The real scam & the scammers - Rev. J.T. Smith

Recently, I've come across two opinion pieces included in the daily AlterNet Top Stories  newsletter in my email that I'm subscribed to. The author of the pieces, John Stoehr, is of the opinion that third party Presidential candidates are all scammers because all third parties are a scam.

He didn't drink the Kool-aid.  Clearly, he guzzled and gargled with it.  He also assumes the only people who are attracted to third party candidates are those who solely vote during Presidential elections and take no other particular part in politics.  He claims those third parties are full of false promises, are in a sense demagogic, and are anti-democratic as a result.

Strange.  Every year, I see a smattering of third party candidates for positions up and down the ballot.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to recall that Bernie Sanders is not only currently a United States Senator representing Vermont, but he is also an Independent.  Strange.  (Obviously Sanders switched to the Democratic party from 2015 - 2016 and 2019 - 2020 in his run to be President, but the fact remains that he is now, once again, an Independent.  See my previous entries about his running as a Democrat.)

As a matter of fact, there are currently four Independent Senators: Bernie Sanders (VT) (2007 - present); Angus S. King Jr (ME) (2013 - present); Kyrsten Sienna (AZ) (2013 - present); and Joe Manchin  III (WV) (2013 - present).  And they are not the only Senators in American history that belonged to "Third or Minor Parties."  While there are no members of the House Of Representatives belonging to third or minor parties as of the writing of entry, there have still been many examples throughout American history.  To be fair, not all of those third and minority party members were originally elected as a third or minor party member.  Some changed parties and were still reelected, and some like Bernie Sanders were elected as a member of a third or minor party member.  And those examples are strictly referring to the federal government.  There are still more throughout state and local governments as well.

So while third party candidates are rare enough masse in American politics, they can and do still win.  And in winning they adjust the course of politics.

As I have noted previously, the corporate duopoly of American politics is the problem.  Alright,  technically it is a problem.  The two bigger problems which combine with the corporate duopoly are the real overall problem.  What are the two bigger problems?

First is the Electoral College.  I've already spoken about that travesty in previous entries.  The other relates to Duverger's law in political science.  America is a political system with single member districts, which means each district is represented by a single officeholder.  In contrast, systems with proportional representation usually have more representatives of minor parties in government.

Considering that America started with zero political parties, which George Washington would refer to factions and in fact Washington was strongly against because he felt that unity rather than division was necessary for a democratic republic to survive.

Ultimately the only reason third parties have yet to break through that wall is because enough people buy the lie that the only viable parties are the corporate duopoly, and fools like John Stoehr who think that we must do everything to make changes while maintaining that duopoly.

My father was a member of the Libertarian party.  His father wanted to name him Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but didn't know how to spell Delano.  My father, for reasons I neither understood nor really discussed with him, hated Roosevelt.  That was my personal introduction to politics aside from what was loosely taught in school.  Frankly I had no interest as it all stank of bovine defacation and held less than no interest in it for me.  Especially considering the President is not elected by the majority of Americans due to the Electoral College.

In November 2000, I wasn't registered to vote.  My personal take was that my vote doesn't count, and I pointed to the Presidential election as the prime reason for concluding that.  For clarification, in 2000 I was residing in Pennsylvania, a state that Al Gore, whom I would have voted for had I been registered to vote, won handily even without my vote.  Not only did Gore win Pennsylvania, he also won the Popular Vote.  We all know how that played out.

My first actual real involvement of any political kind was to add my voice to the chorus who stood against AT&T's intended buyout of T-Mobile as I was and am a T-Mobile customer and I don't want to be ripped off any more than I have to be.  And AT&T wants to charge me more for the same services I currently pay less for with T-Mobile.  I made calls and wrote letters to my local/federal government and signed every petition I could find to end that "merger".  When I learned the part those calls, letters, and petitions ultimately played , I started signing petitions and writing letters to elected officials involving the environment, ending the death penalty, government issues, and far more.  Feel free to check out my Pinterest page for a better understanding of where I stand.

I didn't get properly involved in "local politics" (which is how I see all human politics regardless of nationality) until 2012 when I registered to vote for the first time and I voted for Barack Obama because I saw the Mitt Romney's vision regarding women as a direct threat to all of my female friends, and who make up the majority of my friends.

While I have no interest nor intention of running for political office myself, my political activities haven't slowed.  Frankly, I loathe politics in general.  Unfortunately, I have to get involved to try to make change. 

As of January this year, the number of registered independent voters surpassed the number of registered Democrats and Republican voters.  Frankly, take that as a good sign. 

On a personal note, while I am registered as an independent, and with the exception of the times I briefly changed to Democrat simply to vote for Bernie Sanders in both the 2016 and 2020 primaries, and while I lean Democrat, I more closely align with the Green Party and the Working Families Party.  And for over a year now the Green Party is an official party that you can register to vote as in the state that I currently live in.

The movement to eliminate the Electoral College is growing.  Fighting the corporate stranglehold on American politics is ongoing.  If history teaches us anything, it is it can be done. Hopefully without a relative replay of the French Revolution.  Eliminating those will definitely help to allow third parties to be able to end the duopoly.  As will getting people to wake up to the fact that people should vote their conscience even when it's a third party candidate that most aligns with your conscience.

Voting for third parties is not a scam.  The scam is believing the only viable options are sticking with the corporate duopoly.

 

- Rev. J.T. Smith

 

 

Keep Your Own Data - Rev. J.T. Smith

I am old enough to remember when audio cassette tapes were the go-to method of storing music.  Not just the music albums from your favourite artists bought at the music store, but also the homemade mix tapes we made for ourselves and to give away to someone we liked and/or were hoping to woo.  And since cassette players were ubiquitous in cars, it was far easier than vinyl records.  Not to mention cheaper than CDs.  Cassettes also held more music (90 minute audio cassette tapes were easily available even at K-Mart, as were 120 min tapes) than CDs (only 80 minutes).

Obviously, as CDs gained traction, CD burners for your computer became widely available, and since CDs aren't susceptible to magnetic fields, and the costs of CDs in general came down, they overtook cassettes.  Even with their inherent limitation of not being able to fit as much music on them.

 

While I still keep my hardcopy music collection primarily on CD now, I still miss audio cassettes.

 

Similarly, I also miss VHS cassettes.  Albeit currently buried in storage, I still have my old VHS library.  Granted, my DVD collection has far surpassed my VHS collection overall, but I still have things like classic Doctor Who as it was aired on PBS in the States, meaning no adverts and all the individual eps within a serial were put together like a movie.

In terms of computers, admittedly, I finally adopted Windows 3.11 when Windows 95 had been out for a few years and Windows 98 was very soon to be hitting the market simply because I liked DOS.  I still miss DOS: my computer was only ever infected with a virus once while running DOS and I was able to wipe my hard drive completely, reinstall everything from 3.5" floppy disks that I knew were not infected, and I was fully back up and running in approximately in 45 minutes.  Good luck doing that now.

Contrary to what you may be thinking I am not a technophobe, and I do still try to keep up with the times.  Granted, I don't replace my mobile phone every year with the newest toy as I keep the same handset functioning as long as I can, replacing it only as I deem necessary.  But mostly due to costs and I'm a Scottish Jew.  (Think about it, it gets cheaper.)  But it's more than mere cost issues.

 

I don't immediately adopt the newest tech as I've watched my even techier (dunno if that's actually a word, but I'm using it anyway) get burned by the bugs that hadn't been dealt with by the first patch.  I also analyze not only the potential benefits but also the potential pitfalls.

As a result, I have not and will not get a DVR.  Not only do I not pay for television, aside from box sets of seasons and complete series of shows I like, meaning I will never be paying for cable/streaming, but DVR has a massive drawback that VHS never had.  It's a drawback that I witnessed from mother and father.

When they were living in Tennessee, they had accrued a sizeable collection of shows and movies on their DVR.  Until they maxed out their DVR's storage capacity.  Which served them well for a time.  The great drawback was when they changed carriers for their television.  Instantly, that collection on their DVR was permanently wiped out simply because they didn't own any of those recordings, and they had to turn in the DVR to their service provider and then rent a new DVR from their new service provider.  The beauty of VHS was that it didn't matter whether or not you had cable, nor did it matter who your television service provider was.  All that mattered was whether you still had access to a working VCR (Video Cassette Player, which allowed you to record your show of choice) or VCP (Video Cassette Player, which couldn't record but could still play back), and as for storage you just bought new blank VHS tapes and you were set to go on.

Prior to the general public being able to record music from the radio (adverts and all, or trimmed down to eliminate the adverts but with shorter versions of the songs than the actual albums would have) and shows from the telly, when a network decided to no longer air it, you were boned.  The ability for the common person to record onto medium that they could physically hold onto changed all that. 

Obviously, major entertainment corporations weren't happy about it as we were less dependent on them, so their profits dipped.  But it seemed the ability to time shift, the vaguely technical term for recording shows, whether radio or television, and playing them back whenever we wanted to, seemed like would be with use forever.

Then mobile phone apps and streaming came along.

The newer generations latched onto it as it's the latest and greatest.  All while missing the pitfall.  A pitfall that I partially discovered the hard way.

Among other artists I am a fan of DJ Heavygrinder.  At one point, I paid for her Love Letters mobile phone app.  Like the rest of my music collection in general, I didn't listen to it every day.  I was more of a sporadic thing.  That is until what I thought I had bought was more like rented as I can lo longer load it onto my phone.  It cannot even be found on Google Play.  And since I was never able to find a hardcopy, that album is gone for good.  I've looked.

Between streaming and tech like DVRs and cloud storage owned by other corporations which offer only the illusion of it being yours, corporations are once again gouging you.  Even when you're paying them money as they're still monetizing everything that you let them store for you.

I insist on buying shows on DVD and music on CD simply because as long as I have the equipment to play them, I will be able to watch/listen to them any time I want to, even when I have absolutely zero internet access.

And I've been trying to get friends and neighbours to realize this for ages now.  Unfortunately, the ones I couldn't convince are now discovering the hard way what I was trying to tell them.

"On June 24, 2024, the financially struggling entertainment behemoth Paramount began a large-scale defenestration of its vast public and free web archives. LateNighter and other entertainment news sites began reporting that Paramount took down footage from its MTV News archives (back to 1996), Comedy Central, and CMT (Country Music Television). The company wiped out decades of comedy, pop-culture news, and left-leaning political satire. Episodes of The Daily Show (TDS) dating back to 1999, the entire run of The Colbert Report, the Key & Peele sketch comedy show, and South Park are, with no warning to the public, no longer available. It’s likely to get a lot worse, since Paramount has now merged with the production company Skydance, with a deal involving billions in Wall Street debt funding—and the new co-owners want $1.5B more in cuts than Paramount was talking about last week."

 

Oops.  I'm thinking it's safe to say that what's happening with Paramount is merely the beginning.

 

Now, while I have been talking about audio cassettes, VHS, etc, I am not opposed to having a digital copy as well. However, there are two caveats.  First, that digital copy should really be in addition to a hardcopy, whether you're talking about books, music, or television/movies, etc.; and second, the only "cloud" storage should be physically accessible to you (e.g. external hard drive that you can disconnect from your computer and by extension the internet).

This also includes any personal projects you may be working on whether it be recordings of podcasts, books/articles you're writing, etc.

You should be certain that you can and do keep your own data.

 

by Rev. J.T. Smith

Some Things We Must All Keep In Mind Here - Rev. J.T. Smith

I originally wrote this while I was still in Acute Rehab at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital following my surviving a hemorrhagic stroke that initially left me completely paralyzed from the neck down on my dominant side.  I originally intended this to be for both the physical/occupational therapists and staff and their patients.  As I was slowly typing this one-handed, I concluded that it was appropriate for all the patients and staff, and not just in that hospital or in any specific kind of rehab..

 

 

 

SOME THINGS WE MUST ALL KEEP IN MIND HERE:

 

 

 

STAFF

 
It is your knowledge, your skill, your patience, your guidance, your kindness, and your heart which allows the patients with whom you work with to accomplish all that they do.  You never seem to give up on a patient even if it seems or feels like they’ve given up on themselves, and that action by itself can be a tremendous source of strength that you might not even realize.  Always remember with the appropriate humility that it doesn’t matter how much drive the patient has without your contributions, as the patients will be facing a much longer path ahead of them without your help.  Your contributions should never be ignored or overlooked, and you deserve the thanks of so many people.  Just please always remember that the patients know their body more intimately than you do.  They live there while you’re merely visiting.  Living through it is far more instructive than any amount of “observation,” and you may need to be occasionally reminded of that.

 

 

PATIENTS

You’ve already been through a lot in life.  You’ve survived, and that should never be taken for granted by anyone, including and especially yourself.  What will help you in your personal battle beyond what the staff can do for you is what you yourself bring in your heart.  Without your drive, your will, your desire, and your sheer tenacity, no amount of instruction or guidance will help you to succeed.  The staff working with you realizes that you have a difficult journey ahead of you, and they are willing to help you providing you make an effort.  No one said it will be easy; but once you get there, you’ll know how much it really is worth it!

Never worry about whether or not other patients are watching you.  

If they’re watching, it could just as easily be curiosity on their part.  Considering that they’re also facing their own personal battles, they’re most likely either cheering you on or watching in genuine curiosity.  Any other reactions don’t matter in this vein because you’re the one ultimately fighting your battle.  Always accept support as it means you’re not as alone as you may feel.

If they’re not watching you, most often it’s to help you concentrate on what you’re doing.  They’re leaving you completely alone simply because they don’t want to intrude on you or interfere with you.  You’d be amazed how many prayers of support that are still being sent your way.

Never fear even perceived failure.  It simply means that you’re trying and you’re learning.  You’ll learn and grow as long as you never give up on yourself.

Among so much else, you’ll learn about yourself most of all.  Including and especially how much strength you really have, and that’s something you’ll always have and can never be taken from you.  Remember while you’re learning that you know your personal situation better than anyone else.  Living it is more instructive than any amount of observation, and you may have to occasionally remind some people of that.

With hard work, and providing you don’t give up, you’ll really succeed far more than you might realize; but, only if you never give up.

 

- Rev. J.T. Smith 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here We Go Again With Not Voting For X Is A Vote For Y - Rev. J.T. Smith

 

Every four years America is treated to the Presidential election when Americans are directed to vote for one of two wealthy (anymore it's more like obscenely wealthy) candidates to run the country.  And for many decades now, American politics has been subsumed by a corporate duopoly divided between the Democrats and Republicans.  That duopoly has literally become its own industry that claims to cares about its customers (you guessed it: us) but in practice only serves to enrich itself.  And for free advertising, bring in major media outlets that drown out every other potential candidate.  Just look what happened to Bernie Sanders in 2016.

I've been hearing the trope about voting for a third party for decades now, about how it's a thrown away vote, or it's a vote for such-and-such candidate, etc.  I am NOT a fan of Trump by any means, so I will not vote for him.

The reality is that America desperately needs to break free of the corporate duopoly of the two-party system; but, as long as people continue to buy into the fallacy that it is the only viable system, which is a lie that you've been spoon-fed since you were in grade school and fed to you by the corporate "elites" who effectively control both parties with their extremely deep pockets, as long as Americans buy that lie, and as long as the Electoral College is allowed to remain in place, then America is screwed by it.

The only ways that I'm aware of to break that cycle is: 1) Permanently end the Electoral College; and 2) to finally vote for someone else, someone who is not so beholden to American corporatocracy, for enough people to both be registered to vote (finally starting to see some small movement on that, albeit infinitesimal) and for them to stop automatically simply voting for only either Democrats or Republicans.  That Senator Bernie Sanders held that office as an Independent for as long as he has is an indicator it can be done.

Eliminating the Electoral College is not impossible.  For things to do to achieve this, there are many avenues.  There are a plethora of petitions dedicated to this.  Sign all of them.  You can even start your own if you're so inclined.  You can also contact your government representatives, both state and federal.  You have the right, utilize it.  Write to and call your Representative and Senators.  And not just once and done, but repeatedly.  Don't let them ignore you.  To magnify your voice, also join or start a local group for this purpose.  For perspective, "gun rights" adherents and groups are calling in nearly daily.  It's one of the reasons Congress has failed so miserably to actually do anything particularly to curb gun violence  in America.  You can do the same.  As always, be polite or you'll be working against yourself.

Frankly I still think that if he had run as an independent in 2016 rather than falling into the trap of running as a Democrat against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, then we might finally have seen a solid crack in the system.  Especially considering Sanders was bringing in more small money donations and larger turnouts at his campaign rallies than Clinton and Trump combined.  But he was a clear and present danger to the established order which is why, since he was running as a Democrat, the Democratic Party was able to quash him and hand the nomination to Clinton.  Frankly, I could never vote for her as she never met a war she didn't like.

Until that break from the corporate duopoly happens, every cycle there will be people screaming that a vote for someone other than the corporate chosen candidate is a vote for the other corporate chosen candidate.

Want to keep Trump out of office?  Then do everything you can to make certain that the protections of the 14th Amendment are enforced, and throw his arse in prison where it likely belongs. 

Impossible is for the lazy.  Nothing is impossible if people start thinking rather than merely reacting.  It takes a lot of hard work and time invested.  As a hemorrhagic stroke survivor who's ambulatory again (after being completely paralyzed from the neck down on my dominant side, I'm not fully recovered YET), I am here to tell you impossible is for the lazy.   According to the laws of aerodynamics it's impossible for a bumblebee to fly.  Screw impossible and just DO it.

- Rev. J.T. Smith

 

Self Checkout Is An Utter Ripoff - Rev. J.T. Smith

 

 

It does not matter whether it's at Walmart, Target, your local grocer, or your local convenience store.  In every instance, self-checkout is a function of a corporation to literally slave your labour.

Every price on every product in every store covers more than merely replacing that product on the shelf for the next customer.  Obviously a portion of that price does pay for the store restocking that product and another portion is the profit for the store/corporation, but there's still paying the utilities (electric, telephones, heat, etc.) and the payroll for all the employees.  Including cashiers.

Earlier I referred to "slav[ing] your labour."  When you choose self-checkout, you are literally doing the job of one of the employees, specifically the cashier, and you are not being paid for it.  Not even a small discount for doing the job.  The corporation that own the store is making even more money off you as they get the profit(s) from the product(s) you are purchasing and they are not having to pay the expense of the payroll for the employee whose job you are doing for free.

Let's put this in perspective.

Regardless of where you work, what field you work in, or who you work for, the "company" [small company or multinational corporation], you are dealing with customers.  Even if only indirectly.  Now imagine if a customer came to your workplace and started doing your job without pay.  Sounds great being able to go to work and someone else is doing your job for you, doesn't it?

Or would your automatic response be realization that if someone else is doing your job, then you no longer have a job.

That is what is happening in every store that has self-checkout.  Trafficking is a new word for the slave trade.  To my mind, self-checkout is little more than innocuous voluntary slave labour.  Why should any company bother with hiring employees when they can get their customers to pay the company to do the jobs of the employees?

 I will NEVER go through self-checkout with my order in any store!  Any store that completely switches completely to self-checkout rather than actually hire people will be automatically boycotted by me.  I do not care how much "faster" it is to just do it yourself using self-checkout, I am not going to participate in something that causes people to lose their livelihood.

The pandemic demonstrated just who the essential workers are.  Thanks to self-checkout, companies are working to eliminate their positions so that unpaid, let alone underpaid, people can do the work.  More money for the uber-rich and more unpaid labour for everyone else.

by Rev. J.T. Smith

Gun Rights And The Second Amendment, The Reality Behind The Arguments Ignore - Rev. J.T. Smith

Am I the only one who finds it outrageous that any member of the American military and police forces must be fully trained in how to use and store any weapon before they're ever issued that weapon, yet a civilian can just buy any weapon they want without ever being trained or demonstrating that they've been trained first?  Am I the only one who thinks that everyone in America who even wants to purchase or even use a gun must be fully trained in how to properly use and store that weapon first? 

First things first, the Second Amendment of the American Constitution:

It would help to no end if Americans, especially those members of the NRA and their sycophantic followers, would actually learn the most important and opening words of the 2nd Amendment: "A well regulated militia".  Having enough money to pay for the gun and requisite ammunition as well as the patience to wait out any waiting period does NOT make a person a part of "a well regulated militia".

A bit of history which used to be taught in high school and probably still is but gets ignored or glossed over:

The United States began as the loose coalition of states, originally the 13 British colonies, that were brought together under the Constitution thus forming a central government that gave both unity and some cohesion to those states.  While there was a standing army (in this context, this term is simpler to use than "armed forces"), the Continental Army, that was controlled by the federal government, it was still necessary in time of war to augment it with militias that were formed, controlled, and maintained at the state level.  Militias were then what the National Guard is now.

This was the most expedient solution as those militias already existed and were the armed forces used to defeat the British army during the Revolutionary War.  What's more, it was believed that every able-bodied man (in this, yes, they were sexist) in a given age range as determined by the individual states would eventually serve in their local militia, and that they would maintain their own small arms equipment as needed.  Equipment that they would actually be trained thoroughly in how to properly use and maintain prior to being allowed to ever have such weapons.  Larger weapons, such as cannons and requisite ammunition, were stowed in the armoury when not in use.

It was specifically those very militias that are referenced in the Second Amendment.

[Related:

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/06/06/its-time-democrats-stop-agreeing-second-amendment-protects-individuals-right-bear]

Next, guns themselves:
The sole purpose of a gun is to maim and/or kill at a distance quickly and efficiently.  Any argument of what physically does the killing demonstrates a distinct mental disconnect (not to mention a severe case of cranial-rectal inversion).

What's more, all a drawn gun demonstrates is two things:

First, whether it's drawn or holstered, empty or loaded, a gun simply demonstrates fear.  The fear felt by the person who's carrying and holding the gun.  This includes the American police and military.  Other nations (e.g. Great Britain) have police forces that are not constantly armed with a firearm and are further trained to do something Americans find unthinkable: they actually talk down the criminal with the gun and disarm them without firing a single shot or brandishing their own weapon.  They're not completely defenseless as they do have collapsible batons and tasers, but those are not their first used option.  Instead, they use a far more dangerous weapon: their BRAIN.

The second thing a drawn gun demonstrates is that you are immediately the prime target of anyone else with a loaded gun.  This obviously includes the police, who actually are properly trained in the proper use and storage of their weapons before they are ever issued their weapons.

I have an idea: Everyone in the NRA hierarchy and everyone who panders to them (including every politician who accepts any money from the NRA) should be shot, preferably embarrassingly and unexpectedly.  Note I said shot and not killed.  This way, they might learn from the experience.  Especially if it's done in such a way that even if they're armed themselves it wouldn't actually help them in the slightest.  Though I think the exercise would need to be repeated several times for each gun worshiper before they wake up to the outrageous danger their lust for guns puts everyone in.

Another suggestion would be to start heavily taxing ammunition.  People will definitely stop and think before firing a bullet that costs $1000 and can never be reused.

It is long past time that the carnage made so readily enacted by guns comes to an end.

by Rev. J.T. Smith 

Another Trip. At Least I Didn't Lose My Head - Rev. JT. Smith

 While, unlike my trip to Mars this past July, I haven't been wanting to make this trip for decades, It's one that's interested me as a potential destination for a while.  Considering that it's nearly Halloween, it's appropriate that I wore my Halloween costume.

Due to its relative proximity to my domicile, this was merely a day trip.  And this time I had a couple friends with me for the ride.  Welcome to Sleepy Hollow, made famous by Washington Irving's short story The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow.

 

Go figure, the trip didn't go completely smoothly.  That my transit route took us through the Holland Tunnel (from my numerous trips to Long Island over the years) was an active choice on my part as I'm already with the traffic patterns there and, based on the map, looked to be relatively straight forward.  What I hadn't realized was just how much of Manhattan I was still contending with.  I also didn't realize that I was going to be going through Yonkers.  At least I didn't get lost.

One glitch actually worked out as a blessing in disguise.  For various reasons that are neither germane nor to be taken as an opinion, I don't generally carry much change on me.  Especially change for parking meters as I can typically avoid them.  Of course, that wasn't the case for Sleepy Hollow in late October and my ignorance of both the real layout of the town (maps only tell you so much) was on full display.  Thanks to an unintended later start than intended (just because my alarms are set and go off doesn't mean I necessarily immediately power up to them) and a need to answer nature's call, finding quick parking became something of a priority.

Thankfully, one spot proved immediately available.  As already noted, I didn't have any change for a parking meter.  It turned out that neither did either of my passengers.  Thankfully, a nice couple who were walking their dog had some quarters and gave them to us.  They'd already left before I discovered that the parking meter didn't work.

Of course, about an hour later we stumbled across the municipal car park.  And it was full.  No surprise on that last.

It's also no surprise that Sleepy Hollow fully played up on their ties to Washington Irving's story.  The  image of the headless horseman is emblazoned on all the street signs, etc.  It's even on the fire trucks from both fire departments.

Between one of my friends having difficulty with walking longer distances and hills, and the later than intended start, I didn't get to explore as much as I would have liked.  That didn't stop me from finding a location in town that is described by Washington Irving in the story, and serves as visual proof I was there.

I still haven't figured out what so caught the attention of the chap behind me.

The transit back took longer than the transit out.  Yet another glitch.  Because I know that trying to take the George Washington Bridge cannot be accurately described without "cluster" being attached to one of the words, and my familiarity with the Holland Tunnel, I tried setting my satnav to take me via that route.  The result was that I ended up in Brooklyn and no where near the tunnel.

Ultimately, we were able to re-traverse the tunnel and I was able to get everyone home safely.

I think I'll try again next year.  Only either alone or with different passengers, and maybe a little earlier in the month.  Although I have no doubt that Sleepy Hollow is like Mars in that it'd be a nice place to visit any time of the year, I also suspect that October is the best month considering the obvious tie-in between The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow and Halloween.

by Rev. J.T. Smith

Something I've Been Wanting To Do For A Long Time - Rev. J.T. Smith

From July 7 - 9, 2022, I finally made a trip that, at least part of, I've been wanting to do for over 30 years.  Granted, there are parts that that were really just lucky bonuses that I'm simply glad happened.

 

 

July 7, 2022: Greetings from the Hard Rock Cafe in Pittsburgh. I took that after getting my hotel room.  This is one of the bonuses, frankly.  In 1989, I was able to visit the Hard Rock Cafe in London.  That's where I originally got the cap I'm wearing in the picture.  (Unfortunately, even if I could relocate the t-shirt I got from the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City, I sincerely doubt that it would fit me anymore after all the weight I've put on since the stroke I survived in 2013.)  On June 20 of this year, I finally made it to the Hard Rock Cafe in Philadelphia, which is where I got the t-shirt I'm wearing in this picture.  While I finally started laying the ground work for this trip shortly before I went to the Hard Rock in Philadelphia, it wasn't until I went there that I decided to go to the one in Pittsburgh.  Other than cost of heating there, they're really fun to go to.

Greetings from Pittsburgh from just outside the Hard Rock Cafe there.  You'd never know from this picture that it was gone 9 PM at night when I took it nor that it was much darker out at the time. 

 

Taken within moments of the first, just east along the river.

 

Pittsburgh skyline outside of the Hard Rock Cafe (which was behind me and to my right).

 

July 8, 2022: Greetings from Mars.  I've been wanting to go there ever since 1990 when The Morning Call had a sweepstakes tying to the original Total Recall where the winner would get an all expensed paid trip to Mars [Pennsylvania].  I couldn't go then for numerous reasons.  Now I can finally say I've been to Mars.  It's a tiny little town, but I knew that before making the 350+ mile trip out there.  Since I had no particular expectations, I couldn't be disappointed. 😎

 

These were taken in a small community museum at the old train station in Mars.  They're only open 4 hours on Fridays and run by local volunteers.  Which means I got lucky as I scheduled this trip around my work schedule and other than generally looking around just to say I'd been there I hadn't thought about museums, etc.  The one on the right is is a closeup of the book. It was the tag is that grabbed my attention. 😁  

 

This was in a small room on the side of what to be an active auto repair garage that focused on antique vehicles and is adjacent to the museum.  Go figure they have a Mars fixation in their movie posters. 

 

Since I still had plenty of time on Friday, I went to the Evans City Cemetery where the opening of the original Night Of The Living Dead was filmed.  While I hadn't found the exact spot yet, at least I've seen that Rape has died.

 

Still trying to find the original location used in The Night Of The Living Dead.

 

I was trying to do this from memory as, while I've only seen the movie once a few years ago (thanks to Svengoolie on MeTV) I'm clearly an idiot.  I finally resorted to using the live view function in Google Maps to try to locate actual site.  What initially confused me was that when using that function they'll give you a still picture of your destination to compare it to, only the headstone in that comparison still was a completely different style.  When I later looked for stills from the movie, the headstone matches this.

 

I located this in Evans City.  Definitely a misnomer as it's really a small town.  A larger small town, but a small town nevertheless. 😎  To be fair, Night Of The Living Dead is far from my favourite movie.  I just think it's cool to have been able to go here and see where parts of the movie were filmed.

 

 

 

 

 

Basically, this is also the movie that put Evans City on the map.

 

I found the fountain of youth. (Now if it just weren't contaminated.)  This is the link that led me to it and explains its background.

 

 

This is just some things I picked up so that I can demonstrate, beyond my photos, that I've been to Mars. 😁

 

 

July 9, 2022: This is the actual location and angle where the couple at the beginning of Night Of The Living Dead was shot.  I took this on my final day of my trip before returning to my domicile, which I affectionately refer to as Area51, on the opposite side of the state.

 

Since I wasn't looking at a deadline in terms of getting back I, unlike on my trip out resulting in my primarily sticking to Interstate highways, I instead took the scenic and shorter route.  As a result, one of my pit stops was Lincoln Caverns & Whispering Rocks (which actually consists of 2 separate caverns in relatively close proximity to each other though they were formed about 4 million years apart).  I'd frankly forgotten just how treacherous the stairways in them could be.  That didn't stop me from doing it though.  Slowed me down, but didn't stop me. 😎

 

This was taken from the lowest point in Lincoln Caverns, the lower of the two. 120 feet below the surface.  Impossible is for the lazy.

 

While somewhat closer to the surface, don't let the lighting fool you. These were taken deep in the cave.  I admit, I probably should have tried night mode on my mobile phone's camera.

 

 

This entrance to Whisper Rocks is literally the highest point I reached here.  And yes, I went in there, too.  (I just didn't think to take any pictures inside.)

 

This is the top of the stairs you have to climb just to get to/from Lincoln Caverns.  Whisper Rocks is higher still up the hill and is reached via a well maintained path.  I definitely got my exercise in here. 😁😎

 

Part of the reason I went here as a pit stop was because I saw the signs for Lincoln Caverns and couldn't actually remember if I'd ever been there before.  When I was little, we used to go to the various caves/caverns across much of PA as well as the Shenandoah Valley, etc.  Even once I arrived here, I still wasn't certain.  The tour group consisted of the tour guide, myself, and a family of 4 who were traveling to near Hershey from Erie.  So I wasn't alone in that regard.  I simply had no passengers aboard Darkwind (people name their boats, I name my cars/trucks,etc.).  Once we reached the original entrance to Lincoln Caverns, that's when it all felt familiar to me.  Granted, the last time I was there I was around 9 or so.  I've been wanting to something like this since the stroke, but usually I figured on going to Lost River Caverns as it's relatively small and very local to where I live.  Lincoln Caverns is literally along Rte 22 (or is it old Rte 22?) and was not in the slightest out of my way.  Not remembering it (unlike Lost River Caverns, which I've been to numerous times over the years) just made it both more interesting and compelling.  It also allowed me to prove to myself that, even though I'm no longer able to move as quickly as I used to, I'm still able to enjoy going to public caves again.  It may not seem like much, but one more barrier created by my stroke has fallen.

 

I returned to Area51 from my trip late that night.   While I haven't figured it all yet, I'm hoping for more road trips in my future.

 

by Rev. J.T. Smith

We Desperately Need To Get Off Oil, But Batteries Are A Bad Idea For Fueling Vehicles! - Rev. J.T. Smith

I am in no way supporting Big Oil with what I'm about to say as petrol as a fuel is an environmental disaster.  There is no denying that at all.

That said, batteries are not the right way to go either for several reasons.

One of which is that batteries all wear out eventually.  Just look to your mobile phone and you'll realize this.  Then again, far too many feel a desperate need to always have the latest and greatest product and update their mobile phone every year or so.  A fact that manufacturers don't only realize but actively count on and encourage this behaviour.  Consumerism at all costs.  Great for the bottom lines of corporations around the world but utter shit for the environment.

Car companies, including Tesla, are counting on this short-sighted behaviour too.  Though of course they won't admit it as that would be bad for sales.

One of the more subtle ways of encouraging this is to place in the instructions that come with the device, including electric cars, the notion that batteries supposedly no longer develop a memory the way nickle-cadmium [Ni-Cad] batteries used to so you should recharge them once they drop to 15% rather than run them flat first before recharging.  They tell you this, not because they really want you to get the most life out of your battery (FYI, there's zero profit in it for corporations for you to not have to replace the batteries sooner!), but because they want to sell you more batteries and/or a new device sooner.

These days, the only thing that's kept around longer than the rechargeable batteries that run them are vibrators.  Then again, a dead vibrator is still a dildo. 

Now, I grant that lithium ion [Li-Ion] batteries don't develop a memory the way that Ni-Cad ones did, they do still develop that memory only over a longer period of time.  Longer enough, the manufacturers figure, that you'll be throwing out your old device and replacing it with a new one before the battery will no longer hold a charge.  But if you really want your rechargeable batteries to actually last as long as they can before they're permanently dead, then you should always run them until they're flat before you recharge them and you should recharge them until they're fully recharged before using them again.

In the meantime there's still the matter of the fact that it still takes hours to fully recharge a battery from flat (the more powerful the batteries, the longer it takes to recharge them); and as noted earlier, if you don't run the battery to flat prior to fully recharging completely you will shorten the total overall life of the battery.  (This is the end result of the aforementioned memory.)  I know this for a fact by taking two identical modern mobile phones (I inadvertently got two identical handsets, one from each of two people, due to my previous mobile phone dying completely after 4 years of service, and I kept the second as a backup) and ran the first one battery to flat every time prior to fully recharging.  That handset started getting a bit worn so I started using the second handset fresh from the box.  Only with the second handset I decided to go against my better judgement and started recharging every day or so regardless of how low the battery was.  The end result was that the battery of the second handset ended up needing to be recharged as often after one year as the first one did after two hours.  Now, neither handset will last 24 hours before going flat. And unlike Top Gear, who would fake things to get their end result, I didn't fake any of it.  That's because batteries typically lose approximately 80% of their capacity after a couple of years.

Regardless, if you do decide to keep your electric vehicle for long enough, you'll have to deal with the battery.  While some companies like Nissan are trying to make it that you would only have to replace a bad cell rather than the entire battery replace the entire battery, it's currently more common and more likely that your dealer won't be the ones to deal with individual cells; so you'll still end up having to replace the battery outright to keep that car going the way petrol fueled vehicles can currently.  At which point you have a piece of trash that still contains components that still can't be recycled; and that, in turn, continues to have a toxic environmental impact.  Yes, more of the components can be recycled, but the cost of lithium is low right now because the relative demand is low currently, but that'll change over time.  And all of this presumes you'll still be able to get a matching replacement battery when the time comes, anyway.

I fully acknowledge the fact that petrol fuel is an environmental disaster, but one of the advantages of a liquid fuel is that as long as the engine/motor still uses that fuel then it doesn't matter what shape the fuel tank takes as long as it fits into the hull of the vehicle.  And replacing a liquid fuel tank is a lot cheaper than replacing the battery on an electric vehicle.  And one of the beautiful things about classic cars is that we can still drive them now, decades after they were manufactured.  If the trend of throwing away battery operated devices, either as soon as or before the batteries will no longer hold a charge, then things like classic car shows will be a thing of the past.  Classic car shows aren't  singing the praises of Big Oil; they're showcases of lasting and durable engineering and works of art created from metals.

Even more troubling than the technical issues, there's still the slave labour and environmental problems inherent in the manufacture of batteries.

We would do far better with a hybrid car consisting of a hydrogen fuel cell backed up with solar panels.  But thanks to irrational fears due to a misunderstanding of just what downed the Hindenburg, it'll be a long time before this is more widely accepted.  And thanks to current economics, it'll be cheaper to replace an entire vehicle than only the battery when the battery can no longer hold a charge.  Batteries are a stopgap measure at best.

by  Rev. J.T. Smith