Are There Any Crappy Clint Eastwood Movies?

 In the last month, I've watched three Eastwood movies (Where Eagles Dare, Grand Torino, Blood Work).  I sat and pondered over the fact that it's just about impossible to find a crappy loser for Eastwood.

Oh, I agree...movie-wise, before 1964....it's all garbage.  But in the period 1959 to 1965.....Rawhide (the TV series) got him noticed, and led to A Fistful of Dollars.

From that point on....either as a producer, director or actor....the worst you can hang on him is probably the 5:17 to Paris.  I don't consider it a bad movie....just that it is slow in reaching the final twenty minutes that matter.

On westerns?  If you asked most to prioritize the twenty best western/cowboy movies ever made.....he gets at least four onto the list (Pale Rider, Unforgiven, High Plains Drifter, and A Fistful of Dollars).  I'm even willing to openly discuss Hang 'Em High probably should be on the list.

California Chatter

 California went and had a committee look over the idea of reparations for blacks, and a 492-page report is set to be issued....sometime in mid-July.  Some folks got an advanced copy, and I looked over three of the suggestions in the reparations listing:

1.  Something called 'shade equity'.  

Basically, the idea is that in black neighborhoods....there's no trees....so no shade.  

Under this gimmick, the state would create a program to plant trees (lot of them) in black neighborhoods.  

I paused over this.  Personally, I've been a pro-tree person for most of my life, and I wouldn't have a problem in supporting more shade trees....period.  

However, I would point this out about California....it's one of those states with limited rainfall....so about 90-percent of the type of trees you'd plant in South Carolina or Alabama....wouldn't make it.  So you are mostly limited to fur/pine type trees.  They aren't exactly known for being shade trees.

Who wrote this shade idea into the 492 pages?  I'm guessing a person who probably hasn't lived much in California or knows much about trees.  

2.  Some paragraph suggests that fast-food places need to be curtailed/lessened....while Whole Foods/Farmer Markets need to be expanded....in black neighborhoods.

This agenda, if you think about it.....is mostly about good health habits and dissolving bad eating habits.

Now....if you went to a hundred black folks and said you were going to dissolve Burger King or In-and-Out Burger joints....a bunch of people would get all peeved, and then they'd notice that this was only going to happen in black neighborhoods....while the 'whitey-guys' got to keep their Bojangles or Zaxbys.  

If you ask me....within a five-year period....a bunch of blacks would pack up and move to white neighborhoods....because of this fast-food gimmick.  

3.  Finally, there's this suggestion to create a state-apparatus....that would funnel state money (tax revenue) to black-owned business development and enlargement, while just doing nothing for Latino or Asian, or Indian business operations.

Unfairness index?  On a scale of one to ten....it's probably a nine.

The funny thing here....you could be a Congolese guy....fresh off the plane....to find yourself a graded-up person for this funneled state money for your new business idea....while Juan (4th generation Latino-American) gets nothing.

As much as some folks feel a need to hand out something for reparations....most everything involves heavy taxation and funneled revenue to only selected members of society.  It'd give more reason for people sticking it out in California....to plan an exit-strategy.

Gut-Feeling Topics

 1.  Teachers carrying guns.

Out of every hundred teachers employed today....I'd say at least one-third of them are not capable of the 'duty' involved, and would NOT be candidates for carrying guns....even if you provided 25 hours of training.

I attended school with five or six male teachers who'd done time in WW II and Vietnam.  You could have handed a 45 to any of them and said such-and-such kid is a threat and needs to be put down.....they would picked up the pistol and done what was needed.  I don't see that environment existing today.

2.  101 days of the Russian military operation, and zero chance of it ending anytime soon.  

3.  Efforts going on in Iowa to dump the caucus system?  Yeah.....mostly related to the Democrats, and the nature that no one wants to wander around the state for four months....trying to convince folk of their niceness or sincerity.  

4.  Ukraine 'says' that around 1,300 Russian tanks are either destroyed, incapacitated (meaning ran out of fuel or needed maintenance), or just left on the battlefield.  You'd be talking about a dozen years to rebuild this force from scratch.

5.  The need to unionize at coffee shops?  Basically, you'd open up the door for a $2.50 coffee costing $7 a cup.  

6.  Some Brits started up a rumor....if the media-plans of Harry and Meghan fail (it really looks that way)....that some imaginary door would open, and they'd return to the UK, in some 'prince' sort of way (getting property and some yearly check).

Basically, if you were sum up the plan they used so far....they selected the most expensive state in the US to live, and attached themselves to a severe tax situation.  I doubt if they bring home more than 50-percent of the income they receive. Toss in security, landscaping services, and general cost.....it's pretty screwed up.

Meghan accepting this plan 'B'?  I seriously doubt it.

7.  Just a gut feeling, but I think in ten years.....off-shore oil refineries will be the norm.....40 miles off the coast, with some pipeline delivering the product to the coastal regions.  

Ten Observations of Life

 1.  A lot of us now feel a responsibility to be silent....when stupid people act-up....so they won't be offended. 

2.  We are all reaching the level of believing in ten different versions of the truth, when there used to only be one single version.

3.  If you asked a hundred people to define tyranny.....more than 70-percent of Americans would respond: (1) it's a Nova Scotia punk-rock band, (2) something to do with transsexuals', or (3) the part that connects the axle to the engine.  

4.  If people can't define a woman, or man....what's the odds they can't define freedom, logic, food-poisoning, or stupidity?

5.  I noticed recently that someone finally sat down and added up the life-long necessities for transgendering over to X or Y.  Total estimated cost?  Around $1.3-million....revolving around hormones, drugs, mental health requirements, and surgical procedures.  Just makes you ask....who is going to fund this...long-term?

6.  A regular guy/gal in 1966 probably had a circle of twenty-odd friends, from the neighborhood, church, hobbies, and work.  We are at a point today because of lifestyles, politics and inability to socialize....where that circle might be two people at best.

7.  The shock you have when you visit a typical US grocery with baby formula missing from the shelves, and the shock you have when you walk into a Mexico City grocery with fully stocked shelves.....is all pretty relative when you think about it.

8.  It is fairly odd to recognize a fair number of people spend time to explain why they 'suck' (fail) at what they do.....over and over.  While at the same time....you don't give bonus points to the points to people who work hard to avoid failures.  

9.  A lot of these Russian generals killed-in-action....will likely get WW II type medals....with text to indicate they died in action to defeat the Nazis.  Expect another war in forty years.....same trigger-cause....same invasion gimmick....same Nazi-threat, and same text used for medals.

10.  We are evolving into a society who continually requires the services of 'fact-checkers'.  

Legend and Oswald

 Legend has it that Lee Harvey Oswald fired two guns on 22 November 1963. A rifle and a pistol (used on police officer murdered around two hours later).

Police and FBI folks performed the gun residue test on Oswald upon capture.  

Results?  First, the standard paraffin test was negative for gunpowder residue.

Second, the FBI ran a chemical spectroscopy test on the paraffin.  Negative.

Third, the FBI sent the paraffin sample to the Oak Ridge Lab for neutron activation analysis.  Negative.

The odds that Oswald fire either the rifle or pistol?  Zero.  

If he'd fired at least one of them....residue would have been there, and sufficient to say he fired both guns (even if you couldn't prove the pistol episode).