One year ago today: July 5, 2021, generic commentary.
Five years ago today: July 5, 2017, 103.5°F.
Nine years ago today: July 5, 2013, limbered?
Random years ago today: July 5, 2007, minding the Thrift.
What a morning, but I got the job mostly done. The front yard kudzu counter-attack commenced at 9:30AM and continued non-stop until 12:30PM. This is just the initial pass, knocking down the overgrowth and taking the sawzall to such trees as have taken root. The preliminary spray of insecticide last day made the work that much more pleasant. To the upper left, you see the oak saplings. These are too springy to cut with the say and must be nipped below ground with the bolt cutters. Expect an equal amount of time on the raking and burning.
I admit ragging on poor people y’day—when they show up where they do not belong. Poor people are an unavoidable part of daily life for most, I’m just saying I would not want to deal with any when I get home. Did you see that article on the man who restores older American homes? He reports you did not begin seeing locks on doors until after the Second World War. That’s when most white immigration was cut off and forced integration began. I don’t like welfare but see the need for it on a temporary case-by-case basis. I also have a plan that is better than what’s there now. People on welfare have no incentive to get off it, and if they amass even a small amount they are in danger of being cut off.
Their net incomes are actually high enough to invest, and part of my plan is just that. I don’t have the time to spell it all out, but give each welfare person an investment account, which takes a few dollars off their checks. Allow them to contribute when times are good, but the point is, they cannot touch the money until their youngest child turns 18 and/or they themselves turn 55. (These are examples, not rules.) They would then see how small amounts turn into big amounts and some would learn the parameters.
At the due time, they could not cash in. The taxpayers part would have to be paid first, and they cannot take out more than 10% per year until age 65. It’s not a perfect plan but it is a giant step toward educating the welfare class that they are generally not well regarded because they don’t even try. Remember Crazy Mike (maybe not, he arrived during a blog blackout), how he thought welfare money came from the government? Some special fund of money that magically appeared to “help people” who could not get “good jobs”, he said.
Rolls-Royce is still around, selling around 5,000 cars per year. The average age of the buyers has dropped from the 50s into the 40s. Most useless luxury feature is an opinion, but for me the custom headliner (interior car roof), takes the prize. It is a fiber optic view of the night sky, complete with shooting stars. Most expensive variation was some customer ordered the scene of the constellations on the day he was born.
How about those farmer protests in Holland? Tractors just push the police vehicles out of the way and cop lines get sprayed with manure. And that scene of the police shooting at a tractor. Trouble. Think of it as the Third Boer War. America can learn a lot from these events. Another “mass shooting” just before election time, with Kamela Harris going on record saying, “We have to take this stuff seriously, as seriously as you are because you have been forced to take this seriously.”
“Barndominium” for sale.
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Another three hours out there, I cut back most of the oak saplings and got things ready to rake. Here’s a nice view of the lush peach tree leaves. Yeah, I’m tired. What got me, however, was the mail box post. I placed it in the pit and leveled it oh so carefully. A couple hours later had me grab the tools into the shed before a ten minute rain shower. As I walked out, sure enough. The post is crooked from the wet soil. And it is in there solid, the only option is to dig it up and start over. Maybe later, since I dragged most of the yard cuttings over to a single pile and I’m pooped. If I lie down right now, it’s over until tomorrow.
What’s this, people with tattoos and piercings have childhood neglect issues? PsyPost does not emphasize the same study found them to also be poorer and less intelligent. Who’d a-thunk it? It’s now past 8:00PM and I have not moved in hours. Good, I’m aching from the effort, post-hole diggers and cropping underbrush is not my daily routine. Hence I watched a video on the history of the Rolex watch company. Sub-titled “On His Own”, I had to see what they were talking about. No orphan suddenly decides one day in his late teens to become the world’s most famous watchmaker. Ah, around half-way, the truth starts to emerge.
He was the son of a factory owner who put him in an exclusive boarding school where he learned English & French and met another student who worked at a watch factory. He worked as a jeweler and picked up the sales part, then left for London as a watch salesman. He succeeded, which meshes with my experience how rich kids in sales can wait out and focus on the best customers without mundane concerns like food and rent. Society being what it was in 1905, Hans Wilsdorf also married into money and had a rich relative back his venture. So far his only original idea was the name Rolex, short enough to fit on a wristwatch dial.
That’s interesting, the self-winding wristwatch was invented by Rolex so the casing would not have to have a stem hole, a potential entry point for water. I did not know Rolex is also a registered charity, so it pays no taxes. Today’s models have casings of 904L, about the most expensive steel there is. Containing nickel, chrome, and molybdenum, it is non-magnetic and has a crystalline surface that resists, well, just about everything. The Rolex is formed from slices of a seamless tube of 904L priced at $6,000 per ton (about three times as expensive as ordinary steel). An entry-level Rolex Oyster retails at the same, $6,000.
Predictably, I was not impressed with the angle that Hans rose from orphan to billioinaire all “On His Own”. Far from it, few people ever possess such formidable resources.
ADDENDUM
Since West Virginia passed their “open carry” law, crime has plummeted. That doesn’t tell the story. The reality is crimes committed by blacks fell only in certain predominantly white areas and the violent crimes have to be taken separately to reach the claimed 90%. Not all of the State reports their gun crimes, particularly the black areas such as Charleston and Wheeling, where crime rates have risen. Still, the statistics, no matter how they are manipulated, show one undeniable fact: most crime in America stems from a single source.
