Uncle Pete Is 150!!!

No, not my Uncle Pete.

"Uncle Pete" is a nickname coined by railfans for the Union Pacific railroad, which celebrated its' 150th birthday on May 10.  Chartered {along with the Central Pacific} by none other than Abraham Lincoln in 1862, it is one of the longest-surviving American businesses still in existence under its' original name, and still conducting the same business it was created for.


The UP and the CP {which later became the Southern Pacific railroad, and still later merged into the UP} were the original "transcontinental railroad," and as such literally opened up the western 2/3's of the United States for settling and development.  Once completed, it was possible to ship goods from the East coast all the way to California in just under two weeks - rocket-like speed, in 1869!  Over the course of its' first fifty years, Uncle Pete grew from a humble single-tracked wilderness road into a robust, multi-tracked transportation path, and also "tamed" an awful lot of Western real estate.


By the 1930's, Uncle Pete came to symbolize the American Spirit itself; there was no mountain tall enough, or river deep enough, or challenge difficult enough to thwart its' forward progress.  The UP had the three largest classes of railroad locomotives ever manufactured; the famous Big Boy steamers, the 8500 horsepower "Big Blow" gas-turbines, and the 6600 horsepower Centennial diesels.  Each could move trains of enormous size fast, and each did much to contribute to the UP's excellent bottom line during their service lives.


Uncle Pete pioneered the concept of streamlined passenger trains with the M10000 {pictured above} in 1934, and concurrently, the use of diesel locomotives in high-speed, mainline service.  It was an early advocate of automation, as well as constantly improving its' basic services.  But most of all, the UP was {and still is} a firm believer of the notion that railroads are THE ultimate freight transport-mode.  True, today's UP is a diversified holding company, but the railroad remains its' central component, and largest money-making endeavor.


No other American transport company can boast of a lineage that spans a timeline from Civil War origins to the Space Shuttle and beyond; and no other American transport company was so instrumental in opening up - often even creating - opportunities for commerce.  Any kind of bonanza you could imagine, from gold to wheat, to oil and lumber, and just about everything in between - Uncle Pete was always there to ensure swift and efficient transport.  In the latter half of the 20th century, UP continued growing into the colossus it is today, outlasting each and every one of its' competitors, and accommodating new competition.  It continued to open up and create commerce opportunities, this time on an international scale, what with the freight-container revolution of the 1980's and '90's.


Like any business, Uncle Pete has had his share of corporate shenanigans; everything from anti-trust and rail-baron lawsuits, to a couple World Wars, to destructive sabotage and cruel bouts with Mother Nature.  Through it all though, the trains kept a-rollin', and the profits kept a-flowin'.  Is it any wonder that the red-white-and-blue Shield is as familiar an American icon as the Golden Arches, the Coca-Cola script, or the IBM logo?  


But the best fact of all is that Uncle Pete became a success story with virtually NO assistance from the Federal Government, save for its' original charter.  No bailouts.  No tax-breaks.  Not one bloody dime of Federal money - 100% private funds built the UP, and 100% private funds continue to run it to this day, unlike both the Interstate highway system, and every airport large or small which are heavily if not totally Government-subsidized.  In short, the Union Pacific - like any other railroad in the US - is THE great American Success Story.  There will be nothing else like it in my lifetime, but I'd dearly like to see the beginnings of other true American Success Stories before I go; there's been way too much emphasis on big-business scandal and failure in the last 25 years, IMHO.


For now though, I'll quietly rejoice every time I see the good old Armour Yellow, and Harbor Mist Gray {and of course that lovely tri-color Shield}.  Uncle Pete still puts on a magnificent transport-show, and our nation is the better for it.  Long may the UP endure!!!!

Crunch Time

Things are picking up, boys and girls.  This week I begin the transition into a new, much more lucrative job.  As such, I will finally be able to get back fully on my feet once again, without all the worry and hassle I've been coping with over the last year or so.  It's been sixteen months since my Mom's passing started all the changes, and for the first time since there is actually a glimmer of daylight at the end of the tunnel.


As is so often the case with my life, the switch comes about just as I was approaching the point of total burnout.  I'd progressed about as far as I could with the current situation, and was merely treading water rather than continuing with forward progress.  A change was inevitable, and a solid month of pursuing other options has finally paid off.  My new gig promises full-time hours and benefits, plus I'll have the werewithal to revitalize the music once again.


The next couple weeks therefore look to be rather busy and hectic, so don't be surprised if there's another lapse in blog activity for a bit.  Once I'm over this last hump things will settle down into routine, and I'll be able to get back to regular writings again.  There's plenty to talk about; I just need a bit of time to get things in order, and adjust to the new situation.  The regular fun and games will resume in due course.  


In the meantime, you lot ought to know the drill by now - lay back and ride the groove for a while.  Full spring is a good time to do just that, although here in Cornhusker-land, we've already had a couple potent shots of summertime weather, as well as a batch of STRONG thunderstorms and tornadoes.


It's all good though, and seems to be getting even better.  Sit tight and be of good cheer, All - I'll be with you again shortly.................


{BTW - RIP George "Goober" Lindsey, at age 83.  Always did like good ol' Goob whenever I saw him.  Proof-positive that the best comedy is clean and genuinely silly............}

RIP Dick Clark

Dick Clark, the "perpetual teenager" died today at age 82.  Although shocking, I've been expecting this news since DC had his strokes a few years back; hopefully he's at Peace now.


Like perhaps 3 generations of others, I grew up with American Bandstand, and watched it faithfully into my mid-teen years.  Once I started performing publicly myself though, I gradually weaned off it, telling myself that perhaps one day I'd hit that stage in my own right, which obviously never happened.  Sobering indeed to realize I have clear memories of Elton John, Alice Cooper, the Bee Gees, Olivia Newton-John, and Kiss, among many others when they were all prime "AB" candidates, instead of staples of "classic rock" like they are today.


AB pretty much encompassed all three great rock explosions {Elvis, the Beatles / British Invasion, and the post-Disco/punk mainstream revival of 1980-89}, as well as dabbling in the new rap and power-ballad / hair band trends.  Dick Clark presided over all but the very last season in 1989, earning his "perpetual teenager'' moniker the hard {good} way.  And I daresay he made life just that much more fun with his simple show about the music - they way it once was before all the image-mongering and showbiz BS brought on by both music-videos, and pop music as Mega-Big Business.  


No, AB kept the focus squarely on the tunes and performers themselves, which is why such later "image-over-substance" performers like Cyndi Lauper and dear old Madge didn't make quite the same splash on AB as say, Elton {way before he was a Sir}, Rod Stewart, or even Kiss, even though they were more theatrical spectacle themselves.  There will never be another show  - or a more perfect musical forum - than Dick Clark's American Bandstand, IMHO.  How ironic that it predeceased its' creator by nearly a quarter-century!!!


Godspeed, Dick - you'll be sorely missed.  And THANK YOU for so many wonderful memories; the memories of our youth, indeed.  Let the band play on, wherever you are.............

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.