Willow Limb

Granted our backyard is a source of neglect. We really have to pay some attention to it and get it into shape.

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But the huge willow limb that crashed through the fence at 10:00 AM this morning didn't help matters at all.
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Both my insurance agent, Dave Bruett, and my public adjuster, Harvey Rowe, didn't give me any indication that this will be a quick insurance fix.
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Maybe cleaning this up will be the catalyst to getting the entire back done for the rest of the summer.

Close Out July

It's the last week in July. Not much fishing luck this summer, but at least the keeper trap is filled with lobsters. We'll probably fire up the turkey fryer with a kettle of boiling water this weekend for a lobster dinner.
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It will be a push to clear up loose ends this week, tidy up Nanepashemet Telecom. We've got a couple of projects in the pipeline, but I would really like to concentrate on closeouts rather than planning. Plus we will be moving our warehouse operations next week so it will be nice to stand back and take stock.

Workbench Progress

I surprised myself at the progress that was made on the Workbench Project.
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The dovetailed apron was glued and fastened, the end vise was attached, as well as the two bench vises.
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The wooden vise grips have to be assembled and fastened to the bench vises, and a ton of sanding had to be done. Then the holes for the bench dogs need to be lined up and drilled.
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I also cut all of the mortises for the bench leg system in the mahogany 2x4's using the Jet Mortising Machine that I'm really glad that I bought on a whim six months ago or so.
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I'm going to set up the router table with a sharpened 3/4" straight bit to cut the tenons.
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Then the leg system will be assembled and attached to the bottom of the table.
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After the sanding is completed, five or six coats of sprayed polyurethane varnish will finish the project, and we will move it into the basement to be used as a plan table and fine detail work, until it becomes the centerpiece for the dream shop that I will build when I retire.
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Maybe I'll sneak in some hours on the project this week because I'm anxious to get moving on Kate's Adirondack chair. I know that I will be down to Block Island once or twice this week to close that project out, and there is probably some other Nanepashemet Telecom priorities that will loom forth. Plus alot will depend on the weather.

White House Beer

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So  the President wants to have a beer at the White House with the Cambridge Cop and the agitated Harvard Professor.
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Could be a really sensitive meeting.

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I would think that the White House stocks a wide selection of beers.

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Colt 45 is one brand that has marketed heavily to African Americans. Billy Dee Williams says "It works every time!" Maybe Obama should test this claim.
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Or maybe they should stick to a Sam Adams.
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Better yet, I'd recommend a Corona, which would placate the growing Hispanic constituency.

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If I was Obama, I wouldn't pick the beer....he's already way too deep in the weeds.
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Then again..... I would ship a case of Bud to the Cambridge Police and call it a day.

Weekend Responsibility

Peeps -
We are staring down the beginning of a relatively nice, mid-summer weekend.
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Why don't you pay attention to your own plans, and stop sending me hundreds of emails asking me what I'm going to do this weekend????
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I'm tempted to completely ignore your pathetic petitions, but I realize that would tend to exacerbate your neurotic insecurities, so I will gratuitously give you my weekend outlook. You Emotional Babies!
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Things I have to do.... check lobster pots, glue the maple and mahoghany apron on to the workbench project, make a bank deposit, see if the Bluefish have returned to Fish Alley behind Baker's Island, get a rowing workout in the Tender in Marblehead Harbor, grab a burger at the Boston Yacht Club, send out some Nanepashemet Telecom invoices, drink some Dark and Stormies.
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Pretty much have to stop the list there. Even a Mountain of a Man like me has his limits.
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Now I hope you can settle down and concentrate on your own life for awhile and leave me alone.

POTW Week 29

My advice to the President is to concentrate on the economy, and try to get his health plan on track. Anything he says from here on in regarding the Gates Racial Profiling Fiasco will only highlight Obama's rush to judgement. This is about a prima donna who thinks he can use the race card to stand above the law. It is way beneath Obama.

But our President has proposed to have a beer at the White House with his friend Gates and the evil Sgt. Crowley. The aggrieved victim, Prof. Gates, responded that he would go but that he doesn't drink beer. Isn't that insulting to all White Beer Drinkers everywhere???

Announcing....
Nanepashemet Peeps of the Week for the 29th week of 2009

Sgt. Jim Crowley
Pres. Barack Obama
Prof. Skip Gates
Commissioner Robert C. Haas of the Cambridge Police Department
Sgt. Leon Lashley of the Cambridge Police Department
The Guy across the Street Who Witnessed the Entire Incident

I realize that this is the only theme related POTW selection in history, but that's just the way it happened this week. You just can't tamper with the completely scientific and unbiased selection criteria. That would be disastrous.

Island Fever

Another Friday night commute from Block Island to Marblehead.
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Man, I am so sick of that island..... not specifically all of Block Island, but the tiny patch that houses that Verizon cell site.

Unfortunate Email

And to the DipShit who decided to send me an email and call me racist... let me just tell you....
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I grew up with Black kids, went to school with Black kids from the 1st grade on. Roomed with a Black kid in college, took race relations training as a dorm counselor, my kid's Godfather is a Black man, was co-captain of my high school track team with a Black man. In many situations, was the only white guy in a host of social situations. Had close relationships with Black people, but also had a Black man physically hold a knife to my throat. And the list can go on.
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But I'm not some freaking phony who will jump to a lock step liberal position because the parties are Black.
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You don't know shit about me. But I know that you are a low life, close minded asshole.
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I have no problem calling Gates a racist. Because those are the overwhelming facts. And I have no problem busting your balls as well. Asshole.

Pisc said...

The media started telling this story in Cambridge as a white cop having an encounter with a black man, and filled in the blanks that the white cop is a racist, simply because he had an encounter with a black individual. That is racist. It is time to call it out. “All white cops are racists” is a racist statement, and the conclusion that the media, in not talking about any facts other than the race of the cop and the man breaking into a residence that happened to be his own, was reporting by omission. People who reject racism must not accept that thinking and should call it out as wrong. It was poised to obscure the character and personhood of the Cambridge cop, making him an “it”, and not a person with dignity, and intellect, and pride. And when the facts came out, sure we have an unfortunate incident, but a completely understandable one, without any racial implications. Unless you want to put them in there. Which you can. But the world is going to call out people who do so, call them out as racist.

Pax Vobiscum.

News Brief

This excerpt for WBZ news is particularly insightful. What is incredible about this Gates incident is that Gates keeps coming up as a racist prima donna, and that President Obama killed his opportunity to focus the nation on the health issue by saying that the "Cambridge Police acted stupidly."
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Forget about Gates. This gives us way more insight into Obama.

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Jul 23, 2009 3:37 pm US/Eastern

Gates Arresting Officer: Obama 'Way Off Base'

BOSTON (WBZ) ―

Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley speaks to WBZ Radio July 23, 2009.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. is arrested outside of his Cambridge home.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. mug shot from Cambridge Police.

Close

The white police sergeant who arrested black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. said Thursday President Barack Obama was "way off base" claiming Cambridge officers acted "stupidly" during the incident.

Read: White House Clarifies Obama's Remark

Sgt. James Crowley, who is a police academy expert on racial profiling, responded to Gates' home near Harvard University last week to investigate a report of a burglary and demanded Gates show him identification. Police say Gates at first refused and accused the officer of racism.

Gates was charged with disorderly conduct. The charge was dropped Tuesday, and Gates has since demanded an apology from Crowley.

'THERE WAS A LOT OF YELLING'

"I acted appropriately," Crowley told WBZ Radio's Carl Stevens Thursday.

Watch: The Crowley Interview

"Mister Gates was given plenty of opportunities to stop what he was doing. He didn't. He acted very irrational he controlled the outcome of that event."

"There was a lot of yelling, there was references to my mother, something you wouldn't expect from anybody that should be grateful that you were there investigating a report of a crime in progress, let alone a Harvard University professor."

According to the police report, Crowley asked Gates to talk outside, to which he responded "Yeah, I'll speak with your mama outside."

OBAMA ON THE ARREST

Obama was asked about the arrest of Gates, who is his friend, at the end of a nationally televised news conference on health care Wednesday night.

"I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry," Obama said. "Number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. And number three -- what I think we know separate and apart from this incident -- is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that's just a fact."

Watch: President Obama's full comments

PRESIDENT 'WAY OFF BASE'

Crowley maintained he had done nothing wrong in arresting Gates.

"I support the president of the United States 110-percent," he told WBZ Radio.

"I think he's way off base wading into a local issue without knowing all the facts, as he himself stated before he made that comment. I don't know what to say about that. I guess a friend of mine would support my position, too."

Crowley has taught a class on racial profiling for five years at Lowell Police Academy. In the class, he teaches officers about different situations and how officers should handle them.

GATES: 'NOT ABOUT ME'

Gates has said he was "outraged" by the arrest.

He said the white officer walked into his home without his permission and only arrested him as the professor followed him to the porch, repeatedly demanding the sergeant's name and badge number because he was unhappy over his treatment.

"This isn't about me; this is about the vulnerability of black men in America," Gates said.

He said the incident made him realize how vulnerable poor people and minorities are "to capricious forces like a rogue policeman, and this man clearly was a rogue policeman."

RACISM CLAIMS 'UNFORTUNATE'

So what does Crowley think about Gates' claim that he's a racist?

"It almost doesn't even warrant a comment it's so ridiculous. My friends, my family, my colleagues, those people (whose) opinions mean the most to me, they know who I am. They know what I am and what I am not."

"It's an unfortunate thing that the professor or other people have even mentioned that."

'APOLOGY WON'T COME FROM ME'

Crowley, 42, said he won't apologize. And his union has expressed "full and unqualified" support for him.

"The apology wont come from me. I've done nothing wrong," he told WBZ.

REGGIE LEWIS CONNECTION

Fellow officers, black and white, say he is well-liked and respected on the force. Crowley was a campus police officer at Brandeis University in July 1993 when he administered CPR trying to save the life of former Boston Celtics player Reggie Lewis.

Lewis, who was black, collapsed and died during an off-season workout.

SUPPORT FOR BOTH SIDES

Gates' supporters maintain his arrest was a case of racial profiling.

Supporters of the Cambridge police were stunned the incident came up at the White House news conference.

"We were shocked to hear the president weigh in on this during a prime time news conference. They are a model police department; true professionals. It's a shame that they are being nationally targeted like this," Harold MacGilvray of the Massachusetts Municipal Police Coalition said in a statement.

Crowley said he wouldn't do anything different if he had the chance to do things over.

"If a similar call came in tomorrow, I wouldn't shy away from responding and I would do what I have to do."

Racist Cambridge

What does Judge Sotomayor think?

Gatesgate

I know that I said that the Gates arrest in Cambridge was not really newsworthy.
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But last night, President Obama decided to sound in about the incident during his press conference. Course neither he, I, nor anyone except Professor Henry Gates and Cambridge Police Sergeant Joe Crowley has the real facts.... except maybe the guy who lives across the street who said to NewsCenter5 that Gates was agitated but that the police were under control. Guy is probably a racist.

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Barach opined that the "Cambridge Police acted stupidly". That could have been a stupid comment as well.
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So if President Obama can make stupid comments, certainly I can do the same.
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Seems to me that the issue indeed is racism.... whether or not a prominent Black Harvard professor can pull the race card and claim that he can say anything he wants to a white Police officer when he is called to do his job.
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After all, didn't they know who he was??? And that he was a friend of President Obama??? How dare they question him about a breaking and entering call that was made to the Police? If he was a white guy, wouldn't the police have ignored the breaking and entering call and driven right by???
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Would Gates have gotten so irate if the first responding officer wasn't the white Sgt. Crowley, but one of the many black officers on the Cambridge Police force?
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Gates is right to say that racism plays a part here. But who is the racist?
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And don't be telling me that the People's Republic of Cambridge harbors a racist police force. Sell that Bullshit someplace else.
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Now Gates wants Crowley to "beg" his forgiveness.

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This professor has made a career in the study of racist America over at Harvard. Certainly he is sensitive to his outlook as a Black man in an oppressive society. But it seems as if he might have overreacted in this case.
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Benchdogs

Yesterday, when I was waiting for plan sets to be printed for the Mystic Country Connecticut permit run, I went over to Woodcraft in Woburn to kill a half hour.
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Forty five minutes later, I was walking out with two sets of brass benchdogs by Veritas. What the hell.... the workbench is coming along nicely and those benchdogs will really add a nice touch. I know that I owe you some pictures, and if I don't have to go out to Block Island this Friday, the bench should see some real progress.
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After that, the concentration will return to Kate's Adirondack chair, plus I have a couple of secret projects in mind that I can't tell you about right now.