This has been a gratuitous non-holiday mention, just like celebrating July Fourth in England – or Mexico.

Can you say “Any reason to get drunk and party?”

Chat ya later…

Thanks for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, and Wear Red on Fridays!

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The following words are keyed to attract the attention of the DHS and the NSA – including the new “Spy Center” in Bluffdale, UT: Terrorism Al Qaeda (all spellings) Terror Attack Iraq Afghanistan Iran Pakistan Agro Environmental terrorist Eco terrorism Conventional weapon Target Weapons grade Dirty bomb Enriched Nuclear Chemical weapon Biological weapon Ammonium nitrate Improvised explosive device IED (Improvised Explosive Device) Abu Sayyaf Hamas FARC (Armed Revolutionary Forces Colombia) IRA (Irish Republican Army) ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna) Basque Separatists Hezbollah Tamil Tigers PLF (Palestine Liberation Front) PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) Car bomb Jihad Taliban Weapons cache Suicide bomber Suicide attack Suspicious substance AQAP (AL Qaeda Arabian Peninsula) AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan) Yemen Pirates Extremism Somalia Nigeria Radicals Al-Shabaab Home grown Plot Nationalist Recruitment Fundamentalism Islamist Emergency Hurricane Tornado Twister Tsunami Earthquake Tremor Flood Storm Crest Temblor Extreme weather Forest fire Brush fire Ice Stranded/Stuck Help Hail Wildfire Tsunami Warning Center Magnitude Avalanche Typhoon Shelter-in-place Disaster Snow Blizzard Sleet Mud slide or Mudslide Erosion Power outage Brown out Warning Watch Lightening Aid Relief Closure Interstate Burst Emergency Broadcast System Cyber security Botnet DDOS (dedicated denial of service) Denial of service Malware Virus Trojan Keylogger Cyber Command 2600 Spammer Phishing Rootkit Phreaking Cain and abel Brute forcing Mysql injection Cyber attack Cyber terror Hacker China Conficker Worm Scammers Social media

Uhm, never mind. Seems Obama(THHO) has done it again. He forced three billion ($3,000,000,000) dollars into the production of the Chevrolet Volt – and now, GM has suspended production after only 9,297 units have been sold. Let me check my math here … 10,000 units into 3,000,000,000 = 300,000 per unit. Add in the 1300 jobs lost due to the production line going down, sprinkle a little Obama(THHO) dust on the situation, and voila! we have a decrease of the unemployment rate, an increase in the number of charging stations, a wonderful and rosy outlook for alternative forms of transportation, and you really want to give this guy another four years to screw this economy even further into the ground?

Yah – right.

Chat ya later…

Thanks for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, and Wear Red on Fridays!

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Goodbye, 2011. Nice way to leave – TMBWitW was rear-ended yesterday before MEG’s birthday party. On the other hand, the store had a good year, and we will be spending this evening with people we love.

Hello, 2012 – I am so looking forward to voting the Obamanation out of office I can hardly wait for November. What does it say in the sidebar? As of New Year’s Eve, there are 385 days of Obama left. I can hardly contain my excitement – but it is tempered with the unknown of who the next leader is going to be, and where he is going to lead. (yes, I said “he”. this country isn’t ready for a female leader.)

My prayer for all of you, dear readers, is that you have a safe and joyous time this evening, and that 2012 is prosperous for you.

Auld Lange Syne, ya’ll.

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

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My knee still hurts. Maybe I don’t heal as quick as I used to. This might take longer than I want it to.

Hypothetical(ish) question: You eat at a restaurant on a regular basis. You are friends with the owner. The owner is not in when you dine there one evening (let’s say, night before last) and three bites into your normal hamburger order, it becomes apparent to you that the cook did not make use of a hairnet. After discreetly removing evidence of said conclusion from your mouth, and discreetly handing it to the front person, and deciding that you weren’t all that hungry after all, you head home. Front person makes the call, informs owner of incident. You don’t raise a ruckus because he is, after all, a friend.

Do you A) stop patronizing the restaurant? B) still eat there, but ask who is cooking before placing your order?

Oh, and you know the owner is aware of the situation because he jokes about the fact that you ran into a “hairy situation.” Hypothetically. Ish.

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

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Gleefully lifted from this guy, a cantankerous old electrical engineer, comes a reminder those of us at or over a certain age have seen a time or two:

By the lights of those who regulate because “It’s for the children”, those of us who were kids in the 50s and 60s shouldn’t have survived.

Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint.

Our gasoline contained lead (and such a pretty pink color…)

There was nothing to stop us from sticking a fork in an electrical outlet.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets.
We didn’t wear helmets when riding our bikes.
Not to mention hitchhiking.

We rode in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pickup truck … well, that’s what the back of pickups were for.

We drank water from a hose.

We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank pop with real sugar in it – but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing. (and we were outside from: “You kids go outside and play” until dark)

We shared one soft drink from one bottle with four friends and no one got sick from this.

We spent hours building go-carts and other such out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we didn’t think about brakes. Sometimes we’d add them before the second run – or not.

Shall we speak of toboggans?

We would leave home in the morning and play all day; we weren’t expected back until the street lights came on.

The bottom of the slide was hard dirt – and the slide was hot metal. We burned and bumped – and did it again.

No one was able to reach us all day. No one much was looking for us or worried about us either

We didn’t have computers, video games, no cable, no movies outside the movie theatre, or Internet chat rooms (and no blogs to read). All three channels on TV were black and white and went off the air about midnight.

We had friends. We went outside and found them. They were live and in person.

We played dodge ball, and sometimes, the ball would really hurt.

When the mean lady down the street grabbed our arm and walked us home to complain to our parents about something we did, our parents got upset.
At us.

We fell out of trees, got cuts, broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

They were accidents. No one was to blame but us. Remember accidents?

When we had guns and knives at school, they were for show and tell.

Sometimes our self-esteem got bruised. No one worried about it – we didn’t know what self-esteem was.

We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms and mud pies, and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out eyes and the worms didn’t live forever.

Our “permanent record” didn’t exist except by word of mouth among our teachers.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s home and knocked on the door, rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them. “Hi Mrs Jones, is Jimmy here?”, “Not yet Billy. Want a cookie while you wait?”

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team.
Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment.

Some students weren’t as smart as others, so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade.

Tests were not adjusted for any reason.

We kept score. Most often, we lost. We worked harder for the next game. Sometimes we lost that one as well. Didn’t matter how many teams we had, there was still only one winner.

Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law.

Our generation produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

It’s Saturday. Why are you reading this? Go outside and play! And I don’t want to see you back here until the streetlights are on!

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

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