5 yo expelled for making gun with hand and pointing at ground

After reading Gorges' Grouse this morning it brought to mind an incident almost as unbelievable up in Washington, here in the good old U.S.A.

Zero tolerance--5 yo expelled for making gun with hand andpointing at ground

Is this really the wave of the future? What if the kid had drawn a picture of a spotted owl, dolphin, or whale, and pointed his finger at it and said bang? Arrest the child and his parents for eco-terrorism?

The classic Liberal Blog

Well......I followed the link for the Classic Liberal Blog I found on  Budde's The Lazy Farmer Blog,
and I learned two things:
1: I see why he follows it. I noticed Achieving results with Paula Patton
2: I had a hard time following the text.

And for your amusement:
Daisy with one of her favorite toys:

war in Iraq ---has exceeded $800 billion

According to the Congressional Research Service, total war-related funding for Iraq has exceeded $800 billion. That's $100 billion per year.  Can we even count to one billion? No, we'll never live long enough. 
Does everyone know what a billion dollars looks like? 800 billion is almost a trillion. Figure 8/10s of the last picture here of a trillion:
Is it not the height of ethnocentrism to believe that we can convince a tribal culture that our way of government is better than theirs?  They are still fighting feuds that began in biblical times. What a waste of lives and capital.  Are we thanked for our sacrifices? Of course not. To the average Iraqi we are the invaders. Would we allow them to land on our shores to "help us out"?
What did we get in exchange? 
Our country is in bad shape.  We could have used that 800 billion.
Are we actually considering a war  now in Iran? N. Korea? Pakistan? Syria?  
For whose benefit?
And who will pay for it?
My heart goes out for the oppressed, but our role as the world's police force is bankrupting us, and it doesn't seem to accomplish much other than to cause more and more countries to dislike us.

News of the weird

For many years, I've been an avid reader of Chuck Shepherd's News of the Weird  , and now News of The Weird Pro edition, a blog that's somehow not a blog,   It was gratifying to watch his rise to greatness and success.
You might check it out if you haven't heard of it, although I suspect most people have by now. Stories such as this one:  [Whiteclay, Neb.: Anheuser-Busch, Coors, Miller, and four retailers were sued ($500 million) for turning Oglala Sioux into drunks by distributing 13,000 cans of beer a day to the rez's closest town (a "town" with an actual population of 10). Reuters via Yahoo News]  make it all worth while.

Elderly man left at dog track!

PORTLAND - An 82-year-old Alzheimer's patient who was dumped at an Idaho dog track in the midst of a state investigation of his finances has been returned to the safety of a Portland nursing home.
You heard it here first folks! (well second or maybe third) I just had to post this as either my good friend over in the next valley is getting a little fuzzy, this poor guy has been at the track for a while,or this has happened before. Jail won't help the fiend that did this, and I don't want my taxes to support him or her. I suggest that they be put to work in the nursing home as an orderly on diaper duty. Let the punishment fit the crime.
Which brings up another thing: Is there a reason we can't put the incarcerated to work so as to pay for their keep? I believe that was the way things were done in some states in the past, and to my knowledge, few today.
I'm afraid to even look up the current statistics of jail cell population. Too many people there that shouldn't be, and too many that belong there and should be pulling their weight. Lots of reforming needs to be done in our prison system.

Here is someone with a really good idea that is following through with it.

366 Random Acts of Kindness

Sold the home!

Well, I sold the property I've lived and worked at for many years, and the move to Oregon is now permanent.
I spent a lot of time in this shop and now life has taken a new direction. What used to be way out in the country now has a six lane road in front, and housing developments and businesses an all sides. I wish I could move all the structures here. They are all made out of old growth pecky cypress and built by a cabinet maker back in the 30's. I covered most of the wood in the house to insulate and make the rooms brighter. The shop was originally a horse barn to which I added on a few more rooms & a plywood floor.

Innocent American imprisoned in Nicaragua

As a former Peace Corps volunteer and American citizen, this case really pisses me off.   The sad fact is that no matter how obviously innocent a person may be, if an American citizen gets convicted of a crime in a foreign country, our embassy there, not to mention our country, will not do anything to help. The embassy exists to serve the needs of the the big corporations, and pity the poor soul that becomes the object of some third world witch hunt. The fact that this gentleman served his country for at least two years for little or no pay and little gratitude seems to mean nothing to our political leaders.

He's guilty because he looks guilty and nothing more.  In some places, it's a crime to be successful, I think that was his mistake.

Always open the safe before selling it!

It seems this guy sold a locked safe on eBay and then wanted it back! The buyer cut it open.

cows

Living on a farm with cows and a dog named Daisy, I thought these were kind of funny. Our cows aren't polled though, they have horns, which is useful as we have a long driveway and they are often in the way.

For Sale! Cheap old wardrobe from our farm house

We are cleaning up and making space in the farm house and I have posted this ad on  Craig's list.

Cheap old wardrobe from our 1800's farm house. This isn't as old as the house, and was far from high-end when it was new.

$45.00. Please haul this thing away before my wife makes me keep it.

Very pink. If you like pink, then this is for you.

UPDATE!

My wife tells me it is all wood! (no big deal, it's plywood)

AND

It is mauve, not pink.

This makes it much more valuable I'm sure.

None the less, be aware that I heat with wood.

67" tall, 301/4" wide, 21" deep.

Location: McMinnville

it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

I  don't see anyone actually paying for this, but if anyone calls, it should make for an entertaining moment.

Puppet Love

Some animation from 1933!    I like the "police-dog" scene.  Mostly I'm just trying to figure out how to do things in general on this very foreign to me media. Budde should like this. He likes dogs and animation.

Where the white lines on our roads came from

I was researching this pair of puttees that had been hanging in my Dad's basement forever. 

Seems that they were sold by Harley Davidson for motorcycle use back in the 20's and I was hoping they might be worth something to someone, either to use, or to dress up a museum mannequin.
I came across this tidbit of information about an Oregon motorcycle cop:

In 1917, after patrolling the Columbia River Scenic Highway and witnessing the wrecks and near misses of a well-traveled two-lane highway, Deputy Peter Rexford came upon the idea of painting white stripes in the center of roads as a guide for motorists. The curves on the Columbia River Highway east of Crown Point were the very first to be painted. Chief Deputy Martin T. Pratt (later to become Sheriff) paid for the paint with his own money! By 1926, both counties and states regularly used the white lines on major roads. http://www.policemotorunits.com/id223.html

Now if only he had also talked the highway dept. into adding room to pull off of the road instead of eight or ten foot ditches alongside the pavement.

robots anyone?

http://www.hlntv.com/video/2012/02/08/military-experiment-robot-mule?hpt=hp_bn13  (I couldn't find it w/o the ad)
These look useful but a litle scary!  The mule seems to be ready, and I can see not only the military, but farmers, hunters, and all sorts of people using these. Wouldn't it be a little more acceptable with some kind of head on it though?
http://www.bostondynamics.com/robot_bigdog.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSbZrQp-HOk&feature=player_embedded#!

Werner Herzog

I'm a big fan of Werner Herzog and his movies. Here is his take on chickens. I found this pretty funny.  http://vimeo.com/9880377    Now, gazing into the eyes of a cow and seeing a lack of intelligence I can see, but while I am no fan of chickens either as pets or food, I understand from watching a PBS show that there are people that treat them like house pets.
I think I can agree with him.

It's not a safe!

It seems it's called a "money chest".  I consulted an expert and collector, http://theantiquesafecollector.com/ and he was very helpful.
Money chests were designed to be burglar proof. This one has a stepped key around the door to prevent nitroglycerine from being inserted to blow the door off. It's other attribute making it burglar proof is that it weighs somewhere around 900lbs. or more. It was probably made in the 1880's by Joseph Hall and was a high grade, or top of the line.
I still have to get it off of the cart somehow and on a platform against the wall.  Then I can try the combination and see if it works. I sure hope after all this work that it does! If not, then I guess I'll have to try & fix it.