as quoted below. He could apply his own argument to himself. The example of a manipulated society is this very comment on my blog. It takes what may be a tragic mistake and turns it into racism. It is a perfect excuse for the public to be manipulated in some way. A child "victim," a Southern police department, and no possible criticism of anything sacred like the Feds or the President or the real issue of why people get uptight when they see people who fit a certain profile in their neighborhood.
stanchazMar 26, 2012 12:21 AM
Blame the Hoodie? Walking while black with a hoodie, punishable by death?? Have we come to this???
GIVE ME A BREAK. Hey, the poor kid was running in the rain .....and being stalked .......and ....I’M SORRY...but we don't ALL use Totes umbrellas when going to the corner grocery store for a snack. NOR should we risk losing our very lives while doing so! Mr. Rivera: you should be ashamed of your inane, insensitive comments about Trayvon’s death, and your attempts to create "excuses" for the inexcusable actions of judge-jury-and-executioner George Zimmerman (...AND...those that would imitate him). We are becoming a society that seeks and sees threats under every rock; a frightened society that sees danger with every “other” that is not just like us; a manipulated society with control-freaks running rampant (whether politicians or mayors or police chiefs or individuals). Power-hungry people that are only too eager to take advantage of our fears; that are only too willing to get away with anything and everything that they can, as they deprive us of our our liberty (and sometimes our lives).....all in the name of defending it. What a shell game. But were it only a game. For it includes the worst provisions of the Patriot Act, the police spying on innocent people, “papers-please” and stop&frisk gone wild, the “right” to indefinitely detain Americans without trial, and out-of-control homicidal vigilantes such as we have tragically seen here. It’s a serious, slippery slope... one that ultimately leads to a police state/Orwellian mentality that is more typical of places such as China or Cuba - NOT the America that I know and love. We USED to stand proud and free, and contrasted our open society to such sorry places. Now we imitate them. Our country is better than this. Our values are better than this. WE are better than this. Don’t blame the hoodie......blame what we are becoming, and allowing, and doing as a society. As Shakespeare once said: the fault is not in our stars, but in ourselves: For we have come to accept things that should NEVER be accepted by a freedom-loving people. It’s time... it’s way past time, to reverse course. Let bring some good out of this tragedy.... and work to never let it happen again. You DO have the power, my friend. USE IT.
GIVE ME A BREAK. Hey, the poor kid was running in the rain .....and being stalked .......and ....I’M SORRY...but we don't ALL use Totes umbrellas when going to the corner grocery store for a snack. NOR should we risk losing our very lives while doing so! Mr. Rivera: you should be ashamed of your inane, insensitive comments about Trayvon’s death, and your attempts to create "excuses" for the inexcusable actions of judge-jury-and-executioner George Zimmerman (...AND...those that would imitate him). We are becoming a society that seeks and sees threats under every rock; a frightened society that sees danger with every “other” that is not just like us; a manipulated society with control-freaks running rampant (whether politicians or mayors or police chiefs or individuals). Power-hungry people that are only too eager to take advantage of our fears; that are only too willing to get away with anything and everything that they can, as they deprive us of our our liberty (and sometimes our lives).....all in the name of defending it. What a shell game. But were it only a game. For it includes the worst provisions of the Patriot Act, the police spying on innocent people, “papers-please” and stop&frisk gone wild, the “right” to indefinitely detain Americans without trial, and out-of-control homicidal vigilantes such as we have tragically seen here. It’s a serious, slippery slope... one that ultimately leads to a police state/Orwellian mentality that is more typical of places such as China or Cuba - NOT the America that I know and love. We USED to stand proud and free, and contrasted our open society to such sorry places. Now we imitate them. Our country is better than this. Our values are better than this. WE are better than this. Don’t blame the hoodie......blame what we are becoming, and allowing, and doing as a society. As Shakespeare once said: the fault is not in our stars, but in ourselves: For we have come to accept things that should NEVER be accepted by a freedom-loving people. It’s time... it’s way past time, to reverse course. Let bring some good out of this tragedy.... and work to never let it happen again. You DO have the power, my friend. USE IT.
The Undeniable Virtue of the Oppressed-I am NOT Treyvon Martin
I was going to ignore this due to the fact that I don't like rent-a-cops but frankly this is total BS. People wearing white hoodies to Church?
I started to care about the story when my neighbor with the Obama sticker got all worked up about it and started telling me about race inequalities in New Orleans in 1962 which I think is pretty relevant to the issues at hand. Then He tells me witnesses saw the cop mouth "self defense," to the guy and that hoodie-boy's father identified his screams off the 911 tape. So I looked it up. Took me about five minutes to find a second opinion. The neighborhood watch guy got knocked down and beat up.
I don't think he should have shot hoodie-boy but after I heard that his brush with law enforcement was due to him pushing an ATF officer I got a little more sympathetic.
Then I saw the news today. People are wearing hoodies out of solidarity...
Great, we will all dress like gangsters now? Get gold front teeth? Go around and provoke jumpy neighborhood watch people?
There are lessons to be learned all right...Tragedy equals political gain. Never, ever let black folks forget they are victims. White people are racist by definition.
Lessons not to be learned, trying to look tough is not a virtue, don't mess with a guy with a gun, an over six foot 17 year old is not a 12 year old.
Look at this supposedly sympathetic link, what are we trying to do-create a race war? Geraldo Rivera's son is ashamed of him the only time in Geraldo's life he has made anything close to a sensible statement?
This is total activism, out and out manipulation and no one has the moral courage to say a thing. Except for Newt...
It is a total set up for something which will result in 1. a loss of personal freedoms, 2. Nothing at all beneficial to the cause of stopping racism-cause it wasn't.
Anyway, someone sent me a link to this blog and he says pretty much what I wanted to say. The basic facts are out there but I'm sure it will all go down the memory hole. After all this is of course the South in 1962...
Anyway, my opinion doesn't matter. You will believe what ever fits your worldview. Wonder if the story would have gone national if the guy's last name was not "Zimmerman."
Frankly I don't like either one of the people involved.
Is there no actual racial incidents to get riled up about? Why make up a story when I've read any number of stories about totally innocent black kids getting roughed up by cops or hassled. What about that story about the guy that had restored the car and somebody hit him and the cops hauled him in and he spent the night in jail? I'll have to look up that link again. That was injustice but of course nobody got killed and there was not a gun law involved.
After all the stories we hear about old guys getting locked up for stopping a burglary and there was one about a guy in I think it was Miami who was being attacked by gang members so he shot his AK into the ground so the gunshot sensors would get the cops there faster. He got hauled in.
Frankly, I can't believe cops would pass up an opportunity to haul in a guy for defending himself with a gun unless there is more to the story.
I started to care about the story when my neighbor with the Obama sticker got all worked up about it and started telling me about race inequalities in New Orleans in 1962 which I think is pretty relevant to the issues at hand. Then He tells me witnesses saw the cop mouth "self defense," to the guy and that hoodie-boy's father identified his screams off the 911 tape. So I looked it up. Took me about five minutes to find a second opinion. The neighborhood watch guy got knocked down and beat up.
I don't think he should have shot hoodie-boy but after I heard that his brush with law enforcement was due to him pushing an ATF officer I got a little more sympathetic.
Then I saw the news today. People are wearing hoodies out of solidarity...
Great, we will all dress like gangsters now? Get gold front teeth? Go around and provoke jumpy neighborhood watch people?
There are lessons to be learned all right...Tragedy equals political gain. Never, ever let black folks forget they are victims. White people are racist by definition.
Lessons not to be learned, trying to look tough is not a virtue, don't mess with a guy with a gun, an over six foot 17 year old is not a 12 year old.
Look at this supposedly sympathetic link, what are we trying to do-create a race war? Geraldo Rivera's son is ashamed of him the only time in Geraldo's life he has made anything close to a sensible statement?
This is total activism, out and out manipulation and no one has the moral courage to say a thing. Except for Newt...
It is a total set up for something which will result in 1. a loss of personal freedoms, 2. Nothing at all beneficial to the cause of stopping racism-cause it wasn't.
Anyway, someone sent me a link to this blog and he says pretty much what I wanted to say. The basic facts are out there but I'm sure it will all go down the memory hole. After all this is of course the South in 1962...
Anyway, my opinion doesn't matter. You will believe what ever fits your worldview. Wonder if the story would have gone national if the guy's last name was not "Zimmerman."
Frankly I don't like either one of the people involved.
Is there no actual racial incidents to get riled up about? Why make up a story when I've read any number of stories about totally innocent black kids getting roughed up by cops or hassled. What about that story about the guy that had restored the car and somebody hit him and the cops hauled him in and he spent the night in jail? I'll have to look up that link again. That was injustice but of course nobody got killed and there was not a gun law involved.
After all the stories we hear about old guys getting locked up for stopping a burglary and there was one about a guy in I think it was Miami who was being attacked by gang members so he shot his AK into the ground so the gunshot sensors would get the cops there faster. He got hauled in.
Frankly, I can't believe cops would pass up an opportunity to haul in a guy for defending himself with a gun unless there is more to the story.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Subscribe To
Posts
All Comments