Mar 042012
 

Hello folks.  You may have noticed that this post is not by the venerable Ralph.  He of course is in Italy either having a vacation or on some sort of work release program, based on the pictures he sent me.  Check them out for yourself and see what you think.

 Note the handcarts that Ralph must be using to shuttle things around Italy.

  This is the dock where Ralph takes pictures for people and offers his luggage shuttle service.

  And I believe this is a view from his cell hotel, where he can hear those confounded gondoliers crooning day and night.  And is it just me or is that an outboard motor on that boat?  I thought you had to use a pole and a goofy hat to get around Venice.

Of course Ralph just sent me the pictures with no explanations, so I am guessing on all of these.  Maybe I should make this a caption contest.  Anyway, Onto the NEWS!

United States of America

Image via Wikipedia

You know, there is a reason that I don’t watch the news.  It is damn depressing.  I didn’t search very far to find a plethora of despair and foolishness abounding in these United States of America.  If you notice, all of this crap is based from one site here in Salt Lake.  I shudder at what the future holds for us.

 

Police use Twitter to announce sex offender arrival

All I can say to this is I guess it will be a while longer before I let my kids use Twitter.  It is bad enough that sex-offenders have to announce it to their neighbors, but now,  the government will do it for you!

5 ways to get control of your teens’ cellphone usage

First things first, you want to control how much your teen uses their phone, dont give them a phone in the first place!  I am currently in the adamantly opposed camp of kids having cell phones.  There are several people around me that say things like “How do you know where your kids are” and “how can you keep them safe?”  Like me knowing where my kids are and being able to call them is not only a bit Big Brother but is it really going to keep them safe?  There will be a night that is snowing and icy and I am calling my teenager and they are trying to answer the phone and then the car spins out of control on the freeway and hits an embankment.  I guess I can give EMS the number so they can track down the car and my child’s lifeless body inside.  Whatever happened to trusting your kids?  I remember my mom saying “Stay in the neighborhood and come back for dinner”  that was all it took.  I stayed fairly close and I was ok.  When I got older I was fine telling my parents where I was going and they trusted me.  For the most part.  I think a lot of that trust was because they knew who I was.  They had spent time with me enough that they knew I wasn’t going to the den of sin every time I said I was at work.  maybe that is where this “Give the kid a cell phone” thing comes in, many parents don’t trust their kids because they barely know who they are.   I have spent most of the last 11 years at home raising my kids so I think I have a pretty good handle on who they are becoming.  And no matter how much they beg, they will not be getting cell phones any time soon.  They will just have to use their imaginations and come up with games that are not generated on a screen.  They will just have to deal with the fact that I can guess where they are going.  And don’t get me started on texting….

Thieves steal donations from local charity

All I want to say to this is firing squad.  How bad off are you to steal from a charity, and one that helps those with mental illness?  This sounds like kids doing the thievery but that is no excuse.  I am all in favor of public executions in the town square, broadcast live on TV, with a fine imposed or even a bench warrant issued if you don’t check in and watch.

Storms demolish small towns in Ind., Ky.; 34 dead

Mother Nature in yet another chilling reminder that we will never beat her.  God bless those who are affected….

Q&A: Google to dig deeper into users’ lives

Hi, have you met Big Brother er the Gestapo er the Communist party er Google??????  What sounds like a good idea to some sounds like just another way for the government to bend us over the barrel and scrutinize every little thing we do.  If this keeps up, it won’t be long before the First Amendment is a quaint footnote to history.

Disney forced to shut down anti-obesity exhibit amid criticisms

This one bothered the hell out of me.  First, Disney has put up a display to help kids lead healthier lives.  Not a bad idea.  Seems many places are doing it, the NFL has the Play 60 campaign and there are other get outside and play movements going on.  Even on my Wii once in a while it says to take a break and go outside.  Here Disney is trying to do this.  and there is a National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance in this country???  WTF???  Really?  First off I am myself overweight but I am working hard to get rid of that weight.  I really want to be able to play with my grandkids in the future so being dead is not in the plan.  But, I know that I did it to myself.  I ate too much fast food and didn’t move around enough over the last few years.  Hell I spent basically 3 years sitting on my fat ass in the hospital or in the dialysis clinic with my daughter stuffing my pie hole with shit.  Not literally, of course, but here I am now.  This is another sad statement of society where there can exist a National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, so people can just feel better about themselves and try to get the government to pay for their electric scooters.  Get out and walk around Disney World a few times and quit accepting fat as a handicap.

Father sues school district over son’s injuries

This story is high on my list of crap.  When I was a kid we would take sleds to school and ride the hills down to the mud and then slide some more.  If we got hurt, too bad Charlie, you weren’t careful enough.  This kid hit a rock and broke his jaw?  Why go down head first?  This would have happened if there was an adult there or not, the kid was being dumb.  Back in the day, kids were dumb.  You learned to be smart by flipping over the handlebars or skinning your knees with the roller skates or falling off of a sled.  Who should be responsible for this?  Couldn’t possibly be the kid, or even his parents who haven’t taught him how to slide down a hill with little snow on it.  It must be the school.  And the district.  I call Bullshit and hope that the judge not only throws the case out, but charges the father all of the court costs.  And if he doesn’t pay, teach him how to slide face first into that prison mattress…I’m just saying.

 

Well folks, I hope that you have been somewhat enlightened today and still find the CNS your source for news.  Ralph may be back next week if he does enough community service in Venice, or spends enough money so that they let him leave.  If not, I will be back next week.  And there may be video…

So, for today, Goodnight from the CNS…

-Justin

 

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Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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Feb 192012
 

You thought I was distracted, eh?

The cruise ship that swallowed Venice

Two stories grabbed my attention this week, no mean feat as we try to manage all the details of the upcoming trip. Even though it seems to be warming up in Venice, we still may have to worry about being run over by a cruise ship. Those big ships which seem to have trouble staying upright in Italian waters dock a mere five minute walk from our apartment. I’m not going to worry just now although it may be something  to study after I get there. Venice has survived a great many challenges since it’s founding. It can surely last a few more weeks.

Venice: Cruise Ships Are Killing Us 

No, today, I can’t stop thinking about school lunches. I attended public schools through high school, never giving any thought to why they existed or if they made any sense. Sure, there were some private schools around dedicated, as I saw it, to Catholics and rich people because neither group wanted their kids associating with the hoi polloi. I could understand the appeal for one group. The rich kid schools had better facilities and more pretty girls. The Catholic schools had nuns and that seemed weird to me.

So I grew up and got my formative training in the peoples schools giving and taking with kids from every social class. I’m not complaining. What I never recognized was the danger for education when government runs the show. When I was a kid , we hardly noticed the government. What government there was seemed pretty benign during my childhood because it was local government – a school district that had it’s own tax base run by people I knew who ran for election every so often. There was a bit of state coordination but it was pretty much local control. This was long before the creation of the Federal Department of Education.

But I digress! 

Well, I could probably go on for days about what’s gone wrong with education since I was a kid but that’s not where I am headed today. Somewhere along the way, somebody decided that it would be good if the School Districts got into the food business, just so their students would be able to get a hot meal. It didn’t seem like such a bad idea but that’s what government is good at. Taking a not so bad idea and making it a disaster. But that’s only the beginning of the story.

Schoolchildren eating hot school lunches made ...

Image via Wikipedia

School lunches were always a joke for us kids. There might be a few dishes that were really good but by and large, they were just like the weather. You had to put up with them. Most of the time, my parents bought the lunches. It was easier than packing the lunchbox, but once in a while, I’d take a box lunch just for fun and in third grade I attended a school with no cafeteria so I took a lunch every day. I know about home packed lunches,

These lunches were a sandwich (typically bologna or peanut butter and jelly), some chips, a thermos of milk, sometimes- but not always an apple or banana- and a candy bar. That’s what we considered a healthy lunch back in the day. There might be variations- a strange mother might include carrots or celery which would likely end up in the trash. Somehow, we grew up healthy in spite of substandard nutrition by the standards of today’s Federal government. These days, my parents would be serving time for child abuse.

 

So reading about the lunch box police in North Carolina makes me wonder what the government is up to. Just because it is convenient to provide lunches in public schools, how does that make it the job of government to tell us what to feed our kids. It seems in North Carolina, it takes three levels of government to do this and they can’t seem to decide how to distribute the duties. They are apparently all tripping over each other in their eagerness to tell parents what to do.

 

EXCLUSIVE: 2ND N.C. MOTHER SAYS DAUGHTER’S SCHOOL LUNCH REPLACED FOR NOT BEING HEALTHY ENOUGH

What is a federal employee doing inspecting lunch boxes in West Hoke Elementary School and what the heck does a lunch box have to do with education? The education system is unable to deliver education and officials complain that they don’t have enough money. Yet all the while, they waste tons of it inspecting lunches and challenging the responsibilities of parents. No wonder Johnny can’t read.

If the school districts fail with their prime objective, teaching kids to read, write and take their place as educated citizens, who told them to become food police? And even if there is some evidence that food police are needed, why in the world would anyone want the education system to do it? Should there be some competence requirement? These days, what government is competent to tell anyone what to do and when did government diktats become the American way. Where is that fiercely independent American spirit? We don’t need government officials in our kitchens and we don’t need them to tell us what our kids should have in their lunchboxes.

I’m concerned!

I’m getting damn concerned about government officials providing any services because they can’t seem to color within the lines we give them and dammit it is still government by the people and for the people – not government to the people. We did the best we could to keep the California State School monopoly from ruining our kids. We were naive. In fact we didn’t understand how the world of education had changed until it was too late to choose plan B. If I had it to do all over again, I would quit my day job, go on welfare and home school my kids. That would be the only possible way to get a real education for my kids and some value from the taxes I pay.

Get the government out of our lunchboxes! Don’t you agree?

 

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Ralph

Ralph is the inspiration for Cantankerous Old Coots and is our Grand Duke of Cantankerousness

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Feb 122012
 

Your reporter is distracted!

St. Mark's Square in Venice, Italy.

Image via Wikipedia

There may be news this week but it is getting hard to focus. With just two weeks to go before the big trip, much as this Coot tries to take care of business, my mind keeps wandering. Going out of country for the first time in 40 years just keeps me off kilter. Not that there is much more I can do. The reservations are made. Most of the details have been at least considered but there still remain those doubts that always come along when you do something for the first time. Sure it’s going to be fine. Everybody involved will be happy to see that we get where we are going and make it easy to do what tourists do best- spend money. Still, human nature being what it is, those questions keep forming.

Of course if we knew it all then there wouldn’t be any sense of adventure. The trip to Venice would be just as boring as the morning commute. It is the unknowns as we anticipate this adventure that keep the mind engaged. Flying to Venice is probably just as mundane as flying to Des Moines, cramped seating, lousy food and two transfers.  What’s not to like?

But what about the news?

So with my current state of distraction the search for news stories has become even harder. There just isn’t much uplifting news this week and more to the point, Europe is freezing to death.  Even worse, the epicenter of this unprecedented cold snap is centered on Venice where we will be vacationing. Somehow the cosmos seems to be confusing the Carlson’s with Al Gore. This whole cold spell started with the big meeting in Davos earlier this month where the honchos gather to decide what to do about us peons.  Anyway, those Davos folk are fixated on Global Warming and it seems that mother nature always tries to straighten them when they gather. Al’s ability to cause cold weather when he speaks about global warming is legendary but this is his most monumental impact so far. The problem is,  it threatens to hamper our vacation.  Frost bite in Venice?  How romantic.

Ice clogs the canals of Venice, Italy

We knew that Venice wouldn’t be balmy in March when we rented the apartment but the average temperatures didn’t look bad. Winter in Venice is how you avoid the tourists and see how Venetians live. After all we would arrive just after Carnivale, one of Venice’s big events. Surely he place wouldn’t be shut down. And we rationalized that it couldn’t really get cold in the Mediterranean. We were wrong. It’s cold.

European freeze may last to end of February 

Current forecasts predict warming at the end of February, just in time for our arrival in Venice so we have our fingers crossed. Spring has to come sometime. It might as well be March.

 

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Ralph

Ralph is the inspiration for Cantankerous Old Coots and is our Grand Duke of Cantankerousness

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Feb 052012
 

Ready for Superbowl?

Puppy cuteness

Image via Wikipedia

The media are preoccupied this week with the Superbowl. So what’s the big deal? After a season of football,it’s all pared down to two teams. One team will win and the other won’t. One city will celebrate and the other won’t. When it’s all over, what difference does it make, especially if you don’t live in the Northeast. Don’t get me wrong. I’ll watch the game while I cook some treats for the half-time break. I don’t know if I’m up for Madonna. We may just cut out for the Puppy Bowl or the Law and Order SVU Marathon.

Despite all the hype, the Superbowl is just another football game. Most of them aren’t even good football. There is lots of news related to the spectacle but none of it really matters. It’s just empty calories like the food served at the Superbowl Parties.. So this week the Coots News Service is skipping the Superbowl for news that is important. Global Warming be damned. Europe is freezing to death.

No End in Sight for European Deep Freeze 

So what good is Global Warming if we all freeze to death?

Now that we know that Global Warming is a fact, winter is nothing more than a word. When my wife and I planned our trip to Europe, we quickly dismissed any concerns about visiting in Winter. Winter is so old fashioned. Besides, since we were visiting Venice, how cold could it really get on the water? After all we hear about the wonderful Mediterranean climate how could there be a problem.

Venice, Italy (NASA, International Space Stati...

Venice, Italy (NASA, International Space Station Science, 03/15/07) (Photo credit: NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center)

So we scheduled our time in Venice for the month of March right after Carnival.. No tourists and the weather shouldn’t be a problem, or so we thought. Then I started watching the weather. In January the nights were right at freezing and the days in the 40’s. It was making me nervous but after all we had two months and March is practically Spring. Then last week the temperatures started dropping. Nights were down below 20 and day-times just barely in the 30’s. Venice was beginning to seem like Chicago.

So this week, the CNS is preoccupied with that European cold snap and thinking about getting some long johns to take along. Global Warming may be a sure things but it is not doing anything to help our European trip.

 

 

 

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Ralph

Ralph is the inspiration for Cantankerous Old Coots and is our Grand Duke of Cantankerousness

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Jan 292012
 

No time to dawdle this week

Show time at the old Coot’s New Service this week and a road trip to Visalia making the schedule tight for the news staff. The news hasn’t cooperated either.  This week isn’t like last week with three stories vying for the top spot. It’s just an ordinary week with ordinary news and I don’t have time to keep searching.

The Northern Lights

This week’s story is about the wonders of nature. This week it’s the spectacular show from the northern lights courtesy of the sun. I don’t know how it works but the sun’s radiation does some spectacular things in the northern sky. I’ve never seen them and may never feel inspired to travel north when it’s cold just for the show. With the wonders of electronics we can share the experience of those who do.

THESE ARE THE TOP VIDEOS FROM LAST NIGHT’S STUNNING NORTHERN LIGHTS SHOW 

The other great things about this kind of story is that there is no human intervention. What you see is what you get. There is no touchy-feeling explanation, no politically correct bullshit, no environmental craziness and no commercials. All there is is a big glow in the sky. All you need is a hot toddy and a warm parka. But don’t get cocky. Any minute now the government might decide to tax it or regulate it. All that radiation can’t be good.

Ralph

Ralph is the inspiration for Cantankerous Old Coots and is our Grand Duke of Cantankerousness

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