If It Doesn't Sound Right, Research What They Said

In today's cyber world, it's all too easy to find out what actually happened and who said what to whom.

Case in point:  last night's BBC News had a short segment with a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) campaigning against Trump's proposed ban on incoming Muslim immigrants. 

The man made a big point of all of the Muslims who had died or been first responders during 911. 

Since I was in Montauk at that time, and Muslims were never mentioned as victims -- although a helluva lot of Irish surnamed men were - this didn't sound right to me.  This morning I went to Google.

Number of Muslims killed in the towers - 28

Number of Muslims killed in the Pennsylvania and Pentagon attacks - 3

Number of Muslim first responders - 1 (and he later got a street named for himself.) 

(source Al Arabiyah)

Letter to the Editor

Sunday, December 6, 2015  - Daily Breeze

MB should tap sunscreen industry for dispensers

Re:  "MB idea has got everyone covered - Nov. 29.

I laughed out loud at the ineptitude of some Manhattan Beach city officials.  Commissioner Janet Krause Jones proposed free sunscreen dispensers as she has seen on other beaches.  Mayor Mark Burton said, "...it's a matter of getting one of the hospitals or health care providers on board."

This is a perfect example of "leaders" whose only acts of business genius are to hold out their hands.  They don't have the business savvy to open bids to the sunscreen industry to provide the dispensers and the sunscreen  for exclusive rights to Manhattan Beach.  And yet, voters elected these incompetents!  They clearly couldn't run a lemonade stand.

Of course, when visitors find there is no parking and you can't smoke outdoors, all of the free sunscreen in the world isn't going to populate their beach. 

Sincerely,

Nina Murphy, Redondo Beach

Miscellaneous...

*  This caught my eye at Trader Joe's - Cilantro and Chive Yogurt Dip.  As I like both flavors; as I assumed that yogurt is better for one than sour cream, I bought a container.  It's not bad!

It could be considered the grown-up, sophisticated cousin to French Onion Dip - aka "California dip" - which came out in the '60s?  '80s?   You know - a pint of sour cream and a package of Knorr French Onion Soup mixed together.

*  The Pregnant Pigeon is apparently back.  Egg-sitting not pregnant to be technically correct.  She has a hidey hole up in the peaked part of the garage roof.  This would be fine if she were unobtrusive and adopted the Madonna and child routine of quiet contemplation, but she insists on spending most of the morning making noises like a disposal run amuck.  Imagine a full-throated cooing while gargling a handful of glass marbles.

*  Sorting out the Muslims.   It would be extremely helpful if the media would print a primer for those of us who have no clue as to which sect?  off-shoot? does what.  One of them now permits a husband to text his wife "I divorce you" three times and the divorce is final then and there.  This would sure as hell put a lot of lawyers out of a job here in America. 

Right now it's like saying "The axe murderer was a Christian" without spelling out if he was a Baptist, Episcopalian, Methodist ...To be determined if the LA Times responds to my gentle request.

*  Richie bought a copy of "Cuisine Rapide," the Pierre Franey and Brian Kelly  cookbook at yesterday's Palos Verdes Library book sale and mentioned in passing that he'd seen some good stuff in it.  Goodie - a dinner I won't be trusted to cook!  The next week is looking brighter already!

"I Grew Up With Guns"

The above is a phrase commonly used in the Flyover States from which I come.   It is shorthand for:   my Dad/brother(s) hunted, skeet shot or practiced target shooting or all of the foregoing.  Guns, in these contexts, were an everyday thing.  When Dad brought out his new rifle to show his brother-in-law, no family members screamed and ran from the room.

We didn't use guns on each other.   In fact, great care was taken to keep guns away from children - the hat shelf over the parental clothing closet was a favored place.

Why do I hate and fear guns?  Because I've seen first hand, up close and personal what a bullet can do.  

Example #1    My Dad and I were driving back from Yates Center, KS, to my Aunt Vera and Uncle Floyd's farm "Land's End" after running an errand "in town" (pop. maybe 1,000).  I was 8 or 10.  Dad spotted a chicken hawk (they exist outside of prisons) who had caught a live chicken which was struggling in the hawk's grasp. 

Daddy slammed on the brakes, whipped his new .240 Roberts (rifle) out of the back seat, aimed and fired.  Down came both birds.  Excited, we ran across a plowed field --and there we found a mess of gore, loose feathers and two birds whose species were now unclear.  I had to mentally count feet to know it was two birds. 

Example #2  Daddy decided to go for a walk across the road to the field and pond owned by a neighbor.  His sister, Aunt Vera, had told him to be careful as the pond was full of water moccasins.  So he took a pistol and me and over the road we went.

Walking around the perimeter of the pond, we spotted the triangular head of a large water moccasin swimming straight for us.  Daddy quickly shot it only for us to hear thrashing in the bushes some 20 feet away.  It was the snake's mate or squeeze - we'll never know - but it was clearly on the attack.  Daddy shot it several times as it was clearly vengeance minded.

When no more snakes threatened, we took at look at the dead snake in the grass.  The one in the pond had sunk.  It had been pregnant and had several - 6 probably - egg sacks now visible.  Daddy grabbed a branch, stuck one end through the snake's head and dragged the whole mess back across the county road and make me hold the stick (and snake) up while he took a picture   I have been terrified of snakes ever since. 

I would undoubtedly become nostalgic though if I caught a whiff of gun cleaning oil.  I used to visit with my Dad while he cleaned his guns after deer and elk hunting in Wyoming.   We ate what he shot, too.  I can tell you from personal experience that deer is inedible and elk burgers are very dry.

Based on all of the above, I get to despise the National Rifle Association. 

If? Then...

The National Rifle Association (NRA) has long supported private citizens owning assault rifles.  I am vehemently against this stance and always have been.  Privately I think some male NRA supporters have somehow confused penis size with caliber.   And that perhaps some of the women never got over idolizing such as Bonnie, of Bonnie and Clyde.

But my thoughts aside, why has the NRA not come out with a plan to provide schools and other vulnerable sites with gun-owning members to stand guard on a rotating basis at that facility?  Non-paid, of course; the joy of prancing around with a loaded gun and paranoid eyes should be reward enough. 

The US has a huge population so it stands to reason that the more of you there are, the more of you will be batshit crazy - and, in America, armed. 

If the NRA is so hell-bent on self defense, then why don't they put their money where their mouth is.  How to Shoot/Care for a Weapon programs for kids are not really a good idea.  

The Season of the Archer

Sagittarius  11-23 to 12-21

Too honest or too stupid for their own good, the Sag (pronounced "sadge") says the first thing that pops into mind.  Happy and gregarious - "Childlike" say many - the Sag has no knowledge of financial matters whatsoever.  A checking account is as good as a credit card to them.  They are gamblers with bad tempers.  The good news is that they will attack with a fist and not a gun.  (It would take too long to go find it; a fist is at the end of their arm.)  Unable to keep a secret, they are also unable to tell jokes.  Prone to ("ruled by" say knowledgeable others) momentary enthusiasms a Sag will deny loving words meant at the time as soon as they unpeel from the sheets by saying, "Huh?"

Examples are Frank Sinatra and William Buckley, Jr. 

Today's News - Laugh a Little!

Speaking from Paris about the recent abortion clinic shootings, President Obama remarked that large-scale gun violence "doesn't happen in other countries."



The Climate Change (or whatever they're calling themselves this week) zealots are now linking terrorism to climate change which prompted a bit of research on my part. 

To wit:  one of the worst climate events in the United States was the Dust Bowl aka the Dirty '30s (a nickname I'd never heard, by the way.)   There were three waves of dust (so to speak) 1934, 1936 and 1939-40 when farmers and others who derived an income from farming fled. 

Our government sponsored a variety of programs to document this event and the people and paid  artists such as writer John Steinbeck, musician Woody Guthrie and photographer Dorothea Lange to do it.  Other programs paid farm workers to learn new skills. 

The crime rate?  There were 137 people incarcerated per 100,000 population.   Murderers?  Thieves?  Most were vagrants and many of them were reasonably happy to get three hots and a cot for a stated period of time.