Brexit Commemorative Coin

Coins aren't just medium of exchange, they also can be used to convey messages and record historic occasions.

The Royal Mint today is striking fifty pence coins to commemorate and celebrate Brexit.

Withdrawal from the European Union 2020 UK 50p Coin

The commemorative coins are offered in brilliant uncirculated condition, proof condition, and in a special set with the commemorative from when the UK joined the EU - a Hello and Goodbye set as it were which per their website, seems to already be sold out.

It's the end of an era, and when looking at the special set, you see Queen Elizabeth II as monarch throughout the period from 1973 to today, with both her younger self and today's stately portrait adorning the coins.

There's also a commemorative gold sovereign being offered, but it appears the mintage of it is already sold out.

Interestingly enough, they have opened up the mint and provided limited spaces for Brits to come in and strike their very own Brexit 50p coins, but as you might guess, all the spaces are already booked for the event.

I think I need to buy a BU or proof coin to mark this rather historic event as the UK exits the EU and becomes its own fully sovereign nation once again.

Elizabeth Warren Wants To Rewrite The Ant And The Grasshopper For College Goers

The fable of the Ant and the Grasshopper is a cautionary tale, and dare we say, a morality tale as well?

In it as you may already know, a hardworking and thrifty ant works through the summer putting away food and preparing for winter. The grasshopper, on the other hand, gallivants around making music and doing nothing to prepare nor setting aside any resources for food as it lives the good life in the now.

Come winter, the ant, having prepared, used thrift, and delayed its gratification, is well prepared for winter.

Not so the grasshopper.

Now Elizabeth Warren wants to turn this upon its head.

Warren want to take the saved surplus from those silly little ants who planned, were thrifty and even took out loans for their (or their chidren's) education and repaid them - and then give it to the partying grasshoppers who neither scrimped and saved, nor repaid their student loans.

Fox: Elizabeth Warren confronted by Iowa dad over student loan plan, saying people paying for tuition would get 'screwed'

After all, if you scrimp, save, and delay gratification so you or your children can have a better life later, then according to Warren and her supporters you're just a sucker, a sheep waiting to be sheared of the wool that was saved up for winter to be given to her supporters in exchange for votes.

No thanks.

An Offer They Will And Have Refused

To no one's surprise, the Palestinian Authority and other organizations have rejected Trump's peace plan with a thousand nos. The Detroit News: Trump's Mideast plan dismissed by Palestinian advocates in Detroit area

Also to no one's surprise, Rashida Tlaib condemned it right after recently re-tweeting a blood libel about Jews.

More interestingly, Debbie Dingell, inheriting her seat from her husband, also condemned it, which while not completely surprising considering the very large Arab population in her district, it was still interesting to see as her objections showed she was just repeating Pali talking points.

Being a deal that required the Palis to actually uphold their obligations and make concessions, just as the Israelis made some major concessions, it wouldn't work.

Because the peace plan reflected reality and didn't allow the Arabs to realize their rejectionist fantasy to drive the Jews into the sea, it was a non-starter and they rejected out of hand.

In short, Trump just again highlighted that it's not Israel that's the obstacle to peace in the region, but the Palis intransigence and refusal to negotiate in good faith for peace rather than continuing rejecting Israel's existence.

Detroit: We Have Had Insufficient Time To Arrange For Graft Opportunities

The City of Detroit decided to extend its ban on legal recreational marijuana sales in the city, for the alleged reason that they need time to figure out how to make sure it helps employment in the city and keeps those terrible suburb people from setting up well-functioning dispensaries and cashing in on the deal, and of course, to ensure decent opportunities for graft.

The Detroit News: Detroit Council extends ban on recreational marijuana sales to spring

Meanwhile, illegal sales of marijuana in Detroit continue non-stop while the City Council tries to figure out how they can milk this cash-cow of legal sales. Hilariously, they're claiming what they're doing by delaying it is to ensure employment for Detroiters - while preventing such businesses from opening in the city and actually employing Detroiters, natch. Even more hilariously, they claim that recreational marijuana sales is an opportunity to as they actually claim "make Detroiters whole" after the city bankruptcy and economic downturn.

That is highly unlikely, legalized marijuana sales and taxes on same is simply not a panacea for decades of financial mismanagement especially as there's no sign the council has learned the lessons of the past mismanagement. The city council purposefully delaying it until they figure how to get their fingers in the till of recreational sales make it even less likely to be such an overwhelming and overstated benefit will ever occur.

Democrats Announce A Do-Nothing Governor For A Do-Nothing Response

The Democrats, in their wisdom have announced that Michigan's governor Gretchen Whitmer will deliver the response to President Trump's State of the Union speech.

Well, after an impeachment that will accomplish nothing, they might as well have their response delivered by a governor who has accomplished nothing.

The Detroit News: Whitmer set to deliver Democratic response to Trump's State of Union address

The best part so far:

The response is usually given by an elected official whom opposition party officials tag as a rising star.

If Whitmer, after trying and failing to give Michigan the highest gas tax in the nation and not accomplishing much, if at all since is a rising star among Democrats, their bench is all sorts of weak.

Hickory Dickory Dark, The Clock Has Jumped The Shark

Since the fear of an all-out nuclear war has declined since the end of the Cold War, the Bureau of Atomic Scientists are in a desperate search for relevance and craving attention.

With a flourish of the dramatic, and massively overstating reality, they announced that this year Doomsday Clock moves closest to midnight in 73-year history.

Blink.

Yep, right now, according to the BAS we're at this very moment the closest we've come to annihilation ever.

As if.

With the threat of total nuclear annihilation at one of its lowest levels ever, with decent relations between the US and Russia, missiles off alert launch-on-warning status, the Bureau of Atomic scientists chose to advance the clock to the closest it has ever been to scary midnight, past even the highest tensions of the Cold War.

Why? Mission creep.

It's no longer all-out nuclear war they're warning about, but instead they've announced it's due to climate change and governments failing to do what they feel is good policy. Yes really from their FAQ:

In 2020, the Science and Security Board set the time to 100 seconds to midnight, largely because of worldwide governmental dysfunction in dealing with global threats. Before 2020, the closest the hand was set to midnight was two minutes; in 1953, after the United States and the Soviet Union each tested their first thermonuclear weapons within six months of one another, and 2018, largely due to nuclear risk and the rising threat of climate change.

Verily, the Bureau of Atomic Scientists' clock has just officially jumped the shark.

Abby's First Independent Drive

Her first drive as driver-in-command, with no parent or other controlling authority present, she chose to take her sister to Starbucks for some sister time sitting down with a couple hot chockys and enjoying her first trip.

While only a mile and a half from the house, both parental units were a bit nervous, especially as that area is right by a busy intersection and there's a lot of idiot drivers in that area.

She made it there and back with no problems (we knew that would be the case, but you worry anyways) and she enjoyed her independence in doing so.

A couple hours later she took her sister to her Volleyball team practice at school. Again a close trip but again without any parental guidance, and on the way back completely alone in the car.

As expected, she did it with aplomb and no issues.

The kid is sure growing up fast, heck they both are.

Archaeological Discovery: Volcanic Eruptions Can Turn Your Brain Into Glass

Everyone has heard of Pompeii, fewer of Herculaneum, another city also buried in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in October 79 AD.

Herculaneum, on the other hand, is less well-known, mainly because while Pompeii got the ash of about 4-6 meters worth which was easier to remove, Herculaneum got 25 meters of ash and was buried beneath it, along with a heavy pyroclastic surge that instantly toasted the remaining inhabitants but unlike at Pompeii it carbonized and preserved wood in objects such as roofs, beds and doors but turned the people there into skeletons rather than covering them in ash as at Pompeii.

Lots of interesting discoveries have come from both Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Herculaneum has surviving two-story Roman villas, as well as some preserved scrolls that scientists are still trying to be able to safely unroll and read, and many other well-preserved ancient artifacts.

The most recent discovery is that the pyroclastic flow didn't just kill people at Herculaneum by heat, it killed them with so much immediate heat that it vitrified the victim's brains, turning their brains into glass.

The Detroit News: Mount Vesuvius blast turned ancient victim’s brain to glass

Stephen King And Ilhan Omar: The Wages Of Intersectional Wokeness

Stephen King, while otherwise a pretty conventional leftist, managed to step into controversy by failing to be sufficiently woke when he claimed he looks for quality in stories, not diversity uber alles.

This had lead to a firestorm of criticism against him by the woke left for his failure to kneel at the altar of diversity.

Some of those outraged are certainly off in far left field indeed.

Pluralist: Muslim Writer Rages at Stephen King Because No One Would Publish Her Ilhan Omar Children’s Book

So this writer is trying to grab on the coattails of the Stephen King controversy to complain that her children's story about Ilhan Omar is not getting published. Because a renowned horror writer who has sold millions of copies and an unknown woke children's author are totes the same thing. Under the left's concept of quality and diversity she would be considered comparable, so there's always that.

However I don't think her failure can be laid at the feet of Stephen King or even a lack of publisher woke-ness in an way shape or form.

Instead, I suspect its far less about racism but instead about quality because no one wants to buy a children's book with an ending that reads:

And so she [Ilhan Omar] married her brother and another man at the same time and they all lived happily ever after (until the affair and she got PTSD)....

I just don't see much of a market for that.

Stupid Criminals: How To Not Talk Yourself Out Of A Ticket

Americans have the right to remain silent, but most, while having that right, really lack the ability.

Generally, when you're caught speeding, it's unlikely you will be able to talk your way out of the ticket.

Most people just accept the fact they were speeding, take the ticket and deal with it.

Some people try to talk their way out of it.

And a minority of complete morons manage while trying to "talk their way out of it" to dig themselves in way deeper as did today's example of a stupid criminals:

The Detroit News: Driver threatens to kill officer, burn down police station after he clocks 130 mph on I-75, police say

Because nothing helps you win friends, influence people, and not get yourself out of a ticket like threatening the cop who gave you the ticket. It's a real winning strategy.

As one may expect, and to no one's surprise, such a threat really didn't improve the situation.

The driver was charged with reckless driving, having no operator’s license, hindering and obstructing a police officer, and intimidation – threatening to burn a police facility, authorities said.

Quite an effective way to talk yourself up from a civil infraction into a whole pack of misdemeanors, which could have also had a felony tacked on had the prosecutors or police felt like doing so.

Next time, try being polite and see how that goes.

Ghosting In Facebook Marketplace

People in general are indeed strange folks.

I have an item up for sale on Facebook marketplace and I've been getting some weird results.

On multiple occasions people have contacted and offered a reasonable amount for it below the listing price, which I accepted.

Some make an offer and then back out when it is accepted.

But others, once they agree on the price then ghost away and never bother to complete the sale, wasting everyone's time and not so much as a "I changed my mind message".

Some have been so nice as to arrange a time to pick it up and then never show at the time nor contact again which is even more annoying.

So ghosting is apparently an acceptable thing to do on social media marketplaces after agreeing to buy something. Ah well, people are indeed strange.

Apparently facebookers don't go by the offer--acceptance--contract--follow-through model of getting things done, which is irksome.

Getting A Drivers Licenses From The Secretary Of State

In all the excitement of Abby passing her test, I forgot to relate the customer service experience at the Secretary of State (think DMV to you non-Michiganians) when we went in to get her license.

First, the SOS office (an apt acronym) is rather Soviet in efficiency: You have to stand in a line in order to get in a line. Yes, really.

So we stood in line for quite awhile, just to get a number for our spot in the line to be served. Then we waited in line some more.

Time passed rather slowly and it was well over an hour and a half before we got to get her the license.

Interestingly, the Secretary of States office had a new smell throughout it that was new since we were last there when she got her learners permit and we got to enjoy it the whole time we waited there.

The skunky smell of marijuana absolutely pervaded the place.

Now that marijuana is legal in Michigan, people seem to have no problem stinking up the place.

You'd think now it was legal they'd buy some less malodorous stuff. Also, its kinda both gutsy and dumb to show up to get your license renewed absolutely reeking of weed, especially with no driving under the influence posters festtoned on the walls. Then again, it probably was hilarious for them to get their license photos taken while stoned, 'cause being stoned and driving go together just great, right?

There's been no time to develop an etiquette on legal marijuana usage in Michigan yet, and it shows.

But, one would think having the courtesy not to cause everyone around you to get a contact high, in a government office no less, from how much skunky scent you're giving off would be an easy one to figure out. I mean, if there was a cop outside when the users left pretty sure it would be an easy for the officer to follow his nose and end up giving them a driving under the influence charge the second they got behind the wheel.

Ah well, temporary paper license finally in hand with the real one to follow by mail, fresh cold air awaited outside.

Funny How That Always Manages To Happen Under Socialism

The daughter of the socialist dictator of Angola now just happens to be the richest woman in Africa with a net worth of $2 Billion.

BBC News: Isabel dos Santos: Africa's richest woman 'ripped off Angola'

As you can read in the article, she didn't exactly make it via investments, but by standard socialist corruption.

I'm sure you're as shocked and surprised as I am to learn that socialist dictators, while claiming to be for the people, still somehow manage to rip their nation's riches off to feather their own families' nests and leaver their people in poverty.

She joins Hugo Chavez's daughter among others of the children of Socialist leaders that manage to make it big by ripping off their own nations and getting the ill-gotten gains from their dictator parents under the banner of Socialism and equality.

Funny how that happens, eh?

New Fresh Delivery Services?

While walking the dog, in the chilly early morning today, I saw a rather curious sight:

I'm not sure if it's Amazon or Shipt that began offering delivery of turkeys right to your door, but there they are, waiting for the homeowner to let them in and warm them up.

Can't get fresher turkey than that.

Snow Joe: Not Ready For Prime Time

As I've written before, I have a Snow Joe Pro Model snow blower.

They were rather over-optimistic (or outright lying) calling it a pro model, or even a snow blower for that matter.

Today with 2-3 inches of packing snow down, it would immediately clog every single push and shut itself off moving less than even a foot before clogging up, becoming a snow pusher rather than a snowblower.

While it works for dry powdery snow, any packing snow makes it absolutely useless.

In short, cannot recommend, at all.

An electric snowblower should have power and torque to spare to get through packing snow. This one doesn't - at all.

That they call it a pro model is a joke.

In short, I need to go buy an actual snowblower that can clear 2-3 inches of snow off a driveway. An electric snowblower is a great concept and should work well given the power an electric motor can and should provide - but this one clearly isn't ready for prime snow time.

Snow-Meh-Geddon

So they predicted 7-8 inches of snow today.

In reality we didn't get nearly that much, maybe 3-4 inches tops.

Still it is wet packing snow that has fouled the roads enough that people are being asked to stay the heck offa them until they're cleared, which is good advice.

Clearly the prediction was the work of a female meteorologist.

I can't blame her though for the overshoot on the prediction, it's really not her fault.

After all, she's been told for years that this (put your thumb and forefinger close together for a minute and hold it up in front of your face) is eight inches, so it's easy to see how she got to that overage on the estimate for the snowfall.

Michigan's Newest Licensed Driver

So Abby re-took her driving test today.

We paid for a parking lesson first with the examiner so she could pass the cone parking test.

Having taken her to this test, I can verify that the cone setup is quite simply ridiculous and its setup in a way to make you fail the test unless you know the specific tricks and test protocol for parking in that setup, not in the real world.

This of course makes the examiners more money as they can then sell a remunerative parking lesson followed by the road test.

If you want to see the cones in action, there's a (rather cringe-worthy - trust me skip to 2:33) Youtube video.

Abby faced a similar setup, but think of it setup diagonal to the parking stripes rather than in parallel with them as in the video and with her never parking with cones before you'll get why Abby had trouble with it originally. Especially as her car lacks a backup camera or beeper and she again had never parked in the cones before but only between real cars, so it's no wonder she got nailed the first time around.

In all of 7 minutes the examiner/instructor had shown her what she wanted with the conse, Abby did it and the examiner then declared she had passed the parking portion. In short, she can park and she could park before the lesson, but we needed to pay a little extra to get the method to park in the cones down . . . in 7 minutes. Again its not skills being tested in the parking segment, but your wallet.

Then she did her road test and passed with flying colors.

At least one legislator in Michigan has the right idea and had proposed a bill back in May 2019 to eliminate the parallel parking requirement from the driving test. She's reasonably proposing to eliminate it not just because its not a commonly used technique in most of Michigan, but mainly because enough people are ticked off about failing a driving test on the simulated stupid parallel parking cone course when they can driver perfectly well.

In short, this parking segment is designed and exists to make examiners money and make it cost more for people to get their licenses unless they pay the mordida of some special parking lessons so they can get used to the cones.

It's about time this cone scam got removed from the test.

That Little Boat Beside The Yacht

That little boat underway beside the yacht and dwarfed by it in the pictures, besides being not all that little really, was also flying a couple flags:

Yep, that's a Trump 2020 flag alongside the US flag.

It certainly tweaked quite a few of the Democrats on the water taxi, I'll tell ya.

Florida: Now That's A Yacht!

In Ft. Lauderdale we took a water taxi, which is highly recommended.

For $238, you get a pass that lasts all day and you can hop on and hop off at any stop from the downtown to Margaritaville and many points in between.

The kids enjoyed it a lot especially one of the stops we made.

It was lots of fun with the boat crew narrating the various sights you see, including the homes and boats of the rich and famous as you go by. They also serve a very generous rum and coke for $5 which makes the trip even more enjoyable.

So we passed by a certain yacht.

She's the Seven Seas, and she happens to be owned by Steven Spielberg.

To say that's a big yacht is an understatement.

This amazing luxurious super-yacht is 282 feet long complete with pool, helipad, a 30-foot sportboat and a 34-foot limousine boat and of course a huge 150-foot wide movie screen. It cost around $200 million to build and it can be yours for rent....for a bargain price of $1.5 million per week for 12 guests. Per the guide, that rental rate does not include the food, fuel, and crew tips for that week.

Rumors have it that Spielberg is now having an even larger super-yacht made at a cost of $300 million, as this one is apparently a little small for his needs. Good for him.

MSU's Athletics Department Again Makes The News For All The Wrong Reasons

MSU Athletics, still reeling over the long coverup and rampant activities of serial child sexual abuser Dr. Larry Nassar and his many enablers on the campus, has yet another serial sexual abuser placing them in the news.

This time it's a football player.

The Detroit News: MSU reviewed Auston Robertson's sex assault record, then admitted him anyway

Apparently, if you can play football, you can also get away with sexual assault, repeatedly, both before and after being recruited.

Something is clearly broken at the MSU Athletics Department, and heads should roll accordingly.

Nice Of Iran To Admit What Everyone Knew

Today, Iran admitted that they had shot down Ukraine International Airlines flight 752, killing all 176 people onboard, including 57 Canadians.

The Detroit News: Under pressure, Iran admits it shot down jetliner by mistake

Mighty nice of them to mess up to what everyone already knew, especially after prevaricating and outright lying about it for the past three days.

Of course, they're blaming the US for their own failure to close their airspace and fail to protect an aircraft leaving their own main airport as they were lobbing ballistic missiles about, not to mention having their air defenses shoot down anything in their airspace including jets leaving their own airport.

So yes, the fault in this shoot-down is Iran's and Iran's alone.

Viking-Made Climate Change?

The Detroit News: Viking-era runestone may reflect fears of a climate disaster

The Vikings weren't known as any great users of fossil fuels, but a new interpretation of a portion of an ancient rune inscription shows they had worries of climate disasters all the same.

Of course, the main worry for them was for a Climate change of Global Cooling, rather than Global Warming.

The writing on a famous Viking-era runestone may reflect fears of an approaching climate disaster in 9th century Scandinavia, according to new research by a team of Swedish academics
....

“Before the Rok runestone was erected, a number of events occurred which must have seemed extremely ominous: a powerful solar storm colored the sky in dramatic shades of red, crop yields suffered from an extremely cold summer, and later a solar eclipse occurred just after sunrise. Graslund said. “Even one of these events would have been enough to raise fears of another Fimbulwinter.”

Apparently the author of that portion of the missive was named Greta Thunbergsdottir. In the inscription, she advocated the Vikings stop cutting trees and building longships as it was bad for the environment, and to stop children going to school and instead sacrifice them to the Norse gods to stop the change.

Florida Bird Is The Word

After surviving lousy drivers in many states on the way down, we reached Florida and finally got through to our destination.

When we were in Florida in December, the weather was warm but a front had moved in that made the sky typically overcast, and the ocean much too rough to swim in for anyone. Sadly, that meant no shark tooth diving for me as all charters cancelled their trips due to the big waves and lousy visibility brought on by the front. Ah, well.

This was on the gulf side, later we drove over to Ft. Lauderdale area to visit the family.

On the positive side, it was warmer than Michigan and was a time to just relax with family, so no complaints there.

On the beach we relaxed, we also on occasion would wade into the water and get smacked by the waves which was fun. No swimming though.

Quite a few people were on the beach on December 25 as well as some feathered visitors.

This crane Great Blue Heron had no feathers to give for all the people on the beach.

He'd just stand there within arms reach of people, move through crowds as he wished, and then when he got where he wanted to go, he would stand still and glare at everyone and on occasion flex his wings to demand some space.

He didn't mind posing for pictures either.

Then he'd takeoff and stand near the next bunch of people fishing from the shore, hoping to cadge a snack.

A very close encounter of a feathered kind.

Then a very pleasing sunset on the beach.

Basically we spent our time on the Gulf side at the beach, just relaxing and unwinding. Then we headed to Ft. Lauderdale.

YGTBSM: 2-Day Memorial In Southfield, Michigan For Death Of Iranian General

Yep, our "friends" in the Iraqi Consulate in Southfield, Michigan are actually going to put on a memorial for the "condolences for the lives of the righteous martyrs who were killed"

You know, righteous martyrs who were responsible for the deaths of Americans in Iraq and abroad. We should also note Soleimani and those with him was also responsible for the deaths of lots of Iraqis as well.

You'll note they haven't been very forthcoming with memorials to Americans killed in Iraq, at all.,

The Detroit News: Iraqi Consulate to hold 2-day memorial in Southfield after death of Iranian general

Yep, it's a celebration of the lives of our enemies, who have the blood of Americans on their hands, held right here in America.

Settling In The Courtroom On The Day Of Trial

Blogging has been a tad light as I've been preparing for a civil jury trial that was to start today.

Prepping to go to trial is like nothing else in a lawyer's life - it takes 100% of your time and effort to get ready, do your jury instructions, prepare your jury selection, prepare your witnesses, prepare your expert witnesses, plan your opening, craft you exhibits, prepare exhibit books, prepare your witness questions, prepare your cross examinations of the other side's witnesses and be ready to go. It's nerve-wracking as there's a lot riding on it and you don't want to miss even the smallest detail that might help win your case.

So I get to the courthouse and am in the courtroom setting up at 8am this morning.

The other side had so far refused to settle. Amazingly when we were looking at over $130k if it went in our favor, we were all of $5,000 apart after major concessions by my clients in settlement numbers. The other side had refused to even give the courtesy of a response on Friday to my offer of splitting the baby and us coming down and they coming up by $2,500 to be done. So I work all through the weekend getting everything ready to go.

So another couple attorneys walk in - uh oh, looks like we're about to be bounced for a criminal case as criminal trials get precedence over civil trials. This means rescheduling everything and everyone and we would go sometime after the criminal case ends.

The judge calls us in to chambers and we discuss, and she's not amused that the other side is not settling over $2,500 after all the good faith concessions we had made to try and settle it. She also talks with the parties (separately) about settlement as well.

Unfortunately, the dynamics of the case is the other side is represented by the Defendant's daughter, for free. Even worse, she's a family lawyer by trade so it makes some things even more difficulty in what is a property damage case.

It was also very clear the judge wanted this case settled. After much browbeating they finally come up the $2,500 and my clients grudgingly accept it after having us had to work so hard this weekend when this should have been resolved Friday without all that time spent.

We put the settlement and entered judgment on the record and we're done.

Most cases settle because there's no guarantee as to what a jury will do.

This case also settled as getting the Defendant to pay up even if we got the full $13k we were after would be difficult as in the over a year and a half since we filed, he's had health issues and become much less collectible than he had been before when the case started.

The clients decided not to take the risk of trial and save themselves days of trial and also having to wait for the trial to be rescheduled and instead got this finally done. Too bad the other side couldn't have done that on Friday.

Can't blame my clients one bit for deciding to settle and getting this case, which has been on since 2018 over, and it's always their decision, but taking this to trial would have been fun after all the work and sweat put into preparing for it and dressing up for the occasion.

Today's Quick Driving Legal Tip

Well, you happen to drive a lime-green Dodge Challenger and it's snowing a bit, oh, what to do?

So, you want to rev your engine a lot and do donuts in a parking lot, and also race back and forth between some interconnected parking lots and on and off the street at high speed and with maximum noise.

In other words you want to drive like a jerk in a lime-green Challenger.

The tip: Don't do this within hearing distance of a police station on the same street.

Just too much fun to watch two police SUVs converge, box him in, and nail him.

A Very Proportionate Message Sent

Via a couple well-aimed missiles.

Since Solemani was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans in Iraq, as Iran was backing anti-American forces in Iraq and providing them with weapons, technology, training and advisors, and apparently since he was behind the attack on the US Embassy, having him taken out in Baghdad is a rather measured response.

It's interesting to see all the hand-waving about this being an escalation.

To continue to ignore Solemani's and the Qud's forces actions against Americans both in Iraq and around the world served only to embolden such attacks and allow them to cointinue.

About time such a message was sent that such attacks will no longer be tolerated and that Iran cannot continue its attacks unanswered.

Random Thoughts On Road Travel Through Different States

Michigan roads seriously suck. You can actually feel the difference when you leave the state and enter Ohio.

Ohio drivers, for some reason, seem compelled to pass you on the right of the highway, even when the left lane is clear and available for passing. Why this is, no one knows.

Ohio is also a helluva long state, and just as you think you've made it, the area in Cincinnati right before the bridge between Cincinnati and Covington, Kentucky is always under construction, always having a goofy traffic jam and the signage basically sucks. Again, no reason why, it just is, Every. Single. Time.

Tennessee drivers tend to be fine, although just as in the above states, BMW drivers have not ponied up for the expensive turn signal option for their vehicles.

Georgia - Atlanta traffic on 75 really sucks, and Atlanta goes on forever. Not having the express lane open was a BS move there Atlanta, really. The traffic just past Atlanta near the 475 Valdosta bypass somehow manages to suck even more and go even slower. But at least there are good BBQ stops close to the highway which makes up for it somewhat.

Florida drivers are their own special breed:

Yep, lots of left lane hogs at or below the limit, with lots of people in all lanes that couldn't find a speed limit with both hands. Those people were coupled with those who thought the speed limit should be ignored and weave in between those who don't doing about 95. Watched one moron do 10 lane changes going across all lanes no less, in less than 3 miles, complete with tailgating before each lane change, and it didn't actually get him all that farther than if he just stayed in a lane.

The most important question with Florida drivers is: Can someone please tell me how the living hell you can manage to be useless enough cause an accident on a clear day, with perfectly smooth and dry roads, with said accident being big enough to shut down the entire freeway going south to a complete halt for over an hour and a half?

That was no fun parked sitting in that and finally seeing 4 tow trucks come up from behind us and then go on up to the accident location and it finally began to open up after that. Sheesh.

One possible answer could have been drivers like the one idiot I saw texting with both hands, while speeding on the highway and doing a fair bit of weaving, because hey, who needs to touch a steering wheel when going 80-85 mph, texting is more important, right?

It was an adventure getting to Florida last week, and that was without any particularly bad weather aside from a dash of rain in spots.

Israel Day 6 - Shopping and Strolling In Tel Aviv

The next morning we got up and went strolling about Tel Aviv.

We started off going to an artisan's market.

It was quite a bustling place with lots going on:

Glass crafts made right in front of you:

Portraits:

Neat crafts, again made as you watched:

And as in any market, a t-shirt seller. I particularly liked the black t-shirt with the white Hebrew writing on it there:

Don't read Hebrew? Well, just click to embiggen, and then turn your screen upside down for an instant translation.

Also by the market were some chess tables setup for people to have fun and play:

We then did a little shopping and purchased one of the best dairy products made, ever, anywhere:

Mocha Milk!

It's Coffee, it's Milk, it's life-changing! It's flipping amazing!

Did I mention Mocha Milk is really good? 'Cause it really is.

We had lunch, relaxed, and then headed to the beach.

Israel Day 5 - Tel Aviv And A Rock Concert

We headed north to Tel Aviv.

We got dropped off, rested a bit, and then headed out on our own.

Then we grabbed a cab and headed to Yarkon Park.

Yarkon park is huge, and we got dropped off near where we were going, but it was still quite a walk in for the concert.

Ahead of the trip we had found out that Bon Jovi would be in town, the timing worked, so we got tickets to the show. So we carefully prepared by playing some classic Bon Jovi for the kids before the trip, and they decided they liked it.

Yes, Bon Jovi is still around and singing.

The concert was standing room only, no seats, on the grass, with 50,000 Israelis and at least 4 Americans attending.

It seems it was about the end of Bon Jovi's European tour and unfortunately the sound system quality wasn't great and they seemed a bit tired but they still put on a good show.

It was a cool experience to hear 50,000 Israelis belting out the lyrics to It's My Life, Living on a Prayer, You Give Love A Bad Name, and other classic Bon Jovi tunes, and to raucously sing along with them.

It was a lot of fun and a neat experience.

After the concert we headed back to where we were staying and fell asleep quickly after a very long and full day.

Not bad for our last rock concert of the decade.