August
1 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
I washed the floor in the kitchen/living room again last night. Not that it needed it, not that I wanted to do it, but Patches was sick again and wandered around the area throwing up. I put her in the bathroom and contained her in there until I thought she was finished. Let her out when I saw that she had not thrown up in there and she promptly threw up in the recently washed kitchen area. This is going to be a problem!
On a somewhat more positive note I have changed Text Editors. I said that I had installed Visual Studio Code but after doing so I could not find how to use it. Went back on line and found a tutorial for Sublime Text so installed it and uninstalled Visual Studio Code. After getting Sublime installed I opened it and it looked just like Visual Studio. Oh well, I do have the tutorial that hopefully will teach me how to use it.
The high temperature these past few days has been under 90° but it has been uncomfortable. The humidity has averaged in the 60%s with the lowest being in the 30s with the high temperatures. People that live with these weather conditions all the time will scoff but for a desert rat these are uncomfortable weather conditions. The forecast is for a few days to dry out then more chances of rain starting on Saturday.
That is all that is happening here today. Tomorrow I'll go to town for groceries which will provide a slight break in the routine.
2 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
The grocery gathering went smoothly. This was in the face of shelf stocking and a large group of young people stocking up for a day of adventure.
I have the distiller working again. That is probably the only thing in this household that is going to work today. The high yesterday was only 91.1° but with the humidity in the 30%s I just did not feel like walking. I didn't nap but did lay down for that hour that we would have been out there.
Have you noticed how the mass media have gone almost totally silent on the war in Ukraine?
What happened to the sturdy and brave, nay, stallworthy newsmen and women, wearing imitation combat kit, standing in front of some building in Kiev telling us in stentorian tones about the battle to come for the capital of Ukraine? What happened? No news gatherers embedded with the “victorious” Ukrainian forces inflicting defeat after defeat on the evil Russkies? All we see are tired old politicos and grade B actors from America and Europe visiting Zelensky, when he is not posing for Vogue, that is. — And Ukraine? Some Innocent Questions, W. Lewis Amselem
3 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
We did all three of the walks yesterday. However, Patches did not want to go on the afternoon walk so it was just Erik and myself. Patches has not thrown up again and has a good appetite but dosen't behave like everything is quite right with her.
I finally finished that long book that has taken me forever to read. Now I'll get started on another history book that has been waiting online. It is maybe one sixth the length of the one that I just finished. It is also by a professor that writes for the common man rather than for his peers.
”Revolutions, droughts, famines, invasions, wars, regicides — the calamities of the mid-seventeenth century were not only unprecedented, they were agonisingly widespread. A global crisis extended from England to Japan, and from the Russian Empire to sub-Saharan Africa. North and South America, too, suffered turbulence. The distinguished historian Geoffrey Parker examines first-hand accounts of men and women throughout the world describing what they saw
Parker's demonstration of the link between climate change and worldwide catastrophe 350 years ago stands as an extraordinary historical achievement. And the contemporary implications of his study are equally important: are we at all prepared today for the catastrophes that climate change could bring tomorrow” — Book promo @ goodread.com
This is the closing of Andrei's analysis of the Pelosi's visit to Taiwan.
Most US Americans have absolutely no idea how offensive their condescending arrogance, constant flag waving, talks about their messianic mission for mankind and general narcissism is offensive to the rest of the planet. But when you look objectively at the endless list of US failures pretty much anywhere on the planet, you can tell that there is something deep going on here. For some reason, the “Yankees go home” thing seems to be very contagious.
I think that Nancy Pelosi deserves our profound gratitude. She should get at least two medals:
● One from the CP of China in gratitude for her endless efforts to rally the people of China around their government and
● One from Russia, for her endless efforts into solidifying the Russian-Chinese alliance.
Truth be told, between Bliken and Pelosi the national security interests of China and Russia are in good hands :-) — Nancy braves the Chinese dragon and wins?, Andrei
4 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
We did an afternoon walk again yesterday sans Patches. She did not act like she wanted to go with us and probably had good sense. It was not all that hot, just a little over 90°, but with the humidity I was wringing wet by the time we finished. Erik was willing to go but he lagged behind for much of the walk.
The forecast is for scattered thunderstorms this afternoon then perhaps we dry out through the weekend. Then more thunderstorms starting next Tuesday. What we are getting here is higher humidity with very little rain. A total of 0.55'' in June and 1.02'' in July. I could have been here last year when they got only 0.04'' and 0.86'' for June and July; it is a dry area.
I need to get the holding tanks dumped and add more water. That will probably be all that I do today other than more reading. Maybe do some more programming study; which I find rather boring.
There are a lot of people in this world agree with Caitlin's sentiment. Pelosi simply added to their numbers.
The world is a worse place now than it was before Pelosi's plane touched down. Less safe, less wealthy, less kind, and more frightening. Not one ordinary person has benefitted from her insanely hawkish provocation made in her final years on this earth, especially not the people of Taiwan.
The US empire is sick, and it is playing sick games with all our lives. As far as I'm concerned, its downfall can't come soon enough. — The US Military Was Just Used To Help A Dementia Patient Try To Start WW3, Caitlin Johnstone
These are words to live by now more than ever.
“To live well you must live unseen.” — René Descartes
5 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: August 5, 1934
Yesterday afternoon when it was time for us to do our afternoon walk the wind was gusting, it was hot and there was a thunderstorm approaching from the north. All good reasons to not walk. By the time we would have finished the walk all those good reasons no longer were in evidence. We needed an afternoon off.
The forecast is for a cooler day today and only stray showers so we may get to do all three walks. That will be the only thing that I have on the agenda other than reading. I have the history book started online and a novel on the Fire 8.
Revenge is a dish that is best served cold; How China Could Wreak Vengeance on Taipei & Washington.
“[Pelosi] took such a huge political gamble that the world will never be the same again,” noted Pauken. “Beijing will feel emboldened to accelerate its unification measures of Taiwan and the Chinese government has just moved forward on curbing trade and investments there. The semiconductor industry will get devastated with Beijing's bans on exporting natural sands that are key supply chain ingredients for chip-making. China blocked imports of fruits and seafood products from Taiwan as well. We should anticipate more punitive economic measures to be announced by China in the near future.…
Yes, Beijing blinked militarily here, but China can do a slow burn on the US,” Pauken said. “The US as a superpower is on the decline. The country is in a ‘technical recession,’ witnessing record-high crime rates, social breakdown of families, radicalism in education with drag queens' story hours in children's classrooms and a foreboding sense of doom and gloom as ordinary Americans feel powerless to fight against rampant corruption, Democrat Party propaganda media and ‘defund the police’ civilization.” — Thomas W. Pauken II
6 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
We did half of the afternoon walk yesterday. It was the half that Patches did with Erik. It was hot and since Erik has been lagging in the afternoon I thought I would give him a break from the heat. That is my story and I'm sticking to it.
The only other item of note was that I got a late night neighbor. When I got up at O Dark Thirty to take Erik out for a pee break there was a Mustang convertible parked almost in my front yard. It had a dog in it that Erik wanted to meet since it barked a greeting. We went back to bed but the car was there still when we went out for our morning walk. The dog barked again and this got the ‘site poacher’ up and they drove away. I wasn't surprised that the car had California license plates.
Speaking of Californians you need to read the 10 Biggest Adjustments Fleeing Californians Have To Make In Their New States. “Hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing California for states like Texas and Florida, but it's not always easy to adjust to life in an American state. Let's look at the 10 biggest adjustments fleeing Californians have to make in their new states.”
It is expected to be hot again today and the forecast rain has been put off until Wednesday. That is good because I need to drive to a dental appointment on Tuesday. Today we will most likely try to do a repeat of yesterday with the exception that the noon walk will be to the Post Office. I have a couple packages waiting for me.
7 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
We did a repeat of the walks done the day before yesterday but as I said it would include a stop at the Post office. There I had a package of AeroPress filters and a package from Round House. This was my order for new bib overalls.
The old ones that I bought from them 16 months ago were starting to show holes in the crotch area where my legs rub the pant legs together. I wore them everyday and walked 2,200 miles in them; they lasted longer than any other pants I have bought for walking. They are a little more expensive than the Dickey's that I bought before but are American made and last longer. Good bibs!
The forecast high for today is 97° which Weather Underground say will be Warmer than yesterday. They never use the word Hot. We will probably not be doing an afternoon walk. Not even the half distance we have done the past couple of days.
I'll be in Desperado with the A/C running full blast and reading more of the history book that I have started online. I also downloaded another nonfiction book onto the Fire 8 that gives me something to switch to as a break. Shopping day tomorrow is the only other thing planned.
There Are Two Sides To Every Story
Like every other grad student at Miskatonic University, Owen Merrill knows about the Great Old Ones, the nightmare beings out of ancient legend that H.P. Lovecraft unearthed from archaic texts and turned into icons of modern fantasy fiction. Then a chance discovery—a lost
8 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
Patches threw up her breakfast again yesterday. I bought some baby food pumpkin mix today while shopping hoping that might settle her stomach. However, I think she probably has a more serious problem that pumpkin will not fix. If she can improve enough that I can get her to the vet in Benson in October that is what I'm going to do. If not then I'll have to take her to one in Kanab.
The shopping went well except trying to find just pumpkin baby food. There were a lot of sweet potatoes which I may get next week. I also got 15¢/gallon off the price of a fillup for Desperado. I'm not sure why I get some receipt from Honey's Marketplace stamped for the gas discount and some not but did get the savings today. This was the first fillup that I have done since I first got here so I went three month on a tank of gas. The per gallon price was still higher after the discount than what I paid here in May. But there is no inflation; Uncle Joe says so!
I have a dental cleaning appointment tomorrow in Hurricane, UT so that is going to use up a lot of that gas and use up the morning. I sent them a confirmation that I would be there and heard nothing in reply. I can only assume that the office is still open. I'll find out tomorrow.
That will mean even less walking tomorrow than what we did yesterday and probably today. The high was just what the forecast expected at 97° and that is what is forecast again for today.
So far Patches is doing well – not throwing up. I gave her some hulled barley and oat groats last night and this morning along with a half ration of her dog food. With that and some of the pumpkin mix I'm hoping she stays well.
Now that it is so clearly upon us, senior dominance is viewed with horrified amazement by many politicians and economists. Because it is the very opposite of what they anticipated, they see mass longevity as a fiscal calamity, a prospect wholly at odds with all they hold dear. The country is filling up with the wrong people — old people, people who by definition take little interest in innovation, who care more about secure investments, savings accounts and prescription costs than the next hot thing on the market and who will be claiming more and more of our resources, influencing ever more of our political policies. Hardly a week goes by but the evening news or the op-ed page takes up the drum-beat: “Be warned! Old people are coming! Old people are coming!” Gerontocracy, in the judgment of many pundits, threatens bankruptcy, backwardness, and stagnation. They ask: “How can we afford all these people?” And, less audibly, they ask: “How are we going to sell them i-Phones, HDTV, flashy clothes, new movies, the next American icon?” — The Making of an Elder Culture by Theodore Roszak
9 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
As I expected most of the morning was used up with the trip to Hurricane, UT from my dental cleaning appointment. I got there just in time even with the road construction delay a few miles north of the town where they are widening the road that climbs out of the valley.
The cleaning went well and cost less than what I pay in Sierra Vista or Benson. I have never been in this part of the country before and the views from a home in Colorado City, Apple Valley or Hurricane are spectacular. However, the summer and winter temperatures are horrible. You would pay a price for the great views.
After the cleaning I stopped at Rooster Run restaurant and had a veggie omelet that was twice the size that I was getting in Kanab. A big serving of red potatoes. Flour tortilla and good coffee at a price that was $5-6 less than what I was last charged in Kanab. If it didn't get so damn hot in the summer I would consider staying in Hurricane. We will not be doing any more walks today; the dogs are worn out from waiting for me and I'm tired from the drive. It will just be reading and staying cool with the A/C running full blast.
Just as we revise our reading of political revolutions, we also reinterpret social revolutions, finding in them elements that earlier generations missed. Take one well-known feature of the industrial revolution that will be of special interest to us here: urbanization. The industrial city was among the most obvious innovations of the period, but it had more dimensions than anyone recognized at the time. The new machines, ungainly improvisations of belts and shafts and gears, required factories; the factories, needing a local workforce, required cities. By fits and starts, without planning or foresight, the first industrial towns formed around the factories. And to begin with — especially in the first industrial nations — the cities were killing fields. People left their hamlets and villages seeking work in the factory towns; what most of them found was death. Through the first three generations of the industrial revolution, cities could not replace their own numbers. They grew because thousands were moving off the land and into early graves. Those migrants who left the countryside left behind their familiar diets, their folk remedies, their inherited immunity, their social support. They entered cities that were hellholes with no streets, no clean water, no sewers, no public health facilities, no garbage collection. And by the thousands they died an even earlier death than they would have died in their villages. In the wretched little factory town of Manchester in 1820, little more than a collection of shacks and shanties along unpaved roads, life expectancy was 17.
…by 2000, the life expectancy of baby boomers would reach 70. At no step along the way did anyone raise the warning that all this sanitation and public health was prolonging life and so saddling society with more elderly dependents than it could afford. — The Making of an Elder Culture by Theodore Roszak
10 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
The high yesterday was 96° and we did not walk. Today the guess is that it will only get up to 86 so we might do all three walks. It is very humid so even with the lower temperature it is going to be uncomfortable. We got 0.09'' of rain about sundown yesterday which was certainly needed but it has raised the humidity.
I need to run the A/C even when the temperatures just get above 80 with the increased humidity. The next nine day are forecast to be like this; highs in the 80s and rain every day. I'm going to think I'm back in Japan during the typhoon season.
“When You Strike At A King, You Must Kill Him.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Establishment has struck former president Trump again but have not yet killed him.. That is next in my opinion. I don't think he will live to see the 2024 presidential election — if there is one.
11 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
The high yesterday was 92.5° which was a little higher than the forecast. We did only half of the afternoon walk in that higher temperature and higher humidity. Patches did that half with us and seemed happy to go. She has also made it through another 24 hours without throwing up. I am hopeful.
The closest weather reporting station claimed there was 0.05'' of rain during the night. I could see that the ground was wet this morning but I think that much rain will only keep the humidity high and not do much good.
The forecast continues to be for high temperatures in the 80s with more rain. We will be running the A/C and doing our best to stay cool. I'll be reading more of the history online plus switching to the novel that I have downloaded to the Fire 8.
The Summer of Love. Vietnam. Woodstock. These are the milestones of the baby boomer generation Theodore Roszak chronicled in his 1969 breakthrough book The Making of a Counter Culture. Part of an unprecedented longevity revolution, those boomers form the most educated, most socially conscientious, politically savvy older generation the world has ever seen. And they are preparing for Act Two.
Part demographic study, part history, part critique, and part appeal, Theodore Roszak's take on the imminent transformation of our world is as wise as it is inspired—and utterly appealing. — Book promo @ goodreads.com
12 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: August 12, 1934
The weather reporting station says we got 0.04'' of rain last night but I think I got a little more than that. Not a lot but more than is being reported. Enough to get wet when I took Erik out for a potty break and he took his sweet time.
We did the half walk in the afternoon yesterday with Patches. She then had her dinner and seemed to be doing well but just before bed time she was acting like she would throw up again. It didn't happen, which is good, but all is not completely well yet. That is about all that is happening here today. Tomorrow I will go do laundry. Will also do shopping a day early because Honey's Marketplace is closed on Sunday.
This WEF advisor views humans as ‘useless eaters’ who can be hacked and manipulated using digital surveillance under their skin. He also believes in culling the population. “What do we need so many humans for? …we just don't need the vast majority of the population. Because the future is about developing more and more sophisticated technology, like artificial intelligence [and] bioengineering. Most people don't contribute anything to that, except perhaps for their data, and whatever people are still doing which is useful, these technologies increasingly will make redundant and will make it possible to replace the people.” — World Economic Forum advisor Yuval Harari
13 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
We didn't walk yesterday afternoon with rain falling all around us. Water water everywhere but not a drop fell on us.The forecast for today is an 80% chance of 1-2'' of rain so there is a good chance we will not walk this afternoon either.
Stopped at the laundromat here in Fredonia on the way to Town to do grocery shopping. I was the only one there for as long as it took me to do my laundry. The grocery gathering was also done in a sparse crowd and I was back in my space at the Park before 8:30.
There were 6-7 open spaces on my southside prior to yesterday afternoon. That is when I got a neighbor on that side in the space right next to me. That left about 10' between their RV and Desperado. Fortunately, they left this morning not too long after I got back from shopping.
Bound Away offers a new understanding of the westward movement. After the Turner thesis which celebrated the frontier as the source of American freedom and democracy, and the iconoclasm of the new western historians who dismissed the idea of the frontier as merely a mask for conquest and exploitation, David Hackett Fischer and James C. Kelly take a third approach to the subject. They share with Turner the idea of the westward movement as a creative process of high importance in American history, but they understand it in a different way.
Based on an acclaimed exhibition at the Virginia Historical society, the book studies three stages of migration to, within, and from Virginia. Each stage has its own story to tell. All of them together offer an opportunity to study the westward movement through three centuries, as it has rarely been studied before.
Fischer and Kelly believe that the westward movement was a broad cultural process, which is best understood not only through the writings of intellectual elites, but also through the physical artifacts and folkways of ordinary people. The wealth of anecdotes and illustrations in this volume offer a new way of looking at John Smith and William Byrd, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, Daniel Boone, Dred Scott, and scores of lesser known gentry, yeomen, servants, and slaves who were all “bound away” to an old new world. — Book promo @ goodread.com
“Stripping motivated people of their dignity and rubbing their noses in it is a very bad idea.” — Unintended Consequences by John Ross
14 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
That southside neighbor is much like myself since their house is also their car. They were gone yesterday soon after I got back from town. But they were back again in the late afternoon. I'm now guessing that this is their ‘home’ base and they are crossing National Parks off their bucket list. A couple more days and they should be gone.
The 80% chance of rain yesterday was a good bet but almost none of it fell here. It did not look as threatening yesterday as the day before and we were able to do a full distance afternoon walk. Then about 30 minutes after we finished there was a very brief shower that I think may have measured as a trace.
I have not yet started to read an out of print book that I have downloaded; another long one that is historical fiction. The book was listed by The New York Times' Sunday Book Review as one of the most sought after out-of-print books of 2013.
Amazon is offering it in Hardcover for $525.74 and Paperback at $89.13. It is also available Free at archives.org since the copyright was preemptively terminated by the author 2009. The book is therefore now in the public domain, though the movie rights to the work were retained by the author.
The author also had a blog that I will be copying; with this posting for a start.
The Virtues of an Aggressive Plaintiff's Bar, or
Shakespeare Misquoted
by John Ross
Shakespeare Misquoted
by John Ross
Copyright 2003 by John Ross. Electronic reproduction of this article freely permitted provided it is reproduced in its entirety with attribution given.
Q: What do you call fifty lawyers trapped in a bus at the bottom of a lake?
A: A good start.
Q: Why are lab researchers starting to use lawyers instead of rats for research?
A: Three reasons: They're more plentiful, the researchers are less likely to become emotionally attached to them, and there are some things that rats just won't do.
“The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers,” said Dick the Butcher in William Shakespeare's Henry VI, delivering one of the Bard's most-quoted lines. Lawyers and lawsuits are the bane of our society, and it was obvious even in Shakespeare's time.
That's the conventional wisdom, and it's simple, plausible, and dead wrong. Let's look at a favorite example, the million-dollar legal judgment against McDonalds for the lady who spilled hot coffee in her lap. Lawyers defending this judgment will list some facts of the case that you may not have heard in a ten-second news sound bite:
1. The scalding was so severe that the elderly woman was hospitalized with second-degree burns.
2. There were dozens of these coffee scalding incidents serious enough to require hospitalization.
3. McDonalds had run tests which determined that serving scalding hot coffee made quality differences more difficult to detect (cheap coffee was indistinguishable from the good stuff.)
These points are valid, but lawyers never mention the most relevant fact about the entire case: For a measly million bucks, global giant McDonalds got advertising they couldn't have bought at any price. The message, delivered by a judge, no less, was When McDonalds says their coffee is piping hot, by God they mean it! Buy coffee from them and it damn well won't be lukewarm when they hand it to you. If you're clumsy, eat elsewhere.
Remember that this wasn't someone getting a million dollars by suing his next-door-neighbor for serving him free scalding coffee. McDonalds makes literally billions of dollars selling this product. The million dollars was a tiny cost of doing business, and look at the advertising message they got for it!
The same is true of the big judgment (later reduced by a judge) against Domino's Pizza when one of their drivers, rushing to deliver a customer's order within the promised 30 minute delivery guarantee, hit a pedestrian and broke his leg. Another message that couldn't be ignored: Dominos' drivers will do whatever it takes to get there quickly. (The judgment ordered Domino's to modify its guarantee and stop docking the drivers' pay if they exceeded 30 minutes.)
Again, this wasn't some guy hitting a pedestrian while driving home with his own pizza, it was a national chain exercising the speedy-delivery policy on which it had made its reputation and built huge sales (with commensurate profits.) Does Domino's still deliver pizza? Yes. Has the price jumped because of losing the suit? No. Has delivery slowed? Not by my stopwatch.
Another thing that the lawyer-bashers never mention is that cases like the two described above are highly unusual and represent a tiny fraction of the lawsuits which flow through the courts every day. They are quite simply “Man Bites Dog” stories. They capture our imagination precisely because they're so unusual.
The vast majority of lawsuit dollars involve suits where one corporation is suing another. The champions of “tort reform” never mention this. Imagine a company making cheap pajamas out of flammable, synthetic materials. The “reformers” would put a cap (i.e. $100,000) on the amount of money the company would have to pay if a child burned to death wearing their product, but would not limit the amount of money the company could seek in a trademark-infringement suit.
And that brings me to the most important point about lawyers, one that I have never seen voiced: Because we have so many lawyers, and because they're all motivated by self-interest to get clients and make money, and because they read the relevant laws so carefully in the pursuit of this goal, WE DON'T NEED NEARLY SO MANY LAWS AND GOVERNMENT AGENCIES designed to protect us. Take any industry into which the government sticks its nose, and you could largely eliminate that regulatory agency overnight with a corresponding cost savings and increase in service. Let civil suits keep things honest. Let's get some real use out of all these lawyers we have!
Why do we have an FDA? To protect you from some guy brewing up cholesterol-lowering medicine with a home chemistry set and selling it to you out of his garage? No, because you'd never buy his stuff, you want drugs made by Pfizer or Eli Lilly. Do Pfizer's drugs need to be FDA-approved? Of course not. If they have fatal side effects, Pfizer will be driven out of business by the massive judgments against it in the inevitable lawsuits, and Pfizer knows it. Do we need the FAA to make sure American Airlines adequately maintains its fleet of planes? Of course not, because when they crash, American gets sued, and American knows it. Remember Valujet? The FAA didn't close them down, the free market (consumers suing for damages) did. The specter of lawsuits with their attendant judgments keeps companies honest much more effectively than a bunch of government slugs with clipboards.
Do our food and beverage producers make clean, high quality food products because of the government? Absent any regulatory agencies, would Anheuser-Busch produce contaminated beer, or beer with a lower alcohol content than the label promised? Of course not; it would be bad for business. Lawyers would be scouring the pages of Beer Gut magazine, reading the results of independent tests, rubbing their hands together, looking for lawsuit targets.
In fact, the only areas where lawyers cannot keep businesses honest are those industries to which the government has bestowed tax-free monopoly status by making them illegal, and thus immune from legal remedies, such as illicit drugs. Bought something from some guy on the street corner, and it put you in the emergency room? Sorry, but a personal injury lawyer can't touch him. The cops might arrest him and he might go to jail, but that won't help you with your hospital bills.
It goes further. The very existence of the EPA makes a tremendously arrogant statement: It says, “You people that live in [fill in your state here] are so stupid, you will allow others to foul your nest without complaint. You need strangers who have never stepped foot in your state to dictate what is or isn't an acceptable level of contamination for you.” Close the EPA down and let potential lawsuits brought by local people keep any would-be polluters honest.
And that brings me back to the line from Henry VI. Many English words had different meanings when Shakespeare was writing plays than they do today, and the word “lawyer” is one of them. In Shakespeare's time, lawyer meant lawmaker. (Barrister was the word used then to denote an attorney.)
That's right. What Shakespeare's character Dick the Butcher really said was “The first thing we do, let's kill all the legislators.”
That's a bit different suggestion, isn't it?
John Ross 4/7/03
15 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
We cut the first half of the afternoon walk a little short when the lightning started crashing too close. There were also a few sprinkles and the rain was less than 5 miles away with a strong wind pushing it our way. It was not long after we sought shelter in Desperado that the rains came.
We didn't get the 1.26'' that the reporting station did but we got maybe half that. The most rain so far this summer. Most of it did soak in but when it started to rain the ground was so sun baked that it looked like it was raining on concrete. If the forecast is right we will get more rain during six days this week. The rain is certainly needed but I do not need the humidity!
I forgot to buy the baby sweet potato for Patches when shopping so have added some boiled potato the past couple of days. I don't think that is the reason she is much better. I think she had some foreign matter in her gastrointestinal tract and finally passed it yesterday. She was displaying her usual spry morning wake up welcome this morning which has been missing. I hope I'm right and she is well.
I'm doing more distilling and yesterday I cooked more hulled barley and oat groats for breakfast. Today will be more reading. I have a novel on the Fire 8 and a book of short stories online that I can switch to from time to time. Then there is the long historical fiction book waiting for me on the Fire 8.
Do you want to know what was the driving motivation for the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago? Then I suggest reading A Different Sort of Warrant by James Howard Kunstler. I think he makes a good case.
Since the fall of Man there have been thugs seeking power in order to demand their gods be worshipped… or to be worshipped as deities themselves. This has been true since the first tribes in Africa, through the pharaohs of Egypt, to the dynasties of Asia, and the Roman Caesars.
It's no different now.
The new faith, like the old faiths, simply distills down to man worship. And what is Marxism if not fealty to The Collective? And what is “The State”, if not a collective of humans? And do not utopian dreams always spring from the minds of men?
It has been so from the time of the first lie.
And, once again, self-appointed gods have obtained power through deception. But, this time, their control is global. The modern financial wizards have centralized power through the usury of fractional-reserve banking and, over the decades, have consolidated their authority over transnational corporations and “sovereign” governments alike. And, yes, they certainly own the handful of corporations comprising the mainstream media today. — Doug “Uncola” Lynn
16 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
I took Erik's harness off on Sunday to get him refitted to it. The strap that went around his body was too tight since he put on some weight. He was rather thin when I got him but had outgrown the harness. The last time I took the harness off and tried to put it back on was one of the times that he bit me. This time he let me do it repeatedly to get the strap adjustments right. Progress!
I gave him a brushing with the Furmintor and he allowed me to do that also with no attempts to bite. This was the first time that I gave him a full brushing so maybe the partial brushings that I did were useful to get him accustomed to the brush. Progress!
He sheds a lot more than Patches but only twice a year. In the Spring for 6 months and in the Fall for 6 months.
Yesterday afternoon it looked like we were going to have a rain repeat of the prior day. We didn't go out and the storm just died. If we had gone out we would have got wet for sure; that is Mother Nature's sense of humor.
The only other happening of note is the Park has started to fill up. With school terms starting I thought just the opposite would happen. I guess it is more about the approaching cooler weather that has people coming to the area to check off the National Parks on their bucket list.
17 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
The weather is in a rinse and repeat cycle for the next 5 days if the forecast proves to be correct. Then maybe we dry out for the remainder of the 10 day forecast. The mornings are very nice although with more humidity than I like. It is the midday and afternoon walks that are hot and humid.
I finished the distilling. Now I need to get some hominy soaking and maybe start cooking it tomorrow for future ‘linners’. That will be about all I do today other than read that long historical fiction book that I have downloaded. The only thing that I have found to be fictional so far is the historical character's conversations. There is no historical record that they took place. The historical events did happen.
In Videssos the city, tribune Marcus Scaurus was bored. The legion that had been magically transported to this strange world was far away. But the Emperor's niece Alypia was near—and willing.
But the fates conspired against them, driving them further westward, into the innermost sanctum of Videssos' great enemy Yezd—and toward the torture chambers of the evil, deathless wizard-prince Avshar.
But behind them, without orders, the men of the legion were on the march! — Book promo @ goodreads.com
“Tell me, how are disinformed and unorganized people going to stop a Putsch by the Democrat Party and their Department of Justice, CIA and FBI allies? Republicans are out of their minds if they think the Democrats are going to permit an honest election in November.” — Paul Craig Roberts
18 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
I wrote that the Park was filling up which surprised me. Well that has all changed these past couple of days. All those late comers have left and those that are still here have been here for the most part since I got here. I have a long term neighbor a couple spaces over on my north side but there are 7-8 empty spaces on the south side.
It started to rain yesterday at the time we would have started our afternoon walk. It didn't rain much, probably just a trace. But when I took the dogs out for a potty break about 30 minutes later it was still very threatening.
The only thing on my To Do List for today is get the hominy started to cook. That and more reading of the historical fiction book that I have on Fire 8. That will probably keep me entertained for a week.
One of the things that interests me about the way this is playing out [the Covid saga] is that it has a very precise echo in American history. Two centuries ago, state and federal governments that were explicitly set up to preserve the privileges of the well-to-do against everyone else were shaken right down to their foundations by Jacksonian populism. Laws restricting the vote to people who owned a certain value of property were overturned in state after state, and so were other bastions of privilege. One of these, and indeed one of the most hated of these, was the legal structure that kept medical practice in the hands of a wealthy and educated minority.
The reason that this was among the most hated bastions of privilege in those days is that the medical care that resulted was so bad. Scientific medicine at that time, backed up by all the most respected authorities of the day, focused with monomaniacal intensity on bleeding and purging, which by and large killed more people than they saved. Physicians also charged sky-high prices for these officially approved but ineffective treatments. Plenty of less harmful, less expensive, and more effective therapies existed, but people who tried to practice them faced the same sort of legal penalties you get for practicing medicine without a license today. — The Great Rehash, Part Three: Unsafe and Ineffective, John Michael Greer
19 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: August 19, 1934
The rain (drizzle) started around 11:00 yesterday morning so the midday walk with Erikm was canceled. Then it looked like we could get to do our afternoon walk but by the end of the first half we were wet and getting wetter. Today looks like it could repeat. There were a lot of heavy clouds this morning.
What I will do today will also be a repeat. There will be a shopping trip in town tomorrow but today is going to be just more of the same.
This is a good article but I think JHK is far too optimistic that any government official will ever be charged, much less convicted, of any crime tied to Covid. Mistakes were made; move on now there is nothing to see.
So, all week the CDC has been walking-back one “guidance” after another. No more compulsory testing, no more contact-tracing, no more social distancing, no more treating the unvaxxed differently than the vaxxed (though the “Joe Biden” regime still won't allow unvaxxed travelers into the USA), no more vaxx mandates (except, apparently, the US military). Oh, and they've conceded that their “vaccines” do not remain in the deltoid muscle, but actually leak all over the body. Note: whatever else the public health agencies are saying or doing right now, they are still promoting the mRNA vaccines, and lying about their safety and effectiveness — because if they told the truth, they would be completely discredited and surely subject to criminal prosecution. And they are still suppressing cheap and effective treatment protocols while promoting remdesivir and the useless (plus expensive) Paxlovid. — The Meaning of Incredible, James Howard Kunstler
20 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
The shopping trip in town was quick. I even was able to find some Japanese eggplant which Honey's Marketplace call Finger eggplant. I wanted a change from the bell peppers that I have been adding to my ‘linners’. I think the eggplant also has more anti-inflammatory and good cholesterol properties than the bell peppers; both benefits that I seek.
This morning was the first in a week that was cloud free. The chances of rain in the next 10 day forecast are slight and high temperatures are to be in the 80s. I hope the weather guessers are right and it dries out some.
The cranberry beans and hominy are in the Thermal Cooker after being brought to a boil this morning. I'll bring them to a boil again before going to bed and they will cook overnight; should be ready for ‘linner’ tomorrow.
That is about all I have on tap for the weekend.
21 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
The forecast was that there was little chance of any rain yesterday other than some scattered showers. There was 0.16'' of rain reported from the scattered shower that we got yesterday starting around 5-6:00 pm. The forecast for today is much the same so we may, or we may not, get some more rain.
I walk past the same house where the same dog, if he is outside, will come and bark at Patches and Erik. They never respond and he has got to the point where it is now only a few barks — like he is saying Hello. Yesterday morning there was a deer in the yard where the homeowner had planted a small garden. The dog was out and came to bark at us completely ignoring the deer that was 30' away. The deer also ignored the dog and just stood there looking at us.
They're Interviewing Who About the War With Iraq? or
Has a Politician Ever Apologized?
by John Ross
Has a Politician Ever Apologized?
by John Ross
Copyright 2003 by John Ross. Electronic reproduction of this article freely permitted provided it is reproduced in its entirety with attribution given.
Shortly before the invasion of Iraq began, the news media interviewed former President Jimmy Carter about the impending war. Whether Carter was in favor of the war or not is irrelevant. (For the record, he was against it.) What I found so astonishing was that the news media were seeking him out in the first place and giving weight to his words, as if he were an authority on how to deal with evil scum in the Middle East. (For you younger readers, Ronald Reagan's landslide win over Jimmy Carter in 1980 was due in large part to the American public's overwhelming view that after the Iranians took Americans hostage in Tehran in 1979, Jimmy Carter's handling of the crisis was utterly inept. The Iranians released the hostages about five minutes after Ronald Reagan took office.)
When I saw this on the news, I said to the friend I was with “This is like FNN asking a bankrupt man for financial advice.” I then realized that this was not fair. A man who was bankrupt could say “Here's what I did, and it cost me everything I had. Let me tell you about all the blunders I made, so you can avoid making the same mistakes,” and that would be financial advice worth hearing.
Jimmy Carter, by contrast, never so much as hinted that if given another chance, he'd do things any differently. Then, to make the interview even more surreal, he said that we shouldn't go to war with Iraq because a majority of the American public opposed such a war.
Hunh? Leaving out whether he's right that the majority of Americans oppose a war with Iraq (the polls I read say they support it), since when is public opinion relevant to the rightness or wrongness of an issue? Imagine if Jimmy Carter were asked in 1964 about the proposed Civil Rights Act, and he used this same logic: “The majority of the American people don't want this Civil Rights Act” (which was true, they didn't) “so it's a mistake, the President should veto it.”
This brings up a question I have always had: Has a modern-day politician ever truly apologized for anything? Not a Clintonian “mistakes were made,” but an honest-to-God, Harry Truman buck-stops-here, “I was wrong. I'm sorry I used such poor judgment.” Has any legislator ever done that?*
I was in the Missouri House a few years ago when a legislator made a proposal to raise the speed limit on a rural stretch of interstate highway. Several opponents claimed in strong language that carnage would result. The bill passed, the speed limit was raised, and three years later, there have been no fatalities on that stretch of road. It's a small point, but shouldn't those Senators now be just a little bit embarrassed? Mightn't they be expected to shut up the next time some issue comes up about which they know nothing?
The same thing happens every time a state repeals a Jim Crow-era victim disarmament law and replaces it with right-to-carry legislation. The opponents predict carnage. When reform passes and licensees with concealed-carry permits cause no problems whatsoever, the opponents act stunned but never say : “Gee, if I'd bothered to look at the experience of EVERY OTHER STATE that's passed right-to-carry legislation, I wouldn't look so incompetent right now. I'm sorry. I'll keep my mouth shut next time instead of spouting off and lying through my teeth on an issue about which I know nothing.”
Perhaps I don't read the news carefully enough. If you've got examples of legislators apologizing for their mistakes, point them out to me and I'll eat my words in a future column. Until that happens, I'll assume it's like that stupid tagline from the 1970 book and movie Love Story:
Being a politician means never having to say you're sorry.
John Ross 4/14/03
*Former Senator and 1972 Presidential candidate George McGovern wrote a piece in the Wall Street Journal a few years ago about his unsuccessful attempt to run a bed-and-breakfast after he left politics. He explained how the government's Socialist policies (that he had championed when he was in office) made it impossible to operate it at a profit. His candor was refreshing, but since his admission came well after he had left office, it doesn't count.
22 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
I cut the afternoon walk four minutes short but should have cut it by eight minutes. We got a little wet during the last four minutes of our walk. The reporting station claims we got 0.01'' of rain. That was enough to wet the street and anyone that happened to be out there in it.
The forecast for the next three days is more of the same but a little hotter with high temperatures in the low 90s. Then there are thunderstorms expected next Thursday and Friday before returning to highs in the 80s. We have not left summer or monsoon rains yet.
I guess I just continue to do what walks I can at the same time try to stay dry. I'm making progress reading the long historical fiction book; mostly by just reading it and not switching to the compilation of short stories I started online.
A good article by JHK; one built around his theory of history: “Things happen because they seem like a good idea at the time.”
Personally, I think we under-appreciate the tendings of history per se, and that trending these days is the set of circumstances adding up to a Long Emergency, a.k.a. the Fourth Turning, a.k.a, Mr. J.M. Greer's Long Descent. In plain English, we're exiting the techno-industrial fiesta of the past 200-odd years and entering the uncharted territory of what-comes-next, and that is driving the immense anxiety of the age. Our business model for everything is broken, mostly because the fossil fuel situation has become so uncertain, and it is driving us nuts. Understand that and you will have enough mental equipment operating correctly to stay sane.
Suicide is hardly the only option. Resist those who want to drag you into it. We are going to carry on one way or another. We're going to make it through this bottleneck. Let the insane bury the insane. Keep your eyes peeled, keep your hearts open, and keep your powder dry. — Crazyland, James Howard Kunstler
23 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
We stepped outside yesterday afternoon for our walk and immediately felt sprinkles. It was not very heavy so we continued on and from the look of the one raggedly cloud overhead we were not going to get very wet. We got a little damp but it soon quit and we were dry by the time we finished the entire distance.
Then around 6:00 there came a real rain that acted like it was going to be the usual heavy monsoon rain but it only lasted for about 10 minutes. Maybe around 0.10'' but I'm not sure since the reporting station didn't get any measurable rain at all.
The weather here is the only News. I did cook some hulled barley and oat groats for future breakfast. The report on Patches continues to be positive, I'm adding a couple of teaspoons of baby sweetpotato to her reduced serving of dog food every day or two. It is more like a treat for her rather than it doing anything worthwhile but I bought it so she gets to have it.
Continued reading the historical fiction novel and downloaded a short story by an author that I may read more if I like it.
24 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
The weather yesterday was déjà vu all over again. We stepped out of Desperado in the afternoon to do our walk and it was sprinkling. Lighter than the day before and didn't last as long. We did all three walks and the total distances for all of them. Today might be a different story if the forecast is right; there are strong gusting winds and a higher chance of rain expected.
If I become homebound because of the weather I might finish the historical fiction book. If not, I will certainly finish it tomorrow and then can get back to reading the short stories that I have awaiting. That is all that I have planned for this do nothing day.
25 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
We didn't do the afternoon walk yesterday. There were two of the three weather forecasts that had proved to be correct. The wind was gusting and it was hotter than the 91° that had been expected. The only thing lacking was the forecast rain which again looked like it was coming from the south but never reached me.
I didn't finish that historical fiction novel yesterday but will do that today. This book's thesis, as discussed in the “Author's Note — A Warning and Disclaimer” in the beginning of the book, is that enough bullying, by what is widely perceived as a hostile occupation government, will inevitably end in revolt if the occupied area is large enough and has a culture that is significantly different from the occupying state, and that this revolt will be undefeatable if the rebels use very low-tech “leaderless resistance.”
I'll now be concentrating on reading short stories that were compiled in a book. That one I have to read online. I also have a short story that was released as a book that I have downloaded to Fire 8. These are two different authors that I may decide to read more of their work if I like the short stories.
That will be after I get the holding tanks dumped and add more water. After I get this post unloaded as well.
This quote is the closing of a good article by Caitlin. As I have said before she does have some good things to say — sometimes. You have to read her everyday to find them however OR rely on me to find them. HA
Perpetuate regular small acts of sedition, and then surrender to whatever life brings. I personally see many reasons to hold out hope that we can bring that machine crashing down together one day. — Cultivate A Habit Of Small Acts Of Sedition, Caitlin Jaohnstone
26 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: August 26, 1934
We were able to do all three of our walks yesterday. It was hot and sticky but we were able to do them. The same conditions will probably be with us today.
A quick trip into town and picked up a short grocery shopping list in record time. When I got back to the Park I started the distiller working again. That is the only thing that will be working in the household. I plan on kicking back and reading with the A/C providing some comfort.
Unintended Consequences is a novel by John Ross, first published in 1996 by Accurate Press. The story chronicles the history of the gun culture, gun rights, and gun control in the United States from the early 1900s through the late 1990s.
What PCR says happened during my lifetime also.
The consequence has been that today the US is no longer a nation. It is a geographical location that is a tower of babel in which rights depend on whether you are an “oppressed minority” or a “white oppressor.” There are no common values, no common morality or social mores, no common religion or language. The immigrant-invaders look at the weak and unsure white population, made guilty by years of brainwashing, and see that their time is coming.…
No American born in the 21st century, or even in the 1990s, has ever experienced a free country. The young have no idea of what has been stolen from them. — America Was Destroyed in My Lifetime, Paul Craig Roberts
You can't argue with all the fools in the world. It's better to let them have their way, then trick them when they're not paying attention. — Brom in Eragon by Christopher Paolini
27 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
When it was time for our afternoon walk yesterday the wind was blowing in a thunderstorm. There was lightning flashing and thunder booming along with the strong wind. Then came the rain — a trace. The wind continued for a short time and then it was all over, nothing but sound and fury. The reporting station received 0.30'' later in the night; we got something less than that but did get some rain.
There is no great chance of rain, other than scattered showers, in the 10 day forecast now. What is expected is higher temperatures with the highs going back into the upper 90s again. That means we will not be getting wet in the afternoon from rain but rather from sweat.
The plot of the story is based on real events. In the spring of 1946, while on a hunting trip Sholokhov met a man who told him this story.
💬 Jerome Powell: While higher interest rates, slower growth and softer labor market conditions will bring down inflation, they will also bring some pain to households and businesses… These are the unfortunate costs of reducing inflation. But a failure to restore price stability would mean far greater pain.
Some of that pain was quickly felt with a 1008 point drop in the Dow Index. However, the broader pain is going to be felt as people become homeless and hungry. I'm not optimistic that there is going to be any significant improvement after the 2022 midterm elections or the presidential election in 2024 — assuming they are held.
28 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
Yesterday afternoon was much like the day before. The wind was not blowing quite as hard but the threat of rain was coming at us from all directions. Never got here.
After I get this posted my morning chore will be to prepare another month's Will Rogers weekly articles. Nothing else planned for the day with household chores to be started tomorrow.
My Hard Bargain was hailed as an impressive debut by The Wall Street Journal, and substantial and down to earth by the New Yorker.
Young Women, Jobs, Money, and the Inverted Earnings Curve, or
The Real Reason You Don't Want Your Daughter in Certain Professions
by John Ross
The Real Reason You Don't Want Your Daughter in Certain Professions
by John Ross
Copyright 2003 by John Ross. Electronic reproduction of this article freely permitted provided it is reproduced in its entirety with attribution given.
Note: This week's column is not a book review, nor should it be seen as a focus on strippers. I am using a currently popular nonfiction work as a lead-in to this week's rant. Bear with me.
I just finished reading Strip City: A Stripper's Farewell Journey Across America by Lily Burana. This book has received much publicity and positive reviews from mainstream reviewers such as Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and Newsday.
For six years Lily Burana was a stripper and peep show performer, then for the next five worked on a writing career, with credits at GQ, the Washington Post, New York Magazine, the Village Voice, Spin, Salon, and Details. After getting engaged, she decides that before she marries, she'll make a tour “stripping around the country” (as she calls it) to fulfill a fantasy, get it out of her system, or whatever. She repeatedly admits that she herself is not sure why this profession exerts such a pull on her.
The good news is that the author is a witty, engaging writer with a good turn of phrase. Strip City is an entertaining read, if for this reason only. The bad news is that there is little insight here, except the endless explorations of the author's feelings, why she does what she does, how she feels about it, how her family feels about it, how her fiancé feels about it, how she feels about how her family and fiancé feel about it, et cetera ad nauseum.
Perhaps this is the fault of her editor. Maybe Ms. Burana's original manuscript focused much more strongly on the topic of this week's column, and her unnamed editor decided no one wanted to read that stuff, so he or she cut it out and focused on the angst. I'll give the author the benefit of the doubt. However, there is a powerful message that could have been developed within the 328 pages of Strip City, but was given only a few sentences mention.
As Strip City points out, you'd have to have been living in a cave for the last two decades to miss the resurgence that stripping has enjoyed, a boom not seen since the 1950s. Rock videos regularly feature strippers. Scenes set at strip clubs are common in both movies and on network TV series. Over 250,000 women in the United States work full- or part-time in over 2500 clubs around the country. This has become a multibillion-dollar industry. Many women's attitudes are such that showing off your naked body is now No Big Deal (witness the proliferation of breast implants, the popularity of thong bikinis, and the eager-to-disrobe coeds on the endlessly advertised Girls Gone Wild videos). Stripping is mainstream today. Women you know are working as strippers, whether you realize it or not.
They're making a lot of money, too. Six-figure annual incomes are not uncommon for strippers who work full-time and take their jobs seriously. Burana chronicles the care that goes into developing a stage persona, and sharpening it with thoughtful costume/wardrobe selection, choreography, and image projection. Early in the book, she goes to a bona fide school for strippers in Florida to hone her craft.
After describing in detail the instruction involved, she gives us this passage on page 49:
The lecture for today addresses the topic of “longevity in a short-lived business.” The gist of Ann Marie and Jade's advice: Think of yourself as a professional athlete. Save your money, because you've got a short run at this. I don't know that the idea sinks in with the younger girls but Holly agrees, saying, “The first day you work is when you should start saving for your last.”
Burana then goes on to describe the graduation ceremony at the school, and how she feels about it. In the entire book, the above paragraph is the sum total consideration given to what is by far the most important concern facing a woman in this or any other looks-oriented industry.
Let me state it succinctly: Professions that reward knowledge and experience have a normal earnings curve. The longer you stay at them, the more money you can expect to make, until serious physical infirmity sets in. Professions that reward looks and/or physical prowess have an inverted earnings curve. The peak earning years are at the front end of the career arc, and decline rapidly thereafter.
Teachers, contractors, restaurant managers, machinists, small business owners, writers, executives, bankers, salesmen, chiropractors, doctors, and lawyers who are in their twenties can reasonably expect to have an increasing income as they progress into their thirties, forties, and fifties, if they continue in their chosen fields and don't get derailed in some way.
By contrast, athletes, actors, actresses, models, cocktail waitresses, strippers, and prostitutes in their late 'teens or twenties will not only be making less money as they get older, they may not be able to earn any income at all in these professions once they reach a certain age, possibly as low as 30 or 35.
This seems insultingly obvious to me, but Burana seems not to get it, if her words on p. 263 are to be believed:
A nefarious shadow self is rising up to mock my respectable self, calling me away from writing and back to stripping full time… Why bother chasing paychecks around, hectoring magazine accounting departments, and cursing the empty mailbox for weeks, when I could get cash on the barrelhead each night?
Randy [her fiancé] and I could go on the lam. Dancing is a highly portable means of employment. Have body, will travel. I'm in decent shape, don't have any visible tattoos, and have a bagful of long, blonde hair. I could go anywhere. Randy busts his ass every day. He's up and out the door at 7 A.M., and never home before dark. He could be my manager, keep my bookings and travel arrangements in check. I bet he'd love the change of pace.
He might love the change of pace if his doctor told him he only had a year left to live, but assuming Randy wants to be employed and able to support himself and his family when he's forty, fifty, and sixty, I think he'd rather be “busting his ass” building some experience in a field with a future, not ‘managing’ a thirty-year-old stripper who by her own admission is already starting to hear club owners say “We've got dozens of eighteen-year-olds auditioning for us every week. Sorry.”
It would be understandable if Burana's goal were to use stripping to build up a stake so that she and Randy could get college degrees, or buy some rental property, or open a manufactured housing dealership, or pursue some kind of venture with at least the possibility of future earnings growth, but this never seems to have entered her mind.
Having high current earnings at a young age coupled with poor prospects for sustained future earnings is a very dangerous combination. Few young people save anything. As an investment adviser, I have no small amount of personal experience in this area. In 1982, when I was at EF Hutton, I opened an account for a twenty-one-year-old woman who made over $100,000 a year stripping in Illinois. She was an ideal candidate for building wealth, as she was young, single, had no dependents, and was taking home over $7,000 a month.
Her account rose in value, and she was pleased. I asked her to refer other dancers to me, which she did. Soon I had opened accounts for most of the successful full-time dancers at the club where she worked. I stressed the importance of a monthly savings plan, for all the reasons I've been talking about here. For a while, every girl put money in her account every week or month to invest. (Remember that this was 1982, with the Dow Industrials under 850.)
In each case, when an account got big enough to be meaningful, a curious thing happened. Sooner or later, every girl took every dime out of her account, using the money to buy luxury cars, fur coats, jewelry, clothes, and other quickly depreciating assets. Not one girl used her money to buy a house or other form of real estate. None used the money for college or graduate school. In every case the girl withdrew all the money within a year of opening the account. The savings and profits were all spent, and by taking their profits, the dancers all incurred tax liabilities due the next April 15. I explained all this to no avail. “Oh, I'll earn plenty of money by April to pay the taxes.” The dancers' ability to earn inevitably declined over the next decade, while the market averages increased dramatically in that time period and beyond.
This phenomenon is not limited to strippers. How many athletic champions who earned millions in their twenties (i.e. Roberto Duran) are now bankrupt? In your city, what are the successful (over $50,000 annual income) fashion models of 10 years ago doing now? Do they have any savings?
A few years ago I saw the revival of Damn Yankees on Broadway, with Jerry Lewis as The Devil. I'm sure the woman who played Lola was very pleased at getting the female lead in a sold-out production. What's she doing now? What's she going to be doing in five years? How about ten? Does she have any savings? Remember, she was the star of the musical, not one of the chorus girls.
Ms. Burana, maybe the reason your family isn't crazy about your career choice has less to do with any objection they might have to strangers looking at your body, and more to do with their clear recognition that you have chosen to get your water from a well that is running dry.
John Ross 4/21/03
29 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
We did all three walks yesterday — the full planned distances for all of them. Can't say that we will be doing a lot more days like that with the afternoon highs now being forecast to be over 95° which is more that the dogs and I can tolerate.
I'm slowly getting the household chore done this morning. Do a little work and then take a break to read my usual daily News and Blogs or write up the post for today.
That is all that I have planned for today. Except, I might finish the other book that I have been reading on the Fire 8. I can then get started reading the other two that I have downloaded and are awaiting.
Pilgrim, the DOJ and FBI leadership have not been trying for 7 years to annihilate Trump because of his sandpaper personality … it is because he threatens their very existence … and the Democrats protect the Deep State because that's who they are … and they allow the RINOs to win from time to time to keep up appearances … and most of the media support the Left because that's who they are … and many Americans support the media because that's all they know … it's all pure and simple. — Fletcher
Sorry for the run-on sentence Pilgrim.
30 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
We didn't do the afternoon walk. As I thought it would be, it was hotter than the dogs or I wanted. That is probably going to be true for about a week then maybe it will cool down.
Dozens of daily records were set yesterday as highs soared into the 90s and hit triple digits across cities in the Western part of the country, stretching all the way north to the Canadian border. The forecast is for more records to fall today through Thursday. We will be staying inside with the A/C running as long as we have power — blackouts are a possibility along with the high temperatures.
One of the houses that I walk past 2-3 times everyday has a small garden. The owner also walks early in the morning, sometimes, and I have met him as he returns home. We exchanged a few greetings and waved but a couple days ago we chatted for a bit and he asked me if I would like some beets. I said I would, yesterday he gave me some plus hot green chilies. I'll get more chilies on Thursday before they go on vacation; with any luck maybe more when they return.
Following the collapse of nearly seventy years of Communist rule, veteran writer and traveler Tim Severin went to Mongolia “to see how much of the traditional way of life survived.” He discovered a country in an uncertain state of transition and struggling with its newfound identity.
I would be willing to bet that Beto is fully vaxxed and boosted up. His immune system has been weakened and his body can not fight off the everyday bacteria that it confronts. Furthermore I bet that this is common but we don't hear about it except when politicians and celebrities are stricken.
Beto O'Rourke was hospitalized over the weekend and was forced to postpone a handful of campaign events. He announced on Twitter that he was diagnosed with a bacterial infection, was treated with IV antibacterial meds and is resting in El Paso.
31 August 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
The high yesterday was 98° with the same forecast for today. “The heat will begin Tuesday, with a gradual warm-up each day through the week, and it will peak by the end of the week. The reason for the extreme conditions is a stubborn area of high pressure sitting over the region, creating what meteorologists call a “heat dome.” This intense heat dome causes high pressure to act as a lid on the atmosphere. As hot air attempts to escape, the lid forces it back down, warming even more as it sinks. The result will be intense summer heat, running 10-15 degrees above normal.” — Jennifer Gray, CNN meteorologist
I have holding tank dumps and adding water on my agenda for this morning before it gets too hot. I also need to clean the windshield. The trace showers and blowing dirt these past few days have made a mess.
I will be cooking more cranberry beans as well; they soaked overnight. I plan on making a different dish for future ‘linners’ that will give me a break from the succotash that I have been eating. It will still be bean based but no red hominy. Need to get some of the ingredients tomorrow when I go shopping.
So if Fascism means ‘something not desirable’ then president Biden's calling anyone that voted for Trump a “semi-fascist” means they are only semi-undesirable. I'm not sure if that is worse than being deplorable or not. I'm so confused by Democrat insults that I'm no longer sure how I should class myself. Maybe I'm a deplorable semi-fascist?
The word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies “something not desirable”…In the case of a word like democracy, not only is there no agreed definition, but the attempt to make one is resisted from all sides. It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it: consequently the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using the word if it were tied down to any one meaning. — George Orwell, Essays