While I was off on a short trip this week.....the fine folks at the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution referred to as "#10".....condemning the Alt-Right crowd/all forms of racism.....in accordance with the gospel.
Yeah, it's actually written into Mathew, Mark and Ezra. Even Moses hyped up the issues of being Alt-Right and a member of the GOP. Jesus wept at some point and noted that Alt-Right was a terrible thing....it's all in the scriptures....you just need to read between the lines.
Well......no, it's not there.
Some SBC dimwits made up some hype and went off to say that the Gospel was interpreted to mean this and Alt-Right was something that ministers need to talk negative about.
In a way, the move helps to lessen the appeal of the Southern Baptists and focus some members on the comical behavior of the organization. It's pretty simple to just say adios and let go of the politicized organization.
The odds that Minister Bob or Deacon Joe will come to visit you after you stop showing up? You can just bring up resolution ten, and that you think Jesus was actually an original part of the Alt-Right trend. Minister Bob or Deacon Joe will stand there with some deer-in-the-headlight look, and realize their gimmick to paradise just isn't going to sell well.
In a way, the SBC folks are helping to dissolve the whole organization, with a long-term plan of non-existence.
Friday, 16 June 2017
London Fire
I sat this week and observed the news-feed over the London fire. A number of things bothered me about this episode.
This was a building with roughly four apartments on each floor....one single elevator, and one single stairway. In a fire situation, it was a no-win situation. If you were above the fifth floor, your odds of getting out were severely limited. If you were above the 15th floor....it's just about impossible odds of getting out.
This material added in the renovation phase from a couple of years ago? It's been a big sales item in Germany, and I noted last year in Frankfurt.....they had a building which went quickly from a minor one-apartment fire to a massive fire.....same type material. Luckily, this was a three-story building....not a multi-floor building. My guess is that in roughly four months.....some PhD guy will come out and prove this renovation material is a major threat, and trigger a massive removal-type situation across Europe. Billions will be spent to remove it from the exterior of buildings.
Then I come to this personal feeling....that you need some type of rope-harness deal in your apartment and a repel-type device that you could just hook onto a doorway and break a window and slide down. It doesn't require rocket-science. Some engineer ought to be able to fashion something that cost less than a hundred bucks and guaranteed to dump you 300 feet to the ground....safely.
This was a building with roughly four apartments on each floor....one single elevator, and one single stairway. In a fire situation, it was a no-win situation. If you were above the fifth floor, your odds of getting out were severely limited. If you were above the 15th floor....it's just about impossible odds of getting out.
This material added in the renovation phase from a couple of years ago? It's been a big sales item in Germany, and I noted last year in Frankfurt.....they had a building which went quickly from a minor one-apartment fire to a massive fire.....same type material. Luckily, this was a three-story building....not a multi-floor building. My guess is that in roughly four months.....some PhD guy will come out and prove this renovation material is a major threat, and trigger a massive removal-type situation across Europe. Billions will be spent to remove it from the exterior of buildings.
Then I come to this personal feeling....that you need some type of rope-harness deal in your apartment and a repel-type device that you could just hook onto a doorway and break a window and slide down. It doesn't require rocket-science. Some engineer ought to be able to fashion something that cost less than a hundred bucks and guaranteed to dump you 300 feet to the ground....safely.
Wednesday, 18 January 2017
The Manning Pardon
There's various topics that you can bring up around Army folks and you can predict exactly what they will say. In the case of Chelsea Manning....the 35-year sentenced former Army guy....99-percent of Army folks are pretty negative about the guy. Rarely does any Army member defend the guy.
President Obama set aside most of the 35 years today....down to seven. He'll be finished with the sentence by spring of 2017.
My opinion of Manning is kinda simple. He's a psychological question-mark. He probably was this way all throughout high-school. The stress of the Army life? It probably made him even more of a 'basket-case'.
The Army, because of recruitment shortfalls during the war period....went out and accepted a lot of people like Manning....never grasping that he needed guidance and authority extended to him....twenty-four hours a day....seven days a week. Giving him a clearance? That was a big mistake of the Army. If they'd done a psychological profile.....he would have been pushed into some Army chow-hall and given simple work to finish out his Army career. But they were never smart enough to figure that out.
What happens after May? If I were Manning....I'd go quietly into some urban area and try not to draw any attention or appear on any national TV show. The problem is that there are other people from the Army.....past or present....psychologically unfit as well, and maybe more unhinged. They might think of some weird need to attack or go after him.
Prison being the solution for Manning? No....I think the Army would have been better off doing the examination and recommending some federal mental institute and a long-term stay. Once he goes out of prison, I think he's just a magnet for problems, which will continue on.
President Obama set aside most of the 35 years today....down to seven. He'll be finished with the sentence by spring of 2017.
My opinion of Manning is kinda simple. He's a psychological question-mark. He probably was this way all throughout high-school. The stress of the Army life? It probably made him even more of a 'basket-case'.
The Army, because of recruitment shortfalls during the war period....went out and accepted a lot of people like Manning....never grasping that he needed guidance and authority extended to him....twenty-four hours a day....seven days a week. Giving him a clearance? That was a big mistake of the Army. If they'd done a psychological profile.....he would have been pushed into some Army chow-hall and given simple work to finish out his Army career. But they were never smart enough to figure that out.
What happens after May? If I were Manning....I'd go quietly into some urban area and try not to draw any attention or appear on any national TV show. The problem is that there are other people from the Army.....past or present....psychologically unfit as well, and maybe more unhinged. They might think of some weird need to attack or go after him.
Prison being the solution for Manning? No....I think the Army would have been better off doing the examination and recommending some federal mental institute and a long-term stay. Once he goes out of prison, I think he's just a magnet for problems, which will continue on.
Wednesday, 6 April 2016
Revision of DC's Weed Law
It was one of those things that you'd predict. The city of Washington DC.....has more or less blessed marijuana (medical or otherwise).
As time went by....people started to smoke weed in public settings.....more and more. There was suggestions that even in pubs and nightclubs....weed was now being smoked with no hassle from the cops.
So, this week, the city council voted 7-6 (notice how close it was) to ban smoking weed in a public area or in any club/pub. To make it an effective passage....they have to meet back up within a period of time and vote on this a second time. No one is sure if the same seven folks will agree on the second time around.
What this creates? If you were a serious marijuana smoker, who liked to smoke on the street, or in some city-park....up until this point, the cops couldn't touch you. Now? Well, there's some possibility that you might end up with a misdemeanor. But what cop would waste his time on something so minor?
It's probably another reason to revert 75-percent of DC back to Maryland.
As time went by....people started to smoke weed in public settings.....more and more. There was suggestions that even in pubs and nightclubs....weed was now being smoked with no hassle from the cops.
So, this week, the city council voted 7-6 (notice how close it was) to ban smoking weed in a public area or in any club/pub. To make it an effective passage....they have to meet back up within a period of time and vote on this a second time. No one is sure if the same seven folks will agree on the second time around.
What this creates? If you were a serious marijuana smoker, who liked to smoke on the street, or in some city-park....up until this point, the cops couldn't touch you. Now? Well, there's some possibility that you might end up with a misdemeanor. But what cop would waste his time on something so minor?
It's probably another reason to revert 75-percent of DC back to Maryland.
Saturday, 2 April 2016
My Wisdom and Advice to a Kid on the Way to College
It is spring and in a few weeks....kids will wrap up high school and make the fateful choice on college. So my ten bits of advice.
1. You will only be at college for four years....unless you go on for a masters, or really foul-up your first year and have to repeat. Don't screw this up. You can figure at a low-cost state college, that your dad or you....are tossing $15,000 a year for tuition, board, food, and gas-money. At a regular up-scale state-school, you might be using up $28,000 a year. If you think this is some social club, pub-drinking association, or lifestyles-orientation theater.....boy, you got screwed.
2. You have basically two kinds of lecture-dopes or professors. One that actually knows something and is willing to part with this knowledge.....or one who is a dimwit and just reads out of a book. Do some research and ask stupid questions before concreting up your class schedule. Once you find competent instructors.....stay with them. Once you identify incompetent instructors.....let people know and avoid them at all costs.
3. You'd best add up what this degree will cost and ask yourself how it relates to income levels and job opportunities. If your degree is Russian literature, Japanese art, Civil War history, or volcano science......ask yourself where this is going lead and how the income works out. Most Civil War buffs end up as park rangers, history teachers for high schools, or Air Force Intelligence Officers. Throughout the entire US in one year.....there might be ten positions opening for Russian literature. If you did something stupid and got a degree costing $80,000.....what's the value for the rest of your life?
4. A bunch of dopes will try to hype up off-time for some diversity or fake cultural garbage. If you got time to waste and you like fraudulent gimmicks.....fine. If you stand and ask stupid questions and just get stupid answers.....maybe you ought to avoid the episode. Just because some idiot says 'diversity matters'.....doesn't really mean that 'diversity matters'.
5. Some people you bump into will be life-long friends. Some will not.
6. The idiots who designed campuses never meant for them to be easily figured out for a 'rookie'. You'd best go spend a day or two prior to your classes starting, and get a decent road-map from the dorm to the classes.
7. College isn't supposed to be some simple cake-walk where things make perfect sense. It's built as a challenge. Either accept that or walk away.
8 College isn't really designed as some theater production episode of Shakespeare. Probably half the professors or instructors you bump into.....are a bit odd and half-way insane. You might end up thinking this is kinda like an episode of Gilligan's Island.....where the Professor, the Skipper and Mr Howell offer daily bits of wisdom, and the rest are just there having fun.
9. In twenty years, you will look back and regard all of this as some life experience, where you learned some things....forget most things....and feel shocked at how it paid off.
10. In the end, you may finish up with only one real positive or understanding.....knowledge is only half the trick. Applying it or manipulating it.....is the real pay-off.
1. You will only be at college for four years....unless you go on for a masters, or really foul-up your first year and have to repeat. Don't screw this up. You can figure at a low-cost state college, that your dad or you....are tossing $15,000 a year for tuition, board, food, and gas-money. At a regular up-scale state-school, you might be using up $28,000 a year. If you think this is some social club, pub-drinking association, or lifestyles-orientation theater.....boy, you got screwed.
2. You have basically two kinds of lecture-dopes or professors. One that actually knows something and is willing to part with this knowledge.....or one who is a dimwit and just reads out of a book. Do some research and ask stupid questions before concreting up your class schedule. Once you find competent instructors.....stay with them. Once you identify incompetent instructors.....let people know and avoid them at all costs.
3. You'd best add up what this degree will cost and ask yourself how it relates to income levels and job opportunities. If your degree is Russian literature, Japanese art, Civil War history, or volcano science......ask yourself where this is going lead and how the income works out. Most Civil War buffs end up as park rangers, history teachers for high schools, or Air Force Intelligence Officers. Throughout the entire US in one year.....there might be ten positions opening for Russian literature. If you did something stupid and got a degree costing $80,000.....what's the value for the rest of your life?
4. A bunch of dopes will try to hype up off-time for some diversity or fake cultural garbage. If you got time to waste and you like fraudulent gimmicks.....fine. If you stand and ask stupid questions and just get stupid answers.....maybe you ought to avoid the episode. Just because some idiot says 'diversity matters'.....doesn't really mean that 'diversity matters'.
5. Some people you bump into will be life-long friends. Some will not.
6. The idiots who designed campuses never meant for them to be easily figured out for a 'rookie'. You'd best go spend a day or two prior to your classes starting, and get a decent road-map from the dorm to the classes.
7. College isn't supposed to be some simple cake-walk where things make perfect sense. It's built as a challenge. Either accept that or walk away.
8 College isn't really designed as some theater production episode of Shakespeare. Probably half the professors or instructors you bump into.....are a bit odd and half-way insane. You might end up thinking this is kinda like an episode of Gilligan's Island.....where the Professor, the Skipper and Mr Howell offer daily bits of wisdom, and the rest are just there having fun.
9. In twenty years, you will look back and regard all of this as some life experience, where you learned some things....forget most things....and feel shocked at how it paid off.
10. In the end, you may finish up with only one real positive or understanding.....knowledge is only half the trick. Applying it or manipulating it.....is the real pay-off.
Thursday, 31 March 2016
Metro Woes
At least twenty different news sources are covering the item.....the DC Metro subway system is in serious trouble. After the inspection from two weeks ago....what they will say is that they really need a lot of cash, and will have to shut down entire lines.....for weeks and weeks. You could be looking at six months of serious work with massive problems in getting people to work.
The money? They won't really put this on the table to say the amount.....so you get the feeling that we are probably talking about minimum of one billion dollars.
Federal, state, and public service folks are suppose to gather at the Mayflower Hotel and discuss some of the issues.
They don't really want to raise any more fares, or cut any service.....but that can only occur if Maryland, Virginia and DC agree....along with the federal government....to funnel massive amounts of money into a renovation project.
I sat there from 2010 to the summer of 2013.....utilizing the Metro system weekly and amazed at the bandaged effect of the various routes through the region. Course, if you go to New York City.....you'd say that DC is light-years ahead of New York.
What bothers me about this whole deal is that Metro shuts down for various weekend periods after each summer.....to conduct renovation and maintenance. They've been doing this for a decade. So, what exactly have they been wasting time upon.....that delayed all this current crisis to be so major? It would be interesting to know, but I guess the key thing is.....they want a billion-odd dollars to fix what they haven't already fixed.
The money? They won't really put this on the table to say the amount.....so you get the feeling that we are probably talking about minimum of one billion dollars.
Federal, state, and public service folks are suppose to gather at the Mayflower Hotel and discuss some of the issues.
They don't really want to raise any more fares, or cut any service.....but that can only occur if Maryland, Virginia and DC agree....along with the federal government....to funnel massive amounts of money into a renovation project.
I sat there from 2010 to the summer of 2013.....utilizing the Metro system weekly and amazed at the bandaged effect of the various routes through the region. Course, if you go to New York City.....you'd say that DC is light-years ahead of New York.
What bothers me about this whole deal is that Metro shuts down for various weekend periods after each summer.....to conduct renovation and maintenance. They've been doing this for a decade. So, what exactly have they been wasting time upon.....that delayed all this current crisis to be so major? It would be interesting to know, but I guess the key thing is.....they want a billion-odd dollars to fix what they haven't already fixed.
Wednesday, 30 March 2016
Deals
I came to a topic the other day when I was reading over an essay by a guy about 'deals'.....where he chatted about the five best and worst deals of his life. It was an interesting topic, which consumed a good bit of my time pondering about this later.
So I had five on my list:
1. It didn't happen to me but a guy I worked with around 1998. We were working in Germany, and he'd always had this dream about a Porsche 924. So he came up with this purchase deal....buying a 1981 Porsche 924 (it was 17 years old). I think he paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $3,500 for it. When he showed it to me.....I just looked at this crappy vehicle that really needed a lot of work (the whole interior smelled like a dog-house and the seats were in marginal condition). I didn't think it was worth more than $1,500.
Over the next two months, he put around $3,000 into the vehicle. Then one afternoon....the clutch gave out....which amounted to a special repair of $2,000 by the time everything was done. A month later....some axle problem occurred, and he put another $2,000 into the car. Over the course of twelve months, with the $3,000 of upgrade, and extras.....he had put around $11,000 into this car. I made a comment one day that for such-and-such amount.....he could have bought a four-year old 924 and not gotten all the heartache. He hated to hear such talk and continued on. A month later, another $1,500 repair was necessary. Shortly after that.....he put the car on the for-sale lot of Ramstein and sold it for roughly $3,900 (the new rims and fancy new tires helped on the price).
2. I was offered this fantastic deal by my Bitburg boss.....a satellite receiver and a 1978 Mercedes 280....for what amounted to roughly $150. The satellite receiver, I figured was worth $100.....so you can guess the value of the Mercedes.
The thing is.....he found it in a barn around the Bitburg area and it'd been sitting there for eight years. The whole left panel on the drivers side was eroded and bad shape. The car had a mildew smell. But the rest of the car was in fantastic shape, and it was an executive class type car. The thing could easily handle 200 kph and had a trunk big enough to hold a dozen golf-club bags.
So I bought it, and drove it passionately for seven months. Then one day.....the axle broke. The mechanic said as nicely as he could.....but it'd be at least $1,000 for him to do the work, but I'd have to find a junker car with an axle on it.....figure forty hours of my time in searching for such a vehicle and trying to swing some really good deal via a junk yard.
I gave up and handed it over to the junk yard.
3. I worked with this guy in Tucson who wanted to buy a house. He sat there at some real estate office one day, and they noted that they had this quick-to-sell deal. It was a house owned by a guy who'd been busted on drug sales....big-time.
So he asked about the deal.....in the foothills....originally priced in the $200,000 range.....door broke down and plywood nailed over it. Vacant for six months. They wanted $100,000.
I quizzed him over the deal. He drove straight over to view the place.....nice pool in the back. Three-car garage. Great landscaping. Huge kitchen. It was a fantastic deal. The thing was....this big plywood over the front door and the reputation of it being a druggie-house. He drove back to the real estate guy's office on that afternoon, and started the paperwork to buy it. A half-price house, but with a reputation.
4. I worked with some airman around 1998....who'd gone over to the sports shop of the BX, wanting a mountain-bike. They had one as a floor model, which had a 10-percent off deal (original price in the $3,000 range). He went up and noted that there were some issues with the seat and kick-stand (it was missing entirely). So he wanted another 10-percent off. Then he noted that the sports shop was having another 10-percent off deal on everything sold that weekend. Finally, he whined about one of the tires.....it was losing air. He ended up with the $3,000 bike being sold to him for $1,800. Other than $50 in parts for fix whatever was wrong....that was the extent of his deal.
5. My real estate agent who was fixing up the K-town house purchase for me in the 1990s.....related that the local bank wasn't that eager to deal with Americans. I asked about the reason. So, they'd had this American arrive in the Kaiserslautern area....with a German wife, who had relatives who were all carpenters and plumbers. He wanted to build his own house, from the ground up.....he just wanted the bank to fund $100,000 in raw materials.
I'm guessing that they had these kind of deals before and they always went well. So they signed off. For one whole year.....this house progressed and the bank was happy with things. One day.....the guy's German wife found out about an affair with the American husband going on. Divorce soon occurred, and the house construction stopped. The American just packed up one day and left. The house stood there....thirty-percent done, and all these raw materials laying there on the ground.
The bank was stuck with property and a house with no real structure. For them, it was an incredibly bad deal.
So I had five on my list:
1. It didn't happen to me but a guy I worked with around 1998. We were working in Germany, and he'd always had this dream about a Porsche 924. So he came up with this purchase deal....buying a 1981 Porsche 924 (it was 17 years old). I think he paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $3,500 for it. When he showed it to me.....I just looked at this crappy vehicle that really needed a lot of work (the whole interior smelled like a dog-house and the seats were in marginal condition). I didn't think it was worth more than $1,500.
Over the next two months, he put around $3,000 into the vehicle. Then one afternoon....the clutch gave out....which amounted to a special repair of $2,000 by the time everything was done. A month later....some axle problem occurred, and he put another $2,000 into the car. Over the course of twelve months, with the $3,000 of upgrade, and extras.....he had put around $11,000 into this car. I made a comment one day that for such-and-such amount.....he could have bought a four-year old 924 and not gotten all the heartache. He hated to hear such talk and continued on. A month later, another $1,500 repair was necessary. Shortly after that.....he put the car on the for-sale lot of Ramstein and sold it for roughly $3,900 (the new rims and fancy new tires helped on the price).
2. I was offered this fantastic deal by my Bitburg boss.....a satellite receiver and a 1978 Mercedes 280....for what amounted to roughly $150. The satellite receiver, I figured was worth $100.....so you can guess the value of the Mercedes.
The thing is.....he found it in a barn around the Bitburg area and it'd been sitting there for eight years. The whole left panel on the drivers side was eroded and bad shape. The car had a mildew smell. But the rest of the car was in fantastic shape, and it was an executive class type car. The thing could easily handle 200 kph and had a trunk big enough to hold a dozen golf-club bags.
So I bought it, and drove it passionately for seven months. Then one day.....the axle broke. The mechanic said as nicely as he could.....but it'd be at least $1,000 for him to do the work, but I'd have to find a junker car with an axle on it.....figure forty hours of my time in searching for such a vehicle and trying to swing some really good deal via a junk yard.
I gave up and handed it over to the junk yard.
3. I worked with this guy in Tucson who wanted to buy a house. He sat there at some real estate office one day, and they noted that they had this quick-to-sell deal. It was a house owned by a guy who'd been busted on drug sales....big-time.
So he asked about the deal.....in the foothills....originally priced in the $200,000 range.....door broke down and plywood nailed over it. Vacant for six months. They wanted $100,000.
I quizzed him over the deal. He drove straight over to view the place.....nice pool in the back. Three-car garage. Great landscaping. Huge kitchen. It was a fantastic deal. The thing was....this big plywood over the front door and the reputation of it being a druggie-house. He drove back to the real estate guy's office on that afternoon, and started the paperwork to buy it. A half-price house, but with a reputation.
4. I worked with some airman around 1998....who'd gone over to the sports shop of the BX, wanting a mountain-bike. They had one as a floor model, which had a 10-percent off deal (original price in the $3,000 range). He went up and noted that there were some issues with the seat and kick-stand (it was missing entirely). So he wanted another 10-percent off. Then he noted that the sports shop was having another 10-percent off deal on everything sold that weekend. Finally, he whined about one of the tires.....it was losing air. He ended up with the $3,000 bike being sold to him for $1,800. Other than $50 in parts for fix whatever was wrong....that was the extent of his deal.
5. My real estate agent who was fixing up the K-town house purchase for me in the 1990s.....related that the local bank wasn't that eager to deal with Americans. I asked about the reason. So, they'd had this American arrive in the Kaiserslautern area....with a German wife, who had relatives who were all carpenters and plumbers. He wanted to build his own house, from the ground up.....he just wanted the bank to fund $100,000 in raw materials.
I'm guessing that they had these kind of deals before and they always went well. So they signed off. For one whole year.....this house progressed and the bank was happy with things. One day.....the guy's German wife found out about an affair with the American husband going on. Divorce soon occurred, and the house construction stopped. The American just packed up one day and left. The house stood there....thirty-percent done, and all these raw materials laying there on the ground.
The bank was stuck with property and a house with no real structure. For them, it was an incredibly bad deal.
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