The new Fox TV series Alcatraz is a good program. Interesting story line and well written......BUT I have just one problem with the whole story. (if you want to read more about the series, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcatraz_%28TV_series%29)
Without giving the total story away, the story deals with people being in 1963 and then suddenly being in 2012. Ok.....I can handle that. The one thing I can't handle is thinking about the change in the USA from 1963 to 49 years later. Think of the brand changes that happened in that time. PanAm was a major player in the airline market in the 1960's. Pan American Airways was the principal and largest international air carrier in the United States from 1927 until its collapse on December 4, 1991.
If Pan American being gone wasn't enough of a change in 49 years, food prices would be a major shock for anyone arriving from 1963. In 1963, a 12oz box of Kellogg's Corn Flakes was a whopping 0.23 cents. The average yearly income in 1963 was $5,807.00 a year. In 2011, a 12 oz box of Kellogg's cost $3.79 a box. The average yearly income in 2010 (the latest year I can find) is $41,673.83. Like WOW.
Another great difference, gas prices. In 1963, a gallon of gas was 30 cents. In Sept 2011, gas was an average of $3.67 per gallon.
The changes in laws in 49 years would be almost more than a mind would be able to take. Seat belt laws would be a new thing. In 1963 most cars didn't have seat belts but in 2012 we have laws in most states mandating their use!!??!! My parents 1963 Buick Special had front lap belts and no shoulder belts or rear seat belts at all.
According to the story line these people from 1963 interact with people from 2012 with little or no problem or thoughts of the changes in 49 years. At some point, in items not shown in the story line I can only imagine the people from 1963 trying to buy a pack of gum and flipping out...."Last week I paid a nickle for a pack of Doublemint gum and this week its thirty-five cents!!??!!" or I can see them walking into a men's store they used to shop at and asking "Where is Steve?" and the answer being "Steve died 15 years ago".....
There are a million other ways that would be hard on someone stepping off the boat from 1963....
They wouldn't even know what WTF means....but they would learn that quickly methinks.
Ah, the good old days!
J.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Saturday, February 4, 2012
2/4/2012 The News Media
The news media sometimes describes politicians as "flip floppers" when they change their minds. They are also described as being "out of touch with the common person". I wondered, how would the media describe me if they followed me around all the time......
Well, for one thing, If I had 25 people following me around with camera's and no matter what I did they would still be there, I would blow a gasket and I would tell them all to "go out in the street and play with the trucks!"
After being that cranky, I would be described as an ass for my outburst. Video's of me saying "Go out in the street and play with the trucks" would be played every half hour on the 24 hour TV news.
I would also be described as a flip flopper because I reserve the right to change my mind. As far as abortion is concerned, I once felt it was WRONG. The discussion stopped right there for me at that time. Now I feel about it this way. It isn't for me. I would not do it or ask someone who was carrying my child to do it. I can't live for everyone else, I can't push my moral code on the rest of the world. I wouldn't advocate abortion but I wouldn't stop anyone else from doing it for their own reasons.
Abortion has been legal since 1973. It is the law of the land and has been the law of the land for 39 years. I admit there are reasons to disobey the law of the land but this isn't one of them.
Self Control is a something we should all have. Killing someone who allows someone who desires a legal operation isn't self control. (I'm not going to debate the legal thoughts on when someone is alive or not. That is a form of hair splitting I have no answer for. As I have said, I wouldn't turn to Abortion but I wouldn't stop someone else from exercising their legal right).
If I was a politician, I'm pro life as far as my decisions for myself and I'm pro choice as far as the right to have a legal procedure.
Bearing in mind the above statements, one side would describe me as a baby killer (pro choice) and the other side would describe me as a pro life supporter and my thoughts are just not that cut and dried on the subject. To have my thoughts turned into a sound bite that only broadcast a second or two of my statements would make me SOOOOO mad that I would encourage the 25 reporters to "go play on a railroad track" and I would make the 24 hour news cycle yet again! ACK!
I will be the first one to admit, Mitt Romney has NO idea how I live or how I make ends meet on a weekly basis. This week Romney has been blasted for saying to CNN he is "not concerned about the very poor". Just seeing that statement will have you believe that Romney is a real heartless bastard. To quote the WHOLE statement the meaning changes greatly.
That is totally different than just saying he is "not concerned about the very poor". He is concerned and the media is doing a great disservice to this man because they don't have the integrity to post the whole quote and let people decide for themselves. I really hate media spin...quote the person in context and let the chips fall where they may.
I also have problems with throwing around a politicians past life. We have all done things in our life that we don't want on the news. Have respect for a person's life. Stick to the describing poor decisions that politician made while in office or in business and leave his "ex-wife/girlfriend/one night stand" out of the discussions. I really don't care about that. He can be the biggest S.O.B. walking the face of the earth, on a personal level, but be the greatest leader of our time.... JFK had more than one affair while in office but he was a good president and had he lived there most likely wouldn't have been a Vietnam war. The week before he died he was bringing a small number of troops home from Southeast Asia.
We found out about none of his infidelity while JFK was alive because the News Media operated under a respect for a person's personal life that we have lost in our day. I so wish it would come back.
All of this boils down to this:
I'm GLAD I'm not in the public eye!
Ok, you can now ACK among yourselves
J.
Well, for one thing, If I had 25 people following me around with camera's and no matter what I did they would still be there, I would blow a gasket and I would tell them all to "go out in the street and play with the trucks!"
After being that cranky, I would be described as an ass for my outburst. Video's of me saying "Go out in the street and play with the trucks" would be played every half hour on the 24 hour TV news.
I would also be described as a flip flopper because I reserve the right to change my mind. As far as abortion is concerned, I once felt it was WRONG. The discussion stopped right there for me at that time. Now I feel about it this way. It isn't for me. I would not do it or ask someone who was carrying my child to do it. I can't live for everyone else, I can't push my moral code on the rest of the world. I wouldn't advocate abortion but I wouldn't stop anyone else from doing it for their own reasons.
The Bible says in Romans 13:1-7 : "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor."
Abortion has been legal since 1973. It is the law of the land and has been the law of the land for 39 years. I admit there are reasons to disobey the law of the land but this isn't one of them.
The Bible says in 2 Peter 1:5-7 "For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love."
Self Control is a something we should all have. Killing someone who allows someone who desires a legal operation isn't self control. (I'm not going to debate the legal thoughts on when someone is alive or not. That is a form of hair splitting I have no answer for. As I have said, I wouldn't turn to Abortion but I wouldn't stop someone else from exercising their legal right).
If I was a politician, I'm pro life as far as my decisions for myself and I'm pro choice as far as the right to have a legal procedure.
Bearing in mind the above statements, one side would describe me as a baby killer (pro choice) and the other side would describe me as a pro life supporter and my thoughts are just not that cut and dried on the subject. To have my thoughts turned into a sound bite that only broadcast a second or two of my statements would make me SOOOOO mad that I would encourage the 25 reporters to "go play on a railroad track" and I would make the 24 hour news cycle yet again! ACK!
I will be the first one to admit, Mitt Romney has NO idea how I live or how I make ends meet on a weekly basis. This week Romney has been blasted for saying to CNN he is "not concerned about the very poor". Just seeing that statement will have you believe that Romney is a real heartless bastard. To quote the WHOLE statement the meaning changes greatly.
"I'm in this race because I care about Americans. I'm not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I'll fix it," Romney told CNN Wednesday morning. "I'm not concerned about the very rich, they're doing just fine. I'm concerned about the very heart of the America, the 90 percent, 95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling."
That is totally different than just saying he is "not concerned about the very poor". He is concerned and the media is doing a great disservice to this man because they don't have the integrity to post the whole quote and let people decide for themselves. I really hate media spin...quote the person in context and let the chips fall where they may.
I also have problems with throwing around a politicians past life. We have all done things in our life that we don't want on the news. Have respect for a person's life. Stick to the describing poor decisions that politician made while in office or in business and leave his "ex-wife/girlfriend/one night stand" out of the discussions. I really don't care about that. He can be the biggest S.O.B. walking the face of the earth, on a personal level, but be the greatest leader of our time.... JFK had more than one affair while in office but he was a good president and had he lived there most likely wouldn't have been a Vietnam war. The week before he died he was bringing a small number of troops home from Southeast Asia.
By the spring of 1963, Kennedy had reversed course completely
and agreed with Mansfield: "The President told Mansfield that he had been having serious
second thoughts about Mansfield's argument and that he now
agreed with the Senator's thinking on the need for a complete
military withdrawal from Vietnam."
We found out about none of his infidelity while JFK was alive because the News Media operated under a respect for a person's personal life that we have lost in our day. I so wish it would come back.
All of this boils down to this:
I'm GLAD I'm not in the public eye!
Ok, you can now ACK among yourselves
J.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
The Daily ACK 2/2/2012 Random stuff.
I posted a photo on Facebook of two older twins. One is trying operating a vacuum cleaner the other one is around a corner with the power plug in his hand. If life in the future is like that, I don't want to stop living.
I was never one to pull a lot of jokes on others. I've been on the receiving end of that kind of thing WAY too many time so I can relate to the person the joke is directed toward. (I saw a good friend of mine almost drowned because of a "going away" joke gone wrong)
HOWEVER, there was this ONE time......
I have written that I was once stationed in Alaska at Eielson AFB from Dec 1984 to June 1987. I worked in the AGE (Aerospace Ground Equipment) shop. Some bases in some places can have civilians as workers. During the winter in Alaska we had a crew full of the same civilians that came to work for the Air Force in the winter and then worked for the Forestry service the other 6 months of the year, however, we had one civilian who was a full time worker. The shop once had more than one full time civilian slot and as people left those slots the slots "went away" and were never filled again.
The one remaining civilian in the AGE shop was one Phillip J. Stonerock (Honest to gosh, that was his real name). We all called him Stoney. He was an odd sort of guy. If he got to the shop first he always put the shop radio on the local Top 40 radio station. If someone else got to the shop radio first, they would put it on the college hard rock station from College, AK and the University of Fairbanks. Stoney would wear his hearing protection all day long to keep from listening to hard rock.
Stoney had a bad habit that didn't endure him to other in the shop. He liked to scratch himself "right there" and in front of ANYONE. Women, men, the Branch chief, the squadron commander..... in an absentminded sort of way. Did I happen to mention he was odd?
Being on a base at the end of the supply chain could be a pain in the butt most days. We took any parts we felt were usable and put them in a locker with a combination lock on it. We were not supposed "hoard" parts like that but some days it kept us working when shop supplies ran low. It was a necessary breaking of the rules that most higher ranking people turned a blind eye to, as long as we kept working was what mattered.
The combination lock on that locker was of a type that you could change the combination by putting the hasp to the left of the lock body, push it into the lock body and turn the rotating numbers to the new combination and then pull the hasp back up and lock the lock...and the combination would be changed. Simple enough.
One morning I got to work early and was working on an H1 ground heater right in front of the used parts locker. Stoney wasn't around. I seem to remember the combination was "6767". I opened the lock and changed the combination to "6766" and went back to work on my broke heater. Stoney came over to the locker to look for a few parts he needed and he rolled in the combination "6767" and when the lock didn't pop open it was the eighth wonder of the free world to Stoney. He must of tried that combination 15 times. On the table beside the locker was a ball peen hammer and I honestly thought he was going to beat that lock with that hammer, but he didn't. When he finally gave up, he walked away mumbling something about going to get the branch chief.....
Once he walked through the double doors toward the administrative office, I walked over to the lock, opened it, changed the combination back to "6767" and locked the lock back. I went back to working on my heater.
It wasn't 3 minutes that Stoney and the SMSgt who was branch chief of the shop were standing at the locker. Stoney went on to explain that he couldn't open the lock on the parts locker. Over to the locker he went, he rolled the combination into the lock and WHAM...the lock fell open....the look of shock on his face was worth a thousand laughs...but I didn't laugh...I would have given myself away. As I remember it, the Branch Chief walked off without saying much to any of us.
Stoney was a weird dude. He had one parking spot that he liked to park in because he was a volunteer fire fighter. It was just a parking spot. It wasn't reserved to him or anything. (I do remember he tried to get it reserved to him and the Branch Chief told him "NO"). He liked to back into that parking spot, just in case he got a call on his radio about a fire. The parking spot was in line with the sidewalk and front door of the building. One morning he pulled in to back into this spot and I was right behind him and right in that spot I went.... Needless to say he wasn't too excited with me for the rest of the day! Oh well....it WASN'T his spot but he wished it was!
Ah! to be young and foolish again but now I'm old and foolish......You never can tell what might happen when no one is looking!
J.
I was never one to pull a lot of jokes on others. I've been on the receiving end of that kind of thing WAY too many time so I can relate to the person the joke is directed toward. (I saw a good friend of mine almost drowned because of a "going away" joke gone wrong)
HOWEVER, there was this ONE time......
I have written that I was once stationed in Alaska at Eielson AFB from Dec 1984 to June 1987. I worked in the AGE (Aerospace Ground Equipment) shop. Some bases in some places can have civilians as workers. During the winter in Alaska we had a crew full of the same civilians that came to work for the Air Force in the winter and then worked for the Forestry service the other 6 months of the year, however, we had one civilian who was a full time worker. The shop once had more than one full time civilian slot and as people left those slots the slots "went away" and were never filled again.
The one remaining civilian in the AGE shop was one Phillip J. Stonerock (Honest to gosh, that was his real name). We all called him Stoney. He was an odd sort of guy. If he got to the shop first he always put the shop radio on the local Top 40 radio station. If someone else got to the shop radio first, they would put it on the college hard rock station from College, AK and the University of Fairbanks. Stoney would wear his hearing protection all day long to keep from listening to hard rock.
Stoney had a bad habit that didn't endure him to other in the shop. He liked to scratch himself "right there" and in front of ANYONE. Women, men, the Branch chief, the squadron commander..... in an absentminded sort of way. Did I happen to mention he was odd?
Being on a base at the end of the supply chain could be a pain in the butt most days. We took any parts we felt were usable and put them in a locker with a combination lock on it. We were not supposed "hoard" parts like that but some days it kept us working when shop supplies ran low. It was a necessary breaking of the rules that most higher ranking people turned a blind eye to, as long as we kept working was what mattered.
The combination lock on that locker was of a type that you could change the combination by putting the hasp to the left of the lock body, push it into the lock body and turn the rotating numbers to the new combination and then pull the hasp back up and lock the lock...and the combination would be changed. Simple enough.
One morning I got to work early and was working on an H1 ground heater right in front of the used parts locker. Stoney wasn't around. I seem to remember the combination was "6767". I opened the lock and changed the combination to "6766" and went back to work on my broke heater. Stoney came over to the locker to look for a few parts he needed and he rolled in the combination "6767" and when the lock didn't pop open it was the eighth wonder of the free world to Stoney. He must of tried that combination 15 times. On the table beside the locker was a ball peen hammer and I honestly thought he was going to beat that lock with that hammer, but he didn't. When he finally gave up, he walked away mumbling something about going to get the branch chief.....
Once he walked through the double doors toward the administrative office, I walked over to the lock, opened it, changed the combination back to "6767" and locked the lock back. I went back to working on my heater.
It wasn't 3 minutes that Stoney and the SMSgt who was branch chief of the shop were standing at the locker. Stoney went on to explain that he couldn't open the lock on the parts locker. Over to the locker he went, he rolled the combination into the lock and WHAM...the lock fell open....the look of shock on his face was worth a thousand laughs...but I didn't laugh...I would have given myself away. As I remember it, the Branch Chief walked off without saying much to any of us.
Stoney was a weird dude. He had one parking spot that he liked to park in because he was a volunteer fire fighter. It was just a parking spot. It wasn't reserved to him or anything. (I do remember he tried to get it reserved to him and the Branch Chief told him "NO"). He liked to back into that parking spot, just in case he got a call on his radio about a fire. The parking spot was in line with the sidewalk and front door of the building. One morning he pulled in to back into this spot and I was right behind him and right in that spot I went.... Needless to say he wasn't too excited with me for the rest of the day! Oh well....it WASN'T his spot but he wished it was!
Ah! to be young and foolish again but now I'm old and foolish......You never can tell what might happen when no one is looking!
J.
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