Tuesday 30 September 2025 09:32:45 PM CST





Tuesday 30 September 2025 09:36:42 PM CST

Considered by many (including meself) to be the best of the ten studio albums that are the essential Alan Parsons Project. There are officially eleven but the last isn't that great and doesn't really fit with the others. It was released years after the band dissolved and in fact Eric Woolfson had been deceased for some years. Reportedly it was recorded as a reaction to difficulties with the record company and was intentionally so bad the company wouldn't release it. For those interested in all things APP it is available as past of a boxed set which I don't have or as a download which I do have. I have listened to it only a few times. The first ten are played either in alphabetical of chronological order on weekends. If you don't know what order in you probably couldn't guess - not that they all sound the same as the music did undergo a subtle evolution but general format was consitent - usually one or two instrumentals some of which have become culturally iconic after being widely adopted outside the music mainstream.

TTOAFC is my probably my favorite, first among equals so so speak. On one of the better live performances they perform the entire piece (it has five parts) and the extended keyboard and sax solos make it much better than the studio version good as it was. As you might suspect the album is about gambling and gamblers and has some referencs to Las Vegas. Vegas seems not to be what it once was - I was there some back in the day and always on a company expense account so didn't worry about what things cost but that seems to have become a problem for some.

Whiskey of the day is Buffalo Trace. Never had any before for some reason or other, haven't gotten around to a few I imagine. Unsurprisingly it's made at the Buffalo Trace distillery but so are quite a few that aren't called Buffalo Trace. Old Charter and Ancient Age being a couple, and I ain't had any of either in a while on account of they started using plastic bottles. Drank both for forty years and hate to quit so I'll give it some thought. Tried a couple of flavored Jim Beams a while back. Vanilla and Peach. Won't be doing that agin.

For seegars been picking up a pack or two of Good Times green sweets once in a while, had kinda forgot them for a while. Probably keep doing that occasional.

The tractors are here and one is on the front porch - it's wide enough for two and the roof is high enough you don't have to fold the rollbar down to get in. Don't take up much space and it's good to just go out the front door and fire it up and ride around. Undisclosed best girl is usually only here on weekends and the other one is next door in the big shop. Heat should be about gone by the end of next week and evenings been tolerable lately. Relatively little vegetation to clean up -the two bigass cedar trees is growed up underneath after I cut the lower limbs and there some of everything growing under there. Especially poke sallet for some reason so it's some crawling around cuttin'em off and dragging. Some kinda tree I ain't sure what is but it just about always forks near the base and you get two about equal-size trunks. Grow fast and look good, got a couple of big ones. Probably transplant a few of these and of course the pecans. Remind me to order a new sharpshooter with a fiberglass handle. The handles on two of mine rotted out and the one that ain't broke is kinda dodgy-looking.



Classic book of the day is Lucifer's Hammer from Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven back in 1977. Something I saw on the news the other day about a comet coming around somewheres. Not expected to hit the Earth but in LH that's what happens. Actually it breaks up in space and the pieces come down in places that are inconvenient for a lot of people.









Weird snack of the day is classic vienna sausage. Classic for me is the Armour brand because that's what the groshery stores I go to have a lot of them and less of others like Libby's and Bryan and the Great Value store brand. Mebbe I should try some of the others but I always figured Vienna sausage is Vienna sausage. There's the pure chicken and a fair number of flavors - I like jalapenos on some things and even eat a few out of the jar now and they but don't figure on trying them these things. Same for barbecue and bourbon and hot and spicy. For sure I don't want any bourbon desecrated by being put in there but it seems that it's an artificial flavor.

I believe where I shop Armour is the only brand available in 6-and-12-packs. Shrinkwrapped and a bit of work to get open. Suppose if I was stashing some for emergency that would be a good way but the idea of eating them more than once a month doesn't appeal to me. I don't often consume two cans at once but figured to photograph them that way. Getting the first one out can be tricky, not so much like gettin' the first olive out of a jar but they're stuck together pretty good and I generally use the cocktail fork to rotate the center one to get it loose and then it's easy to spear the remaing half dozen.

Speaking of olives I snack on them occasionally. Wonder what the best olive for Vienna sausage is. Big ones? I like the ones with pimento but those are usually the smaller ones. And then there's black olives - that sounds good. Or both?

"Wait here," Gordon said, going back into the APC.

He called the Red and Blue teams and found the situation calm. We're down to ten minutes now, he thought. "Make a prudent withdrawal to the egress assembly point," he ordered. Meaning withdraw but watch your back.

"Alex," he called. "How are you doing?"

"The prisoners are ready," Alex replied. "Twenty two total, decent physical shape."

Then after a pause, "Make that twenty three. One is special, if you know what I mean."

"What do you need?" asked Gordon.

"I can't put this one in the general transport," Alex replied. General transport was several ambulances and a handful of buses which had remained near the perimeter until the fighting was over. Once the prison was secured and the fighting around it had stopped, they had begun loading the freed prisoners onto them.

"I'll have to take her back in my vehicle," he said.

Gordon was somewhat intrigued, but that was what the after-action reviews were for. Whatever it was, Alex knew what he was doing.

"Go ahead and egress now," he told Alex. "We're about finished here. I'll catch up with you later."

"Affirmative," said Alex. "See you later."

Gordon remained in the vehicle, coordinating the withdrawal, occasionally looking over at the hapless Colonel Peterson standing outside. He was going to be one unhappy man, thought Gordon. He grinned slightly as he thought of the investigations that would ensue. Peterson wasn't the only one in trouble - he would be a scapegoat of course, but there would be a lot of unhappy people higher up the food chain.

Balance of Power (2022)


I believe that was a response to the BLS boss getting canned after yet another bogus jobs report. Now the only people pay attention to that aside from those in the business sector that use it to make decisions and the sheeple. Both are wrong but the former are doing it because it fits with the conventional wisdom of the business while the latter are just the typical low-information types who unfortunately vote in large numbers. The fact that the government numbers are revised 90% of the time and the latest revision was for well over a million down over the past year. We knew the Biden regime was lying but accurate numbers are always available from sources that are either right most of the time or go out of business.

Okey-dokey, what we got to talk about? The Memphis situation may or may not be real interesting soon. President announced that Memphis is next in line for some cleaning. Think gettin' the spherical brush and chemicals and frequent flushes. The Memphis mayor commented right away. As in please leave our criminals alone. Like the state taking over the schools the governor put off doing something for so long that the offer of federal assistance was a relief - everybody blaming President Trump and he's got a bit of cover. Interestingly this poll was conducted by a local teevee station. They run these polls about everday and generally the responses are way over 50% agin anything sane.


That twelve percent likely includes the mayor and the various "civil rights leaders" and such. Naturally the dim politicians didn't like it but the Republicans was good with it. These folks don't seem to want the killing to stop. These people like the idea but they're people who have businesses. The immigration lawyer is probably figuring some illegals will be among the debris that gets swept up. He's probably right and probably he'll get paid by someone but it's adios to the illegals. Now it seems they worried about incarceration capacity and they probably should be. Note that there are claims of reduced crime and they may be accurate with all the state police they brought in. That could get interesting but maybe some sort of temporary internment facility can be rigged up. Cities in the surrounding area are worried as well. That was West Memphis and tellya the truth Idunno how they keep crime to manageable level there but it may be because the Memphis criminals skip Left Memphis and head on over to Jonestown and Paragould. Get a lot of them coming over and hitting the big Wal-Marts and some of them high-dollar stores on Highland and Caraway. Sometimes they flee back to Memphis and sometimes they catch'em before they get to the bridge. Hope the Jonestown and Paragould police are ready for them.

OK, nuffothat. Chris about to start kibitzing about something. Couple more items from Memphis. Somebody don't seem to care that Memphis is now known as the place to avoid for big investments. xAI put a couple of big data centers in abandoned industrial sites (lot of those) and pumped some serious money into the place and they're still given'em grief at every opportunity. So xAI built the next one over in Mississippi and Google gonna put a new one in Left Memphis. Not that Left Memphis deserves it any more than Memphis. This one is one of the usual malcontents wants somebody to give Memphis ten billion for something. You could give the present regime a hundred billion and it would remain a cesspool. And they had a pride event and apparently hardly anyone noticed. I wouldn't have except I saw that link.


President Trump 'escalating attacks' is removing white people bad all the time propaganda. ~~ I would say that stopping an unelected agency to arbitrarily make whatever rules it pleases and prosecute people who won't obey them is a reduction in chaos but there you are. ~~ There were a lot more than 37 bad actors (Russia hoax, Hunter's laptop, stuff like that) and some others have since been dealt with but the work isn't done. ~~ As far as I know I've never seen an entire Tarantino movie. I may have fallen asleep and was present for the entire thing. ~~ Is empathy a sin? Not really but empathy means different to different people. Kinda like equity and such. To some people it means if I have empathy I should be good with paying to support deadbeats and let criminals run a large no matter how much they hurt regular people. Me being at least nominally one of the regular people. ~~ Dunno why so many rappers are called Lil something or other. Or how many are extant as of this date. And no idea who this particular Lil is. Apparently D4vd is not a rapper but just has a name like one. Having a dead female juvie in your trunk wouldn't be that strange for a rapper though. ~~ Most have already observed that California and New York and Illinois and such can't gain much if anything doing this while the red states will. And with a reported 2.5 million illegals already self-deported that's near four congressional seats worth of population lost. ~~ One more Clinton/Obama/Biden general didn't figure to behave. Get twelve years of good presidenting and a lot more could be gone.

Some opinion pieces mostly from the state-run media and regurgitated by the Jonestown and Paragould papers. The Supreme Court ruling on ICE raids is correct. OK Cupcake? And Cracker Barrel choosing to stay in business (probably the board of directors slapped the CEO upside the head) was just the smart thing to do. Unlike Bud Lite which was just one brand of a huge company and the rest of the business wasn't affected much Cracker Barrel was all the eggs in one basket. It ain't so much Trump against America and Americans as people that been gettin' away with it for so long they can't accept the party being over. And this is correct Newsom is potentially the biggest disaster since the last one if they run him for prez. It's hard to see it happening but you never know with people this crazy.

Newsom seems to think it's 1992 and he's Bill Clinton and neither is true. Not only is the socio-political climate as close to opposite one would think it could be but Clinton was both more intelligent (I believe Alex put him at 120 or so and Newsome about 100) and had more political skills. And while Clinton wasn't so smart as it was he had almost the entire news media on his side AND he had Ross Perot. If he somehow manages to get the nomination - and I don't see that happening - in the current climate nationally (he seems to be trying to figure out how to fool people outside the California bubble) and no spoiler I don't give him much of a chance.

MAGAHurtz@MyndCryme

What, Chris?

I was coming to that. Before the body found articles. Seems a couple of guys arrested for seriously evil stuff died while they were out on bail. This one was the one had a business in Jonestown, a trading card business. Guess sports stuff and Pokemon if that still a thing? Used to buy baseball cards when they had bubble gum in them but didn't ever get that interested in collecing. Still not sure what Pokemon was about. Or is. Or if it isn't I guess the cards would be worth more. Whatever. Anyhow they released him on zero bail because of his health. Apparently it was pretty bad since he assumed room temperature soon afterwards. Probably the prospect of prison added some stress.

This feller done something - scuse me was accused of - something really terrible. He from Paragould and about the same age as the other. I would ask how does a guy get to be fifty and not learned how to behave but I knew a guy who went up for that when he was in his sixties. In his late seventies when he got out. Knew another guy, good mechanic and had a good business, went up for stealing cars and when he got out he went to drugs and he's in the pen again and probably won't get out until he dead or so close they unload him.

Anyhow both got obits on the funeral homes' websites. The porn dude mentioned his business and said he a Pentecost and some other stuff. The alleged rapist obit didn't mention religion. Okey-dokey.

Quick note about Black Oak. Not Jim Dandy's band but the town they come from - somewhere near there anyway - and named theirselves after. Seen'em a few times back in the day and run into Jim in the big Jonestown Wal-Mart once. A friend who lives in Paragould and was involved in some annual shindig axt me one year if I had any ideas for a band and I suggested Black Oak and they was available so they did it. Last time I saw'em.

Other nearby famous people Jerry Lawler had a medical incident. I still am surprised when reminded that he's just a few years older than me. I was a kid watching him on the Memphis wrasslin when Lance Russell was doing the commentating. That before he go world famous and in fact wrestlint wasn't the big thing it is now. Thank the family of the current Secretary of Education for some of that. Put the body slam on the "education" cartel.

What, Chris?

Wasn't trying to be cute. They had it coming.

Alex looked up to see the girl standing in the doorway, wearing the shirt he had left for her. Definitely better than the robe, he thought - it came down almost to her knees, while she probably couldn't have walked while wearing the robe. She had rolled up the sleeves, and he was shocked at how thin her arms and legs were. She looked much better, however, her long dark hair now clean and free of the dirty tangles. He stood up and walked slowly toward her. She remained calm, looking up at him with big dark eyes.

"Are you hungry?" he asked. She must be, he thought. It was now more than twenty-four hours since he had carried her out of the prison, and she looked as if she hadn't had much to eat lately.

Again there was a barely perceptible nod.

"Let's go down to the kitchen and see what we have," he said. "This way."

She followed him, descending the stairs behind him - it seemed the occasional squeak of boards under his own tread were silent under hers. In the kitchen he looked around in the refrigerator and cabinets. Soup was generally a good choice, he thought. He took down a couple of cans and held them up.

"This OK?" he asked.

She nodded, this time a real up and down movement of her head. Still expressionless, though.

"Would you like some tea?" he asked. Again she nodded and he filled two glasses with ice and poured tea from a jug in the refrigerator. He set them on the small table and turned to prepare the soup. While it was heating he found some rolls and crackers, and put them on the table. As the soup came to a boil he stirred it, then turned off the stove and looked for bowls and a ladle. He turned to see the girl eating a roll, slowly, as doing it for the first time. Finishing it, she drank some tea as he set the bowls of soup on the table.

He hadn't tried again to find out her name, or even if she could speak. Might as well try again, he thought. She seems calm and not afraid of me.

"I have someone coming to bring you some clothes," he said. She sat quietly, looking at him with no perceptible emotion. "It'll be an hour or two - I'll have to go out for a few minutes to pick them up. Will you be all right for that long?"

Another nod.

Balance of Power (2022)

Balance of Power is from a time before the American Renaissance began and one would hope the events therein won't happen but there was a time not that long ago when they seemed likely to. Over in Blytheville dunno if things any better. State took over the schools a while back but no recent word on how that going. How This would work is anyone's guess. If you're just gonna elect directors instead of city council members to hire somebody do do the what the mayor does it doesn't seem much different. You could make the electionls non-partisan for what good that would do. Or stagger the terms so every couple of years some of the directors can be replaced.



I wasn't aware that President Trump was trying to "prevent America" from building cheap EVs. He put a crimp in the financial handouts that motivated some automakers to build excessively complex and expensive and long-term unmaintainable (I realize that unmaintainable is the idea) and without that fewer EVs at any price. Back in the 1980s some preppers (survivalists they called us) took old beaters and replacet the gas-burner with an electric motor and a load of lead-acid bats and got a hundred more miles on a charge. That about a 1-2 hour charge and I knew some that had to sets of batteries so if one ran down you could get home. ~~ Undocumented black communities? Black illegal aliens. Probably fewer in numbers than brown but they deporting all kinds and colors. As it should be. The article mentioned the "murder of George Floyd" which didn't happen so there's that. ~~ One would think that should have been the case all along. ~~ I heard some guys talking about it but didn't watch it. Why would I? ~~ The economic elite are wrong so much of the time they should do forty years in the wilderness. Or more. ~~ The Katrina-style disaster was caused by the incompetence and corruption in Norleans. Hurricanes hit Florida that don't happen. Even up in the Carolinas where the Biden FEMA deliberately dragged it's hind feet and tried to make it hurt as much as possible they better off. Houston is definitely worse off from Katrina. ~~ Judges try to shut town detention centers for illegals and the administration builds more. Moving targets. ~~ I suppose technically Ashley was rioting. Good to see some justice is being done. It's not much but better than nothing. Sadly there will be none for the woman beaten to death by the Capitol Cops. ~~ There certainly is a power vacuum at the CDC. RFKjr is taking no prisoners.

I have a theory about this. If you don't like being jail or prison don't do stuff that cause you to be put there. It does seem conditions got pretty oppressive there but but both criminals and welfare dependents are a big financial burden on the taxpayers. Maybe to to tent prisons like Sheriff Joe had and they'd at least be outdoors and in the shade it's not too bad most of the time.

What, Chris?

Just a thought.

What?

Nope.

Opinions as they say are like... anyway the authors of most of the ones I see in the local papers are that theirs doesn't. The new pope does seem somewhat saner or whatever the previoius one wasn't. Like the guy that wants to be mayor of NYC and probably will be some people some people either don't know or don't care what the facts are. Don't care probably in most cases. Actually President Trump is holding some people accountable for their bad behavior and they're not accustomed to it. Used to be a Clinton or Obama or Biden screwed stuff up enough the Republican who replaced him did little or nothing to reverse the rot so they could just start up again in usually eight years at most.

I confess to being unable to process the assassination of Charley Kirk yet and the reaction to it is somewhat surprising. KAIG had this from ASU and something that happened a lot all over. I was listening to Clay and Buck when the news broke but didn't know for a while that he had in fact died. Jesse Kelly predicted a few weeks ago that assassinations of conservatives would occur but was thinking politicians. I will be unsurprised if they try for President Trump again but this was unexpected. But I shouldn't have been surprised - Charlie was huge but in an almost under-the-radar way. A lot was because the state media ignored him and most of his work was on college campuses. Territory the enemy believe it had locked up. Charlie was a big threat. Yeah, that big.

Sad and angry all at once? Yeah. Look at a pic of Charlie and his wife and those two young children and try to imagine how evil a person must be to do what the assassin did. It seems there was some mental flakiness (not mental illness but induced) but that is no excuse. That others apparently at least knew of it and may have participated seems likely and I suspect there may be a thorough investigation instead of the usual coverup.

I wasn't surprised that the usual suspects came out of the woodwork to gloat and rejoice and say some really sick stuff or even that there were so many of them. There are a lot of sick evil people. What did surprise me a bit that this time there were consequences. I suppose Wickedpedia will be around for a while so maybe this will survive. Or google "charlie kirk firings". Did they finally jump the shark?

They've gotten away with it for years and can't understand what happened. Well, maybe they didn't understand the change in the socio-political climate (actual man-made climate change) and this was so intensely evil and sick that it scared people. I knew how bad it was but it rattled me a little. Apparently it woke some people up. I hope so.

Alex@MyndCryme

What, Chris?

Nah, Disney wants to buy the NFL and rotten as the NFL and Disney are revenue depends on a population that is rapidly shifting to the right. The woke stuff may get lip service from some people but money talks louder than they can yell.


If'n I don't get round to doing drive-in totals on found bodies how about a weird one. I got the adblocker off on KAIT's site and it about 95% clickbait and news from who knows where other than Jonestown. It ain't like it's about news - just ad revenue. Anyhow they said a skull was found near the "severely decomposing" remains but another article said it was 100 feet away. It also said "severely decomposing" so they agree on that. Only question I had was when does "severely decomposing" become "severely decomposed"?

What, Chris?

Yeah, I guess I am curious about whose remains is is and how they became remains.

What?

Not that curious. If it happens to show up again somewhere but not going looking for it.

Memphis telly station had articles on Charlie Kirk. That there are mixed reactions isn't surprising considering the state of society. Now the reaction of any sane and decent human bein' would be it was horrible and sad but as we know there always some as don't see it that way:

In a statement to WREG, Senator Lamar said, "My call to cancel the event is not about censoring political views. Political views should never lead to violence. This is about protecting the University of Memphis community at a time when tensions are running high and when Tennessee already faces some of the highest rates of gun violence in this country."

WREG.com
Sure. But Al Sharpton and his ilk are fine with you. And it ain't gun violence. It's people violence. Over at Ole Miss somebody got canned for being mean. Guess it was better than being caned. They didn't put a link to the tweet or whatever it was so no way to know what was said other than it bein' insensitive.

In other Memphis stuff the governor said he sending more state police to help out. City sez they gonna install speed cameras. How you gonna issue citations to cars with fake temporary tags and in many cases stolen? It over in Tipton County but next door to Memphis. Don't say how many they got so far but if that's the old prison it could hold almost a thousand inmages. If you're shippin'em out where they come from pretty fast it shouldn't get full too fast.

She was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, with a pair of white canvas shoes. She was also quite beautiful, he realized, and looked much healthier than she had the night before. Alex joined her, and before long he found himself wondering what he was going to do now.

"You never did tell me your name," he said. She remained silent. "There are a lot of names, too many for me to try to guess. Can you write it for me?" A nod.

He went up to a room he used as an office, found a pad of paper and a pen, and took them downstairs. He sat down and handed them to her, and she took the pen in hand, but did nothing else. Alex waited. Finally, she began, slowly and hesitantly, to write. He saw that she was having trouble holding the pen, and then noticed that her index finger was somewhat crooked. As if it had been broken and not set properly, if at all. But finally she finished, and he looked at the name. Even though somewhat messily written and upside down, he could read it from across the table.

Cassandra.

Now there's a tragic name, he thought. A wave of sadness, followed by anger, swept over him. He hadn't had much in the way of emotions in recent times - he couldn't afford them. But what had been done to this girl was beyond any human depravity he had witnessed. They had already killed her, he thought. She just hadn't fallen over and stopped breathing yet, and that was a torment in itself.

"How old are you?" he asked.

She wrote on the pad, stopping after writing the number 'one'. She seemed to be trying to remember, then wrote a 'four'. Alex guessed she had lost track of time in the prison.

"So your name is Cassandra, and you're fourteen," he said. "We're making progress. Can you speak?"

She looked down at the table, bowing her head slightly. He could see the dampness of tears on her cheeks.

"It's all right," he said. "We can make do as things are. Do you have any family, somewhere I can take you, where you'll be safe with friends?"

She shook her head.

Balance of Power (2022)


The lefty cartoonists got a few of them types up. Of course it's just political violence because both sides do it donchaknow? Actually I don't know. They're still saying the Dimocrat state legislators what kilt by another Dimocrat was done by a MAGA Republican. Or as Biden would say "EXTREME MAGA REPUBLICAN!!!". Guess he don't say much now and if he does probably doesn't know it and nobody listening anyway. Some still sayin' the punk that killed Charlie Kirk is a Republican. His family was mostly but went off the rails somewhere. A man doing it with a tranny furry is not a Republican or anything like one.

What, Chris?

Furry trans? Does it matter which sex.... nevermind.

So no cupcake, both sides don't do it. I'm trying to remember the last time one of the other side done an act of political violence. Defending yourself when attacked doesn't count.



No idea who he is or why it matters. Lot of people leaving. SNL stopped being funny a long time ago. ~~ Got a feeling they're gonna lose that one. ~~ EV sales surging? Maybe because people trying to get one before the taxpayers stop paying for a big chunk of it. Otherwise they not going well. ~~ The dimocrat senators did the usual reading, often shouting, staff-prepared statements at RFKjr. Still surprised he and some others got confirmed. Republican sentors not feeling too secure in an unhappy Donald Trump? Could be I guess. ~~ Why did Giggles lose her SS protection? Happens to all ex-VPs after six months. Biden extended it and Trump canceled it. Way it works. ~~ Like most universities West Point been infiltrated and the infiltrators are being ejected. ~~ Is there a bigger story than that there were a bunch of compromised no to mention incompetent people there? I don't think so. ~~ Have no idea who Sabrina Carpenter is but when you're seeing her two or three times a day it suggests she may be the main ingredient in the next Taylor Swift product. ~~ Wonder who the dozens of scientists are? Four and a fourth dozen "intelligence experts" signed the letter saying Hunter's laptop was fake.

Weird places for killings have a Wal-Mart in Mississippi and a food truck in Bald Knob. Hardly ever hear about crime of anything else in Bald Knob. Little place on 64 Highway (that's what some older folks called U.S. 64 but you rarely hear it these days because they about all dead) about 2-3K population. Not real sure why I remember it except I drove though it many times back in the day. Use to be a lot of strawberries grown there and may still be. Seems a fellow I knew had an auction company had auctions there sometimes at the "berry sheds". The Wal-Mart stabbing in Horn Lake was unusual as Wal-Mart killings in general (happily for me as I am a frequent customer) aren't that common and it being an employee what done the stabbing. Witness accounts seem to suggest that the dead guy started it. As for packing knives on duty at Wal-Mart I guess if it was small enough to be concealed nobody know but that information wasn't provided.

He wished there was more traffic - the fewer cars there were the more likely it was one would be a target if a cop happened along. He hoped current events were keeping them busy and in the cities, rather than cruising the highways looking for something to do.

Cassandra sat quietly in the front passenger seat, a small duffel bag on her lap, quietly looking out at the countryside. Alex often wondered what went on in her head. Her behavior had become quite normal, except for not talking and her refusal to be separated from him. There had been a couple of more visits with Jessica, and Cassandra tolerated her presence, and she had no fear of strangers when they were in public. As long as she's with me, Alex thought. Perhaps in time, things will improve.

When he was looking straight ahead she occasionally looked over at him - in his peripheral vision he would catch the movement of her head. They stopped for gas at a small town and Alex bought them some candy bars and drinks. Even when eating candy her mood did not change - it was difficult to know if she enjoyed it. Whatever Alex provided was fine with her.

An hour later they were nearing the meeting location. Alex had been aware of a car behind him, just far enough back that he couldn't see if it was a police car, but it had been there for a while now, and that was police behavior. He had left his jacket lying across the console - it had a pair of small .32 caliber revolvers in it, one in each pocket. He had a pair of double-action derringers in the same caliber inside his boots - each in a holster crafted into the top of the boot. The slim guns were difficult to detect in a cursory frisk or pat-down. He had practiced drawing them quickly, and they were almost as useful there as in any other position. A standard handcuff key was fastened to the back of his belt, with another in a back pocket of his jeans - the fabric too heavy for the tiny key to be easily detected.

Of course, he thought, as long as he had surprise on his side he could disable one man, possibly two, without weapons. He had pursued some traditional martial arts training as a youth, continuing while in the army, and had done well in some competitions. But Patrick had introduced him to a man who opened his eyes to the realities of hand-to-hand combat. An older man, seemingly not so strong or agile as Alex, in their first few sparring sessions had quickly destroyed any illusions of competence Alex might have had, and they showed him what must have been every dirty trick available, coupled with a cool viciousness that could destroy any normal man in seconds, and possibly two or three at a time.

Balance of Power (2022)

Guys from Mississippi driving on I-40 got chased by the state police and they caught one with a lot of pot. I guess 58 pounds is a lot for the average small-timer. Two got away and they lookin' for them. They from three places in Mississippi and Hazen is on I-40 heading northeast from Litle Rock. Lot of drugs moving on I-40 and some gets caught but one is inclined to suspect that a lot don't. Police say they was tryin' to stop them for a traffic violation and some criminals don't have the good sense not to traffically violate when they carrying drugs. Course a cop can follow you just driving down the road for a while and you're near certain to do something suspicious like being too close to one or the other lines a time or three.

Leachville made it unlawful to have chickens in the city limits. Mayor broke the tie vote. Wonder what he thinks about chickens in the city. If he like most he likes'em on the table. And the eggs. My primary undisclosed location is about a quarter mile outside the city limits and I don't see that changing since it got that close through some chicanery by a guy who lives near me but the other folks that own all the land here don't want it and they would need us to vote for it.

The car was closing in now, and eventually Alex could see that it had been joined by a second car. So he was waiting for a backup to join him, he thought. This might be serious. And indeed, minutes later, the police cars were just behind him, and their lights came on.

Alex employed the recommended measures to keep them calm. Activating his turn signal, he tapped the brakes briefly, then found a safe place to stop. He turned off the ignition, lowered the window, and placed his hands on the steering wheel and waited. It was another minute or two before the cop in the lead car approached, leaned over and looked Alex and Cassandra over.

"May I see your operator's license please?" he said.

"It's in my right front shirt pocket," Alex replied.

"Take it out with your left hand," said the cop.

They always kept their sunglasses on, and the day was cloudy enough that they weren't needed. Alex wasn't wearing his, but cops always try to intimidate, no matter how trivial the encounter might be. Alex understood it, but he sensed something more sinister here. He could see the other cop standing behind his car on the right side. He extracted the small case that contained his driver's license and some other cards, took the license out and handed it to the cop. He took it back to his car, got in, and sat there for several minutes.

Alex knew he was checking him out, but verifying the validity of the license and the registration of the car would take only a couple of minutes. Waiting for instructions, he thought. There should be no problem with the car or license - if they made a move on him it would mean they had already been tipped. Cassandra sat quietly, looking in the mirror - likely at the cop standing not far behind her.

"Don't worry," he said. "It's all right - we'll be going again in a few minutes."

Balance of Power (2022)


Hardly anyone noticed, kinda like "pride" events these days. ~~ Depends on how you define epidemic I reckon. A few years ago there were zero tranny shootings. Of course there were near zero trannies. ~~ Pope apparently declined to have have some quality time with the alphabet delegation scheduled by his predecessor but like most popes needs to STFU about guns. Do something abou the people that kill people - with guns or whatever - and you don't need to worry about guns. ~~ Actually the false and misleading claims were made by the people at the CDC before he arrived. If you're vaxxed you won't get it. OK, if you're vaxxed you won't spread it. How about if you're vaxxed it won't be as bad. Lie after lie after lie. ~~ The only vaccination reality is that people been gettin' their kids jabbed thirty times for no good and a lot of harm. ~~ Metal is definitely good for you. Metal is the classical music of the future. Be advised that 'metal' covers a good bit of territory. ~~ If immigrants includes illegals I suspect that a lot are exiting. Women and black? Dunno what they talking about. More jobs available with illegals leaving. ~~ Big tech sees which way the wind is blowing and they can also see what's better for them - the chaos and destruction of an attempt to impose a communist regime or a restoration of the Republic. Not that most think that far - they're looking at the next three or four quarters.

Did I do any Wynne stuff lately? Don't see anything right off. Check the Progress. See a lot of felons fleeing in cars and then continuing to flee on foot when the wheeled conveyance becomes non-viable. Exceeding the speed limit by thirty-em-pee-aitch ain't smart anytime but when you got a couple pounds of leaf in the car it's really extra dumb. Vanndale is a not-even-wide spot in the road just north of Wynne. Crystal Street is way the hell over in the south part of the city in a subdivision where the developer built sub-standard dwellings and the streets fell apart the first winter. How Antavius got there the article don't say. Last time I looked he was still in the Cross County Detention Center.

This dude tried to ditch and/or swaller the illegal substances. Had pot and meth and they say he tried to swaller the meth. Anyhow he went to the hospital before going to jail on account of ingesting the contraband. The hospital he went to is part of Saint Barnyards and being a criminal and probably indigent the taxpayers probably will get stuck with the expense. At least it didn't involve an ambulance ride. Last one I had was for years ago and $1200 for a ride from Paragould to Jonestown. Long story.

OK, this got two or three different elements. A guy got arrested as a prowler and had some drugs on him. Everybody doing crime got drugs these days? Seems like it. Then another Vanndale stop, drunk and had drugs. And then a guy who has the same name as the Jethro Tull frontman got busted at Cherry Valley. Cherry Valley is a speedtrap north of Vanndale. Careful if you drivin' through there.

Not gonna put a link for the last one. Guy died and was a prominent citizen as they used to say and maybe still do. It told about him being a member of local church and leading the singing for sixty years and being in all the clubs. Mason and Rotary and Lions and Kiwanis and all. I didn't ever get integrated into society so much as to be under any influence to join any but was often a guest of a colleague. What I remember most about his singing was sittin' on a cooler of beer playin' a guitar and ever so often grabbing another beer between songs. And the wife-swapping with a certain other local businessman. He been dead for a long time. Never did figger what that deal was.

He could see the cop coming back now, and saw him unsnap the strap holding his gun in the holster. He checked the position of the other cop - he hadn't moved. He suspected they had talked on their radios, and the lead cop had described Cassandra to the other one, so he knew she was a young girl. Too bad, he thought. If you try to take me in you're probably going to be dead in a few seconds. He could probably disable the one bare-handed and shoot the other one.

The cop stopped, this time standing back from the car slightly, hand on his gun.

"Will you step out of the car, please?" he said.

Keeping both hands visible, Alex pushed the door open and stood up. As he did he heard the other door open.

"Stay in the car!" the other cop shouted. He knew without looking that Cassandra was getting out.

"Stay in the car!" he shouted again.

"She can't hear," said Alex. "She's deaf."

That does it, he thought. Now they're confused. The cop facing him didn't know what to do, and Cassandra was now walking back toward the cop behind the car. He had his hand on his gun as well. Now the cop facing him was distracted, just enough. Alex was far enough to one side to start his attack unnoticed. Three quick, hard blows to the side of the head and the cop was falling, probably unconscious from the first. As he fell, Alex moved behind him, grabbed him, using him as a shield, and pulled the gun out of the holster.

The other cop how had his own weapon out, but couldn't shoot at Alex, who was almost completely shielded by his colleague. Alex was about to shoot him when he saw Cassandra now running at the him, saw the flash of metal in her hand, and saw her drive a knife into his neck. The cop dropped his gun and put his hands up to his neck, too late. She withdrew the knife and stepped back. He fell, on one side and then rolling over on his back. It appeared she had driven the blade almost completely through his neck, the blood pouring out and forming a rapidly widening pool.

Balance of Power (2022)


For a while there it was all Charlie Kirk all the time. Relatively speaking anyway - the "mainstream" that barely midstream anymores had to cover it. The regular ones didn't badmouth him that much beyond callhim right-wing and such and normal is considered right-wing by them. They dropped it pretty quick and by the time of the funeral the coverage outside of Fox was perfunctory. My guess is it was huge, huger than even Mrs. Kirk said. I don't beleive even she knows how big it was and will be. What all happened remains to be seen - there are a lot of odd things and while it may just be that a marginally sane guy was groomed and pointed at the target or there was more will depend on what the FBI can find out. I don't believe there will be any coverup. One thing that surprised a lot of people including me was the way a bunch of the ghouls who were celebrating suddenly found out the hard way that it was no longer acceptable.

Weird and not the kind you like. Two people found hanged from trees in Mississippi about two days apart but about a hundred miles apart. Heard about one right away but not the other or as much about it for the usual reason. Both ruled suicide by investigators but some suspcicious about one for the usual reason. Suicide is a terrible thing any way you look at it if a person can't stand to be alive or his mind messed up so bad. Some people sayin' irresponsible stuff but not as much as you usually get so maybe it is what it looks like.

I am curious about what the circumstances are when something like this happen but couldn't find much on it. Trial went on for three days but how much was persecutor and how much was defense don't say. Seems like it was a pretty shaky case though so you wonder about why the feller was being prosecuted. Lot of times it ain't because he guilty or even the prosecutor believe he guilty if you know what I mean.

Whaddyasay we call it a day and go do something more or less useful? More useful would be easier but less useful would be more fun.