This is today’s picture because I didn’t do anything. Either you see some washing about to get done or the beginnings of a Bluegrass band. I went for a six mile bike ride, stopping at the library in Hollywood to discover they have gotten rid of one of their lousy three sets of encyclopedias. The two remaining are the dreaded Americana, and the World Book, which has been moved to the children’s sections. Remember when librarians had to know their job? The black lady I asked today did not know what an encyclopedia was.
If you know the low esteem in which I regard General Bernard Montgomery, he is about to be joined by another blithering incompetent. My research on gold sources crossed a chart showing the British military marches during the Boer War. And they head for the goldfields, not the enemy. This led to a statistic. Did you know that most of the British gunfire casualties had been shot through the head? What, I thought? Somebody was making great sport of beaning the Brits.The on-line sources are once again shallow and repetitive, so it is library time. But it would seem this Kitchener person, like Montgomery, could only win by applying brute force. He and his war college staff commanded 516,000 regular soldiers against 19,280 farmers And the Boers were drilling them through the brain. I’m still doing the reading, so this isn’t exam material yet.
In the end, I could not find any in-depth accounts of the war that were not obviously written afterward by British historians. But I can say this Kitchener is going to get examined more closely. If he became a hero in World War One, maybe it was his experience at losing 1,000 men a day killed by civilians in the Orange Free State. (The British won the war, but as the Boers point out, that's the point the British lost their Empire.)
Speaking of armies, a lot of people have seen the Chinese military parades where they march like clones. It terrifies a lot of people. Guess what? Some guy has put together a series of videos showing how China copied the marching formations and tactics from early Wehrmacht newsreels. That is correct. I watched the old movies and kept wondering where I’d sent his before. Then he showed the Chinese parades of 2010 and 2011.
I watched a captivating documentary, “Detroit On Fire”. Captivating, because in nearly an hour, not one of the commentators had the guts to state what the entire country knows to be the cause of the arson epidemic. Detroit is your case example of what happens to every city in America that gives in until the minority becomes the majority. It is clear the police could stake out an obvious building or two and in no time round up the perps. But they have refused to do so for thirty years.
There’s a couple lady cops, oh the poor kids. Several firemen, the poor kids again. But not one of them mentions the word. You know the word. Yep, that’s the word. But until they do, they can get their bleeding heart faces off the media because nobody respects a chicken-shit. I was disgusted by how the lot of them could go on about the fires and not openly state it is 100% caused by black Afro-Amercan negro gangs.
The video showed many of the beefy Detroit firemen. These guys stay in the firehouse until they get called, but they could be pro-active and put a few on patrol. When they see an arsonist, grab him and kick him to death in self-defense, see, arson kills firemen. If the city can turn a blind eye on arson, they can ignore the solution as well. But everybody on the Detroit payroll prefers to play “poor me”. There, that’s controversial.
ADDENDUM
Some stats for January. Travel expenses have trebled since I began using the sidecar for transportation. This translates almost entirely into gasoline used for gigs, rehearsal, and trips to music supply stores. Note this is a variable expense so it does not represent total expense, and variable expenses are now 28.4% of every dollar. While most musicians, if they knew, would find that a stinging hurt, I do not. For my philosophy is to only do a business that is fun. Then, incurring such expenses becomes an enjoyable affair. I rarely dislike music expenses.
What’s this, another “tripled” statistic? Yes, since I’m back on the dating market, minutes spent on the cell phone have ballooned three times. One does not simply walk into Mordor and same goes for making a date. I can make a direct comparison here from my records. When a meeting is scheduled with Fred or Trent, the arrangements, including the back and forth, takes two minutes and twenty seconds. To meet Estelle at the same standard time and place still requires, each instance, a fourteen minute conversation to happen. I’m not saying that’s wrong, but on average (not just with Estelle), it takes three times longer.
We saw it coming, but food costs (I didn’t say price) has doubled since a year ago. That, however, carries a codicil. I’m buying more and better food than before so this apparent inflation could be overstated by 25%. You aren’t surprised since, relating back to dating, my cookie budget has soared to $35 per month. The ginger snaps are just ballast, something you can count on in a pinch. The biscotti is for musicians. But the women, well, the women get the fancy Seville orange marmalade cookies from Spain. Sorry, guys, that’s just how this kind of thing plays out.
And here’s an external stat. According to the BBC, the average person is prescribed 14,000 pills in a lifetime. The fact that so many of those products were discovered by accident (Viagra was an angina experiment) shows that nobody really understands the total effects of all these chemicals. Prior to my heart attack, I had taken an estimated 125 pills in my life. Plus tetanus shots and the like. As of this month, I pass that 14,000 mark. There is no sign of that abating.
Return Home
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
