Saturday, June 03, 2017
Whiskey, cigars, fried catfish,
meatloaf... I may have to revise my healthy-living plans.
He’s sitting in a lawn chair on the front porch of the Austin home he built nearly 70 years ago, working on his fifth Tampa Sweet cigar on a 91-degree sunny day. The smooth tunes of the Isley Brothers flow from a portable speaker. Birds are chirping in the late afternoon breeze.
“I’m feeling pretty good today,” Overton says, emphasizing the word pretty, because any day spent on this porch smoking cigars is a pretty good day for the 111-year-old.
This is where you’ll find the nation’s oldest veteran for 10 hours every day when the weather is nice. His friends call it his “stage.” It’s where Overton sits and thinks about life, his starting in 1906, the same year as the first wireless radio broadcast and a year before the paper towel was invented.
Salute, sir.
On the other end of the spectrum, teacher stands up to racist bastards, may be punished for it. Because it was PC racism he stood up to.
Wonder how much they charge annually for indoctrination?
He’s sitting in a lawn chair on the front porch of the Austin home he built nearly 70 years ago, working on his fifth Tampa Sweet cigar on a 91-degree sunny day. The smooth tunes of the Isley Brothers flow from a portable speaker. Birds are chirping in the late afternoon breeze.
“I’m feeling pretty good today,” Overton says, emphasizing the word pretty, because any day spent on this porch smoking cigars is a pretty good day for the 111-year-old.
This is where you’ll find the nation’s oldest veteran for 10 hours every day when the weather is nice. His friends call it his “stage.” It’s where Overton sits and thinks about life, his starting in 1906, the same year as the first wireless radio broadcast and a year before the paper towel was invented.
Salute, sir.
On the other end of the spectrum, teacher stands up to racist bastards, may be punished for it. Because it was PC racism he stood up to.
Wonder how much they charge annually for indoctrination?
Deaf guy wants to go shooting, does he need hearing protection?
That question came up from daughter; my thought was that even if you couldn't have your hearing damaged, the pressure pulse from shots could be a problem, so asked around. Answer is 'Yes'.
But I am deaf. And I’ve been deaf for as long as I can remember, so I know that pretty well. Despite my deafness, I still wear hearing protection when I shoot, and I’d like to tell you why . . .
...
My ears were instantly ringing. It wasn’t my 9mm, as I hadn’t even squeezed off a round yet. Some fellow, with his bolt action rifle, caliber unknown, had put out his target on the 100 yard line, and proceeded to sight in his gun. I shot mine, and the percussion seemed more intense than usual. The rifle to the left though…every time he fired, the ringing started anew and a sense of nausea began to grow.
I couldn’t take more than 15 minutes of it. Vertigo was kicking in big time. The tinnitus sounded like every air raid siren in Honolulu was going off, a cold sweat was breaking out. I was going to be lucky to make it out of the range without chucking lunch all over the shop floor.
...
I’m fine now. It took a week or two for the tinnitus to fade away. The headache, the nausea, the vertigo, all eventually receded. But left behind was an indelible lesson: ear protection isn’t just for protecting your hearing. Aside from hair cells inside your cochlea that turn sound waves into signals your brain translates into auditory input, there’s a lot more going on. And that protection helps make sure your body can do that for a long time. There are bones, fluids, tubes…all kinds of physiological processes going on that make for a bad time if you don’t protect them when you go out shooting.
My range has always had a rule: 'You go on the firing line, you wear hearing protection. Period. Don't care if you're deaf.' Partly it's the general principal, partly nobody wants to hear "Hey, he's not wearing any, why should I have to?" Turns out there's other good reasons.
But I am deaf. And I’ve been deaf for as long as I can remember, so I know that pretty well. Despite my deafness, I still wear hearing protection when I shoot, and I’d like to tell you why . . .
...
My ears were instantly ringing. It wasn’t my 9mm, as I hadn’t even squeezed off a round yet. Some fellow, with his bolt action rifle, caliber unknown, had put out his target on the 100 yard line, and proceeded to sight in his gun. I shot mine, and the percussion seemed more intense than usual. The rifle to the left though…every time he fired, the ringing started anew and a sense of nausea began to grow.
I couldn’t take more than 15 minutes of it. Vertigo was kicking in big time. The tinnitus sounded like every air raid siren in Honolulu was going off, a cold sweat was breaking out. I was going to be lucky to make it out of the range without chucking lunch all over the shop floor.
...
I’m fine now. It took a week or two for the tinnitus to fade away. The headache, the nausea, the vertigo, all eventually receded. But left behind was an indelible lesson: ear protection isn’t just for protecting your hearing. Aside from hair cells inside your cochlea that turn sound waves into signals your brain translates into auditory input, there’s a lot more going on. And that protection helps make sure your body can do that for a long time. There are bones, fluids, tubes…all kinds of physiological processes going on that make for a bad time if you don’t protect them when you go out shooting.
My range has always had a rule: 'You go on the firing line, you wear hearing protection. Period. Don't care if you're deaf.' Partly it's the general principal, partly nobody wants to hear "Hey, he's not wearing any, why should I have to?" Turns out there's other good reasons.
"Hey, WE did not illegally search their computer(we just paid someone else
to do it for us)!"
EFF, a San Francisco-based nonprofit privacy group, sued the Justice Department after the government refused a request for documents about how the FBI recruits, trains and pays Best Buy workers to find illegal child pornography on customer computers sent to Best Buy for repairs.
“The public has a right to know how the FBI uses computer repair technicians to carry out searches the agents themselves cannot do without a warrant,” EFF senior counsel David Sobel said in a statement. “People authorize Best Buy employees to fix their computers, not conduct unconstitutional searches on the FBI’s behalf.”
The company says "We had no idea". Maybe. Entirely possible the EffingBI went to individuals and said "We'll pay you, and you can find bad guys for us!" Maybe a little "Or we'll dig into your life a little" added in.
Why yes, I am cynical nowadays.
EFF, a San Francisco-based nonprofit privacy group, sued the Justice Department after the government refused a request for documents about how the FBI recruits, trains and pays Best Buy workers to find illegal child pornography on customer computers sent to Best Buy for repairs.
“The public has a right to know how the FBI uses computer repair technicians to carry out searches the agents themselves cannot do without a warrant,” EFF senior counsel David Sobel said in a statement. “People authorize Best Buy employees to fix their computers, not conduct unconstitutional searches on the FBI’s behalf.”
The company says "We had no idea". Maybe. Entirely possible the EffingBI went to individuals and said "We'll pay you, and you can find bad guys for us!" Maybe a little "Or we'll dig into your life a little" added in.
Why yes, I am cynical nowadays.
Friday, June 02, 2017
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