Equal Time?

The mainstream media gets, rightfully, criticized for bias and selective reporting. When one sees some semblance of balanced reporting, it needs to be highlighted.
http://www.9news.com/story/news/politics/truth-tests/2014/09/15/truth-test-positive-negative-ads-for-hickenlooper/15695071/

Colorado's oldest television station is doing what all the media should, and rarely does, research and report, rather than passing on press releases from their favorites. Hope it is a trend.

My Sentiments

Boring, Verging on Tedious

Well shucks. Looks like the post I was working on disappeared; didn’t save it properly. Oh well, no great loss.

Find it amusing that people with no connection to the NFL, and probably no fondness for the NFL, are jumping the shark to promote their pet peeve. I have little tolerance for domestic violence, boorish behavior, and child abuse but wouldn’t think of trying to hijack someone else’s hard work and accomplishment to advance my own agenda.

Health issues dominate my time and thinking. The pacemaker was a minor annoyance. This nose operation is something else. It is hard to accept the lack of pep, focus, and fuzzy thinking. I know healing is taking place,  but it isn’t pleasant. The protective nose piece comes off Tuesday morning and I am looking forward to a good scratching of the blasted itching skin.

Fall is coming. The midday sun lacks the “bite” of a few weeks ago, and snow is falling in the higher elevations. Decent rain this summer, decent crops this year, and fewer fires. Summer in Colorado doesn’t get much better. Soon it will be time for studded snow tires on the pickup.

Even the bungling of the newsmakers can’t get me riled up. What a pathetic patch we are going through. My (p)regressive friends are subdued; can’t get a good rise out of any of them. The political ads from our incumbent Senator up for reelection are so nasty that even folks I know who loath his opponent are uncomfortable. Governor Wishy-washy continues to self destruct, and his opponent gains ground. Too bad his opponent has had his fingers on the fringes of many Colorado financial scandals, bank failures, and the whole Bush family Silverado Savings and Loan disaster of years past.

All for now. YMMV

Operation Over - Nose Job

Physician pleased - says it went well.

Patient says _&^%*  &^*  #$%^

Fun, fun, fun

Somewhat neglecting the blog as I deal with health issues. That, and nothing in the news has pissed me off enough to rant.

Since  1993, I’ve slept with a CPAP. When my heart acted up, I face planted twice and smashed my nose. One of those injuries where the doctors look at the MRI and go, “Hmmm, that is interesting”. For now, no CPAP, so little restorative sleep. Wednesday I go under so they can Roto-Rooter my nasal passages. I’m assured I will have a nice leather strap to bite on.

On a positive note, with a pacemaker, I may survive the shocks as the bills for all this come in.

Until then, be assured I will be reading your blogs. Go read the ones on my sidebar – they are far more interesting than mine.

ISIS RANT

ISIS. What follows is a long, meandering, and possible, pointless rant. An unnecessary personal bloviation, you may say.  You have been warned.

My late father was a WWII India veteran. Originally trained at Aberdeen MY in Chemical warfare, his unit was switched to “Air Corps Quartermaster in charge of Graves Registration”, per him, on arrival in the Assam area. He had a gift for languages, learned Hindustani among others, and ended the war running a Quartermaster operation using native laborers. He was adamant about the following.

“The only thing an Asian understands is a boot on his neck, and rice in his belly”.

Like many testosterone infused young troopers in Germany, circa 1965, I volunteered for Vietnam. None of us went; much less costly to train and ship someone from the States, from the Army’s point of view, then ship someone from Germany, and then replace him with someone from the States. Can’t remember just how my father found out I volunteered, but he wrote me a scorching letter. Unusual, as writing letters was my mother’s job. The main point of the letter?

“I fought in one Asian war. I didn’t raise a son to fight in another”.

I can only imagine the outburst had he lived long enough to see a grandson go off to another Asian war.

I see lots of opinions, in the news, on blogs, and
the political opinion galleries that the answer is to “bomb them out of existence - smash them flat. Perhaps the appeal is that bombing, from the point of view of those not doing it, is a “clean” solution. For the crews that fly those missions, the ground support personnel that support the missions, and the staff that plans those missions, it is a hard, brutal way to wage war. Ask the aircraft carrier personnel what it is like.

Worse, to date, it hasn’t worked. Please read this, then come back.

http://www.clemson.edu/caah/history/FacultyPages/EdMoise/limit1.html

What bombing does is allow “boots on the ground” with fewer causalities. Boots on the ground are what puts an end to conflicts, if an end is ever achieved.

There are sound arguments to merge the Air Force back into the Army and Navy.

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/140574/robert-farley/ground-the-air-force


The tip of the spear is what decides things. All this squabbling about what part of the spear shaft is the most important just detracts from the need to have the damn spear to begin with.

But I wander, and will try to return to the path of my father’s teaching.

We have, for decades, shipped “implements of destruction” to the Middle East. Granted, much of that benefited our domestic industry. We have trained the Arabs, built their infrastructure, and put them in a place where they can take care of their own problems. And, they should. I don’t give one half of a rat’s ass about the fortunes of Halliburton and others. They took on the risks with the expectation of immense profits. The blood of our children should not be spent to save their financial asses.

But WSF, it is the resources. Well, duh. Those resources aren’t going anywhere, just the ownership may change. For the resources to have any value, there needs to be a market. Try this scenario. Not one tanker load of crude transit’s the Straits of Hormuz for six months. Which collapses first, the world economy, or the Gulf State’s economies? Who then kisses who’s ass?

Like anyone, I’m appalled by the savagery of ISIS, by the slaughter of ancient religious groups, Christians, and ethnic groups by these murderers. The answer is in the hands of the people of the region to put a lid on it. It is time for we in the West to stop thinking  our  way of conducting our affairs should be the way of the world conducts theirs. That is racism in it’s purest form.

Last but not least. The wealthy Arabs need another favorite song than, “Onward Christian Soldiers“.

Karma: Payback Is A Bitch

In the years of selling cars, one of the situations that stood out involved otherwise intelligent people who were woefully ignorant of both the product and process. Watching them try to conduct business in a confident and “professional” manner, while they really didn’t have a clue, was a private enjoyment. Much like me with computers.

I’m facing the need to replace or update two desktops, and I’m feeling that awful lack of knowledge. In addition, I am cheap, not frugal, Scrooge Mc Duck cheap, and wanting to go used or refurbished when you don't know squat, is not fun. Feels like the ghosts of car deals past are looking down and laughing their asses off.

Who is to blame? Who has spent years learning just enough to use a fraction of the computer's capability, and not bothering to master using a computer?

I'm not sure, but want to kick his ass.