Milk Duds is one of my favorite candy treats, this addiction began while attending movies at theatres starting about 1963. The theatre snack bar at Reese Air Force Base in Lubbock sold small boxes of these chewy chocolate and caramel delicacies. I’m not here to talk about Milk Duds though, but three other type of duds instead.
I remember as a kid, purchasing packages of firecrackers and every so often one wouldn’t explode. These unexploded fireworks were first called “duds” by my brother and older guys . Rather than waste a dud Black Cat firecracker, they’d open things up to expose the gunpowder. A match would then be put to explosive powder making it go “POOF” in a brief shower of sparks and light.
There was another dud as well, number three on my list. Being an avid shooter, on occasion, a .22 rimfire cartridge wouldn’t detonate making it too a dud. This misfire came to be because the primer was bad, most likely from moisture getting inside. Rather than throw the unexploded ordinance away, my brother and I saved them.
It was relatively easy to remove the actual bullet head using a pair of pliers, and then dump out a tiny amount of powder similar to that used in firecrackers. We were careful not to pinch the end of the case where the primer was located.
If we had enough of these dud cartridges, a line of powder was poured onto the concrete or ground, and once again a match was struck to light things off. It resembled western scenes we’d watched on television or the movie, although on a much smaller scale. This activity was done clandestine without parent supervision. I highly doubt our folks would have approved back then—rightly so.
Several years back, I discovered a dud piece of ammunition in the desert a few miles from Lake Havasu City. It was an old, all metal, 12 gauge shotgun shell that I dated back to the early 1900s. Evidently some cowboy was out hunting and this shell didn’t go off. Unlike what I did as a kid with unspent .22 shells, it was discarded by this saddle tramp or accidentally dropped. I located the large artifact with my metal detector a good 12 inches under the ground.
Hopefully a mountain lion wasn’t about to attack the guy because a dud in this situation could be costly. Living in Alaska and doing a lot of hiking, I always had a firearm with me. In most cases, if a bear should try to attack a hunter or hiker, the person in danger only has time for one shot. That was good reason I always kept my ammunition dry. Misfires could be deadly for a person holding the gun.
These days, I have little worry about dud ammo, but there’s another form of dud that worries me even more. This one is number four. Voting for a president that turns out to be a dud can have enormous damaging effects on this country. The last three years have proven this without question.
To be elected and then fail to act as a strong Commander in Chief can have disastrous results with other hostile countries such as China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia. Our current president fits this mold perfectly. His ability to lead the country against our foes seems to have fizzled to the same level as a wet Black Cat firecracker. The fuse appears to be lit and then nothing happens.
He’s gotten us involved in two wars and it appears another’s on the horizon. Joe Biden evidently never learned the age old philosophy that the guy in the ‘hood carrying the biggest stick is someone not to mess with. For years that’s how our country operated. Leaders of the four threatening countries mentioned view him as weak and they’re not wrong.
Rather than continually berate this individual, I wish something could be done to make him merely open his eyes, as it appears Joe Biden’s literally coasting or vacationing the rest of the way through his term. He’s much like the driver of a bus asleep at the wheel. Age and cognitive ability undoubtedly plays a big part here.
Years ago, I worked under an AFL-CIO union leader in Alaska named Al Baffone. Mr. Baffone was a “get it done” kind of guy and a strong personality, not afraid to stand tall. His negotiation skills were beyond anyone I’ve ever met. Joe Biden could’ve learned a lot from Al Baffone regarding not caving in to outside influence.
On Mr. Baffone’s desk sat a large brass plaque. I remember the first time I saw it. On this plaque was engraved: Lead, Follow, or Get the Hell Out of the Way. A bit harsh in language perhaps, but the message was loud and clear.
President Joe Biden would do the United States a big favor at this point by stepping down as he can no longer run the country. Richard Nixon made that difficult decision in 1974. I highly doubt Biden’s ego and pride would let him follow suit.
Incompetent Joe will attempt to cruise along on this gravy train as long as he can. By doing so, he’s a threat to our nation’s sovereignty and economic stability by allowing the southern borders to remain wide open, although he claims through lying lips that he’s trying to get them under control. That in itself, tells me a lot about the man.
Overall, he’s a dud extraordinaire!
I like to write junk... 