Sunday, 18 August 2019

Observations Over Dubrovnik

I spent the last week in Dubrovnik, Croatia, and will write a couple of essays over various things, but this is the travel and advice essay.  My 10 thoughts:

1.  Maybe it was cheap in Dubrovnik back in the 1980s or maybe the five years after the war.....but there's nothing really 'cheap' over the 'walled-city' today.  Part of this is related to the cruise-ships docking there (they actually limited it to around four per day now) and the Game of Thrones folks. 

2.  Russians.  There's simply a lot of Russians that mingle in the crowds.  I would take a guess on any summer day, there has to be at least 2,000 Russians in the town.

3.  Over-tourism problem?  Well....yeah.  Once you enter the boundary of the old city.....it's a mess from 9 AM to around 10 PM at night.  Maybe it's less in October.....but it's madness in June, July and August. 

4.  Crime and homelessness?  Mostly non-existent.  One could actively see the cops on patrol.  In the tourist season, there are tons of jobs.....of which I'd guess the unemployment rate in the region is less than 2-percent. 

5.  Just about every Croat I encountered in town....spoke English.  I would suggest that they are exceptionally friendly, and helpful.

6.  The heat?  A typical summer day will run in the 90 to 95 degree level.  With humidity added in, you will sweat through two to three t-shirts per-day.  Oddly, if you travel inland 50 miles, it's not that hot. 

7.  Slut-level.  I stayed at one of the top five hotels in Dubrovnik (5-star status).  Morning breakfast would come each day, and in a normal hotel....there's attire rules.  Well, at this place....with 350 rooms.....there was no attire rule for breakfast.  So you had an awful lot of skin on display at 9 AM.  I wouldn't mind if this were mostly all 18-to-30 year old women.  But when you got some 50-year old gal displaying 92-percent of her body, and there's forty extra pounds somewhere in the mix....it's a bit much for morning breakfast.   Oddly enough, this is a hotel that is frequented by Muslim guys from Iran, Kuwait, etc......with their traditional wives. 

8.  Game of Thrones.  It's safe to say that most Americans who tour Dubrovnik.....are there to see scenes from the show.  So you will be sitting at a cafe, and four young ladies are across from you and in deep conversation about such-and-such character, and this scene from this square.  It's pretty weird that people are consumed this much by a tv series.

9.  Hilly.  Well, virtually every single inch of Dubrovnik is built on hills and you find yourself climbing up and down.  So just walking one single block, you might encounter 100 stone steps up, and then walk another hundred down. 

10.  The max you should spend in Dubrovnik?  You can see the 'old-city' in eight hours flat.  The tours in the local area are mostly worthless.  And if you were there for sun and beach activity.....you could do it far cheaper 50 miles northwest of Dubrovnik.  Locals will even tell you that better beaches exist, and cheaper rates can readily be found in NW Croatia. 

Thursday, 8 August 2019

Sensory Overload?

This past week, I sat and watched about 20 minutes of video-clips over the Democratic Socialist Convention held recently.  In the midst of this....some guy got around to letting folks know that he was 'prone to sensory overload'. 

I sat and stopped the clip and thought about what he was attempting to say, or maybe what he meant to say.  It's bothered me a good bit over the week, and I come back to that topic for this essay.

There a fair number of folks who think they are exceptionally bright, but when a 1962 repair manual is given to them for some broken farm implement....this super intellectual  guy falls apart. In simple terms, handling the knowledge and using common sense strategies wasn't something  brought up in college.

So are we producing intellectual PhD idiots with value?  Yes.

Go take a 1968 gumball machine and ask this sensory overload character to examine it for an hour and explain how it works.  He'd have a problem.

But here's the positive....this guy will at least admit overload.

Should this guy even be attending a convention like this?  Well, that has bothered me as well. Normally, hookers and booze matter more at political conventions. That would have taken your mind off stupid political talks.

Another Example of a Mass Shooting

Around 20 June 1994, on Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington-state....a mass shooting took place, involving Dean Mellberg (age 20). 

Dean had shown at the base clinic, armed with a MK-90 (basically a AK-47).....around 3 pm in the afternoon.  When the smoke had cleared, he'd killed five individuals, and wounded 22 others.

Dean's basic story?  This is rather interesting.  Around age 18, he'd enlisted in the Air Force and gone to basic training.  Dean had trouble with virtually everyone that he came in contact with, and at some point.....they sent Dean for a mental eval, and the doctor wrote in strong language that Dean needed to be removed from the service.  In simple words, a personality disorder existed. 

Maybe if they'd held the guy for a week or two.....they might even have reached the point where he'd be noted as paranoid schizophrenic or bi-polar.  But no....the paperwork got shuffled around, and they kept Dean in basic training.  He would actually graduate and be sent off to aircraft mechanic's school.

When he graduated from mechanic's school....he was sent to Fairchild AFB, Washington.  There....he moved into the barracks.  Now the second episode comes up....the room-mate sends a note to the commander and strongly suggests that Dean is not sane. The commander actually does send Dean over to the clinic for a mandatory eval.   Remember, this isn't the first eval.....it's really the second.

So here in clinic....two doctors exam Dean and come to this remarkable conclusion.....Dean is not just a little bit crazy.....he is dangerous-crazy.  They write the recommendation to get Dean out.  But here's the funny thing.....somehow, the hospital is convinced to send Dean for another eval (down to Texas, to the main Air Force hospital).  They host Dean there for roughly sixteen weeks (yes, an incredible four months of time), and they reach this conclusion....Dean is unfit for service and mentally unstable.  In simple terms....he's a threat to just about anyone who knows him.

Whathen it's apparent that Dean will be thrown out....his parents get involved.  So they use their Congressman to push the Air Force along with this diagnosis that they'd had for a number of years....that Dean was suffering from some minor form of autism.  So a Air Force board met, and the three folks decided that autism was good enough for them, and dumped the recommendations from Fairchild, and the Texas hospital.

But rather than part with Dean there at the Texas Air Force hospital....they make the decision to send Dean back onto duty (just not at Fairchild)....so he's ordered to Mountain Home AFB, Idaho.  But here is this twist to the story.....they've heard about Dean, and conversed with folks who know the background on the guy.  They refuse to accept him.  Yes, this is the part of the story.....they weren't going to allow him on Mountain Home.

So Dean gets shifted....to Canon AFB, NM.  Dean arrives there and lasts around five weeks.  Then....shockingly enough, the new commander asks for another mental eval (number four).

This time, the eval sticks, and Dean is removed from duty....with just a plain discharge.  What happens over the next month?  Dean travels around the west, and even gets up into Alaska.  Then he decides to come back to Fairchild....for revenge. 

Dean would die that afternoon....shot by a Senior Airman on duty. 

A nutcase from day one?  Just based on the comments at basic training....he wasn't sane enough to be in the general public.  As far as I can tell....no one has gone back to his years in high school or talked with people who knew him in that period.  That might reveal more of the story.

What the Air Force did after this?  They changed forms for psychological review, and you had to check certain boxes.....which would indicate treatment only, or dismissal only.  That was it. 

Dean being unbalanced?  I would go and suggest after reading two differing accounts of the story....that Dean was prone to violent encounters, and probably lived in some type of imaginary world. 

Here's the thing though.....four different groups of doctors came to the same position....Dean wasn't safe or balanced. 


When Social Media Becomes a Public Utility

I'm one of those people who think eventually (probably before the November 2020 election) that all social media 'giants' will be put into a public utility situation, with oversight by Trump-appointed audit people.

It'll be argued by the Democrats and fought, but I think most Americans agree....it has reached the point of a utility operation.

So here's the curious thing....do you know of any utility that runs freely or untaxed?  There are none.  So somewhere in the midst of this transformation, either by government directive (to pay for the oversight) or by the media companies themselves....there's going to be some fee situation. 

The odds that a Facebook account or Twitter account will cost you $4.99 per month?  You might be lucky in the beginning, and this only amounts to a yearly cost of $15.   Even government taxation might amount to $1 a month from each user.  And if the federal guys could get that.....state folks ought to be able to drag 25-cents into their revenue pot as well. 

But this brings up this curious idea....would a cost situation start to eliminate or limit users?  What's the point where you say....'enough' and quit?  $4.99 a month, $7.99 a month, or $9.99 a month? 

Would you have juvenile ratings where kids under the age of sixteen can't see or hear anything unless it's stamped approved-for-juveniles?  That's very possible. 

Regulation that would eventually kill the industry?  I could see over the next ten years....tons of regulation occurring, with fines being dumped on Facebook and Twitter....and eventually making the monthly fee upwards to $30. 

So settle back and wait for this landscape to really morph overnight. 

Wednesday, 7 August 2019

Two Examples of Mass Shootings

So today, I've picked two examples of mass  shootings, and lay out the basic landscape over each:

1.  The Webster Shooting (24 December 2012)....yeah, the day prior to Christmas.

In this case, firemen got a call around 5:30 AM to a house fire in West Webster, NY (way up in the north part of the state).  As they pull up and get out, there's gunfire on them (the firemen).  Two of the firemen end up dead.

Cop now arrive and take on the single gunman.....Bill Spengler, age 62.  Bill is armed with a shotgun, a pistol (38) and a Bushmaster semiautomatic.   When everything is done, the cops have killed Bill.  Total wounded: 3.  Total dead: Bill, and three others.  It should be worth noting....the fourth person.....that was his older sister that he'd killed (several hours prior to the fire). 

The fire?  It was planned out.....as the firemen and cops arrived....he simply was going to kill more.  He even wrote the letter and detailed his plan. 

So here's this story on Bill.  Back around 1980, Bill killed his 92-year old Grandmother, with a hammer.  No one talks much over what got him hyped up and able to kill her, but the best that the DA could do....was 17 years in prison.  Was Bill already a nutcase in 1980?  Probably, but rather than mess around with that business....it was simpler to send to a state prison for seventeen years.

To fix this (at least by NY standards), they made up this new law that invoked 'first responder' provisions.  So if you attacked any first responder at a fire or situation, that got you life in prison, and zero chance for parole.  It didn't really fix much of anything when dealing with unhinged people or nutcases, but at least the politicians could say that they did their best.

Should they have dealt the guy just 17 years for the grandma killing?  Probably not....but no one seems to think over that issue.

2.  The Wedgewood Baptist Church shooting (Texas, 15 Sep 1999)  occurred on a Wednesday with lessen prayer services going on.

Larry Gene Ashbrook walked into the church with a pipe-bomb, and two pistols (AMT Backup and a 9mm).  When his encounter was done, he'd killed seven folks and himself....injuring seven others.

Roughly a decade prior to this (around age 37), his mother died and for some reason....that set Larry off into a decade mode-swings.  Some were nice....some were violent.

In the year prior to the church-shooting, people who knew Larry....spoke of disillusions.....saying at one point that the CIA was out to get him.  At some point, he suggested that he'd been assaulted by co-workers and the cops had tried to kill him.  In his home later, after the death.....folks noted that holes had been made in the wall.....concrete dumped into the toilets, and something had been laid out to poison trees and plants in the yard.

Odds of paranoid schizophrenia?  I'd say 100-percent chance.  In the year prior to the church shooting....if the system had worked correctly, cops should have picked up the guy, had him evaluated, and put into a secure mental facility.  But things simply don't work that way.

The odds that the death of his mother affected some chemical balance in his brain?  Maybe.  That's odd part about Larry's history....there's just nothing up to around age forty to say Larry was crazy.  After the mother's death.....year by year, Larry was sinking into some mental abyss.

Did anything change much after this church killing?  No.  Some churches might have armed up a guy or two at the entry of the church, but politicians didn't see anything much to resolve Larry's accomplishment.

Oh, and this group attending the church on that Wednesday?  This is the odd thing.....it was mostly teens and folks in their twenties.....a youth prayer meeting for that evening.  Four of the dead were 14 to 17 years old.

Tuesday, 6 August 2019

Milkshakes, Straws, Environmentalists, and McDonalds

This is one of those essays that leads you along a pretty rough path.

So, if you haven't noticed both in the US and in Europe....plastic straws are fairly negative now (like plastic bags).  McDonalds wanted to get ahead of this situation and have some positive stories to tell. They were going to dump plastic straws entirely. 

Leading out of McDonalds-UK, straws were all going to paper.  They'd gone and done some bare essentials research, and then bought a number of pallets of paper straws to start this new program.

Then, this odd development occurred....they discovered that paperstraws simply don't work well with milkshakes.  Maybe it's the thickness of the paper, or the absorption level of the straw....but it simply doesn't work. 

Added to this misery, the people who do recycling for McDonalds-UK.....looked at the waste product left, and made the decision that these recyclable straws are NOT recyclable.  So they go into the regular waste....not the recyclable waste.

What happens now?  No one says much.  Maybe they could go to bamboo straws, or maybe just dump straws entirely.....handling you a plastic spoon for the milkshake. 

The amusing side of this is that the environmentalists getting into the middle of this whole business....just made it a bigger mess than it was already. 

Monday, 5 August 2019

My Observations over Dayton and El Paso

Ten thoughts:

1.  The word 'Incel' comes up a good bit....meaning 'involuntary celibates', a sub-culture of male 'boys' who are mostly gamers, and unable to date or assemble a life of normalcy.  This has been going on for more than twenty years, and helps to explain why the majority of the shooters are white, losers, and lacking any care of society or people.

2.  Weapons of war.  It's a nifty term, but trying to use it for the AR-15 won't work.  There's not a single military structure in the world that uses the AR-15.  The M-16?  Yes, but the AR-15 is simply a different gun, and not a weapon of war.

3.  People who write manifestos.  In general....anyone who writes a manifesto, is aiming to bring society to a civil war or revolution....through a violent means, and death is involved.  Charles Manson was that type of nut....Adolph Hitler was that type of nut.  The Christchurch shooter, was that type of nut.

4.  Attempting to take all guns?  I just don't see cops being enthusiastic about storming homes and trying to take weapons that people refuse to turn in.

5.  Raising the age to purchase a weapon to 21?  Well, if that kid is that immature....why are you letting him vote, get a credit card, borrow tens of thousands to get into college loan debt, etc?  It seems like if the age is the big deal....lets go and really screw with the immature kids and take their vote away as you take the gun right away.

6.  Treating juveniles in high school who make threats or suggest some 'hit-list' to be treated like adults?  Parents might want to prevent this, but once you took some kid who made a death-threat into a jail situation for a year or two....it would eventually get the attention of kids, and clean up a growing threat.

7.  Ever noticed that the number of black mass shooters are mostly guys who got fired, and returned to work to extract some revenge?  Ever noticed that women shooters are non-existent?

8.  After each of these events, there's a up-turn on folks wanting a conceal-and-carry permit, and folks carrying more weapons?  I would take a guess right now in the state of Alabama....five out of ten vehicles leaving for work this morning....have some guy or gal armed.

9.  Video-gaming dehumanizing kids?  Yes....but what are you willing to do about it?  Would you forbid sales, or criminalize any store that offers the games....even to adults?  I doubt it.

10.  Will-power to change the Constitution?  As much as Democrats blabber about 'change'.....I seriously doubt that you can find more than four of ten Democrats who want the Constitution changed on guns.  I would also suggest that in cities like Detroit and Atlanta....seventy-five percent of Democrat-voting homes will have a minimum of a pistol in the residence.