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.  

Tea Party Vs. Flea Party

Today's "milling exercise" is a side-by-side comparison of two headline-generating groups; the Tea Party, and the "Occupy" movement, aka Flea Party.  Both are nominally rooted in our Constitutionally guaranteed right to protest, ie freedom of speech.  After that though, the similarities end.  Try as the lamestream media might to elevate the Occupiers, and try as they might to demonize the Tea Partiers, the demonstrated truths of both groups speaks louder and much more eloquently than the media ever could hope to.   And therein is the grist for said milling exercise.


True to form, the lamesteam media does the one thing that is a cardinal no-no in proper journalism / news reportage - they have thrown all  objectivity right out the window, and chosen sides.  Thus, they have been somewhat successful in blurring the truth surrounding both groups, purely because they have an agenda just like everybody else in the issue - and as such they're doing a grave disservice to both their own craft, as well as the audience of their craft.  Since the decline of objective media can carry infinite other discussions, let's instead take a look at some of the facts that are routinely, purposely overlooked regarding both groups.


The logical place to start is the largest difference between the two movements.  Occupiers have generated tens, if not hundreds of thousands of arrests, as well as causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages for everything from trespassing to defecating in {and sometimes ON the} public, to felony vandalism / larceny.  Tea Partiers have generated zero dollars in damages, and while their arrest record isn't clean, it is 99.44% of the minor misdemeanor variety.  Tea Partiers will disperse if instructed to do so {which hasn't happened yet}; Occupiers will not {which has happened more times than one can count}.


I can hear the wailing now: "Oh come on - civil disobedience falls under First Amendment protection!"  Well, yes and no.  Peaceful protest is one thing, but borderline anarchy and wanton vandalism and trespassing are NOT the same thing.  The term "civil disobedience" here has been co-opted and thoroughly corrupted to try and legitimize Occupiers much more so than Tea Partiers.  Driving drunk, spousal abuse, and child molestation are also forms of "civil disobedience" too, and they're never seen as anything other than breaking the law; the perps are treated accordingly.  Not so with the Occupy crowd; they feel pretty much free to do anything they want, laws be damned.  And more often than not, they're allowed to skate many times because the idea of civil disobedience has been so dangerously bastardized, all in the name of "Political Correctness," of course.


As a rule, true Tea Partiers scrupulously operate well within ALL laws.  Oh sure, there have been scattered reports of serious "incidents" involving Partiers, but nearly all of the "legitimate" cases can trace back to infiltrators and moles; the others are simple red herrings played up by the media as part of their routine agit-prop.  The true rank-and-file of the Tea Party just don't roll that way, as Glenn Beck's 300,000-attendee Tea Party rally on the DC Mall a year or so ago proved.  They even had the common courtesy to police after themselves when it was all over - in contrast to the tens of thousands of dollars in cleanup costs generated by any given typical Occupy stunt, or the millions spent on cleaning up after Barry Hussein's inaugural.  BTW - Barry Hussein has a clandestine vested interest in Occupiers, as much of their funding comes directly from the cabal pulling the strings in Hizzown Administration.


Another stark contrast between the two movements are the basic personal qualities of the participants.  Occupiers tend to be disaffected rabble; poorly educated, largely ignorant of current affairs, with a strong-to-fierce sense of "entitlement" whether deserving or not.  They're given rudimentary instruction, then quickly turned loose to do their disruptive thing.  If you try to pin them down about their goal, they'll either spout trite rhetoric about taking down Bad Old Capitalism in general - or more often, they simply won't have a clue about what should happen afterwards if their protests are successful.  "Flea Bag" is thus an entirely accurate portrayal of their movement.  Empty of logic; empty of ideals; empty of solutions.  And chock-full of, well, you know.


Tea Partiers, on the other hand are well educated, well informed, and deeply concerned citizens that couldn't be more clear with their goals.  Take the very group name: "Tea" is an acronym for "Taxed Enough Already."  Taxed in the narrow sense of a portion of income; but also taxed in the broader sense of being fatigued to the point of danger, as in "over-taxed muscles," or "over-taxed emotions."  They see both the country and the Constitution in this latter context, and both situations cause the distress that is the basic fuel of the movement to begin with.  Naturally, you never hear about this from the lamestream media.  Tea Partiers devoutly believe in American greatness and self-sufficiency, and they want to see it restored and flourishing once again.  Their goals are clearly articulated at virtually all of their gatherings and functions, from humble blogs like this one, all the way up to the grand public displays.  Prosperity for everyone, but you have to be willing to WORK  hard for it.


Whilst both groups have substantial potential political clout, only the Tea Party has successfully exercised theirs; the 2010 elections being a perfect illustration.  Granted, the Flea-Baggers were just getting started at the time, but it's a safe bet that their eventual political impact will be minimal at best.  The majority of the population simply don't identify with much of what the F-B's supposedly stand for - and if they do, they don't feel that the typical F-B "protest" is the type of civil disobedience they wish to engage in.  You might have to dig a bit to find them, but there are countless reports of Flea Bag "happenings" that were stillborn due to a marked lack of willing participants.  I think the previous arrest records and crapping in public just might have something to do with this fact............


Then again, by their own {quiet} admission, the originators of the Flea Baggers have publicly admitted that the entire movement has literally been hijacked away from them - and is being re-organized into a full fledged anarchist organization.  Several lawsuits have been filed to attempt to regain control, but the powers-that-be are seeing to it that they'll be swept under the rug ASAP.   The "new" Flea Baggers are out to trash, loot, and generally cause chaos, period.  They plan to hit big during the political conventions later this year, in an attempt to disrupt as much of the citizen-political process as possible.  They don't want solutions or changes; they want pure anarchy, and they're ready to go after it with a vengeance.  Who re-organized the Flea Bag community?  I'll give you three guesses {mm - mm - mm}.


The Tea Party is ready, though.  They've already got a firm foundation on which to build - acquired through 100% legitimate means - and they're ready to reach out and lovingly embrace all those who will be disaffected by the Flea Bag tsunami that's coming sure as God made little green apples.  The fact that the deck is stacked against them thanks to the lamestream media, and His Presidency Himself doesn't bother them a whit, but they're going to be mighty careful indeed as to how they proceed from here on in.  Way too much is literally - and I mean literally - riding on this next election cycle.  The Flea Baggers would be quite happy to see the whole works blow up into a situation that would require martial law; Tea Partiers want anything but that.  


Hopefully the strong head-start they have will be more than enough to stem the tide, but in this day and age I'm not sanguine about anything any more.  There's still the 45-odd percentage of the general population that hasn't turned out to vote at all since 1960 to be concerned about.  Will they be terrorized by the Flea Baggers?  Despite the lamestreamers, are they well informed about the Tea Party and it's goals?  Or will they continue to sit out and ignore the painful struggle as they have since JFK's term?

As always, time will tell.  Y'all will hear about it here as we go along.  Be of good cheer in the meantime; the heavy sh*t will commence in due course.  Please ponder what I've laid out here, as it's pretty crucial to all our futures, like it or not.

More shortly.

Interesting Observation

Maybe it's just me, but the last time I heard the following I got a very strong Ron Paul vibe:  

And so it goes.............  

Silly Season: The Dream Situation

Yeah, I know - Super Tuesday's coming up, and all things political will ramp way up for basically the next 10 months, barring a tsunami, 9/11-style attack, worldwide bank implosions, or whatever else Barry Hussein might be able to pull out of the hat.  Myself, I'm already thoroughly sick and tired of the whole bloody mess; the bickering, the distortion of facts, the odd cheap shot, the demagogic haranguing - and that's just within the GOP.


Oh, the Lefties get half the blame too - lousy media across the spectrum, distortion of facts, constant cheap shots, demagogic haranguing; but this goes on with them 24/7, 365 anyway, so no great shakes there.  The claptrap is spewing from all sides, out every orifice, no matter where you look or try to hide from it.  As such, I'm going to talk here about what WON'T be happening from now until November {and beyond}.  My own political punditry, if you will - based on logic and common sense; two items as foreign to our Government as honesty and integrity.  But I digress.......

Here's the recipe for my ideal candidate for any office, not just the Presidency.

• Foreign Policy:  Impose a 5 year moratorium over any political, social, or military involvement on foreign soil.  Remove all troops from overseas AND expel the UN from our own soil for the duration.  Aside from humanitarian aid {tsunami, earthquake, hurricane, etc.}, we simply retreat home, and stay quiet.  Forget "nation building," "being cop for the world," or all the other political crap we're involved with currently; it's doing more harm than good, so at least take a break to re-think the priorities.  Oh, and put a unilateral 100% tariff on every last one of our imported goods or services for the duration as well; it's a key component that ties in with my ideal Domestic Policy described next.
• Domestic Policy 1:  We look to ourselves first for our wants and needs.  Energy, durable goods, foodstuffs, leisure / convenience items, vehicles, TECH SUPPORT - if we can't provide it here for ourselves, we do without - or pay a hefty  premium for anything imported {see above}.  Once upon a time, not so very long ago we as a nation were 100% self-sufficient, and we led the world in items exported.  Today we are markedly less self-sufficient, and we have become the world's second-largest importer; with everything from apples to yo-yo's being brought in from overseas, all with varying quality, safety, usefulness, etc.  Our own production industry is in shambles, with everything from forestry products to steel and plastics either greatly down-sized, outsourced, or both.  Same for a LOT of services, like tech support already mentioned, finances, communications, etc.  If we were suddenly faced with the demands of World War III, we wouldn't be nearly able to respond as we did in WWII - the industry simply isn't here any more.  And we're just sitting on a mess of natural resources too, whilst we squander our money and our military's lives on all the imports because we're too damn lazy to get off our fat asses and get back to work {the CDC predicts that 40% of our population will be morbidly obese by 2020}!!
• Domestic Policy 2: field-strip and dress {or perhaps totally GUT} our ridiculously bloated Federal bureaucracy.  Bring DC back into line with regards to what it's supposed to do - keep our borders and national interests secure; protect our economy and free {domestic} trade; print money when ABSOLUTELY necessary; and otherwise sit down and shut the fu*k up.  The states can handle the bulk of the cheese themselves if they so choose - and most of them do already, save for odd things like the Post Office, the Interstate Highways, and Amtrak.  Regulatory entities like the EPA, the STB, the NEA and quite a few others could {and should} be eliminated entirely, since most states have laws and rules of governing in place already to deal with the issues in question {and consequent duplication of bureaucracy}.  And since we're putting the Fed infrastructure on Adkins, why stop there?  Amend the Constitution with mandatory term limits for EVERY elected official.  Two terms {or three, for representatives}, and that's it - the era of the career politician needed to end about 40 years ago, so the time is ripe to say the least. 
• Domestic Policy 3: The economy, in four simple steps -  Balanced Budget Amendment; flat tax {in 3 tiers}; national and international financial self-sufficiency {a return to the gold standard, or some other tangible worth}.  And 100%  investment in domestic industry.  The GM and AT&T of 1950 were nothing like the shriveled husks of today, and they provided a hell of a lot more of what we now call "value-added" stuff then than most all of today's goods and service industry combined and times 500!  How can GE claim with a straight face that they "bring good things to life,'' when the bulk of their own manufacturing capability is outsourced and downsized?

The above is admittedly just the proverbial - and literal - tip of the iceberg, but if we had somebody willing to enact some or all of it, we'd be off to a fine start on our American Renaissance.  It would take time and determination for the end result to bear fruit, but simple logic argues that it would be worth the struggle and privation.  And who knows - minding our own business on the world stage {and collecting all those trade tariffs!} for half a decade might be the kick in the ass some of these would-be "emerging nations" would need to get their own houses in order.

Now, before anyone gets to nit-picking, or calling me out for whatever, keep in mind that all of the above is only remotely possible any time soon - and surely WON'T be attempted by anybody in the limelight today, though there is minor talk now and then similar to what I've laid out here from some quarters.  It's simply my dream-scenario; an exercise to distract me from the rather painful realities of Silly Season as it really is.  When Ron Paul makes Nancy Pelosi look like Mother Theresa from a social and political point of view, you just know that something is SERIOUSLY broken in the system - and it's high time we start fixing things, dig?

More  {lots more} shortly........

Changes {Them Changes}

The late, great Buddy Miles' signature song has never seemed more appropriate to me than it does as 2012 kicks off.  You can literally feel it in the air; a sense of anticipation, the feeling that big changes are coming.


For me personally, there are several indicators.  First and foremost is the pattern of numerology that is a part of my life.  Some years ago on my MySpace blog, I documented how the number 7 has riddled itself throughout my existence, going all the way back to my very conception {in early 1967}.  The pattern developed that any year {or decade} connected to a 7 would create some kind of tumult in my life, and that the following year would see even more dramatic changes.  


So far, this pattern has held true for 43 years - and is in the process of repeating again as I type this.  You see, 2011 for me was a "7 year," due to my age - 43 {or 4+3=7}.  As I've partially documented on these pages since last summer, 2011 hammered the hell out of me like few other years in recent memory have.  I withstood the onslaught as best I could, and somehow managed to lay a tentative foundation to build on for the future.  A grim experience for the most part; the bright spots were few and far between.  However, I was blessed with a mostly understanding family, and several staunch friends; their combined support got me through the worst of the trials.


Now that we have at last cast off the husk of the old year {good bloody riddance, too!}, I've been taking stock of all that has gone down, and what might lie ahead as 2012 gathers momentum.  Like I mentioned earlier, I have quietly put in place a modest foundation on which to build.  My readings of the future indicators give me a measure of hope that something worthwhile can be built on that foundation, with a little care, patience, and luck.  This will be my primary focus for the next 12 months, but that doesn't mean I'll be ignoring all the other signs of great change to come.

Regular readers of my old MySpace blog during the bulk of 2008, and again on a smaller scale in 2010, will be familiar with my politically-themed "Silly Season" series; 2012 looks to be a crucial installment, and will be fitfully documented here.  Hints and clues my local environment has put in my lap will also continue to make sporadic appearances here, as they did during 2011 for me, mostly on Facebook {linked on the right side of this page}.   And finally, there's the "Mayan connection" of 12/21/12 - a wholly different exercise in numerology, with a heavy import of DOOM {yeah, right}.  


All this, and probably a lot more will play out on these pages; but everything will also be playing out against the currents of my 7-patterns.  Should make for an interesting and rather busy 2012, blog-wise, if nothing else.  I'm exhausted just thinking about where some or all of this could go!!  I'll do my best to make sense of it all, and report here as time allows.  As for you lot who read these ridiculous ramblings, I sincerely hope 2012 is a very, very good year for one and all.  I'm grateful to have you all in my life, modest ways notwithstanding.  My old advice is still apt - get comfy, fire up a colortini*, and be prepared for just about anything.  We'll ride this out together.

Okay 2012, bring it on - let's see what ya got...............








{* - from the late Tom Snyder}