Opus 2016-179: Firsts: Haircuts

I remember the day that we took my son to the barber for the first time.  I think we have pictures.

Now he has turned the tables.  We had a big family event and my wife wanted my hair to look good.  Since we were out of town she did not trust any barber to do the job right so she said my son, who cuts his own hair with a cool kit he bought on line, should trim me up and make me look good.  Since I only look at my hair once each day, I was fine with that.

So for the first time my son cut my hair.  It set me to thinking that this could be a pattern for when I am so old I can’t get to a barber or they won’t allow me out in public.

It came out fine, this time.  I am sorry that we don’t have any pictures to commemorate the event.

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-178: Dear Race-Baiters

You know who you are.  You are the “human” slugs that go around sowing discord and hatred because you are trying to increase your power.  You are the racists who believe that “Black lives matter” more than any other color.  It would also include anyone who thinks that “_______ lives matter more than any other color (insert your own color). 

You seem to be obsessed with the wrongs done to you because of slavery and the racist attitudes of people from the past.  You ignore that the vast majority of black slaves were enslaved by other blacks and sold by other blacks to start the journey toward today.  You refuse to accept the fact that there were blacks who owned plantations and slaves in America.  You ignore that fact that slavery has put shackles on people of every ethnic group in history.  You suffer from the “don’t confuse me with the facts” syndrome.

I do not accept the guilt you are trying to impose.

But I am willing to make a deal with you.  If you will accept the guilt for killing five random policemen in Dallas and confess to the crime, I will consider confessing to the fact that my ancestors might have owned a slave somewhere in the 6,000 years of recorded history.  You confess, go to jail and possibly face the death penalty in your solidarity with all people of your particular sub-group and I will do the same.  Your action would result in execution.  My “guilt” would involve a few dollars reparations. 

Do we have a deal?

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-177: On the Street: What Are They Mad About?

Walking and getting exercise are difficult when away from home.  I have tried walking when I stay at my son’s house but it is in a semi-rural location and the narrow roads make walking more adventure than I can handle.  So I have tried to hit the malls to do a spin through.  This week I was walking past the promise of a new store and the barriers had pictures of young people dressed in the latest, promising to change my life if I would plan on shopping there. 

No thank you.  I don’t think I would want to be infected by whatever the models had been breathing.  You have seen the look.  I see it in my passport picture.  I was told to stare at the camera and told not to smile.  They wanted me to look like I was an antisocial thug.  That is the look on the models faces.  The guy, in addition to needing a shave, looked like he still had ten days in solitaire to do and he wasn’t going to show them he cared.  The girl looked bored out of her mind. 

You have seen it.  It is a reflection of our modern obsession with thugs and criminals.  It is a nihilistic philosophy of life that has expressed itself on the faces of our physical role models.

It is sad.

If you are a Christian this is not a face that should sit well on your soul.  It does not express faith, hope or charity.  It radiates nothingness. 

Just another way in which I am reminded that “This world is not my home...”

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-176: Firsts: AeroPress

I am on vacation, staying at my son’s house.  This is the time to experiment.  In addition to new blends of coffee I have decided to try out the AeroPress Coffee Maker.  I am going back and forth between it and my french press.  There is a learning curve involved.  So far the jury is still out on whether it is as big a deal as some people claim.

One thing I am noticing is that even when I think I am doing things the same way, my coffee comes out slightly different every time.  At present I have eight different types of coffee on the shelf.  When you don’t use the traditional drip brewer you can change the blend on each cup. 

I guess we have to find our adventure where we can.

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-175: The Spreading Curse of Bi-Partisanship

I long for the days in which I could look at a label and know what I was getting.  It was a label that built Best Western and AAA in a day when local motels were a genuine gamble complete with undisclosed charges and bedbugs.  McDonald’s success was built on countless encounters with greasy spoons that served Mystery Meat and green french fries. 

I long for the days when I could identify a church or a political party based on the label.  Maybe those memories are just fantasies created by my aging mind.  Maybe things are getting worse.  What I do know is that you can’t assume that a Republican is a Republican.  Intrenched elites on the “right” have become soul brothers to the left.  We saw this recently when the Republicans were carrying the banner for censorship. 

The Washington Times tells us,

“A Republican-led effort to broaden the FBI’s access to individuals’ internet data was defeated in the Senate Wednesday,”

At the time I became a voter, the Republican party was the party of less government.  Now we have the Senate Republicans working hard to increase the grasp of government on my personal life. 

Remember when John Kerry was lampooned by the right when he said something to the effect, “I voted for the bill before I voted against it.”  We thought it was crazy left-wing lingo but it turns out to be a bipartisan principle.

“Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell changed his vote to oppose the amendment at the last minute in a procedural maneuver that allows him to revive the amendment, and filed a motion for reconsideration.”

Our guys are cloning their guys and neither picture is pretty.  It makes the Senate look like a computer game that has a lot of cheat codes available.  All you need to know is how to pervert the process. 

“The proposal would not give investigators warrantless access to the content of emails, said the amendment’s sponsor, Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican.”

At this point all you needed to tell me was that John McCain was behind it and I would have seen the writing on the wall.

Label him “Rino” and realize that he is just one in the herd.

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-174: Headlines: Sarcasm at Its Best

The Muslim immigrants saturating Europe have been having a field day with the whores on the street.  At least they consider them whores, after all they are showing their legs and arms and no self respecting woman would dress that way.  So they treat them like whores.  That is the source of the wave of rape and sexual attacks growing common in Europe.  According to Towhhall the Swedes have come up with a solution.

“Genius: Swedish Police Unveil New 'Don't Touch Me' Wristbands In Effort to Stop Sexual Assaults by Migrants”

There seems to be one major flaw in this approach.

“The wristbands are written in Swedish, however, while the vast majority of those perpetrating the sexual assaults are thought to be migrants, who are unable to read Swedish.”

Of course to print the wristbands in Arabic would be Islamophobic and any other language would be a waste of time.

You don’t get a clue that the author is tongue-in-cheek until the last line.

“This sounds like about as good of an idea as gun-free zone signs.”

I wonder if they will be available on Amazon?

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-173: Headlines: It Turned out Not to be a Gun Free Zone

One of the silly remarks by the anti-gun people is that armed citizens never stop the shooting rampages that turn into mass murders.  That is obviously not true to those who are watching.  Many stories are gathered each month in the NRA magazines but some will say that is a biased source.  They would be right.  Here is an account from the Washington Times.

There is no indication that this is a terrorist act.  From the picture of the attempted murder you can conclude a couple of things.  First, the picture was taken before the event.  He doesn’t seem to be in pain from the wound he received that stopped his spree.  Second, if you look you will notice he is wearing a bright orange piece of clothing that looks strangely like prison clothing.  I think it is safe to say that he has a previous record.  He did not have a license to carry a concealed weapon.  I am sure that he was just ignorant of that requirement.

For the record, he was stopped by a man with a concealed carry license.  Three people in the crowd had already been hit when the law abiding citizen pulled iron and took the shooter down.

It was a different result than Orlando gave us.  It was interesting to note at the end of the article,

“South Carolina passed a law in 2014 that allows people holding concealed weapon permits to carry guns inside establishments that serve alcohol.”

Good job, SC.  I am sure the police arrived promptly and did a good job of crowd control but remember that saying that when seconds count the police are only minutes away.

homo unius libri