Obamamania Update....

Obamamania Update: A running Scared commentary.

Boy howdy.

I think the superiority that inhabites Obamamania's disgustingly elitist world-view comes through in this unavoidable condescension. Just listen to the phrasing, the sound-bites, the certainty of it all: They DO know what is good for us. Trust them, they do.

It says something about the quality of Presidential candidates our country can field when the most thoughtful person left in the race comes up with a clunker like this.

Obamamania says:

"... You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

I may very well be bitter, but that's just me. I don't "cling to guns and religion" because I'm bitter. I cling to Christianity and the Right to Bear Arms, first of all, because my God sent His Son to die for me, and I am both obligated and grateful to Him for saving my undeserving soul -- and because they are both part of MY HERITAGE, and I am commanded through my belief to obey GOD; and given my observation of you and what you stand for, I will probably need my guns for survival.

Scary stuff.
_________________________
Mike Huckabee on Obama:

"We should recognize his many strengths. His poise, his intelligence, his ability to inspire. He's like the car you always wanted as a kid. You had your dream car and it had every bell and whistle option your heart could imagine. Then, one day you sit down and decide you want that car, except, when you do the numbers, you realize you can't afford it. You've waited and dreamed about it your whole life, but the reality hits you; you can't afford it."

Caucus vs. Popular Vote Results:

There are a lot of lib voters who love to talk a good game when it comes to anti race-bias, but when they get in the booth it's a different matter. I don't think you have to guess at any "Bradley Effect" -- all you have to do is look at the Caucus results in all (not just northern) states vs. the popular vote. If there is data on white caucus votes, I'd bet it backs that up....

On the exit polls, people lie. All the time.

I'll bet the difference in the exit polls and results mirrors the data of white Dem' caucus voters vs. white Dem' popular vote, only at a slightly smaller ratio.


On the Obama's Somali outfit pics:
Fortunately for Obamamania, the outfit completely covered up the "Go Hamas" t-shirt.


He can walk on H2O, then turn that H2O into a passable American Pale Ale (with the help of a good brewmeister, some malt and Cascade and Centennial hops), then waste that Ale by pouring it on the swooning crowd, bring world peace, brotherhood, end jaywalking and world hunger.

Personally, I'm waiting for the end-world-hunger thing, and I'm HOPING he uses the loaves and fishes trick.

Make mine a Neeew-Oileeens-style blackened Orange Roughy, please -- accompanied by said American Pale Ale; and if you would, one of those homemade flat-breads they used to have at Shaw's in Lancaster.

"Good people can vote for evil because the political process spreads the cost of evil to everyone. This serves to both obscure specific evils within the grand scope and façade of government, and also to allow for the devotion of resources to evil in huge disproportion to what people really want to give it. As long as people recognize the authority of government to fund itself on their behalf, the regime will continue." -- Jacob Halbrooks

"Revivalism from the beginning has only thrived insofar as a single individual is the focus of the devotion of the faithful, and that individual is chosen based on his ability to stir up excitement in his followers. Objective truth and deep sustained intellectual reflection are substituted with shallow rhetoric and easily attained emotional fervor. So, in fact, Obama actually has more in common with Charles Finney than with any former president, in that his views on policy are largely irrelevant to his supporters. In the modern context, Joel Osteen comes to mind. People don't care what he says, so long as he makes them feel good. But what we're witnessing is a sort of resurrection of the Caesar cult. People believe that the government is to be their savior, and they think Obama would make a good messiah." -- Kerry Lewis

"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." -- H.L. Mencken

"I hate to be so cynical, but I'm afraid we're about to get a belly full of what we've got coming to us. How a person gets through this life without faith in Christ and fellowship of Christian friends is beyond me." -- Rublev's Dog

Rublev's Dog takes that walk....

... down the creek with dad and the old Marlin 39.

I’m going to miss my favorite blogger, Chuck, over at Rublev’s Dog.

He is riding off into a Carolina sunset and retirement (hopefully a la Bret Farvre).

His last post is great, and replete with wonderful advice: "And don’t take any microchips…"

Goodbye and hello, as always.

'pubs, Dems and Paulites....

Shame that the very ‘pubs who make fun of the Paulites supposedly “limited understanding of foreign policy”, also ignore the economic realities that the RPs are concerned with. As do the Dems.

We are economically screwed past the point of no return. ‘pubs and Dems have combined to ignore sanity for so long -- National debt-wise, Bush makes Reagan look like a piker -- that our economy is being threatened by the “National Security needs" of a war WE started.

And NeoCons have signed on to a program that chooses war in lieu of Nat.Healthcare. It's like the Dems and 'pubs are having a dialog over which way to go bankrupt. Instead of the slow death of Big Gov., we've juiced up the speed of our demise by dumping our debt down the well of Iraq.

Flash: we've BEEN bankrupt. The call just hasn't been made yet.

Iraq is Bush’s version of Public Education: if you throw enough money at it, eventually… what? The infection feeds on money.

How much do we owe? How much of that is owed to other nations?

What happens when the debt gets called?

McCrazy's VP pick....

Gonna take off my Libertarian, Paleo-Conservative hat and put on a 'pub one fer a minute.

The McCrazy VP pick, way I see it:

Kasich would have been the pick, if it weren't for the Faux "News?" entanglements.

Condi has been overshadowed and way too indecisive.

Romney is sure defeat. I've never seen a candidate with a higher "dislike quotient". You'd get the CEO vote and no one else.

Haley Barbour also falls into that catagory. He looks like every southern fried politician/car salesman with a little Boss Hogg thrown in.

Colin Powell? Won't happen. Too old anyway.

The Minnesota Gov., Pawlenty? Why pick a guy from a state that will go Dem?

Texas Gov., Perry? Ehhhhhh, no. Texas.

My pick: Kinky Fried-man. Funny is way underrated as a VP plus and vote puller. And the only Texan anybody will vote for....

Cerealously, the best pick for the 'pubs would probably be Charlie Crist, if he could somehow get rid of that fake-looking Florida tan. If he can't, mebbe they can buy him some dyed hair extensions and pass him off as female and black?

(This was posted after I re-read the post before this, which just proves the point -- to my shame.)

Social Subtleties and Snarky "Superioriatedness"....

A fairly important subject, so I CROSS-POSTED an edited version from Assistant Village Idiot.

Social Subtleties: Three Connected Discussions.

The three posts below go together, separated for easier reading.

Part I: Sophia's Office Window

Sophia has the office next to mine. She is a Christian conservative of slightly different flavor – chocolate chip to my vanilla, perhaps. Her window looks out over the copier, and she has affixed a long list of examples from around the world of what bad things happened to peoples who were not allowed to own guns. It’s been up a few months. I don’t know how many folks have read it.

One of the med students from another unit brought the psychiatrist over to look at it. Neither said a word, the younger just pointed to it and grinned mockingly. How do I know it was mockingly, rather than approvingly? Because our brains are very good at picking up social cues like that. Even the worst of us are pretty good at it. We evolved in groups where such things were important for survival. Tribes enforce their norms via gestures and expressions which are maddeningly difficult to describe. My oft-mentioned A&H tribe is especially good at it. They can pick up the merest changes in tone or eyebrow.

So can I, as I grew up in that tribe.

The psychiatrist likewise grinned in amusement. Some rube had had put up something about gun rights for public display. Here! What a maroon! No words, just the shared chuckle.

It is not merely the point of view, of course, though that in itself can prompt those superior smiles. The placement and tone of the document were also part of their pleasure. Those gun people. They don’t know how they come across. They don’t get that this is ridiculous. We do. We two, and our tribe do. That’s how we know we’re better.

If progressives don't want to be accused of this level of arrogance and rudeness, they should stop doing these things in front of me every few days.

CS Lewis writes about this in The Screwtape Letters. In a comment that stabbed me to the heart when I first read it and stayed ever before me in my long conversion from liberalism to conservatism, the senior demon Screwtape tells his nephew Wormwood to encourage some types of humor but not others, in order to deliver the patient out of the hands of The Enemy and safely into Hell, to be food for them.

"... But flippancy is the best of all. In the first place it is very economical. Only a clever human can make a real Joke about virtue, or indeed about anything else; any of them can be trained to talk as if virtue were funny. Among flippant people the Joke is always assumed to have been made. No one actually makes it; but every serious subject is discussed in a manner which implies that they have already found a ridiculous side to it. If prolonged, the habit of Flippancy builds up around a man the finest armour plating against the Enemy that I know, and it is quite free from the dangers inherent in the other sources of laughter. It is a thousand miles away from joy; it deadens, instead of sharpening, the intellect; and it excites no affection between those who practise it."


Lewis is referring more to spiritual than political flippancy, but the point holds. Watch how often people will laugh at something or someone without bothering to make a reasonable argument or give evidence against it. All the cool kids “just know” that it’s ridiculous. The tactic is an enormously powerful social enforcer. Time and again while I was a progressive, I would hear people make such jokes to me. Reagan. (Hahaha.) NASCAR. (Snicker.) Trickle-down. (Ha!) Born-agains. (Stop, you’re killing me!) I now have the opposite response: when someone speaks as if the joke is obvious (sometimes they go so far as to add an urban legend in, like Dan Quayle and studying Latin), I now conclude that it is merely a social cue, an efficient tribal communication devoid of intellectual content.


Part II: Classical Values

The Tricky Politician's trick:

... He gets to tell everyone present that he agrees with them, but also gets to pose as a person who sees many sides of things – one who has been fair to other points of view and has considered them. So when he kicks them in the balls you know they deserved it. The audience, meanwhile, receives no real challenge to reevaluate their position. They can even pretend that they have reevaluated their position in that instant. They go on as before, thinking themselves wise and the politician evenhanded. Better yet, the politician is on record as having considered an alternative POV. Even his opponents might be impressed that he has at least heard them clearly.

Tricksy politician. False.

One layer deeper, I look at the tactic a soupcon more kindly. The current audience receives the near-indiscernible disagreement in the context of being patted on the back a dozen time. Yet in this age of rancorous debate, the single comment can be taken out of context and sent out into the world: ... A communist can be made to look libertarian, a libertarian communist, and anyone can be made to look stupid or evil.

It's still not honest, but it's more understandable in that context.


Part III: Tone Filters

We don't mind pervasive snarkiness so much, when it isn't aimed at us:

... I was able to perceive the tone, but could filter it out when I thought it was directed at others. Once I knew that the tone was directed to folks like me, the snarkiness was too much. From listening to people live and reading their arguments for years, I suspect I may be on the good side of the bell curve for evenhandedness. I think many people get so used to talking within their own group that they don’t even hear the nastiness directed to others anymore. They believe they or their comrades are being critical, but not unfairly so, and certainly not insulting. A good test is observing whether their own tone fed back to them offends. Conservatives who spend much time in the presence of liberals are puzzled that phrasings and tones of voice clearly calculated to offend pass unnoticed by the speakers.

Screwtape is apposite again:

"... In civilised life domestic hatred usually expresses itself by saying things which would appear quite harmless on paper (the words are not offensive) but in such a voice, or at such a moment, that they are not far short of a blow in the face. To keep this game up you and Glubose must see to it that each of these two fools has a sort of double standard. Your patient must demand that all his own utterances are to be taken at their face value and judged simply on the actual words, while at the same time judging all his mother's utterances with the fullest and most oversensitive interpretation of the tone and the context and the suspected intention. She must be encouraged to do the same to him. Hence from every quarrel they can both go away convinced, or very nearly convinced, that they are quite innocent. You know the kind of thing: "I simply ask her what time dinner will be and she flies into a temper." Once this habit is well established you have the delightful situation of a human saying things with the express purpose of offending and yet having a grievance when offence is taken."

I have heard that tone shooting out from the conservative end of the spectrum toward the progressive end at times, but far less often. I have little doubt there are professions or churches or cultures where conservatives are in such predominance that the tone deteriorates unnoticed. When folks believe they are alone with their own they become less cautious, freer with their sneers. I recall standing on the street with a Mormon friend when other friends of his came up. As their comments about non-Mormons intensified, I could feel his discomfort and embarrassment – they had wrongly assumed that I was one of them and revealed themselves more than they wished (they were less nasty than social workers, BTW). It is always interesting to see behind the curtain.

What intrigues me about these tone-filters is that they are apparently automatic.

(Read the unedited version at Assitant Village Idiot)

Competition and Loyalty in the Bizness Werld....

A "for whom the bell tolls" note:

Our company lost our best salesperson today, along with his assistant.

This was after the latest round of salary cuts. They cut his salary for the third time and he picked up the phone, called our big competition and got a no-cut contract, including his assitant. They took his phone and computer and are planning on keeping him in an empty office for two weeks while they try to salvage the accounts, but I don't think that is happening.

They really think he won't be able to take his accounts. Right.

In these days of competitive pricing the only thing that swings the deal is loyalty and a comfort level.

You know, it's funny how it's OK to poach from other companies, yet when it's done to you it seems SO wrong....

News flash: it ain't.

And loyalty goes both ways.

On an addtionally sober note, my job is no longer safe. It is true that while I am the only person capable of doing my job at my company, and so far have been exempt from any cuts, if they replaced my duties and divided them up, they might get by for a while, until the mistakes begin piling up and the stuff I do that I never told anyone how to do doesn't get done.

Note to self: Next time get compete Cobra coverage for 6 months in my contract. That would have been smart.

Failed....

What do you do when your Better-Half hates something you thought you done good? I realize that a writer of ANY type has to be in love with the newest thing... and I always am to some extent -- even when I know the piece has limitations that might be made worse by my lack of real talent. Then the Writing Prof shot me down.

My much-much better half says that there is nothing redeeming in this song lyric - it doesn't "reach" for anything; that the subject is a cliched version of a man, there's a million songs where the "mine done failed", and that while there is some good pacing and careful wordplay (she liked the "rack of wood" line), there is nothing to spark interest and any need to understand motives... and she's the English Perfesser. My much-much better half also does not like writing in "Vernacular" (Even though she has a whole book of short stories in it).

The lyric is full of Regional references that are limiting -- that I understand, but I don't see why you have to steer clear of cliche, as long as it is handled right. John Prine does it all the time. Fred Eaglesmith even voices it all the time. And although I admit this song does not have that Prine-like twist and human revelation at the end, it doesn't need it -- the song is a reflection of the subject: an all-too-common man, who isn't going anywhere. Ever. Surrounded by failure, he IS failure.

So I did what I had to do to preserve myself. I ignored her, for the most part.

Lyrics here:

Failed

What do you think the Future is going to look like?

I was reminded of this great movie quote today:

“What do you think the Devil is going to look like if he's around? Nobody is going to be taken in if he has a long, red, pointy tail. No. I'm semi-serious here. He will look attractive and he will be nice and helpful and he will get a job where he influences a great God-fearing nation and he will never do an evil thing... he will just bit by little bit lower standards where they are important. Just coax along flash over substance... Just a tiny bit. And he will talk about all of us really being salesmen....”

- Albert Brooks from Broadcast News

And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. - Matt.24: 4-5

And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. - 2nd Cor.11: 14-15

When Fear Follows....

PBS has "Bush's War". Watch it.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/bushswar/

Four-thousand, now. And still going "strong". This "war" has now lasted longer than WWII, and will continue past the time our economy can no longer support it and until the US is part of the NAU. This wrong-headed, stupid invasion that should never have happened still should have been over in two months; and another sign of our despotic, dying Empire is that we don't know the way to "start", fight, finish, or "prosecute a war", be it a "just" one or a criminal enterprise.

If there is ever an opportunity to write a history of the United States of America that extends past the next twenty years it will include these facts:

We could have sealed borders north and south, patrolled them indefinately, provided health care for all US Citizens and solved the Social Security problem for what we will throw into this pit of national despair and pay in interest, economic damage and blood.

When Fear Follows

The Bell Tolls the Idiocy of Big Bizness continued....

The Bell continues to toll throughout the bizness werld.

I've noticed lately that it's VPs.

And, it's VPs simply because we have too many of them. We've always had too many of them, be they golf buddies or relatives.

And they don't really do anything. Oh yes, they're supposed to "track" things, yeah... hummmmmm. Must get a Porsche and a cuppa coffee... and say "hummmmmm" a lot (Re.: Office Space). Track things that are already being tracked by subordinates -- clerks, and assitants... or track things that don't need tracking, because everybody knows that THEY ARE ALL ****** UP TO BEGIN WITH AND YOU ARE TRACKING ****!

But be ye glad, Oh Yes, Be Ye Glad, Big Business idiocy doesn't stop with eliminating VP positions that shouldn't have be created to begin with.... No, they eliminate the one VP who is actually doing something. All other VPs are free to take golf vaca at will and every Monday and Friday off. Whoopee!

Yes folks, it's still alive in its deadness. Still alive and slowly eating itself.

Hypocrisy 101, Terrelle Pryor and Big-time College sports....

Listening to Bruce Hooley's hypocritical critique of Terrelle Pryor's press conference and answer to Tim May's "image" question, I thought about the forthright answer: Do we really care if he's a good or bad kid?

Pryor replied that "I don't need to fix my image", because "it doesn't really matter if I'm a good or bad kid, you guys are here because I can ball."

At that point (and I really like May's stuff, especially his blacklisted "non-coverage" of Tressel -- and yes, Pryor should have taken the visits to Oregon and Penn St.) Pryor may have been the only honest person in the room.

As long as he's not "gettin' the Goose on" before practice and riding around with guns in the trunk of his JT Chrysler supplied leaser, then he's good to go.

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/news?slug=dw-academics031808&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Fools and Simpletons....

Crosspost from The Assistant Village Idiot

Fools believe they are wise. They search for the abstruse or esoteric, whose very mention brands them as someone in the know, much like poseur ordering wine, or everyone talking about the theater. Full of themselves and impressed with their own deep thoughts, they make just enough sense to be irritating. Simpletons aren’t sure whether their comments are intelligent or not, they just go with what seems sensible. Fools order a Syrah because it’s from the Northern Rhone Valley, simpletons order the Shiraz because they had it once at someone’s house and liked it. It’s the same grape, grown in a different place. Many people claim to know the difference. I don’t know if they do or not. I don’t. I don’t remember whether I liked shiraz or not, which any idiot would do, and why I’m still only the assistant.

Here we go.... Now, what to do?

Crosspost from Rublev's Dog....

While I am bearish on America, with its state-managed economy and its immorality, I refrain from being an all-out alarmist. I never bought into the Y2K scare, for example. I believe the economic erosion for middle and lower class North Americans will be a long, undulating descent. Regardless, what to do?

1) Trust the Lord. Yes, that sounds terribly cliche. I hate it when some apostle of super-spirituality says, "God is in control." The Lord is ultimately in control, but man is ultimately responsible. God allows men to act and reap the consequences of their actions. Faith lays hold of the eternal and keeps the temporal in perspective. The sufferings of this life are not to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us in the age to come. With Christ as the anchor of our souls, we remain steadfast in doing the right thing, even unto death.

2) Get right with your neighbors. You're going to need them on your side if and when times get hard.

3) Each visit to the grocery, buy extra pallets of water. Your family should stockpile two months worth of water and vittles. Storing up canned goods is probably a good idea, but water is indispensible. If the consumer market sees a dramatic, sudden spike in prices (resulting from currency devaluation and rising shipping costs), there will be panic; then comes hording, sporadic shortages, and food prices spiraling into higher inflation. It's always good to have plenty of water on hand.

4) Try to grow your own food and can it. We're asking the Lord for enough rain in this parched area during the spring and summer for a successful garden.

5) Arm yourself. I'll answer to the Lord for killing a man while defending my family; I will not answer to Him for allowing someone to harm my family. Buy a long gun, preferably a shotgun. Handguns are more dangerous around children, and they require a background check and waiting period. Depending on the direction taken by legislators and courts, handguns would likely be the first weapons outlawed and confiscated. Teach your younguns how to respect and safely use firearms.

Bottom-line: panic is useless; lack of preparedness is senseless.

School Income Tax... I told you so.

School officials explain lack of big property tax decrease

The bureaucrats in favor of taxing the working poor made a lot of promises, while those of us who took the time to wade through all the misinformation put out by the BOE continued to have doubts and questions that could not be avoided or answered, although Martin/Bunting, et al. succeeded in confusing enough people to get this abomination passed.

Check out your own total School Income Tax and property tax totals, but we are paying the same amount in property tax plus the additional SIT tax on two salaries. And the extra forms to fill out. Ain't it a joy?

And isn't it strange that the only people who made out on this deal are the commercial/rental property owners? Can a comparison be drawn of the rental property owners and BOE to lobbyists and Congress?

Of course I am sure that they are passing on the savings to the consumers/renters.

Mr. Bunting's favorite quote seems to be " Berkeley's 17th Law": "A great many problems do not have accurate answers, but do have approximate answers, from which sensible decisions can be made."

Well, the quote itself seems like an "out" -- and just the kind of “confuscation” needed to dupe some taxpayers. I wonder which set of books they’ll show the next time they hit us up. They do need to avoid “accurate answers” at all cost when they are costing us money.

They are bringing "relativism" economics down to the farm and losing no sleep over this. From their point of view the taxpayer owes whatever amount of money they can scam us out of.

Now we've got the English printing money that isn't really there....

Bank of England injects 5 billion pounds into money markets

A Quick Macroeconomics Lesson....

FROM RUBLEV'S DOG
http://rublevsdog.blogspot.com/

A Quick Macroeconomics Lesson

http://rublevsdog.blogspot.com/2008/03/quick-macroeconomics-lesson.html

How Multi-national Corporations Avoid Paying Taxes....

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15704.htm

Sick, sick, sick people. Lord help us....

I have been meaning to do this for several years, but for some reason never found the time, outside of five minutes tonight.

Under one of my web-aliases, I checked up on the Stormfront (white supremacist) forum.

Through my years on the web, I've spent a bit of my time ridiculing these guys, but apart from jabbing at their posts on various forums (islamonline.net, the extinct boottotheskull.com etc...), I really hadn't looked into the mouth of the beast.

Suffice to say, it didn't take any more (less) than the five minutes mentioned above.

These guys are one of the many reasons that God is going to judge this world and its sinners very soon.

I have never been anywhere on the web that more quickly made me both spiritually and physically cringe.

I imagine that these guys, along with pedophiles, are the bottom feeders of the mirror of society that is the www.

The "Springerization" of our modern world that we who still have some (questionable) sense of morals talk about, is the small, small tip of the "sin nature" iceberg.

God forgive us.

Please.

Democratic Election Results....

Let me continue my normal adolescent, reactionary political comments here.

Happy Dance. Oh, Happy Dance. (You REALLY don't want to see that.)

Susan Gwinn lost her badly conceived bid for Athens County Prosecutor.

She entered the race for obviously wrong reasons and ran the race in even more obviously wrong ways.

Level heads prevailed -- for once.

Most Ignorant Endorsement Ever...?

Sometimes an editorial statement can be made simply through selection.

Terry Smith scored a knockout in Monday's Letters-to-Editor segment of the Athens News. And he did it without writing a single word. Not one! ("No, not one. No, not one." 'scuse me, got all hymnal on ya.).

All he did was approve this letter; possibly the most ignorant endorsement ever:

Letter: Gwinn, with all her experience, deserves any office she wants

"Susan Gwinn has proven herself to be a uniter, not a divider.
She not only opened the Democratic Party to all; she’s devoted her life to it. Gwinn deserves whatever office she chooses."


Dear Obama, help us. I'm not sure I can delve the depths of this deepness.

Ok... I'm a uniter, not a divider (I am, yes I am. Just check my bonafides. No, those are my boxers.), and I've spent my whole life in service to others -- and beer.

The office I choose is... "King of the World".

See, because I deserve it.

Susan Gwinn's "Raw Truth" is just a little too raw for me.

"Raw Truth" is just a little too raw for me.

Athens County, Southeast of Columbus, may be about to set a horribly bad precedent.

Susan Gwinn, the entrenched Democratic Party Chairperson is running a well-funded and aggressively negative campaign for County Prosecutor.

The possibility of having a very political Democratic fox guarding the henhouse of a majority Democratic county has even local Democrats concerned.

Have you ever read a Letter to the Editor from a candidate, complaining about not being endorsed by a paper? Gwinn wrote a letter to a newspaper excoriating it for not endorsing her. This is the ultimate in whining self-service, and gives us good insight into the future behavior of the Prosecutor's office under Ms. Gwinn.

Reading Ms. Gwinn's "Raw Truth" letter castigating the Athens News for their endorsement of incumbent C. David Warren in the County Prosecutor’s Race helped me decide my vote. Do we really need a County Prosecutor who so obviously combines the personal with the political and who publicly "prosecutes" her grudges?

Members of her own party have already pointed out the potential partisan problems of the county Democratic Party chair holding the office of Prosecuting Attorney. It is blatantly antithetical to the historically fair principles of the Democratic Party and evidence that Athens County does not need Ms. Gwinn and her penchant for publicizing personal disagreements while holding a position that plainly demands fairness and dictates restrained good judgement.


Athens News Editor Terry Smith on Gwinn:

"For me, this race comes down to three issues, and all of them trump the isolated and exaggerated problems that Gwinn has raised about incumbent Athens County Prosecutor C. David Warren. Interestingly her criticisms didn’t gain purchase in the public conversation until she filed to challenge Warren in the primary.

The three issues:

1. She has no experience as a prosecutor, and he has decades. How some people can ignore this fundamental advantage for Warren is beyond me. This especially applies to the Democratic office-holders who have come out for Gwinn. It makes me wonder whether some of them are mainly looking toward the future and their own skins by supporting their influential party chief for a position that she’s obviously not qualified for.

2. As party chief, she has no business serving as the prosecutor, a position of power and discretion that ought to be as non-partisan as possible, and where she’ll constantly be stumbling over potential conflicts of interest. Most of those who think this is OK are the Democratic faithful. I wonder why this is? Has anyone asked the Republicans how they’d feel about having one of the county’s chief law enforcers also managing the opposition party? If you look at the arguments in the pro-Gwinn letters, many of their points do highly recommend Gwinn — except not for prosecutor but for party chief, a position she already holds. How, for instance, does Gwinn’s success at getting students registered as Democrats relate to how she would run the prosecutor’s office?

3. Her campaign ads — including professionally done TV commercials that seem more appropriate for a statewide race than a small county’s prosecutor’s contest — are unfailingly negative and often unfair and misleading. They reflect worse on Ms. Gwinn than Mr. Warren."


If Gwinn is elected look for a politically hand-cuffed Prosecutor's Office resulting in long-term damage to judicial process in Athens County.

A few thoughts on Bill "Willie" Cunningham and his McCain Intro "speech"....

If you are not familiar with this, then it won't make sense; but here are a few notes I took while listening to Cinci radio this morning on the drive into work.

Was McCain introduced as John "Sidney" McCain?

I can just see Willie jumping up and down shouting "Hooray for John Sidney McCain".

Who thinks a middle name makes the man? It sure don't -- I gotta cool one.

This is ridiculous. There are plenty of important issues connected to Obamamania that scare me -- his "Spiritual Leader", his Church, his socialist plans and connections; but his middle name does not.

And as usual, the only thing that impresses me about Cunningham is his ability to still spout racist and xenophobic crap with foot firmly inserted in mouth.

Lord help us if the "base" of the party is Willie Cunningham.

No wonder we don't do well outside "our" white-bread demographic.

How did Willie the Mouth get on that stage, anyway? We got no black 'pubs anybody respects anymore? Yeah, that's the guy I want talkin' to America for me.

I heard The Mouth of Cinci on Jim Scott this morning and the exact quote was "well, they (the Media) call Bush, Cheney, etc... everything but a WHITE MAN...".

There was a little skip of silence and and I swear I almost heard Jim Scott choke. I wonder if he didn't throw up a little in his mouth.

I'm thinkin' 700 doesn’t put THAT in a podcast or transcript. I'm a-bettin' they LOSE that one.

What an idiot. If the 'pubs lose, a part of it may be that the general public thinks that all conservatives are like that (word removed after some thought - use your own).

Blue Ridge China....

Personal note:

My much-much-much better half and I collect Blue Ridge China. It was manufactured in Erwin, TN., not far from Johnson City and almost directly north of Ashville.

The time I used to spend frivolously, I now spend in Antique stores and Junk shops, my favorite being the latter -- lighter on the wallet.

http://www.blueridgechina.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Ridge_China

Bank Robbin' Songs....

On a whim...

Two of my favorites are Springsteen's Highway 29 and Eaglesmith's Pontiac.

Add some if you feel like it.

Willie P. Bennett 10/26/51 - 2/15/08

God, please have mercy on Willie's amazing soul....

The best side man in the world and now the best out of it.

The next Fred show will be tough.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_P._Bennett

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/portputley/

When I Go

Come, lonely hunter, chieftain and king
I will fly like the falcon when I go
Bear me my brother under your wing
I will strike fell like lightning when I go
I will bellow like the thunder drum,
invoke the storm of war
A twisting pillar spun of dust and
blood up from the prairie floor
I will sweep the foe before me like
a gale out on the snow
And the wind will long recount the story,
reverence and glory, when I go
Spring, spirit dancer, nimble and thin
I will leap like coyote when I go
Tireless entrancer, lend me your skin
I will run like the gray wolf when I go
I will climb the rise at daybreak, I will
kiss the sky at noon
Raise my yearning voice at midnight to
my mother in the moon
I will make the lay of long defeat and
draw the chorus slow
I'll send this message down the wire and
hope that someone wise is listening when I go
And when the sun comes, trumpets from his
red house in the east
He will find a standing stone where long
I chanted my release
He will send his morning messenger to
strike the hammer blow
And I will crumble down uncountable in
showers of crimson rubies when I go
Sigh, mournful sister, whisper and turn
I will rattle like dry leaves when I go
Stand in the mist where my fire used to burn
I will camp on the night breeze when I go
And should you glimpse my wandering form
out on the borderline
Between death and resurrection and the
council of the pines
Do not worry for my comfort, do not
sorrow for me so
All your diamond tears will rise up and
adorn the sky beside me when I go

-- Dave Carter

Where The Sun Shines Through

Put me down
Where the grass is green
Down near close
Where I dreamed my dreams
Where a big ol' tree
Throws a big ol' shade
But where the sun shines through

Take me home
While you live life
Home with you
Is never Bye and Bye
And it is sweet
And it will be
Home

I can go
But I won't leave
Going's easy
An' I believe
That I've always been happy
Hangin' 'round
With you

So put me down
Where the grass is green
Down near close
Where I dreamed my dreams
Where a big ol' tree
Throws a big ol' shade
But where the sun shines through
Where the sun shines through

Reconditioning....

Sometimes I like to post fairly well-known but timely or timeless quotes, like this one; even though most of YOU people, will remember or recognize it, and really don't need reminding.

“Why you fool, it’s the educated reader who can be gulled. All our difficulty comes with the others. When did you meet a workman who believes the papers? He takes it for granted that they’re propaganda and skips the leading articles. He buys his paper for the football results and the little paragraphs about girls falling out of windows and corpses found in Mayfair flats. He is our problem. We have to recondition him. But the educated public, the people who read the highbrow weeklies, don’t need reconditioning. They’re all right already. They’ll believe anything.” – fictional character Miss Hardcastle, from That Hideous Strength, by C.S.Lewis

The Basic Problem With Both Parties....

Lew Rockwell:

"... Until the dollar is made sound again, there will be little hope of restraining the government. The problem is that neither party has an interest in doing this. Whether the party supports welfare or warfare, it ultimately depends on the power of the government to finance itself through financial trickery...."

My Vote for President....

Since Ron Paul is drawing down his effort, I've finally made a choice, and of course it will be a write-in.

I'll be voting for Fred Eaglesmith for President of the United States.

I believe he's already President of Canada and rumor has it he works cheap.

True, he'll be taking a lot of vacation days, just like 43, but he'll be busy making good music.

He'll solve our commuter problem too. I hope everybody likes trains.

Willie P. Bennett reprising the role of the tough as nails VP with the bad tikker.

I can see the bumper stickers now:

"Vote for Fred, but not that one...", or

"I shot your dog, I thought he was a terrorist."

Timmy's in the educational well, and trust us, money will get him out!

Taxes, taxes, taxes. Some random notes:

I recently paid the balance of my part of my school district's earned income tax. Talk about a tax that descriminates against the poor and multi-income, out of town jobbers.... It's the kinda thing that makes that there flat/sales tax look good, don't it?

And, maybe I'm just a little sore, having just paid my share of the SDEIT for a school system that will provide more failures for Com1 next year.

We're seeing a majority of kids from "good" schools who can look up study notes online and copy them into a Word file, but can't solve math problems without a calculator, tell an adjective from an adverb, and many times don't know verb from noun.

And I admit we don't see the brightest (they leave the state), but these are kids with 3+ GPAs from LOCAL schools.

And tax-wise, they always need a new school building. And we are Oh-so-happy to oblige... year after year.

Fine, here's the deal:

One of the signs of failure of our public high schools is the need for beginning Com courses in college, so....

You can have ten new buildings if you can promise us that every one of the children (It's all for "the children", ain't it? Not the administrators or the union, right?) can add, subtract, multiply and divide WITHOUT a calculator or computer or cell phone, etc....

And it would be wonderful if they could diagram a sentence when they enter classes at college with their 3.something GPA (And how the **** did they get that? It must have been the old school building's Karma.), so that we don't have to teach them "remedial" Com in sophomore year after they flunk both the test-out and freshman year Com1.

Cliches are identified as such because they are generally true, right?

Well here's the cliche: "You can't fix our education system by throwing money at it." But don't tell the NEA that and don't tell that to the people who live in "rich" districts or make their living in the system.

I've seen teachers and school board members asked what it would take to make education better in their system, and every time the answer is "more money". Somewhere down the line, some old fogey will reply "Parent involvement?", and everybody will roll their eyes and stick their hands out.

The average graduating senior is less educated than twenty years ago. Just give one a basic math test and reading skills test.

The "system" is nothing but a sponge.

My much, much better half (who disagrees with me on this, as she IS an NEA member) teaches writing and art at a local college. The kids entering college (Admittedly this is in Ohio, and at a State school, so it is an indictment of only our Ohio public schools.) may be technologically ahead of those 20yrs.ago, but who isn't?

In basic writing, reading and math skills, the AVERAGE college freshman is way behind one of 20 yrs.ago.

Many of these kids have to be taught how to write sentences and paragraphs BEFORE you show them the basics of whatever class you are teaching, just so they can have the bare chance to complete the assignments.



More on this as I get wound up....

And, there seems to be a “school” of teachers who adhere to a new-fangled style of teaching that actually ignores these mistakes in grammar “as long as the student gets their message across in a clear and concise manner”. These teachers are compounding the problem. Their very argument is an oxymoron.

Here’s link to an article on the subject:

http://www.grammarmudge.cityslide.com/articles/article/2730324/47154.htm

Lancaster Post of the State Highway Patrol to get New Barracks....

Well, if they are moving out on the bypass, they won't have as far to go to cherrypick. Those "non-existent" quotas just went up, up, up....

Don't bother to say there aren't any; I've seen the memos on the board at the barracks.

One of my pet peeves is that you never see them during rush hour when people are trying to kill you with cars, but go on the bypass in off-hours and there's one at the bottom of every hill with a gun and a pad of tickets.

I don't speed, so this is not sour grapes, just real observation from someone who drives a LOT. Given the ways and times that they choose to enforce the laws, they cannot be doing anything but revenuing.

Ok, now I jus' gotta put on Radar Gun, by The Bottle Rockets, and calm down....

Red-Neck Pickup Truck Drivers....

Three days a week I drive route 33 west from Athens to Columbus. Every time, I see at least one of these guys. Heck, you might be this guy... and if so, I want to let you know what I see when I look at him.

He is driving a four-wheel drive pick-up and it usually has a NASCAR sticker in the back window.

He has the right to get to work faster than the five-hundred people in front of him.

He pulls up in back of me in the passing lane. I am already going 65+ mph, in the traffic flow with approximately four (not enough) car lengths between myself and the car in front.

There are probably a hundred or so vehicles in front of me and the right lane is bumper to bumper.

He starts by tailgating while swerving back and forth. He flips his brights on. I reach up and adjust my mirror so that the lights are out of my eyes, trying to find a place in the other lane at 65 mph. Meanwhile, this idiot is waving the finger out of his window.

I finally ease my Jeep over into the right lane and the redneck begins his assault on the next car. He usually gains about four places by cutting off drivers and multiple lane changes between the time he passes me and when I catch up with him at the slow-down between Carroll and Hamilton Road.

If you drive route 33 then I am sure that this might sound like your morning, too.

While he does elevate my blood pressure, I do want to thank the Red-neck pickup truck driver for making me feel so superior.

And sometimes I find myself hoping, Lord forgive me, that someday, when he is alone on some two-lane country road with deep run-off ditches, he'll have a blow-out.

Traffic Cameras in Ohio....

Before Big Brother gets even more out of control, with every little municipality wanting a slice of the Revenue pie, the people of Ohio should be pressing for a State Law that limits the use of fine money collected from violators caught by these cameras to only be used by a program or programs like the Adult Basic and Literacy Education (ABLE).

That program is only a suggestion, but if there are going to be cameras (bad idea), then let's limit the ability of cities to become the "Video New Rome" of Ohio, and keep the collection agencies out of it. Also, by limiting the money to an exact use and away from the General Fund, it keeps the politician's grubby hands out of it for the most part.

Each camera would have to be backed by an ODOT study and the fines would be collected by the State - NOT the city and a collection agency that takes a big cut. No fine money would go into ANY General Fund or individual city coffers.

That would keep predatory collections by the cities down and actually result in LESS cameras, but in the places they are needed most, and with and end result of helping the people who need help the most, making the most needy Ohioans more employable.

State of da Onion, errrr... Union.

Well, right now I'm listening to a man who is trying to be all things to all people. I guess most SOTU speeches are the same.

Problem is, he's the (Gasp!) President of the USA, he's not an Apostle.

It might have been my selective hearing, but I thought I just heard "We're gonna give 'em Democracy if we have to shove it down their throats and blow it out their behinds."

"And, oh yeah, we're gonna print some more money we don't have and throw it down the well to Timmy. He can use that worthless toilet paper for a rope."

534 applauding Horses' Ass and One Honest Man, Ron Paul.

Remove money and power from 'auctions,' er, I mean elections....

By Dave Baird -- Reprinted from The Athens News

Ah, it's election time again. The great American sport.

Sadly, for a lot of folks it's a spectator sport. We tell our kids that with freedom comes responsibility, but ignore that ourselves.

Many of our forebears shed blood to give us the right of the vote. Now our sons and daughters are shedding theirs partly because we have not taken that gift seriously. We are not informed, and are swayed by appeals to our fears, bigotry and emotions rather than by reason.

I get a chuckle every time I hear that we are killing folks to bring them the blessings of democracy when we have made such a muck of it here.

Hey, gang, our government is for sale. We don't have elections; we have auctions. Both parties are crowded around the trough. If you want special treatment, lower taxes, larger subsidies or just to be heard, you don't pay taxes, you give money directly to the politician. (Pardon me, contribute to them...).

The system is stacked to make this almost a necessity in order to get the job. Even the "good" ones rationalize selling out in order to "do some good." Everyone knows it. Most don't like it. But what is going to be done about it? Good question. Ask your party officials and you will get a runaround or they will treat you like a simpleton: "You just don't understand the realities of the system."Well, THEY do. Money is power and power is the name of the game.

Fixing it would be fairly simple, at least in concept, the devil being in the details.

1) Caps on campaign spending tied to inflation.

2) Limit contributions to $50 for an individual and $500 for an organization (be it a business or a union or a knitting club). Provide public funding up to 50 percent of the cap.

3) Part of the license for media would be to provide free time and space for debates and pro/con discussion of issues. And no paid ads within a week of the election (except for a rebuttal).

4) Make it illegal to indulge in negative and personal attacks (that includes so-called surrogates).

5) Make any organization that makes baseless charges subject to libel laws (like the Swift Boat gang). Fines would be imposed in votes, not money.

6) Establish a code of conduct for candidates and fine them for breaking it.

7) Train our kids in critical thinking and encourage, nay, REQUIRE debate of issues in our schools.

8) Voting should be encouraged and protected. Voting days should be either on weekends or made a holiday. Perhaps some penalty for not voting or at least an incentive to vote (maybe a discount on traffic tickets or taxes).

9) It should be illegal for an employer to interfere with the voting or votes of his or her employees, or for that matter even ask them how they voted. That goes for unions, too.

10) Make it illegal for employers to require political contributions.

11) Enforce the strictures on non-profits involving themselves in politics (including churches and religiously based media empires).

12) Can the computer-based voting machines. They have been shown to be open to rigging and hacking. And there's no way to tell if they have been.

13) Last but not least, get rid of gerrymandering by either party. One way would be to require each district to be equal (roughly) and drawn on county lines only, no splitting urban from rural by dividing counties. The process of doing this would be under control of the Census Bureau and the judiciary.

Most of these suggestions would be shouted down by special interests as an infringement on their free speech, which is hogwash. Their concern is expensive speech, speech that only they can afford and feel free to abuse.

Having said that, I'll add that freedom of speech for the many would need to be aggressively protected. One way of doing that would be to enforce the anti-trust laws (remember them?) as it applies to the various forms of media. Individuals and groups should be able to criticize the government without pressure or penalty but should stick to the issues rather than "Candidate A" saying a bad word or having hang nails. And if we vote for someone, it should be on the basis of how he or she is going to affect your family and community (or for that matter, the rest of the world). Not because they hate the same people you do.

Am I whistling in the wind here? Maybe, but it is becoming obvious what the results are of lots of people shirking their civic responsibilities. We see the effects of corruption of the system by moneyed interests, the concentration of power and wealth in fewer hands, and their control over the political life of this country.

Obviously, money and politics must be separated. Church and state need to stay separated.

We are the ones who have to start taking this whole business seriously. The fact that 30-second sound bites can sway an election should be unthinkable. Power still rests in the hands of the people (theoretically). We should be ashamed of the fact that George Bush is sitting in the Oval Office with only 18 percent of the electorate voting for him!

Have a happy and involved New Year.


Editor's note: David Baird, a self supporting craftsman, and his wife, Roberta (better craftsperson), live in the fortunately not burgeoning community of Mud City, in the still beautiful Athens County.

Price Hill Girls -- the best vid on YouTube....

an' thas a fac, jack!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl71FWsmjYc

A Republican in OZ. So what do you do?

So here you are: a Republican in Oz. What do you do?

If you are a Romney or Guiliani supporter, the Neocons at National Review probably love you and the Devil owns your soul: you either want a car salesman or a crime lord (former US attys make the best crime lords) to be President. Great, send them some money and see what you bought.

So, here we go, the old test. Leave your wallet, your girl and your car with:

The rich boy/car salesman type who never looks anybody in the eye when he’s answering a question and tops his waffles with waffles, or

The wife-cheater/one issue candidate who you are pretty sure owes big-time to the wrong people and has bad wingman judgment, or

The experienced old soldier, who loves and serves the best interests of America as he sees them but who makes compromises and can be swayed by special interests who may be smarter than he, or

The former preacher and crunchy-con, who you are pretty sure will do better in a debate then all-of-the-above, but who you know will be anti-big business and pro-big government, which really puts you off…

Both Thompson and Paul are pretty much gone, but hopefully Paul (by far the best man in the race) will at least be able to affect the platform at some level.

Ok, which one?

Oh yeah, Edwards is the only Dem in the race with original ideas and the ability to win a populist election.


An addendum to this post:

Someone said that this test is flawed:

"... Your test is flawed. You could have trusted Hitler with your wallet, car, and girlfriend. Or Castro. Or Mao. Or Stalin. The real scary people don’t care anything about those kind of things."

I have to say that the test in no way is flawed!

Each one of them would have appropriated my car and my wallet for the good of the community, and then thrown my (Jewish) much, much better half in a "detention" camp.

The "Bradley Effect": Vote fraud, liars, or both....

It seems that the exact thing happened in the '08 New Hampshire Democratic primary that happened in the '04 Ohio Presidential Race.

In the first, the effect was possibly fear of race. In the second, the "National Security Question".

That 13% N.H. swing was enormous, BUT, do you hear the Demo's screaming Fraud?

Here are the choices, and feel free to add to the list or contest it:

13% of the voters lied. Or,

Young voters, for some reason, just didn't show up. Or,

The system (machines or reporting) were compromised (hacked or programmed to report falsely). Or,

An astounding 13% of the LIBERAL voters entered the Booth and decided (at the last minute, it the privacy of their hearts and heads) that they would rather see ANY white woman than a Black man win the LIBERAL nomination for President. This has been identified as "The Bradley Effect". Look it up.

The last choice would mean that everything the LIBERALS say they stand for was repudiated and replaced with latent and now realized racism.


What's your choice?

Toast ag'in. We just love the abuse....

Well, the blame goes mostly to our O-line, BUT...

The Vest and his minions got roundly out-schemed, out-thunk and just abused.

Both LSU's O-cord and D-cord were just having fun dialing up all kinda stuff once they realized the Bucks couldn't hang.

If there is one thing I take from this, it is that Tress seems to have three or four plays he goes back to time and again. Their D is adjusting and if the O-line can't hang we're toast.

I'm not an expert by any means, but I'd bet my (un)lucky Buckeye that LSU ran nearly 3 times as many different plays as OSU. I know for sure they had 3 times as many offensive looks. Are their players THAT much smarter?

Tress needs a good O-cord, but that ain't gonna happen.

Ohio's vote is gonna be screwed up again (and again)....

Ohio is going back to Optical Scanners.

For a local overview, check out the Crabby Fat Guy here: http://www.crabbyfatguy.com/?p=896

I remember “some people” who told us to “trust the technology”, and “it’s a lot better system than we used to have”, and “the way things are set up, there’s no need for backup paper trails”.
There is only one reason NOT to provide a system with a verifiable secure check, while protecting voter identity, and it IS doable.

http://www.verifiedvotingfoundation.org/article.php?id=6430

As a conservative, it bothers me that the Repubs are the ones who almost always oppose efforts to safeguard the vote, to make it more transparent, securely verifiable and less easy to tamper with.

I’m not the first to note that Diebold, along with other voting machine manufacturers, are Repub contributors.

“…McCarthy & Company, part of the McCarthy Group that is one of the currentowners of Election Systems and Software (ES&S), which itself resulted from the merger of AIS and Business Records Corporation. ES&S is now the largest voting machine company in America. One of its largest owners is the ultra-conservative Omaha World-Herald Company.”

I’m against unwarrented government spending as much as the next taxpayer, but it really bothers me that we seem to put corporate special interests ahead of individual rights over and over.

In a Democratic Republic, I would think that the MOST important thing is getting the vote right.

But it’s bad to spend money making sure the vote is correct????

Additional notes on Taxes and Bribery of Congress....

We have a Fed that abuses States Rights.

The Commerce Clause has been interpreted and liberally extended by Liberals to hold states hostage for their own money in many ways that violate the 10th Ammendment.

Congress uses lobbyists to write law, and the lot of them (Lawmakers and Lobbyists) should be indicted for bribery.


'Nuf said.

'Nuf said?

Mebbe not.

Today's gripe: Taxes....

I don’t pay my taxes “voluntarily”. I don’t know anybody who does.

We pay because of fear of being audited, jailed or fined; and if you don’t believe that you are either an IRS employee, a liberal elite who is drinking the kool-aid and thinks that we should all live on a government stipend, or you are a fool.

The tax system is backward. My money should go to my county and city and then to the state and the feds should have to ask my state for money.

Why should I have to hope that my representatives “bring home the bacon” and thus contribute to the vast corrupt beaurocracy of it all? My damn bacon should stay right here!

Happy Christmas....

Regarding the Christmas Season as it is, not as it should be:

Let's stop chucking The Baby under the chin and bow before The Savior of mankind.


And on a kinder, gentler, amazed at the Grace of Our God note:

Like a stone on the surface of a still river
Driving the ripples on forever
Redemption rips through the surface of time
In the cry of a tiny babe

- Bruce Cockburn

A Couple of Quotes from Ben Bryant....

I really like these. They are so unfortunately true.

"... When we're all working at Wendy's, Wal-Mart, and Big Lots, who's going to be able to afford to shop at Wal-Mart and Big Lots and eat at Wendy's?"

"There is no such thing as a service based economy."

Bush has "... set the Presidential bar so low that we are considering people like Hillary, who wouldn't normally have a chance. Most of us would vote for a goat with a necktie right now."

-- Ben Bryant

Ben recently ran and lost a City Council race here in Lancaster. He is a young man, and hopefully will continue to rage against the machine.

Boo, Hissss... I Crap on the Top-Ten Lists.

... See, that rhymed.

I like it when my favorite music is all a non-mention in the year-end lists of your more hoity-toity music mags (Re.: Paste Magazine).

It's a sign of an almost "Bushian" combination of ignorance and self-confidence that these non-mentions make me feel both superior and privileged to the rewards of a secret knowledge that makes the highest audit level of Scientology seem a cheap investment.

In short, it makes me look down on you critics like I look at Amway salespeople.

My listening habits, like our President's reading habits, are a tad narrow, and actually spending time telling these people what I like would be self-defecateding my superioritedness.

Sufjanifice it to say that although Mr. Henry is a hell of a writer, and though you did blind squirrel it through to the everybodyfields pick, Tommy Womack's "There, I Said It" is the best record of 2007.

Nothing will change....

... and that's what's wrong.

The Mitchell Report on use of HGH and Steroids.

Nothing to say here on the details.

One observation that is hardly original:

Baseball is America's Sport. It is a microcosm of our society, and as such the mirror tells the tale.

Nothing will change. We'll keep on making money. We'll keep on breaking records that shouldn't be able to be broken. We'll do it because we have to. Otherwise the Americans who watch us will no longer watch us, pay the freight and propel the economy of the American Sport.

America has sold whatever soul it had. This is just another fall-out.

Maybe I'll watch baseball again someday. I doubt it, but maybe when players start looking like humans again, I'll think about it.

We Can't Make it Here

"We Can't Make it Here"

Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign
Sitting there by the left turn line
Flag on the wheelchair flapping in the breeze
One leg missing, both hands free
No one's paying much mind to him
The V.A. budget's stretched so thin
And there's more comin' home from the Mideast war
We can't make it here anymore

That big ol' building was the textile mill
It fed our kids and it paid our bills
But they turned us out and they closed the doors
We can't make it here anymore
See the pallets piled on the loading dock
Just gonna set there 'til they rot
'Cause there's nothing to ship, nothing to pack
Just busted concrete and rusted tracks
Empty storefronts 'round the square
There's a needle in the gutter - glass everywhere
Don't come down here 'less you're looking to score
We can't make it here anymore

The bar's still open, but man it's slow
Tip jar's light and the register's low
Bartender don't have much to say
The regular crowd gets thinner each day
Some maxed out their credit cards
Some 're working two jobs and livin' in cars
Minimum wage won't pay for a roof,
Won't pay for a drink if you gotta have proof
Just try it yourself Mr. CEO
See how far $5.15 an hour'll go
Take a part time job at one of your stores
Bet you can't make it here anymore

....

Now I'm stocking shirts in the Wal-Mart store
Just like the ones we made before
'Cept this one came from Singapore
I guess we can't make it here anymore
Should I hate a people for the shade of their skin
Or the shape of their eyes or the shape I'm in
Should I hate 'em for having our jobs today
No, I hate the men who sent the jobs away
I can see them all now, they haunt my dreams
All lily white and squeaky clean
They've never known want, they'll never know need
Their sh@# don't stink and their kids won't bleed
Their kids won't bleed in the a f***in' little war
And we can't make it here anymore

Will work for food, will die for oil
Will kill for power and to us the spoils
The billionaires get to pay less tax
As the working poor fall through the cracks
Let 'em eat jellybeans, let 'em eat cake
Let 'em eat sh$%, whatever it takes
They can join the Air Force, or join the Corps
If they can't make it here anymore

And that's how it is, that's what we got
If the president wants to admit it or not
You can read it in the paper, read it on the wall
Hear it on the wind if you're listenin' at all
Get out of that limo, look us in the eye
Call us on the phone, tell us all why
In Dayton, Ohio or Portland, Maine
Or a cotton gin out on the great high plains
That done closed down along with the school,
The hospital and the swimming pool
Dust devils dance in the noonday heat
There's rats in the alley
And trash in the street
Gang graffiti on a boxcar door
We can't make it here anymore

Music and lyrics © 2004 by James McMurtry

Economic Fall-Out Hits Home....

More fallout:

My company has decided to "restructure" salaries throughout -- although I am sure that "throughout" is a very subjective term.

I'll find out tomorrow whether this is something I can live with.

The problem is that when you voluntarily accept a pay cut and the company lets you go a few weeks later, any Unemployment Compensation is figured on the lower salary.

Maybe I can get them to agree to a better release package (extended health insurance?) for signing on with the lower salary.

Not holding out much hope, though.

This comes at an inconvenient time, as I am learning to cope with a larger group of responsibilities than I have ever had in my life. Now it looks like I'll be learning to cope on a much lower salary.