Friday, May 31, 2019

A Study in Contrasts...

Socialism is being seriously considered as an economic system in some camps these days, for the very first time...maybe ever.

And those who are doing the considering, in my erstwhile opinion, are the same folks who like the idea of getting anything and everything for nothing, as if they're owed it.  It seems they have never been taught - or refused to learn - that there's no such thing as a "free lunch."

Except for the fact that many of them have been getting a "free" lunch that the taxpayers paid for at the schools we taxpayers paid for since they were youts ("What's a yout?"), which we taxpayers likely paid for also, so why shouldn't they be confused now?

And so to try and iron out the differences between the two disparate camps, the "Progressives," who want to do the getting, and the "Conservatives," who are tired of doing the giving, i.e., the "makers" and the "takers," I thought I'd provide you, my loyal readers, with a little Chuckmeisterly Primer on the subject.  And, as a graduate economist of some repute, an entrepreneur and serial-taxpayer, here it goes...

Conservatives:

  -   Holding to traditional attitudes and values; cautious about change or innovation for its own sake, especially as regards politics or religion.  Prefers the "status quo" unless change is deemed absolutely necessary, and then only following careful consideration.

(a.k.a., "Republicans")

Progressives:

  -   Holds support for, or advocacy of, social and economic reform.  In general, means any political movement that wants to change government for the "better."  The opposite of conservatism.  

(a.k.a., "Liberals," "Socialists," "Communists," "Marxists," "Redistributionists," "Marxists," "Pinkos," "Extremists," "Weirdos," "Commies," "Takers," "Weenies," "Snowflakes," etc.)

In short, a Conservative is disposed to preserving existing conditions, or when necessary restoring traditional ones, and in limiting change without careful, deliberate consideration beforehand.

In other words, "safe vs. sorry."

A Progressive is disposed to change the existing system, whether political or religious, no matter how successful or well enjoyed it may be, into one that more fully mirrors their Utopian beliefs concerning "equality" and "fairness" and "social justice." 

In other words, "ready, fire, aim."

So, we have two disparate factions, each in an existential war with the other, with neither willing to moderate or negotiate its core beliefs.  And therein lay the problem...

I, The Chuckmeister, have an idea how we got into this problem and how we might dig ourselves out.

Conservatives, at least this one, believes that the foundation of our society and our Government and our way of life is memorialized in the Constitution of the United States of America.  It laid out the roadmap for us to follow.  And we've followed it.  To our own benefit and advantage.  At least, the vast majority of us have.  And at least up to now.

Conservatives in general favor small Government that stays out of our wallets, our bedrooms, our businesses, our religion and our lives.  We want the very smallest Government that can accomplish its necessary, Constitutionally-mandated core functions and absolutely. nothing. more.

But there's a major faction within our society that does not hold the Constitution dear.  A faction that does not consider its pronouncements as sacrosanct.  In fact, representatives of this faction seldom fail to mention that the Constitution is an old, musty "piece of paper," as Obama once derisively called it, that desperately needs to be updated.  Conservatives know the Constitution is a limiting document; it lays out exactly what the Government is, and what it can do, and what it can't do, and specifies that it is restrained from doing anything else.

Progressives, on the other hand, abhor that reality; they wish the Constitution to be a "living, breathing document" that means whatever we can torture it on any given day into meaning (classic example:  Roe v. Wade).  

Anti-Constitutionalists will tell you it's outdated.  It isn't.  Our Founders were worried that centralizing the Federal Government would give it too much power.  Thus, the Constitution limited the Government's powers; read the 10th Amendment if you doubt me.  

The Constitution basically tells us that the Federal Government has only four basic responsibilities: Mint our money, deliver our mail, protect our borders and function as an arbiter in disputes between the "several states."  

So far as I can tell, it's done waaaay to much of the first, and not nearly enough of the last three.    

But the crowd who's banging the drum to rewrite the Constitution are not pleased that its First Amendment seems to permit Conservatives to say Conservative things.  It wants to banish them.  To limit them.  To boycott them.  Notice?  How many times have the MoveOn-MediaMatters-MainStreamMedia crowd tried to put Limbaugh and Hannity and Fox News out of business?

And how many times have you ever heard a Conservative ask you to boycott anything?  Anything at all?  Even obvious hateful media outlets that make bank solely on anti-Conservative issues?

And this same crowd has it in for guns, Big Time!  They DO. NOT. LIKE. the 2nd Amendment!  They want to outlaw all guns and then confiscate them.  They don't seem at all concerned that the 2nd Amendment specifies clearly that they may not "infringe" on our absolute individual Right to keep and bear them.  They want them BANNED!  

And they're not happy with the 4th or the 5th, either.  In short, they just want this quaint old "piece of paper" either ripped up, or rewritten in a fashion more acceptable to Progressives.  

And therein lay the problem:  Conservatives are happy with our Founding Document.  Progressives are not.

In fact, as I go out the door, I'd like to offer that Progressives are the very most unhappy bunch in America today!  They're not happy with our POTUS, our capitalism, our immigration laws, our tax policies, our pro-life stance, our desire to protect ourselves and our incessant demand for a smaller, more responsive and less costly Government.  In fact, they just want to be left alone to live our lives...  

Damn, even if just for the sake of my mental health, I'm glad I'm a Conservative...   

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

"People of Color"

I dunno' about you, but I have grown weary of hearing politicians talk incessantly about "people of color." 

What a condescending term! 

By that they mean Blacks, I guess.  And Lateeeenos.  And maybe a few American Indians (BTW, if it's "African-Americans," why isn't it "American Indian-Americans?").  And some Inuits.  And perhaps a few Samoans.  And some Peruvians.  But not Asians.  No, definitely not Asians.  They've become successful on their own so they're no longer targets for Democrat vote fishing.  They don't neeeeed no stinkin' socialism!

So "people of color" are the same as "colored people," I assume.  And if so, why did they change it?  To give the classification more "oomph," maybe?  More cache?  More status?  I dunno, but it seems to me when you divide people into little tribes and groups, you invite trouble.  And dissension.  And unnecessary internecine warfare.  Unless that's your goal.  

BTW, don't just just love that word "internecine?"

And I believe that it is.  Those who divide are doing so in order to create coalitions they can weave together into a winning plurality of voters.  Just like Obama did in 2008.  And 2012.  Cynical?  Sure.  Accurate?  Sure.  Effective?  Sure.

Well, Patriot, I'm here to tell you that I'm one of those "people of color," also.  I'm European-American, so I'm sort of a "medium tan."  Of course, I'm unfortunate enough to be one of the normal folks still living in the once-Golden State where tanning is a religion, so I'm probably tanner than those of you in Iowa and North Dakota and Massaachuuuuusettts.  But tan, nonetheless...

So I hereby demand that the so-called "Mainstream Media" cease calling folks "people of..."  Just refer to people either as they are, i.e., Black, White, Red and Yellow, or perhaps just stop trying to separate and divide and define those who make up the fabric of our supposedly homogeneous society.  And I emphasize "supposedly."  

Maybe they should just call us all "Americans!"

Unless their doing so is part of a nefarious scheme to win and hold political power to the detriment of their  countrymen.  

But, I repeat myself...

Friday, May 24, 2019

Do You Remember When...

...you didn't know your favorite actor's politics?  

Do you remember when you didn't even THINK that actors HAD a political perspective?  Or CARED?

Me too.  I remember when I didn't know how this actor voted, or that one, or who they supported politically, and I don't remember wondering why I should have cared.

But boy, Howdy!  How times have changed!  Now, it seems that EVERY. SINGLE. SOLITARY. ACTOR. has a deep-seated, ingrained, DNA-centered need to tell us, the Proletariat, the Great Unwashed, the Simple-minded, the "John Q. Sixpack" among us what their own particular brand of politics might be, and then presume to tell us we must also adopt that posture.

And if we don't, perish the thought, we're all called homophobic, Islamophobic, xenophobic, claustrophobic and several other "phobics" yet to be defined. 

In other words, do as they do, think as they think.  And if you don't, you'll just be relegated to that pitied group that unfortunately dwell in that vast wasteland known as "Flyover Country."  Or, as that (in)famous TV personality Bill Mahr recently commented, 

"They're just jealous of us. They're not as educated or evolved as we are and they're jealous!"

Yes, he's an ass, but he's a Progressive so we already knew that.

But things started changing about 20 years ago.  I recall watching Julia Roberts on a late night TV show a couple of decades back proudly stating, "You can find Republicans in the dictionary right between Reptile and Reprehensible."  

Laughter ensued.

I stopped dead in my tracks.  I was shocked to hear a celeb opine on such a topic, knowing that in doing so he/she/it (gotta' add it...California, doncha' know) was risking alienating a chunk of the populace they need to keep their swimming pools clean and their illegal alien housekeepers paid and their Bentleys fueled.  

I thought it was an outlier at the time.  A fluke.  I was wrong.  Unfortunately.

A cascade of political commentary began to spew from the well known Hollywood types.  Beginning with the less well known, it didn't take long before the "swells" began to try and out-hate each other.  One by one the tony, anointed few began to tell us just how much they luuuuved all Left-wing causes and Democrat politicians.  When Jay Leno departed the Tonight Show the comics who replaced him and those from his era have since been uniformly hardcore Leftists.  

Not comedians.  Leftist opinion mongers, all. 

But the folks between the Sierra Nevada and the Hudson River, are not.

They till our fields.  They make our cars.  They fell our forests.  They mine our minerals.  They build our roads and bridges and airports.  

And they go to the movies, too.  And watch TV.  And buy records.  Or choose not to do any of the three.  And lately, about half of them are choosing to leave this sad, demented, hypocritical, supercilious bunch in their wake.

Imagine being dependent upon the support of the populace for your bread and butter, and being so wealthy or so immune to the obvious that you don't have to care what half of them think of you?  Or is it that they're just so very stupid and ignorant and self-centered and vainglorious and so immersed in their own manufactured existences that they simply can't see the forest for the trees.

It seems that there's one of those celebrity award shows about every week.  That's where the celebrities get together and give each other little awards for being...celebrities.  And it seems that they each choose Robert De Niro to be their presenter.  And it seems that he must, simply MUST launch himself into a frothing, spittle-producing, arm-waving tirade against Donald J. Trump.  Always peppered with plenty of "F" words, it is.  Plenty.  On live TV.  Plenty...

I often wonder why they don't just give every celeb one of their little awards, instead of just one.  You know that would go a long way toward improving their self-esteem, right?

And I often wonder how it must be when they get together socially.  "I hate Trump."  "No, I hate Trump!"  "Well, I hate him more than you do!"  "No you don't!  I hate him more than anybody!"

And while all this is going on, people like Alyssa Milano (who's she again?) seem to have adopted prophylactic abortions-for-everybody as her primary avocation.  And she makes it her avocation to convince us to join with her in her little crusade.

I have an idea:  How about actors and actresses and singers and dancers and entertainers in general just do their little artistic thing and leave the rest of us alone as regards politics and Social Justice Warriorism.  They'd make more money and our lives would be less stressful.  

Of course they won't, because that would be intelligent.  But hey, it was a good thought...

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

"The Indians Were Wrong"

You think the tornadoes that recently hit the Midwest were a Big Deal?  You know, the one that hit Stillwell, Oklahoma a day ago (by the way, I spent a month there one night!)?  Well, Pilgrim, I used to live in Kansas.  Let me tell you a harrowing tale from my storied past. 

I moved there from my home state of Missouri following my return from soldiering and saving the planet from the horrors of communism.  And finally finishing up college and landing my first real, honest-to-goodness, career-type job as a pharmaceutical manufacturer's representative for Pfizer, Inc.

My starter wife and I were dirt poor, so we scraped together our shekels and moved into a trailer.  A nice 12' x 60' trailer, it was, replete with two bedrooms, a kitchen, and not much of anything else.  

We decided to splurge.  We picked the very best place in Salina, our new home town, to park our new metal box.  It was called the "Sundowner East Mobile Home Park."  Classy, huh?  It was clean and new and regally perched upon top of what they euphemistically called a "hill," and we would call a bump (damn few hills in KS!).  

There were about 47 trailers at the park, as I recall, and they were all situated in a circle around the clubhouse and pool area.  You entered through a gate and then followed the driveway around the circumference, with trailers on both sides, and on back to the gate.  It was a nice place.

And I emphasize, "was."

It was the evening of September 25, 1973.  The weather reports were usually pretty nasty around that time of year, being deep into tornado season, so the forecast of tornadic weather wasn't alarming; we lived through it daily.  In fact, everyone in this part of America lives through it daily, as this area is called "tornado alley."  It stretches from New Mexico Northeast through West Texas, and Oklahoma, and Missouri, and Iowa, and Illinois, and up into the Great Lakes region.  And blows like hell all summer long.

In fact, Kansas is so flat, they don't even report the wind speed until it reaches over 25 miles per hour.

Anyway, being quite familiar with tornadoes and their great power to rearrange things, my wife and I heard the sirens announce that a Big One was on the way and quickly joined our neighbors in the storm shelter at the park.  Scary stuff...

The storm shelter was a big basement dug under the clubhouse.  There were about 80 of us there, as I recall.  None of us were too concerned, as this was a part of our normal mid-late summer routine.  Tornado watch?  Go to the shelter.  No big deal.  We busied ourselves with small talk and nervous laughter and jokes and several bottles of beer and wine to keep lubricated.  And then it hit...

Now, I've lived through many tornadoes.  Some peripherally, some directly.  Actually, I was chased by one while driving along I-70 one day.  It's a part of life there.  But this one was nothing like the ones that preceded it.  It was HUGE!  It was later adjudged to be an F-4, almost the biggest and nastiest possible, which means wind speeds of 207 to 260 mph.  

It hit about sundown and rocked the clubhouse for the better part of an hour.  It was loud, like a freight train is loud.  The entire building shook.  And the wind was working its way around through the door seals, making strange, ghostly whispers among the cacophonous tumult.  There for a time it seemed the clubhouse would simply lift off its foundation and spill us into the lap of this giant storm.  

Put simply, we were all terrified!

Within a short time the noise stopped.  It became eerily quiet.  The men among us decided to investigate.  We tried to open the door to the clubhouse storm shelter without success; it was jammed.  We didn't know why until the next morning.  It seems the tornado had picked up a new Ford F-150 red pickup truck and forcibly stuffed it into the entrance way of our storm shelterStuffed!  They actually had to bring in a Caterpillar tractor to drag it out so we could be rescued.  

We, the residents, finally emerged about 10:30 the next morning, more than 19 hours later.  It was pure and total destruction; 44 of the 47 trailers which had been there the night before were now gone.  Gone!  It appeared that the tornado had entered through the gate and circled around the park, slowly destroying each trailer in succession, one at a time, as it progressed.  One by one, it picked trailers up, twisted them in the air like used tissue paper, dumped them of their contents, and smashed them back on the ground.  

One trailer I inspected was completely cleaned of its walls and doors and windows; nothing was left but a toilet - no seat.  That, and about 720 sq. ft. of light green linoleum...

Oh yeah, my trailer had disappeared as well.  Along with my car.  Both were totalled.  So I joined in with the other residents and the local Boy Scout troop and began walking in the tornadoes path, side-by-side, Northeast, picking up eyeglasses and shoes and money and anything else that hadn't been nailed down.  

We found a life insurance policy wedged securely about 10' up and under the bark of one of the few trees still standing.   

I quit after about an hour, having been notified by my company to bring my extra drug samples to the hospital in Clay Center, KS, a small town just up north.  We heard the hospital, one of my client facilities, had been damaged, and I was sent to help in anyway I could...

I filled my trunk with drug samples and hastily made my way to Clay Center, dodging downed trees and power lines as I proceeded.  Since it was on my route, I was very familiar with the town and the hospital and the people.  Upon arrival, the very first thing I noticed was the sign over the car wash I had seen so many times before.  It was one of those gray concrete block, six-bay car washes where you put in a quarter and use the wand to spray down your car.  Above it was a sign in foot-square plastic letters in an aluminum frame that had previously proclaimed "U Wash It - 25 Cents."  

Now, after suffering through the tornado, the front page of the next morning's local paper, read: 

            "U    sh  It - 25 Cents"  

Clay Center was no more.  This quaint old city was known for its 100 foot-tall oak trees which lined Main Street.  They were gone; mowed down to ground level as if cut by a giant circular saw.  Many of the buildings were destroyed, and the hospital was severely damaged.  My drug samples, and those of my other colleagues in the business, truly helped this community and its people survive during the following days.

It turns out this was an E-4 tornado, meaning the next to the worst kind of these boys you can have.  The funnel was reported to be more than 300 yards wide and left tracks more than 150 miles long!  It started, they say, around Lindsborg, KS, and travelled through to Salina, on to Clay Center, and up to Beatrice, Nebraska.  It did an estimated $6,000,000 in damage, and that's in 1973 dollars.  It killed one and wounded 47.  It was a bad, bad storm.  It is still considered the very worst storm to ever hit that part of the country.  

Shortly after this experience I made plans to pick up and beat feet from this neck of the woods and make my way to California.  I'd heard California was a place noted for not having any weather at all, and that's what I needed at that time.  No. Weather. At. All.   

Oh yeah, as a part of their rebuilding process, the good citizens of what was left of Clay Center soon put out a pamphlet for their visitors.  It seems the ancient American Indians came up with the notion way back when that a tornado would not cross the confluence of two bodies of water.  That's why you'll find so many towns and cities in the Midwest situated to the Northeast of two rivers or streams or lakes.  In fact, my home town, Chillicothe, Missouri, and the three other "Chillicothe's" in America, were given that name by the Iroquois Indians.  It means, "Fork in the River."  They thought they'd be protected.  

The name of Clay Centers pamphlet was, by the way,

       "The Indians Were Wrong."

Monday, May 20, 2019

Truisms for Fun and Profit.

Let me offer up a few truisms for my discerning readers:

1.     The Government has no money of its own.  Nope, none.  Before it gets any, or then spends it, it first has to take it from somebody.  Under the threat of force.  Which is the only reason we pay our taxes voluntarily.   

("Don't tax you, don't tax me, tax that man behind the tree!")

2.     Regardless of what Democrat candidates for POTUS might tell you, the Government does not create jobs.  With the exception of Government jobs, that is, of which there are more than Seventeen Million!  The Government does not hire privately-employed people, or fire them, or give them raises.  All the Government can do is create the proper  environment into which jobs are drawn; i.e., a favorable legal, regulatory and taxation climate that causes investors to decide to invest their discretionary income.

3.     And lastly, jobs can only be created by those who choose to invest private capital.  In other words, somebody has to take a chance before anything else happens.  And that capital comes from what's left over after Government has taken its overarching taxes and fees and penalties from our puny, insignificant, plebeian lives.  And it makes no sense to invest that left-over capital to create a job for somebody else, until or unless a reasonable return (i.e., "profit") can be realistically expected for oneself.

That's called "enlightened self-interest."

(NOTE:  Those of you with socialist tendencies who just abhor the profit motive are invited to take a trip to any socialist country and see how well it works in absentia.)

So when a politician tells you he's going to create jobs by taxing the "rich," just remember he's telling you he'd stifle job growth by forcibly removing some of the excess capital the public might otherwise choose to invest.

("Trying to make a poor man rich by making a rich man poor, is the same as standing in a bucket and trying to pull oneself up by the handles.")  
                                   -  Sir Winston Churchill, Famous Guy

If you doubt me, just look back at recent history.  Obama's "Progressive" policies resulted in 8 straight years of abysmal 1% - 2% economic growth, the very lowest since WW2.  Under Trump?  3+% growth right out of the chute, the very highest since Ronnie Reagan did exactly the same thing, for the same reasons, and in the same way, back in the 'eighties.

It's no secret to economists: lower the taxes and eliminate stultifying regulations and the miracle of capitalism will be unleashed!   

It's nice to think about how much better our miserable, unimportant little lives would be if we could just pry loose some of the money the "rich" keeps in its mattresses.  I mean, they don't need it, right?  And we could sure use it, right?  And why not give socialism a try?  We could finally get rid of all this "income inequality" thing, right?

I mean, they tell us socialism is just fine.  It's just never been tried "correctly."  Out of the dozens and dozens of times it's been tried.  And the dozens and dozens of times it has failed...

NOTE:  They're eating their zoo animals in Venezuela.

The Truth:  The "Progressives" demand that we make the rich pay "their fair share."  They do, Mr. and Mrs. America!  The top "1%" of Americans pay 37.3% of all income taxes.  Yet, they earn only 19.7% of all income.  Do I hear anyone screaming for "paying their fair share?"  How about a tax break for these poor downtrodden folks!  Why, I ask rhetorically, do those who pay no income taxes constantly rail against tax breaks for those who do?

You might want to read that last sentence over again.  

Does it make anybody wonder why these uber-rich don't take their saddlebags full of cash and beat feet out of overtaxed America and head off in their Gulfstream 5's for Belize, or Costa Rica or Panama?  

The Bottom Line:  If we took Every. Single. Penny. these folks make, it still wouldn't be enough to accomplish all the giveaways the "Progressives" have in mind.    

Of course, if we did, the jobs those once-rich, and now newly-poor might have created won't get created.  And once we've taken their money and sprinkled it around liberally, doing their little socialist best to correct "income inequality," they won't have it left to spend and grease the economy, right?  But hey, it would sure make us feel better for a little while, right?  Sort of like the very best and most expensive sugar high in America's history, right?

Whether you like Big or Small Government, ask yourself this:  Do you feel good about having folks you never met in some far-away place you never visited spend your money for you, or would you just as soon spend it for yourself?  The unfolding mass exodus from high- to low-tax states tells you how many of your fellow Americans are answering that question...with their feet.

Some food for thought... 

Friday, May 17, 2019

Pasture Pool...

What's with this whole golf thing?

I've been trying to figure out the intense draw this perplexing little game holds for so many of my fellow carbon-based life forms.  Not me, others.  It's possibly the one very bad habit I've managed to avoid.  And God knows, I've warmly embraced most of them...

It seems a significant percentage of the citizenry actually enjoys spending loads of discretionary income to buy scads of specialized equipment that invariably will not work, in order to spend waaaaay too much time and effort smacking a little white ball while walking around a few hundred acres, in funny looking clothing, carrying a bag full of weapons with which to do battle.  

And at which none of them, unless in the hands of one Mr. Woods, are worth the powder it would take to blow them to Hell.

Golf has always left me cold.  First, you have to get up last night sometime in order to get to the course in time to...waste time ahead of some other time-waster.  Second, you have to have all this heavy, cumbersome equipment.  Like, 24 different clubs to negotiate your way around the course.  Whatsamatta?  Can't make up their minds?  Just pick a club and deal with it!  The very fact that you need so many clubs tells me they haven't figured it out yet.  Making one club do would also get rid of lots and lots of excuses for why you played poorly today.  And it would make it a whole bunch cheaper to waste time on this devilish game.  

And second, you're looking over "here" and trying to make the little white ball go over "there!"  Name me another "sport" where you don't aim where you're shooting?  Imagine how much tougher it would have been for Shaq to make free throws if he'd been facing the snack bar instead of the hoop.  And if you do look, then you tend to slice it or cut it or smoke it or zip it or juice it or whatever they call it, which makes the awful little ball go anywhere except where you intended!  

Frustraaaaating! 

Third, it's expennnnnsiivvv!   It costs like $100 to walk around 18 holes for a few hours and take whacks at the ball.  At some places, the reeeely tony places, it can cost two or three or four times that much!  Just to waste time taking licks at a little ball that never did a single thing to you!  

Yes, I have personal experience.  I actually tried to play once.  A friend and I rented some clubs and a couple of electric carts at a public course.  We brought a case of Coors Light which powered us through almost to the 9th hole.  We hacked and whacked and sliced and shanked all over the place, while inhaling mass quantities of this tasty adult beverage.  Apparently, racing electric carts, side by side, while trying to play polo with 5 irons isn't viewed with approval by reputable golf course management.  At least ours wasn't.

We were (im)politely asked to vacate the premises, immediately, thus bringing to a close my one and only golf experience.  But I learned enuff that day to pester you now with my opinions.  To continue.

Mark Twain once said, "Golf is a good walk ruined."  Now, I wouldn't go quite that far, but if you need to go for a walk, why drag a bag of heavy clubs with you?  No, I've never caught the golf bug.  

But I DO have suggestions as to how this game could be made better.  Mucho better.  

I suggest we simply do away with clubs.  No clubs.  At all.  Just take the little ball, throw it as far as you can, walk up to it, pick it up, and then throw it again.  Again and again.  Keeping count of the "throws," doncha' know.  Just kind of saunter along, smelling the flowers, enjoying the cool breeze, humming a little tune...

BTW, when was the last time you saw the word "saunter?"  

When you get to the greens, you simply kick the ball in the hole with your foot.  That's it.  Choose tennis shoes, or golf shoes, or sandals, or cowperson boots, your choice.  You count the strokes just like now, but without the expense or hassle of lugging around those heavy clubs.  

And you can do without the cart as well.  No clubs, no need for a cart.  Thus, you get to walk all around the course, which is faaarrr betta' for you than riding around on your ass.  And if folks stopped playing golf, then the thousands of courses around our fruited plain could be repurposed into homeless shelters, thus solving this very thorny problem once and for all.  

Annnnd, considering that the planet is burning up in a fiery Hell of "Global Something-or-Other," just think how much electricity we could save without those pesky little carts?  "A volt saved is a volt earned," or something...   

But the one thing that my little "fix" won't fix is, the major flaw with golf:  The better you play this stupid game, the fewer strokes, or "throws" you'll need.  You'll get better, one would hope, and getting better means negotiating the course with fewer strokes/throws.  How's that work?  You pay $100s to play, and the better you get, the less you get to play it?  What's up with that?  

I suggest we change the rules of golf to let you either (1) pay less for fewer strokes/throws; or (2), get to take more strokes/throws when you improve at the game.    Or, do as I did, and choose billiards, or "indoor golf," or "pasture pool," as I call it.  Same basic game played on a much smaller course, with no concern as to the weather.  Night or day, inside or out, hot or cold, wet or dry, and no little cart required.  And the best news is, you can play pool just as badly as you play golf, but do it quicker, cheaper and easier, and you get to meet an entirely different (and in many respects, much more interesting) kind of people.      

Make sense to you?  It does to me...

Monday, May 13, 2019

A Study in Contrasts.


I, The Chuckmeister, was asked by a good friend recently why I'm so strident on the subject of gun rights and the 2nd Amendment.  Especially, my friend asked, when society in general is moving away from owning  and using guns.

The answer was easy.  I bang this drum incessantly exactly because society is in a dangerous and unwarranted transition.  One that continues to be fueled by a well-funded, Leftist propaganda campaign run by those dedicated to all-out confiscation. 

And in an effort to paint a more vibrant picture of my thinking on this subject, I offered up the following:

It was just gleefully reported by the MainStreamMedia that 2 male students at a New Jersey Township high school were suspended for three days of school, plus a weekend detention.

What did these kids do?  They posted a picture on Snapchat of themselves during their visit to a local shooting range.  They were off campus, during non-school hours, on a non-school day.  It was a legal gun range, they used legal guns, shot them legally and there were zero complaints from anyone.

Accept from their school.  Its administration believed their  "zero tolerance" policy against guns extends to all aspects of its students lives.  Whatever they're doing, wherever they are, anytime and any place.   

How ironic, I thought.  And alarming.  And sad.  And deserving of a flashback or two from my storied youth.  

I was born and raised in what those on either coast might call "flyover country."   I lived in a small town, a county seat, right in the middle of the country.  God's country, it's been called.  

And it was one of the very safest.  I recall being told back then that nobody locked their doors at night.  Why?  Everybody is armed, I was told, so nobody would be stupid enough to break in!  Makes sense, right?

And no one did.  There hadn't been a murder there in more than 100 years.

I used to tag along with my Dad and Grandfather as they went hunting and fishing and camping when I was only 5 or 6.  They taught me to bait a hook, pitch a tent, start a fire, nock an arrow and shoot a gun before I started grade school.  

My 8th birthday present was a nice, new Stevens .22 single-shot, bolt-action rifle.  Just perfect for a small kid just starting out.  Within weeks I was hitting the bullseye with every shot.

I started hunting quail and rabbit with Dad by the time I was about 9.  Duck and goose hunting came later that winter.  And I joined in on my first deer hunt when I was eleven years old.  I took a deer that next year and every year thereafter for the next few.    

Just like most of the folks I knew.

I gravitated to firearms from the beginning as did many of my friends.  I found them interesting and intriguing and liberating and empowering and equalizing.  I found a buddy and mentor in Kenney Frost, the owner of our local "Army/Navy Store."  He bought and sold and fixed and created firearms of all types.  He took me under his wing and made me an apprentice gunsmith by the time I was 11.  

By the following year I was helping him build custom sporting rifles for his discriminating clients, with a primary emphasis on the smaller "varmint" calibers suitable for coyotes and prairie dogs and such (.220, .222, .22-250, .243, .25-06, .270, etc).  And that would include finding and fitting barrels, actions, custom stocks and telescopic sights together into a cohesive, beautiful, finely-tuned and high-performing whole, and then finishing them so fine and so well that they shined like a diamond in a goat's ass.

I also built one for myself about this time.  And of interest, I was asked by my 8th grade teacher to bring it to "show and tell" day at school (in view of today's hysterical anti-gun climate, let that sink in!).  So while others were displaying pictures from their summer vacations, I was showing off my shiny new .270 Winchester, hand-built varmint rifle. 

(A couple of folks on this distribution list were in class that day.  Let's see if they remember...) 

It was a truly special rifle.  I used a Fabrique Nationale Mauser magnum bolt action receiver chambered in good, all-around .270 Winchester; 28" Bueller Timken Bearing Steel heavyweight bull barrel; Jaeger trigger, ACE trigger shoe; Lyman Wolverine 10x scope with Redfield, Jr. helium-filled mounts; and a Reinhardt Fagen Circassion Fiddleback walnut beavertail forend stock.  All hand-fitted, hand-assembled, action glass beaded, free-floating barrel and hand-finished into a gorgeous 13.5 pound beauty!  

And, oh yeah, it was capable of placing a hand-loaded 110 grain Sierra Openpoint bullet, propelled by 50 grains of #4350 Dupont powder, using Norma cases and Peters primers, inside the area of a playing card at 600 yards!  Time after time.  Clearly, being a no-good varmint was a bad idea anywhere in my zip code.

My fellow students loved my presentation.  So did the teacher.  I received an "A."   One of the few I received, as I recall...

By the way, I went on to win numerous rifle, pistol and shotgun competitions throughout my life.  I had, and may still have, the all-time high score on Fort Leonard Wood's rifle range (996 - 1,000).  And I came within "this much" of qualifying for the 1968 Olympic pistol team.  For Germany.  Yeah.  It's a long story.  Maybe I'll tell you sometime.  

Anyway, that could have been fun!  Can't you see it?  "Ummm, Colonel, I'm going to need a few days off..."   

As Range Officer for two Army bases I've trained more than a thousand soldiers how to safely hold, load, shoot, carry, clean, maintain and store weapons of all types.  I've trained every member of my family how to do the same.  And many of their friends.  There are more than 100 million American gun owners who very likely do the same for their family and friends.

As well they should.    

I was raised to believe that I am responsible for me, my family and any friends anywhere near me.  And that so are you.  And I have equipped myself to succeed in that quest.  I believe the police cannot post a security guard on my property 24/7.  And unless and until they do, I'll be that security guard.  I fear for those who do not share my beliefs.  Of which there apparently are many.

It's amazing to me how "right" some ignorant people think they are, while being so indelibly wrong.

So when you read about a school in New Jersey, or anywhere else, clouding up and raining all over its students for exercising their individual Constitutional Rights, guaranteed them under the 2nd Amendment, and affirmed by Supreme Court decision (D. C. v. Heller), you can well understand that at least half of America thinks they are dangerously fascistic, ham-handedly dictatorial, unbelievably ignorant, and bottom line anti-American.  

And, oh yeah, scary!  

And that if this seemingly unending quest to disarm one-third of America, which is armed, by the 2/3rds majority that isn't,  doesn't abate, and soon, I also can predict the likely outcome.  And it's not the one the gun control crowd would find desirable    

But that's just my opinion...

Saturday, May 11, 2019

Thanks, Eric!

I would like to personally thank Representative Eric Swallwell (D-CA) for his recent hat-in-the-ring commentary. 

That's on behalf of the National Rifle Association, true Patriots, Constitutionalists, Bill of Rights activists, 2nd Amendment supporters, freedom-loving people and more than 100 Million Gun Owners nationwide.  

Anyway, during his announcement for POTUS speech, Mr. Swallwell was kind enough to share with us his vision for a Swallwell Administration.  His major focus, he told us, was to solve "...the problem of gun violence in our Country."  

Why gun violence?  I can only assume all the other good goals were already taken by his opponents.  Global warming?  Taken.  Medicare for all?  Taken.  Green New Deal?  Taken.  Tax the "rich" into the Stone Age?  Taken.  Since all the good stuff was already taken, he lit upon preventing gun violence.  And this is how he'd do it...

1.  He'd start by forcing the licensure of all gun owners.  I'm kind of wondering why we would be expected to purchase a license to exercise one of our Rights under the Constitution.  Should we be required to do that to exercise free speech under the 1st?  To claim our Right to remain silent under the 5th?  

(Perp:  "I'm taking the Fifth!"  Cop:  "You'll need a license for that!")

2.  He'd then force all gun owners to buy and carry accident insurance on their guns and their actions while using them.  Should we be forced to buy insurance against others of those pesky Rights granted us by the Constitution?  Should we be forced to show our license before we utter a controversial comment?  And who decides what's controversial?  Facebook?  Twitter?  Eric?  

3.  Then he says he'd breathe life into a new Federal Database of all gun owners.  Why?  Of course, there's only one obvious reason "why."  How else would they know where to go when they decide to confiscate them?  

4.  And just to make sure he hadn't missed angering anyone, he'd then make it a criminal offense to transfer a gun, any gun, to anyone, without Federal approval and licensure.  Grandpa wants to give Junior his shotgun?  Ummm, nope!  No can do according to Eric.  That'd be a felony!  Grandad has to ask permission first.  Of the Government!  How do think that would go?

There's gonna' be a New Sheriff in Town!  And it's Eric!

5.  Then Swallwell would outlaw all so-called "assault weapons."  Now, we don't have any "assault weapons" for sale here in America, and haven't since the 1930's (Automatic Weapons Act of 1934).  That's a name given to certain rifles by Senator Diane "Lady Di" Feinstein back in 1992.  But don't confuse the Leftists with the facts.  They just hate those evil-looking all black and scary, semi-auto rifles.  And even though they're used in less than 3% of mass shootings, they just have to be outlawed.  Why?  Because Eric wants to be President...

Did you know more people are killed every year in the U. S. by hammers than rifles of all types?  Should we outlaw hammers as well?  Hmmmm...

6.  And for a follow-up, our boy would institute a forced buy-back of all 15 million-or-so of these rifles in circulation here using your tax money to do it.  As if the Gummint actually owned these weapons and Eric is just going to "buy them back."  

And, he says, if we don't cough them up when called upon, he's threatened to use nuclear weapons on us!  Yes, my friends, he's actually said that.  I wonder, does this put him out of the mainstream?  Nuking your citizens if they disobey your commandments?  Has he heard about the likelihood of collateral damage?  Dictator much?

He goes on to say that he would jail anyone who refuses to turn over their guns when he and his minions come for them.  Jail.  For having legally purchased a legal gun, and having the temerity to own it.  And keep it.  And bear it.  Legally.

I presume the jails would be used only for those who managed to somehow survive the nuclear blast...

7.  And lastly, for now, I guess, he wants to establish an Australian-style gun control program.  That means a no-gun-to-control program, I think.  Because once you've forcibly taken the guns from the people, assuming you ever could, then he's got to make sure they don't get any more of them, right?

Of course, Australia is filled back up with guns, its citizens having now recognized that they need to protect themselves and each other from the Bad Guys who just do not care what the law says; they're criminals.  They break the law.  That's the very definition of criminals.  They're buying them illegally now.  But the Media isn't telling you about that.

AU's murder, burglary and rape rates are up more than 10% post-confiscation.  And their burglary/ assault/breaking and entering rates are up more than 50%!  Cause and effect?

(NOTE:  A recent FBI survey of more than 8,000 incarcerated felons in the U. S. indicated that less than 8% of the guns they bought were purchased legally.  The rest were bought in a back alley or stolen.)

Those on the Left, the rabid gun-haters among us, have told us for decades that they do not want to confiscate our weapons.  They've told us that.  We didn't believe them then, we don't believe them now, and now you know why; this dweeb has actually come out and verbalized what all the others are thinking.  And here it is:

We already know they don't trust us to make decisions regarding our own lives and the lives of our families.  They don't think we know what to drive, and what to eat, and how to raise and educate our children.  And they certainly don't think we should be trusted to actually own and keep and use and carry an actual GUN!  I mean, why would you need a gun?  We have police, doncha' know!  In short, you'd be a lot easier to manage if you were disarmed.  

"Remember, they just want to be left alone to live our lives."   -  The Chuckmeister

Something tells me Swallwell will be named the new "Gun Salesman of the Year" by the National Rifle Association.  There's nothing quite like the threat to confiscate our guns that will cause a run on the gun shops.  It happened the day after Obama was elected and continued unabated for his entire 8-year term.  In fact, gun ownership in America DOUBLED under Obama, from about 150 million to more than 325 million guns!  And it'll happen again now with this bozo! 

Can't you hear that sound?  It's the sound of the turn style turning at gun shops nationwide.  Sales took a downturn once Trump was elected.  The threat, we believed, was over.  But now you can expect a yuuuuuge increase!  Production is gearing up at Remington, and Smith and Wesson, and Colt and Browning and Savage and all the others as this is written.  Thanks again, Eric! 

I wonder if this wannabe' Boy Scout knows he'll be partially responsible for the run-up in stock valuation for America's gun manufacturers?

I predict the NRA will add another million or so members as a consequence of Eric's little plan.  And they'll probably reap a few $Million in extra donations from 2nd Amendment supporters who simply detest what this lame, misguided, ignorant, pandering fool is advocating.  Do you think gun owners or their families and friends will vote for this smarmy leech? 
                
NEWS FLASH!:  As I was preparing to push "publish" and send this little missive off into the ether, Senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, both lawyers, of course, and both candidates for the Democrat POTUS nomination 2020, decided to juice their flagging campaigns by launching their own anti-gun tirades!  Booker says he'd require everyone to be licensed by the Federal Government before they could buy a gun.  He supports his plan by saying, "You need a license to drive a car.  Why not one to own a gun?"  And, he says, he'd "throw them in jail" if they don't turn them in.  

Obviously, Mr. Booker is unaware that driving a car is a privilege and owning and using a gun is a Constitutional Right.

What are they teaching at Yale and Haaaavid Law Schools these days?

And Harris?  She just stated that she would give the Congress only 100 days after her election to come up with "reasonable gun safety laws" or she would undertake Executive Action to do it all by herself.  Hmmm.  

Errr, Kamala, are you unaware we have more than 25,000 gun control laws already on our books?  Did you know they're not being enforced?  Why don't you start?  

So, these reality-challenged, obviously under-educated laughing stock lawyers are unaware that we have a thing called the 2nd Amendment.  And to obviate it requires an Act of Congress!  That means two-thirds of the States have to ratify the Constitutional change, and two-thirds of the Congress has to agree.  The chance of that happening is slim and none.  And Slim is out of town...

To think we have a candidate for President who thinks she could use a little memo to remove our 2nd Amendment Rights is a laugh-out-loud condemnation of both her and her seriousness as a candidate.  And what if we complained?  Another E.O. to remove our Right to free speech?

Stay tuned, America.  Remember, every action has an equal and opposite reaction!

Thursday, May 9, 2019

Whaddaya' do With Three Empty Countries?

We're told that our southern border with Mexico is in a crisis.  More than 103,000 illegal aliens streamed across our border last month.  That's the very most in more than a decade.  In fact, Homeland Security tells us we can expect more than 1.5 million uninvited economic "migrants" to enter the U. S. illegally in 2019.  As in, "break in."  And upwards of 95% of them are coming from three countries: Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.  

BTW, "economic migrants" is a euphemism for "illegal aliens" who don't qualify for our asylum program.  But that doesn't stop them from asking, doncha' know...

Three small, Central American countries, each of them producing caravan after caravan after caravan of people heading our way.  Like a tsunami, they come.  One after another.  

There have been more than 15 caravans emanating from this neck of the woods in just the past couple of years.  Each one has grown larger.  And each has somehow managed to "walk" the 1,200 miles from the Northern Triangle to Tiajowanna in just a week or two.  Speed walkers, aren't they?  Funny about that.  And the latest caravan is estimated at more than 20,000.  And it will be here before June.

Think of it this way:  Every month we suffer the arrival of more than an NFL stadium at Super Bowl time just chocked full of uninvited "guests;" guests we must feed, clothe, educate and house.  At our taxpayers' expense.

Trump just asked for an additional $4.7 Billion in emergency aid to help pay for that same food and shelter and health care and transportation expense.  Funny, they don't seem to have the $5.7 Billion Trump wanted to build the Wall, but they'll most assuredly come up with the $4.7 Billion to grease the illegals way into America...

(BTW, "illegal aliens" is the official term for this class of migrants.  They are labeled as such in our immigration laws.)

Our POTUS Trump calls this a "crisis."  The Democrat Party and all but one or two of their adherents calls it "another day ending in 'Y."  Houston, we have a problem.  America, we have a problem...

Let's take a little look at the facts, shall we?  As of the most recent statistics the U.N. can provide, Guatemala reported a total of 14,918,099 citizens.  That was as of 2015.  Honduras had 8,746,623.  And El Salvador, 6,141,350.  All the latest statistics available.  Thus, this "triumvirate" totaled a tad less than 30,000,000 souls among them.

As of our 2010 census, the most recent until we redo it next year, there were 1,044,209 Guatemalans here in America.  Legal or illegal, their status was not identified.  Not that it would matter, doncha' know.  1,207,016 Hondurans lived here, and 987,264 El Salvadorans rounded out the three.  Thus, at least 15% of the population of these three countries already lived in America as of nearly ten years ago!

Today?  No one knows.  Even the total number of illegal aliens here is disputed.  The number varies all the way from 11 million to as many as 22,000,000!  And who knows, it just might be twice that number!  Or thrice!  And as for the "Central Three," the last ten years may well have doubled their numbers here.  

Put simply, nobody knows.  And seemingly, nobody cares.  Except, of course, the people who have to pay for it all.  That, ummm, would be, ummm, you and me...

Now, for purposes of background, we can tell within a matter of hours where a cow with Kreutzfelt-Jakob disease ("Mad Cow") was born and raised, and then track down the critter and end the crisis.  Within hours!  But we DO NOT KNOW who is in our country.  And if we let the Democrats have their way...we never will.

Have you noticed an increase in the number of measles cases?  Like, the most in the past 25 years?  Various governors and mayors are threatening to jail their citizens for failing to get vaccinated, yet we willingly welcome a million aliens without medical records into our midst.  Cases of measles and smallpox are being found daily in interdicted migrants.  Does that make sense to you?

For the longest time our immigration laws were focused on finding, arresting and deporting single Mexican males who had entered without permission.  We snagged them, we arrested them, we deported 95% of them.  That was because they were the primary offenders.  

Now?  Our laws were changed to favor those from the "Northern Triangle," believing that the drug cartels and the civil strife there was sufficient to accord them special status.  Those fleeing these countries, especially women and children, were permitted to request asylum and then be processed for permanent residency.  Of course, those fleeing crime or strife should (must) claim asylum in the nearest contiguous nation they come to.  That would be Mexico.  But they don't want to live in Mexico!  They say they want their slice of the American Dream!  Even though they're not Americans!

Should we blame Trump for improving our economy so very much that illegal aliens just can't help but break in?  Are we guilty of having made America an "attractive nuisance?"

Why does this make sense to our more "Progressive" citizens and scare the Hell out of the Conservatives?  Because "they" view these interlopers as their newest voting bloc, and "we" view them as invaders who have illegally skulked across our Border and are trying to game our system and sink our economic boat.

The cartels and their "coyotes" are making major bank off this crisis.  Latest word is that they charge $6 - 8,000 per migrant.  Multiply that times 100k/month and you'll understand the terrific financial draw this scenario has for our criminal gangs down south.  It may be even more profitable than drugs, especially considering they have our laws on their side!

(NOTE:  As I have suggested in an earlier rant, it might bode well for us to cut out the "coyotes" in the middle and just charge illegals $7k apiece to enter!)

So, let's sum up.  Somewhere between 20 - 25% of all Northern Triangle citizens have made their way north so they can enter our back door and steal our jobs and our wealth.  And the Democrats absolutely refuse to help change our laws which make this outrage possible.  But then again, why would they; that would mean shutting off their never-ending supply of future voters!

So, we can reasonably predict that this situation will continue, unabated, well into the future.  Which makes me wonder when, exactly when, will they run out of "migrants?"  One can make the case that before too long there won't be anyone left in the Northern Triangle.  As in, would the last one out please turn off the lights?  

And that seems to me to be a great business opportunity.  Since by that time those of us who live in the once-Golden State, which, due to the arrival of these "migrants" will soon be made equivalent to the Northern Triangle, may well wish to emigrate to Guatemala!  Or Honduras!  Or maybe to El Salvador!  Yeah, that's it!   

Just think of what we can do with 3 empty countries!  Three gorgeous countries with scads of ocean shoreline, completely devoid of those who are looking for a whole lot of something while bringing to us a whole lot of nothing...

Maybe then, after they've turned Lost Angeles into Guatemala...and they're well on their way...perhaps we should build the Wall between Guatemala and Mexico to keep them from coming back in...