Martial Law and Colonel Klink Revisited

It reminded me just how risky life in the people's republic of Caleeforneea, and elsewhere can be. I was minding my own business on THE 94, after missing turns and driving almost to Mexico on The 5. I'd turned around and made my way back so I was not near the border on 94. I was on my normal back way home near Target and the friendly Mobil station.

All of a sudden I find myself in a traffic jam. At least one lane was closed, red cones and cops everywhere. I thought maybe there had been a big wreck.

No wreck, a "sobriety check point" roadblock. It would have been a great time for someone to rob nearby stores or houses because the cops were all boxed in by their own design, and there were scores of them at the big party in the road, or so it seemed.

My first thought was, "I wonder if I am inadvertently committing a crime." Maybe it is illegal to have a notebook in the passenger seat. Maybe I should be wearing a helmet. Who knows? I'm trying to figure out if my credentials are in order. An inner voice with a German accent is taunting me, "So, ver harr your papahs?!!" Yikes. Where are my papers? Maybe in the glove box.

I'm sure I had the proper credentials somewhere, but I find it incredibly inappropriate that I should have to prove myself in a free country, with no probable cause to lead the authorities to suspect me of more than a burning resentment.

Because they figure they might find a drunk, which they could better do at any of a number of nearby bars, they punish everyone on the road by bringing traffic to a very slow crawl, with frequent dead stops, and flagging random vehicles for further interrogation. Lucky me, I was not flagged for the strip search. I was wearing clean underwear so I was prepared, I guess.

No, I did not "have anything to hide". I've heard that line that there is no need to worry if you have nothing to hide. I disagree. Any time the government can detain you without cause, there is plenty of reason to worry. It is a precedent that can be far reaching and effectively make any answering of the government to the people impossible. It has pretty much reached that point.

Many think that responses to their cries of "how are you going to help me?" are indications of accountability. They are so far from getting it that it is probably useless to try to explain the basic tenets of freedom and accountability.

Then I find out that in San Diego, or some local school system, you have to get so many hours of approved community service signed off before you can get your high school degree. Welcome to the USSR. Hola Habana.

What about a kid that works a lot when he isn't in school? That's what I did in high school. I did not always like it but I know I'd have liked it better than being under the thumb for community service. Since when is free time, doing something that may or may not be useful, better than just living a good life, being responsible and generally not making trouble? Very few great inventions or innovations which have saved lives and made living much easier and healthier have been born of mandatory community service. Or community service at all, according to how it is defined by these collectivist slave masters. Mass insanity.

I found both realizations troubling.

Before I left Memphis, Homeland security staged a joint exercise with more law enforcement agencies than I knew existed. They stopped people on highways gathered information and put it in their master data bank. It was nuts but it happened. They raided some businesses without explanation and even took computers. No charges filed but they cost these people a ton in lost time. They detained people who had done nothing and were in no way a threat to anyone. I wrote about it at the time. Major news did not. The local news initially carried the story including interviews with the victims of this aberrant jack boot action, but immediately, within hours had a watered down story and no interviews except with the gleeful power drunk sheriff and some evil Homeland security KGB wannabe.

I forget that people just go along and think this way of governing and protecting is good. It is pure tyranny. Totalitarian sickness.

Whatever people think, it turns my stomach and bothers me a great deal.

Go Memphis

That's right, I, the ultimate despiser of Memphis and the "Mid South", one for whom basketball normally holds no appeal whatsoever, am morally supporting Memphis to win the college hooplah madness. For one thing, Memphis is a school which doesn't have to cheat for their players academically. The other students are equally illiterate and dimwitted on average. Other schools have to pretend that their athletes are up to snuff academically. They are big cheaters. Not Memphis. They do it fair and square.

And their coach actually has some true affection and sense of caring. It means a lot to him that his players remain out of jail and don't commit or get caught committing any major crimes.

In a Perfect World

I decided it was drivel and deleted.

All Better

There is always that tendency to think if I just just find the missing piece of the puzzle, things would be all better. That is a mentality to be avoided. There is no all better. Things just are, and either some benefit can be seen in that or not.

I decided the rest was tediously expressed nonsense so I deleted it.

The Tour Continues; notes and neuroses

First let me thank Wisconsin, assuming that is where Milwaukee Tools are created. I'll pretend they are from that fair state even if they are really from China. It's rare I don't settle for the 29.00 model when it comes to these things. This time I refused to settle, although I did not go for the high end whatever because that would have been no advantage, and I don't have that in the budget. I'd rather save my money for adventure of some kind. You never know.

That's why I call it the ballistic tour; it's like being shot out of a cannon blindly, so where you land is anyone's guess. If the launch didn't kill you, then the ride can be splendid. It helps if you open your eyes and take it in, rather than clench your eyes shut, all tensed up waiting for the hard landing. metaphorically speaking, of course. Still, stranger things have happened. Just saying.

So, the great state of Wisconsin has done well. Good thing they don't keep these things confined within their borders. The variable speed random orbital sander has proven a versatile, comfortable, companion which makes one's work less strain and more joy. Life is better post sander.

Wherever Dewalt is made deserves praise as well. It is pretty good, but the Wisconsin product is the best all round unit. the two together seem to cover most of the territory that ought be covered for a good overall result.

You can't force things with these tools, just let them flow as they will, with a little helpful guidance and gentle pressure here and there. You never know how this stuff will turn out until it is done. I can tell when it will probably be a good result. Already one work of art is almost ready.

I could hear a band nearby. I think it was at the main resort building. I think they have suites and an event area. It is hard to say. I just explore when it is appropriate and so far just on need to know basis. I go where invited and leave it at that. What I heard sounded world class.

I'm too tired to cover it all. I did see a hot air balloon hovering at 10 feet with a basketful of people. Maybe they were waiting for a landing crew to show up. I guess the high flying drifting is fun but it seems like landing is no piece of cake. When I think of it, that makes sense.

Maybe I should take Sunday off to let the arm heal and so I won't risk being too noisy on a weekend.

Great Day in the Neighborhood

The debut at playing tennis, keeping score and not throwing things or crying when I did it all wrong went well. Everyone had a good time and a couple of times I did things right. That may be of not interest, but I like to write these things down.

Living a charmed life, I was fortunate to have some home cooking with great friends that was as good as any dinner I've ever had anywhere. Maybe better. I would have gone for seconds after a huge plate but it was so good it seemed somehow wrong to stuff. The amount I had was perfect and I figured if I turned glutton it would somehow be a blasphemy.

They had visitors from out of town. A four year old boy and his dad. What a fun bright child. This kid is way more articulate than many adults, and his coordination is remarkable. A more delightful child I have never seen. His dad is strict and requires the most high level of respect and behavior. It is all done by means of example and consistency. The kid seems to eat it up. Within the framework of the boundaries his dad sets the boy is allowed creativity and expression. This child is definitely thriving. What a fun person. His dad is clearly an exceptional human being as well. He was once a teacher who had very profound positive influence on on of my younger friends. Very cool.

Then I was headed home and decided to take the back way. I also decided to call my renegade friend from the north and put it on speaker phone--to stay legal and so I had my hands free. It is tough to admit to voluntarily being one of those people talking to mid air while cruising down the road; missing my turn off and not realizing it until almost in Mexico. That proved to be a longer back way home than originally anticipated. It was much more interesting and enjoyable than expected, too. Left me feeling surprised at myself, kind of excited about things, and at the same time it seems perfectly natural.

Tomorrow is another day in the land of the rich and teakly distressed. It's like being forced to work at your own pace at the Huatulco Club Med, with no one over your shoulder. The labor aspect can be a little painful but in the main it is not very difficult. Besides it is a good excuse to expose myself to mind altering fumes.

My mind is kind of spinning in a good way. There is more to life than meets the eye, much of it good.

Hints Not Habits

In case I caused alarm, the last post detailing a helpful hint was just a piece of wisdom acquired over the years, not a reaction to an unfortunate amputation or mishap in current times.

Helpful Hints #000001-420

Avoid cooking, especially if frying and/or using large sharp knives, naked.

For those who hate it when I talk revolution and freedom

OK, so the tennis/teakology elbow and wrist are getting a break today. Tomorrow I will try my luck playing tennis where they keep score and you have to know which side to be on. It isn't a league or million dollar tournament, just a friend or two and someone I never met. I was hoping it would be all women. Oddly, it is easier to take losing to them. This event will be a mix. It is hard to be the most macho guy on a tennis court when everyone else there is twenty times more experienced and better. Even the chicks are mas macho.

Maybe I can compensate; rent the biggest Hummer made and drive it there, or get and extra large, very long, macho racket. Or I could just divert their attention by wearing a tinfoil hat and periodically mumbling into my lapel.

Because my work is only done when the client is long gone, my present project is on hold for about a week. People there. The new job, no excuse. I'll start in earnest on Saturday. I like working weekends.

Domestic Threat to The State

According to some things I've seen, tips on how to spot The Enemy---I'd be considered a domestic threat. Not because I advocate violence, which I do not, generally, but because I vote third party almost always, I suggest that the IRS is a terror group and should be abolished, and I think the UN is an evil collection of corrupt dictators, warmongers, and freeloaders. I oppose the draft, support any state's right to secede. I think most drugs ought to be decriminalized, and traffic laws should not be a source of revenue obtained through sneaking around in bushes, entrapment or photographic processes. It ought to be illegal to be dangerous to others and that ought not be reasoned and extrapolated into the stratosphere the way it is now.

Those beliefs are considered dangerous in many circles, and more and more they could get you put on a list. I believe I should be able to carry a weapon, concealed or not without permission. To me, concealed makes more sense because a bad guy doesn't know what he has to defeat. Either way it should be OK. The drug thing would reduce a lot of the need.

Although some of it may have been blown up a bit, I read the report, and according to Missouri law enforcement, I could very well be a militia member or sympathizer. I'm not big on groups, especially if they are all dressed in cammo and have racial issues.

I watched the Freedom to Fascism movie on line. That is supposed to be a sign. Aaron Russo was not a nut case. He was a film maker and did a good little documentary. If you love the IRS, their tactics, and that system of things, then you're OK. Missouri thinks anyone who displays anti-IRS, anti-UN, or anti government symbols or materials may be a member of a secret militia and a domestic threat. I think it is just a sign of the times; those who object to the state of the state are the enemy and painted as kooks, lumped in with groups that have yet to kill as many people as hospital mistakes every year, or gangs and all that. I don't support the groups.

If they make it sound like these people are skulking about in the woods all around us, then lump people who don't accept republican and democratic politics in with them, they discredit by association, sidestepping the issue of a growing police state, nanny state, and general over abundance of rules and twits creating them.

Maybe those, who looked askance much of my life, and still do, when I divulge the essence of my beliefs and the passion behind them, are right. It could be I am too much of a simpleton and pathological rebel, or oppositional disordered miscreant to understand the finer points of living a civilized ordered life. Obviously, I think those people are seriously misguided and full of it.

That's because they are.

It is no longer as comfortable as it once was to freely state one's opinion, or the truth, but I suspect more people are beginning to see the truth of it than in times past. On the down side, I feel a sense of a somewhat hostile split in this country. That's because people buy into cults of personality. Instead of philosophy they look to people. When power is the game the only safe thing is definition. We've lost that so people go for who they feel will wield it to their advantage or liking. Missed the goddam point, they did.

It is really crazy. Because I think Obama is not a supporter of freedom or the Constitution. some assume I must be big on Bush or republicans. I think we have been given progressively dangerous presidents for some years now, and that the potential for all out martial law and nationalization of any or all business has increased dramatically over that time. The rules are in place. Not saying it is going to happen or not, but it easily could. Look how hard it is to disagree any more, how insanely hollow and one-sided news is, and how many people look at what is going on now, saying, "well we had to do something", even though they see the sacrifice is in terms of one freedom or another. If the market ain't free then neither are the buyers and sellers. You cannot be a free country without a free economy. It is impossible.

I'm rambling. May as well spout off while it is still legal. Since I'm not in Missouri and I'm blissfully ignorant of most laws in California, I figure I can type out my radical domestic threat drivel. The only militia I'm joining is one that has comfortable tanks they'll let me drive, or jets they'll let me fly without the license.