Household Tip: Stop the bleeding

Quite often I find a nick or spot that just wants to bleed like a stuck pig. It is inconvenient and I'm in a hurry. Styptic pencil won't quite do it because this is more than the little shaving nick.

What do I use? Krazy Glue or Super Glue. It works. My sources tell me the stuff was invented to hold battlefield wounds together since there is no time for stitches while putting a guy on a stretcher to be hauled to safety by helicopter. That makes sense because it works better on skin than anything else.

There you have it. I stopped a skinned knee from bleeding all over clothes and such and a skinned knuckle from worrying people, all just this week.

I must say, I've used super glue/krazy glue a lot, but with very mixed results. Once I started using it to seal wounds the success rate improved dramatically. It is the only application in which it always works.

The Western Gods Must Be Crazy

The East has always been a different thing, and the idea of individual freedom and maximum choice never seems to have been quite as catchy a thought as it was in the Western world. But we were disorganized barbarians while they were doing the bidding of opium heads and making fancy ceramics and such.

These days it is as if a spell was cast upon intellectuals, government officials, bankers and others in the West. They manufacture crisis after crisis, mostly through efforts to curb freedom in the name of something fuzzy and warm, then cry about the crisis and give more power to those who created the crisis so that they might curb the crisis.

The rationalizations for both the non-solutions and the anger at everyone but the real crisis creators are complicated, clever, and fallacious. What happens is partial truth substitutes for the whole truth.

If I steal a gun from you, then hire a guy to shoot you with it, and then he gets caught and you ask me to punish him and maybe even do something to make sure this doesn't happen to others, that would be kind of strange don't you think? It would become even more bizarre if I act shocked and dismayed and am the most vocal in denouncing this vile crime, even though anyone paying attention knows I planned and facilitated the crime. People know I'm guilty but are willing to pretend otherwise since I pretend innocence.

That is exactly what is going on in this country. Why no one would call me out in the above example is the same reason the real trouble makers keep there jobs in the real world today. But I cannot explain that reason other than to say people like the easy targets, do not care to examine a thought which has too many parts or too much depth, and do not want to appear odd, flakey or uncool by going against the snowball effect of peer pressure. It is unbelievable.

The West had a shot at really expanding the level of freedom their cultures and countries, yet they are hell bent on ensuring quite the opposite. It's all for our own good though, so that makes it holy and right. I'm so happy this obesity crisis and its insane solutions have gone global. If a paternal or maternal higher authority wasn't going to punish me by taxing or outlawing certain foods, or taking even stronger measures, I'd be a 600 pound blob who couldn't even fit into his own tourmobile.

Thank you, diet police. I owe my slimness and ability to see my toes all to you.

Staying Above Water

OK. I still don't know what to call Mr Big that sounds right or fits. He's the money guy that may have more influence over this administration than most. I'll call him the Puppeteer.

So, one of the US Cabinet members came to stay at the puppeteer's socal house with his family, and secret service entourage. Guys like that get secret service too. They use them to run errands, do favors, go to the grocery store. All the stuff we are glad to pay for to keep our elected and not elected officials safe and sound.

As I was readying the place I was carrying some outdoor item, either a long cushion or a pool float from point A to point B. The path I took went right by the end of the spa. It is a concrete pond which is at the end of the larger concrete pond, or swimming pool as we call them in Miami.

The patio is up a few steps where the spa is located. That way it can spill over the waterfall thing down to the pool. I was on that upper patio part looking toward point B, thinking, "I'll put this thing over there". I was holding it so that it blocked any peripheral vision on my right side.

As luck would have it I cut a little too close to the corner of the spa. My left foot was still on solid ground but my right foot went straight down to the first ledge in the spa, about an 18" or so drop--just to the point where the water level reached the bottom of my knee.

You may not know this, but when you are walking and the ground is suddenly way below where it is supposed to be and you do not realize this until you take a step, or later, it is quite a shock and often throws your whole rhythm off, or even kills you.

I still have no idea where my left leg went when I fell. Somehow through my shoe it almost caused my left big toe nail to rip off. It was a sudden and definite pain experience. The positive part is that I only bruised the inside of the right knee rather than break something, and the majority of me landed on dry land.

It seemed like a good idea to just leave the shoe on. For once I wore heavier tie up shoes rather than work barefooted or in moccasins. And I did what needed doing. That was the right thing. The pain became minimal and I didn't have to know what the damage was.

It turns out that the shoe and sock held it so that the blood acted like glue to keep it all together. That kept it from being all that painful later.

Should I sue the government for this mishap? There are no warning signs or barriers. My employer did not supply a helmet. And no one told me that if I am walking that way trying to ready the place for the Secretary of xyz that I could step into the abyss and be nearly maimed for life. I think I could sue the Puppeteer, and the US government, ie, you.

It seriously amazes me that I have a big bump on the inside of my knee which in no way influences its function, and that this toe thing is not painful. I do have it wrapped tight in heavy bandaids, but what luck.

Once again, I've been blessed with minimum consequence for maximum negligence and carelessness. Thank you guardian angels or whatever.

I am pretty sure that, when I go, it will be due to a freak accident of some kind and the actual cause of death will be blunt force trauma. It has happened too many times, and I've come out OK. I just think that one day, whatever watches out for me may be taking a break just at the moment when it happens. Maybe guardians have to go smoke, or pee. If my timing coincides with that, it is curtains.

I Shouldn't Say This

It puzzles me that certain facets of the self created economic CRISIS are ignored by concerned citizens who protest, and others. I am not that convinced that many of the Occupy this or that crowd know what they are protesting for or against. If they do, it certainly is not very well articulated in simple clear terms.

If people want to focus just on the mortgage market which suffered because too many loans were made to sub-prime borrowers, the ought to ask why this occurred. Do they think lending institutions initially thought loaning to dead beats was a good strategy?
I do not think so. The US government mandated much of it under the guise of diversity and helping the downtrodden. As with most such efforts, the result was to further create dependence upon various agencies for survival. It is a huge scam. What some Black economists call "the 21st century plantation".

The thing is, there are always opportunists who will not resist the temptation to get rich off of things which are wrong and vile, but not necessarily illegal. Then people ignore the real core cause and focus soley on the shysters who cashed in on it. The sick thing is they cry for the same people who caused the problem to fix it, and buy the rhetoric of those creeps while they point fingers everywhere but at themselves, as if they are shocked and dismayed. They are the damned problem.

Wall street, per se, is not the culprit. Corrupt officials and a government operating outside its proper functions make this stuff happen. It is part of The Big Pretense that the public still refuses to see that. I believe it is because so many are involved with government contracts, receiving grants, subsidy or other wealth tossed out like little crumbs to pay for silence and cooperation. It is much easier to blame corollary operatives and beneficiaries of the corrupt behavior than to examine what makes it possible.

Because what makes it possible is the bread and butter of far too many. And the PR work has been brilliant in labeling vague enemies like "the Rich", or "Wall Street", much like the nazis managed to vilify Jews back when. Though the drastic nature may not be the same, the technique remains intact.

Those under the top 10% but above the bottom 50% of wage earners account for 25% of the revenue to the US government. The top 10% pay the rest--75%. The bottom 50% account for zero. I think those figures are accurate. I'm thinking the bottom 50% net out to zero because of earned income tax credit, but I think the upper part of that group has to pay. Still, it is apparently the case that half the country does not contribute to their revenue. That statistic has not been disputed in any discussions and debates I've heard. There is a huge and growing number who fall into the official definition of the poverty level. That figure may or may not reflect true poverty, but it is their definition.

The point is, the rich pay a lot. They are taxed. Maybe not to the point that that aren't still rich, and perhaps that irks the envious. The rich pay for things, hire people and are often honest and not corrupt. To label the group as if they all stole their wealth is purely a false accusation. The people I know and have known who fall into the multi-millionaire and above category earned through persistence, hard work, vision, and sometimes a bit of luck, but rarely is luck the significant factor. They are not bad people and their wealth does not make me poor. It helps me survive because they can afford to pay me to do things for them.

The general attitude being fomented is a trap. Do you really think Warren Buffet wants to help you? And do you really think he isn't leaving out many relevant facts in his claims? There is something in it for him. Otherwise he'd just write checks to the treasury instead of whine that he doesn't pay enough. He'd hate the Fair Tax because there's no way he can beat it. He likes the IRS and the complicated code. People like him wrote it.

The point is that what is called a tax break for the rich just means they don't pay 70% of their income like they once did. You really want a reasonable tax which doesn't require hiring people so you can keep some of your money, and doesn't provide loopholes for the elite? Then demand this system be abolished, the 16th amendment be repealed, and go to the Fair Tax, or an across the board flat tax. No deductions or rewards for behavior or life choices. You want to have kids, that's fine. Married, fine. But no reward or penalties based on that.

The present system (IRS) is merely a weapon used by those in power against those who threaten that power, and as a tool to keep people down and afraid. It is an aberration in a society which claims to value freedom and inalienable individual rights.

Occupy the IRS and most of the other agencies in DC, not Wall Street. Some of wall street may be in bed with the enemy, but they aren't prime movers of the evil deeds which result in the things you are protesting. Many of your fellow protestors are but minions and controllers of those who created this CRISIS. If you trust Jimmy Hoffa2, then I have a deal for you! I'll sell you the Brooklyn Bridge for a fraction of its worth. Trust me, I'm on your side. Oh this? Dat's my Louisville Slugger. I always carry it--for luck. Pay no attention ta dat.

Thank You Steve

Despite much overseas production of Apple products, Steve Jobs generated more revenue producing jobs than all the President's men put together. And if all the president's men and those in legislative houses, such as those in California, were not so intent on punishing enterprise, even more domestic jobs would have been produced by Mr. Jobs.

My favorite recording experiences always featured a sound engineer running it all with a MacBook of some kind. I found the transition tough when I went from a desktop HP PC to a Mac Powerbook, but I have had far fewer difficulties over a 3.5 year span with this than I had in most 3 month spans with the PC.

To die at 56 is tough. But to have lived the dream by creating so much, and producing things which allowed so many others to create and live their dreams, seems almost a good trade off. Would I rather live to 100 and never see a vision through, or make a difference in the lives of millions, maybe billions? I'd settle for 56 years given the choice.

Thank you, Steve Jobs for this expensive device which has weathered far more abuse, heat, campsite shenanigans, and heavy handed typing style than one would expect. Rest in peace and I hope your family lives long, well, and happily.