On Sunday one usually leaves the day open for specific posts.

My muse ran from yard line to yard line and then to other places.

I did my wash today; I cleaned the deck and loaded wood into my interior rack. I then loaded more wood into the outside rack. I watched my Star Jasmine wind its tendrils towards other hanging pots and then towards the wood overhang.

I heard trains all day.

Sunday is a day of relaxation for me. I usually sleep in to 10 or 11 AM. I ended up doing the previous night’s dishes. I then inserted some continuous DVDs. I am watching the Rome series from HBO, and the second season DVDs from Deadwood.

For the first time in at least six years, I somehow managed to light the pilot for my major source of heat on Friday morning. When the temperature dips to 36 degrees at night now, I at least have a source of HEAT.

I finished four fence holes this weekend. I hurt all over. I’ve taken Excedrin and Ibuprofen. I’ve thrown some beer in on top of that.

Life is going well for me; I have heat in terms of my pilot. I also have a clean shed and a refurbished hard drive and an inroad for my lower fents. I want to have my fence repaired before the rains commence. Two more weekends and I hope to have this accomplished.

For me, Winter means propane and heat and drifts and difficulties and wood and preparation. Do you have any goals before Winter?

BZ

How many American five-star generals have existed?

Historically, this designation only occurred during World War II, as an answer to the horde of generals appointed by the German military, and as an answer and response to an American being responsible for the allied forces.

The German military designated so many generals in an attempt to make allied forces believe the great number of generals were required to control a much larger force — a force the Germans did not have. Their numbers were a sham and a ruse to confuse.

But in truth, how many American designated five-star generals existed?

Initially, that 5-Star rank was to be called Field Marshal, but the designator was withdrawn due to its similarity to Germany’s FeldMarshal. General George C. Marshall was the greatest objector to this designator — due to his name.

The Army had four 5-Star generals:

– General George C. Marshall (see photo)
– General Douglas MacArthur
– General Dwight D. Eisenhower
– General Omar N. Bradley

The US Navy had four 5-Star Fleet Admirals to include:

– Admiral William D. Leahy
– Admiral Ernest J. King
– Admiral Chester Nimitz
– Admiral William F. “Bull” Halsey

The United States Air Force (then the US Army Air Corps) had one:

– General Henry “Hap” Arnold

To his everlasting regret, Gen. George Smith Patton only acquired four stars.

The only rank above this would be a General of the Armies of the United States — the highest military rank of all time, hands down — beyond even that of Eisenhower.

To date, only George Washington and John J. Pershing have held this position.

BZ

So here I am; finally clean, upstairs, and writing for my blog.

Today, the first of my three days off (I am lucky enough to work a 4/10 schedule), was spent at “hard labor.” Hence I am not posting for Friday until late in the evening because I was, shall I say, “otherwise occupied” for the bulk of the day.

Some asshole in my community managed to back his dually pickup into my fence (I noted the dual acceleration tracks), breaking his taillights, and then left four of my fence posts broken. I can only hope that the damage to his truck ran into the millions of dollars but I suspect not.

In any event, in anticipation of winter approaching, I had to repair my fents (common spelling) but needed assistance. Finding same, he and I took two complete days over the past two weekends to merely demo the fents and attempt to dig out the concrete for the four broken posts.

I live at the 4,000 foot level in the Sierra Nevada mountains. All around me there was mining, hydraulic and otherwise — to the tune that, earlier this year, a man living in his house, following some rains, was killed when, whilst watching TV downstairs in the living room, the entire floor collapsed beneath him into an extant mining pit sinkhole. Emergency responders were not even able to retrieve his body for two days until the site became manageable and more stable. He left behind a new wife, pregnant with their first child. It was so completely tragic.

And therein lies the problem: this area is rife with round rock mining tailings and worse. Yes, I live in the proverbial Red Dirt area. We tried to dig down over a number of hours and encountered first red dirt, then round rock cobble, then hard-assed clay. It rained over the past weekend so — instead of what one might first think — the rain only served to make the clay more determined and resolute against our two modern shovels and two breaker bars. One breaker bar was taller and damned near heavier than me.

I only had to excavate and remove four posts and their concrete footings. Four holes took me two weekends.

With help. Good help. No, great help. Inspired help. Fabulously welcomed help.

Man. Things like this remind me that not only am I not in Kansas anymore, but I’m not 25 anymore. Two guys pushing 60 — yeah, we were raining sweat. We took some water breaks and shot some shit. But you know what?

We made four holes and we were proud of them.

Where’s my Ibuprofen?

BZ

This isn’t a religion, it’s certified insanity. There is nothing Godly at all, at all, about what Fred Phelps and his concomitant Bin of Certified Loons (FPBCL) do and say. Do you recall, these are the lovely persons from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, who take it upon themselves to appear at the funerals of our military personnel and announce and protest that their departed loved ones “have gone to Hell.” Witness the above signs — signs you’d see at the funeral of your loved one — signs such as “God Sent The IEDs,” “Thank God For Dead Soldiers,” “Thank God For Maimed Soldiers.”

There is almost nothing more despicable and condemnable than that. I actually find myself bereft of appropriate words to describe this group. If there were any group of individuals deserving to fry and twist in burning Hell, it is anyone even remotely connected to those who appeared at these funerals — and of course the Supreme Devil himself, Phelps. I’m not providing any links to this asshole and his group of assholes — you can do that yourself to your own diminishment. And it is clearly these (insert your favorite derogatory word here) who are responsible for lending credence to the Left that the Right consists of religious loons. These people are clearly insane and the best reason I can provide to justify abortion — if they had been aborted.

Recall the five young girls killed in the Amish schoolhouse this Monday? Can you imagine this: the Phelps crew was planning to appear at that funeral and picket it. What?? For what possible reason did they think this a good idea??

Sick, sick, twisted, soulless, lacking any amount of humanity — I’m out of words again.

For whatever reason I happened to be scanning the AM band last night and caught the Mike Gallagher show, where he guested the daughter of Fred Phelps, Shirley Phelps-Roper. I had the unfortunate displeasure to hear this absolutely insane, evil woman proclaim over the air that those poor children were not going to Hell, they were IN HELL because they were not Godly and did not adhere to the scriptures. “They did that to themselves,” Roper quipped. In what possible way, ladies and gentlemen, can you even remotely feature the Amish not a good, decent or God-fearing segment of persons? What manner of person can say this, open their trash-hole and say this, and not feel this is so, so wrong?

Gallagher then offered one hour of his airtime in exchange for an agreement for the Phelps contingent not to appear at the Amish funeral. And Roper agreed.

Yes, I know you will say, it was nothing more than a radio stunt.

Stunt or not, if Roper keeps her word (and I remain unconvinced) and the funerals are unsullied by the presence of the Phelps’ cult’s evil, then it will have been worth it.

What an incredible, unmitigated plague and evil is this cult.

BZ

When you sit down to your keyboard at work and, for a moment, access the internet, are you being watched by your employer?

More and more, the answer would be a resounding “yes.”

Is that wrong or is that right?

I’ll go you one further: blogs require massive amounts of time. Anyone associated with a blog knows this clearly. Do you blog at home on your own time? Or do you waste the “company’s” time by using their server and the computer at your desk?

Be honest. Do you?

Isn’t the connection faster? Isn’t it a matter of a modem vs. DSL or whatever connection your company embraces?

But what if there’s more?

What if each and every keystroke were recorded by such a program, and each and every website you visited and each and every e-mail you sent were archived NOT at your home, but on a server at work?

The October 2006 issue of PC World features an ad on page 89 for Specter CNE which displays a banner reading: “RECORD EVERYTHING YOUR EMPLOYEES DO ON THE INTERNET.”

A few minutes a day of personal surfing, online shopping and chatting may seem harmless, but consider this. . .

A recent study concluded that employees spend an average of 75 minutes per day using office computers for non-business related activity (surfing porn, gambling, shopping or even searching for sex online). That translates into an annual loss of $6,250 per employee or more than $300,000 per year down the drain for a company of just 50 employees.

At the touch of a button, you can monitor any employee, any time, anywhere on the network. Spector CNE secretly records records and archives chat conversations, instant messages (AOL, MSN and Yahoo), e-mails (including Outlook, Exchange, AOL and web-based mail like Hotmail), web sites visited, keystrokes typed, files downloaded, programs run and more.

And unlike many filtering and blocking tools, Spector CNE records everything they do in exact visual detail. So, you have absolute proof that goes way beyond knowing they visited porn.com.

Would you object to this kind of program utilized by your employer? Would you change your surfing and e-mailing habits if you knew this program was running on your employer’s servers?

Would you do anything at all?

If you were an employer, is this right or wrong?

If you are an employee, is this right or wrong?

Are you blogging? And are you blogging against the interests or concerns of your employer? You might want to consider this as an extreme factor for using their equipment — an issue over which they clearly have control — and should. After all, it’s their equipment and their time. Isn’t it?

What are the policies for your agency and your company? Perhaps, before you make one more keystroke into the ether, you should review official policies.

If you visit porn sites you’ll go down. As well you should on company time. In my department we’ve already had one Lieutenant shipped into a startlingly-early retirement for this precise reason.

There is a massive company and agency loss, per year, of work time because of internet access. Are you a suspect or a victim? What are your company’s views?

You’d best find out now. Because later is too late.

BZ