I Don't Understand

Small rant here because if I don't vent I'll go postal or something.


First off, let's talk about these so-called "green cars."  Whether it's a hybrid gas / electric, or an all electric vehicle, where do you think the electricity comes from?  Well, 99% comes from utility plants that are either coal-fired, or nuclear-powered!!!  So how exactly does driving one of these contraptions "save the environment?"  I don't understand.


Here's a recent picture of Katy Perry:





Electric-blue hair, a physique owed to some form of addiction, and a demented stare that would give old Charlie Manson the horrors - and yet she's a high-earning "entertainer."  If you bumped into her on the street looking like this, would you willingly throw whatever money you had at her?  I don't understand - but then again I didn't understand Amy Winehouse, Heath Ledger, or Kurt Cobain, either.


George Zimmerman?  Why is a Hispanic being treated like a KKK member - isn't that racist in and of itself?  Why is a clear-cut case of self defense the latest excuse for Jesse, Al, and all the other blowhards to mouth off, and agitate the quislings?  It's ludicrous, all of the allegations that are flying around.  Trayvon Martin was a 17 year old PUNK looking for trouble, and  he found it when he ASSAULTED Zimmerman.  Does it matter that he also previously threatened a bus driver, and was also suspended from school over drugs recently?  Does it matter that he boasted about how "thuggish" he was, constantly on Facebook?  Does it matter that Zimmerman was utilizing his 2nd Amendment Rights?  Again, I don't understand.


And let's not forget Barry Hussein.  He's fanning the fire with that punk kid - but did you know that much of Obamacare completely exempts American MUSLIMS from any and all of its' restrictions?  He's still trash-talking every Republican he lays eyes on, but what exactly is he doing for this country right now, aside from trying to get his own failed ass re-elected?  He stirred up the unions; he stirred up the "Occupy" Flea-Baggers; and now he's stirring up the Ultra-Morons on the Left, with his ridiculous support of that punk kid.  


How is ANY of this good for this country, at all?


You guessed it - I don't understand.....................

Ten Years After

Today {March 10} would have been my Dad's 86th birthday.


I often wonder what he would think about the world as it is nowadays.  Hell, just in the last ten years since his passing virtually every aspect has changed.  In February of 2002, we were just getting ready to flex our military muscles in the Mid East.  9/11 was only 5 months previous, and there was retribution to be meted out.  The economy was in decent shape - unemployment was about 5.4%; interest rates were low; gasoline was under $2 a gallon.  The "Dot-Com boom" was having a smaller second helping - Google was an up-and-coming novelty; MySpace was brand new; and YouTube was beginning both a digital video revolution, and increased demand for higher-speed basic internet service.


20 mpg {or less} SUV's were all the rage, the bigger the better.  Laptops were coming right along, and a 40-meg RAM on a PC was pretty high-powered stuff.  Cell phones were just starting to morph into mini-PC's; the iPod was a year or two away.  Politics was pretty much business-as-usual, with the debate centered mainly on protecting Social Security, and improving educational options for those who wanted something more than the Public School option.  Fannie May / Freddie Mac, the wildly spendthrift 110th Congress, Barry Hussein Obummer, huge bailouts and "stimulus," the rise of MoveOn.Org and the Tea Party were all still in the near future.


There was little talk of Government handouts; "entitlements" were still a miniscule part of our annual national budget.  The national debt was still quite manageable, just barely in the low billion-level.  And there was a good deal of optimism in the air - we expected to win the "War on Terror" in short order; we thought our exports were heading into boom times; the economy was growing well; and we had a decent amount of respect on the international stage.  The changes to all of this began around 2004 with the collapse of the second Dot-com "bubble," and the first real spike in oil prices as the Mid East situation slowly ground into stagnation.  The Election cycle of that year was a harbinger of things to come - 2004 was the year of "Swift boating," and all manner of yellow-journalism, spearheaded by none other than Dan Blather - er, Rather of CBS, and his manufactured "Bush draft-dodging" documents.


Little did we know that much, much worse was to come; or that the Left would not only vault to power again, but would also wreak much havoc that hadn't been seen since the 1920's and '30's.  TARP, the demise of GM's Pontiac Motor Division, the Freddie/Fannie debacle, $100+ for a barrel of oil, double-digit unemployment, an economy literally choking to death under ceaseless regulations.  All this, and a lot more being spun to death and deliberately mis-reported {if not ignored altogether} by a suddenly "empowered" Media who gleefully abandoned principles and objectivity across the board.  2012 doesn't remotely resemble 2002, no matter how you look at it.  It's not a simple case of "time marches on, change is inevitable."


No, my dear old Dad would be utterly dumbfounded by the nasty spirit that permeates the air today.  On the one side you have the Lefty "entitlement" crowd, eager to steal from those who have, and bring this country down in general; and on the other side you have those of us Conservative types who are actively trying to restore prosperity, decorum and order to a badly-damaged national psyche.  A Herculean task to be sure - but not an impossible one.  The jury is still out on whether some of the damage done already is irreparable, but one can always hope.  The Right will  still be dogged every step of the way by the Media, but Media credibility is sinking fast thanks to their own lack of principles, or even simple self-discipline.


It'll be a challenging future, no doubt.  I'll meet it head-on of course, but I do miss not having Dad around to talk to.  He could have been a great comfort many times just in the last five years alone.  But his memory is still alive and well within me, and always will be.  He'd shake his head at many things today, and get a kick out of a few others - just like I do now.  Now that my Mom has joined him in the Afterlife, it's up to my brother and me to carry the family forward, as carefully as possible.  Hopefully we'll do as good a job as my Dad did with us.


Happy Birthday, Dad.  
I Love you and miss you terribly.


More shortly.............

March Oneth

Another month shot to hell.


I was roused out of my TCB-rut yesterday, when I got a shocking e-mail informing me that a jook-joint I played many moons ago was totally destroyed by the recent tornadoes that hit Missouri,  Tennessee, and Kentucky.  I wrote about my experience playing Stookey's back in 2009 on my MySpace blog, and those memories flooded back to me all during my shift last night.  Not all that many white musicians can claim experience on the "chitlin circuit;" I feel very fortunate indeed to be one of the chosen few.  I learned an awful lot about the craft on the circuit during '89-91, and my education started at Stookey's.  Naturally, my heart goes out to Stookey and his family - the jook was their business for four generations, and bluesmen from Robert Johnson and Son House to Robert Cray and Yours Humbly played there for ninety years, starting in 1922.


The loss of Stookey's is a sharp reminder to me that nothing is forever in this world, and coincides with my slow re-emergence from the malaise of 2009-2011.  My absence from the blog for most of February is testimony to me simply getting down to business with steady work.  New plans are on the horizon too; I've had about enough of this "forced retirement" mess, and with any luck at all I'll be back on the boards sometime this year.  The VERY recent passing of Monkee Davy Jones is the exclamation point, and plenty good incentive as well.  The music is calling again, and I aim to answer.  Had my first serious play of 2012 a couple weeks back, and the chops are still there.


Putting them to good use once again is the main focus now.  In the meantime, the daily grind continues with a heightened sense of awareness, and a strong sense of determination.  As the pieces fall into place, y'all will be kept up to speed here.  One thing that I'm bemused about is the fact that my Drum Mentor Ginger Baker has been out in the thick of it since the middle of last year, despite his arthritis and emphysema.  I do worry for him, but on balance should something awful happen {God forbid}, at least The Guv'nor will go out with his boots on.  His circumstances are yet another sharp reminder to me that my Gifts shouldn't atrophy any more than they already have.  The Good Fight is still there to be fought, in other words - and I'm ready for another tour of duty.  The following is perfectly in tune with my feelings:

And that's pretty much where things stand at present.  Going forward should prove to be interesting as Spring approaches - with a nice payoff down the road a piece, if all goes well.  So lay back and groove for a bit, Fellow Babies. The Fighting 216th Artillery Brigade will be lumbering back up to the front in due course.  

And then the fun will really start.

More shortly.