This Little Light of Mine

We were having trouble with the oven. I traced the problem to the hot surface igniter. This is the device that replaces the pilot light in most new appliances. I bought the replacement part through an on-line parts distributer. This vendor’s was price was less than half of the price posted on the manufacturer’s site. The part actually arrived in the manufacturer’s box.

The trouble with replacing the igniter is the awkwardness of working in the broiler compartment of the oven. It is also dark in there. The darkness requires a light. It is the universal characteristic of work lights to shine in the wrong direction, i.e., into your eyes. This is where my son’s Christmas present to me comes in. He gave me a little light, about the size of a golf ball, shaped like one of those marine mines we all saw in old war movies, the floating ball with spike-like detonators all over its surface.

Instead of detonators, the Mine Light has magnets. The magnets enable the light to be positioned in just the right place. This left free my left hand to hold the part. The light made the job go much easier. I never knew that old war movies could inspire new products.

I didn’t sink any ships, but the oven works.

Guns Are for Girls too

Armed and Female, Paxton Quigley, 1989, 237 pgs.

A girl’s got to look out for herself. According to Quigley, the best way to do that is through gun sights. The author, a former gun control advocate turned gun owner, makes a blunt case: women are smaller and weaker than men, and the only way women can protect themselves is by possessing and using handguns. She is not subtle, shy, or coy.

Quigley makes her case by an appeal to the crime statistics. The numbers, all from the 1980’s and therefore dated, are grim. Women are victims because they are easier prey. This will  not change. The stories that give life to the numbers are horrible reminders of this reality.The numbers have not gotten any better through the years.

While the crime data cited in her book are out of date, the advice on gun selection and training are still solid. She surveys the most popular models and calibers, evaluating their usefulness as self-defense weapons. She gives good advice on what size gun will best fit a woman’s smaller hand; how much recoil each model will produce; and, best of all, the intimidation factor: Just how dangerous does that thing look when you are staring up the barrel?

Quigley also deals with shooting techniques, safety, and children and guns. I found the book a good place to start when getting information on handguns.

Remember, when seconds count, the police are only minutes away. But don’t worry, they will get there in time to draw the chalk outline of the body. The body won’t be Quigley’s.

Live Long and Make Payments

The other day at work I overheard the conversation of the his and her hosts of one of those radio stations that play the kind of music that we have all too often heard. The subject of the discussion was the case of a man who recently graduated from Cornell University. He has a degree in theater and a $125,000 student loan debt. He now works at a call center. He makes $10 an hour.

This person is not smart enough to have gone to college. It is too bad that he did not know this before he went. He may not know it even now.

This person is doomed. He will never under normal circumstances pay off this debt. He is unlikely to marry because his wife will acquire this debt. This means no children, no future except debt payments. His credit rating will be permanently bad.

College is a wonderful thing. Just make sure that you plan to live long enough to make all the payments.

You Pay Them to Vote for a Living

There are a large number of people who are dependent upon some level of government. This is because the government has become so present in our lives. It is now impossible for these people to live without some support or permission from the government.

The government is now keeper of all records of property ownership, birth, death and marriage. The government taxes and regulates everything. It grants licenses to medical care providers, hair cutters, taxi cab drivers, gun owners, business owners, and pets.

You cannot drive the car you own on the roads your taxes paid to build unless you have the proper licenses that you must pay to obtain.

You cannot build any building without a government issued permit.

The government also provides people with money. There are myriad government agencies to issue those permits, enforce those regulations, and collect those taxes that pay for all of this. Those agencies are full of employees. There are also the welfare recipients. There is the defense industry that provides jobs directly through military bases and indirectly through defense contractors. Every congressman claims that the base in his district is vital to national defense; besides, “that base is the heart of the community.” “Pork” is something the other guy votes for.

The elected ones know all of these people are potential voters.

Few people vote against their money. This is what is  makes it difficult to reform the government system. Too many people are eating because of the government. All of these people, their relatives, and the entire advocacy industry that has grown up to plead their cause will likely vote to retain their priviledge. They vote for a living. You pay them to.

Of Course It Doesn’t Mean Anything

It is time to analyze the political slogans that have come to my attention. Since no cared enough to bring any slogans to my attention, the burden falls upon me to provide all the material. I am aided in this task by the vacuousness of the typical candidate’s mind. Still, this being an off year, the picking, like the candidates, are pathetic.

One lady, running for county legislature, in her latest mailing to sully our mail box, compares herself to some “political boss” of whom I have never heard. She claims that the said boss had never proposed a job creation program. She says that she supports such (undefined) program. I guess that she, having never before held elected office, never proposing any such program is not germane to the election.

The same candidate’s mailing states that she believes in strong community relationships. I am not sure what these are, but I suspect that these relationships are a good thing. If she is elected, I will look forward to having one–I think.

There it is. It is now up to you. Go vote, or not, and hope for the best. Something is sure to happen sometime.

A Monument to the Memory Hole

There is to be build in New York City a monument to memorialize the tragedy of September 11, 2001. The monument will be built on the site of the fallen twin tower buildings. There will be other monuments built at the Pentagon and in a field in Pennsylvania. The monument in New York will be of special interest. It will memorialize the Memory Hole.

The phrase Memory Hole comes from George Orwell’s book 1984. The Memory Hole is where the government sends history it finds inconvenient, forgotten forever.

The most curious and least explained event of September 11, 2001 is the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7. It is also the most forgotten. The Memory Hole is effective.

What is curious about WTC7 is that it collapsed and that it collapsed so neatly. The collapse was so neat that CBS News anchorman Dan Rather said its collapse was like a controlled demolition of an old building. Dan said this only once. That idea also went into the Memory Hole. So did Dan.

It is also curious that the BBC reported the collapse of the building well before the building actually collapsed. This tidbit of news is also in the Memory Hole.

When the  memorial monument is unveiled, look for what is not there. It will be surprising if there is any mention of Building 7, because once something goes into the Memory Hole, it never comes out.

Win Anyway

There is a great deal of uncertainty in the air. It is a form of pollution that is ever present. You cannot change the fact of its presence. You can, however, mitigate its effect. It is easy to say “Nothing can be done.”, but something can be done. It is just a matter of doing it.

What can be done? No list of to do’s will be complete. No collection of tasks can be anything but a start. Here are some that can be started immediately.

Turn off the television, or reduce you time in front of the tube to a few hours a week. This thing is a giant, time-wasting intellectual sludge pit.

Stop, or reduce, video game playing. It is a lot like television.

Get a library card and use it. This is the only way to break free of the government’s near monopoly on your intellectual input. Read some authors that posit a view that you do not like. This will sharpen your mental tools.

Get your news from sources other than the mainstream media. These groups have largely become shills for the government, especially since we how have a new, politically correct president in power.

Lose the weight and get in shape. You may need to be able to do a lot more manual working than you have been used to.

Open a secondary bank account at a bank not connected to the one you now use. With the number of recent bank failures, likely to continue if not increase, it is wise not to put all of your money in just one bank. Yes, there is FDIC coverage, but by the time all the paperwork is done, it could be a long time before you have access to your funds. Meanwhile, the bills keep on coming.

Look back through your life and find all the things that your enemies would use against you. Fix them.

Reconcile with all you have offended and offended you. Forgive them and ask them to forgive you. Move on with your life. Give up the grudge; it is poisoning you.

Get out of debt. Go here for help.

Pay off all old traffic tickets, child support, alimony, taxes, fines, etc. This is a prison sentence waiting to happen. Think of the next job application you fill out: Have you ever been convicted of a felony? Prison aside, you don’t win here.

Improve your manners. The culture is becoming more coarse and vulgar. You will needlessly offend people with bad manners. Good manners, like neatness, only count when you don’t have them. The power elite are impeccably polite, at least in public. Emulate them.

Improve your English. Communications are fundamental to everything. All human contest can be reduced to a battle of and for information.

Stop the whining, self-pity, sour attitude. You don’t like to be around people like this, so why be what you don’t like?

Extend this list.

With list as a start, you can be doing much to prepare yourself for the trouble that lies ahead. If the trouble does not come, you still win.

Full Fraud Schools

Most of us think that the colleges we attended and in some cases from which we graduated are scrupulous in their grading and academic standards. Walter Williams has just published a revealing article about academic dishonesty. He names the names, the big names.

This is the quiet scandal. It is not just the students that are doing the cheating. It is the schools themselves that are lying. I have known that the academic system is largely corrupt. Until reading Williams I thought the putrefaction was confined to the politically correct forces that now dominate the remains of higher (sic) education, but Williams reveals that the problem is system wide.

Read it http://economics.gmu.edu/wew/articles/09/AcademicDishonesty.htm.

No, you don’t get academic credit for this reading, but you will be rewarded for knowledge.

Two Minutes to Go

I read a book about being organized. It offered the usual advice and a few odd ideas like get rid of hanging files. One thing I did find to be of use was the Two Minute Rule. This rule means that if it only takes two minutes to do a task, do it right then. This is not going to turn most people into super efficient producers, but it will help with getting done those little jobs that are more aggravation than they seem because we let them pile up.

I have been trying to do the two minute jobs as they occur. It does help. I know this when I violate the rule.

Try the Two Minute Rule, and tell me what you think about it.

I Do Not Work for the Government

Once upon a time, the only contact that most Americans had with the Federal Government was when they used the Post Office. I hope it was a pleasant experience. Mine was not.

I needed to mail a letter, but I did not have a stamp. So I went to the Post Office to buy one. The Post Office was closed. I suspected that it might be, but I knew that main office has an after hours self-serve facility. Since I only need a stamp, I thought that this would be an easy operation. I was wrong.

I got into the building without any trouble. The counters were closed, but the self-serve machines were available. In fact several people were using them. I waited. The people using the machines seem a little unsure about how they worked. It was taking some time to get my stamp. I waited some more.

As I waited I saw that the machines had a sign on them that said that they took only credit and debit cards. I looked for a place to put in money. I found none. I left without my stamp.I was not going to put the purchase of a single stamp on my credit card.

I do not think that there is a postal function much simpler than buying a stamp. How could it be so difficult? Is not the idea of a self-serve system to be easy to use? Is buying a single stamp not understood by the postal authorities?

I can not believe that a private system would be this silly and difficult to use. That is because I do not work for the government.