Scream Fire

You have all heard the old truism" You can't scream fire in a crowded theater.

I've heard it a lot lately, when commentators are complaining about people using their speech to highlight the failures of the Biden administration.  I've heard it a lot.  And as a general rule, that's true.  Using your voice to incite a panic will get people injured or killed, especially if you scream FIRE in a crowded theater.

Unless the theater is actively ablaze.

Lots of folks are saying that they could simply not believe that things could get this bad under Joe Biden.  A sputtering economy, cities awash in crime, a total lack of control at the southern border, soaring fuel prices, food shortages (baby formula??), the list goes on.  We have a president who seems to cascade from one disaster to another, and never really manages to solve one problem before two more crop up.

It is impossible to attribute all this to sheer incompetence.  And Joe told us yesterday that our economy was being transformed.  So, if it is not incompetence, it must be by design.

The midten elections are soon to be upon is.  Several states are holding primary elections.  And, many fold are looking forward too the midterms, thinking that maybe things will get better.  Historically, there has been a shift in the middle of a presidency.  Obama famously said that he had a phone and a pen and we all know that Biden has an army of lackeys who are likely to double-down.  They truly believe in everything they are doing.  If you thought that the past 17 months was a train-wreck, just wait and see what 2023 and 2024 has in store for us.

Not only is the theater actively ablaze, but the roof is about to collapse.

We are in for a rough ride.

Shortages

 It's not just pilots, it's lots of things.  There is a perpetual nursing shortage, exacerbated by the Covid crunch. Becoming a registered nurse takes four years, and there are not enoug in the pipeline.

Water System Operators.  You know, the guys who get clean drinking water into your house?  Those guys.  I have two sons who are Level 4 operators, and they tell me that there is not enough young people in the field to replace those guys who will retire in the coming decade.  Same thing with Sewer System operators.  It's not clamorous work, but it pays well, and is vital to a functioning civilization.

Not to mention waiters, truck drivers, and a host of other physical trades.  These jobs aren't fashionable, but they are vital to society.  There are lots of jobs out there that need to be filled.  Oppostunity abounds.

Gas Prices

 Louisiana is a major player in the oil patch.  I have never seen prices this high in my home state.  This from the station where I buy most of my gasoline.

Thanks, Joe Biden.

Is Consent Not Enough?

 Scrolling thru the intertubes this morning, we come to a tawdry story about  About two lovers that has taken a truly tragic turn.  It seems that a respected scientist was involved in a romantic relationship with a younger woman.  And, not that much younger.  Reportedly, she was 29-years-old when the affair began.

Now, it's over, and she is raising holy hell, claiming that she was "groomed" and "coerced" into the bedroom.  She is making noises about a "sexual predator".  We can surmise that (in the vernacular) she is pissed-off.  She is raising hell, and the esteemed scientist has resigned from his position at MIT and is subsisting off unemployment.

The idea that she was "groomed" is farcical.  She was 29, after all.  Well past the age of consent, and I suspect if she were traveling in the same circles with a respected scientist, she had more than a double digit IQ. (But, that latter assumption is not yet in evidence.)

It's a cautionary tale, and as old as the relationship between men and women.  So, if an old man's advise rings true today, let me give everyone some hard-learned proverbs.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

This comes from the English playwright, Congreve.  It was true in the 1600s and is true today.

The second proverb comes from a forgotten source who counseled me as a young lad.

Don't f**k any woman who has less to lose than you do.

That is great advise.  I'll bet that the respected scientist wishes that he had learned that years ago.

But, we are forced to examine the liberal mindset, which is setting back women in this century.

The liberals’ underlying assumption is that women can never be adults. No matter how old they may be, no matter how many graduate degrees they may amass, women are never free actors. They can only, ever, be playthings in the hands of men. Do you believe that? Probably not, but that is what liberals think, and our culture is awash in such nonsense.

In this age of progressives' not being able to define what a woman is, we have to wonder where we are headed.

Sunday Morning Dawg

 He misses Belle, and hangs our close to me when I'm around.

I keep trying to tell him it's going to be okay.

Nancy and the Church

 It seems that Nancy Pelosi, who claims to be a devout Catholic, has gone one step too far, and has heard from he archbishop.  No Holy Communion.

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of the Archdiocese of San Francisco has taken the extreme step of publishing a letter informing Rep. Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives and third in the line of succession for the presidency, that she must recant her public support for abortion and confess her sins before she will be allowed to partake of the Eucharist.

By all accounts, the archbishop bas bent over backwards to accommodate Pelosi and she has ignored his requests for a meeting.

Belle Update

 We moved Belle from the surgical ward yesterday, down the street to a rehab hospital where she will get physical therapy.   She will be there for about a week.

Kudos to the doctors, nurses, professional staff, and support personnel.  They did a magnificent job  They were professional, knowledgeable, kind, caring, and very accommodating. The hospital still has an official mask policy, but I didn't see it being enforced, by and large.  In four days, I generally wandered the hospital unmasked.

There was one example of what I call an "officious prick" who told me I had to mask before he would let me check out in the cafeteria.  It was less burdensome for me to put on  a mask than to get involved in a philosophical discussion.  The lesson here is that this little officious prick tainted an otherwise stellar performance by the hospital. 

I, for one, and I suspect the vast majority of Americans, are tired of being told what to do by officious pricks.  They count on Americans being compliant, and that may not be an assumption that they should hold.  

We're tired of this shit.

Ingraham:

Worry about the price of fuel, but keep worrying about the availability of oil, then look around you.

This plastic table I'm using right now, even the very plastic case that houses this computer.  It's made from oil.  The tires on your car, the plastic dashboard on your new, shiny Tesla.  Petrochemicals.  Those nice, common freezer bags you store food in.  Oil.  

As I sit in the shop, drinking coffee, working from a white folding table, typing on a computer,  and looking around, I am struck by how much of the stuff I use every day is made possible by fossil fuels.

The Biden administration is a train wreck, that is an ironclad cinch.  But, most of it is by design.  In their quest to fundamentally change the way we live, they have not thought this through.  While gasoline and diesel are important products, many of the byproducts of the fuel industry are also very important in the way we lead our daily lives.

The "green" folks are trying to bring us back to the 1920s  The petrochemical industry has brought us forward for the past 100 years, and with Biden's economic policies, we're destined to re-live the 1930s.  Based on stories from my grandfather, that ain't going tobe any fun at all.

Grits

 Grits are a southern staple.  Basically, ground hominy, they are cheap, filling, tasty, and can be made in bulk.  Huge batches are easy.  They add calories, which is why the Army uses a lot of grits.  I love them.  I'll eat grits anywhere and the Southern cooks love to spice them up.  Cheese grits, shrimp grits, or even pepper grits.

Belle detests grits.  We ate a good meal on Sunday and she injured herself before coffee on Monday morning.  With the prospect of surgery looming, they didn't feed her on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. Her first meal in three days was breakfast.  They brought her eggs, toast, grits, coffee and orange juice.

Luckily, she is a light eater, so she made-do with the eggs and toast. Her disposition is good, and she is looking forward to the next steps.  She has been a registered nurse for 43 years, so she understands all the medical lingo, and knows what to expect.  I was a cop for 37 years and am totally outside of my confort zone in a medical setting.

Long Day

 It's been a long day, but a good one.  Belle was scheduled for surgery this afternoon and got into pre-op at about 1600 local.  By 1800 she was in recovery, and I was calling family and friends to let them know the good news.  Now, we begin the road to recovery.  She is resting peacefully, with the aid of good medicine.  Something called an "IV push" was involved.  That's nurse talk, and as she is a nurse, she knew what they were doing, but calmed right down, and that's a good thing.

Better living through chemistry, that's my motto.

At some point during the day, I saw that the Ministry of Truth has been culled.  Whatshername, the clown bitch they hired to chair it, has resigned.  Mayorkas has egg on his face.  Speaking of faces, if my dog had a face like Mayorkas, I'd shave his ass and teach him to walk backwards.

But, yeah, the Ministry of Truth didn't last as long as CNN+, which is quite a feat.  It folded up like a cheap pocketknife.  

I'm going to mix a stiff drink and go lay in my bed.  Tomorrow is going to be another joyous day of medical mischief.  Have I mentioned how much I hate hospitals?

Ex-Marine Rigs Package With Flash Bang

Oh, I LOL'd.

What Is Inflation

 I studied economics in both undergrad and graduate school.  While there may be many factors that lead up to a period of inflation, but when you break it down to a 4th grade reading level, it's pretty simple.

Inflation = too much money + too few goods.

That is it, in a nutshell.  I don't think, in the 50 years since I took Eco 101, the definition has changed.

Regardless of what the Biden administration is telling us, the basic problem today is that the money supply is too big, and it is chasing goods in a time of supply crisis. Some of these supply issues were fomented during the pandemic, others are a direct result of the Biden administration tightening regulation on the petrochemical industry.  If the oil were flowing freely, we would stull have $2.00 gasoline.

Hospitalization

Yesterday morning, Belle fell, and could not get up.  We called an ambulance and got her loaded, and when we got to the hospital, and the tests were run, we learned (as she had already diagnosed), that she had a broken hip. 

During routine testing, the docs found something else, a problem with circulation that might have presented complications, so they did more testing.  This morning, we learned that the circulation issue was not as bad as originally thought and is now a non-issue that can be dealt with later.

Therefore, they have scheduled her for surgery late this afternoon of early tonight.   She ran me off from the hospital and told me to come back this afternoon.  I was happy to oblige her.  The staff there is extremely professional, and the main doc is one that she worked with and worked for, for a long time.  She is in good hands.

Blogging will be sporadic until we are out of the woods.