What are the chief ingredients of a Jerry Springer Show?
1. Lie-detector tests.
2. Accusations which seem marginally true.
3. Fakeness (one almost imagines that the six people lined up as the participants, are just hired for the role).
4. Whores. About seventy percent of the women tend to be trailer-park trash, skanky, or working on marriage number four.
5. Content inappropriate for children under twelve.
6. A verbal or physical fight.
7. By the end of the show, the odds of participants ever getting back on friendly terms are zero.
8. Body-builder guards are protecting Jerry or the participants.
9. There's always a history which requires five to eight minutes to tell the basic story.
10. In ten-percent of cases, there's a fake-woman or a transgender guy involved.
So you look over the Kavanaugh senate episode, and it's curious.....nine of the ten basic ingredients (no fake-woman/trans in this pony-show) are in this senate hearing.
Last week, I was reading some commentary by a conservative gal (she at least says this), and she said about an hour into the Professor Ford episode....she felt it was inappropriate for any kid under ten to hear the commentary....particularly in the middle of the day when kids might flip through channels.
I sat and pondered over this. Maybe the Senate ought to make up a new rule.....limit questions to only a 10 PM to 5 PM cycle, so kids wouldn't get all hyped up on booze and lust.
The chief question to ask here.....have we arrived at Jerry Spring-politics, and will this become the new norm? And do we really want that theatrical-style of politics? Personally, if they'd added some trans-guy-woman, it might have made this pretty interesting, and that Senator Graham guy would have had a lot of fun asking him/her a bunch of questions.
Saturday, 6 October 2018
Friday, 5 October 2018
Witch Stuff
Because Senator Graham (Rep-SC) brought up witchcraft trials and 'tests' (how to handle Judge Kavanaugh)....I went back today and spent an hour over one of the 500-odd topics which I've often had an interest in witches.
Being from Alabama, we never really had any local witches, and most of my introduction was limited to books such as The Crucible and some historical piece which the local school had bought for their library but I noted since 1959 (when it was put into the school library and the first check-out card was placed into it)....it'd only been checked out three times by the time I'd read it in 1972. I was probably the only kid in that school that checked out every single non-fiction book they had.
To know that you are in the presence of a witch? Well....there are seven basic ways:
1. You get the witch to give you some urine (don't ask), and you mix this with rye....making it into some kind of bread. Then you find some dog (can't be a human), and if the dog eats the cake....a true witch will have severe pains. I admit it's pretty crazy but this whole witchcraft thing of the 1690s took off and guys just invented stuff like this out of thin air.
2. The Lords Prayer. Basically, if you could recite the whole prayer, you were safe.
3. You measure up some gal, and gather all the Bibles in the community to equal her height.....stacking them on a scale. You put the witch on the other side of the scale. If the gal is heavier than the Bibles....she's a witch. You tended to find that fat chunky women usually lost out on this test.
4. Women that hung around cats....especially black cats....were readily identified as witches.
5. You look over the accused gal for scares or birthmarks. Now the fact that everyone in some family might have scares, or birthmarks? Well.....that did present a problem.
6. The tear test. Basically, if you could provide tears, on request.....you were clear of being a witch.
7. The scratch test. Basically, you'd scratch some witch enough.....that she'd cast a spell. Usually, in this episode.....you ended up with forty-odd scratches, which the locals would all deem it sufficient that you didn't apparently have any spell-casting ability.
The odd case with the Kavanaugh episode....is that none of the Democrats seem willing to say how he could be innocent, and thus he can never prove or disprove the 'witch' business.
Being from Alabama, we never really had any local witches, and most of my introduction was limited to books such as The Crucible and some historical piece which the local school had bought for their library but I noted since 1959 (when it was put into the school library and the first check-out card was placed into it)....it'd only been checked out three times by the time I'd read it in 1972. I was probably the only kid in that school that checked out every single non-fiction book they had.
To know that you are in the presence of a witch? Well....there are seven basic ways:
1. You get the witch to give you some urine (don't ask), and you mix this with rye....making it into some kind of bread. Then you find some dog (can't be a human), and if the dog eats the cake....a true witch will have severe pains. I admit it's pretty crazy but this whole witchcraft thing of the 1690s took off and guys just invented stuff like this out of thin air.
2. The Lords Prayer. Basically, if you could recite the whole prayer, you were safe.
3. You measure up some gal, and gather all the Bibles in the community to equal her height.....stacking them on a scale. You put the witch on the other side of the scale. If the gal is heavier than the Bibles....she's a witch. You tended to find that fat chunky women usually lost out on this test.
4. Women that hung around cats....especially black cats....were readily identified as witches.
5. You look over the accused gal for scares or birthmarks. Now the fact that everyone in some family might have scares, or birthmarks? Well.....that did present a problem.
6. The tear test. Basically, if you could provide tears, on request.....you were clear of being a witch.
7. The scratch test. Basically, you'd scratch some witch enough.....that she'd cast a spell. Usually, in this episode.....you ended up with forty-odd scratches, which the locals would all deem it sufficient that you didn't apparently have any spell-casting ability.
The odd case with the Kavanaugh episode....is that none of the Democrats seem willing to say how he could be innocent, and thus he can never prove or disprove the 'witch' business.
The Kavanaugh 'Circus'
In summary, it was a series of bluffs....some designed at a one-star level....some at a five-star level, and it appears....they all failed.
The idea early in this strategy by the Democrats was simply to impress enough negativity upon Kavanaugh enough that he'd back out. For a normal guy, I think the Ford letter business would have done that. So Kavanaugh called the bluff, and forced her to show up and provide testimony. She had several counter-bluffs ready to go (the lie detector test, the second person backing up the story, etc). Well....he counter-bluffed.
Somewhere in the middle of this mess....Senator Graham woke up and probably delivered the greatest responses of his career. Some CNN folks were able to put a dozen hours a day into a negative-Kavanaugh message. And then pieces of the Ford story started to fall apart.
The three basic problems here? (1) No witnesses to support Ford's story. (2) The high school year book which shows an entire group of people in the early 1980s who partied, and consumed booze. (3) A recovered memory, which sometimes had information and sometimes had zero information. On the last issue, you kinda wonder if there alcohol blackouts involved.
So Kavanaugh will likely get the votes. But the bigger question....did this damage the Republicans in the election? No....I think it actually damaged two to four Democratic Senators more, and their likely chances of winning might be diminished by five-percent. In the thirty states that Trump won? This strategy probably did a fair amount of damage to the Democrat's brand.
And the thing you have to worry about....two older Democratic justices in the court and if either were to pass on....over the next year or two. With a GOP count of 60-plus Senators....Trump might be able to stack one more conservative judge on the court and set up a pattern for twenty-plus years. That's serious damage to the Democratic brand.
The idea early in this strategy by the Democrats was simply to impress enough negativity upon Kavanaugh enough that he'd back out. For a normal guy, I think the Ford letter business would have done that. So Kavanaugh called the bluff, and forced her to show up and provide testimony. She had several counter-bluffs ready to go (the lie detector test, the second person backing up the story, etc). Well....he counter-bluffed.
Somewhere in the middle of this mess....Senator Graham woke up and probably delivered the greatest responses of his career. Some CNN folks were able to put a dozen hours a day into a negative-Kavanaugh message. And then pieces of the Ford story started to fall apart.
The three basic problems here? (1) No witnesses to support Ford's story. (2) The high school year book which shows an entire group of people in the early 1980s who partied, and consumed booze. (3) A recovered memory, which sometimes had information and sometimes had zero information. On the last issue, you kinda wonder if there alcohol blackouts involved.
So Kavanaugh will likely get the votes. But the bigger question....did this damage the Republicans in the election? No....I think it actually damaged two to four Democratic Senators more, and their likely chances of winning might be diminished by five-percent. In the thirty states that Trump won? This strategy probably did a fair amount of damage to the Democrat's brand.
And the thing you have to worry about....two older Democratic justices in the court and if either were to pass on....over the next year or two. With a GOP count of 60-plus Senators....Trump might be able to stack one more conservative judge on the court and set up a pattern for twenty-plus years. That's serious damage to the Democratic brand.
Thursday, 4 October 2018
The Five Million Story
I noticed a financial story today, which centered around the TV financial 'host'....Suze Orman. She basically came out and said you if intend to retire early in life (suggesting around age 50), then you need five-million dollars in the portfolio to make this happen.
I sat and pondered upon the idea, and her estimation.
I made a decision around seven years ago to retire completely at age 55. No, I don't have five million, or even one million. What I basically had was a military pension (probably worth 1,600 a month) and a GS-IRA type account which I get around 1,400 a month. Toss in the fact that I don't have a mortgage (my wife has the family house), and I really never got much into debt over my entire life. I won't say I lived in a modest way, but I didn't really go out to waste money either.
No, I didn't ever buy a $30,000 car.....ever.
No, I have never owned a $60k RV....ever.
No, I never bought a $9k quad-bike.....ever.
I disagree with Suze on this number of 5-million. In general, as long as you don't have a mortgage hanging over you at retirement, with no real debt (especially credit cards), and you have some monthly amount of 1,500 to 2,000.....you can retire at age 50. The problem though...is this stupid mortgage deal, and the condition of your house.
I worked with a guy at the Pentagon who came to face a problem with his roof. By the time that the carpenter did the estimate of damage....this guy was looking at a $30k renovation project. This was also the year that his wife's car had transmission problems, and he had to buy a new car. His plan to retire at age 58? Gone. He had to add a minimum of two more years onto his master-plan for retirement.
I worked with a NCO in the 1990s who had around $150k in debt (both he and wife had incomes). He laid it out.....various cost factors....one daughter had drained $70k over four years at some university, and he had one more kid to put through college. He figured just in interest per year....they had $15,000 going out.
Maybe Suze is correct on the 5-million, if you have debt of any size. But I just have a problem with this idea of a massive amount of money required to retire upon.
I sat and pondered upon the idea, and her estimation.
I made a decision around seven years ago to retire completely at age 55. No, I don't have five million, or even one million. What I basically had was a military pension (probably worth 1,600 a month) and a GS-IRA type account which I get around 1,400 a month. Toss in the fact that I don't have a mortgage (my wife has the family house), and I really never got much into debt over my entire life. I won't say I lived in a modest way, but I didn't really go out to waste money either.
No, I didn't ever buy a $30,000 car.....ever.
No, I have never owned a $60k RV....ever.
No, I never bought a $9k quad-bike.....ever.
I disagree with Suze on this number of 5-million. In general, as long as you don't have a mortgage hanging over you at retirement, with no real debt (especially credit cards), and you have some monthly amount of 1,500 to 2,000.....you can retire at age 50. The problem though...is this stupid mortgage deal, and the condition of your house.
I worked with a guy at the Pentagon who came to face a problem with his roof. By the time that the carpenter did the estimate of damage....this guy was looking at a $30k renovation project. This was also the year that his wife's car had transmission problems, and he had to buy a new car. His plan to retire at age 58? Gone. He had to add a minimum of two more years onto his master-plan for retirement.
I worked with a NCO in the 1990s who had around $150k in debt (both he and wife had incomes). He laid it out.....various cost factors....one daughter had drained $70k over four years at some university, and he had one more kid to put through college. He figured just in interest per year....they had $15,000 going out.
Maybe Suze is correct on the 5-million, if you have debt of any size. But I just have a problem with this idea of a massive amount of money required to retire upon.
Wednesday, 3 October 2018
The 'Message' Story
At some point today, across America....the Homeland Security folks will send out some mass 'test' message to every single cellphone....to demonstrate to the public that emergency info can be pushed out....if conditions require it.
Who is in charge of the test? FEMA.
There are three observations that I can make over this.
First, someone is going to copy the 'message', and turn it into a hoax-type thing, and resend it at various times to unsuspecting people, who will freak out over some fake nuclear incident....fake volcanic eruption....or some circus tiger being on the loose in your community.
Second, it's going to turn all political because people will suggest that Trump will send out fake 'messages' to alarm the public.
Third, even if you got a real 'message' in the future over some event unfolding (like aliens having landed and launching an invasion)....do you really want to take the government's advice on evaluation or how to handle your end of the situation?
Being from Alabama, I would suspect that forty-percent of the public in the state will discount the government advice right off the bat, and start making their own assumptions and solutions. Distrust? It's been proven over and over....the last people on earth that you want advice from in a contingency....is the US federal government.
A month or two down the line, I expect dozens of people each day will get some fake alert from some guy....warning of a dam collapse, or lion spotted in the local area, and this will become a big problem with people freaking out and getting hyped-up over nothing. Eventually, some idiot will fire off 10,000 messages to some folks in DC, notifying them of a nuke attack on Fairfax, and scaring thousands to evacuate to West Virginia in the middle of the night.
That's the problem about technology.....you just don't know where it's going to lead onto.
Who is in charge of the test? FEMA.
There are three observations that I can make over this.
First, someone is going to copy the 'message', and turn it into a hoax-type thing, and resend it at various times to unsuspecting people, who will freak out over some fake nuclear incident....fake volcanic eruption....or some circus tiger being on the loose in your community.
Second, it's going to turn all political because people will suggest that Trump will send out fake 'messages' to alarm the public.
Third, even if you got a real 'message' in the future over some event unfolding (like aliens having landed and launching an invasion)....do you really want to take the government's advice on evaluation or how to handle your end of the situation?
Being from Alabama, I would suspect that forty-percent of the public in the state will discount the government advice right off the bat, and start making their own assumptions and solutions. Distrust? It's been proven over and over....the last people on earth that you want advice from in a contingency....is the US federal government.
A month or two down the line, I expect dozens of people each day will get some fake alert from some guy....warning of a dam collapse, or lion spotted in the local area, and this will become a big problem with people freaking out and getting hyped-up over nothing. Eventually, some idiot will fire off 10,000 messages to some folks in DC, notifying them of a nuke attack on Fairfax, and scaring thousands to evacuate to West Virginia in the middle of the night.
That's the problem about technology.....you just don't know where it's going to lead onto.
Monday, 1 October 2018
My Soon Anticipated 'Safari'
In two weeks, I set off on a trip to South Africa, with a mini-safari included in the deal. To be honest, it's not one of the top ten places that I'd prefer for a tour but the wife rated it number one.
Years ago as a kid, I heard a fascination with a Saturday afternoon show.....Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. The head guy was Marlin Perkins and for thirty minutes, you were entertained by clips of Marlin's latest adventure. The show went from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s.
I didn't so much watch to view Marlin, but his number one assistant....Jim.
Jim seemed to always be the guy who was assigned to climb into some lion pit, or handle some hefty snake. Jim, in my humble opinion, was just a breathe away from death in almost every episode. Jim seemed to favor clean living, no booze, and no cigarettes.
Marlin would tend to talk about the trip....the strategy of hunting elephants....the handling of tigers, etc. Jim was the action-guy.
My take, after probably watching four-hundred episodes....Africa and this safari business was probably not on my top ten 'adventures'. I think this was mostly Marlin's fault because he made it all seem perfectly safe and with no hazards.
Last week, I noted some German gal who'd entered some safari park in Tanzania....then decided she needed to take some picture of a nearby elephant. No one says if she said anything, or just scared the elephant....but he came over and stumped her to death. Today, I noticed another travel story from the region (occurring over the weekend)....a German guy walked too near some elephant and the elephant freaked out....attempting to stomp him to death (failing, but giving the guy a broken leg and arm).
Maybe these two Germans were a bit like Jim and willing to take chances. It's hard to tell.
Years ago as a kid, I heard a fascination with a Saturday afternoon show.....Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. The head guy was Marlin Perkins and for thirty minutes, you were entertained by clips of Marlin's latest adventure. The show went from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s.
I didn't so much watch to view Marlin, but his number one assistant....Jim.
Jim seemed to always be the guy who was assigned to climb into some lion pit, or handle some hefty snake. Jim, in my humble opinion, was just a breathe away from death in almost every episode. Jim seemed to favor clean living, no booze, and no cigarettes.
Marlin would tend to talk about the trip....the strategy of hunting elephants....the handling of tigers, etc. Jim was the action-guy.
My take, after probably watching four-hundred episodes....Africa and this safari business was probably not on my top ten 'adventures'. I think this was mostly Marlin's fault because he made it all seem perfectly safe and with no hazards.
Last week, I noted some German gal who'd entered some safari park in Tanzania....then decided she needed to take some picture of a nearby elephant. No one says if she said anything, or just scared the elephant....but he came over and stumped her to death. Today, I noticed another travel story from the region (occurring over the weekend)....a German guy walked too near some elephant and the elephant freaked out....attempting to stomp him to death (failing, but giving the guy a broken leg and arm).
Maybe these two Germans were a bit like Jim and willing to take chances. It's hard to tell.
Sunday, 30 September 2018
The AMX Story
For one brief year, I owned an AMC Javelin (the AMX version). My dad (after the radiator hose came loose on the old Oldsmobile and scolded him to the ninth-degree) had come to agree that it had to go. This was spoken about 24 hours after visiting the emergency room, and getting some pain killers and special salve.
A week passed, and we drove around for one afternoon and looked at three or four car lots in the region, and here in the Muscle Shoals area was this practically new AMX sitting there. I figured there was zero chance that he'd sign up to this car....which it was an odd episode where he had no problem. First, it was a muscle car....V8, with 210 horsepower (yes, it burned a hefty amount of gas). Second, it looked like some 'fireball' or some vehicle inviting trouble. Third, and most serious of all....it was AMC (my dad was sold on Fords). The Oldsmobile? I think on trade-in value....we got a $100.
The story with this AMX? The sales guy sat there and laid out this epic story.
Such-and-such guy with money....laid out cash to buy this AMX for his precious 16-year old daughter in the spring of 1975 (in Franklin county). The family actually flew up to Detroit and picked up the car (some grand adventure). Somewhere in the spring of 1976, the daughter ends up in relationship and pregnant. Her dad decides to resettle the daughter into a church-atmosphere and the AMX has to go....so they bring it to the dealer and gets it back onto the market. Perhaps in some way, the car was an invitation to trouble.
So I drove this car for roughly one entire year. When I went off to the Air Force....with the tour to Germany....I figured that was enough and told my dad to go ahead and sell it.
Looking back, that car burned gas like crazy. If it weren't for the farm gas-tank that my dad had.....the monthly gas bill would have driven me crazy. I doubt that I got more than 13 mpg. Image? Absolutely....it was a car that gave you an image.
A week passed, and we drove around for one afternoon and looked at three or four car lots in the region, and here in the Muscle Shoals area was this practically new AMX sitting there. I figured there was zero chance that he'd sign up to this car....which it was an odd episode where he had no problem. First, it was a muscle car....V8, with 210 horsepower (yes, it burned a hefty amount of gas). Second, it looked like some 'fireball' or some vehicle inviting trouble. Third, and most serious of all....it was AMC (my dad was sold on Fords). The Oldsmobile? I think on trade-in value....we got a $100.
The story with this AMX? The sales guy sat there and laid out this epic story.
Such-and-such guy with money....laid out cash to buy this AMX for his precious 16-year old daughter in the spring of 1975 (in Franklin county). The family actually flew up to Detroit and picked up the car (some grand adventure). Somewhere in the spring of 1976, the daughter ends up in relationship and pregnant. Her dad decides to resettle the daughter into a church-atmosphere and the AMX has to go....so they bring it to the dealer and gets it back onto the market. Perhaps in some way, the car was an invitation to trouble.
So I drove this car for roughly one entire year. When I went off to the Air Force....with the tour to Germany....I figured that was enough and told my dad to go ahead and sell it.
Looking back, that car burned gas like crazy. If it weren't for the farm gas-tank that my dad had.....the monthly gas bill would have driven me crazy. I doubt that I got more than 13 mpg. Image? Absolutely....it was a car that gave you an image.
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