Anne N. Mouse: Blog

Asstr? Dead? Alive? Honey trap? Who knows? I'd guess that in some ways Asstr represents the old web before google realized that it could rule the world, and that it wanted to do so. There is doing evil by letting evil run rampant, and there is doing evil by trying to control everything that is done and said...

I've been enjoying Variations On a Theme (a story published here) and have to agree with the philosophy that the author puts forward. GOD is good, but in order to be good, GOD must allow men to be evil.... Why? Otherwise there would be no proof that there were good men...

Okay enough of that, just know that the continued disappearance of asstr is in the same vein as Amazon refusing to fill my order for To Think I saw it on Mulberry Street... It is censorship in practice.

Neither place may be healthy, but I think that health and safety have become the newest (though they really aren't that new) in the arsenal of means to control by those who think they know better than me how my life ought to be lived. I take no undue risks, yet at times, I'm sure that having lived my life that way I've missed things... Like airborne school.... Mountain training... Survival training at all, well you get the picture.

So... Censorship didn't start out on my mind, but as you can see it has entered front and center. What bothers me is when large corporations start to act like governments. For to be honest they have less restrictions on them than does the govt of the USA... Not that the govt has paid much attention to the restrictions placed on it lately. Indeed I'd say that the bureaucratic state has come to think of itself much like the Mandarin Caste of China... The Mandarins had more real power than the emperor and exercised it accordingly to the point that everyone ended up a member of a slightly criminal to majorly criminal organization if they weren't inside members of the Mandarin organization.

I.E. The bureaucrats of the USA consider themselves the rulers of the people, rather than the servants of the people. And that is producing bad results.

I've been under the weather some, a bit of the flu I think, but hey, I can't get in to see a doctor, 'cause COVID... So it might be COVID. Not too much worse than a cough, upset stomach and general muscle aches.

Anyway, that has been my week.

As most of you all know I've been working my hands off. Almost quite literally! I was scheduled to work 48 hours this week and actually worked 49. To be honest I could have worked more, but I'm somewhat at my limit as far as time spent at work! This is somewhat good for my wallet (though I never seem to get far a head when something important eats my emergency fund [which I can never seem to keep over $1000 USD]) after all I nominally make (before the govt in their kind benevolence takes their share) 560 per week, if I get no over time!

Therefore, needless to say, I haven't much time to write!

I honestly don't know how good or bad what I'm going to put here is, but it stands now, and may get slightly edited later (or added to) So without further ado:

To think 'twas ban'd 'pon Mulberry Street!
The guardians of 'nice' who are as nasty as their intellectual forbears,
Have decided that six books written by that great bomb thrower, Dr Seuss,
Are quite offensive, and far beyond the pale, so they mustn't be seen by our youth,
They are but the latest in the efforts of the new guardians of 'nice' to cleanse our history,
Of every thing that is objectionable… Rather than make their case, of why,
The guardians of nice say Burn! Oh they haven't yet,
But give them time, and fail to stand up to their censorship,
And burning of books is the least they'll do!
For according to the new nannies of 'nice' there are folks who are quite beyond the pale,
They say such tripe knowing the youth whom they've educated are devoid of any knowledge of history,
So the nannies of 'nice' like their nasty forbears are apt to begin the letting of blood,
Of those people whom they have designated 'evil' though history would show the nannies of nice to be, The calumnious purveyors of fiction that 'twas the hallmark of their forbears,
For I hate to tell the youth of today, but Hitler was a man of the left,
A socialist before he was a German, and those they claim to be emulating in fighting 'nationalism' were a very murderous lot,
And 'tis doubtful that those who don black masks and assault those with whom they disagree have enough knowledge to understand,
Fascism looks a lot like them!

Yeah we had a bit here. Not as much as I hear hit Texas... But for certain areas of California, snow is an unwelcome event... Now I mostly don't stay in the central valley any more... Working out north and high in the mountains means that I did expect snow, which was there, but not near as much as we might like. Then again the area I work in is high desert for a reason! Like we usually measure rain fall in inches (apart for the drops!) most years.

So will I be writing any more stories? Probably not as long as I'm lifting lumber for a living. For some reason that leaves me exhausted to the point that these blogs are even getting a bit less often....

Safety glasses still fogging... Well it did snow! Boot report: I purchased a pair of Keen Utility Foot wear (read boots with a 6" upper or there about) I like them somewhat. They seem comfortable to wear, but I'm still too much in the sawdust and probably should have picked up an 8" boot. The other issue seems to be that the original laces in these boots will not hold a knot... It is worse than using a leather thong... Which I used for a while in my Georgia Boot Logger style boots. The reason that I bought the Keens was that the Georgia Boot Rumbler style boot didn't stand up to me pushing heavy loads... The upper separated. I may try to get them to a cobbler (if there is anyone plying that trade...) if the pandemic ever eases (Or if Kate Brown ever eases her trip into fascism) I'm of the opinion that at this point the lockdowns are at best counterproductive. Then again I've heard it said that the absolute best that ever results from socialism is mendacious mediocrity....
Take care all!

I'm still trying to find an acceptable solution to the wet nose, fogged lenses situation that winter brings when trying to wear a face mask in temperatures low enough to cause one's breath to condense. I haven't looked up the incidence of e. coli on surfaces other than restrooms, but it might give me some indication of how efficacious masks are...

On the automobile front, I got the lug bolt out of my front wheel on the Geo the hard way... I had to take it to a machine shop... (which meant pulling the hub... lots of skinned knuckles for someone....) pressed the bearing out then removed the broken stud, and replaced it... Was wishing for unfettered access to a FADOL machine tool, as I threatened to cut channels so that I wouldn't face that problem again... Probably as soon as I can find something in the AWD category that I can afford the Geo goes on the market. I've sort of decided that for the time I've driven it I over paid... But then what I didn't know was: 1. It had over sized aftermarket rims on it... 2. Rims required oversized (difficult to find [more on this latter]) lug nuts....
3. Lug bolts are 10! mm (tiny) and require only inch pounds of torque....
4. Back to difficult lug nuts, 10 mm bolts originally come with a tiny acorn nut that can easily pull through after-market rims. Thus need to have oversized (on the outside) nuts... This also means they are even easier to over-torque (reason for one bolt breaking)

Other assorted but not overwhelming (without the lug-nut problem) mechanical issues that one might expect in a seriously down market car of the age of the Geo...

Writing (what you hoped to hear) nothing to post here, but working on something I may attempt to take commercial... We shall see when I get more than a few hundred words done on it. The up side? If I can find all of it, I have a handwritten manuscript that I'm reworking that is in excess of 200,000 words... Even finding part of the manuscript will help.... :) Which I've done... But the part I found is the middle!