Rip Snorter's Blog

 

Richard French, the treasure hunter who wrote Four Days From Fort Wingate, used to poke semi-bitter fun at me by saying, “Jack isn’t looking for gold. He’s looking for the Lost Adams Diggings. He could find a dozen glory holes while he’s looking, and if they weren’t the Adams, he’d just walk right on.”

Dick disliked this trait of mine, which he had fairly well nailed. My other partners over the years didn’t care much for it, either. If a site fit the bill as an Adams prospect I’d beat it to death trying to get it to declare itself, whether there was any gold or not. But if it had some gold, but didn’t satisfy any of the other characteristics of the Adams, I didn’t have time (from my point of view) to try to discover how much potential it had.

In those days I could afford the luxury to indulge such snobbery, though it cost me a few friends and prospecting partners.

When Dick French and I were searching together, he was roughly the age I am now, had a bad knee, was generally not in robust health and not in a great financial position. What he was looking for was the treasure hunting equivalent of a jackpot win. He wanted an easier life than he had, and he couldn’t are less whether it came from the Adams, or just some glory hole we located while we were searching for it. He needed a younger, healthier man he could trust who could get into the rough spots and do the heavy lifting to sort out what we found.

Then, if it was good, he wanted to sell the entire claim, lock, stock and banana peel, to some outfit big enough to rip a hole in a mountain and bring out what they’d bought.

Dick and I parted ways early in the 1990s. A difference in viewpoint so fundamental works fine so long as nothing’s found. But the instant anything promising comes into the picture, everything falls apart.

When I completed The Lost Adams Diggings – Myth, Mystery and Madness, things had changed a bit in my life, though I hadn’t paused to examine the implications. I wrote the book about the Adams, which is what I believed, would interest the readers. I told everything I thought I’d learned that might be important to them. I did it against the advice of every treasure-hunter-friend I had.

I didn’t anticipate a lot of fallout from that book. I had no idea I’d suddenly be getting several emails and letters a month from strangers who wanted to tell me where it is, (from studying maps, mostly) wanting me to go climb a mountain, do everything necessary, then take some miniscule percentage. I didn’t anticipate people gleaning from the book the mentions of places where the Adams isn’t, but where there was evidence of some gold.

Here’s one that came today. A follow-up from one last week from a young geologist who wanted to explain to me that the Adams is in a canyon in the Zuni Mountains precisely where I thought it was a decade and a half ago and searched thoroughly:

 

Hi Jack,

Do you mind telling me were you found gold in the Zuni's? You mentioned you found some gold somewhere east of Cottonwood Canyon?

Where was this spot if you don't mind telling me? I don't plan on panning it, but it would help me establish more possible reference points.

I am working on a comprehensive theory of the Zuni Mtns as a possible location for the Adam's dig. I  would be glad to share with you the

current status of my theory in the next week or so if you would like to hear it and discuss it. It has been worked out with much work and lots of time in the field.

hope to hear from you and discuss this soon, yours,

Brian

 

The placer he’s talking about is one I passed over because it wasn’t the Adams. I’ve never gotten back to check it out further, though lately I’ve intended to.

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I carry more than my fair share of stupid around with me. I suppose word has gotten around.

Jack

 

 

We aren't leaving any stones unturned in our modern search for things to be frightened of.  Someone sent me this email a little while ago:

"Yo!
 
You might want to check this out or at least keep it in the back of your mind.  I had heard something similar about Monsanto seed being found in fields, where it was not to have been planted.  I gathered that it had to do with non-Monsanto product being fertilized with the spore from Monsanto plants in a neighboring field rather than a situation where farmer 2 illegally got seed from farmer 1 and planted it on his farm.  This thing with the pigs is something else.  Seems sort of far fetched, but then we live in a world of lawyers.  What was it Shakespeare said about all lawyers?  Hmmmm? 
 
Chuck
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Tewewee@aol.com
To: Cody8145@hotmail.com
Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2005 6:58 PM
Subject: Disturbing

 
MONSANTO FILES PATENT FOR NEW INVENTION: THE PIG

Greenpeace researcher uncovers chilling patent plans

02 August 2005

Geneva, Switzerland - It's official. Monsanto Corporation is out to own the
world's food supply, the dangers of genetic engineering and reduced
biodiversity notwithstanding, as they pig-headedly set about hog-tying farmers with their
monopoly plans. We've discovered chilling new evidence of this in recent
patents that seek to establish ownership rights over pigs and their offspring.

In the crop department, Monsanto is well on their way to dictating what
consumers will eat, what farmers will grow, and how much Monsanto will get paid for
seeds. In some cases those seeds are designed not to reproduce sowable
offspring. In others, a flock of lawyers stand ready to swoop down on farmers who
illegally, or even unknowingly, end up with Monsanto's private property growing
in their fields.

One way or another, Monsanto wants to make sure no food is grown that they
don't own - and the record shows they don't  care if it's safe for the
environment or not. Monsanto has aggressively set out to bulldoze environmental
concerns about its genetically engineered (GE) seeds at every regulatory level.

So why stop in the field? Not content to own the pesticide and the herbicide
and the crop, they've made a move on the barnyard by filing two patents which
would make the corporate giant the sole owner of that famous Monsanto
invention: the pig.

The Monsanto Pig (Patent pending)

The patent applications were published in February 2005 at the World
Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in Geneva. A Greenpeace researcher who
monitors patent applications, Christoph Then, uncovered the fact that Monsanto is
seeking patents not only on methods of breeding, but on actual breeding herds
of pigs as well as the offspring that result.

"If these patents are granted, Monsanto can legally prevent breeders and
farmers from breeding pigs whose characteristics are described in the patent
claims, or force them to pay royalties," says Then. "It's a first step toward the
same kind of corporate control of an animal line that Monsanto is aggressively
pursuing with various grain and vegetable lines."

There are more than 160 countries and territories mentioned where the patent
is sought including Europe, the Russian Federation, Asia (India, China,
Philippines) America (USA, Brazil, Mexico), Australia and New Zealand. WIPO itself
can only receive applications, not grant patents. The applications are
forwarded to regional patent offices.

The patents are based on simple procedures, but are incredibly broad in their
claims.

In one application (WO 2005/015989 to be precise) Monsanto is describing very
general methods of crossbreeding and selection, using artificial insemination
and other breeding methods which are already in use. The main "invention" is
nothing more than a particular combination of these elements designed to speed
up the breeding cycle for selected traits, in order to make the animals more
commercially profitable. (Monsanto chirps gleefully about lower fat content
and higher nutritional value. But we've looked and we couldn't find any
"Philanthropic altruism" line item in their annual reports, despite the fact that it's
an omnipresent factor in their advertising.)

According to Then, "I couldn't belive this. I've been reviewing patents for
10 years and I had to read this three times. Monsanto isn't just seeking a
patent for the method, they are seeking a patent on the actual pigs which are bred
from this method. It's an astoundingly broad and dangerous claim."

Good breeding always shows

Take patent application WO 2005/017204. This refers to pigs in which a
certain gene sequence related to faster growth is detected. This is a variation on a
natural occurring sequence - Monsanto didn't invent it.

It was first identified in mice and humans. Monsanto wants to use the
detection of this gene sequence to screen pig populations, in order to find which
animals are likely to produce more pork per pound of feed. (And that will be
Monsanto Brand genetically engineered feed grown from Monsanto Brand genetically
engineered seed raised in fields sprayed with Monsanto Brand Roundup Ready
herbicide and doused with Monsanto Brand pesticides, of course).

But again, Monsanto wants to own not just the selection and breeding method,
not just the information about the genetic indicators, but, if you pardon the
expression, the whole hog.

* Claim 16 asks for a patent on: "A pig offspring produced by a method ..."

* Claim 17 asks for a patent on: "A pig herd having an increased frequency of
a specific ..gene..."

* Claim 23 asks for a patent on: "A pig population produced by the method..."

* Claim 30 asks for a patent on: "A swine herd produced by a method..."

This means the pigs, their offspring, and the use of the genetic information
for breeding will be entirely owned by Monsanto, Inc. and any replication or
infringement of their patent by man or beast will mean royalties or jail for
the offending swine.

Not pig fodder

When it comes to profits, pigs are big. Monsanto notes that "The economic
impact of the industry in rural America is immense. Annual farm sales typically
exceed US$ 11 billion, while the retail value of pork sold to consumers reaches
US$ 38 billion each year."

At almost every level of food production, Monsanto is seeking a monopoly
position.

The company once earned its money almost exclusively through agrochemicals.
But in the last ten years they've spent about US$ 10 billion buying up seed
producers and companies in other sectors of the agricultural business. Their last
big acquisition was Seminis, the biggest producer of vegetable seeds in the
world.

Monsanto holds extremely broad patents on seeds, most, but not all of them,
related to Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). Monsanto has also claimed
patent rights on such non-Monsanto inventions as traditionally bred wheat from
India and soy plants from China. Many of these patents apply not only to the use
of seeds but all uses of the plants and harvest that result.

Monsanto's GMO corn threatens biodiversity.

The big picture is chilling to anyone who mistrusts Monsanto's record
disinterest for environmental safety.

And if you're not worried, you should be: central control of food supply has
been a standard ingredient for social and political control throughout
history. By creating a monopoly position, Monsanto can force dangerous experiments
like the release of GMOs into the environment on an unwilling public. They can
ensure that GMOs will be sold and consumed wherever they say they will.

By claiming global monopoly patent rights throughout the entire food chain,
Monsanto seeks to make farmers and food producers, and ultimately consumers,
entirely dependent and reliant on one single corporate entity for a basic human
need. It's the same dependence that Russian peasants had on the Soviet
Government following the Russian revolution. The same dependence that French peasants
had on Feudal kings during the middle ages. But control of a significant
proportion of the global food supply by a single corporation would be
unprecedented in human history.

It's time to ensure that doesn't happen.
It's time for a global ban of patents on seeds and farm animals.
It's time to tell Monsanto we've had enough of this hogwash.

- Brian Thomas Fitzgerald

You can take action against Monsanto at
http://www.greenpeace.org/no-pig-patent"

 

Someone posted on one of the threads with words something along these lines:

The lottery authorities know some people know how to work the numbers and predict outcomes, and it's their worst nightmare.

That might be true.  Certainly some people know how to recognize the patterns in the draws and do workups on the numbers.  That process takes a long time to discover, maybe never gets completely discovered, but is surprisingly easy.

I'm still a novice on all this, though I've put a lot of time into it and continue to learn more every draw.  On yesterday's PB draw I began with a 23 number long list I'd distilled using the methods described in loving detail on this blog.    I'm still experimenting, digging in the histories for ways to get them down into a smaller set, so I worked longer, got them down to 13 numbers, which I bought 13 tickets for.

The long list had all five whites that hit.  The short list I finally bought tickets for had only two.  I have a long way to go before I'm the worst nightmare of any lottery management.

But as to the statement by the poster on the thread...... I've been watching the predictions a bit, watching the MM Challenge by Maddog.  3-0 was the best for the last draw, even though the people competing were posting a lot of numbers.  Which leads me to believe I'm not alone in not being the worst nightmare of anyone.

Seems to me the difficult part is going back after the draw to try to figure out where you went wrong (you being me).  Trying to find the places where the numbers drawn were the previous day, backchecking on whether they'd have been there the previous days of previous draws, discarding the places they weren't, searching for new places they might be, backchecking those.

Now, THAT might qualify as someone's worst nightmare, but it isn't the lottery officials.

I've had some health problems that have kept me from being as physically active this year as I usually am.  That's given me an opportunity to really do a lot of digging in number behavior in ways I believe few people would ever have the time to do.  About the only conclusion I've come to is that the numbers definitely do behave in a completely non-random way, completely across the spectrum of lotteries.  If they behave in a way that allows for predicting four or five out of six in a pool of 15 or 20, there's almost certainly a system at work that only needs deeper examination and understanding to allow it to be predicted a lot more precisely.

But we at LP aren't there yet.  If someone is, he's keeping such a low profile the lottery authorities haven't yet thought to have nightmares about him.

Meanwhile, I think I read somewhere that PB matrix change was going to happen after last night's draw..... checked the 'About' section on PB and didn't see anything mentioning it, so maybe it's been stalled.

Blog readers, I hope one of you becomes the worst nightmare of the lottery authorities.  I believe it can be done, and I believe if one of us can't do it, we aren't half the men (and women) I think we are. 

I've been a nightmare or two in the past, but I'm losing my faith I'm going to get to be this one.

Jack

 

Edited in afterthought:

There's no reason whatever any opinion I hold ought to carry any weight with anyone.  I've been wrong enough times in this life to hold the world title nobody's likely to take away.  The attrition rate among the competition's just too high.

But having said that, if I were making suggestions, which I am not, I'd suggest not allowing yourselves to draw boundaries around what you're trying to do.  Don't keep running down the same path when it doesn't do what you're after.  Chalk up the parts that work, throw away those that don't, and find some roads not yet taken.  I'm convinced there are a lot of them.

 

 

 

This year's looking to be a major problem, coyote-wise.  So far as I can discern listening to them training the adolescent spring litters, at least three full litters survived to reach near-adulthood in close proximity to the village.

During the drought years of the past decade the problem's been there, but not so acute because the drought kept the vermin population down, which caused the young coyotes to roam the streets looking for cats and likely dogs for their fare before they had the cunning to get by with it.

This year involved enough rain and snowmelt to give them food without pushing the envelope too early in life.

Three coyotes can sound like 50, but after careful listening for several days and nights, I believe I'm hearing two adults and three pups on the mesa to the north, one adult and four pups closer in to the east, and one adult with four pups about 150 yards to the south most of the time, but exploring the orchard and woodpiles behind the house.

On the years when the population is low it's a problem, but with so many there'll be a lot of dogs and cats lost before people get worked up enough to reduce the numbers.

Anyone who studies old brother coyote's got to love him.  He loves being what he is, makes no bones about it.  But when he moves into the neighborhoods and ceases to fear humans he can become a nuisance worse than having a crack-house down the street.

Too bad.

Jack

 

 

 

 

 

Last Friday Night

"It's just too deep in the Rez
For a white-man style killing," he says:
 
"A bullet each to the back of the head,
At Pueblo Pentada two brothers are dead;
Two Navajo brothers are dead.
 
"It isn't a skin-walker killing;
No feud, not a woman too willing.
A knife, a club, a thirty-ought-six
Is common enough and at least doesn't mix
White man logic with Navajo tricks:
 
"No bullet each to the back of the head!
But at Pueblo Pentada two brothers are dead!
Two Navajo brothers are dead"
 
From Bread Springs to Shiprock you'll hear people say
"No place is safe now!  You can't get away!"
Nageezi to Yah Ta Hay
You'll hear the Din'e people say
"The killer's from Pie Town or Santa Fe.
Some white, somehow, somewhere must pay
For a bullet each to the back of the head!
 
At Pueblo Pentada two brothers are dead!
Two Navajo brothers are dead."

From Poems of the New Old West
Copyright 2002, Jack Purcell

Cartoon in the Albuquerque Journal today:

Two people sitting outside the window of the New Mexico Lottery Authority office reading a newspaper, "Says here most New Mexico students are deficient in math." says one.

View through the window of the Lottery Authority office, two guys in suits and big grins high-fiving one another.

Jack

 

 

 

I sort of favor 17, 27, 38, 40, 44 and 51 for tonight.

Gut keeps whispering about 26, 34, 45 and 47, but I ain't listening.

Jack

https://www.lotterypost.com/threads118540p1.htm

The person came in, made his/her first post on LP, gave a fairly concise rundown on what happened, how he/she handled himself/herself, and logged off.

The surprising aspect of this post is that the person obviously believed a win was coming.  All the heavy thinking was done up front.  Didn't tell anyone.  Had read books and studied winners for years, says the post, learning from their errors.

The way the win was handled might be the way you, or I would have handled it, but it was obviously a clearly thought out decision made by a person intelligent enough to decide these things for himself/herself.

I hope the person returns.  All that up-front confidence is a bit rattling.  Gotta wonder if the win was a QP, or if the person used one or another of the numerous systems. 

Brings a bit of joy to my heart, blog readers, to see a person such as this one get a win.

Jack

 

 

 

 

 

Someone read the blog and reminded me of this, though it had slipped my mind.

Sooooo

The bone of contention that destroyed the Turner/Baez/Fonda threesome?

The person of the female persuasion in the menage converted to Christianity!

Yeah.  I'm telling you the truth.  This is no BS.

Here's this grown up dirty rich kid, happier than a hog loose in a cornfield to be married to a woman who traveled with the other one to North Vietnam, donned NVA helmets to have their pictures taken sitting on an anti-aircraft gun intended to shoot down US aircraft and kill US servicemen.

Hokay so far?  The guy is ecstatic to be married to this female.

So, she converts to Christianity.

Now he's unhappy.  Overwhelmed by the tragedy.  Not dancing in the streets, singing and splashing twirling his umbrella just to be free of the person.  He's depressed enough to consider suicide.

There are a lot of different ways to look at this reality.  This life.  This human experience of living.

Unbelievable as it might seem, Ted Turner's is one of the options.

Jack

 

 

 

I mentioned Ted Turner in my last musings entry.  Most of you probably know who he is.  Famous rich guy, inherited wealth.... richer than 18 inches up a bull's behind.  Owns more land in New Mexico than the US Government.... I'm lying a bit there, but he owns an enormous amount of real estate .... some stupendous beautiful places.

Anyway, this guy, Turner, used to be married to Phony Joanie (Baez), or Hanoi Jane (Fonda).  Probably the Fonda woman, though I might be wrong.  I recall thinking at the time he picked the opposite one to the one I'd have picked if I had to be married to one of them.... he went for pretty, while I would have gone for the birdlike singing voice.  That voice would have provided some consolation for having to be in close proximity with such a person.

But, when his marriage with one of the other of them dissassembled I saw an interview with him somewhere.  He was whining about his hard life, actually said that during that post-divorce time when he was also losing control of AOL, which he evidently owned, that he thought he had the 'trials of Job'.  Said he gave serious thought to suicide.

Wow.

So any of you bloggers who think winning the lottery will solve any of your serious mental problems, think again.

But thinking about Turner, then the craziness of the suicide remark reminded me of this:

The Suicide

torn by darkness chaos storm
inside rage and rhyming terror
self-doubt blaming self-hate
blaming maelstrom
hatred blaming
futility cauldron
clouds the view of
people walking by
absorbed inside their own paths
spare a momentary glance
of wonder at the pain
cringe from leper anguish
incandescent anger torment
too close sizzles
fingertip
or those
proximity-seared
already branded
puzzle impotence
bewildered
how to dowse
turn down the burner
cool the smoking pot
confusion helpless
turn away
storm cloud sees
blames hates anguish
rheostat spins clockwise
intensifies
takes the plunge
razor
needle
rope
lamp cord
lead projectile
tosses
self-imploding
hand grenade
of suicide
momentary grandstand
spectators are helpless caring
onlookers
women children
friends family
strangers on the street
bleed the shrapnel
penetration
craven terrorist
self-bomb
wonder sympathize
and wonder
watch the cleanup gang
the victim’s
friends and family
bleeding reeling
staggering in loss
evolution
wonder turns to rage
turns to scorn contempt
and sometimes
turns to
hate

From Poems of the New Old West
Copyright 2002, Jack Purcell

 

Jack

 

 

 

 

 

Hmmmm.  Lessee.

About the post entitled 'Black helicopters, etc'.

An old bud of mine named Jerry Sires wrote and recorded a song once named,

"New Years Moanin' Blues".

The refrain went,

"The cows don't know what time we got home

That it's New Years Day they haven't got a clue,

But if they knew they were able

To influence being put on the table

They damned sure wouldn't stand out there and moo!"

Seems appropro to that entry.  I should have put it there.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

As for the Glorietta Pass battlefield entry.

The land there is private.  It isn't fenced, but it's subject to development and will probably have houses placed on it during the not-too-distant future.  If you want to see it, I'd suggest you do it before too many more years pass.  It almost certainly won't remain as it is much longer.  It's changed a lot during the past decade.  Ted Turner owns the Valverde site, part of one of his enormous ranches down there.  You've got to be willing to risk a criminal trespass charge to get in there.

If you go a mile or so further along the road and keep an eye peeled you'll find a monument that was put up by the Texas Daughters of the Confederacy during the 1930s on the left about 30 yards off the road in front of a low cliff.  That marker is located at the extremity of the Texan advance.  All open territory ahead of them, Union forces in dissarray and panic retreat.

But the Colorado Volunteers circled around behind them and destroyed their supply train at Canoncito.  That was the practical end of the Sibley Brigade... it was a running fight down the Rio Grande, chased by Union forces from Fort Union and those they bypassed at Fort Craig. 

People still find their equipment and artillery occasionally cached in some unexpected locations.

New Mexico has so much history bunched up on the geography there's not a chance they'll ever try to preserve the Civil War sites more than they have, which they haven't.  Most are like Texans in that regard.  They don't even know that invasion ever happened.  Same is true with the sites from the the Texan Santa Fe Expedition of 1841.....Anton Chico, Villenaueva, Laguna Colorado,  only more so. 

Jack

 

 

 

 

You Texans traveling in New Mexico in the Santa Fe area.  When you get tired of the casinos, the museums, the various jewelry and art ripoffs, if you find yourself with time on your hands and would like to have a look at some unusual and little known Texas history, it will be right down the highway from you.

For that matter, you could begin by visiting the National Cemetary on the north end of town.  There are a number of Texans buried there who were killed at the Battle of Glorietta, just down the road.  The bodies were discovered during the 1980s, fought over by Texans and New Mexicans for some while, and finally given a nice ceremony and burial in the National Cemetary.

Reinactment folks did a Confederate funeral march with the coffins on caissons after a church ceremony.... a large crowd followed, including me, a mile or so to the cemetary.  There, the Texan reinactors were joined by yankee reinactors .... did some field piece salutes over the site and black powder musket salutes over the graves after the coffins were lowered.

Pretty impressive event.  I don't know how those young men would have felt about being buried there, about having modern reinactors who probably ain't half the man any of them  simulating their costumes and whatnot.  It might not have been worthy of them, but it was probably better than the mass grave they'd been lying in since shortly after they fell.

If any of you exhibit any interest in the subject I'll give you a rundown of the battle.  Meanwhile, I'll post a few pictures of the site of the main confrontation, where these men fell.

This is the old Pigeon's Ranch House.  It was the forward Union position before they were routed.  Their artillery positions were located on the high ground behind the building and scattered back and to the left.  The Texan advance came from the left, from Santa Fe where they'd sent the Territorial Government into exile ahead of them.

Although there was a considerable artillery duel, a major part of the battle was fought by mounted riflement and Union infantry.  The wall you see just to the left of the house was one of the infantry positions, as well as artillery.  As late as 1949 you could (I did) dig lead balls out of that wall with a pocket knife.

The rock outcropping above was a nest of Union snipers.  They're probably responsible for hitting the riders who are now buried at the National Cemetary.  The grave was below and to the left.

Here's the ranch house from the sniper position, though they'd have been focused on the far right.  There were two Texan artillery positions, one off the picture about 1 oclock, another about 2 oclock.  But the real action was below them, 3 and 4 oclock.  Things were hot enough in this positon to cause them a hasty retreat when the Texans took the position shown in the picture.

The rock faces are still pockmarked by bullet strikes above where those Texans fell.

If any of you want to know more about any of this, or if you think you might get up that way to nose around, let me know.

Jack

 

 

 

Black helicopters, et al.

Chewie made an amusing reference to black helicopters on one of the threads recently, though I doubt he intended to be amusing.  It got me thinking about them and a lot of other matters I usually don’t give much thought to.

I don’t know much about black helicopters.  I recall there was a considerable flap about them on the Art Bell show during the late ‘90s, I think it probably was.  But I was never clear about why anyone cared what color a helicopter was painted. 

Along about that same while there was a lot of talk about aliens of various sorts, some other things about chupa-somethingorothers, critters that kill goats, I gather.  And people who believed they’d been abducted by aliens.  All in all, the usual fare to keep truckers and graveyard shifters alert.

I don’t do much thinking about black helicopters and aliens.  I don’t know how a person could know enough about it to form an opinion without personal experience.  I saw some things at various times in my life that might have been UFOs, but they also mightn’t.  Whether there are aliens or black helicopters, I don’t see where there’s anything I can do about it, anything almost anyone can do about it, provided something needs to be done.  Not much point in devoting the energy to forming an opinion.

However, Chewie’s reference to black helicopters was more of a blanket condemnation of matters going a lot further.  It was a rhetorical trick to sweep the US government murder of a lot of people at Waco and the Ruby Ridge debacle into the same category as aliens and black helicopters.

I’d imagine Chewie is probably a generally honest man.  He probably is just ignorant.  The facts of Ruby Ridge and Waco are too readily available for it to be anything other than a lack of interest on the part of Chewie to learn anything about a matter that might disturb his carefully structured notions about how things are.  I’m fuzzy on the details since it’s been several years since I’ve read anything on either event, but as  I recall, the US government acknowledged what happened at Ruby Ridge, including killing Weaver’s wife and son, and the State of Texas has generally disavowed what the government did at Waco, including Feds being involved at all.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not upset, not angry about the Federal law enforcement people entrapping Danny Weaver into cutting a shotgun barrel an inch shorter than was legal, then setting up an ambush raid on his home, killing his wife and son.  I never knew Weaver.  It’s a tough gig, but things happen.  Not my affair.

As for Waco, I’m not upset, not angry about that, either.  The US government murdered all those people fair and square.  I didn’t know any of them, probably wouldn’t have liked them if I did.  Too bad, but such things happen.  I couldn’t do anything about it if I wished.  It’s none of my affair.

To my way of thinking, the important thing about Ruby Ridge, Waco, and a fairly large number of other things I have personal knowledge of, is the recognition that this sort of thing can happen.  The acknowledgement that this isn’t the Pollyanna nation we might wish it was.

And in so acknowledging that fact, conducting our affairs in ways calculated not to bring that dark side of reality to bear on our own lives.  To me, that’s the only good that can come of it all.  Chewie’s in no danger of having anyone kick his door down…. If anything, he’d be back cheering the kickers.  But there’s a poster on LP from Whyoming or some such place who seems to me to need to do some thinking along these lines.

Jack

 

 

 

 

I don't know whether anyone's reading this high numbers, number behavior part of the blog, but I'll put up this last batch in case anyone is.

Last night it was 49, 36, 29.

Here's the history outside PB and MM:

Quebec Quebec 49

 Apr 13, 2005  14 15 19 22 23 27  08
 Apr 9, 2005  12 18 29 34 36 49  17
 Apr 6, 2005  20 31 32 34 35 38  28

Washington Lotto

 Dec 15, 2004  05 14 27 28 31 44
 Dec 11, 2004  03 13 20 29 36 49
 Dec 8, 2004  04 05 08 13 33 42

Wisconsin Megabucks

 Sep 17, 2003  06 10 22 35 44 49
 Sep 13, 2003  01 28 29 35 36 49
 Sep 10, 2003  05 23 31 34 40 43

Wisconsin Megabucks

 Jul 24, 1993  03 09 16 22 40 45
 Jul 21, 1993  10 29 33 42 47 49
 Jul 17, 1993  02 11 17 24 30 43
 Jul 14, 1993  11 12 17 21 27 36
 Jul 10, 1993  07 17 29 36 40 49
 Jul 7, 1993  14 16 20 26 35 47

Jun 25, 2003  Michigan WINFALL 17 18 29 36 46 49

Ohio Super Lotto

 Jun 7, 2003  03 22 32 40 41 43  26
 Jun 4, 2003  03 16 25 29 36 49  28
 May 31, 2003  09 13 20 24 28 39  22

Illinois Lotto

 Mar 13, 2002  08 09 12 23 26 40
 Mar 9, 2002  12 27 28 29 36 49
 Mar 6, 2002  15 16 18 39 45 51

 Feb 12, 1997  08 13 37 41 46 49
 Feb 8, 1997  22 27 29 36 49 50
 Feb 5, 1997  13 14 20 35 40 45

Western Canada Western

 Jan 29, 2003  01 06 29 34 41 46  10
 Jan 25, 2003  09 14 17 32 39 49  36
 Jan 22, 2003  18 22 26 29 35 37  24

Maryland Lotto

 Dec 8, 1999  09 21 31 38 43 47
 Dec 4, 1999  01 29 35 36 43 49
 Dec 1, 1999  22 33 39 44 48 49

Here are the dates of that combination hitting on PB and MM.  That June 14, August 20th rhyme is sort of cute:

Aug 20, 2005  Multi State Powerball 13 27 28 29 49, Powerball: 36, Power Play: 4
 Jun 14, 2005  Multi State Mega Millions 01 10 29 48 49, Mega Ball: 36
 Aug 10, 2005  Multi State Powerball 13 31 36 38 49, Powerball: 02, Power Play: 5
 Sep 11, 2004  Multi State Powerball 25 34 36 46 49, Powerball: 09, Power Play: 2
 May 22, 2004  Multi State Powerball 01 07 36 42 49, Powerball: 41, Power Play: 5
 Aug 30, 2003  Multi State Powerball 09 35 36 41 49, Powerball: 33, Power Play: 3
 May 20, 2003  Multi State Mega Millions 02 16 36 44 49, Mega Ball: 03
 Sep 25, 2002  Multi State Powerball 01 12 23 36 49, Powerball: 09, Power Play: 2
 Sep 3, 2002  Multi State Mega Millions 08 23 36 49 51, Mega Ball: 10
 May 15, 2002  Multi State Powerball 30 33 36 37 49, Powerball: 35, Power Play: 5
 Nov 3, 2001  Multi State Powerball 06 14 36 37 49, Powerball: 20, Power Play: 3

There's also a repeat of 13 and one of 36 between PB and MM.

From here it looks as though 51, 39 and 38 ought to be creeping back into the picture soon.

Jack

 

 

 

 

 

The man in this picture is my old friend Richard Sturm.

Richard died in December, 2004, in Port Lavaca, Texas.

Richard was a 100% disabled veteran of the United States Army. From 1964, until his death he spent his entire adult life in and out of Veterans hospitals. When he wasn’t in a hospital he was usually in a café somewhere drinking coffee and being friendly with anyone who’d give him the time of day.

Or he was with me, camping, fishing, seeing the sights, singing, passing the time. That happened less than he’d have liked, probably more than I’d have preferred. Richard wasn’t an easy man to be around.

Before he volunteered for the Army he was a patriotic youth, intelligent, dynamic, from a family of super-achievers. He graduated from high school with honors, well liked and respected by his teachers and classmates. A young man with a future. Then he joined the US Army.

In 1964, he was stationed in Massachusetts with the Army Security Agency. Without his knowledge or consent, he was selected for an experiment by the career military men who were his superiors. He was given a massive dose of LSD. He sustained permanent brain damage as a result.

Richard spent several months in a mental ward of an Army hospital, presumably under observation by the powers-that-be, to see what they’d wrought. Then they gave him is medical discharge, released him from service and from the hospital, and sent him home without confiding to anyone what the problem was and why it happened.

Several years later after he’d been examined, had his thyroid removed, given electric shock treatments, everything the puzzled medicos could think of to try and improve this mysterious condition, his brother, an attorney, came to suspect something of what had happened. The stories of events of this sort had begun to creep out of hiding and into the press.

A formal demand was made for release of his records, and finally the story came out.

Richard wasn’t injured defending his country. He didn’t get his skull fractured on some battlefield by enemies. He was betrayed by the career military men of his own country, officers and enlisted men, whom he’d given an oath to obey and defend. He served in good faith, and he was betrayed by his country.

Some have noted on the threads that I don’t have an automatic high regard for career military men. They’re correct. Richard’s just an extreme example of thousands of men who’ve been killed, injured, disabled by irresponsible, insane, and idiotic decisions by men who make a career of blindly following orders without thinking, weighing consequences, not feeling any remorse so long as they were ordered to do it.

Like good little Germans.

Jack