The Crazy Story

I wrote this essay in late 2015.  I refreshed it, and republished today.

This morning, I noted there's this news item out of New York City.  Being from Bama, I have this appreciation of New York City.

The City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is going to release a report where they indicate via research and polling efforts.....they've determined that one out of five New York City folks....are mentally "crazy", deranged, having psychological disorders, dippy, batty, moonstruck, or flaky.

So you do the math.....8.4 million folks living there, and you come to a minimum of 1.5 million who've got an issue.

The thing that bothers me about this is that New York is trying it's best to outdo Alabama for "crazies".  Everyone knows.....that Alabama has more crazies than any other state.  My humble guess is that for each three adults.....we maintain a 33-percent average....meaning one in three Alabama folks are plain crazy.

My brother would cite personal evidence from attending college in the state, conversations with co-workers, and noting personal observations from the local region......agreeing that it's pretty near a 33-percent craziness level.

The thing is about Alabama craziness......we have different categories.

We have NCAA-crazy....where 40,000 state residents are willing to break into a fist-fight if you insult their team or their level of play from last weekend's game.

We have satan-crazy....where 16,000 people are charged up on religion and believe satan might be a living character and possible the guy in front of them at the gas station.

We have engineer-crazy.....where a guy has a garage lab set up and spending $20,000 a year to develop a watermelon cannon that would fire rapid shots and up to six miles.

We have Republican-crazy.....where you keep saying Republican moral stuff, but cheat on the wife daily, have a same-sex liaison situation, gamble constantly, drink bourbon throughout the day, use meth, and voted for President Obama twice.

We have Democrat-crazy.....where you talk like a Democrat twenty hours out of the day, but you tend to freak people out by quoting Reagan constantly, and support the NRA.

We have meth-crazy.....where you do enough meth to marry some gal over the weekend but you can't remember who was or what she looked like.

We have people-who-are-touched-crazy.....who claim they worked for the CIA, knew Castro, and flew fighter jets in Vietnam.

We have other-people-who-are-touched-crazy....who say they saw Jesus over the weekend, and he convinced them to have a second wife, and burn down the house.

Generally, we don't say much when in the company of such crazies.....we try to respect them and give them as much freedom as possible.  They might be neighbors, friends, relatives, or fellow-church-members.  They might be psycho.....but friendly-psycho.

So, when you read this news item and get all worried about that many crazy folks in New York City....don't worry, the best they can do is number two, and Bama will forever have a majority of crazies around.  This is not a case where some fraudulent NCAA bowl committee can rearrange things and bypass us as number one.

Are People More Stupid Than They Used to Be?

Typically, this is a question that you'd ask at a Alabama bar-b-q and to be thrown out to several individuals who claim some rural-intellectual status.  Some will admit they attended some state university for six months before they discovered the instructor was actually a third-cousin of Einstein (so they claim).  Some might even say speak up that they know sixty different math equations that relate to some electrical charge but then admit they don't know much about some Chaucer-guy from English literature or how the Sun radiates the Earth.  And a handful through farming will claim enough common sense to make up for four Einstein-guys and their limitations.

There is some basic belief by brilliant people and journalists that we've surged ahead over the past fifty years and have lots of smart people around today.

Generally, ever since the mid 1980s....I've gone with the philosophy that being able to assemble information, determine values from the information, prioritize, and come to a basic summary which explains the best choice.....is the key point where you can grin and admit you are more smart than stupid.

The rest of this book-smart stuff?  Worthless.

I've sat through sixty odd university-related classes via University of Maryland, Louisiana Tech, two community colleges, and the Air Force.  I came to realize after reading a fairly deep summary of Greek tutors from over two thousand years ago....that education alone doesn't really do much.  You need to have some ability take that information and make use of it or rationalize the big picture.

In this way, my answer is that most people probably are more stupid today....than what existed decades ago.  Oh, they may have some certificate and claim to have finished such-and-such university....but beyond that....there's no comprehension.

The brighter crowd?  The engineer brings in the formulas and relates them to his work.  The scientist with an analytical view will be able to gauge what he sees and bring some solution to a problem.  The analyst with some respect for questions will ask enough until there's nothing left in front of him except an answer.

We live in a stimulating age....where kids are hauled off from high school to a university....pay down $10,000 to $30,000 a year and get some status in life of being smarter.  So far, no one much goes to challenge that behavior and we've developed this to a national stage....where kids graduate from such-and-such school....must be offered $80,000 a year for a master's degree but their measurement in wit or brightness would equal some Chinese seventh-grader.  It's bad enough now that we have headhunters, who only specialize in people in this position....helping to find idiots in companies, who will hire new fresh idiots out of graduate school.

The eventuality?  We probably will eventually produce enough stupid people to tell us that we need more smart people, but can't really identify the ways from which you'd produce such people.  That's when you know we've gotten pretty screwed up.

An Unshockable Nation

If you've ever been to a real urban atmosphere....like New York City or Washington....you end up on the subway.  It's a curious place where you tend to notice the weird characters, unusual operating procedures, and the inspiring or freaky advertisements.

This week, the New York subway folks were asked to evaluate and hopefully accept some women's underwear advertisements from Thinx.

Well, the evaluation team looked over the poster and the words....then came back to the company to say that it was 'inappropriate' and 'suggestive'.  In other words.....maybe if you tone it down a notch....we might accept it for putting on the interior of subway cars as hundreds of thousands of New York City gals travel each day.

I looked at the ad myself, and maybe ten years ago.....I would have agreed on the 'inappropriate' nature.  Today, I don't see a big deal.  Some gal in some some cotton underwear leaning back on a handmade Mennonite-made chair?  Nothing much to get sweaty about....if you ask me.

Now, I agree....if this were being displayed in Red Bay, Alabama or Monck's Corner, SC....in some local catfish restaurant or in some local newspaper.....well, it might disturb some folks.  But we are talking about New York City where you just can't shock folks anymore.

It's a curious trend about society today.....we are becoming unshockable.  This Jenner guy flipping over to a lady-status?  After about a week, it wasn't much of a shock anymore.  This basketball player in Nevada who flipped out and almost died on herbal Viagra while paying $75,000 for a three-day hooker episode and asking for lady-guy hooker?  It didn't take more than forty-eight hours for us all to accept the story and say it doesn't freak us out (well, unless you were a die-hard Baptist).  Joe Biden saying he won't run for President?  That took eight minutes for us to accept.

Some people will say that it's a recent trend.  I would disagree.  You can go back to the 1920s and look at what happened to society after WW I and find literally hundreds of revolutions going on within the American society and our shock levels were being tested on a weekly basis.

These underwear guys?  I'm guessing they will go back and use the same picture but some different wording and get some acceptance to run the ad on the subway.  After a week......no one much will say anything because it's just not that much of a shock anymore.  Frankly, if you were paying more attention to the attire or lack of attire of the New York passengers....you'd be entertained to a higher level (my humble opinion).

Every American ought to pack up a bag and go to New York City once in their life.  I'm not talking about a long trip....just five days.  After that, your unshockable values will double and nothing will really bother you much.

End of Mythbusters

I came to have this curious interest in 2010....upon arriving in DC and having cable TV.....of the TV show "Mythbusters".  It appeared on the Discovery Channel and I came to appreciate the way that the two 'mad-scientists' would take some conceived notion of the public or science, and then explain it in garage-like lab.

Today, it's been announced that after being on the air for fourteen years.....Mythbusters is coming to an end.  It'll end in 2016.

The two guys....Savage and Hyneman....impressed me with the way that you could convey a massive amount of science into bit-sized pieces....for a mortal with no real understanding of science....helping us get into the topic and actually enjoy the rich nature of science.

Presently, there are roughly 240-odd episodes and if I were a high-school science teacher....I'd put one of the episodes up each week for entertaining the students.

Around the end of 2011....they did an episode where they discussed the idea of a motorcycle being more environmentally friendly than a car.  It's the kind of topic that four guys at a water cooler would chat about for hours and hours....debating the finer science principals of motors.  The final conclusion of the team?  Car evolution on emissions has progressed faster than motorcycle evolution, and you can't make the motorcycle cleaner, with the present set of mechanical standards.  A shocker to most guys, but it ends the water cooler debate....at least until a new round of motorcycle developments occur.

My humble guess is that we will go through a five-year period without Mythbusters, and then be thrilled to discover that a new show will be fielded and we get more science in a nice tidy package for public consumption.

The VW Thirty

There are dozens of things I learned from my twenty-two years in the Air Force.  One of those things was.....when something really bad or crappy occurs.....the fewer that know about it....means the lesser chance that some punishment or disciplinary action will come out of the event.

If it's just an event with three people who know what happened, then it's almost a zero-percent chance that trouble will come out of the mess.

Once you get to a dozen people who know what happened, it's almost a fifty-fifty shot that trouble will come out of the screw-up or event.

Once you get past twenty people....well, you might as well prepare yourself for some long campaign where some investigation episode will occur.....statements will be taken.....some base legal guy will be in the mix.....and some idiot will lose a stripe or owe the government for setting some bunk mattress on fire, or getting stupid drunk at the NCO club, or expanding a fire extinguisher in the barracks hallway.

Today, here in Germany, via the news folks.....we kinda learned that thirty-odd managers at Volkswagen were inside of the diesel engine 'fix'.

Thirty guys knew and helped in some fashion to make the software 'fix' work as it did.

No one sat there and asked stupid questions about how this would relate to destroying the company if ever found out.  No one suggested ethical boundaries.  No one could find any way to do the right thing.

Jail-time for the thirty?  No, I have my doubts that they can find any law that works for this case.

If I were a stock-holder.....I'd be demanding all thirty be fired immediately.  If they aren't fired within seven days.....I'd go ahead and suggest the CEO himself needs to be let go.

No one says the age mix, or educational background of the thirty.  It might be interesting to know if they are all engineers, or a mix of computer geeks and management guys.  Women in the group?  Unknown.

Under the Air Force umbrella....the sad thing is that as some event was unfolded.....other people usually got dragged in who had almost no knowledge of the event and given twenty-odd questions over their participation or lack of participation.  All of this leads to people being frustrated with the guilty parties and makes a four-star event into a five-star event.  It's probably the same that will occur with the VW people.

Playboy Change

It was rather shocking news to come out yesterday.....Playboy will end the centerfold and 'natural' displays in the near future.

It's hard to say who still reads Playboy.  The last time I looked.....you could get a year's subscription for roughly twenty bucks.

Throughout my Air Force barracks period (78-84), probably five-percent of the guys bought monthly copies of it.  What most would say is that they had interesting articles and gave a fair amount of advice on men's fashion and stereo equipment.  It was a different crowd of readers when compared to the Hustler folks.

My humble guess is that they finally interviewed some guys and discovered that almost no one said anything much about the centerfold ladies or the pictures in the magazine.  These are the guys who wanted to just resemble a playboy himself and dress or act that way.

Oddly, by taking this route.....they might actually attract more attention and become some type of magazine that teenage guys would pick up and read.

Did the centerfold attraction ever attract anyone?  I have my doubts.  All of the gals who appeared in Playboy were the type that were beyond ninety-percent of the guys out there.  They'd always list their hobbies as swimming, walks on the beach, star-gazing, and resort travel.  You never had realistic women who noted their hobbies of building fishing lures, mowing lawns, demolition derby, flea market sales, or making homemade jam.  If you asked most guys, they always thought the wordy talk in Playboy by each model was all fraudulent in nature.

What does this change really say?  Maybe Playboy never needed the models or the centerfolds to sell their magazine.  And that would be a real shocker.

Why US Businesses Can't Deal With Iran

Back around 2012....while the President still had some leverage with Congress (a Democratic Senate)....they pursued the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act.

It's not something that people generally remember or read....but the significance of the congressionally passed act is that Iran can only removed from the State Department’s list of terror sponsors, if the President certifies they've permanently ceased the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.

Oddly, in public....Iran has said that it just won't stop supporting terror operations and they won't really stop their effort to build nuclear weapons.  You can't certify much without looking awful stupid.

Naturally, you'd stand there and ask.....how exactly does this President's recent treaty with Iran now work?  The answer?  It won't work.

If the President had done what was a true-treaty and the Senate voted upon it the normal way to approve it.....then no one would say much.  But it was not developed as a treaty, and since they didn't approve it.....it's not a treaty.

How things move ahead?

Unless the House and Senate go and undo this law passed in 2012....it stands.  No American business can do business with Iran because of the 2012 law.  Now that the President has done everything to take down the US and EU-supported episode.....businesses could start up trade and make money off Iran.  Well....all businesses other than US businesses.

I'm guessing that the French, the Germans, and the British all knew about the 2012 law and were grinning as the President hyped up his great treaty.  They can walk in and sign business agreements and make billions.  The US?  If a single company signs a contract....any idiot could drag them into court....even a state court, and sue them for violation of the 2012 law.

Fixing this?  Well....you could executive-action this by Presidential authority but Congress made the law and typically a President can't toss such a law out.  He might pretend the law doesn't exist and order the Attorney General not to prosecute anyone, but that won't work in a civil court if someone chose to punish a company for violation of the 2012 law.

So in some ways....as much as the President and his team thought they were really on top of things.....they really screwed up badly.  Other than getting Congress to dump the 2012 law....there's no way out.  And that won't happen with this President, this House, and this Senate.

The Bogus Nazi Story

After this community college shooting in Oregon.....I watched for the hundredth time.....another big mention over the Nazi effort for gun control and how they disarmed the general public in Germany.  Frankly, I'm tired of the bogus story and how no historians ever stand up to correct the story.  The pro-gun guys always like to slam down the anti-gun guys by linking the Nazis to controlling guns.  It's all bogus.

At the closure of WW I.....defeat occurred and German troops in mass droves...packed and went home.  They went by rail, by horse and wagon, or just walked home.  There was no real thought to the soldier and his weapons.  So, virtually all of the German army participants walked home with their guns.

As the defeat had transformed the nation into a very weak democratic structure (no Kaiser).....over the next two or three years, there's one continual worry or threat.  Everyone views Russia and they now sit in Germany to worry about communist revolution coming to the fatherland.  Naturally, all these troops sitting back in their hometown.....with guns....is a big issue.

So, there's one massive push to establish gun control in Germany in the early 1920s (a dozen years before Hitler and the Nazis).

Basically, while no numbers or real statistics exist.....the general belief by those who've reviewed the period....is that this first original effort to control guns in Germany was a failure.

Roughly six years go by and the same democratic structure....still unaffected by Hitler or the Nazis....come back for a second chance to try more gun control because there's still massive fear of a communist revolution.  This episode might have been considered mildly effective at best.

So as 1932 rolls around and there's still this massive fear from the general public and the political apparatus of Germany.....the Nationalist Socialists are brought into power (37-percent of the vote, if you were curious.....meaning that almost 63-percent voted against the party).

The Nazis did enact one or two measures that are gun-control situations....mostly to require gunsmiths to keep records of repair and serial numbers of the guns inspected or fixed.  They didn't have to do much because the Democratic apparatus had already put major measures into effect.

If you stood back and looked at matters.....Germans feared the most out of the communist revolution coming and how guns might play a role in a successful revolution.  Americans might agree.....runs do add to the success rate of a revolution.....if in the hands of the 'good'.  This might bring up a totally separate topic for discussion.....but it's the simple truth of the matter.

The Vegetarian Story

There was this British survey of vegetarians, and a shocker.

What they generally say is that around one-third of British vegetarians admit that when they get drunk (at the pub or at home).....they eat meat.

You can imagine the shock as Nigel wakes up with a hangover in his living room.  He's a confirmed vegetarian....for a decade or more.  He had a few drinks too many last night.  He doesn't remember much after the pub.  And there on the floor of the apartment.....is this big pizza box.....there's two slices left.....and it's loaded with pork, beef, and chicken.  Nigel looks at the remains and realizes that he consumed a large pizza last night.....with meat products.

After a while, Nigel will start to get depressed and question himself.  This was the great 'walk' of his life.....his theme.....his quest to be different and pure.  He and the crowd that he hung around.....were dedicated vegetarians.  He starts to question his culture and diet.

Nigel will call his friend Monty and confess what he did.  Monty.....ever the stoic vegetarian listens to the story.  With silence and a long pause after Nigel has completed his story.....Monty confesses that he too.....has failed at pure vegetarianism.  He gets drunk two or three times a week and ends up with McDonalds burger wrappers on the floor the next morning.....maybe five or six wrappers.  Together, they weep over their confessions.

It becomes a burden that neither can really handle.....so they meet that evening at a local pub and talk over their pains and suffering....while sipping a stout ale.  Three hours will pass and the two vegetarians have consumed a fair amount of ale, and are fairly drunk.  They wobble out....fall down a couple of times....and make their way to the local pizza shop where they order the meat-lovers XXL pizza.  This becomes a routine......week after week....every Friday night....the two vegetarians gather, confess their sins, consume a vast amount of ale, and eat a meat-lovers pizza.

Across all of the UK, it's the same story.  Across Europe, it's the same story.  Across the US, it's probably the same story.

Alcohol.....is hindering society from being pure vegetarian.   Who would have guessed?

Rule of the Grammar Queens

There's this company.....Grammarly....which has a unique business angle.  They say or claim that they (as a private company) are the world's authority and leading automated proofreader.

In essence, they are a grammar-checker company, and someone (hard to imagine it not being English literature freaks or CEO).....to check the grammar of folks across the spectrum.

So, they say they've covered the 19 folks running for President and found that enthusiasts for Republicans make more grammatical screw-ups than enthusiasts for Democrats. Republican enthusiasts also use fewer unique words.....a key method that tells stories over your 'intelligence'.  And finally, there is this claim that Trump enthusiasts are the worst of the worst on grammar usage.

It's hard to imagine that 'grammar queens' have turned a business idea like this into something that actually pays a profit.

The idea that someone walks around and notes grammar usage of folks?  I've been around a number of folks who carried a listing of a thousand words to always throw into evaluations.....sparking them a bit and making a guy look 'special'.  After a while, I came to realize.....like a lot of Air Force people....that the words on an evaluation were pretty bogus and made the guy look often fabricated or phony.

What Grammar issues for the Hillary folks?  Well....they didn't say.  It might have been interesting to hear what the Obama grammar situation is for his folks, or if Al Gore enthusiasts were 'rocket-scientists'.   But they left that out of the whole story.

I'm guessing if you brought up this type of measurement with George Washington.....he probably would have started laughing, and noted the bulk of American residents were barely able to read and you'd best not worrying them over their position in life or their political status, or their usage of pseudo verbiage to attract attention.

Robbery in the Neighborhood

We had an unusual robbery in my region (here in Germany) over the weekend.  A grocery got robbed.....after hours.

If you've never been to Germany.....most buildings have a tile roof....not just houses, but most stores and regular buildings.  Tile roofs are an odd factor in construction.

Years ago....for twenty-odd minutes one afternoon....I stood and watched this crew put up a tile roof.  One guy on the ground would pile tiles on an escalator-like device and it'd go up to the roof and deliver the loose tiles to two big strong and husky guys.  The two guys would walk across the roof and simply pop the ceramic tiles into place.  No nails.  No glue.  No tar.  Just popping them onto a wood plank, and putting another tile on top of that.  A regular roof deal probably wouldn't take more than six hours for two guys to throw up into place.

So, we have this grocery in the nearby town.....four miles away....with a tile roof.

The break-in guy figured out that once you get on a roof.....you just slide your hand under a tile, and you can remove it.  Once he removes a dozen tiles and there's this opening. He slides in....gets past the false ceiling, and he can rob the place easily.

Cops won't say how much, but you can figure that he carried out booze, smokes and maybe some cash.

Here's the thing.....there's almost no way for the grocery guys to figure some protection against another robbery like this.  You could throw up sensors......but for a store like this?  You'd have to figure $20,000 spent on the sensors.  A security guard?  Well....for seven nights a week.....that's a cost item.  Leave a dog in the place?  Sanitation requirements would fall into play.

It'll be curious if this gets repeated several times and it's a gang with one smart roofer in the mix.

9-11 Observation

I sat and watched a video interview deal that a student team did on George Mason University (a significant university in Virginia).  The topic?  They walked around the university and asked dozens of college students why the US was attacked on 9-11.

The typical answer?  Most students said they didn't know the reason which triggered 9-11.  A handful commented that it was George Bush's fault, but they rendered a one-star explanation.  They then asked the students if there should be classes to talk more on 9-11....which almost all of them agreed that would be good thing.

So, the video in the end points out.....these were all people who were around age four when 9-11 occurred.  Their knowledge level is non-existent....of an event which occurred less than twenty years ago.

The blame toward Bush?  You could have a laugh over the answer given.  The same guy would give similar answers over the banking crisis, the housing market collapse, and various oil tanker accidents....in my humble opinion.  A smart guy in the background ought to quickly jump up and note that Bush was responsible for the Nazis coming to power, the riots in Detroit in the late 1960s, the trigger to causing the Vietnam War, and helped to send the iceberg into the path of the Titanic.

"Person of Interest"

Around the Christmas holidays of 2011, I had to do a trans-Atlantic flight, which means eight or nine hours in a cramped plane and the only entertainment is the video offering.  I sat and saw some five episode deal of a new CBS show....Person of Interest.  After viewing the original show, and the next four episodes....I had an interest in it.  For the remainder of the 2011 season, I probably watched a total of a dozen episodes.  After that, I just didn't have time to view it.

This past six weeks....I've been using Netflix and caught up with all the episodes of the first three seasons.  A fourth season was done for last year, and CBS has agreed to produce roughly a dozen episodes for what they believe is the final year.

After watching the sixty-six-odd episodes....I'm at a point where I'm keenly into the series.  On several levels....they've screwed up and accidentally produced a five-star series loaded with mistakes.  Viewership isn't where it should be and CBS thinks they are doing a good thing to let the series wrap up the ending.  There's talk that Netflix or Amazon might be in the background.....ready to pick up the series and run it for a season or two.  Maybe if huge numbers come up for Person of Interest over the final dozen episodes.....CBS might wake up and carry it for another season or two.

The big screw-ups?

1.  The name doesn't work.  It should have been "Man and Machine" or "Man in a Suit".  Person of Interest has zero appeal.

2.  The use of music within the video?  For the first season, they marginally did a good job on this.  For a couple of season two episodes....they did a five-star job and the rest fell between a two-star and four-star.  They should have hired some smart guys to gear music to the scenes.

3.  A lot of this storyline is about Artificial Intelligence (A-I).  For a large segment of the audience....they needed a real introduction to the science.  I think somewhere in the middle of season two, they woke up and did some explanations but they wasted tons of opportunities.

One of the big problems with the series is that you have to watch each single episode because they are laying down bits and pieces of secondary stories.   If you missed two or three episodes from season one, and two episodes from season two.....you'd be in hurt-status for grasping season three.

So, I'm kinda hoping that the series survives the short season, and someone picks it up.

Stonehenge II?

If you drive for roughly two hours west of London.....you will eventually reach Durrington....a small town with only one significant feature....Stonehenge.

I made the trip twenty-odd years ago.  You come over the top of some hill....and you look down to the right of the road, on a very low-grade slope, and you can see the stone monument off in the distance.  But you typically think of....at least in my case.....it's all a big cow-field.  Just open farm land with grass growing.

My little group spent about 90 minutes at Stonehenge.....walking the circle.  Once you've been there....you realize there's no reason much to return.

Well, this week....some researchers noted that they've found more to the whole Stonehenge thing.....except a much bigger site.

Around two miles from the current site....is this mostly buried site, with around ninety big stones (all buried, of course). They note the depth of the stones to be at least three feet under surface.

So, there are some basic facts, and then a lot of mystery.

They calculate that this was Stonehenge II (to have occurred after the original smaller episode).  They also calculate that this all occurred around 4,500 years ago (2500BC).  They also calculate that some of the buried stones are fifteen feet tall.

Purpose?  Unknown.

What folks have come to say is that Stonehenge I (the smaller site) was developed as a mystic ritual site and people were told far and wide that if you made a walk (like the Catholic Saint James Way from the center of Europe to the far west end of Portugal)....that some higher power would help in your life, cure ills, bring good luck, and and lift your outcome in life.

It's believed that a large assortment of people in Europe would find their way to Stonehenge.....bringing sick relatives with them, and believed that the mystic charm of the site would do something.

Why was Stonehenge II (the new site) buried?  No one is sure if it was buried intentionally (three feet of dirt is a lot).  There's no flood area there, and there's no possibility of landslides to disrupt site.  There's no possibility of a volcano being involved (as in Crete's case).  So you are left with the idea that some guys put a lot of effort into burying the site.

I would take a humble guess that some event occurred....of a pretty harsh and negative nature.  Enough people were standing there and believed that the Stonehenge II site was 'cursed', and they decided that it was best to bury it and never walk those grounds again.  A disease?  A plague?  Who knows?  The fact that thousands made the journey from Europe to Stonehenge I....meant hundreds probably had a disease and passed it along via the trail to Stonehenge. It was only a period of time before a large segment of visitors would arrive and be seriously ill while visiting the original site.

So, I'd suggest to the research guys.....broaden the search pattern slightly and look for a burial ground within a couple of miles of the second and newer site.  Once you find a large assortment of burials....look for clues.

The Hillary Oath?

A journalist (Salena Zito of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review) showed up at the Hillary Clinton speech in Cleveland.....but to be given access to the event....she had to sign a loyalty oath (as were the hundreds of others who wanted entry).

This oath?

Well....it's an odd deal.  You just say that you are committed to Hillary....offer up some help like a backyard bar-b-q or coffee meeting with other concerned Hillary folks, and then hand this into the team that runs her campaign.

Might someone lie on the loyalty oath?  Well......yeah.  That's one of the dozen-odd problems with such oaths.

You can always dump your loyalty.....in fact, from day to day or hour to hour.

A comical political theme?  Well, if you get desperate enough....you might turn to the idea of a oath.

Wise Words from a Dentist

Some journalist did an interview with the Cecil-the-Lion killer-dentist.  At the end of the conversation....the dentist kinda admitted that if he'd known the lion had a name and was noteworthy.....he never would have killed the lion.

Being from Alabama, I took a moment to ponder upon his wise words.

Generally, you learn a thousand and one things as you grow up on a farm.  Around lesson number 644....there's this important bit of wisdom....never name any animal on the farm that you might have to sell or butcher one day.

Things get painfully difficult when you've named some goat "Marvin" and you realize he's up next as the 'stew-goat'.

So, it occurs to me....the way ahead in Africa or anyplace for that matter.....to prevent animals getting shot or killed....is to name them.  If you got sixteen-thousand lions in Africa.....they each need a name. If you have forty-five-thousand elephants....they each need a name.

Some ought to get royal-sounding names....like Prince Albert or King Micky.  Some could get fictional names like Atticus Finch, T.S. Garp, or James Bond.  Some could be named after sports figures like Babe Ruth or Micky Mantle.

You would ID tag each animal and let folks know the status of Doctor Zhivago (the Rhino).

Course, as quickly as you create a fad like this.....some anti-name-the-animals crowd would start up, and prefer that we only use numbers.

Yeah, if you pay attention....occasionally, you will get a bit of wisdom....it's just that you have to think about how to use that wisdom and not be real stupid.

The Two-Percent Alabama Folks

I noticed the Dothan Eagle.....yeah, I even read their newspaper.....had an interesting article up this week.  Journalists in Bama are always looking for a religious angle to something....for the weekend edition and it hints of some religious theme which folks in Bama enjoy. So Matt Elofson (normally the crime reporter of the Eagle)....wrote up this analytical piece.

The story relates to Gallup, who did up a poll nationally....state-by-state....on folks who attend church.  It's an odd question and they probably just want to show that the traditions of the nation are evolving.  The slant on the article was to tell some story about the society around us and their church-going habits.

So, I went back to Gallup and looked up the situation for the state of Alabama.....46 percent of residents say they attend church weekly.  Around 25 percent of folks said they go near weekly or at least once a month.  In the category of seldom or never....27 percent of folks held up their hand.

Now, at this point....you'd add up the numbers and say we are at 98 percent. And then you look at the choices and ask what's left.

Well.....two-percent of folks said they didn't know.

Now, you can debate this and talk about it for hours and hours.....but why would two-percent of Alabama folks just say.....they don't know?

Well....some folks don't keep calendars up on the wall and track anything much other than the NCAA football season.

Some folks don't track things like this because they've got more important things....like hunting season, tornado season, or wet-dry voting episodes.

Some folks would prefer not to answer a loaded question like this...in fear that some Baptist minister will jump out of the bushes and launch into a sixty-minute discussion over Moses and his woes in life.

Some folks will say that they drink too much and they might have been there at church last week but they were drinking a bit and just don't remember much of anything.

Some folks will say that they are taking a fair amount of pain-killer and weed, and just don't remember things clearly.

Some folks will question the guy asking the question, and if they work for the federal government....then simply provide this as a 'non-answer'.

My brother would probably respond that he would have been to church....but that dang fence got busted again by his playful cattle, or the barn roof required mending, or that Sunday morning was the only dry spell to cut hay, or that some neighbor stopped by on Sunday morning to ask thirty-six questions on the method of operation for a 1968 Ford Model 14-71 hay-bailer.  Oddly, these events occur not only fifty-two Sundays out of the year.....but 365 days out of the year.

Oddly, the two-percent crowd aren't that worried about weekly church attendance, or the condition of pews at the local church, or if there's a new interpretation of Revelations, or if the new minister hired up at the church is an authentic Republican or a fake Republican.

The two-percent crowd doesn't want to get anyone upset or get anyone frustrated.  So when you see the question pop up and some local guy wants to discuss the numbers because he's worried about folks.....well, just reassure him.....the two-percent crowd are holding together the rest of the state....under sometimes dire circumstances.

The Carbon-Dating Question

Some guy was digging around a library collection in England, and came to a page or two which weren't part of the original book.  Inserted pages.

The book in Question....the Koran.

After a while, the people with the collection had this curious nature and had a carbon-dating done on the inserted pages.

It's an odd thing.....the inserted pages were from the period of 568 AD to 632 AD.

Basically, this opened up a can of worms with the Islamic community.

You see....Muhammad didn't even get born until 570 AD.  He was in early thirties when he finally got around to organizing his church group, and the document in question....didn't really come together until a decade later.

Some people now have this odd suggestion about how the inserted pages and carbon-dating fit together.  The idea is that the Koran existed prior to Muhammad and prior to the formation of Islam.  If true (you have to emphasize IF in this case), then Islam is a copy of another religion, which puts the whole thing into a massive discussion stage.

Few non-believers have an understanding of Islam in the historical sense or Muhammad's youth.

Muhammad hung out in his youth with his uncle, who was a regional trader.  One of the great things about the trading situation.....was that you got to travel and meet different people.....along with different religions.

In Saudi Arabia at the time.....there were roughly three-hundred-plus religions.  People were creating religions left and right.  Muhammad took to reviewing various religions and had a curious nature with them.  After the Uncle died and stability kinda fell apart.....Muhammad's effort to create Islam went into overdrive.

The odds of a religion existing at the time....before Islam.....and using the Koran?  There's not much proof.....but a lot of things have been purged over the years and you can't be sure of anything.  I'm guessing that the Islamic crowd is a bit frustrated that this came out, and there's going to be some effort to downgrade the carbon-dating story.  But it puts some people into a different prospective.  If you could dig up a dozen-odd Koran items.....all dating prior 570 AD....it'd set the stage for a confrontation.  Questions would get asked and the legit nature of Muhammad would be called into question.

When Your Convictions are a Problem

I sat and watched for the last couple of days this epic battle between some county clerk in Kentucky and the court system.  The county clerk says she's got religious empowerment, and she just can't issue marriage licenses to gay couples.  The court system, via a US federal judge, has issued out the ruling that there's no choice in the matter, and demands she come to court.

Personally, I wouldn't normally care much for the story or the events unfolding....but there's this odd factor which bothers me.

You see...when you go and do some public service job...whether elected or hired....your religious background, tendencies, and interpretation of some Biblical factor....makes your service to the public a question mark.

I could walk in and present myself as a heavy drinker or a guy who has relations with dozens of women monthly, and you as the public servant of whatever function you serve.....might decide that your holy-attitude  needs to invoke rule X, Y or Z....thus denying me service.  You see, it's not just a gay thing or such.....you could invoke any interpretation and just say these verses are enough to deny service.

If there were an alternate deal.....like I wanted a barber to cut my hair but he decides that my big hooter mermaid tattoo situation offends him, well, it's not all bad because I can find another barber in ten minutes.

If I walked into a Burger King and they wanted to deny me a sausage and biscuit because I wore flip-flops, well, I could go down the street and find a McDonalds operation who doesn't care about my flip-flop situation and serve up a sausage and biscuit.

In the case of the county clerk....where license are issued via one particular person for the whole county, there's a problem for me to go and find another clerk in the same county.

In this case, this gal's religious convictions are such....that she might want to find another line of work.

In our modern world, there are hundreds....maybe even thousands....of moral decisions made and it reflects upon character.  For a heavily defined religious person....there's probably a minimum of two-hundred 'flaws' where you might be on the no-go or unacceptable list.  In the world of capitalism and commerce, it doesn't matter much....there's always an alternate place for service.  But when there's NO alternate deal.....your public service situation is called into question. This gal has a profession where she can't perform at the level required.  My humble guess is that the federal judge will offer one chance to grasp the big-picture, and she won't understand that.....he'll ever remove her from position, or put her into some home-arrest deal until she cooperates.

The Seven Things I Learned from Hurricane Katrina

Ten years ago, this past week, Hurricane Katrina came and passed through New Orleans.  I came to note seven observations over the past ten years of the event.

First, you could go and tell ten thousand people of a life-threatening situation coming to their edge of the world, advising them to leave now....and at least ten-percent will disregard your advice and stay.  Whatever advice or wisdom that you tried to offer them.....didn't matter.  You can offer up a brief prayer for these people and just say adios.  You don't need to be concerned about these people if they realize the impact of what you suggest.

Second, the news media is mostly there for the thrills and bogus human interest stories.  Nothing much has changed in the past decade.

Third, if the National Guard hadn't gotten it's act together quick and gotten to the Super Bowl to pull those people out.....several hundred folks would have perished on top of the chosen-to-go crowd.  Folks don't readily grasp that the National Guard activation comes up and it takes two or three days to get everyone at their post and get trucks to a designated point.  Still today, people don't realize that.

Fourth, about the last thing of value that you can get from a US President is some fly-over of a disaster area.  It doesn't solve anything or fix anything.  Send some general down and just order the guy to fix the problem and give him ten-thousand Marines.

Fifth, folks don't return unless there's something to return to.  Look up the population of New Orleans today....roughly 378,000 compared to 500,000 a decade ago.  Houston took up a fair number of folks, who've opted not to leave....they are happy in Texas and know the job market is better than in Louisiana.

Sixth, I learned that global warming and climate change didn't really bring a hundred more hurricanes after Katrina like all the experts for CNN and ABC/CBS/NBC predicted.  It was supposed to be an era of huge disaster episodes.  And it never came.

Finally, I learned that it's best to run your own disaster escape plan and not rely on the US government for much.

A Big Door

I was reading through a piece in the Washington Post from the weekend, there's this opinion piece written by a PhD guy (Theodore R. Johnson).  He has surveyed the whole discussion of paying back the black community for reparations from the era prior to 1865, and think the only think that can be done logically....is to grant some type of vote-change that allow (at least for some period of time) a vote power of 5 to 3 for blacks.....meaning that each time a black guy voted....it'd count for five-thirds of a vote.

The logic here....for this entire period prior to 1865 is that black votes counted for three-fifths.  So, for some period of time (not mentioned in the commentary), this five-thirds vote would fix the unfairness that blacks have dealt.

This type of wisdom would draw two reactions.  Some people might agree in theory but doubt that it'd work.....too many folks would claim to be black when they weren't black.  And the second group would obviously say it's totally unfair and would be against the idea.

My issue would be that it would open up this big door and folks would start to talk about other reparation deals to solve a past problem.

Women would want a seven to two vote, for all those years that they weren't allowed to vote.

Indians would want a twelve to three vote, for all those years they were unfairly treated.

Ethnic Chinese would want a six to four vote, for all those years they were unfairly treated.

Mormons would want a nine to seven vote, for all those years they were unfairly treated.

Japanese-Americans would want a nine to six vote, for the period they were held in camps in WW II.

Irish people would want a six to five vote, for the period they were held back in economic conditions.

At some point, then you'd have members of the Washington Redskins football team who'd want a two to one vote for the unfairness of the NFL and life.

Then you'd have residents of New Orleans who'd demand a eight to one vote for the years of suffering after Katrina.

Then you'd have West Virginia and Oklahoma folks who'd demand a twenty to nineteen vote because they were always treated as second-class citizens.

This would go on and on, with everyone thinking of some unfairness and dreaming up a way to pay themselves back.  Life is unfair...period.  For over 100,000 years.....we can pretty much sum up the gains of human civilization as being unfair.  As for repairing unfairness?  It's a pretty big door and if you open it.....I'm not sure where fairness and unfairness would end up.

Cuba and Flights

The Wall Street Journal carried an item yesterday....over air travel being worked on by the Obama Administration and the possibility of air routes to Cuba established by the end of the year.

What's generally felt....is that some type of open door will occur and regular flights occur.  If you read between the lines....I'd take a humble guess that the week prior to Thanksgiving....it'll happen, and at least two airlines will offer a Miami to Havana or New York to Havana route on Thanksgiving weekend.

What develops by Christmas....at least by what I see is a dozen cities on the east coast offering at least a once-a-day flight into Havana, and Miami probably having a dozen flights a day.

Who goes to Cuba?  Well....in the beginning....a number of couples who just have this desire to be the first people on their block who've been to Havana.  It'll be a trip down to visit some resort built and run by some French or German folks...some casino experience....and beach episode.  Eventually, some folks will visit to utilize the Cuban cheap medical services.

By the end of 2016, I'll predict at least a hundred flights a day going into Havana.....with the news media describing how Havana became overrun by so many Americans and the charming Communist character of the city is forever lost.

Somewhere along the way.....missionary groups from various church groups will converge upon Cuba and a whole new angle on missionary work will emerge.  By 2020, Cuba will be in the middle stages of a society issue where half the island is enthusiastic about some religious conversion and the other half attached to the old Communist doctrine.

The "Wall" Crowd

Generally, you can go and ask the build-the-wall crowd  and the anti-build-the-wall-crowd various questions over immigration, the 'Mexicans', legal terms and ethics.....but never get any real comforting answers.

So I'm a history guy, and I like how history relates lessons learned....some wise, and some pointless.

The Chinese started a wall operation in the period of 700 BC.  When it was finally done.....roughly five-hundred years would have passed.  Course, this wasn't a wire fence, or modern technology type situation.....it was brick and cement.  What the Chinese wanted....was a wall that stood the issues of time.  I should also mention that this was a 13,000 mile wall....way more than from you'd want from Texas to California.

Chinese historians will tell you....in a blunt way....the way achieved everything desired.  They will also note that it was a public project, and employed folks of the region....keeping them happy, occupied and fulfilled.  The foreign guys stayed out for the most part (they were failures of the wall), and some folks did climb over.....but without horses.....it was a bit difficult to march on and get somewhere.

The East Germans built two walls.  One was the border fence along the front between East and West Germany.  The other was the circling fence or wall that was put up in Berlin.  The evil West Berlin folks, with no inhibitions or control of desires were kept from the "people of perfection" in DDR (the Democratic folks who liked Communism).

If you go back 1,500 years across Germany itself today, you will find evidence of hundreds of walled cities and towns.  The walls were built to keep trouble-makers out, and protect folks during periods of incursion.  Generally, the walls worked unless the trouble-makers were creative and found ways to break the walls down.

Generally, if you build a wall....someone will come along and say they can conquer the wall.  People take pride in overcoming walls.  If you built a seventy-foot tall wall.....there'd be some guy to come along real quick and find five ways of getting over the top of that wall.  The guy might even write a book about the experience.

What I see from Trump-the-candidate....is that he might actually get elected and be part of the wall-crowd.  Then he'd arrive in DC to find that the Republicans really can't find any enthusiasm or willingness to put money into a wall.  The Democrats will just stand there.....gleefully smiling and not having to say anything because the fraudulent Republicans are doing all the work for them.

Trump would stand there for around six minutes....listening to the reasons why they won't fund it, and then say fine.....he'd just assign the US military to the task and just start yanking them back from South Korea, Europe and the Pacific.....to build the wall.  Republicans would go on TV and chat about how you need to build a wall, but only in the right way, at the right time, and with the right plan.  This would consume an entire weekend of political chat shows.

Generally, I don't think the wall would do an awful lot because folks would just seek out smarter ways.....maybe like digging a tunnel or just taking a rubber boat from Mexico to the Texas coastline (kinda like they do from Libya to Italy today).  The thing is....we've gone so long in this fake agenda business, that we really don't believe much of anything that's said now.....by either party.

Being against the Mexicans?  Well.....I'd be all for a wall built up along the Canadian border too....except I know that the Canadians don't really care much to illegally cross (there might be forty a year that do it illegally).  The eventual problem I see is that 300,000 Nigerians or Chinese guys might also get the idea that it's awful easy......sailing to Mexico, and then just hiking across.  Would we be just as happy to see them crossing the border as the Mexicans?  I have doubts.

So, maybe at the end of the 2016 election.....we might accidentally elect Trump as President and start on some wall.  We might even call up some Chinese guys or former East German engineers to ask how you build a good wall.

Having Your Wits Around You

Having your wits around you.....wise words passed by a guy making an observation over the recent deaths in Spain with the bull running scheme.

Years ago (probably into the early 1980s), I had this fascination with the Spanish event held yearly....mostly in Pamplona but also in other cities across Spain.

The Running of the Bulls is a eight day event and it usually heats up just after lunch each day where six of the bulls are herded up into one area of a cobble-stoned street.....then turned loose on a number of guys who get to run down the street and hope they don't get trampled or gored.  At the end of this end, the bulls end up in the local stadium, where they will be used for the bull fights of the day.  One should note.....the complex of the entire day will be all six bulls being taken down, and sent off to some local butcher.

The history behind this?  Well, it's an odd piece of Spanish history.  Going back into the 1400s, Spanish cattlemen were kinda like the cowboys of the American west.  They were young and looking for some thrills.  So they'd eventually get to Pamplona where the bulls would be herded down the narrow streets to the local butcher area.  The Spanish cowboys got the idea to run the herd a bit faster and turn this into a show of sorts for the locals.....which meant a couple of guys were at the back to push the herd forward, and a couple of fast guys were in the front to show off their courage and charisma.  No one says much if guys got trampled or gored in those days.....my hunch would be they did but it wasn't recorded into history.

If you follow the bulls runs.....you'd note that this year has been a bit different.  Currently, if you count all bull runs in 2015.....there's been ten folks killed so far.  The Spanish media doesn't talk much over the wounded or severely injured.....just the death count.  Ten is considered awful high and getting a fair amount of discussion.

The chief cause of the ten deaths?  Well.....social media.

What folks say is that guys have shown up with smart-phones and they want to get into the run.....video-taping their situation as they run, and they aren't paying attention to the bull and the general escape path.  They are looking a good bit at the smart-phone screen and trying to get better pictures of the bull chasing them.  It's a multi-task situation which humans aren't capable of performing well.

A local mayor in the region analyzed everything, looking over the deaths, and then kinda noted in commentary to the reporter over the article.....you need to have your wits around you.  It's wise words....something that a farmer in Bama would say or some NCAA football coach would say in practice.

Two years ago, I noted that some California guys were discussing the idea of bull runs to be held there.  There was to be some animal cruelty folks who were going to use the court to hinder them and possibly stop this episode.  It's hard to imagine that it'd happen in the US.....too many lawyers would be involved and you'd have to charge folks a thousand dollars for the privilege of running with the bulls.  Then you'd have to do alcohol checks to ensure everyone was sober, and probably some mental test to ensure they weren't crazy (like those Spanish folks).  There'd probably be some age requirement, and a gun/knife check at the starting point to ensure it was a fair race.

For these ten guys who've passed on in Spain because of the bull run this year.....I'm guessing all of them figured they had a ninety-nine percent chance of survival....otherwise, they wouldn't have been this stupid.  The problem is....when dealing with a 1,500 pound steer....you can't be sure of their view of the situation, and when he stops for a second and does a 180-degree turn....you might be standing there in a bit of shock that your bull run strategy didn't consider this possible change in the scenario.  Your wits?  Well, at that point, you are maxing out to one-thousand-percent of your wits.....trying to think of the reason why you did this stupid race and realizing you've got two seconds before this bull gores you.

The Tunes Story

Some smart folks at Brunel University (west of London) did a study over medical operations, anxiety among patients, and music.  Oddly, they came to this conclusion....there's a better outcome to the operation procedure if you listen to some likable music before and after the surgery.

To achieve a decent survey, they've polled around seven thousand folks.  Course, they also interviewed the medical folks involved, and they (the medical folks) said.....they were agreeable with this, as long as it didn't interfere with their process or procedures.

There's a historical side to this story because roughly a hundred years ago.....the idea was put forward, and then discounted by the medical establishment.

What's this all mean?  Well....some other group will start to ask the question if the Bee Gee's tunes are better for pre-Op, or maybe some Willie Nelson, or some heavy metal tunes from the 1970s.  Naturally, this will take into account people are different and what might work work with one guy.....won't work with the next guy.

This could trigger hospitals to hire up amateur DJ's who'd sit down with Gus while he's preparing for surgery tomorrow, and ask for suggestions for the hour before surgery and the hour after surgery.  Gus will sit there for a while and remark that he's a harmonica guy for the pre-Op, and then he'd like some Scottish fiddle music for the hour after the procedure.  The DJ will sit there, then admit he's got mostly pop stuff from the 1990s, eight-eight tunes from Johnny Cash, and four-hundred classical or opera tunes.

Eventually, as research episodes continue on and twenty years into the future.....we will come to discover that people will select Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire have a 99-percent chance of survival after an operation, for some unexplained reason.  The science guys will shake their heads.....it just can't be that simple.

The Bartender Story

I noted this week that the MIT guys have been busy.  These are the 'rocket-scientists' of America.  They think of a problem, and solve it.  Well....they finally built a bartender-robot.

I'm not sure of the priority of such a requirement, or if the pub-owners of America hinted that it might be more cost effective.....but they sat down and designed the first version of the bartender-robot.

The guys who designed the bartender-robot admit that there are limits to this.  For example.....if someone drops a drink on the floor.....this robot doesn't have the ability to solve the problem or clean up the mess....at least not yet.

I'm guessing a couple of Japanese robot designers will look over this bit of news....spend three years in an enclosed lab and emerge with a robot who does all the drink business, and cleans up the dropped drink.

I noted that they didn't really give the drink robot a typical bartender name....like "Ernie" or "Mandy" or "Monty".  This is one of the key things about a bartender.....there's an established relationship between bartender and the customer.

Bartenders serve this odd position in life.....providing consultation, judgement, recommendations and tips.

A guy screws up on a relationship, and within hours....he'll be at the bar to ask for advice.  A gal makes a big mistake at the office, and within hours.....she'll be at the bar to seek guidance.  A guy will lose big-time at a poker game and within hours.....he's at the bar to get an opinion on how to explain this significant loss to the wife.

How will the robot fit into this scheme?  I'm not sure.  Maybe they can eventually program "Elvis 2.0" to stand there while serving a drink, and note the three big rules of a failed relationship, or rattle off the five best TV shows of the 1970s, or discuss rocket-science issues over dishwashers.  Maybe you could tie this robot into Goggle and he'd just answer question after question.  Maybe at some point, after the third or fourth drink....."Elvis 2.0" would ask you for a blood sample to ensure you aren't drunk and he'd test you right there at the stool.

We are probably safe for another decade or so before this sort of stuff gets out of control and suddenly they show up in big-name bars in Seattle or Portland.  It'll be another thirty years before they start to show up in the heartland and small towns.  

Dead Lions Talk

Not that I care that much for the Cecil the Lion (the old lion that whacked by the American dentist)....but I noted today that some gal who claims to be a seance-expert.....that she was able to communicate with dead Cecil (the lion).

She wanted to let folks know that Cecil is doing ok in the afterlife.....urging folks to be strong and speak up for those who suffer. Bring some light and some love....to life.  That was the words from dead Cecil (the lion).

Dead lion communication?  Well....you see, this is all part of the whole gimmick.  If some people hyped up the first part of the story....why can't a second wave hype up more of the dead lion story with some communication episodes.

Maybe we could have a seance crew each week communicate with dead animals....like Lassie, Flicker, Ole Yella, Mister Ed, and Flipper the dolphin.

Are we finished with Cecil and his affairs yet?  No.

Sadly, I think there's still more to come.

Pondering Over Cecil the Lion

I have followed to some degree....this Cecil the Lion story for the last three or four days.  It's a simplistic story.  American dentist saves up a ton of money ($50,000) and pays for a lion expedition in Zimbabwe.  No one says the cost of the airline ticket, the booze for the period while in Zimbabwe, the food bill, or incidentals.  I'd take a guess that it was a bit more than $50,000.

There seems to be a fair number of people upset by the shooting of Cecil.  Maybe on the friendly lion side of this.....having a name like Cecil.....and being a "blood-thirsty dentist" (as one comment suggested on a page)....maybe I can buy into this whole story.

The problem is....no one says much when a lion attacks a kid and drags him off into the tall grass for an afternoon treat.  I can venture through 300-odd newspapers in the US and I doubt if there's been a single such story over the past decade.

On average, just in Tanzania alone....there's around 70-odd lion attacks on humans each year, which result in death.

If you count all of Africa, on average....it's around 250 humans killed by lions each year.  If you counted in snakes, leopard attacks, elephants charging into villages, etc....there's probably a thousand Africans a year killed by wildlife.

In India, there's roughly eighty people killed yearly by Tigers.

No one ever says much over these events....unless you live in the country affected.  The local news in India will report each tiger-attack and name the poor woman or kid that was dragged off into the woods.  Tanzania newspapers will typically a lion-attack of a human on page one or page two, and likely sensationalize the event.  No, they don't ever assign a name to the lion because there's just no necessity to such a situation.

Had Cecil ever attacked a human?  No one suggests such and you can only guess that Cecil mostly stayed with four-legged animals for his lunch and dinner treats.

Are we pretty naive?  Well.....yeah.

We quickly bought into the story because of the friendly lion name of Cecil.  Had he been a "Cerberus" (demon of the pit), or Seth....we might have been less inclined to think that nicely of Cecil.

Adding onto this....we have a natural dislike of dentists because we think they are dishonest in their prices.  The fact that this guy had $50,000 to throw around on a lion-hunt license seems to bother some folks.

A big deal?  I have my doubts.  The sad truth is....this dentist could have paid the $50,000....gone over and spent seven days hunting some lion, and resting one moment by a stream.....had Cecil suddenly jump over a boulder and confront the dentist in a moment where the gun was six feet away.  Cecil would have chomped down on the dentist arm, then his leg, and then dragged the poor guy off into the high grass to enjoy an afternoon snack.

A Zimbabwe reporter would have arrived at the local hospital to get some pictures of the half-eaten American dentist and wrote a fine 10,000-word Steinbeck-like piece over the last day of dentist's life....what he ate....the fancy Chinese hunting jacket that he wore.....the fake Nike tennis shoes that he bought on the final morning....the last song played the night before by the washed-up British singer at the resort....the cheap local beer that he consumed in significant quantities throughout the day....and noted that some local tribe had assigned a curse with Cecil a decade ago....that he was a 'bad' lion.

It would have been a front-page story in Zimbabwe.  Oddly, the story would have only appeared in the local paper of the dentist on page two....noting his passing and noting his wife or kids were sad over this but noted that he died in the thrills of his hobby.  The gravestone would note somewhere.....'lion-hunter'.....in the remarks.

Yeah, that could have been the alternate story to the day, and no one would have raised a glass to the dentist or uttered some profane comment about the man-eater lion named Cecil.  We are that stupid, if you think about it.

Book Review: Only Yesterday

Only Yesterday; An Informal History of the 1920s, by Frederick Lewis Allen.

First, I'll admit....from high school and college....the 1920s are the weakest area written and covered by any instructor.  I probably should have picked up this book forty years ago and read it.

Allen does a great job in detailing the lead up to the 1920s and the whole decade.  He explains the effect of World War I and the Wilson era.  He leads you through a simplistic chapter on Harding and his failures as a leader and man.  And there's chapters twelve and thirteen, which detail the bull market of the 1920s and the eventual collapse.  If you were wanting a concise description over a two-hour read of the period and Wall Street's' collapse and our decade-long depression....go to chapters twelve/thirteen.

I strongly emphasize reading chapter ten, which covers the alcohol period and growth of the mafia through bootleg sales.

What you come away with....is this significant change in America that comes from the war, women's voting, Prohibition and it's failure, and the arrival of innovation upon the doorstep of simple America.  We were never the same after 1920....we were an entirely different culture of people.

Chapter eleven will cover the boom and bust of real estate markets and closely parallel the decade prior to 2008's economic collapse in the US.  It's a shocker for most people who never heard of the various issues of the period.

An excellent book and worthy of any personal book collection.

The Ice Age Story

There were several news reports this week over a University of Northumbria project, which suggests that in roughly fifteen years.....we will enter a mini Ice Age.

Naturally, this got people hyped up a bit.

The details come mostly from sun activity and cycles.  What they can generally say....is that the sun absolutely has cycles and it's proven over and over by the data that they collect.  Unlike the model data for environmentalists which usually is proven to wrong.....the sun data goes through a cycle and you can note the impact or variations of the cycle.  For a climate change guy.....it's pretty tough work to disprove this stuff.  Naturally, it bothers the climate change folks because this means conflict with carbon efforts and warming efforts.

Naturally, if you got to the point of believing this....then you'd ask a question or two.  If we enter such a harsh winter-like period.....won't we use more carbon to warm ourselves?  Oh my....yes.

What we end up with?  Well....from the 1700s....winters typically started earlier and ended later.  You had a shorter spring and fall.  Heating?  Well....you can figure if you live up in New York or in the upper part of the US.....around twenty-five to fifty percent more heating than you currently use.  This might disturb some folks.

As we get closer to the anticipated period.....my humble guess is that environmentalists and climate change folks will argue that this is related to their mess, and has little to do with the sun.  After a year or two of extremely long and harsh winters.....they will lose the bulk of their believers....IF all of this comes to pass.  I'm not a hundred percent in belief over this, but I tend to believe in history repeating itself, and I know the consequences of the last mini ice age.

My humble suggestion is that you might want to get into some solar heating cells in ten years and wisely invest in more insulation for the house.  It might be worth it.

The Snake Story

I noted this morning in the news.....cops in Austin are saying they have a problem of an unusual nature.  Some kid died, and from the evidence at hand.....they say he had a pet cobra snake.  The snake bit him and he died within minutes.  The snake? Well.....he wandered off.  So far.....no one has found him.  There's an intensive search to be mounted by local authorities on Friday.

From time to time.....you will note news items like this where people build up some collection of dangerous snakes because of a fascination.  Occasionally, they get bit, and some live....some die.  It's a fairly dangerous hobby.

Back around 1984, I was briefly in Colorado and we had this episode to occur with a couple.

Authorities found them dead on some hilltop....mutual suicide deal.  They both had various issues and it didn't take much work to establish facts over the case.  The one odd thing were all these empty canvas bags in the back of the car.  So they went back to the house of the couple and noted these empty glass cages.

Cops asked questions of the neighbors.  The neighbors noted around twenty-odd poisonous snakes in the private collection that the couple held.  All were gone.

What the head cop ended up summarizing for the reporter....was this theory that the couple had released all of these poisonous snakes there on the hilltop....in the midst of the Rockies....into the wild.  This included a couple of cobras.  The snake expert included a comment or two into the story that winters are severe and he didn't have a lot of faith that these particular snakes would survive.  Course, he suggested this......he couldn't be sure.

It's been thirty years since that summer and one has to wonder.....if he was right, or if there's a whole hilltop infested with cobras in Colorado.  One of those things that you'd rather not ask about.

The Exorcism in Mexico

I read a fair number of news sources throughout a normal week (probably over 1,000 news items).  Occasionally, you will pick up one item which demands a bit of pondering.

Roughly a month ago....the archbishop of Guadalajara (a state in Mexico) did up an exorcism of sorts.  Cardinal Iniguez got with some other Catholic priests.....huddled quietly in a room.....and tried to drive out demons from across all of Mexico.

No one is saying much over the success and there's some thought that it was way too big of a problem for just a couple of priests (you'd probably need two-hundred priests for the Mexico problem).

So, this brings around this solution to applying for problems in the US.  Could we work up some massive 10,000 priest operation and do a big-time exorcism in the US?

Naturally, some folks in Alabama would ask questions.  Would this mess around with legit sin (gambling in casino operations, drinking two-percent beer on Saturday night, conducting relations with the Dairy Queen lady or the Piggly Wiggly clerk)?

Then they'd ask if this was mumbo-jumbo and just fake?

Somewhere down the line.....they'd eventually ask if this were permanent or just a short-term solution.

Finally, some guy would ask if Satan was really responsible or were people just blaming their stupidity and lax morals on some fake thing.....thus not taking responsibility over themselves?

For some reason, I'm not buying into the Mexico exorcism episode.  Nor do I think most Mexicans believe the story beyond just a gimmick of the Catholic Church to fake people out.

The Old School

They are finally selling off (by auction) my old school (well, the one from the first grade to the ninth grade).  The auction company put up a couple of pictures and it'll be held in roughly three weeks.

The deal will compose a fairly new gym (at least 15 years old), a red-brick school building with five big rooms and a basketball court, a newer school area which has six rooms, a cafeteria, a library, a baseball park, and maybe a total of 40 acres.

My guess is that it'll go up to a separate sell on each, and then some last minute episode to sell the whole thing together.

The only things worth buying?

Well, here the problems and issues.  The old brick building looks nice but it's a renovation queen and would take at least $50,000 in repairs....plus heating the thing would be costly.  The cafeteria might be worth something but it's in the far back of the school.

So you are left with the gym and a couple of acres around it.....which might make it worth $60,000 in my humble opinion.  It'd make a fine store-front.

As for the ballpark?  Well.....what exactly would you do with the six-odd acres?

All combined in the final sale?  I can't see anyone bidding more than $100,000 for the whole property.  Someone might buy the building for an antique shop and multipurpose situation for the rest.  Beyond that.....I just don't see it being a hot property.

The red-brick building goes back to the mid-1930 period and probably has a lot of history tied into it.  But what does that translate to in 2015?  Will someone get real stupid and buy it for sentimental reasons and discover the reality of an old structure two weeks later?

My humble bet is that three-hundred people show up to just watch the event unfold.  A couple of guys will bid onto the gym.  Maybe two or three guys will bid on the ballpark.  And maybe some old retired guy will put a pretty low bid up for the remainder.

The building was used for roughly seventy-five-odd years and did well.....with over 10,000 kids who transited the facility and moved on in life.

The Flag Discussion

I've tried to make sense out of the dumping of 'Dukes of Hazard' over the Confederate flag episode.  To be honest, I've probably watched a total of three episodes over my whole life (145 total episodes made).  Script-wise.....there was no script and there didn't seem to be any real problems worth making an hour-long (43 minutes) episode out of.

My solution to this?  Make a big green digital circle, and put it over the afflicted flag when it comes over the screen.

You need to do this....because there will be other shows that you have to do something about....eventually.

For examples:

Baywatch.  There's all this tight bikini action and boobs hanging out.  You can run the show, but there needs to be a big green digital circle over the boobs.....in my humble opinion.

Ironside (2013 version).  I'd put a big green circle over the whole screen and just run ACDC music in the background.....it's that bad.

The Tudors.  Way too much boobs.....put the green digital cover over most women.

Rome.  Sex scenes about every sixteen minutes.

Mr. Ed.  You really can't allow kids watch the horse talking.  It's not real and it begs for some scientific angle.....like fake global cooling or fake horse conversation.

Game of Thrones.  Well....there's a bunch of killing and a bunch of sex.  Green dots ought to be popped up every 90 seconds for some reason.

I realize there's some Confederate flag showing up around sixteen times in an average show.  Will you cross off the flag in school history books or such?  Where exactly do you go with the symbology  business?

A Twenty-Year Change

I'm presently in the middle of a six-book series covering the period of 1914 to 1929.  Since high school and college history books do a lousy job of the period....I've come to find a number of interesting bits of knowledge which kinda amaze me.

From 1900 to 1921, there's an increase of cigarette consumption and sales.....of sixteen times what it was in 1900 (1921).  We aren't talking double or triple here, but a huge number of smokes that rippled across society in general.

What happened?  Well....there are a number of reasons.

The war came, and I suspect that a number of people who didn't smoke.....participated in the war....got things on their mind....and ended up smoking as a point of relaxation.

Trucks arriving and transporting more cargo?  Yes.  In 1900.....you still had mostly wagons and rail as your method of delivery.  In 1921, you had the ability to send over an order and have it delivered within a reasonable amount of time.

More women smoking?  Yes, that's one of the odd things from the voting period changes.  Women felt they had just as many rights and privileges as a guy.

More advertising?  Yes.....marketing folks got smart and knew how to better present a product.

All of this meant more tax revenue and profit for grocery/store operations.

Another odd factor which I came across is the amount of material required for a dress.  By 1921.....it took only seven yards of fabic to make a dress......compared to almost twenty yards back in 1900.  Again, it represents a fashion change in women's clothing that few people talk about....even today.

It would be curious to see the amount of yards used in each decade, and how it lessened as time went by, and how the cost of fabric changed as well.

The Lack of Trust

By age nineteen, I had almost complete trust in various professions and categories of people.  Somewhere along the second year of the Air Force.....I put health professionals (nurses, administrators and doctors) along with AF First Sergeants into this category of zero-trust.

In blunt language, I became an absolute skeptic of either group of people.  Whatever they suggested or said.....you had to ask more questions over and have a good bit of doubt over what they were doing.

As the years rolled by....I added other professions onto the list.  Safety inspectors, car mechanics, bank clerks, lawyers, insurance agents, and college professors.

Somewhere in the early 1990s.....I added all cops (local, state, federal, FBI, etc).  It wasn't very difficult.  I came to a point where I realized half of these guys were either unqualified for their job, bothered by mental problems, or just plain stupid.  Sadly, half of these guys are trying hard to do their job, and their buddies are screwing the profession over left and right.

By 9-11, I came to be skeptical of Senators, Congressmen and Presidents.

After 9-11....came TSA agents.  Maybe half of these guys are qualified for their job and doing a four-star job.  The problem is that every time you cross over into some airport....you come up against some joker who ought to be a security guard at some 7-11 operation or a mall in southern Mississippi.  One single idiot out of a group of six that you might encounter today at some airport.....who ought to be doing something else other security.

Journalists?  I added them around 2010 to the list of folks who you just can't trust.  Foundation guys, think-tank experts, and TV news media guys......all fall into this same group.  They tell you something, then you realize they skipped some topic or element of the story....intentionally.  You'd like for them to back-up and tell this.....but they won't dare explain this because it's not part of their slanted view of the news.

Religious ministers?  Well, yeah.....I've put them on the list as well.  When they show up in a BMW or stay at a five-star hotel.....there's something in their profession that bothers me.

There's just not many professions left where I have some trust in what they say or recommend.  It's a fairly short list (barbers, barkeepers, farmers, and bar-b-q joint operators).

Is it a growing trend among people?  I've come to think that a lot of Americans are growing skeptical of people they used to trust.  Judge Judy, Alex Trebek of Jeopardy fame, and Clint Eastwood are among the few left that I would have absolute trust with.

All of these leads back around the world of law enforcement and our general attitude that there's awful of corruption, greed, incompetent nature, and bizarre behavior being demonstrated daily.  It's to the point where you get pulled over and you start to immediately look at some guy in sunglasses and black-stormtrooper boots, and think it's some potential scam to rip you off.....one way or another.  The guy starts to ask fifteen questions and trying to figure what you did wrong or how to screw you, and you just start to freeze with each question and think....what exactly is this guy going fishing for and why me?

Yeah, it's a sad deal in a way....we've corrupted ourselves enough....to lack trust in the majority of people we run into.
 

Chris Christie: The Number Seven Guy

Back in 2007, Chris Christie had some opportunities and gave a marginal effort.  Eight years later, with the stupid bridge episode from New Jersey.....Christie is a guy waiting on an impossible dream to occur.

In New Jersey and New York....he'll make it awful tough for any other Republican to run and capture local votes.  He should win both with a 10-percent margin over the number two guy.  But beyond that?

In Iowa, at best....he'll end up as the number seven guy.  And in half the state primaries.....I don't see doing much better than number seven.

His asset is speeches and debates.  With the exception of Cruz and maybe Walker.....he is better than the rest on debate delivery.  In terms of pumping up a crowd, he might be at the same level as Walker.

I think he's in this race for strictly one reason.....the VP job.  If you look over various combinations and look at the likely leaders of the race (Cruz, Walker and Rubio).....he might fit very well with Walker.  Zero chance on VP for Rubio or Cruz.

Had the bridge episode never occurred?  Well....that's history now, but you have to figure that his trusted staff really screwed him over when they suggested the bridge episode.  Without that screw-up....he might easily be the number two guy today instead of the number seven guy.

Note, I'm even putting Donald Trump in a higher rating than Christie.  Trump might carry NY state if Christie can't subtract his support.  

The Professor, The 'Nice-Guy', and the Stoic Man

It's one of those odd periods of American history that don't get much attention....the early part of the 1900's.  Over a sixteen-year period, we had three guys assume the Presidency, who should have been named the professor, the 'nice-guy' and the stoic man.

As Taft got into a messy Republican issue with former President Roosevelt and split votes in Taft's re-election attempt....the outcome was a bit shocking.  Woodrow Wilson would end up as President of the United States.

If you wrote Wilson's resume....it'd be a fairly curious and short resume.  Wilson was a southerner and the son of a Presbyterian minister.  He was a fairly intelligent guy and ended up going through Davidson University and later attended Princeton University out of New Jersey.  It's safe to say that he impressed the professors at Princeton.  After graduation, for law school....he picked the University of Virginia.

What you can generally say is that he spent roughly a year trying to be a lawyer after graduation, and eventually just gave up.  Some folks sum up this part of his life as impatient and having a significant amount of stubbornness.....sticking to one strategy and not able to move onto a plan B when required.  It'll be a trait that follows him for the rest of his life.

After the lawyer business....he leans toward a PhD (John Hopkins University), and achieves that in 1886.  You can use common sense on this but the only thing a PhD was worth was a full-time professor job....and that's route ahead for him.

Four years, with the help of 'insiders' at Princeton (his old college).....he got himself appointed onto the board of the university.  He attends yearly meetings, gives speeches at various dinners, and talks up the changes needed at Princeton.  Twelve years would pass, and negativity would brew at Princeton over the leadership of the college.  Being on the board, Wilson had various opportunities to help in the brewing process.  The college president was terminated because of ineffective leadership and the board wanted changes.....Wilson was offered the chancellor's job and set into play various changes.

It's safe to say some changes were acceptable and some were not.  He went after more donations to the university and enlarging the quantity of professors.  He brought more attention to the school, and made it clear that he didn't want the previous status of a rich-kid's school where you paid for a degree but didn't clearly earn it.

From 1902 to 1910.....for eight years.....Wilson ran Princeton and got attention throughout New Jersey.  At some point in 1910.....the governor's race opened up and he ran.  He won with a fairly safe number of votes, and then proceeded to do four brief years of governor duty.  In 1914.....with Taft and Roosevelt heavily engaged in a personal vendetta situation....the Democrats didn't see great opportunities and went with a lesser known Wilson as their choice.  Oddly, Wilson wins.

From professor, to college president.....mix in four brief years as governor, and now President of the United States.

You can give him mostly positive marks for six years of his period, with the war as part of his record.  The last eighteen months?  Because of the stroke, he was basically non-existent.  No public appearances and the few cabinet meetings held really didn't demonstrate much of anything.  The nation wanted a full-time President and a strong guy.

Warren G. Harding would be this strong President character, at least acting that way. Harding's resume?  Not much better.

Harding would pick up ownership of a marginal newspaper in Ohio after college and spend the next three decades improving upon it.  Most people will note that the real motivation of the newspaper and effective business plan.....was mostly the work of Harding's wife.  Harding was a guy who knew how to wear a three-piece suit and looked distinguished no matter what the occasion was.  He gave bold speeches throughout Ohio and eventually was noted as someone with political potential.  In 1904, he was elected Lieutenant Governor of Ohio...spending two brief years in the job before being elected as Senator of Ohio.

After arriving in DC, he generally got known as a 'nice-guy'.  Republican and Democratic Senators liked him.  He seemed impressive.  His staff, coming out of Ohio with him.....were quickly noted as well.

Harding had two hobbies.....women and poker.  His staff had two hobbies.....poker and heavy drinking. It was a good match situation in DC.

Harding, after six years as senator....went for the Presidency and won.  Roughly sixty days into the new Presidency....what can generally be said was that his five-star speech ability was mostly bogus and the speeches were empty.  The intellectual side of Harding which people had been impressed with during the Senate period had dissolved.....Harding was mostly a marginally bright guy with a bunch of corrupt guys around him.  For roughly two years, the corruption situation ran in turbo fashion.

Eventually, Harding kinda woke up and realized the amount of corruption going on.  Oddly, on some trip out to the west coast.....Harding died. What historians note is that in the two brief years as President.....he'd packed on a lot of weight and had virtually no physical activities (some suggest he'd gained roughly fifty pounds in two years).

Calvin Coolidge arrives into a job that no one expected him to fulfill.  Cal had worked himself up.....lawyer activities, state legislature, and mayor.  He was more of an administrator than a leader.  He went through both Lieutenant Governor and Governor....getting noted as a practical manager.  He ended up on as the VP on Harding's ticket and became a quiet unassuming VP.

It's best to say that Cal quietly did his best to clean up the corruption of the first two years of the Harding administration after he inherited the Presidency.  He would run for another term, and then quietly retire from office.  If you were looking for one single President with stoic tendencies and simply a good administrator of the office.....Cal is by himself on that level.  He was what the nation needed.....a competent guy with no corruption and no intellectual side.  Today?  No one really mentions Cal much, for the simple reason that he never wanted the attention.

Yeah, for sixteen years....that's the cast of three characters that the nation got stuck with.

Short Essay over Prohibition

I have a fascination with American history of the 1920s.  Naturally, there's a limited view of history told of the period....we tend to like starting history at WW II (1942).

One of my favorite topics is Prohibition.  There's a lot of odd history, which people simply never got introduced to.

For example.....most every single community and town that existed in America up until Prohibition....had a saloon.  Sizable towns had several.

Saloon had grown in statue since the 1800s and its safe to say that a lot of guys would get off work and automatically walk to the local saloon.  They sit there for an hour or two. On any day off....they'd stay for hours.

There was a general belief in society that American culture was addicted to saloons and booze.  This led the way for some type of control.  The problem was.....you'd go and fix something by legal means and it'd lead to a court confrontation.  Eventually, the only method left was the Constitution.....meaning an amendment needed to be added so that the court could not get around the law.

When you look back at the amendment....it simply said that no one in the U.S. could manufacture, transport, or sell alcoholic beverages (with the exception of medicinal or religious reasons).  You could drink alcohol but it doesn't take an idiot to realize getting it to you was physically impossible without some legal implications.

All of this comes up shortly after WW I, within the women's right to vote period, and in the midst of the Wilson era.

What people tended to notice during the first month was the remarkable closure of saloons and bars across the nation.  Your friendly neighborhood saloon.....no longer existed.

What quietly occurred over the next year or two....was a two-vehicle substitute. You could privately buy some illegal booze (imported or manufactured within the US) from a local guy or operation.  Maybe your local grocery guy would get a truckload that he kept in the back of the warehouse, or your local barber would provide you some relief at a fair cost. The second part of the substitute was 'speak-easy' operations.....a private club with a strong door.

Speak-easy operations opened up a strange new door.  They were meant to be private and slightly better than the old saloon operations.  They had real entertainment or gambling.  Unlike the saloon atmosphere where drunks hung around.....speak-easy operations were for people to drink, talk and socialize.  Oddly, they opened up the drinking scene to women, which wasn't the case with saloon operations.

It took a year or two for most people to observe that women....after getting the right to vote and finding more potential jobs.....were now open to drinking themselves.

All of this led into this odd observation by the revenue mechanism of the US government.  Booze taxes were zero, and it was now a problem because they didn't have some method to make up for losses.

The new Harding government (after Wilson)?  Most everyone within his 'club' found that the White House kept ample amounts of booze and had it trucked in from Canada.  The folks who should have shown some restraint and law obedience.....weren't doing so.

It took roughly thirteen years to admit Prohibition was stupid, get it back onto another amendment schedule, and get it finally passed.

Our drinking habits?  Well.....they changed.  I suspect for the most part, to a better level.  Prior to Prohibition, drinking was a manly thing.  After Prohibition....I'd take a guess in major urban areas (New York City for example).....probably fifty percent of all women were regular alcohol drinkers by 1930.  Speak-easy operations were a more classy business situation than the old saloon trade. And if you asked most folks.....beer lost out over that decade to the cocktail trade, and has pretty much made itself a major factor in alcohol consumption today.

We needed some dramatic change to overhaul drinking habits, and that's precisely what Prohibition delivered.