Guard Dog

Nah, there are always proxies. Many politicians retire far wealthier than the sum of all of their paychecks. Besides, don’t vex me with details while I’m dreaming of models and private islands!

Ammunition shortages as US gun sales soar so I have finally worked out the details of my plan for world domination. I switch my political affiliation to Democrat. Run for president and get elected. Then for the entirety of my first term make threatening comments about zero tolerance gun control, gun confiscation, police kicking down doors, etc. run for reelection promising to finally enact all of it in my second term. All the while Buying stock in Remington, American Eagle, Springfield Armory, and Sturm Ruger. Just before the election I sell all my stocks then take a short position on everything I just sold. Then withdraw from the election, disappear from public life and spend the rest of my days screwing models on the beach of my private island!

The regular enclosure they spend most of their time in is pretty good sized. But I do let them out to range around. But when they’re out and around I’m out there with them. I’ve been in a battle of wits against the coyotes to keep them out for years. Ended up building a roof over the enclosure. Just four removable wood frames with a field wire fence stretched over it. A sufficiently motivated bird of prey could probably get through it as long as they’re medium sized or smaller. But it hasn’t happened yet. But you’re not kidding though the mortality rate of baby chickens is pretty appalling. That’s why none of them get names until they’re at least six months old. There were seven eggs but two of them were duds.

On August 1, 1981 MTV went live. And it was awesome. I was a kid and we had just gotten a satellite dish and it was the greatest TV channel I’ve ever seen. Boy that didn’t last. Well anyway, happy birthday to MTV. I don’t know what the M even stands for anymore. It sure ain’t music. Mediocrity maybe. But hey, we will always have memories of the 80s.

Currently reading an old school detective novel Edit: i’ve had to stop myself from being overly critical and calling this clichéd. That’s a modernist perspective. This is one of the books that started all of the clichés.

Over the past few months two of my chickens have gone to the great barnyard in the sky. Natural causes I presume. I didn’t eat them even though that was kind of why I bought them. So that left me down to four. Duke and his three wives. So to replenish the number I let a clutch of eggs going to hatch. Two weeks ago I had five peeping yellow chicks. This morning is the first time I’ve seen them come out of the house following their mother around. They are extremely cute.

A lot of action on the trade deadline. A lot of action. But the West Coast intrigue in the National League is just delicious. The Padres all but had Max Scherzer in their pocket. Then the Dodgers swooped in and took not only him but Trey Turner too. If padres fans didn’t already hate the Dodgers (how could they not) they do now. But then the Giants said “hold my beer“ and go and get Chris Bryant. A legit slugger with another season of control. I understand the Padres are in on him too. San Diego ends up with the consolation prize. Jake Marisnick a second tier starter from Houston. It’s like San Diego was Charlie Brown and the Dodgers were Lucy. Oakland got quite a bit better over the last couple of days too. When it comes to competitive baseball though the American League East and the National League west is where it’s at. It’s going to be an exciting couple of months to close out the season. When the paint races are close every game counts

Statler the Bat I shared a video about him on the good news thread. Sad to see he passed.

Meanwhile in Washington DC

I didn’t know this when I saw it but The Postman was based off a novel from the “70s. I found it in the library and gave it a read. It wasn’t terrible. It was a hell of a lot better than the movie that bore it little resemblance.

Very small percentage of the population. But you would think providing non punitive protective custody would not be too great a burden. But I will be the first to admit I don’t know the first thing about the criminal justice or prison system don’t expect I ever will.

It’s probably not a bad idea to consider this. A trans inmate is going to have a bad time no matter which gender they are housed with. It’s worth considering setting up a facility where they can be housed separately. It does not have to be a separate prison rather just a secure wing of an existing one. I cannot imagine the inmate population of transgender‘s is going to be all that big considering they are such a small percentage of the general population. Of course there’s always the overcrowding problem. The solution to that would be to not send anybody to prison for non-violent offenses. But that’s a different argument.

I’d like to tell you guys a story if you will indulge me a moment. It ties into the last two posts and a lot of the other stuff I’ve been saying over the years. I grew up in a flyspeck little town called Orange Lake Florida. It was known for two things. The titular lake and a truckstop that everybody agreed serve the best fried chicken in the whole state at the time. I don’t know what the population was but if it was more than 1000 I would’ve been surprised. Well one of those thousand was an old man named Mr. Unold. As far as everyone in town knew mister. was his first name. Mr. Unold never left his house, and never said a word to anyone. He sat on the front porch of his house in his rocking chair all day long rocking back-and-forth and laughing. If people walked by he laughed at them. If no one walked by he laughed at nothing. All the kids thought he was crazy. In my later years I’ve come to realize that he was not crazy. He was actually pretty wise and had things figured out. You see the world is crazy. It’s a s—show. A dumpster fire we all just keep pouring gasoline in. Living in the world entails listening to people saying the most ridiculous and absurd things with a straight face and the complete expectation that you will take them seriously. Mr. Unold just stopped doing that. You can’t save the world and it doesn’t want you to anyway. The world likes being the hot mess it is. So all a man can do is sit back in his rocking chair and laugh while it burns. So if you guys ever come to my house and I’m sitting on my front porch in my rocking chair laughing no need to be concerned. I just figured things out.

A couple of years back the Georgia Pacific timber company pulled out of operations near real foot slough upstate. They sold off the land at auction. I got a piece of it at the bargain basement price of $480 per acre. But here’s the catch, there’s no utility or paved road access. No big deal I figured because I had other plans for it anyway. Well none of that trash worked out. now the guy that ended up with the biggest piece of it reached out to me about buying mine. We agreed on a price yesterday. Basically I’m going to get all the money I’ve put into it back but I’m not really making anything on it. Well this whole deal proves one thing for certain. I may dabble in real estate but when it comes to buying and selling dirt I am no Donald Bren.

Picard gets 3 more seasons The mediocrity will continue. Resistance is futile.

See if this rings a bell for anyone. I remember another version of that story except the memory place not only sold memories they bought them too. If you sold the memory of an event it was gone from your head. A guy in money trouble sold a bunch of his favorite memories and then couldn’t get them back. I don’t remember if that was a story or a TV episode. It might’ve been a twilight zone episode but I’m just not sure.

Wow I did not know the 1959 Charlton Heston version was a remake! I stand corrected. Sorry Amentep I thought you were talking about the 2016 one.

Casino Royale yes. Although the remake was a different kind of movie. Ben Hur? No way! That’s poopy talk! Edit Yes , the Departed is another good one. Although like Gromnir said I didn’t even know it WAS a remake until some time after seeing it.

I can only come up with one remake off the top of my head that was not a complete disappointment. The Cohen Brothers remake of True Grit.

oh wow. That just sucks.

I finally got around to watching the remake of Total Recall. The plot was nonsensical. It had none of the kitsch of the Arnold Schwarzenegger version. And it also bore little resemblance to the PKD short story. Although that’s probably for the best. But it wasn’t a terrible thing to watch. Plus it had Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel in it. And they actually had a fight scene together. That was worth the time spent by itself LOL. but I did spot two call backs to the original movie and got a chuckle out of each.

Nothing at all. If you’ve got to do it you’ve got to do it. Before I got vaccinated I put the damn thing on whenever I went in the store. After I got my second shot I stopped wearing it. So now they’re suggesting we put them on again. Well my interaction with the other humans is really minimal these days. The Kroger in town has started grocery delivery which is freaking awesome. Tractor supply will do curbside pick up, order online and you don’t even have to go in. Those are about the only two brick and mortar stores I ever visit. The only time I’ve even left my house this month was to go cut the grass on my vacant lots. I was trying to be humorous. It wasn’t a comment so much on having to put the mask back on as it was not having anywhere to wear it. Edit: The post office. That is the one building I do have to go in two or three times a week. There’s no mail delivery where I live. So I have a PO Box in town. So yes when I go pick up my mail I’ll put the mask back on then. The vets office too. But not so regular.