Dear President Obama

If you really want to help the Average Joe and Cheryl Citizen I suggest you invoke an executive order. Gather up your FBI, and Red Cell teams and employ some of that sooper-secrit NSA computer power. Take that ability to monitor every phone call and find those sleazy motherfucking scumbags who call my phones every damn day offering to reduce my credit card interest rates and to refinance my home with no cost.

Mr. Obama, if you are tired of people complaining the Government is worthless and does not meet the needs of the citizens, then the failure of the "No Call Lists" is example numero uno of your typical law of good intentions that accomplishes nothing. For goodness sake, we can read a license plate number from space. We can track a terrorist within feet of his location. We can monitor phone calls from any cell phone. I suspect you record every keystroke on this computer. Covert security cameras watch our every move in the cities. Technology exists to evaluate and measure my driving speed, distance and frequency. You know what I watch, and how much money I make. The Government will know my most intimate details of my medical records, from the broken fingers in elementary school to the crabs I got in college.

But for some reason we cannot find the owners of  automatic dialing machines that call a large percentage of the nation every freakin' day.

Find those telemarketing bastards, lock 'em up in Gitmo, or some other dank cell and have a phone ring every two minutes in their ear for the rest of their lives.  For good measure have a Navy Seal administer a severe and accurately aimed kick to the nuts every day or two. If we still have one of those waterboarding experts on staff from the Bush years, he can practice his art as well.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Baa Baaa

I understand our Socialist-in-Chief is about to embark on an "Its the Economy Stupid" tour, touting a share the wealth policy. Even without a secret glimpse of the teleprompter,  I can tell you  Obama will blame the rich and the Republicans and businesses for the anemic economy.

I have a question for all of you Democrats who will join in praise like a Greek chorus. If the middle class and the working poor are so important to Obama, why did he spare big business from the devastating effects of the ObamaCare implementation but turn a deaf ear the the real complaints of us common folks who are being hit hard by premium increases and pay reductions?  I'd argue that Obama cares a lot more for the rich guys and corporations and unions who donate to the Democrat Party. But on the other hand if you are dumb enough to believe in Obama's demonstrably failed economic policies, you are too stupid to draw a reasoned conclusion anyway.

But, if Obama is out talking about the economy -- finally -- then the sycophant press will drop articles about the IRS, Benghazi, the NSA spying, amnesty for illegals, skyrocketing gas and energy prices, and the other scandals. That is no accident.

Isn't time for John McCain to retire?

I read where John McCain (RINO ARZ) is pushing to replace the dollar bill with a coin. Only the government can take an unpopular idea, spend millions implementing it, only to see it fail.  Then they rinse and repeat.  Then they do it again. Once a bad idea permeates the air of the reclaimed swamps of Washington DC, it lives forever in a zombie-like existence.

In my lifetime we have been subjected to the Eisenhower Dollar (and the Kennedy half dollar), The Susan B Anthony, and the Sacajawea dollar. Each costs millions to produce and all are out of general circulation. People do not want to carry around a bunch of coins. This time the dollar coin proponents are invoking the change in the name of the Holy Environment.

If we want to save some money at the mint, get rid of the penny. It has virtually no purchasing power.  One court in Indianapolis will find you in contempt of court if you try to use pennies to pay your traffic ticket. Plus no one likes that penny smell on their hands.

Vicarious Adventures

Saturday afternoon the wife and I were perched in our respective recliners. It was raining, not a downpour, but rather a typical summer shower. I was watching a cooking show, she was doing whatever she does on her iPad. Suddenly, in rapid succession, the air was ripped by a tremendous cracking sound, the sky was lit by a flash of light, and then there was the loudest boom of thunder i have ever heard.  It shook the house and rattled the knickknacks and glasses in the cabinets like an earthquake.

"That hit something close", I said as I stood up to head toward the window. I saw the neighbors from the west end of our cul-de-sac running east. The wife ran out the door and I grabbed my shoes. I took a second to unplug my laptop and told my son to do the same. There is nothing like knowing you just shut the barn door seconds after the horse has fled.

Lightening had hit the the phone box of the house across the street blowing pieces of it twenty feet away. The charge ran along the underground wires, literally blowing apart the phone junction boxes behind his house. Along the way it exploded through some electric cords around his deck.  These cords were blown in half and split apart exposing the wires inside as if God was stripping the plastic casing. The ends were smoking. There was a burnt smell in the air.

I suggested the neighbor shut down his power. Someone was already on the phone to the fire department. It was the general consensus it was better safe than sorry. After an inspection there was no lingering electric fire hiding in the attic or walls. The house damage was confined to the telephone junction box outside the neighbor's garage -- and the outdoor lighting around his backyard.

Everyone across the street lost their telephone land lines, and cable. Mine worked fine. The phone company was out in force yesterday. Comcast came on Sunday.

It was a lively few minutes on an otherwise boring Saturday afternoon.

Kate Middleton naked!

I had to ask my wife who Kate Middleton was. I suppose it is a defect in personality that I have no interest in the British Royal family. None. Zero. Zip. I could not identify Kate Middleton from a line-up of two people. That lack of knowledge does not bother me a bit.  Apparently, Kate Middleton is having a baby. 

Why would anyone care if she is having a baby? These people are just members of the lucky sperm club. If the "occupy" types want to complain about the super-rich and successful people of the world, they should focus on people like Mr. and Mrs. Kate Middleton (I know, relax) instead of hard-working businessmen. Royalty is one group who became rich from the labors of the common folk. Everything they have was taken from someone else.

This is my first and last post about the Royal Baby. I have more interest in my neighbor's azalea bushes, and I don't care about them at all.

Yet another post

What happened was a young Hispanic man shot a black man in self defense, was tried by a jury of women and somehow...it’s a white man’s fault.  Steve King

When it comes to the Zimmerman affair, can we at least dispense with the fairy tale Martin was a frightened, innocent, young teenager just walking down the street eating Skittles?  This was no little boy, he was 6'2" and bigger than Zimmerman.  He attacked Zimmerman primarily because he thought Zimmerman was a sexual predator. This is according to the prosecution and their star witness.

Scared people hide, call the cops, or seek help, they do not attack their stalker.

Was Zimmerman guilty of being an ass? Was he stupid?  Did he deserve to get his ass beat?  Yes. Yes. And yes. But if being a stupid asshole was a crime, most registered Democrats would be in jail.

I guess the only alternative outcome that would please the some of you is that Zimmerman got his head banged on the ground until he passed out, or got brain damage, or died. 

Friday Music on a Sunday

Here is my favorite band recorded live a few months ago. maybe this music can erase the stain of my Friday Music post.

You can get their new album at iTunes, Amazon, or cdbaby. Why not spend a few bucks and help out some struggling musicians?  Do it for the little puppies. Do it for the starving children on Tristan da Cunh. If you buy the album Global Warming will cease. Buying a copy of this album will ensure World Peace, stop illegal immigration and solve the New Chinese Yaun/Dollar exchange rate dilemma.  Buying and listening to this album will bring people of the world together as one -- Muslims will hug Jews, Irish Catholics will tip a beer with their Protestant cousins. The two Koreas will challenge the two Chinas to a game of cornhole. Purchasing this album will be better than buying the World a Coke in bringing about perfect harmony. As an added bonus your purchase will help the boys get this month's rent money.

Questions...

Just what did Billy Joe McAllister and that chick throw off the bridge anyway?

Friday Music

Otter complained in the comments about last week's Friday Music selection.  Perhaps this is more your speed, Big Brother.

For the rest of you, my apologies.

Putting the Treyvon affair into perspective

read this

What he said.
Link is fixed.
Comment to your heart's content. 

Thank you F-ing Democrats

Good news for me, all thanks to the Democrat Party!

I will see my health insurance premiums increase 13.8% starting August first, primarily due to the costs of ObamaCare. This horrible legislation has cost my family plenty already. My premiums are going up, my wife has had her hours cut (Yes, Jay Carney it has happened).

Only a stupid fucking economically illiterate Democrat could believe you can give benefits to more people and not have costs go up. Every Democrat in these United States can line up and kiss my hairy ass. I will make sure to fart when Blinky is back there, lips pursed.

This is one sure way to ruin a good mood on a beautiful day.

Secrets to a perfect boiled egg

I had a post all written in my head, but the hell with it.  The abuses and lies coming out of the White House and Justice Department will not change based on my indignant outrage. You either agree with me or you are wrong, so what is the point in bitching about it?

It is going to be a fantastic summer day. Enjoy it.

View from my car window

I see skies of blue...

This sucks like a centrifugal pump

I had to embiggen my screen display on my laptop. The desktop icons are bigger, these words display larger. It was to the point where I was scrunched up and squinting like a two-eyed sea pirate just to see the screen. It is hard to use a computer when you are holding a magnifying glass to see the graphics. I do not need any distractions to increase my risk of offering up yet another typo.

Disease, genetics, age, too many sessions flying solo as a youth -- who knows why my nearsightedness is getting worse. I am 51. Some days I feel like I am 81.

Post-Racial Lynch Mobs

I have never been shy about expressing my opinion. I will readily admit when it comes to race I have no idea what it feels like to be a minority. My life has been insulated by geography and economics. I grew up in a small farm town not far from Nowhere, Indiana.  During the entirety of my public school years there lived exactly one black family in the entire county. They were only there for a few years. I can't say I ever had a conversation with the girl in my grade. Not because she was a person of color, I do not remember her being in any of my classes. There was a significant Hispanic population, especially in my elementary school years. They were just the kids with accents. Skin color was of no matter. My parents established that training early.

I can honestly say my first conversation with an African-American occurred at Boy Scout camp. The occupants of the next campsite down were from Indianapolis and the troop was entirely black. We hung out just like we would have with any kids the next campsite over. One boy tried in vain to put cornrows into my thick wavy hair.

There were a few African-Americans in my college fraternity. But as one of them explained to me once, they were all Oreos (think on it). I am not sure the sons of doctors and lawyers could relate the the plight of the inner-city gang-banger any better than my rural cracker ass.

With that long preamble, I am not sure how anyone who watched or read about the Zimmerman trial could think the facts were there for a conviction. It is true Zimmerman should have never left his vehicle. After that, it is all a terrible tragedy. Trying to pinpoint the exact moment the two men's fate intertwined is like trying to know just which Twinkie caused my diabetes. I believe that is called an exercise in futility.

I have seen no evidence to support Zimmerman followed or targeted Martin because he was black. There is no Federal Civil Rights case here. Sometimes juries fail to reach conclusions we desire. Casey Anthony walked, after all. We can bitch and moan about the OJ trial, but when the jury saw things differently it was not an excuse to riot, burn or take to the airwaves in outrage and demand extra charges from the Feds.

Justice should be blind. Skin color, or economics, or social standing are not relevant. Is it always so?  I do not think so, but that is no reason to argue the system is broken. Six citizens made a decision based on the facts as they heard them. Our system is designed for justice to be deliberative. A lynch mob works through emotion, not fact. We should not want it any other way. The entire situation is tragic and the families involved will never be the same.

The Sharptons and Jacksons and outraged leaders of the black community should look at the tragedy in the nation; the unfathomable rate of black-on-black crime, the astonishing rates of teen aged pregnancy and high unemployment right down the street in the black neighborhoods of our cities. One case in Florida is not a symbol of race relations. Throwing Zimmerman in jail will not solve that massive problem.

 The grievance theater is never really about the specific case, the specific shooting, it's about the links between the social problems of the black community, the compromises of civil liberties necessary to keep entire cities from turning into Detroit and the inability of the media to address the sources of crime as anything but the phantoms of white racism. It's about a black leadership that is more interested in posturing as angry activists and shaking loose some money than in healing the problems of their own communities. source

Let us stop blaming our great-great grandfathers for the ills of today's inner cities.

It is well past time we heed the words of MLK and start judging each other by the content of our character instead of the color of our skin. I am pretty sure Mr. King would agree that sentiment should be a two-way street.

Friday Music

Awesome, right?

How about a bonus, since the sun is shining and I am in a good mood?



You are welcome.

Catching up

As is often the case some of my posts this week were canned. You know that ocasionally happens. But I use a combination of salt, Fruit Fresh, Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA),  butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) and my own secret preservative recipe to make my words, thoughts, opinions, and overall wisdom seem freshly produced from the field and factory.

Sometimes not having convenient access to the interwebz during my travels means I cannot keep you updated on the latest adventures in my fun-filled life.  For instance I was on this flight. I can only compliment the captain and crew for their professionalism and care for their passengers. The ground personnel at the Indianapolis Airport and bus drivers were wonderful. Once in the terminal the airline sent 1 (ONE!) customer service rep to reschedule and rebook the 78 passengers. That was not so wonderful.  I was told by some of my fellow travelers the next day the hotel accommodations arranged by the airline were beyond dismal.  As one lady put it, "crack whores and hookers would even refuse to stay there".  A couple of people looked at the rooms and went back to the airport to sleep on the floor.

It was almost 8 PM by the time I left the parking garage. My working Wednesday was almost 14 hours. Such is my life .

The next morning my rebooked flight left shortly after 5 AM. That means I had to leave home around 3 AM. I did my business and got home last night just a few minutes short of 9 PM. That equates to an 18 hour day, if my history major math holds up. I gave my employer 32 hours over two days.

I think of weeks like this when people tell me "I wish I had your job."

My boss was complaining on Wednesday morning in a conference call he had worked 9 hours on Tuesday. 

What he said part 2

On the other hand, consider OJ

My local fishwrap carries a column by Gene Lyons, an unabashed liberal's liberal.  He never met a Republican he did not hate, and often crows the Fox News/George Bush/ Dick Cheney mantra of liberal disdain.

But this week's effort is spot on. Lyons calls out MSNBC for shoddy reporting and gives an honest take on the Zimmerman trial.

However, to convict George Zimmerman of second-degree murder, a jury must imagine this scenario: Determined to kill an innocent stranger, a man first dials 911, stays on the phone while stalking his victim, remains at the crime scene rather than fleeing, surrenders peacefully, waives his Miranda rights and voluntarily answers hundreds of police questions.

Hard to believe, no?source

In a clear case of I really, really hope I am wrong, I think the race baiters and professional victims and even the current occupant of the White House are waiting to unleash a dose of outrage if the verdict goes not according to justice, but according to race.  There are people looking to cause violence for real and imagined slights; that believe WE, as a society, owe them for 500 years of real and imagined oppression.

I think there are some who welcome a crisis as an excuse to increase their power.  What better way to get a civilian "army" than to quell 1967-type rioting across the nation?

Am I cynical beyond reason? Probably. I would sure like to admit I am wrong. In this case it would be a pleasure.

What he said part 1

Here is a post that sums up today's world in 9 words.

There is really nothing to add.

Food Pic Haters Rejoice

Yesterday I fired up my decrepit gas grill and threw on a couple of brats. I heated a can of Bavarian sauerkraut* and enjoyed a lunch fit for a Frankish King, or at least a prosperous Burgermeister. Unfortunately, I gobbled down the feast before I remembered to take a picture to excite your jealousy.
 
Lunch reminded me of a trip through Bavaria on my way to Austria several years ago.  We stopped at a city along the Donau (Danube).  There was an open air restaurant beside the river.  A fat waiter in a white apron spoke to my German friend. My buddy laughed and said "Only in Bavaria.  You can only have bratwurst and kraut, but what kind of beer do you want?" Unfortunately, I did not have a beer with my lunch yesterday. 

* I do not know the difference between the Bavarian style and regular sauerkraut other than perhaps the inclusion of a few scattered caraway seeds.

Mud and guns

Last week there was some discussion around here about the Siege of Vicksburg. As I mentioned, the newspapers of the time touted Grant's victory as far more impressive than the three day slaughter at Gettysburg. That was an amazing fact given the incredible Eastern theater-centric reporting of the day. In that sense, nothing has changed, the big, but infrequent battles of the East are far more famous than the bloody war west of the Appalachians.

Anyway, I was walking through the bookstore at the mall last evening when I noticed Jeff Shaara has just published his second novel about the western front of the Civil War. A Chain of Thunder  is about the siege of Vicksburg. By coincidence my wife had gifted me a gift card from Amazon, so I had the funds to score a Kindle copy when I got home.

Like all of the books by the Shaara family,  I expect this book to be well researched and fairly accurate to the historical record. Jeff's novel of the battle of Shiloh, A Blaze of Glory, is a novel nearly equal to his father's Killer Angels, which is arguably the best novel of the Civil War ever written.  If you want to argue that point in the comments,  I will listen to reason as long as your choice is not that romantic tripe Gone With the Wind.

An appropriate title goes here

Here we are on a Monday, fresh off a four day weekend and I have nothing of interest to report. I could tell you about mowing my yard, trimming my bushes but even my eyes glaze over in sheer boredom thinking about it.  The best writer in history could not make my weekend interesting to you.

Perhaps Clio or Thalia will inspire me to write a worthwhile post later this morning. Since I do not believe in the Greek gods and goddesses, it is unlikely the muses will cooperate.

Deep Thoughts for a Sunday Morning inJuly

Peanut M&Ms and hot black coffee -- the breakfast of champions (with apologies to the fine folks at General Mills and their Wheaties TM Brand.

New boss, same as the old boss

 I found myself awake and quietly treading the floors of my tiny house at o'middle of the night on Independence Day. After a time I sat down and surfed the interwebz. I took the time to reread the DoI on my July 4th post and I was struck by the list of abuses perpetrated by King George and how many our current Government has copied.

I spent some detailing those similarities for a post to be published today.. I should have just read Ed's blog -- he did the work for me. I guess it is true that great minds think alike.

See what I get for not supplying you with the very freshest of content?  See my reward for writing the old blog a few days in advance? Not only does Ed write better, he scoops me too!

I could whine and complain (I am) I could vow to get even for the imagined slight (that would take years, millions of dollars, an cost countless lives).

I would like to say I could learn from this situation.

I cannot, since I am writing this on Friday morning to publish on Saturday.

Oh, the Wells Fargo (actually UPS) Wagon is a-coming down the street...

In other news, the DVD copy of Five Masters of Death I ordered for less than $5 from Amazon is due to arrive sometime today. Also called the Five Shaolin Masters, this was one of my favorite Martial Arts flicks back in the day.

By "back in the day" I am referencing my semi-drunken college days in the early 1980's when HBO (or Showtime --whatever) had Kung Fu flicks on the schedule. We sat down in the basement of the fraternity* and watched this one repeatedly, bad dubbing and all.  It is a true classic, at least in my faded reflection.

I hope the movie lives up to my memories. If not, it was less than $5 and that is cheap entertainment in today's world.

If we can only get the great flick Waterloo re-released on DVD, my life would be nearly complete.I have a VHS copy, but it is worn out.



* I will give a silent nod to my late fraternity brother Ernie who dug Kung Fu flicks immensely.  RIP my friend. .

The other big battle

There has been a lot of press over the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. From July 1-3, 1863 Union and Confederate forces joined in a mighty battle near a small hamlet in southern Pennsylvania. Casualties topped 50,000. Pickett's Charge on the last day over the bare fields and near breakthrough of the Union center is often described as the "high water mark of the Confederacy". Only the hindsight of time can give us that perspective.

In point of fact, historians and contemporary pundits view Lee's foray into Pennsylvania as a disaster.  The campaign did little to relieve the Union pressure in the Shenandoah Valley. The battle can only be described as Confederate loss, and Lee could ill-afford the resulting 20,000-plus casualties. Mead, the Union commander, was heavily criticized for not following up the defeated Confederates, but in reality the army was exhausted and in no position to chase Lee.

Can we truly look upon Gettysburg as the "high water mark"? Nothing was accomplished by the invasion of Pennsylvania. Nothing was gained by the Union in victory. In fact, it was a battle that concluded the very next day that garnered the headlines of the times. That battle was also a Union victory, but it was won not in Pennsylvania, but 1,047 miles away at Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Grant's victory at Vicksburg put the entire Mississippi River under Union control. The Confederacy was effectively cut in half. The rich agricultural lands of Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri now could no longer support the Rebel army. The fall of Vicksburg was the proverbial straw that broke the Confederacy's back. Not Gettysburg.

New Orleans and Memphis were in Federal Control. The important rail center at Nashville was captured previously. That fall Union troops would move across Tennessee to cut the Confederacy again, and  bloody Chicamauga would result. The following year the Confederate States would see Atlanta fall and at that point the end result was never in doubt.

Gettysburg may be the popular winner of the most famous of Civil War battles, but it was the lessor and far more important fall of Vicksburg that was the crown in Union victories. One further point to prove my theory: It was Grant who was picked by Lincoln to head up the United States Army, not George Mead, after their respective July 1863 victories.

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.

---

The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:
Column 1
Georgia:
   Button Gwinnett
   Lyman Hall
   George Walton
Column 2
North Carolina:
   William Hooper
   Joseph Hewes
   John Penn
South Carolina:
   Edward Rutledge
   Thomas Heyward, Jr.
   Thomas Lynch, Jr.
   Arthur Middleton
Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
Column 4
Pennsylvania:
   Robert Morris
   Benjamin Rush
   Benjamin Franklin
   John Morton
   George Clymer
   James Smith
   George Taylor
   James Wilson
   George Ross
Delaware:
   Caesar Rodney
   George Read
   Thomas McKean
Column 5
New York:
   William Floyd
   Philip Livingston
   Francis Lewis
   Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
   Richard Stockton
   John Witherspoon
   Francis Hopkinson
   John Hart
   Abraham Clark
Column 6
New Hampshire:
   Josiah Bartlett
   William Whipple
Massachusetts:
   Samuel Adams
   John Adams
   Robert Treat Paine
   Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
   Stephen Hopkins
   William Ellery
Connecticut:
   Roger Sherman
   Samuel Huntington
   William Williams
   Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
   Matthew Thornton

How about some tunes to move us into the weekend?

Sometime in the mid-1970s I was at Boy Scout camp. At one of the evening campfires one of the staff members sat down in front of the dying flames with a 12 string guitar and performed this song. It was beautiful.

When you can snatch the pebble from my hand...

Here is another view of the building from this post

Good morning

Confession:

I often write posts and publish them hours or days and sometimes weeks in advance.  I make up the time stamps to fit the whim of the moment. This post is live, fresh not frozen. I am using my stubby fingers to hunt and peck away at the keyboard in real time. Locally it is 4:43. That would be in the morning. My buddy insomnia popped by  just before three and we have been hanging out since. We watched some TV. Then we decided to pay some bills and send out some work-related emails. I think we will work on our expense reports after bit.

I have always been very good at compartmentalizing. I developed the habit in college and honed it to a fine craft when I was a Customer Service Manager. It was not unusual to have a dozen problems in process on my desk at once in those busy days. The phone did not stop ringing just because I was in the middle of tracking down parts or expediting a production run. This skill allowed me to focus on the issue at hand.

In a like matter, compartmentalization allows me to relax and forget about the daily tumult and problems life and work throw at me. Until lately.

I have always been subjected to occasional bouts of insomnia. Lately it has been almost every night.   I cannot find the inner switch that allows me to shut of my brain. I thought about taking an over the counter sleep aid or even asking doctor for a script. I have always had an aversion to sleep aids and I am reluctant to take them still. In my youth I often managed to function on four hours of sleep.  At 51 I think it is a little more difficult.

Imagine my surprise

I was sitting in a comfy chair at the mall while the wife did whatever she does for what seems like hours in the stores. I was playing with my phone, checking emails, ball scores, the old blog. I played a few games of Euchre with computer opponents and partner. Bored, I clicked on my Kindle app to read a bit. On my China trip I had started a collection of Hemingway short stories. I joined the program already in progress and ran across this passage:

They came to Paris and most of their friends from the boat came back too. They were tired of Dijon and anyway would now be able to say that after leaving Harvard or Columbia or Wabash they had studied at the University of Dijon down in the Cote d'Or. *

Harvard, Columbia and Wabash. Really?  Little Wabash College is an all-male liberal arts college located in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Its total enrollment is about 900. When Hemingway penned this story it was even smaller.  How did a good, but insignificant little college located in the vast hinterlands make it into a story by Ernest Hemingway published in 1925? 

Here is a hint. Look up Ezra Pound. Click the link, I did the research for you.  All you have to do is connect the dots.

What do I know of Wabash College?  That is easy, I graduated from there in 1984.



*Mr. and Mrs. Elliott from The Complete Stories of Ernest Hemingway The Finca Vigia edition 1987

A stumbling and bumbling start to my Monday

I am not sure how this day is starting. I had a glass of milk with my donut for breakfast. As I neared the last drink I noticed there was a dried chocolate ring on the bottom of the glass the dishwasher failed to clean. This is a result of the boy leaving dirty glasses in his room for days at a time.  I dumped the last of the glass into the sink and scrubbed the glass. I felt half sick.

When  I went to sign into the old blog, my password was rejected three straight times. My first thought was I had been hacked, but then I remembered I had entered a gift card on to my Amazon account and had the caps lock on. My second thought is that a hack job would be an excuse to quit this silly hobby. Fortunately/unfortunately (depending upon your POV) you guys are my cowboy high atop Brokeback Mountain -- I cain't quit you.

It seems almost everyone in my company is on vacation this week. Not me though.   I am here at my desk early; toiling away. That is when I am not wasting time at this piece o'crap. But my workday does not officially start until 8:30, so the few minutes I waste here is OK,  especially since I logged on and started through my emails at 6:30.

It looks like we can expect another few days of rain.  I hope it dries out by the end of the week.  My oldest boy is scheduled to play a show the next town over on Friday as part of the July 4th festivities. I have not seen his band live for a few months and I am looking forward to hearing them live once again.

Don't tell my doctor, I made some homemade ice cream last night.  Sorry, no pictures.  It did not last long enough. And yes,  I did cover my portion in cashews, caramel and chocolate syrup. If I am going to spike my blood sugar, I might as well go all out!

Celebrate

I have been married 29 years as of today.

I consider myself a lucky man, except on those days I want to kill her.

I am more than certain I am far harder to live with. Imagine living with the personality you see on display around here every day. All day.

My wife is a saint.

What I really need is a good cartoon or joke for this Saturday post.

The Cubs were on late last night, a result of a west coast swing. I fell asleep watching the game. This morning I see the bullpen blew another game.

The rains of last night have moved on leaving a bright sky this morning. I slept pretty well last night -- only waking a few times, but I feel refreshed this morning. I know you are all worried and stuff.

The coffee is black and hot and Layla is playing softly on my wireless Bose speaker. In other words life is good for a Saturday morning.

It looks like another blogger has disappeared into the ethernet. When I looked up Rita this morning her site was gone.  Maybe it is a glitch in the interwebz? I hope so. MTS has cleaned out the content of his site. What is going on?  Blogging is dead. I just clearly have not accepted the facts of life.

I am off for a walk.  I have not exercised since before I left for China. Bad Joe.

Surfing memory waves

Insomnia continues to rule my sleep patterns. I fall asleep, go into deep REM, have weird dreams and wake, only to find I have been asleep for perhaps two hours.  I then lie awake for a couple of hours and then rinse and repeat. Since I am getting about four hours of sleep a night,  I take quick catnaps throughout the day from sheer exhaustion.

It will all work out at some point.

In the meantime what say we rock out our Friday with some Outlaws music?



Go ahead and listen.  You will thank me for putting good tunes into your head. This takes me back to warm summer nights cruising around town, windows down, music blaring into the night...

Thinking inside the box

There is a slide show on my Comcast Homepage this morning listing the ten dirtiest cities in America.

Guess what each of these cities has in common? They are run by Democrats. In some cases, like Philadelphia, for decades. Is this a coincidence or a pattern?

I read yesterday that eight of the top ten states for job growth are run by Republican governors; coincidence or pattern?

Home improvement question

I have this fountain in my back yard. It has a large crack in it. I pump in the water and it runs out the side. I clean up the water, but it runs all over the patio anyway.  I have installed a very expensive collection and recycling system that puts the water back onto the fountain, yet the water keeps running through the crack.  In fact, the crack gets larger every year, despite my efforts to keep the water from pooling on the patio.

What do I do?

True Confessions

I have used the "N-word" in the past.  I have also told and heard black jokes, Polish jokes, Italian jokes, German jokes, French jokes, geek jokes, Chinese jokes, old people jokes, Japanese jokes, redneck jokes, Indian jokes, cracker jokes, blond jokes, female jokes, retard jokes, man jokes, Mexican jokes, and gay jokes,and laughed at them all.

Just an insensitive stereotype

I have made fun of rival colleges and poked fun at certain universities and sports teams  I have had impure thoughts of untold varieties. I have denigrated Depauw University at every opportunity and will continue to do so. I have made fun of liberals and Democrats.

I have laughed at guys getting racked and cracked wise about female drivers. I have made fun of ED, big feet and bad skin. I find Porky Pig's stutter amusing. I laugh at Speedy Gonzoles cartoons.

I expect a visit from the thought police any day now.

I find it amusing, the political correctness crowd is all about diversity, while demanding we all think alike.

Dear Dorothy, I don't think this is Kansas either

It ain't no Obamaphone, but I'll take it anyway

Since my body is still somewhat time-zone confused, I took yesterday afternoon off from work. In truth, I have always adjusted pretty well to international travel. I usually do not have much jet lag.  I learned a long time ago the best option is to sleep/stay awake on the plane so you can get on the local time zone ASAP. While this trip was my first international trip in a decade, old lessons stick with you. In other words, the fact I was up and working at 0400 probably had more to do with my on-going weird sleep issues than my globe trotting.

But I digress.

Any way, the wife and I headed off to the big city to take advantage of the Best Buy iPhone 4 trade-in program.special. We were both able to trade in our old iPhones for a new iPhone 5 at no cost beyond sales tax.  It looks to be a sweet ride.

I got this far in my head while riding to the airport

The rising sun was an orange ball low in the sickly yellow polluted sky. The distant trees bordering the highway were obscured by the haze in the warm early-morning light.  The taxi driver ignored me as he turned up the radio.  It was OK, he did not speak English, I not a word of Mandarin, or any dialect of Chinese for that matter. I was the quintessential ugly American dropping my dollars in the most modern of Third World Countries.

China, where BMW's and Audi's and big American designed SUVs  crowd smooth modern highways.  China, where sky scrapers touch the sky. Where construction cranes fill the air in every city. Where factories provide the world with goods. China, where the water is unsafe to drink. Where factories paint the Beijing sky yellow with chemicals. China where farmers in remote areas use oxen in the rice paddies.  Where workers toil for a few dollars a day. Where corruption is the rule. China, where whole shopping centers are dedicated to selling counterfeit merchandise. China, where having more than one child means fines, and a loss of your job or worse.

Driving on a Sunday afternoon along a modern 6 lane highway, my friend and colleague, a Chinese national and member of The Party, asked a hard question. "Chinese culture is thousands of years old", he said. "America is but a few hundred years old.  How is it you have so much and we have so little?"

How do you explain to a person whose culture is 4,000 years of oppression about freedom?

Westerners have tried to solve the enigma of China since Marco Polo. I won't begin to try based on a mere glimpse of the country.

Feet dry

You might have noticed the old blog has been unattended for a while.

I dropped you hints. When I explain you will look back at the last few posts and smack your head in classic "I coulda had a V-8" fashion.

I spent the past 8 days in China -- Communist China. I have money with Chairman Mao's picture frowning in that classic dour pose utilized by Commie dictators throughout history.

So, Joe, you ask, what did you do in big old China? I visited a bunch of places including Shanghai, the Buddhist temples at Hangzhou and the Great Wall near Beijing.  Oh, and I also visited some manufacturing plants and worked. Life is not all fun and games, readers. I ate a lot of food you will not find on the typical Applebee's menu. I would like to say I became an expert with chopsticks, but that would be a lie. But I did manage to get the food in mouth -- occasionally.

I left Beijing at the equivalent of 4:30 pm EST on Tuesday. I traveled home via Shanghai, Detroit and Indy and finally arrived home a few minutes after 10:00 pm last evening. That is 29 plus hours of travel. I am not complaining, just letting you know my state of mind this morning.

True stuff

I have yet to see anyone Kung Fu fighting in real life.

Breaking News

As far as  I can tell, I am still alive.

Blogging is not my priority at this time.

Pretend you care

Or not.

Friday music and video

Apropos of nothing

Refresh your memory

Article [IV]

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Cynicism cuts deep and always leaves a scar

I am appalled.

Not really, saddened would be a better word. That so many politicians and people who pay attention are responding with a mere yawn when we learn about the abuses our government has heaped upon our freedoms leaves me depressed and angry.

In less than a decade, Americans have allowed a combination of political correctness and fear to creep into their lives. In return for the mere illusion of safety we have surrendered the personal freedom won so hard by the men of Bunker Hill, Gettysburg, Belleau Wood,Normandy, the Frozen Chosin, and Dak To.

The Obama Administration has taken the egregious actions of the Bush years and put them on steroids. Far worse, the media is complicit in the nefarious actions and far too many people are willing to turn their gaze as long as the perpetrator sports a '(D)' behind their elected office title.

It is too easy to blame the current political crisis on the willfully ignorant. There has always been a significant segment of our society that is apolitical, attuned only to the gossip columns and popular culture. Read the letters and diaries of the antebellum period and you will soon discover that outside of a few activists, not many Americans cared about the role of slavery in America. That so many shrug the abuses of the IRS, Fast and Furious,, and data mining of phone and email records should not be a shock in this time of nearly unlimited entertainment options. Hell, nearly two thousand years ago the Roman Emperor Nero knew a few Christians burned as torches and a month of games in the Colosseum  would divert the populace from his incompetent and abusive rule.

The real culprits, the real criminals, the real thieves of freedom are the men and women elected to Congress who allow these actions to occur and continue.  Those who willingly take on the role of the three monkeys (no see, no hear, no speak) in order to stay in power.

This is how the weed of tyranny grows unfettered in the garden of freedom.

The Government targets those with different political views, peeks at your phone calls, credit card usage and internet info. Just another Obamariffic day

Why are you surprised? Orwell knew it in 1949 when he wrote about the penultimate progressive society. Face it, 1984 was dead on, just titled 30 years too early. I suspect that Orwell is no longer required reading in your average high school English Lit class.

The Government is spying on you. You should not be thinking sedition anyway. We are already raising a whole generation of rat-finks.  Kids are encouraged to turn in their friends and family for the most minor social lapses. Call the cops if mommy spanks you. Tell the teacher is little Bobby calls you a runt. We are not even a hop skip and jump from spying on our neighbors.  Better the secret police collect them than me.

Are ObamaCare death panels so far-fetched today?

I am not surprised when left-leaning folks act like leftists. I am surprised so many Americans are so willing to give up their freedom in return for a cell phone or EBIT card.

Tears in my eyes

The flag is floating at half-mast here at the old blog.  Long time readers will understand why when I relate the great and lovely Esther Williams has gone to the great swimming pool in the sky.

Esther was my first Hollywood crush as a teenager. I know, I always a was a bit behind the times, given the bathing beauty was well past her prime by the time I hit the age of lusting.

I think I will pull out my boxed set of Esther Williams flicks this weekend and do my own movie marathon.

Every one in America should watch this testimony.

h/t Nathan

Things I think about

So, will Eric Holder get a subpoena for the reporters' phone records and go after the New York Times? After all, here is a report based on a leak from a Government employee.  The list of people in Homeland Security who have access to the report must be pretty small.

 The report, scheduled for release this week, was provided to The New York Times by a senior government official. The official did so on the condition of anonymity because it had not yet been made public.

It should not be that hard to crack down on leaks of this sort. But then the NYT is not Fox News.

And if Holder is really concerned about leaks from senior Obama officials, maybe he should look into this.

You have to get little victories over "the man" whenever you can

The battery on my digital hygrometer has died. A hygrometer measures the amount of humidity in your humidor. One needs to monitor the humidity in the humidor to make sure the expensive cigars you are storing stay fresh and ready to smoke. I have an analog hygrometer in the humidor also, so all is not lost. I also have a nice humidor, so I rarely have to adjust the moisture levels.

That long preamble means I have to make a trip to Radio Shack today to get a new battery. I also need a plug adaptor to make sure my electronics work in China.

Radio Shack always asks for my phone number. It is not like they are planning on calling me for a date later. It is not that I am against a dinner and nice action movie. I would even consider coffee or ice cream. They always ask for my number and never call.

Perhaps they do not call because I take the time to memorize the number of a different Radio Shack and that is what I give them. Once I gave the local Radio Shack their own number as my own.  The clerk was not amused.  Now I give the local store the number of the Greenwood, Indiana store when I buy my weird sized batteries and such. It amuses me.

I am an asshole like that.

What?

Do you think I make this stuff up?

Everything you read here is the pure, unvarnished truth.

The Goldfinch Conspiracy.

I am in the midst of a minor Tippi Hedren flashback.  I am no fan pf scary movies and The Birds bothered me to no end after catching a late night showing in my youth. In any case, two mornings in a row have found a tiny goldfinch* perched haphazardly on the screen of my office window pecking away at the fine mesh. Are there tiny bugs infesting the screen? Is there lint mixed with the dirt on the panes? Is he attacking his reflection?  I don't know. Dr. Doolittle did not deign to teach me to talk with the goldfinch. I do know the cute little bastard has torn holes in my screen.

I have no doubt this attack  is a minor distraction in an avian conspiracy towards me. Red-breasted robins have managed shit a white sheen on the top of my mailbox. The cardinals eat dinner at the local Mexican dive then spew chulupa inspired diarrhea all over the black paint of my car. The doves coo the strategy as set down by crows in from the fields to the west.   Sparrows are spying on my actions, looking for a way inside the house. Starlings sit mustered in silent rows high up in the neighbor's Bradford Pear waiting a chance to peck my eyes out. A red-tailed hawk silently circling on gliding wings high in the sky coordinates the whole campaign. So far, no seagulls have ventured into the vast interior of the nation to threaten my person.

Or the finch on my screen might be a coincidence. I think his nest is in the Japanese maple right outside my office window.

*a little yellow bird the size of a sparrow. It may be a female. Ornithology is not among my areas of expertise.

When did I wake up a weak old man?

I am getting old. I actually went to bed at 9:45 last night. There was still light lingering yellow and orange in the western sky! I was dozing in the recliner while trying to watch a recorded episode of "Modern Family" with the wife before giving it up and staggering to bed.

In my defense, it has been a long week. I came straight out of the Holiday and onto an airplane for the Carolinas.  I spent a couple of days figuratively boxing with my customers and did not get back home until the last flight into Indy on Wednesday night. I had a project due Thursday that took up a good portion of the day.  I then picked up some tables and helped the wife get ready for her garage sale on Saturday.

Friday was spent lifting and cleaning and hauling old furniture and bikes and stuff from storage. We did not get done until late Friday night setting up displays of our junk high quality merchandise. Early Saturday I was finishing up arranging the products as the potential customers waited outside in the chilly 6:30 drizzle. The sale was slated for 8:00, but the multitudes were waiting to hand over their hard-earned quarters and dollars well before the start time. I guess when it comes to rummage sales the early bird does get the worm.

The wife and daughter both made a sizable chunk of money and a bunch of my stuff is now living in other people's houses and garages today.*  We had the garage cleaned up, boxes hauled to Goodwill, and the cars back in their accustomed stalls by 3:00.

In all the week left me tired out and in bed by barely dark. But really -- 9:45 PM -- it is a shameful thing. The next thing you know I'll be hitting the 4:00 buffet circuit and demanding my quarter coffee at McDonald's.


* Have you ever heard of a garage sale customer demanding to try on a dress before she shells out $2.00? I never expected my office to double as a woman's changing room.

Dear Democrats

Would you yawn and call him  "a modern Moses" if John Mitchell had subpoenaed the phone records of Woodward,Bernstein and their families during Watergate? 

Friday Music

What say we jump back to the 1980"s?

I saw this band live back in the day. Good show.

A$$holes and Alligators

Last week a bunch of Congressmen called in Apple execs to lecture them for -- following the law. Earlier this week Representative Keith Ellison said he was disappointed Apple Corp does not want to pay more in taxes.

Here is my question to all Democrats who think the rich people and corporations should want to pay more in taxes. I will address my question to Mr. Ellison, since he is so passionate. Mr. Ellison, when you filed your taxes last month did you take any deductions?  Did you exercise your exemptions?  Do you have a retirement account saving money in pretax dollars? Did you deduct from your taxes through claimed charitable donations?

Unless you put your money where your mouth is, Representative Ellison, unless you  looked at your total income and  went straight to the tax table and paid the maximum amount, you can just drink a big old glass of shut the fuck up you hypocritical asswipe.

Any of you class warfare 'pay your fair share" types who agree with Ellison take the same advice. Lecture me when you are paying the maximum. In fact, the IRS allows you to pay extra if you feel the need.

more

Over there, in the upper right of the home page

Vote on my poll, you slackers.

Monday II -- The Sequel

Good morning blog readers across the fruited plain.  We find ourselves on a Tuesday that feels like a Monday. Even though it is a short work week it is going to be a busy one. I have a big project due Friday, and since today is already Tuesday, as I already mentioned -- you have to keep up, dang it -- I am already a day behind.  Or so you think.  I actually worked hard last Friday and got much of it done, so take that doubters.

If I get my work done I am going to take a day of vacation Friday.  The wife is having a garage sale Saturday. I plan on helping her drag out some big stuff to get rid of.  Do you need a set of bunk beds, a curio cabinet? How about a bicycle? I have a 70cc dirt bike motorcycle if you are up to a thrill or two. Come on by Saturday morning.  Leave your cash, take away my junk high quality, slightly used merchandise.

Memorial Day

This is my Great Grandfather -- taken while serving in the Philippines circa 1900. He came home to raise a family.

Please remember all those who died for our freedom.

Rambling Sunday Nonsense With No Politics

If you like fast cars and basketball, today is a good day to be in the Indianapolis area. The Indianapolis 500 will go off as scheduled around noon; weather permitting.  Professional basketball playoffs continue tonight as the Pacers take on the Miami Heat at 8:00.

It is quite likely I will watch neither. I have never seen the Indy 500 live on TV.  It is blacked out in most of Indiana. I have been to the race twice, back in the 1980's. Lots of fun. Lots of people. The un-fun of getting in and getting out of the track far outweighed the fun inside, at least for me. The beginning of the race will make your hair stand on end.  The end is a thrill, especially if you are sitting near the start line.

I am not a basketball fan, never have been. I especially hate the NBA brand of hoops.  There should not be different rules for special players.  A foul is a foul, even if your name is LeBron or Michael. I am pretty sure the rules specify one is to dribble the ball, not run down the lane like the six year-olds in the winter league at the Boys Club.

I did some yard work yesterday and mowed the yard in anticipation of a raining afternoon today and Monday.It needed it in any case.

As I type these words, a cardinal is singing on a branch outside my office window.  The coffee is hot and Dire Straits is singing about "Guitar George". In the next room the boy is getting ready for work.

Have a good Sunday.

Memory Lane

Remember way back in early 2013 when there were some Second Amendment advocates who remarked that one of the reasons the Second Amendment was put into the Constitution was to protect the First Amendment? Remember how the Liberal-types thought that was a ridiculous argument?  After all, the Progressive admonished, the Government would never use its power to persecute and harass a citizen based upon his political or religious beliefs.

Ah, the good old days...

My Confusing Thursday

Yesterday evening I found myself muttering words I thought I would never say to my wife of almost 29 years. I had to tell her that I had let a man stick his hand up my ass. I am still not clear how a visit to the medico for lower back/kidney pain turned into a prostate exam.

Friday Music

RIP Ray

Lighten Up, Francis

The state of politics leaves me sickened and depressed in a way I have not felt since Watergate.

Time for a break.*

 Below the fold is a picture from our cruise a couple of months ago.  This is one of my favorite "posed" pictures.

Exactly

For the president to deny any knowledge of what was brewing and to claim to know nothing about the Benghazi cover-up or anything about anything White House-related lately, he’s either a liar or a hugely incompetent CEO. You decide.  source

 There is no third choice. 

At least the Administration recognizes the Fifth Amendment...

I want to be very careful how I present the massage I want you to take away from this post. As a student of history, I have often wondered how people can sit back and watch events unfold and turn a blind eye. For instance, there were many who knew the extent of the Final Solution in Hitler's Germany, yet looked the other way. There were people who countenanced Mussolini's abuses.  After all, he made the trains run on time.

Progressives in Europe and America overlooked the brutal murders of Lenin's Soviet Russia because they agreed with basic political philosophies. !960's radicals were so against the war in Vietnam they supported the very regime that was torturing American POWs.

A perusal of liberal-leaning blogs shows little outrage over the IRS scandals. Often these are the very same people who were scandalized and outraged -- indignant even -- over provisions of the Patriot Act (and rightly so). Their vocal outrage over the imagined tyranny of the Bush administration held no bounds.  But these same supporters of the Democrat Party and President Obama are covering their eyes and ears to outrageous, un-American, activity by partisan hacks in the IRS. Clearly there were members of the White House staff that knew what was going on.

I do not posses the vocabulary or writing ability to express my utter disgust at your propensity to put politics over principle. Some of you routinely get on your soapbox proclaiming your support for Women's Rights or for Gay Rights. But you clearly have no such compulsion to support the First Amendment Rights of every American.  Clearly, you are only interested in preserving the interests of those who think like you do.  You tell us putting a cross in a jar of piss is OK, because that "artist" has a right to express his beliefs. You support the burning of the American Flag as a symbol of protest.

But when the full might and authority of the United States Government is turned on individuals in an effort to suppress their beliefs and political philosophy, you write about recipes or movies or go silent as a nuclear sub in enemy waters.

The next time you liberals and progressive bloggers get all in a dander and write about the right of this group or that group, I will know the truth.  You are just a hypocrite of the worst kind. At least the guy who gets drunk, cheats on his wife and goes to church on Sunday admits he is a sinner. You are worse.  You will stab a friend in the back, as long as you gain from the transaction. You have no loyalty.  You have no honor. You make me sick.

But hey, we got healthcare passed.  But hey, the trains run on time.

Things You Will Never See in the Obama White House

Somehow, someway, the IRS, AP and Benghazi messes have to be Bush's fault...

The law is irrelevant.

Let me get this straight.  According to one of Obama's Senior Advisers, Dan Pfiffer, it is irrelevant the IRS targeted conservative groups and released confidential donor information to Pro Publica:

"I can’t speak to the law here. The law is irrelevant. The activity was outrageous and inexcusable, and it was stopped and it needs to be fixed so we ensure it never happens again." on ABC's This Week

As long as you are disgusted by an illegal activity and agree to stop, anything goes? Chester the Molester knows he should not have molested those kids. The law is irrelevant. The activity was outrageous and inexcusable, and it was stopped and it needs to be fixed so we ensure it never happens again.

Robbin' Bob has stolen thousand of dollars from area convenience stores.  The law is irrelevant. The activity was outrageous and inexcusable, and it was stopped and it needs to be fixed so we ensure it never happens again.

Here at Enron, we know we defrauded investors and made millions off of innocent citizens with faked financial reports.  The law is irrelevant. The activity was outrageous and inexcusable, and it was stopped and it needs to be fixed so we ensure it never happens again.

I know my brother and I dropped a couple of bombs in the middle of the crowd near the finish line at the Boston Marathon.  The law is irrelevant. The activity was outrageous and inexcusable, and it was stopped and it needs to be fixed so we ensure it never happens again.

When your government becomes tyrannical, when it breaks the law in spirit and in fact, when your Government violates the the First Amendment of the Constitution and passes it off as irrelevant, it is beyond inexcusable. Just hoping it will not happen again is not enough. You Democrats and liberals looking the other way, hoping this will pass like a bad burrito, better wake up.  The next time a politician uses the IRS to target groups and citizens based on political philosophy just may be a conservative or Republican administration.  Then will you accept the excuse [t]he activity was outrageous and inexcusable, and it was stopped and it needs to be fixed so we ensure it never happens again?

Quick Hit Monday

The boy is not happy.  He came home in the wee hours of the night, long after the wife and I went to bed. This morning, just before eight o'clock, a crew armed with a Bobcat-mounted jackhammer started tearing the concrete in front of the house. It looks like it is our cul-de-sac's time for pavement repair. The boy's bedroom is in the front of the house.he is not happy.

So, I put in a load of laundry very early this morning.  I was standing at the washer, waiting on the spin cycle to end when I felt something creeping along my arm.  I looked down and the tickle was a trickle of bright red blood.  My blood.  It was oozing from a long scratch on my arm that had not been there a few moments before.  How do you get scratched deep enough to bleed when standing still? How can a person not feel that scratch? Am  I turning into one of those paper-thin skinned  old men you see tottering through the grocery? Where do I buy one of those fishing hats anyway? I suppose I need me some high-waisted double-knit slacks.

Saturday I helped a friend roof his garage. It has been a long time since I spent a day swinging a hammer. Yesterday and today I am feeling the ache of seldom used muscles.  Not so much in the arm, but the back of my thighs, buttocks and lower back.  Getting up and down are a chore.

When did I turn into an old man?

Your freedom is at stake

If the IRS is willing to target groups and individuals based on their their political beliefs, will that same agency target conservatives under the ObamaCare enforcement policies? Will the Government deny health care to individuals who voice disagreement with the political philosophies of the administration?

When the government embarks in tyranny, there is no end.

I don't wanna go

We have to go to the funeral home this evening.  A friend of ours lost her mother. This same friend's  father died just 42 days ago.

What words of comfort can one offer that are not mere shallow platitudes at best? .

Hmmm

Think back on the various bosses you have had over the years.  Was there any worse manager than the one who blamed his workers when things went wrong and took all of the credit when things went right?

The current occupier of the White House sure seems to be a lot like that boss, doesn't he?

Evil Earworm

Now that is bouncing around in your cranium.

Enjoy your Friday.

'Xactly

Read this

She is as right as rain.

I especially love this passage:

Mostly, they reject values so that they won’t later have to answer to them. It’s sort of pre-paid hypocrisy credits. If I maintain that everything is normal, nothing is abnormal, everyone is okay and no one is a monster, then I can like myself better and sleep smugly, if not soundly, at night.

Does anything better capture the liberal mindset than those 52 words? She is talking about the MSM here, but it captures your average progressive in its essence. If you have a sliding scale of standards, or lack morals, then you can not be held to that standard or that morality. The linked post is nothing short of brilliance.

Living in the Past

I was once told I have an old soul.  I do not know what that means. I know I like to listen to my baseball on the radio. The pace and tempo seem best suited for an audio experience. A good radio announcer will tell you if the infield is in or if a shift is on.  The TV shows only the pitcher and hitter.

There is something about listening to baseball on the radio that brings a nostalgia for days I never lived. I am not so old-fashioned I try to tune in a static-filled weak signal from far off WGN in Chicago to catch the Cub games.  I do have the MLB At Bat app for my iPhone. The crystal clear digital signal is far better for my modern sensibilities.

On the other hand, you can't get the full flavor of this on the radio.  You can't get it on TV either, after all, Harry is dead.

I guess the buck really did stop with Harry Truman

As near as I can tell, this guy

"I know nothing..."

is in charge of things over at the White House. So far, according to Jay Carney, the White House knows nothing about Fast and Furious, who arranged the Benghazi cover-up, who at the IRS is targeting and leaking information about conservative groups, who ran the ad calling Mitt Romney a murderer, who is investigating the AP and anything else that might come up.

Is anyone in charge? Perhaps The Obama should take a break from golf and basketball and vacation and look into actually being President?

Lapdogs

No matter how loyal your dog is it will turn on you if you treat it badly. Come home and give it a kick, a random beating or three and that little puppy who wagged its tail with pure joy and love will become a slinking growling beast baring its fangs in your direction.

The media have long been Democrat lapdogs. They have jumped and wagged their tail every time The Obama glanced in their direction.  The media has ignored the unemployment and economic issues that plague the nation. They turned a blind eye to Fast and Furious and gleefully attacked the Republicans at every turn.They have ignored gaffs and policy disasters far worse than those committed by George W. Bush.

Now the usual second term scandals have descended on the Administration and the media is growling around the edges. Could it be the media dog pack is starting to turn on the Administration?

The Associated Press has long been one of the Administration's favorite lapdogs. Now we discover Eric Holder and the Obama Justice Department has been grabbing the AP's phone records. Digging into who called whom and such.  Will this attack on the press be the final kick? Will the AP puppy try and make nice with the Master or will it turn into a biting Hound of Hell, snarling and growling like Buck from The Call of the Wild? Will the AP and its pack of media dogs finally turn on the Regime, biting and nipping or will it slink off into the corner, tail between the legs like whipped cur?

Why hasn't someone been fired?

Someone in the IRS decided to use the taxing agency to focus on President Obama's political adversaries.

I do not care where you lie on the political spectrum, the idea the IRS could use the powers of taxation to target "political enemies" is repugnant. This is the stuff of third world dictators and banana republics. It is thug politics and it makes me sick.

It went on, the IRS admits it went on. Tea Party and conservative groups were singled out by the IRS, perhaps as early as 2010. The head of the IRS claims it was done by low-level employees.  Have they been fired? In the end, The head of the agency is responsible for what happens within the IRS. Some people need to be canned.

Now.

Today.

read and be sickened

The concept of "The Buck Stops Here" sure does not permeate this Administration.  The finger-pointer-in-chief clearly will take no responsibility.

I am not sure what I expect when a significant number of the Obama regime are admitted tax cheats.

Does typing "yawn" make you want to?

March12.

That was the last date I turned in expense reports. Today is catch-up day. I have two months of receipts for gas, food, hotel, airlines, office supplies and company car repair to sort by date and enter into the laborious forms required by my company. I traveled extensively in April. May has been equally as busy.  For example, I have 29 separate receipts to enter for the period of April 15 through April 30.  Every receipt requires a separate line item and explanation on the form.  If the receipt is for a business meal, I have to detail who, what, where,  and why for the expense.

It is my own fault I have such a pile of receipts. If I would stay on top of the task, it would not be so overwhelming. I promise myself every time I do my expenses to keep up on a bi-weekly basis. I have vowed to do so going forward as well.

I know I will sit here in early July, bitching about how many expenses I have to report. Some of those will be in foreign currency too.  That is a real headache. I can't read tic tac toe board, house, swirl worth a damn.

Best Wishes

...for a Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there.

And the award goes to

This guy gets credit for writing the most creative spam comment on the interwebz:

Do you have a spam problem on this website; I also am a blogger, and I was curious about your situation; many of us have developed some nice methods and we are looking to swap strategies with others, why not shoot me an e-mail if interested. Also visit my site...

Not so many kudos that I will give him his link, but still, one has to love the balls behind that spam.

Friday Music

You are welcome.  Now that can rattle around in your skull for a while.

Big News -- the ABBA Museum opens this week!  The next first time I am in Sweden I am there.

As a 13 year old bag of raging hormones in 1975, that spandex about did me in. And what teenaged boy did not have fantasies about those white mini skirts and knee high boots? I still remember their performance on SNL.

www.abbaupdate.com

What difference does it make?

At the height of Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign, individuals broke in the Democratic Party headquarters located in the Watergate complex in Washington DC and planted listening devices. They copied documents. The burglars got away with the break-in for weeks. It was only after they made a mistake while retrieving the bugs that they were caught.

Over time, the caper was discovered and the ensuing cover-up resulted in the resignation of the President of the United States. Several of Nixon's top aides, including the Attorney General, head of the Committee to re-elect the President, The President's Chief of Staff, the President's Counsel, and a whole gaggle of assistants, advisers, and aides were convicted of crimes.

Nixon won the 1972 election handily. There is no evidence the information gleaned from the break-in contributed to the election results. By the time the cover-up and scandal hit the press, the event was long past.

Hillary Clinton was an aide in the subsequent Congressional investigation of Richard Nixon and the Watergate affair. Do you think at any time Hillary Clinton or the Democratic Party would have accepted a terse "It is over, what difference does it make?" from Mitchell, Haldeman, Erlichman, Liddy, Hunt, Colson, Dean, or Nixon?

Watergate was a botched, third rate burglary. No one was hurt, no one died. Mrs. Clinton and President Obama can not make the same claim about Benghazi.

Twenty Million Dollars and a Free 14 Day Cruise

...will contribute greatly to my pursuit of happiness, and by implication, is a guaranteed Constitutional Right.

I don't think leading Democrats could disagree. A nice new car in my driveway is also my Constitutional prerogative. 

Hell, if the rich could just pay their fair share, we would all have a chicken in every pot and a mule in the backyard.

Is there even one Democrat alive who is not economically illiterate, Constitutionally challenged, and historically ignorant?

I'm Going to be Sick

Read this.

Is there a more despicable human in the US?

...But what did happen is, on that same day John McCain murdered civilians. Do we have any responsibility for that? Should there be any reconciliation for that? Should he tell the truth about it?”

John McCain was being tortured in a North Vietnamese prison the day a Weather Undergound bomb destined for a dance at Fort Dix blew up the bomb builders in New York, but why let facts get in the way of a good lie?

I thought I was through with this piece of shit blog, but this kind of stuff makes me so ill, I have to vent.

Want some more?:

 “To conflate a group of fundamentalist people [in Boston] who are nihilistic in some way with a group of people who spent their lives trying to oppose the murder of 6,000 people a week … and still the killing went on. And still the killing went on. What would you have done?” Ayers said. “There’s no equivalence [with Boston]. Property damage. That’s what we did.”

That, and kill a few cops. This logic makes as much sense as the dumb fucks who bomb abortion clinics to save babies. This is the guy who helped kick off Obama's political career.  The good news is the living Boston Bomber can be a "respected" college professor in 30 years.  As long as he is a Democrat anyway.

h/t Weasel Zipper via Doug Ross

I was never as cool as the Fonz

This blog jumped the shark a long time ago.

Today's Earworm

My favorite band recorded live

Right Wing Terror

Check out reports of the violence in Seatle yesterday.  Now explain why our government and the media are so concerned about non-existent "tea party" violence.