But when you are dealing with hard times, you try to get any income from any source.

Or they are the biggest bunch of idiots on the planet:

Oh dear…. smh

Well, according to what they keep accusing us of, this last post in Facebook gets the sobriquet:

So they finally see the dangers of an unchecked government. The Luddites (Followers of Ladd Everitt) are suddenly more papist than the Pope:

Josh Mitchell And white people never have to worry about the police violently dispersing their peaceful protests. White people had plenty of protests during the Iraq war and you never saw military weaponry being deployed in their residential areas. The people of#Ferguson deserve not to be treated like prisoners in their own homes.

Isaac Smith I watched it on TV and I could not believe my eyes, this is America not Cairo or Kiev. Who ever order the Police to respond like that needs to be fired.

Don Bevirt Welcome to the machine…

Vicki Ross The people in your community must not be treated like the enemy by local police!!!!!

Glenn Thompson Thanks for being for the new police state. Be careful what you wish for Melissa

Dan Moore It has nothing to do with hanging someone. The whole point is that peaceful protestors were attacked by heavily militarized police and now they are arresting reporters trying to cover the story. Do you not understand the necessity of a free press, or are stormtroopers attacking citizens OK with you?

Charles Perry Taylor What are these law enforcement people thinking….escalation!

And there were a couple of comments on the following vein:

Salvador Santibañez Sánchez But why the well armed right wing extremist at Bunty’s ranch got away while threatening local and federal law enforcement officials? Why they didn’t send the helicopters, armored military style vehicles and the riot police with tear gas? Why? WHY? Can someone please give me an explanation?

If you cannot figure the answer….

Get your Schadenfreude for a low payment of $9.95…but wait! If you call in the next 30 minutes, you get a free jar of Thick Irony! (You only pay for shipping and handling) 

It’s important to understand that the veneer of civilization is very thin in many places. Yes, there are heroic stories of neighbors coming together in the face of adversity, and those are to be admired, but there are many others where they turned on each other — in big, dangerous St. Louis and tiny, relatively safe Chattaroy.

via If you think wild animals are dangerous, take a good look at your neighbors. | Home security, Street Safety.

As I can personally attest,  you cannot predict how your neighbors will behave and you sure as heck be ready for it. So, go read.

The therapists and doctors on my case have decided 3-4 weeks or more in rehab.  This is very frustrating and depresslng because I ha\ve not been home since August 1st.I built that house for my wife but I have developed a very close identity with it and its views.

via Clayton Cramer.: I Had Hoped To Go Home Soom.

He has been keeping up with his blog now for a while after his stroke. You can tell he has been improving greatly by his typing alone.

I join with many other on wishing he does get to go home all cured and healthy.

Ain’t that the truth!

Stolen without shame from Thirdpower…again.

Optics is the new/old use of the word representing the image that right or wrong will brand an event. It is usually accompanied by a  sentence of two setting the context and, if it is done right, you can win or lose big time.

Some times, you don’t even need that little context line because the image on itself may bring memories deeply set in the collective consciousness. For example, take this picture from the protest of the killing of Mike Brown in Ferguson MO:

Or this one:

My mind immediately leaped to this iconic picture from the Civil Rights era:

and this one:

Now, with a calm head I admit that both events are as unrelated as they can be knowing that we don’t know for sure the whole story behind the death of Mike Brown,

But still, the initial reaction was there and it was one of disgust to which I had to tamper with rational thought.  There is no doubt in my mind that the police in Ferguson had no idea the kind of imagery they are putting out there. In a world where everybody has a camera phone and can put a picture in the net to be seen by millions in a few seconds, the proper use, behavior and deployment of your people is as important as the duty to maintain peace. For example, the following picture with a sniper a top of an armored vehicle: It might be tactically sound but, was it necessary and what kind of message will it give to the population at large?

And then, to add insult to injury, instead of toning down the images coming out by changing behavior, Ferguson PD does the bonehead thing and arrests one journalist from the HuffPo and one from the Washington Post ensuring that the bad image the department already developed will get be set in stone.

So, to the “It is my right and fuck you that is why!” crowd, allow me to remind you that it is smart tactics (including the proper optics) that will win the fight, not being a brazen asshole about your Second Amendment rights.  Ours is the long game, it has never been the short one and cut to commercials.  Don’t give the opposition any kind of audio-visual aid that may come back to hurt us all.