Guitar heroes and footpedals of clay

A commenter on another blog, Ed Brayton's "Dispatches From The Culture Wars" (Free Thought Blogs) asked, on a thread about Teddy "Teabags" Nugent, whether I thought Jeff Beck or Eddie Van Halen was the better guitarist.

My reply to him, with some additional musings, appears below.
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Michael Heath:

Since all I know about Eddie Van Halen is his rock ouvre, I'm gonna go with Jeff Beck. Van Halen is quite talented but I never heard him play jazz.

There's an aussie fella, Geoff Atchison, who played at the Oswego Harbor Fest a few years back that put on a show that was amazing. In an era of guitar players with so many foot pedals and effects boxes that they can't walk across the stage without tripping a switch, I watched him play two sets on consecutive nights with his guitar and a borrowed amp that were incredible.

Oz Noy,an Israeli who now spends most of his time in the states, is not the opposite of Geoff Achison but I saw him at the SUNY Oswego Guitar Symposium a while back and he had enough effects pedals to fill a music/electronics store--and used them all.

Loren Barrigar and Williman Yelverton are two great guitarists who I've only heard play acoustic. Barrigar has been playing all kinds of music for many years (he played at the Grand Ole Opry when he was six or seven); Mr. Yelverton, originally of Binghamton, NY now resides near Murfreesboro, TN teaching at Middle Tennessee State and performing. His classical technique is incredible.

Bobby Keyes/Bobby Keyes Trio* is on Thrillionaire Records. Bobby is someone I didn't see play for almost twenty five years (1976-2001) and hearing the first couple of tunes after that long hiatus I was thinking "Dick Dale meets Wes Montgomery.".

Those are just five guitarists of the hundreds that I've listened to in live venues over the past 40 years. I cannot play to save my ass nor do I really understand the process of doing so, but I can tell when I'm listening to someone who plays, at a consistently high level, across many styles of music.

I'm sure that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of guitarists who are favorites of other commenters. I don't generally rank players except in the sense that they're, to be be technical, FUCKING AWESOME!!

Give any of these five a listen or watch, "It Might Get Loud" with Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White. Regardless your musical tastes I think you will agree that all of these people are fabulous musicians and that Teddy Teabag is not in their league.

OTOH, none of them, afaia, know how to "jack" deer or shoot them over bait or shoot a bear and then leave it, wounded, in the bush instead of tracking it down and killing it.

*  I've seen the Bobby Keyes Trio about 10-12 times and rarely seen the same drummer or bassist more than a few times, although Marty Ballou, a great bassist, has played with him on probably 4-6 of those occasions.

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Anyone else that has favorites, feel free to add them.  All of the people I mentioned are easily found by googling. If you can't locate them, let me know and I'll provide linkyloos. Oh, yeah. Zappa! Neil Young, Django Reinhardt...

Memorial Day

Memorial Day, also known as Decoration Day*, has a long history (http://www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html.  It was--before the advent of the horseless carriage, mattress warehouses and other bigbox stores and the worship of beverage alcohol--a day of solemn reflection, windy speechifying and the decorating of veterans graves.

We should never forget our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines who were killed and maimed in the wars fought by them on behalf of a not always so grateful public. The original Decoration Day was not observed in the former CSA (losers in the War of Southern Treachery*) and was only observed by them after WWI when the U.S. Congress legislated a national day of observance recognizing all U.S. soldiers killed in the numerous wars and "police actions" engaged in by the U.S.


The current situation in Iraq, Afghanistan and whatever other countries are currently being "helped" by S&DFP*** initiatives should not call for us to be hatin' on the U.S. military or its members. They go where they're posted and do what they're told--with notable exceptions--per their oath of service. That U.S. foreign policy is too often based on the proposition that we ARE the baddest asses on the block is, again, not their fault.

I honor our gallant and brave service members, while despising the old, mostly white, almost exclusively male, war mongers who see only an enemy when facing an adversary.








*      Not to be confused with Declaration Day, also known as the 4th of July.

**    I am afraid that I'm just not that P.C. where the war between the Union and the people who still wanted to own people is concerned. Sue me.

***  Stealth and Drone Foreign Policy

And then there was Mittunswillard

Rancid Puke, er, I mean Ron Paul, announced recently that his campaign was dead (something most thinking people knew, well before the beginning of 2010). Paul and the other useful idiotz of the KKKonservative KKKlown KKKar Posse will now be able to spend more time checking their account balances and using other people's money to pay down their campaign debts.

Newt Gingrich's campaign and, according to at least one report (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/22/us-usa-campaign-gingrich-idUSBRE84L0G620120522), some non-campaign ponzi schemes*, are going bankrupt.

Palin? Out. Bachmann? Out. Santorum? Out. It's a longer, and sorry, list. 

One thing that all of the aforementioned had in common, during their campaigns, was an unbridled passion for pointing at Romney--as if they were Podpeople in the "Invasion of the Body Politic Snatchers"--and shrieking about his nonKKKonservativenessosity. Now that Mittunswillard has all but assumed the mantle of heir-apparatchik of the Kochsuckersbrother's pending buyout of the U.S. gummint they have to make nice. It's entertaining, in the sense that watching the bad guyz get whacked in the final reel is entertaining, but it's not a sustainable buzz.

For my money, the best way to REALLY piss off the overlords is to VOTE, for anyone (preferrably someone who understands science, math, the Constitution and basic economic theory) that might actually have the interests of someone OTHER than the overlords in mind.



*  Promising people that HE will right the wrongs of the DCinsiders--when he couldn't/wouldn't do it AS a DCinsider.
I

Music soothes the savage breast or makes the heart beat faster, faster. Take me home tonight....

And, no, I don't listen to that Eddie Money tune by choice, it just gets a lot of airplay on some local radio stations.

I was discussing something else entirely in an e-mail, yesterday, but the ADD thing...

Spring is here, the grass is riz, I wonder where the flowers is. I'm trying, today, to turn my "master bedroom" (a sheetrocked but not taped, sanded or painted 320 sq.ft. space) into a workshop so's I can get some friggin' work done on the rest of the house. Of course my ADD kicked in about 20 minutes into the process and I spent an hour going through cassette tapes with great music op them, most of which I've never heard before as it's on albums I never listened to back in the day. Mary Chapin Carpenter is on the box, to be followed by Pat Metheny; Ray Charles; It's A Beautiful Day's "Choice Quality Stuff/Anytime (the one with the R.Crumb cover art); "Half-Nelson", a bunch of duets by the "Redheaded stranger" hisself and various friends; the soundtrack to "Peter's Friends"--great soundtrack--which features Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry, fresh from their "Bertie Wooster" roles on BBC; the soundtrack from "Rainman", for one tune, "Beyond the Blue Horizon", a la, Lou Christie--of course, "Iko, Iko" and some other great tunes are on there and "Rhythm, Counrty & Blues" with duets like "Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing", featuring Vince Gill and Gladys Knight--"How Time Slips Away" with Al Green and Lyle Lovett and "Patches" done by George Jones and B.B. King.

See what I mean about the ADD thing.

I buy a lot of cassette tapes and CD's at the local thrift stores for anything from .25 to $3.00--I just found out that I have three copies of Mary Chapin Carpenter's "Come on, come on"--and have picked up some great stuff, everything from Sergei Rachmaninoff to Warren Zevon. Almost all of the media is in good shape and there are lots of songs I've never heard of on the ta[es and CD's.

There are some unintended consequences of building one's library via "The Salvation Army".  One of them is that I've picked up several different cassettes by groups like the Rolling Stones and, later, discovered that they had pretty much the same 4-6 hits and another 6-8 throwaways.  After listening to the "Re-Mastered" Stones collection (three or four cassettes) I realized two things. The first was that Jagger and company made a LOT of music; the second was that a LOT of it was BAD. Oh, well, it's nice to know that even St. Mick can fuck up!

I avoid "Original soundtracks", as they were not, imo, interesting in  the case of about 100% of those that I've listened to. Soundtracks with other people's music? THAT, is a whole difurnt thang. I've got stuff from the "Commitments" (and another compilation of the same tunes done by the original artists), "Peter's Friends", "Naked in New York", "The Big Lebowski" and some others that kill. One tape I had and which I lost is the soundtrack from "The King Of Comedy"--there is a lot of great music on that one.

One of these days I'll get all of this music converted to digital files on my Ion Tape to PC deck, for now, just gwine enjoy them.  

What we have here is a failure to communicate

I've been spending a fair amount of time at another blog for the last six to eight months, mikeb302000. The blog's author mikeb, does a great job of spotlighting the irrational and obsessive behavior of gunzloonz. His blog has drawn a lot of flak from the gunzloonz dysintelliegentsia and continues to do so.

There is a lot of mudslinging going on over there and I have no problem with that. Dealing with lying sociopaths makes it difficult to concentrate on pointed arguments (which are not, in any case, what they want).

For the last couple of months, mikeb has turned off moderation on his blog and I have to say it has not been a successful gambit. There are a number of commenters whose only purpose in coming to the blog is to flame people, anonymously, and act like the gutless clownz that they are. Since their purpose is to NOT have any sort of genuine discussion but to merely push their NRA and various other gunzloonz talking points it is a waste of time to read them, or respond.  It's not that reading their comments is hard or particularly painful, it is that they say nothing that they haven't said a thousand times before. And, every time they say it they offer nothing in the way of support for their assertions.

As I said, on a thread here, a while back, you can insult me  and call me names, as long as you bring something to the table that ISN'T just your macho gunzloonz posturing. Considering that the majority of mikeb's commenter don't know how to do that I've decided to stop wasting my time there, unless he wants to turn moderation back on and, considering the number of "anonymi" that are commenting, a way of id'ing them.  I don't genuinely expect that these things will happen.

For the immediate future, sign-ins and moderating will be the rule of the day, here. If you've got something to say, have at it. If you're commenting anonymously and puking up the same tired NRA talking points that I've been reading at mikeb's for the last year or two, don't bother, they'll not be seeing the light of day.

I need to attend to business for the next few days; after that I'll be trying to put some stuff up.

Cheers

Armed while Old, Fat, White and Crabby? Part 1 of 3

This post and the two that follow are cross-posted from  Penigma.  They were written/built by "dog gone" who is far more savvy than I am with the googlefoo'n'stuff.

Give it a read.  Comment here or ping her at her place. 

Enjoy!

ALEC represents corporate and other special interests. It DOES NOT reflect the problems of a state, much less desirable solutions. It does not represent the citizens of that state and their wishes. It co-opts and corrupts the function of representative government, it erodes and overturns the fundamental concept of government of the people, by the people, for the people by replacing it with legislation by and for outside special interests, and corporate profits over people.

I found this hypothetical situation in the title particularly apt; I grew up with a swimming pool. We would occasionally find unauthorized people doing precisely this - taking a dip, and not always late night either. Our response tended to be to politely tell the intruders to please leave, and to call the local police if they did not comply (that happened precisely twice). And while waiting for the police to arrive, we turned the family dog loose in the pool enclosure -- to BARK, not bite -- which was quite sufficient to persuade the unwelcome swimmers to leave when a polite request was not. In each case, the trespassers were young and male, the age of Trayvon Martin or younger. The notion of involving a gun in those interactions is preposterous -- but it is what happens under Shoot First laws.

I was particularly struck by the last lines of the piece below, because the exclusively conservative legislators who introduced the legislation appear to have used the same ALEC model bill template that shows up in every other state with these laws, and are all alleged to have ALEC ties:

But some legislators said they wondered who those constituents were, other than the N.R.A. The Castle Doctrine legislation, they said, was one of a series of bills that seemed to appear out of nowhere as part of some national agenda, rather than arising from concerns of Wisconsin residents. Janet Bewley, a Democrat in northern Wisconsin who voted for the concealed carry bill but against the self-defense law, said, “I never heard anyone in this state crying out, ‘We must have the Castle Doctrine.’ ”

Because of the allegations that ALEC is inherently corrupt -- using public office for private gain -- and because of the attempts at secrecy, I do not believe that the legislators who introduced the Shoot First law in Wisconsin are being fully candid and honest. I'd love to see the press FOIA those legislators who proposed this bill, and who voted for it, requiring them to produce all information relating to ALEC.
If it is so innocent, put it out in the open for your constituents to SEE, for themselves.

I'd like to see the same thing happen in Minnesota.

From the New York Times by way of MSN:
NRA gathers amid growing storm over gun laws

'If someone takes a late-night dip in your swimming pool, does that mean you should shoot them?' Wis. state senator says

By ERICA GOODE

updated 4/13/2012 6:13:34 AM ET2012-04-13T10:13:34

No one had yet heard of a Florida teenager named Trayvon Martin when a group of Wisconsin Republicans got together last year to discuss expanding a self-defense bill before the State Legislature.

The bill, known as the Castle Doctrine, made it harder to prosecute or sue people who used deadly force against intruders inside their houses.

New York Times caption: Jeff Nass is the president
of WI-Force,
a gun rights group in Wisconsin
that works with the National Rifle Association.
My observation - these groups are always
formed by fat old crabby white guys with guns
trying to look stern and important.
Mostly, they just look constipated and impotent.

But the Wisconsin legislators, urged on by the National Rifle Association in a series of meetings, wanted it to go further. They shaped an amendment that extended the bill’s protections to include lawns, sidewalks and swimming pools outside the residences, as well as vehicles and places of business.
That expanded bill, passed with little debate by the Legislature and signed in December by Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, is the newest of more than two dozen so-called Stand Your Ground statutes that have been enacted around the country in recent years.
Those laws are now coming under increased scrutiny after Mr. Martin was shot to death by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch coordinator, in late February. Similar legislation is pending in several other states, including Alaska, Massachusetts and New York.
Though the laws vary in their specifics and scope, they expand beyond the home the places where a person does not have a duty to retreat when threatened, and they increase protection from criminal prosecution and civil liability. All contain elements of the 2005 Florida statute that made it difficult to immediately arrest Mr. Zimmerman, who has said he shot Mr. Martin, who was unarmed, in self-defense.
Zimmerman expected to take stand in Martin murder case

Critics see the laws as part of a national campaign by the National Rifle Association, which began gathering on Thursday in St. Louis for its annual meeting, to push back against limits on gun ownership and use.
That effort, they say, has been assisted by conservative legislators in states like Wisconsin, and by the American Legislative Exchange Council, which has promoted model legislation based on Florida’s law; the council, known as ALEC, is a conservative networking organization made up of legislators, corporations like Walmart, a large retailer of long guns, and interest groups like the rifle association.
The success of the campaign is reflected in the rapid spread of expanded self-defense laws as well as laws that legalize the carrying of concealed weapons.
Only one state, Illinois, and the District of Columbia now ban that practice, compared with 19 states in 1981. Bills pending in several states that would allow concealed weapons to be carried on college campuses, in churches, in bars or at other sites would further weaken restrictions, as would either of two federal bills, now in the Senate, that would require that a permit for carrying a concealed weapon that was granted by any state be honored in all other states.
“Both directly and with cutouts like ALEC, the N.R.A. is slowly and surely and methodically working at the state level to expand the number and kind and category of places where people can carry concealed, loaded weapons and use them with deadly force,” said Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a bipartisan coalition of more than 650 mayors that has not taken a position on the Stand Your Ground laws.
Repeated requests to speak with N.R.A. officials about Wisconsin’s law or Stand Your Ground laws more generally met with no response.
Political influenceIn Wisconsin, as in other states, the passage of an expanded self-defense law was helped by the 2010 elections, which vaulted conservative Republicans into office. In Pennsylvania, for example, a Stand Your Ground law passed the Legislature in 2010 but was vetoed by Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat. Introduced again last year, the bill was signed by his Republican successor, Tom Corbett.
In Wisconsin, a narrower version of the legislation had languished and died in previous sessions. But with a Republican governor and Republicans dominating both houses of the Legislature, several state lawmakers said that the success of the bill and the expansion amendment promoted by the N.R.A. seemed assured.
“I think it’s only normal they assumed this could be their year,” said Representative Dean Kaufert, a Republican who introduced the legislation, speaking of the rifle association.
Prosecutors: Zimmerman provoked confrontation with Martin
Darren LaSorte, a lobbyist for the rifle association, wanted the legislation, like Florida’s law, to extend protection to any place where a person had a legal right to be, said several Republican lawmakers who met with Mr. LaSorte. But having been successful in getting an earlier bill passed to allow the carrying of concealed weapons, Mr. LaSorte accepted a compromise.
“It was almost a ‘we’ll take what we can get’ kind of mode,” Mr. Kaufert said. In its final form, the law contained language that closely tracked some parts of the Florida bill.

In a legislative alert on its Web site, the N.R.A. asked members to “please express your support for this critically important self-defense legislation” and for “N.R.A.-recommended amendments to these bills in order to make the final product a stronger law.” The bill, the association said in the alert, “ensures that you don’t have to second-guess yourself when defending your home from intruders.”
Further, it said, “It also provides civil immunity for good citizens who are acting defensively against violence.”
Last year, the N.R.A. spent $97,701 and 627 hours lobbying or engaging in other activities in Wisconsin on behalf of the self-defense law and the concealed carry law, according to the State Legislature Web site.
But as in other states, the most powerful weapon the rifle association wielded in Wisconsin was political, not financial. In a state with more than 620,000 registered hunters, the ratings the association gives to legislators could have significant impact on their political fortunes, particularly in the northern part of the state.
“A lot of politicians are apprehensive to go against the initiatives of the National Rifle Association,” said Representative Nick Milroy, a Democrat from northern Wisconsin who voted for the concealed carry bill but against the Castle Doctrine. “For a lot of people who are very particular about their gun rights, anything less than an ‘A’ rating is an antigun stance.”
Senator Jon Erpenbach, a Democrat, called the bill a substantial victory for the N.R.A. in the Midwest, where guns have a less central place, say, than Texas. “The N.R.A. did very well for themselves in Wisconsin,” he said.

Legislators: Who wanted the doctrine?Mr. Erpenbach said he would have voted for the original self-defense bill, which placed a heavier burden on prosecutors in self-defense cases but limited the protection to inside a residence. But he drew the line at the amendment expanding the legislation, he said.
“Who in their right mind could be asking for something like this?” he said he remembers thinking when the measure hit the Senate floor, amendment attached. “If someone takes a late-night dip in your swimming pool, does that mean you should shoot them?”
The fact that the amendment was added by the Assembly Committee on Judiciary and Ethics after the public hearing on the bill, he and others said, prevented it from getting much public attention. And with challenges to collective bargaining, requirements for voter identification and other controversial proposals before them, legislators had a lot on their minds.
“There wasn’t a tremendous amount of debate,” Mr. Erpenbach said.
In fact, at the public hearing, some groups expressed strong opposition even to the far more restricted language of the original legislation. Gregory O’Meara, speaking for the Wisconsin Bar Association’s criminal division, said that the division’s judges, prosecutors and defense lawyers unanimously opposed the bill as unnecessary and potentially problematic. Wisconsin’s existing law, he said, was already stronger than most states, placing the burden of proof on the prosecution to show that a person was not acting in self-defense.
Video: Zimmerman enters not guilty plea (on this page)Jeff Nass, president of WI-Force, a Wisconsin gun rights group that works with the N.R.A., and who carries a Glock 20 semiautomatic handgun at all times — “It’s a large pistol, but I’m a large person,” he said — testified in favor of the bill.

Prosecutors and law professors, Mr. Nass said in a phone interview, “can sit back and analyze in the safety of their chambers what you did and if you did the right thing, but if I kick down your door in the middle of the night, are you going to be worried about it?”
Representative Scott Suder, the Republican majority leader, participated in meetings to shape the amendment and said the bill’s expansion was not “driven by any group or organization” but came at the urging of other legislators and their constituents.
“We came up with a compromise that did include your car in addition to your home, and that was a fair compromise,” Mr. Suder said. “We didn’t go as far as some wanted to.”
But some legislators said they wondered who those constituents were, other than the N.R.A. The Castle Doctrine legislation, they said, was one of a series of bills that seemed to appear out of nowhere as part of some national agenda, rather than arising from concerns of Wisconsin residents.
Janet Bewley, a Democrat in northern Wisconsin who voted for the concealed carry bill but against the self-defense law, said, “I never heard anyone in this state crying out, ‘We must have the Castle Doctrine.’ ”
This story, "N.R.A.’s Influence Seen in Expansion of Self-Defense Laws", originally appeared in The New York Times.

Armed while Old, Fat, White and Crabby? Part 2 of 3

A half-naked old, fat, white grumpy guy was caught on video having a shooting incident over a moped.
No one appears to have been hurt; the honor of owning a moped was upheld!
On the other hand........why do none of the people who are calling this old fool with a gun a hero question the risk to others of shooting six shots down what is presumably an inhabited residential city street?
This shooting appears to endanger others, while apparently not harming the would-be criminal. No one in their right mind should call this guy a hero; he was dangerously stupid.
1. No one should be carrying a gun in their pants pocket. 
It is dangerous. 
The old geezer is lucky he didn't shoot himself in the leg when he fell on his ass.  Clearly, you can't use it if you need it - but the odds are you can't get it out of a holster quickly enough to be practically useful EITHER.  But it makes it less likely you will accidentally shoot yourself or someone else if you use one.
2. No one acting intelligently while armed with a deadly weapon tries to pull their gun on someone when that person is already pointing a gun at them.  You have already lost any possible advantage of shooting first; you will however dramatically increase the probability of getting shot yourself before you can fire.  Even if you both fire your guns, you are going to be endangering others besides the bad guy.  It does not appear any of the shots fired by this fat old white crabby guy hit the person he aimed at ---  where did they go?
This guy was a dumbass to keep arguing with someone who pulled a gun on them. 
3. Clearly, having a gun you can't get out of your pocket and that the would-be criminal doesn't know is there is NO DETERRENT to a crime.  There is nothing heroic about shooting someone in the back, there is nothing heroic in shooting at someone after they have left.  This guy is stupid and inept, not heroic.
Under normal laws applying to law enforcement, they are not allowed to shoot a suspect in the back, a suspect who is fleeing, if it endangers others.  They are not allowed to shoot a suspect who is NOT a danger to others - and when this bad guy, a black guy in a hoodie!, left the scene, I would argue that he no longer presented an imminent danger to the mo-ped owner or anyone else.
He should have been reported to the police, but the fat old white grumpy guy shouldn't be shooting someone fleeing a failed crime scene.  This is one more instance of a grump with a gun going vigilante on someone; no moped is worth shooting someone over.  It's just a dumb MOPED for Pete's sake!  No crook is going to outrun the cops on a silly old moped! (He probably couldn't outrun cops on ten speeds.)
Stop shooting and put on a shirt, PLEASE.  You're not only endangering your neighborhood, you're uglifying it.  Use better judgement, and please - better taste.  You call the cops; we won't call the fashion police on you.

Armed while Old, Fat, White and Crabby? Part 3 of 3

Armed, and dangerous to everyone around them, including to themselves. 
The dangerously paranoid delusions that have the armed and dangerous fat, white, elderly crowd ready to shoot at the wrong things was illustrated in the following interview.  It makes it clear why the right wing crazies need to give themselves legal cover when they shoot unarmed, not threatening people, especially people for whom they harbor an unwarranted fear. The Shoot First laws are in place to help them get out of accountability for their mistakes, as has been demonstrated by not only the Trayvon Martin killing, but a wide variety of other Shoot First killings.
This is what the American Gun Nuts, as in crazy people who are not objectively connected to reality when it comes to properly identifying danger looks like to a neutral observer who represents the rest of the civilized world's view of danger in the context of long term declining crime rates, including violent crime, especially in our large cities where crime rates previously were highest:
 

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The enemy

I just left a bar, after having a rather heated argument.

Someone with whom I was speaking was sitting next to someone who repeatedly made references to people of color being inferior, people who have committed crimes deserving to die and people who aren't, in his warped opinion, deserving of the same opportunities as he and his friends and families, being freeloaders. 

I was biting my tongue, for the sake of not offending people.  He waxed poetic about the new G.I. Joe movie (complete escapist, jingoistic crap).  He said that his daughter was as good as any of Steven Spielberg's editors, but couldn't get any help in paying her tuition, because he makes too much money and he's white. I was still biting my tongue. 

He then told a story about how he had swayed a jury in his home county to find a man guilty of first degree murder.  He said that the man charged was gay,  that he had killed his lover, stabbing him over 30 times, most of the stab wounds being, "below the belt"* .  He said that the "money quote" he used in convincing the other jury members to vote for conviction was (and he delivered this in a mincing, "queer", tone of voice) the answer that the defendant gave to the prosecutor when he was asked why he had killed his lover.  That answer was, "He sucked his dick!".  He said this, twice, possibly three times.  He then lamented that NJ has no death penalty and that all murderers should die at the hands of the state and all who rape children (on adults, he wasn't so draconian).  Once again, I held my water.

Then he said something about an Islamist president being "taken out" in the G.I. Joe 2 movie.  I did not hear him clearly and I said, "The president is not an Islamist".  His reply was that he wasn't talking about the current president.  I then asked him what he WAS talking about and he repeated that it was in the movie's plot ( I have not been able to find out whether or not that is true--I suspect it's bullshit).  Then, he said that President Obama is a socialist and a traitor. 

Sorry, folks, it doesn't take a lot to piss me off on the blogs, but I usually hold my water in meatlife.  Not tonight.  I told him that was bullshit.  He repeated it.  I told him he was a Teabagger.  It did not go uphill from there.  The poor gal whose father owns the place was in a tough spot and really wanted nothing more than for me to leave, which I did after a couple of more comments apiece between me and the other guy. 

The guy who I had words with has been here for several weeks and it's not the first time I've listened to him bloviate about "right to life" and the inferiority of other than white folks.  He's a big deal consultant of some sort who is from here, originally, but lives in NJ at the moment.  He's a fucking prick and a racist.  He is also, I'm sure, a staunch supporter of Li'l Ricky Santorum as he is anti-abortion.

After I called him a Teabagger, he said that he's a "Classical Liberal" and that I should read about the life of Thomas Jefferson and Jefferson's writings on the subject of liberalism.  Typical Teabaggist bullshit, typical reptiliscum bullshit.  Claiming Jefferson for their own, as if he wouldn't denounce them if he were here, today.

Then, as I was leaving, he turned around and stuck out his hand and said, "Well, one of these evenings, we'll meet as friends.", the smug asshole.  I told him that such a thing was not going to happen.

I can disagree with people, and be disagreeable about it, and still be civil at the end of the day.  When someone like the clown I was dealing with tonight pulls the kind of shit that he did; well, rapprochement is not a probability.

Here's the thing.  We are facing a shitstorm of problems, as a nation and as a planetary community.  There are, certainly, legitimate arguments to be made from all sides of the political divide re: solving those problems. What cannot work is to have people that are completely divorced from reality be accorded the same courtesies and have their "arguments" given the same weight, as those who actually HAVE facts to work with and some ideas about rational policy for dealing with those problems. 

Blaming the poor, the "inferior" races, the Palestinians, women, gays, unions, liberals, islamists, Iranians and the whole panoply of the GOP's bogeymen is ALL that the rightwing has.  They have no real diagnosis of our society's ills, never mind any genuine prescription for curing those ills.  It is, in fact, they who are the traitors. It is they who are attempting to destroy a nation that is not of their liking.  Narrow minded bigots, exceptionalist douchebags and religionist scolds--none of them.has the interests of anyone beyond themselves or their small circle of associates in mind.  They do not care what happens to anyone but themselves.  They are the enemy.

If I could have a conversation  with someone like the idiot who was spouting all of this nonsense I would ask him how it is that he can't support his family.  I would ask him why anyone should give him or his children a fucking thing.  Charity is, after all, for those who CAN'T meet their own needs; it's certainly not for people that are free-market types who want everyone to work for everything that they receive.

I would also ask him if his legal opinons about rapists of children being executed would, perforce, include all of the RCC's paedophiles and all of the GOP legislators who have had sex with anyone who is not legally of an age to give consent.

I might inquire as to how it is that nonwhites are inferior to whites.  I would, of course, want to know what he bases his opinion on.  Would it be the work of the eugenicists, the opinions of such intellectual giants as Adolf Hitler and Josef Mengele?

I would probably quiz him about the basis of his antipathy towards women who elect not to have babies.  He has stated on previous occassions that he isn't a Catholic but that he supports their stance on "right to life" issues.   He has also stated that abortion is an anti-black pogrom by liberals. 

Alas, none of this will be happening.  I doubt that I will be speaking to him in future.  I will have to go and apologize to the young lady who was managing the bar this evening.  I am a bit dismayed at the prospect of not going there anymore, as they have always been courteous and polite to me.  However, I will certainly understand if they would prefer I not return.  The town I live in has two nuke plants (three reactors, total) and one of the largest aluminum smelters in the U.S., if not the world.  As is often the case--unfortunately, many of those who enjoy the fruits of the union movement are extremely conservative and hate liberal ideas, voting against their own interests on a regular basis.  The bar (a bar and grill, actually) where I was tonight does a very good business with locals and contractors from the nuke and aluminum plants.  I would not jeapordize their business by creating difficulties for them.  We'll see how that goes.

Meantime, I have pretty much had it with being polite to assholes who spout lies and get their feelings hurt when they're called on them.  On the blogs it's not really a problem, most of the time.  In meatlife it can get pretty sticky, particularly when you are in a small city like the one I live in. 

Selfish, mean spirited, shortsighted, braindead assholes do not deserve courtesy, respect or a hearing.  Full stop.



*    Not an uncommon feature of stabbing crimes where a sexual relationship is part of the mix.

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack

I was in the po' white trash intertoobz sector for about a month, 'cuz when I dumped Verizon and hooked up with TimeWarner there was a teensy glitch--TimeWarner couldn't find my house for about three weeks.

They got me hooked up and WOW, what a difference between Verzscum's "High Speed DSL" and TimeWarner's cheap ass, low end, "Are you sure that will be enough speed for your requirements, sir?", BARE MINIMUM download/upload speed. 

Now, then, to business.  I have decided that in future, I will be much more warm and cuddly, touchyfeelyfuzzy re: dealing with my gentle readers' oft incorrect but always sincere attempts to refute my brilliant and unbelievably modest attempts to set the world back on its true and straight path, a path from which it has wandered in recent decades.  This is not to say that I will NOT treat those morons who come here--using their own heads as organic buttplugs--and attempt to derail polite and refined discourse with their adamantine and inexhaustible indignorance with a  full measure of the disdain and the derision that they deserve*.  Nosirreebob, them sumbitches r'gonna be in my metaphorical gunzsightz like sitting ducks in a barrel full of seahorses of a diffurnt color.

RickFUCKINGSantorum?  Really?  He's the new pastywhitehope of the GOPinheads?

While I would never misunderestimate the ignorance and apathy of the 21st Century U.S. electorate, that might be enough to make even the most hardened** conservative quietly pull the lever for the darkish Obamandingo.

I know, I know, it sounds heretical but there it is.  Li'l Ricky is just the latest in a long line of populist douchebags to jump out of the GOP's clowncar of candidacy.

There are, actually, a couple of good things that ex-Senaturd Frothymix's surge***   has accomplished. 

A.)  I haven't heard squat from St. Sarah of Wassilla or the abominably stupid Michele Bachmann in at least a couple of weeks. 

2.)  Re-read the above, yeah, it's THAT good.

Z///3.4r.)  Mittunswillard's campaign accountants must be tearing their fucking hair out.  I mean, not only does Mr. FaKKKristian have to spend MORE money than anybody wants to, just to beat off, um, defeat Sangolem in states that should not have been in play; Romney just found out that Bain Capitol cannot BUY the GOP, shitcan the staff and loot the pension fund.  WTF?  How is a good, honest**** son of Zion 'sposed to get by if he can't steal MORE money?

The opinions expressed above are solely my own (and anyone else's whose head isn't about a yard up their colon).  All dissenting opinions will be read, ridiculed and discarded.  Thanks for playing.






*    Is that wordgroupthingie, " the disdain and the derision that they deserve", an example of duplex alliteration or what?

**  Unless of course we are talking about the members of the MFI  (MurKKKan Fundagelical Idiots) who would vote for Santorum if he ran against JESUS, himself--cuz' y'know a JESUS who actually expected them to follow the prescription of the Sermon On The Mount would haftabe a SATANIC impostor.

*** Is it just me or does the word, "surge", mean different things in different contexts?  When I think of the word's use, in re: to people like Sansscrotum, it conjures up images of MarkFoleyLarryCraigTedHaggardousity that puts poor Jimmy Swaggart and the always entertaining TammyFaye Bakker to shame.

****Hahahahahahaha!

Merry Christkwannukahnaliativus--you can figure it out.

So, here it is, Christmas, AGAIN!

It's been a wild and wooly (well, wooly for me is considerably, like, thinner than it used to be) year.  Lotsa good stuff has happened, but I can't remeber what it was!

Life here in Upstate NY is interesting.  We had a late start to summer and then a long, lingering fall.  We've had less than 2 inches of snow the last I heard.  Usually by this time we're up to our butts in the white (well, okay, gray) stuff and not having picked up all the junk in the yard doesn't seem like that much of an issue.  It's been pretty warm (relatively speaking), only getting as low as the single digits once or twice--it's currently about 30 degrees @ 7:45 AM. 

The house is slowly getting to the point where it looks like a house.  I could show you some pikchoors, but I don't want to scare anybody!

Buddy The Wonder Dog, my new roommate is currently sleeping under a nice warm fleece, on the rocking chair which is about 3 feet away from the pellet stove.  He's snug as a bug in a rug and I'm sure he's dreaming about the squirrels that he can never catch in meatspace.  Pretty soon, we'll go out for a Christmas Constitutional and he'll be checking every tree, shrub, utility pole and guy and any people moving too slowly to escape, to see if his property markers are still in good order.  Then we'll come home and he'll have his breakfast of roast beef, sweet potatoes, rice and green beans while I enjoy my special Christmas Gruel ( the same ol', same ol', oatmeal with craisins, pecans & maple syrple).  Then we'll sit around till lunchtime when I will have some roast beef, sweet potatoes, rice and green beans AND some more special Christmas Gruel (but in honor of the day, it will be flambeed with a cup of Everclear and a soupcon of Dr. McGillicuddy's peppermint schnapps).  Buddy will be havin' teh kibble.

In years past I have written "humorous" Christmas letters, chock-full-o-nuttiness, about the fictional goings on of various celebrities and politicians.  I was thinking about doing that this year, but due to a shortage of the Rumnog and my Muse's having run off with the UPS guy, I was unable to conjure up the requisite imagery.  I suggest, instead, that you simply google "GOP primary" or watch a marathon of those "Hollywood" exposee thingies.  I cannot (at least in the last 30 years) take enough illicit substances to conjure up the sorts of fiction that is, in fact, fact out there in LAlaland and down in D.C.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas (if that's what floats your boat) or other holiday festiveissnees.  I look forward to visiting as many of you as possible in the next year--and I WILL be travelling with Buddy (he's got an Amex Black!) so get out the guest waterbowl!

Cheers and warmest regards from your favorite uncle/peace loving dope.

Me and Mr. Picasso and, um, Klaus Barbie

As of today I am on the gummint teat and it is sweet!  That's right, allayouyoung whippersnappers, I turned 62 at 5:sumpin,sumpin this morning.  I want all of you to have a piece of birthday cake, tell old fart jokes and GET THE HELL OFFA MY LAWN!

This:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-ford/ayn-rand-and-the-vip-dipe_b_792184.html
 
is almost a year old but I just saw it.

Ford's article highlights the hypocrisy of one of the many instances where conservatards say one thing for the soundbite and say/do something entirely different when the klieg lights are turned off.

A number of my friends think I'm just too damned nasty to people with whom I disagree, that would be their perception, not reality.  I am perfectly happy to debate the merits of laissez faire capitalism v marxist run GODless nannygummint.  Or, I would be, if there was a marxist run GODless nannygummint in place in the U.S. 

What we actually have is a fairly right of center executive branch, a very right of center judiciary and a legislature that is divided into a very right of center Senate and a batshit KKKrazzeeHouse.

Many of the freshman class of SKKKrotalMurKKKinPatriotiKKK legislators spend taxpayer money to flit about he countryside encouraging their constituents to vote out the wasteful liebrals who are throwin MY MONEY away.

Teabaggists are using government to try to abolish same--except that where fuckin', druggin', drinkin' and gamblin are concerned. they're all for draconian laws, lots of enforcers and hard time. 

More later, I gotta go do some scullery work for a fundraiser tonight--

The fundraiser was a success, lots of good food and happy people.

This evening I was talking to someone who tried to tell me that Obama is the worst imaginable president and that he's done nothing and doesn't know how to lead.  When I told him that approximately half of the U.S. Congress has a scorched earth policy concerning governance his counter was that a good "leader" would not let that happen--as if there is fuck all that any president can do about congress.  Then he made a comment along the lines of the WSO protestors being a bunch of fools.  I will admit that got my blood percolatin' a bit faster.  I told him that the difference between the WSO and the SKMPF*  (other than the fact that WSO seems to have some idea what the term "coherent" means) is that the Kochsuckers aren't funding the WSO,.  and, oh yeah, the Teabaggists are, in far too many instances for it to be a coincidence, racists. 

He then said that all Obama wants to do is bring bands to the WH to play.  I then told him I was done talking to him because I won't debate with people whose arguments are racist.  It's not what I really wanted to say.  I wanted to tell him that he was a complete fucking asshole.  I did tell him that he was a racist, which he denied.  I am really amazed, sometimes, at the level of cognitive dissonance on the right.


*  SKKKrotalMurKKKinPatriotiKKK Front

Hank Williams, Jr.  be ridin' in the Whaaaaaaaaaambulance; St. Sarah, the Impalinator of Wassilla be griftin' her indignorant supporters and the GOPinheads' candidates be implodin' on themselves.  The true tragedy in all of this is that the aforementioned will simply be rebranded or replaced in the hearts and mindlessness of the SKKKrotalMerKKKinPatriotiKKK Front.  At best we will wind up with some piece of shit like Mittunswillard Romney doin' backflip-flops to convince the FarsideRight that he's oneathem, while, simultaneously trying to convince those of us with brains that he is oneaus.  At worst, well, fuck it, I don't even want to think about what sort of slime coats the bottom of the cesspit that the GOP has become.

The "Party of Personal Responsibility" has become almost incapable of self-grooming.  The "Base" whether it's 2.6%, 26% or 62% of the electorate is demonstrating a level of teh batshit KKKrazzee that is beyond self-parody. 

If it's not the fact that the talking shitheads parrot the demagogues'  "liberals control the media" or "George Soros is buying the MerKKKin political process", it's their reporting*  with a straight face that people like Missy Bachman or Herman Cain actually have, y'know, some fucking clue about governance.  Meanwhile the protests on Wall Street and other financial centers--worldwide--, the continuing financial daterape of the middle class by those who are in the buildings on Wall Street and other financial centers and a host of other genuine issues are conveniently ignored by the corportatist controlled media**.

The American middleclass, with whom I swam from 1998--2005 (a period when I had semi-decent pay, health insurance and some sort of retirement/pension plan) is being decimated.  This is not being done with gunz or goosesteppin'hobnailedjacknannies but, rather, by habitat destruction.   American small business is being extirpated in its natural range; not by taxes and regulation but by increasing corporate hegemony. 

The small city I live in has many of the same names on the front of the stores that I would see in San Francisco, San Antonio, Des Moines, Chicago, Boston or Tampa--and a thousand or more other cities and towns. 

When I go shopping I sometimes ask why I can't find an item at the local big box (yeah, I shop there when I have to) only to be told that they don't move enough units to make it profitable to stock the item.  I'm not talking about exotic shit, I'm talking about a plumbing fitting, electrical connector or piece of builiding hardware.  The big boxes have run the smaller stores out of business, one way or another, and they simply don't have to worry about competition.  The local Wal-Mart and the local store of regional grocer both charge more for their products than other stores in the same chain that are 10-12 miles away.  Why?  because they can.

I belong to the local Chamber of Commerce and they work their asses off to promote local businesses.  What's really bizarre is that he U.S. Chamber of Commerce does exactly the opposite. 

It's sad that, for those of you with children, the odds are not in their favor.  They will not enjoy an ever expanding economy.  They will not be able, in many cases, to live the "American Dream".  They will be living, instead, with a crushing burden of national debt that constrains or prevents economic expansion.  Jobs which used to be done by well paid U.S. citizens are now being done by people who are paid much less, people who have no unions, no labor friendly legislators, no government controls to speak of on their rapacious and insatiable employers and no benefits worth mentioning. 

It seems that the Kochsuckers and their ilk have a plan to return the U.S. to the days of the Johnstown Flood when 2,200 or more people lost their lives after a "disaster" at a privately owned dam inundated the city of Johnstown, PA; the days of the Shirtwaist Factory fire when over 125 women were incinerated in a NYC sweatshop; the days of the unregulated trucking, mining, telecom and manufacturing industries when money spoke louder than any other voice.  They wish to return us to a time when governmental social welfare was virtually non-existent and public monies were spent, primarily, to fund fire and police departments, build roads and other public infrastructure--to and from the corporatists' business properties  and damned little else.

Elections are coming up.  Once again, the DNC is dancing as hard as it can to the right, attempting to emulate the heartlessness and obdurate, willful ignorance of the GOP.  I have no particular hope that this will change.  I do, however, intend to do what I can to slow the cancerous advance of rightwing wrongheadedness.  One of the few things we can all do is to contact our pols and the media and demand that they be engaged in and honest about those things that are truly important in this country.  I wish us well in that endeavor.





*       Read, "mailing it in", "lying" or other suitable word or phrase.

**     Which seems to be most of it, above the level of your "Weekly Shopper" publication.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhhh, ssweet suffrin' 900'  JESUS  with the frikkin' laser eyes on  a pogo stick!


This is NOT the post I wanted to write but there you go.


On Thursday last, I left the house in a bit of  a hurry and, in so doing, donned a pair of shorts that were comfortable in a previous, less adipositive existence.  I went to Fulton, the next town over, did a very quick chore at a friend's commercial building, stopped by his office and dropped off the keys and then went home.  Gone from the house an hour, tops.

By the time I got back to the house, it was all I could do to hobble up the stairs, shuck the uni of the day and get prone.  Sciatica, for those of you who have not been unfortunate enough to have it is probably second cousin to waterboarding in the torture department--except when you're being waterboarded you don't WANT to die.

On friday, after a truly miserable night, I called the Syracuse VA ER and asked them what the protocols were for coming there.  They told me I had to speak to my PCP, first and follow his directions.  I put in a call to the PCP (talked to the nurse, a very nice and competent young woman) and told them what had happened and that I needed two prescriptions, one for Peroxicam and one for Lyrica or something else that would attenuate nerve pain.  This was at about 8:30 AM.  Finally, three phone tags later, at about 4:40 I was told that the doctor would write a scrip for Meloxicam (a better version, so they say, of the Peroxicam formulation) and 5/500 Hydrocodone tablets (they're sort of like white M&M's except they don't taste good and they lock up my guts like a bag of Sakrete).  Well, what're ya gonna do?  Okay, so when will I get the meds?  8-10 days. 

Well, that sorta sucked, but I used some leftovers from other bouts (never sure about the efficacy of three year old pharma) and got through the weekend.  Monday, I went to the local clinic to plead my case, talked to the same nurse (whose only the messenger--I blame her for nothing) and told her I had a history of sciatica and not one, but two, MRI's and a four yeart old x-ray, plus the radiologists and surgeon's notes to back it up.  I asked could we not just do a CT scan (quicker and cheaper, though not as definitive as an  MRI) to see if there were significant apparent changes in my S1-L5 spine.  I was told that they would schedule an x-ray and go from there. 

To get the x-ray I had to go Syracuse VA, unless I wanted to pull several non-existent Benjamins out of my pocket for the local hospital to do it.  So, I drove to Syracuse, hobbled into the medical center, had a nice lady force me into a wheelchair and push me to the Imaging departrment and got maybe 5 views.  At this point I was in enough pain to want other people to suffer with me.  But, instead I went down to the ER and sat there for about three and a half hours while they took care of other folks.  Now, sitting under a sign that says "Triage" and watching them take people with a fucking headcold in ahead of you, who are pretty much writhing in agony in a wheelchair, is somewhat ironic to say the least, but I'm nothing if not fucking POLITE, so I writhed more or less quietly. 

Finally, I got wheeled into the treatment area and put on a gurney.  After the preliminaries I got an ER doc (Oh, yeah, they asked THREE times if I had an x-ray, an x-ray which the nice lady in the imaging unit told me would be there in about twenty minutes from the time she took it--digital, cool!)  who checked me for a hernia (Okay, I admit it reminded me of HS--or maybe it was from when I was an Altar boy, I get confused, sometimes)  had me do some range of motion stuff and a couple of strength tests and then announced that it wasn't sciatica but, instead, a groin pull.  This was determined from the fact that I was experiencing pain similar to someone having shoved a piece of re-bar through my groin/hip area at approximately the mid-lines of the x-y axes of a line between my pubic bone and the outside of my hip bone and a line between my femur cap and my rib cage.  This was also determined in the absence of any bruising, swelling or localized tissue heating.  He intimated, in so many words, that I had given the PCP incorrect information and that I had reported a symptom as if it were a diagnosis, confusing the issue.  So, in other words, I was wasting the time and resources of his unit by being a crybaby and (just my opinion here) shopping for meds. 

I told him that I needed something for the pain and that Lyrica was the best thing that I had ever tried, as if killed the pain without any significant side effects for me.   He explained that they could not write that scrip as there is a continuum of pharma that they must adhere to and that the ER does not write for that medication.  So, of course he gave me 5/500 of oxycodone (the bitter white, M&M's), enough to last four days, supposedly and--thank CHRIST, he at least got this right--, 10 x 15mg of Meloxicam.  It only took me about twenty minutes to make the four minute walk to my truck in the parking lot. 

Wednesday morning I called the VA clinic, here, and told them that I had gone to the ER and was still in a lot of pain as the Oxycodone does nothing for nerve pain (in my experience) unless I take about EIGHT times the dose they have me on.  Well, the doctor, whom I have not seen or talked to, does not agree with me.  So, I ask if they want to see my MRI's and maybe, y'know, get a new one.  They said that would be a good idea, so I spent a painful hour or two moving things to find them (full disclosure, I am not a housekeeping sorta person) and drove them over to the clinic.  I ran a couple of errands, socialized (no alcohol) with some friends for a bit and then went back home and spent the rest of the night horizontal and feelin' shitty.

On Thursday, this is after 7 days of suffering,I got a call from the doctor, at 8:06 in the morning.  I could not reach the phone from my bed and by the time I got it, it had gone to message.   He said I should call himn back, which I did immediately.  Still no return call from him.   I then went online to check the status of my prescriptions that had been written last friday. They had been cancelled. It seems that the pharmacy in the VA hospital had "filled" them by processing the ER scripts.  I laid around the house in various "twister" poses trying to find one that hurt less than others until about 4:00PM.  The nurse called me back to tell me that the ER doc's report says that I am dealing with "spinal arthritis and a hip sprain"--not 'zacky what he told me--and that they would not be scheduling an MRI because it wasn't indicated.  I was also told that I could try six weeks of PT--in Syracuse--and if that didn't work that they would then schedule further tests.  I explained to the nurse that I could not afford to drive back and forth to Syracuse 3 times a week.  Okay, they said, well, there you are.  She agreed with me that my meds should not have been cancelled and that she would rewrite them and have them sent overnight (that would have really been nice LAST week).

Thursday night; wow, just not something I want to dwell on, or all day yesterday.  At about 1:30 in the afternoon I called the clinic and told them that the meds were not doing jack and that I was going to see if I could find somebody to drive me back down to the ER--me knowing and her agreeing that it might not do any good.  As it turned out that didn't happen and I spend last night wishing I had some heroin.  I did take a double dose of the Meloxicam (a very strong NSAID--the usual dose is 7.5mg/day) and crawled back into bed.  After another night of laying flat on my back, doing a lot of whimpering, I finally got to sleep around 5:30 AM.  While lying in pain I managed to find an ESPN broadcast of the Sox/Rays game (Sox WIN, Sox WINNNNN!!!!) and I think it did as much to alleviate the pain as the worthless oxy dosage.  When I got out of bed this morning, fully expecting to have to crawl to the bathroom, I was surprised to find that the incredible pain I had experienced when simply standing up had abated.  It's still sore as hell, but that I can live with.

Now, the part that is interesting is that the "groin pain" and the "hip pain" just don't exist, this morning.  A mystery of modern medicine, you say?  A miracle of modern pharma, you say?  Or is it that the "hip" and "groin" pains were symptoms of a diagnosis of sciatica?  Gosh, I wonder if any of the people who never looked at me or never looked at my history or the imaging that I offered them will admit that maybe, just maybe, I DID know wtf I was talking about--Nah, that wouldn't be the AMAway.

This screed, btw, is not an indictment of the VA in particular or the medical profession in general.  It is just me kvetching that healthcare providers in general and doctors, very much in particular, don't fucking LISTEN to their patients when their patients' "self-diagnosis" offends their sense of medical sciency knowing-it-alliness.

I just took the dog for a walkshitmarkin'therealm and he's all, like, "Man, are you over the screemin' shit--I worry about you when your eyes roll back in your head and you start talkin' in tongues.  Makes me think you might go all KKKristian on my ass!".  It's good to know that his perspective on what's important in life--water, food, shelter and layin' around sleepin' with his little doggy legs pumpin' while he growls and woofs--does not change in a world gone mad.

Over the last two years and eight months, approximately, a number of people whose blogs I spend time at elected to eschew "politics" as a divisive and, ultimately., fruitless endeavor.

We all need to do what we need to do, but when we stop blogging about politics (and politicians) we cede that "marketplace of ideas" to those who are committed to forcing their agenda(s) on the rest of us.

I've been accused of being a marxist (yesterday, by someone who thinks my "belief" in evolution--I don't "believe" in evolution, I accept that the facts of natural history are best explained by the Theory of Evolution--is trumped by his belief in CretinIDiocy).  I've been accused of being a liar, a communist, a liberal, a GODhater, an anti-gun crusader and a number of other things, none of which I am. 

I am someone who does not believe in allowing people who cherry pick their facts; use the Big Book of Celestial Fantasy Beings; repeat--without the least bit of research--ridiculous assertions, intended to demonize their opposition to do so without opposition.

You disagree with me?  fine.  You disagree with me and use lies to support your assertions or simply make assertions with no support?  Uh, fuck you.

The Democratic Party is in disarray, that's sort of the nature of democracies. The GOP is in disarray as well, but their disarray has more to do with cognitive dissonance, dog whistles pitched too high for any but the SKKKrotalMurKKKinPatriotiKKK Front to hear and long suppressed but never eradicated racist, homophobic, xenophobic and outright paranoic tendencies in the aforementioned SKPF. 

If the history of politics in the USA over the last 40 or so years has taught me anything, it is this.  Playing nice with assholes will not make THEM better people.  It will make the nice people less likely to get what they want in the process of  their governance.

Whether it's economics, fiscal policy, race relations, national security, social support for those less able or unable to provide for themselves, voting rights and a host of other concerns to ALL of us--letting the bullies lead is a horrendously bad idea. 

You don't gotta be like me and pick fights with almost everybody you disagree with, but you do have to show some sack, unless you're willing to give the other side everything they want--regardless that it will never be enough.

A coward and his lunch are soon parted.

The edumification of Missy Bachman & Reason takes a long fuckin' weekend.

It appears that Congressstepfordwife Michele Bachmann is aiming to be SP-Mark II* and St. Sarah the Wasillabilly has, AGAIN, quit her job--in this case the further cheapening (if such a thing is even possible) of the GOP's current campaign to regain the WH in 2012.

I was talking to a friend of mine, a genuine republican, who told me that his business is almost back to the level it was at before the Obamacession of 2008**.  He said his business was on track to equal its revenues for 2008--if the politicians quit fucking things up.  He was not talking about the democrats.

Meantime, between the Religiotards and the Gunzloonz we have more than enough of teh Batshit KKKrazzee to last through this century, never mind the current election cycle.

MissyB has said, publicly, that she WILL do what her husband tells her to do.  Considering that her husband is a quach who MADE her become a tax lawyer and who also runs a "Gay reparative" MH practice, well, it sounds like a recipe for disaster to me if she gets in the Oval Office.,

When this:

"And it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations,"

was said, by then Senator Barack Obama, it was decried by the Reichwing as a slam against the "average man".  Well, I suppose that's true, if you think of the "average man" as being a mouth-breathing troglodytic, superstitious, religiofanatical 2nd Amendment fetishitst.  Average men, regardless their religion or political persuasion, accept that the world is NOT modelled for them, by their favorite diety--as much as they might like it to be.

Average men (and women, as well) know that this world may be depended upon, to be undependable. 

It is a mark of one's intelligence to know that, "Shit happens!", it is a mark of one's wisdom to know that "Shit doesn't happen to me because bad people are fucking with GOD.".

Now, then, to the gunz thing.  After months of reading posts and comments at Mikeb302000's blog I have arrived at the conclusion that for a certain subset of MurKKKins, gunz ARE religion.  They are both a tool to achieve salvation and, in some cases, salvation itself.

I will admit that I have NO FUCKING IDEA how that conflation takes place in the heads of the gunzloonz, but that it happens is pretty damned obvious.

Seeing gunz as the tool for achieving justice, equality , security and self-respect is a lot like having nothing but a hammer in one's "toolbox".  When all you own is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.  When your only tool is a gun (and not just a hunting weapon but something like an AR-15 or a Desert Eagle) than every "problem" starts to look like a would be strong-armed robber or home invader. 

I will admit that I finally got a "home defense system".  His photo is at the top of my last post.  Buddy has exceptional hearing, an incredibly sensitive nose and a good set of lungs.  He is my first line of defense.  If someone breaks in the house--or stands on my porch, he's gonna make da noize and alert me.  I'm then going to dial 911 and take my chances that the door and mattress will slow down any but the most dedicated assassin until the jackbooted Officer Friendlies show up. 

I could say a lot more on this subject but why drain the boil with a single lancing?

Besides, buddy just read this and said,"Yeah, right, that;'s great.  demoDUDE, throw me a bone.  No, I mean, it throw me a frikkin' BONE!.  Let's do "walkies", you know what a babemagnet I am?"


*      Sarah Palin, The Re-tread

**    Oh, yeah, go ahead and ACT surprised that the Uppitykenyatalizaridiantimetravellin'
        plot to wreck the MurKKKin economy was uncovered--I'm pretty sure it was in the
        Whirled Nuts Daily.

Buddy's new home

This is "Buddy".  Some of you may remember his photo from my christmas missive of two seasons back, or not.

Buddy is a mixed breed, approximately half dachshund and half gesundheit! You're welcome!  He's convinced that he's a Rottweiler but I don't let him tangle with the big dogs, wouldn't want him to embarass them.  He's also approaching middledoggieage, he's about seven.  He was a rescue, by the lady who I got him from.

He's living with me because the nice lady who had him for two and a half years is terminally ill and she wanted to be sure he had a good home (her son has 3 chihuahas and Buddy, he don't play dat) I told her that if she couldn't find anyone else to take him, I would.  I'm pretty sure she stopped looking after that.  The good news is that Buddy is housebroken, loves people and doesn't smoke.  The bad news is he drinks my beer, cheats at cards and farts, OMFG does he fart.  I mean you'd swear that no 15 pound dog on earth could make that much noise and stench, I mean you'd prolly guess it was the work of someone, like, my size. 

I caught him messing around on the computer yesterday, so if you get any weird anti-cat screeds, I'm not the one sending them, capice?  BTW, he might be checking my references and credit rating.  Ixnay on the ruthtay if you get my meaning. 

Apocapolitics Now

I remember when I saw the movie, "Omega Man"*--back in 1971--thinking that the crazed, photophobic followers of "John Matthias" were, fortunately, nothing but a SciFi author's nightmare of post-apocalyptic mankind.

Then, along came the SKKKrotalMerKKKinPatriotiKKK Party (know to some as the the Tea Party) to dispel that notion.

The current crop of GOP cant'idates stoking the fires and stroking the egos of their credulous and often viciously racist followers is truly awesome--and not in a good way.

Bachman,Bush,Gingrich,Huckabee,Palin,Pawlenty,Perry,Romney,The Dongald and others who are running, exploring, definitly not running (but exploring), definitely not running or exploring (but, curiously, still raising money, just in case!) and just sorta y'know battin' the idea arouind with a few friends and overpaid "conslutants"* make me long for REAL conservatives like Goldwaterr, Romney "Origins" or Al Haig--no, wait, fuck Al Haig, that bemedaled fop.

I mean, holeeeeeeeeeeeeee shit, is that the best that the GOP can come up with, the list of braindead or teh dogwhistling Batshit KKKrazzeefucks that are out there now?  These are, as a group, the worst slate of potential CinC's I've ever seen.  We're talking orders of magnitude.  Teh Burning Stoopit that is emenating from this crowd rivals the flash that consumed the dinosaurs when that giant meteor was lobbed into the Gulf of Mexico by a vengeful GOD 6,000 years ago***.

If this was a movie, I'd rate it right down there with "Cabin Boy", the worst movie I ever sat through.  But, it's not a movie, it's a glimpse of a future I won't really have to deal with for too long.  Today's youth and their fresh-faced 'rents, otoh, will have to deal with it and what's genuinely puzzling is that they don't seem to give a a shit.  Or, at least they don't give enough of a shit to actually educate themselves about the Fuckapalooza that the GOP's primary process has turned into. 

If only that phrase, "eating their own", were true then the GOP would solve the problem they have created.  I am saddened to note that it is not.



*      The movie in which Charlton Heston, pursued by a horde of murderous fiends may have received his epiphanic moment of clarity re: guns are THE problem solver.

**    No, it's not misspelled.

***  Okay, now you know what REALLY caused "The Flood".

Blogger seems to be completely fucked lately.  I  am unable to leave comments at any blogger spots that I frequent.  Might be time to move on.