What is it with Russia and large objects falling from the sky? The Saturday bakery crowd all concede it is because of all the evil things the Russians did to their homelands. The conspiracy people already say it was a Chinese, US, Korean, or Japanese missile test. I call it “Son of Tunguska” and await the movie. The major damage was done by the shock wave, not the impact. No scientist who graduated after 1985 dares to agree on the size of the meteorite. The class of 1995 onward won’t even admit it was from outer space for rank shit-fear of offending any non-white Plutonians. Good-bye Pope, the second to step down in 600 years. This one cites ill-health despite how that never stopped his predecessors. Say, wasn’t it just weeks ago the Vatican was caught laundering all that cash through the palace ATMs? Naw, probably just coincidence. Authors should still beware, for the Vatican is a state, and thus fully qualified to buy military weapons on the international market. With their history of compassion toward free-thinkers, you’d best keep an eye on drone sales.
True to form, I stayed in last evening, listening to non-music radio. The peasants who call in to talk shows always restore my faith that I will survive the next recession. The callers and today’s newspaper made the rounds with another touchy issue—the lack of women in the area causing men to spend more. The Herald published a chart showing 111.8 men for every 100 woman in Ft. Lauderdale. (It is just a statistic, but jives with my observation that the ONLY way most men can score is by spending too much money. And the stupid women who fall for it wonder why right after they put out, the relationship stops working. Well, duh.)
Those numbers are a head-count that should say males to females, not men to women. Stay away, ladies looking for love, for Wilton Manors is the floof capital of the tropics. These are not your happy-go-lucky TV gay bachelor types. Like South Beach, these are the utterly off the deep end seriously maladjusted social rejects who have no intention of leaving other people alone or learning when to shut up. The same chart says there are only 85.9 men for each 100 women in Pembroke Pines, just west of here.
One suspects the census takers have been drinking on the job. Unless they built a spate of ladies-only retirement homes over there, I say that’s a lie of some kind. You can drive through Pembroke Pines, stopping at any mall, any place at all, really, and never see an eligible female. The implication of the stats is that there are more women than men looking for a good time. Anyone past their teenage looking-good stage can tell you otherwise. That’s why I often snortle when I hear married men lament that they can’t date all the pretty women they see. Trust me guys, they will disappear the moment you get divorced.
The batbike and the starting problem. It was not the battery. It still “sticks” when running stone cold or long-trip hot, so the next check is the alternator. I suspect it to an extent, as it does not run at 13.7 (volts) unless taken on a high-speed freeway lap. The alternator would not account for hard starting, but it is an easy troubleshoot. I also noticed once or twice even a boost does not deliver an instant start. I am narrowing the matter rapidly for a non-mechanic type (like me) and it is likely the solenoid. I hope not the starter, which costs a fortune.
Books. I finally read Jules Verne’s “Around the World in Eighty Days”. It isn’t like the comic at all. For that matter, it isn’t like Verne at all. His other works are plug full of prophecy and credible science fiction. This book is nothing of the kind, more of a study in social behavior with elements peeled out of an early atlas and some nineteenth century travel brochures. It’s a quick and easy account of Fogg’s circumnavigation to win a bet. Mind you, Fogg (and the real protagonist, Passepartout) did it pre-Internet when it was possible to buy an elephant or a boat without a website membership and a call-back from some toothy drop-out salesdick.
Bingo was okay but not great, matters not helped by this lingering flu bug. It seemed all over in a few days but has instead become a deep chest congestion with painful joints. How do you like that? A shallow cough, but even that tenses the shoulders into a mild but constant pain that keeps one up at night. If this lingers, I’ll be Grumpy and Wheezy, for I’m already half-way there.
The Karaoke news is that somebody we don’t yet know is going to give it a whirl at the club. We’ll be watching, of course. Meanwhile, the ballast shifts through the entire circuit, with a couple of new “open mic” nights opening soon. I dislike open mics, as they are generally too early in the week and are too obviously designed to make an audience out of fellow musicians.
Note to myself. This is a video link. Notice in this blog, the period at the end is not lazily included in the link. Videos are links, not uploads. Upload button rarely works, so it is better to upload video to youTube and link to that URL.
Last, authorities report that the LAPD gunman on the run, Dorner, died from a single gun-shot wound to the head. I believe them. Why? Doesn’t everyone believe them?
ADDENDUM
My posts saying the USA sliding from world leadership upset a few people. They should bury their heads back in the sand. America has become the junkyard of the democracies. For fifty years, we’ve spent all our easy money building useless toys. And how useless! Space shuttles instead infrastructure, celebrity pregnancies instead of research, rock-climbing instead of robotics. As long as the money is limitless, every goof in the land is a hero. We worship bungee jumpers and truck drivers, but can’t plant a garden. Oh yes, we had it coming.
The national complacency lets each American believe the collapse is not his personal fault, but yet is directly the fault of every bleeding heart. There is no need to be a flaming Liberal to be responsible for our decline. Simply get so full of self-interest that you will not oppose anything, even welfare and immigration abuse, for fear of being called a redneck. The wimp majority became afraid of being called bad names by strangers—and this factor is drastically underestimated by too many people. I was there and saw it. The moment anyone advocated deporting illegals, he was called down by the do-gooders. Well, now, it is the do-gooders losing their jobs and houses.
The reality is, there is no room for peaceful co-existence in a capitalist world. The old saying rings true, it is not enough to win, somebody must lose. And the USA has lost. Fifty years of soft on racial crimes, endless wars on drugs, and interfering with other cultures has bankrupted the nation. Yet we are still building $80 million dollar airplanes to bomb bad guys who live in a cave.
Like all empires (and make no mistake about it we are an empire) in the end we failed to produce a strong leader in each generation. And like all empires with paper money, we drowned ourselves in the stuff. Like the Romans, even in decline we are so wealthy the carcass will provide a feast for decades to come.
Is there hope? Yes, because China has been backward for thousands of years. Their few inventions barely survived in a society that intellectually and emotionally can’t do anything with them. The huge gains of China are based on stolen or copied Western technology. When you build 5,000 shopping malls, you indeed out perform the USA, at least on paper. But look at the malls. These are not pagodas, but direct copies of Los Angeles and Houston.
Watch their military displays. The fighter jets are clones of American models. Same with the tanks. Even the music played during their martial parades sounds like Sousa. As with the Soviets, the Chinese will learn that dominance is not leadership. The problem confronting this last big communist bid for world hegemony is that while the whole world all wants to be white American, nobody wants to be Chinese. Not even the Chinese.
