GARRISON KEILLOR OF PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION WAS FIRED FROM MINNESOTA PUBLIC RADIO

The past coming back to haunt you....

Garrison Keillor of Prairie Home Companion was fired from Minnesota Public Radio on allegations of improper behavior.   MPR has severed all ties with Keillor and will rename The Prairie Home Companion, which is now hosted by a different MC.

An excerpt from Huffington Post quotes Keillor:
‘in an email to MPR’s news boss Wednesday afternoon, Keillor wrote “I think the country is in the grip of a mania – the whole Franken business is an absurdity – and I wish someone [would] resist it, but I expect MPR to look out for itself, and meanwhile I feel awfully lucky to have hung on for so long.”

There needs to be some perspective, because at some point in our lives all men are guilty; except Jesus and Gay Guys - which is probably the same category.

Setting aside the ilk of Roy Moore; there was a time when the tolerated sexual misconduct of men toward women was overlooked, and this should be brought to light.   This behavior is something that should stop and end here.    But it bothers me that a man who made advances toward a woman or made an inappropriate comment in the past should be painted with the same brush as Roy Moore, should lose his job, his reputation, traumatize his family, and place the stigma of his actions on his wife and children to carry into public and into the future. 

This is a definitive moment in time - a change in culture; but we need to move through it without a mania for revenge.   

I'm fucking old

and I am looking at this through an alpha male's eyes

Sorry

the Ol'Buzzard

INHERIT THE WIND

Light the torches

Get out the pitch forks

There is a man in sight!

Matt Lauer fired from MBC.   If we are going to get rid of every man that made a pass at a woman, soon there will only be women on TV, women in the movies and women in government.   Actually, that last might be a good thing.  

We are starting through a new era, like integrating the south in the 1960’s, where previously accepted norms will be no longer accepted.  

Throughout history, and definitely all of my life, men have been in charge, men have had the power, men have made the rules.   It has been a Man’s World.

Now there are women in combat, women CEO’s, women in government, women in charge.   They are not going to take it anymore; and a lot of men will fall by the way side for what was once considered acceptable behavior in the Man’s World.     

the Ol'Buzzard

WINTER IS COMING

This year in Maine weather scientist are predicting a record breaking snow season.  

1.    The warm temperatures this October broke all previous records.   October temperatures have been a hall mark for predicting snow levels:  Of the twenty years of highest recorded October temperatures, seventeen of those years were the seventeen highest recorded snow falls.

2.    A  La Na Nina in the Pacific is an indicator of winter trade wind routs across New England.  The Alberta Clippers follow the trade winds, and the more advanced the La Nina the more snow fall we received in Maine.    This year there is a La Nina in the Pacific and it is due to peak in mid-winter.

3.    Ocean waters off the coast of Maine are the warmest on record.   Warm waters in the Gulf of Maine tend to create more frequent winter storms and more severe snow events (nor-easters.)

This year we are looking at a trifecta, with snow falls in the western mountains of Maine expected to be in excess of 100 inches.  

 My wife and I are winter people, and I love this.

the Ol'Buzzard

BIONICS BRAIN MODIFICATION

Back in the 60’s the TV program The Million Dollar Man (a mechanically modified super hero) was considered way out Sci Fi.  

Today, men and women with mechanical prosthetics are a reality.   Without us realizing it, technology has taken us one step further.  The cell phone, though not implanted, has become an attachment to our brains, to the point that many people go through severe withdrawals when deprived, for a few days or even hours, of access to their cell phone. 

Especially young people are known to check their phones two to three times within every waking hour.  Technology and social networks are now an addiction, and likely modifying the brain patterns of the younger generation, as children are introduced to computers and cell phones at a very young age. 

On MSNBC’s Morning Joe, a scientific research was discussed; the results found that adolescent girls who spend an excess of five hours a day plugged to social media have a seventy percent increase in depression and suicide attempts.   Boys don’t seem to be affected.

For many professionals their life is on their cell phone and separation from their phone is unthinkable; but, it goes further – the average person has become dependent on this technology, and feels naked without their phone.  Cell phones have truly become the opioid of the masses.

 There are a few of us that are hold outs.

the Ol'Buzzard

SEXUAL MISCONDUCT OF MEN

About three and a half million years ago a hominoid climbed down from a tree, walked across the savanna, spied another hominoid, killed him with a rock and raped his woman.

About two hundred thousand years ago a Homo sapiens walked across a quarry in France, spied a Neanderthal, killed him with a spear and raped his woman.

This has been the hallmark of our species from the very beginning.

We are a violent society by nature, and men are all predators at some level.   The males of our species are driven by self-aggrandizement and sex.

Women have always been the victims of our patriarchal nature, and were often painted as a defiler and emotionally unstable.

Prior to the last four decades, women were simply considered by men as an available piece of ass; wife mother and homemaker; or bitch/slut.    Man’s rules.

Throughout the last forty years we have been moving toward a genderless society; a society where women will no longer be the habitual victims of men.     

It has taken women moving into positions of power previously monopolized by men to affect this change: a woman twice running for President has, more than anything other incident, moved to shatter the glass ceiling.

 

Men’s accomplishments are outweighed by the outcome.  In only a few thousand years men have moved this world to the brink of environmental disaster and nuclear annihilation. 

I am old, and no longer have a stake in the outcome; but it is my observation that the only hope for humankind to avoid extinction is to replace men in power with women in power.    There are more women then men and they could affect and change the outcome.

However, I am not optimistic, for over 50% of the white women in this country voted for Donald Trump.   If women are not united, then gender equality will be the least of humanities’ problems.

Shiva - the destroyer of worlds.

the Ol’Buzzard

SCAM WARNING!

Twice this week I have received a telephone call from a woman identifying herself as a police officer and giving a badge number; she states that the IRS has found discrepancies in my filings and that a warrant has been issued for my arrest.   She said that Federal Marshals have been dispatched to apprehend me, and that if I would like to avoid arrest I should call a number XXXXXX.

You hear about these scams but don’t expect them to be operating in the rural western Maine mountains.  

If you have concernes with young inexperienced couples or older people you should probably discuss this with them immediately.

the Ol’Buzzard

THINGS HAVE CHANGED

This man and his music has followed me through my life.







People are crazy
and times are strange
I'm locked in tight
I'm out of range
I use to care
But things have changed.




the Ol'Buzzard

GEORGE CARLIN IS SPEAKING FOR ME

He says exactly what I feel better than I can express it.



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Nothing can ever change for us - because we don't have control.

"It's a big club - and we're not in it." 

But in the end, the earth will out; and our puny little existence, and the Gods we have created in our image will all pass, and the earth will heal itself as if we never existed.

I don't have a dog in this fight any longer - I'm just an observer.
the Ol'Buzzard

OSCILLATING POWER TOOL FROM HARBOR FREIGHT

In June I made a trip down to the new Harbor Freight store in Auburn, Maine.  

I have bought other tools from Harbor Freight through the mail, and find them good enough for my amateur DIY (do it yourself.)   Granted, you get what you pay for and Harbor Freight tools are cheap; but they come with a ninety-day guarantee and they replace defective tools with no question.  I have had their table saw for fifteen years.  

I had downloaded a sales chit for an oscillating tool: a normally $39 tool on sale for $24.  

I felt guilty buying the tool wondering how much I would actually use it; but I needed to install cedar siding after having done some sill work and thought the tool might be useful in that instance.  

As it turns out, I have used the hell out of this tool since I have had it: cutting tricky pieces of siding to fit, installing a dead bolt lock and cutting pipe while doing some plumbing work (I HATE PLUMBING!)

This video is of a Makita oscillating power tool that cost about $150 – the Harbor freight tool serves my needs and is affordable.   

The problem is that I inadvertently bought the tool that is battery operated.   No problem with the battery but when I wanted to use the tool yesterday the charger wouldn’t work.   A new charger cost $12 with $7 shipping and I can buy another oscillating tool for only five dollars more (plus shipping.)     I am going to buy another one, but this time, one with a power cord.  I find battery operated tools a pain in the ass.   The battery always needs charging when I need to use the tool.

the Ol’Buzzard

TURNER CLASSIC MOVIE FUNK

Take a little break from Trump




Then spend the rest of the day unplugged with TCM.
the Ol'Buzzard

GUNS DON’T KILL PEOPLE:

BULLETS KILL PEOPLE

With two mass shootings over the last five weeks you would think that the Congress would move to address the issue of the ability of disturbed people to easily commit mass carnage. 

Link to gun violence this year

But then again, after 27 children were killed in Sandy Hook Elementary School and the Congress did nothing, why should we expect any different now?

I honestly feel that the focus on assault weapons is a distraction.   Semiautomatic rifles have been used by hunters for almost one hundred years; and the assault rifle is simply a semiautomatic rifle dressed up to look like a man killer. 

 

The problem is the capacity of the clip.   In Maine, hunting rifles have historically been limited to a clip size of five rounds.   Five rounds of ammunition are enough to hunt any large game animal in America and more than enough to protect your home. 

At the church slaughter in Texas the killer fired approximately 450 rounds of ammunition.   If clip sizes were limited to five rounds he would have had to reload 90 times. 

A federal law limiting clip size, a buy back and a stiff fine and imprisonment for possession of a large capacity clip would not stop disturbed people from committing acts of terror; but it would limit their ability to commit mass murder – and it would still allow the bad-ass wannabees to sport their assault weapons. 

All the males who feel their manhood depends on being seen carrying a ‘man killer’ rifle could still play their game; but the ability of their weapon to commit mass carnage would be greatly decreased - and lives would be saved.   

Link to gun violence in America

Common sense restrictions to control gun violence will never happen as long as Republican lawmakers are in control of Congress 

the Ol'Buzzars

HALLOWEEN WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT!

Early Monday morning of the thirtieth, a category 1 hurricane wind roared through Maine with gust in excess of sixty-five miles per hour.  

There are approximately one million people in the state and over 400,000 people were without electricity – in other words, about half the state – we are a rural state with a lot of trees.

Losing electricity in the winter is usually not a big deal for us, as we have a wood stove and gas lights for a backup; but this time of the year the temperatures were around sixty – and we have a freezer full of meat.  Fortunately, we were only out for a little over thirty-six hours – getting power back late Halloween eve.  The freezer kept everything frozen so we only lost food in the refrigerator.   

We lived without electricity for four years while we went through college, and for short periods off and on here in Maine and when we were in Alaska.   We didn’t realize how dependent we have gotten on TV and the computers until this outage.  The first afternoon we played five games of Scrabble and went to bed about nine-o-clock and read by lamp light.   The next day we did another Scrabble marathon, read – floated around the house aimlessly.  We actually cheered when the lights came back on and we immediately turned on the TV.

the Ol’Buzzard

We have had electric linemen from as far south as New York up here to help reconnect power lines.  The local electric company says they expect everyone will have power back by Sunday.