Endeesea’s Neighborhood

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I'm spending the rest of the day in my pajamas, don't tell anyone I'm home! We overdid it yesterday, painting the house and raking leaves. 20 bags worth from our meager acreage.

Then I jogged at the Lake this morning. Cold but lovely anyway. I ran into 7 teenagers trying to harass an animal and I had to talk with them. I'll elaborate tomorrow. Sigh.

People never guess that I'm a huge supporter of free will. Wiccans say do whatever you like, as long as it causes no harm. Yet animals are so often used as entertainment for bored children I guess tormenting them is now seen as perfectly acceptable.

Oh well, have some snacks! (Not sure what that is in the picture but it looks yummy).

Asleep at the wheel is the only explanation for this oversight.  Our CIA and military officials dropped the ball on this one.  Hasan's actions prior to his rampage should have taken seriously. 

In my world of electrical maintenance and distribution, if someone is injured because of a violation of a safety rule, the responsible person is fired. In the Hasan case, the responsible people who ignored Hasan's dubious activity should be fired. 

So did the Army know and do nothing? Or did the CIA just never pass along the intelligence? Does it even matter?

It is not like Hasan’s radicalism was a big secret. His calling card had SoA or “Soldiers of Allah” on it. His fellow soldiers were given the Koran. He complained to commanders about being sent to an unjust war.

Hasan wasn’t the “quiet loner” who shocked everyone. Everyone knew about his radical bent and no one did anything. Roger L. Simon already eloquently expressed the answer for why no one spoke. Political correctness kills

Did President Ronald Reagan bring down Communist Russia?  One could argue that Communist Russia was a bankrupt society economically and ethically before President Reagan took office.  However, President Reagan pushed Russia to dismantle the Berlin Wall and took the steam out of Russia. 

The only man who foresaw the Soviet collapse and implemented policies to bring it about was Reagan. During his first term Reagan pursued tough policies aimed at curtailing the Soviet nuclear threat and stopping Soviet advances around the world. Calling the Soviets an "evil empire," Reagan initiated a massive defense buildup.

He deployed Pershing and cruise missiles in Europe. He sent weapons and other assistance to anti-communist guerrillas in Soviet satellites like Afghanistan, Angola and Nicaragua. He announced a new program of missile defenses that would eventually "make nuclear weapons obsolete."

These measures were fiercely resisted by liberal Democrats, who decried Reagan's policies as confrontational and likely to make nuclear war more likely. But Reagan's military buildup and his missile defense program threatened the Soviets with an arms race they could ill afford.

His doctrine of aid to anti-communist guerrillas halted Soviet advances in the Third World: Between 1980 and 1985, not an inch of real estate fell into Moscow's hands.

FBI has found evidence that Hasan was involved with dubious individuals who were being tracked.

A senior government official tells ABC News that investigators have found that alleged Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan had "more unexplained connections to people being tracked by the FBI" than just radical cleric Anwar al Awlaki.

The official declined to name the individuals but Congressional sources said their names and countries of origin were likely to emerge soon.

I don't really have anything much to say.  I've been kind of down in the dumps in recent weeks as finances have become increaingly tighter.   I'm hoping that finally paying my car off by the beginning of the year will help to improve my outlook.

So, this entry will be random thoughts cobbled together.

Yesterday, I went to Wal Mart to do my weekly grocery shopping.  I normally go to Aldi, but I was in a hurry and figured Wal Mart would have comparable prices, as they have in the past.
 
It seems as if I was wrong.  Wally World has raised prices on nearly everything, where some of the items were even higher than in the regular, full-price grocery stores.  I ended up spending more than ten dollars more than I pay for the same items at Aldi. Next week, it will be back to Aldi's for me.
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It's been raining all day here today and is supposed to continue until tomorrow evening as my area is subjected to the backlash from Hurricane Ida.  I'm glad it happened on my day off.  We've had a lot of rain in the last few months and I'm sick of it.
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If I had the money, this is what I'd get myself for Christmas:

I want the big flute in the middle that looks a bit like plumbing, otherwise known as a bass flute.  The flute to the right of it is a standard flute.  I've heard the bass flute before, usually in background movie music, and it has a deep, mysterious sound to it.  I've only seen a bass flute "in the flesh" once in my life, as a fifteen year old high school freshman visiting Manny's Music in New York City in 1973.

But this will likely remain a "pipe dream", as I'd likely not be able to touch even a used student grade for under fifteen hundred bucks.  But I hold out that one day I might find one for a steal.