All of the usuals are speaking at the Convention of the National Rifle Association meeting this weekend in Houston, Texas. These include Texas Governor Rick Perry, Sarah Palin - no doubt with more harrowing gun stories, and Gov Bobby Gendle. Also speaking are newly elected Texas senator Ted Cruise, and Rick Santaurum, and the keynote speaker is allegedly Ted Nugent. Nugent in an interview with that British guy claimed that "99,9% of gun owners were good, law abiding citizens." I'd take strong issue as to whether 99.9% of guns have never been used in a questionable homocide. They said they had a "nine acre gun show", where of course you can pick up any firearm you wish and not undergo any background check. Of course the latest news is that those two senators, Mansion and Toomie, will be re-introducing the gun background bill and there are increased hopes (recent poll numbers) that this time the thing will pass and that the President will sign the thing by the time the Senate goes on recess in August. Of course yesterday there was the story about a five year old shooting his two year old sister. He had been given the gun as a present by his parents. It is a .22 and apparently they are marketed in bright kid's colors by an outside that markets expressly for kids. Of course of you were to give your five year old a glass of Vodka to drink, you'd be arrested for child abuse, but that doesn't matter to anybody. This whole gun topic has been raised anew to radio talk shows all over in the past couple of days. Stephanie Miller reminded us in the closing moments of her show that once again the Tea Party has it wrong - again. Not to play the NAZI card or anything, but it's the Wyman Republic that barred or severely restricted the private ownership of firearms by the German people. Under the Nazis - - gun regulations were relaxed and the German people were again allowed freer access to private ownership of firearms, unless of course, if you were a Jew. Pete Richards had that letter circulating around a few months ago- - that the reason why the Nazis came after the Jews is because they were socialist pigs and wanted the vast wealth of the Jewish community because they couldn't stand the idea of privately held wealth. But even in this example the stereotype is played up that the Jews were the ones with all the wealth and this assertion alone is the farthest thing from the Truth.
The Unemployment rate has notched down to 7.5% - - which at this rate, will take forever to get back to anything at all resembling "normal" by standards of only five or six years ago. But 165,000 new jobs were added last month, and there hve been reports of new unemployment claims dropping. Also the jobs growth rates for February and March have been revised upward. As you know it's been the cry of Rush Limbaugh that job figures would all be revised adversely after the Presidential election. That didn't happen. Instead virtually all of the jobs number revisions have been twords the more optimistic. People like Mort Zuckerman has been clinging to the vain hope for months that this economy will turn worse- - any day now. Long term real estate mortgages continue to remain at record low levels below three percent- - which is the lowest in over sixty years. This fact alone must cause the doom and gloomsters untold consternation.
There was a guy bringing an AR 15 into the Houston airport - - apparently not connected with the NRA convention - - where this man fired two rounds into the ceiling and then turned the gun on himself. Moe Kelly asks us whether this story might receive a whole lot more wide-spread coverage of this man had been of middle eastern descent and in Islamic vestment. He'd be the "terrorist of the day" on all of the FOX and other network news. There was a guy with turrets syndrone shouting the word "Bomb" repeatedly on an airplane and they were all over him escorting him off the plane. Of course Ted Nugent would say and has said that "you people don't care about murders in general - - you're only concerned about murderers with guns". And when he says "You people are Obsessed - - with guns" that word "obsessed" is a charged word. It implies that we who are concerned about guns are somehow unbalanced or biased in our "concern" about guns. When it comes to "mad men" that Ted Nugent wants us to 'go after", in so many cultures Ted Nugent would be considered a Mad Man.
Well there are roomers anew that President Obama is thinking about arming the Rebels against the Assad regeime. The trouble with this President is that he "thinks" about a lot of things but ends up actually Doing very little. We've been hearing "help is on the way in Syria" for the past two years, and it's sounding like a broken record. Now this guy in Turkey personally knows of four specific sites of use of seran gas by Assad in the past two months and that he is in the process of compiling a video interviewing eye witnesses, and hopefully garnering physical evidence. Meanwhile the latest chapter in the Boston marithon saga is that Johar has stated that their origiMinal target was some major gathering on the Fourth of July - in Boston, perhaps during a performance of the Boston Pops orchestra while fireworks were going off. And since Rupert Murdoch now owns the Daily Mail (the newspaper referred to in "Paperback Writer") that that Newspaper has gone down hill fast. There are reports that the Saudi Arabia government expressly warned the US about Tamerlin and his activities but the Obama state dept ignored the warnings. Of course we don't want to talk about Condeliza Rice lying at her Senate Confirmation about all of the 9 - 11 warnings that were ignored. Or that George Bush took out the whole computer system the Clinton Administration had just installed- - because Bush had hopes - at some future date- of installing a private company's warning system where he could garner some sort of personal profits.
Mike Meloy is concerned abut this lady Penny - - something who is a Hyatt Hotels heiress- - becoming the new secretary of Commerce. The thing here is that this heiress appears to be "one of the good guys" because she donated 150,000 to the Obama campaign last year but did it secretly - - because if the news got out there would be all sorts of political pressures brought to bear. Mike Meloy says any democrat ought to have his head examined for ever trusting this President about anything again, because Obama is no friend of Progressives. Certainly the laundry list of this President's betrayal of his progressive base is long and growing longer every day. Mike Meloy reminds us the President last month signed what he regards as "The Monsanto Chemical Protection Bill". This is the bill we vaguely alluded to that protected geneticly modified grains and such from ANY scruteny of either the Courts or the FDA and that no health complications from genetically modified foods may ever be looked into by anybody. You have to wonder what sort of political deal was struck between this President and whoever- - to guarentee such a Blank Check- - to Monsanto. In economic grounds alone- this whole genetic grains thing is a disaster as farmers will tell you. I question the constitutionality of anyone being able to "patent life". Something is just a little creepy about that. Something is more than a little creepy about the whole thing. Judy says there are countless health problems encountered by the ingestion of genetically modified foods- - particularly with people with certain pre existant conditions.
Of course weather related stuff is in the news. You have these wind whipped fires here in Southern California in the Ventura County and Pt Magoo area- - and also in the Banning pass in Riverside County. They say one fire is now ten thousand acres and is zero percent contained. The networks claimed these flames were whipped up by fifty mile per hour winds. That sounds like an exaguration. Richard Moore yesterday was talking about this one big bush that was thrashing round and making wind noise- - but the wind wasn't blowing where we were and no other tree appeared to be moving hardly at all. They said that humidity had dropped as low as two percent. Meanwhile in Denver and in Minisota- - they have had snow blizzards- - and roofs have collapsed from "wet snow' in Minisota. In Denver the temperature dropped forty degrees in a 24 hour period. The day before yesterday was jogging in shorts weather. Kansas City received their first snow in May- - perhaps ever. We are reminded that tomorrow is "Mutters Day". Certainly you've passed by and seen the mutter eating her fodder. They are predicting a muddy track on Kentucky Derby day. I suppose there is nothing from preventing them from holding the race if it's pouring down rain. Certainly you need only to look at a weather map to see all of that moisture headed their way.
Just to engage in a little obligtory bit of silliness- - there is a lot of talk about the Russian alphabet, which I plan on taking the trouble to learn one of these days. Apparently in this alphabet ever letter produces a specific sound and that when they translate into English you get all of these strange consinent combinations, such as the "zh" sound as in Brashinsky or Breshnev. In that Sirius A alphabet- - the spelling of the younger terrorist brother is IOJAR taken from the Romulan "Jojar" because Romulans have an inconsistent pronounciation for the J letter. So much of Sirius A writings appear to be translations of Romulan documents. By the way in the Reigel areas - - they do use that "zh" sound for a "J" just like the French do. It would seem that the Reigelian alphabet - - is analogus to Greek in ancient Palestine, since the native Dardanian alphabet is so esoteric and difficult to learn - - even for Dardanian citizens. Also they do something smart in Sirius A - - perhaps out of a salute to Jaquard, the father of the IBM punch card. Of course these punch cards originally were for looms. I remember one time they had an unused loom at my grandparent's ranch house when I was a kid. But when you do a key punch and blow a key and ruin a whole card- - the Sirius A people have an ingenious solution to that problem. They use the back downward slash to mean "cancel that last letter". And then when it comes to copying the card later- - the card reader - sorter is programmed to when it sees the downward back slash just to ignore that key and "eat" that collum number so it can be re-used by the Right letter. Also they use the upside down T in their little "bits" which means "the following is numeric" even though you can SEE it's numeric- - and they also End a numeric with a "J", just like the semaphore people do.
In personal news - - Judy has once again spoken to the phone company about my high phone bill, and once again she says she was reassured the problem had been taken care of. But she warned me to be sure and keep my bank account high just in case. We won't be seeing my Mom for any birthday celebrations this weekend. ("Why would your family want to celebrate Valerie Shoffner's birthday?) Anyhow I specifically asked about. Often we have a barbicue here in the courtyard for Cinco De Mayo. And I do want to watch the Kentucky Derby even if I have no intension of betting on the race. My brother has to work, and Judy still is not feeling well. She hasn't gotten her energy back. And my other brother "Wrecked his back while getting out of a car". I need to talk with him about that. Meanwhile around here Dennis has officially moved out. I had no idea it'd be anytime that soon. There are a lot of conversations I need to have with various people around here. Anyhow- - have a happy Cinco De Mayo you people.
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