Virginia

I watched an interesting hour of TeeVee this morning.  It was about what Mildred and Richard Loving had to endure as a married couple in Virginia in 1958.  Wikipedia has it here.

Also, in Virginia, at the same time, this happened.

It was either the spring or summer of 1961.  I was in the U.S. Navy, stationed on a ship in Norfolk, Virginia.  Mrs. Chief and I had only been married a few months and were living in Navy housing in Norfolk.  Mrs. Chief was eighteen years old when this happened.

Mrs. Chief was friends with a neighbor couple who were black.  Johnny Mae invited Mrs. Chief to go to a movie on base, at the base theatre.  Johnny Mae’s husband drove them to the base and they were to take a Norfolk city bus home, public transportation.

After the movie, when they got on the bus, Johnny Mae walked to the back of the bus, past the “color line.”  Mrs. Chief followed Johnny Mae.

Johnny May insisted that Mrs. Chief sit in the front of the bus with the white folk.  Mrs. Chief refused to move and rode back to Navy housing sitting in the back of the bus with her friend.

I have always been so proud of my wife’s actions that day.

Today: 28 Sep

marks the 34th anniversary of my retirement from the U.S. Navy 1n 1979.

Mrs. Chief & I spent a good portion of the day at her Mom’s cottage on Grand Lake, in Celina, Ohio.  We had baked spaghetti with meat balls for lunch.  Doin’ nuthin’ much ‘cept relaxin.’

We took Molly with us.  She doesn’t mind riding in a convertible.

Snark -just so there is no mistake

They are making gun nuts younger and younger.  From RawStory

A 5-year-old kindergartener has reportedly been detained at a school in Tennessee after a handgun discharged in the cafeteria.

Shawn Pachucki with Shelby County Schools told WMCT that police were called to Westside Elementary School following a gunshot that happened in the cafeteria at around 7:30 a.m. Pachucki said that the child brought the gun to school in a backpack and it accidentally discharged.

“This morning at Westside Elementary School, a Kindergarten student brought a firearm to school in his backpack,” a statement from Shelby County Schools said. “While waiting for the opening bell in the cafeteria, the firearm discharged accidentally inside the child’s backpack. Nobody was injured, and staff immediately took possession of the backpack.”

Every 5-year-old needs to be armed to protect themselves.

Good Idea

I found the pic here.

Corn

I live in Ohio, about thirty miles east of the Indiana border.  One time in my life I raised corn a.k.a. ‘field corn’ and ‘ear corn.’

I find this story in the Monitor interesting because it goes against the visual evidence in western Ohio.

Here, virtually all of the corn has a deep green color and is shoulder height, at least.  The weather would have to extremely hot and dry for the next three weeks to keep this year’s corn from being near a record on bushels per acre.

However, a little research shows that the CSM story may not be accurate.  Corn futures, that is the price a farmer can contract for future delivery has slipped below $5.00 a bushel.  The price for October 2013 delivery is $4.91 and for December delivery the same at $4.91.

This is not a good price.  Thirty years ago, we were getting $3.30 a bushel and the price of everything has gone up considerably.

Sub-Headline: Police Commandeer Homes, Get Sued

I want to say, “This can’t be for real.  It can’t be true.”

But apparently it is.

What kind of domestic violence can justify this?

   “On the morning of July 10th, 2011, officers from the Henderson Police Department responded to a domestic violence call at a neighbor’s residence,” the Mitchells say in the complaint.
It continues: “At 10:45 a.m. defendant Officer Christopher Worley (HPD) contacted plaintiff Anthony Mitchell via his telephone. Worley told plaintiff that police needed to occupy his home in order to gain a ‘tactical advantage’ against the occupant of the neighboring house. Anthony Mitchell told the officer that he did not want to become involved and that he did not want police to enter his residence. Although Worley continued to insist that plaintiff should leave his residence, plaintiff clearly explained that he did not intend to leave his home or to allow police to occupy his home. Worley then ended the phone call.
Mitchell claims that defendant officers, including Cawthorn and Worley and Sgt. Michael Waller then “conspired among themselves to force Anthony Mitchell out of his residence and to occupy his home for their own use.” (Waller is identified as a defendant in the body of the complaint, but not in the heading of it.)
The complaint continues: “Defendant Officer David Cawthorn outlined the defendants’ plan in his official report: ‘It was determined to move to 367 Evening Side and attempt to contact Mitchell. If Mitchell answered the door he would be asked to leave. If he refused to leave he would be arrested for Obstructing a Police Officer. If Mitchell refused to answer the door, force entry would be made and Mitchell would be arrested.'”
At a few minutes before noon, at least five defendant officers “arrayed themselves in front of plaintiff Anthony Mitchell’s house and prepared to execute their plan,” the complaint states.
It continues: “The officers banged forcefully on the door and loudly commanded Anthony Mitchell to open the door to his residence.
“Surprised and perturbed, plaintiff Anthony Mitchell immediately called his mother (plaintiff Linda Mitchell) on the phone, exclaiming to her that the police were beating on his front door.
“Seconds later, officers, including Officer Rockwell, smashed open plaintiff Anthony Mitchell’s front door with a metal ram as plaintiff stood in his living room.
“As plaintiff Anthony Mitchell stood in shock, the officers aimed their weapons at Anthony Mitchell and shouted obscenities at him and ordered him to lie down on the floor.
“Fearing for his life, plaintiff Anthony Mitchell dropped his phone and prostrated himself onto the floor of his living room, covering his face and hands.

Read the whole story.

I found this picture and it is well worth remembering how dangerous it can be fighting woodland fires.

I worked for the U S Forest Service for fifteen years and actually went on one fire ‘detail’ in August 2000 to Hamilton, MT to provide computer support on the Skalkahlo Complex    and here of fires in the Bitteroot Valley south of Missoula.

Firefighting is a tough and dirty job.  My heart goes out to those folks in Arizona.

Hypocrite

I understand that some folks are against “social welfare” programs, that is programs that help those in need and are funded by general revenues.

And I suppose most of those folks think of SNAP or Medicaid when they think of welfare.

And how many of those folks have subscriptions to a private fire company ? ?  They don’t ?  Wow ! !  You mean you rely on the local fire house that is funded by the taxpayer when your house/garage/field is on fire.  

There is a word for that – hypocrite.

The Employees

I am not going to comment – one way or the other – on Paula Deen.

But, there are going to be one hellova lot of innocent ex-employees of hers that did absolutely no wrong filing for unemployment.

McCain’s Opposition Research – Part 13

Via or from BuzzFeed comes an opposition research file compiled by the McCain campaign in 2008.  The document is 194 pages long.  These are pages from the top of page 25 to page 29.  This may not be complete or there may be some duplication left.  Pages 27, 28 and 29 had two documents of different font size, one overlaying the other.

I have bolded the first word in each entry for ease of reading.