Friday

 - A small town between Odessa and Monahans is called Penwell.  Ain’t much there except a racetrack. At a recent event one couple decided to remain seated during the National Anthem. The owner of the racetrack refunded their admission money, and told them to GTFO.

Hell yeah. 

- I wonder if we the people still, through elected and unelected bureaucrats, give foreign aid money to China, Iran, Russia, etc.  If so, it would appear we are funding the enemy.

And while on the subject…is it a good idea to send OUR money to places like India, Serbia or whatever it’s called this month, or basically anyone who don’t seem to do anything but take?

- Modern American life is…just…weird. I’m not required, nor is anyone, to blindly dislike (or like) something because you told me to.  Chastising someone of your own political slant because they didn’t act the way you expected doesn’t make them look stupid, it makes YOU look stupid. Perhaps our planet will be hit by a solar storm that re-triggers the modesty and common sense genes that have somehow been forced into species wide dormancy 

- One of the really amazing and really frustrating elements of modern life is reliance on credit/debit cards. To wit: the other day I was in line at a store, along with half the population of our county it seems. Anyway, the bank card readers across the entire store went offline.  Of course that moved me to the front of the line because I was paying cash…moral of the story is ALWAYS have cash, and always have a way to protect it and yourself if someone tries to take it

- I’m all for the death penalty for killing cops, children, by extremely gruesome methods, or multiple slayings…but…it’s not much of a deterrent when convicts go 20-30 years between sentencing and execution.  I believe the maximum time on death row should be 4 years to exhaust the appeals processes, and if all denied, the needle must come out

- Over the past 3 decades I’ve spent money on products, like everyone else.  Got me thinking though, wondering what percentage of those expenditures were based solely on convenience vs actual need.  A vehicle key is necessary, a fob that remotely opens doors and can even remotely start the vehicle is an arguable convenience…some sort of phone is a necessity, a ‘phone’ that connects to the internet, takes a bazillion photos, plays music and tv, all of that, is a convenience.

Point is, the vast majority of modern conveniences I can do without, don’t particularly want, and hate paying for. Problem is so many (much?) older things likely don’t work anymore, as operating systems and such have progressed so much and so fast that simpler things are rendered worthless doorstops.