Walking To WalMart

PG noticed the black letters on a printout turning gray, and decided to get a new cartridge. The supply was available at CVS to the south, or WalMart to the north. PG made a value based decision and went to WalMart.
The Norfolk Southern rail tracks in Chamblee have a gravel road next to them. This road was made for the Marta construction crews, and remains a convenient, though possibly illegal, pedestrian walkway. Before long, PG heard the train whistle, and knew he was in for a show.
Walking fifteen feet away from a speeding freight train is an experience. The convergence of speed, heavy metal, insured goods, and diesel fuel makes for a visceral alarm. PG snapped a picture of the caboose when it went by, only to be surprised by another, even faster, freight coming in from the north. With the Marta train going south, racing the freight, PG knew that it just doesn’t get any better. Reviewing the pictures, he saw that if he had taken the caboose shot a second later, he would have included the second train. Maybe it does get better.
The sun came through the orange leaves of the trees beside the retail palace, and PG copped a shot of old glory flying proudly above the legend, “We sell for less”. Walking past the pictures of Miley Cyrus, in her long legged glory, PG saw a pair of Muslim women, heads modestly covered. Before long PG was in the back, and bravely ignored the glittering toys,  choosing only the supplies that he needed.
Walking by the mens pants, PG saw a hulking black man holding a young hispanic close by. The detainee was heard to say ” I didn’t do anything”. PG continued to the front, found a check out line of reasonable length, and got a magazine to read while he waited. It seems like Angelina Jolie is not loved by everyone.
The lady in front of PG had pink hair curlers, and rode in an electric device. When her merchandise was paid for, she asked PG to pick up her bag and put it on her electric car. PG was happy to help.
In front of the store was a Chamblee police car. The Salvation Army bell ringer was singing “Somebody is going to jail”.

Ten Things You Cannot Say

There is a post at listserve today about the ten items you should never discuss on the internet. PG is going to take this as a challenge, and try to say something rude about all ten. Today is International Mens Day, and we all know that real men have lots of opinions.
01 Religion On the day PG was born, his father called the church choir director, at 6am, to sign PG up. The choir director, a gentleman named Ray Smathers, went back to sleep. PG thinks that Mr. Smathers had the right idea.
02 Origins of Man Gorillas and chimpanzees are embarrassed by people.
03 Politics A man is drowning fifty feet offshore. A democrat throws seventy five feet of rope, and then doesn’t tie it to anything. A republican throws twenty five feet of rope, and says that swimming to the rope will build character.
04 The Holocaust What Hitler did sixty five years ago does not justify dropping white phosphorous on children in Gaza today.
05 Gun Control A prominent politician in Georgia recently took some pills, and called his mother. The prominent politician said he was killing himself. If the prominent politician had used a gun, he would have succeeded.
06 Abortion PG has never had an abortion.
07 Race Relations PG does not like people who do not like PG.
08 Jesus Christ What Jesus worshipers call Jesus is a man made spirit, that has little in common with the historic figure. We know little about the man in Palestine two thousand years ago. The spirit called Jesus is a source of misery to PG.
09 Homosexuality If you have to ask, do you really need to know?
10 The Middle East If there was no oil there, would anyone care?

International Mens Day

November 19 is International Mens Day. This is not a big deal in the United States. HT to activecitizen54.

Delusional Fantasist

Andrew Sullivan has gone silent today. He needs to take a day off to read Sarah Palin’s new book. Mr. Sullivan calls Mrs. Palin a ” delusional fantasist”. PG suspects the pot is talking about the kettle.
In other news, today is the 93rd anniversary of ending the Battle of the Somme. This was one of the bloodiest episodes in the war to end all wars. The opening attack, on August 1, 1916, had the most casualties of any day in the history of the British Army.
Perhaps this can be a lesson for the “Global War on Terror”. Unless you are a delusional fantasist.

How Babies Are Made

It is the season of the beauty queen. Sarah Palin and Carrie Prejean are on book tours, and sounding worse every time they speak. Coming to the rescue, to save the world for congeniality, is the former Miss Teen South Carolina, Caitlin “Katie” Upton. The lady from the south is friendlier, funnier, and prettier than the other two.
Miss Upton gave a rambling monologue about geography in 2007, and became famous. If you haven’t seen it, you need to get out more. A few days later, she was on the Today show, and given a second chance. Her answer the second time was “Well personally, my friends and I, we know exactly where the United States is on our map. I don’t know anyone else who doesn’t. And if the statistics are correct, I believe that there should be more emphasis on geography in our education so people will know how to read maps better” We should all be given a second chance.
PG speculated that Miss Upton gave the correct answer the first time. You can say anything you like, and people will believe you, if you say that it was the result of a study. PG, like Miss Upton, does not know anyone who cannot find the USA on a map. Surveys that say otherwise are highly suspect.
Katie Upton is well into her second career. She recently made a video, on the subject of how babies are made. Miss Upton interviewed the Octomom, who has a very clean kitchen. Miss Upton then draws a chart, showing the process of reproduction. Katie Upton is left handed.
HT to the huffington post. Spell Check suggestions for this feature:
huffington-huffiness
octomom- locomotor, vasectomy, tomorrow, stockroom
palin- plain, pain, paling
prejean- bluejeans, protean, prejudge, pregnant, preseason
upton- upon, uptown

The Last Meal

There is a story of a man who was afraid of mushrooms, but ordered them for his last meal. The details of a condemned man’s last meal are part of the death penalty lifestyle. The State of Texas used to document the last meals on a website, but that has been discontinued. Another site, deadmaneating.com, has not been updated since 2007.
A yahoo page about last meals has a quote from the former warden of the prison at Jackson, Georgia. The facility at Jackson is the scene for executions in Georgia. The name of the former warden is Fred Head.
Slate.com had a story about last meals recently. Some details about what can and cannot be ordered were shown, and some of the shortcuts some states…notably Virginia…take. A famous execution in Arkansas was remembered. This execution was authorized by Governor Bill Clinton. “In 1992, Arkansas convict Ricky Ray Rector, who had brain damage from shooting himself in the head after killing a police officer, ate a final meal of steak, fried chicken, and cherry Kool-Aid, but famously said he wanted to save his pecan pie for later.”
In nearby Oklahoma, Jimmy Dale Bland was processed June 26, 2007. Mr. Bland had terminal lung cancer, and would die within six months anyway. His last meal was “hot and spicy chicken breast, two slices of sausage pizza with extra cheese, a slice of German chocolate cake, a pint of French vanilla ice cream and a Dr. Pepper.” Also in Oklahoma was the final lifestyle choice of Thomas Grasso, on March 20, 1995. The final words of Mr. Grasso were “Please tell the media, I did not get my Spaghetti-O’s, I got spaghetti. I want the press to know.”
Ricky Lee Sanderson, in North Carolina turned down a final meal on Jan. 30, 1998. “I didn’t take [the last meal] because I have very strong convictions about abortion and the 33 million babies that have been aborted in this country. Those babies never got a first meal and that’s why I didn’t take the last in their memory.”
In 1983, Robert Dale Conklin had a dispute with a friend. Mr. Conklin killed his good buddy, cut the remains into little pieces, and left them in a dumpster. The fact that the deceased was an attorney did not justify this action, and the State of Georgia executed Mr. Conklin in 2005. PG is confident that this execution has a strong deterrent value.
At the time of his indiscretion, Mr. Conklin was a manager at a McDonalds, and he knew his food. For his final meal, Mr. Conklin got ” a filet mignon wrapped with bacon; de-veined shrimp sautéed in garlic butter with lemon; baked potato with butter, sour cream, chives and real bacon bits; corn on the cob; asparagus with hollandaise sauce; French bread with butter; goat cheese; cantaloupe; apple pie; vanilla bean ice cream and iced tea. Prison officials said he ate the entire meal, cleaning two plates.”

The Burning Of Atlanta

Around this time 145 years ago, Atlanta was on fire. General Sherman was preparing for his March to the sea, and wanted to destroy anything of value in the city. The fire is reported as being on 11-15 of November, depending on what source you use.
The November fire was the second great fire in Atlanta that year. On September 2, the city was conquered by the Union Army. The fleeing Confederates blew up a munitions depot, and set a large part of the city on fire. This is the fire the Scarlet O’Hara flees in “Gone With The Wind”.
After a series of bloody battles, the city was shelled by Yankee forces for forty days. There were many civilian casualties. General Sherman was tired of the war, angry at Atlanta, and ready for action. This is despite the fact that many in Atlanta were opposed to secession.
Click here to hear a lecture by Marc Wortman at the Atlanta History Center. Mr Wortman is the author of “The Bonfire: The Siege and Burning of Atlanta”. The hour of talk is fascinating. The pictures, with one exception, are from Shorpy. The 1864 map is from a collection of images at Georgia State University.

Thirteen Golly It’s Friday

There is a lot going on this friday the thirteenth.
There is a report that one of the people who supported an invasion of Iraq had a big financial interest there. Peter Galbraith is the son of a legendary economist, and a Democratic party player. In the run up to the invasion of Babylon, he was a supporter of war.
It turns out Mr. Galbraith has an interest in the oil of Kurdistan. He stands to make a lot of money if the deal goes through. To do that, however, he needed Saddam to get out of the way. There are a few of us who suspected all along that the reason we went into Iraq was to grab the oil.
In other news, the report that Maj. Hasan shouted “Allah Akbar” during his Fort Hood shooting spree is accepted as fact, and evidence of a jihad. According to another report, this may not have happened.
“In addition, one of Stengel’s key pieces of evidence that Hasan was a terrorist was the following: “This is a man who stood up before he killed people and said ‘God is great’ in Arabic,” Stengel announced.
That may be true, though I’ve been unable to find an original or credible source for this information. The original source seems to be a question from NBC’s Matt Lauer to Fort Hood’s Lt. Gen. Robert Cone on Nov. 6, the morning after the shootings. Lauer cited a relative of a witness to the shooting claiming that Hasan had said “God is great” in Arabic before opening fire. Cone responded: “There are firsthand accounts here from soldiers that are similar to that.” Fort Hood, however, will not confirm this aspect of the story. “
There is other evidence that Maj. Hasan was a radical Muslim, as well as evidence that he simply went postal under pressure. One comment caught PG’s eye: “Why are killing machines like he used being sold at all? A large-caliber, semi-automatic, extended magazine sidearm with a laser sight, is hardly evidence of a “well regulated militia”.”
Or, was it more than one gunman? “So now he’s a mess, incompetent and psychotic. I was waiting for this and the fake attempts to link him to ‘terrorism’ and ‘Islamic extremists’. I also note the original reports that Fort Hood was under attack by 3 shooters. I’ll bet my best pair of cotton socks that it was in fact under attack by three shooters since the idea that one shooter could shoot so many and score so many hits in such a short time is ridiculous. Especially when the alleged shooter is a psychiatrist who is incompetent, a mess and psychotic with minimum training with firearms. “

Veteran’s Day Hike

There was a beltway hike on Veteran’s Day. Five people took part. There is another report here.
The hike began on time, which may be a first. The start was behind Amsterdam Avenue, and the first part went north towards the Piedmont Park expansion. That project is still under construction, and it takes a visionary to see what will become of that acreage.
Moving back south towards Monroe, a discussion arose of the various neighborhood issues with the Beltway, and development/gentrification/restoration in general. PG learned a new phrase…in addition to NIMBY, there is now CAVE…Citizens against virtually anything. There was a bit of criticism of parties involved, with PG more sympathetic to the cautious neighborhood organization types.
Going under the Virginia Avenue bridge, the beltway path became vegetation heavy. This continued on towards Ponce. There is a big magnolia tree in the location of the former outfield of Ponce de Leon Park, with PG wondering if the two trees there were old enough to be big trees 50 years ago.
The bridge over Ponce de Leon, behind Big Sears/City Hall East, was a life threatening experience. There is no railing beside the rail ties, and rubber mats, with big holes in them, nailed over the rail ties. It was necessary to step on where the mat was nailed down to the ties, which PG found to be an exhilarating adventure.

Past Ponce, more vegetation waited on the tracks. The North Avenue Bridge is wide and in good shape, as is the Ralph McGill bridge. The hike proceeded under the Freedom Parkway bridge, which had the best graffiti of the afternoon. Soon a break was taken, at a gloriously restored restaurant.
Angel was expecting heavy vegetation on the next part of the journey. When the crew arrived on the line, they were astounded to see the rail lines had been cleared. There were fresh tracks in the mud, which, with the heavy rains on tuesday, meant that the clearance had occurred that very day. Indeed, before long a bobcat was seen scraping kudzu off the long abandoned rail lines. It seems like the process of converting this onetime rail corridor into a hike&bike  path is beginning to spring into action.
Walking under Edgewood Avenue, there were people camping out. They were looking for a train to hop on, to take them out west. The hiking crew spent a few minutes talking to them. PG left a couple of minutes before the rest of the crew, and felt a drop of rain. The rest of the hikers came along behind, and made their way to a vehicle on Edgewood to ride back to the starting place.

Faith

Carrie Prejean has a book for sale. By *remarkable coincidence*, her lawsuit against the Miss California pageant has been dropped. In a conference with attorneys, someone showed a tape of Miss Prejean in a compromising position…or whatever you want to call “the biggest mistake of my life”. The net result is a mountain of publicity for the book, and whatever future the young lady has.
After the infamous answer at the pageant, Miss Prejean made a series of appearances on Christian television, made commercials, and appeared at events for Christian groups. Could it be possible that, if she had been quiet after the pageant, the answer would have been quickly forgotten?
She says she is being persecuted for “having an opinion”. What she does not say is how often and how loudly she expressed that opinion. Also, she was a representative of a pageant, and was under contract to create good will for this organization. This is not consistent with her behavior after she “had an opinion”.
On the Hannity show, Miss Prejean says that her “faith” gave her strength to carry on after she was attacked. It is this same “faith” that was the weapon she used to attack millions of people, who have done nothing to hurt her? What do people who have been attacked by “faith” turn to for strength?