Month: February 2020

I feel the need to help my son with his homework

My son is in Kindergarten.  The school has given out a competitive assignment.  The kids are supposed to do a book report poster about their favorite Dr. Seuss book.

Of course, you expect a lot of kids are going to do Hop on Pop, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, and The Cat in the Hat.

That’s fine for them.  We’re different.

It is at this moment that I am very glad I own a copy of Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel.

Yes, it is very true that before he became a renowned children’s author – his most popular books were all published in the 1950’s – he did political cartoons promoting the war effort in WWII.

The thing is, I know, KNOW, that as soon as my son brings in his book report poster about Dr. Seuss fighting Nazis, I’m going to get a call from the school, and maybe the Alabama Office of Child Protective Services.

That’s just too bad because it really is an absolutely fantastic book.

If you don’t own a copy, you should.  It’s available on Kindle Unlimited if you have that.

No just did Theodor Seuss Geisel promote the war effort against the Nazis, but he was amazingly critical of American Antisemitism, racism, segregation, and the treatment of blacks by the war industry.

Here is a selection of some of my favorite Dr. Seuss cartoons.

Criticizing the treatment of blacks:

 

Attacking American Antisemitism:

This one is particularly interesting because Charles Lindbergh was still a national hero in the pre-War era.

 

Just a general critique of racism in general.

You can see Dr. Seuss’ continued push against racism and discrimination in his children’s stories like The Sneetches.

The lessons from this book are as important and relevant as any of his other literature.

When I saw this book years ago, I knew that I had to buy it, and reading through it gave me an even greater appreciation for Dr. Seuss.

I just have a feeling Kindergarten teachers won’t see it that way.

When Gun Owners are our own worst enemies: Rifle transportation.

A man on a dirt bike with an AR-15 sticking out of his book bag put South Dade Senior High School into lockdown Thursday morning, according to Miami-Dade County Public Schools police.

Christian Edinger, 23, was arrested and charged with improperly exhibiting a firearm and interfering with an educational institution, according to his arrest affidavit.

Edinger was stuck in traffic in the westbound lanes of Southwest 288th Street and was on the south side of the school when people began noticing the barrel of a rifle sticking out of his book bag, according to the arrest affidavit

Man on dirt bike with AR-15 shut down South Dade High. He was not a threat, cops say

(Bold are mine) 

This is the rifle version of spending $1,000 on a handgun, $20 in an Uncle Mike’s holster and then being surprised when shit goes south.
He got charged with improperly exhibiting a firearm which is a first degree misdemeanor and interfering with an educational institution which is a misdemeanor of a second degree.  Let’s say the judge is nice and decides not to give Mr. Edinger any of the 365 days in jail but just nail him with the fines which come to a grand total of $1,500.  Add to that lawyers and court costs and suddenly a $155 rifle case shaped like a guitar case with a carrying strap so he could ride his bike with it seems like an smart investment.

Miami-Dade County needs a quick lesson in history

I read Miguel’s post about Miami-Dade County renaming South Dixie Highway as Harriet Tubman Highway.

Whatever.  It will always be South Dixie Highway in the minds of South Floridians.

Hell, most of us just called it US-1, which is its Federal designation or “Useless-1” if you are every stuck in its famous traffic jams.

As a fan of history, however, I’d like to poke at the ignorance of the Woke Scolds who did this.

Dixie as an appellation for the South, particularly the South Eastern United States does stem from the Mason-Dixon line.

Some will say that it comes from the “Dix” meaning “Ten” in French that was used on Citizens’ Bank of New Orleans issued ten-dollar notes.  Except this etymology makes no sense why Dixie referred to east coast states, which had nothing to do with Louisiana, and no other Cajun words or culture drifted that far east.

The Dixie, in reference to Jeremiah Dixon’s demarcation, is the most widely accepted origin.

The Woke Scolds push the idea that Dixie is a racist name and it is an offense to black people because Dixie was slave territory.

It’s not.

The Mason-Dixon line comes from 1767 and was used to define the boundary between Catholic Maryland and Protestant/Quaker Pennsylvania during the colonial era.

The official Federal border between slave states and free states is the Missouri Compromise Line.  That starts at the Missouri/Iowa border, heads south along the Mississippi River,  and travels along the Kentucky border to West Virginia, separating Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio from the South.  It connects to the Mason-Dixon line where West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania touch.

So if anything, we should change the name of the state of Missouri.

But this is where it gets really weird, because Maryland was a slave state but did not secede and join the Confederacy.

Furthermore, while Virginia was a slave state, the western counties of Virginia did not want to secede from the Union and instead broke away from Virginia and stayed with the Union while Virginia joined the Confederacy.

Neither the Missouri Compromise line nor the Mason-Dixon line really defined the border between the Union and the Confederacy.

So what these Woke Scolds are doing is renaming a highway because of a colloquialism with its origin in prerevolutionary colonial America.

But it’s not like these people actually give a shit about history.

More gun security on the cheap

I have been reading the comments in a few of my last posts about the best ways to secure your guns from theft.

I have taken them to heart and have another idea that is very cost-effective.

Looking at the local Sunbelt Rentals, I can rent a mini excavator for $210 per day and a cement mixer for $90 per day.  An 80 lbs bag of high strength concrete mix is $5.05 at Home Depot.  It takes 45 bags to make one cubic yard, which weighs roughly 4,000 lbs.

So for about $350, I can rent an excavator and dig a big fucking hole in my backyard.  Then I can vacuum seal my guns into bags with my Foodsaver machine.  I can put my guns in the hole and cast them into two tons of solid concrete.

True, I will have no access to my guns after that, but unless a thief wants to rent a jackhammer and portable gas powdered air compressor and spend an entire weekend busting open a solid block of concrete, I’m pretty sure my guns are safe.

And honestly, if a thief is going to go through all that work, he might as well target one of the local gun stores or banks, the score there will be a lot better than what I have.

I figured that my unassuming house in a middle-class development in Alabama where every other house has a Ring and is on Nextdoor, and in the three years I’ve lived here have never even had a package stolen off my front porch, would be relatively safe with a gun safe lag bolted to my garage slab.

I didn’t realize that I would be targeted by the fucking Ocean’s 11 crew who are going to attack my house with a forklift.

Forgive me for not having a full-on Penthouse Letters orgy level of unrealistic security porn to masturbate too.

You go right ahead and cast your guns into the middle of a cubic yard of concrete.  I promise you, they will never be stolen.

And how could I forget Shannon and the Moms?

Feel free to share or make your own.