Just Sayin

  Were they really war crimes? I mean did the U.S. ever have concentration camps? Did the U.S. ever put wholesale innocent people in ovens, and gas chambers? Or do unethical tests on kidnapped people? No on all accounts. So, no, we weren't guilty of real war crimes. Were we guilty of breaking the law, yes, I wasn't there, but I can figure out that to fight evil, we must get down on the same level. We must do that without losing our humanity, because that is the only thing there is remaining to glean from that situation.   There is no winning, nor is there any morality, killing is killing, and it is all bad, no matter the reason. No matter how much we try to justify it. Thing is, for us as a country to exist, we must fight and kill for that existence. This idea that there are rules that make it ok to kill, is pure fantasy. We need good men doing bad things to bad men for the good, the bad, and the indifferent, without losing our humanity as an individual or country. They ma...

  I saw the cars in California buried in mud. Those pictures remind me of when I worked for Caltrans at the Lake Henshaw Yard. The San Felipe Rd from SR 79 to Scissors crossing on SR 78 near Banner grade was 17 miles. It was a County Rd. They had a mud slide on the western 5 or 6 miles. They started from the 79 with a front end loader, a grader, and a dump truck and started east clearing the road. Another crew with the same equipment started from the east end and worked west. Took them 3 weeks to clear the road. On our end at the 79 JCT, there were about 6 or 7 cars buried in mud about 4 feet of mud. We had some problems in Sentnec Canyon the 78 between Scissors crossing and the Yaqui Pass Rd turn off. Which meant we had to go all the way to Julian and down Banner Grade to get there. Whi ch was about 40 miles around. I hadn't thought about that in years. Things you remember from a picture.

  In Bridgeport Connecticut, manufacturing has come back. Great right? Yes it has but not the way Trump wanted. He thought bringing manufacturing back would bring with it jobs. That is backwards 1950's thinking. Because it hasn't. “These newer, successful manufacturing companies in Bridgeport don’t have assembly lines with workers performing repetitive tasks. They have high-skilled workers meeting exacting specifications for a relatively small number of picky customers,” said the Post. “That’s what most American manufacturing firms look like today. Ninety-eight percent of U.S. manufacturing firms employ fewer than 500 people, and 93 percent employ fewer than 100, according to 2022 data.” The “manufacturing” jobs actually employ more robots than anything, per the Post's editorial. Automation makes them extremely productive, and more productive workers are paid more, but it still means fewer people work in manufacturing than in the past. Pay attention to what is going o...

 Goodbye Father Well father, here I am   a lost child once again, with no direction. Now, I do not have you to show me the way, or to help me along. What will I do? I wasted so much time not listening. I regret the times that I was a problem, you did not deserve any of that. I could have been a better son. In the end, I owed you much more than I could repay. I had to do the things the way I did them. If I were as smart as I think I am,   I would have listened to you once in a while. These are my regrets and they are not in dispute.   I would like to thank you for the things that you have given me over the years. I would like to thank you for the mental toughness to live life. For the driving vocation, and appreciation of all things cars and trucks. I would like to thank you for teaching me to think for myself, and to make my own decisions right or wrong. I would like to thank you for the wisdom concerning finances, and...

  This Is Who I Am. On the sad occasion of my beloved father’s passing, I have once again taken a look at myself. I no longer wonder what I have, or will become.    I wonder will I measure up in the end? What will be the book on me? The more I am like my father, the more I am who I am. Now on the backside of forty, I find myself in a little better position. I have a wife who loves me, a good job, and a future. I have commitments and responsibilities that I have not had before, these come with maturity, and age. I have lived long enough to grow old. The change in me is who I am. All my father did his entire life was to take care of the ones he loved. He worked until he could literally, work no more. The working exacted a heavy toll on his body. He sacrificed a life made easy for himself to make life easier for everyone else. He gave his last full measure of devotion not only to his country, but also to his family. He left this world earl...

  Devil’s Own Hand I took my first taste, When I was only nine, I grabbed it by the neck, Didn’t want any waste, Lying there in the sand, I soon found a lesson, That drinkin is, The devils own hand,   It took me on a ride, That wasn’t much fun, Straight to hell in a (ash, Ending on the wrong side, Of a mother and a son, I didn’t really care, All I wanted was to partake, From the devil’s own hand.