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There are things I never understood.
Long, long ago, back when our President was a bald guy who everyone liked, or so the buttons said, I was a Cub Scout. America was different back then and us little toddlers in blue were given knives (two one for the pocket, one for the belt in a sheath) and hatchets to hack firewood with.

No, I never even heard of one of us hurting anyone with those. Who would do that? The knives were for whittling and cutting rope, not much more.

Alas just before I turned 11 and had to leave my Cub Scout pack and join the Boy Scouts I lost my Official Cub Scout Pocket Knife. Not really my fault I think. There was a little brass fitting on my belt the knive's loop hooked on. One day I discovered at the end of the day that sometime during the day the brass fitting had fallen off the the belt. I was devastated and visited every place I had been but never found it.

My parents did not share my concern as next week I was getting my Boy Scout uniforms and of course I would get a new official Boy Scout knife. Two and a new hatchet too. And even an actual ax. Cool.

I can't tell you how unhappy I was to learn the Boy Scout pocket knife was inferior to the Cub Scout knife. You see the Cub Scout Knife had a blade lock to keep the blade from closing on your fingers. The Boy Scout knife didn't. It was less than a week before the Boy Scout knife closed on my fingers during a routine slicing of something or other. Drip, drip, drip went my bloody finger. Some Boy Scouts still had their superior Cub Scout knives, but Local BSA Council policy was Boy Scouts may not use Cub Scout equipment. I even raided my piggy bank and went to Bobkopffs (the official store for buying scout equipment) and after the 3rd time the knife closed on my fingers tried to buy a Cub Scout knife. The man looked at my Scout ID Card and refused to sell me a piece of Cub Scout equipment. The only thing he was willing to sell me was another dumb Boy Scout jackknife. Not interested. Instead I went to a cigar store and bought a cheap Black Cat K-55 knife from Germany. A cheap stamped knife probably better for fighting as many were used for that, BUT it had a blade that locked. AND because it was not Cub Scout equipment it was okay to carry a K-55. Weird rational that. In the next decade I went through a dozen K-55 knives. Riveted, their rivets kept popping out if you tried to pry anything open with them or use the blade as a screw driver. Whatever. I could buy 4 K-55s for the price of one Boy Scout jackknife, and it did not slice my fingers. The blades would bend (being pot metal), but they didn't slam closed on my fingers and that was important.

Anyway, half a century later, guess what I found online? YES!!! At last, a 'new in box' Cub Scout Jackknife just like the one I lost so long, long ago.



Happy I am to put it away in my box of things from my childhood.

Just heard a sad piece on the Beeb. A journalist spent time among various poor immigrant groups, and chronicled the experience in his book. He claims that work for these folks somehow gets racially segregated over time. So Eastern Europeans become members of the trades, some starting businesses and doing very well, while Africans and others of color clean the public areas on the underground. Or, white immigrants get cushy nanny type work, while the darker sorts sweep streets. He claims there are many other examples, and that the pay trends in unfair directions that most of us can guess. Of course, being the BBC, one expects PC bias in all they do nowadays (there was a time when this wasn't so), so who knows how valid is this reportage and/or choice of writer guest. CS bloggers around the world, is your experience of the jobs immigrants get in your cities supportive of such racial differences? Is there a new more universal apartheid developing right under our noses? Dooseroo.

What do you think about people who looks bad on people using expensive things? Looks bad on people who travelling to nice places and enjoying nice hotels/resorts/ nice foods? Of course those money came from working hard, not robbed or stolen from someone!

For examples, if you posted foods look expensive to them, they would immediately jump to you and said: 'do you know how many people in this world has nothing to eat?? Why you eat such expensive thing??!', if you posted your expensive clothes (by chance which is the fact that you have it in your life, not to show up) they would say: 'I feel shame to wear expensive things because many people out there are poor', for example! If you post pictures you travelled to somewhere look expensive to them, they will say: 'you rather save those money to poor people!!'

To be honest I feel SO TIRED with these kind of things!

Why don't they think I deserved to have good foods because I worked VERY hard? Why don't they think I deserved to have expensive clothes because someone loves me so much that she/he wants to give me as a gift to say thank you for what I had done for them?? Why don't they think I deserved to spend my money for traveling to the places I like just because it's MINE money, I do not rob or steal from someone and I think I have the right to use it as what I want.

Why they ALWAYS want me use my money for something call charity?? Are they 'Charity God'?? I myself DO give donation to people who I do really meet in my life and I don't mind to help them if I think my help for them is good for their life (in long term, not just about giving materials). But I'm NOT gonna working hard day and night just to pay high tax and live like a low-income people to save money for charity! I'm sorry, please FEEL FREE to call me selfish and please FEEL FREE to shame on me if you feel so but I'm definitely NOT someone who going to work like crazy to live poorly and give all my money to poor people. It's NOT me! I'm really sorry for that!

Time is short!

Greetings,

Relatively new to this site, so I thought I’d share my two cents worth with my fellow Lonely Hearts.
Before I start, I thought I’d make a confession:
The first lady I was hoping to get to know, didn’t even take the bother to write me a note to tell
me off. She has just ignored me. I was brief but polite. (Or maybe that was the problem.)
So, what? -You say. There are lots of other fish in the ocean. I know. I’ll get over her. It’s just that I’ve been good for so long now, didn’t bother a soul for years and here I am making my grand debut, the first step and… flat on my face, shot down in flames.
Do I know how to pick ‘em or what? Oh, well.
Okay, onto the title subject.
How many of you believe in Abrupt Climate Change? The key word is “Abrupt”.
Uhhhhh!
I can just see the eyes rolling. Well, I happen to believe in it. Am old enough - perhaps even wise enough - to see it happening right before my eyes. Not to mention all the videos, articles, scientific papers I have seen and read. ?I don’t think there is any doubt about it. The world’s climate is changing. It is getting warmer. Now, please, don’t start telling me how cool or cold it is where you are. Matters not. The earth’s temp - measured as average - has been going up. The CO2 levels, along with methane are at 20 million years ago levels. The arctic ice is disappearing. From about 16.5 million cubic kilometers down to 3.4 million cubic meters. Soon to be completely gone. Same for the south pole. Melting. We have set records every year since 2003. A temperature increase of just 3 degrees C above baseline (measured since 1750) is enough to wipe us out. We are already over 1.75 C!
The evidence is out there. (Aside from the paid trolls who are there to spread misinformation.)
Now, I am not about to present a scientific lecture here. I am only trying to bring attention to you - if you are happened to be the few who haven’t yet figured it out - to the short time we humans have left on this once so beautiful earth.
Time is short!
Perhaps shorter than we want to believe. To me, this is the most powerful motivating force now. This is what is guiding me. I adjust all my plans accordingly. It isn’t chasing the all-mighty dollar, it isn’t buying a fancy car or house.
It is however, finding the right companion. Someone who is like-minded. Someone, who is
informed and intelligent enough to see that there is no way out of this Sixth Extinction.
What is more important? Love and inner peace with someone, knowing and accepting that we are about to die or charging ahead blindly and finding out too late that perhaps you should have heeded the warning and that your priorities weren’t in order.

The question is “What if he is right?”

Thanks for tuning in, peace and love to all.
Touchofgrey53

P.S. My heart goes out to all the earthquake victims in Japan and Ecuador.

Something is seriously wrong in society that nowadays its too easy for a cop to get away with murder I felt threatened I'm tired of reading it as do the negros who are usually a target it.
I've been profiled and harassed by state pigs of my state of Mn they didn't believe it and I've lived homeless of the past for over a decade you see it all there disrespect of us poor just because were poor I'm white and color doesn't matter excuse me

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I watched a few news clips about the anniversary of the end of the 2nd world war. I noticed that many of you are apologizing to the world for the war.

Its important to remember what happened and to learn from it so it can never happen again. Having said that, you do not need to apologize for the actions of a generation past. Since the world wars, you have turned your society into a peaceful, productive, and respected nation.

You have earned the respect of the rest of the world and the actions of a generation past do not reflect who you are now. Be proud of what you accomplished.

the killings in Paris are the result of making a mockery of other peoples religion. It is not justified to kill but it should teach us a lesson and refrain from inflammatory actions and not stretch the European rights of freedom of expression.

Privacy and security in 2014 and beyond. You cannot have your cake and still eat it. We all love privacy but if we are at the same time asking for security, some elements of privacy must go.

Isn't it amazing how people put their entire life on Facebook and other social media, but groan when the NSA monitors their email? Anyone interested can know when you wake up; who your friends are; where and when you have your first cup of coffee; your entire itinerary day by day. You even check in to let it be known that you are now there. People with bad intentions don't even need to hack anything. They only need to follow you on social media. But we expect the law enforcement agencies to broadcast everything they do to keep us safe. Asking us to conduct our intelligence in the full glare of the public, in the name of transparency, does not make sense.

The terrorists, and everyone that stands to be at a disadvantage from efficient intelligence gathering cannot afford to sit back and watch while they are boxed into a corner and unable to carry out their nefarious activities. They fight back, but not by stating their real intentions. All they need do is pretend to be on the side of the people and claim to be fighting for the preservation of people’s rights (even though some are genuinely interested in privacy). That makes them look like saints while at the same time achieving their overall goals. For instance, who stands to benefit when phone calls and emails cannot be monitored? It is more in the interest of the bad guys that the law enforcement agencies cannot monitor these things.

It has been established over time that with unchecked power comes the tendency for abuse. Still, how are the law enforcement agencies going to be able to track bad guys? Immediately after 9/11, nearly everyone agreed on the need to do whatever it takes to bring down the terrorists. But we seem to have forgotten. Even those who were merely carrying out orders have been under fire lately for interrogation tactics; a subject that would not have come up a few days after 9/11!

Before any mass-casualty incident happens, the perpetrator would have displayed signs of the impending disaster, but no one is able to do anything about it. If they did, they would be labelled as intolerant, or suppressing the rights of the individual(s), including privacy and free speech among others. So, everyone waits until the damage is done, then they "wonder how we missed" the signs.

The bottom line is, if we really want security, we have to sacrifice some degree of privacy along the line. This quest for unbridled privacy amounts to giving the bad guys the license to commit evil first, then look for who to blame it on later.

Around 1000 A.D. taxes were still payable in goods, though there was money, too. Mostly thin silver coins cut out from hammered silver sheets. These coins were called "denar" like the roman silver coins.
At this time there was an important monastery in Lorsch with much real estate and income from the peasants.
Taxes on farms were for example: a pig and a sheep annually, a horse and a certain amount of wine or an ox, eggs and a few denars.
Every peasant had to plow about two acres of dominion land three times a year and had to work three days of the week for the landlord.
Every single man or woman had to pay 369 denars tax annually for being single.




Denar from Schwäbisch Hall, a city producing salt in the middle ages