Opuscula Racist words

GOP GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE FOR FLORIDA GOVERNOR must learn to avoid any words that MIGHT considered “racist” by the leftists Democrats.

WHAT’S RACIST?

Any word to which the leftists and their media sycophants can twist, spin, or simply take out of context is “racist.”.

According to several sources^{1, 2, 3} GOP gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis used the word “monkey” referring to what his Democrat opponent would do to state government if elected in November. DeSantis’ words: “The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state,” said DeSantis.³ “This” as any THINKING PERSON will realize, is “the state.”

Gillum is a Bernie Sanders Socialist and echos the presidential hopeful’s philosophy.

I’m a geezer and I did not realize until today that if I say “So-n-So will monkey with something” what I’m really saying that So-n-So is a monkey or, in LibSpeak, I’m equating a black person with a monkey.

As a geezer, I might more likely say that So-n-So is going to screw up the state, but this is a “G”-rated blog, so I won’t. Tell me THAT’s racist!

But there’s more.

DeSantis stated that Gillum is “is an articulate spokesman for those far-left views, and he’s a charismatic candidate.” “Articulate” is a backhanded compliment by a white toward a black, according to the media.

Monkey is racist, even if not used toward a person but as “don’t monkey with.”

A compliment is racist when said by a white person about a black person.

What other words will the media declare racist.

“Some of my best friends are black” is – you guessed it, racist.

It was a black day on Wall Street is racist. In fact, the word “black” might be considered racist in ANY context. “Black as night?” Racist.

Let’s rename the Black Widow Spider as just “Widow Spider.”

What about “Spider Monkey?”

Should we find a replacement for blood’s “RH” factor; the “r” standing for Rhesus (monkey).

Gillum told the media he intends to stay above insults, real or perceived.

For the duration, he best avoid Halloween and “spooks” and avoid using the word “white” (as in sand or light or Christmas or white lightening).

The whole “let’s accuse the other guy of racism” is ludicrous. I’d call it “black humor,” but that would most assuredly be called racist by the leftists and their media.

Headlines show bias

The most outrageous, the most egregious headline:

DeSantis Already Compared Gillum to a Monkey on Fox News

Miami New Times at http://tinyurl.com/y8gsdpqn

Ron DeSantis uses ‘monkey’ to describe Andrew Gillum's agenda; Democrats brand it racist

Sun-Sentinel at http://tinyurl.com/y876x5hx

Critics blast Ron DeSantis for 'monkey this up' comment about Andrew Gillum agenda

Tallahassee Democrat at http://tinyurl.com/yd8ut9ku

Ron DeSantis Tells Florida Not To ‘Monkey This Up’ By Electing Andrew Gillum

Huffpost at http://tinyurl.com/ya6vyqv2

---

Sources

1. Vox at http://tinyurl.com/yanmsbzr

2. Sun-Sentinel at http://tinyurl.com/y876x5hx

3. Huffpost at http://tinyurl.com/ya6vyqv2

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Comments on Racism?

Opuscula How to pass Tax referendum

PUT THE TAX PROPOSAL ON A PRIMARY ELECTION BALLOT.

IN BROWARD COUNTY Florida, there was a tax question: Are taxpayers willing to pay higher school taxes?

SOME STATISTICS

Broward County has 1,553,269 registered voters.

Of those voters, 322,657 were disenfranchised – not allowed to vote – since in Florida primaries, only voters aligned with a political party, normally Democrat or Republican, can vote in the primaries.

Sounds like a case for the courts; taxing people prevented from voting yea or nay on the proposal.

The total number of eligible (i.e., registered Democrats and Republicans) voters in the primary election in Broward County is now reduced to 1,230,126.

The total voter turnout for the primary election was 22.1% of the remaining registered voters. That’s 271,857 voters.

Of the remaining eligible voters who bothered to vote – in early voting, by mail, or on Primary Day,

64.2% or 128,108 voters voted FOR the tax
35.8% or 82,524 voted AGAINST the tax.

The total voting on the school tax was 210,682, somewhat less than the total 271,857; meaning of the 271,857 registered voters who did their civic duty, 61,175 chose NOT to vote on the school tax referendum.

RECAP

Total eligible voters	1,553,269
Total voters in Primary	271,857 (22.1%)
Total tax referendum voters	210,682
Total voting FOR tax	148,108 (64.2%)

IN OTHER WORDS, 148,108 people voted to tax 1,553,269 eligible voters.

If you want to pass a tax bill, put it on a primary ballot.

Primary elections have notoriously low turn-outs, even when there are tight races as there where for the Democrats gubernatorial candidates.

Helping reduce the total turnout is the disenfranchisement of all independent – i.e., voters not registered as Democrat or Republican – voters. (Independents can vote in general elections but not closed primaries.)

Adding insult to injury, many people don’t even register to vote because they want to dodge jury duty. Surprise, the jury pools are filled by pulling names from multiple sources, including driver’s license registration and tax roles. Perhaps these people should NOT be eligible to vote even if registered; jury duty is as much a citizenship obligation as voting.

Some hungry attorney ought to make an issue of tax referendums on primary ballots, if only because independent voters who pay taxes are disenfranchised; they have no say. (Yes, even renters pay property taxes; not directly as do property owners, but as a portion of the rent they pay the property owner.)

Truly, taxation without representation,

Didn’t we fight a war over that?

---

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Comments on Primary Taxation

Opuscula Are we REALLY That STUPID To believe pols?

APPARENTLY TODAY’S POLITICIANS think the voters are stupid.

Maybe they are correct.

LOCALLY, we have politicians promising

* To raise the minimum wage
* To increase teacher salaries by $10,000, “or more”
* Add a “billion” to the education budget
* To impeach Trump
* To provide healthcare for all
* Legalize pot
* Make more restrictive gun laws (fight the NRA)

Interestingly, all the promises are made by liberal Democrats (is there any other kind?) and, equally interesting, none of candidates tells HOW they expect to fund these pie-in-the-sky promises.

On the GOP side, the lone candidate for the U.S. Senate seat cites a single source that claims the Democrat opponent fails to pay Social Security and Medicare benefits to the people working for his campaign.

To be fair -- an oxymoron when discussing politics and politicians -- the Democrat has failed to respond to the attack.

Neither senate candidate is making promises that will cost the taxpayer (more) money. In fact, the Democrat has not advertised at all.

Apparently the GOP hopeful has never heard of “1099s” or “volunteers.” (Maybe no one volunteers for his campaign?)

Having been a “1099,” that’s the tax designation for self-employed people, I know that when I worked as an independent contractor, I was responsible for all my taxes, including Social Security (at 12% rather than a W-2’ 6%) and Medicare.

Medicare is “funny,” but not “ha ha” funny. You pay into it all of your years of employment and THEN you get to pay again every month as long as you live. Medicare insurers get rich and the insured gets the bill.

If you are wondering about the 12% vs. 6%; the W-2’s employer matches the employee’s 6%.

There is no question that there are far, far too many shootings. Never mind “mass shootings,” although they are headline grabbers (as they should be). Just across the county line, there are drive by shootings almost daily. Unfortunately, someone – often a small child – gets in the way of a stray bullet (or maybe not a stray bullet) and becomes a statistic. Since most of the shootings are black-on-black, the murders don’t rate a visit from the Al Sharptons and Jessie Jacksons seeking yet another 15 minutes of tv face time.

There are enough gun laws in place. They need to be enforced, and the Fibbies need to share their information with the locals. The Fibbies had information that could have prevented the Marjory Stillman Douglas mass shooting. The state has laws to take guns from people who ought not be armed – no matter if they originally legally acquired the weapon.

A few of the liberals want to eliminate the state’s Stand Your Ground law. No doubt it has been abused – in one case the shooter was told by the police NOT to confront a person. He ignored the warning, confronted the person and, in the end, killed him. That is the exception, not the rule. (Stand Your Ground is an extension of the Castle Law.)

I can agree with laws banning fully automatic weapons (and weapons that easily can be made fully automatic) and banning magazines of more than 10 cartridges. If a hunter needs a semi-automatic rifle with a 30-round magazine, what the hunter REALLY needs is a lot of time on the practice range.

I suspect that part of the reason gun owners are digging in their heels against ANY restrictions is because the nation is polarized between liberal and conservative. No one wants to talk – and listen – to the other side.

That’s only partly true. Everyone wants to TALK, but no one wants to listen. It’s too easy to grab a bull horn and shout over others’ voices.

Unfortunately, some people insist on using a “bully pulpit” to abuse anyone with whom they disagree.

The bottom line is that politicians must really think voters are S*T*U*P*I*D.

Maybe they are right.

THIS JUST IN

The talking heads’ Big Story for Monday (8/27) evening is that President Trump has ordered Federal facility flags to half-staff. This is the “leed” for the nightly snooze. The McCain flag status pushes Hawaii out of the news. It pushes California out of the news. It did NOT push McCain’s eulogizers out of the news (two are Democrats and one is an anti-Trump Republican who embarrassed himself on the deck of a Navy carrier).

The “media” is about the only thing that can compare to politicians – both think the American public is stupid beyond measure.

---

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Comments on Politicians think we are STUPID

Opuscula Two famous Americans' Lives ended

OVER THE WEEKEND OF AUGUST 25 AND 26, 2018, America lost two famous men.
One wrote words that made Americans – and others – laugh and, maybe, occasionally shed a tear.
The other bombed people he couldn’t see, ended up as a POW, and later became a politician.

NEIL SIMON, according to Wikipedia¹, was an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, mostly adaptations of his plays. He received more combined Oscar and Tony nominations than any other writer. Born on Independence Day, 1927, Simon, at 17, briefly served in the post-war Army Air Force Reserve. He died of complications from pneumonia at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York on August 26, 2018. ²

A list of Neil Simon plays, musicals, and films is longer than this blog allows, but may be found online.³

JOHN SIDNEY MCCAIN III was the son and grandson of Navy admirals.⁴. According to Wikipedia, as a naval aviator, McCain flew attack aircraft from carriers. On his twenty-third bombing mission, in October 1967, he was shot down over Hanoi and badly injured. He subsequently endured five and a half years as a prisoner of war, including periods of torture. In 1968, he refused a North Vietnamese offer of early release, because it would have meant leaving before other prisoners who had been held longer. He was released in 1973 after the Paris Peace Accords.

Upon his return, McCain studied at the National War College, commanded a large training squadron in Florida, and was appointed the Navy liaison to the U.S. Senate. He retired from the Navy in 1981 as a captain (O-6).

While in the Navy, McCain earned a number of individual citations (medals) and an additional number of unit citations, e.g., Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation.

McCain’s last four years in the Navy saw him as the Navy's liaison to the United States Senate.⁵ He moved to Arizona and, aided by a job from his father-in-law and the contacts it gave him, soon began a new career in politics.

In 1982, he was elected as a Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona's 1st congressional district. After serving two terms there and making an impression as a rising political figure, he was elected U.S. Senator from Arizona in 1986. He became one of the senators entangled in the Keating Five⁶ scandal of the late 1980s, but survived it and was re-elected in 1992 and 1998.

While generally adhering to American conservatism, McCain established a reputation as a political maverick for his willingness to defy Republican orthodoxy on several issues. In reaction to his Keating Five experience, he made campaign finance reform one of his signature concerns. He was also a leader in normalizing diplomatic relations with Vietnam. His national visibility as a senator gave him the basis to begin a campaign for the 2000 Republican nomination for President of the United States.

Possibly because of “his willingness to defy Republican orthodoxy,” the traditional lowering of the U.S. capitol flag took place only on the day of McCain’s death. Lest anyone believe President Trump’s pique at McCain caused him to ignore protocol and, by executive order, have the flag lowered for a longer time, according to Wikipedia⁷ the flag is lowered “on the day of death and the following day for a Member of Congress.” McCain, although unable to serve, still was one of Arizona’s two senators.

If I were to editorialize, I would suggest the president was being petty. It was not his finest hour. He should have put personalities aside followed tradition.

On the other hand, McCain asked that Barack Obama and George W. Bush speak at this funeral. Perhaps Trump had reason for his apparent flag snub.

---

Sources

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Simon

2. http://tinyurl.com/ya2f7x72

3. http://tinyurl.com/yajkelsr

4. http://tinyurl.com/odnqho2

5. http://tinyurl.com/ycze8sxv

6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five

7. http://tinyurl.com/yb5jzu3l

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Comments on Two famous Americans

Opuscula Frustration Is spelled ”AT&T CSRs”

A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO I HAD AT&T INSTALL fiber internet connectivity. It replaced a slower wire from the same company.
A few days later, a Comcast tech cut the AT&T wire and I was out of service.
Called AT&T.
The CSR and I played “20 Questions.”
Since the box on the inside wall showed

Power = Green
Alarm = Red
Data = Red

I knew it was an Outside Premises Equipment (OPE) problem.
Translation: AT&T’s problem.

HAVING GONE THROUGH this exercise earlier this week – the service tech was here Monday (8/20) and the cable burier was here the next day – I knew the drill. (To his credit the tech showed up early.)
I have a background in telecom; at one point I was point man for customer service for a PBX manufacturer. Let me tell you some grounding stories.
As I had just gone through the “no connectivity” exercise, when I tried to tell the Customer Service Representative (CSR) – who I barely could understand – that I had “been there and done that,” she just kept reading from her script.
She said she tried to “ping” (connect with) the Outside Premises Equipment (OPE) on my wall. If she did try to “ping” the box, she got zero response.
Translation: No ping = OPE problem.
IF there is a cut where I think it is – and I may be wrong – then the problem STILL is AT&Ts. The wire was above ground rather than buried. Like Comcast (I watched the guy as he tried to bury my neighbor’s cable on my property), Comcast and AT&T “bury” their wires in a very shallow trench. In fact, it’s so shallow it doesn’t deserve the term “trench.” Barely “scratching the surface” is more appropriate for the depth of AT&T and Comcast “trenches.”

IT’S FRUSTRATING

It’s frustrating to explain to a clerk who may not even know how to spell “ping” that

(a) I already have gone through this process
(b) I actually already DID what she is asking me to do (reset the modem/router and power off and on the OPE box)
(c) I already TOLD her the status of the OPE box’s idiot LEDs (Green-Red-Red)

How many times did I have to repeat myself over the nearly 20-minute call? Too many.
On top of that, AT&T assumes all customers have smart phones (I don’t) and text messaging.
The only number on my AT&T internet bill is to a general number that ends up with a Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system that would drive a good person up the proverbial wall.
By the time I finally reached the internet CSR, my frustration level already was rising.
AND THEN I encountered the apparently deaf script reader.
She read from her script but apparently failed to hear my response to her questions.
Had she had ANY initiative, the nearly 20-minute call could have been cut in half.
She said a service tech is slated to come out Sunday morning. She also said that if it is a Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) problem there will be a $100-plus service charge. (Never mind that everything is under warranty.) In any event, WHAT CPE?

The AC that powers the box on the wall is fine (the box shows a green POWER LED.)
The power to the AT&T modem/router is fine (another green LED).
The AT&T-supplied cable between AT&T’s “3-LED box” and the AT&T modem/router is securely connected at both ends.
Power to the computer is OK; I’m using it as I wait for the AT&T tech.
The Ethernet cable between the modem/router and computer is OK; I get a “Gateway Authentication Failure” pop-up telling me something I already know.

Again, WHAT CPE?
I was ready to contract with Comcast for lesser speed and lower cost (but still faster than what I had with AT&T prior to fiber) but the Spouse wanted fiber speed. (She WhatApps with our distant daughter and our grand kids. Using the house internet she avoids data charges.) According to the family CTO, Comcast’s 25 Mbps would have been fine – and for two years, far less expensive.
Contracting with Comcast would not prevent service interruptions; I’d just be calling Comcast CSRs instead of AT&T CSRs and having Comcast techs come out rather than AT&T techs.
Back in the day when I was a tech writer/CSR for PBX companies, we learned from our engineering mistakes and corrected them. Apparently that is foreign to 800 pound gorillas (AT&T, Comcast). Perhaps it’s a “make work” project for installers and the guys who bury the wires. (I’ve never seen a female burying wire.) Adding a little depth to the “trenches” would save lots of $ervice call$. (Of course it might mean a few more inches of cable. What’s more expensive? $ervice call$ or wire?)

TO BE CONTINUED

Sunday, 11:15 a.m.
The CSR said a tech would show up “between 10 a.m. and noon.”
At 11:15, Luc the Tech makes an appearance.
I introduce him to the cable I suspect is the problem; he agrees it is AT&T wire.
(Luckily for Luc it’s only two wires, not real “fibre” as in “fibre optic cable.” Fibre optic cable contains hundreds of “threads” of optical wires that, when cut, take a group of techs hours to reconnect. Been there, done that when a back-hoe operator cut the fiber to a defense contractor that engaged my services. That was one of the risks I pointed out to the employer – risks the employer wanted to ignore.)
Since Luc seems to know what he is doing, I suspect he’ll be on his way before 12:30. It’s a pretty warm day, so I’m sure he’ll be happy to get back into his air conditioned truck.
IT TURNS OUT that in addition to the cut cable, the main box (about 4 blocks away) also had a problem.
Together I am beginning to wonder if there is someone on the loose that hates AT&T. (Lots of people do, but to the point of attacking customers?)
ANYWAY, once again (and for how long?) the internet is available.

---

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Comments on AT&T-Part 2

Opuscula Diogenes still In search of Honest politician

ALMOST EVERYONE KNOWS THE LEGEND OF DIOGENES.¹
The Cynic, with an uppercase “C,” allegedly carried a lantern looking for an honest man.

If he roamed the Several States today, he would be hard pressed to find such a person.

IT’S AN ELECTION YEAR in the United States.

Politicians and political want-to-be’s seem to be playing fast and loose with the truth.

Sometimes what comes out of their managers’ mouths is ALMOST the truth, but almost never is it “the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

Here in south Florida several gubernatorial candidates are claiming they “took on” the nation’s president (with the suggestion that they prevailed). How a city mayor and a billionaire can claim they “took on Trump” and will prevent the federal government from doing that it has been doing since 1865 – trampling states’ rights – is beyond my ken.

The two candidates have spent untold thousands of dollars – their own or their supporters? – attacking each other.

A third candidate has stayed clear of the fray and, as the primary election nears, touts her loyalty to Obama and her relationship to a former Florida governor and senator. A fourth candidate is almost invisible in south Florida.

All are well inside the liberal camp and they are playing to the largely liberal south Florida population. Go north to central Florida and the panhandle where the people are typically more conservative and the ads appear less often.

The other party’s candidates seems a little more “civilized.” Since both align with conservatives, their advertisements are few and far between in south Florida.

The National Rifle Association – NRA – seems a prime target for the liberals. The suggestion is that because of the NRA’s interpretation of the Constitutions Second Amendment, mass shootings take place.

Never mind that in no case has the shooter any connection to the NRA – not even membership.

I have no problem with banning fully automatic weapons and weapons that can easily be converted to fully automatic, and I have no problem with limiting magazines to 10 cartridges. Show me a “hunter” who needs a 30-round magazine and I’ll show you a person who never should get a hunting license.

Of course anything and everything “Trump” is attacked by the liberals.

One senatorial candidate knocks his opponent for allegedly failing to pay taxes and provide campaign workers with health insurance.

Are the campaign workers contractors – “1099” workers? 1099s are responsible for their own taxes and health care. Been there, done that.

Are the campaign workers volunteers? Volunteers, by definition² donate their time for no financial or social gain "to benefit another person, group or organization." Other than a pat on the back and a victory or pity party at the end of the campaign, volunteers receive nothing of consequence; neither financial compensation nor benefits (e.g., health coverage).

I do not know if the candidate’s campaign workers are consultants or volunteers or if the candidate owes Social Security and Medicare benefits, or even if the candidate knows the status of the campaign workers. The candidate has yet to respond to the challenger’s advertisement. Full disclosure never has been part of politics in the U.S.

A few of the candidates tell me, in their few non-attack advertisements, what they “will” – not “hope” to accomplish if elected.

Several promise to raise teacher salaries, one “by $10,000 or more.”

They also promise health care for all.

None tell voters HOW this largess will be funded.

Increase taxes, of course. Perhaps levy a state income tax as well. But on this the candidates remain as silent as Uncle Remus’ Tar Baby.^{3, 4}

At least one “will” raise the minimum wage to $15/hour which simply means that

(a) prices will rise and
(b) workers will be laid off.

But never mind; reality never stopped a politician.

To their credit, the two conservative candidates for governor have, so far in south Florida, refrained from attack ads; indeed, they have been almost “out of sight and out of mind” in this part of the state. (The media, heavily liberal, has one more reason to slam conservatives; they aren’t contributing what they could to the media’s coffers.)

The primaries soon will be history and we can look forward, alas, to the avalanche of advertisements for the general election.

Thanksgiving can’t come soon enough.

---

Sources

1. https://www.iep.utm.edu/diogsino/ ; http://tinyurl.com/a2kps

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volunteering

3. http://tinyurl.com/y9mlrcuz

4. https://www.uncleremus.com/stories.html

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

BCPLANNER: Comments on Politicians

Liberals run amok Let’s rename Washington D.C.

ANOTHER STATUE HAS BEEN brought down, this time Silent Sam¹ whose only “crime” was wearing a Grey uniform.

Most of those who enlisted in the Confederate army never owned a slave. Those who owned farms were “red necks” because their necks got burned red from working the fields.

ON THE OTHER HAND

The city of Hollywood FL recently purged its streets of Lee, Hood, and Forrest because two were Confederate generals (Lee and Hood) and one, Forrest, was a general and later founder of the KKK.

Never mind that Lee and Hood fought for a principle other than slavery.

Slavery did play a role in prompting the war, but there were other issues, including states rights that the Federal government was usurping. Had slavery really been the issue, Lincoln would have issued his “Emancipation Proclamation” before the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter.

IF TRUTH BE TOLD

If truth be told, the leftists pulling down statues of Confederates – generals and privates alike – are NOT protesting slavery. It has been outlawed since the passing of the 13^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on December 6, 1865.

If the liberals were honest, they would admit their real raison d'être is to wipe out a part of U.S. history.

If they are successful, American blacks will lose, since their contributions to the nation will be subsumed as well.

If we can agree that the real goal of the leftists and history deniers if to remove slave owners from U.S. history, then it would seem appropriate that their first goal would be to rename the nation’s capital.

Washington owned slaves.

According to Wikipedia², Hollywood needs to rename at last 12 more streets to be “slave-owner-free.”

Both leading generals in the war owned slaves, but no one seems to criticize U.S. Grant.

As an aside, Arlington National Cemetery, in which NO Confederate soldier is buried, is the former estate of Gen. Robert E. Lee; his former home can be seen on a hill overlooking the cemetery.

Given that 12 U.S. presidents were slave owners, perhaps the liberals who want to rewrite history should set their sights on renaming all the cities, towns, and streets currently bearing the slave owners’ names.

Rename Washington D.C. as just “D.C.” Washington State will have to be renamed; perhaps using its nickname, “The Evergreen State.”.

How about renaming Georgetown (MA and KY); several forts named for the first president must be renamed. There are at least eight other cities and towns that honor slave owner Geo. Washington. And all the streets. The sign makers and cartographers will rejoice.

What about the Washington Monument. (And Jefferson’s as well?) Tear them down?

Pull down the statutes and take down the paintings, especially the one’s of General George standing in a row boat – bad form and dangerous, too.

And all those statutes and images in schools and government buildings.

Missouri will have to rename its capital. Jefferson may have more cities, towns, and streets named for him than even Washington³. Likewise, his portrait hangs in many public buildings. Pull them down.

So far, only two presidents have been addressed. There are 10 more to go.

Then we have all the Confederates, officers and enlisted – both white and black. (Yes, Virginia, there WERE black troops wearing Grey uniforms.)

In addition to the slave-owing presidents, there are many towns and streets honoring Confederates. In Charleston WV there are three statutes on the State House lawn: Stonewall Jackson, Lincoln, and a Blue coat soldier⁴. Further along Kanawah (pronounced Ka-naw) Blvd. is a small area dedicated to the men who chose to wear Grey. The monument includes the name of a black man.

The monument is so unobtrusive that unless anyone walks along the boulevard, most people don’t know it’s there.

The people pulling down statutes of people they know little or nothing about, who lived in different times, are most kindly described as “ignorant.” They simply don’t know, nor do that want to know, the history of the country.

To them, it seems that all they know about slavery is Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

No one will argue that some slaves were mistreated, but consider: a slave was a major investment. A smart slave owner would never mistreat an investment anymore than a modern farmer would allow a tractor to rust or the engine to freeze up due to lack of maintenance.

The reality, despite what some hate mongers would lead us to believe, is not Uncle Tom’s Cabin any more typical than Uncle Remus (Song of the South) represents the life of all slaves on a plantation is typical.

---

Sources

1. http://tinyurl.com/ycchozk4

2. http://tinyurl.com/ycoumxe5, http://tinyurl.com/y7ut8uv4 , http://tinyurl.com/y9k5bgpl

3. http://tinyurl.com/ybxs54xr

4. http://tinyurl.com/y9t3catf

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Comments on Renaming Washington

Blame it on Comcast AT&T U-Verse Vs. Comcast

AT&T JUST INSTALLED FIBER to the house.

Pulled out the relatively s-l-o-w¹ router/modem and installed a 100 Mbps router/modem. The up and down speeds more than doubled; if I had a faster computer (I have an HP Laptop 17) I could see greater speeds.

The install was on Wednesday.

On Thursday, another AT&T guy came by and buried the cable.

On Friday everything was fine.

Then Sunday . . .

I AM NOT A COMPUTER TECH nor do I play one on tv. I DO have a CTO – my second born – but he’s on the other side of the state.

What to do?

Contact AT&T, of course.

I look on the back of the modem/router for a telephone number.

What I find is a sticker telling me

For help: att.com/support

OK, but the modem/router is the problem and there is no way I can contact at&t.com/support.

Duh.

I managed to call (on my Consumer Cellular/ZTE phone) and got the IVR (interactive voice response) menu that, to its credit, led me quickly to a desk-bound internet tech who sounded U.S. based.

I already had tried the usual things: disconnecting power and, later, hitting the unit’s reset button.

The tech had me crawling on the floor to check the box on the wall.

Power – solid green Alarm – solid red Data – solid red

I even walked to the Outside Premise Equipment (OPE) box – the installer did a great job and the guy who came the next day to bury the wire likewise did a commendable job. I didn’t see any loose wires, but then I did not open the connection box.

The tech tried to ping (contact) the modem/router sans success. The problem, given the tech’s test, lies someplace between the AT&T junction box on the property line between the neighbor’s lot and my lot and the box on the wall that was secured on Wednesday.

Magic words: Outside Premise Equipment. Translation: AT&T’s problem.

The modem/router could be faulty – it was made in China, after all -- but it is warrantied, so again, AT&T’s problem.

The Spouse was ready to blame the malfunction on Comcast. A Comcast truck was parked in front of the next door neighbor’s house. There was zero evidence I could see that the competitor had anything to do with the AT&T failure. In any event, I was given to understand that AT&T now owns Comcast. Given anti-trust laws, that does not sound likely, but . . .

The desk-bound technician told me he could schedule a service call for Tuesday.

At that point I lost my composure “just a bit.”

I explained that since the modem/router was installed on Wednesday, a failure on Sunday was unconscionable.

He said he would schedule the technician for Tuesday, but would mark the service order “Expedite.”

Tuesday became Monday and that eased my pain a little.

I also confirmed that even if this was a CPE (Customer Premise Equipment) problem the service call would be borne by AT&T. Seems fair; the new box was installed only 5 days previously.

Lacking internet connectivity is frustrating. My Spouse’s “smart” phone’s primary use is communication via WhatsApp. Our grandchildren are across the water and that is how she talks to them. Email? Unavailable. Search the WWW for anything? Not a chance. Upload my brilliant prose? Forget it.

Thanks to the magic of USB cables, I will can access my printers – but only from the HP. If the Spouse wants to print anything – unlikely – she will have to sneaker-net it to the HP.

It’s all a true pain in the posterior.

Fortunately the non-AT&T phones work; likewise the tv’s antenna still brings in more channels than we can watch. Worst case, we could go to any one of 100s of wi-fi hot spots in the area, but I’d prefer not to expose myself (you should excuse the expression) to open sites.

So …

While waiting impatiently for an AT&T technician to arrive tomorrow between noon and 2 p.m. I have plenty of time to write blog material. Imagine if I had to wait until Tuesday how much I could write.

Based on past AT&T performance, I am NOT holding my breath that the technician will arrive as promised. Like a doctor’s office, scheduling is something to be taken with a grain of salt.

A PROMISE KEPT

AT&T’s technician arrived several hours EARLY ! Scheduled between noon and 2 p.m., he called first and showed up at the door by 11:15 a.m.

He tested the CPE side and found everything OK.

Then he tested the OPE box and that, too was OK; no lose wires.

Finally, he tracked the AT&T wire back to the junction box where he discovered that my Spouse was correct in blaming the outage on Comcast.

Seems when Comcast was working on the neighbor’s line the service person cut the AT&T wire.

The AT&T wire was close to the Comcast line. The AT&T wire was buried deeper than Comcast’s and was cut when the Comcast person was working on the neighbor’s service.

The AT&T technician flagged the AT&T line with orange spray paint, but that will disappear after a few south Florida rains.

It should be obvious that the AT&T service is restored (you're reading this) and, while perhaps not so obvious, I am a happy camper.

Meanwhile, I located an Ethernet cable that now connects between the HP notebook (nee' laptop) and the AT&T modem. I still have wi-fi, but the Ethernet connection is noticeably faster, with download speeds of nearly 65 Mbps and upload speeds greater than 114 Mbps (according to BandwidthPlace.com)

---

Sources

1. I remember 300 bits per second dial up modems and acoustical couplers. That’s 300 bits, not kilobits (1,000) or megabits (1 million) bits per second. To paraphrase an old cigarette ad, we’ve come a long way, baby (in data transmission speeds).

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Comments on AT&T Support

Opuscula Do retired Spooks really Need clearance?

IN THE “IF TRUMP DOES IT, IT’S WRONG” attack for the day, a retired CIA director is claiming the president is not nice because the president canceled the retiree’s security clearance.

The operative word is “RETIREE.”

No longer on the job.

SOMEONE GETTING HIS 15 seconds of tv fame suggested that any retiree that had a security clearance for a job should keep that clearance so the retiree can help a replacement “get up to speed.”

The replacement needs a security clearance for the job.

There is nothing the retiree can convey to the replacement that requires the retiree to maintain a security clearance.

I am a retired Enterprise Risk Management practitioner.

Do I need a security clearance to tell an NCIS manager how to protect NCIS secrets? Hardly. (Been there, done that.)

Reminds me of the comment: “You don’t have to be a chicken to know how to make an omelet.”

Not reality tv

I used to work with an ex-Navy guy who had a better-than-Top Secret security clearance. Nice guy and he needed his clearance from time to time when our defense contractor bosses needed to buttonhole someone with a similar classification.

He received his super classification while in the Navy. It should have been canceled when he got his DD 214 (on discharge). It could easily have been reinstated if needed for his civilian job.

Would the former sailor need a security clearance to lie on the beach?

No.

How about a city cop?

Again, no.

In other words, when the clearance is no longer necessary for the job, CANCEL IT.

Save the information and make it easy for the person whose clearance was canceled to have it reinstated, albeit possibly at a lesser security level appropriate for the new job.

A former CIA boss working for my former company may need a security clearance, but surely the clearance need NOT be at the same level as it was when the person was in charge of the CIA.

When a new administration takes office, political appointees are expected to tender their resignations. The new administration will accept or reject the resignation as it deems proper. (Perhaps you will recall one of Obama’s appointees refused to offer his resignation when the Trump administration took over. The Democrats caused a major flap over what was Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for previous administrations; the media crucified the new president for demanding the resignation when it should have been automatically tendered when the new administration took office. It should have pilloried the appointee for failing to follow basic customs and courtesies.

The same thing should apply to security clearances.

When the person retires/resigns, the clearance is “retired” as well.

When a president, who presumably has a very high security clearance, leaves office, the security clearance is terminated, or, if the former president gets a new position within the government, a lesser clearance.

I’m just a simple taxpayer, a retiree who currently has no clearance. I do not need nor want a clearance.

The same should hold true for retired spooks and presidents.

---

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Comments on Clearance

Opuscula Politics Invades Everything

I’M A GEEZER BUT I STILL like the “funnies,” even when they are not so funny.
Some are, beyond a doubt, political. Most seem to cater to the leftists. A few editorial cartoons lean to the conservative point of view. Apparently that’s not popular, but after looking at a few cartoonists’ work , I usually know what to expect.

KEN CATALINO’s editorial cartoon for August 10, 2018 (above) is a tribute to firefighters. There is no indication that the tribute is limited to the men and women fighting the fires in California, although they have made the headlines for several weeks.

It was a nice, non-political, statement.

BUT THEN

But then a few of the comments on the GoComics page (http://tinyurl.com/ycx6l3mb ) took it out of the realm of tribute and denigrated it to a political attack. Comments such as

But remember, somehow, EVERYTHING that’s happening in California and elsewhere around he^sic world is SOMEHOW the Democrat’s fault…or at least Agolf Twitler THINKS it is!

Nice tribute. Unfortunately there will be many more deaths because of climate change that Donnie Dimwit and the Republicans say doesn’t exist. VERY SAD.

Free speech is fine, but making a tribute to fallen firefighters into a political attack is juvenile, at best. Proof that some people are brainwashed by their political mentors.

I won’t say the leftists are the only ones who manage to make snide comments, but from the comments I’ve seen, they are in a solid majority. For the leftists, EVERYTHING is President Trump’s fault.

Fires in California? Blame it on Trump. (What about Edmund Gerald Brown Jr.? Doesn’t the California government have some responsibility for controlled burns, clearing some of the undergrowth?)

For what it’s worth – and that’s “not much” – I was a reporter in Tehama County, 30-some miles south of Redding. A CalFire station was on my rounds and I was acquainted with several firefighters. I also did some volunteer time fighting small brush fires in White Pine County, Nevada.

As I watch the news of the fires, I wonder if the people who are burned out again and again have the same mentality as the folks who build their expensive houses on the beach to have them blown away again and again by hurricanes and lesser storms. The government will pay them to rebuild.

The folks who live in forest areas know the risks of forest fires.

They also know there are ways to help reduce the probability that their houses will burn.

Make a clearing around the house.
Clear the undergrowth as far as they can from the house.
Build fire resistant structures – concrete block structures (CBS) and fireproof/fire resistant roofing rather than wood. Wood LOOKS nice and a wood facade would work, but wood is destroyed by fire more readily than CBS.

Unfortunately, we seem to live in a world more and more populated by “entitled” people, people who fail to take any responsibility for their own welfare. The “old west” independent spirit still exists in some parts of rural Intermountain states, but even here it is becoming a thing of the past.

Blaming Washington is nothing new, but attacking the president at every opportunity – taking a non-political tribute and making it a political issue, especially an unfair political issue – is a sad commentary on the mentality of the leftists.

Jerry Brown is one of them, yet none of the leftists’ comments even suggest that the governor is at all responsible for the fires.

I don’t think that would have been an appropriate comment to Catalino’s artwork any more than I think that the leftists’ attack on Trump is appropriate.

Sometimes politics should be left at home; focus on the event.

Unfortunately, the leftists can’t control themselves.

A pity.

---

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Comments on Catalino cartoon

Enterprise Risk Management, BC, COOP Drought is risk To supply chain

ONE OF MY FAVORITE SOURCES, Advisen FPN noted that German shipping faces curbs over drought-driven low water levels .
Most assuredly an “outside the box” risk for most practitioners.

ACCORDING TO the Oil & Gas Republic web site (http://tinyurl.com/y9jh5joe ),

Berlin (dpa) – The domestic German shipping industry is facing restrictions because of low water levels as a result of the ongoing period of hot, dry weather. On the country’s busiest waterway, the river Rhine, ships are being forced to carry lighter loads, Directorate-General of German Waterways and Shipping told dpa on Friday. Shipping on the Elbe, which flows from the Czech Republic through eastern Germany to the North Sea via Hamburg, and the Oder along the border with Poland, is also restricted. “If the warm high-pressure weather continues and no significant rain falls, the water levels will fall further,” spokeswoman Claudia Thoma said. “If so, shipping transport will come to a halt on certain stretches,” she said, adding that the transport of goods on Germany’s rivers could become more expensive.

---

Most practitioners consider flooding more than drought.
However, when rivers are a primary means of transport, as they are in some areas of the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere, shallow water can, and in the case cited by Oil & Gas Republic, does cause a serious impact on the supply chain.
Granted, there are alternatives to boat and ship transportation, but the alternatives usually are more expensive – the cost-per-unit, regardless of product – is higher if the same product is transported by rail or truck. That means a hit on someone’s bottom line: either the organization using the commodity as a component of its product, or the end consumer; someone will pay more for the end product.
While waterway transportation is not the primary mode in the U.S., waterways carry a substantial tonnage. The following table shows the amount of traffic in millions of tons carried.

While it’s difficult to find official government costs-per-ton information, the Journal of Commerce (a/k/a JOC) web site (http://tinyurl.com/y88qpdwr ) provides some information based on a National Waterways Foundation (NWF) report from 2012. According to the NWF,

• One standard 15-barge river tow has the same capacity as 1,050 trucks and 216 rail cars pulled by six locomotives.
• Barges can now move a ton of cargo 616 miles with a single gallon of fuel, while trains can travel 476 and trucks 150 ton-miles per gallon.

Unlike Lakes freighters that navigate the Great Lakes and the Erie Canal to the ocean, barges have a shallow draft; they don’t need a lot of depth beneath them. By the same token, they carry less than a Lakes freighter.
The “bottom line,” however, remains the same: water borne freight’s cost-per-ton/mile is less than overland transportation (trucks, trains).
Most heavy freight in the U.S. is multi-modal; that is, it uses more than one type transport.
While Europeans are concerned with drought, shippers also need be concerned with flooding and spring run offs that can make normal waterway transit dangerous.
For Enterprise Risk Management practitioners, supply chains are a risk for a multitude of reasons.
The Europeans now know that drought is a concern to consider.

---

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Comments on Drought

Opuscula Taking handicapped Parking space costs Man his life

A MAN IS DEAD BECAUSE HE, OR HIS GIRLFRIEND, parked their car in a spot restricted to disabled people.

Another man apparently raised the illegal parking issue with the woman. When the boyfriend came out of the convenience market, he joined the altercation and viciously pushed the man who complained about the illegally parked car to the pavement.

The man on the ground pulled a gun and shot his attacker.

Stand your ground or no?

LOOKING AT VIDEO snippets of the incident seems to show the assailant standing back after shoving the complainer; the assailant did not seem to continue the attack, although (a) the video is incomplete and (b) there was no sound with the video, so it is unclear if the man who was shot was making life endangering threats.

Videos and local media articles can be viewed/read at
• http://tinyurl.com/y8wclmqz
• http://tinyurl.com/yappwb66

NOW, Al Sharpton, looking for more tv face time, is coming to town to aggravate an already tense situation.

The question that the state will have to sort out – and which is guaranteed to incense one side or the other – is was the shooter justified; was it truly a “Stand Your Ground” situation.

---

According to local media (ibid.), the shooter – who has as of Monday, August 6, not been charged, was yelling at the woman who parked in the handicapped space. The video shows him standing several feet from the car and not physically threatening the woman.

The driver’s boyfriend who, according to the convenience store clerk was buying his son a candy bar, came out of the store and, hearing the shooter yelling at his girlfriend, violently shoved the man to the ground.

The man then pulled a gun and shot his attacker once in the chest, killing him.

The videos and articles support this.

The shop clerk and another customer reported that this was not the first time the shooter confronted someone illegally parking in the spot dedicated for handicapped persons. The customer claimed that the shooter threatened to shoot him, too, although he did not say the shooter displayed a weapon.

---

In a similar situation, a clerk in a Miami Subway sandwich shop, chased several customers with a long knife. A smartphone camera caught the confrontation.

One of the customers was armed. (Video at http://tinyurl.com/y73z3nf6 )

Fortunately for the Subway (now ex-)employee, the man chose not to use his weapon despite the fact that the knife-wielding clerk was waving the knife, albeit she did not “get into the face” of the customers. Nor did the customers act to escalate the confrontation.

The Stand Your Ground law allows a person who feels that his life or safety or the life or safety of another is in peril, the person can use deadly force to protect life and safety.

In the Miami instance, the armed customer apparently did not feel his life, or the lives of his friends, was in real danger. The video, at least what is shown by the media, suggests the customer made the right decision.

Each case is different. Each case is unique.

---

Having a Disabled Persons Parking Identification Permit I, too, get upset when someone obviously not handicapped parks in a handicapped spot.

It’s not always easy to see a person’s disability. A person who has trouble breathing may look perfectly healthy, but still needs the parking permit. A woman with fibromyalgia explains her plight at http://tinyurl.com/ybdwotvv . She HAS a hang tag (unlike the woman who parked in the convenience store's handicapped spot).

I have been known to ask a healthy looking person where is their handicapped hang tag; sometimes they return to their car and hang the tag on the mirror; more often that not, I am ignored. (I don’t argue with idiots, but I do call the local police.)

It’s simply not worth going beyond one remark: “You’re in a disabled person’s spot.”

Almost everyone has a cell phone; USE IT. Get in your car, lock the doors, write down the offending vehicle’s license, and call the cops. If you can, photograph the car from the back, showing the license plate and the handicapped parking sign in the same photo. No camera? What about a dash cam; equally effective albeit requiring more effort to align camera, violator’s license plate, and sign.

An acquaintance has handicapped license plates, but he tells me that legally, he still is required to use the hang tag when parking in a handicapped spot.

---

Even if you have a carry permit and a firearm AND you think you are legally allowed to shoot someone, reconsider. Even if you ARE justified in shooting, consider the “repercussions” – explaining to the cops, explaining to the district attorney, the probability of an Al Sharpton coming to town to agitate (unless of course it is a black-on-black or black-on-non-black shooting), and the real possibility of defending your action in court.

It’s interesting that Sharpton never shows up when blacks kill blacks in the all too commonplace drive by shootings.

The ONLY time Stand Your Ground is a solid defense against a homicide charge is when your life or the life of someone else is in jeopardy. If the assailant runs away or backs off and you shoot, expect to be charged. And never, ever, shoot into a crowd even if you think you’re an expect marksman.

---

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Comments on Stand Your Ground

Opuscula Time on My hands

I CONFESS TO BEING “ANAL” ABOUT TIME.

For no particular reason, it seems that since I stared wearing a watch, I expected that time piece to be accurate.

If the watch or clock has a sweep second hand, I wanted that level of accuracy even if I had no way to check it.

Now there is a way.

WHEN I WAS a young lad in Air Force blue (actually, most of the time in khaki, but never mind) I had a friend who owned a jewelry store. He insisted I own a Bulova Accutron “Spaceview.” He took my old Bulova and gave me the Spaceview¹ over my strong objections. He had one, I had to have one.

It WAS an interesting watch – a see-through that intrigued me. It was pretty accurate, and that was important.

Its accuracy was due to a “tuning fork” mechanism that transmitted an “A” tone to the watch’s movement.

My jeweler friend eventually “traded” my Spaceview with another watch (I no longer own) to save with his as collectors items.

I don’t know the original retail price of the Spaceview, but one is offered now for $3,000!

Since then I have had a number of “lesser” watches, the $20 retail variety. When the battery died, the watch went into a drawer and I bought another.

Accurate? Yes. Flat DC current is, as anyone who ever worked with things electrical knows, is straight-line steady. As long as there is current.

Time marches on.

Somewhere along the line I bought a La Crosse wall clock that synched with WWVb, the signal sent from the ytterbium-powered clock at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado.

As with all time pieces before it, it “died.” I don’t recall the cause of its demise.

ANYWAY, my sons collect watches, and one year I was “gifted” with a Casio MT-G.

Fantastic watch.

Synchs to WWVb in the U.S. (and other clocks in Europe and Japan).

BUT, for at least 10 years, no battery worries.

The watch is solar powered. In fact, according to Casio, any light source will do to charge the internal battery.

I’m not a “geek,” that title belongs to my second born, but I do appreciate things “technical.”

Now I have a watch on which I can depend – assuming I “park” the watch near a window to receive the WWVb signal. (Apparently the Casio has a very small antenna to receive the signal. The watch has a tiny dish antenna icon that displays when the signal is successfully received.)

Ahh, there is a problem.

When I’m reading or beating on a keyboard, I take the watch off. I usually “park” it by a window to catch whatever sun is available. (Where I live, that usually is “a lot.”)

If I’m on the computer, I can check the tiny digital clock at the bottom of the screen, but I currently use a Microsoft operating system and I don’t trust the clock’s accuracy. (It’s been “off” several seconds from the Casio on more than one occasion.)

What I NEED, I told myself, was another La Crosse wall clock.

I found the La Cross page for digital wall clocks and looked for one that tickled my fancy.

One did. (Actually, several did, but I’m price conscious.)

Not only did it meet my accuracy requirements, it, too, synchs with the ytterbium-powered clock (etc.), but it also shows both inside and outside temperatures. The clock comes with a wireless thermometer that is hung in the shade and transmits the temperature to the clock. It’s not as precise as the clock’s primary function, but “close enough.”

I never understood why temperatures are measured in the shade. Why not under the sun where we walk, play, and work? And then add humidity to jack up the “feels like” temperature even more. Local summer temperatures often are in the mid-90s and a “feels like” temperature of 105 is all too common.

The only thing the clock lacks is solar power, but how much sun would a wall clock normally receive? Batteries are supposed to last two years in the clock and a year in the temperature transmitter.

The clock has the same signal indicator as the watch, but because it’s antenna apparently is bigger – makes sense, the clock is a great deal bigger than the watch – it doesn’t need to snuggle up to a window, even if it’s not facing toward Denver CO.

An acquaintance has two similar clocks. One is “on the money,” the other, due to its location, “not so much.”

Both the clock and the watch far surpass the Accutron’s ±1 minute-a-month promise since they are synchronized daily with the ytterbium-powered clock etc.

I admit to being a pedant. If I have a “something” that is supposed to perform to a specific standard, I want that performance. The Accutron, with an guaranteed accuracy of ±1 minute-a-month was OK as long as it met the goal. (The trouble was, if it gained or lost a minute-a-month consistently, after a few months it could be “off” by a noticeable amount.)

Time marches on, and as it does, its accuracy increases.

‘Course even the F-2 ytterbium-powered clock at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado has to be adjusted occasionally. Accordng to NIST,²

NIST-F2 would neither gain nor lose one second in about 300 million years, making it about three times as accurate as NIST-F1.

Even if WWVb is using time from F-1, a 100 million year accuracy, while it may not be “good enough for government work” (ergo the need for F-2) it should be “good enough” for me.

---

Sources

1. http://www.accutronspaceviewwatch.com/

2. http://tinyurl.com/y95eev73

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Comments on Keeping time