WTF?

I find it sad that more people are angry over a doctor killing a lion than a doctor harvesting and selling baby body parts.

What the fuck is wrong with you America?

Friday at last

Is it just me or has this been the longest week ever? Seriously, did the managers of the Matrix sneak in an extra day?

Sing along if you know the words

One of the few songs to which I know all of the lyrics

Not today, Donnie

Do not screw with me today. I am completely out of coffee. Not a stray K-cup to be found.

Dear Tom Brady

You should have paid more attention in history class. Watergate was a trivial crime that exploded because of a bumbling cover-up too.

BTW if you take it to court, the NFL and its lawyers WILL then have supoena power, do you think those former Patriots employees have any incentive to keep quiet now that they have been fired?

Not like the GoGos

I'm on vacation today. Just today. Not at the beach, or Vegas, or the Grand Canyon (still never been there, Otter).  I'm off to move the boy to a different apartment down at the university. Four years, four different abodes. He always claims he has packed, then we find half the stuff is lying lose. Thus more trips when stuff does not go into the car efficiently. Blah, blah. Such is life. Anyway that is how I'm going to spend my summer vacation.

In and around the lake

Really Chicago Cubs? Did that just happen? How can you get swept by the Phillies, clearly the worst team in baseball (unless they are playing at Wrigley). You are now responsible in the course of a weekend for more than 20% of Philadelpphia's road wins.  This was the stretch you were going to solidify your wild card run. Must you break my heart every year?

After last evening's heavy rains this July has now become the wettest month ever in Indy. The average July sees a little over 4 inches of rain and we have topped 13 with more rain on tap this week. I suspect some are going to blame it on global warming/climate change/aardvark farts but he previous wettest month was in the 1870s. How do the AlGorites explain that? Do you know how I account  for the rainy summer? Weather.

I have my monthly expense report to do today, one of my least favorite job tasks. It always has been. But when you travel on someone else's dime they want an accounting and rightly so.

Have a great Monday.

It is like one of those 500 pound fatties on TLC lecturing us on overeating

Multimillionaire Hillary Clinton says capitalism needs a reset. She is complaining that  we need controls on those who are quick turnaround investors on Wall Street. I can only guess she is talking about the kind of investor who tales $1000 and magically turns it into $100,000 in cattle futures?

Say, isn't Hillary's son-in-law a Wall Street type? I bet those Wall Street makes too much money and anti-capitalism rants make for great entertainment when she and Bill have the "kids" over for dinner.

What next, is Bill Clinton going to lecture us on fidelity in marriage?

I dunno

"Quick Timmy, go get help. Lassie has fallen into a well".

I think we know how that would have worked out. Timmy was an idiot.

Back in the 80s

Most Friday music selections are whatever pops up on my iPhone. This is no exception.

If you were at a bar in the Midwest in the late 1970s or 1980s you probably saw Henry Lee Summer. After he signed with Epic Records Summer had a few modest hits, but the label tried turn him into a ballad singer a la Michael Bolton. Anyone who ever experienced the frantic energy of Ol' Henry Lee knows that is not who he is as a performer. I will argue that Henry Lee Summer is quite possibly one of the best entertainers I have seen live. He is right up there with Springateen for sheer entertainment. I think this video shows what I mean.  The first time I saw him Henry started the show by leaping from a tower speaker. I think that was in Lafayette, IN in a bar near Purdue University, maybe; it was more than 30 years ago for Pete's sake.

This tune was his biggest hit, but he did do some film vocals as well.

Yesterday and Today

For those of you playing along with the Home Version, here are the numbers in order:

38,47,231,74,80,380,20,29...29,229,29,680,80

It is not much of a mystery. I suspect just about any atlas could put you on he road to victory.

What I see

The sky is pale blue and splattered with dirty white clouds. The twin ribbons of the highway stretch westward into the distance, the long straight sections broken by occasional gentle curves. Dotless dashes mark the center line in an endless Morse O O O O. Beside the road, files and columns of straight tall green corn stocks tipped in gold stand sentinel beside fields of low,lush, humble soy beans.  The speakers blare music and talk and sports and music and baseball and music again.  A half finished bottle of water sits warm in the door. Occasional clumps of cattle stare at the horizon, chewing earnestly. Overpasses and underpasses recede in my rear view mirror as the odometer and dash clock mark the miles and minutes.  The tires hum. The soft leather of the seat becomes hard torture on my rump. I realize, had I headed south, I could be at the beach, instead of gazing at windswept uncompromising prairie. Exit and entrance ramps offer sincere untaken opportunities to explore, to change the destination, to extend an already interminable trip. I drive on, into the evening.

Being Willie Loman

According to the television the overnight rains have made this July the 4th wettest month ever. Add in a rainy June and it has not been a great summer weather wise. On the other hand, the lawn is green and he flowers have flourished.

The perpetually aggrieved continue to try and destroy Stone Mountain in Georgia. The quest to create a perfect world continues. Soon we will have to all wear matching smocks and paint our identical houses beige so that no one is ever offended by anything again. Hey, a guy named Richie McDonald once bullied me in elementary school, I want all McDonald's closed.

I'm about to plant my butt into my VW and head west to charm a gaggle of customers. I will get to share the road with bad drivers, distracted drivers, and idiots who can't understand the left lane is for passing.  Eleven plus hours of I states (Indiana, Illinois, Iowa) does not make for scenic excitement. While I find a certain beauty in the flat farmland, the green corn topped with golden tassels, the tall elevators dotting the distant horizon and the quaint towns with once vibrant shopping, a few hours is enough. But I have a good job and once again I will be privileged to see the America many don't even know exists.

Have a great Tuesday.

Stuff

Summer finally made a brief appearance Saturday along with his companions heat and humidity. We climbed into the car to head to a picnic/ family reunion.  Now this is not a reunion in the sense you picture. The family is so small we can meet in my mom's living room. Thee were 11 people there and an additional ten or so would encompass every living member of my mother's family counting first and second cousins. all three of my kids made it, along with my granddaughter. My SIL had a company function to attend. The youngest spent the weekend at home. On Sunday I watched the granddaughter for a few hours.

A good weekend for me, a boring post for you

The Donald

So long and good riddance to the Trump campaign. No matter your feelings on John McCain's politics, he was a hero. Few of us could have survived physically or mentally what he experienced in the Hanoi Hilton.

Trump had no chance anyway, but his inability to filter his words has become a liability the campaign can not overcome.

Reality hurts

After reading most of the blogs over there on the right, along with countless others that are dead and closed, it occurs to me I am not very good at this hobby. Syntax, spelling and editing prove my case almost daily.

Quality trumps quantity every time.

Quick hits

Once again we see efficacy of gun free zones

I am willing to bet the Koran had as much, if not more, to do with he the Chattanooga murders as the Confederate battle flag was responsible for the killings in Charleston

I say we bring back dot-to-dot books. Current news readers seem unable to connect dots any more.

The sooner they fry that SOB from Denver the better.

I always said Barack was the next Jimmah Carter. The Iranians just proved it. This is two Presidential suckers they have humiliated.

If, as liberals screamed in the wake of Arizona passing strict immigration laws, the Federal law is superior to local or state law, how can so-called Sanctuary Cities thwart Federal Immigration Law?

Sorry, so much for a no politics Friday

About perfect for this Friday

Paging Dr Mengele

No matter where you stand on the abortion issue, harvesting of baby organs for sale is sick and disgusting - not to mention illegal. This practice has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with a woman's reproductive rights. It is tantamount to grave robbing for human experiments.

Those of you who support Planned Parenthood should do a little research into Margaret Sanger and her goals for the organization she helped found. Funny, many of the same liberals chanting "black lives matter" also support Planned Parenthood.

In this case I am one to judge. If you support the harvest and sale of fetal body parts you are sick, twisted, and evil. Your very existence is repugnant and I resent you wasting good oxygen.

More coal, less ethanol

Scientist have warned that sun activity and cycles will cause a mini ice age to hit the Northern hemisphere in the next 15-20 years. I think there are forces of nature we puny humans can not even fathom. What if the buildup of greenhouse gases that leaves the "we are all gonna die" climate change believers in a tizzy is just Earth's way of protecting itself from another ice age? In any case, the massive heating that should have started years ago (waiting, waiting, tapping my foot impatiently) just could offset the cold spell planned by old Sol. 

Look, warm is better than cold. Plants grow better. Food is more abundant. Plus being cold sucks, just ask anyone who has not yet moved south for the winter. I say we fire up those coal plants, drive the heck out of your SUVs, bring back Freon.  Each of us should strive to have a carbon footprint the size of Bigfoot. We all know what happens if it gets too cold. Santa will have to cancel Christmas and Ted Koppel, the elf who wants to be a dentist, just might not save Rudolf and thus Christmas this time.

Negotiations

Geez, at first blush it appears as if a brand new purchasing agent straight out of college could have negotiated a better deal for the US with Iran.  I have negotiated millions of dollars in contracts in my day and I am clearly confused. It looks like Kerry and company gave the farm to the Iranians. I'm still not sure what we got in return, the ability to ask for inspections?

What the heck, if this was a purchasing contract the Iranians would have received 10 years to supply product with the ability to raise prices at will and to change specifications whenever they wanted.

Why is it Obama's speech this morning had a distinct Neville Chamberlin flavor?

A Lesson Learned

Today is Bastille Day in France, their Independence Day. Why should you care if you live elsewhere?  You shouldn't beyond the lesson the French Revolution provides as  example of what happens when Leftist get in charge. Do not take my word for it, do a little research.

In the drive to make everyone equal, all were brought to the lowest common denominator. One was forced to dress as the modern equivalent of a street dweller, nice clothes being a sign you were aristocracy.  Eventually, you either publicly agreed with the most extreme groupthink or you lost your head. The Revolutionaries went after churches, businessmen, landlords, and the rich nobles. Neighbor denounced neighbor for the slightest of squabbles.  Lack of sufficient Revolutionary fervor, or evidence you failed to be a revolutionary before the revolution was enough to cost you your life. Words uttered months or years before cost a trip to Madame Guillotine.

Eventually, like all leftist Utopias since, the French Republic consumed itself. Only a strong dictator was able to hold it all together. The French replaced a King with an Emperor. For the US, this worked out great. The cost of the Napoleonic Wars forced France to sell off great chunks of their Empire and we gained most of the land west of the Mississippi through the Louisiana Purchase.

It is interesting to note how much the great leftist revolutions have in common. The French Revolution, The Bolshevik Revolution, Mao's Great Leap Forward, Castro's Cuban Revolution all included a purge of societies' educated, clergy, business leaders, and wealthy. Anyone who failed to toe the leftist line wound up decidedly dead. All of these great Revolutions started as a means to freedom for the common man and ended in a bloody reign of terror. In every case life after the revolution was less free than under the regime that came before.

Thank goodness that could never happen here, that Obama's mentor would never advocate concentration camps for conservatives, that climate change believers would want to jail "deniers", that so-called hate speech could become a crime...

It is a new week

I missed the memo, what event, video, symbol, or action is supposed to leave me in speechless outrage this week?

Choose your adventure

Here we are on Monday morning. I wish I had something pertinent, amusing, or interesting to share with you today. You don't care about my supper last night, nor my nap after my late morning walk. I have zero, zip, nada for content at this point in time. Some would argue that has been the case for more than a decade.

I keep seeing pairs of animals lurking in the neighborhood

A wave of serious thunder boomers moved through in the middle of the night. Nothing severe, but loads of rain, lightning, and thunder. Yesterday was sunny and humid. It looks like we will back to rain rain rain again this week, starting with the early morning storms. I thought my neighbor was building a new deck. Now I'm not so sure; it is starting to look like a giant boat. Does he know something I don't?

In a couple of weeks I will have more 'maters than I can eat

I don't know about you, but I slept better knowing the Confederate battle flag no longer exists beyond  dusty museums. Racism and hate are finally erased from American soil!

What? Oh well, I am certain another inanimate object is to blame.

But it is Saturday and it is not raining, so it is indeed a great day, previous sarcasm aside. More rain is set to arrive tonight and continue all week yet again. I don't care what the calendar says, May is now in its third rainy month here in the Midwest. Look at the Wabash, Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri rivers; all swollen and in flood. We have plenty of water here in Red State dominated flyover country. That is clear proof God hates the heathen liberals in California and loves conservative states. As usual Illinois gets a free ride.

The granddaughter spent the night and her morning smiles makes my day complete. My coffee mug is empty and I don't see any of you bringIng around refills, so I am off to get replenished and some breakfast. Have a great day blog readers.

I don't know what it means

Friday music. Try it, you will like it.

As told to me by an aging participant on his deathbed

It was in the early 1970s and Nixon had announced a general withdrawal from Vietnam. The Military Industrial Complex was in a general panic. After a decade of record profits, the slowing of the war machine was going to hurt business. Something had to be done.

The delegates met at Camp David, no public site could contain such a secret gathering. The President, leading politicians from both parties, mob bosses, CEOs from Rand and General Dynamics among others,, leaders from the Teamsters and the AFL-CIO, bankers, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs were all invited. The Hippies and Peaceniks were not on the guest list. For three days men bullied, browbeat, argued, and compromised. The end plan was brilliant. All fifty Governors of the States were brought in small groups to gain their support and agreement under the threat of strikes, funding cuts, base closures, and political ruin. Some claim it was Howard Hughes who developed the scheme, his last act of genius before paranoia and insanity crept in. In any case all in attendance agreed with the plan. No lawyers drew up contracts, no documents were signed. Everyone could see the benefits. Every one would profit, no one would suffer.

Four sites were chosen, discreet but near major transportation arteries. The best engineers at Cincinnati Milicron went to work designing the giant injection molding machines. Scientist at the oil companies collaborated on the plastic compound.  The trucking companies, the unions and the Mafia worked on logistics. The military handled security. Just 21 months later production began.

The big injection molding presses hummed and hissed. Molds spat out hundreds a shift. Robots applied reflective decals and vetted workers oversaw it all. Every week a shipment went to a given State in a rotating list based on the geographic size and miles of roadways of that State. The orange construction barrel was born.

The states tried storing them, selling them, grinding them up for playgrounds and asphalt base, but the shipments still came, year after year; thousands and tens of thousands until only one thing was left to do. No one knows which state DOT thought of the solution first, but soon all fifty states followed suit. Mile after mile of lanes would be closed on the interstates, orange barrels placed every ten feet, providing storage for the never ceasing supply. The solution was brilliant, it looked like progress on the highways, even though nothing is ever done, and each night a select few orange barrels would be destroyed by passing vehicles, demanding a replacement.

And that, my friends is how a secret cabal came together to ensure your trip is plagued by mind-numbing traffic delays and your lingering impression of America's highways is not the roadside attraction, the Teepee Hotels, the Giant Peach, the world's largest rubber band ball, but rather an unending succession of orange barrels. And the secret plants continue to produce the barrels. Sometimes, on a silent summer night you can hear the thump of hydraulics as the mold halves spit yet another orange barrel.

OMG

The "vast right wing conspiracy" is back. Politics aside do we really want to deal with the Clinton's and the scandals?

Because

...I never left Jr High humor-wise some things just crack me up.  Today, while traversing the wilds of Missouri,  I followed a car with this on its license plate:

TNI COX

perhaps the driver was proud his maleness was tiny. Otherwise, I would have told the BMV hell no.

I could complain, but why bother?

I hope you have a glorious day. Me, I made other plans.

Emperor of Terra Firma

When I become King of the World, Arbiter of Good Taste, and Prince of Land and Sea I shall decree that the Monday following a long holiday or vacation shall be a shortened work day, six hours instead of eight, so that one can ease back into the turmoil.

I am certain! based on this modest proposal alone, the public is already readying petitions to hasten my coronation as Supreme Potentate.

Yep

I hope you had a great 4th of July celebration. I did. The day was filled with food and laughs and beer and cigars and sangria and fireworks.

God bless America. I love this country.

In Congress...

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,

--That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

I miss you playing with fire

The Rolling Stones will be Indy tomorrow. My youngest is attending with some of his buddies. Alas, I will not be going. Since I am friendless and my wife hates the Stones, I have no one to go with me, even if I had the money for the ducats. Instead, I will live vicariously through the Boy.

Hey Teacher was able to see the band in KC last week. He had a request for this week's Friday Music, but I think Mick and the boys said it best when they explained that you can't always get what you want. I'm an ass like that and it probably explains why no one will go to the concert with me. Instead, I will present a double feature of two of my favorite Stones tunes. I hope these are a suitable compromise:

This is an old one, and not as well known as some other hits

This is my favorite song by the Rolling Stones. I can no longer sing along with an out-of-tune falsetto to the chorus, but when my kids were little I used to sing this song to put them to sleep as I shuffled around the house. No traditional lullabies for my kids.  That is probably why they all dig classic rock.

Be safe and don't blow off any fingers exploding your fireworks.

The wires in the Matrix are crossed

The world is a better place today.  "The Dukes of Hazard" has been banished from the airwaves.  This bothers me less than you might imagine.  I never cared for the program. If it was cancelled due to acting, content, writing! or plot I could be on board, but no, the evil Stars and Bars painted on the roof of a car might damage someone's sensibilities.

Seriously, is there no end to this silliness?

I'm starting to feel as if I am completely out of step with modern society. It is not like I'm some old codger pining for the good old days, rather I think I'm in some alternate universe.  Sobe tea puts humerous sayings on he inside of their bottle caps.  One said " help I'm  trapped in a tea factory". Several people read the quip and actually called the police. 

Actual Civil War  historical sites are removing Confederate flags. Russia is going to try and recover the Balkan States, America is trying to help Iran get nukes, one of the presidential candidates broke the law by using a private server, our debt level is approaching that of Greece, and all we care about is whether peas should be part of guacamole.

I think I'm a modern Robinson Crusoe, stranded alone on an island and surrounded by a sea of insanity.

Yippee

I feel like I went a couple of rounds with Apollo Creed this morning.  Lack of sleep will have that effect. I hit the mattress at the usual time; around 11;30 or so. My eyes popped open at a little after three when my old pal insomnia started bouncing on the bed. He poked and prodded and pestered until I gave in. We watched an old Andy Hardy movie together and I finally tried to go back to sleep at 5:30.  My bladder and an aching head got me up again for he day at 6:50. Here we sit sipping coffee and watching the beginning of a glorious day. Thank goodness I don't have to drive anywhere.