Friday, July 29, 2022

Brothers Morale High



What's this weird rumor, that US PMC people are subcontracting to Wagner? Wild West or 18th C and then some.

Your Old Pal,

LSP

 

Thursday, July 28, 2022

Rivers of Texas

 


We had a ranch on the Red River, no more alas, but I get to fish the mighty Brazos and I love that.

All hail Texas,

LSP

BUSTED!

 



A Tahoe screamed around the corner, sirens wailing in the morning heat, a bust in progress but no big deal, happens. Then more sirens, this thing's escalating and I stood up in the front office, aka "porch" to see the action.

Lo and behold, Old D drives by the house, going slow in his beat up Toyota, followed by three more Tahoes full of sound and fury. "Pull over, fella," I thought to myself, "Stop blocking the road and let the cops take out the meth dealer 'round the corner."

D duly turns the corner, pulls into his driveway and bang, the posse screeches to a halt and it's Glocks out, get away from the vehicle! D does this quietly and gets taken to jail, for he was the perpetrator. But what had he done?





Gotten into a crazy verbal with someone at a fast food joint? Accused a random stranger of being in danger of hellfire at the Brookshires? Delivered an end times Alex Jones rant at Tractor Supply before running out on the store with an unpaid bag of cat food? All likely scenarios, but no, it seems his crime was failing to register his vehicle and then failing to stop when the LEO son et lumière began. D was scared and freaked out, apparently.

He's been charged with evading arrest, $5000 bail, and I like the guy. Crazy? Yes. Dangerous? No. In need of help? Most definitely, and I offered to do what I could. In the meanwhile, real, dangerous, evil criminals walk free down the marbled corridors of power, to say nothing of this town's drug dealers.


Look. A Crook


That said, couldn't the above deal have been handled differently?  Especially in a place where people know each other? Well, there it is, and I file this tale of crime and punishment under Country Life in Texas.

Justice,

LSP

Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Register

 



One of the many benefits of the rural, bucolic Texan haven that is LSPland is that you get to look at local architecture after dropping off the rig for its yearly inspection at Tom's Tire. 

Look how the wooden roof shingles on this derelict have survived. I like that, but you can imagine its price in, say, Toronto, Austin or twin city San Francisco:


note shingles

Roofing reverie over, it's a short stroll along the leafy boulevards of this Texan farming community to the old jail and court house, which was built in the 1890s and admirably protected by steel shutters. Its modern equivalent would be a windowless slab of dun colored brick, pierced by bulletproof slits. My, how we've devolved.


Jail/Courthouse

Regardless, the jail's protected by a fierce junkyard dog and has a Liberty Tree, seeded from an Ash in Eisenhower's home town. And then, before melting in the searing, ovenlike heat of a July morning, you amble over to Montes for a late breakfast.


Fierce Dog!

Montes, now "Ya-Ya's," is blissfully cool, blinded and silent, it's just too hot for extraneous noise. So you sit there checking out Russkie Telegram channels while Ya Ya brings the right stuff. Huevos Rancheros, eggs over easy on corn tortillas with their hot rancheros sauce, refried beans, fried potatoes and homemade flour tortillas. What a feast.


Breakfast Time

Then return to Tom's, pay a massive fee of $7, pick up the truck, spin over to the court house annex where they're spraying the doors with disinfectant because science and register your vehicle. Easy. What a pleasant morning and so much less hassle than doing the same thing in the Metrosprawl.


shadow LSP

Country life forever,

LSP

Sunday, July 24, 2022

Cheap Trick

 



Cheap trick? What, Kamala Harris, our government? No, just the band. Here they are, live at Budokan:




Rock on,

LSP

A Short Sunday Reflection

 



"I say old chap," I announced breezily to the Crucifer as we were getting ready for Mass at Mission #2, "Did you know the gerontocrat in nominal charge of our country has promised us a green, electric military by 2030?"

"No, I did not know that," replied the Crucifer, a retired artillery Captain (Vietnam) and active oil and gas analyst. "Well he has, said so in April on Earth Day. And it's all well and good until they run out of charging stations, what?"

My friend, a practical man who went to Yale when it was still a university, frowned and thought for a moment, "That's easy, they'll just bring up charging trucks with generators. Yes, generators running on gasoline." We chuckled, said our prayers and the Sacred Mysteries were celebrated in good order. 


Not the Crucifer, obvs, just a Texan assisting Mass

You know, not so long ago, back in the aughts, I'd have raised an eyebrow if you'd told me I'd be with a couple of mission churches in rural Texas. But I tell you what, it's been a real blessing and, curiously enough, by far and away the most diverse congregation(s) I've served, certainly the most intellectual.

What a blessing, farmers and ranchers, rodeo stars even, to people who make a living from the life of the mind, who write books as if by muscle memory. And all coming together to worship God as one.

I love that,

LSP

Saturday, July 23, 2022

Sic Transit

 



You'll note Imperial Ladies aloft. Regardless, the Corsican Upstart ended his days on an island in the South Atlantic, his vaunted Grande  Armée smashed and defeated at Waterloo. So much for Boney.




His beautiful and gorgeous Empress Josephine died in 1814, a year before her philandering, adulterous Emperor was utterly and irrevocably defeated by the Iron Duke. Her last words, allegedly spoken through black and rotting teeth were, "Bonaparte … Elba … the King of Rome."

There is, if you care to draw it, a moral in this tale,

LSP

The New Green Military



Did you know that the US military, the most powerful, deadly armed force the world has ever seen, is going green as well as trans? That's right, green, environmentally friendly, leading the way to net zero carbon emissions and the well being of Gaia, fragile planet earth. How?

By divesting its destructive power from killer fossil fuel and making its war machines run on electricity. Our beloved and popular Commander-in-Chief promised as much in April, on Earth Day. Here he is, Old Uncle Joe himself, "Every vehicle in the United States military is going to be climate-friendly. We're spending billions of dollars to do it." 





Leaving aside the canting hypocrisy of an environmentally friendly war machine, step back in awe as 7.62 plants poppies, consider the prospect of a future war. A near peer-to-peer conflict with China in the Pacific and Russia in Europe.

Imagine, ChiComs and Russkies roll over the start line with their binary gender macro aggression, non-pronoun armies, and we rainbow trans roll out to meet them. A ferocious clash of arms ensues; we do well, Western green tech is better than their Sov inspired rubbish. But then... disaster!




Right there, perhaps on the steppes of the Ukraine itself, we run out of charging stations for our tanks, IFVs, self-propelled guns, tracked air defense, mobile artillery, trucks, MWRAPS, MLRS. All of it, the whole nine yards grinds to a halt because there aren't electric outlets on the field of battle. Oh dear.





By its own admission, the Biden administration's going to spend billions of dollars on this puerile, risible, corrupt, dropped-on-head-as-infant idiocy, which is bad enough. In the meanwhile, the US Army's received one electric Humvee, "It has more than 1,000 horsepower, and 11,500 pound-feet of wheel torque, allowing it to achieve 0-60 mph in 3 seconds." Here's a photo:



Hmmmm. I kinda want one.

Cheers,

LSP