Even Happy Trails Come To An End

by Cliff Harrison


I'm in the process of moving several of my blogs to my websites. On my self-hosted websites I have plenty of room to move all of my blogs and still have space for expansion. It will be much easier to meet deadlines and operate running a few websites that I totally control rather than putting up with the constant changes being made at companies like Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Facebook and others.

After the shutdown of AOL Journals and Microsoft Spaces the unstableness of companies like those and what Google and Blogger are presenting will leave too much work to chance being lost. Google has proven to be an unstable company with yet more recent changes. The upcoming privacy policy invades even more privacy. In its statement it reads that if you don't agree with Google's policy you shouldn't use Google. We don't and we won't. Google, did you hear that? Okay? Got It?

I've been in business my entire life. I always told my subordinates, "Our customers don't need us, we need them. We depend upon our customers, they don't depend upon us, they can always go elsewhere." Google, did you hear that? We don't need you. You do need us.

We don't need Google. Google is finished and isn't much different than a fine racehorse with a broken leg or a fine ship called the Titanic that has opened up full speed ahead on the open sea, blind of the ice field directly ahead.

Even fine racehorses go down and fine ships sink, too. They sink to the bottom of the sea and that's our bet where the Google & Company will end up someday soon.

My moving adventure will take some time. I will partially consolidate the blogs I move from Blogger and slowly withdraw them from Google-own sites and services as I have time. When I read a few months ago how Blogger wasn't going to be around long, and WordPress was going to take all of their business, I didn't believe it. Believe it, it is true. I'll be blogging about it, too, I'm sure. I never much liked communist I can't see liking them now.

It's ashamed Google has decided to make all the changes they have and will make across their enterprise. It is their choice. It is my choice to leave and I will. When I finish up for a period of time I will leave the new link posted to show the new home and then after a period of time has expired I will delete the blogs and the e-mails that go with them.

I'm too sick to carry such a large number of blogs anymore. Moving most of my blog's contents to my self-hosted websites will give me better control, less work and better performance. Those posts I don't decide to move to the other websites I will archive into the archive libraries.

Without the dozens, even hundreds of Blogger blogs, AdSense, Gmails, Google+, YouTube and the WalMart of the Internet I'll be spending more time in my Mom and Pop store just kicking around the cat when he's not chasing mice. I'll be spending more time writing my books which is what my blogs were suppose to be all about anyways. So, happy trails right back to you.

Unfortunately, this will be the last post of Homeward Bound "The Homeless Voice" at Blogger. (Except for the "We Have Moved" notice that provides the link to the new home which I will have set up soon, I hope.


Thanks for joining me.
We're at the end of the trail.

We're Leaving Blogger & Google

By Cliff Harrison

I've been with Blogger for many years, and Google even longer. I've come to a crossroad where Internet usage really no longer is necessary to me. Yahoo!, Microsoft, AOL, Google, YouTube, Gmail, Facebook and many others can't leave well enough alone. They constantly change things and never once ask the user if it is okay to make the changes.

None of the companies I just mentioned will be around in the next quarter century. Some will be blasted off the map before the end of the decade. Others still won't see five years from now.

Our dependence on Internet companies have made us forget we live in a real world. Our real world is stressed enough without the additional stress Internet companies and technological companies bring our way.

It's much easier to just pull the plug and go back to the old word processor to write our manuscripts and later print them up for hard copies. Except for research we could survive without the trappings of Google and its new generation of idiots.

I've been in business my entire life. One thing I can't stand is to see a good company ruined because some idiot is at the helm. I've seen a lot of great companies as well as good companies go belly up because some jerk thought he had all the answers. In the end the world learned the only talent he had was the talent that knew how to take a company down. Like the Titanic that sank one-hundred years ago this April a lot of good people went down with the ignorant crew.

It'll take some time unless I suddenly decide not to save anything and just start hitting the delete buttons. But I'm moving all of my Blogger blogs off of Goggle-controlled cyberspace. I once had a lot of great respect for Google, but who ever is running that company now is runner her in the ground and I don't want to be around when she hits the iceberg at full speed.

It's been fun Blogger, but not that much fun.

Interview Video

Food Not Bombs - Las Vegas from Michael Zayas on Vimeo.

Five Feet from the Finish Line

The Devil & Me
By Cliff Harrison

I shouldn't let the cat out of the bag and go spoiling a good story prematurely, but I'll tell you why I chose the title, "Five Feet from the Finish Line."  That's what it feels like.

One of the stories I'll publish one day in an up and coming installment of The Devil & Me is about a snowmobile race I was in back in the 70s. There I was leading the pack darn near a half a lap ahead of the nearest snowmobile coming up on the finishing line. Five feet before the finish line my drive belt broke, stopping me dead in my tracks.

There I sat unable to even push my sled across the line for a win. I was clearly ahead for most of the race and I only had sixty inches to cross the finish line and be the winner to take home the trophy. Sixty inches!

I just shook hands with the devil and thanked him as sled after sled passed me by as if poking fun at me for being that close to a winner only to be the worst loser of the entire race--dead last.

I feel like that now. Five feet from the finish line.

I've got so many writing projects that I just know are winners but I can't even get up enough energy to get them put together and published in the organized order they need to be in. Five feet from the finish line is where I am at stuck with a broken drive belt that went just like that.

I guess today I'll make more than one entry in my journal.

I can see the finish line. I can touch the finish line. I just can't get across the finish line. It's like in my mind as if I'm a cowboy in one of those old western movies and I'm crawling in the desert trying to reach the watering hole that is really nothing but a mirage while buzzards circle overhead. I'm just about there. But almost isn't good enough and those birds of prey are starting to call out to one another communicating about the bodacious dinner that's coming up.

Better men than me would have committed suicide by now. Just end it. Put themselves out of their misery. But not me. I like hanging around and giving the devil a hard time.

There are too many demons in this world to just up and leave them. It's more fun hanging around and making their life miserable like they do God's Children.

So, I guess I'll just have to plug along and do what work I can. My writing could be so much better if I didn't have this demon inside of me holding me back while draining my energy.

Well, what do you know? I meant this to be an entry for my journal. But you know what? I just wrote a piece for The Devil & Me. Why not? Maybe I can push my sled over the finish line.

The Devil & Me is a syndicated column by Cliff Harrison

Clark County Constables: Las Vegas

This video probably won't last long before being taken down from the poster. It shows an inside look at the unprofessional conduct of State regulated Clark County Constables in Las Vegas. It is the byproduct of a failed reality TV show.

A good bar of soap is in order to clean the mouths out of these boy scouts, especially the dumb supervisor, Sgt. Patrick Geary. Not too smart for a supervisor to be of bad conduct as he is while being filmed for public viewing. The entire constable's office needs to be eliminated and replaced with new public servants.

No wonder Vegas is last in anything that is good and first in anything that is bad. We have too many ignorant idiots in public office.

"We do over 300 evictions a day." --Constable John Bonaventura.
We do over 40,000 evictions a year." --Rabble-rouser Lou Toomins, the constable’s pony-tail public information officer.

Where's Penn & Teller and their BS?



There's certain to be fireworks over this video. It gives a three-ring circus a new meaning.

Clark County Library System Wastes Resources on Security

By Cliff Harrison

County library hours seem set for the convenience of library staff, not library users.

Clark County has cut many of the library operations as they have on every other public service. But the incompetence of county managers shows through with county libraries more than anywhere else.

Express Computers that allow poor people to quickly check their e-mails have been eliminated. It cost the county no more to have those express computers in operation than it does to have an extra book sitting on the shelf.

The library system does not need security guards.

We, as taxpayers pay for a security force, it is called Metro Police Department, or Las Vegas Metro Police Department (LVMPD) for the proper name.

If the library is in trouble call the police. There are too many security guards in public places on public property where they are not needed. Call the cops if there is a major problem. All security guards can generally do anyways if there is a disturbance is call the cops.

Why pay someone to do that? Let the library staff call law enforcement if on some occassion one is needed and it won't cost taxpayers an extra dime.

The other day while I was visiting the library looking over the used books I received a telephone call from my doctors office. Immediately an armed Allied Security guard approached me and told me I couldn’t use my cell phone in the library it was against the rules. If I wanted to use my cell phone, I was told, then take it outside.

A librarian staff could have performed the same duty.

If our libraries are so dangerous that we need two or three armed security guards on during the same shift, then we need to close the doors of our library system. Period!

But our libraries are not dangerous. The county is spending our money carelessly.

Taking that from me is a serious charge. The library system and the United State Postal Service are the only two--well one of a few-- government agencies I like with few if any complaints.

Why do we need two or three security guards on duty at once, on the same shift?

Why do we need a security guard at all? Armed or unarmed?

We don’t.

If there is a problem at the local library then the library staff needs to call Metro. It is as simple as that.

Stop wasting our money library administrators and county officials.

Get rid of the wanna-be cops and rent-a-cops with an attitude, and often serious mental problems, and leave law enforcement of our community up to the professional police department.

And after you start getting rid of the wasteful payments to Allied Barton, start bringing back real services to the people and extending library hours that coincide with normal people, workers and students that have nights and weekends off.

Although the security guards at most Clark County public libraries appear qualified, kind and generally even stoic when handling a situation there are many that are undesirables and should not be in security, let alone wearing a gun.

Some security guards have severe mental problems and Nevada gun laws and security qualifications are lax and downgraded compared to most states.

I know many security guards or persons who have held security positions in the past who are on or were on depressant drugs. Their doctors and state metal health agencies were fully aware of their depression and occupation.

Guns and drugs do not mix. Guns and metal problems do not mix. Guns and depression or emotional problems do not mix.

Public libraries and security guards do not mix.

Get rid of the security guards, extend the operating hours and reinstall the Express Computers.

As the kids say now a days, Just saying….

City Hall Shout Out Organized

Food Not Bombs Las Vegas Shoutout at Las Vegas City Hall Today at 5:00PM-6:00PM. Shoutout about Orlando's inhumane ban on feeding the hungry. No limit on how loud you can shout.

Friday, July 1 · 5:00pm - 6:00pm

City Hall
400 Stewart Ave. (at Las Vegas Blvd)
Las Vegas, NV
Created by Sean D. Daily, a Las Vegas Author
For Food Not Bombs Las Vegas

From Sean's Facebook Page:
We're going to meet outside City Hall to bring attention to the City of Orlando's ban on the sharing of food with hungry people and to show solidarity with Orlando Food Not Bombs members who have been arrested as a result.

We'll have signs and flyers available detailing the issues surrounding the ban and the subsequent arrests and will be asking people to let the Orlando mayor's office know how they feel about them. You are welco...me to participate in any way you feel comfortable or to simply be there to show your support. You are also free to bring your own signs, if you should feel the urge to do so. Please tell everyone you know and encourage them to spread the word to ensure that we have as big a turnout as possible!

It's especially important that we here in Las Vegas support those in Orlando. Back in 2006, our own city government passed the same sort of ban on offering food to hungry people. Many of the members of Food Not Bombs Las Vegas, as well as FNB members, who had traveled from other cities to support us, were ticketed and even arrested for the simple act of sharing food with someone in need.

Message from Sean D. Daily
Here's contact information for Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer. Please put this on any flyers or placards that you make for the Friday action. If you can't make it on Friday, take a few minutes out to call, e-mail or tweet Mayor Dyer.

Phone: 407.246.2221
Fax: 407.246.2842
E-mail: buddy.dyer@cityoforlando.net
...Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/orlandomayor
Twitter: @orlandomayor
City Twitter: @citybeautiful

Food Not Bombs Las Vegas Website

Note from Cliff: Remember in 2006 we had the same unconstitutional ordinance crafted by Mayor Oscar Goodman and the Las Vegas City Council until the federal courts struck it down and ruled the ban unconstitutional.