Masks, need for

 Now that I have had my vaccination, both shots, I probaby don't need to wear a mask.  If you believe the TV, the vaccination is 92% effective, which means I have real good odds of not catching the corona virus.  And also if you believe the TV, once vaccinated you cannot infect others by sneezing.  

   But, everyone up here is still wearing masks in public. All the stores have signs requiring mask wearing.  I think my wearing a mask makes everyone else, sales clerks, waiters, barbers, mechanics, everyone, feel better about things.  So I wear a mask.  Just to reassure people. 

AOC is bloviating on Fox this morning

 She thinks calling the southern border catastrophe a "surge" or an "invasion" is beyond the pale. Racist she called it.  This is important?  Well maybe it matters to Democrats since it doesn't seem to matter to us regular Americans. 

Will a high lunar tide float the Ever Given??

Huge container ship that ran aground in the Suez canal, blocking traffic in both directions since Tuesday.  Rots a Ruck.  Tide in the Mediterranean is wimpy wimpy.  Around here (New England) we get a nine foot lunar tide.  The Egyptians report expecting a 1.5 foot lunar tide in the canal tonight.  Eyeballing the pictures of one huge container ship, I don't think 1.5 foot tide is going to get her off.  Maybe if they have every tug boat for 500 miles around tugging on her ???  Rots a Ruck.

"Infrastructure" spending and new taxes

 The Democrats want to spend another $3 Trillion on "infrastructure".  Used to be "infrastructure" was concrete things like Interstate Highways, dams, bridges, levees, stuff you could see and touch and was anchored in concrete, not liable to moving to another state.  Apparently this "infrastruction" bill has serious money for a bunch of stuff that is not really "infrastructure".  And to pay for this extravagance the Democrats were proposing new taxes on cars and mileage.  The Democrat advocating the new taxes said that the traditional federal gas tax was obsolete.  Presumably he believed that battery cars were running on the public roads tax free because they don't use gasoline.  That's a stretch, actually fake news.  Most of the cars on the road today still run on gasoline or diesel.  In all my days I have only seen (and ridden in) just ONE battery car.  It was owned by an old high school classmate, something of a gadget freak, named David Biddle.  Biddle's idea of an afternoon's entertainment was to take his battery car down to the local mall, where they had a free 440 volt charging station.  While the car sucked up juice we walked around the mall and spent money.  

   So, I don't believe we need to replace the gas tax just to nail the very very few battery cars on the road.

The Professionals, Burt Lancaster and Lee Marvin 1966

 One of the finest westerns.  Texas millionaire hires four tough guys to ride into Mexico and rescue his wife who have been kidnapped by banditos.  In addition to Burt Lancaster and Lee Marvin we also have Robert Ryan and Woody Strode on the posse.  Everybody is tough.  All sorts of firearms, Colt revolvers, 1911 automatics. Lewis guns, Winchesters, 1903 Springfield rifles, machine guns, shotguns.  Lot's of good one liners.  "Hey Gringo, where did the bullet bit you?  In the ass."  "You bastard.  With me an accident of birth, but you sir are a self made man."  Claudia Cardinale plays the very sexy kidnapped wife.  I first saw it down at Keesler AFB when I first joined the Air Force right out of college in 1964.  The troops loved it. 

Generic Nasal Spray as good as Afrin

 For stuffy nose, common in the winter, I have been using Afrin nasal spray for many years now.  Trouble is, it has become ridiculously expensive, like $9 for a 1/2 ounce bottle.  I found a generic version at Rite Aid, $6 for a full 1 ounce bottle.  And it works just as good as Afrin.

We need nutcase control more than gun control

 The two recent atrocious mass murders have brought Democrats out in full cry for gun control, by which they mean taking everyone's guns away.  If not all a once, chip way at gun ownership bit my bit.  While we allow homicidal maniacs to run around loose.  In most of these horrible cases, the killer was well known as a nut case to friends and family, teachers, police, and others long before he flipped out and killed a lot of innocent people.  

   And yet we let these dangerous men run around loose.  What we should do in these cases is bring the nutcase before a psychological panel which would determine if the subject was truly dangerous.  Insane potential homicidal maniacs would be involuntarily confined in a state mental hospital.  We used to do this, back before the civil rights movement of the 1960's put an end to involuntary confinement.