There’s Always A Bad Guy, Isn’t There?

Is it me, or is there always a bad guy out there waiting to get us? I was just a kid when I learned that there were ‘bad guys” besides the boogey man under my bed at night. The threat was “Krauts” and “Nips” and they were very real to my brothers and I as we daily sought them out in mortal combat. We didn’t bother with North Koreans, as no one really talked about those guys.

My brother and the neighborhood kids fought these WWII aggressors each and every day as they tried to infiltrate our neighborhoods and because my family moved quite often, I never found out if all this practice did them any good in Vietnam. I know it helped me to be a better “soldier” and that became apparent in boot camp on the obstacle course when others struggled, I excelled.

Then came the Commies and they were the perfect bad guy and in a way, I kind of miss them. At one time there were over 40 Communist countries and now there are just 5 – Laos, North Korea, Cuba, China, and Vietnam. The red scare was so real, people were building bomb shelters and we kids did drills at school to escape the future nuclear fallout. It was a very serious and real threat and no one made jokes about it.

Race Relations, assassinations, Vietnam, hurricanes, Arctic blasts, drug cartels, Ebola, Zika, Hepatitis, AIDS, Hillary, Global warming, criminals, radical Islam, shingles… Lord have mercy. Now it’s Donald Trump rolling across American politics like he’s the devil himself.

To a lot of us the current “bad guy” is not The Donald, its the US Government. Isn’t that sad? Many of us do not trust our government and suspect they are self-serving carpetbaggers on both sides of the fence. On top of that, some believe they are on the same side of the fence and all the voters are on the other side – the losing side. It does seem odd that whoever is in office, nothing changes.

One local curmudgeon thinks Hillary Clinton and John Kasich are "a great fair and civil race to the finish" and when I read that, I felt like giving Jack Kevorkian’s successor a call for his benefit. The man is clearly in need of an intervention. If either of these two politicians are elected, the rape of America will continue.

Both Parties blame the other, and then either continues the same policies, or declares they will change them… at a later date. They angrily posture, and then go eat lunch together and laugh at our expense. How is it even possible that the President of the United States can’t even clear up whether he is an American Citizen, when if I owe the IRS $50 and won’t pay, they simply garnish my wages?

How is it that giant accounting companies and investment bankers can scam billions of dollars off of investors and get away with it for years?  How can this country be overran with people illegally entering the country and yet the very people who point this out are labeled as racist? How can a top government official fail miserably at their job for years and not get fired? Worse yet, how is it possible they get reelected?

Why do we have Primaries, if a Party talking head can openly brag that the voters don’t pick the candidate – they do? If they can’t control a popular candidate, I guess they simply say they are not the right person and put someone else up on the ticket. “You stupid people don’t understand politics, so we will do your thinking for you!” The quote is my own, so don’t bother Googling it and yes, you can quote me.

Boogie men! Bad guys and gals abound and while some live outside the law and are obviously criminals, others write the laws and then violate them with impunity. Both are criminal parasites living off the working man and woman. They are akin to the charlatan preacher who does not practice what they preach and keep many small fires burning to distract their congregation from their own larger transgression.

In other words, the very people we elect to represent us, often do the opposite. I’m not sure where it starts, but by the time they finally arrive, they are no longer representing anything other than big government. So why is it a surprise that Donald Trump is shaking up this dynasty? He’s not being bribed or beholden to any big oil or pharmaceutical company, let alone the thousands of powerful lobbyists.

If elected, he won’t be beholden to place every million dollar contributor’s representative in office below him – like has been done by both parties for years. He’s upsetting the system in a way our country has never experienced! He’s already made it clear that he will appoint the brightest, smartest, and best people to these positions to get the country back on track.

Donald Trump is not just a threat to the GOP. He’s a threat to the entire system of “business as usual”, which is keeping the fat cats fat and we the people scared of bad guys. In the next few months expect world leaders (who are double dipping your tax dollars) to come out screaming. Both parties will spend your hard earned money to try and discredit Trump.

Make sure you understand why they are demonizing him as the ultimate bad guy.

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The Bigger They Are…

The bridge in the park in Carmine, Texas

It was lightly raining and I got out of my Jeep, global positioning receiver in hand.  Thursday morning in Carmine, Texas looks like Baytown… never.  It was totally devoid of activity and the tiny park around me was deserted.  I stood in the soft rain and looked at the rushing water fight against itself to get under the foot bridge down and away.

I wasn’t worried about my global positioning satellite receiver getting wet.  It’s a waterproof top of the line Garmin Oregon 650 and will pinpoint my location within 15 feet any place on earth.  I use it for geocaching; my hobby of choice. On the other side of the 40 foot wooden-planked bridge is a “cache” and I plan to find it and sign the logbook it holds. I was ready and felt strong.

As usual, I am by myself and in a remote location.  I know a lot about the right and wrongs of being in places of compromise and not having the proper resources, but this is a city park, right? It is a sad confession, but very often bad things happen in the most unexpected places and this day was one of those unfortunate days.

I see the geocache is approximately 450 feet away and crossing the bridge is the path I must take, so off I go. I pride myself on the hiking boots I wear. They are made by Timberline and this is my 3^rd pair. With them I can walk on ice and have been to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back with total confidence in their ability to stabilize my feet and balance.

Up I walked, actually enjoying the soft rain hitting me. No apparent evidence of a slippery slope and I crossed over the top enjoying the torrent of water running under me.  I stopped and looked at it. Wow! What a flood!  I had a few more caches to find before I needed to head back to Brenham for the Texas Geocaching Association’s yearly competition in the next few days, so I started down and that’s when it got ugly.

Who knew tree pollen is slippery? Gravity accelerates you at 9.8 meters per second per second. After one second, you're falling 9.8 m/s. After two seconds, you're falling 19.6 m/s, and so on.  I am less than 2 meters tall…

I remember everything going into slow motion and seeing both feet as high up in the air as my face. I hit flat on my back so hard it all but knocked the wind from me. Now mind you, I am pretty much classified as an expert in taking a fall, being a black belt and studying jui-jitsu, hapkido and chayonryu – but I had no time to break my fall properly.

I landed just like everyone else would – real hard. I do not believe a person can hit the ground any harder than I did unless you fell off a building or cliff. To put it mildly, I was stunned.

I laid there on my back in the rain all by my lonesome for what seemed like a long time, but was probably about 10 seconds. You’ve heard the saying knee jerk reaction, right? Well, that is exactly what I did and I did it so hard, I pulled my left hip flexor to the fainting point. Involuntary reactions to falling a lot of times are worse than the fall and this is how people break their arms – or necks when they fall.

I stood slowly, experiencing excruciating pain in my left front pocket area. I blew air out through my teeth not believing this had just happened to me and slowly descended, wondering if I was hurt worse than I thought. Maybe I could walk it out. I limped toward the geocache and as fate would have it, it was up the bank and behind a bush about a hundred feet away. Very carefully I located it and signed the log book, shaking my head in disbelief at my accident.

5 minutes later I arrived at the base of the bridge I had to cross and grabbing both rails I slowly began the ascent. I had no other choice and I did not hesitate. I was sweating and I knew beyond any doubt that if I fell again, I would have no control over the involuntary reaction. I did know that I could not sustain that pain twice or I would lie there until someone found me. I’m no stranger to getting hurt, either in the dojang or the woods, but this was not even remotely funny.

Getting up in my “lifted” Jeep was the next obstacle and after getting one leg in and pulling myself into the driver’s seat, I literally could not lift my injured leg up without using my hands. I sat there for 5 minutes sweating in the 58 degree weather and breathing heavily before I shut the door.

Actual conditions before I fell.  I stopped and photographed the bridge and running water.

Last night I told my bride my honest appraisal of the situation and I can say it with conviction. That fall back there in that little park in Carmine, Texas would have been the end of a lot of people. Thanks to persistent conditioning and constant attention to physical training, 5 days later, I sat in an indoor cycling class as the instructor and pushed myself and a number of other gym rats for a solid hour of rigorous cycling. Most of all though and I make no apology, I thank the Lord Jesus Christ for helping me get back up, to walk and play another day.

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The K-cup Coffee Phenomenon

Like most everyone I know, I have a Keurig single server coffee maker on my kitchen counter top.  It’s a must have status symbol and if you have one of those old low tech Mr. Coffee makers, well… you are behind the times and frankly, need to bump up your game.

The Keurig can make a cup of coffee in less than a minute, providing you leave it on all the time. I’m not sure how much electricity it uses setting there on the counter 23 hours and 59 minutes while it waits for you to zip by and place a 70 cent “pod” in it’s mouth and press a button or two, but how much can it be? Maybe 30 cents worth and that makes that one little cup about a buck.

Well, I kept my Mr. Coffee pot for about 2 years and enjoyed 3-4 cups a day of my peculiar brew of Joe. For reasons that I complied with, but did not thoroughly understand, my bride found the apparatus as unnecessary and “taking up too much space.” It started in subtle “suggestions” to remove it, to a rock in my shoe. After about 50 times, I dropped the machine in the recycle bin and gave myself over to the dazzling one cup phenomenon that took its place.

I didn’t buy into the pod action right away though, because I had about 2 pounds of French Market coffee with chicory that I refused to toss in the trash. My answer to the high price of the pods was to use the little plastic pod and hand load my own grounds. This produced a mediocre cup of coffee with some overflow coffee grounds in my cup and the next two cups made after that – and I heard about this too.

I tried regrinding the store bought coffee grounds in the store to make them finer and this seemed to work better, but something was clearly not the same. I finally gave in and just started using the pods. 3 to 4 cups a day and one for my bride now ran the coffee bill up to somewhere around the price of a pound of coffee a day.

Now, it’s not like I can’t afford this, I can, but the idea of this in my way of thinking is just wasteful and wrong. I’m the kind of person who only runs a water faucet as long or short as I can. I know what its like to have to walk to a well or a canvas bag 2 blocks away to get potable water. I don’t like to waste our resources either and every time I use a pod, it goes in a landfill somewhere, versus sending the coffee grounds down the garbage disposal.

For a company that started in 1998, they have turned the coffee pot industry on its ear. A month or so ago, they sold out to an investor group for 14 billion dollars. How in the world did they invade every kitchen in just a little over 18 years? We are on our second machine and there’s no telling how many we’ll have before we hang up our cups.

What I am about to write may just shock you. Recently, I experienced a phenomenon which caused me to forsake the Keurig. My coffee consumption had dropped to just one cup a day and I am a firm believer in the necessity of drinking 3-4 cups a day to get the anti-oxidants my colon craves. I do not believe anything that claims coffee is bad for me; I’ve seen just the opposite and I am verifiably healthy according to my blood tests. Coffee just didn’t taste like I remember it and that is why I wasn’t drinking as much of it

I have a Comet-brand aluminum percolator that I take camping and I got it out. I stoked it with 4 scoops of my hybrid coffee grounds, placed the basket inside with the cover on top, and popped on the lid. Adjusting the flame to high and reaching over to the oven, I set the timer for 22 minutes.

22 minutes? Are you crazy? No. I’m retired, but there’s more to this than meets the eye and I proved this morning. After it makes the pot of Joe, you remove the basket and the coffee stays good for 24 hours. You can refrigerate it if you like and pop a cup in the nuke machine and it tastes great. It passed the test this morning when my bride drank a cup of yesterday’s coffee and said it was “good”.

Now coffee once again tastes good; I’m saving about 4 bucks a day, and once again I am getting my daily dose of anti-oxidants. Life is good and although the Keurig will continue to grace our counter top, I will only use it when time is of the essence or to show people that visit that I don’t still wear bell bottom pants and listen to my music on an 8-track player.

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Baytown, my home of choice

I moved to Baytown straight out of the Air Force in 1974.  I had never even heard of Baytown when I came here, but my parents were living in the new apartments on Ward Road along with one of my 3 brothers. The whole family with the exception of my mother was working for Brown & Root at Mobay.  Mobay became Bayer and is now Covestro.

Brown & Root was THE construction company and the job here was going to be at least another year long. In retrospect, I should have used my G.I. bill benefits and went to Lee College, but youth has a way of justifying procrastination. Instead, I became a Pipe Fitters helper earning an amazing $4.25 per hour – which coming straight out of the military, was a lot of money.

A couple years passed and I still hadn’t enrolled in college when I was hired on at Atlantic Richfield (ARCO) on Sheldon Road as a process operator. I worked in that hell hole of personnel abuse for 5 years before Reaganomics caused a lay-off and I transferred to ARCO Polymers on Battleground road in 1982. The leadership attitude there was a vast improvement. I spent the next 31 years making polypropylene plastic pellets and other than a few college courses here and there, I never got that elusive degree. I also never left Baytown, even though all of my large family eventually did.

I’ve always been fascinated by computers and somewhere around 1984; I bought a Tandy TRS-80, which was the first home personal computer. Now 31 years later I am still fascinated and sweep virus’ off them to help friends keep on computing. Somewhere around 2001, I realized Baytown had an extensive history and it was rapidly slipping away from the public eye. One huge problem was we had a transient population. I had been experimenting with web design and decided to register ourbaytown.com and try and build a web site to bring some of this information to the public.

It’s been up 15 years now and it is still running strong with a lot of content. I have a sister web-based forum baytowntalks.net where issues and history are discussed also. It turns out it is an excellent source to watch how our city is changing and listen as Baytownians react to what is happening here.

For those who may not know, my nickname is Baytown Bert and for a good reason. I care about what happens here and the quality of life. My interest is not in new restaurants, even though I like to eat. My passion is in having a safe city to live with amenities, namely parks, hike/bike trails, and nature opportunities. Pirates Bay is a big draw to the city and the many spray parks are wonderful and I applaud the city for their foresight.

 

I have a good relationship with our city’s leaders and the police department and recently was asked to join the Strategic Planning Advisory Committee to plan the future of the city. I feel highly honored and accepted rather quickly with the stipulation that “I am all about hike/bike, sidewalks, and city parks”. Director of Strategic Initiatives Nick Woolery told me our new city manager Rick Davis shares this same vision.

Our goal is simple it appears, but will take a village for input.  “Over the next 9 months, our goal is to listen to as many Baytown residents as possible to learn the direction they'd like the city to head in the next five years.  Your leadership will be critical in this process.  First, you will help us determine the best ways to reach as many residents as possible.  Second, you will be the chief cheerleaders for this project.  Third, you will be our eyes and ears during the process.  Finally, you will be the chief architects of the ultimate final product, Baytown's five-year strategic plan.  This plan will guide the city as we make future budgetary decisions, policy decisions, etc.  As we continue this time of unprecedented growth in Baytown, I can't imagine a better time to involve our residents in charting the future of our community.”

Now I want to go on record and say that I am one of those rare people who clear information from my inbox with the speed of Montezuma’s Revenge. I detest procrastination when it comes to making a decision, so if you send me a suggestion, I’ll answer it and I’ll answer it quickly.

Your input is critical, so I set up a sub-forum on BaytownTalks.net under the heading Baytown in General to log your suggestions. To join the forum, you have to register and provide a valid email address, and then I can add you. This keeps trolls and spammers off the forum. I cannot see your password, and the site is secure.

Let’s make a collective effort for Baytown’s 5 year future. I know most of us want a good clean city that is safe for our families and this is a prime opportunity.

What is Caching Mojo?

What is Caching Mojo?
By Bert Marshall (BaytownBert)
Southeast Texas Representative Texas Geocaching Association

Caching mojo, to put it simply is how well-rounded you are as a geocacher concerning finding versus hiding geocaches.  For instance, say you have found 2243 caches and have hidden 115.  Simple math concludes that for every 20 caches you’ve found, you’ve hidden 1 for other people to find.   You have a lot of mojo!  A well-rounded geocacher has more than just a large amount of finds.

Note:  This may not be the most pleasant of primers concerning geocaching, but I think if you keep an open mind, you will see the logic here.

Sure, I know everyone who looks for geocaches doesn’t have time to hide them and keep them maintained – or is this simply an excuse? You look at your numbers, crunch them to heck and back in GSAK, endlessly running filters and macros until your digits are numb and then look at your finds and grin like a possum eating persimmons.

You are a rock star!  Right?

Recently, someone posed the question of where they could find the statistics for a world scale ranking of how many caches have been found by a geocacher.  Of course I had to look at “Texas” and I found my name somewhere in the 150’s.  So, I am “ranked” as the 150-something geocacher in the great big state of Texas, USA as to how many geocaches I’ve found.  Cool beans – I guess.  I’m going to throw that number at the guy behind the donut shop counter and see if I can get a free cup of Joe.

Now, how to work that tidbit into a conversation, right?  “Hey, did you know I am the blah, blah, blah?”  The reaction would probably be met with less than enthusiasm, but the truth is, if a person has found 5000+ caches and hasn’t hidden but a handful, then what would happen if everyone took this path?

At some point, shouldn’t you be contributing to the game instead of letting everyone else do the work?  “Gee, BB, that is insensitive!  You’re a creep and a self-appointed idiot, dude!”

Harsh words are never accepted as pleasant, but imagine where geocaching would be right now, if nobody hid caches.  Do you suppose you would have all those finds if this was the case?  A hard truth is some people hide a lot of caches for other cachers pleasure and some hide a few or none at all.  I place this second group in the low caching mojo category (and to me); this clouds how successful they are as a cacher.

Yea, I’m a caching snob.  It’s okay to say that and label me as such.  I can take it, but in the meantime, I’ll keep hiding caches, hosting events, buying trackables and sending them out to be probably become lost.

“So, BB, you faux-humble servant of the geocaching community, what is the solution, Mr. Wise guy, know it all?  Let’s say I don’t want to have bad caching mojo.  What do I do to change my status and get some?”

For starters, divide your total cache find number by 100.  That’s your goal.  Now, go hide that many caches.  This will raise your caching mojo considerably and guess what?  Everyone will notice!  “Wow, did you see that WartHogBillNasty8 hid a cache?  I mean he started hiding them like nobody’s business!”

“Wow, he’s a legend!  I thought he only found them.  Want to team up and go look for them?  I’d be willing to bet his cords are dead-on!”

Want more mojo?  Divide your find number by 50.  You will feel good about yourself and so will everyone you know.  Remember geocaching is a game and not everyone gets to whack a home run every inning.  Sometimes you have to be a spectator.

A good place to start is by going here:  http://baytownbert.blogspot.com/2015/11/so-you-want-to-hide-geocache.html  Now suck it up and go out and get yourself some mojo and remember to have a good time! Or you can write me and tell me what a spoil sport I am.

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Just too weird to be true?

I’ve seen a lot of crazy and odd things in my life, but last Tuesday pretty much took the top spot.  It all started when I saw a frumpy-looking lady walking a pair of bizarre critters at Jenkins Park. There was no sign of David Berkowitz and my first thought was this couldn’t be real.  I’m pretty good at identifying the various breeds, but this pair of canis lupus had me at a total loss – not to mention the woman herself looked, well, like she was from another country or something. Come to find out, this casual meeting turned out to be something straight out of Bizarro magazine.

Her name is Nannie Goss and she’s a dog breeder, but that is kind of a stretch in itself. She’s been in Baytown for about 6 months and moved here from upstate New York “for reasons I won’t disclose”.  I’d call her a “creature” breeder, but I am not an expert in animal husbandry and the word creature was chosen very carefully here.

The first little guy looked like a cross between a Pomeranian and a raccoon and it even put its little hands in mine when I tried to pet it. I watched her give it a fish treat after I came up empty.  It made the cutest little noises which were a mix of gurgling and barking and its little bandit mask really set it apart from other animals. When I inquired, she said it was just one of many mixes she has at her kennel and is a Pomerroon.

Now I want to go on record and say I am an animal lover and I hate to see any animal muzzled, but this other “thing” scared the bejeebers out of me and my bride, who upon seeing it nearly fainted from fright. I have a friend who owns two Great Danes and they’re about 150 pounds each, but this animal weighed probably closer to 400 pounds, if it weighed an ounce.

“Whoa Killer, whoa!” she loudly blared as the beast reared up on its two powerful hind legs and growled at us.  Its weighty coat resembled a cheap filthy brown heavy rug and the beast was so profoundly matted, it’s a wonder it could walk. My first impression was the animal was angry – if that is possible.  Both me and my bride took a few steps backwards on the crushed granite trail and I have to tell you, my hand slid downwards toward my legal firearm for a brief second. 

To be honest, I’m not sure a few .45 caliber rounds would suffice in this case.  Its muzzle was made of leather and barbed wire and she jerked back on it and the beast yelped. “He’s really not a bad doggie. He just gets excited when he’s ravenous,” she said and my trembling bride buried her nose between my shoulder blades as I stood my ground wanting and needing the facts for this column.

I do not curse, but what came out of my mouth was something like, “What &*^%$ of an &^%$#@* is that?” She threw her head back and cackled and then calmly explained that “Killer” was a cross between a rare breed of brown Pyrenees found only in one sector of the Czech Republic and a Manchurian Yak calf…dog. “It’s the only one in the world and I have local orders for ten of them as soon as I can find a suitable female to breed to it.”

“People will buy those?” I asked somewhat incredulously, leaving out the words “repulsive beasts”, as my bride trembled behind me.

“Oh yes indeed, kind sir. A doggie like this will go for thousands of koruna, er, uh, I mean dollars.” Her use of the word “koruna” awoke me to the fact that she is from one of the broken Soviet countries and that explained her peculiar heavy brogan shoes, thick gray nylons, and filthy babushka. About this time, the monstrous beast spied a cat across Cary Bayou and struggle as she did, but it broke away and drug her about 160 feet before she dug in those brogans and brought it to a halt with a loud exclamation. I’ll be honest when I say that I didn’t understand the words, but that was probably some serious cussing right there.

I must admit it was a magnificent cross-fit display of brute strength and I made a mental note to call Scott Johnson later and have them back-fill the trench she dug with her heels. The whole time this was going on, the calm little Pomerroon sat beside us and simply gurgled and was as happy as a possum eating persimmon seeds.  I even petted the little fellar, as did my traumatized bride. 

I guess the woman is no stranger to getting down and dirty and she came back grinning and spitting out dirt and debris like it was no big deal. “I better get Killer home and feed him before he gets violent,” she said and my bride and I watched her walk back to the parking lot and neither of us had a word to say as she loaded them into her beat-up old van.

Once again I wondered if David Berkowitz has seen this woman and chronicled her on his Facebook page.  I guess I’ll have to wait and see, but if she has that thing out there again, I’ll know better than to walk a cat.

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Telemarketers, scammers, and politicians

What do these three have in common? Hang, on. I’ll give you the answer. They make invasive and unwanted phone calls to my house and do it with apparent impunity. The Do Not Call list doesn’t work on the first two and on the third, they voted to exempt themselves from this list because they make the laws. The first two are potentially disastrous to my well being and bank account and the third is just a nuisance.

The phone rings and the caller ID shows it’s some place in Florida. 

Me: “Hello?”

Them: “Hi!  This is Keith Dougherty and I’m calling on behalf of the Policeman’s blah, blah blah.

Me:  “Hey Keith, how’s the wife?”

Them: The Policeman’s blah, blah, blah…”

Me:  So, how’s the wife Keith?  Better?”

Click.

These danged phone calls are every day, sometimes multiple times, but not always someone posing as the Baytown Chief of police. Last week my phone rang and it was me, calling me with the same number I used to answer. That was confusing at first, but humorous when I asked the guy if I could speak to me. Of course he hung up.

You experience this also because you have a landline. However, it is getting more common to have a call in this category come in on a cell phone also. Anyway, it’s only a matter of time and cell phones will be bombarded just like the landlines. I’m sorry to break this bad news. The electronic parasites find it easier to try to scam the unwary populace than go out and get an honest job. They are criminals plain and simple.

Often this is an organized effort with rows and rows of people dressed like they are on spring break, calling number after number and reading from a script. For every fifty people they call, they get a stipend, but if they are successful in getting into your bank account, they hit the jackpot. They win and you lose and lose and lose. When in doubt don’t answer or hang up.

I witnessed one of these establishments right here in Baytown 3 years ago. I was called to get virus’ off their many machines, which were operating independently of each other – as opposed to a network. When the telemarketers weren’t making calls, they were surfing the Internet and playing online games and this is how there happened to be a massive amount of infection.

I thought it was a legitimate business, until I looked at their website. They were supposedly providing Internet services, but were actually a front for about 50 avenues who did who knows what. The website showed rows of professional workers in suits and a beautiful building, but what I witnessed looked like they rounded up their help from a street corner each day. They were no more professional than the labor pool behind what most back street parking lot offers.

I walked away from it disgusted and I’m still repulsed over the idea of scamming people out of their hard earned money.  And like the singer said, “That’s why I wrote this song”.

I often get a friends request on Facebook and it’s a pretty girl (often exotic looking, for extra bait).  The first thing I notice is she has no friends.  Everyone has friends, right, so why does she want it to be me for her first friend?  When this happens DO NOT ACCEPT THE FRIEND REQUEST! If you do, they can grab your photos and friends list, plus your information and imitate YOU.

You can however chat with them through a personal message and I do because I like to have fun.

Them:  Hello!

Me:  High as a kite!

Them: How are you today?

Me:  Not so good.  I had both arms amputated and can’t type except with a straw using my teeth.

Them: That’s nice. Hey! Have you heard the government is giving everyone a hundred thousand dollars simply for filling out a form? I got mine today.

Me: Is that all you got? I got 2 million Kranvacecs and I’m trying to convert them into pesos.

At this time they close the dialogue and I smile, knowing I’ve wasted their time and had a good laugh. Then I paste it on Facebook for extra goodness.

I work and worked for every penny I’ve ever taken home and really resent anyone trying to gyp me, rip me, con me, are forcibly take it away. To give back, I repair peoples PC’s and laptops for little or nothing. I think I have repaired and given away 45 computers and to me this is the way things should be done, not ripping others off for my own gain.

One more item concerning online shenanigans is “Microsoft” offering to repair your computer by you giving them permission to get inside it via the Internet.  STOP!  Microsoft doesn’t give a hoot about your computer once it’s infected. When you get one of these online warnings of infection, stop what you are doing and seek real professional help, not some service on the Internet. Often a local tech can simply tell you to reboot and run your anti-virus software and you are good. If it comes back, then take it to a shop (or call me: PC Repair Done Dirt Cheap on Facebook).

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Substance Abuse Within the Military

This is a contributed article by Helen Young:

 Military troops and veterans are generally regarded to be some of the most disciplined and 'strong' members of our society. So it may come as a surprise to learn that they are just as susceptible, if not more, to substance abuse and addiction as other civilians. Research indicates that tobacco, alcohol and prescription drug abuse are on the rise within the US military forces and factors such as the stressful nature of their job, military culture and trouble integrating back into society following a period of deployment (along with the possibility of PTSD) are thought to be some of the reasons behind these surprising statistics. 

We are all guilty of making judgmental assumptions when it comes to those who are 'most likely' engage in substance abuse, but there are actually several unlikely sections of society that are suffering. Military troops and veterans fall into this category. Here are some of the reasons behind this invisible abuse.

Alcohol culture

People in the military may abuse alcohol for the same reasons that civilians do – because they want to unwind, relax and forget about their problems. It is estimated that 47% - almost half – of servicemen and women binge drink on a monthly basis. This figure is similar to that of college students - perhaps a less surprising section of society to engage in alcohol abuse. Along with drinking as a stress reliever, there is also a certain culture within the military in which servicemen may ritualistically get together over a few drinks to socialize and bond. Indeed, research states that historically alcohol was used as a form of 'man management' to encourage and allow men to let loose and relive stress. But when this stops being an occasional, enjoyable pastime and starts to become a dependency it can have real consequences. Being drunk or hungover can majority impact cognitive function, reducing readiness and making you less equipped to fulfill your duties properly. In the military this can have life endangering consequences for both you and your colleagues.

Tobacco

Like alcohol, tobacco is legal but in vast quantities can be detrimental to the health. It might not present the same sort of immediate performance issues as drinking or drug abuse but over time it can have a serious impact on overall health. Similarly to alcohol, tobacco use tends to begin after joining the military with one study indicating that 30% of smokers within the military began after joining. Again, this could be seen as a coping mechanism or way of fitting in with peers.

Drug dependency

The military issues a strict zero tolerance policy in regards to illicit drugs so rates of this sort of substance abuse are generally quite low. However, it still remains one of the top reasons for military discharge in the United States. Prescription drug abuse, however, is another matter. One study placed the rates of prescription drug use within the military at 11.7% which is two and a half times higher than prescription drug use in civilians. When servicemen are required to monitor and regulate their own intake of anti-depressant medication, opiate painkillers and other prescription drugs it can lead to unintentional misuse and later, addiction. This can have a very detrimental effect on both their personal and professional lives, especially when faced with the possibility of running out of their medication and being forced to go cold turkey.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Integration Issues

During or after a stint in the military, especially after being involved in combat or working within a warzone, many servicemen experience after effects from the traumatic things they have witnessed or been involved in. Many servicemen returning from combat are though to suffer from substance abuse and PTSD with studies revealing a clear link between the two. Once home, integrating back into normal life following a deployment can also be a tough adjustment. Returning servicemen may feel isolated, bored or unable to simply slot back in to their previous life. In this situation they may turn to substance abuse in an attempt to dull the pain and mask their emotions. They miss the support and camaraderie of their fellow troops and feel disconnected from those around them, even if they have a tight knit and loving family and friendship circle. This is why therapy and treatment are so essential to those suffering from mental illness or trauma following (or during) their time in the military.

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Sounding Brass or a Tinkling Cymbal

If you are sick of big politics on both sides of our government, pay attention to this next fact concerning both parties. They do NOT want to back someone they can't control. If the Party itself is pushing one candidate over another it is because they think they can continue business as usual when their candidate is in office.

American voters should take a hard look at their favorite candidate's voting record before jumping on the band wagon. In the case of Donald Trump who has no voting record, the very fact that both parties are SCARED TO DEATH he will get elected tells me he is going to rip apart politics as we know them. They know this and will do anything they can to make him lose or drop out. Some believe Ted Cruz is also a threat, but I’m not so sure. 

If either party can successfully gain the seat with the candidate of their choice, then it really doesn't matter who is elected. It will be the same old same old all over again.

In order to get elected, Obama blamed Bush for everything (and still does occasionally) and vowed to change all of it. Well, did he? Not really. Guantanamo is still open. In fact, last November he signed a bill making it almost impossible to close. We are just as involved in the mess in the Middle East as we were under Bush. “I will end the war in Afghanistan is 2014.” Last October he once again delayed our exit from the war there.

This is a few examples of what they say they will do is not necessarily what they will do. I understand that some legislation has to be compromised and that situations develop that require a change of strategy and this may be the reason he couldn’t follow through with his campaign promises. However, he did promise to do these deeds and that helped him get elected. Chances are his advisers told him in advance that he wouldn’t have the support to follow through, but hey! It got him elected, didn’t it?

Big politics is a big power trip and these law makers are masters at smoke screens. I am no expert on American politics, but I’m not stupid and I read and re-read the news like a fiend. What I see is business as usual no matter which party is in office. The Clinton’s claimed they left the White House on the verge of bankruptcy, but in the 18 months leading up to her presidential bid; she earned over 21 million dollars simply for flapping her jowls to… rich people.

"In the 18 months before launching her second presidential bid, Clinton gave nearly 100 paid speeches at banks, trade associations, charitable groups and private corporations. The appearances netted her $21.7 million — and voters very little information about what she was telling top corporations as she prepared for her 2016 campaign." NY Times

According to CNN, $153 million in Bill and Hillary Clinton speaking fees were paid to the money-strapped couple, yet supposedly they are the voice of the poor. In reality, they are akin to the civil rights activists that leech off the very people they claim to represent.

This is a person who supposedly represents the little man, but has in fact peddled her wares to the rich. The reason for this is she is indeed very rich and wants to keep every single penny she gets – just like those fat cats in the Republican Party and me, the simple man. The only difference in these two parties is what they say they are going to do to get elected, so they can do the same old song and dance once in office and tax me to pay for it.

And we lemmings line up at the polls and punch little chads or buttons, or some such thingy and walk away thinking our vote is going to change things. To prove my point that they are all stinkers and in it together, let’s take a look at Hillary. She has committed so many felonious acts concerning top secret communications that she should be jerked off the street, cuffed, and slammed into Lompoc’s luxurious Federal Correction Institution… yesterday.

How this is continuing to be ignored by the professional politicians makes them complicit in my view. David Petraeus couldn’t get away with one iota of her crimes and it ruined his amazing career. He had one affair with a woman who was a West Point graduate and a world expert in terrorism and shared a bit of classified info with her and was all but tarred and feathered for it. Hillary’s husband had a secret adulterous affair in the Oval office as President and finished out his time and is a much sought after public figure.

Hillary expunged massive amounts of correspondence before handing over her servers, even though she was court ordered to hand them over immediately. Pallet loads of printed email are being brought forward to prove she exposed our country’s security to our enemies, and yet she is still free AND running for commander in chief? Seriously?

I think the woman could admit to eating baby seals or kittens for breakfast and people would ignore it and giddily sing her praises.  How can this happen in our country and it still be okay, let alone allow her to run as the top executive? The reason is all of these politicians are in it together. All they are worried about is their share of the prize. They stand up there and wave their bony arms and make promises, but in the end, it’s simply smoke screen politics as usual. 

Fairly early on in this race, Donald Trump was asked what he would do if he was actually elected and please pay attention to his response. I heard him say it, but it vanished just as quickly from the press. “I will surround myself with the brightest and sharpest people and listen to them.” What? You won’t surround yourself with your cronies and award them for their support? What a novel approach! Has anyone ever done this before? That’s not politics! You are right. It’s not. Its smart business and its time this country was ran like a business, instead of a network of carpet-bagging back-slappers.

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Straight Outta Trashcan

“In 1988, a groundbreaking new group revolutionizes music and pop culture, changing and influencing hip-hop forever. N.W.A's first studio album, "Straight Outta Compton," stirs controversy with its brutally honest depiction of life in Southern Los Angeles.” Wikipedia

I have 18 books in my library on black history which I have read. I probably know more about black history than the people who made the movie “Straight Outta Compton” and I have lived there also. As an 8 year old kid I used to walk down Long Beach Boulevard into Compton and we would buy tacos there. My usual approach to becoming acquainted with a subject is to immerse myself in it until I have a good grasp and this is how my journey into the slave trade began maybe 20 years ago.

Many of the books I own or have read were written by black scholars and depict the truth about the slave trade and the ransacking of Africa by… Africans. It’s not a pleasing picture and it is far easier to simply believe that non-black people raped the country instead of the truth – it was a joint effort. Like the X-file heading, the truth is out there.  We just have to go find it.

Ice Cube (in both photos) wrote the filthiest raunchiest lyrics for N.W.A.

So in search of the facts, I watched the gritty movie, “Straight Outta Compton” and I did find it fascinating. It depicts the struggle of a number of currently popular millionaires who hobnob with the Commander in Chief at White house galas, do commercials for major brands, make kids/family movies, and are quoted by church going folk. They host award shows and everyone there wants to be associated with them and giggle when they talk.

Straight Outta Compton’s group was N.W.A., and in a silly twist of the rules, I can’t spell out in this column what that acronym stands for. Talk about a travesty; that’s one for the books. In fact, I, being a white person could not repeat a large portion of the movie’s dialogue or I would be labeled as racist. All through the movie, the main characters are portrayed as being victims and this message is pushed to the nth degree from front to back.

Today, they are hailed as heroes for breaking down the language barrier in music. Wow, what a legacy. It’s not just the f-word that is now allowed, it is the rankest, raunchiest, filthiest, and violent-laden lyrics that they have propelled into modern mainstream music. Let’s back up to 1967 and The Doors appearing on the vaunted Ed Sullivan Show.

The Ed Sullivan Show was the grandest accomplishment a music group could attain.  After all, 3 years prior, the Beatles were introduced to America on this really big show. A few minutes before the doors were to sing their smash hit, “Light my fire,” they were informed that they had to change the lyrics from, “Girl, we couldn’t get much higher,” to “Girl, we couldn’t get much better.”

The leader of the band, Jim Morrison refused to compromise and the band was banned from the show. This normally would kill the band, but The Doors were just too big and the only thing that stopped them was Morrison’s self-destructive drug and alcohol usage. Straight Outta Compton portrays the victorious struggle of Ice Cube, Easy-E, Dr. Dre, DJ Yella, and MC Ren for the most part, but you get to see Snoop Dogg, and Tupac on occasion. Just like most successful rock and roll groups, fame brings lots of drugs, parties, hookers, and strife and I understand how that works and this didn’t affect me as a negative per say. What I mean, is that is pretty common and has nothing to do with the bent of this column. There was also some infighting and I suspect that was fairly accurate.

What I do draw exception to is the line of dialogue early on in the movie where Easy-E, a rich drug dealer, is brought into backing his peeps by using the logic that there is no difference in selling dope, than selling music. This is a monstrous message to young people. It effectively blurs the lines between right and wrong. Do this? You get rich. Do that? You get rich. There is no difference.

There’s a gigantic difference; simply gigantic. The message of this movie is blurry, but some of it advocates getting the lion’s share by hook or crook. You can do whatever you want as long as you succeed and you will get rich. It is another bizarre twist that these thug rappers, who openly advocated doing violence to the police are now respectable citizens who people appear to adore.

Dr. Dre sells uber-expensive headphones and every gym has fifty people inside wearing them.  He’s worth about 550 million bucks.  Ice Cube is not doing too shabby at 140 million, and poor DJ Yella and MC Ren only have a measly 1 million dollars each. They don’t have headphone and movie deals – poor guys. Easy-E, the Godfather of Gangsta Rap died of A.I.D.S. in 1995.

Hey!  I might have this all wrong. They may have actually done a good thing by tearing down the censorship barrier of music and this may be an Oscar worthy movie, but you’ll have to watch it and make that call for yourself, won’t you?

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