Category: Uncategorized

Police Debate

Griz

We have a ton of debate to defund the police, or disband the police, some support the police…

Me, I support the police until the individual officers do something that proves that they are not worthy of the badge. Qualified immunity needs to go. We are held accountable for what we do, they should be held accountable too.

Now, we are starting to get a push to get the police to not perform traffic stops because a nit wit got confused and shot a guy who was trying to escape.

Sorry dude, but you are dead because you were stupid. Do not fight with the cops. Do not try to run from that fight either. Fatal stupidity. Yes, he was barely an adult and he will not learn from the mistake. Should he have been shot? No, the intended tasing should have been sufficient. Does it rise to the level of the charges that the cop got? hard to say, I will leave that one to the jury to decide.

Our police departments are partially to blame for what is happening to society. The people out running around are acting as though there are no consequences for their actions. When I first got my license, I got popped for speeding on my way to work. Yes I was in a hurry. Yes, I was going too fast. You know what? It made my more mindful of my speeds. I have only had a few speeding tickets in my life and one of them I very MUCH earned.

Watch the drivers around you. Look at all of the stupid shit that they do. They do not care about anyone but themselves. They are not planning their trip to make sure that they get a decent lane in time to avoid an ugly merge issue. This zipper bullshit is a great way to meet me as I plow into the side of your car when you FAIL TO FUCKING YIELD. I really hope that my dash cam is able to pick up the look of sheer terror and disbelief on impacts as well. The cab of your nice little sports car will look like a damn marshmallow factory exploded with all those air bogs going off. Yes, I would post it all over social media for the world to enjoy as well. Try me.

Should a minor object such as an air freshener be a primary offense to allow for a cop to pull you over? Nope! It certainly can be a secondary offense. In my state, you must have and use a litter bag in your car. Will they pull you over for it? Nope, but they will site you. If your car is clean, they will probably just mention it. If you have all kinds of crap that would likely fall out when opening a door, you may well get cited.

Odd Windows Update

Griz

I am not sure why, but on two machines in my network (both the same hardware and OS) just got this weeks update and could not connect to the wifi.

We bounced the connection, rebooted the machines, ran the troubleshooter (like that is ever helpful) and nothing brought the machines back.

We then rebooted the wireless which has other devices working just fine.

Boom, back online. No logic is coming to our minds.

The Clocktower

Griz

For anyone looking at the moment, you will see a new menu item at the top of the screen.

I have the pleasure of bringing Gatt to the site as an author. His writing stylings are one that I have respected for many years. I may not be in alignment with aspects, but he makes me think, openly and respectfully.

His content will be appearing as he has time. He may add to the Clocktower section or here in the blog posts.

Transgender Athletes

Griz

Let me start this one off as I am in full support for LGBTQ individuals and equality. We need to follow our heart on who we are. I am not judging at all. If I slip in some terminology along the way, feel free to correct me in comments or direct contact. I am trying to be the best me that I can be, but I am an old school human. With that being said, I do not have an answer for how to have an equal playing field when it comes to athletic competitions with respect to those undergoing changes. Those who were born with a male physique tend to have more brute strength than those with a feminine physique.

Let’s go back a lifetime or two, my youth (while I speak stereotypically from that time). Guys did not try out for girls teams, it would have been an unfair advantage on a physical level. Girls now and then would go for sports that did not have a female equivalent team. I remember in my high school wrestling days when there were a few girls that wanted to wrestle. it put the guys in a lose/lose situation. If they won the match, then they had only beaten a girl… and thus didn’t really win. If they lost, then they lost to a girl… That was after they already had to grapple with being in close physical contact with a girl to begin with. Then add in their hormones and being all out awkward. Now in football, there were some really good girls playing football as quarterback. They were very rare, but there were a few that did it.

Coming back to current day we have a different situation. As we strive for equality in all realms, we see sports being targeted. There is a big flap over transgendered athletes who may be gaming the system. Individuals that were male at birth that may be pharmaceutically changing gender to gain an advantage in ladies sports. Is this a rising problem? How many people are doing this? I have no idea what so ever. I suspect that it is very rare, but it is enough to get the ret hats riled and that is really what brought my attention to it beyond a level of “huh, that doesn’t seem fair” level of thought.

All kids should have the opportunity to participate in sports if they are physically able to do so. Obviously if you were not born with all of your limbs, some sports may be a bit rough if not impractical to perform. I am not saying that they can’t, just that it will be very hard to complete.

How do you make it fair for all parties involved? Most of these kids (into their young adulthood) just want to enjoy the sport, and the competitive factor. Others really hope that it will buy them a scholarship to school and it may be their best chance to get a full education.

I do not want to exclude people by saying that one must compete in their birth assigned gender, but outside of that I do not have any ideas on keeping this fair for all. I would love to hear ideas on it, provided that they can remain respectful.

What Pissed Me Off Today?

Griz

Anyone who has been with or around me for any period of time knows that I enjoy debate. To be more specific I engage in respectful debate.

This morning a lifelong friend had a meme with a cartoon image of a protester bearing a picket stating “Cops aren’t supposed to kill guilty people either.”

Okay cool, the sentiment is clearly well intended.

My response was “sometimes we just chalk it up as a cost cutting measure as well as preventing recidivism. It is a case by case basis.”

It started going sideways when I stood by it not being sarcasm.

The consensus of the group was that I was arrogant, wrong, privileged, unamerican, and a few other things. In the end I was silenced so I stepped away from their [what is the non-sexist version of a hen-fest? oh. I got it…] self congratulating clusterfuck.

I am on the whole quite liberal, but I do have some conservative marbling. Those issues where I am not fully to the left. I am also pretty unapologetic about it. Don’t go pearl clutching if I am not so far to the left that I set the new standard for how radical one can be.

I do not appreciate being vilified while engaging in a civil discourse. If a person B disagrees with the position of person A, they can discuss it, find common ground, learn, or back away with the understanding that they are not going to meet eye to eye on a subject.

I was infantry and my major when I got out was criminal justice administration. One would think that it would cause a bias toward the cops. Well let’s take a moment to realize that the reason that I started studying law was the night that my biker mother was illegally frisked [groped?] by a Vancouver cop while I was in junior high. Yes it was a long time ago, but it was a watershed moment in my life.

Circling back to the impetus of this post, do I think that cops should be randomly executing people? Hell no! Should we have a judicial system handle case to ensure that the rights of the people are protected while they face the allegations against them? hell yes!

If suspect A has barricaded himself in a mall corridor after killing seven people in the food court and is killed during an exchange of gunfire with the police… while I shed a tear. Fuck no! There are plenty of instances where I will not shed a tear while a body bag is being zipped up.

Harm my family and see how torn up I get when the M.E. carts your stupid ass away. Show up in my bedroom in the middle of the night without my knowledge… When you enter my home without my consent or harm me or my loved ones, you forfeit your rights to maintain a pulse. Yes, I have been arrested, no it does not scare me. Get over it, I know that I will.

No, our cops are not judges. That is not their part of separation of duties. That have largely been reduced to a glorified taxi driver. Many hate them, many love them, and me… I afford respect to all officers until they give be reason to start reducing my levels of respect.

AdSense

Griz

Looks like I need to do some tweaking to the AdSense settings.

The banner at the top is too big… the footer is not a big deal, but I would like it to be more discrete like the header ad SHOULD be.

Fauci Ouchie

Griz

Tomorrow, my wife and I get to receive our first Fauci Ouchie.

I know that many are deniers, others, just skeptical.

We… are optimistic. It sure as hell beats waiting around for this crap to go away. It just isn’t doing as T-Rump said. It is far bigger, and more complex that he was willing to either understand, or believe.

We will have to wait to see how the mutations do and the boosters to this shot come along. It is clearly too complex to be a one time shot and call it good.

It is even more evident that this cannot be the case with so many that are too stupid to wear a fuckin mask or stay out of public if they cannot manage that simple courtesy towards others.

So let’s all be smart, do the right things, and have friends, family, and hugs for the 4th of July.

Are you in on NFTs?

Griz

Have you seen NFTs?

Seems like a crazy fad, but how do we cash in when it is early enough?

Have we already missing the boat to the real money that is (was) there to be had?

Is there a residual market so that we can add them to our retirement portfolios?

I have NO fuckin clue, but I intend to find out more, as well as the answers to these questions.

I have friends and family that have the artistic talents to be able to crank out wonderful digital art in what seems like nothing flat. My ex-wife is very talented with her digital art. I have friends that create tattoo flash making it look effortless. They could stand to generate a nice stream of residual income.

When NFTs are created they can be sold, auctioned, or held as part of an art collection. When they are sold, there is a royalty that was specified by the first transaction that will go to the creator of the NFT. I do not know if subsequent owners get a cut or not beyond what they sold the NFT for.

My hope is to get this port to a point that I can promote it to be a long term page for others to refer to. If you know NFTs and wish to share your knowledge, please jump into the comments and I will get the new information added into this post so that all may benefit.

Once you have a digital work that you want to sell, it must be registered. It gets registered onto the blockchain of your choosing and currently Etherium appears to be the most popular coin for this. The registration is not free and it gets pretty fuzzy at this point. The registration cost has a network congestion factor to it, so it is cheaper to do during the weekend when the network is not as busy.

Useful links:

A general FAQ https://www.theverge.com/22310188/nft-explainer-what-is-blockchain-crypto-art-faq

How to create NFTs https://www.ledger.com/blog/create-your-own-nft

Google Ads

Griz

Back to troubleshooting the ads for the site.

I have a feeling that this will be a bit of a process. The end goal is to get them working well enough that the visitor clicks will generate enough that we can put a prize on the Deal Pool.

I am sure that there is just something that I am missing. When they do start working, the next step will be to tune them so that they are not too much of a distraction from our discussions and debates.

Missing an old friend

Griz2 Comments

I don’t know if any of the old gang still monitors for activity here anymore or not.

We lost a dear friend of the site a couple of months ago and it is still bothering me.

Our dear Badcat passed suddenly. Her husband logged into her facebook account and let us know that she was in grave condition. A couple days later he let us know of her passing.

While she did not want to return to Pennsylvania, I am very thankful that her family was able to be there for her passing not to mention being able to support her loving husband. I am not mentioning his name out of respect for his privacy. I do not know how many outside of her circle knew his name.

She was such a good friend to be over the years, we were kind of like family that was separated by an entire country, but until the last year, we were only twenty miles apart. I would have loved to gotten to meet her and her husband in person.

Fond memories of chats and debates over more than a decade. She was here not too long after the website came into existence.

We were quite the gang of digital miscreants, full of opinions that we were happy to share. We got to know where the hot buttons were for our group and tried to stay off of them for the most part, but like all families, we would tap those buttons just to make sure that the other was paying attention.

Badcat, you were loved by almost all. we know that there were some that were never going to fit in, but you didn’t care, you weren’t that kind of cat. You were and always will be Badcat.