The Columbus Day festivities are over (sigh), and the empty pizza boxes are headed for the landfill. And while you all sit in the lap of luxury, I’m south of the Border, making the world safe for democracy. No need to thank me verbally, just send US currency (large denominations are fine) or gold. I’ll accept silver bullion if you prefer. 


While I’m on the road, I leave you with a few observations.
Yet another California Landmark

California health care workers who “willfully and repeatedly” decline to use a senior transgender patient’s “preferred name or pronouns” could face punishments ranging from a fine to jail time under a newly signed law. 
I can’t think of a worse fate than being thrown into a rest home that smells of chlorine bleach and shit while I’m waiting to die.

And you know that I would NOT relinquish firearms without a gunfight. Better to inject me and leave to croak quickly.

However, this new law brings hope. The care workers would be forced to call me “Ming the Merciless or “Your Majesty” since those are preferred names of mine. There is a long list, but this would be a place to start.

(Fox News) “It shall be unlawful for a long-term care facility or facility staff to take any of the following actions wholly or partially on the basis of a person’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status.”Among the unlawful actions are “willfully and repeatedly” failing to use a transgender person’s “preferred name or pronouns” after he or she is “clearly informed of the preferred name or pronouns.”

The law states that if provisions are violated, the violator could be punished by a fine “not to exceed one thousand dollars” or “by imprisonment in the county jail for a period not to exceed one year,” or both.

I’d be a terror in a rest home. I have tradecraft skills that would amaze and dazzle the staff. It’s remarkable how many different types of poison gas and bombs one can construct from cleaning supplies. And you know that I’d have old friends smuggle in ricin resin.  Best kill me first.

Firestorms

h/t Brig

The Western US has burned badly this past summer and has only underscored my plans to make the White Wolf Mine project (located in a ponderosa pine forrest) as fireproof as possible. I’m also putting in a fire suppression system that runs on a second well with a large capacity tank, designed and prepared for that very purpose. I understand that it won’t stop a firestorm, but we get a lot of lightning strikes on the tall trees in the summer and I want the capacity to put out the fire quickly. I’m not saying that the system is cheap. But I think that it’s necessary.  I’ll run some fire mains that I can connect hose to.

The notion of a log home, while cool, and understanding that logs themselves tend to be fire-resistant, bothers me.

I have a lot of work ahead, clearing the pines, pinions, junipers and the oaks up to 5′ off the ground and abating brush to the extend possible. That and the fire suppression system may save my place? Maybe. Eternal vigilance and preparation are the cornerstones of my philosophy…against fire, foes and famine.

21 COMMENTS

  1. The good thing with removing whatever debris that can transport the fire towards your house is that you both mitigate risk from fire and create distance for potential foes. It will be a lot easier when you see who is coming and they will find no shelter close to the house. That will increase your safety, even wild animals will be detected if they get to close to the house.

    Svalbard is a place on the earth where it is mandatory to carry a gun when going outside due to the polar bears. I guess that should work on your land too.

    I read and hear a lot about various chemicals told to protect a house from fire. I have no knowledge about the topic but it might be something new and fancy that actually works.

    Here is a site on how to protect yourself. inhabitat.com/6-tips-to-protect-your-home-from-wildfires/

    We all like to see you succeed with the project and continue with smoking hot comments in your blog without taking fire.

  2. >Svalbard is a place on the earth where it is mandatory to carry a gun when going outside due to the polar bears.

    Huh. In this country the polar bears are the hunted and not the aggressors. Unless one considers failing to move the back of one's head out of the path of a sneak-attack fist from behind "aggression". And I'll just leave this here:
    satwcomic.com/pacifist

    >call me "Ming the Merciless"
    Triggered! Cultural appropriation! How dare you even consider identifying as a Mongoloid (or is there another term for persons from Planet Mongo)? Shame!

    I just returned from Portland, Oregon and was (pleasantly) surprised to have a young native Portlander woman spontaneously go off on the idiocy of "cultural appropriation". Pro-tip: do NOT say, "Okay, let's divvy up inventions as you seem to want. I'll keep germ theory of disease, antibiotics, AC electrical transmission, the microprocessor, the world wide web, the internal combustion engine, etc. Enjoy your peanut butter and the traffic light." This apparently causes your lunch companion to snarf whatever was in her mouth into her sinuses.

  3. Gee, that means if I ever get put into a rest home in Kalifornia they have to call me by me old College/Hot Rod nickname….."Dr. Zarkov"!

    Oh, well…one more reason to be grateful we were able to escape Kommiefornia….

  4. we're looking at the same concerns in dry West Texas. We plan on the same fire-proofing for our compound that you seek: sap drenched cedar shake roof, cedar siding, plexi-glass windows and then surround the place with a moat filled with gasoline.

    It pays to be prepared.

  5. LL,

    Time for you to go to lawyer school.

    The facility will be liable for the RALLY BIG FINE leveled for their "agent"/employee (probably someone who won't have the funds to cover the fine, has already spent time in the hoosegow and/or is also mistreating the oldsters in other and possibly worse ways.

  6. LL,

    In regard to the fireproofing of the log abode, I have some asbestos sheeting, willing to let it go cheap.

  7. The (P)regressive game plan, perfected in Sacramento, when confronted with hard decisions, pass laws to deal with non existent problems.

  8. I don't think that fire would touch Aunt Sally's food since it's already burned to a chip. Make piles of the previously burned offerings and hold the fire at bay.

  9. Your cultural sensitivity and blatant appropriateness is clear for all to see. I have been duly shamed for culturally appropriating Mongolians and for snatching the title of their leader as my own.

  10. When I go to Norway next, I expect to see polar bear pelts on the floor of that new, fancy house that you're building.

  11. Columbus dodged all of the arrows that the Indians launched at him. It was the people back home who did him. There is a lesson to Caesar's demise (the imperator, not the salad) for all of us.

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