December 15, 2016

Yesteryear
One year ago today: December 15, 2015, is that car on fire?
Five years ago today: December 15, 2011, the most hated weapon.
Nine years ago today: December 15, 2007, blocking the ATM.
Random years ago today: December 15, 2002, that historic 7:1 kill ratio.

MORNING
           Off to a slow start, but here’s something just up the road I never saw before. The new Amazon.com headquarters and distribution center. At least that’s what I’ve been told. It’s big enough. Agt. R and I were off to Largo, Florida, to pick up the Honda Rebel 450. The first thing you should know is that there is no such thing as a quick trip to Tampa/St. Pete’s. The road system is so bad, it makes the traffic even worse. I’ve been warned about the area and it was still beneath expectations.

           However, by 10:30AM, we reached Largo, a bedroom community on the west side. Reasonably prosperous neighborhood, but still mortgage estates. The bike has a little flash rust on it from being stored outdoors, but it has been inside most of its life. I fired it up and it needs a tuneup or at least an inspection of the fuel feed mechanism. I got it up to top gear on a side road, noting one muffler is louder than the other. Otherwise, everything seems in working order.

           The fuel switch has a slow drip, likely a worn O-ring and the front brake has been repaired, but overall the hardware all seems in original condition. I forked over the cash and over to the motor vehicle branch, where I got skinned for $147. Taxing used products and charging exorbitant fees for compulsory paperwork is so demented even in concept. But remember what I pointed out in 1989? The American system is NOT corrupt, because corruption here is not illegal. The government here sees nothing unethical about charging a little extra just to “grease the wheels”.
           The corruption today? You can get your new title mailed to your address in a week. Now, if you cough up an extra $7, they can get if for you right away. Folks, corruption is corruption—except when the government is doing it. The DMV is hands down the most useless of all government services. Did you know that vehicle registration started as a crackpot idea by a state senator who was accused of doing nothing? So he pushed through vehicle registrations to prove he was at least still breathing. Today, the DMV remains the greatest police sting operation in history.

           You know what Trump needs to do? Go through the entire civil service and have each employee sign a document they will 100% support the president and will not act in any way detrimental to his policies. Fire anybody who won’t sign, and continue that policy until the last of these anti-patriotic scum are weeded out. To those who say the government can’t function without them, nonsense. It works better when you eliminate the friction. Few things are more hypocritical than some civil servant clone of the establishment announcing they will organize resistance against the “Trump Regime”. Let them protest by quitting.
           How can you tell I was listening to NPR? Getting people back to work and off welfare is the priority, not queer marriage and abortion. There will be some howling, you see, once you create a welfare class in society, you cannot get them back to work and still be Mr. Nice Guy. If the president won’t say “radical Islamic terrorism”, he’s never going to say “welfare cheat” either.

Picture of the day.
The Resnick Pistachio farm.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
NOON
           There it is in my grassy driveway. My birthday and Xmas present this year. It was a 73 mile return trip, of which 43 was in the city. Those miles required one hour and twenty-five minutes to get to the open road, in this instance, Hwy 60. I did not care for the layout of Tampa, though I fully understand that a lot of Florida had an existing hodge-podge road system before the government began to standardize the freeway system.

           But calling the roads that run through Ybor City “highways” is wishful thinking. I’ll going to call ahead to my mechanic in Hollywood to pre-order a windscreen. As soon as I got on the road, I regretted not having a faceshield. Plus, with a screen, you can comfortably drive in significantly cooler weather.

           Honda design is coming back to me after all these years. For example, both first and second gears are such a similar ratio you wonder why they bothered. This bike is a six-speed, meaning it has that nice overdrive once you get out into the open. I held it there the last 30 miles just to get accustomed to the feel of the machine. It is a considerably different ride than the big Honda. You can’t drive it one-handed like the sidecar and the gear shift and brake levers are at an uncomfortable angle. Give me a hundred more miles to adapt.

Country Song Lyric of the Day:
“I Can't Get Over You, So Why Don't You Get Under Me?.”
NIGHT
           This, folks, is what is making America sick. It’s from an article on MSN. If you follow the link on Tommy Thompson, you may recall the book about his discovery was reviewed in this blog some years ago, around 2011 I think. He is being sued by some investors in the project saying he sold gold keeping the money for himself.

           That is not cheating unless it can be proven the investors had claim to any immediate return. If I recall the book, they did not have any such claim, and some of the investors were getting greedy before he recovered his own costs. Also, if memory serves, he had several unsuccessful searches, and backers of those filed a speculative claim on the later successful find, to which they had no entitlement. It was also evident back then that the greediest claimants fell into a definite ethno-religious category. The group that is always worried about how much money the other guy is making, you know, sort of an econo-legal treasure hunt of its own. And the American legal profession are its prospectors.

           However, my point is simple. It is not illegal to rent a mansion in Florida, or have money straps lying around the house, or to go “into hiding” if you choose to do so before any warrant is issued, nor is it illegal to possess literature on how to become invisible to the system. Hell, that last item should be taught in grade school. I hope you see my point. He had already “disappeared” when a warrant was issued, meaning I’m not buying the public notion that the existence of a warrant makes him “even guiltier”.

           This is a case where the issuing of the warrant amounts to making a person guilty of behavior that was not a crime but for the warrant. I will never agree with such sordid activity. I’ve never been a fan of the “we’re all in this together” mentality. People who invest in treasure hunts have no intention of playing fair and should not later pretend so. I further believe people [such as Thompson] have a right to live privately and anonymously without arousing suspicion or breaking any law. As it stands, [Thompson] can never now receive a fair trial.
           I read the book and he did not necessarily say he would begin paying the investors out of the initial gold recovered. He searched longer and dived deeper than anyone before, and could justifiably be paying his own expenses without near reaping any profit yet. Investors by default don’t get paid unless there is a profit. The courts are plainly siding with those who think otherwise, and the court is not supposed to take sides. Meanwhile, they are holding him in an Ohio jail and fining him $1,000 per day in violation of his right to remain silent. Silence is neither false, nor misleading, but now the bastards have made it illegal.
           The book is called “Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea”, it became a best seller. I believe I still have my copy. I also believe that how he treated his investors is a separate issue from forcing him to reveal where the treasure is. Let them file their claims so when he brings up more treasure, they get paid or else. But to keep him in jail until they find the loot without him, that is akin to debtor’s prison. We are supposed to be a civilized country.
           Nor at this time would I care to hear the opinions or legal position of anyone who has not read the book. How long before this country makes it a crime to draw one’s curtains at night?


Last Laugh
(Prohibition at work.)

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