Quote of the Week: 3/31/2014

Mix a little foolishness with your prudence: It's good to be silly at the right moment.
--Horace, Roman lyric poet BC

World Murder Statistics

A friend sent me this. It didn't give the source(s) or who compiled it, but it's interesting if it's true.

This is FASCINATING !!

WORLD MURDER STATISTICS

From the World Health Organization

The latest Murder Statistics for the world:

Murders per 100,000 citizens per year.

Honduras 91.6 (WOW!!)

El Salvador 69.2

Cote d'lvoire 56.9

Jamaica 52.2

Venezuela 45.1

Belize 41.4

US Virgin Islands 39.2

Guatemala 38.5

Saint Kitts and Nevis 38.2

Zambia 38.0

Uganda 36.3

Malawi 36.0

Lesotho 35.2

Trinidad and Tobago 35.2

Colombia 33.4

South Africa 31.8

Congo 30.8

Central African Republic 29.3

Bahamas 27.4

Puerto Rico 26.2

Saint Lucia 25.2

Dominican Republic 25.0

Tanzania 24.5

Sudan 24.2

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 22.9

Ethiopia 22.5

Guinea 22.5

Dominica 22.1

Burundi 21.7

Democratic Republic of the Congo 21.7

Panama 21.6

Brazil 21.0

Equatorial Guinea 20.7

Guinea-Bissau 20.2

Kenya 20.1

Kyrgyzstan 20.1

Cameroon 19.7

Montserrat 19.7

Greenland 19.2

Angola 19.0

Guyana 18.6

Burkina Faso 18.0

Eritrea 17.8

Namibia 17.2

Rwanda 17.1

Mexico 16.9

Chad 15.8

Ghana 15.7

Ecuador 15.2

North Korea 15.2

Benin 15.1

Sierra Leone 14.9

Mauritania 14.7

Botswana 14.5

Zimbabwe 14.3

Gabon 13.8

Nicaragua 13.6

French Guiana 13.3

Papua New Guinea 13.0

Swaziland 12.9

Bermuda 12.3

Comoros 12.2

Nigeria 12.2

Cape Verde 11.6

Grenada 11.5

Paraguay 11.5

Barbados 11.3

Togo 10.9

Gambia 10.8

Peru 10.8

Myanmar 10.2

Russia 10.2

Liberia 10.1

Costa Rica 10.0

Nauru 9.8

Bolivia 8.9

Mozambique 8.8

Kazakhstan 8.8

Senegal 8.7

Turks and Caicos Islands 8.7

Mongolia 8.7

British Virgin Islands 8.6

Cayman Islands 8.4

Seychelles 8.3

Madagascar 8.1

Indonesia 8.1

Mali 8.0

Pakistan 7.8

Moldova 7.5

Kiribati 7.3

Guadeloupe 7.0

Haiti 6.9

Timor-Leste 6.9

Anguilla 6.8

Antigua and Barbuda 6.8

Lithuania 6.6

Uruguay 5.9

Philippines 5.4

Ukraine 5.2

Estonia 5.2

Cuba 5.0

Belarus 4.9

Thailand 4.8

Suriname 4.6

Laos 4.6

Georgia 4.3

Martinique 4.2

And ............................................

The United States 4.2 !!!!!!!!!!!!

ALL (109) of the countries above America have 100% gun bans.

It might be of interest to note that SWITZERLAND is not shown on this list because it has

NO MURDER OCCURRENCE!

However, SWITZERLAND 'S law requires that EVERYONE:

1. Own a gun.

2. Maintain Marksman qualifications .... regularly .

Didja learn anything from this??

I think the message is - loud and clear - that gun bans and restrictions

DO NOT work!

ARE YOU REALLY PREPARED?

There are all kinds of preps. Do you know how to use all of the things you have stored away? Some things you may need to do some practice on. How's your medical prep? Do you think, if you had to right now, you could suture a wound? Or deliver a baby?  If you have a medical background, then you are one up on a lot of us.

Firearms: can you hit the broad side of a barn? Could you put meat on your table if you have to? Practice can be costly. Those of you out there who know firearms are one up on a lot of people. Can you use a bow or a slingshot? Can you set a snare? Those are just a few things you might need to know.

How about blacksmithing, or knowing what plants are good to eat, or which plants to use as medicine? Can you garden Can you sew? There is so much that we could learn on how to be more self reliant. When it comes right down to it, everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. What is one persons' weakness is another ones' strength.You can't do it all by yourself. If you have books on how to do certain things, have you put to practice what you have read?

Everyone -- young, old, or in between -- we need to push ourselves, family, friends, and your group, to see what each of us can or cannot do. Your life or your family's lives could be in jeopardy. If you can, try to get with other like minded people as yourself. Don't be afraid to show someone or others how to do something you're good at that they can't do.

Having all of your preps is good. What about having people preps? 

Quote of the Week: 3/24/2014

“It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want—oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!” 

--Mark Twain

Photo (c) taken near Gateway Canyon, Colorado, in April 2010 by Jim Noland

I sure have Spring fever. I put up some garden fencing Kathi got for the brick planter in the backyard. The tulips are coming up back there. Sure makes me feel like Spring is almost sprung.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Slippin' and Slidin'

Well, I missed posting on Thursday. And I have a good reason why. I'm getting ready to tell on myself. So, get a cup of coffee, maybe something to snack on. Get comfy.

Yesterday, things were going pretty good, until I decided to take a shower. Now, most of my showers are pretty boring and routine, as I'm sure a lot of yours are. We live in a house that was built in 1959. Three bedrooms, that are on the small side. A small kitchen and dinning room, living room, and the attached garage was made into a family room with a fireplace.

There is a full bathroom and there is a partial bathroom in our bedroom. Now, the full bathroom is small. The toilet and sink are on one wall. When sitting on the throne, you can reach across the room to get to the toilet paper roll. There is a tub/shower on the opposite wall, and it is pretty small.

Anyway, as I was taking my shower, I was washing my hair and had my back towards the shower head. As I turned to stick my head under the showerhead, there was this loud POP! BANG ! The darn shower head hit me right between the eyes.

Of course, I stepped back, cussing, with shampoo in my eyes, and this flood of water beating me to death. As I stepped back, with the tub being slippery, I slid backwards. My butt hit the back portion of the tub that just happened to be at the right angle. My feet went out from under me, and I slid, with my feet now in the air, onto my back and then kinda on my shoulders, with my butt in the air.

I almost did a backward somersault! I was really worried that I might get the water spigot up my you know what. But I stopped short of that happening. I managed to get the water shut off, and managed to get to my feet. I still had soap in my eyes. So I turned the water back on. I never knew we had such good water pressure. It blasted me right in the chest. (I think it bruised one of my nipples.) I got all the shampoo out of my hair and got out of the tub.

Now, just to ease a few people's minds out there. I didn't get hurt when I fell. It kind of reminded me of when I was a kid in the tub and I would slide in the tub on my butt. The shower head I thought for sure would have left a knot and the impression on my forehead of the little holes on the shower head, kinda like a waffle.

After getting dried off, I took that shower head and threw that SOB just as far as I could in the backyard. Nugget must have thought I had thrown a ball or something. He chased after it, but didn't bring it back to the house.

I went to Home Depot and got the things I needed to fix the shower. Picked up the shower head from the back yard. Put everything back together. Now, we will see how Kathi does in the morning with her shower. 

ABOUT NOTHING

I've got nothing for today.

Foods from Childhood -- Uh, oh, Spaghetti-O's (A Kathi Post)

I was having lunch last week with my work unit for someone’s birthday and the topic of conversation shifted to foods we ate in our childhood that we may or may not still eat.

One lady’s husband asks her to make “projects food.” I asked what that was and she said it’s basically fried potatoes, hamburger, and onions -- something they ate when she lived in the Projects. Hmmmm. My Dad made that a lot and I would still eat it. It’s so good, especially if you add a can of pork ‘n beans or top it with ketchup.

Another lady’s mom used to make mayonnaise sandwiches and sugar sandwiches (not in the same sandwich), especially when it was close to payday. She told us the mayonnaise sandwiches were just that – mayo on white bread. Sugar sandwiches were butter and sugar on white bread. Hmmmm. My Mom made the sugar sandwiches, which was a shortcut of lefse. My Grandma used to feed us lefse when we were at her house. Don’t know about lefse? Look here to learn about it.

My leader in Girl Scouts was not a very good cook, I think. We had day-camp for a week in the summer, and the highlight of our days was cooking for ourselves. The leader provided the “recipes” for us to make our lunches. None of them were very good, but the worst lunch was when she instructed us to open cans of Spaghetti-O’s and mix it with cans of corn, which was then served in ice cream cones so we didn’t have to use plates and wash many dishes. It looked and smelled as if someone had already eaten it. Bleah!

I remember one of her more “elegant” recipes was to take a can of Spam, slice it in 8 equal portions, but not all the way through – it was all connected at the bottom. Then we took a can of pineapple rings, cut them in half, and placed one (flat side down) in between every two slices of spam, then sprinkled brown sugar over the top and baked it for about 25 minutes. It was kinda pretty, but I don’t remember actually eating it. I’m not opposed to Spam – Jim and I still brown up slices sometimes for our breakfast with eggs.

My sister Karen and I used to make our own concoctions. Our favorite snack was something we called “Mouse-type Cheese,” which was just little cubes of Velveeta that we dipped in Miracle Whip. We also liked ring-bologna slices dipped in ketchup.  My sister Kristi used to suck the mayonnaise out of those little individual serving packages. I guess maybe most everyone had weird foods that they made or ate when they were kids.

Did you? What did you have? Would you still eat it now?

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: 3/10/14

"Depend not on fortune, but on conduct."

--Publilius Syrus, Syrian writer of maxims

STEPPING OUT

I'll be stepping out for a day or two, to help a church member and his wife. See you soon.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: 3/3/14

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent. "

--John Donne
English poet and preacher