Summer rerun

The shoes hurt my feet. I was a bit aggravated. I had to tell one of my buddies he should not be drinking beer in church. He did not see the problem. I told him the Catholics may not mind, but the Methodists had issues with alcohol in the church. I was half irritated because I wanted one of those beers myself.

I had been in an argument with some other people who wanted to mess with my car. Permanent marker does not come off of windows.

The whole thing was becoming a real pain. I cut myself shaving. The photographer annoyed the shit out of me with the stupid poses. Everyone wanted to talk to me tell me this or that, tell me a story or anecdote from their own experience.

I was pissed because I was standing there waiting. I have little patience now. I had less then. Otter was there. So were some other buddies. Finally the ladies came through the doors, things were finally moving.

I could not help smiling when she came through the door at last. She was beautiful: freckles and all. Her hair, her dress, all looked great. My irritation vanished as the organ switched tunes and the audience stood. Even though this all happened twenty-three years ago*, I remember many of the details. The minister seemed to drone about the Galatians or some such. We dated six years before we got married, I guess I do have patience when it comes to certain details. At last the deed was done. We were off to the reception and then the best part -- the honeymoon!

Here I sit, twenty-three years later and I remain married. I am short tempered, I find myself incredibly amusing. My hair is graying and maybe even thinning a bit on top, but I really do not care to investigate. Bifocals are on my nose, my gut has grown. I fart a lot. She sports some gray when she does not keep her hair dyed. Her vision is getting bad too. She cannot decide if she needs longer or shorter arms to read a menu. She thinks she is fat. She complains about getting old. I still think she is beautiful and sexy. Some days I look at her and I am filled with desire. I thank God for her every day -- even those when she pisses me off. I suspect I anger her far more than she does me.

I wanted to post a picture from that day, but my scanner is again on the fritz. Trust me, she was the most beautiful woman in the world standing there in the Methodist Church -- June 30, 1984. I am a lucky man.

* I first posted this back in 2007. Today makes 31 years.

Dear Mr President

So, if you had your way companies would be forced to pay overtime to salaried workers making $50K or less. I will cover this again; businesses do not exist to provide jobs. They exist to make money and would do away with all employees if possible. Would I like to be paid for every hour I worked? Sure. What will happen is that starting salaries will drop, or fewer employees will be hired.

Your onerous healthcare system and the hundreds of regulations, and increases in energy costs due to EPA mandates have added to the cost of business, stagnating wages. If you had ever run a business larger than a lemonade stand you would understand that.

Do not kayak in flood waters you idiots

We find ourselves at the start of yet another work week. I'm breathing and that is a good thing. The rain finally stopped Saturday afternoon and the yard was mostly dry enough to mow on Sunday. I cut the lawn while the wife pulled weeds from the flower beds. We then spent a few hours cutting up branches from the tree we cut down a few weeks ago. By evening I was pooped.

There is a chipmunk scurrying around in the driveway and front yard. It rained over night and looks like it will resume at any time. The wife discovered the rabbits have been chewing her flowers. She was pissed. They ate one big purple one in front. No,I don't know, it had purple flowers. We got stuff that will supposedly smells like dirty diapers, beer farts, and rotten eggs to a bunny and will discourage him from wanting to eat.  We shall see.

Chris Squire, co-founder and bassist from my favorite band Yes died Saturday evening. I am bummed. That dude could make his yellow Rickenbacker sing.

RIP Mr. Squire

Pop Quiz

Since we are revising history on a daily basis, here is a simple quiz to see what you know about American history. Don't worry, it is one simple question.  The answer is below the fold.

What was the singular event that caused South Carolina and subsequently the rest of the Confederate States to secede from the Union?

Here's Another One From '72

I don't think Bob has been featured on these pages previously. Now that is no longer true.

OMG

Apple has banned Civil War games because (ack!) the Confederates soldiers have a Confederate Battle Flag! Imagine that. They also have gray uniforms. So did the Nazis ergo...I guess we will never see a movie about the Civil War again.

Fucking idiots.  Political Correctness is the new McCarthyism, only on steroids. And stupidity. Lots of stupidity.

Not that we need one

If you are looking for yet another reason to vote against another Bush in the White House, consider the last one gave us John Roberts, who apparently cannot read simple English, but can read the minds of Democrat Senators and Congressmen.

Edit: Roberts says.“In every case we must respect the role of the Legislature, and take care not to undo what it has done, I guess that this court would not have overturned Brown vs. the Board of Education.

More edit. Or DOMA....Never mind I guess they are consistently inconsistent 

Seriously?

A NY Post film  critic is calling for an end to showings of Gone With the Wind. CNN wants to tear down the Jefferson memorial? I'm pretty sure the kooks will once again be calling for a ban on Tom and Huck. Jacobin Fever is spreading. Next we will be denouncing our neighbors. Left wing philosophy feeds on the blood of freedom. Hyperbole? See revolutionary France, the USSR, Mao's China, Pol Pot's killing fields, Cuba, El Salvador, North Korea, etcetera., etcetera, etcetera.

Progressives are looking to purge society of all they judge to be offensive. Sounds a lot like the Taliban and ISIS doesn't it?

Midweek Music

Traffic -- always good for a listen.

I said listen.

This song is a reworking of an English folk ballad and comes from the 1970 album of the same name.

This is the second version of Traffic, reformed by Steve Windwood after the demise of the short-lived Blind Faith.

That don't mean what you think it means

Keep the Confederate flag, dump it, I don't care. Those who live in the various states that fly the Bonny blue flag can make that decision. We should recognize that the flag was hoisted in many cases as a response to the Civil Rights Movement by Democrat Governors and Democrat legislatures.  Of course the flag represents slavery. It represents the efforts of those who tried to tear the country apart. I confess, I have pissed on the Jefferson Davis memorial. It was a juvenile act, but fitting for a man responsible for more than a half a million American deaths. I would, given the chance, do it again. Yes, Robert E. Lee was a traitorous bastard too.

Of course the Stars and Bars is offensive to blacks. But if you want them stuck on your bumper it tells the rest of us a great deal about you, just like an Obama bumper sticker or one of those stupid "tolerance" stickers made of religious symbols. It tells us you are naive and probably ignorant to boot. But there should be no PC knee-jerk actions here. Despite the current concern over "micro aggressions" there does not exist in America the right to never be offended.

think it through

The Pope is all into the "we are all gonna die 'cause Globull Warming" these days. Strangely, he blames air conditioning. But if Earth is going to get all hot as the surface of Mercury in the next 10, 20,50,100 years, won't air conditioning be a good thing?

A very short tale in which the hero laughs to himself but felt bad nonetheless

I was sitting at a stop light somewhere on the northeast side of Kansas City, MO last week. A car in the lane to my right rolled down his window and waved frantically. I rolled down my passenger window. "Hey Man", he says, " How do I get to Overland Park, Kansas?".

"Dude, I'm from Indiana. I have no clue".

"Fuck" the very tone of that expletive said he was having a bad day indeed. I really had no idea beyond a vague knowledge that Overland Park was south and west, which I doubt would have been too helpful.

Rumor Has It

I read that they are going to make a live action Jonny Quest movie. I am simultaneously jazzed and horrified at that notion.

Can it be true? I read it on the Internet, so it must be.

Happy Day

Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there

Morning musings

It is a wonderful Saturday. I'm not sure what the boss has planned, but I am sure something is on the schedule. I pulled out the laptop to blog today

I went to the doctor yesterday. The old meds are not working, or give me massive diarrhea. I suspect you do not want details. The end result is I am now shooting up insulin once a day. Hooray for me. Maybe I can find a way to cash in by selling my used needles to junkies?  That is a joke, don't get all worked up NSA overlords.  I repeat that is joke.

There should be a law

There are laws against murder. There are hate crime laws. By law, churches in South Carolina are gun-free zones. So what new law, regulation, or edict would have stopped a crazed hate-filled murderer from shooting up a church in Charleston?

When the President calls for even more gun laws citing this stuff does not happen elsewhere, he must be golfing instead of watching the news.  Looks like plenty of folks are being killed in Africa and the Mideast. Didn't a bunch of people at a magazine get shot to death in France? Didn't some guy shoot 19 people in Norway? A bunch of school kids were slaughtered in Chechnya.

Gun free zones are target rich environments.

Dig it

For my man, Hey Teacher
Groovy.

Man I love polka dots

Dear Pope johnPaulPious XXI whatever

If you are so worried about the "haves" not giving enough, why don't you empty out those Vatican treasury vaults, sell off some of the jewels, sculptures, paintings, relics, gold and silver altars, and church land and give it to the poor? Oh, never mind, you are just another liberal asshat willing to spend everyone else's money.

Oh, and maybe you can explain why we have had no global warming for 17 years and counting and why the U.S. Is cooling, you rat bastard commie. Otherwise,  eat me.

"Tax the rich, feed the poor 'til they ain't rich no more". Doesn't that just mean everyone is poor?  That is the problem with progressives; they don't think things through.

I confess

I don't feel guilty for being white. To the best of my knowledge I have not knowingly discriminated against anyone based on their skin color.  I do not think my whole race needs to amend for events that happened long before I was born. In fact, none of my family owned slaves. At least two ancestors fought to end slavery. But if they did own slaves, so what? In America we are not who our parents or grandparents were. We all have an equal opportunity to succeed. Is it hard? Yes. Is it guaranteed? No.

Look, I do not feel guilty for my blue eyes, my brown hair, my dimpled cheeks, or my lack of height. Nor do I feel guilty for lack of pigmentation in my skin. It is genetics. I don't have any special privilege based on my skin. What little success I have is through hard work, education, and a desire to succeed. Period.