Michael Z. Williamson's Blog, page 6

OWS, Really, Stop Digging...

http://www.leftycartoons.com/the-ten-stupidest-objections-to-the-occupy-wall-street-movement/

Michael Z. Williamson: I think at least 6 have some validity. I guess we'll see how much impact they have next year, when they try to re-elect the man who led most of the bailouts, which 49% of them support.

Michael Z. Williamson:  Do you really want me to call them out? Because I will.

Wick Deer: By all means. I encourage rational discussion of the issue, which, for the most part is sadly lacking.  I take the position that if my views aren't well thought out enough to stand up to debate, I should reconsider them.

~~~~

Okay, my friend asked for it:

Folks in 3rd world countries, and even most of Europe, ARE a lot poorer. So insisting on redistribution of wealth means either the Occupussies are asking to be made poorer, or they're selfish little cocksuckers who want more of someone else's pie, but fuck those homeless people. Their actions so far back this latter assessment.

I'll offer this quote from a thread:

"They just want the rich to pay their fair share and to stop hoarding all of the money as their incomes have risen 275%, due to tax breaks, whilst the average tax payer's wealth has risen only 40%."

The global mean income is $11,200, and things like food, cars and computers don't really change in cost.

I'll bet however much you want to cover that this whiner makes a LOT more than that global mean, and if he makes more than $34K he IS the 1%, globally speaking. He's almost certainly the top 5%. So, he wants the top .05% to share with him, but he certainly isn't interested in sharing lower down.

Then we come to his complaint, that he's ONLY 40% better off, but someone else is even better off than THAT!!!!! (He also doesn't support the claim or give a time frame, so analysis is impossible. However, it's not relevant to analyzing his logic, or lack thereof.) He's better off, but NOT AS BETTER OFF AS HE'D LIKE!!!!!

I bet he complained in elementary field day that it wasn't fair there was only ONE first prize for sprinting.

And if he thinks that money is being "hoarded," he has no grasp of economics at all.

So, Item 1 is a completely valid criticism, because I haven't heard ANY of these losers mention anyone but Americans, and usually only in reference to their own student loans. Their actions absolutely don't represent 99%, nor even 20%. 5% at best, being generous.

As to the second, it's IMPOSSIBLE to take a group seriously when they're unable to coherently articulate a complaint. They want forgiveness of student loans, and free handouts from banks, and socialized medicine, and rights for animals, and Marxism, and Nazism, and an end to Capitalism, and free something else, and this, and the other thing.

They don't necessarily need a specific spokesperson, but they do need either that or coherence. Otherwise they're just whining douchenozzles, trashing the park and pissing people off.

3:  Exploiting smart phones and twitter for their benefit is a fair thing to do. They should, however, acknowledge the corporate greatness that made them possible. Steve Jobs, and even Bill Gates, are not Madoff, Abramov, Bank of America or Enron (which latter committed crimes under Clinton and was punished under Bush, remember).

But the Che T shirts made in Guatemala and the V Fawkes masks lining Warner Brothers' pockets, made by Chinese prison laborers, are a total fail.

So generally, these mouthbreathing morons don't really know how the world works, which begs the question of what they learned in college. If they'd learned anything, they'd realize the Education Industrial Complex is a bigger threat to them than any Wall Street enterprise--they can invest in the latter for personal and societal profit...if the former bother to educate them in exchange for the gobs of money they laid out--our tax money, in large part.

4:  they certainly should be protesting in Washington, since that's where the laws and favors are made. Protesting in Boise, or even here where our legislature is out of session, doesn't really accomplish anything (though the protesters here are polite enough).

And the ones who DO oppose bailouts (which is only about half) would be better off allying with the Tea Party on that one issue, presenting a coherent front, and terrifying Congress into compliance. Historically, however, leftists are not only incapable of being tolerant enough to work with other groups, they're incapable of being tolerant within their own movements.

5: I don't think most people really hate hippies, or that many hippies are involved, and most of the ones I've seen are attempting to inject some level of either social behavior or reason into it. Which is amusing, but of worth.

6:  I have no idea what ties matter, nor have I heard anyone mention them. At this point, the artist, already an ignorant boob, is trying to pad out his lame attempt at relevance.

7:  There are always a handful of spelling/typoes/math errors, and always a handful of people who will obsess over those. This is true of any event. Each one needs to be considered on its merits (usually few). So that might be a commentary on society in general, but it's specious to claim it's relevant to this movement specifically.

8:  As to jobs, that's also a case by case basis. One whiner complained that his employer had "fired him for coming to the protest." Turned out he'd been there a month. My guess is the employer fired him for absenteeism. I've met that type of person. I wouldn't hire them, either, and the world would be better off if they received therapy or starved. Encouraging them with handouts just exacerbates the problem for everyone else.

The "donate so we can protest on your behalf" meme fails on two counts. First, if one group of people can afford non-tax deductible donations to another for a vague political protest, more of a tantrum, then they're really not suffering too badly economically. That's a purely disposable income project. It doesn't even offer the emotional payoff of lottery tickets or booze, though I suppose a lottery ticket comes close.

It also means the protesters are effectively paid shills. They're no better than panhandlers. Claiming society doesn't support you, while being supported by elements of that society is a completely false argument. They're arguing that the free market doesn't work, while it does, and insisting they want more power for the same government composed of those "1%."

9:  While 0 is not setting them up for riots (or there's no evidence I've seen to suggest so), he's playing them for patsies two ways. One: Endorsing them, probably hoping for votes, and that they won't notice how much he's screwed them over. B) any politician loves strife that draws attention away from them, except during campaign season. In the unlikely event they're around come May, he'll be pushing them to "get active" in his campaign. Because a man worth $10 million, with an annual reported income of $1.75 million, is totally going to help them against the 1%, who earn more than $350,000.

I've also heard very few if anyone claim 0 orchestrated this.

10:  Lacking a soundbite doesn't doom a movement, but soundbites certainly make it easier to sell. The soundbite that has attached itself here is, "What do we want? We're not really sure! When do we want it? Now!"

Unless they come up with something to counter it, I don't expect them to go anywhere, because 99% (See what I did there?) of the population have a very short attention span and no more grasp of the world than these twits.

So the cartoonist is unfunny, stretching to try to cover his usual theme (and he's been hilarious before, on groups I agree with no less. Which means in this case he's sympathetic enough he's lost his detachment and really doesn't have much to say), and hasn't really made any points.

Standard close: I'm right. You're wrong. The end. ;)

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Lame Hate Mail

klaus@hush.ai to me

show details Nov 16 (2 days ago)

fuck you

That was the entirety of the email.

Okay, here's the problems:

I don't know what this is in regard to.  Obviously, it's something where I'm right and he's wrong.  If someone is reduced to stupid profanity, it means they have no argument to offer.  Also, if they get pissed off at something that's elaborated upon, and I try to make sure I do, it means it probably hit close to home.

Still, I have no objection to this kind of hate mail.  Knowing that illiterate morons are pissed off brightens my day.

This person purports to be Dutch in Anguilla, from the address.  Given that it's a British Territory, 90% black and a small percentage wealth expats, there's no reason for anyone there to know or hate me.  I'm assuming it's a remailer, therefore, which means the person is probably a "liberal" American.  Conservatives are never afraid to give their name.

So, probably not being conservative, It's probably not a Creationist.  They tend to be polite (at least at first.  The name-calling comes later), and quote scripture as a "Warning" of what awaits me.

This is probably not a gun control nut.  They usually demand I shoot myself, since they lack the means or the balls to do so.

A vegetarian would send me photos of crippled bunnies or such, as if presenting me with images of raw food is somehow disturbing to me.

A warmerbator would quote megabytes of study proving that it's warmer now than in 1975, which everyone knows, and would actually mean something if it hadn't been colder the last million years, and warmer the 299 million before that.

My guess is he's an Occupussy, in which case he's doing an even better job than I am of mocking them.  Seriously, dude, playing up to the stereotype or public image is only funny if you do it intelligently.  Otherwise, it's just sad.  Which we already know about that movement.

In any case, "Klaus," you have nothing to offer, and you don't buy my product, so I have no reason to care about your anguish, except for schadenfreude.  Thanks.  You made my day.  Do please send me another angry rant I can enjoy.

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Wait, I Have This Idea...

Mike:  I have this awesome idea for a satirical story.

Publisher:  Go on.

Mike:  We'll have a protest against capitalism and banks.

Publisher:  It's been done.

Mike:  Yes, but this will be different.  The protesters will protest capitalism, while wearing clothing made in sweatshops, AND, one of the sweatshop shirts from Honduras will bear the image of a communist who was shot for leading too many failed revolutions.

But there's more.  They'll adopt as their emblem this http://www.partycity.com/product/v+for+vendetta+mask.do?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=ProductSearch&utm_campaign=GoogleMerchant&extcmp=GoogleMerchant it's the image of a jihadist who tried to overthrow a parliamentary government to instill a religious dictatorship.  The image is owned by Warner, a huge media conglomerate that earns $12 billion a year. They used it for a movie about a terrorist, and they get 30% of every sale of the mask to these protesters.  Plus! It's made in a sweatshop in China by dissident prison laborers on starvation rations, using potentially toxic chemicals.

Publisher: …um…

Mike:  No, wait!  This is satire, okay?  Hippie drummers will show up at the protest, and the protesters will tax them on their tips to help fund the revolution. http://reason.com/blog/2011/10/21/it-began-as-it-so-often-does-w They'll have a "consensus" on doing so, without asking the drummers—taxation without representation!  And they'll insist the drummers stop drumming because it's annoying, but still want them to get tips!

Then, when they actually get donations, they'll take them to one of the banks they're protesting http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/11/09/occupy-oakland-protesters-deposit-funds-at-wells-fargo-after-bank-attacks/    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-j-hunt/occupy-oakland-banks-loca_b_1082930.html  .

Also, in a survey, http://reason.com/blog/2011/10/18/poll-49-of-occupy-wall-street half of them will actually support taxpayer-funded bailouts of banks.

When violence happens, they'll blame it on a "right wing conspiracy."  They'll want people to believe conservatives and Christians are sending people in to have sex in public, defecate in public and smoke dope.

After it really gets rolling, they'll get endorsement by the Communist AND Nazi Parties both. http://hotair.com/archives/2011/10/17/great-news-ows-now-endorsed-by-both-communist-and-nazi-parties/

They'll also meet at Starbuck's and drink overpriced coffee, and…

Publisher:  Stop.  Just stop. Satire works because it's believable.  This is just insane.  Even Monty Python makes more sense than this.

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Someone Who Needs Beaten To Death With A Baby Seal

At spanned smoothing, thief whining whim heinous autumnal efforts shintom offenders unmo cafe idiom fell.

ACTUAL TRANSLATION:

At some point, the man who invented autocomplete for phones needs to be in hell.

~~~~

Seriously. 
That's what my phone "predicts" for text.  Because of course, EVERYONE
uses "shintom" and "unmo" in their daily language.  Didn't you, today?

If
I type in "W" it defaults to "Wyatt." If I had anyone in my phone
named Wyatt, that might make sense, but I was trying to write, "Why." A
rare word that I'm sure the 99% NEVER use in their daily language.

It's
obvious this clown is a sadistic bastard who's laughing his ass off as
lazy retards (anyone who uses autocomplete/predictive text, or for that
matter, anyone who texts more than twice a day) get confused and screwed
up by such obvious connections as, "AUT must mean AUTUMNAL, rather than
AUTO, AUTOMOBILE, AUTOMATIC or even AUTOCOMPLETE."

Please, someone find out who this monster is, and beat his face into the sidewalk.  He's worse than a spammer.

And if you want to send a typed message, learn to @#$ing type, you lazy, worthless @!#$s.

The Parable of the Police

I'm reposting this from elsewhere because people asked for it.

There are two types of police--peace officers, and law enforcement officers.

Let's say you come out of the bar at closing time.  You get in the car and feel a bit dizzy.  Obviously, you are not in shape to drive.  So you warm the car up for a couple of minutes, shut it off, recline the seat and try to sleep some of it off.

You wake up to a knock on the window.

A:  The peace officer says, "Sir, what are you doing?"

"I don't feel safe to drive, sir, so I figured I should sleep for a bit."

Peace officer:  "That's a good idea, sir, but I can't let you stay here like this.  I'm going to call a cab.  I'll log the incident, and you can come pick your car up in the morning.  Thanks for being responsible."

The next morning you wake up sober, realize you had too much to drink and your judgment was shot, and are grateful the cop helped you get home. 

B:  The law enforcement officer says, "Sir, what are you doing?"

"I don't feel safe to drive, sir, so I figured I should sleep for a bit."

"Are your keys in the ignition? And you've been drinking? That's operating under the influence!  You're under arrest!  You're going to jail to be booked, I'm going to write up the bust for my promotion file, and your car's going to the impound yard." 

Twenty-four hours, $200 in impound fees, $600 in legal bills, $250 in bail, a bad meal, a jail cell and a visit with a judge later, you realize why you hate pigs.

We need more peace officers.

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How To Run A Protest—for my friends on the New Left

If you know me, you know I can get along and debate with people from every political, religious and social stripe.  You also know I regard mockery as an art form.  This doesn't mean I'm not sympathetic, or lack understanding.

In this case, I see a need, so I'm going to offer some free advice.  It's worth at least what you pay for it, but beggars can't be choosers.

Dear Occupussies:  This is where you went wrong:

The start. 

Really, that's where you went wrong.  A "Leaderless" protest isn't a protest.  It's a bunch of whining infants throwing a tantrum.  I blame your teachers.  That you don't realize they've failed to teach you anything useful, and want instead to blame "the banks" or "big ag" or whoever you're blaming this time around just shows how badly they've failed you.  People who make a lot of money need knowledgeable employees to get things done, and you're just not going to be those employees.  This situation is not ideal for you, or them, either.

Here's how it works:

DETERMINE THERE IS A PROBLEM.  Right now, the problem is "the 1%."  Very good. Except your definition of the 99% and the 1% is so vague that half the people you'd like on your side hate you.  Really.  That constitutes failure of both definition and message on your part, not failure on their part to "understand" your brilliance.  If you're so smart, why are the 1% so rich?  They have an agenda.  You need one, too.  Yes, really.

ORGANIZE WITH AN EFFECTIVE LEADER.  Democracy has leaders. Anarchy does not.  If anarchy is what you crave, stop making demands that someone else fix your problem for you, and be an anarchist.

HAVE A STAFF TO MANAGE, DIRECT, COORDINATE.  Have set start and stop times.  Show up, state your case, thank people for listening, go back and plan the next battle. (This is how militaries win wars. Troops get tired.  Equipment wears out.  The landscape takes a beating—yes, the military uses ecologists.  You just learned that from me.  You're welcome.)  Be glad you do live in America.  Half the countries in the world would have called out troops to machine gun you for being a mob.

HAVE A PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER.  Find someone with PR experience and charisma.  Let them work your message into an appealing shape.  This is the person who pro-actively meets the press and expresses your concerns and looks good doing it.  They're the go-to person the media and everyone else will see instead of some frothing doped-up hippie who hasn't showered in a week. http://orangwutang.com/2011/10/18/where-do-i-sign-up/

HAVE HANDOUTS WITH CONCISE BULLET POINTS.  See what I did there?  It works.  Politicians win elections like this, and this is an election—you're trying to convince enough people to join your movement and put pressure on [someone] to effect a change.  They have to have some idea what you stand for, and it needs to be official.

OFFER ALTERNATIVES.  This will put you ahead of the politicians, if you can offer actual, useful alternatives.  "Forgive all debt by anyone ever" is not useful.  That moron has obviously never taken Economics 101, or even Econ 089.  Or any business course.  Yes, I realize he's a moron, but because you didn't have any of the above points, he got to be the most visible and self-appointed spokesman by default.  Want to know who to blame for the opposition latching onto him as your figurehead?  Look around you. 

BRING IN THIRD PARTIES TO OFFER RESEARCHED OPTIONS.  Every position of every group has a research paper about it somewhere.  One of your staff needs to be digging these up, and asking the authors to make presentations and comments your PR person can use.

MEET WITH THE OPPOSITION AND OTHER INTERESTED PARTIES TO DEBATE AND RESOLVE.  Not everyone agrees with you.  In fact, 99% (see what I did there?) of the country does not agree with you, including people you wish would.  Start off with the understanding that anyone getting by with the status quo is going to be reluctant to change it, especially on the advice of a bunch of self-admitted failures.  The first question anyone with anything to lose is going to ask themselves is, "Will I be better off with these freaks in charge than the bastard who's there now?"  If the answer is hysterical laughter, you've failed.

POLITICS IS THE ART OF NEGOTIATION.  Once you know what you want, ask for 150% of it.  You won't get it, but that's the point.  If you get 70%, be ecstatic.  If you get 30%, be happy.  If you get 10%, be gracious and polite, accept it, go back, reorganize, and come back again for more

DECIDE WHO GETS TO PLAY.  Just because someone supports you doesn't mean they're entitled to face time.  The retarded kid means well, and you should welcome him, but he's probably not suited for the camera.  Have him fetch sandwiches and maintain the line.  The bully should be told to piss off.  He's not going to improve your image or numbers.  The psycho should be actively opposed, and you should have him arrested if need be.  This tells everyone that you have standards.  Substitute "Communist Party" for bully and "Nazi Party" for psycho. No, you really don't want their endorsement.  If you think those endorsements are good ideas, step down and let someone else be leader.  No, they won't go away if you ignore them.

Likewise, having people worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars supporting you sort of negates the argument that you're against those filthy rich bastards.  You're only against certain filthy rich bastards, but, if you look at the ones promoting you, they have agendae, are making money off you, and make you look like suckers, because you are.  Don't just take the pittance they toss you.  Require them to cough up morally.  They should be acting according to your values, not dumping all over you and tossing you a quarter now and then.

DON'T HAVE A POWER VACUUM.  Remember that CPUSA and the Nazis I mentioned?  They DO have existing organizations with paid, professional leaders, and believe it or not, they've been successful at what they do for a long time. If they think they can move in and suborn your march for their purposes, they will, and they have.  The enemy of your enemy is not your friend, they're just the enemy of your enemy.  Remember WWII?  We allied with the Stalinists.  The Nazis allied with the Fascists and Imperialists.  None of us liked each other, and kept each other at arm's length.   Remember what happened to Italy once things went south?  If not, go read a history book.

DON'T DILUTE YOUR MESSAGE.  Is this about health care?  Or banks?  Or schools?  Or jobs?  Or what?  Yes, there are multiple problems, but multiple front wars are tough.  Have a holding action on most while you attack one, then switch later.  All out offense has no staying power.

GOOD LUCK, YOU'RE GOING TO NEED IT.  All of this information is readily accessible in junior high school.  Really.  Certainly high school.  Two generations back in the 60s, a lot of this was refined, and the unions had a hand on it a century ago.  That you haven't had this from the start and haven't been using it means your teachers and professors have UTTERLY FAILED TO DO THEIR JOBS.  You might want to put that on your agenda.

RETREAT IS A STRATEGY.  What you're facing here are what are called "sunk costs."  The time and money you've poured in so far really haven't done anything.  Pouring in more is only going to waste money, time, energy and accomplish more nothing.  Fixing the engine on your sinking ship just means you lose a more expensive ship.  Go get another ship, put on a fresh coat of paint, get a trained crew and come back stronger.

Next time:  Some observations on who you should be fighting.

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The Education Industrial Complex

The loans and the "Everyone must go to college" philosophy are the driving force of the Education Industrial Complex.

There are more potential students than there can ever be slots in college.

All those who attend have to earn a degree in something.

The college actuaries figure out how much money is there, from student, Daddy, grants, loans, jobs, and price the tuition accordingly to get most of it (Hey, those football teams aren't cheap, and we have to remember that's what college is REALLY about).

The students get ummarketable degrees, because not everyone gets to be a rocket scientist, doctor, engineer or lawyer. (Let's take Women's Studies--the few potential jobs mostly would be helping some capitalist enterprise market toward women, which is anathema to the kind of mentality that gets that degree, and the job is better done by a real sociologist.)

They complain about how tough it is to get the loans and grants.

The government raises the loan amounts, and GUARANTEES THEM.

The schools raise their tuition to account for the increase in potential income in the market.

Repeat.

This is first year, hell, first week, hell, junior high economics of the "supply and demand" type.  Anyone who gets to, much less through college and can't grasp this should have their degree fed through a shredder.

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Occupy Indy, Celebrating Corporations

"I never am upset [misplaced modifier] when someone makes a profit," said Golden-Hogan. "I am upset when the ratio of a CEO's pay to a worker's pay is 475 to one. Somehow those guy's [wrong use of apostrophe] don't seem smarter to [suggest "than"] me."

http://www.fox59.com/news/wxin-indianapolis-police-prepare-for-occupy-indy-protest-20111007,0,3981426.story

Okay, you've defined income as a measure of worth.  You've demonstrated a poor grasp of English usage.  You've contradicted your own absolute of "never."  You've defined a certain income ratio as unacceptable to you. You've implied that ratio as a standard. There are, at most, 500-1000 CEOs earning that level of income.  That is far less than 1% of the population.  A quick google suggests that, approximately, anyone earning under $1 million, or with a net worth of under $3 million, is part of the "99%."  The number of billionaires is far less than 3 million people.  Your standard fails analysis.  If the CEO's efforts generate 475 times more profit for the company, and its employees and investors as you could, then it would be worthwhile to pay him commensurately.  Looking at the balance sheets of the Fortune 500, it appears they do so.  Your standard fails for poor comparison.

Now, you and 150ish of your friends showed up in downtown Indy today, and walked around for an hour or so before most of you got tired and left.  The police report your friends complaining about the 80 degree F heat.  Having done construction in the Arabian Desert in a war zone for 12-16 hours a day during sandstorms at 115F, I can totally sympathize with your plight.  However, it could be that a dedicated CEO would benefit from a little more dedication to the cause.

I noticed a number of Starbucks cups, McDonald's bags, Gap shirts, even a couple of name-brand backpacks.  It seems you do appreciate the corporation. 

It also seems you had to juggle your busy schedule to take a day off, and parade around with signs on my behalf.  I can totally dig the difficulty.  I wanted to be there myself, but my kids wanted to do something as a family, and I had some income-generating contracts to work on.  I didn't see a sign with my message on it, so you'll have to do it for me next time.  Please make one that reads, "I'M PROTESTING DADDY'S MUTUAL FUND!"

Okay, seriously now: Why is your protest doomed to fail?  Because you're not too bright, not too dedicated, have no coherent position, and are shallow and lazy, as well as enjoying a standard of living that 99% (See what I did there?) of the people on Earth can only dream about.  You can't pay your student loans? That mother of 8 in Bangladesh totally sympathizes.  You have a car, but it's tough to make payments on time? That guy in Zimbabwe with the wheeled cart feels your pain.  You had to work overtime?  The Egyptian contractors we had overseas understand.  If they'd had overtime on top of their 72 hour workweeks, they'd have been sad.

Your attitude, intellect, self-chosen education or lack of same, self-created debt and lack of determination won't get you a job as a CEO.  It might not get you a job as anything.

The whole thing looks much like wetting one's pants in a dark suit.  It gives one a warm feeling, but no one notices or cares.

I am the 99%.  And you don't speak for me.

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Survivors, Book Bomb Day Tuesday

Survivors, a Novel of the Coming Collapse by James Wesley, Rawles, editor of Survivalblog.

Hardcover

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1439172803ie=UTF8&tag=wwwmichaelzwi-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1439172803

 Kindle

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004T4KXWS/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wwwmichaelzwi-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B004T4KXWS

 audio edition

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1455847046/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wwwmichaelzwi-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=1455847046

"Survivors" runs concurrently with "Patriots."  You need not read "Patriots" first, though of course, I would always encourage buying more books.

These books are narrative training scenarios--How to guides written as fiction.  They do have a story, but the reason to read them is for the information they impart and the consideration they provoke.  It's much easier to remember a story than dry facts in a list.

Order or buy Tuesday, and you'll get to hear the pollyannae scream as a nice bonus.

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Help Me Throw An Officer Off a Building!

You can help me help Special Olympics too, by making a donation using this fundraising page.

www.somo.org/ChuckCoffin
All I'm asking for is "Ten Cents a Foot!"

The hotel is 289 feet tall, so that's $28.90 (or any other amount--greater or smaller--you feel called to contribute). It’s simple, fast and totally secure, and gets me that much closer to going Over the Edge. Only kicker is--I didn't find out about this until yesterday! I have less than one week to hit my goal! So I ask for your help, to make this happen.

This thrilling event is a unique opportunity for SOMO fans to support more than 2,900 local Special Olympics athletes by rappelling down the The Four Seasons Hotel at Lumiere Place in St. Louis on October 7. I'm joining the 3rd annual group of only 100 participants who are fan enough to take this challenge.

~~~~~

Chuck is a retired officer, all around good guy who helped me and others with retirement issues at National Records, a fan (who was the CO for Sgt Mel Butler, credited in "Freehold," which is how we met and they reconnected), and I did say good guy, right?

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