A Day of Little Pieces

I woke up and sent Mrs ERJ, Belladonna and one of Bella's friends off to Individual States.

I went for 9 mile run.  My athletic sister gave me permission to count the distance my "cool down" walk in my run.  Her logic was that new marathoners will often run ten minutes and walk one minute.  People find that they can run about twice as far using this routine. From a physiological standpoint, the rapid contraction/relaxation of the muscles when running works at cross purposes for flushing the muscles with fresh blood and carrying off the waste products.  The moderate contraction/relaxation rate of walking is nearly optimum for helping the muscles assist in pumping the blood.

Too fast is bad.  Too slow is bad.  Try holding up a weight in a steady position sometime. Your muscles will be screaming in less than a minute.

Back to the story: Even the marathoners who walk one minute of every eleven can claim they "ran" 26.2 miles, they "ran" a marathon.

At the Lake

I took Kubota and one of his buddies out to the lake.  I had several opportunities to explain that the ERJ family treats family better than friends and treats friends better than strangers.  Kubota is apt to take liberties with friends and even bigger liberties with family.  I explained that family is forever, that bruised feelings become scar tissue.  And scar tissue lasts nearly forever.

So why would you treat family more shabbily than a stranger.  There is a good chance you might never see that stranger again in your life.  That person who is a sister or a cousin will still by your sister or your cousin four decades from now.

It is hard to tell if it sunk in.

While at the lake I did a little work in my Dad's orchard.  We experienced a "test winter".  Many trees that I had believed to be fully hardy in this part of Michigan experienced major, even complete winter kill.  Part of the issue was likely due to the very heavy crop loads last fall.  The fruit depletes the carbohydrate reserves...reserves that seem to function as antifreeze in the plant cells.

My batting average on the grafting was about 80%.  I would have been more successful but, in some cases, it looked like my scionwood was winterkilled and in other cases, the branches I was grafting on died out beneath my graft.

I have a boat load of dead branches to cut out of the trees and drag out of the orchard.  There is aso much poison ivy to contend with.

Back home

After driving home there was still enough light to graft some pecan trees.  It is mostly for bragging rights.  I am trying to upgrade the local population with some named cultivars.  The picture in my head is that the squirrels and blue jays will plant many of these pecans and we will establish a beachhead for Michigan pecans.  This year I am grafting Kanza and Canton pecans.  Who knows, maybe I will get a little help from Al Gore on this one.

There is JOY in Mudville Tonight!

Belladonna threw a "personal record" in Discus today.

She "medaled" in Div II high schools in the State of Michigan, 2014.

Leading Time by the Forelock

There are certain turns-of phrase-that stick in my mind.

"Leading time by the forelock." is from Farmers of Forty Centuries, by F. H. King.

Farmers of Forty Centuries is a cult classic among organic gardeners.  While I admire organic gardeners and think they have many good ideas, I am not a True Believer.  I take what I find useful and move on.

The actual passage reads:

Time is a function of every life process, as it is of every physical, chemical and mental reaction, and the husbandman is compelled to shape his operations so as to conform with the time requirements of his crops. The oriental farmer is a time economizer beyond any other. He utilizes the first and last minute and all that are between. The foreigner accuses the Chinaman of being always "long on time", never in a fret, never in a hurry. And why should he be when he leads time by the forelock, and uses all there is?  -Introduction to Chapter XI

I am still working on this concept.

According to a cross word puzzle site, the original meaning of the phrase was to: Act decisively to exploit an opportunity.  F. H. King uses the phrase in the sense of: Preparing in advance (with a minimum of fuss and bother) to exploit an expected opportunity.  An example would be the  habit of always carrying a mesh bag in one's pocket in case one stumbles across mushrooms or other, choice edibles during the course of the day.


"Busy" is a Western concept, and while useful it has its limitations.  The "lead time by the forelock" concept suggests that we can experience a joyful stroll through the day and as long as our path is 'effective', appropriate and orderly we will accomplish more by the end of the day than if we attack it with a frenetic, surprised flailing of arms.

The G-rated, country-boy version of this is the old bull advising the young bull, "Let's walk down there and get to know them all."

Belladonna to Individual States for Discus and Shot Put

Tomorrow Belladonna and Mrs ERJ go to the Michigan Division II, Individual meet in Ada, Michigan.

Belladonna is seeded in the top eight for discus (eight medals handed out) and has high hopes.  The seed is based on the distance of the longest throw made in competition during the year.

The last half of the season has been a bit frustrating.  She is throwing 115'-to-125' which is enough to finish first and second in most meets.  That is short of her personal best.

She thinks she found something that slipped into her throwing that took the extra feet off her distance.  She was not driving her lead foot down just before launch.  She was "dancing", essentially power-throwing with a little bit of foot work.

Hope springs eternal.  It will be very, very cool if she beaks 130'.  Report to follow.  Even if it is sad news.

She knows she is going for shot put to flesh out the field.  She will make her best throw but mastering the shot will be her project for next year.

Kubota and I will probably go out to the lake or go fishing in the river.  Belladonna invited her birthmother to watch her compete and she is not quite ready to have her meet Kubota.  Rather than distract her, Kubota and I will find things to do around Eaton County.

Terminal Ballistics

A 15 minute video produced by Federal Ammunition

http://www.federalpremium.com/tv_video/all_videos.aspx#ballistics

Good slow motion video footage.

Unless you are shooting through 3 inch diameter sugar maple trees, then any expanding 30 caliber bullet that hits a whitetail deer within it velocity window will put venison in the freezer.  Things get more interesting if your neighbor raises bulls or if you expect to shoot large animals with exoskeletons.

As always, it is more where you hit them than what you hit them with.

Ambiguous Text??

I flatter myself to think that I am open minded.  One of my pet projects is allotment or community gardens.  Some community gardens are magnets for diversity.  One local garden has participants from about a half dozen countries.  I was surprised to learn (from the coordinator) that many of the participants had ZERO gardening skills when they came over here.  Many of them were displaced by civil wars....only some of which make CNN or FOX news...and grew up in refuge camps.  One of the dreams that sustained them was to think about planting gardens that would produce food to add flavor and texture to the UN nutri-swill (corn grits, soy flour, vegetable oil and salt).

Over time I have gotten myself signed up to various mailing lists.  I enjoy reading about the cliental and about the challenges of gardening in odd places.  This email originated in the American Southwest.  How do you read the text?

COMMUNITY POTLUCK

MONDAY May 5

6:00-8:00pm

at Name Redacted Community Garden

This is our first potluck of the year.  They will again be held on the first Monday of each month.

Come bless the garden and celebrate spring with us

Please park on OUR SIDE of the street

No dog por favor!

Did the author intend that no dog should brought as a dish-to-pass or that no dogs should be brought as pets?

Friends with Trucks

Roger Miller is one of the Eaton Rapids fruit growers who given me many plants in the past.  He is laid up with some health issues for now and he was worrying about getting his grass cut.

I became impatient after a day-and-a-half of no returned calls or texts so I widened my net.  I used to work at a factory with one of my neighbors.  We have mutual respect for each other but he does his thing and I do mine.  One advantage of living in the country is that it is much easier to cordially ignore neighbors than, say, when one lives in a trailer park.  I wave when I see him.  He waves back.  We might drop in after a big storm and ask if the other needs any help chainsawing.  But that is about it.

I told Dan what I wanted to do.  He had an appointment at 11:00 that he could not miss.  I had one at 2:30.  We settled on 1:00 PM as the best time.  I swung buy a store and picked up a twelve pack of his favorite libation.  He said he would do it for nothing but gracious acts merit gracious thanks.

I drove over in the Cavalier.  Dan followed with his truck and trailer.  We pulled into Roger's drive....and the grass was already cut.

Alice was on the porch eating a late lunch.

One or two of Roger's nephews had come over and cut for about five hours.  They had to knock off mowing at 9:00 PM because it was getting dark.

I don't know what they used for equipment but it did a great job considering that the grass was 12 inches tall and damp from a recent rain.

Dan and I ran the mower off the trailer.  Dan went home.  I mowed for about another hour touching up the places where things had fallen into the grass and beneath low-hanging limbs.

I left the mower at Roger's place.  I have been cutting my grass with a push mower for decades.  Roger needs to know that we got this covered. 

Retail Death Rattle

Interesting read at this fairly short essay, Retail Death Rattle.

Just a few teaser lines.

The absolute collapse in retail visitor counts is the warning siren that this country is about to collide with the reality Americans have run out of time, money, jobs, and illusions. The exponential growth model, built upon a never ending flow of consumer credit and an endless supply of cheap fuel, has reached its limit of growth.

...retail employment is lower today than it was in 2002 before the massive retail expansion, the future will see in excess of 1 million retail workers lose their jobs.

Retail CEO gurus all think they have a master plan to revive sales. I’ll let you in on a secret. They don’t really have a plan. They have no idea why they experienced tremendous success from 2000 through 2007, and why their businesses have not revived since the 2008 financial collapse 

They should be figuring out how to position themselves for the multi-year contraction in sales, but their egos and hubris will keep them from taking the actions necessary to keep their companies afloat

15 billion square feet of retail space for an aging, increasingly impoverished, and savings poor populace might be a tad too much and will require a slight downsizing – say 3 or 4 billion square feet.

The mega-chains have already halted all expansion. That was the first step. The weaker players like Radio Shack, Sears, Family Dollar, Coldwater Creek, Staples, Barnes & Noble, Blockbuster and dozens of others are already closing stores by the hundreds. Thousands more will follow.

There is 47 square feet of retail space per person in America. This is 8 times as much as any other country on earth. (and this is in competition with increasing on-line sales) This is up from 38 square feet in 2005; 30 square feet in 2000 (Has your discretionary income gone up +50% since 2000?); 19 square feet in 1990; and 4 square feet in 1960. If we just revert to 2005 levels, 3 billion square feet would need to go dark. 

Annual consumer expenditures by those over 65 years old drop by 40% from their highest spending years from 45 to 54 years old.

Tapped out

This decline in household income may have something to do with the labor participation rate plummeting to the lowest level since 1978.

The entire engineered “recovery” since 2009 has been nothing but a Federal Reserve/U.S. Treasury conceived, debt manufactured scam.

There has been no jobs recovery.  There has been no housing recovery. There has been no auto sales recovery. Giving a vehicle to someone with a 580 credit score with a 0% seven year loan is not a sale. It’s a repossession in waiting. The government supplied student loans are going to functional illiterates who are majoring in texting, facebooking and twittering.

Top 10 Most Evil People

Belladonna has a project for World History.  She has to pick her Top Ten most evil people in history.  This is her list.
 

• Justin Beiber
• Saddam Hussein
• Joseph Mengele
• Osama bin Laden
• Mao Zedong
• Kony
• Himmler
• Pol Pot
• Hitler
• Stalin

 I don't know that I consider Kony and Himmler to be more evil than Mao Zedong but once evil exceeds a certain scale it becomes hard to screw it into focus.

She is putting together little verbal sketches of each stinker.

I think this is a worthy task.  Kids need perspective regarding the evil that humans are capable of.

One other thing that gives me hope is that Belladonna is learning that much evil occurs when history and learning is discarded because it is inconvenient.

As bad as Washington D.C. is, they have a ways to go before they can crack the top nine.

Spare Parts

Mostly Cajun has a short essay on the frustration that spare parts can cause.

I have felt his pain.

I used to work in factories that welded steel panels together.  In one of those factories the manager got tired of hearing the production blame the maintenance foremen for all of the production problems.  And he got tired of hearing the maintenance  blame the production foremen for all of maintenance's problems.  The manager decided he could kill three birds with one stone: He made the production foremen responsible for the maintenance of their own area and eliminated a boat-load of maintenance foremen.  Problem solved.

That did not work as well on the plant floor as is it looked on paper.

He trickled some foremen back into the system who had both maintenance and production backgrounds.  I was one of those lucky people.  It was a 94 mile commute, one way.  6:00 AM start.  Six days a week.

The problem

The problem was that the parts crib was run by hourly production people.  According to the contract, all production people were required to go on break at specific times.  Maintenance people would go into the robotic production cells at production break.  Remove the failing/failed part.  Hop onto a bike.  Peddle down to the parts crib....and could not get a replacement part until after "Fred" finished his card game.

If you were lucky you might be able to pay "Fred" over time (45 minutes pay) for him to saunter over, pick up your part, find replacement and slap it on the table.  He then took his full break (which was always longer than contractual....gotta finish that card game) anyway.

The source of the bickering was the ad hoc nature of the parts crib management.  It was one of the red-headed step children of the factory and NOBODY wanted to manage "Fred". "Fred" had super seniority and buddies in Union Hall.  Ordinary people did not get choice jobs like "Fred's"

I am ashamed to say it took me several months to figure that out.

My solution

Fortunately, I had worked with a very kindly parts guy in my previous job. He showed me how to hack into the Corporate parts database.  The Corporate spare parts database was maintained by Facilities (for reasons that were never clear) and was kept to the level of detail of supplier, the supplier's model number for the item, the Corporation's "stable part number", stack, shelf, cubby number and estimated number on hand.

Part of the disconnect is that the parts guy used the Corporate stable part number because we might change suppliers or the supplier would change a model number (for internal changes) even though the new part was plug-and-play in our application.  The maintenance people used the supplier's model number because all we had was the old, dead one we pulled out of the cell.  We spoke two different languages.

I would lock out the cell an hour before break.  Walk in with my flashlight.  Stand on my head to pull as much of the supplier model number as possible.  Weld slag is hell on labels.  I would then put the cell back into production, walk back to my computer and mess around with the database.  Sometimes all I had to go on was the name of the supplier, the noun name (pneumatic cylinder) and only four sequential digits of the supplier model number.

I would get on my three wheeled bike and peddle to the parts crib in the far corner of the building.  I  would hand "Fred" a slip of paper with the Stable Part Number and my "guess" as to the stack, shelf and cubby.  I usually had the replacement parts lined up by the cell access door before the start of break.

There were a few times when we had breakdowns that necessitated my visiting the Parts Crib during "break".  About half the time "Fred" would grouse about the interruption to his card game but would still get the parts.  I guess he figured I saved him enough work "messin' with that damned computer" that he could do me a favor (like, do his job) every once in a while.

Epilog

One thing I never understood is why I was not able to interest my fellow foremen in using the database.  I think it was the boiling frog phenomena.  They were so used to the pathology that it seemed normal and right to them.

That factory is gone now.  I wonder how much of that had to do with management turning a blind eye to the mismanagement of non-core, but critical functions like the parts crib.

Part of the pathology is that factories print money when they build products with low variable costs and very high demand.  The Union knows that and uses "incremental volume" as a lever to create cushy jobs to reward their spear carriers (I noticed that "Fred" always had plenty of other guys to play cards with).  The cushy jobs do not go away when the demand for the product goes away.  Many of those cushy jobs can have a disproportionate impact on core operations when the Union decides to squeeze.

It reaffirms my belief that one should run one's business (or household) as if stone soup is on the menu for dinner and there are wolves scratching at the door, especially when times are good.

Regime Speak. The Complete List

Regime-speak

List from The Woodpile Report

You're about to be lied to when they say- 

 

a hand up...Only works if the recipients are reaching up with their own hands open.  But have you ever noticed how those people seldom seem to need "a hand up".  When was the last time you saw an appeal for Vietnamese Boat People?
a new study shows...Anything I want it to show.  Remember the bubbling cauldron of beef stew?  Any student capable of enrolling in a grad school is smart enough to "properly" vet the data so the "correct" conclusion will be supported.
a poll by the highly respected...Same notes as above.  Except I can skew the results even more based on how I pose the question.
a positive step...This is a cliche that attorneys, committee men and "advocates" trot out when attempting to put the best face on a cluster festival.
are speaking out...Usually enunciated by professional (paid) hucksters.  Of course they are speaking out.  "Speaking out" is the only thing they know how to do and they are being paid for it.  God help you if you ever expect them to do anything useful like fix your plumbing.
arguably...Law School teaches that any point can be argued.  "Hitler was a good man because he unswervingly followed his conscience.", "Beer makes you smarter by killing off the weak brain cells.", "An organization staffed with bureaucrats 600 miles a way can run your life better than you can."
at-risk communities...A rare, fine turn of phrase; three lies for the price of one.  Mitigation of risk (uncertainty) stands on three legs.  The stoutest leg is personal responsibility; I am always at risk of running out of gas but I mitigate that risk by filling my gas tank as soon as I notice it is more than half empty. That is a direct contradiction of the premise buried in the phrase...that risk mitigation is somehow a responsibility of the 'community'.

The second leg is association with like-minded people.  

The third leg is the prudent avoidance of high risk places/actions/people;  Matt 4:7

arsenal...It is disingenuous to carp about "at risk communities" and then vilify steps taken by members in or near those communities to empower themselves, to make themselves not-at-risk.  It strongly suggests that the liars require a class of people who willingly prostrate themselves into a state of permanent victimhood in order to support the liars' "narrative".

best practices...vary by circumstances.  Best practices when hypothermic are different than best practices for heat exhaustion.  Too often, the decisionmaker mentally edits the circumstances  and, surprise, "best practices" are what he was planning to do all along.
broader implications...You, personally, are screwed.  But take comfort that it was all in the name of the greater good.  Or perhaps in the name of the good of the people the decisionmaker are indebted to.
climate change...Fleas arguing about the elephant they are riding on.
collectively...You will lose your rights as an individual.  Code for 'communism'.
Commonsense solutions...The inescapable conclusion of a highly edited vignette. "9,900 Americans die in their bed every day.  Clearly, beds are the greatest cause of mortality to Americans.  The commonsense solution is to outlaw beds and to criminalize those who insist on owning one.
comprehensive reform...Bawahahaha.  You will never be able to go back because we vaporize the means to do so.
cycle of poverty...and...cycle of violence...But never cycle of dependency.  Wonder why?
demand action...Projection.  Events don't 'demand action'.  Actors demand action.  Actors who attribute the demand to the event are weasels who refuse to be accountable.   
disenfranchised...Retread of Marxism's "alienation".
disparate impact...and...disproportionately...But never a whisper of disproportionate sacrifice or disproportionate self-denial.
diverse backgrounds...But they all passed the same litmus test.

Picture from HERE

divisive...One of the oldest tricks of running an empire is to bring the tensions across existing fault lines into an exquisite balance.  Then, vast masses can be controlled with very gentle tickles.  This ploy has at least two prices.  One is that it stokes the animosities across the fault lines (Muslim/Hindu/Sikh).  The other is that other groups can preempt the control of the boulder with very little effort.  Accusations of 'divisive' are disingenuous because it is a game the accuser is also playing.

economically disadvantaged...Egyptians and Caucasian South Africans are from Africa but do not count as "African-Americans" in the United States.  "Economically Disadvantaged" is an artificial construct that allows certain people to be treated as an aggregate statistic when it is to there advantage (like Affirmative Action) yet still allows them to demand that they be treated as an individual when it is more advantageous.
embattled...General Custer was embattled.  He was stupid.  Embattled = Stupid
emerging consensus...Akin to "almost pregnant".  Pregnancy and consensus are binary conditions. They either are or they are not.  Note: "almost pregnant" is interpreted by some sub-populations as "targeted for rape."  That might also apply to "emerging consensus".
empower...We are empowered by God and by the Bill of Rights in the Constitution.  "Empowering" somebody implies that the grantor usurped the recipient's rights in the first place.
enhance...Soap commercial boiler plate.

experts agree...Reference video shown above.
extremist...A principled person who does not believe in moral relativism and will not negotiate away that which cannot be negotiated.  See Saints.
fair share...Roll back the video to were Henny Penny is asking, "And who will help me plant the wheat, i.e., do their fair share?"
fiscal stimulus...A tax on people who delay gratification.  A tax on people who trust their government.  A tax on people who pack their own parachute and take care of their own.
fully funded...Prove it.
give back..."Giving" is a verb that implies it is done of the "giver's" free will.  Charity is "given".  "give back" in regime speak implies coercion and the threat of force.
giving voice to...Paid shill. 
greater diversity...And, pray tell, will the crew of Air Force One and the Secret Service escorts for the First Family also receive the benefits of "greater diversity"?
growing support for...Identical to "Emerging Consensus"  Speech writers alternate the two so make the speaker sound more intelligent.
gun violence...Guns are inanimate objects.  See notes on "commonsense solutions" in prior post.
hater...This card is usually pulled out when some astute observer in the audience calls attention to the magician's left hand.  The illusion of magic demands an audience that wants to believe that physical laws are optional and that the critical field-of-play is where the magician is directing their attention.  Magicians fear observant people and attempt to vilify them with words like "hater".
have issues...An admission of the obvious.  An attempt to salvage credibility.  "Yes, the Affordable Care Act has issues" (starting with its Orwellian name).
high capacity magazine...Coca Cola was originally sold in six ounce bottles. Today, a "medium" beverage at McDonalds is 21ounces.  Words like "small", "medium", "large", "high", "low" are meaningless.  Paraphrasing Mackey Sagebrush (and LEO in Idaho) at 24hourcampfire, "A standard capacity magazine means that the defensive shooter will be able to maintain un-interupted situational awareness for longer periods of time between reloads.  The defender is more likely to see the event through to the end without having to pull attention away from his wife and kids and the strategic positions of the aggressors.  A standard capacity magazine is bad for the bad guys and very, very good for everybody else."
history shows...History is the distillation of an abstraction of the documented memories of the victors.  "history shows" anything you want it to show.

impacted by...Used by writers who are unsure; affected by or effected by?
impactful...An admission by the speaker that he suffers from a bowel condition.  Run for cover.  Explosion is imminent.
in denial...Opponents refuse to accept the speaker's faulty premise that they use to justify their over-reach.  See "Commonsense Solutions".
inappropriate...A word used to by speakers the way a Catholic makes the Sign-of-the-Cross.  The Catholic does it to ward off evil.  The speaker uses this word when opponents want to discuss outcomes.
inclusive environment...Infested with professional victims.
insensitivity...Robust.  Results focused.
investing in our future...Subsidy to pensions of unionized teachers
linked to...Not capable of surviving on its own merit.
making a difference...A faith based statement rarely supported by monitoring and data
marginalized...A quick reading of Darwin and Origin of Species is warranted by anybody who uses this word.
marriage equality...There are many forms of incorporation available to humans.  Forcing non-hetero incorporation to be jammed into "marriage" amounts to vandalizing.  Barbarians deface what they do not understand.  As one wag pointed out, "Why limit marriage equality to Homo sapiens?  Can I marry my dog to help with the vet bills?"
mean spirited...Indicates that the opponent has firm views regarding the sanctity of private property
most vulnerable...Yeah, and Dr Doolittle speaks for the animals.  Virtually all of the "most vulnerable" have smart phones, internet access and accounts on social media.  They also do not have their time sponged up by a job. 
mounting opposition to...Means the speaker was lazy and did not do their job to start with.  They tried to sneak bad laws and bad policy beneath the system of checks-and-balances.
multicultural...Same as "inclusive environment."
non-blaming...nonjudgemental...Pure ideological parties ("Idiots", for short) cannot survive in a system where outcomes are used to judge the value of policy.  See "Metaphysics"
non-partisan, non-profit...And why, pray tell, is it necessary to fund these out of the public weal? 
not value neutral...Well, duh!  There are three reasons to enact taxes.  One is to raise revenue.  Two is to reassociate (reinternalize) externalized costs back to the originating transaction.  Three is to modify behaviors (parking meters).  Of course they are not value neutral.
nuance...A word used by a speaker when it appears that they are doing nothing or it looks like they have absolutely no clue about what they are doing. 

off our streets...It used to be called, "Go to school or else be unemployed and never have a girl friend."
on some level...The old, "parallel universe" strategy
our nation's children...How come I cannot send a bill to the government when my kid breaks a window?
outreach...Shilling to disempower people and cultivate their victimhood.  All for a bowl of pottage.
people of color (sometimes, colour)...oppressed minorities...poor and minorities...raising awareness...reaching out...See Outreach
poised to...Corruption of "supposed to", as in, "I am supposed to respect the Constitution" or "I am supposed to help widows and orphans."
positive outcome...Oh dear.  I wish they actually managed by outcomes. So, how are those solar companies doing?
potentially...Potentially, we are all Mozart, Luther Burbank and Mother Teresa.  In fact, we all fall woefully short.
progressive...Code for the inexorable collapse of Capitalism and the inevitable actualization of Marx's paradise.  See North Korea.
public/private partnership...The Greeks have a myth to explain what happens when you accept a "gift" from the devil: Persephone's seeds.
redouble our efforts... reaffirm our commitment to...Zero times anything is.....Class, does anybody know the answer?
root cause...It is excruciatingly difficult to look at a dynamic system and identify the Start point.  Most problem solvers suggest that one ask "Why?" at least five times before they entertain the illusion that they found a "root cause".  There is much valuable to look for deer gates and to think in TRIZ format rather than the over-simplified, linear "5 Why"/Root Cause paradigm. 

sends a message...An action that truly sends a message does not need liner notes telling the audience what the message is
shared values...Ironic words coming from the most divisive Regime in American History.
social justice...Short-hand for, "I consider my constituent's feelings of entitlement (stoked, incidentally, by my rhetoric) to be valid reasons to steal the private property you sacrificed to hang onto."
solidarity with...In case you were wondering, es, I am still bought and paid-for by the Labor movement
stakeholders...Potential litigants.  If you were ever in a building built before 1965....you may be at risk....call 1-800-Call-Shyster
statistics show...Those words were never uttered by anybody who stayed awake in Statistics 101.  Statistics can be interpreted but they never "show".
sustainable, sustainability...Sustainability has never been achieved by destroying the means of production.  "Sustainability" is the banner used to justify the diversion of spoils to a key Regime power bloc.
the American People...I don't recall getting asked.  What "American People" is he referring to?
the bigger issue is...A way to avoid embarrassing specifics.the larger question is...the more important question is...the reality is...See "the bigger issue is..."
the struggle for...See Social Justice.
too many...too often...touched by... These are distraction words. Witchdoctors peddling magical thinking and pick-pockets both require distraction.  Interesting post HERE comparing fatalities due to fisticuffs and fatalities due to rifles.  Should we start amputating hands?  Of course not.  The real challenge is to figure out what they are attempting to distract the public from.

underserved populations...Goods and services follow demand, and the ability to pay.
undocumented immigrant...Illegal immigrant.  AKA, democratic voter.
vibrant community...Opposite of Detroit.  Has not had its lifeblood drained from it by 50 years of socialistic leadership and entitlement oriented citizens.
voicing concern..."saying".  Must be getting a commission based on the number of superfluous syllables.
war on ...Never heard out of the mouths of combat veterans.
working families...Given the regime's track record on defining "families" and "working" there is a high probability that their used of both words, back-to-back, means less than nothing.

Regime Speak U-through-Z

Regime-speak

List from The Woodpile Report

You're about to be lied to when they say-

underserved populations...Goods and services follow demand, and the ability to pay.
undocumented immigrant...Illegal immigrant.  AKA, democratic voter.
vibrant community...Opposite of Detroit.  Has not had its lifeblood drained from it by 50 years of socialistic leadership.
voicing concern..."saying".  Must be getting a commission based on the number of superfluous syllables.
war on ...Never heard out of the mouths of combat veterans.
working families...Given the regime's track record on defining "families" and "working" there is a high probability that their used of both words, back-to-back, means less than nothing.

For the sake of convenience I will glue all of the regime-speak definitions into a composite post to simplify things should anybody ever wish to link to the list.

Regime Speak S-and-T

Regime-speak

List from The Woodpile Report

You're about to be lied to when they say-

sends a message...An action that truly sends a message does not need liner notes telling the audience what the message is
shared values...Ironic words coming from the most divisive Regime in American History.
social justice...Short-hand for, "I consider my constituent's feelings of entitlement (stoked, incidentally, by my rhetoric) to be valid reasons to steal the private property you sacrificed to hang onto."
solidarity with...In case you were wondering, es, I am still bought and paid-for by the Labor movement
stakeholders...Potential litigants.  If you were ever in a building built before 1965....you may be at risk....call 1-800-Call-Shyster
statistics show...Those words were never uttered by anybody who stayed awake in Statistics 101.  Statistics can be interpreted but they never "show".
sustainable, sustainability...Sustainability has never been achieved by destroying the means of production.  "Sustainability" is the banner used to justify the diversion of spoils to a key Regime power bloc.
the American People...I don't recall getting asked.  What "American People" is he referring to?
the bigger issue is...A way to avoid embarrassing specifics.the larger question is...the more important question is...the reality is...See "the bigger issue is..."
the struggle for...See Social Justice.
too many...too often...touched by... These are distraction words. Witchdoctors peddling magical thinking and pick-pockets both require distraction.  Interesting post HERE comparing fatalities due to fisticuffs and fatalities due to rifles.  Should we start amputating hands?  Of course not.  The real challenge is to figure out what they are attempting to distract the public from.

Regime Speak: O-through-R

Regime-speak

List from The Woodpile Report

You're about to be lied to when they say-

off our streets...It used to be called, "Go to school or else be unemployed and never have a girl friend."
on some level...The old, "parallel universe" strategy
our nation's children...How come I cannot send a bill to the government when my kid breaks a window?
outreach...Shilling to disempower people and cultivate their victimhood.  All for a bowl of pottage.
people of color (sometimes, colour)...oppressed minorities...poor and minorities...raising awareness...reaching out...See Outreach
poised to...Corruption of "supposed to", as in, "I am supposed to respect the Constitution" or "I am supposed to help widows and orphans."
positive outcome...Oh dear.  I wish they actually managed by outcomes.
potentially...Potentially, we are all Motzart, Luther Burbank and Mother Teresa.  In fact, we all fall woefully short.
progressive...Code for the inexorable collapse of Capitalism and the inevitable actualization of Marx's paradise.  See North Korea.
public/private partnership...The Greeks have a myth to explain what happens when you accept a "gift" from the devil: Persephone's seeds.
redouble our efforts... reaffirm our commitment to...Zero times anything is.....Class, does anybody know the answer?
root cause...It is excruciatingly difficult to look at a dynamic system and identify the Start point.  Most problem solvers suggest that one ask "Why?" at least five times before they entertain the illusion that they found a "root cause".  There is much valuable to look for deer gates and to think in TRIZ format rather than the over-simplified, linear "5 Why"/Root Cause paradigm.

I miss my truck

I miss my truck.

Roger Miller is one of my local, fruit growing friends.  He has given me many thousands of dollars of plants and trees.

He recently had one of his legs amputated below the knee.  He is also facing a whole slew of other health challenges.  I asked Alice, his wife, if there was anything I could do to help.

Alice said he was going to be laid up a while, and even though it is a big thing to ask, could I cut the grass?

They have five acres and it tears Roger up knowing that it is not being cut.

I recently purchased a Cub Cadet 1045 ride on lawn mower to keep Kubota off the street.  I have a fifteen year old who loves riding that tractor.  I do NOT have a way to move the tractor the 6 miles to Roger's house.  I really do not want to ride it on public roads.  It has a top speed of about three miles an hour, a major selling point with Mrs ERJ.

I have calls out to several of my friends but none of them have returned my call.  I think their phones have a " 'Needs to borrow truck' spam filter".

We will get the ride on mower there, somehow.  Looking on the positive side, the grass will be drier tomorrow than it is today.

In Defense of Mouth Breathers

I had a chance to spend some time with my oldest brother.  He has a truck that works.  I don't.

I bought a generator and needed a way to get it home.  I twisted his arm.  He obliged.

I noticed that he was coughing, and sneezing and wheezing.  "Allergies?"  I asked.

"Oh, yeah.  They are kicking my but."  he replied.

Family history

As a kid I was pummelled with allergies.  It was just part of the genetic heritage from my parents.  All of the kids received this gift.  It was just part of who we were as a family.

In my later adulthood most of the symptoms seemed to abate.  I assumed it was one of the few good things about aging.  Spending the day with my older brother caused me to rethink things.

I think it  is because I took up running in my mid-40s.

Tonsils and adenoids

One of the functions of tonsils and adenoids is to tickle the food as it goes down the hatch.  They are a bit like the whiskers on a catfish, except their function is not to taste the food but to inform our immune system that the tiny amounts of unaltered proteins that will perfuse through our gut walls are FOOD, not the proteins of foreign invaders.  In effect, they tell our bodies not to mount an immune response on those proteins that were first vetted by the tonsils and adenoids.

Allergies are an immune system response.  They are rather primitive.  They can be very uncomfortable, even life threatening, in part because they are mechanical and not very specific.

It is difficult to avoid mouth breathing when working hard.   If working hard, outside, than each jet of incoming air....with all of its potential allergens....will impact the tonsils and adenoids and those potential allergens (pollens, usually) will hit your tonsils like bumblebees hitting the windshield of your truck.  Your tonsils (and adenoids) will issue them a press pass, or diplomatic immunity just as if they were a plate of scrambled eggs-and-ham..  If, on the other hand, you rarely go outside or if you rarely work hard enough to stress your air induction system you will never reap the benefits of mouth breathing.

So, contrary to current usage, not all mouth breathers are extremely stupid, dim-witted blocks of beef.  Rather, the subset of us to mouth breath because/when we are busting our butts in the great outdoors are honed, refined and sophisticated specimens, finely in tune with our environment.

Team States (follow-up)

It was a long, warm day.

Discus

Belladonna matched her seed in discus, and she was happy about that.

Track athletes compete as a team based on the number of points collected.  A first place finish is awarded a certain number of points, a second place is awarded fewer points, third place still fewer....and so on.  Also, events that require multiple athletes, like relay races where a baton is passed, are awarded more points for each "place".

The ability to sprinkle the most developed athletes around to perform well on the relays without completely giving away the single events is a combination of coaching, math and luck.

Belladonna matching her seed in discus added points for the Eaton Rapids team.  Our other two women also placed, one above her seed and the other below her seed.  It was a good day for Eaton Rapids in discus.

Shot put

Belladonna finished below her seed in shot put.  While she cared, she was not crushed.  Even if she had finished at her seed she would not have added any points to the Eaton Rapids team total.

Our highest seeded woman shot putter matched her seed and placed second with a throw of more than 41 feet.

The top place in both discus and shot was taken by the same woman from Zeeland East.  She is an incredible athlete.  She looks like a 32 year old yoga or dance instructor, well muscled but still giving the overall impression of slenderness and flexibility.  She was constantly stretching during the event.  And, boy-golly, she can throw those weights.

As a team

As a team, Eaton Rapids women finished below expectation but it was for the right reasons.

Springtime and Dumb Decisions

If you read the papers enough you will notice an up-tick in teen mortality every spring.  In Michigan, the up-tick starts about 8 weeks before school is dismissed.

Winter is relaxing it's steely grip.  Seniors are thinking about freedom and become heady, thinking about the future.  The weather is about perfect for bonfires and other outside activities where adult supervision is a bit easier to avoid. Dumb decisions are easy to make.  Most of the time those dumb decisions do not result in a driver performing vehicular origami.  But sometimes it does.


Athletes occasionally do dumb things, just like everybody else. Procedures and policies are followed and the athletes get to sit out a few competitions so they can think about consequences.  Watching your team struggle because you are not allowed on the playing field is often the best disciple.  Not only does it discipline the athlete but it sends a message to the entire team:  "Yes, we are our brothers keeper, on the field and off."

Everybody in

Boot, a book written by Daniel Da Cruz is about Marine boot camp.  There is a section where he sketches out how the Marine Corp institutionalizes the seemingly incompatible goals of absolute personal responsibility and of absolute team orientation.


The Marine Corp deals nearly all rewards and discipline at the unit level.  The marksmanship award is not given to an individual, it is given to the platoon and EVERYBODY in the platoon gets ice cream.  The Marine Corp does not attempt to play God and figure out which person broke the mirror in the shower house.  EVERYBODY in the platoon gets to enjoy the healthful and mind clearing benefits of a seven mile, midnight run.  The mirror rarely breaks a second time, but if it does get broken again then EVERYBODY in the platoon gets to enjoy the peacefulness and serenity of a ten mile, midnight run.

The mirror in the shower room is never broken a third time.  There are 49 sets of eyes watching the cretin who broke it the first two times.  If he should start to exercise poor judgement a third time, the floor becomes slippery and he falls down...perhaps multiple times.

I once frequented a business called The Irish Pub.  They had incredibly fast service.  I asked a waitress how they managed that.  She told me they pooled tips and split them evenly at the end of the shift.  They followed a "who ever is closest" rule while serving.  I asked what happened if they got a waitress who did not pull her own weight.  I got a wink, "We talk to her in the parking lot after work.  Sometimes she does not come back and the owner has no choice but to fire her."

Editorializing and other drivel

One of the historically significant accomplishments of our country is that we have one justice system for every citizen.  Yes, there were egregious injustices to African Americans, Native Americans and women.  But, by and large, we at least made a show of holding millionaires to the same laws and penalties as we held paupers.  That was a new and unifying idea.

Benching star high school and college players not only upholds that ideal, it communicates it to the next generation.

It also communicates to parents that their kid can safely go to that school because rules apply to all of the students.  Misbehavior will not be dismissed with a "boys will be boys" even if the player is an athlete critical to the schools performance.  That "star" cannot get away with date-rape, or assault, or theft, or vandalism any one of dozens of other anti-social behaviors that would compel me to move my student.

It sets the tone.

Team States (Track) in Linden

Division II Team States for High School Women's Track is in Linden, Michigan.

That is near Mrs ERJ's childhood stomping grounds.  We talked it over and she decided that she would rather stay home.

We had a couple of sick people this week, including me.  That is one of the reasons you got the "Regime Speak" series.  Opinions take little thought or effort.

The inside of the house is messier than she is comfortable with as a result of the illness and she wants to make it fit for healthy humans again.

Also, Mrs ERJ and I complement each other with our natural diurnal cycles.  I find it easy to get up in the morning and painful to stay up late.  Mrs ERJ is the opposite.  Given the distance to Linden and the schedule, driving Belladonna to the meet qualifies as the early-shift....and I won.

It will be mid-70s and very sunny.  A fabulous day to get a sunburn.  Track meets last F-O-R-E-V-E-R.  The bigger the meet, the longer it takes.  Team States is a big meet.

Shattered Stereotypes

I was in a pickle.

I had promised one of my gardening buddies (Marcus Brown) that I would meet with him and swap some plants and seeds.  He sent me an email and said he was buried and then asked if he could send a substitute.  I agreed.  Then he told me they would be contacting me.

I got a call from a very perky sounding young, female voice verifying the best time and place.  I double checked Marcus's email and saw that he had CCed a woman who had an americorp email  address.

I told my coffee guys about my problem.  I needed a chaperone.  I believe much evil can be avoided if one keeps temptation at a great distance and pays much attention to avoiding even the appearance of impropriety.  Ed agreed to help me out.  He said he would show up at eleven.  Jokingly, I told him that I really wanted his wife "Grandma Alice" as a chaperone but would settle for him.

A van pulled into the driveway at 10:40 AM.  Grandma Alice got out.  She told me that Ed had to go help a friend whose roof had collapse, so I was stuck with her.  I was very happy to see her.

Twenty minutes later (after I heard about every bad storm Grandma Alice endured, including details about the car she was driving, who was in it, the direction of travel and the wind direction during the storm...) my guest arrived.

I think she had the same training I did. She brought her own chaperone, another Americorp person.

Farm Girl

All girls are pretty, so I will not dwell on that fact.

Both Americorp people were farm girls.  They chatted up a storm with Grandma Alice.  One of them told us about raising one hundred chickens (Buff Orphingtons) and helping their dad slaughter them for meat.  They talked about the relative merits of venison (Yum!), elk (Double Yum!!) and other game meats.  They were both disgusted with recent changes in Michigan law that makes it harder to raise small livestock near urban areas.

We stomped around the place a bit.  They had the presence of mind to walk around the nettles.  Many people talk a good story but their performance in the field suggests otherwise.  These girls were smart enough to give Old Netty a little bit of room.

They both had college degrees in some variant of biology.

And one of them has a father who owns a bar, as in, a drinking establishment.  Oh, to be single again!

The main reason Marcus sent them was so they could learn how to graft. They both acquitted themselves well.

I loaded up their bags with assorted goodies and sent them on their way.

I dug up a lilac bush (Wedgewood Blue) that Grandma Alice had been admiring and sent her home with that as a thank-you.

Those Americorp girls were certainly not what I expected.

Dry Flies

The first thing I noticed were the lamps.  The sign announcing the yard sale was small and inconspicuous.

His mother had died at the age of 97 and his job, for the last five years, had been to look after her 24/7.

It is likely that her eyesight had been failing.  But of course, it was because the lamp was inadequate.  David bought many lamps.  As a lamp would sell he would go into the attic and pull out another for display.

The second thing I noticed was the hat.

I commented on it.  David said he was a fisherman and tied flies.  He was looking forward to catching up on his fishing, now that Mom was gone.

He pointed toward the garage.

"I've got a bunch more of those boxes downstairs if you like what you see." he said.

I opened the first box.

Filled with hundreds of delicately tied dry flies.

Penny added for size reference

"Yup" he said, "I got hundreds more of them.  Mom kind of lost track of time.  She would ask me to run downtown and fetch something every hour-and-a-half or two.  It was kind of frustrating.  I tied these flies to keep myself sane.  Sometimes I would only have time to finish one fly.  Sometimes I could not sleep and might tie flies for six hours straight."

And he has big ones to, for the bass fishermen.

David's hand as he displays some classic deer hair flies.

It was a crime, the price he was asking.  I asked him if I could post these pictures and his contact information on my blog.  He said he did not mind.  David is not a spring chicken and does not know the value of those flies.  I hope a reader out there will pay him way more than the twenty-five cents a fly he was asking.

David Blake
425 North St
Eaton Rapids, Mi  48827
(Cell Phone) 517-213-1145

Tell him "Joe" sent you.

Regime Speak I-through-N

Regime-speak

List from The Woodpile Report

You're about to be lied to when they say-

impacted by...Used by writers who are unsure; affected by or effected by?
impactful...An admission by the speaker that he suffers from a bowel condition.  Run for cover.  Explosion is imminent.
in denial...Opponents refuse to accept the speaker's faulty premise that they use to justify their over-reach.  See "Commonsense Solutions".
inappropriate...A word used to by speakers the way a Catholic makes the Sign-of-the-Cross.  The Catholic does it to ward off evil.  The speaker uses this word when opponents want to discuss outcomes.
inclusive environment...Infested with professional victims.
insensitivity...Robust.  Results focused.
investing in our future...Subsidy to pensions of unionized teachers
linked to...Not capable of surviving on its own merit.
making a difference...A faith based statement rarely supported by monitoring and data
marginalized...A quick reading of Darwin and Origin of Species is warranted by anybody who uses this word.
marriage equality...There are many forms of incorporation available to humans.  Forcing non-hetero incorporation to be jammed into "marriage" amounts to vandalizing.  Barbarians deface what they do not understand.  As one wag pointed out, "Why limit marriage equality to Homo sapiens?  Can I marry my dog to help with the vet bills?"
mean spirited...Indicates that the opponent has firm views regarding the sanctity of private property
most vulnerable...Yeah, and Dr Doolittle speaks for the animals.  Virtually all of the "most vulnerable" have smart phones, internet access and accounts on social media.  They also do not have their time sponged up by a job. 
mounting opposition to...Means the speaker was lazy and did not do their job to start with.  They tried to sneak bad laws and bad policy beneath the system of checks-and-balances.
multicultural...Same as "inclusive environment."
non-blaming...nonjudgemental...Pure ideological parties ("Idiots", for short) cannot survive in a system where outcomes are used to judge the value of policy.  See "Metaphysics"
non-partisan, non-profit...And why, pray tell, is it necessary to fund these out of the public weal? 
not value neutral...Well, duh!  There are three reasons to enact taxes.  One is to raise revenue.  Two is to reassociate (reinternalize) externalized costs back to the originating transaction.  Three is to modify behaviors (parking meters).  Of course they are not value neutral.
nuance...A word used by a speaker when it appears that they are doing nothing or it looks like they have absolutely no clue about what they are doing.

Three Felonies a Day (Follow-up)

I finally got Kubota and his friend to the shooting range.

There was only one other person shooting.  He must have liked kids.  He let us go "Range cold" and set up a variety of targets many, many times.


Kubota's friend is a very proficient shooter.  He took a shine to the Marlin 795.  They particularly enjoyed shooting at the shotgun shells and sending them flying.

Russ Nelson talked to the kids for about 15 minutes afterward.  I was able to give him a heads up about the knucklehead behavior that led to the trip to the shooting range.  He discussed felonies, the loss of freedoms if you are on parole, what that means for everybody else who shares your domicile, and the cost of attorneys.

If we (people who value the Second Amendment) don't "police" and guide our young shooters, then they will be "policed" in ways that will benefit nobody.

Regime Speak E-through-H

Regime-speak

List from The Woodpile Report

You're about to be lied to when they say-

economically disadvantaged...Egyptians and Caucasian South Africans are from Africa but do not count as "African-Americans" in the United States.  "Economically Disadvantaged" is an artificial construct that allows certain people to be treated as an aggregate statistic when it is to there advantage (like Affirmative Action) yet still allows them to demand that they be treated as an individual when it is more advantageous.
embattled...General Custer was embattled.  He was stupid.  Embattled = Stupid
emerging consensus...Akin to "almost pregnant".  Pregnancy and consensus are binary conditions. They either are or they are not.  Note: "almost pregnant" is interpreted by some sub-populations as "targeted for rape."  That might also apply to "emerging consensus".
empower...We are empowered by God and by the Bill of Rights in the Constitution.  "Empowering" somebody implies that the grantor usurped the recipient's rights in the first place.
enhance...Soap commercial boiler plate.

experts agree...Reference video shown above.
extremist...A principled person who does not believe in moral relativism and will not negotiate away that which cannot be negotiated.  See Saints.
fair share...Roll back the video to were Henny Penny is asking, "And who will help me plant the wheat, i.e., do their fair share?"
fiscal stimulus...A tax on people who delay gratification.  A tax on people who trust their government.  A tax on people who pack their own parachute and take care of their own.
fully funded...Prove it.
give back..."Giving" is a verb that implies it is done of the "giver's" free will.  Charity is "given".  "give back" in regime speak implies coercion and the threat of force.
giving voice to...Paid shill. 
greater diversity...And, pray tell, will the crew of Air Force One and the Secret Service escorts for the First Family also receive the benefits of "greater diversity"?
growing support for...Identical to "Emerging Consensus"  Speech writers alternate the two so make the speaker sound more intelligent.
gun violence...Guns are inanimate objects.  See notes on "commonsense solutions" in prior post.
hater...This card is usually pulled out when some astute observer in the audience calls attention to the magician's left hand.  The illusion of magic demands an audience that wants to believe that physical laws are optional and that the critical field-of-play is where the magician is directing their attention.  Magicians fear observant people and attempt to vilify them with words like "hater".
have issues...An admission of the obvious.  An attempt to salvage credibility.  "Yes, the Affordable Care Act has issues" (starting with its Orwellian name).
high capacity magazine...Coca Cola was originally sold in six ounce bottles. Today, a "medium" beverage at McDonalds is 21ounces.  Words like "small", "medium", "large", "high", "low" are meaningless.  Paraphrasing Mackey Sagebrush (and LEO in Idaho) at 24hourcampfire, "A standard capacity magazine means that the defensive shooter will be able to maintain un-interupted situational awareness for longer periods of time between reloads.  The defender is more likely to see the event through to the end without having to pull attention away from his wife and kids and the strategic positions of the aggressors.  A standard capacity magazine is bad for the bad guys and very, very good for everybody else."
history shows...History is the distillation of an abstraction of the documented memories of the victors.  "history shows" anything you want it to show.

Regime Speak: B-through-D

This list is from The Woodpile Report.....you know you are about to be lied to when you hear these words...

best practices...vary by circumstances.  Best practices when hypothermic are different than best practices for heat exhaustion.  Too often, the decisionmaker mentally edits the circumstances  and, surprise, "best practices" are what he was planning to do all along.
broader implications...You, personally, are screwed.  But take comfort that it was all in the name of the greater good.  Or perhaps in the name of the good of the people the decisionmaker are indebted to.
climate change...Fleas arguing about the elephant they are riding on.
collectively...You will lose your rights as an individual.  Code for 'communism'.
Commonsense solutions...The inescapable conclusion of a highly edited vignette. "9,900 Americans die in their bed every day.  Clearly, beds are the greatest cause of mortality to Americans.  The commonsense solution is to outlaw beds and to criminalize those who insist on owning one.
comprehensive reform...Bawahahaha.  You will never be able to go back because we vaporize the means to do so.
cycle of poverty...and...cycle of violence...But never cycle of dependency.  Wonder why?
demand action...Projection.  Events don't 'demand action'.  Actors demand action.  Actors who attribute the demand to the event are weasels who refuse to be accountable.   
disenfranchised...Retread of Marxism's "alienation".
disparate impact...and...disproportionately...But never a whisper of disproportionate sacrifice or disproportionate self-denial.
diverse backgrounds...But they all passed the same litmus test.

Picture from HERE

divisive...One of the oldest tricks of running an empire is to bring the tensions across existing fault lines into an exquisite balance.  Then, vast masses can be controlled with very gentle tickles.  This ploy has at least two prices.  One is that it stokes the animosities across the fault lines (Muslim/Hindu/Sikh).  The other is that other groups can preempt the control of the boulder with very little effort.  Accusations of 'divisive' are disingenuous because it is a game the accuser is also playing.

You know you are being lied to when....

...you hear these words.

That appears in the left sidebar over at The Woodpile Report.

Today, I will chat about a few of those entries.

Regime-speak

You're about to be lied to when they say- 

a hand up...Only works if the recipients are reaching up with their own hands open.  But have you ever noticed how those people seldom seem to need "a hand up".  When was the last time you saw an appeal for Vietnamese Boat People?
a new study shows...Anything I want it to show.  Remember the bubbling cauldron of beef stew?  Any student capable of enrolling in a grad school is smart enough to "properly" vet the data so the "correct" conclusion will be supported.
a poll by the highly respected...Same notes as above.  Except I can skew the results even more based on how I pose the question.
a positive step...This is a cliche that attorneys, committee men and "advocates" trot out when attempting to put the best face on a cluster festival.
are speaking out...Usually enunciated by professional (paid) hucksters.  Of course they are speaking out.  "Speaking out" is the only thing they know how to do and they are being paid for it.  God help you if you ever expect them to do anything useful like fix your plumbing.
arguably...Law School teaches that any point can be argued.  "Hitler was a good man because he unswervingly followed his conscience.", "Beer makes you smarter by killing off the weak brain cells.", "An organization staffed with bureaucrats 600 miles a way can run your life better than you can."
at-risk communities...A rare, fine turn of phrase; three lies for the price of one.  Mitigation of risk (uncertainty) stands on three legs.  The stoutest leg is personal responsibility; I am always at risk of running out of gas but I mitigate that risk by filling my gas tank as soon as I notice it is more than half empty. That is a direct contradiction of the premise buried in the phrase...that risk mitigation is somehow a responsibility of the 'community'.

The second leg is association with like-minded people.  

The third leg is the prudent avoidance of high risk places/actions/people;  Matt 4:7

arsenal...It is disingenuous to carp about "at risk communities" and then vilify steps taken by members in or near those communities to empower themselves, to make themselves not-at-risk.  It strongly suggests that the liars require a class of people who willingly prostrate themselves into a state of permanent victimhood in order to support the liars' "narrative".

Peak Apple Blossom

Peak apple blossom hit Eaton Rapids on May 19, exactly one month after first pussy willow bloom.  Since it takes bees 21 day from the egg being laid to a flying adult, there was enough time (in theory) for the Salix discolor bloom to fuel a wave of bees for the apple bloom.

This is all theoretical.  They hive of bees that survived the winter rewarded me by swarming to parts unknown.

Edited on 5/22, Peak Apple Blossom coincided with peak moral mushroom and with peak Box Elder visibility.

Box Elder is a tree of very modest merit.  If it were the only tree that I could grow I am sure that I could wax lyrical about it and perhaps even name a county after it.  I am blessed to live in an equitable climate that supports many, many species of trees.

Box Elder leafs out earlier than most other species. There is about one week in the year when its presence leaps out at you.  That time of year, this past week, is the best time to go on Box Elder search-and-destroy missions.

Self segregation and Statistics

The difference between "physics" and "meta-physics" is that physics is based on meaningful measurements and is useful while meta-physics is belief based and sometimes entertaining but rarely useful.

In fact, all good science is distinguished by measurements.  It is not possible to quantify or predict anything without a valid measuring system.

Statistics

The social "sciences" rely upon statistics.  The bane of statistics is self-segregation or self-selection.  We tend to prefer associating with people who are much like ourselves.

Attempting to collect meaningful measurements in an self-selecting environment is akin to handing a grad student a small, short handled spoon and directing him to collect a sample from a vast, bubbling cauldron of beef stew.

Even the socially inept prefer others whose deficiencies mutually mask each individual's inadequacies. Kids pretty much go through all of the same developmental stages.  Some kids quickly tag through some of the more anti-social stages but then power through them to better places.  Other kids linger.  The kids who linger long enough to self-select into one of the socially inept cliques cause their parents many sleepless nights.

The Economy

The social engineers want to "guide" our lives.  Part of their vision seems to be to homogenize society.  They put low-income housing into the toniest suburbs.  Some of the social engineering involves tipping the voter demographics.  Much of it is due to naive ideology which believes that changing the zip code of a gang-banger is sufficient to turn him into a choir boy.

As a working hypothesis, let us assume that the US economy is dropping down into a lower orbit than it historically enjoyed.  Let us assume, just for a point of reference, that we are turning into Italy, a country that is the eight largest economy in the world.

Powerful forces are about to be unleashed that will shred any chance that our society will be "homogenized".

Like Italy, the US has affluent regions and less-affluent regions.  Like Italy, our economy is buoyed by a seemingly inexhaustible supply of outside money.

Unlike the US, Italy has been through several convulsions of this type.  History has given them a game plan.

Italy has two economies.  The visible economy where rules are followed, taxes are paid and people work, sort of.  And Italy has the invisible economy where rules are bent, taxes are evaded and people really work.

There is a huge cost associated to sustaining two, parallel economies.  It is like a B movie of a randy young man with a wife and a paramour.  We laugh because we see the incredible effort it takes to sustain parallel lives with little or no gain in "benefits" for the young man.

Rational people do not joyfully embrace the additional fixed costs of running a parallel economy.  But I am hearing more rational people talk about that end-game.

The social engineers have become ever more relentlessly effective at monitoring and the homogenization of society.  The rational actors are starting to see the parallel economy as their only alternative.

The effect on the visible economy will be stunning.  The comedian in me wonders how the Equal Employment Opportunity Act will be administered when only trusted family members are "hired" by the business.  Corporate America staggers along, and tolerates, EEO and ADA requirements because all of their competitors are handicapped with the same amount of "social responsibility".   At some point Corporate America's vast economies of scale will be more than offset by the costs of 'social responsibility" and the invisible economy will explode.

One way to judge the size of the invisible economy is to estimate "job site shrinkage".   My house was built by a person who was employed in the construction trades.  He wired the 15A circuits (the wall outlets) with 12 gauge wire.  12 gauge wire is a major pain to work with as well as being significantly more expensive that 14 gauge wire (the standard for 15A circuits).  I STRONGLY suspect that he wired the house with 12 gauge wire because that was the easiest to "liberate" from the job site he was working.

Pervasive "job site shrinkage" will further tip the playing field and penalize the players who refuse to work in the invisible economy.

Inertia

The only thing that has kept us off that path is inertia.  And inertia will make it a hairy biotch to return to an open and transparent society after we embrace the dual-economy model.

Let's look at a couple of "business" opportunities.

One

1.75 liters of 40% alcohol (vodka) costs about $22.  This product is highly taxed and regulated.

3.8 liters of 85% alcohol (e-85 at the gas pump) costs about $2.85 due to government subsidies.  A molecule of alcohol that is shipped in a glass bottle is sinful and subject to high taxes.  That same molecule of alcohol delivered via a rubber hose is deemed worthy of economic "indulgences" and is subsidized.

The amount of alcohol in a gallon of e-85, if purified and diluted to 80 proof vodka is worth $170 if sold as the cheapest grade of commodity alcohol. That is a 6200% mark-up.  And that does not count the half liter of pure gasoline that is a "waste product" of the process.

I don't mean to diminish the technical challenges of separating the impurities (the 15% gas).  But oil-separation-by-washing and fractional distillation are 1900 level technology.

Two

Picture from HERE

Virtually every candid picture taken of the mujahideen shows them smoking cigarettes.  It is easy to dismiss tobacco as a "Luxury", but along with caffeine and alcohol it is one of the three most common ways to "self-medicate".

Tobacco is calming and reduces anxiety.  Tobacco use is very common in people who are clinically depressed.  Tobacco suppresses hunger.  Some claim that it is a potent anti-psychotic.   It is a rotten medicine due to the many side effects and links to diseases....but in the moment tobacco solves many issues for the smoker.

The "bad boys" did not necessarily smoke cigarettes as a act of rebellion.  They may have been smoking because it glued their sanity together.

Two cartons of cigarettes costs about $100 in Michigan.  There is about a pound of tobacco in those two cartons.  It costs about $2.50 to grow a pound of tobacco. That is a 4000% mark-up.

Anybody who can grow a tomato plant can grow a tobacco plant.  Expect smoking rates to go off-the-chart if a dystopian future becomes the new normal.