I decided to try out DuckDuckGo. The tracking didn’t bother me. Those that tracked me would find out very little about me. First, when I can, I write. When I write, I do research, mostly on the internet. One of my books starts out in France so I did some research on France, especially Paris. Oddly, for a few weeks after, I started getting ads about France and Europe. If they were looking for info on me, they struck out. More, all they had to do was ask me. All they needed to do was read my blog. My life is pretty much open.

One thing about it, it did alert me to the fact that people were watching over my shoulder. Many times, it brought some laughter to me. Sometimes, I had to just shake my head.

Now that I am using DuckDuckGo, I still get ads, strange ads. I get ads like a four thousand pound skip loader. I get ads for hydraulic equipment. Stuff I don’t use or ever looked for.

Actually, I find some of them very interesting and even educational. Did you know they build huge commercial generators that run on Gas, Diesel or natural gas. If I had one delivered, I might be able to replace the local power company for three or four blocks. Why can’t they deliver these things to disaster areas. They have them on wheels. The can lift them in with hopter-choppers

Actually, I’d like to have a generator, but more in the 2 to 4 KW range. We do have power outages now and then, but I have a hard time letting go of the money when it is so infrequent, until we have an outage. It would be nice to have one for my Nissan EV too.

When I saw the ad for the skip loader, I spent a few minutes thinking of ways I might be able to use such a thing to make money. Obviously, some people do use them to make money. So picture me rubbing my scruffy little beard trying to think of someone that might need some dirt moved. Actually, I could use the thing for myself, but I don’t think I even have the money for it. If I had the money, I don’t think I’d want to let go of it.

You put the term tractor on the side of a machine and instantly the price goes up 25% or more. Commercial quality you know.

What I’d really like to borrow is one of those big machines that goes in, clamps onto a tree and severs just below where it is being held. Then the machine drives off with the tree in it’s grips. I have about 10 pine trees that ruin my lawn, drop needles on my roof and cause damage to my foundation. I don’t know anyone who has one. Even more, I’m not sure it would be able to get into my backyard. ( I suppose I could take down the fence temporarily.)

Maybe I need to use my regular browser and look for one of those machines. Perhaps I can get a deal for ten trees. The neat thing, all I would need to do is browse and they would come looking for me.

Meantime, I need to find a team to take down that pin oak tearing into my my foundation, before I have to look for someone who will fix my foundation.

Back in the day, there was a very popular song, which most of us enjoyed hearing. I guess maybe I heard it too much. It was sung by Kenny Rogers and was the story of the reluctant hero who, through most of the song was, was known as the coward of the county.

I was reminded of the song today, Only I would change three things. First the character in the song was not a coward but was simply honoring a promise. The character I’m thinking of is afraid to leave the basement and hold a news conference, probably at the behest her handlers, aka puppeteers. Second, she is a woman, representing a party that knows not how to define a woman. Third the hero in the song is called the coward of the county. The woman I am referring to is the coward of the country, a one letter difference, you see.

I learned the phrase when my oldest son was in Little League. It is when the home team provides the biased umpire. To be sure, to really admit it, there were not as many cases of home cooking as I thought.

For sure, we did get some bad calls. On the other hand I am sure most of the umps were trying to be objective. Were there biased umps? Sure. On the other hand, there were umps that maybe called it the other way, to make sure they weren’t being biased.

It’s hard to find an umpire that isn’t biased. I guess even in the majors there might be one or two calls that go the wrong way. On the other hand, their calls are watched carefully and if a bias, either way shows up, someone has a few words with the one making the calls. Moreover, there is a professional pride involved.

I was never a professional umpire, but I was an unbiased one. I went to Syracuse for ten weeks for a school. In the afternoon, I often went for walks through a nearby park. I started watching Little League games on the way. Next thing I knew I was called in as the unbiased umpire. You see, being from Desoto County, I had no bias, at least theoretically, in the games.

I must not have done too badly. They kept asking me back. Either way, no one ever accused me of home cooking.

It is a problem in our society. Getting unbiased people to call strikes and balls. All too often those who sit on the bench in judgement are biased. Even those who try to be unbiased are. Worse yet, many are biased and are open about it.

What it means is that we have a serious problem in our society. When the judge and jury is biased and calls a person guilty when no law was even broken, it puts the general population in fear of false judgement. It might even encourage people to break the law. It encourages people to look the other way as the government officials openly break the law.

However, it’s not just the court system. Recently, the director of the FBI admitted a very biased activity in saying he knew the laptop belonged to Old Joe’s son. But why did he cover it up. There can only be one reason, to let Old Joe win the election. This is home cooking at its worst. This is the highest office in the FBI interfering with the election and openly admitting to it, without any fear. And then, of course, they all insisted there was no fraud. Worse, if someone suggested fraud, they immediately hushed them up. They made threats. They immediately made fun of them. They tried to put their businesses out of business.

Then too, there was more home cooking, by the press. You can ignore it. You can try to deny it but it was not only obvious, but in some cases, they even admitted it. This, when they say that the job of the media is to call balls and strikes. Yet they call nothing but strikes when the republicans are up and they call nothing balls when the dems are at bat.

Are we destined to become a third rate society because we have an obvious Pravda making all the calls?

Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone honestly and unbiased calling the balls and strikes at least half as well as the professional major league baseball umps. Sorry. Not going to happen in our lifetime. And the consequences will likely be far worse than any of us can imagine.

Actually, at this time, I would settle for what we called home cooking when my son was playing baseball. Better than what we have in the no-justice system. Better than what we have in the court system. Far better than what we have in the new media. Even more, it was less obvious back then.

I didn’t look it up so I am relying on my poor memory. Seems to me it was said by Frank Lloyd Wright. His point was that the design should be that the function should be most important and the appearance would take care of itself. Seems a good idea to me.

So, a few days ago, I saw a guy getting in his big, huge pickup, which by the way looked very nice. I noticed the emblem on the side of the truck, something to the effect of certified for offroad. I complemented him on his truck and I duly noted the the offroad certification. He smile and said, “Yup.” I asked him if it was ever offroad. He said, “Nope. No, no.” Somehow I don’t think it will ever be either.