Blue Thunder.

I was living in West Elizabeth, PA. It was a very distressed mobile park complex. The entire community was worn down, poverty stricken, and crime ridden.

At that time, we had our first cat: Samatha Pantha.

Something cool started to happen, a beautiful blue grey Maine Coon, the same age as my kitty started hanging out with my cat.

It was beautiful. And we named it “Blue Thunder”.

…

For the next few months the two cats played and romped about.

One day, some local boys were tying to sic a dog on Blue Thunder, and I saw them under my mobile home trying to attack my cat. I was furious and chased them away.

Three days went by…

No Blue Thunder.

Then one morning, the kitty was on my porch. Someone had shot it with a BB gun…

We took it in the house and tended to it. And all was well.

It was still around us. Our “outside” cat, and not our “inside” cat.

…

Eventually, I got a job in another state. And we had to move.

I wanted to Take Blue Thunder with us, but my wife reasoned “no”. She reasoned was that he would be just fine… alone… outside.

I should have NEVER listened to her.

…

Guys… stick to your guns. If you are dealing with a living, breathing being. Err on the safe, and the protected side of things.

…

I found out later that when the mobile home was being transported, a cat (that obviously must have been Blue Thunder) tumbled out from underneath the mobile home. I don’t know what happened to it, but falling out from a moving vehicle tends to be fatal to little creatures.

I have great regrets about this issue.

I am haunted by my passive actions that led to the demise of others.

…

About six months later, I came across another little kitty. Phelie. The cat that I wrote about in other posts, the one whose mother cat died on the road. And this cat had nearly the same personality that Blue Thunder had.

Maybe he found his way back to me.

Don’t you know.

People, I have many regrets in life. But one of the biggest is going against my CORE BELIEFS because my partner or family member did not realize the value of other creatures. Do not be like me.

Fight the GOOD FIGHT.

Never give up. Stick to your guns. Hold your ground. Be someone that your grandparents would be proud of.

Today…

What was the most unexpected knock you got on your door?

Two police officers with sober faces stared at me and I knew the news couldn’t be good.

They described a car that had just been in an accident, and the license plate. My wife’s mini-van had collided, burst into flames and everyone inside it died.

I’m doing a mental inventory about now. My wife, three children, and two nieces.

My legs turned wobbly. You can’t imagine what was going through my head. Because of the fire, they couldn’t find any useful identification but explained they could identify everyone both by DNA and by dental records. They wanted a DNA sample from me.

I guess they could verify my kids were mine, and that the adult was their mother. A nice, neat little bow.

Can you imagine? They’ve just told you that your whole family is dead, and —- I told them I would come down and give them a sample.

Getting ready to leave, my cell phone is buzzing. It’s my wife. What? Hard tingles are on my spine, like she’s calling from the grave.

“Our van was stolen from the parking lot….”

Were the sweetest words I could’ve ever heard. Yeah it was my wife’s car, but they won’t need any DNA sample from me today.

EDIT – to address some of the mysteries in the comments

I learned later that three people were in the van when it collided. A man, woman, and younger person, which they presumed was a child of the drivers. The police said everyone died, but they had a different human inventory than my own. I also learned they were part of a ring of car thieves, and the accident was not their fault. Another car ran a light and hit them broadside. No fatalities and only minor injuries in the other car.

My wife had organized a birthday outing for our oldest. All the necessary shops, restaurant, and theater were inside the mall. It would be several hours before it was time to leave again. The thieves had plenty of time to get away if they hadn’t been hit.

What is the most interesting fact that you know and I don’t, but I should?

I have an interesting piece of information which was completely new to me and maybe it is new to many of you too..

Recently, a friend of mine was involved in an accident. He rammed his car behind a truck and the car was completely totaled!

Thankfully, he was wearing his seat belt which initiated the action of airbags and saved his life.

Now comes the part which amazed me. When I saw the pictures of the crash, the speedometer of the car caught my attention.

The speedometer needle was stuck at 90 km/hr. Upon asking some of my acquaintances in the automobile industry, I discovered that this is also a feature, due to which upon impact if the airbags are deployed, then the speedometer needle will be stuck at the speed at which the vehicle is being driven to ease the investigation and further formalities about the accident.

This amazed me as this was quite a useful feature which rarely people know and it will make it much easier to get into depth of the cause of the accident in cars which do not have a dashcam installed, which usually is the case in India.

Hope you were amazed too!

Valiant Thor: A UFO, the Pentagon and a 3-year Mission to Save the World

The words of the guilty

• I’m sooooop sorry.
• It was a mistake.
• My friends made me do it.
• I was drunk.
• It was only that one time.
• It was your fault I did it.
• It’ll never happen again.
• I love you soooooo much.

304 Handbook, Chapters 2-5.

Have you ever had a house guest that took advantage of your hospitality? How did you get rid of them?

I have a house for rent in Brownfield, Maine. It’s a tiny vacation house I call the “Schwende Hut” named after a hot dog stand on top of the ski hill Mt Tecumseh in New Hampshire. I found out later that “Schwende Hut” means “Food House” but I think it’s hilarious.

I have been renting the house for almost 20 years to people who like to stay be the weekend, the week, the month or the season. It’s been pretty good.

A few years ago I got call from a woman who wanted to rent for a week. It was the end of the season and I still had that week available so naturally I signed her right up. She moved in on time and all was good. She was rather elderly and I was concerned that she would have a good time.

After a week my cleaner reported to me that she hadn’t left. I went over to see what was going on. Normally guests have to check out by noon so the cleaner can do his work before the next guest arrived. She came to the door but didn’t open it. I asked her what she was doing.

“I live here now,” she said to me, “I’m not leaving.”

I was confused.

“This is a guest house,” I said, “Other guests are going to come.”

“And I’m not paying,” she said obstinately. I was speechless. This had never happened before. I said, “I’ll call the Sheriff.”

“Go ahead,” she said, “Winter is coming. I’m old. They’ll never evict an elderly woman. Good luck.”

What could I do? I had to go consult with my local lawyer.

That night a huge storm came up with violent winds and lots of rain. I couldn’t worry about the old bitch in my house. I had to worry about property damage. Two days later the storm ended. I came through all right with just a few branches down and lots of pine needles everywhere. But there was no power. In Maine the power goes out at least once a week. Trees just fall and take out the lines. After a big storm crews and trucks have to go out and put the lines back up. We get used to seeing the flashing light on our digital clocks in Maine. It tells us that the power was out and we have to throw away most of the food in our fridge.

It took almost a week for the power company to restore power. In the meantime I was worried about the woman who wouldn’t leave my house. What was I going to do with her? The legal moves for getting her out were long, laborious and expensive. Even squatters have rights, it seems. People told me to tell the Sheriff she was dealing drugs and that would get her out fast. Meth is a huge problem in Maine with so much poverty. I couldn’t bring myself to do that. But within a few days of the power being out, she packed up her car and left. With no power, there was no fridge, no stove, no AC, no showers, no toilet, no light. She up and left, The house was a pigsty but at least it was empty.

I installed a power kill in a hidden location under the house. If this happens again I know what I will do now.

How did planes travel in the dark in the past?

Giant. Concrete. Arrows.

No, really.

In the early 1920s, when the postal service first launched its airmail service, planes could only fly during the day.

It would take three and a half days for a package to make it from New York City to San Francisco, with both airmail and train-travel due to the limitation on flight.

Thus, to solve this problem, Congress funded a transcontinental lighted airway from New York to California.

The airway went through nine different states and consisted of 50-foot steel towers that were rotating spotlights every 10 to 30 miles.

However, since cloudy days sometimes obstructed the view of pilots, giant concrete arrows were constructed on the ground in order to point the plane in the right direction. They were painted yellow to make them easier to see.

The project was called the Transcontinental Airway system and it worked surprisingly well up until the 1940s when the system was dismantled due to advances in aviation technology.

---

Many of the concrete arrows are still around today, remnants of a time where planes could travel across the country, purely by sight.

From the stars,

Dawn.

What happened in a courtroom that gave the judge a belly laugh you will never forget?

During my time in High School, I received a ticket from a police officer who was working a side job as a delivery driver. He accused me of “dumping my clutch” and “doing a burn out of the parking lot.” However, I am currently fighting against these allegations.

When I appeared before the judge, the prosecutor and the police officer were present. The police officer reiterated his observations, and I countered by explaining that I did not perform any clutch dumping or burnout in my 280zx because there was an 8″ gutter separating the street and the sidewalk.

I further argued that performing a burnout in the parking lot would have caused damage to my low-riding Z vehicle. Moreover, when I hit the gutter, my battery came loose, and the positive post made contact with the steel clutch line, resulting in a hole and a loss of fluid, making it impossible to switch gears. The engine sounded loud because the car was in neutral, and I was expecting to shift into second gear.

The police officer should be aware of this situation since he had to call a tow truck to take my car to the garage for repairs. I even provided the receipts as evidence.

The judge then asked me if I worked at the restaurant, to which I replied affirmatively. I mentioned that as a delivery driver, I would be unable to carry out my job without a vehicle. However, the judge questioned how I managed to hit the gutter so hard that it caused my battery to bounce.

I humorously explained that the police officer had walked in front of my car while he was distracted by the attractive rear of my best friend, who happened to be a female. This caused everyone in the courtroom to burst into laughter, including the judge. The police officer became flustered and attempted to speak, but the prosecutor intervened and suggested that the case should be dismissed.

I agreed entirely with the prosecutor’s suggestion but requested that the repair bill be taken care of since it was the fault of the police officer’s negligence while representing the police department that caused the damage.

The judge agreed to dismiss the case, and I was awarded the reimbursement of around $37, which was equivalent to approximately 10 hours of minimum wage back in those days.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that my best friend was a female with an attractive figure who enjoyed flaunting it whenever possible. However, everyone else in the courtroom assumed that my best friend was a male.

What is a slap-in-the-face job offer?

I was happy at my job, but one day a head hunter called me up, and asked me if I would be interested in interviewing for a job that was a step up, at a rival company.

I hummed and hawed, and thought why not see what I am worth, at the worst I could ask my boss for a raise.

I went to the interview, they were impressed and offered me a job, they wanted to know my current salary, I told them that the salary was only a small part of my pay, as I had a performance bonus that was substantially more than my salary. So I wanted to know what their bonus system was. It was woefully low, compared to my current job, I would get a bonus that was maybe 20 percent of my salary, compared to the 200 percent of the salary I was getting.

To make up for it, they offered me a 20 percent higher salary.

I wont give real numbers, but here is how it would work out.

I was currently getting $1000 in salary, and $2000 in bonus per month, for a total of $3000.

They thought salary was the key, and offered me $1200 in salary and $240 a month in bonus for a total of $1440

Less than half of what I was making, doing a job with less responsibility.

I told them that I wasn’t interested, and they offered to increase it to 30 percent increase in salary. Which would have been just over half of what I was making.

They just kept coming back to salary, and never seemed to grasp how substantial my bonus was.

That was a slap in the face offer.

I of course turned them down.

They went bankrupt 18 months later.

Man Dumps Wife When He Finds Out He Was Her Last Choice

What is the most Russian thing ever?

I was working on a power station in Moscow and, for the weekend, went to a small town (Kaluga), two hundred kilometres south-west from the city with a work colleague. Alex.

He had bought some brake shoes for his Russian-made car and was fitting them with his father in their garage that every Russian family has. They are always in a long row of garages some distance from the apartments.

The brake shoes wouldn’t fit due to poor quality manufacturing so he got out an angle grinder and ground the groove in the brake shoe until it fitted.

He said that this was normal in Russia.

He also said that when you bought a new Russian-made car you went to the showroom with a colleague and inspected the car. You would then tell the salesman what was wrong with the car (door does not close, brake pedal is missing rubber, etc.). He would fix it and, when you took it away, you accepted responsibility for all that was wrong.

So if you are planning an expedition to the Arctic don’t get an American or European mechanic to fix stuff en route, get a Russian because they have spent their entire life bodging stuff up with a Swiss army knife and some 14 gauge wire.

There is nothing that a Russian cannot fix.

What’s the most common mistake we make in the office?

Most corporate offices have a “bend don’t break” rule on internet usage.

High achieving professionals don’t want to be micromanaged or watched with suspicion.

Think about it. If you work 40+ hours and are good at your job, it shouldn’t be an issue if you want to check the news or your bank account.

But some people treat their office like an entertainment center, streaming Twitch and YouTube all day.

As a result, HR and IT team up like a Kremlin intelligence agency, looking for any signs of slackers.

The golden snitch sees all. I was walking by one time and this coworker was literally watching a Twitch stream with that lady, Pokimane, as she played video games. This was in the middle of a busy office with people working.

Thirst trapping it on the clock baby. He had quite the audacity.

You can extend this to every stupid hiring practice and office rule. All it takes is one moron and life becomes more annoying for all that follow.

Don’t be the moron behind the stupid rule. If you can help it.

Karma Comes For Disloyal Wife After Husband Admits To Affair With Way Hotter Woman…And She FREAKS!

When have you fired someone on the spot?

Yes.

As a triage nurse in an Emergency Room, there are duties that become mundane but are necessary. One rule we had was that if a pregnant woman approached the check in desk complaining of pregnancy symptoms, the nurse asked how far along they were.

Twenty weeks is the magic number. If they are 20 weeks pregnant the baby has a realistic chance of surviving if delivered. This meant the nurse had to get up and push the patient by wheelchair to Labor and Delivery. It was a big hospital and L&D was on the exact opposite side of the hospital.

If they checked in at the front entrance, security would push them to L&D and the staff there would determine how far along they are and just as the triage nurse in the ER take them by wheelchair to the proper care area.

A pretty good system that had worked for years without incident. Both areas had to push an equal number of patients across the hospital.

And then one day I get a call from the L&D Director.

“We had a patient come in today who says she was told rudely by the ER staff that she was in the wrong place and needed to drive around to the front entrance,” she said.

I neglected to mention that this was a huge hospital that took up 2 city blocks. Crossing the hospital required a 10 min walk through a maze of locked doors and corridors. Driving around required 2 red lights and avoiding a one way street.

“I’ll have to speak to the staff,” I told her, “They know what they’re supposed to do.”

“This girl was 32 weeks and complained of her water breaking,” she continued.

It seemed she was catastrophizing the situation. The staff broke protocol. I will remind them and reiterate the protocol.

“I’ll make sure they understand,” I said.

“Keith, the baby was dead,” she said.

Turns out she was minimizing the episode. The seriousness of the call was not lost on me.

“I am going now to take care of it,” I said, “I am sorry.”

“These people are livid,” she added.

I called the charge nurse and asked who was at triage. Of the two names given, I immediately surmised who the culprit was. Judy was an outspoken nurse who enjoyed sharing her opinion that most of the patients in the ER did not even have an emergency. I went to get her.

“Can you come with me?” I asked.

“Why?” she asked, “Am I in trouble?”

She followed me out into the hallway, and as we walked to my office I asked her, “Did you send a 32 week pregnant patient around to the front?”

“Is that what this is about?” she started, “We are busy and I don’t have time to be pushing people all over the hospital.”

“The baby was dead,” I said, “This is not trivial.”

“That baby was dead before she got here,” she argued, “That has nothing to do with me not pushing her to L&D.”

Stating things that were most likely true did not change facts. She probably was already fired, honestly, but without hesitation I said, “Collect all your stuff and go home.”

“Am I being put on administrative leave because of this crap?”

“Come by my office before you leave,” I said.

While she collected her things, I called Human Resources and made sure I had grounds to terminate. The HR representative agreed to come witness the termination.

“I don’t care what you do,” Judy started as she entered the room. “That baby was already dead.”

“Judy, because of your refusal to follow proper protocol and continued insistence that you have done nothing wrong, you are being terminated. Effective immediately.” Her mouth fell open, and she began to cry. “This is Allison from HR. She can answer any further questions you may have.”

That’s the moment, I think, she finally realized the seriousness of her actions.

Solar storms: more dangerous than you think. Can we survive another Carrington Event?

The Boiling Hot End to a Cook Accused of Poison in Henry VIII’s England

On April 5, 1531, hardened London spectators of public punishment gathered at Smithfield, joined by others who were too curious to stay away. An execution had been announced of a type that none had witnessed in their lifetimes, nor ever heard of.  The condemned man, Richard Roose, was to be boiled alive.

Roose was not the sort of criminal that usually met his end at Smithfield, located just beyond the London Wall. He was convicted of high treason, yet he had not sought to harm King Henry VIII nor his queen, Catherine of Aragon, nor any royal councilor. He had not tried to overthrow the kingdom’s government. Roose, a cook, was accused of murder by poison.

His two victims were an obscure gentleman in the household of Bishop John Fisher, Bennet Curwen, and a destitute widow who accepted the bishop’s charity, Alyce Tryppytt. The target of the poisoning was assumed to be Fisher himself, the Bishop of Rochester. Ironically, Fisher did not eat the soup—sometimes described as porridge—that Roose prepared and so was unharmed.

Roose admitted to the poisoning but claimed it was a joke gone wrong, an accident.  There is no testimony for us to examine, because Roose had no trial, by command of the king.

In the words of the Greyfriars Chronicle of London, a contemporary document: “This year was a cook boiled in a cauldron in Smithfield for he would have poisoned the bishop of Rochester Fisher with divers of his servants and he was locked in a chain and pulled up and down with a gibbet at divers times until he was dead.”

Roose’s crime, the legal method of his condemnation, and finally the form of punishment create a bizarre chain of events that, in a more modern age, might well have raised questions of motive in several parties, including that of Henry VIII. Although there is no question of who did the killing, this is still a tantalizing Tudor murder mystery, and reveals some of the peculiarities of the early modern age, when laws existed and homicide was considered a heinous crime, but there was no trained police force nor forensic science.

Why did Henry VIII demand this punishment of a lowly cook? Why was Roose executed as a traitor when his crime was murder of commoners? The answer lies in the King’s complex feelings for Bishop Fisher.

John Fisher was made bishop of Rochester by the King’s father, Henry VII, in 1504. Fisher performed the funeral services for Margaret Beaufort, the king’s mother, and Henry VII himself when they died, within months of each other, in 1509. In the first 20 years of the reign of Henry VIII, Fisher was considered “the greatest Catholic theologian in Europe, without any rival,” writes Eamon Duffy.

But by the time of the crime in question, King Henry was no longer proud of Bishop Fisher, 62 years of age. It would be safe to say he considered him an enemy. And it would have made the King’s life much easier if Fisher had lost his—if he had consumed the soup.

In 1527, when Henry VIII, desperate for a male heir, began his public quest for an annulment from 42-year-old Catherine of Aragon to marry the delectable young Anne Boleyn, Fisher became one of his most serious obstacles. The question of the royal marriage was a theological one, and if Europe’s most respected theologian had agreed in the rightness of King Henry’s cause, it would have done a lot to bring about the annulment. But Fisher took the side of Catherine of Aragon. The marriage was legal and could not be dissolved.

In 1529, Bishop Fisher announced at the trial of the royal marriage that it would impossible to die more gloriously than in the cause of marriage, as John the Baptist did. In that same year, when a proposal came to Parliament to dissolve the smaller abbeys—the beginning of Henry VIII’s destruction of the Catholic monasteries—Fisher “openly resisted it with all the force he could.”

Enter one Richard Roose. One of Fisher’s earliest biographers, Richard Hall, wrote in 1655 the most complete account of the poisoning. He is the only source to say that Roose was not the chief cook in Fisher’s household, which is significant: “After this the Bishop escaped a very great danger. For one Richard Rose came into the Bishop’s kitchen, being acquainted with the cook, at his house in Lambeth-marsh, and having provided a quantity of deadly poison, while the cook went into the buttery to fetch him some drink, he took his opportunity to throw that poison into a mess of gruel, which was prepared for the Bishop’s dinner. And after he had waited there a while, he went on his way.

“But so it happened that when the Bishop was called into his dinner, he had no appetite for any meat but wished his servants to fall to and be of good cheer, and that he would not eat till toward night. And they that did eat of the poisoned dish were miserably infected. And whereof one gentleman, named Mr. Bennet Curwen and an old widow, died suddenly, and the rest never recovered their health till their dying day.”

An inquiry began at once. Although a salaried police force did not yet exist in England, criminal investigation was taken seriously. Justices of the peace, appointed by the monarch, received and investigated complaints; coroners viewed dead bodies and ordered arrests. Now if a suspect was bound over for trial, freedom was unlikely. Defendants charged with felonies or treason did not exist. In fact, murder trials rarely lasted more than 15 minutes.

Roose was soon apprehended, and admitted to adding what he believed were laxatives to the soup as a “jest.” No one believed him. The always skeptical Imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys wrote a slightly different version of events to his master, Charles V, the nephew of Catherine of Aragon:

“They say that the cook, having been immediately arrested… confessed at once that he had actually put into the broth some powders, which he had been given to understand would only make his fellow servants very sick without endangering their lives or doing them any harm. I have not yet been able to understand who it was who gave the cook such advice, nor for what purpose.”

We share Chapuys’ frustration. Who gave the cook these powders and told him that they would sicken and not kill anyone? If that information was obtained, it was not shared with the public. No transparency.

Sir Thomas More, the lord chancellor, informed Henry VIII that there were rumors that Anne Boleyn and her father and brother, Thomas and George Boleyn, were involved in the poisoning attempt. The king reacted angrily, saying Anne Boleyn was unfairly blamed for everything, including bad weather.

The murder motive and the question of a larger plot were soon obscured by Henry VIII’s drastic actions. He decided that Roose should be condemned by attainder without a trial—a measure usually used for criminals who were at large. Roose was sitting in prison! Nonetheless, Parliament passed “An Acte for Poysoning,” making willful murder by means of poison high treason even if the victim was not head of the government of the land. And boiling to death became a form of legal capital punishment. This crime was especially heinous, the king’s representatives said, and thus called for such measures.

Several biographers have noted King Henry’s extreme fear of poison. Although the monarch’s paranoia became infamous in later years, there was some basis for concern. Everyone had heard the stories of murder by cantarella in Rome during the time of the Borgias. Pope Alexander VI, Rodrigo Borgia, died—perhaps of poison slipped into his food at a banquet—during the reign of Henry VII. Cantarella was believed to have been arsenic trioxide.

If poison was ever suspected as the cause of death at this time in England, there was no way to scrutinize its damage within the corpse to confirm. And should the poison itself be obtained, the field of analytical chemistry was four centuries away.

Not surprisingly, rumors ran wild. Poisoning was rumored (never proven) to be the cause of the deaths of Queen Anne, Richard III’s wife; the eventual death of Catherine of Aragon; and the agonizing death of Henry’s son, Edward VI. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, written in the reign of Henry’s daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, employed poison. Shakespeare wove it into five other plays too.

But there was more to this than royal terror of a poisoned dish. As historian K.J. Kesselring wrote in The English Historical Review, “This may explain the severe, exemplary punishment of boiling, but not the need to label the offense treason.”

In April the crowds of Smithfield witnessed Roose’s death. According to an eyewitness: “He roared mighty loud, and divers women who were big with child did feel sick at the sight of what they saw, and were carried away half dead; and other men and women did not seem frightened by the boiling alive, but would prefer to see the headsman at his work.”

The story of the king and the stubborn bishop doesn’t end there.

When, after the king married Anne Boleyn, Bishop Fisher refused to swear an oath of supremacy to the king, he was arrested. The pope made Fisher a cardinal to protect him, but it only enraged the king more. Once the monarch had ordered a savage punishment of the man who tried to kill Fisher, and now Henry VIII wanted Fisher gone.

After a difficult imprisonment, Fisher was beheaded on June 22, 1535 on Tower Hill. The crowd gasped when they saw him on the scaffold for he was “nothing…but skin and bones…the flesh clean wasted away, and a very image of death.” In his speech to the crowd, Fisher is said to have shown a calm dignity.

According to Fisher’s biographer: “And here I cannot omit to declare to you the miraculous sight of his head, which after 14 days grew fresher and fresher, for that in his lifetime he never looked so well…. the face looked as if it beholdeth the people passing by and would have spoken to them. Which many took as a miracle.”

In 1886, the Catholic Church made John Fisher a saint.

Accepting Defeat In Ukraine

In early November the Economist published an interview and several pieces by the commander in chief of the Ukrainian army, General Zaluzny. As I summarized:

Zaluzny’s central thesis is that the war is currently at a stalemate. It has become positional, with no large maneuvers being possible. He compares it to the war in Europe in 1917. There, he says, a change only happened through the introduction of new technologies (i.e. tanks).
…
I for one think that Zaluzny is mistaken. The war is not at a stalemate. Russia has clearly the advantage as it is free to maneuver along the whole frontline and to attack wherever it likes. It does not do so in full force because the current situation allows it to conveniently fulfill the order its commander in chief had given to it – to destroy the military capabilities of Ukraine.

Finally a western mainstream writer has caught up with those facts. Lee Hockstader, the Washington Post‘s columnist for European affairs,  opines:

In Ukraine, the risk isn’t stalemate. It’s defeat.

Hockstader laments the lack of support from the U.S. and Europe for the new demands the Ukraine is making. He states:

Without those infusions of cash, arms and munitions, even the disappointing status quo over the past year, in which Ukraine has not managed to recapture much territory, is unlikely to endure.

Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, told a Washington forum last week that the “big risk” is that Kyiv’s troops could “lose this war.”

That message should jolt policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic. The danger, as Ukraine’s top general warned publicly last month, isn’t simply stalemate. It is that Ukrainian forces, running low on equipment, might be compelled to fall back, shorten their defensive lines and abandon territory.
…
It’s essential to think about what Ukraine’s defeat means, because it would be as much a strategic disaster for the United States and its NATO allies as a tableau of terror for Ukraine. Dual cataclysms, equally stark, played out on different timetables.

Well, yes. The West has shot its wad and it proved to be sterile.

There will be no terror for Ukraine, just the loss of the ethnic Russian people, industries and land the communist – Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev – had for whatever reasons attached to it. The rest of it will be a smaller, more poor and purely agricultural rump state without access to the sea. This was obvious from the very beginning to anyone with a clear view of the balance of the forces involved in the war.

As I wrote on February 24 2022, the very day Russian forces entered Ukraine:

Looking at this map I believe that the most advantageous end state for Russia would be the creation of a new independent country, call it Novorussiya, on the land east of the Dnieper and south along the coast that holds a majority ethnic Russian population and that, in 1922, had been attached to the Ukraine by Lenin. That state would be politically, culturally and militarily aligned with Russia.

bigger

This would eliminate Ukrainian access to the Black Sea and create a land bridge towards the Moldavian breakaway Transnistria which is under Russian protection.

Excursus:

The yellow part of that map marked ‘Ukraine in 1654’ was actually the land of the Eastern Orthodox Zaporozhian Cossacks. Under threat from the Catholic Lithuanian-Polish Commonwealth, which at the time held the green parts under serfdom, they negotiated the Pereiaslav Agreement (1654) with Russia and pledged allegiance to the Tsar. They area thus became an autonomous part of Russia.

End Excursus

The rest of the Ukraine would be a land confined, mostly agricultural state, disarmed and too poor to be build up to a new threat to Russia anytime soon. Politically it would be dominated by fascists from Galicia which would then become a major problem for the European Union.

Thanks to Stalin’s additions to the Ukraine three countries, Poland, Hungary and Romania, have claims to certain areas in the Ukraine’s western regions. If they want to snatch those up again it is now probably the best time to do so. Despite being part of NATO, which likely would not support such moves, those three will have domestic policy difficulties to withstand the urge.

Since then we learned that Novorussiya will not be an independent state but a genuine part of Russia. So be it. Meanwhile analysts like Hockstader still delve in fantasies:

A complete Ukrainian military collapse is unlikely, at least in coming months. Kyiv’s armed forces remain well-led and motivated, and they are husbanding equipment to prepare for shortfalls. But it is equally unlikely to expect a negotiated cease-fire with Russia that would maintain existing battle lines. To believe in that seemingly anodyne outcome is to misjudge Putin — again.

This is not misjudging Putin, but misjudging the capabilities left to Ukraine.

It has run out of men and material. There are daily videos of this or that Ukrainian army unit condemning its leaders and announcing to leave its positions. The potential of a collapse of Ukrainian army is real.

On November 2 I also wrote about the 47th Ukrainian brigade:

During the last days tanks from the 47th brigade (Leo 2) and 10th mountain brigade (T-64BM/BV) have been seen, and were destroyed, near Avdiivka. Both brigades had only recently been mauled during their hopeless attacks at the southern front. It does not make sense to throw what is left of them into another battle without reconstituting them. The whole experience and knowledge these brigades had gained will be lost with them.

Yesterday, the Ukraine friendly Military Watch Magazine confirmed my opinion:

Ukraine’s Elite 47th Mechanised Brigade Surrounded and Low on Ammunition: Critical Front Faces Collapse

The Ukrainian Army’s elite 47th Mechanised Brigade stationed in the town of Avdiivka in the disputed Donetsk region has been surrounded and forced to contend with growing ammunition shortages, according to multiple reports from Ukrainian and Western sources. British reports indicate that the brigade was meant to attack a Russian column before it linked up with assault infantry on the northern flank of Avdievka, but failed to do so due to a lack of ammunition. The brigade’s efforts to stop the advance of Russian forces in Avdievka were described by The Times as “desperate,” fuelling perceptions of an “inevitable collapse” of Ukrainian positions, and diminished hope of preventing a Russian victory by the beginning of the New Year holidays.
…
A serviceman from the 47th Brigade, cited only as Sergeant Danylo, observing when interviewed over the past week “a shitty situation” as the shell shortage forced soldiers to make impossible life-and-death decisions.“We had 10 times more ammunition over summer, and better quality… American rounds come in batches of almost identical weights, which makes it easier to correct fire, with very few duds. Now we have shells from all over the world with different qualities, and we only get 15 for three days. Last week we got a batch full of duds.” Thus instead of firing on Russians as soon as they came within range, Ukrainian personnel increasingly had to wait to be sure the Russians were heading for their positions and to only engage large groups. Munitions produced by European states have very frequently been faulted for their quality, and at times been considered near useless, with Italian equipment being particularly notorious for its poor quality, in contrast to superior equipment either inherited from the Soviet era or produced in by the United States.

Now tell me again that these are “well-led and motivated” forces which are “husbanding equipment to prepare for shortfalls”. Neither rings true to me.

Hockstader continues:

For the Kremlin dictator, a “compromise” would involve Ukraine’s subjugation and dissolution as an independent state. That would include regime change, with Zelensky in exile (or dead), as well as an end to Kyiv’s aspirations to join the E.U. or NATO.
…
If he is right, the timetable of that ending would be accelerated if Congress and the E.U. fail to approve fresh support. That would leave Ukraine’s government unable to maintain basic services, and its military increasingly short of artillery ammunition, air defense capability and other equipment. Ukraine’s already badly battered front-line forces would become more brittle. Russian territorial gains would be accompanied by murders, rapes, kidnapping of children and other Russian war crimes on a chilling scale.

That grim scenario would be a staggering blow to Western prestige and credibility, revealing that pledges to back Ukraine for “as long as it takes” were empty.

Yes, those pledges, by Biden and others, were indeed empty. That is why he has recently changed his talk:

Amid a Republican standoff and polarizing politics that puts new aid to Ukraine at risk, President Joe Biden emphasized his administration’s willingness to support Ukraine, but the language was different. He said the US will be there for Kyiv “as long as we can.”

It’s a change in tune from previous messaging that the US would be a staunch and fierce ally to Ukraine, aiding it for “as long as it takes” to defeat Russia’s invasion.

The West can no longer support the proxy war it had started.

History will now follow its destined path.

Posted by b on December 14, 2023 at 10:59 UTC | Permalink

VIDEO: Ukraine Deputy Detonates THREE Grenades in Council Meeting

World Hal Turner 15 December 2023

Reports and video are coming in from what is described as a local Council Meeting in Ukraine, where a Deputy pulled pins on THREE Grenades and tossed them throughout the meeting, causing three explosions, the final one likely killing the Deputy who threw them.

Video of the incident appears below and — WARNING — it shows pretty much everything.

The Deputy walks into the meeting room and closes the door behind him.  He stands at the closed door.  An argument is ongoing at the meeting and the Deputy tries to intervene, to no avail.  With that, he pulls a grenade from his suit pocket, pulls the pin and tosses it.  He then takes out another and repeats the process.   He then pulls out a third grenade and apparently holds onto it after pulling the pin; perhaps to intentionally kill himself.

At this point, the name of the Deputy is not clear, and the type and location of the meeting is also not known.

What __is__ known is that numerous people in the tiny meeting room were either killed or injured seriously.

RUMORS abound over this incident, and several of the RUMORS claim the meeting was for people who want Ukraine to surrender and make peace with Russia.

WARNING: Graphic Video of three grenades exploding in a small council meeting room.  Viewer discretion is advised:

DAMN! -MM

MM version of the video in MP4 format. Worth a watch. HERE.

43 Year Old Admits “The Movement” Is BS And Being A Carousel Rider Is NOT Empowering!

Very true…

What has your child told you that caused you to call the police?

My son, who is mixed race, told me that another boy at school was calling him names and throwing lighted matches at him – some of which could have burned his clothing with dire results. I called the police. They sent a very large and imposing officer who told us “I’ll take care of this”, invited my eight year old son into the back of the police car and drove him to school – opening the door for him and escorting him to the principal’s office to deal with the culprit. My son was thrilled that he was the talk of the school for arriving in a police car and the bully was suitably scared out of his wits enough to never try such a thing again.

Global Supplier of Crucial Electrical Products Announces 20 Week DELAY in most-important parts!

Nation Hal Turner 14 December 2023

SCHNEIDER Electric is the second largest manufacturer of electrical components in the world.  The things they make are absolutely crucial to our daily lives: Crucial electrical infrastructure, industrial automation, Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC’s), etc.  Without __any__warning, SCHNEIDER announced to its partners in the US . . .

. . . a TWENTY-WEEK DELAY for “Engineered-to-Order (ETO)” products for Quarter 1 next year!   That’s almost a half a year delay   ! ! ! ! ! 

Folks, ETO projects are major private and public infrastructure, power grids, etc.  The grids are not readily able to deal with this kind of manufacturing delay. 

Even more ominous, this ETO equipment, is the same gear the FBI recently issued warnings over, for expected CYBER-ATTACKS!

So FBI is warning about Cyber-Attacks targeting ETO gear like PLC’s and now, the second largest manufacturer of these exact components, is announcing twenty week delays for Q1 orders!

One industry insider told me “The reason this is so weird is this company is very good at planning. They supply billions of $ in critical components. They aren’t perfect but they usually have a plan when they announce something like this.  Not this time. The plans behind the announcement letter (shown below) are very shallow. They got the note out WAY before anyone on their teams knew what is going on. MANY questions with no answers. That is very weird.”  Here is the SCHNEIDER Letter to Partners in the USA:

His remark got me thinking: WHY?

Could it __really be__ that they simply cannot get parts via the supply chain, OR . . .  is this wait and hold critical infrastructure so you can step in and replace damaged infrastructure after attacks happen? Is another possibility Critical redesign?  Did they find holes in security and need to redesign . . . . and will stop projects to push an updated design out?

And if they are THAT confident that attacks are going to happen, then one wonders how it is they know?  Did FBI tell them?

Over the past several weeks, media outlets have carried 24 assorted local stories about 24 sites that have been hacked. The ones discussed publicly are Hawaii water systems, Texas power grid, and west coast water systems near ports. All areas that will be critical to weaken for an invasion or conflict. Near borders.

 War Preparation?

Preparations for a world War are clearly taking place in very many countries around the world.

For the first time, US citizens are likely to see the direct consequences of war on our own soil.

If people spent more time following world events and wars without being clouded by their own “normalcy bias,” they could piece together what is likely to happen.

In Ukraine, Russia crippled their power grid and attacked their ability to make the tools of war. Most all war materials have to come from outside.

Now imagine Russia striking US infrastructure and OUR ability to make tools of war . . . when our stockpiles have already been depleted by Ukraine.

Oh, and let’s not forget that Israel is toast without US arms support.

But, what is most concerning to me is that the US has made no real efforts to truly ramp up production of war materials.  Lots of talk, very little tangible action.

It’s like the US is planning on just going straight to nuclear. But Russian Air defense systems are proven best in the world and their likelihood of survival is much higher than the US.

Contacts I have from my years in the Intelligence Community are telling me the US is too corrupted to survive what is coming.

But real companies with very smart people with analysists with real MBA’s see what is coming and are preparing.

The Intel guys I’ve talked to tell me bluntly: “USA has never been weaker than it is right now.”

I don’t know how it’s going to play out exactly but this is the most dangerous time we have been in up to this point in human history.

One would be very wise to put the pieces together and be willing to make the very hard decision on what is required to survive it.

 Because another source (unverified) told me there are currently ~35,000 terrorists in country awaiting a go signal.

Imagine an Oct. 7th style attack all over the US, if all 35,000 operatives struck at once . . . as the much smaller cells did in the ‘Day of Wrath” that hit Israel. 

Oh, and don’t forget that several months ago, we all found out there is also 60,000 lbs. of ammonium nitrate fertilizer that was taken off a train in Southern California, that has never been accounted for.  Ammonium Nitrate is what Timothy McVeigh used to construct the truck bomb that detonated outside the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.  That bomb was reported to be only 4500 pounds.   So the amount of Ammonium Nitrate already missing, could make more than TEN such bombs.

We seem to be sitting ducks.

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

This isn’t a tall tale… I once saw 3 guys in a pub start a fight with a bloke I worked with who’d been a pikey bare-knuckle boxer. My mate’s dad had forced him into fighting for money when he was a kid, but in his 20s he’d met a lass and decided he wanted a normal life so he walked away from his gypsy family, got a job and a house, and settled down. He was a really nice guy, a proper grafter, and good to talk to — he had a real philosophy about him and always gave great advice if you had any problems. He didn’t talk much about his old life, just every now and then he’d maybe open up a bit about how he’d hated it and couldn’t forgive his dad who’d beaten him if he didn’t fight and beaten him if he’d lost. None of what he said was bullshit, he was a sincere, honest guy who you could see had been in a lot of fights and just wanted some peace and quiet. He was also a really good husband and father, he was absolutely determined not to repeat the mistakes.

We were on a job in London, went out after work one night, and three locals did the old “you spilled my drink” routine on him. He tried apologising but one of them shoved him. I was sat at a table facing it and before I could even react, all three guys were dropping and he was stepping away. If you’ve ever seen a tarantula move faster than you blink, it was like that. Afterwards he said one of the things you learn as a bare-knuckle fighter is where and what angle to hit people.

Trades are valuable

Braised Beef, Shanxi Style

Ingredients

• 1 pound (400g) lean boneless beef
• 1/2 g fennel seed
• 10 teaspoons (50ml) soy sauce
• 3 1/2 ounces (100ml) chicken or duck broth
• 4 tablespoons cornstarch (corn flour), dissolved in 4 tablespoon water
• 2 teaspoons rice wine
• 3 ounces (100g) scallions, chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh ginger, chopped
• 3 1/2 fluid ounces (100ml) sesame oil
• 1/4 teaspoon MSG (optional)

Instructions

1. Wash the beef and cut into thin slices. Mix with the soy sauce and scallions.
2. Stir the cornstarch-water mixture and add.
3. Heat the sesame oil in a work add the fennel seeds. Heat to very hot or until the oil starts to smoke, and add the beef. Stir-fry until barely cooked.
4. Add the stock, rice wine and MSG (optional). Cover the wok, and boil rapidly for 1 minute.
5. Add the ginger, stir and remove.

Red Meat

Solution found…

No right answer

What aspects of Chinese culture could the world learn from?

Retired life!

When Chinese people get old, they hang out in the park. They form musical bands, dancing troupes, and gaming rings. They practice taichi for exercise and some even swing swords around. Many practice calligraphy on the pavement with a brush and a jug of water.

Charming, right? I really like the sense of community between old people in China. Getting old doesn’t mean you can’t share hobbies with friends.

Now, of course this only refers to the old people lucky enough to have money saved up to provide for themselves or kids that help support them, but that’s a topic for another time. For now I’d like to keep this answer wholesome. 🙂 Happy Saturday everyone~

I figure if I transition…

As a police officer, have you ever encountered someone who turned out to be far more dangerous than you expected?

While serving as a detective, in Shetland, I received a notification that paramedics were attending a stabbing incident, in Scalloway harbour. The victim was fading fast, we were told. My colleague and I made our way there, some 5 miles from our offices, in Lerwick. We arrived quickly and paramedics rolled up at almost the same instant we did.

While they attended to the victim, who had been on board a yacht, moored in the harbour, one of them confirmed that it was likely to be life-threatening, and a witness stated that an older man and a youth had left the area, hurriedly, just before the victim had been found. We were given a very brief description and I recognised it as fitting two males, who I had seen walking away from the harbour area, as we had arrived. I passed a description of the men, and we checked the streets of the small village, without success. We returned to the seafront, where I wanted to check inside a local hostelry, just as the two walked out, having removed their jackets and hat (in the case of the younger man). I spoke to them both and they identified themselves as New Zealand nationals, a “respectable businessman” and his son, who were visiting Shetland on business. The son – still a teenager – looked like he wanted to throw up, but his Dad appeared entirely calm and unruffled, as if he had not a single care in the world.

I detained both men, on suspicion of aggravated assault, and – to much protest from them both – arranged to have them conveyed back to the station, separately, for later questioning and investigation. Having done so, we returned to the harbour, where the paramedics had realised the victim was suffering a single penetrating stab wound to the chest, which had caused a tension pneumothorax. They had aspirated him, with a needle and were conveying him to the local hospital, for urgent and critical procedures. We were advised he was not stable, at that time, having lost a lot of blood.

The victim was identified to us as a German national, and yachtsman, resident in Shetland, while the suspect was identified as being the older Kiwi.

We returned to the station, where the custody sergeant informed me that the older suspect had just volunteered under caution, during his detention process, that the German had been drunk and had attacked him with a filleting knife. There had been a struggle and Dad alleged that his son had grabbed the knife off the man, accidentally stabbing the victim with it. He would say no more (having blamed his own son, the brave soul that he was).

The son had made no comments, but had appeared stunned, the sergeant said.

I interviewed both, separately, as I was the senior – and more experienced – detective present, albeit only a Detective Constable, myself. This was, by now, an attempt murder enquiry, plus I was the better interviewer. Dad spent 45 minutes saying, “no comment” to every single question put to him, relating to the incident. He still appeared as unruffled and calm as if he was out for a Sunday stroll, showed no stress, no discomfort, and still claimed to be a respectable New Zealand businessman. Other than that, “no comment”.

The son said he was in Shetland with his Dad, who wanted to see about buying up an old inter-island ferry boat, which was being sold off. He told us that Dad had sailed around the world, many times, and knew that if a boat could handle the seas around Shetland, in a harsh winter, it could pretty much handle the seas anywhere else in the world, at their worst. He said Dad’s was a tourist-derived business, but declined further comment, when asked for more details – about anything else.

We were a small department – a detective sergeant and then two detective constables (a third was on annual leave), with five uniformed officers then on shift, all with their own duties. But as this was an attempted murder, we could direct them, in assisting us with our enquiries. Their interviews turned up some more details – the yacht was owned by Dad, but the German had arrived in Shetland, having sailed the yacht there, months earlier. Dad had arrived in mainland Scotland, and then onto Shetland, only days earlier, with his son in tow. He had spent time in the company of some locals, who had said he had shown “a nasty temper” and they “wouldn’t want to mess with him”.

So I went back into interview, with Dad. He was irked by this, now slightly testy and refusing to answer any question with anything other than “no comment”. I told him he was perfectly entitled to do so, however it wouldn’t stop me asking my questions. He grew louder and louder in his, by now, yelled, “no comment!” to every question and I could see I was getting to him. So I took another break, as we had now gone through another 45 minute tape.

I brought his son back in, put Dad in to his cell, and let them see one another – just a glimpse of son being led out, as Dad was placed in the cell. Dad started screaming at his son, “No comment, boy! You make no fucking comment!”

I told the son, honestly, that his father had already made a voluntary statement under caution, blaming him (the son) for the stabbing. I told this terrified 17 year old that the German was in surgery and still might not make it out, alive. In which case, with the absence of any further information, it was Dad’s word, weighed against his own son’s silence, that son was responsible. If he did not make any comment, at this time, his father’s account would be accepted, son would be arrested – either for attempted or actual murder (if the victim expired as a result of his injury) – and face the consequences. He would be unlikely to receive bail for such an offence and so would be held in custody, in prison, until such time as a trial would commence.

That was it. Son puked in the wastepaper basket and started crying. He immediately denied having stabbed anyone. He made plenty comments, thereafter. In fact, he said Dad and the German knew one another for years. The yacht was owned by Dad, although used by the German. The two men had argued, while they were all drinking onboard the yacht, about money owed the father, which Dad said the German was ripping off from him. This has escalated, the two had fought and Dad had grabbed up a knife, from the galley kitchen area . The German fell, son realised his father had stabbed the man, and then he and his Dad hurriedly left the yacht, his father disposing of the knife overboard, into the relatively shallow harbour waters.

Having received this information, I tasked a police unit to return to the harbour and see if the knife could be seen, and put into motion a request for a diving team, via my supervisor – a Detective Inspector 300 miles away, in Inverness. The uniformed cops thought they could see the knife, but would need the divers, to be sure.

I advised our local Procurator Fiscal Depute, of the case, and enquiries up to that point. He told me that, even if Dad copped to the stabbing, unless there was something else there, that could be evidenced, this “businessman” would be bailed, come Monday morning (this was now tea-time, Friday night). If I could arrest him, I had a weekend, no longer, to hold him in custody.

I told him that what bothered me was this guy was unfazed by having almost killed a man. He never even asked how the man – an alleged old friend – was doing, or showed any concern or regret. There was…. nothing. “He is too cool”, I told the Fiscal. “This guy makes the skin between my shoulder blades itch. He is dangerous.”

“Prove it”, I was told.

The hospital came on, to say the German had pulled through, but the stab wound was deep, and either well placed or accidentally almost-lucky, as it had just missed his heart, nicking his vena cava, instead.

Now, when I said this guy bothered me, I mean he really, really bothered me.

So I went back into interview with him, and took him for one of my “walks around the houses”, as an old colleague used to call them. Seeming unassociated chat and questions, almost like a free flow of investigative consciousness – of which I took a careful note, of course. Early on, he was testy. Then he became narked, yelling his “No comment! No comment!” again, to anything and everything I said. When I started talking about his business – I had Googled his given address, he got antsy and even more angry. He ended up yelling at my colleague, “Can you not make him shut! The fuck! UP!!” I was all sweetness and light, still talking about New Zealand, tourism and his business, as if I hadn’t heard. He put his head in his hands and at that point, I asked him why he had stabbed his friend, who was alive and now recovering. His head shot up and he went very still and didn’t answer – which I pointed out, for the tape, describing his demeanour for purposes of the recording. I asked why they had been arguing, and if Dad owned the yacht. He didn’t answer and I pointed this out, again, with his demeanour. I asked why he had wanted his son to take the blame. Same response. I asked why he had thrown the knife overboard and the skin around his weatherbeaten eyes went very white. I told him we had divers coming for the knife, that he was staying all weekend and that we would be talking again. He tried, unsuccessfully, to upend the table, at that point, lunging to his feet, face now stark white, other than two red spots on his cheeks. He whispered, surprisingly calmly, “I could kill you.” I repeated that statement, for the benefit of the tape. I think he recognised that as a mistake.

I spent three hours of my own time, after knocking-off time, that night, open source-searching this guy, on my work computer. He had an unusual name, and I used it in connection with “New Zealand” “kiwi” “yachtsman” “sailor” “round the world” and similar phrases.

Finally, I got a hit, and it was a good one. It was a front page story in a south east-Asian newspaper, about a corrupt justice minister who had been arrested and tried, having been taped, several years previously, whilst in a three-way call between the suspected head of the world’s largest Triad gang (no, really!), and a New Zealand drug dealer. The NZ dealer had also served time in an American federal penitentiary, it seemed, having once sailed a yacht packed with drugs into a harbour, there, and straight into the arms of US Customs. The reports said he was now (at time of publishing) linked to this Triad gang and the world’s largest “Shabu” factory, believed to somewhere in or around the Philippines. “Shabu” is how they refer to Crystal Meth, down there.

Real “I am the one who knocks!” material (no, really!)

I spoke to the PF Depute, at his home (before finally heading off to my own home), to be told that he would try and use this to hold Dad, in custody, as a flight risk, and was fairly certain he could get at least two weeks on a “lie-down”, out of it. He went on that I should get Dad’s prints off to our Interpol liaison, ASAP, with a request to have them prioritised. I had already done so, but was advised it would take at least three weeks for any hit to come back. Meantime, he was still a “respectable NZ businessman”, newspaper article aside.

I went home, head whirring but knackered. Three and a bit scant hours later, I was awoken by an urgent call from Force HQ, on my mobile, telling me that I had to be at my office desk within 30 minutes, as a call would be coming in for me. I asked if a message could be taken and the Detective Sergeant at the other end – our Force Intelligence Officer – laughed and said absolutely not. He had been woken up in the night, for this, and so I could face the same fate! He wouldn’t say any more, so I dressed and made my rather bleary way into the station, and my office.

Sure enough, almost bang on the hour, my phone rang. “Call for you”, said our unnaturally cheery Force Intel Officer, and with that, I found myself suddenly talking to a rough-voiced, blunt-spoken (i.e. he swore a lot) Australian gentleman, who identified himself as a Detective Superintendent in an international task force. He asked if I had (insert name of Dad, here) in custody. I confirmed that I had. He asked what for and I told him I planned on reporting Dad for attempted murder. He paused to yell, off-handset, “SHUT THE FUCK UP!!” then asked if it was “a good one”. I told him I believed it would be. I explained about the stabbing, about the son, the German, the yacht, the alleged “rip-off”, and that got him excited. He asked me to wait one, and I heard him yell out that he had a cop in “Shetland?”, (I confirmed this and next heard him cry, “Will some bastard find me Shetland on a fucking map!”) on the phone and this “inspector” had (insert Dad’s full name here) in custody, on an attempted murder – a stabbing, no less. There were a few more yells and swears, in the background, and he told me the prints had been flagged, and he had been notified of a hit, in Scotland, of all places. He explained they had been tracking Crystal Meth, arms and even people, all being smuggled out of SE Asia, into Australasia. His main target was a big-time Bad Man (with capitals), in Australia, but Dad was the means by which the drugs and other items were believed to be shipped there. He explained this guy, Dad, travelled around, using his sailing prowess – he was a genuine former competitive yachtsman – to buy up suitable boats. These were used to ship their cargos to their destinations. He told me that Dad had been implicated in several murders, directly, by witnesses – former colleagues in his ventures – always with a knife. He liked to get “up close and personal”, while dealing with these “rats”, having been in the military, once upon a time and even lied to underlings about being ex-Special Forces, to boost his legend. Upward rising knife thrust to the heart (missing the ribs), with a long thin blade, was his alleged preferred killing stroke. Unfortunately, any and all witnesses had subsequently disappeared. The task force believed Dad had either killed them, or else had them killed. “Watch your witness”, he warned me. He promised I would have an Intel file, via our Force Intel Officer, within 24 hours, for our Fiscal and the Crown Office. Their difficulty had been in identifying his travel. They had his NZ passport flagged, but there was no record of him having left the country, in years, other than the odd short trip once or twice. I asked about his Panamanian passport and, again, he went quiet. “His WHAT?!” I explained that I had noticed, at the custody bar, while his belongings were being processed, that he had two passports – one from NZ, one from Panama. I knew that, at that time, it was possible to effectively buy a Panamanian passport, if you had business registered there, sufficient capital and enough connections. This gave Dad dual nationality and, from his reaction, it seemed that the task force didn’t know about it. “Do you have it?” he asked, excitedly. “Yes, but it’s sealed in his belongings and can’t be opened unless he is present, without lawful authority”. He swore profusely until I told him I had photocopied both passports and their contents, in case they’d come in useful. He was fairly chuffed, by this, and when I read off some of the travel dates and destinations, he was even more so.

I arranged to send him all I had, in return for everything they had. He ended the call by telling me that I might even get a promotion to Chief Inspector out of this. I told him that might not be that likely, as I was a Detective Constable. He wouldn’t believe me, so I told him my details would be on the email, when he got it all. He ended by saying that Dad was number 6 on their 10 Most Wanted list, at that time, in Australasia, while his Aussie counterpart was #2. I told him I’d take 6 of 10, by their standards!

Anyway, I re-interviewed Dad, who was fairly crestfallen that NZ had been in touch, already. He hurriedly amended his story, alleging self-defence, but it was too late. He appeared in court, both passports were seized and he was placed in prison on that 14 day “lie-down”, while I carried out further enquiries.

And then…

He had the German “helped” out of the hospital and off the island, by two large men, posing as cops, to hospital staff, while Dad was on his “lie-down”, awaiting his first diet at court. We checked plane and ferry terminals (benefits of an island) and then passed info and photos, from ferry CCTV, to mainland police, who identified a hire vehicle, just too late to stop them leaving. The licence plate went into the National ANPR system and it was tracked headed for Newcastle and the international ferry to Holland, there. The German was retrieved, safe and well, and went on record, claiming that the two men had plastic sheeting and shovels in the hire car (they did) and had planned on killing him and burying his body over there, before returning, one man lighter.

We couldn’t pin that on Dad, as the two men wouldn’t cough to it, and the German wouldn’t press it, simply relieved to be “home”. He gave evidence against Dad, and then buggered off, sharpish. Never saw him again.

Dad got 3 and a half years for assault to severe injury, and I got a call from Force Intel, months later, that his calls were being intercepted (lawfully) and in one of those, he had asked an unknown male how much trouble it would cause, and how much it would cost, to “off a cop”. He had been advised against it.

That was the one and only time I worried about one of those clowns who swear they will find you and kill you….

So I repaid the favour, by continuing to keep in touch with my Australasian friends. They arranged for him to be met at the prison gates, on the day of his release, by plainclothes Officers, cuffed and conveyed to London. He was furious, as he expected to be free and clear to carry on about his business. They handed him off to New Zealand cops, who flew him home and locked him up. Turns out his wife/partner was an illegal immigrant and he was abusive towards her, and their son (who she now knew had been implicated in the stabbing, by his own Dad). The authorities offered her citizenship and she offered them all the info on his kiwi businesses and criminal dealings. I don’t know if they ever got the Aussie Bad Man, but Dad died, several years later, having served yet more time back home, and having been confirmed as HIV+, contracted whilst in prison.

One of the two best arrests I ever made.

As my sergeant noted, at my appraisal, that year, “not many cops your rank get a head on the wall like that one”. Of course, I still had to fight for a high assessment grading and then defend it to an outraged senior officer. I never got so much as a memo from my own force, related to that one. Several above me got promotions, though, funnily enough.

The last thing I’ll say (yes, there’s more) is that the first seizure of Crystal Meth in Scotland was recorded as being in Aberdeen, a few months after Dad’s arrest.

That’s not quite correct.

The first such seizure was albeit minimal, but was in Shetland, around the time Dad was here. But the powers that be sat on the info, rather than (they thought) make the place look bad (no, really!).

The info, from my task force chums, was that Dad had been seeking to establish a pipeline, for the drug, into the U.K., and rather than coming up through Europe, into the very heavily policed Dover, this switched-on and experienced sailor had planned on having boats packed with it, sail, first into Shetland, then down to one or more of the numerous remote inlets or bays, on mainland Scotland (of which there are thousands), from whence it could be distributed nationally – the latter part being what the OCGs were doing with Cocaine, at one time. Customs would need to check every single fishing boat, small ferry or able bodied sea-faring vessel, in order to defeat those tactics – and there was no Customs presence in Shetland, as there was no longer international travel to and from the port here.

That case gives me a warm glow. Drug smuggler. People trafficker. Murderer. Simply awful father! Man of the world, career criminal, tripped up, in sleepy wee Shetland, and now pushing up daisies (better him than me!!), while I get to write long-winded stories about his nefarious ways.

Evil bastard.

Eat your heart out, Ann Cleeves.

Here endeth the (long) lesson.

Value talk

What are the most outrageously wrong answers written by students on their test papers that you took down to the teacher’s lounge for everyone to enjoy?

My favorites are the “I didn’t study so I asked someone to whisper the answer and I copied it hilariously wrong” answers.

A few samples:

What are elements with the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons called?

Correct answer: isotopes

What a kid wrote: ice tubes

The amount of product you expect to make in a chemical reaction is called the ________

Correct answer: theoretical yield

What a kid wrote: the radical yield

The device we use to light a Bunsen burner is called ________

Correct answer: striker

What a kid wrote: tricycle

The digits that indicate the accuracy of an answer are called_______

Correct answer: Significant figures

What a kid wrote: stick fingers

What is the formula of sodium nitrate?

Correct answer: NaNO3

What a kid wrote: Any 3

---

I get mad when the kids leave questions blank that we discussed for weeks and weeks. But when the answers are like this, I contemplate a new career. After I stop laughing.

A symbol of a declining society

Canadian Journalist Who Pushed Vaccine Mandates and “Concentration Camps” for Un-vax’d, DIES at Age 33

World Hal Turner 14 December 2023

A Journalist who advocated that those who were unvaccinated against COVID-19 be put in concentration camps, has died suddenly at the young age of 33.

Ian Vandaelle died after being hospitalized and “declared neurologically dead,” his family revealed.

Vandaelle was a business journalist who worked as a reporter and editor at the Financial Post.

He was also previously a producer at BNN Bloomberg for over a decade.

Vandaelle advocated for vaccine passports and mandates and called for the firing of anyone who refused the injections.

He also suggested that unvaccinated people should be arrested and taken away to concentration camps.

Hal Turner Editorial Opinion

Like so many other left-wing-ish / Liberal-ish people, this person seemed so smug and self-righteous in his (wrong-headed) belief in the new COVID-19 vaccine, that he seems to have ignored all the warnings put out by others, like me, who warned against taking the new, untested, unproven, mRNA “death dart.”

Yet as with so many others his age, He seemed to think, when it came to the COVID Vax,  HE knew better.   He seemed to think HE was so much smarter than the rest of us.  HE seemed to look down his nose at those of us who raised very real concerns about this new technology.   To HIM, the rest of us were just sniveling idiots; too stupid to embrace this new, life-saving, technology.

Looks to me like maybe he wasn’t so smart after all.  It is my personal opinion that the vaccine he thought so much of, killed him.

I think his ego blinded him to the reality . . . . and now . . . .  he’s dead.

It’s hard to feel sorry for someone so young, dying this way.  After all, if he had HIS way, all of us might be facing a similar fate – or be locked away in a Concentration Camp — just so HE and his ilk, could feel better.   No thanks.

This may turn out to be the new general epitaph for Liberals: “He thought he knew better than everyone else; now, he’s dead from what he thought.”

Found the kitten

What is an “Only in Japan” moment?

Japan is both overwhelmingly modern and traditional at the same time. This does not just apply to the amalgamation of skyscrapers and ancient Shinto shrines in cities like Kyoto, but also on a more sociological level. The matter of sexuality in Japan may not be one of the first things that come to mind but Japan is a country mostly free of religious morals.

Traditionally a sexually open society

Sexuality in Japan developed separately from that of mainland Asia, as Japan did not adopt the Confucian view of marriage, in which chastity is highly valued. Monogamy in marriage is less important in Japan, and married men often seek pleasure from courtesans. Prostitution in Japan has a long history, and became especially popular during the Japanese economic miracle, as evening entertainments were tax-deductible!

The Art of Shunga

Historically, pornography in Japan may have begun at the start of the Edo period (1603–1868) as erotic artwork referred to as shunga that was typically done on woodblock prints. Shunga literally means “spring pictures”. “At its best shunga celebrates the pleasures of lovemaking, in beautiful pictures that present mutual attraction and sexual desire as natural and unaffected” Tim Clark, curator of “Shunga: Sex and Pleasure in Japanese art”

Mass produced during the Edo period shunga offered sexuality a shameless visual platform. Shunga depicted sexual pleasure that included both heterosexuality and homosexuality, each not only acknowledged but also encouraged. Surprisingly prior the Edo Period there was no Japanese word for female sexuality, and Shunga changed this with the depiction of female pleasure including lesbianism.

Shunga was an essential part of Japanese society

Shunga had functions beyond its aesthetic appeal. Its primary use would have involved viewing and sharing the paintings or books with close friend or sexual partners. Like the Indian Kama Sutra the Shunga images were also used to provide sexual education for young couples. While shunga was chiefly commissioned by men, it has been found among the dowry goods presented to a Japanese bride, suggesting that it was also highly valued by women.

Most shunga was created by woodblock artists from the popular school ukiyo-e, ‘pictures of the floating world,’ a genre of painting that mainly illustrated life’s pleasures that was mass-produced as prints. Surprisingly traditional painters also produced a large quantity of shunga including members of the Kano School, known for their innovative secular paintings.

Samurai were seen as the keepers of morality in Japan. Shunga was both commissioned and accepted by the samurai as a pleasurable cultural pursuit, and thus the whole of Japanese society enjoyed shunga.

There was also an element of humour to shunga, which sometimes referred as warai-e or “laughing picture”. Shunga works are artefacts of an era in Japan where attitudes about sex were freer. Sex was seen as an everyday natural activity without shame and often was the centre of amusement.

Sex and Erotic Art in early Japan

By the Edo period in the early 17th to mid 19th centuries, there had been a long history of erotic art and secular sexual expression in Japan, which meant that shunga was nothing new. Prehistoric societies had developed phallic worship in connection with their reliance on agriculture and Japan’s creation myths are based on human-like sexual procreation. Throughout the centuries, the phallus and phallus shaped objects (for example, mushrooms) had been prominent figures in carvings, could be found in shrines, festivals, and along roadways, and were traditionally and superstitiously related to good luck, health and longevity.

What allowed for such an openness of sexual imagery and expression was the lack of any strict religious code that controlled sexual behaviour. Unlike in the West, which was dominated by a strict Judeo-Christian ideology, there was no moral shame and stigma surrounding sex or the production of erotic images in Japan — only a stringent class system based on Confucianism that dictated deference to status and appreciation of personal space.

Sex in Japan did not take on any ‘mythical’ or religious significance as it did in India and China. Furthermore, humour and wit had developed over the centuries as a common part of sexuality and was incorporated in the broader culture via allusions, euphemisms, sexually related stories and poetry. These and other cultural and religious factors allowed sex to be seen as a more naturalistic, enjoyable experience between partners, which in turn has produced a wide array of acceptable sexual behaviours in modern Japan including same-sex partners, and sexually related products such as sex toys, manuals, and even a chain of sex stores.

By the time of the Edo Period, the normalcy and humour found in sex, highly developed forms of sexual expressions, and the lack of moral or religious control all translated into an early modern culture that allowed shunga to flourish as a genre of popular art and sex to be open, fun and easily available.

From sexual openness to repression

Japan’s sexual freedom was a revelation to Europe, particularly its artists. Painters such as Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas and Picasso found fertile ground in Shunga imagery. As Japan sought modernisation and to be in line with ‘modern’ western social norms, the Meiji Government banned shunga in the early 20th century, becoming taboo within Japan. As Japan sought sexual repression Europe sought sexual liberation!

When Shunga was flourishing in Japan, in Christian Europe at the time shunga would have been deeded pornographic. Shunga is an impressive, unique tradition of pre-modern erotic art. It serves as testament to a once uninhibited, open-minded society that offered artists opportunities to express originality and unbridled emotion.

Celebrating Shunga Today

The history, humour and accomplishments of shunga are explored at the British Museum in Shunga: sex and pleasure in Japanese art. The exhibition looks at Japanese art like no other. Explicit and beautifully detailed the works on display are between the years 1600 and 1900, and such works continue today to influence manga, anime and Japanese tattoo art. The exhibition sheds new light on this sexuality explicit art form from Japanese social and cultural history. Parental guidance advised for visitors under 16.

The 48 Japanese sexual positions

If you have ever wondered how they do it elsewhere in the world, a recent Durex Ad may have caught your eye. It introduced some acrobatic positions within decidedly Canadian names: the ‘maple cinnamon twist’ and ‘the Niagara fall’ (the Canadian side, we are assuming).

There is not a lot of research on the top sex positions in different countries. Sex surveys tend to focus on other aspects of our time between the sheets (such as sexual satisfaction and frequency). That said, the Durex Sexual Wellbeing survey which questioned 26,000 people across 26 different countries does have some interesting insights into how different nations have sex. Overall worldwide less than 50% of people are sexually satisfied and as one gets older and has sex less often, dissatisfaction increases, particularly with males. The world has obviously become more sexually repressed.

The following images are illustrations of Japan’s 48 sexual positions — the “48 Ways” (shijuuhatte). These sex positions are inspired by sumo wrestling moves going back centuries. During the Edo period, the word 48 arms-hands started to be imbued with sexual meaning — “all the basic sexual techniques”.

Below, Japanese Durex condom commercial teaches you 48 ways to have sex with a wrestler. It’s kinda a humorous play to watch, so enjoy it!

Choosing sexual partners in Japan

Most men are attracted to younger and good-looking women, since it is believed that the women will be fertile and prodigy will also be attractive. It’s human instinct, and only moral education can try to repress this instinct. East Asian religions (Confucianism, Taoism, Shinoism, Buddihism) do not teach strong moral principles or prohibitions regarding sex. In fact sexual restrictions and the associate shame or guilt with sex is typically a Judeo-Christian or Islamic characteristic.

In modern Japan the Western desire by males for big breasts and shapely hips may also be based upon a subconscious belief of greater female fertility but the overriding influence has been Western film culture. For women in Japan, and the world over, power has always been a significant element when choosing a male partner. Power and sexual desire often go hand in hand since a powerful male can easily support and protect a family.

The more targets the US spies on, the fewer friends it has — Chinese FM

The US government has kept expanding its scope of surveillance, meddling in other countries’ domestic affairs and interfering in international affairs, which runs counter to international law and the fundamental principles of international relations, Chinese Foreign Ministry commented on the Section 702 of US’ Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) which allows the US intelligence agency to conduct unauthorized surveillance of non-US individuals abroad. The spokesperson added that “The more targets the US spies on, the fewer friends it has. The US needs a better sense of boundary and less obsession for control.”

During a press briefing on Thursday, media mentioned that US National Security Council member Joshua Geltzer said that Section 702 of the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), an important legal basis for US intelligence authorities to eavesdrop on non-US citizens overseas and step up international surveillance without authorization, will expire on December 31. It was estimated that nearly 60 percent of President Biden’s daily intelligence brief came from these “big ears.”

The warrantless government surveillance authority slated to expire in days is closer to lasting for at least a few more months after the US Senate on Wednesday local time passed an annual defense policy bill that included a temporary extension.

In response to that, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), adopted after Watergate, was originally aimed at preventing government authorities from abusing power and carrying out arbitrary eavesdropping.

However, Section 702, added in 2008, permit the National Security Agency to carry out eavesdropping and surveillance without obtaining an individualized court order, Mao said.

After that, the US government has been expanding the scope of eavesdropping and surveillance to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs and meddle in the normal course of international affairs. This practice runs counter to international law and basic norms governing international relations, Mao said.

“The more targets the US spies on, the fewer friends it has. The US needs a better sense of boundary and less obsession for control,” Mao added.

27 Years Ago This Animated Television Series “Duckman” SHOWED Men Are Going Their Own Way

Are people scared to join the military? How do they deal with this?

A couple of months ago, we had an IT guy in our office who had just received his summons to serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

It was a Friday and he had to appear at the military commissariat four days later, on Tuesday. Needless to say, the summons papers pretty much ruined his weekend.

War is a dangerous affair: a wall in Kyiv that commemorates the country’s fallen heroes from 2014 till today. (Picture by the author of this post)

I have rarely seen a man who was more scared than this poor guy. He was literally sweating. He really wasn’t the fighter type: mid 30s but looking older, non-athtletic body type and a small beer belly.

There was nothing we could do for him. He should have seen it coming. There’s compulsory service in Ukraine and people like him are getting drafted every day.

In our office, most (male) workers have already bought proper body armor and helmets for themselves, some of them even got guns and regularly train on the shooting range. In addition, they help me and my friends to support the military with equipment. When these guys get their summons, they’ll be prepared.

So yes, some people are scared when they have to join the military.

Advice you NEED to hear in your 20s (not what you’d expect)

Very unique and interesting point of view.

What was women’s hygiene like in 1700s Europe? What did they do about the growth down there back then? Didn’t lice harass them?

As far as Europe is concerned (as opposed to, let’s say Africa or the Middle East, for instance), body hair was left to grow until well into the 20th century.

Men typically shaved or trimmed their beards according to the fashion at the time, hair was cut , curled, bleached or dyed, equally accordingly but body hair was left to do its own thing.

This is valid for all strata of society.

Otherwise, in the absence of running water, both sexes usually washed in a bidet, which was filled with warm water and/or perfume/cologne/eau de toilette. Basically, just like you would with a wet wipe, you moisten a cloth or sponge with perfume and clean your entire body with it.

Women using a bidet, by Willem-Joseph Laquy 1771.

So, basically, in spite of many claims to the opposite, there’s no reason to believe that people in the 1700’s would have been much dirtier than nowadays, although the mix of armpit smell and perfume would probably have been noticeable.

Lice is always a problem. However, just like nowadays, a variety of treatments were available, usually in the form of perfumes, what we now call essential oils, etc. They kill the eggs and you can get rid of the bugs themselves with a fine tooth comb.

And here it is…

Women PANIC As They Realize Men Don’t Want To Marry Older Women

Man, the USA is so terribly fucked up. Take me “home”. Please!

Russia Warns If NATO Bases Used For Ukrainian Jets, Those Bases Could Be Targeted

World Hal Turner 15 December 2023

With the Russia-Ukraine war now approaching the two year mark (in February), Americans might need reminding that the conflict remains a highly dangerous situation which could at any moment escalate into a WW3 scenario. 

Zelensky’s visit to Washington this week was lackluster, and he left without securing what Kiev is hoping for – that Congress would quickly pass Biden’s $106 billion war funding request, which also includes defense funds for Israel. Of course, at this point Zelensky has complained publicly that the crisis in Gaza has taken the world’s focus off the need to defend Ukraine from Russia’s onslaught. 

Though headlines in the West barely took notice, Russia early Wednesday launched a significant ballistic missile attack on the Ukrainian capital, which authorities said injured at least 53 people, including six children, with severe damage to a number of buildings. 

But with Zelensky in Washington, making the rounds to the Oval office and the halls of Congress, the Kremlin issued a fresh warning saying that if Ukraine’s military is granted access to NATO airbases for sorties using western-made planes, in would respond while deeming Ukraine’s external allies as direct participants in the war.

The fresh warning was announced by Konstantin Gavrilov, head of the Russian delegation to the military security and arms control talks in Vienna:

“We already hear comments that, amid the significant destruction of Ukraine’s airstrip infrastructure, the F-16s handed over to Ukraine may carry out their missions from airbases in Poland, Romania and Slovakia,” he said during the OSCE Forum meeting on cooperation in security.

According to the diplomat, Moscow will view this as these countries’ participation in the conflict and will force Russia to resort to “response measures.”

Even though certain eastern European allies pledged F-16s long ago, it could still be a lengthy amount of time before Ukrainian pilots are fully trained, enough to be deployed in combat on the US-made warplane. 

Western officials have in recent months admitted that Russia has the upper hand, and that Ukraine’s summer offensive failed, but everyone is now putting in place their ‘long war’ strategies. The Kremlin’s new warning and threat also seems part of this longer term planning from Moscow’s perspective. 

What’s the most inaccurate thing your child has ever been taught in school?

(My answer contains information that some people might find offensive. Please be advised. I am just sharing an experience I had. Thank you!)

I don’t remember exactly which grade my daughter was in when this happened, but it was when she was in elementary school.

It was a sunny weekend afternoon, I asked her, “Do you want to go to the park?” – which was her favorite thing to do, she had never refused it. But to my surprise, she said no. “Why?” – I asked.

“I don’t want to turn to black!”, she answered. “What!?”, I asked, dropping my jaw. “It’s sunny. The sun will shine on me and make my skin dark”, she pointed to the sun. “Who told you that?!”, I was stunned. She then grabbed the map, and explained to me, “This is Africa. It’s near the equator. They have a lot of sun over there, they are outside a lot, that’s why their skin turns dark. Our intern teacher told us that.”

You have no idea how angry I got when I heard this.

The next Monday morning, I took my daughter to school. After dropping her off, I asked for a meeting between that intern teacher and the principal. I explained the situation and demanded an explanation. The intern teacher was scared, he said he was just “joking”. He wanted to tell the kids that they need to wear a hat and use sunscreen when they are outside in the sun, or else they will get tanned; that’s why he “joked” like that.

I could tell the “face-palm” from the principal’s look. She apologized to me and promised me she would give my daughter’s class a special lesson to “fix” this issue (And she did. My daughter later that day went home and told me they had a lesson about protecting our skin). But the damage was already done. It took a long time with a lot of reading and explaining for me to erase the thought that “dark skin” was equal to “a bad thing” from my daughter’s mind.

I don’t know what happened to that intern teacher, but I hope he learned his lesson.

Carousel Rider Has MELTDOWN After BF Dumps Her Upon Learning She Had “Relations” With Over 300 Men

What is the nastiest thing you’ve done for revenge?

Back in the 1990s, my former father-in-law (my then-wife’s father), who I’ll call Joe, was the one instigating our divorce. He was one of those macho cop types, kind of a good ol’ boy.

I found one of those subscription cards in a copy of Out magazine on the rack. Out magazine was for gay people who decided to come out of the closet. I put Joe’s full name and his nextdoor neighbor’s address on the subscription card and mailed it in. (I used a typewriter in a store so my handwriting couldn’t be traced back to me).

Imagine his shock and horror when his neighbor showed up at his door and said, “Hi Joe, your Out magazine came to my house by mistake.” 😂

Nowadays, I regret such a juvenile tactic, but I was a bit crazy at the time because it was a messy divorce.

Has anyone tried to do something crazy in an Uber?

In December 2023, 27-year-old Neusha Afkami had to go the airport in Austin, Texas. She got an Uber, and told the driver he to “make it fast”, as she had a plane to catch and she needed to be on it desperately. Much to her frustration, the driver wasn’t going very fast.

Neusha felt she could go faster… so after berating the man, she took the driver’s phone… and threw it out the car window. He immediately stopped the vehicle to retrieve his phone and when he did, Mrs. Afkami jumped in the driver’s seat and drove off, leaving her Uber driver standing helplessly by the side of the road. Not only did she take the car, she also took the man’s wallet, which he left behind as he got out. While at the airport, she went on a 130 dollar shopping spree with the man’s credit card as she waited for boarding.

Of course, knowing his own car’s information like the back of his hand, the Uber driver immediately called the police. Before Neusha Afkami could even board her plane, she was located and arrested by Texas police, putting an end to her little bout of playing-GTA-in-real-life.

Knowing These Life Lessons After 40 is Like Cheating. Literally.

As a police officer, what is the saddest thing you have seen a parent do?

The Innocent Victim

It was during a drug search warrant of a heroin dealer’s house. We executed the warrant and located the target of the investigation, a 40-year-old male at home. He also had a live-in girlfriend who, like her man, was an intravenous user of heroin.

His girlfriend had a two-year-old toddler whom we found crawling around the living room floor. The child was naked and dirty and crying. He was a good-looking child, but what would his future hold in that environment? We located drugs and drug paraphernalia all over the house. Most disturbing were the numerous uncapped needles lying on the floor and coffee table right near the toddler. Additionally, there were remnants of powdered heroin and cocaine on the coffee table, which could easily be reached by the child.

My sergeant flipped out on the woman — and asked if she was crazy, exposing her child to used uncapped needles and powered narcotics on the table. The woman just sort of smiled and almost in slow motion said it was her kid and it was none of his business. She was clearly in a drug-induced stupor.

My sergeant replied that he was not only seizing the illegal drugs but was also seizing the child. With that, he scooped up the child in his arms and walked out of the house. He instructed our evidence officer to photograph the living room to document the horrible and dangerous conditions.

My sergeant stood outside and called the division of family services. They didn’t want to respond until the following morning. He emphatically informed them that the child had been removed from this unsafe environment and either they would come and take the child or our next stop was the local newspaper.

They responded to the scene, witnessed the horrible conditions where the child was housed and took the child from the doped-up mother. Three days later they returned the child to the mother at the same house.

Moving that child back into a drug house full of used needles and drugs was the saddest thing ever I witnessed a parent do to their child. When I hear people speak of legalizing all drugs, I think back to that helpless innocent victim.

Mister Ed – Nick Knacks Episode #053

Korean Taco with Florida Citrus Kimchi

Ingredients

Marinade

• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup Florida orange juice
• 1/4 cup chopped green onion
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1 1/2 tablespoons rice wine
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
• 2 pounds beef short ribs, boneless, thinly sliced

Florida Citrus Kimchi

• 1 cup Kimchi (Korean spicy pickled cabbage)
• 1/4 cup Florida orange segments
• 2 teaspoons lime juice
• 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil

Assembly

• 6 flour tortillas
• 2 cups shredded red cabbage

Instructions

1. Marinade: Combine all ingredients in a bowl; mix thoroughly to ombine.
2. Place short ribs in a nonmetallic dish. Pour marinade over short ribs; cover and refrigerate. Marinate at least three hours or preferably overnight.
3. Florida Citrus Kimchi: Combine all ingredients in bowl; toss to combine. Reserve.
4. Drain marinade from short ribs; discard marinade. Grill short rib slices over medium-high heat for 1 to 2 minutes per side. Remove cooked slices from grill; place on cutting board. Slice short rib slices crossways into small, bite size pieces of meat.
5. Assembly: Heat tortillas over medium heat on the grill or in a sauté pan. Place a small amount of shredded cabbage in the center of each tortilla; top with 1/4 cup short rib meat and 2 tablespoons Florida Citrus Kimchi.
6. Serve immediately.

Yield: 6 servings

What happened in a courtroom that gave the judge a belly laugh you will never forget?

I was the arresting officer on a DUI case. I received a subpoena to appear in court. The man was so drunk he peed al over himself and other stuff in the intoxilyzer room. I thought it was for his guilty plea, but was wrong. He hired an attorney the day before trial and plead not guilty and had not viewed the tape. When the tape was played and everyone watched him pee and slip to the floor and splash his hands in his mess, the judge actually had an out loud laugh along with the rest of the court room.

As it turn out he was a regular drunk and was so out of it he had no idea he had done that. Needless to say, he changed his plea to guilty, the jury was dismissed and the judge imposed a very sever punishment on him. It was his 5th DUI in 5 years.

CHILLING NDE! What I Saw in Hell Will Change You Forever! (Near Death Experience Angie Fenimore)

Have you been arrested or investigated?

I got home one night from work, and listened to a message from the State Police from a barracks three hours north of me. Curious, I called back to speak with the officer. He was off for the night so we spoke the next day. The questioning was interesting. He wanted to know if I had been in Bangor Maine the previous day, and if anyone else had access to my car. Puzzled, I asked why. It turns out that there was a bank robbery and they thought that I might be involved. WTF???

The officer was sure that I or somebody else had driven my car from the southern border of Maine to Bangor and back in under six hours without going through a toll booth. For those unfamiliar with the state of Maine that just isn’t possible. I explained that I had been at work all day, and my car was on camera and hadn’t moved. The officer was unconvinced until I send him pictures of my car, my registration, and license plates. The plate number they had matched a set of plates that I used to own, and they were on same make of car, but as it turns out a different year. Very clever.

I in turn called the local police and reported those plates as stolen. I met the detective at my house and his first words to me were “Kurt, so you’re robbing banks now.” He laughed. The detective lives three housed down from me and my wife had his kids in school.

A few months prior I came home at lunch to find a strange car at the end of my shared driveway, and my garage door open. I thought perhaps my wife or I had left the garage door open when we left for work. I grabbed a crowbar as a weapon and searched the house. I know not the smartest thing to do, but I don’t own a firearm. Nothing was missing, and nobody was in the house so I didn’t think much of it at the time. I went outside to get the license plate number strangely parked car , and to call the police. My neighbor came down the driveway and apologized for parking in my driveway and left. That’s where I thought the story ended.

A few weeks before this incident, I had just purchased my car off of lease and switched plates. In Maine we don’t need to turn our plate in and my old plates had been on the wall in my garage. I didn’t notice that they were missing. The neighbor that had parked at the end of my driveway? That neighbor had a previous conviction for Bank Robbery. The local detective and I put two and two together and we had a good suspicion about what had happened to the plates. He gave the information to the State Police and I never heard from that officer again.

High Powered (1945) ACTION ADVENTURE

Full movie. Free and fun. Film Noir.

In this two-fisted adventure tale, a high-rigger holds himself responsible after his brother is killed in an on-the-job accident. He gets a chance for redemption, when it looks as though the same accident is about to occur again!