I was going through some personal papers and found this copy of a letter I had written nearly 30 years ago. Re-reading it was almost as if it had been written yesterday, other than some events were dated. Pretty much everything else is current. It was written as I was finishing up my house and preparing to retire and the tax people were overjoyed that someone would actually move into a rural area. Over the years I have written a lot of angry letters to the local papers but I always included copies to those I was maligning. Sadly to say nothing ever changed because of my exercises in futility. I used to go to the local town board meetings, my complaints always were about the use or misuse of tax payer money to support those things that weren’t governmental (such as Boy Scouts, fireworks displays, various donations, etc). I had a number of aggravations with the zoning board/land use/building permits at the county level as well.
I finally got worn down and gave up, elections didn’t change anything, mindsets never changed. Once a precedence is set it’s tough to change, even at the lowest level.
A lot of the letters never saw daylight, local papers often pick and chose the opinions that are not confrontational. I did get picked up by some other publications that reprinted my letters, however.
_________________________
Comments
441 responses to “Letter to the Editor”
1
?
Thank you, thank you
You give me too little credit!
I can read none of that
—> exempt from staying on topic
Flaunt your privilege.
BTW, follow-up email sent.
Or flout it?
? ????
Nice letter, fourscore.
Killdozer time!
One of the few true American heroes.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Heemeyer
I’m familiar.
My newest toy https://imgur.com/gallery/9RirEQL
That one is mine, and if circumstances require it, I have a MIG welder
Nice.
with a decelerator pedal !!??
Ooo. Ooo. Can I come over and play?
Whoa! Nice toy Lach!
?
I gave him 5 flags. It’s a rating system, right?
I’d give him two thumbs up, but I don’t know how.
??????
??
Are you saying my jewels are small and sweaty?
??????
?♂️✔
Your hovercraft is full of eels.
????
https://getemoji.com/#smileys
?
^Get a load of the white supremacist over here^
??
They’re all around me!!!!
/Daily Beast
If you are on windows it’s Windows Key + period key
For the record, TARD is in my name.
Period Day was last Saturday.
Two snaps in a circle!
+10 In Living Color.
#MenOnBooks
TLDR
I keed, I keed!
That was really, really good. Deserves an applause gif. Citizen Cane, I should think?
I absolutely love that Social Contract and use that as I uselessly argue with people who believe in such non-sense. The only thing I’d change is I’d work “Consensual” into “I will limit my sexual activities…..” because anyone inclined to argue would immediately straw man the shit outta that;
“So you’re in favor of rape? Pedophilia? etc, etc?
My favorite idiotic retort people always argue when I claim it’s illegitimate for the government to agrees against peaceful people is;
“So you are ok with murder?”
:Facepalm:
Also, great article Fourscore! We appreciate your input and a SWAT team will be around shortly!
Please push all cribs, cradles, bassinets, pack and plays, and any other baby receptacles to the nearest window to help facilitate your grenading.
That was downright inspiring. I wish I had had more exposure to less authoritative minds like yours while growing up, but I just heard similar rhetoric with a boatload caveats.
One of the first things I read in my early twenties that began to enthrall me with the idea of true liberty was this paper:
https://archive.org/stream/THEMYTHOFTHERULEOFLAWByJohnHasnas47/THE%20MYTH%20OF%20THE%20RULE%20OF%20LAW%20by%20John%20Hasnas-47_djvu.txt
It’s lengthy but definitely worth a read if you get a chance.
Excellent read, 4Score.
Too bad it died of loneliness in Minnesota.
I sincerely hope those people can wale up and save the state!!
The Societal Contract is great too.
I want to go on the record as liking these:
https://www.zevia.com/products/mixers/lemon-lime-bitters
Mix with New Amsterdam 100 proof vodka.
Zevia? Is that Zima with fake sugar?
?️??
?
I would say that’s a confirmed, “yes”.
Zima, because zhit happens.
Well look at that, a drink I think we’d all refuse to have, carbonated or not.
Remember when Zima asked, “What if there was no beer?”
The correct answer is “Whiskey”, of course, but I turned to my wife and said, “That’s like asking a straight man, what if there was no pussy?”
Orionid Meter Shower peaks tonight.
Thanks, Haley’s Comet!
Oh!? What time in the Central?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.space.com/amp/oriond-meteor-shower-2019-peak-what-to-expect.html
Danke…now if these clouds would just move off.
Thanks, it’s very dark here, should be good!
It figures, no rain for weeks, now it’s rainy for days. Hopefully, clear tomorrow.
Sky gazing is awesome when you’re out in the middle of nowhere.
Fortunately for me, I’m close enough to Mt Palomar Observatory that my neighborhood has no street lighting.
It’s no Mojave, but it’s at my house so….
Do you have a nice scope? We just have a portable, but it’s pretty decent.
While amateur observatories are becoming more common, most telescopes are still portable. The definition of portable is just different. For example, I have a telescope tube that I can set up in 5 minutes. Or I use another setup that takes 45 minutes to put together. Same telescope, different setup.
I guess when I mean portable, I mean ready to use in 1 minute. Grab it by the handle, take it outside, set it on a table, select the eyepiece, sight it, and lock in.
Humph, the only showers here tonight are liquid.
Golden? I mean, your user name and all….
It’s a fake. “Fourscore” is in a font that didn’t exist in 1992.
/sarcasm.
I can only imagine what we’ll find when the time comes to clean out Dad’s home office downstairs.
Yes, yes it is
That’s you hook? Not that he would have been Threescore back then?
Oil continues two-day decline with concerns over global economy
Oil has declined almost 20% from an April peak despite the world’s biggest-ever crude-supply incident with last month’s missile strike on Saudi Arabian infrastructure. Separate supply crises from Iran to Venezuela and Iraq are being drowned out by the increasingly bleak economic outlook. “Demand fears regained the narrative and concerns about the broad macro economy continue to be in the driver’s seat,” said Michael Tran, head oil strategist at RBC Capital Markets in New York. West Texas Intermediate for November delivery fell 47 cents to settle at $53.31 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
I don’t see a peaceful way to change or remove the looters. Porperty taxes, income taxes, etc… aren’t going away short of an absolute collapse. I don’t see how even after that collapse we would recover our freedom. California is a prime example. We know why it’s failing. We know it’s going to fail. Yet, no one is describing taking back land that’s been ceded to the looters. There are discussions about just giving it away. Cutting our losses so to speak. How long are we going to keep ‘cutting our losses’ to socialists, monarchists and communists?
How much longer are we going to compromise on our pie of freedom before there isn’t any pie left?
I skew collapsitarian myself. I don’t relish it and have no illusions about it being anything other than bloody awful. But none of the shit you mentioned will go quietly into the night until the reset button is pushed.
What comes after the reset? Very seldom is it more liberty.
Very True. The American Revolution was a one-off. Maybe the system collapses under it’s own weight and decentralization happens al la Soviet Union? Best-case scenario I reckon.
Well… there probably is more liberty during the chaos and lawlessness. At least until the local warlord takes over.
The key is – be that warlord.
I’m of the opinion that liberty can only exist if it is an ingrained cultural value. If non-aggression is not valued you’ll never have a system that is based upon it.
The moral leap of faith that if I respect your rights you will then respect mine is an amazing thing and very very fragile.
One can only wonder where we’d be right now had not someone thought The Golden Rule a worth while thing to teach children in our forefathers partriachial-white-supremacist-shitlord past.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
― Edmund Burke
There’s truth in what you say. But it always pays to keep your powder dry.
I think there’s a potential for serious misery in our future. I just don’t know how far away it is, but all the signs are there.
I think I’ve thrown this out here before; i’m pretty sure ‘the plan’ with the deficit and the printing ‘monetary policy’ is to just keep the juice flowing until we have enough technology that it won’t matter if it ‘collapses.’ We currently can produce food in ridiculous quantities for very low prices, we can move freight and create power for very little costs. Most of the price inflation for energy/food/housing costs is either from government interference or a demand for a more comfortable product.
What if the plan really is just ‘fake it until you make it?’
10.5 years and it won’t matter what the plan is.
/AOC
The collapse of the Roman empire threw Europe and the Near East into a millennium of tumult and aggression. Western culture is much more all-encompassing than Rome ever was.
Yep. And there are plenty of Top Men pushing for that outcome and ready to capitalize if it happens.
Rome was dependent on animal and muscle power and after the fall the population of the city fell from a million to a few tens of thousands. We are globally dependent on extremely involved technology and supply chains. If there is an actual collapse (which I actually doubt will happen, I suspect we’ll just end up in competing fascist/theocratic and communist/fascist empires), what is the carrying capacity of non mechanized, no chemicals farming? Historically it was around 600 million. Maybe techniques and tools that would survive could stretch that to a couple billion, but billions would die.
‘..what is the carrying capacity of non mechanized, no chemicals farming? Historically it was around 600 million. Maybe techniques and tools that would survive could stretch that to a couple billion, but billions would die.’
I’ve long suspected that this is the end goal all along, but with all the most advanced technologies held in the few hands of the powerful, and any unapproved upticks in population will be met with brutal resistance.
Come to think of it, ZARDOZ really isn’t that far-fetched of a movie.
Bilderburgers!111!!!
I haven’t explored that rabbit hole too far but from what I gather thats the end goal for that particular conspiracy.
Derp, misthreaded.
Ah, didn’t know about the Bilderbergs angle. I honestly don’t know about a global conspiracy or anything that organized, I just suspect that’s the secret wish inside most bureaucrats’ black little hearts.
Most people screaming about Climate Change are Malthusians if you press them about it. Net Zero emissions is just the first step. Getting the population reduced by 3/4 is what the long term solution is. In their mind it’s not morally abhorrent because they won’t be the ones to make it happen.
Yep. When approached by people with clipboards asking me to sign a petition for X environmental cause my go-to response is “I have no interest in supporting your death cult” and keep walking.
Now you are poking at the major flaw / contradiction of libertarianism and that pesky non-aggression principle. You could theoretically use violence to impose those freedoms on people. And as soon as some commie starts squawking for free shit, run him out of town on a rail (or a Pinochet helicopter ride).
That is more or less the conclusion Hoppe came to.
Taxes are theft. They can dress it up all they want. It’s still violence. It was itty bitty and incremental and the power behind it is enormous, but it’s getting too big and in the end it’s still violence.
MN is not far behind CA, at least in the metro areas. Because of the want of new spending money taxes keep increasing which of course stymies growth. The small towns keep declining, both in business and population. Then to try to encourage a business to move in the horsepower will give a tax abatement of a few years. Its not like they don’t realize the problem but there’s cutting spending doesn’t get a pol re-elected.
“found this copy of a letter I had written nearly 30 years ago”
https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/yR538hwvTa2J2yvW86eklg.ZLZI7ORBGZ7bVcL_-GKAHV
I made these candle holders in 1987. ?
I made these candle holders in
19871787.He’s a witch! Burn him!
Actually those are pretty cool.
Metal shop in high school? Look good to me, give yourself an ‘A’ for creativity and functionality
“Metal shop in high school? ”
Maybe. I don’t recall if it was 8th or 9th grade.
Any feedback on how far any recipients of these letters read before writing you off as a crack-pot?
I’m guessing the county supervisors laughed, “Any New Business”? I did send the same people a quiz, a map of the ME with out the countries identified. I asked them to find Iraq, where we were at war with 4K KIA. My letter included “If you can’t find Iraq I don’t trust your judgement on anything else” I think that letter made the local paper.
Breaking News: The Jets are still the Jets.
Fancy that.
It looks like the Pats are playing scrubs on a practice team to get ready for an actual game.
How’s that parity thing working out for the NFL?
Only a very casual fan but even I could tell this game was going to be a tad lopsided.
They just said it’s the first 24-0 lead the Pat’s have had since week 12 of 2012…it was against the Jets.
Hey they were only down by 7 after the first 9 minutes of the game. Of course they didn’t have the ball on offense yet.
How is it roughing the passer if the QB still has ball when he’s hit?
Dude, they just make it up as they go now.
You cannot:
– “drive” the
primadonnaQB into the ground– go for the knees or…
– ….lead with the helmet. In the manner Aeneas Williams ended Steve Young’s career.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x7dw63deh_Y
Looked like a normal tackle to me although they didn’t replay it much.
Meh, I’m not watching the game, because I refuse to see a Jets game. They suck ass, but since the NFL can own the airwaves on Monday night…
In better news, the Vegas Golden Nuggets look like shit.
Is that a WNBA team?
The sure are
damn, brooks’ed and typo-ed.
/hangs heading in shame
NBD: I manage that twice most days before lunch
Anyone can do one, or the other. It takes talent to do both.
Heh. I Brooks’ed a reply to Caccitore on the last thread about approving of his current use of the wacky weed. In retrospect, it seemed fitting.
I sat next to the county sheriff at a meeting one time. I sort of knew him, he was the son of classmate and I’d met him previously. Anyway, he asked if I’d written any letters recently and grinned. I said, “No, but you’re on the list”. The grin faded.
Fourscore: I went to the local honey shop, and was disappointed that there were no honeys from MN, but TWO from WI.
I also found out that I like honeys made from trees (lemon, acacia, basswood, tupelo) better than ground-based flowers.
I like all the varieties but prefer the darker ones to the lighter. Buckwheat is a real favorite, looks like road tar. I eat a tablespoon of my stuff every morning on oatmeal. Starts the day right
Heh. We picked up a jar of buckwheat during that trip — I sill have about a half pound left.
I took beekeeping in college and the best day was watching the other students walking to class as we opened up 10 hives and tried to get the honey from them. The commuter students couldn’t figure out why bees were stinging them. Way to take economically viable classes losers!
Have a few hives in TN. I grow buckwheat for the delicious honey (soon to be meade) and the flour that makes the most excellent pancakes.
I live in such a ag dominated area that bees just don’t do well here. I feel bad for the hives I tried to force into the area but bees are so much fun and…honey!
Seems laughably small, now.
We were lucky in ’92 before those big spending (all of the pols) got there. When you are borrowing money to pay the interest there is a big. big problem. When things can’t keep going on, they don’t.
It may as we be a gazillion. I remember Stossel used to help with visual aids on these things, but I still can’t comprehend those numbers.
I recommend people think in this term: it’s $60k per capita, so one year’s GDP
that is a good model that will probably be true enough for a few years
We can think of it that way, but people just assume that it’s going to be paid by someone else.
Right?
“I make way more than that.”
Fraction of GDP is a good measure to determine if it has a negative effect. I think it starts to be bad at 60%, and once you get over 100% it gets progressively (heh) worse.
I’ve seen that 120% debt to GDP is when the SHTF. It also depends a lot on who’s holding the debt, foreign or domestic holders.
It is hard to pinpoint where the SHTF because one of debts big effects is as a capital sink which means it acts as a drag on growth long before it hits the risk of default/currency devaluation stage. Since, absent some mechanism to enforce frugality, the only path to reducing the debt burden is to grow the economy faster than the debt grows that slowing at some point accelerates the problem, but that point is in part determined by other growth drivers. Like say the fact that in the past 35 years a several trillion dollar industry effective emerged from nothing and grew to maturity.
All I’ll add is that the US economy being such an integral part of the global economy means its debt will be enabled by foreign countries a helluva longer than normal. That’ll make the eventual crash all the worse. There is no will to get off the heroin when they think the addict is necessary to keep the system afloat.
per capita, so a quarter mill for a family of four.
Nice letter 4. The Social Contract looks just like the one I never signed.
Like probably most of the folks here I think the letter is well written, thoughtful and completely accurate. Some might think it borders on undersatement while others that is all just simply too obvious to even discuss.
I’m guessing, however, to over half the citizens of this country would find this to be the words of a raging lunatic.
If the SPLC gets hold of this the Honey Harvest will be added to their list of far-right hate groups.
Thanks
“over half the citizens of this country would find this to be the words of a raging lunatic.”
Sadly true. And then the other 49% also howls in rage when you take the implications of the letter to their logical conclusions in regard to the cops and the military
Speaking of Cops…
Dallas’ finest:
https://youtu.be/i9hCS1U2E-c
At least that’s wryly funny. Police abuse videos, liked antics videos elevate my BP and heart rate for 20-30 minutes. I find that it does me no good to watch them
They tend to make me pretty angry too, but I can’t help but laugh at that idiot.
“He was securing the scene and preemptively seizing pilferible property”
/Dallas Police Chief
?Turns around and mutters “Damn it, Farva”
That shuffle is just too priceless. Then he finally just goes and puts it down and acts like he’s taking a radio call. Straight up Super Troopers material right there.
*Like antifa*……FU autocorrect, I think I may need to quit for the night.
“Aw hell, the insurance will cover it anyway”
“raging lunatic”
Accurate description but the age thing has slowed me down.
The honey that hates
For no good reason other than that’s the random way my neurons fire, that sentence reminded me of this digression from the Saul Bass film Why Man Creates, a film I saw many times in school back in the day.
Last I checked, a DVD of that film from the official source was outrageously expensive or else I’d buy a copy. Loved that film.
Thanks for sharing this letter with us, 4×20. Blessed are the gadflies.
Progressive corruption (in every sense of the word) seems to be a feature of democracies, empires, and big governments everywhere.
Victor Davis Hanson last week talking about how we can’t seem to accomplish anything these days. It’s corruption in every sense.
Hmmm… can’t really dispute anything Hanson says, but he seems excessively focused on “why aren’t we still doing more of the same things we did in the past at the same high level?” He cites major public works and theatrical films while either glossing over or ignoring such recent accomplishments as the universal communication medium provided by the Internet (like we’re using right now!) and, in entertainment, the various specialized cable, streaming, and other content providers.
Certainly can’t dispute that most of what government touches any more gets FUBAR.
I read it more as “why does it take ten times as long to do the same things (things which still need doing)”.
It’s odd that he would use massive public projects like the Hoover Dam and the Apollo Program to prove his point though. He sounds like a “national greatness” neocon when he uses those examples. Yes, the government send some military officers to collect rocks on the Moon because we were afraid the communists were going to collect moon rocks first. When you’re done patting yourself on the back for that Victor Davis Boomer, you might come to the realization that SpaceX and Blue Origin will eventually be sending Joe Sixpack to the Moon to mine it.
Actually, the more I read it, the stupider it is.
The Artemis Program plans on having a manned lunar landing in 2024.
This is the same bullshit as Coppola and Scorsese Boomer-whining that no one is interested in their “Old Angry Irish and/or Italian Men Yelling At Each Other” films. Demographics and tastes change. Also extremely odd for a Classicist such as VDH to be pissing on Marvel movies, as superhero stories are the closest thing we have to Greek mythology in our culture.
If there is any degradation and corruption, it is the devolution of an insightful essayist into a tedious ‘old man yelling at a cloud’ hack.
Shut the fuck up, Victor, and just grill for God’s sake!
I still think the point I highlighted above is valid. It takes decades now to build the same highway or building that used to take a few years.
I choose to ignore the old man yelling at clouds stuff.
A lot of that has to do with draconian environmental regulations. However, another is that in the 30s through 50s, we were building brand new things in fairly empty areas. Now, there is other infrastructure “stuff” in the way. For example, take Boston’s The Big Dig. They couldn’t tear down the old bridge over the Charles River before they built the new one. Keeping the old one running while building around it is a complex feat that the engineers and project managers of earlier generations didn’t have to worry about as much.
There is that, and I think we were a little more cavalier about safety back then too.
The thing I don’t understand is the number of conservative voices bemoaning the passing of such brilliantly Conservative eras as:
The 30s-40s: Roosevelt running the country as a soft fascist dictatorship with a tame congress and emasculated Court, actual communist agents as well as hardcore sympathizers at every level of government upto and including a VP.
The 50s: Price controls, serious plans to nationalize the steel industry
The 60s: Rioting, assassinations, technocrats playing war games while massive expansions of the federal power and bureaucracy sent us into a 20 year stagnation
The 70s: Massive, all left driven legislation by the court, scandals that crippled the Republicans till Reagan, Nixon closing the gold window and starting a spiral of debt and fiat currency that has not let up. Carter, nuff said
The 80s, started ok, Reagan was going to fix it all, then he traded literally every thing the Progs wanted except surrender to the USSR for $ to win the cold war. Yay we win, except in the process we ended up 3/4 socialist ourselves.
What precisely was so great about any period in the last century from a liberty perspective?
No immigration from Brownistan? Nancy-boys and poofters knew their place, as did Negroes and women? I could just grill, for God’s sake?
Come on, get with the program, libtard!
Actually, from the perspective a of a black conservative I can see some nostalgia for the late 50s, early 60s. The legal and social barriers were coming down, the black middle class was at all time highs, most of white America was realizing that JIm Crow and institutional racism were evil. Then Johnson unleashed the Great Society and within a decade crime in black neighborhoods was at record highs, the two parent family had become a thing of legend in the inner city, and that black middle class was largely gone. Add to that NIxon (and every President since) doubling down on the drug war and the concomitant devastation for young black men.
The whole thing seems kind of Peggy Noonanish to me.
Wow, Fatty going right for the jugular!
That’s quite the letter for 30 years ago. What parts have you changed your mind on or would write differently today?
It could be rewritten to FYTW and that would pretty well summarize it.
I think writing it was cathartic at the time.
I found that laughing at politicians is more fun and probably pisses them off more. I wrote a series of letters from the Mother Goose angle. For ex I did a Humpty Dumpty one where he built a wall without a building permit and when the Kings Men couldn’t re- assemble it they all retired with their pensions to FL. It made the papers and several asked me to write more, I did a couple more in the same vein. I wish I’d kept a copy of those.
The debt number needs updating, obviously. Not much else.
Sen. @KamalaHarris: “[@RudyGiuliani] has clearly broken many laws.”
@AndersonCooper: “Are there specific laws you believe Giuliani has broken?”
Harris: “Well, I don’t know…”
OMG, not a visa!! ENRAGED!!1!
Remember that beauty pageant lady who made the talk show rounds to sob on camera about how Trump called her a fat pig, or whatever? Didn’t she get a green card suspiciously expeditiously?
So a lawyer asked the government to grant a visa to someone he wanted to bring in for a meeting? You mean like happens thousands of times every day, because that is exactly what visas are for?
She’s a narc. Find her the man and she’ll find the crime.
The Liberals in Canada appear to be ahead for now.
Conservatives getting out of work now?
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614487/meet-americas-newest-military-giant-amazon/
Has this been covered yet? I admit I know fuck all about what this means in regard to the surveillance state, weaponry, or any other defense department related subjects, it just caught my attention.
Radio Canada has just declared that the next government would be formed by the Liberals.
The more things change…
Given the numbers (leading and elected) to this moment, I’d believe that, but only as a minority government led around by the nose by either the Greens or (more likely) the NDP. Such a result would be every Western separatist’s wet dream.
Minority government.
That’s what I figured would happen and that Trudeau would still claim it as mandate to do even moar crazy shit.
There’s nothing remotely inappropriate about appearing in blackface. The progressive country has spoken.
Nah, try it not being a leftist. They’ll get a pass for rightthink, you’d be destroyed.
They’re right about that though.
This has been one very fucked-up day. OTOH, XX shows quite a bit of excitement about learning how to drive a train. We have a program here with BNSF. She’s happier today than she has been in a long time.
Neat. The pay is probably nice.
In the 90s, when I was advised to do this (and regrettably did not), starting pay (night shits) was $90k.
SHIFTS, not shits.
No, no…you’re on to something, there.
(ewww)
They’re in the 110-130 range now. YOu won’t have a life and you’ll work ridiculous hours and you’ll spend a good 1/3 of your not at work time in an ‘away’ terminal.
But the healthcare is AWESOME. For at least 1 more contract negotiation.
Yeah, my 2nd thought is that the job would suck balls.
I told her that, but she has been lurking on Reddit and already knew that. I told her if she succeeded in getting through the program, she could stay with us so she wouldn’t have to pay for an apartment she wasn’t in but 3 times a month. Wouldn’t even need a car.
Is it okay if I give her your email or something? If you’re okay with that?
I had her read a thread here about the topic of trades (when I asked Yusef about HVAC), but I’d rather she not hang around here. I am not a good influence, never mind HM.
What did I do now?
You know what you did.
Yeah, what Spud said.
I’ll get back with you in about an hour. The computer I’m on is heavily restricted.
Well, she’s gone to bed and I’m about to, so tomorrow would be good. Really, just at your leisure.
My email is moriah at moriahjovan dot com.
Do you have a two tier wage system? UP/ex-SP around here has (or had, it’s been a while since I’ve kept up on the details) different pay for old timers and new hires. The newer ones made a bit less.
The system of pay, allowances, and claims made sales commissions simple by comparison. Heck of a way to, well, to run a railroad.
There are a lot more than 2 tiers. Prior rights is/was a huge thing. A lot of it is phasing out. Traditionally when railroad would merge the crafts, there are a lot of them, all had different agreements. Infact it’s a bitch still because each terminal has a different agreement and that’s just for the trainmen. Anyway, when the railroads would merge, prior employees of particular lines negotiated preferences in pay and seniority. To make things worse, when the railroads negotiated crew off of trains they offered big pay incentives to current union members to eliminate jobs. Then, through attrition the positions would go away and eventually the pay bumps with them. Over time, train crews have gone from 5-7 crew members to what is now, MOSTLY, 2 crew. A conductor and an Engineer. It’s stayed fairly consistent at 2 crew members since the early/mid 90’s.
I fully expect when the railroads go down to 1 crew member per train that there will be another temporary pay hike/attrition event. Triggering another prior rights kind of thing. But right now, a lot of those guys are retiring. It’s been that long since we’ve had any really big shake ups in contracts or mergers.
Some of the short lines around here do one in the cab with the conductor driving in a suv to throw switches and such. Some of the industry switching is done by one with a belt pack too.
Remote control locomotives are fairly common, but there’s a lot to them you don’t see as far as restricting an area. The Short line Engineer/Conductor SUV thing works extremely well and I’ve heard a lot of good things. In fact, on a few routes, I’m surprised the Class 1 (major railroads) haven’t gone to that model. I think they’re really just pushing for 1 crew member at this point. The title will go to which ever union caves first.
Holy shit. Nicer than I would have guessed, even.
It’s not as glamorous as you’d think. If you have any questions… I’m an open book.
I would LOVE anything you could tell her about it.
To me, I’m not looking at cool so much, but as something this *particular* girl would sync with.
Is she applying specifically for a conductors position or is she just considering attending the school with the hopes of then applying for a position?
Attending the school to complete the program and apply.
Current Positions available on the BNSF:
https://jobs.bnsf.com/search/?q=
If you want her to have a semi-nice life, the dispatcher trainee would be the place to start. The positions are only in San Bernardino, Fort Worth and Spring for the BNSF.
If she REALLY wants to ride and then drive trains, she’d need to apply for a conductors position at one of the various terminals. The tainmen are allowed to bid and bump on the lsit all around the western US, so she could take a job in needles and eventually bump Belen or Chicago or LA. There are a few districts but as long as she picks a southern terminal she’d have a pretty wide range.
If she likes electricity/relay logic and seeing different places every day, signal apprentice. Also, a decent schedule.
Like to operate heavy machinery and possibly wants to have a semi-decent schedule some day, Maintenance of way track laborer.
This WONDERFUL advice. Thank YOU!!!
Reminds me of a story from the BAy Area in the 60’s. There was a kid (12 IIRCC). LIked trucks and trains. He stole a couple semis and drove them into the central valley. Just wanted to drive them. He got that out of his system and then stole a train. Back then things were a lot more chill. It was clear the kid wasn’t a criminal – more like wait to you grow up kid.
We had a renegade bus maniac in NYC that commandeered a bunch of them before finally getting caught a year or so ago.
And if she wants to do the signal/telecom, suggest picking up a GROL (FCC radiotelephone operator) license. Previously at least around here, there was a pay increase for hiring on with one.
Telecom ewww….
Also, stay away from mechanical.
Please tell her to be kind to the hoboes! I bought this mug at the National Museum of Transportation in St. Louis some years ago in honor of my maternal grandfather, who rode the rails for a while after getting out of the army post-Armistice Day. He wanted to see the country outside of Hillisburg, IN – the country he’d just almost got his butt shot off serving.
Damn… flashback to books about codes I found at the library when I was little, hobo codes among them.
A lot of hobos get sliced up or smoked out every year. It’s a lot different now that it was then.
My grandfather almost ended up on a chain gang in FL, but instead got a proper train ticket with instructions to leave the state.
I was also told, when I was advised to do this, that if I were driving a train, I WOULD kill somebody. That was a downer.
They were correct. Some of the worse moments of my life involved train v child.
Don’t be a Kitchener Leslie to those poor hoboes.
Now you done made me DuckDuckGo that reference, and this seemed to be the only thing close. Am I getting warm?
It’s Norm at his shaggiest.
You’ll have to skip to 7:40, or just enjoy some classic Norm.
P.S. – XX needs a train songs play list! (This one’s not one of the obvious choices.)
Trains
Trains
Most obvious oneto me
Hobos and Trains!
Train to nowhere?
https://youtu.be/v78-ftcqpNw
https://youtu.be/vqSOiawh0vI
Can’t forget this classic with the ultimate in steam power running through Wyoming.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i435ovKX9aE
Or some Johnny Cash
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq5lJHSklg0
This one my mom used to listen to. I was hearing this blasting in our livivng room when I was about 6 or 7. It’s kinda dark, but it mentions trains, as a metaphor.
Yeah, prolly doesn’t belong on any offspring’s playlist, this one.
That’s awesome. I put that on my to-buy list.
For whatever reason, this is a train song to me, but it isn’t a train song at all..
Not trainy, but my favorite Rory. (We worked up a kinda jump blues arrangement & I sang it in the band for years.)
I kinda like her voice, for sure. It would take me a little while to truly love it, but I could get there.
Another obvious choice.
Dig deep enough and you’ll find a song with Duane playing about trains.
Another of my favorites
https://youtu.be/3sVYfrsaais
And the classic
https://youtu.be/cmBKHSZ1pcU
Don’t any of you listen to rock?
https://youtu.be/2igtLPhFgSM
https://youtu.be/i19d1QnstsA
Dude, i will cosign the Tull, but GnR’s train song is This, clearly.
Lol. OK, I’ll go with it.
Sorry, sometimes I fly off the handle.
Trains get a shout out here as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAOVRkSCWmg
Well! Seems a lot of people around here like trains. My ❤️ trains thing happened early on, but then I read Atlas Shrugged and then I worked for these people and loved it.
Hope cy’s excellent RR info & the songs helped unfuck-up your day.
We have This about 2 miles from my house. My kid loves to climb these things. He’ll spend all day there.
Fantastic letter, Fourscore, thanks for sharing it. I can only imagine the tut-tutting and clenched assholes at city hall as it was passed around!
I truly wonder how many people in this country could even understand it. Sad.
Not many these days. Nor would they care.
https://archive.li/jNS6w/1b40755569f008038ddba18e6561695006d9e4cf.jpg
NSFW.
https://archive.li/smJpD/38279c6dadabcd11983a23a9245645a5b59153f7.jpg
NSFW.
https://archive.li/sWbn0/2ea6772a0ef53970b74023be1d52c4dff264fc15.jpg
NSFW.
https://archive.li/4irJK/4e21f0bebe86167aa8346af370a07ab19547c43d.jpg
NSFW.
French nails. Giggity.
She’s young enough to be my daughter’s mother.
+1
Forget the photo. I love the URL.
The first one is a home run for sure.
Thanks for sharing that, Mr. Fourscore. I don’t know that there’s much to add. Pretty much sums up how I feel, except mine comes with more simmering anger and the wherewithal to inflict it on others. I tell myself that I’m a good person based upon the fact that I haven’t resorted to using what our govt taught me to teach them something, as well. In the end, it isn’t what matters.
Makes me thankful we have our virtual water–cooler here (thank you TPTB!) to hang around, commiserate, laugh, and reconcile ourselves to watching the long, slow flush of a once great Republic.
Much love, fellow Glibs. Much love.
Now I’m going to go sit outside, sip an adult beverage, and watch the universe provide a light show and a lesson in humility.
Everyone has something to be angry with government. The govt is so entwined in the personal and public lives of rich, poor and everyone in between that focusing on how it screws the productive class doesn’t seem like a wise move in a democracy (not that you or fourscore did that). Wars on drugs, terror, inequality, women, Christmas etc all end up putting the lower classes behind a wall of punitive measures and regulations. Of course they’ll demand goodies from the govt. And you can’t really blame them when they are correct in pointing at the crony capitalist system that’s benefiting the ruling class. Corruption and nanny state Gordian knots are the worst.
Straff, I get the underlying feeling that animated someone like McVeigh. I watched a documentary that showed the interview with him and it completely changed my opinions on that whole thing. My first thoughts about him were filtered through being on a ship during a MEU(SOC) deployment in the Mediterranean Sea. We all thought it was Libyans and there were 5K+ angry Marines and we were ready to go do some serious killing on behalf of the USG to whomever did that. Then we found out it was a former Army guy and I was like, “Oh… wow. Some far right nutjob.” Then I got old. McVeigh was quite clear that once Ruby Ridge and Waco happened, well… it was gloves off. Not that I feel he was justified in what he did, but it was suddenly understandable. He wasn’t some “loon” – he was a guy who believed in the Constitution as written and what he saw was a govt that felt no compunctions about killing its own citizens. So he said, “Okay, try this.”
I think now I’ve come to realize that the US is basically filled with pussies. Overweight, overfed, over-indulgent pussies. Our forefathers built a Republic for people like themselves: people who told the King with greatest Navy, Army, and economy in world history to go fuck himself. Over a 2 pence tax on tea that the Brits instituted to help out the East India Company. George Washington and his boys survived a Maunder minimum winter at Valley Forge for their independence. Now the military is running out of able-bodied volunteers.
It’s okay, though. It was a great run. Not quite as good as the Greeks had, but a wonderful attempt. If/when people sort through the ashes in a millenia or three, maybe there’ll be enough left behind for some to recreate it. Comparatively speaking, I have no complaints. I have a nice house, a lovely wife, wonderful kids, and peace of mind. I’m disappointed in our collective culture, but it’s nice to find this oasis in the sea of derp.
That’s the whole point to me: They’ve made govt sacred and any declaration that it’s no longer legitimate is considered blasphemy. McVeigh was wrong for at least two reasons: he targeted innocent people and he didn’t use the “compared to what” analysis when evaluating the US govt. Also, what did he think that would accomplish?
I have no idea what the answers to your questions are. I only vaguely recall the piece I watched, but I do remember what my reaction was. Accomplish? I think he was trying to make a political statement but the Media, helped by the Govt, made sure that never got told. His was one of the fastest executions ever. Look at how the Bundy’s were treated, including that members of that group were intentionally shot and killed, and the govt had the case kicked for flagrant prosecution & govt misconduct. And how the Media carried water for the govt.
My takeaway is that we’re generations removed from the kind of revolutionary zeal that built this country. It’s likely not sustainable over multiple generations, in the same way that wealth is generally pissed away after a few generations. For the same reasons.
Look at how the Bundy’s were treated, including that members of that group were intentionally shot and killed
One of state police snipers, who the local media still refuse to name despite being publicly id’d elsewhere (and despite their insistence on public right to know in far less circumstances), has multiple lethal uses of force in a relatively short period. The most puzzling is he had two within a month or so of each other in the past. That’s barely enough time for an expedited investigation and return to duty. Yet none of that will be explored by the media.
After those guys got shot that whole thing left the media damn quick, there was nothing to see there.
The media wouldn’t name the OSP snipers when they were testifying in a supposed open court at the misconduct trial of the FBI shooters.
But hey, despite a trial of the FBI agent’s actions who initially fired upon the vehicle, the OSP troopers continuing that same incident was completely separate and justified. Even if the occupants posed a threat as claimed, wouldn’t it possibly be legitimate to do so after being unlawfully fired upon? Nope, whitewash it away.
And what’s the rule for when a homicide occurs during the commission of a felony by your associates, even if you’re not directly causing both acts?
The Unabomber found a way around the media blackout. He may have been nuts, but he wasn’t stupid.
In all actuality, it was tax cut, but with favoritism, very familiar.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2gAYeGNgaRM
I had no idea that was Alex Chilton. Is that the version I heard on the radio all the time as a kid? Or the Joe Cocker one?
It’s probably the one you heard. AC was something else, huh?
Finally, some music around here I remember.
I am too tired, in pain, and drunk to give a shit about scrolling up.
Any late nighters??
You rang?
Hey, Diggy! Early reports of few tornado-related injuries still holding?
I haven’t heard of anything. Of course, it’s quite possible something will just suddenly make itself known over the next few days (Older family being what it is).
Nothing really happened, work-wise, although a construction site did get some messin’ up. Don’t think it was anything too drastic, though.
Glad to hear it. Thanks!
Somewhat.Going to bed soon.Tired of watching my fellow Canadians give The Dauphin another four-year mandate to fuck the country over (probably as a minority government, which would actually be worse, since the NDP [the likely partner] are even more statist and SJW than the Libs — they’ll bury Canada’s energy industry so fast you’d think Einstein was wrong about the speed of light).
Western separatism can’t happen fast enough.
It would appear that the Bloc Québécois is indeed spoiling the party for the Libs — they’ve managed to gain as many seats as the Libs have lost (almost a perfect correspondence), denying the Libs a majority. So now we’ll prolly have a Lib/NDP alliance, virtually anti-matter to libertarians’ matter.
I want a new country.
At least you can enjoy the cringy antics. Soviet gulag guards didn’t provide any entertainment. Silver linings, my man.
Late night lurker..just done dividing up the meat haul for the freezer
I’m going to bed soon. Just came to vent a little and it turned into an awesome thread. Man, I love my glibbies.
Here here! To Glibbies!
/raises glass and tilts it back
Now, this is a euphemism I can get
behindin front of!Don’t go to bed before checking out my train music links.
Take care of yourself, Hayek. I’m about done for the night.
But I replied to your first comment.
More drunk, less pain, Kayekexplosives.
Damn, the call goes out, and virtually everyone decides to throw the towel in?
Including Hayeks??
Man, this is a tough crowd…
Yeah. I don’t get teeing it up and then disappearing.
#GhostGolf
/I got nuthin’
Tried upload this pic I took while having a street beer in Shinjuku, but it got stuck with an age restriction. WTF?
https://imgur.com/a/g5yvbu0
Are you old enough to be taking pics of Scientology’s “temple,” Straff? Hmmm?
Did you get an age restriction on that or is that just a Japan thing?
No age restriction here.
Hmmm. Hopefully Tejicano is around so I can tell if it’s just me. Which would be appropriate, I suppose.
Hi Straff, sorry I’ve been busy this afternoon – just saw your Q here. I don’t get any age restriction.
I didn’t get anything either.
They don’t know how to spell Scientology in Japanese?
Is this some kind of Zen question?
Do they use an i-meter there?
I once tried to explain to my sister that government power is only achieved through violence.
Her: No it’s not.
Me: Well, what happens if you don’t pay your taxes?
Her: They take you to court.
Me: And if you don’t go to court?
Her: Then they fine you.
Me: And if you don’t pay the fine?
Her: They arrest you.
Me: And if you resist arrest?
Her: Then they take you to court!
Me: How do they get you court?
Her: Shut up, you don’t understand, you don’t have kids! I would do anything for my kids!
That non-sequitur just kind of ended the conversation. That seems to be the pattern.
The bigger question here is: Who hasn’t had almost exactly ^that conversation at least once? I had one last week. The cognitive dissonance is fun to confront.
Well, the fact that I’ve pretty much co-raised all three of her kids, made me just want to punch her in the face when she said that last line.
Shut UP!! You don’t have kids, and the moon’s gravity is about 1/6th that of the earth!!
I’ve never had that conversation. I don’t like drama 🙁
I’d make her answer it.
She was driving (which I hate anyone but me driving) and her kids were asleep in the back, I, actually caring about her children, didn’t want to them to wake to their mother yelling nonsense.
So, you were already in a bad mood, and wanted to confuse her with your tricknology…
I get it now.
G’night, Straff, and the rest of you overseas Glibbenvolks. I’m calling it an evening.
Gotta tuck in some kids and get in one episode of Downton Abbey. The wife suggested and I’m enjoying it while we drift off at night.
Time to go bowling with the wife and kid. Holiday! And enjoy whatever a downtown abbey is.
Trump was an everyday joke for the 30 Rock cast once upon a time.
I think this might be evidence for the eventual witch trial which will be visited upon any Trump acquaintance, someday soon.
Once upon a time, Trump was a punchline, not your mortal enemy.
You hysterical ninnies.
Trump and the Special Olympics Team.
https://archive.li/msyfF/ded3f0b0c73fd8618487c1ccc571613a88df1a1d.jpg
Submitted for your approval.
I want to make a Democrat debate joke, but it’s just too cruel.
“Russian Agents, all of them!”-Hillary Clinton
I love both of these, equally
⚣
I really should send my Glibs resume to the Babylon Bee.
Not for nothing but you should check out the Audio Mullet podcast.
For why? The only podcast I ever listened to got canceled. You want it to be canceled?
I mean, I loved doing the fake news photoshops over at Cracked. This one and this one are my favs.
This one came third.
I’ve got nothin’.
Some one mentioned a train wreck, I lost my stream of thought when a friend texted me and forgot where I wanted to put this, but Train Wreck.
Five to one is a brodeo
OK, who wants to fess up here?
https://www.theblaze.com/news/in-n-out-burger-employee-carries-protester-out-of-restaurant
Heh I had no idea
Me neither until I saw it recently. Sure enough, it’s there in small print.
I was trying to keep my IRL identity secret but this seems like a safe place.
“a safe place”….?
Man, you’re thinking of McD’s!
/#BallPit
The response on twitter is always the same. “And would you have objected to the civil rights marches in the 60’s?”
Marching in the park? No. Using a bullhorn in the restaurant where I’m eating? Yes.
Kiddo decided to take a nap. Bowling for later. Anyways, the euphemism that makes more sense than the literal meaning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iptgGJWrs8
Alright night glibs: how does an incompetent anxiety ridden person deal with govt employees who you would rather drown than help?
Your answer is in your avatar.
Drown their chi…Hitler?
Hug your kid. *Fucking libertarians*
I knew that. I love kids and stuff.
And now you break character and make me feel stupid for trying to play the foil to autistic man. *Insufferable*
I know, right, they think they’re little people. They have no idea that they didn’t have any right to live until they’ve passed the cervix. Morons.
You’re not wrong.
For anyone who remembers me whining about my galpal’s dude-bestie who, after a year, still has not kissed her. Galpal told him to hit the road (not like that). He did.
But NOW he’s back, saying he wants to be more to them than a fun guy to hang out with, but … not THAT. WTF?! Lost his fan club and rent-a-family and now he wants his toys back.
Asshole.
So a lady gets friend zoned and it’s drama, a guy get’s friend zoned and he gets called obsessed and then the cops get called on him, and you know, he has to kill a few of them. Then he has to flee and change his identity, but he still cares enough to break into her house and smell her perfume and watch her sleep and somehow HE’s the bad guy?! Come one, take Red Pill already!
LOLsnortLOL
Have yo been reading my
diaryjournalmanifestoblog, C?And I have subscribed to your poorly xeroxed newsletter as well.
“Xeroxed”?!? You think I’m gonna let the USGOV and ChiComs sneak my writings???
Hell, naw, son! I’m like Steve Guttenberg up in here with a printing press!
Introduce him to this family.
Was expecting Manson Family.
Look like the dem debate stage.
Dibs on Tulsi!!
Going with stealth, eh? Good choice.
I didn’t expect to laugh as hard as I
wasdid.Seriously, though–hands off. 😉
Visual aid for ya.
https://i.imgflip.com/3dzd7g.jpg
“Stealth.”
Wellthen.
Yeah, I have no idea what that is. Tracheotomy maybe?
The way to a man’s heart is through the stoma.
Ewww. Seriously. Ewwww.
Weeeeelllll….
People o’ Walmart got you covered.
Hey Hayek, What ever happened with your Armed Government Worker party this morning?
There is literally no difference.
“Tatiana, is that you?”
I can’t tell if it’s real or a parody.
Judging by the friends of mine who follow this account and by one reply WAAAAAYYYYY down, it is, in fact, a parody account.
RUFKM??? OK – ejaculation vs. labor/delivery. I have a feeling most of the cis-shitlords here – and elsewhere – would say vive la difference!
And on that note I really am going to bed.
another photshop joke I already made years ago.
You are on a roll tonight. Were you around when I linked this?
I might have been around, but I didn’t see it before. LOL. Yeah, and people wonder why men are so adverse to injecting women with testosterone to make them ‘men’ we all know how that went when we were already drenched in testosterone. I don’t know why anyone who didn’t have to go through that would want to.
Titania? Yeah, that’s my immediate thought. Definite parody.
The real joke is how long it takes people to figure out if it’s parody or not.
It has to be.
Much as I would love to stay up with all you night owls, I gotta hit the hay. Maybe if any of you are still around when the early birds start showing up (6ish EDT for me) I’ll catch you then. Nighty night!
Everyone knows Central is the Only True Time Zone.
It is known
Man…gotta start showin’ up just when I’m wrapping things up at work.
/shit
You and your ‘work’. So not woke bruh. Get on the Yang Train!
Link is Yang’d
Womp womp
Was the Russians that done messed up that link!
America, the
BeautifulGrifterAnd he’s doing it now, paying people to vote for him; but Vox says that doesn’t matter.
No one to stop him?? What is this, a Starship video?
But seriously, Yang is paying people to vote for him, Hillary is calling everyone who doesn’t want to kill people Russian agents, a guy who honeymooned in the USSR is once again in the race for the democratic ticket, and a woman who faked being an indian is the other front runner; and somehow we’re supposed to buy Orange Man Bad…I hate Trump, but this is seriously his competition…
Also, nice avitar!
It is, isn’t it??
Why not, really? Everyone else in politics is getting bribed.
What is the step immediately beyond parody?
https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2019/10/21/hot-take-for-educators-refusing-the-white-gaze-might-look-like-accepting-late-work-from-students/
There sure are a shit-tonne of fragile whites responding to that.
That bald dude has a sagittal crest.
So you’re saying Klingons are real. Got it.
Of course they are, and they vote Republican, because they love war! So vote for the Democrats, who are supported by the Romulans, who love a different war!
Good thinking.
Oh, good, you got the joke. I thought you’d drag me into some stupid Babylon 5 shit, you fucking nerd.
https://youtu.be/wR7n4Gg-_ac
Have none of these people watched Schoolhouse Rock?
https://dailycaller.com/2019/10/21/rock-the-vote-electoral-college/
Even the displays will kill you.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/94-hospitalized-and-4-dead-from-disease-outbreak-at-hot-tub-display
Wish I could find Steve Martin’s old joke about that.
Mojeaux never responded to my music links about trains. *stomps feet* I’m going to bed.
Of course! Fine! Take your train (music) and go home, whydoncha?!?!
I am not a GnR fan, but that was a lovely bass line. Jethro Tull is i teresting.
There isn’t a Motley Crue song for every occasion. I’m doing my best.
Now I’m really going to sleep.
Rant: Never taking a vehicle for tire service there ever again.
So I was gonna change the rear brakes on the van. Such an easy job that should take 1hr or less I can’t justify paying someone else do it.
Well, it would be an easy job except, two of the lugnuts are stuck.
We had new tires put on earlier this year and I’m betting all of the lug nuts were put on with an impact rather than torqued, and at least one visibly looks cross threaded.
Spec is 95 lb/ft, and of the 8 I’ve removed all required well in excess of 200 lb/ft.
Thought about heating with a torch but I doubt the aluminum rims would like that.
So now I have two thoughts on how to do this.
Drill out two wheel studs so I can break them off and replace them. I’ve drilled out a stud before. It’s not fun.
If I could get to the studs from the back then maybe I could grind the head off and punch them through. That ought to be faster and easier than drilling them out, but it would be tight.
Sorta tempted to undo the four bolts that hold the rear bearing assembly on. Then I ought to have easy access to grind the head of the stud from the rear, but then that means removing the brake line entirely and bleeding the brakes.
You are 100x manlier than me.
If I were truly manly, I’d disconnect the caliper, undo the bearing assembly so I can work on it easily, and just bleed the brakes.
You could always just bleed the freak…
BTW–where is “there”?
Also, what Chafed said.
One of the local tire shops.
We actually don’t have any chain tire shops in town.
Bastards!
I blame the 1%! When I was a kid every man in the family had an impact set, now I can’t afford them! Well, it’s not that I can’t afford them, it’s more that I spend all of my money on other things. But I still blame other people! It’s all their fault!
::Quietly paints the set in Red Dog logo::
Umm, CPRM?? You oughta come see this….!
::Gets Sir Digby a Government Grant to spread his message of unification (and also siphon 10% off the top to buy Red Dog)::
We’re stronger when we grift together.
Do you not have an impact wrench?
This story keeps getting better
https://www.nraila.org/articles/20191021/veteran-criticizes-police-practices-gets-guns-and-firearm-license-seized-by-chief-of-police
so his remarks were about the cops not doing their job, they retaliated by taking his guns and refusing to return them. No issues there at all.
Have you seen his picture? He’s an old white dude, he didn’t need guns. It was for public welfare, that supersedes anything else in the so called ‘constitution’ that was likewise written by old old white dudes, to suppress black bodies.
It’s cuntes all the way down there. Well, other than the crossing guard.
I hope that waitress is now unemployed.
I really want to see these red-flag laws – if we’re going to have them – made to include punishment for those who make false claims like this. People who put the lives of others through a legal/bureaucratic nightmare and at risk of death by SWAT should have to face severe consequences for “saying something” when what they heard was flimsy at best. Make them think long and hard – maybe talk about it with someone who knows the person – before bringing down the iron fist of the law.
IANAL, but it seems as if such “informers” should at least be subject to civil liability. Might make ’em think twice instead of squealing “ERMAGERD!!!” and hitting 911 on speed dial.
https://www.wfmz.com/news/illegal-base-jumper-calls-police-after-cell-tower-mishap/article_1027f758-d0e5-53bb-b2ec-97c9d58661d6.html
Stupid is as stupid does….
Mornin’, Sean.
Mornin’
https://www.wfmz.com/news/wyoming-man-grows–pound-pumpkin-breaks-state-record/article_f58c83af-03ae-5330-bd41-ebace4f2eec6.html
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.
My mom hated Cheyenne so much, she joined the Army at the age of 34.
Mornin’, fellow Whovians!
Two not-quite-yet coherent thoughts: First, that’s one bigass pumpkin! Reminds me of a chapter in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Farmer Boy in which the title character grows a huge pumpkin by “feeding” it milk.
Second, TARDy, I’m both impressed by your mom’s enlistment at 34 and surprised that they took her. She must be badass.
::slurps coffee::
To think, some decade that show might finally come out of hiatus.
No rush, as far as I’m concerned, until the writing improves. I’d no beef with the new Chick Doctor – that actress was very good in Broadchurch. We stopped watching because the writing/plotlines were becoming insufferable. It was turning into Doctor Woke.
I think the only answer is to privatize the BBC. Issue one share to each license payer for every year they paid a TV license and declare them the owners. They paid for it. Then abolish the TV license and make the BBC have to survive on its merits.
Interesting idea. Could you see the same system working for PBS, or is it too dispersed with supporters pledging to individual local stations?
I’m not sure it would be so viable. The math for figuring out who gets how many shares would be given to who, and what do you do about the corporate sponsors? The license payer formula is easy to understand and difficult to game.
I mean, when I was young and dumber, I gave money to WCNY, does that get me shares in that station, or the network?
Also, I’m not sure PBS holds as many intellectual properties as the BBC does. It might not be worth saving. Just scrap it.
Can’t we just have a Master show? I could watch Michelle Gomez all day.
Wouldn’t work, Anthony Ainley’s dead.
Now THAT would be a great spinoff – certainly better than some they’ve tried. (What was the one set in the haunted high school? I think the premise was that it was the school where Clara had taught? That lasted about five minutes.)
I’d rather hoped they come come up with an excuse to have Chick Doctor and River Song meet up, though they’d tied that whole arc up quite nicely with Capaldi. Even so, would it have been awkward or….not…..?
I’ve only heard of one spin off that had more than one episode, and the Sara Jane Adventures were all right.
Still too much blood in caffeine stream.
Torchwood had its moments, but we never got into the habit of watching regularly. The late two-parter – Children of Earth? – was pretty intense. Capaldi was good in that one.
How dare you ruin a perfectly good memory block. That show does not exist. It does not exist!
Ummmm….sure! My bad – I must have dreamed it. Vivid nightmares, y’know… ::backs away slowly::
She was, right up until her heart gave out at the ripe old age of 57.
And, good morning.
May her memory be a blessing, good sir.
Damn, I’m sorry to hear that. How many years did she serve in the Army?
I think she finished about nine. She was medically retired because of atherosclerosis. It’s been a long while now. She actually passed on 9/11, in FLA.
I can’t even begin to imagine how horrible it must have been to be grieving with all the panic of 9/11 going on around you.
It was unreal for sure. I was actually on vacation in SC. I didn’t know until 3 days later.
Time for me to go finish getting ready for the day job. Gentlemen – I hope each of you has a day that goes according to your wishes. (I wouldn’t dream of telling you what kind of day to have!)
Well I’m at my annual “Pump Sunshine Up my Keister” conference. Yay, 8 hours of joy.
That’s a lot of pumping.