the defeatists!

Rampant silliness...

Better still, move to the veldt and eat berries and nuts and grubs. Or become Amish. Or a cannibal.

I prefer fresh to frozen and made from scratch to prefabricated. I really think microwave popcorn is an abomination. But, I also have a life. As does the spouse. As for the significant other, she's a retired Navy nurse and first generation Irish-American. You didn't want to even let her near the stove. And, she's a marathoner, so the diet would be macrobiotic or from COSCO because she has a life...

Lives, and no time. The doom of the 21st century will not be heart problems, diabetes and gross obesity so much as the time  required to earn the money to pay for the KFC/MickeyD's/Pizza Hut that is all you have the time to prepare. Shit. It's like Idiocracy -- screaming that it's got electrolytes doesn't make it good for anyone. But, you have problems whenever you ignore the reality and look for some agrarian miracle. Go price the fruit and vegetables at Safeway and then at your local farmer's market. Then, decide whether a weeks worth of calories and protein is worth a second mortgage on the house.

There's an unpleasant trend here...but some cool music...

For some reason, we added a meter a long time ago to the site -- MapStats--and I've been morbidly curious about it -- when we broke a 1000 readers on one day a few times, I was stunned. Amazed. Worried that perhaps the cultural zeitgeist had shifted to where we would actually succeed in getting Holier than Mao and Captain Capitulation elected as President and Vice President. Well, that stopped happening. We dropped our brothers like hot rocks, and got on the Cthulhu/ Benito Guiliani bandwagon. Things continued swimmingly...

However, readership is down. Crusader AXE spent a hour before dawn walking around a track in the Cancer 24 hour relay and found himself, crippled and old as I am, getting pissed when some kid passed me and falling into cadence with the music in the MP3 player. All of which was amped up, rock and roll. Today was not the day for Alehandro Escobedo or Clannad. Nope, .38 Special, Spencer Davis, and "It's in the Way that You Do It!." Odd thought, of course, was that I had promised our company organizer that I'd toss in $10 for every lap. I'm out $130...but, I showed that purple-haired waste of oxygen when I lapped the bastard. In his wheelchair...So, I'm competitive. I don't really like that about myself, saying constantly "compete against a standard, not against people!" but you know, that's such crap. So, I have to wonder if we're doing something wrong.

I figured a little bit of business intelligence was reasonable. I noted a few things right off the bat; not only were our numbers down but blogs that I read were down. Even blogs done by professionals like Swampland weren't getting the number of hits they had. Then I started to note trends in the writers. The writers are writing less and less. Not only are pieces getting shorter, but postings are slower. Ana Marie Cox over at Swampland used to throw up multiple pieces including a "Swampcast" every day. Not so often, and shorter. Hmmm. Trend?

(Yeah, I know...two videos of the same song by the same group. But, there's a little improv in the first one, and I gotta say, the second one is a surreal sort of pre-MTV thing that is cynically similar to some of the bits in Help or It's Been a Hard Day's Night. Both worth listening to and watching...)

Possibly. I have thought at times that the blogosphere is this century's coffeehouse similar to those of the Addison and Steele period in Restoration England. Where they were limited to the Tattler and similar rags, we have this electronic forum provided by Al Gore and Rasputin to discuss stuff, and try out our logic and wit and writing style. Some, like AGI are especially creative and witty in the use of the technology. Some, like the great and terrible IOZ are refined, scholarly and vicious as all hell. Some, like the gang over at Shakespeare's Sister and Protein Wisdom, obviously need to have their medications adjusted. But, that's OK and we are creative, witty, clinical, vicious and deranged together.

However, one thing I noticed all along was that fewer things were posted on weekends and holidays. I post mainly at night or on weekends. And, something has to make me want to write -- if I can't find it, I won't write. At the moment, I am beaten down, by war, pestilence, famine and death. (I bet if I hadn't gotten the damn blister on my right foot, I'd have lapped that Stephen Hawking goddamn look-a-like three times!) I'm really having trouble giving a shit. So, since politics, economics, business and pop culture are the main drivers for my writing, I've been uninspired. So, I write less.

Another thing about the night and weekends...I'm wondering about the blogging and reading that goes on in the prisons that we all inhabit -- those of us lucky enough to be employed as the economy heads south --during the workweek. Since I'm to some extent the corporate cop for Ginormous here at the Crossroads of Opportunity, I have some knowledge. First of all, people are busier than they were two years ago. There may be fewer people, but their combined efforts are producing more paper and electronic bits and bytes than they were. So, being on the internet instead of working is, well, risky; and there's enough to do to not have the opportunity to drop everything and question whether Hillary Clinton and Vince Foster were getting it on and were discovered by an outraged Bill Clinton. ( I vote for Madeline Albright in a thong...) Anyway, that's probably got something to do with it.

However, IM conversations and email chains are still flowing. We've had a couple of classics posted here. Whether is was rape by Pekingese or speculations on the state of Jesus gonads, the concept grew out of interaction. I'm wondering if blogging --self expression -- has failed to address the need for connection. Of course, the social networking, IM and email chains are more isolated than the blog. And, I think that might be a problem...

Saalam a li taecum, Twitshit. Now get the fuck out of our desert!

What is Twitshit de la Dweeb's nickname for King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia? Actually, I never wondered about it before but given his penchant for that, I wouldn't be surprised if was "Froggie..." and Abdullah does look a bit like a repulsed, gay fat frog in white bed sheet... If he's using one for the King at the moment, it's probably Motherfucker. Which leads us to the issue before me, the problem of leverage.

You know, you only have leverage in a symbiotic relationship where you both have the need for each other. As soon as that mutual need evaporates or is forgotten the leverage decreases and things can quickly turn to shit.

Crusader AXE has been spending a lot of his copious free time that he should be spending doing something of merit working through negotiations with the union for a new contract. The nice thing about the Crossroads of Opportunity is that there are no goddamn jobs to be had in the sort of volume to make a strike a real credible threat. We’d hire replacement workers and they know it. Being on a federal installation, they’d have to picket out in the middle of the goddamn desert, where there’s nothing but creosote, tortoises and rattlesnakes. So, the threat of a strike is empty. We can screw around as long as everybody wants to with the negotiations, but the facts are facts – the economy is in a shambles, costs are through the roof and the pay raises will average out to about 3% over the life of the contract. Life is unfair.   

Now, at one time unions had leverage. If they had a strike, they could draw unemployment. The unions had big hunks of money for strike funds so people could keep going. The members were tied to the union, and no one would cross the picket line. Then, in 1968, the unions forgot who their buddy was and largely so Jimmy Hoffa could get a pardon, the unions supported no one, Nixon or paid only lip service to Humphrey, who was a stalwart in the cause of industrial democracy and unions. The election of 1968 was as critical as the election is this year in what happens to the country, and the unions took a pass. The Teamsters basically made a permanent alliance with the Republicans, who fucked them over at every turn. Of course, they knew they were getting into bed with a snake and should not be surprised that the bastard bit them. Thirteen years later, Reagan does in the Air Traffic Controllers and the lights start to really go out in union halls.  In 1968, union members were easily 30% of the workforce, and probably closer to 50% of the blue collar workforce. Today, they are maybe 12% of the workforce. They have no leverage. They wasted it forty years ago. 

Now, earlier this week we got the word that one segment of our workforce wants to bargain separately. Their reasoning is that they can’t get what they want because they are too small a segment in the population. They figure if they can get their own contract, they’ll have leverage. 

Problem is, we have a non-union subcontractor that will gladly pick up the work if they were to strike. We’ve already got them getting people with the necessary endorsements to their license. So our employees may think that they’re special, and in the eyes of the Judeo-Christian God they are. Since, however, that the singularity that’s responsible for every thing is an overweight teenage girl named Tiffany who can’t get a date, they are really just toys. They have no leverage. 

The reason I’m thinking about this problem is fairly simple. I was looking at the headlines in the Wall Street Journal and saw this gem and had to keep reading simply because it was entirely too obvious: 

Saudi Arabian leaders made clear Friday they see no reason to increase oil production until their customers demand it, apparently rebuffing President Bush amid soaring U.S.gasoline prices.Meanwhile, the Energy Department said it won't enter into new contracts for the previously planned fill of the nation's crude stockpile under a royalty program. The action follows a sharp rebuke from Congress earlier this week, with both chambers overwhelmingly voting to force the Bush Administration to stop filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. During Mr. Bush's second personal appeal this year to King Abdullah, Saudi officials stuck to their position that they are already meeting demand, the president's national security adviser told reporters.”

In the past, the Saudis were tied to the US at the hip. If the price of oil got to be too high, they’d increase production to drive down the cost. They did that for a number of reasons tied to their own interests. And, we were their biggest customer so they did everything they could to placate and encourage us. Given the historic ties between the Bush family and the Saud family, it took a monumental burn-rate of good will and clout to get to the point where the Saudis wouldn’t at least pay lip service to helping Bush bring down the cost of oil. The Saudis of course have a lot of our bonds and paper, and they’re not excited about watching their dollar holdings decrease exponentially in value while we energize the Islamic Brotherhood and its various off-shoots like al Qaeda and position ourselves as the second coming of Godfrey of Bullion and Richard, Couer de Lion. We started to burn through our leverage about the time that Cheney developed an energy policy that was basically “Make more money for the oil companies!” Our leverage really increased on Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries on 911 through the removal of the Taliban from power. Then came Iraq, the failure to get bin Laden, the various levels of antics in Pakistan, and the realization that Twitshit not only had no clothes, he had no sense at all. Babbling about freedom and democracy to autocratic despots -- the House of Saud, Syria, the various Sheiks, Caliphs, and so on in the Gulf -- the crumbling of the dollar, the strengthening of Iran's moral standing by threats and absurdity, and here we are... The only card Bush has to play with the Saudis is “ I need you to do this if you want to keep a Republican in the White House.” The Saudis say “Oh, really? And why would we want to do that again? Inishallah…Salaam ali Tae kum.” Bush has no leverage. The Saudis have the leverage and they may not be able to vote in the US elections but they are doing the next best thing. They do not want four more years of George Bush...and are making it very clear.

I’m not sanguine about anything, and I stopped being amazed a while back at the ability of people to not only ignore the common good but also to undermine their own personal interest. Our union could be dumb enough to strike; the Saudis could figure that they don’t need us with  China  and India  buying all the oil they can get. But, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the contract is ratified as is, the union withdraws the request to let those “special” people bargain separately, and we find that the Saudis start increasing production the morning of the first Wednesday after the first Tuesday in November. Why? Because the only leverage they have with us is their ability to work with us – they may be well disposed toward whomever is elected or not so well disposed. But, they do know that if they want to depend on the US to keep their asses on the throne of their Kingdom, they have to keep our needs in mind. Or, of course, something else may happen. Regardless, our leverage with these people lie in the possibilities of the future, and their leverage with us lies in the immediacy of the present. Short term, we're screwed...long term, we're all screwed.

 

Fleshy the Defeatist Cat Doesn't Do Plaid

da da workday gmail conversation results in diagram of a jesus rocket and discovery of jesus's undescended testicle

Mr.Fun: overheard at work: what happens if we have two back to back 25 year
storms - what happens to the basin then?

Mr.Fun: I was all like, two back to back 25 year storms?

Mr.Fun: that's when Jesus comes back.

El Serracho: that would be AWESOME! what if we all had like.. jet helicopters??

Mr.Fun: I want a rocket Jesus

El Serracho: can you draw a picture - nay! a diagram of what that would look like and how it would function?

Mr.Fun: it's my direct boss (the asshole) talking with our environmental
scientist guy (the concern troll).

Mr.Fun: things like this come out of his mouth:

"well you know, this town definitely drives a hard bargain with
their stormwater controls, but this right here is a pretty big
loophole, if you ask me."

Mr.Fun: he asks environmental masturbatory questions - chin stroking questions.

Mr.Fun: I don't know which one of them I can stand less.

El Serracho: i was stroking my chin at the exact moment i read "chin stroking." i became instantly self conscious about this when i read it.

Mr.Fun: I can draw something up.  gimme a minute.

El Serracho: sweet.

Mr.Fun:

 

El Serracho: very very nice work mr.Fun.  is that jesus's cock and balls?

Mr.Fun: you do all realize that Jesus had an undescended testicle.

El Serracho: no, i didnt know that.

El Serracho: this should be blawged

,So, in addition to being crazy, the fucker lies! Or, he copulates with the Great Whore...

Wonder if Cincy McCain has a stable for this animal?

At the age of 9, I asked a Baptist friend of mine if he wanted to go to a Church thing we were doing. He said no, he couldn't because "you Catholics worship the devil..." Obviously, it made an impression on me. Kid's name was Johnny something, and he had a clover shaped birthmark on his forehead. So, I said no we don't and even then, having the Crusader AXE approach to business, in the true Irish-Catholic spirit of ecumenism and Christian fellowship, I beat him up.

So, the idea of the Catholic Church being "the great whore" or the "Apostate Church" is an essential part of some Protestant Theology that percolated to my pre-teen buddy. Any study of the Reformation and the theology of Luther, Calvin, Cramner, Knox, Wycleff, the Anabaptists, Billy Sunday; Jonathan Edwards,Cotton Mather, Billy Graham...well, you get the picture -- they all hated the Catholic Church. Ian Paisley whom I believe has some tenuous connection with Hagee, Pat Robinson, Bob Jones Univesity and the like would preach that the IRA was funded by the Vatican to help set the stage for a successful invasion of the British Isles by the Communists along with their ally, the Pope in Rome. So, disingenuous isn't strong enoughfor this nonsense:

Hagee has often made references to "the apostate church" and the "great whore," terms that Catholics say are slurs aimed at the Roman Catholic Church. In his letter, Hagee said he now better understood that the Book of Revelation's reference to the Catholic Church as "the apostate church" and the "great whore" are "a rhetorical device long employed in anti-Catholic literature and commentary." He stressed that in his use, "neither of these phrases can be synonymous with the Catholic Church."

Not unlike the claim of some racists that when they use the word Nigger, they aren't talking about Blacks. Or, the "some of my best friends are..." So, either this guy is a lying sack of shit or he doesn't understand the history and traditions of his faith. Of course, the Catholic League's Bill Dougherty is equally batshit here.

Donohue, one of Hagee's sharpest critics, said he accepted the apology and planned to meet with Hagee Thursday in New York. "I got what I wanted," Donohue said in an interview. "He's seen the light, as they like to say. So for me it's over."

Well, Bill is easier satisfied than I. Then again, his blovations are similar enough in style and tenor to be from Hagee's pulpit. For me to believe Hagee, he needs to go to Rome and submit to the Pope as the head of the one true Catholic, Apostolic Church. Because unless he's lying, incredibly ignorant or has had a stroke, his claims in this case are equivalent to McCain's discussion of Obama as Hamas favorite son. While not as offensive since they are in the form of a psuedo-apology, they are at least as ludicrous. 

Somewhere in the canon of James Joyce, there is a passage where Buck Mulligan asks Stephen Dedalus why he doesn't just become a Protestant. The response is classic, to the effect that he refused to exchange a logically consistent absurdity for a logically inconsistent absurdity. Believing Hagee's apology is an example of a logically inconsistent absurdity.

Crispin Sartwell's Replacement, debt and Thomas Jefferson

Chuck Norris is actually kind of interesting. Whacko politically, of course but then again, maybe not so much. He's a Christian Libertarian, if I felt the need for a label for him -- he's articulate and probably doesn't have any steroidal issues, legal or physical. Steroid users do not have that long, lean look that he does. If he spends hours a day kick-boxing and working out on that machine he's always pushing, he'd be in excellent shape. And, he is...

This week's column is one worth considering. He cites Thomas Jefferson's advice about debt and points out that  "In any form, debt is a form of repression. Debt is bondage, plain and simple. In fact, the U.S. Department of State got it right when it reported that debt bondage has one primary goal: "to keep a person in subjugation." For more than 200 years, we, the people, have proved as a nation that we know how to dig ourselves quite successfully into a bottomless financial hole and perpetuate our subjugation to debt."

One of his Jefferson quotes deserves to be shared  with a wider audience:  " We must make our election between economy and liberty , or profusion and servitude . If we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses, and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes, have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account, but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers." — Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816. (AXE emphasis)

The trivial preoccupations of his peers

A friend of mine who's a librarian was recently reviewing job applicants. Asked his qualifications in library skills, one man put “machine gunner.” He was a vet who'd served in Falluja. The library is in a state school here in the United States that, last fall, had 650 such vets enrolled. The young man got the job but soon became irked by what he saw as the trivial preoccupations of his colleagues. He applied for a job at a nearby police department. All over the country, police departments are advertising for Iraq vets. Three-quarters of the way through the hiring process, the PD signaled to him that things looked good. Then, in rapid succession, three Iraq vets in the area were involved in lethal episodes: two murders and one suicide. The PD immediately called the young man in for a second psychological evaluation, then nixed him for the job. He's 24. He can't find anything satisfying to do and is thinking of re-enlisting. He's against the war.

Andrew Cockburn usually irks me as does anyone who has a semi-conspiratorial view of the world. I just don't think the Illuminati-Masons-Girl Scouts of America-Jesuit-Homosexual-Witch-Covens are all that efficient. Like Rush Limbaugh trumpeting about "Operation Chaos," the conspirator who claims influence is usually like the rooster climbing on a mountain of chickenshit and then crowing as if he had produced it all. He didn't and it doesn't matter anyway. It's possible that 2% of the people in Indiana voted for Hillary because Rush told them to do so. I doubt it. However, Cockburn's current column is absolutely right on.

Cockburn combines psychological casualties present, the percentage expected to blow up at some point in the future and the physical casualties to come up with an astronomical number that feels about right --101,000 US Casualties a year. I've talked to a number of VA docs, Army Mental Health and Community Affairs people, and senior officers and NCOs who are dealing with the problem in the trenches. It's not good.

Cockburn sums it up somewhat elegantly. This war is crazier than the other wars because there is no respite. None, nada. Everyday, every minute there is danger:

Julian Barnes, in the Los Angeles Times, pointed out in his April 18 story that “a chief difference is that in Iraq and Afghanistan all service members, not just combat infantry, are exposed to roadside bombs and civilian deaths. That distinction subjects a much wider swath of military personnel to the stresses of war.”

"We call it '360-365' combat,” Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, told Barnes. “What that means is veterans are completely surrounded by combat for one year. Nearly all of our soldiers are under fire, or being subjected to mortar rounds or roadside bombs, or witnessing the deaths of civilians or fellow soldiers.”

Keep that in mind when someone asks you to sign a petition for VA benefits, or when a VET comes in to interview for a job. Or, you see one in Starbucks, looking nervous and agitated. Don't thank them for their service and walk on. Buy them a beer or a cup of coffee and listen closely, even if they're not talking. Especially if they are not talking. I'm seeing too many haunted eyes these days...

 

The return of Buffalo Bill Cody? Probably not.

"Low Spark" Traffic
by Steelydan

Greed, petulance and denial.  Sometimes the headline says it all, and I miss the Shire. The papers cover crap like this that helps put our culture and world in some sort of perspective. I wonder if ELF might not be behind this one. Oh, well...

Irony, beyond Kierkegaard and Kafka

"The secretary believes that it is inappropriate, even if though permissible under the rules and regulations, to cremate our fallen, our heroes, in a facility that also cremates pets," he added.

So, the next time Twitsheet de la Dweeb or some other inane surrogate starts babbling about supporting the troops, keep this in mind. "The facility, located in an industrial park near Dover Air Force Base, has cremated about 200 service members, manager David A. Bose estimated last night. It uses separate crematories a few feet apart to cremate humans and animals, he added, insisting that there had "not been any people gone through the pet crematory."

They ESTIMATE about  200? " Officials said they do not know the number of service members cremated at the Kent County facility, which is identified on a billboard as Friends Forever Pet Cremation Service."

Ok, one of the advantages Crusader AXE has in this case is a little knowledge of the FAR, that is, the Federal Aquisition Regulation. They know because they had a contract. They know because they had an invoices to pay. They knew they were using a Pet Cremation Service because it would have been on the fucking contract. I'm sure that Friends Forever didn't use a doggie urn to ship the remains to Mom and Dad and Hubbie and Wiifeie in the hinterlands, because the people at Friends Forever probably have a little more soul than a procurement creep sitting somewhere in the bowels of the Pentagon or at some out office some goddamn place.

Now, I don't care about what happens to my shell when I go on. The spouse and the significant others can all grab a limb and pull for all I care. I would to some extent prefer a Navajo style burial, where the remains would be hidden in the desert and allowed to return to nature. The Graham Parsons style, buring in the desert, would be fine with me. I do not want to be stuffed and mounted, and the Friends Forever approach would work well for me. It's probably a lot cheaper than the Digby O'Dell Friendly Undertaker Mortuary, Crematory and Pit Barbecue here in the Crossroads of Opportunity.

But, the ritual care of the remains isn't really for the person who died. It may be to apease the evil spirits that we associate with death; it may be for the gods, whomever they are (Tiffany doesn't do funerals, she doesn't think black is flattering, and all those flowers make her sneeze. Tiffany doesn't do flowers unless they are plastic.): they're for the ones the gone left behind. And the ones who are yet to go -- how you treat others is how you will treat me. And mine, when I am gone. Feel comfortable?

Somehow, I doubt when Cheney goes, he'll be taken care of at a Pet Crematory, regardless of how clean and organized it is...

I am the new widget

we are the generation of the Widget.  fuck the Y, X, Z generation.  we ARE the future.  I am the actualization of the mechanism of changeangent reactant.  here is my oxidative reaction:

ME + WORK + THE RIGHT THOUGHTS + HARD WORK + CREATIVE GENE + BEER + OXYGEN--------> THE FUTURE

and I want to break myself.  look at this shit:

Cultural Shift: Out with Bubbas, up with Creatives.

Policy Shift: Out with the DLC, up with technocratic wonks.

Coalition reorganization: Out with party silos, in with squishy goo-goos.

you would think if they were so set on reducing their impact on the environment, or reducing their impact globally, geopolitically, so on and so forth, whatever. . .that they'd crank out less boilerplate, or just spend less breathe. the only question not being asked is what do we really want out of this? the motivation, intent, goals are never questioned, compared, contrasted or met.  it's all intuition because it's all projection.

but there's so much good work to be done! there's so much to do! so much to accomplish! let's get started!

I want to ruin my chances of getting caught up in any such nonsense, so I spend my days blogging, dressing up the utter boredom of my everyday tasks and assignments with my own version of a boilerplate Type A personality, pronouncing to any that will listen that I am in fact going to vote for John McCain - because I think he's the Best Thing for America, mocking any and all that claim to be progressive, and tattooing PILOT ink spots onto the back my hand with a safety pin.

mostly because I'm prone to that Creative Class shit, of course.

mostly because the people I'm surrounded by and associate with and am friends with have all read that book or have heard of it or in fact own it, and all twist in the slightest breeze of a whisper of being thought of as the greatest generation ever, EVAR! - the one charged with bringing about new things and new ideas and a bright new future, forever and ever, amen.  Brooks and Friedman are like father figures to me.  I read their gospel and am heartened.  sigh.  thanks Dad, you really left me with a pile of shit to work with, didn't you?  this is the best you can do?  I can do that.  watch.  what do you mean I'm breaking it?  don't push that button?  why?  oh this is fun.  oops.  sorry Dad.  did that hurt?  my bad.

I've been somewhat taken lately with the American Gangster flick, which like explains everything you need to know about America and economics and the police in 120 minutes or so.  for some reason this excerpt strikes me now:

TOSCA
Monopolies are illegal in this country,
Frank, because no one can compete with a
monopoly. If they let the dairy farmers
do that, half of them would go out of
business tomorrow.

FRANK
I'm just trying to make a living.

TOSCA
Which is your right. Because this is
America. But not at the unreasonable
expense of others. That's un-American.
(he studies Frank)
You know the price you pay for a gallon
of milk doesn't represent its true cost
of production. It's controlled. Set.

FRANK
I set a price I think is fair.

TOSCA
It's very unfair, in fact. Your
customers are happy, but what about your
fellow dairy farmers? You're not
thinking of them.

FRANK
(very calmly)
I'm thinking of them as much as they ever
thought of me.

h/t: Monsieur IOZ

Whatever happened to Lordi?

Lordi! The official Finnish Heavy Metal Satanic Rock Big Hair except for the hairless chick (kinda) keyboard player Band of the Defeatists is still out there on the road doing whatever you do after you stomp the Eurovision 2006 contest after a featured article in the New York Times. Something doing it for themselves, they keep on truckin' on!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWGzjcr4aHs&feature=related

Tiffany gives that link 3 thumbs up...she borrowed one from Biff...

a friendly letter

"The world wants to see the United States lead. They've been disappointed and disillusioned over the last seven, eight years," he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in an interview to air on "The Situation Room."

"I think there is still a sense everywhere I go that if the United States regains its sense of who it is and our values and our ideals, that we will continue to set the tone for a more peaceful and prosperous world."

Dear Mr. Obama,

Lead us where?  Where we going?

See You Soon,

Mr.Fun

ps. My bags are packed.  Wink.

As I roved out one morning, to breathe the air around Tom Paine

Well, another meaningless milestone in a life lived less fully than one should have lived it. Crusader AXE turned 57 today. I think celebrating birthdays becomes increasingly meaningless until you're about 75, and then it's all about survival. I don't necessarily think that survival is all that big a deal...Yea, the cockroach!!!It has changed since it crawled out of the ooze and look at it now! Yeah, George. He's only 62 and he looks like a cockroach!

For me, no big deal. Shit. I bought a bra for the Charger (cheaper than replacing the front facia because I cracked a cross piece) and a new watch from Overstock.com. I then went to work. Where they had telegraphed something was happening when one of the folks who pretend to listen to what I tell them to do asked me, "So Vendesday iz your birfhday? Are you going to be tventy-one?" which stopped me for a second. (She's Ukaranian...interesting person, very beautiful with sad eyes and how she ended up with Ginormous INC at the Crossroads of Opportunity is definitely a low rent soap opera.) Yeah, right, not quite for the third time.

Now, these people know me. They know it takes a lot to phase me; while I can go off the deep end at various things, I don't get that excited over small stuff. If the building isn't on fire, I don't see blood on the floor, and there's nobody dead I figure we'll deal with it. So, I wandered in this morning and noticed that everyone was very giggly around me as I headed for my office. There was a Happy Birthday Banner on the door. So, I walk in and the floor is covered in ballons, and there's a couple more banners. I took the balloon off my desk chair, sat down and tried to log into the network. Unsuccessfully. I finally held my head the right way and the connection worked and I started looking at emails. They all had to come down and see what I was doing...I just shook my head and said, "You folks really don't know me, do you? Do you really expect me to react to this? This is nothing. If you had filled the room with balloons and there was a rattlesnake in there someplace, I might have reacted." In the afternoon, they showed up with cake...a really nice sheetcake that I first refused - sugar makes me crazy -- but seeing the dismay ate a piece.

Now, we don't do birthdays. I do for the folks who work for me or work so closely with us that they might as well work for me. But, nobody else does. I'm afraid of going all "You like me!You really like me!!"-Sally Fields on the issue. But, they obviously do. What am I doing to provoke this affection?  Probably nothing...I'm just being myself. But, that means I try to treat people like they matter. They really don't of course. Not to anyone but their families. And, me. Of course, I'm a completely cynical bastard in a lot of ways but I know how I'm supposed to act to live up to my code and I generally try to act that way. Hell, I don't like what goes on inside my head; I certainly don't want to share that with anyone else.

So, AXE's managerial hint for his brothers and sisters and all of you out-there in blogland. Treat people like they matter, and you might get cake. And ballons...most of which I got rid of but I kept a bunch. I keep a lot of weird shit.

Ironically, May 7 is St Stanislaus' Day. My baptismal name is Michael. May 8 is the Feast of St Michael the Archangel. Guess even then I was before my time...

Who are we to question what comforted Nixon?

So, a jewy Jew and a Waspy wasp get together and decide to explain the whole spiritual adviser thing...the spiritual adviser being the "personal trainer for the soul..."

I've been kind of wondering about this one...if Batboy Obama has a problem with Catholics when he's never made any comment I'm aware of about Catholicism, what exactly are Catholics going to think about McCain and his dynamic duo -- since Jerry Falwell has gone to hell,...err, Jesus...no, actually probably hell -- of Pastor Parsley and Pastor Hagee? Hell, what are the Jews going to make of those two -- American Jews, John Stewart-Jerry Seinfeld sort of Jews, the ones who don't sleep with an UZI? I'm sure it's a minor issue, but I think a case could be made that all the DNC has to do is run ads of McCain saying the things he's said and then, presto, the things he said that contradicts the things he said. "Agents of intolerance" to "I welcome the endorsement of this driveling idiot...err...righteous Christian. I don't agree with the fundamental tenets of their ministry, but hey, I'm just an old gay whore anyway. Tailhook, you know? Only in my case, before they let girls in?"

I'm starting to think that if Jesus was the son of God and he did all that stuff and said all that stuff, Jesus was a defeatist. Even for the omniscient, eternal godhead, life is 60 /40  against. 

Write something, even if it's just a suicide note!

Gore Vidal said that. I kind of like it, and I think it sums up the whole blogging pursuit. We write in these things because we want to express our opinions to our reading public and, oh yeah, because we're too undisciplined to do much more than blogs. Or suicide notes.

I'd like to comment in depth about the great election news, but why bother? Another quote that hopped up on the Google Homepage for the AXE today was from Norman Mailer --"There is no greater impotence in all the world like knowing you are right and that the wave of the world is wrong, yet the wave crashes upon you." I suspect that Bill Clinton has to feel that way. He could see the damn thing coming, and yet there it went. On the other hand, I never understood the reasoning behind the whole inevitability thing. I happen to think that the Boomers have a couple of Presidents left in the generation, but Dulcinea Dowd touched on why she probably won't be be one of them.  Unlike Bubba Clinton, Hillary is not a natural politician. I never heard Bubba laugh but what I thought he saw something funny. The Hillary Bat Laugh really annoys because it is less a genuine laugh than that silly bark that trademarks "Christ" Matthews. Dowd gets it right, I think --

She’s so at odds with who she used to be, even in the Senate, that if she were to get elected, who would voters be electing? Obama is like her idealistic, somewhat naïve self before the world launched 1,000 attacks against her, turning her into the hard-bitten, driven politician who has launched 1,000 attacks against Obama.As she makes a last frenzied and likely futile attempt to crush the butterfly, it’s as though she’s crushing the remnants of her own girlish innocence. (AXE Emphasis)

Them Again. Oh, shit...I do want a drop top Imperial in bright red tho...

I'm not sure if this is good news, bad news, no news or whatever. However, the revival of Mudcrutch combined with the return of these folks to recording and the REM tour may mean the return of New Wave/Punk/Southern Soul Rock/Athenian Dance music to the music world. Which, quite frankly, would be just all right with me...of course, given the price of gas, they'd probably have to re-write some lyrics to "I got me a car as slow as a snail..." Or, maybe not. Past of the real rock ambiance is not to worry about shit like that...

We need to remember that the basic tenet of rock and roll was originally that you can dance with it and it was supposed to be, well, fun, with attitude. I have real trouble with a lot of contemporary bands because of the a-tonal, distortion driven, all attitude no fun approach. Do you think 9 Inch nails will ever add chick backup singers and horns and then play "Little Bit of Soul" as an encore for a live album and a video. As the sheriff says, a clue: No. Yeah, what Lennon called Jagger's "fag dancing" is far more authentic with Michael Sipe and yes, at this stage the chicks in B52 are looking like Elvira with red or yellow wigs, but damnit, you could tap your feet at their sounds and smile. Do people listen to Coldplay and Smile? Think anyone ever giggled at Metallica?

One reviewer said that Tom Petty really got his swagger back with Mudcrutch. I was never a REM afficianado but they're great FM radio music and every now and then they surprise you. Nobody ever accused the B52s of being consumed with existential angst or anger. If they were on X, it was probably a natural high.

Going home and nowhere blues

Not long ago, and for decades , the remains of soldiers were shipped like parcels in the bellies of commercial planes. That practice began to end on November 15, 2005, when a twenty-one-year-old medic with the 101st Airborne named Matthew Holley was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq. His parents, John and Stacey, had also served with the 101st Airborne; now they were told that their only child would arrive home in San Diego as freight in the hold of a US Airways flight, ferried to the family by baggage handlers.

After lodging a complaint with the Army and receiving help from California senator Barbara Boxer, the Holleys saw their son met by an honor guard instead. Still angry, they began a campaign to change the way all military dead would be delivered. California representative Duncan Hunter, then chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, wrote legislation that eventually became known as the Holley Provision to the 2007 Defense Authorization Act. It directed that the bodies of fallen soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines would no longer be booked passage on US Airways, Delta, Northwest, or Continental but would be flown on military or military-contracted flights and met by honor guards.

It's important at times to remember that the Army is not the Department of Defense, nor are the Marines the Department of Defense, nor are the Navy the Department of Defense, nor are the Air Force the Department of the Defense, nor are the Coast Guard the Department of Homeland Security. The services are people bound by traditions, a concept of honor, and the trust and faith of men and women in something as simple as a flag, 3 volleys from a rifle squad, and a haunting sound on a bright summers day, a driving rain, or a calm and quiet moonless night.

I'm not a glass half full kind of guy, I guess

When I glanced at the Washington Post headlines on my Google homepage this morning, I was kind of stunned to see headlines to effect that, praise Jesus, the latest unemployment numbers for April weren't that bad, so Hallelujah, happy days are here again. I was busy, so I didn't take the time to blog anything, but when I looked tonight, that crap had vanished from Google and the Times post was to the effect that experts were hoping that the additional loss of 20000 jobs instead of the 90000 or so that had been projected meant that the downturn would be shallow. Passing over the fact that you can drown in a drainage ditch as easily as the ocean, it's the 2nd of May! Those numbers are always revised upwards, and doubling is not impossible. Does anyone trust numbers from this administration besides the lemmings who follow the stock tickers and try to discern the future from a distorted view of the present. Next, if you use a simple linear progression, rising unemployment while less than projected is still RISING UNEMPLOYMENT! Oh yeah, the workforce is about to grow significantly as people graduate from colleges and high school. Lots more people looking for work, many of them loaded with incredible loan debt and then finding a job as a bank teller. You want to be an investment banker? Work your way up...opps, no upward mobility because nobody can afford to retire...there's always the Army.

the comedy of the commons

in our effort(s) to "save things," how are we not just manipulating things as they are?

see, traditional conservation efforts wish to maintain things as they are by preventing humans from interfering (as if we're aliens or something!), or by providing limits to what we allow each other to do.  it's the stop!  don't touch! reactionism of a parent.  by "traditional" I mean "of my generation" - I've always assumed conservation to mean "stop or limit taking these resources from the environment." 

now on the other hand, you have market/capitalist "conservation" efforts which aim to ascribe ownership to certain resources - resources that humans value.  say the tasty fish we want to eat.  I think Unilever is an example where the firm realized that if they keep fishing at the rate they've been fishing they will no longer be in business after 25 years - so they favor a self-imposed limit to resource extraction.  it is almost as if they favor governmental intervention to protect what they see as a shared resource - in fact it is - because they're intimately vested in the ocean and its resources.  so they seek protection.  and by "protection," here, they mean that if they value it, they will take care of it.  they are vested in this resource - therefore they will protect it and develop it and advance it and find better and new ways to save, preserve, produce, and ultimately deliver it.  to me and my belly.  now when you say ownership and when you say property rights - what you mean is protection of these rights by an outside agency - usually a government with a big stick.  it is easy to confuse the "free market" rhetoric with actual freedom to do whatever it is that you want.  what is actually going on is the government is tasked with protecting the individual and his or her "established" rights - rights assumed from as far back as the Enlightenment or whatever.  and I would tend to agree - what is being argued is that the will of the people (the collective) should not trump the rights of a single individual.  what is at play here is the point at which an individual's rights trump the rights of the collective.  I'm always for the individual - because eff you fuckers - I've got one life to live, and as far as I can see, one person can only do so much damage.  however, when individuals direct and manipulate the collective will - and the masses comply - that's when you get into trouble.  distinguishing between tyranny and individualism can be simple or confusing - depending on where you're coming from and what your predisposition is.  and as far as I can tell in America: we've royally fucked up any and all such distinction.  look at the crap that comes out of our leaders' orifi. 

now where were we.  right, I was trying to defeat the concept of conservation.  listen - whether you hamfist it and block everyone from tapping a resource - or whether you select resources to protect and allow ownership of - either way you are ascribing your will to the planet.  fine.  carve up the ocean and its resources and sell rights and property and so on like we've always done forever and ever amen.  we're going to carve up the world, dissect it, share it, manipulate it, steal it, kill each other over it, and make a game over how to divide and share everything we come across.  how boring.  how human.

there is no difference to me.  the collective will versus the individual will versus communism versus capitalism.  it's all struggle and capture, conquest and allocation.  sure, communism killed more people - because its tenets are harder to enforce and far less intuitive to human beings than are the tenets of capitalism.  something tells me we're not really a capitalist society and something tells me we're not fully communistic either.  big whoop.  the ontology is powernap inducing. 

I'm really bored with all this.  you can overfish and I would not care if I ever ate tuna again in my lifetime.  I will tell my grandchildren what tuna tasted like - now here, shut up and eat this trout I caught.  it doesn't matter to me.  humans will do as humans will always do.  we'll spoil it, ruin it, make it better but not whole.  as if we could ever define that.  I'm quite frankly tired of trying to make sense of it.   

I could really care less about natural resources or pollution or humanity's continued existence for that matter.  to ascribe meaning or moral to this world - to me - is to truly render this world incomprehensible and meaningless.  so I give up.  you can have my will - I no longer want it or wish to exercise it upon anyone or anything.  it's in the mail with no return address.  hell, maybe I'll even email it to you.

fuck it, I'm going fishing.    

h/t:Balko!

This guy for Chairman of the Federal Reserve!!!!

I was going to get vitrolic over the news that we are not in a recession. However, I've talked about statistics and the meaning of money enough. I wrote a bit about Kevin Phillips a while back, and if you're interested in understanding why this bullshit is basically meaningless, check articles under It's the Economy, Stupid.

No, I decided to take a