I am in so much turmoil, what to do, what to do...

   I like to pretend I am a responsible law-biding citizen, so I am in conflict of how to vote at my kitchen table.

   You know I avoid answering the telephone, unless it is my wife's mobile number calling or one of her friends or the doctor's office.  So the only polling was the Trump Campaigns' questionnaire about what I thought the election or the candidate should do for me.  Since I have only two points to be concerned about (guns and abortions) I am boring.  If the elected representatives would really make sure a dollar was always worth a dollar, I would be happy. That is the best the government can do for the economy. Everything else is restrictive or just outright theft.

   There are folks that think the government should provide free education, and for up to high school it is free - paid for by taxes on property mostly, but then teachers unions got real greedy - not the teachers, just the unions.  Votes for dollars and restrictions on alternate educations, certifications and testing standards... silly unions and politicians. I did notice I had a fine education in public schools, but in today's world I would just live in the library, and would be so much smarter.  By the way young people there are several fine institutions of higher learning, built by the government to get some quality peasants into the officer corps (don't ask President Obama to read that last word). Those fine institutions are free, pay a wage, set high standards and have produced some really fine citizens and some real fools in service.

   Anyway, how many people are answering the poll takers and makers?  If the media is in the tank for one party or idea or another, why would you think the pollsters wouldn't be affected?  No one is using my blog or even my Facebook fantasies to see where I am going to vote, and I am not alone - there are others hiding from giving a free picture for the mosaic that the pollsters are getting paid to make pretty and sell loudly.  So a representative sample I don't think they have, but they sound good and keep folks watching for the latest shift.

   But I am troubled by the Ron Paul effect, so there is a candidate, who understands Liberty and smaller government and running for the Republican office. And he and his supporters get the legs cut out from under them everywhere, and because they and his ideas weren't really embraced by the Old Line Republicans almost two and a half million intelligent people sat out the elections, or voted on other stuff for other candidates. Romney goes down in defeat, you know the Democrats stuff the ballot boxes, drive voters around voting multiple times for the dead or someone that wasn't coming.

   So this year, the Republican Party isn't any smarter, or sharing of power, and has used millions against Trump or for their favorite candidate (normally someone that won't stop the rain of bribes and sponsorships).  But the voters prevailed and that is really frightening, all political parties count on uninformed voters and complacent citizenry.  They don't have them this year.  The Democratic Party is even more elitist, and will denigrate all you redneck, Jewish, Catholic and evangelicals -- they would talk badly about dinks and rag heads, too. They don't want to seem bigoted. In their internal voting for their primary, they stuffed ballot boxes, miscounted and are doing everything to get the first woman elected to President.  I have no problem voting for a woman - not every woman is Jezebel nor Mary.  But the woman I would vote for would shoot guns, not have promiscuous sexual liaisons and not support abortions (which I clearly see as medical murder of innocents).  Realizing my ideal female candidate couldn't be the star of a movie (no sex, no violence, no illicit romance for dramatic effect and stirring of lusts) I find that Americans would wonder at what kind of a woman was she really - since our values seem to come from Sodom and Gomorrah (or Hollywood).

   Ah, well, the point of my rant is that everyone should vote, really and not for a candidate you couldn't live with for the next four years.  There are reasons, MANY, not to vote for either major political party. The Europeans would tell you that our major parties are the same party and we are governed by rich special interests not by the needs and desires of the people. If either of the main political candidates are elected, it will be the final four years of the great American experiment. I expect either one to die of old age in office and then the VP will step up, and the slide will continue that is okay, only nuclear war will kill off enough population to destroy humanity, or a new plague.
Texas, California and New York City can break away and build anew.  When the grid fails, then we will all have to get to work, meet and work with the neighborhood to survive. Once the electronic noise is on mute, we will be able to think.... what did you say, dear?

   

So I have have a solution to the gun violence...

  Really, I do have the solution, not that I expect the ruling elite to like it or to adopt it, but it would work real fast.

  Part of the problem is that people of color, or some kind of minor group of folks is judged as not able to care for themselves.  They could be slaves, they could be poor, they could be gender neutered. For sure they aren't of the rest of us... unless you believe that 'all men are created equal' which for some strange reason the government doesn't believe.

  So quick go to Cook County and Chicago, they have decided that disarming their citizens is the only way to ensure that no one gets killed by firearm. Well, that really hasn't worked. So I suggest that we try what the 2nd amendment and the gun control folks want.  A back ground check for all the citizens that want to keep and bear arms, the training of such citizens that pass the back ground check by certified instructors working for the State or County or City, having passed the qualifications they then be issued a firearm (I recommend a pistol) ammunition for the same, a lock box to store it in when they are asleep, and an appointment at a range to requalify quarterly and be issued more ammunition. The murder rate will fall and the community can get tight with the police, when it stops treating folks as a threat to their lives. 

Going to have to make adjustments in my life...

   Going to the range on Saturday cost me ten dollars for my day and target, and I only fired fifty rounds.  Time to do some serious looking into local ranges, cause I can't afford ten dollars every time I need to break away from my electronic time wasters.   I need many more breaks from the monitors of computer and cable. Don't we all?

   My target from Saturday looks a bit wild, but seriously, I started standing at fifty yards. Those are the upper right ten shots. Then I did some major sight corrections on the rear sight, moving it far left and down then I ended up left of the target still high shooting prone without sling.  So I then adjusted a bit back and shot from the bench with sling and was close enough for the day.  I intend to refine the sights, prone with sling, at twenty-five yards, soon.

    Now that brings up my OCD, obsessive compulsive disorder,  my Stevens model 414 Armory is a beautiful old target rifle, but for me to shoot it where I am aiming the front sight is far right and the rear sight is cranked far left. Which does put my shot on target, but I don't think I am that crooked, the rear sight must have been placed wrong when it was set up.  That makes me think I should put an adjustable sight on the receiver, but then I would feel the loss of the 'cool' in the original purchase that makes me so happy, even now. Constant struggle, luckily, I am so frugal that if it isn't broken, it isn't getting fixed. Unless the Lottery slams my way.  And we are betting that won't happen soon.

I am often shy in public, for good reason...

   Seems that Donal Trump and a young Bush made video history trashing the fairer sex - all they did was not respect the kind of women they dreamed all women would be in their fantasies - maybe not the women's fantasies... Then NBC decided that they would wait until they needed something to disrupt Trump, like a blackmailer for future benefit.  Somehow the tape, saved from Secretary Hillary Clinton's destruction of all that excess bad vibes records missed the tape against Donald. This is why I am so happy that I am much more Earl than my fool fantasies.

   I remember telling lies about sex in high school, and hearing some even better (impossible) ones from other guys that had even less of a clue than I did. See, we didn't have sex education, we had health classes which highlighted health not happiness.  It was better to be shy than shamed.

   I am not qualified to discuss sex and those strange things people lump with sex that don't seem to produce more humans.  I have opinions, but I remember being told by another soldier that I really had no idea what fool or terrible things were being taught to my son in his school.  But I was always sure if he wanted my opinion on something he would ask.  I have a broad reading of many things, and for sure I blame the Hefner Playboy Philosophy for much that was wrong with my era in America. Not that I read beyond the point of noticing that giving women the liberty to be free of moral and community restrictions allowed them to be better exploited by the power structure, normally male.

   Then the government goodness loosened the divorce laws, increased the male penalties for not having a successful marriage and supported women in their solitary liberation from having to partner with a man for survival, the government cares for all the helpless doesn't it?

   What can I say, marriage is a government program regulated to benefit the community and like most government programs not as good as what it took over.  Where families and community were responsible for maintaining the marriage, not the heartless government. Regulate until you control it to death.  I seem to have missed my point about being shy... will get back to it one day.  I respect women, enough that I seldom talk with them, they and men are not on the same frequency and it is very difficult to have a meaningful exchange of ideas.  I am always happy to find the exceptions to that generality of mine, and will then blurt out something that will cause them to wonder at who I really am, as it doesn't seem I fit their expectation.

   Aren't I happy I am so shy? Yes, I am...

No, I am not going to listen to what the Democrats want me to hear from Trump's vulgar mouth...

   I am sure his smut isn't better than my own, and I don't use that language anymore, and can't remember when I was fool enough to publish it to the innocent.  I am sure that he, Donald, doesn't want me to think that he is nonredeemable, he must know that as a Christian I know everyone is flawed, all have been redeemed, and must accept Jesus as their savior for forgiveness...  so, only the godless communists and others need to find the LORD, quick! Because the End is near.  There it is on the internet, so it must be true.

    I went to see the foot doctor on Thursday morning, and it didn't go as nicely as the televised shows and commercials on cable... but then this is reality. A couple of weight bearing x-rays taken, and an appointment scheduled for the 1st of December.  So off I went to the YMCA, and my coach was doing nothing so I complained about not having a strength test since the first one... mistake on my part. The devious fellow made an instant appointment, told me to get in gym clothes and come back and I would take the test... ha, ha, ha...   So I was back in about ten minutes, and we went to the machines he wanted me to work.  He would tell me what my high was six months ago, and I would set what I thought I could do eight times in good form.  If I wasn't straining on the last two reps, he would think I was cheating myself and add ten to twenty pounds for what I should have done, in his mind not mine. Then he ran me a complete new program after plugging in the new maximums. Ugh! Have I a new stress in my life? Yes, I do. So for the last two workouts I have added very few sets, not changed the weights up much, although I have lowered some in my least favorite exercises, and then added sets and did more reps.  Interesting, being pumped up instead of plumped up.

   Conversations of olde men:  Sitting between sets or exercises or while walking something off, there are conversations.  About five Vietnam Vets (American) are my fellows talking about wars and wonders, two of them were end of WWII and Korea and then RVN to retire, and two are just into the Southeast Asia mess and then out to better things, and then I am the youngster - RVN to Gulf War I.
Now the challenge is to remember I came to work out, not socialize with my compadres, what we talk about is always more interesting than sweating or straining against gravity. Not more interesting than yoga pants and smiles from the heart. But we aren't long distracted by beauty, since we want to wring out our lives to hang out with folks that appreciate where we were when we were young, handsome and so foolish -- but always doing our best.  Not all the tales are of success, often a flub or fluke or just fool hardy - but not to be repeated, not by us. Names of people now long gone on, or gone to parts unknown, men we remembered because they mattered  in our lives. Olde men talking, the common term is 'war stories' but you won't get them if you aren't part of the group, trusted. Some times a youngster will listen a bit and then ask a question, looking for an answer they can understand, and the answer will come back depending on the perception of the old man as to what they can understand and what they will do with it.  So often, it is just a lie, tease or less than truth -- no harm intended. The answer isn't in an answer, it was in the story and the triggers going off in the listener's mind. Most minds aren't ready for the stories we tell. So they don't get out in public much.

   Time does fly when having fun, suddenly it will be time to get ready to leave, and I still haven't done my normal ten miles on bicycle, ah, I will do something later.... yeah, maybe so.

  Now to be perfectly honest, I haven't read Hillary's speeches to the FatCats of Banking and Business, but then I am fair and balanced except when I get up to walk or move. Then my eyesight and awareness might be in conflict with the realities of gravity and foot placement.  Am I not so happy that my voters' pamphlet has arrived and the ballots come out on 25 October.  Yes, I am, but I still must hope the contenders clean up, ask forgiveness and respect the voters' choices. We should all work to become better than we knew possible, just like straining against gravity, it will only make us better at living. 

Just because I can I want to make a point...

   Community policing does not mean putting police in charge of the folks and talking to them, it should mean that a well regulated militia is the security of a Free State... yes, I borrowed those words.  In communities where neighbors take care of each other - it happens, sure they may call for the law when it gets beyond the ability of the neighbors, we call for medical assistance and fire but the first people to see the need start taking action.

   Part of the current weakness in American values and virtues is the idea that only the government can handle the problems. But it can't, you really need the people and not just for votes and taxes.  They must be more than subjects of the ruling elite, their bankers and barkers.

Pictures of a near past...

   Photos are history, and we do spend a lot of time taking them and sharing them and then suddenly forgetting about them...
    But they do capture a moment, when you were young and beautiful, and your smile had real teeth. Do they capture your joy, your love, your quietness in the dark?  Maybe not, but then you are quick to change as the time moves right along.
   As I do repetitious exercise my mind is moving much faster than any of my muscles and I can go from thought to thought faster than the speed of light. Honest, I have measured it, NOT. Just seems so.
    When is it going to be normal to see Appleseeds on the evening news? Not any time soon, the safety record is nice, the problems with marksmanship can be measured in inches, converted to minutes of angle and on your rifle into clicks of your sight adjustment. We don't even measure if the heritage of Liberty and standing your ground gets through to the shooter, we just want to set an example of change that can improve your ability with a rifle, and your interest on how we got to the America of today, from the Colonies of yesteryear. 
     Still finishing A Race to Remember: the Peter Norman story interesting how current culture ruins a great story and lives. Seems to happen everywhere that God is forgotten or denied.

  Next objective on my plate seems to be in Idaho, a Known Distance Appleseed, the Shoot Boss expects his crew to shoot, and I like to see if I can handle my 1903A3 the way it should be treated. I tried to buy six hundred more rounds from CPM, but my credit cards don't seem to work on their software, no purchase made, although I have plenty for the preparation and the shooting on the Appleseed, ammunition remains a sound investment before the End of the World as we knew it.