Human brain Fido
Inside his chainlink fence
Joins full moon sky concert
With Rufus and Poochie
Down the block
On their chains;
Cock their ears
And wonder, wonder
Why the faint coyote calls
Why a whiff of rotten elk meat
In the garbage
Drives them wild
Old Jules
Hi readers. Thanks for coming by for a read.
Back before 9/11 the airline flights over the US almost always had a few terrorists aboard. You’d see them hanging around DFW or Atlanta, or LAX wandering around the boarding areas looking hopefully at the other passengers. A couple of typical Turks, or Iranians, or Arabs, or Israelis, or Northern Irishmen. Just wandering around watching people in hopes some of their fellow passengers would be worth killing, or even getting themselves into trouble, wasting a bomb on.
Aside from an occasional hijacking they mostly never did anything. Fact was, the people sharing their flights were just a bunch of bureaucrats, bleating women, corporate zombies, and people going somewhere to meet people of the opposite sex they’d become acquainted with on the Internet. Just typical Americans. Worthless as hell, and certainly not worth the life of a highly trained terrorist.
But when 9/11 came along it made all those non-terrorist passengers feel a lot better about themselves. Nothing changed with the terrorists, but the typical Americans were generally elevated by the whole thing. Suddenly it seemed to them that someone thought they were worth killing.
Turned out it was such an uplifting experience for them the government decided they liked having all the spinoff benefits …. trotted out a lot of airport security, Homeland Security, 87 new layers of cops and surveillance, and legions of new guys wearing berets carrying machine guns to go off places terrorists came from and blow away anyone who might think Americans were worth killing.
Worked out fairly well, all in all. Win-win-win. Only downside is that so many of the Americans who use to be not be worth killing decided it might be better not to get on airplanes if they could avoid it. Those people over there where terrorists come from might begin to be pissed off, eventually. Might start killing some people who aren’t over in those countries they come from and aren’t just wearing berets, battle dress uniforms, and dropping grenades into the market places full of women and kids.
Going back to not being worth killing might be nice. But you can’t get there from here, I reckons.
Old Jules
Posted in 2013, America, Current Issues, Government, Human Behavior, Military, Police, Politics, US Army
Tagged culture, Events, government, History, Human Behavior, humor, Life, lifestyle, politics, psychology, society, sociology, terrorism, terrorists
Hi readers. Thanks for coming by.
Fairly weird. I was websearching for Mike Czosnek, a guy I used to do some Lost Adams Diggings searching with, and came across something that rocked me back on my heels.
New Mexico Floodplain Managers Association http://www.nmfma.org/content.aspx?page_id=0&club_id=920799
An egg I laid, nurtured, hatched, and promptly forgot as soon as my career ended in 1999.
When I assumed the job of State Floodplain Manager for the State of New Mexico in 1992 the state had a law on the books to allow localities to adopt ordinances regulating building in designated floodplain areas, and for the residents of those to buy federally sponsored flood insurance to cover their damages when the creek did what it would inevitably do.
Someone had screwed up when the law was passed and left in language that could be construed [by me] requiring that the locally designated floodplain managers be trained and registered or licensed by the State Floodplain Manager or Administrator. All that happened 15 years before my arrival, and had lain dormant and unnoticed. Nobody in New Mexico had a clue what they’d agreed to, what they were supposed to be doing.
The reason I was hired for the job was that FEMA was losing patience. I was mandated by my grant to audit the local programs, report to FEMA what they weren’t doing according to their federal agreement, and hassle them to death until they did it.
Lousy, lousy, lousy job I had for a while travelling around the state being ignored and tolerated barely. Then I happened to study the statute and came up with the idea. Started hassling the hell out of local governments about not having registered or licensed [by me] floodplain managers whom I could lay some heavy crap on if they didn’t do their jobs.
“How do they become licensed?”
“They have to go through training. Take a test. I do the training at the [non-existent Floodplain Managers Association meetings. Your people will have to join.”
The cage took a lot of rattling, but 1993, 1994, I put together an organizational meeting in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Almost every participating community in New Mexico was represented. Did some rudimentary training, had them adopt a constitution and by-laws, create officers [of which I refused to be one].
NM Floodplain Managers Association made my life a lot easier, reduced the amount of heckling and hassling I had to take from FEMA. And became my primary training tool for the local communities. Gradually got them training one another.
And my old buddy Mike Czosnek is still out there, treasurer of the damned thing. Might have to stop in and see him when I get out that way.
Old Jules
Posted in 1990's, America, Emergency Preparedness, Government, New Mexico, NM
Tagged culture, Education, FEMA, floodplain management, government, History, Human Behavior, Life, New Mexico, NM floodplain managers, philosophy, politics, psychology, society, sociology
Hi readers. Thanks for coming by.
I’ve noticed a few scattered concerns on the WEB by people who think the 21st Century militarization of civilian police forces is a bad thing. Seems to me those complainers aren’t looking at the bigger picture.
Time was when a person with a mean streak, or just a desire to kill someone didn’t have many options. He could sneak around and do it and maybe get by with it a while, or he could get drunk and do it, and go to the slammer. Or he could unhealthily suppress it and go around frustrated and unhappy.
But nowadays there are plenty of outlets for a person with those needs. Sure, he might spend years becoming a SEAL, a Marine Sniper, or a Green Beret. But those are really too large and too institutionalized for the local badass who just wants to blow the face off someone without being criticized for doing it. Municipal, County, or State Police SWAT teams offer a lot easier outlet. Plus, they’re clubs where all the members have the same goals and can be depended upon to protect one another by keeping their mouths shut if it’s needed.
For instance, there used to be a cop in Socorro, New Mexico, who was involved in a couple of extremely questionable shootings. Residents and city officials had all witnessed, or heard about his blusterings, his posturings, his suspected desire to use that firearm as frequently as possible. After the second shooting incident he was quietly encouraged to find greener pastures elsewhere.
So he applied for, and was accepted to the Albuquerque Police. Trained for the SWAT team. Wasn’t long before he got to put a bullet into a suspect and got a lot of praise for doing it. Short while later they were raiding a drug house and an 80 year old neighbor saw what was going on, thought it was a gang. Ran out of his house with a flashlight, yelling, and the Ex-Socorro cop stopped him in his tracks. Turned out the raid was conducted at the wrong address, but the 80 year old was found ex post facto to should have minded his own business.
A year or two later someone was holding a baby over a freeway overpass threatening to drop it into the traffic below. Ex-Socorro cop plugged him so’s the baby only dropped on the overpass. Hero again.
I heard over the years he got to kill a number of other people who got downrange of the Albuquerque SWAT team, as well. Managed to make what would otherwise probably just been a lifetime spent in prison, or sneaking around murdering people, into a healthy, productive life.
People who criticize militarized police forces aren’t considering the needs of the SWAT teamers and the healthy way they’ve dovetailed themselves into the greater good of society.
Old Jules
Posted in 2000's, America, Government, Human Behavior, New Mexico, NM, Police
Tagged culture, Events, Human Behavior, humor, law and order, Law Enforcement, Life, lifestyle, New Mexico, Police, psychology, society, sociology, SWAT teams, tactical squads
Reference the preceding post: I was probably negligent by not pointing out part of the reason for sustained peace in Ireland is the respect for established borders. Borders between Ireland and Northern Ireland haven’t changed significantly since they were agreed to by both sides. No understanding would be gained by posting a map of Ireland.
Israel is a comparatively young, new nation. Zionists evidently tend to harken back to Biblical times when they consider boundaries. They probably don’t understand that the older, more mature nations take borders seriously.
And the borders of Israel haven’t changed since 1966. The Palestinians own East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Syria owns the Golan Heights. However, 300,000 Israeli settlers occupy the West Bank. 200,000 Israeli setters live in East jerusalem.
On the other hand, here’s a map of Israel when it was established by the UN in 1947, and recognized by the US in 1948.
Here’s a more detailed map of the pre-1967 borders of Israel with later claims by Israel shown in red.
Here’s Israel and the occupied areas today.
In 2005 Israel withdrew from Gaza. But it maintains a strong security force in both places.
Every country probably wishes more land was contained within its borders. However, most modern countries recognize if they attempt to occupy territories belonging to other countries they’ll draw criticism from some quarters. Often the people living in the areas being occupied.
Israel could make a far stronger case for being a peace-loving country, a more believable case in the eyes on non-Zionists, by withdrawing to areas the world recognizes are contained within its established borders.
Otherwise it will forever having to fall back on the argument that everyone just hates Jews is the only reason for all the problems with neighbors. An outward sign of a desire for peace sometime during the past 50 years might have gone a long way toward achieving it.
Some strategy along the lines Ireland’s used, maybe.
Old Jules
Posted in 2013, Communication, Government, History, Human Behavior, Politics
Tagged boundaries, Education, History, Human Behavior, Ireland, Israel, Palestine, peace, philosophy, politics
Hi readers. Thanks for coming by for a read.
I was trying for the past few days to think of a modern ethnic analogy to Jews, searching my mind for something to compare Israel to in modern and less-modern times.
Finally it dawned on me. The Irish and the Jews have a surprising similarity in history. Pre-diaspora Jews revolted, revolted, revolted against the Roman Empire occupation. And for 500 years the Irish revolted, revolted, revolted against the British depredations of Ireland.
Both groups have profound ethnic identification, geographic identification with ‘homeland’, and conspicuous religious doctrinal loyalty. Both groups have been reduced by starvation, by ethnic bigotry from ruling governments, by slaughter. Both have been endlessly persecuted by those with the power to persecute them.
For 500 years the British did everything a civilized power could do to empty Ireland of Irish and for 2000 years the European states and Russia did everything they could do to rid themselves of Jews.
All that ended with the Irish independence resulting from the last revolt in 1922, and the creation of the State of Israel following WWII.
During the decades following independence Ireland flourished for the first time in its history. Became, over the decades, the seventh most developed country in the world and among the wealthiest in GDP. Probably the most peace-loving country in the modern world in the 5/6th of the island where British no longer rule.
Israel flourished, too, though it couldn’t be accused of being peace-loving. Almost every moment of Israeli history includes brink-of-war scenarios. The early 20th Century British clich’e, “The Irish brought most of their troubles on themselves,” found its way into Israeli explanations of their difficulties with their own Irish/British analogy.
In view of the similarities that contrast between warlike and peace-loving is surprising. Rhymes more with relations in Northern Ireland and with the British. Religious partisans might suggest it’s the difference between the Old Jehovah and the New Jehovah. But history argues otherwise.
Seems a lot more likely that, while Ireland is strictly neutral, Northern Ireland is still aligned with the British and by extension, the US. So is Israel. And while Ireland is finally completely free of British oppression, Northern Ireland isn’t, and by contrast adopted something akin to Zionism in an attempt to rid itself of Britain and the British.
Terrorism, intimidation and threats. All the usual suspects from the bad old days. Jews and Irish. Israel and Northern Ireland.
Something to ponder.
Old Jules
2013 Tooth Fairy with Radioactivity Sniffer Dog
Hi readers.
If you’re like me you probably wonder why the Tooth Fairy changed so much since we were kids. It was the Baby Tooth Survey did it. Here’s what happened:
When the Commandant of the National Tooth Fairy Regiment died of cancer in 1963 a lot of traitorous whining wimps in Missouri started crying about the fact the US Government was dropping hydrogen bombs on itself to pre-emptively protect itself in case someone else should drop nukes on Nevada and New Mexico.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Tooth_Survey
The Baby Tooth Survey was initiated by the Greater St. Louis Citizens’ Committee for Nuclear Information in conjunction with Saint Louis University and the Washington University School of Dental Medicine as a means of determining the effects of nuclear fallout in the human anatomy by examining the levels of radioactive material absorbed into the deciduous teeth of children.
Founded by the husband and wife team of physicians Eric and Louise Reiss, along with other scientists such as Barry Commoner, the research focused on detecting the presence of strontium-90, a cancer-causing radioactive isotope created by the more than 400 atomic tests conducted above ground that is absorbed from water and dairy products into the bones and teeth given its chemical similarity to calcium. The team sent collection forms to schools in the St. Louis, Missouri area, hoping to gather 50,000 teeth each year.[1] Ultimately, the project collected over 300,000 teeth from children of various ages before the project was ended in 1970.
Preliminary results published by the team in the November 24, 1961, edition of the journal Science showed that levels of strontium 90 in children had risen steadily in children born in the 1950s, with those born later showing the most increased levels.[2] The results of a more comprehensive study of the elements found in the teeth collected showed that children born after 1963 had levels of strontium 90 in their baby teeth that was 50 times higher than that found in children born before the advent of large-scale atomic testing. The findings helped convince U.S. President John F. Kennedy to sign the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with the United Kingdom and Soviet Union, which ended the above-ground nuclear weapons testing that placed the greatest amounts of nuclear fallout into the atmosphere.[3]
After that things seemed to settle down okay for a while. Then came Three-Mile Island and Chernobyl. Tooth Fairies were dying off like flies. Gums rotting away, skin peeling off them like overcoats.
Fact is, we almost lost the whole kaboodle of Tooth Fairies when the Japanese started dumping all the radioactivity they could scrape together and sending it into the atmosphere headed for Alaska, California, Washington and Oregon. Pumping water hotter than a two-dollar pistol into the Pacific Ocean.
Tooth Fairy recruitment programs went to zilch. Finding new Tooth Fairies to replace the ones getting the blind staggers was tougher than the Mother Church trying to find women willing to be nuns.
Luckily, the US Military and the National Academy of Multi-Layered Police Forces, comprising about half the US population, came to the rescue. Provided pistols to be held to the temples of potential Tooth Fairies who were trying to take French leave from the job. But to compensate, providing body armor and radioactivity sniffing dogs to help the ones still able bodied enough to slip into a bedroom at night and reach under a pillow for a tooth stay alive longer.
Saved again by the police and the US military and mercenary forces.
Old Jules
Posted in 2013, America, Animals, Current Issues, Education, Government, History, Human Behavior, Police, Science, US Army
Tagged baby teeth, Chernobyl, culture, dental, Education, environment, Health, History, Human Behavior, humor, Japan nuclear, military, nuclear, politics, psychology, science, society, sociology, technology, teeth, Tooth Fairy, tooth survey, US Army
Hi readers. Thanks for coming by for a read.
Europeans thought they were getting a fairly good deal when the Indians snookered them into paying a bunch of beads and mirrors for Manhattan. As historian John Wayne once pointed out, “The Indians were selfishly hoarding the whole continent.” They were in a position to demand unreasonable prices for real estate.
Later on they demanded even higher prices for the land east of the Mississippi River and so on, always pretending they didn’t want to sell. Cheating white men and the government every time they turned around. The Black Hills. The Rocky Mountains. Florida. Wyoming, Montana, Oregon, Washington. New Mexico, Arizona, Texas. Those aboriginals were shrewd businessmen, turning white people every way but loose. Nevada. Utah. Kansas, Missouri, Michigan, Wisconsin, wheeling and dealing every step of the way.
Worse than a bunch of Chinamen. Those Indians were taking the long view. What they wanted was casinos. Tricking white men into giving them choice spots along the highways where they could open up gambling joints. Trinket shops. Clay pots.
And they got it, too. They still have some nice real estate up in the Dakotas, down in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Colorado and other places. And some of that land has oil, coal, natural gas and other things white people need to fire up the hair dryers, air conditioners and clothes dryers mornings.
It’s time for white people to realize we’ve been had. There are plenty of big power companies, mining companies, real estate developers and other white people who’d love to have that land if they could get it for a reasonable price. Pay for it in slot machine tokens, maybe, or table chips.
Time to cut off all that free health care and commodity cheese, break up those reservations right down to the pavement on the casino parking lots. It’s time for white people to quit getting had by Indians. Those corporations would gladly keep them from selfishly hoarding all the stuff nobody knew was there when the original deals were made to let them stay on that land.
And after all, we’re all Native Americans now. If we’re not, what the hell are we?
When the Mexicans were selfishly hoarding the whole southwest US we had to shoot a lot of them before they’d give us a reasonable price. How the hell are we going to stop all those illegal aliens from Mexico sneaking into the land we took away from them if we keep getting had by other Native Americans?
We need to send some tanks and drones and helicopters to take care of our problems right here at home before we go off to places like Iraq and Afghanistan. There’s nothing on those reservations and in those casinos a few thousand mercenaries and enough explosives won’t cure.
The Visionary President Ronald Reagan wanted to give all the National Forests, National Parks and Bureau of Land Management lands to the real estate developers, mining and oil companies. But he didn’t go far enough and it serves him right he’s remembered as a failed lunatic. He had the Army and he had maps of the US. If he didn’t know where the reservations were he could have asked the Bureau of Indian Affairs. White people could have finally gotten a good deal on something.
Old Jules
Posted in 2013, America, Current Issues, Gambling, Government, History, Human Behavior, Military, Native American, Native Americans, Politics, Senior Citizens, US Army
Tagged business, culture, Education, History, Human Behavior, humor, Indians, Life, lifestyle, Mexicans, mining, NAs, Native Americans, oil reserves, politics, psychology, real estate, society, sociology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe-fitting_fluoroscope
Hi readers. Thanks for coming by for a read this morning.
During the 1950s wisdom used to bunch itself up and spread itself around at the local barber shops. That’s where I first learned God was going to destroy us the way He did the Tower of Babel and for the same reasons. The USSR had just put Sputnik 1 into orbit. Too damned high in the sky to be tolerated by God.
That barber shop was also where I first learned all this uproar about radiation was a damned Communist lie intended to scare everyone out of their wits. The proof of it was just around the corner of the square at the shoe store. They had a machine over there where you could put your foot in and they’d shine radiation on it so’s you could look right through your shoes at the bones of your feet.
Anyone dying from it? Anyone getting sick? Heck no!
That shoe store had it all over J.C. Penny Company because of that machine. We kids would go in there and they’d let us look at our feet anytime we wanted to. And when shoes were to be bought the salesman could look through the viewer on one side, mama look through it on the other, and the kid through the third. The salesman could then point with the pointer that the shoe wasn’t squeezing the toes, or was, etc. Everyone loved that machine.
But government interference ruined it, same as it ruins everything else. They made them take that machine out of there so nobody could look at his feet anymore.
Here’s what the sissie fuddyduddies say was the reason:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe-fitting_fluoroscope
“Although most of the dose was directed at the feet, a substantial amount would scatter or leak in all directions. Shielding materials were sometimes displaced to improve image quality, to make the machine lighter, or out of carelessness, and this aggravated the leakage. The resulting whole-body dose may have been hazardous to the salesmen, who were chronically exposed, and to children, who are about twice as radiosensitive as adults.[7] Monitoring of American salespersons found dose rates at pelvis height of up to 95 R/week, with an average of 7.1 R/week.[5] (Up to ~50 mSv/yr, avg ~3.7 mSv/yr effective dose)[5] A 2007 paper suggested that even higher doses of 0.5 Sv/yr were plausible.[8] The most widely accepted model of radiation-induced cancer posits that the incidence of cancers due to ionizing radiation increases linearly with effective (i.e. whole-body) dose at a rate of 5.5% per Sv.[9]
“Years or decades may elapse between radiation exposure and a related occurrence of cancer, and no follow-up studies of customers can be performed for lack of records. Without such an epidemiological study, it is impossible to conclude whether this machine actually caused any harm to customers.[5] Three shoe salespersons have been identified with rare conditions that might be associated with their chronic occupational exposure: a severe radiation burn requiring amputation in 1950,[10] a case of dermatitis with ulceration in 1957,[11] and a case of basal cell carcinoma of the sole in 2004.[8]”
Those guys sharing their wisdom at the barber shops are mostly all dead now. I’m guessing if a person wants to get smart in Portales he has to go to a hair stylist. Can’t help wondering what they’re talking about in those places.
Old Jules
Posted in 1950's, America, Government, History, Human Behavior, Nature, Portales, Science, Senior Citizens
Tagged cancer, carcinoma, culture, Education, environment, Health, History, Human Behavior, humor, Nature, radiation, science, shoe fitting xray, society, sociology, sputnik, technology, xray
Hi readers. Thanks for coming by for a read this morning.
Tom, the retired USAF colonel who occupied the office next to me in the bomb shelter of the old National Guard HQ in Santa Fe, NM, should have known a lot about radioactivity. He spent the entire Cuban Missile Crisis camped under the wing of his B-47 bomber. Had all kinds of tales about the flight maneuvers a pilot had to perform to drop a hydrogen bomb and come away in one piece.
The New Mexico Emergency Planning and Management Bureau [EMPAC] was all housed in that bomb shelter. Most of the section chiefs were retired colonels, except my humble self, and Louis, head of Radiation Control. When nothing was going on there’d always be a few of us gathered in one office or another telling and listening to interesting experiences in our varied pasts.
So when Tom found his travel schedule was going to coincide with the one-day-per-year the Trinity Site where the first atomic bomb was detonated allowed visitors, we all envied him. He was gone a week travelling all over the State, and a few days after he returned several of us gathered in his office to hear all about it.
Naturally there’d been a nice dog and pony show at an old ranch house from the time a mile or so away, now converted to oversight center. Then, off to ground zero.
Tom described how it was all bare sand and soil, how they’d scraped away all the green glass that used to cover the spot. How visitors were warned not to pick up any of that green glass if they should find a piece.
So when his glance downward showed him a piece of that green glass peeking out of the sand near his foot, of course he had to tie his shoe. Slipped it into his pocket. Gave us all a sly smile when he pulled it out and held it in his palm.
Wow! A piece of green glass from the first nuclear detonation on earth! We all wanted to hold it. Passed it around, all except Louis. Our Rad Control section head. He stepped back a pace when his turn came to hold it.
“I’d like to put an instrument on that.” Louis had access to plenty of instruments, had more than a thousand of them spotted all over New Mexico. Part of the mission of his section was going around changing the batteries on those Geiger Counters regularly.
He was out the door and back while the rest of us waited in mild curiosity. The glass was back on Tom’s desk and Louis clicked the power switch. Didn’t actually have to get too near with the probe to peg the needle. Didn’t have to put on the headset to hear the buzz. We all heard it.
Louis had a straight shot at the doorway and he was first out. Followed closely by everyone but Tom. He just sat staring at that piece of green glass. Probably wondering what the hell to do with it.
I’ve always wanted to visit the Trinity Site, but I never got around to it. Even when I was living several years just up the road from it.
Old Jules
Posted in 1940's, 1990's, Adventure, America, Education, Emergency Preparedness, Gambling, Government, History, Human Behavior, Military, New Mexico, NM, Science
Tagged atomic bomb, civil defense, culture, Education, geiger counter, Human Behavior, humor, Manhattan Project, Nature, nuclear, nuclear weapon, psychology, radiation, radioactivity, science, society, sociology, technology, trinity site
74 years old, a resident of Leavenworth, KS, in an apartment located on the VA campus. Partnered with a black shorthaired cat named Mister Midnight. (1943-2020)
Since April, 2020, this blog is maintained by Jeanne Kasten (See "About" page for further information).
https://sofarfromheaven.com/2020/04/21/au-revoir-old-jules-jack-purcell/
So Far From Heaven 