Welcome to Summer Camp Kids

Chain link walls inside tin buildings are not cages the Presidential advocate says.  What they are is not really spelled out clearly.  But rest assured, the chain link rooms are not cages.

Another pipes in that what has been erected are more akin to Summer Camps, inferring a population of happy children and even happier parents who have successfully found someone to take their little ones off their hands for a brief while. The crying you might hear are cries of joy.

In the meantime, higher up the Right Wing food chain, presidential representatives claim the separation of the illegal kids from their illegal families is the Democrats' fault.  Besides, the separations are Biblically sanctioned actions, so calm down, God says its okay.

All in all, the half baked explanations and mealy mouthed excuses seem reasonable given the group they are coming from.  We should expect no less from such an upstanding group of leaders sporting such high moral principles.  Keep up the good work. I am sure the children will one day understand that the Wall was more important than their humanity.  They will then remember you fondly.

Later .....................................................

Ancient History

It appears what I thought I knew about Father's Day was well, absolutely nothing.  Yes, it is sad but true that I haven't a clue why, where, or when Dad's Day came into existence.  Being that I wanted to refrain from political commentary, yet still keep up with a daily post of some kind, I was going to have to find something else to satisfy my most recent writing jones.

After at least thirty seconds of intense consideration, I zeroed in on Father's Day.  I dutifully followed up this serious inquiry with 5 tortuous minutes rifling through Google choices before settling on a website devoted to Father's Day.  If anyone would have the skinny about why Dad has his own day, I was sure it would be them.  After all the site is called "Father's Day.com".

What I found out was eye opening.  It appears Father's Day is much older than anyone thought.  Experts have found in the ruins of a Babylon town, a clay tablet upon which one young man named Elmesu, carved out loving sentiments to his father, owner of a nearby sheep operation.

Sadly though, Elmesu's fondness faded when he found out Dad was going to give the sheep farm to Alrus, second son in the line.  Elmesu was beside himself because of his father's betrayal.  So he took the clay Father's Day tablet he had labored over for three days and three nights, and he bludgeoned his father to death with it in front of the cook fire in the kitchen.

Life was tough back in the day.  Ascension within many family lines depended on bloody takeovers carried out by one generation over the next.  Transition was not always pretty.

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Post Script and BTW - Now that it is currently acceptable to use lies instead of facts to support one's take, I have some questions about lines and when they are crossed.  If using Fake News as support, does the Fake News have to be completely fake?  Or is it still Fake News if only part of it is?   I mean, is a half truth, or say a quarter truth any better than a flat out lie?  If so, where is the line?  I am only asking this because it may have some relevance to the above post.

Happy Father's Day - Keep an eye on the sheep.
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Makeover

I wish over hauling the homestead was as easy as giving the ole blog a going over and new look.  I guess it could be if my pockets were deep enough or my ambition was thirty years younger.

I don't think I have done anything to my blog in five or six years.  Some of my links stopped working about that time.  Yeah, the links on the sidebar were sure to lead many people to dead ends.  I weeded out the derelicts, up dated the ones still breathing and then opened up the "Theme" page on the blog dashboard.  That's where I found my last set-up.

Wow.  Quite a few new choices over what I remember from my last time.  Eleven new styles to pick from with each style having a variety of suggestions to pick from. 

I began thumbing through the choices and dammit, I was overwhelmed by too many choices.  I kept telling myself to pick one, but then I'd notice another style I had maybe not given enough attention to and well, ...... T\this could have gone on forever.  So I picked one first for BoZone ll, my fiction blog and set it up.

As I have more time than brains, I thought I would look into personalizing, or as Google calls it, customizing my blog.  I hit the "Customize" button and voila, a door I had never opened before led me to a land of color, dimensional mania, and backgrounds with intravenous fillings.  It was a world I imagined a computer nerd on acid would come up with.

After I fiddled around with the main settings (Layout, Background, width adlustments, I came to the button "Advanced".  Okay, serious pause here.

Over the years I have learned to approach any icon that says "advanced" with an idea that there is a fifty-fifty chance that button is an evil computer genius' idea of a joke, and if I punch it, all Hell will break loose.

I needn't have worried.  As usual, Google foresaw and made accommodations for the computer challenged among us.  As long as one can read, their "Advanced" world is one this flounder could figure out.

Thank You Google, I was able to increase the font size so my posts did not seem like reading the small print on a "terms of agreement" web page.

Once I had a new BoZone ll page, I tore this page a new asshole and what you see is the result.  Still some gadgets and links to clean up, but the page is how I want it for now. 

Anyway, remember to vote for anyone BUT a Republican this fall.  We want to move forward, not back.

Keep it 'tween the ditches .........................................................

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As It Turns Out ......

..... I am not paranoid, delusional, a few bricks shy of a load.  No, I am as normal as any life long stoner can be after 50 years of finding the Man right behind him whenever he turned around.  They are always there lurking in the shadows, taking notes and reporting back to their bosses who sport big scars on their cheeks and pencil thin mustaches.  You know, John Waters type mustaches.

Okay, okay, I may be light a few bricks and on occasion I have been known to fraternize with special friends no one else can see.  But I am not paranoid.

As proof, I offer up the Internet.  No better spy exists than the ga-jillion electronic devices hooked into a huge network of wires and computers, many of which are housed deep inside outward appearing non threatening locations like the local laundromat.  Just why have those washers along the back wall been "out of order" for the last 5 years.  Yeah, out of order my ass.

I usually keep my paranoid concerns to myself.  Those of us who know do not feel the need to share our paranoia because that is what leads to real time delusion of the type currently out of control on the Right side of the aisle.  No, the day opened up in predictable ways.  Constitutionals, pet feeding, coffee making.

And then I opened my phone.  And right there in the string of teasers on the outside screen, "Google Photos.  Here's what you missed."  The bastards had invaded my phone and hijacked a personal Kodak Moment.

Since this particular Lady's Slipper had "disappeared" the day after I snapped its picture, my first rational thought was, "I get it.  This is proof of life and there will be a ransom demand written in those irritating random Google letters that will tell me what bridge to drop the money off of."  I quickly tamped down the irrational thoughts that were beginning to boil over by refusing to run around the house closing blinds and locking doors. 

I am sure Google will inform me, should I bother to ask them, that I am hallucinating and it is just a grand coincidence the plant disappeared just as its image appeared in one of their emails.

I wish I was hallucinating.  That would make all this "Deep State" bullshit easier to deal with.

Don't turn around ..................................................

Not About Trump

Yesterday I had nothing to write about other than another Trump post.  I claimed I would be attempting to rein in my bizarre fascination with the man and not post about him.  Well, its another day, and like Trump, I don't have to live up to my promises.  I don't have to keep a civil fucking tongue in my head because well, Trump doesn't.

Hmm .................

This post is not about Trump.  Rather, it was to be about my total disgust with America first and the whole species second.  I was going to lay into our lazy complacent culture and eviscerate everyone from the deep pocket puppet masters to the blue collar good ole Joe who thinks his coal mining job can be saved.  What a planet of morons, ...............

But no.  Another choice for discussion fluttered around the edges like a kid in class who knew the answer and butt hopped in their seat while trying to reach the ceiling.  That kind of fluttering.  The teacher was having none of it and looked to pick on the kid passed out with his head on the desk.

I decided that what was important this morning was Pot.  Marijuana.  Doob.  Because if I can't fight the nationwide apathy, I might as well join it.  Isn't there a well worn saying about that?

So of course if I am going to waste bandwidth on cannabis, I should get in the right frame of mind.  Hold on a sec. .............................

Ah yes .......... There ya go.  Now I'm going with the flow.  Mr Natural like.  And if I was 19 again, this is all I would want.  A nice morning buzz to go with a solid cup of coffee.

Seems it works pretty good at age 66 also.  Some days it is just impossible not to smile.

Later ....................................................

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Fuck Trump

I have decided to try and write every day, either here or over to "BoZone ll", my fiction blog.  Now that I have lapsed and come back more than a few times, I find it easier to write when I am doing it regularly.  Long layoffs are not good for my brain.

The glitch is like "Pipe Tobacco" mentioned a few days ago on his blog, Trump's presence has really cramped my style.  Each time I sit down to write, most of the time my brain is not cleared of Trump stupidity and it is hard to think of something other than Trump to write about.

So, as Robert De niro said at the podium of the Tony Awards the other night, "Fuck Trump."

I will do my best to keep any mention of Trump to a minimum.  It will be difficult, but I think I can do it.

Later ......................................................................

Hopefully this is the video of De niro at the Tony Awards.  I never assume my cut and paste skills are up to the task at hand.  We will see.

Cancer

My wife had breast cancer surgery last week.  The prognosis is good, her spirits are good, and Life looks to be back to some sort of normalcy in a year or so, once all the chemo and radiation regimens are done.  That is as long as her recovery goes as smoothly as the diagnosis and pre-surgical period went.

Her particular type of cancer is invasive lobular carcinoma.  Basically it is cancer that has escaped the lobules in the breast and settled elsewhere, usually attacking the lymph nodes to begin with.  She had a partial mastectomy and 5 lymph nodes removed. 

Just the word cancer coming out of a doctor's mouth made me feel like I had swallowed a brick.  There is no worse feeling I have had in memory.  But the medical folks we had were so professional and upbeat, our initial feeling that Life is over only lasted long enough to get us wrapped up into the new battle we were to face.  And I say we, because well, I may not be suffering from the cancer and have no idea how bad it can be, I am tagging along with someone who is experiencing the Big C first hand.  I know what it is like to be married to it.  That ain't no cake walk either.

It looks to be a smother trail from now on compared to the pre-surgery period.  From the original diagnosis in October 2017 right up to surgery day last Thursday, uncertainty and fear of the unknown permeated our outlooks.

Now at least, something has been done proactively.  I won't say we (especially my wife) have relaxed.  Our anxiety level however has dropped much of the fear and settled us into cope mode. 

Jeez, it boggles my mind that I can talk so casually about it, but well, it is what is happening in my life at the moment and I felt the need to share. 

90% of the positive in all this is my wife's attitude.  To her this is nothing but a pain in her ass.  It is getting in the way of her business and she is not happy.  Her outlook is let's deal with it and move on.  What a bad ass she is.

Keep it 'tween the ditches ....................................

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Image from Health & Symptoms

Age of My First Clue

We can argue back and forth about whether calling Ivanka a "feckless cunt" was a step over the decency line.  It may have been during Pre-Trump days.  But now that Trump and his merry band of vaud-villains  have lowered the bar so low that fart jokes are now high humor, I find any argument nothing but a distraction. You want to blame someone, blame Trump and the class act he has following him everywhere.

But this post is not about Trump, Ivanka, or ....... anything important like saving the World from assholes and dimwits. 

Totally unconnected events in my life have conspired over time to make me relive moments from my past with a new clarity or just a different twist to add to the quiver of explanations I might have about that event or events.

I was finally old enough to be drawn into conversations about sex with buddies and their older brothers. It was an awakening of sorts, even if I came out of it still more than a tad unclear about how the docking of man and woman really worked.  Call it the age of my first clue.  Regardless, I learned some important words, "Fuck" being the most important and influential one. I would carry and use it with pride forever.  Some situations just cry out for its use.  Best adjective, verb, oh Hell, best word for almost every situation ..... Uh, sorry, gettin off track here.

Remember, I was maybe seven or eight when this life changing word entered my world. At the time though, "Fuck" was a word I was, serious look me in the eye warned to never use in front of an adult.  Even if they used it before I had.  Adults and their lookalikes, parents, might pull out the belt, the soap, or point you to a corner if they caught you using that word.

So forewarned being forearmed and all that, I went home and kept my secret new words secret.  I would whisper them occasionally and giggle, but never out loud in front of strangers.  These words were to be shared with the guys and no one else.

My fascination with the new secret words was just the point of the spear representing my growing interests in words generally. My parents had begun directing me to the nearest dictionary ( always at least one in every room ) when I asked them the meaning of a word they said or I had read.  They were not going to carry me anymore.

I remember frustration and anger.  But I also remember that along with this torrent of new words, a period of enlightenment began.  Life was not just Mom, Dad, and the backyard anymore.  New words pointed me in new directions.  I began to fall in love with words.

One morning I walked into the kitchen.  My dad was talking to my mom. In the course of the conversation, I heard him say "Fuckless".  I was shocked speechless.  Mom looks at me and asks me what my problem was.  I guess my face was also shocked, not just my brain.

"Uh, well Dad just said the "F" word.  My mom looked at me with deadpan eyes for a moment.  She turned back to my dad .  They stared at each other for an eternity and then burst out laughing.   So much laughing, it led to eye wiping and my mom leaving the kitchen.

Dad calmed down and considered me with a happy face.  "The word was not "Fuckless", it was "Feckless".  .......FECK-  less."

Of course my next question resulted in me going to the dictionary.

So, when I read what Samantha Bee said of Ivanka, I immediately changed her words in my mind to "Fuckless cunt" and then considered how that might also be appropriate in a Trumpian sort of way.

Keep it 'tween the ditches ...........................................

The Most Dangerous Country on Earth

Earlier in the A.M. today, Morning Joe called North Korea the most dangerous country on Earth.

Hmm ...................

Seems to me he is not even close.  North Korea has only threatened to blow people up.  Surely it is a scary thing, making threats like that.  But what about the one country that has blown people up conventionally many times, and on at least two occasions, with nuclear weapons.

And now that the USA is under the control of a sleazy accumulation of spineless losers and lead by an amoral idiot, I would have to say the World should consider the USA the most dangerous country in the World.  Our track record warrants it.

Leaders throughout the World will always put their own self interests first.  In that pursuit, they will exploit every weakness they perceive another country has.  That is Geo -politics.

But every time one of our feckless leaders gets up on their high horse and preaches about how righteous the United States is, I want to retch.  Their self righteous ego inflating rhetoric would be amusing if the stakes were not so high.  And with nationalism currently riding a wave of popularity, dangerous consequences are a distinct possibility.

Fortunately over the years a set of rules, spoken and unspoken, have developed that keep the inter continental tussles to mostly battles of words, not weapons.  The one major consistent exception has been the USA.  But we only pick one fight at a time usually and we are well versed in the etiquette of browbeating diplomacy when we decide to use it.  No one can blow up the dress of a country like the USA can..

Now that the awesome and scary weaponry of the US is under the control of a mad man who thinks Canada burned the White House in 1812, the rest of the planet is right to worry.

Later ......................................
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Image courtesy of Anselm Yew Art

Saving Us From Ourselves

Back in the 1990's when I was buying Internet time by the minute, I was so sure this new planet wide electronic community would save us from ourselves.

Hmm ...............................

I look around the electronic byways and highways now and wonder just what was I thinking or drinking that I did not see the cluster fuck that social media and the Internet has become.  Yeah, the World became smaller, communication between strangers more accessible, and in the perfect world, we'd all be sitting around the electronic camp fire singing cum-by-yah while we hold hands and smile mindlessly at one another as the melted chocolate from our Smores drips down our group chin.

But there's that "perfect world' scenario again, building up our hopes while the "Real World" works overtime to dash any chance of perfection being more than the passing fancy of a deluded or drugged out of their brain Internet visitor.

Trolls soon took over the ether and began gnaw at the fabric of civility and decency.  What we have now is so sad compared to what the possible could have been.  The Internet has given voice to people who would have been better allowed to continue to simmer in their ignorant pools of stupidity.

But now that the powers that run things have discovered how easy it is to get a lot of stupid people to believe any kind of shit the powers that be want to make up, I am thinking we are all lost. Or, if nothing else, completely off the rails for the foreseeable future.

The only way I can see to begin a healing process is to punish the group I hold most responsible for what we call a society here in the States.  While both the Right and the Left have both contributed to the stupidity affecting all of us, I hold the Right mostly responsible for the hate filled division that permeates our nation.  The Right has been quicker to make shit up, quicker to condemn, quicker to troll anything they feel did not originate on their side.  Hell, the basic model for the ACA was created by Republicans back during Clinton's presidency.  And now, they not only disown original authorship, they have convinced their drooling minions it was the Democrats who thought it up.

Anyway, I just spent more words than I wanted to to offer up some advice to any voter out there who is actually thinking about their vote and not just party line voting.  Consider showing the Republicans the door and kick every single one of them out on their ass.  From Dogcatchers to Presidents, vote for anyone except a Republican.  Vote Independent, Libertarian, Commie or the Horse Shoe Party  ....... Just vote for anyone other than a Republican.

Once we have them on the ropes, then we work on the Democrats.

Later ...............................................

Double Standards Too

A white college kid dies while pledging some fraternity in the South and the media gets all pumped up with outrage over how senseless it is and someone ought to do something.  Meanwhile in hoods throughout the nation black children die everyday by gun violence, not just once in awhile.

What does that tell us?  Some might think that white kids are not supposed to die and black kids, well that sucks, but what are you gonna do?  Read page 6 below the fold for more details.

I will admit to being a white guy who thinks he is not racist.  And in actuality as an individual, I really do not think I am.  But the culture and political system I exist in is racist and I am just now beginning to understand my part in it and how much of my life as a white guy has benefited.

I have no doubt the various minor brushes with the law I experienced when younger and nummer would have had different outcomes had I been a black.  I am sure some of those slaps on the wrist would have seen me in jail for some attitude adjustment had I been a brother.

I consider my white skin a lucky turn of fate.  And that is wrong on so many levels.

Keep it 'tween the ditches ......................................................

Double Standards

 After setting the bar so low for themselves three years ago, the slack jawed Trump minions and their boy punk leaders are crying foul now that some on the opposition are sinking to the same depths.  I figure it is about a year and a half too late.  The cumulative IQ of the Trump mob dictates that taking the high road while they own the low road is an exercise in stupidity.  They have some balls even uttering the words "Double Standards".  Of course, I am now fairly certain that most Trumpoids don't know what it means to have a double standard.  Their poor excuse for a leader certainly doesn't seem to understand the concept.  But then he doesn't seem to understand much.

Regardless, I am feeling certain that no matter what, as long as we have idiots like the ones in the image living here in the States, Trump will have us all by our mutual short hairs.

Later ...................................................