I read this article, then in disgust, I watched Idiocracy

Draining reservoir after urination incident show tenuous grasp of science.

Idiocracy made more sense, and I felt better.

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David Shaff of the Portland water bureau should be fired immediately.

This is the guy who’s decided to toss 38 million gallons of water from an open air reservoir because one teenager pissed in it.

By the way this is the second time in three years Portland has done this over urine.

Let me stress, this is an open air reservoir.

As in open to the sky, as in open to birds flying over it; we all know what our cars look like during bird migrations. Not to mention all the dust, plant debris, dirt, insects and anything else that may fly over the reservoir and fall in.  I don’t even want to think about the mess that ducks & geese leave behind, you do know that most all birds void their bowels prior to taking flight right? Mr Shaff should be a hell of a lot more concerned about that.

Lets not forget the algae, and bacteria, that inevitably live in this body of water.

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 Even if this body of water wasn’t open to the sky, let’s assume is was somehow sealed and sterile.

The concentration of urine distributed across that volume of water would be so small as to be irrelevant. In fact, Mr Shaff would get more urine in his mouth performing oral sex with his spouse.

But, and I must stress this, this reservoir is open to the sky.

Since I have no doubt that there is an ecosystem of microscopic plants & animals in the reservoir I suspect that the material from the teenager’s few ounces of piss have already been metabolized into a generation or 100, of paramecium, or caused a minor algae bloom. In other words, the urine is gone, long gone. Consumed by the natural processes occurring in any large body of water.

The Portland water bureau should be more concerned about treating the water for waterborne illnesses than whether one guy pissed in it.  

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This whole stupid mess begs another question.

How do people with this level of idiocy manage to keep their jobs?

I’m sure Mr. Shaff has all the right papers, and diplomas. Clearly he learned all the fact and figures to pass his exams, what he apparently didn’t learn was common sense.

Instead of calling for people to be fired because of their honestly held religious or political beliefs, perhaps a better use of our time would be to call for the firing of people that demonstrate repeated incompetence.

Just Sayin…

Been out of it for a couple of days… All I can say is DAMN!

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My ISP was having some difficulties with packet loss and their problems were affecting my ability to get email and upload to the blog.

Paraphrasing Poltergeist 

“I’mmmm BAAACCK!”

The question is what do I talk about first?

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The Bundy Ranch v the BLM?

I hate to even think about what could have happened if someone had squeezed off a shot during that standoff. That’s how really bad things happen really damn fast. I personally don’t think Mr Bundy has a leg to stand on legally. OF more concern to me is that we had an armed standoff at all. 

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When you start looking at issues surrounding the Bundy standoff. You can’t help but stumble over reports of other events where one could say that the US Government is overstepping its authority and behaving very much like a totalitarian entity.

There are currently issues over land between Texas & Missouri due to the ever changing nature of a river that had traditionally marked the boundary line between the states and ranchers in the area. The BLM is taking an interest and stands to usurp something like 90,000 acres without compensating either the states or the landholders.

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The EPA is attempting to assert control over many bodies of water, including watering ponds on farms and ranches. They are also making noises about assuming control of dry or seasonal creek and river beds.

Meanwhile The Border patrol has become a nuisance to Arizona ranchers whose property abuts the buffer zone between the US / Mexico boarder They’re doing things like cutting fences or leaving gates open without so much as a “by your leave.” 

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These supposed events are concerning because they’re in general, never picked up by the main stream media but are reported in local area papers. On an individual basis these seem like minor local issues but when you view them from the “orbit” of the internet it does start to look like a quiet conquest.

With government oversight, come government control. With government control, come fees, fines, and increased taxation (whether it’s called a tax or not.) This seems to be the source of the underlying embers that almost burst into flames at the Bundy ranch.

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The FDA is being reported as sticking their noses into a long standing arrangement (100+ years) between Beer Brewers and farmers regarding grain. The Beer uses the grain to make beer, then the waste material is usually given to farmers / ranchers to mix with feed stock. This arrangement takes care of the waste without requiring anything other than a farmer / ranchers willingness to haul the used grain away.

Now, the FDA is wanting to regulate this equitable arrangement in the name of public health even though there has never been an instance where the public or the animals have been harmed. Some old traditions bacme old traditions due to the test of TIME. It’s not in the best interests of Farmers or Ranchers to engage in an activity that is detrimental to their livelyhoods. So does the FDA really need to be involved? Probably not, but you can expect for their fees and inspections and whatever the hell else they’ll do to drive up the cost of a beer, and possible the cost of food too.

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The newest revelations about the IRS internal memos?

Just WHO is Lois Learner afraid of? She claims she’s in fear for her life and that’s why she doesn’t want to testify. REALLY? Can’t her employer The United States Government protect her & her family? Or is it the US Government that she’s afraid of?

The Ukraine?

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Does anyone really believe that Vladimir Putin is concerned in the least about what President Stompy Foot thinks? Don’t get me wrong Putin is not a nice guy but he’s doing what he things is best for his country ( Or Himself) and he’s not in the habit of asking permission. 

Potential for World War III?

There have been some writers comparing the flashpoint issues for WWI and WWII to what’s happening in the Ukraine.

I’m not sure that I completely agree with their assesment that WWIII could be in the offing but the correlations are interesting to read. I doubt Putin would move it to an all out war against NATO but hey no-one thought a strange little houspainter would end up Chancellor of Germany either.

President Obama’s trustworthy polls?

This one cracked me up. Approximately 60% of Americans believe that Obama is actively lying to them one way or another. Now that’s really gotta piss President Finger waver off.

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The President was on TV again today defending Obamacare and as usual took the opportunity to reiterate that Republicans are BAD and that their continued desire to revisit Obamacare isn’t in the public interest. Whoo Hoo 8 million people signed up. Lets see, there are approximately 313.9 Million people in the US. Does that mean a whopping 3% of the population signed up. Whoooo impressive!

I’d have been more impressed if this 8 million had ALL been previously uninsured people instead of poor schmucks that lost their insurance and had to find something on the exchanges.

I’d have been more impressed if there wasn’t a recent editorial by a lady that had called something like 92 doctors in New Jersey only to find out that her shiny new obamacare card wasn’t being accepted because the doctors didn’t want to deal with the smaller payments obamacare would provide for their services, and the increased overhead and oversight from the government.

I’d be more impressed if, instead of Pres. Stompy shaking his finger at Republicans he’d actually listen to what the vast majority of Americans are bitching about regarding having their health insurance screwed with.

I’d really be impressed if ALL of Congress, including that idiot Harry Reid had to sign up with Obamacare through the exchanges. (Hey Harry, let see if you’re smart enough to use the damn internet shall we?)

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I have no idea what the hell is going on anymore. I feel like I’ve walked through the looking glass into bizzaro world.

In short, HOLY CRAP BATMAN!

Ding, Dong, Fred Phelps is dead!

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I thought I’d feel happy about it.

I don’t.

I’d planned a pilgrimage to his grave site so that I could piss on his grave, I find myself not wanting to waste the gas or time.  It would be relatively easy and not that far out of my way, since I’m driving back home soon.

It’s not worth it, I’m just not that much into the symbolism and all I feel, is that a very sick, very sad caricature of a religious man is dead. He’ll never learn anything about the consequences of his hate, or how to let that hate go.

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Perhaps he has taught me something though, holding on to hate, anger, and sadness, prevent you from seeing that there is more in the world.

Oh, I’m nowhere near being enlightened! 

I’ve spent years trying to connect the dots about anger and hate. Maybe another 30 or 40 years and I’ll get it right. Hey, I have issues, so sue me! Sometimes you have to go back to the beginning to understand why you’re so knotted up.

Just going back to your beginning isn’t going to help unless you’re in a place where you can understand objectively what you’re seeing and not get caught up in the minutiae. You kinda have to take the wide angle view and see your place in the interactions and you gotta accept your part in the mess. Yeah, you’re not a victim, even though you might want to think of yourself as one, you’re more often an active participant.

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I’m sure there will be plenty of people that will want to cause the Phelps family as much grief and pain as the Phelps family has caused. And they will… For my part, I think stopping the cycle of pain, anger, and grief is a better choice.

Fred Phelps deserves nothing but my pity. His legacy will be a footnote in history as a person that was misguided and who used religion to cause others pain.

Moving on…

Reflections on Las Vegas

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I have no clue what people are thinking bringing their children to “Sin City” and expecting… What? No booze, prostitutes, gambling?

We accidentally offended some woman coming back from the pool with her kid.

She saw us as we got to the bank of elevators leading to our room. As we approached, she stormed into an elevator and we followed her in.

We didn’t even realize she was stressing until we were in the elevator. Wow, what a tense situation.

I’ll admit it took me a bit to figure out why she was shooting daggers at us and keeping her kid from looking around.

My Brother and I were both looking a little raw, and he was carrying a big ol plastic cup of booze. When I finally had the “Ahh Ha” moment all I could do was smirk.

Come to think of it we both probably smelled a bit boozy too. I think we were coming back from a shopping trip that included whiskey, rum, stetsons, lunch and beer. Hey, you only live once and we were having fun.

It’s not like the hotels have a “Boozed Up” elevator! We have the right to get to our room too. What the hell did that lady expect? It’s VEGAS, you know, it’s for adults!

She should count herself dang lucky we didn’t have some companions for the evening. Her kid would have gotten a real education!

If you want no smoking, no booze, and no guys walking into an elevator looking like they’d been rode hard and put up wet, then just 4 and a half hours southwest by car is a place designed for good clean family fun. Have at it! They call it the “Happiest Place on Earth”.

Eh, maybe, I like the house of the mouse but only in small doses, separated by decades. I prefer the mouse house in Florida if it comes to going there.

I think I prefer the more adult diversions, lord knows, Las Vegas has those in abundance.

There’s an entire side of Las Vegas that I haven’t sampled yet. The next time I go, I think I’ll explore it.

Hopefully I won’t get in too much trouble.

I got practically nothing done yesterday

But I did manage to pick up a shiny new set of trial contact lenses.

I CAN SEE!

My eyes have been changing about every year, to year & a half, and that bites the big one.

It’s just another reminder that I’m getting old. As if looking in the mirror isn’t enough of a reminder!

I started the day pretty normally and then went to run just a couple of errands which turned into more errands and rapidly spun into a fur ball of stuff that I needed to get done but that took a lot longer than I thought it would.

No complaints, just one of those things that seems to happen with some frequency.


Recently, I was having a conversation about the narcissism of Twitter. In point of fact all social media is about narcissism. I include blogging in that wide brush stroke as well.

After all who cares that you’re at a particular restaurant or store? Who really cares that you’re having a good or bad day aside, from perhaps your mother or spouse?

And lets be real, who really cares about your opinion?

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Yeah, I’m sure that’s a somewhat sobering slap in the face to a lot of folks who claim to be “addicted” to social media.

Even knowing all this, we still cast our opinions and daily events onto the digital stream, for all the world to read and judge.

I still write blogs that people sometimes read. I still occasionally tweet my opinion out into the world.

Sometimes people find those blogs or comments funny and other times, not so much.

The point is none of us should be taking any of this social media stuff seriously. My opinions are like everyone else’s, plentiful and in the end, to be taken with a block of salt.

A little narcissistic introspection isn’t a bad thing.

Just remember to look critically at yourself when you look into the mirror.