A Pirate Aground In The City - pilot's Blog

A Pirate Aground In The City - pilot's Blog - Victoria Advocate http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/pilot Stories, social/political, commentary, MUSIC,outdoors, and basically whatever strikes my fancy..... Stories, social/political, commentary, MUSIC,outdoors, and basically whatever strikes my fancy..... en-us Hey Vato, You Stole My Drugs....Or Was It My Girl? http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/pilot/9567 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/pilot/9567 Sounds like a little tit for tat frontier justice here, tejas style, doesn't it, this story of a local shooting and the subsequent comments on the story? If you ask this old bay rat, I remember once back about '69, when this drunk redneck I worked with out at carbide, pulled out his pocket knife, and sliced the arm of a Mexican guy in a supermercado parking lot in ***adrift. Why, you ask?.....maybe because the guy was Mexican.....Maybe to impress a few younger guys hanging out listening to his stories of bravado, or of a time when Messkins knew their place in our world, and he felt that it was his calling to right the ship, one carload of cotton pickers at a time. It was hardly a life threatening injury, but more a macho threatening offense. Well after dos vatos pulled away, it wasn't fifteen minutes later, that they made another pass down Main Street, with one yelling "chine a light, chine a light" and the other popping off .22 rounds our way....sounded like a cap gun, but more likely .22 shorts - a veritable BB gun at 50 yards. This ain't that folks. It is a jungle out there, and I don't care if it is Victoria, Tx, or Detroit.....the firepower is much improved, and it ain't a bubba redneck vs a carload of  '60s era pachuka <a href="mailto:wetb@cks">wetb@cks</a> conflict. Drugs are drugs, and a deal is a deal. This is semi-organized crime......the drug bush leagues if you will, but no less deadly than the streets of NYC. I don't care whose kid got shot, or whose kid pulled the trigger, or which bullsh1t defense attorney shows up to try to paint a picture otherwise. You prosecute, and convict both the shooter, and the shootee, if enough evidence can be gathered to show that said shootee, was also engaged in a criminal act that precipitated the shooting. Put both their butts in TDC and let the inmate justice system sort it out. Any plea copping, on the part of either, and then the whole weight of what either party might perpetrate in the future will be the sole responsiility of the criminal justice system, who failed the taxpayers and put the socially deficient thugs back on the street, and subsequentially, back in business. This has little to do with public guvm't assisted housing, or race or skin color. This is just about a couple of likely low life, turn a deal is easier than working at Luby's or the Valero on the corner people......could be Asian, could be hispanics - legal or not. Could be three generations removed descendants of slaves, or as likely as not, a redneck Anglo dropout named Lloyd, angling for an easier life than his lack of education affords him.......... Bottom line - find out the story, prosecute all involved, and don't put them back on the streets in eight months because they through unbelievable self control, managed to qualify for a "good behavior" release, by not murdering another inmate or raping a prison guard during their brief incarceration....... Do the crime, do the time.....kinda sums it all up. If some city offical or congressman's little Kevin, Chase, Cody, or Zachary gets caught in the process - so be it. After a few of them do some real lock-up time and show their potential succesors that they too may spend a year or two without their X-Box, in a cold place where the doors are always locked, and a few career inmates are looking for a tight little whitey bung as a "steady date"........maybe then they will take notice that dad's dough is not a get out of jail free card, and rethink school and the route in life they take. Want A Ride In My Time Machine? Some Lives May Depend On It http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/pilot/9454 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/pilot/9454 I took a trip back in time today. That was the second time as an adult, that I have done such a thing. The first happened a few years back, when I drove back to the bayou where I was born - alone, just to see it for myself. The boatyard was still there. The old home was still there, though moved across the street to a new location, to allow the landlord to grow his yard for his kids after we, almost family to them, pulled up stakes and migrated down the coast to plant our roots where Carbide would enable my family do better than we had ever done before, or could have imagined....Carla aside......but back to my earlier trip back in time. My old school was still there, though shuttered as I expect it still sits today. That was a good thing for me. Because uprooted at age nine, taken from the kids I grew up with, and plopped down to start over - half a coast away, was nothing less than heartbreaking for a nine year old little leaguer and a six year old sister. We got over it, but did not forget where we came from, as that is the way it always should be. We got to see another small town, alive at the time, wither with the years, as at first it was flourishing with shrimpers, and the "plant" where most everyone who wasn't a shrimper worked. As Union Carbide grew and grew, money flowed, and the shrimping industry began to wane, under the burden of overfishing and a load of "part time" shrimpers.......those who wanted the best of both worlds. They had the disposable income of the refinery/plastics plant, and some time on their hands to buy shrimpboats. Oh, did I mention that they began to move to Victoria, and no longer spend their checks in Seadrift? That my friends was the beginning of the end, as I see it, of a way of life. Well, that and the new smells each winter brought, as the little UCC plant doubled, tripled, and quadrupled in size. I remember when a norther would blow in, and my dad would take a whiff, and could tell me exactly which unit that the odor, seven miles away was coming from. That should have told us something right then and there, where Calhoun County was heading. A few years later, in my teen years, I came to know the odor of cooking Bauxite, as I rode my little motorbike, fingers freezing, all the way to Point Comfort, for an hour of hand holding with my high school sweetheart, (whose dad worked for Alcoa)followed by a equally freezing reverse trip across the peninsula to my bay......the one I later came to find out was still alive, and not poisoned by the clandestine dumping of mercury, a byproduct of an aluminum smelter, as was the one where my Beatrice grew up and played in the water. While I might add that having been in touch with her in recent years, and that she seemed none the worse for it, the same can not be said for many others that worked there and ate fish and oysters from Lavaca Bay. The same can not be said for my little brother's three fishing buddies he buried over the last year, all dead of cancer, and all of whom were in some way involved with either Alcoa, or the new (to me anyway) evil empire, Formosa Plastics. A Taiwanese giant that puts profit ahead of safety and had made just enough token gestures over the years to keep the Chamber of Commerce at bay, and has done an admirable job of compensating the key employees to convince the rank and file that life is good, and finally who have taken advantage of a look the other way mentality among government regulators, and accepted token fines as an operating cost, effectively being allowed to operate as they see fit, without regard for the safety of the population who lives in their immediate surroundings, including those they pay to not notice or to "live for today" and look the other way. Yes I left the area - years ago. My entire family though, still lives and works in Calhoun County. Yes I work and thrive in an industry that builds refineries, plastics plants, and power plants. Yes, I use when necessary, plastics and benefit from the luxury of that. I am saying that these plants can be built and operated in a safe manner which is also safe for the environment. That is what we strive to do. It is when rogue operators like Formosa Plastics find out that they can cut corners and buy their way out of having to comply with the rules and operate basically unchecked, at the expense of the safety of their workers and those in communities in the surrounding countryside, that I and some others have a problem. One called me a "greenpeace" type of guy. Another accused me of carrying cloth bags into HEB  for my carry out. Guilty as charged on both counts. But a hypocrite I am not. I just want it done cleanly. I don't enjoy seeing the bays and estuaries where I grew up die. And I particularly do not enjoy or find any humor in my little brother who has worked in nearly every plant in the county, tell me he feels like a "professional pallbearer".  Just some food for thought. A lot of you live in or near ground zero. Those folks in Taiwan do not. As far as my trip back in time today, I am just really to sleepy to go any farther and relate that on to you. You will just have to wait............but I will tell you that what I saw was very encouraging, as opposed to what I have to drive past on my way back home to the bay. Lame Duck or Road Kill..It's Time to Move On http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/pilot/9420 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/pilot/9420 If George Bush is really cognizant of the real world around him, he will just kick back and let his speechwriters finish out his term. No pardons, no major policy decisions, and certainly no Commander-in Chief playing. That is how I would like to see it.  By all accounts, the transition teams in place, are up to the task of transfer of power or the passing of the torch. If it is the latter, I hope that the torch of war is snuffed out. Enough already. We have shown by our vote, that we are ready to move forward and to try to correct the damage done by electing an idiot, and then giving him the keys to the kingdom. We sit here now with nations and people celebrating the world over, that America may be ready to once again become a role model and to lead by example, rather than through force and imperialist tactics. For the neocons, and the war machine, and the money changers, well, the jig is up. If we screw this chance up to regain our status as a world leader in all aspects of human rights, fair government by ALL of the people, rather than an inept military power with all the military might and technology available to modern man, incapable of ratting out one extremist thug bent on rubbing our noses in our own shit, then we had better get ready for a life as a second rate people, doomed to follow, and to wallow in our own failures, and a testament to the 200 year theory, that haunts most all past "democracies". The Bottom Line http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/pilot/9409 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/pilot/9409 It was a long and unprecedented campaign by both guys. Unprecedented in that for the first time really, for a lot of people newly of voting age, that this is truly the first ever election that was won(and lost) ONLINE. There has been so much crap flung into cyberspace with regards to these two men, that it would be impossible to address every single charge. Yes, charge, because most of it was negative, particularly about the man who won. Well, it's over thank God, and it's time to get down  to the business at hand - which is attempting to stop the bleeding and to begin the slow process of repairing the damage done over the last 8 years, by the idiot that was in that office. Mr. Short Bus, All Hat, No Cattle, Idiot, cheerleader, frat boy. If McCain wants to thank anyone in particular for his defeat, he needs look no farther than the Oval Office. Now - the bottom line........the guy the people wanted, nearly ALL of the people who cared enough to get out and vote, well........he won. That's the bottom line. He has his work cut out for him, and the sooner he can get started, the better. And the sooner we all get with the program, and do our part, by voting in every local election, by writing our congressmen and women, and ACTIVELY PARTICIPATING IN OUR GOVERNMENT, as was it intended to be, well, then we may start to see some change, and to see a country run by the people who live in it rather than the elite few who pull the strings of the puppets that have been at the switch way too long. I Just Heard That Some of 'Em Eat Babies and Pets Too http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/pilot/9377 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/pilot/9377 Criminey.........is it just up here in Evilopolis, or is local and regional politics everywhere just a sling it against the wall and see if it sticks affair, all the way down to the city council level? To hear and see some of the ads by nearly all of these candidates, is quite amazing. If one was to believe all of the vile and accusatory comments these guys(and women) are making about one another in the waning days of this campaign, well one would simply have to belive that the whole bunch should be rounded up, and some of 'em just strung up on the spot, others serving many years behind bars, and the rest just tarred and feathered and ridden  out of town on a rail. I just find it amazing to what lengths they will go down the homestretch, to attempt to torpedo the other guys' ships. My advice to you all is to spend these last few days looking at their records, what they voted to pass or fail, and where they come from. Then vote your conscience. Do not vote a straight ticket. Read the ballot and vote with your heart and head. Do that, and you will at least be able to say you were prepared, and did your duty. Now excuse me, I just saw another slanderous ad......I need to check the website of the one being maligned, to find out whether kittens are better with marinara sauce, or honey mustard ............ The Death Not of An Industry, But of A Symbol of American Excess http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/pilot/9342 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/pilot/9342 <div> "Did he say American Express Howard? American American Express has failed now too?"  "No Eleanor, he said American excess, now let's read on and see what he is talking about."  What I am referring to, is the impending death of the American, and quite likely, the world automobile industry as we know it. My pal the Grey-Beard Loon, and I on occasion, will bemoan the fact that our society is fraught with wretched excess and I am certain, as probably is he, that if this country goes to the dogs, wretched excess will be at the very root of it. Nowhere else, is there a more telling or better example, save for maybe housing, of a part of the American dream, that turned into a nightmare, yet has been glorified and perpetuated as a "must save" industry, than the auto industry. I have harped on this before, and now that part of my tax money may well be earmarked to bail out thieves once again, I have a few very basic simple questions I need to ask. Genaral Motors, Ford and Chrysler. The Big Three. Detroit. Motown. Detroit has been flagging and sagging for so many years. First they blamed it on the glut of Japanese imports, and pumped in more money to try to compete, and touted "American Made", and "Quality is Job #1". That worked fine until some smart marketing folks figured out that the qualiity was slipping and that the imports from Japan, and now Europe, were actually better built and rated better in safety tests. And then the Americans found themselves in a downturn, and actually had to start dismantling Detroit a bit and scale back and streamline operations in the name of saving shareholders' money.......Oops, now what? Circle the wagons and maybe we had better start talking to Uncle Sam about a tax break here and there and start looking for some creative financing. So models died. Then we found ourselves trying to emulate the imports, and compete with them, but all the while, still overlooking the all too obvious. That obvious is that  the automobile, like the starter home and striving to claw our way up the ladder with "more and newer and bigger and better", is just what the money people who are responsible for this mess we are in, have groomed us as a society to believe. Now for my few questions. How is it that a simple tool in our lives has been transformed into such a symbol of status? It is a ride to work. I remember when one car was enough in a family. Now I see them filling a garage, the driveway and one or two parked on the street.....all at the same house. How is it that something that used to be what we would save a down payment up for, while driving the old one until it cratered, has now become something we are willing to take what amounts to a second mortgage on, "just to have the latest and coolest" model?  It has been drilled and marketed into us for so long now, and money made to seem that it grows on trees by "no credit ckeck", "nothing down" bankers, that some actually have started to believe it. Well pick up the last two weeks front pages, if you want to revisit and see where this kind of mentality has landed us. What happened to building things that last and making do with what we have for a few years, rather than having to have the "latest model" yearly? Was there really a need for a new model each and every year? No, simply put, NO! My truck is 11 years old and I have changed the oil and washed it on occasion, and it is serving me as well as the day I bought it. Maybe not as pretty and shiny, but what the hell. I don't really have any need to impress anyone, or to hold it out there as a symbol of my manhood, or as my symbol of my place on the ladder of life. I'm sorry folks, but until we start thinking of making things to function and to last as opposed to sell and dazzle, this road to hell we are on will be taking us as a nation, closer and closer to the end. No amount of interest cuts and bailouts will reverse that. The only thing that will is to live by the principles and ideals this country was founded on and to show some pride in our work and work ethic, and to strangle the corporations that run our government, and to take it back from them. I say we start with the automobile industry. Screw 'em. Let 'em fail. They brought this upon themselves. Next, maybe we can take on the pharmaceutical industry, or the insurance thieves. What we need is more doctors, not more feel good drugs for invented maladies. </div> Twenty Some Odd Days..........Until Business As Usual http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/pilot/9208 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/pilot/9208 For all of the hoopla and hype. For all of the mudslinging  and accusations and finger pointing, for all the tongue wagging and yes, tail wagging, we'd best get ready for an anti-climactic post election. It is going to be more of the same, folks. Despite the empty promises on both sides no matter who wins, corporate America will still be calling the shots. If there is any cause for celebration, it will be that Bush is history. He can take his disaster story of  legacy, and ride off into the Texas sunset. Taking that idiot out of the mix has to count for something, but do not expect a dramatic change in our standing(or lack thereof) in the eyes of the rest of the world. And don't expect the economy to magically get better overnight. It is starting to look more and more like that in spite of the the media feeding frenzy and attention this election year has drawn, that the most that can be said of the outcome, is that history will be made, come election day. Probably, what is going to happen,  a scant seven years after 9/11, is that a smooth talking black man with very little experience, and a Muslim surname is going to get the nod over an American war hero for the highest office in the land, Should it lean the other way, then we will have our first woman as a vice president. That's about the size of it folks. History will be made, then it will either be McSame, or business as usual. Achtung! Gotten Himmel! Stop The Presses - Keep the Loon Over For Another Shift http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/pilot/9098 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/pilot/9098 Allison scooped Becky Cooper on gas prices.........oops, nevermind - Becky squeezed under the wire by 52 minutes. I stand corrected. Becky, you should really consider a plagarism action here. Jesus, can you believe that they have just screwed us to the wall for so long now, that we are starting to self lubricate over three bucks a gallon gas? Charges Leveled That O.J. Jury Just Settling A Score http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/pilot/9080 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/pilot/9080 So? What took so long? As in my previous post...... You can buy some time, but if you remain stupid and feel that you are above the law, sooner or later, "the jig is up", and if you gonna dance, then you gotta pay the piper. 700 Mil...., No, 800 Mill, and Rising........ http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/pilot/9079 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/pilot/9079 Well, the puppet idiot and his cronies pulled it off, and our elected reps finally bought it. What? Enron wasn't enough? Did you see what the Lehman Crime Family Lieutenant, Fuld had to say today? Did you see the story about the Lehman rank and file, warning of improper and irresponsible mortgages? Well, if you missed that, did you maybe over the last few fat years, hear an ad saying "we'll pay off your trade-in, no matter how much you owe", or "zero percent down, nothing, zip, nada due at closing/move in"? Just show up in your new Hummer, you traded in the old Ford Bofus for, with your no money down, no payments until '09, Lack's houseful of furniture, and your food stamps, and Mr. Bush and Mr. Fuld promise you that it will be at least a year, before their boys uncover their eyes and ears, and get hip to your shit and inform you that the jig is up. But, not to worry, by then, a bailout will be in place to buy your sorry ass another year and a  half. Folks, here is my banking tip of the day. Sell, and go with Mattress Bank and Trust. My truck is paid for, and running great(knock on real wood). I have a fleet of paddleboats and a paid for roof over my head, walking distance from the bay, and fishing gear to put food on the table for as long as necessary. I don't trust the bastards, do you? Any of them? Dems or Repubicons? When it comes to every man (& woman) for themselves, will you be able to cope? Or will you be the ones that turn to stealing and praying to a God without a checkbook?