Heat wave

Thank you Jesus, it wasn't 10 degrees tonight when I took Jeb the Wonder Dog for his  walk. It was 12. Naturally, I took off all my clothes to bask in the warmth. Or not.

10

Not talking about the Dudley Moore movie in the late '70s-early '80s. Talking about the temperature when I took Jeb the Wonder Dog out tonight after I got home from work. Maryland isn't supposed to be this cold. Neither is my face.

Merry Christmas, y'all

Hope Christmas is good to you. But remember:

An oldie but goody.

Once again, socialism just isn't being done by the right people

Recently, Standard & Poor's declared Venezuela to be in default on some of it's bond debt. I don't know how many failures of socialism it will take to convince people that socialism doesn't fucking work:

Venezuela, a nation spiraling into a humanitarian crisis, has missed a debt payment. It could soon face grim consequences.
The South American country defaulted on its debt, according to a statement issued Monday night by S&P Global Ratings. The agency said the 30-day grace period had expired for a payment that was due in October.
A debt default risks setting off a dangerous series of events that could exacerbate Venezuela's food and medical shortages.

We keep hearing from leftists that socialism -- or, from the more extreme leftists, communism -- would work if only it was implemented by the right people. Well, who you gonna believe, them or your lying eyes?

Venezuela used to be the wealthiest country in South America. Now it is a basket case. Early in the 20th Century, Argentina was one of the ten wealthiest nations in the world. Socialist (and Nazi sympathizer) Juan Peron came to power right after World War II, turned the country socialist, and Boom! The country has been an economic train wreck ever since. Figure in every other socialist or communist country in the history of man, an what you have is a litany of failed nations. Yes, some still stand -- I'm looking at you, Europe -- but the economic burden is not sustainable. The most socialist nations in Europe -- such as the PIGS, Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain -- are rapidly failing. The rest, except for Germany, are not far behind. Anybody want to move to Cuba? Yeah, I didn't think so.

Leftists apparently have no logical basis for any of their positions

I'm not sure how else you can explain this liberal opposition to the use of eminent domain to obtain the land necessary to build President Donald Trump's proposed wall along the border with Mexico. Suddenly, we have liberals arguing in favor of restriction on the power of the federal government. This is not something you see very often. Or, like, ever.

These are the same people who are going batshit crazy over Trump's executive order reversing former President Barack Obama's unilateral decision to designate a fuckload of land in Utah as national monuments. They were totally OK with their guy taking a bunch of land from states and private land owners for no fucking reason, but now have their panties in a wad about potentially taking a much smaller amount of land from states and private landowners to help keep people from entering the country illegally.

The only thing I have to say to these people is, hmmm, how about you suck it.

The Marines are going to Germany

I found this pretty interesting. Apparently, a meaningful number of young Americans living in Germany -- most, I would assume, are the children of Air Force and Army personnel stationed there, as there are pretty much no Marine personnel in Europe -- tr to enlist in the Marines. Previously, they have had to go to the U.S. to do so. No longer, though, as the Marines are opening a recruiting office in Germany:

For Americans living in Germany, it’s about to get a lot easier to join the Marine Corps.
Starting on Feb. 15, the Marine Corps will operate a recruiting substation at Kleber Kaserne, a U.S. Army base in Kaiserslautern, Germany, said Gunnery Sgt. Christopher Nieves, who is assigned to the facility.
A Marine stationed in Germany had suggested opening a recruiting facility because Americans were returning to the U.S. to enlist in the Corps, Nieves told Marine Corps Times on Thursday.

Sounds good to me. We need the Marines, and making it easier to enlist, wherever you are, is a good thing.

Remember Pearl Harbor

December 7, 1941, a date that will live in infamy. Don't forget.  More than 2,400 soldiers, sailors, Marines, and civilians dies that day -- almost half of them on the battleship USS Arizona, which sank in minutes early in the attack:

The Arizona is the only ship that sank during the attack that remains on the bottom of Pearl Harbor. A memorial to the hundreds of sailors and Marines who died on the Arizona and remain insider her is a major tourist attraction there. I used to go fishing at the nearby docks on Ford Island:

I doubt the public schools teach much about that day anymore.

Oh, how I miss anonymity

Pretty much anybody who wants to know who writes this blog already knows. Mostly, I don't care. Actually, always I don't care. Every now and then, though, it leads to interesting situations.

For instance, today, I was at work and a guy I know came up to me. This is, of course, the same project I was on last year at this time, and this guy was in my room. He's a good dude. But he kind of threw me off today -- he saw me and said, "Am I Wolfman Jack?"

For those of you who haven't been paying attention, Wolfman Jack was first mentioned here, and most recently was mentioned here, as he also has returned to this project. Fortunately, I was able to resassure him that he definitely was not Wolfman Jack. The conversation went something like this:

Him: Am I Wolfman Jack?
Me: Oh, God, no. You are nowhere near hirsute enough to be Wolfman Jack.

I then took him on a quick detour to point out Wolfman Jack. He realized he did not come close to qualifying, and then this exchange took place:

Him: Oh, I know him. He's a nice guy.
Me: Doesn't matter. He could be the nicest guy in the world. The nicknames are based on how people look. He's Wolfman Jack.

And he went back to his workstation, happy that he wasn't Wolfman Jack. Even though Wolfman Jack was, of course, one handsome devil:

And one hell of a disc jockey in his day.

Tell me again why I should get a flu shot

Like most things government-run, the flu shot sucks. It always has, which is part of why I never get one -- and I never get the flu -- but apparently this year is really bad, as far as flu-shot-suckiness goes:

A new study shows Australia experienced an increase in influenza-related hospitalizations and deaths over the winter compared to last year. The research, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, suggests the vaccine in Australia had a success rate of just 10 percent.
Officials in the United States and elsewhere worry such numbers suggest the Northern Hemisphere could be primed for a similarly bad flu season. That could spell trouble should this year's flu vaccine prove as ineffective as last year's.
The same vaccine that was deployed in Australia is being used in the United States.

Yeah, that sounds like success to me. The sad part is, the flu vaccine pretty much always sucks. This year, apparently, it just sucks worse. I don't know why people bother. Just ask yourself -- does the government ever do anything else right? So why should the flu vaccine be different?

You don't post, they don't come

I have been extremely busy lately, working, not working, and working on finding a way out of Temp Town. I have been doing a fair amount of freelance writing. Alas, this generally is not lucrative enough to give up temping, but I am working on that angle. All of this adds up to me not posting very much. My posts-per-month numbers lately have looked a lot like the numbers from the beginning of the blog -- really fucking low.

Not surprisingly, low numbers of posts equals low numbers of visitors. My traffic numbers likewise are down to the level of those seen in the early days of the blog.

Well, fuck that. Have a holly, jolly Christmas, bitches, because December numbers are going up. I am on a heavy overtime project, and I am doing a bunch of freelance writing, and I don't care if I ever sleep again. Posts are coming. Deal with it.