Oddbits

From the "How did that seem like a good idea?" file, William Everett Alemar was spotted running near a Martinsburg, WV, school at 7:30 am wearing/carrying this:

Needless to say, police were called. The guns are trainers, although folks can be excused for not noticing that immediately as the guy ran by.  He's been charged with various offenses. Turns out he was drunk out of his gourd. Unfortunately, we still don't have penalties for stupid.  Full story here. 

And then from the "You think we aren't too interconnected for safety?" file, there's the story of the train derailment in Ellicott City, outside Baltimore the other night. Tragically, two young women were killed when the cars dumped tons of coal on them as it derailed.

Here's the thing - that derailment on the east side of Maryland shut down our local DMV here in West Virginia.  A Verizon cable was affected, which in turn shut down those dependent on it.  Moral of the story is that we have become networked in ways we don't even think about and we need to really, really understand that we need to be able to cope in a scenario in which that network is down.

Interlude

Vacation coming - it's a staycation but I'll have a guest by Friday.  Too much peddling getting ready for stuff for regular posting. 

Run, Joe, Run!

Don't Know Which to Do

For seven years, SEVEN flippin' years a group of us in the agency have been involved in a major project.  It was the millstone that I referred to here, and the completion of which was such a major achievement. The report and presentation can only scratch the surface of what it took to get the job done:  the level of research and data analysis and manipulation.  The level of experience with old classical survey data and detective work the project took. I had e-mailed the final product to person who was our contact for the agency we did this for.  Since I hadn't heard back from him I double checked today.  And discovered that, oh, by the way, the other agency cancelled the project due to lack of funding.  Apparently some time ago.

Nobody so much as sent us an e-mail.  I don't know whether to cry or throw up. 

I'm Good With That

A headline from Politico:  "Poll:  Obama leads among non-voters."  I'm not only good with that, I think it's hysterical.  They've gotten so accustomed to laying around and being handed stuff that they think an election can be obtained the same way. 

Comparison

h/t Townhall.com

R.I.P.

Nellie Gray, 1924 - 2012, champion of women and the unborn, tireless fighter for the Gospel of Life.

She truly understood that the words Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness all hinge on the protection of Life, and like our forefathers she pledged her life, her fortune, and her sacred honor to fight for that life.

Reading

The never-ending project is finally, for all intents and purposes, done.  It remains to give the presentation, but that's put together, too.  In 32 years I've never given a presentation at work - always refused to.  I find that this time I really don't care enough to get nervous about it.  Most of the folks who would understand what I'll be talking about have retired...

I've been in a bit of a burned out and blank state - couldn't concentrate to read or watch T.V.  But my brain finally came back this weekend and I finished this:

Speer was Hitler's architect first, and then chief of armaments, where his organizational skills kept the German military going in spite of huge losses and Hitler's insane decisions.  A lot of the original manuscript was written while Speer served his 20 years in Spandau Prison after the Nuremberg trials.  He publicly took responsibility for what he had been involved with and that got him prison - those that tried to defend their actions as just following orders were sentenced to death.  I find it a bit strange - World War II seems so long ago, and yet I remember when Hess was the only prisoner left in Spandau.  I remember his suicide, and the prison being torn down so it couldn't become a pilgrimage site for neo-Nazis.  I remember the disappointment of finding Mengela's bones - he died before he could be brought back for trial.

Speer was close to Hitler for a long time.  His memoirs show Hitler as multi-faceted, and a person who could, no matter how erratic he became, command personal loyalty.  My favorite line in the book goes something like "...at this time Hitler seemed a little unstable."  All I could think was "YA THINK?!"

In order to flesh things out a bit I've moved on to this:

 And then after that I'll probably need a lot of this:

Or anti-depressives.

V.P.

Hee. Heehee.  Heeheeheeheehee!!!  Gotta say, Romney faked me out.  I thought he'd go safer.  More boring. Maybe he actually gets it and the media has convinced us he doesn't.  Hee hee.

Well, yes. That was the idea.

One of Margaret Sanger's descendents has it exactly right - this is why Planned Parenthood was established. White supremacy requires keeping the unfit and lesser classes of people under control, and that means controlling their population.

Crazy People

We've always had crazy people.  We've always had large numbers of guns.  What's relatively new is that whatever was restraining the crazy people from combining the two seems to have slipped. 

Visitor

They be loving my butterfly bushes.

Relying on Grabity Today

Appreciation Day

Chick-Fil-A looks to be on its way to doing a banner day today.  This photo was taken outside the Martinsburg, WV, restaurant just before a bomb threat against it was received:

While the Martinsburg site may lose some money because of the tolerance folks, the restaurant seems to be doing OK around the rest of the U.S.

But one thing people really, really need to remember about this:  a private business was attacked for the owner's personal religious beliefs by government entities using their positions of power.  Emanual and others are in positions where they can influence government actions against citizens based on those citizen's voiced opinions.  Countries have been here before - it has always ended badly for all of them.
  

A Salt Weapon