Re: Story

[Bob La Londe <none@none.com99>]

On 11/27/2022 6:50 PM, Jim Davis wrote:
> On Thursday, November 24, 2022 at 1:35:30 PM UTC-5, Bob La Londe wrote:
>> On 11/22/2022 5:41 PM, Jim Davis wrote:
>>> On Thursday, November 17, 2022 at 3:57:21 PM UTC-5, Bob La Londe wrote:
>>>> On 10/18/2022 8:20 AM, Bob La Londe wrote:
>>>>> Get creative. Stop rehashing old themes or...
>>>>>
>>>> Oh heck. I realized two seconds after I hit send that I missed a huge
>>>> opportunity for a discordant reality moment in FLASH POINT.
>>>>
>>>> If instead of, "Mr President the bugs on Dr McEvil's space station are
>>>> working," I had written, "Mr President. System 4 just went live on Dr
>>>> McEvil's space station," I would have felt so clever with myself.
>>>>
>>>> Suspension of disbelief has been suspended.
>>>> --
>>>> This email has been checked for viruses by AVG antivirus software.
>>>> www.avg.com
>>> Hey Bob,
>>> Sorry I haven't been participating in the "Story" Just been too busy with business the holiday coming up ( short week) and getting ready to go deer / coyote hunting. So, Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon. this week and Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon. Next week no work. That's a long time to hope that nothing goes awry.
>>> .
>>> Trying to get all the detail service done and hope there's no "emergencies" while I'm away.
>>> I have someone on call but I hate for anyone else to "touch my stuff".
>>> .
>>> Obviously my posts will be sparse the next couple of weeks. Not enough time to be "creative".
>>> .
>>> However, I must say again, that your show of creative writing has REALLY impressed me a lot. You've never given a hint that you had that talent.
>>> .
>>> However, since (as you say) you can't do "everything" all at once, maybe when you finally decide to slow down enterprise-wise, you can write your memoirs from the point of view of an octogenarian, make a fortune in royalties, and leave it all to your heirs or - - - -
>>> If you're anything like me, rather to someone who may do something a little more worthwhile with it, like the NRA or Bass Fishing Club of America or some such.
>> At the risk of being to political Wayne LaPierre has done a lot of
>> damage to the NRA. I hope at some point they recover if for no reason
>> than the long legacy they had established and the influence it carried
>> in past times.
>>
>> As near as I can tell no well known "bass" organization is more than a
>> commercial venture aimed at selling more and more expensive toys
>> classing out a lot of people who just can't afford them. I paid $34K
>> for a very very nice bass boat in 2005. That same boat geared out
>> similarly for the times would be $100K to buy new today. I can buy a
>> heck of a nice truck for a lot less than that even in this time of truck
>> "shortages". I would be willing to support sportspersons and outdoors
>> groups if I could find one more dedicated to the average or poorer
>> angler or hunter. Most of the big groups seem to be more about the rich
>> hunter or sportsperson. There are local level organizations that are on
>> the right page, but they usually only have political clout in their home
>> regions due to the wealthier and more otherwise influential members. A
>> few old groups do have a little more pull due to large numbers, but in
>> my opinion there are none with multi state or national level influence
>> that are not atleast somewhat weighted towards protecting wealthy member
>> opportunities OVER the local guy who wants to bag a dear because its 100
>> lbs of meat he doesn't have to buy. Who shoots rabbits everyday after
>> work to stretch his food budget as I did when trying to save for
>> college. Who wants to go out and sit on his easy chair by the local
>> pond sipping a coffee and enjoying the sunrise without mortgaging a
>> house to do it. However I can't put down most of those organizations
>> whether we see eye to eye or not. They are doing something. I do
>> support some, but probably not to making legacy level donations.
>>
>> I am more likely to donate to organizations I can see are mostly doing
>> good work with most of the money. Firearms Policy Coalition, Gun Owners
>> of America, Institute for Justice.
>>
>> As America becomes more and more populated, a larger and larger number
>> of the population become urbanized (or maybe sub-urbanized), and the
>> population of "the rural areas" grows denser its going to get harder and
>> harder to live the outdoor lifestyle I once took for granted. The
>> people defending it are a lot more different today than they were when I
>> was a kid.
>>
>> There is a wash bottom I used to be able to walk for miles along hunting
>> quail that is now posted. Its not posted no hunting by property owners.
>> Its literally littered with dozens and dozens of ugly signs saying,
>> "You are within 1/4 mile of an occupied building.
>>
>> There is a historic site near where I grew up where a broken cliff face
>> is covered in early American stone drawings. Nobody knew about it, and
>> it was a several mile drive in to it past only one resident who lived a
>> a mile or so off the two track going in. A couple years ago I hunted a
>> wash and brush line in that area for quail and rabbit. After cleaning
>> my kills I found myself driving back along a service road past that
>> area. I was absolute stunned by the number of lights I saw scattered
>> across the desert between the road I was on and that old historic site.
>>
>> I once spent an entire winter running trap lines (3 months) in the
>> desert and rarely saw another person. Mostly when I went home for
>> supplies and to put up fur. In more recent years hunting, or just
>> making a nostalgia visit to some of those areas I can't believe the
>> number of people I see. In my lifetime the population of the country
>> has grown by about 100 million people. Depending on the numbers you
>> find maybe as much as 150 million people. There is no way that the kind
>> of outdoors I grew up with can be sustained. There has to be rules, and
>> restrictions, and the wealthy politicians, lawyers, and business people
>> write those rules. You might know individuals in that class who are
>> truly altruistic, but there is virtually no "groups" who aren't self
>> serving to some degree. Even self serving to the exclusion of others
>> who might be supporting.
>>
>> For an example of what I mean there is a Outdoors Channel on Youtube by
>> a very successful and wealthy YouTuber. He owns multiple ranches and
>> farms dedicated to his own hunting and fishing adventures. He has put a
>> lot of his own money into them. He deserves the right to the use of his
>> property as he sees fit and he has the right to exclude others from it
>> as he sees fit. In a recent video somebody trespassed on his land to
>> "poach" a deer. This hunter deserves to be punished for it. Loss of
>> deer certainly. Suspension of license without a doubt. Trespassing
>> charges definitely. The rich landowner was publicly discussing MURDER
>> and nobody seemed to bat an eyelash. I was stunned. He seems like a
>> nice guy on video. He is generous to his friends. Obviously he is
>> personable or he wouldn't be successful as a media personality. He said
>> if he caught the guy he would kill him. I won't be watching his videos
>> anymore. This is the sort of person who writes the rules or causes the
>> rules to be written.
>>
>> Yes, if I was wealthy, (which I am not) I could start a trust or a
>> foundation but after my death there is no assurance I could have that it
>> remain how I directed. Maybe (MAYBE) for the remaining lifetime of one
>> person. I once attended a dinner that was ostensibly about setting up
>> foundations using a foundation management company. 99% of their
>> presentations was NOT about setting up a foundation. It was a
>> commercial that you should give your money to THEIR foundation and just
>> leave them some general directions about how your wealth "should" be
>> used. They actually do manage a scholarship fund with money from a
>> group I knew of (but was not part of) whom I suggested use some excess
>> funds they could not legally just spend instead for a scholarship fund.
>> That organization no longer exists, so there is nobody left who has the
>> right to demand to see that the foundation is using the money as intended.
>>
>> Managing wealth for a legacy is difficult. Sam Would be appalled about
>> how WalMart has outsourced nearly everything offshore, and how his
>> descendants have embraced the anti gun anti hunter anti politics. I am
>> still surprised they continue to carry firearms and fishing tackle in
>> their stores. Its just about the money I guess. Screw the vision of a
>> dead man.
>>
>> I do not have an answer. There may not be a way to have the answer I
>> want. That my son or daughter or my grandson or granddaughter can pick
>> up a shotgun or a rifle, go out to the desert or the woods, and just go
>> hunting with nothing more than a single inexpensive license and the
>> basic gun safety rules I taught them as children. Maybe ask a farmer
>> for permission. (Remember WalMart? They are dictating to contracted
>> vendors that they prohibit hunting even when fields are not currently
>> planted in crops for WalMart.) I learned this from a lady who manages a
>> modestly large farming company. In her offices she proudly has on
>> display decoys her own dad and uncles used to call in birds over their
>> fields. She is not not an anti, but she is forced to be one. WalMart
>> is richer than she is and WalMart writes the contract. You can sign or
>> they just won't do business with you.
>>
>> Right now FPC, GOA, and IJ seem to be doing good work in the areas they
>> say they are, but I don't KNOW that will continue down the road. I
>> don't know it well enough that I could leave them a legacy level
>> inheritance. If I could be sure it would happen I might choose to leave
>> any truly legacy level gift of inheritance to strangers. Not truly
>> strangers, but small blocks of money to small starting businesses. To
>> the guy who starts a contracting company and hires his friend because
>> his friend has a truck and he can't afford one himself. To the ex-felon
>> who can't get a job so he starts his own business, because there is no
>> way he is going back to prison. To the guy fixing computers out of his
>> garage. To the person making suits with one sewing machine by hand
>> because they don't have another way to make money while battling their
>> way uphill through a college system that would rather you die in debt
>> than any other possible outcome. To the kid who just graduated from a
>> tech school and finds nobody is hiring in his field unless he packs up
>> and moves across the country or around the world. To a small group in a
>> new generation of those who are willing to work for themselves. One
>> shot in the arm and then its gone. I know 99% would take the money and
>> use it for their own ends, but those are good ends. Employ people,
>> improve their business, and feed their family. One might do what I
>> would do someday. I absolutely do not want the evil of massive
>> government bureaucracy getting one dispassionately evil claw into what I
>> leave behind if there is any way I can prevent it.
>>
>> Sorry for all the typos, poor structure, or readability issues. Sorry
>> for the rambling and ranting. This was written mostly in one shot with
>> only infrequent pauses to think for a second. It was inspired by your
>> comments and in the end has no real plot or purpose. Its more of an
>> expression of frustration of my own inability to have more control of
>> the direction of things, and recognition of the reality of some things.
>
> Much more briefly than you - - -  you inspire me to express my exasperation about a subject I think about often. First considering who I am speaking to, a subject I occasionally bring with various people.
> When I was about 12 or 13 years old my aunt gave me a set of encyclopedias. I would occasionally pick a book, open it and read whatever subject was on the page. For some reason i remember reading that at the time, there were approximately 4 billion people on this planet. Now - - - -  there is over 8 billion. Doubled in my lifetime alone.
> Then I think of the demand and increasing scarcity of electricity and the building of windmills and solar farms, Battery powered cars. The corporate and political manipulation of the petroleum industry. The food shortages in third world countries, and the manipulation of subsidized crop farming and beef cattle. The dwindling supply of fresh drinking water and fishing sources. Polluted air, and the government push to do away with petroleum power to "cure" global warming. And so on and on and on.
> All of the above and more that are all just attempts at treating the symptoms of the real problem rather than trying to cure the problem itself of overpopulation.
> Everyone. and I mean EVERYONE, I ever mention this to just simply shrugs their shoulders, and agrees with me. (Although this is all I can do also ) BUT it is the same shrugging of shoulders by all the politicians and world leaders to. WHO would EVER even mention this in ANY political election? World wide. They know it would be certain political death.
> And yet in the face of this overwhelming evidence some have even sacrificed their life in anti abortion efforts. Will do nothing to promote birth control in third world countries, Rather they send them more free  money, food, supplies, trade advantages,  to support their ever growing populations. India will soon out populate China, has water pollution problems yet they still haven't figured out that you shouldn't bathe in the same river that you deposit your bodily wastes and family dead.
> I could go on but. Gotta go


The first epiphany I recall was much more mundane I suspect than that.
We used to own a grocery store and cafe call Whittmann Grocery.  The
front counter of the cafe was often the town's equivalent of the cracker
barrel or wood stove in your generation.  No disrespect intended of
course.  One day in about 1970 (might have been 69, but I'm not 100%
sure) at 3-4 years old I was listening to adults discuss the gun control
act of 1968.  They were also discussing the implications in light of the
gun control act in 1934.  I just listened to what they were saying.  I
reached two conclusions, although one not until much later after I had
been exposed to how real politicians operate.

The first I voiced at the time.  "If the reasons they say are true why
don't they register ALL guns?"  That was quickly met with condemnation
(politely to a four year old) that the American people would never stand
for it.  FOPA did not exist at the time.  That didn't pass until 1986.
When the Brady bill went into a effect in 1994 I knew that was a first
step in a federal gun registry.  You can't convince me they ever
destroyed the background check data that came in.

The second thought is that it was a long slow process.  Incremental
divide and conquer.  Not that many people owned machine guns in 1934,
and not that many people operated a firearms business in 1968.  "It
doesn't affect 'me' so I'm not going to get worked up about it."

My first real world taste of divide and conquer was also from 1993/1994.
  In 1992 big anti hunter animal rights psycho groups managed to get an
initiative measure on the ballot in Arizona to prohibit all hunting,
fishing, and trapping on all public land in Arizona.  Big out of state
money poured in to support the ballot initiative and get it on the
ballot.  Every outdoor group in the state stood up to fight back.
Arizona Trapper's Association was one of many.  Rod & Gun Clubs,
hunter's clubs, fishing clubs.  Everybody.  Our outdoors groups poured
in their cash reserves to advertise, promote, and get out our vote.  In
1993 the same outdoor money poured in to the state with the exact same
ballot initiative except it just said trapping.  The Arizona Trappers
Association was nearly broke from standing with everybody the year
before, but they were left to fight the ballot initiative on their own.
The other outdoor groups didn't care enough about it to bother.  On
January 1st 1994 All leg hold trapping on public land was outlawed in
Arizona.  Offset jaws?  No.  Padded jaws?  No.  None.  Only a state
wildlife officer can set a trap on public land now.  Maybe you might
think, "Well good.  Trapping is brutal and should be outlawed."  Maybe,
but that is one less group of people to stand with you when the next
attack comes.  They divided and conquered.

Today there is another, "It doesn't affect 'me' so I'm not going to get
worked up about it," that is being used to divide and conquer.  The
assault on black rifles.  FUD's tend to think, "Well all I need is my
wood furniture deer rifle and my wood furniture shotgun for what I do.
What do I care if they outlaw rifles with plastic furniture?"  Another
is, "Most self defense shootings are resolved with 3 rounds or less so
you don't need more than ten rounds in your rifle or handgun anyway."

The 10 rounds or less is not about limiting you to what you need for
self defense.  Its about eliminating firearm ownership and
effectiveness.  Its incrementally banning one little thing by dividing
firearms owners.  I think Barack Obamma said it was a game of inches.
It might have been Bill Clinton.  All of that rhetoric runs together
after a while.  Some firearms owners will think, "Well it doesn't affect
me.  My six shooter is just fine.  I don't need a Beretta 92 anyway."

There is functionally no difference between a hunting rifle with a wood
stock and a rifle with a plastic stock, but if "they" can prejudice you
against black rifles then "they" can incrementally ban another thing by
dividing you/us.  When "they" come to take your flintlock muzzle loader
with body armor and machine guns nobody will be there to stand with you
because you dismissed them.  "That didn't affect you."

Yes, I generally also agree that the world is over populated.  Some very
intelligent and well known people have come out publicly to say much the
same thing.  I do not have a non repugnant solution.