Monday, April 30, 2012

Hooters

I was carrying a trailer full of salsa from New Mexico, headed for Duncan, SC just east of Greenville. As I neared Atlanta on I-20, I started hearing “hooter reports” over my CB. These were an almost daily occurrence, but they were normally either exaggerated accounts, flat-out lies or simply on the other side of the interstate from where I was. This one persisted, with many drivers making the call: “Check out the hooters in the beat-up six-wheeler! Nice artwork.” Nice artwork? What the hell were they talking about? Just as I was about to pull into a weigh station, a beat-up, green six-wheeled truck pulled up beside me. I glanced down and saw what all the fuss had been about. The young woman sitting in the passenger seat had her blouse unbuttoned and her large, fully tattooed breasts hanging out. She looked up at me and smiled while her husband/boyfriend/father/brother/partner/whatever just drove along, keeping pace with the 18-wheelers, so that all the drivers could get a good look. It was “show-time.” I heard a young driver several weeks earlier asking where all the naked women were that he had heard about during his training. An older driver answered him over the CB: “Son, if there really were all those young ladies drivin’ around naked, don’t you think every man would be drivin’ a truck?”

Saturday, August 06, 2011

Uno more timeo

I really hate to keep beating a dead horse, but

YESTERDAY WAS THREE FUCKING YEARS SMOKE-FREE!!!

Later,

obi

Sunday, June 19, 2011

My vote for 2012



Later,

obi

R.I.P. Big Man

Clarence Clemmons, saxaphone player extrordinaire for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, passed away yesterday in Florida after suffering a stroke a week ago.

The world has lost a phenomenal musician and the E Streeters have lost a vital piece of their sound.

It's a sad day in Asbury Park, N.J.

Later,

obi

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

USPS = Junk

I understand that our postal service is going bankrupt...it hasn’t made money or even broken even in years, and it’s just getting worse. What with email, UPS and FedEx who needs the USPS?

Junk mailers...that’s who. We can delete our spam without opening it, but we have to at least look at all the damned junk mail that hits our mailboxes.

What set me off this time?

I made two trips to the top of our driveway today to get the mail - on the first trip it hadn’t been delivered yet. When I finally got up there again, I understood why the mailman was running late.

The contents of my mailbox – in its entirety – was:

A Medicare supplement brochure
A discount book catalog
A political ad
The strategic planning report for a local retirement community
A bogo ad for a local eatery
And two thick mega ad folders containing everything from haircut ads to pizza ads plus rent-to-own flyers and WalMart brochures.

No wonder the USPS can’t make money. These guys mail all this crap for next to nothing, while the cost of 1st class postage continues to increase several times a year. I hate to give away how really old I am, but when I was in high school a 1st class stamp was .03 cents and a post card mailed for a penny.

Why, if we an have a “no-call” list fort telephone solicitors, can’t we have a “no-mail” list for all the 3rd class postal deliveries that waste trees and pollute the landfills?

Later,

obi

Friday, August 27, 2010

Second Lieutenant Van T. Barfoot

This is a real medal of honor recipient:


This 1944 Medal of Honor citation, listed with the National Medal of Honor Society, is for Second Lieutenant Van T. Barfoot, 157th Infantry, 45th Infantry:

"For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty on 23 May 1944, near Carano , Italy . With his platoon heavily engaged during an assault against forces well entrenched on commanding ground, 2d Lt. Barfoot moved off alone upon the enemy left flank. He crawled to the proximity of 1 machine gun nest and made a direct hit on it with a hand grenade, killing 2 and wounding 3 Germans. He continued along the German defense line to another machine gun emplacement, and with his tommy gun killed 2 and captured 3 soldiers. Members of another enemy machine gun crew then abandoned their position and gave themselves up to Sgt. Barfoot. Leaving the prisoners for his support squad to pick up, he proceeded to mop up positions in the immediate area, capturing more prisoners and bringing his total count to17. Later that day, after he had reorganized his men and consolidated the newly captured ground, the enemy launched a fierce armored counterattack directly at his platoon positions. Securing a bazooka, Sgt. Barfoot took up an exposed position directly in front of 3 advancing Mark VI tanks. From a distance of 75yards his first shot destroyed the track of the leading tank, effectively disabling it,while the other 2 changed direction toward the flank. As the crew of the disabled tank dismounted, Sgt. Barfoot killed 3 of them with his tommy gun. He continued onward into enemy terrain and destroyed a recently abandoned German field piece with a demolition charge placed in the breech. While returning to his platoon position, Sgt. Barfoot, though greatly fatigued by his Herculean efforts,assisted 2 of his seriously wounded men 1,700 yards to a position of safety.Sgt. Barfoot's extraordinary heroism, demonstration of magnificent valor, and aggressive determination in the face of point blank fire are a perpetual inspiration to his fellow soldiers."

Fuck you Xavier Alverez!

Later,

obi

Monday, August 23, 2010

50 Years Slides Away

The 50th reunion of my high school graduating class was this past July. I didn’t attend, but I did send them $20 for the booklet containing a list of all the graduates, where they live and what they do for a living. Most of them are retired of course, but some of the self-employed ones are still dabbling at their real estate or accounting businesses.

One very striking fact is that since the last reunion five years ago, another 20 have passed away. In the 45 years before that, we had only lost 42. Hell of a jump.

I also got the group photo. Luckily they included a row-by-row listing of who was who. I only recognized two of them without the list. One because I’ve seen a recent picture of him and one because he hasn’t changed in 50 years.

But the thing that struck me more than any other – God…they’re all so fucking old.

Later,

obi

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Yeah....I'm Pissed

I am one pissed off American right now. Yeah…I’m pissed off about illegal immigration; I’m a little less pissed off now that we’re finally pulling out of the war that never should have been (Iraq); but what I’m really REALLY pissed off about was on the NBC Evening News the other night, and also in the New York Times last week.

The Stolen Valor Act has been declared unconstitutional by the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in guess where? San Francisco, California. It was enacted in 2006 and made it a crime to lie about having received a military medal or service badge.

I’m all for free speech…I wanna say what I want where I want and to whomever I want. That includes telling the three-judge panel that declared the law unconstitutional, they are a bunch of dumb-ass motherfuckers!

Xavier Alverez has at various times claimed to be an ex-marine (not true); to have played hockey for the Detroit Red Wings (a lie); to have rescued the American ambassador during the Iranian hostage crisis (a complete fabrication); and to have received the Medal of Honor, the highest award that can be given to military personnel (the big ‘un.)

The judges claimed that his freedom of speech would be hampered if he wasn't allowed to say that he won the medal.

Lie about getting the Purple Heart? No problem…the government hands them out like candy. Lie about serving in Nam? No biggie…If everyone who said they were in Nam actually was, maybe we would have kicked some ass over there instead of leaving with our tails between our legs. But to say you have been awarded the Medal of Honor?

There aren’t that many of them still alive. In fact, the network news anchors report whenever one of them dies…that’s how important to our history these guys are. and what they did to get that medal was normally some off-the-wall heroic shit.

Alverez needs to have someone give him, at the least, a swift kick in the balls.

If he actually has any, that is.

Later

obi