Either I'm getting faster or the flies are getting slower

 I managed to hand swat about a dozen of 'em today.  You know the drill, you move your hand very slowly towards the fly and when within maybe 1-2 inches, you swat.  That close and the fly isn't fast enough to avoid your hand.  I usually don't do that well, but today was good for me, bad for flies.

Books I read as a child.

The Battle of Britain.  By Quentin Reynolds.  Copyright 1953.   I encountered a good looking copy in the giant book box down at the town dump.  A freebie.  I recognized it and grabbed it.  It still reads well.  The author was an American war correspondent in Britain in 1940, the year of the battle of Britain.  In 1953 he writes of his meeting with British sailors, and the captain, of a smallest steamer in a coastal convey going up the English Channel.  Fending off German attacks by aircraft and E-boats and shelling from Pas de Calais livens things up.  In later chapters he writes about RAF fighter pilots, air raid wardens, RAF bomber crews, ordinary British civilian who have to sleep on subway platforms because of the bombing, firemen, and more.  Since he was there at the time, Quentin qualifies as a primary source and writing while the memories ought to be still fresh. You finish the book with a strong feeling the British were imperturbable, kept a stiff upper lip, and were ready to fight to the death.   Just the right sort of stuff to make any American want to support Britain.   

They raid a former president’s home, they can raid my home.

   Raiding someone’s home is extremely rude.  It can also be very dangerous.  To pull this on a well liked former president means they can try it on me, or anybody.  Especially if one of those 87,000 new tax collectors decides that my federal income tax has a problem.  I do my federal tax with Turbo Tax, which is pretty effective.  If Turbo Tax likes my 1040, I print it out sign it and mail it. If the new tax collectors get the FBI to bust down my door at 0’dark thirty, to confiscate anything, I will shoot them.  30-30 will go thru body armor.  I will keep shooting until they stop moving.  Then I will reload and make sure they are all dead.  Anybody busting into my house at night is a dangerous killer.

   That ought to make the papers.

FBI raids Donald Trump’s home at Mar-el-Largo.

 This is the FBI tilting the election to the democrats, something totally illegal.  The FBI is acting like the Gestapo or the KGB, not the law enforcement agency of a democracy.  We should disband the FBI, lay off all their personnel, sell their property (cars, aircraft, furniture, computers, what ever) burn their files, and sell their buildings.  State and local law enforcement can keep order in the streets. 

Littleton Wal-Mart Remodels

They have been at it for a month.  They put down a nice stone floor, dark gray, nicely polished. They are upgrading their shelving.  Dunkin Donuts seems to be gone.  No donuts on their shelves, no one behind the counter, no coffee.  Tables replaced by shelving full of kid’s toys.  Too bad I liked Dunkins honey dipped donuts and used to buy a few for breakfast when I was in the store.  They removed the seating at the pharmacy so you have to stand while waiting your place in line.  The book shelf seems to be gone.  Small loss, they have not stocked a book I cared to buy for a year or more.

How to read the MSM.

The main stream media have a lot of fake news, and a lot of news slanted so heavily as to reverse the true meaning of the story.  So how does one find out what is really going on in the world?  Maybe George Soros can hire a small crew to sort thru the news and give him a short summary of what is really going on, but few of us have George Soros’ money.

The first thing to do is identify the really untrustworthy sources and just don’t bother the read them.  For instance, I don’t believe anything coming from the New York Times.  They have been passing out falsehoods since the 1930s when they sent Walther Duranty to Soviet Russia.  The Russians were just getting things organized and were making wondrous claims about the goodness of Communism.  Duranty took in the Russian propaganda, including all the good things the Russians were saying about Joseph Stalin.  Duranty wrote up stories in English and sent them back to New York, where the Times printed them all just as Duranty wrote them.  The Russians got a lot of good publicity out of the Times.  Years later the Times fell in love with Fidel Castro when Fidel was trying to overthrow Batista and take over Cuba.  Castro got a whole bunch of American help just because the Times made him seem like a romantic reformer.  Then later in 1967 or 1968 the Times sent a top editor, Harrison Salisbury, to North Viet Nam.   Harrison got together with some North Viet Namese village chief who told heart breaking stories about Yankee air pirates who had bombed his village repeatedly and killed four civilians thru wanton bombing of a purely civilian target.

   I just happened to be in the Air Force and assigned to the 366 Tactical Fighter Wing based in Thailand that year.  I did a little checking.  Yes indeed we had bombed that village repeatedly.  It had the biggest railroad yard you ever did see, running right thru the middle of it.  I figured if we had only killed four civilians for all those bombing missions we had been very careful. 

   Anyhow I stopped reading the Times and have not looked at it for 50 years.  For that matter I don’t read the Washington Post for the same kind of reasons.  I don’t bother to watch CNN, CBS, MSNBC, or ABC.  I do watch Fox News and have found it fairly reliable.  The Wall St Journal is still good.  Anyhow the point is you ought to have a list of sources you don’t bother to read because they are passing out BS.

   When reading or watching the MSM look to see if the article has any numbers in it.  In the real world numbers tell us how many things they are talking about, the length or width or height of something, how old something is, lots of things.  Most newsies are innumerate, they cannot under stand numbers and they cannot write them out properly.  I usually dismiss stories that lack numbers as the product of poorly educated and not very smart newsies.

   Much of the verbiage coming out of the MSM is  pure opinion, and lacks any facts to support the opinion.  Some times I agree with the opinion and sometimes I disagree.  In either case there ought to be some facts in the story. 

  

20,000 Ton ship full of Ukrainian corn bound for Lebanon.

 Ship has cleared inspection in Istanbul.  It's off for Lebanon.  Front page color picture in the Wall St Journal this morning.  It's really happening.