August 3, 2015

Yesteryear
One year ago today: August 3, 2014, the wrong tank.
Five years ago today: August 3, 2010, read this book.
Six years ago today: August 3, 2009, the music gamble.

MORNING
           I had to look up a punctuation issue last day and I’ve since been flooded by offers from Claudia Gere, who for $399, offers to teach me how to write books, you know, to become an author. It’s a webinar and she promises I will learn the importance of books. And a “crystal clear path”, not to mention a journey of self-discovery. Like maybe a lump or thickening that wasn’t there are week ago? Anyway, here is her logo. So I’m taking it the name is pronounced “gear”.

           Neat, Germany just bought Greece. When I ponder how that is different than Greece not paying its debts (bankruptcy), it is only a smaller scale of what is going on in America. Of course, I shall be watching the silver market and house prices. But not the stock market, because it has been nothing but a stage-managed put-on for so long that it does not represent the health of any company. If it were not debt-driven instead of investment-driven, it would have collapsed in 2006.
           I don’t think there is an educated person alive today who does not know that the German economy is owned by the Rothschild banking system, past masters of thriving off world unrest. How powerful is that banking cartel? Well, just 85 years ago, they got England, Russia, and the United States to get rid of Hitler for them. Like they will do to Trump if you don’t watch out. And remember, I don’t know politics, but I know the motives of selfish men. Good-bye, birthplace of democracy.
           The effect of it on America will be delayed, but it’s on the way. Too many people in both countries living off the system. This or that entitlement, but the biggest crisis nobody in this country is addressing is single mothers on welfare. Ann Coulter spoke out, but the rabble quickly turned it into an attack on “family values”. “Have you ever had a baby growing inside you?” is the typical response of a bad parent.
           Interestingly, Coulter did not criticize single-parenthood. She quoted statistics that 70% of criminals and such come from single-parent families. She is against the way the media glorifies the single mother (hard-working, dedicated) and stigmatizes the father (deadbeat, irresponsible). I am against single-motherhood for the same reason I am against anything that puts poor people permanently on the welfare roles. Poor people never learn it is their own attitudes that nail them. I, too, was poor for as long as I believed in such bullshit as registered charity, political correctness, credit cards, and voter registration.
           The point is the majority of single mothers are not hard-working. They are on welfare. Big difference. I said “majority”, and these women get pregnant just to get on welfare. Quit blaming the men. I grew up in a time when women could name anyone as the father and often did so by which man had the highest-paying job. The law was hardly neutral. When DNA testing later proved the man innocent, he did not get any money back—and in some cases still had to keep on paying.

NOON

           ”Democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those willing to work and give to those who would not.” ~Thomas Jefferson

           Ah, a day of pure research. It takes time, which is why I know most people don’t do it. Here’s some robot trivia, the kind you have to think about. I’ve got a box of infrared sensors, but no emitters. Where does one find an emitter? The easiest source is old remote controls from the thrift. Robot builders quickly discover florescent light has no infrared (but incandescents do). The trivia is where do you find an IR filter? Do you have any strips of old photo negatives?

           No, not the exposed part, but that strip of orange on the ends, the unexposed part that gets developed without having been exposed. There is your infrared filter. One of the avenues I investigated last day was ways to defeat Google glass, based on the assumption that sooner or later somebody is going to start marketing these things. When they do, there is an instant demand for a countermeasure.
           In robot talk, “identity” means the ability to distinguish or follow one object in a group. This is not so easy, but my understanding is that it is currently done by color. The camera is designed to pick out a distinctive color on the clothing of one person and follow that color as the pixels move. I have one of these cameras somewhere around here, the kind that can process 100 million pixels per second, probably the minimum. (What I don’t have is a computer that fast to connect it to.)

NIGHT
           Texas leads again? The Dallas Morning says there will be cutbacks on aid to children and the elderly, formerly a no-go zone politically. The problem with this policy is, I think, the fact that the program does not go in there and weed out the cheats. They take away from everybody across the board. You want to find welfare cheats? Go to the flea market and investigate every person running a booth. Follow every Latino who walks out of a welfare office and see where she goes. And no, I’m not racist. I’ve been to these places and seen for myself what is going on.

           The next sacred cow after disability is social security. Again, cuts for everyone. That is so unfair, because not everyone paid into it. There should be a hands-off policy for those who paid into the fund, such as myself. It’s those who came after me that were born into an era of “entitlements” that should suffer more because they paid in less and got more free shit over their lifetimes. I never got a thing for free in my life. Yes, I drove on the roads, but I paid a gas tax for it. But when I went to school, they never gave me free pencils.
           Cuts are also unfair because those punished the most will be the worst off, those who cannot supplement their income under the table. Oh, come on! It is going on all the time, so don’t be denying it. I know at least ten people from cooks to musicians who are working on the side—and I don’t even run with that crowd. I’ll bet you every prostitute in this town is probably on food stamps. Seriously, I’ll bet money on that.
           Now that I know I can drill accurate enough pilot holes and cut threads, I devoted an evening to the study of set screws. I bought several different models for examination. This was far more exciting than anything else going on in town tonight. I miss the 70s. That was the only time in history when you could party hardy without hired help. Extra brownie points if you can figure out what was different about the 70s than any other period of debauchery in recorded history. Hint, there was a new invention that made it possible.
           Another facet of the 70s was a curious difference. Today people still take things to the next level. But the focus has changed to the next level where the thrill should be taking it there. This may sound subtle. Yet entire generations have lost the ability to enjoy the journey. I think television trains people to think like that. You get somewhere without any sense of having accomplished anything. Yes, I do know people my own age who still never have enough time to slow down.


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