Tuesday bullets....

.
No, I have not found my muse, nor even her little sister. Not even her little dog.

• Tonight (Tuesday) , the blog talk radio show of 'Gun Nuts, the next generation' with Caleb and Breda. Both are friends, both are good people, and it's a fine way to spend an hour. I expect to be listening in tonight, and the show line up is promising:
  
• Running the slide on a pump shotgun is the ultimate deterrent
• You shouldn’t have a light or a laser on your gun because you’ll give away your position
• You shouldn’t resist an attacker
• You should use bird shot for home defense because it penetrates walls less
• If you point a shotgun in the general direction of your target, you’ll get a hit.

• Piggy flu..... thoughts. Am I concerned about the flu outbreak? Well... yes, I am. How concerned? Not too much yet. According to the CDC, somewhere between 40,000 and 60,000 people a year in the USA die of influenza complications. That is the equivalent of everyone in the nearest city to me dieing off in one year. These numbers are for the regular flu... and so far we are talking about just a few deaths from swine flu. Does the swine flu have potential to be a serious problem? From what I have read, yes, but only because it's a new strain and we have no resistance to it yet. Is it any worse than a 'normal' flu? (whatever that is). Not that I can see, yet. I'll spray down my classroom with disinfectant, use a hand sanitizer, keep my own immune system up to snuff, and watch for any symptoms amongst my kids (all 43 of them, +- 20 extra). What really catches my attention is the inordinate media play it's getting. In a media world driven by partisan politics, I have to wonder what's not being reported with all the air time taken up by flu buggies.
• Arlen Specter changed parties. Anybody surprised? His deciding vote to pass the porkulus bill was done in the face of 100 to 1 opposition from his constituents, and they wasted no time in letting him know his career was finished. Rather than give up his thirty year career in the senate, he jumped over to the party he's really backed these last ten years or so... the Democrats. I wish them luck with him. My opinion.... look for him to make one more jump, to an administration post. I doubt the Democrats will vote for him either... something both parties have misjudged.
• The GM fiasco. Let me get this straight..... the US government gets 51% of GM in exchange for $21B (mostly loan forgiveness), the UAW gets 39% of GM in exchange for $10B (pension debt forgiveness), and all the bond holders who ponied up $21B in cash to help float GM.... they get just 10% of the company. WTF?!? The federal government, whose resume includes Fanni Mae, Freddie Mac, Amtrak, the Federal Election Commission, the Federal Housing Finance Board, and not in any way the least.... but perhaps the most ironic.... The Office of Government Ethics (a name that makes me peal with laughter as I read it). These are the folks that will now design, build, and sell vehicles? My God am I glad I bought a Nissan truck!

Enough ranting about current events. Nobody asked my opinion, I know.

To local life: School is interesting. I'm teaching Emissions Inspection certification to high school students this week, and next. Tough stuff, but I'll give them every chance to earn the license. We'll see how they make out, but it's promising. For the class in general, I had a five minute blow out come-to-Jesus rant after lunch... touching on terms such as 'juvenile' , 'asinine', and 'full day theory'. The afternoon was quiet and productive (g).

Tonight... a simple evening of reading, surfing, hot tea, and relaxing. I have a stone project dancing in my head, and it may take a solid weekend of work to make it if I can gather the thoughts into a gelled concept. Tonight I'll give that some thought and sketch out my ideas.

Folks.... have a nice evening... and consider giving Caleb and Breda's show a listen. It's good stuff!