United in Disgust

I have been attempting to keep my mouth shut about the OWS phenomenon.  As many people are, I am somewhat confused about their specific objectives.  I am guessing they have some, but apparently with the "movement" scattered all over the nation with no clear leader at the head, objectives can be regional gripes that have nothing to do with Wall Street, but more about the final straw closing of the last Widget factory that packed up it's stuff and moved to Asia.

I am a strong supporter of civil unrest when it is warranted.  Rioting just to riot like after your favorite team won or lost is stupid and I have no sympathy for some drunk who gets his head bashed in after torching someone's Dodge Pick up.  But activities like OWS intrigue me.  Along with the recent rise of the Tea Party, we now have two political populations who have decided that this country is not the place they either remember or they do not like the direction it is headed.  In that respect, the two, the Tea Party and OWS, are untied by a shared disgust with the status quo.

The age old boys club that has ruled as one but pretended to be from two different neighborhoods is extremely nervous.  This makes me smile.  This makes me grin.  To use a tired word coined and almost ruined, the Establishment is being assaulted.  This time not from the just the Left, but from the Right as well.  Both sides have legitimate gripes once one takes the time to weed out the bullshit slogans, soundbites, and fictions fabricated and pushed as truth.  The Power structure made up of government and the private sector should be on everyone's shit list.  Between the two of them they tossed leadership out in favor of pocket lining or securing a stranglehold on the reins of government.  Instead of leading us, they have been bleeding us and now they are being shoved into the light of day from both sides...............About time.

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

Dave's House

So I was checking some pictures I snapped of my friend Dave B's dooryard.  Every hunting season, his barn is the barn all the cool locals use to hang their kills prior to hitting the butcher shop to be turned into edible chunks of this or that.   This year so far I have counted at least 6 deer, one huge moose, and Water District Dave told me he saw a bear hanging there for a day.  Everyone wants to hang their game at Dave B's.

I like Dave.  He lets my circle of riding friends use his property to access the trails off the railroad bed out behind his place.  Off and on I have tried to get him into riding bikes, but well, it ain't happening.  Dave likes to putz around his yard making sure it is well kept, planting huge gardens and of course hanging as many deer as possible during hunting season.  Once in awhile I see him strolling up or down Main Street with his significant other.  Nice folks, just not into cycling.

I took a few quick shots of the couple of small bucks hanging from the trapeze contraption he has hanging from his hay bale lift.  They all came out my usual a tad out of focus, but good enough to make any point I wanted to about Dave, the hip local hunters and life in my small parcel of Maine during November of any year you would care to check.

 While deciding which image to head my post about Dave and his deer hanging dooryard, I noticed in  the small window next to the barn door, this moose skull staring out towards Main St.  I copied the image, cropped it, and what you see at the top was the result.

I am never sure what draws me to some images over others.  This one grabbed me for several reasons.  The out plumb variety of lines, the rough texture of being slightly out of focus combined with the old barn wood and window.  Or maybe it was shape of the skull behind the grid which was wrapped in a contrasting border that interrupted out of plumb verticals.  Whatever.  I just liked how it turned out.  I am sure in the scheme of artistic effort, it rates somewhere between Ho and Hum.  I say this because  I showed it to Keith when he swung by the bike shop and he said something like, "Cool".  It was a lukewarm "Cool".


Once I decided I liked it I had to play with it.  Soon I had 5 or 6 copies of it in various shades, light treatment, shadowed hard, or saturated with colors to bring out whatever other cool looks I could drag out of it.  After all my dubbing around with it I think I like the original and the sepia one to the left best..

I most likely  have used up about all the interest you might have regarding this kodak moment.  I figure I ought to close by treating you to the original image I cropped it out of.  So enjoy or not.  If nothing else, it is a small piece of the reality I live with here in southern Maine.  Some things are timeless - Hunting Season in Maine is one of them.

Sugar Plum Fairies, Flags & the Last Commie

The Sugar Plum Fairy of St. Charles, Missouri has been fired.  It's comical on one hand and a sad statement on the other about how tight folks' butts are getting in some parts of this nation.  Add in the recent refusal of a bakery to bake a wedding cake for a lesbian couple tying the knot and I  wonder if we are not slipping back into the "Good Ole Days" like so many folks seem to want.  The good ole days that also had hidden in the shadows, the bad ole days.  Apparently from the two stories, some want them included as well.

Then I read that viewing the US flag can cause one to vote Republican.  I have been wondering what the cause was.  I knew it had to be something simple and direct. So I stared at one for an hour.  Seems a change has come over me............................

I punched up a profile of Canada put together by the BBC.  Maybe it was my computer, but all I got was a blank page.  I don't think it was my computer.  BBC obviously has nothing to say about Canada.  Even after reinstalling the Queen as the head of their country, Canada still can't get any respect from the Brits.  It's understandable they get no respect from the US.  They're our next door neighbors.  At least they ain't rowdy and out of control like our neighbors to south are.  But man are they boring.  Booooooooring.  No riots.  No drug killings.  Just a bunch of ice drivin, tree choppin oil drillin hockey watchin fools who like better beer than we do.

I did not punch up the BBC profile of the US.  Now that I have stared the flag down and become a good American and all, I knew anything some wannabe Euro trash media outfit might come up with would be a pack of lies and innuendos.  After all, their own history books tell the story of the revolution all wrong.  We kicked their wanker butts and some clown with a Sir in front of his name tries to tell me King George lll had other fish to fry and finally just got tired of us "Colonists".  Yeah right.  Then he goes on to compare England's handling of "the Colonies" to our commie ass kickin crusade in Viet Nam.   Shoot.  Where does he come up with this crap?  We kicked butt in 1776 and again in 1966.  As long as more of them die than us, then we win.  Right?

I noticed the last Munchkin died.  Though I finally grew up to be a burly bad ass American male who had to fight the chicks off with a stick, when I was wee small the Munchkins gave me nightmares.  Maybe it was their outfits, their smaller than normal stature, but I think it was their swarming ways and funny voices.  Like some surrealistic minature lynch mob all dressed the same, they would surround me and ..........anyway, I figured out why they made me nervous.  I think they were all actually commie plants.  As evidence, the last Munchkin was not born here.  He was from Ucrania, Slavickastan, one of those hammer and sickle countries over there on one side of Europe or the other. Pink as the day he was born.

Maybe now I can sleep at night.
_____________________________________

Not sure where this came from.  But stare at the Stars & Stripes for an hour without blinking and see what it does to you.

Change

I have recently attempted to re-immerse myself into the Blogging World.  Now that winter is closing in and my shop has slowed to a crawl, I find my mind has dumped much of the business related concerns and stress.  This has left a hole.  Left an opportunity to work what's left of my mind on other pursuits.

So I have begun to reacquaint myself with many of my old blogging friends  and locate a few new blogs I will visit again in the future.  One thing I have noticed after being MIA most of this year is how much slicker and hip many of the blogs I visit have become.  The contrast is stark when I always come back to this humble and dusty place I call "Lost in the BoZone".  Well with the exception of Randal's blog.  His is as dusty and retro grouch as mine is.

As I stated in my last post "Retro-Grouching", I hate change as a rule.  I have learned to almost accept change I have no control over.  But where I dig my heels in is change where I can have an impact in keeping it at bay.  My life is riddled with events and phases where I carried the "Fight Change" banner to levels of useless, just being contrary to be contrary heights of stupidity.   My dad always contended that calling someone "hardheaded" was just a nice way of calling them a moron.  He refused to call me hardheaded.  It was moron or nothing.

So I recognize the issue of being out of the current blog fashion loop.  And yeah, my blog could use some gusseying up.  But if I am gonna change anything here, I will have to go through a period of agony first.  What ifs, what mights, and is it even worth the trouble type anguishing.    When I have satisfactorily worn out  all the what might be's, I will enter the phase of "forget it and hope the urge goes away".  Or maybe it should be called the "if I don't think about it, it doesn't exist" phase.

If the issue or supposed improvement is important enough for a variety of or even a single reason, it will refuse to let me forget it.  It will nibble at my coattails, rub back and forth between my legs, or maybe toss a claw filled paw at some dainty body part.  Even ole dogs and hard headed fools will take notice if it's painful.

Knowing my tendency to fight change just for shits and giggles and also knowing that eventually I will cave once I have absorbed enough self loathing and critical self recrimination, why don't I save myself and the World at large a lot of trouble by just jumping on board right out of the gate?

I have thought about this and well, altering a life long habit would entail ....yeah that's right, it would mean change.  Hmmm.  Think I'll forget about it and hope it goes away.

Keep it "tween the ditches....................................
______________________________________________________

If you got this far only after reading the above post, then you realize the image has nothing at all to do with the written words.  I thought I'd throw Randal a bone, er, or maybe create one for him.

Retro-Grouching

So I don't like change. A lot of us don't like change. Even though we all know change happens, many of us still resist. Some even go so far as to wish the past back in our lives.  

Lacrosse Sticks - I am still pissed they got rid of the all wooden lacrosse stick. The transition happened back when I was playing the sport in college. All of a sudden the pain I was inflicting on opposing players was cut in half when they forced us to use the wimpy flexible plastic cradle. My favorite check was immediately rendered null and void.  

Bicycle Technology - There are entirely too many "innovations" for me to rant about. Suffice it to say I still contend many were useless lily gilders while a very few truly enhanced the cycling experience.  

The DH in Baseball - I don't care if it has made baseball more exciting for some, it rubs me the wrong way. I have no respect for players whose only claim to fame is being a DH.  

GPS devices in cars - If you are going on a trip, know in advance the route to take. And yeah, sometimes getting lost can be fun too. A friend loaned me his TomTom once for a trip south. I punched in my destination. The gizmo did what it did and planned my route. I then proceeded to go the way I had been for years anyway. I loved hearing it complain followed by, "Recalculating, recalculating" until it had figured out a new alternative route based on the turn I just missed or made that was not part of the original or new program. I even took one detour out of my way just to really piss it off.  

Electronic locking doors and windows - I know at some point I will have to own a vehicle with these devilish devices, but so far I have never owned a vehicle with them. There's a satisfaction I cannot describe when I manually lower or raise my own window, or use a real key to unlock the door to my pick up.

Which brings me to this Blog, computers in general, and the speed at which our culture is forced to embrace change before we got used to the last change.

Blogger has been in my face about trying out it's "new format".  Blogger is never really in your face, but they are quietly insistent.  So rather than grouse about it before the fact like I always do when being force fed change, I switched yesterday.  Besides the whole look changing, toolbars gone missing or moved, and way more choices than I will ever use, it is basically the same I guess.  Bottom line is I figured it out and will hopefully see this post successfully posted.  But I don't have to like it to use it.  So I won't..........like it that is.  I hereby invoke the General Principles rule from my  retro-grouch bag of rules.

Why the Hell is our world in such a damn hurry?  We ain't going anywhere. 

Post Ride Reflections - Part Deux - 200 words

Aging muscularity whines, cries, refuses to work as ordered. Minor waves of pain float in, float out, their focus on specific body parts come out of nowhere and last only long enough to leave a slight taste of their passing. Cursing the limitations age has imposed yet vehemently repudiating time and its supposed toll, he fooled himself one more time and set course for another trip down memory lane. Snubbing the soft caress of virtual travel, he just had to pound out the miles declining to admit he is not what he used to be.

Done now, he sits on a bumper, the ground, or maybe a nearby picnic table and reflects. Every physical piece and part screams at him in anger. Yet he notices that amidst their incessant complaining, his mind is crystal clear focused on this specific moment of Life and how delicious it tastes.

He looks up. Across the parking lot, across the street on the sidewalk, an old codger shuffles along with a walker. One step, two steps, stop. Push the walker forward - now repeat. The rider smiles. Being that guy may yet be in his future. But not today. Today he can still fly.

She Punished the Hard Right Out of Him

You know the type. A bit worn around the edges from more than a few hard miles. Dresses on the trashy side and pops her gum between sentences. If you look too close early on, you might try to skip out on her. But you are a stud and you're horny. No last call wench is gonna throw you off your game. Her and her sharp curves and bony lookin spine. You've taken on tougher women than this. You showed em...........

Well stud, how'd it go anyway? You're lookin a tad worn out, used up, thrashed good and proper. Looks like you been ridden hard and put away wet.

What's that? Can't hear you. Stop mumbling ferchrisakes. Did you have your way with her or what?

Oh I see. She was a handful huh? Early on even..........what? Speak up man, you're mumbling again. Weren't expectin her to be so rough right out of the gate? Jeez dude, she's from Biddeford. Genteel ain't part of their culture. If you wanted romance first, you were in the wrong town. Shoulda stayed home.

But go on with your story once you've hacked up that second lung. I'll wait....................So you were hoping for some warm up lovin, ease into the rough stuff foolin around. And what happened, she came right at you, all up in your face twistin here rollin there, showing you dirty bits and naughty parts best left covered. And what's that about her holes? Holes you would have just as soon missed, but she insisted and well, you are a stud, so you tried to oblige. Notice I said tried bub. She's out there right now laughin at you and the puny equipment you brought with you.

Well fella, all I can say is when you go to Bid-fud, you gotta takes the brassy broad as she comes. Try to go with her flow, but for chrisakes, stay on top. She will bury you hard if you give her half a chance. And from the look on your sad sad what did I just do face, she had you down on your knees begging to be set free or at least have it be over..............Hope it was fun for a little while anyway.

_______________________________________

I would tell you to get your mind out of the gutter, but I did take you there. These were my post ride impressions, dreamed up as I laid delirious trying to relocate my ability to move any muscle I could after being spanked hard on a trail ride today down on the coast. They may not have tall hills, but they know how to punish. It has been a long time, at least a couple of months, since I have felt this used and abused after a ride. But she left me grinning. Between cramp spasms that is.

Figured I would pull the classic stereotypical male crap and assign sexual overtones to the ride. Cuz, I gotta say sometimes there is no better way to describe a ride.

Later I hope to be present and accounted for in front of the tube to watch my Pats try to break out of their funk. I won't hold my breath. Passing out may be unavoidable.

Later.........................
___________________________________

The image of the woman with the Balitmore Doo is from "Female trouble", a movie by John Waters.

The image of the stunt rock is from the area I rode today, but not part of the trails we suffered on.

The D Word

I was flitting around Right Wing News the other morning, trying my best to balance the objectivity or lack thereof in many of the different news sources I check on any given day. To their credit, Right Wing News is an equal opportunity basher of its own.......to a point. As long as it is a bonafide card carrying conservative type doing the bashing. I was somewhat surprised to see so much Romney bashing and not so much Cain bashing, even though there was some. The right wing is all huffy over using the politics of personal destruction with regards to the latest sensationalizing of Cain's alleged sexual misdeeds.

Their undeserved righteous indignation is one reason I have lost so much respect for the Right. After all, they are the ones who took what everyone agrees publicly is a low blow tactic and raised it to an art form back in the 1990s. Nobody uses the politics of personal destruction better than the Right. And these clowns expect me to take their shock seriously at having a newly anointed favorite son run through the same mill? Right.

Then I noticed an article written by I am guessing an in house writer for Right Wing News. "MSNBC Discusses North Carolina’s Forced Sterilization Program, Avoids mentioning The D Word". The "D" word in question is Democrat.

There was a shameful period in our history that seems to never see the light of day much. That period during the early part of the 20th century when Eugenics was all the rage. Eugenics was a popular theory that believed poverty, promiscuity, substance abuse and a host of other undesirable activities were inherited traits. And a great way to nip these bad habits in the bud was forced sterilization. 31 states dabbled in it back in the day. North Carolina was one of them.

Okay fine. Another chapter of our past we would just as soon forget. Lumped next to our treatment of Indians, Blacks, Asians during WWll, muslims now, and a host of other nasty things that come with being a country with history.

What I find amusing is the gist of William Teach's article is that he takes MSNBC to task for not including in their treatment of this, the role of the Democrats. He states, and I am guessing he is correct, that back in the early 20th century, most statehouses in the South were lead by Democrat majorities. He does his best to tie in blame to our current version of the Democratic party.

I can hear all the Winger faithful now, "Yeah, what about that you lily livered liberals. You castrated thousands, you and your better world idealists."

While Mr Teach calls MSNBC on the carpet for not including Democrats in their treatment of a bad period in our history, he himself is guilty of the same thing. If he is going to be completely fair, he should mention that the southern Democrat of yesteryear is the southern Republican of today. I know, I watched the South switch sides starting right after the Civil Rights laws were enacted, picking up steam in the 1970s and finally turning red in the 1980s. I have found mindsets tend to remain the same even when labels change. So Mr. William Teach, I would be cautious of trying to tie the modern Democrat to shit that happened decades ago when many of the people responsible most likely spawned many of the people who make up your core audience.......eugenically speaking of course.

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

The Aftermath - Vote 2011

I timed myself from the time I got out of my truck to when I returned to my pick up to continue my morning commute. It took me exactly 2 minutes, 48 seconds to vote. That included the 75 feet of walking to and from the Town Hall. I love it when I have the whole thing figured out. I don't stand in the booth with my figurative thumb up my butt wondering what the Hell, or who the Hell to vote for. Of course the list of check marks I had to make was only four, so that kept my in booth time at a minimum. But this time I went in reciting my vote for the four, "Yes, No, No, Yes." I did not even close the curtain. That might have taken a second.

Well I was pleasantly surprised that Mainers even showed up to vote in this truly off year election. And that 35% of the registered voters did show up made me proud. After all, it could have been a typical ho hummer vote. Not many people to vote for, just referendums.

We also made national news. So I guess there's that also. Seems the state GOP was accused of slipping out there for public view an attack ad that insinuated that if we voted to retain voting day registration, it would somehow allow Gay Marriage to sneak in the back door. Rachel Maddow highlighted this egregious and sleazy effort to taint the vote on an issue totally unrelated, voting rights.

I found the ad funny actually. What the Hell were they thinking? What a stupid ad to take out a few days before an election. Anyone who was scared of gays was already scared and the ad was only preaching to the choir. And anyone who was not scared of gays and might actually consider them no different from anyone else, was either going to be offended, or like me laugh their ass off. But then in recent years I have really enjoyed watching the Right or the Left shoot itself in the foot. Based on that, I thought the ad was great fun.

Both Casino questions were shot down. This surprised me. I was positive Mainers were in a weakened state and ready to grasp at the stop gap economic stimulus that gambling brings. What with so many states already pushing gambling, any that we put in place would just be diluting the available dollars. Who is going to travel 400 miles to gamble in Maine when they can take a short ride and do it in their own back yard.

The redistricting schedule referendum narrowly passed. This puzzled me. It seemed to me to be the one question with the least controversy. So once more in my life I enjoyed voting with the majority. Makes me wonder a little where I went wrong.

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

Election Day - 2011

It is election day. Not one of the important election days they try to tell me. We are not "electing" anyone other than some local yokel positions. The state wide part of the election are four questions. The first one is a referendum on a change in election law passed by the Republican majority earlier this year. Two are regarding the establishment of more casino type operations in a few locations in the state. The fourth question deals with the schedule of redistricting of our two Congressional Districts. Apparently the elected officials can change the map but they cannot change the schedule without voter approval. Seems kind of bass ackwards to me. But then most laws seem that way to me.

I am ambivalent about gambling. If people want to gamble, go for it. I just think it is a stupid activity that produces nothing but often shifts money from pockets not very deep into pockets already so deep they have no bottom. At least it is in your face money changing and not sneaky bullshit like what goes down with Wall Street type money changing.

The voting question is the one I am interested in. Seems the Republican majority in Maine's capital decided to jump on board with the national GOP and they jammed some election reform down our throats. Whining that the same day registration Maine has had for at least 4 decades was open to be taken advantage of by voter fraud. Even after the local GOP tried to dig up fraud from our past, they could only find two cases in 38 years. Of course this was enough to raise a major alarm and the result was they changed the law to force any unregistered Mainers to register at least two days before election.

Sound familiar? Of course it does. It is one of the many policies being fed through the national GOP system to their underlings at the local levels. The stated reasons are up for debate as I am convinced it is just another way to limit the vote. Republicans always do better when the turnout is lower. To support my contention, the money flowing in to defeat this recall question is coming from several of the Koch Bros favorite shell PACs.

It was floods of outside money that shot down Gay marriage in Maine. It was outside money that helped our current idiot governor to be elected. It seems that no one wants to leave us Mainers alone to decide things on our own. I am sure the same thing is happening elsewhere. Wisconsin comes to mind. Ohio, jeez, the deep pockets have their fingers in every state election. And we allow it to happen.

Whatever the result of this "not so important" election, Maine will deserve what it gets. If for no other reason than we were not paying attention.........or we were. Wonder what the turnout will be?

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

Free Range Time

It is a sure thing I did it to myself. Let it eat at me and build until my destiny was fulfilled by my own dire predictions, my own negative waves.

The Time Change. Forward, back, it makes no difference. Both mess with my mind. It takes me three maybe four weeks to get my biorhythms dialed into the change. I hate the time changes so much, I bet I have some other posts about it already. Some things a man never gets tired of whining about.

My big jewel store clock on the office wall tells me it is 4:34 AM. About my normal waking time in recent months. The clock on the computer, which apparently never forgets to move the hours around when scheduled, well that damn clock is telling me it is 3:34 AM and I should still be in bed sawing Zs and catching flies. Once again, the damn government is not considering my individual needs, making excuses like it's for "the greater good". Yeah right. I know what it is. One more back door way to subjugate us and make us bend to their will. Evil bastards.

And people ask why I make such a big deal about the time change. "Suck it up dude, it's happening whether you like it or not." Oh yeah? Well, I'm not going to put up with this blatant form of torture, which I might add is just shy of waterboarding on the scale of what torture is worse than another. No I am damn well going to be like Indiana and create my own time zone based on any capricious needs I may have at any given moment. Call it Free Range time keeping. Screw the government goons and their arm twisting ways to make us conform.

From now on when someone asks what time is it, "Well now just what time would you like it to be?...........Uh, you say you hope it is around ten o'clock. Well this is your lucky day, it is indeed around ten o'clock. Hell it might even be exactly ten o'clock if that is what you want it to be. Or four o'clock, maybe even seven-thirty.....whatever blows your dress up. Because you see if you are within eye shot of me and I am within eye shot of you then you are in the CRUM Time Zone. Time does not rule the CRUM Time Zone. The people in the CRUM Time Zone push the buttons and make Time bend to their will. The time is whatever you want it to be."

If pressed for further details, as if this was not enough information, but well, some people have to be led by their noses before they get the gist of a something, - anyway if pressured to expand on what exactly CRUM Time means, I would say, "CRUM Time means you can never be late. You can never be early. You are always on time because time is decided by you for you."

I know what you are thinking. Wouldn't it cause major havoc and mayhem if everyone was on CRUM Time? Okay so there are some bugs to work out. No great idea was ever hammered out overnight. I will say this. If everyone was on CRUM Time, this world would slow down to a pace I might be able to keep up with.

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

My Blog is Not a Dog - But It Somtimes Smells Like One

Just when I think I am a fairly intelligent adult male who has at least a smidgeon of a clue, I run into ideas, treatments, explanations and descriptions of the Universe and its contents that lose me after about the first five words. And once again humbled, I am crushed under the reality that there is always someone faster than me and there are definitely many people smarter than me. Boatloads of people. Cruise ship size boats in flotillas of people smarter than me. Their talent, their way with words, their charisma if you will, prove that I hover somewhere just above imbecile and well under, not even in the same ball park with Einstein.

So do I hang with the metaphorical "ugly chicks" just to make myself look better? I would like to think I don't. But then that conclusion is not one I am apparently intelligent enough to make. I am constantly reminded of my unintelligence by the right wingers who swing by my Dana Perino post "Wingers with Woodies". Everyone who visits these days has nothing complimentary to say about me.

I have been at this blogging thing a long time, closing in on 7 years now. If my blog was a dog, that would make my blog 49 years old in blogger time. Often my blog smells like a dog, but it is no dog. In the historical lifespans of blogs created, lived and died, my blog is ancient, older than old, like that ancient tree found out west that was alive before Jesus wore short pants. I found some information based on opinions, loosely wrapped around facts that if a blog makes it one year, it is ready for medicare.

In an effort to raise up my image in my own eyes at least, I floundered around the saved blogs in the back of the saved blog box I keep in this computer. I wanted to find blogs that made mine look good. Sadly, I only seemed to save blogs that are at worst my equal, with most of them at least several steps up the blog ladder.

One odd blog I found had me momentarily stunned. It was written as if written by a seriously deranged college professor for some high brow magazine that only the 50 people in that field could even slightly understand. It is called Communications from Elsewhere. The lead in description just below the title reads and I quote - "Deconstructing Surrealism: Neostructural theory and predialectic desublimation".

My first thought was, "How did this get in here?" My second thought was, well, I really had no second thought as I was still reeling from the complete state of clueless-ness I found myself in. Then I remembered. This was a great site. The blog owner is poking fun by creating Text Generators that will through computer magic create essays and other word related fun by punching a button. The result is nonsense that reads initailly like seriously high minded stuff but is more like the answers I used to come up with in blue books come finals week. Gotcha!

Check it out, it is great. The text generators are in the sidebar near the bottom on the right.

Anyway, back to looking after the dog.............................................

The Clown Complex

I just got wind of a new tax being proposed. The Tax Wall Street tax. A tax rate of 3/100ths of one percent of any trading done by Wall Street. That works out to a paltry 3 pennies on every $100 worth of trading. Seems like chump change except the article insists the tax will stuff between $700 billion and $1.2 trillion bucks into the National Treasury over the next 10 years. The article goes on to claim it will amount to about a dollar a year more for anyone who has a 401K retirement type fund that uses investments to grow the fund. The real pockets picked will be the traders who use computers to flash money back and forth to each other.

I say go for it. Smarter people than I are for it. Warren Buffet, one of my favorite rich guys, is for it. So are several economic heavy weights. The problem as I see it is that it is a tax and worst of all it comes from the evil Democrats. Those two things will surely cause it to fail as Republicans are unable/unwilling to consider any form of governance that is initiated as a tax or comes from their hated opponents from across the aisle. All they want to do is pass useless empty gestures like re-affirming our national motto - "In God We trust". Apparently it is more important to make sure Obama knows what our motto is than to actually govern.

In the meantime, Morning Joe just stated that he has been hearing more and more from his conservative connections that many would rather lose to Obama than support Mitt Romney. I was wondering why the less than zero candidate Herman Cain was doing so well. Now I know. They are staying on their side of the ideological line come Hell or high water. In the meantime, the country limps down the drain.

So to you, the leaders of the Republican and Tea Party clown complex, I bestow on all of you, my bonehead award for this week and retroactively every previous week for the last 100 or or so. And just to save myself some trouble, consider the bonehead award yours for the foreseeable future. You are doing way more damage than good to this country.

When you stop acting like pouting children and act like adults, maybe I will re-visit my decision. But you have a long way to go before I will think kindly of you again.

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

Black & White

And yet another ghost from Herman Cain's past rises up to haunt his so very busy present.

Where have I seen this, experienced this, noticed this same scenario playing out on the national political scene? Just what is so familiar about a black conservative trying to land a job at the top of the national political heap who is also suddenly embroiled hard into allegations of sexual misconduct in their past?

Like a broken record, or maybe just a recurring theme, I remember the first black conservative who was up to his ass in controversy involving alleged sexual misdeeds. His name was Clarence. And he somehow managed to skirt the damage and now sits large and in charge on the bench of the highest court in the land.

Sadly, Herman Cain, well, let's call him a Thomas protege of sorts, anyway, Herman's fate is not in the hands of a political majority, his fate rests on the tide of public opinion. Herman has no legal safeguards, no loopholes for lawyers to come up with. He can only say he did not do it and it is up to us whether we believe him.

The pundits on the Right immediately cried foul, using the "R" word and laying blame on the sleaze bags on the Left. As it turns out, Herman's recent troubles were actually stirred up by a fellow member from inside the elephant brigade. One of his opponents within his own ranks was to blame. Desperation has caused the normally loyal Republican field to go after each other like they were Democrats. Beating Obama has become that important. Sad really.

I tried to look at these two without any focus on their shared racial background. I tried to ignore the idiots on both sides who blatantly are playing this up with racial overtones. Yes, I tried to shit can the race card.

But I couldn't. Is it because I am an almost 60 year old white man? Hmmm.......... Personally I do not think so. I don't like either man, but not because of their race. They both start off in my negative column just based on how far to the right both claim to be. Thomas is inherently an unlikable person based on his public persona. And Herman, well, he's a politically clueless neophyte. And I have no interest in placing a politically clueless anyone in the White House. Add all this together and race does not even come into my equation.

Those on either side who would try to heap white guilt on me for even bringing this up should be more concerned about how their blatant exploitation of the race card will be viewed.

But this is about race and what both sides are trying to do. Many Republicans are desperate to show their party as being non racist. Backing Herman Cain is an obvious way. The Left is trying hard to make aware to the public that this is but a ploy to get their vote and in the heart of the republican doctrine racism stews and brews and tarnishes everything the Republicans try to put forward.

If there is one thing I have found after 59 years on the planet is that racism knows no political, religious, or geographical boundary. Racists exist everywhere. And if we are honest with ourselves, no matter our color, we all have had some unkind thoughts, or painted with broad brushes our opinion based on racial stereotypes. What differentiates a hard core racist from the occasional racial generalization is what we say and do publicly. If I think like that, then any white guilt anyone wishes to heap on me is a waste of time. I hold my head up and know that once I figured things out about the time I turned 16, I have treated anyone I met as MLK would have me treat them. Character not color.

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

New fences

I forget what these people are called. They have a name and a specific description of what they do to deserve the name. I am sure I have the note somewhere handy near the top of all the useless information I store haphazardly within the confines of what pretends to be my mind.

Futurists? ........... Maybe.

Regardless, I am fascinated by the interaction of random events and socio/political/economic evolutions and revolutions that combine to create whatever present we are living at any given time. I have the deepest respect for the people who can pick out the under the radar current events and affairs that will matter at some point in the future.

Yeah, it's easy to say that everything matters. There is no one thing or several things that create by themselves the flow of the future. But there are turning points, tipping points, and points of no return. There have to be. We decided they existed, so there it is.

What brought this up for me was when I read an article on California sex offenders. Not the settled down sex offenders, but the ones who are homeless. Apparently because of "Jessica's Law", no sex offender can live within 1/2 mile of a school, park, or playground. I guess limiting their living choices has caused a sharp increase in the numbers of homeless sex offenders.

It seems that the state of California decided that in order to make Halloween safe for the kiddies, they would round up all homeless sex offenders in a central location during those prime trick or treating hours.

I won't get into the ethical aspects of this round up. Lord knows, "Law & Order - SUV" has beaten the subject to death. What I wondered was how the cops were going to do it. I mean if they are homeless, does that not mean their whereabouts is unknown?

Apparently not. All convicted sex offenders in California are required to wear GPS tracking devices. Corralling them was easy-peasy.

Again, though the subject screams for it, I refrain from commenting on the ethical aspect of this. What my mind thought of first was George Orwell. And then Anthony Burgess. Both Brits who saw this coming many years ago.

I then thought of our planet's population recently hitting 7 billion.

And naturally the first thing that popped into my mind was the notion of smaller government and how stupid is that notion. By necessity, government intervention in our lives has to increase along with the increase in population. More people means the various governments will do what they feel is necessary to organize and direct their individual populations. If they don't, then regime change is inevitable, whether instigated internally or externally. And what is a government's first priority? No, it is not its people. It is its own survival.

In order to keep the teeming masses in line, various agencies will try different methods. Slavery, the Inquisition, and death camps during WWll are but a few of the methods thought up by governments to control their people. Fences, walls, and incarceration all are devices a government will pull out if it feels its survival depends on it.

Now that humanity has evolved to the point where we are not collectively as dumb as we look, governments are being forced to come up with more subtle ways to keep us in line. It seems we are now hard into a period of history where the focus will be to subjugate us without most of us noticing until it is too late. And even for those of us who do notice, the efforts will be understated, misstated, and appear on the surface a good idea at the time.

The Patriot Act stands out as the perfect example. The dry running of obligatory GPS devices for a small segment of the population is another.

So the next time one of the snake oil sales men from DC claim they are for "smaller government", do not believe them. It will not happen. Anyone who claims it is possible is either lying or an idiot. You cannot corral a growing population with smaller government. But you can possibly do it with "different government". And that is I am afraid where we are headed.

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

For What It's Worth - Revisited

I read a rant by an angry Wall Street worker in response to the OWS protesting going on around the country. Typical in your face, no holds barred rant that must have made him feel better once he got it out of his system. Been there, done that myself.

The man made some valid points. No, he does not owe any of the protesters anything. Yes, I have no doubt he works hard for the paycheck he takes home. But then he steps off the edge and opines on just what the OWS protesters are made up of. Liberal union commie losers who never worked a honest day's work in their life. He then goes on to claim that all unions, teachers , firemen, police, etc. are nothing but safe havens for lazy do nothing hacks who suck off the hard work he and his brethren produce day in, day out. He finishes up with the legend he has built in his own mind that without traders, we would all be in a world of hurt. And finally he whines about fairness and how he is getting the raw end of the deal.

Fairness has nothing to do with it. But perception does.

The wealthy have been perceived as uncaring greedy bastards who are sitting on their wallets while the country goes down the tubes. Rather than investing in our future, they are investing in each other and not sharing in the good fortunes they continue to reap in. The OWS protesters are pictured as rabble rousing leftists intent on bringing down America by destroying the economic stability of our great nation. They want something for nothing. Both sides have allowed emotion to to taint their image of what the other side wants. A great Buffalo Springfield lyric comes to mind - "Nobody's right if everyone's wrong".

The man and I will agree most of the OWS movement miss what is really happening in my opinion. When the peasants get pissed off enough, they always take down the rich. There is no right. There is no wrong. It is what has been happening for as long as one man was perceived as having more than another man.

What we are seeing now is just the beginning of what could turn into down the road, a correction that will redistribute wealth in the end. How it is redistributed will be up to how the players end up dealing with each other.

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

In Your Face Shapleigh

I was watching the early storm results after the Nor'easter that just swooped through our region. Channel Six up to Portland reported snowfall amounts for the towns hit hardest. A list was placed on the TV screen. The accumulated amounts varied greatly, with some areas just getting a dusting. As I read the list, I noticed the town next door, Shapleigh came out on top with 17".

"Harumph.....Where's the Acton results? I bet we beat those clowns over to Shapleigh. They think they're just so special."

But Acton was not even on the list. Grumpy now, I went about my morning. Brewed some coffee. Drank some coffee. Looked out the window at the instant winter that came overnight. Drank some more coffee and waited for daylight.

About 7:30 AM my wife found me. "Hey, I just saw Acton's snow fall results. We got 20", the most reported in the state so far.

Now flush with victory, my day just got better.....................and then I realized.......................I have to go outside and clear that 20" of snow off the drive and walkways.

Suddenly and instantly without so much as a warm up storm, I am hard into winter and it is not even November yet. But that does not bother me. I have bragging rights when next I meet some flounder from Shapleigh......Nyaah, Nyaah, Nyaah.

Number 2,615,064,392

I ran across a link/story regarding the planet's dubious honor of now having 7 billion humans roaming around its surface. It is one of those interactive sites that will tell us where in the numerical order of humans inhabiting this rock one falls. According to the BBC article, I am the 2,615,064,392nd person born on this planet. When I was born in 1952, there were not even 3 billion people. Now, 59 years later, there are 7 billion of us taking up , taking over, and eating up space. The UN agency in charge of counting humans insists that by 2050, we will be dealing with 10 billion people.

Wow. 7 billion is a lot of people. 10 billion people is even more insane.

I will admit that this more than doubling of the planet's population since I was born pretty much went unnoticed by me for the most part. Oh, I knew we were crowding each other out a bit, but here in Maine, there is still plenty of room. Maine has a density of 41.3 people per square mile. Or to put it another way, every person in Maine has 15.5 acres of land around them. Or could have if we spaced everyone just so.

The World's population is much more crowded. Taking everyone into account and excluding Antarctica as livable space, there are well over 130 people per square mile crammed together on this planet. Using fuzzy math I figure that by 2050, this figure will climb to around 170 people per square mile.

I am not even sure why I bothered to write about this. We all knew we have been creating humans faster than we destroy them for years. I thought it was whacked when we hit 5 billion and now that a couple more billion have been packed in, it is almost anticlimactic. So what if for every 33 deaths, 100 brats are spit out to take their place. What that means is somewhere in neighborhood of 400,000 people are born everyday while only 132,000 people die.

Regardless whether my math skills are up to the task, there is no denying we are going to stress our planet even more in the coming years. Of course, there is always that go to hope many secretly harbor and we could experience a species decimating event of some kind. A plague, a series of natural disasters, or maybe another war to end all wars. But barring that, I am afraid my daughter will have to get used to sharing more of her air and space with more people than I did.

The above link has some very sobering predictions about what Life will be like if we continue our wanton consumption. There is a crisis point coming. Or at the very least some kind of correction I am sure. Whether we instigate it or the planet does, Mankind is in for some rude awakenings in the not so distant future.

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

The Decade of Odd

It has been an odd year, this year of our Lord, 2011. Odd for me and most likely odd for many others also. But then I should be used to odd. Life started getting seriously odd in my little world right after 9/11. Maybe it was just me, but I felt a change in this country, an unnerving if you will of this country's confidence in itself.

So with a decade of odd behind me, I should be used to it and not even bat an eye when another lunatic escapes from their fringe and makes some kind of impact on the rest of us. It is as if the fringes of our national personality have switched places with the mainstream. The average idiots like me are now not in charge. Nor are we what would be considered mainstream, but have now been expelled to the fringes. The extraordinary idiots have taken over control and now their agendas are pushing ours out of the way.

But have the whackos from our fringes really taken over? Or have we allowed the fringes within ourselves to take control? For whatever reason or reasons, have we begun to let some of our inner demons out into the real world?

A free society can only function effectively as a group if as individuals, we dampen our extreme views and rein in our most fanatical inclinations. But then I guess, a free society can only handle a certain amount of internalizing anger before it has to go through a period of purging.

Cycles. It is all about cycles. And right now is the end of one and the beginning of another. How we handle this unsettled time between the two will define where we go from here. Will reason catch back up with us? Or will we continue to beat each other senseless by forcing our personal fringes onto each other? Will this decade of odd turn into a generation of odd?

The Doomers and the Gloomers tell us this is it. It's all over in a short while. Or in the case of some, it was supposed to have happened already. But so far, the end has not happened contrary to many unfulfilled predictions in our recorded past. No matter what comes at us, somehow we have dodged the bullet. Given our historical tendency to screw up a good thing and then recover, I would say the odds are in our favor. That somehow, we will figure things out and move on into the rest of this century.

In the meantime, maybe we should all try to cut each other some slack again. It works for the most part. What doesn't work is what we are doing now. But then every society has to blow off some steam on a regular basis.

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

Discontent in the GOP Playground

It has to be tough to be a Republican these days. The internal strife, the back biting, the lack of any leaders with a clue must be driving the few "good" Republicans bonkers. It used to be the GOP would not allow it's members to go after each other like siblings in the back seat during a long trip across country. The best the GOP has to offer are acting like, ....oh my Gawd,.....Democrats. Everyone knows Democrats are loose dogs and have no self control. The GOP was above the fray. Republicans always offered up a united front. They could disagree with each other, but only behind closed doors. Solidarity above all else.

But it has all changed. Just watch a couple of minutes of any GOP debate. Close your eyes and they sound like Democrats.......... Okay, maybe evil Democrats. The tempo and pissing on each other shoes surely is the same standard Democrats jump right into when they debate each other. It used to be Democrats wore their feelings on their sleeves and Republicans kept them in the closet. Not anymore. The GOP is now proving to be whackier than any Democrat I know of. I never thought I would see the day. I am positive my mother, her father, and any dead relative from the black Republican side of my family are turning high RPM circles in their respective graves about now.

Every day, the front runners hoping to capture the Republican privilege to go head to head against Obama open their mouths and shove not one foot, but sometimes both feet hard into their mouths. And what is even funnier, many of them have not even a glimmer of a clue they have done it. But when caught and forced to acknowledge their mistake or conflict of ideology, they weasel out by lying, claiming their words were taken out of context, or that what they meant to say was not what came out of their mouth that day. And then quickly, they spew forth a statement that completely reverses the position they had taken sometimes not even hours earlier. They are so desperate to capture the favor of their base, they will say anything and not even realize what they are doing.

This internal girl fight would be true comedy except for the fact that the GOP has lost any interest in actually helping this country out of its current situation and are focused only on defeating Obama, no matter the cost. They are acting like toddlers in the throes of the terrible twos where no matter what mom says, all they have to say is "No". And in the meantime, the rest of us pay for their self absorbed focus on defeating Obama no matter what.

The current state of the GOP illustrates perfectly what I have said all along about the leadership of both parties. The interests of the party come way before the interests of the nation. They only care about us when it comes time for them to ask us for our votes.

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