the defeatists!

Damn, now we can be sure the fucking thing won't work right!

Remember the Swiss supercollider? We were building one up in North Texas and somebody cancelled the project but the EU stepped right up to the challenge of building a big hole in a big tunnel and speeding atoms through it as fast as the little fuckers can speed in the hopes of causing collisions and thus ending the world while the Euro is worth more than the dollar. Or something. Or Nothing. Remember, it's largely French. . Solving the problem of the origin of the universe; spending megaEuros on a stimulus project. Well, among the people doing this was a French guy, of course, who appears to be an al Queida terrorist, of course. Being of Algerian descent, of course. Like Camus. Except he's a Muslim, so he'd be more like the guy Camus' antihero in The Stranger wasted because it was Tuesday. Of course. Obviously, If he was a deconstructionist, it would have been too ironic...So, he must be a Sartian Maoist existentialist. Or something...ideologically speaking.

A French physicist with the European atomic research centre at Geneva was charged with terrorism offences by a Paris judge tonight after investigators alleged that he had offered to work with the north African wing of al-Qaeda. Adlene Hicheur, 32, who is of Algerian origin, was arrested last week with his younger brother after intelligence agents intercepted his alleged contacts on the internet with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

Oh well, we keep being disappointed by these people. Now, for a gratuitous New Jersey bad ass Stevie Nicks/Tom Petty cover...

Fuck at a funeral...

You know, the concept of shooting fish in a barrel implies that even an idiot can do it. So, when you lob questions to John Cleese...it's sort of like putting the world's greatest trap shooter in Seattle's Pike's Place Market with the world's greatest shotgun and having the said WGTS stand appropriately and then shoot at the fish thrown by the fish throwers...hilarity can ensure, but it's just too fucking easy for the shooter...

As politics gets more childish, does satire get harder for you?
Yes. Take Sarah Palin — so many Republicans love her. I suddenly realized that in order to actually understand that someone is not very bright — or to be brutal, that they’re rather stupid — you really have to be more intelligent than them. Most Republicans aren’t smarter than Sarah Palin. It’s true.

Tripping over facts while drinking your own Kool-Aid...

I've watched a lot of great ideas go south as a result of reality. The eight years between January 2001 and January 2009 are an example; Cold Fusion is another. Tom DeLay's lame imitation of Fred Astair; the Yugo; the Michael Richards' TV show. I think you're getting the picture.

Add the Barrack Obama administration.  A lot of the facts come from the Bush Administration, but still -- very disappointing. And, ironic -- I've been preaching in various forums available to me that the jobs data was totally whack, for example. People out of work getting MBAs -- does anyone sense the irony besides me? Sending people back to school who were loggers before to get degrees and certificates in Computer Graphics? Really...the idea that the future of America is virtual is vapor. Pure vapor -- hell, virtual vapor. I was preaching that in 1998! Today, The Times announces that the Bureau of Labor Statistics has consistently gotten in wrong. Hooorah! Defeatists 1, Government Bureaucracy -10000. It's a Pyrrhic victory, of course.

When the United States economy fell into recession at the beginning of 2008, many economists, including those at the Federal Reserve, refused to believe it was happening. They pointed to the employment numbers, which showed only mild job losses for the first half of that year...Recessions, they said, do not come with such mild job losses. ( AXE Comment: If the gas gauge says full, and the car won't move, accept that some goddamn thing is wrong. And, I'd don't know how to make this clearer -- if you've driven your Bugatti Veron flat out for the last hour and suddenly lose power and coast to a stop and the engine won't turn over, bet the gauge is fucked first. The measurement is usually wrong. )They were right. Unfortunately, it was the job numbers that were wrong. (AXE Commentary: Great, I was right. BFD. I'm not Obama, I have no leverage to fix this clusterfuck. Not that he does, but he can bitch about it from the bully pulpit. I have the Defeatists. ) On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics delivered its latest revelation that the jobs picture was far worse than it had previously reported. Using newly available data, the bureau now estimates that during the 12 months ended last March, the economy lost 5.6 million jobs, 824,000 more than the 4.8 million previously reported...(AXE Snark: What's a 824,000 job error to an accountant or a statistician? A rounding error. What is it to a human being? Tragedy.) It now appears that during the first half of 2008, when the recession was getting under way, job losses averaged 146,000 per month. That is nearly three times the average of 49,000 jobs shown in the initial estimates. How did the government get it so wrong?

They got it wrong because they are fucking Hobbits who obtained their positions during the last 30 years, 20 of which were in the control of Reagan and Bush2 and their various advisers. Remember faith-based governance? Laffler Curve? Supply Side Economics? Ketchup is a vegetable? Karl Jaspers Karl Jaspers, the German Existentialist besides Heidigger, the one who wasn't a Nazi, provided an explanation as did Morris Massey, the OD guru about generations and learning. (Only one of these guys is dead, I think. In the 70s, Massey would show up at conferences and people would come up to him and say, "I thought you were dead." He ultimately theorized that they were confused because two important cultural  figures had in fact joined the Norwegian Blue in permanently pining for the Fjords...Maurice the Cat, star of 9 Lives Cat Food Commercials and the actor Raymond Massey.) It's actually a pretty straight forward proposition -- everything you do is influenced by everything you've ever done. If for 30 years you've been calling red ambergris, guess what -- to you, red is ambergris.

Going back to my gauge analogy, the measurement can be accurate, reliable and repeatable, but if it isn't measuring the right thing, well, the measurements aren't just meaningless, they are absolutely dangerous. Real people will make decisions on this stuff, and GIGOGIGOGIGO!

Now usually some twinge of optimism sneaks in at this point, but I'm out of it. I don't believe that we can do the fundamental things necessary to fix this mess. I'm enough of a Marxist to believe that systems collapse based on their own internal contradictions. What we observe in so many ways is the triumph of what Teddy Roosevelt called the "malefactors of great wealth." The system can't be changed until we can elect Philosopher-Kings whose only reason for running for office is to do good and do right. Power, ego, and all the perks have no place in governance. Unfortunately, Christ, Socrates and Jefferson aren't available.

Now, I do have some ideas -- confiscatory income taxes, government financing of all campaigns down through junior high student council, execution or exile for corrupt politicians or bureaucrats, mandatory IQ and basic skills tests for government employees and elected officials, and a series of constitutional amendments to "fix" some systemic problems. Little things like mandating marginal tax rates necessary to pay the government's way within 20 years of the expenditure; taxing corporations that lay-off workers; requiring severance, blah blah blah. Not going to happen anymore than the ascendancy of the philosopher kings...time for a defeatist old favorite -- a little Yeats, I think, is appropriate for the moment.

THE SECOND COMING

    Turning and turning in the widening gyre
    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.

    Surely some revelation is at hand;
    Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
    The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
    When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
    Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
    A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
    A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
    Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
    Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
    The darkness drops again but now I know
    That twenty centuries of stony sleep
    Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
    And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
    Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Glenn Beck is Gilbert Gottfreid!

Glenn Beck has gone to Switzerland to close down an anti-Glenn Beck website. He has appealed to the New World Order and the Black Helicopters and the Illuminati to shut down a website. Talk about shock and awe! Read the post and then read the legal pleading. Cresca is right; I can't imagine another legal pleading with the words "Dr. Spock ate my balls..." or where such phrasing is more relevant. 

Twelve years ago on a dreary Washington Day...Bachman-Steele Overdrive

I was a new state employee in a program called the "Governor's Executive Fellowship" working for the Department of Transportation up in the Shire of Ectopia. DOT was the Shire's Waffen SS, in that unlike a lot of government, they actually did things in a more or less rational, results oriented way. They were hobbits, as all civil servants are; however, Hobbits with a purpose...which can be dangerous. At the time, we were trying to grow infrastructure which meant hiring engineers. Well, we were in competition with California, who needed to hire a lot of engineers to handle seismic refit for things like the "Bay Bridge." I lost interest and left government...although at times, I wish I hadn't. Government, especially state government, could be a good place for a left-libertarian-anarcho-syndicalist to hide out. Kafka worked for the government; didn't seem to inhibit him, much.

Anyway, I was amused to read this piece this morning. Seems the Bay Bridge, after 20 years, is still fucked up, and during a simple inspection discovered a potentially catastrophic crack that will keep it shut down until it's fixed. Ok, or falls into the bay.

Now, I'm not sure whether to chalk this up to living in California or to the basic hobbitry of the well-meaning technocrats. Or both...It's tempting to consider this the Shire of "Dude!" except it is far more schizo-psycho-WHAT THE FUCK IS THE MATTER WITH THESE PEOPLE than that. The last guy with a coherent idea in state government was probably Jerry Brown. And, look what happened to him...from the Birchers to the Truthers to the Surfers to the Huffers, this is one hell of place here in the golden west. We don't have shit and our taxes are high, but the old bastards have lower property insurance because of it.

Speaking of birthers-etc., Gary Trudeau and Doonesbury remain a gold standard for social commentary. Today's strip is a kinda wry but marvelous portrait of a nation in need of a new place on the space-time continuum. In a sane world, the Roman style Republic envisioned by the founders, which of the clowns currently driving the public debate would be anything more than a member of some Asian mystery cult hanging out in the backstreets or in the catacombs, babbling eschatoloical nonsense to each other?
And, for those of you thinking that Obama might be Marcus Aurelius, well, remember how that ended up? The thought "utterly fucked" comes to mind...although, I have decided that it's time to end this farce, and Crusader AXE of the Lost Causes is declaring for " Michelle Bachman-Michael Steele in 2012." Proposed motto -- "What could possibly go wrong? How hard can it be?" While Bachman is SpaceBat crazy, I think Steele is an utterly useless dickhead who's a credit to his race and completely without principle, compassion and public service. One of the generals I worked for used to say that there were great Americans, great great Americans, and GREAT GREAT GREAT Americans -- the last being politicians. Who as a class should hit in the head with a hammer and composted. I don't generally agree completely, but in Stella Steel's case, I wholeheartedly endorse General Roe's conclusion.

Let's just get the end of the Republic and the elimination of the human race overwith...the game is really getting old. 

Slowly, slowly... what does Bush have in common with Radovan Karadzic?

Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld's next roomate?

The news that the Pentagon is going to release the names of prisoners to the Red Cross is interesting for a lot of reasons...the fact that we haven't been puts us squarely on the side of the North Koreans, the North Vietnamese, the Russians, the Japanese, the VietCong, Shining Path and on and on and on. One of the basic humanitarian functions of the Red Cross has been to assure prisoners that their conditions are being monitored and that they need not fear summary execution. Another is informing families that their loved one's are alive. We have spent decades demanding this information and railing against the axis of evil-doers who refused to provide it. I am not an expert on the Geneva Convention, beyond the basics that ever soldier knows and the stuff I had to take in various courses. But, during the Bush years, this sets us squarely on the side of Pyongyang, Hanoi, Moscow, Tojo and other folks that we portrayed as beasts and minions of the devil. I think it makes various pieces of the Pentagon and its leadership probably indictable at the Hague for war crimes.

Oh, and then there's the news from Newsweek:

According to two sources—one who has read a draft of the paper and one who was briefed on it—the report describes how one detainee, suspected USS Cole bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, was threatened with a gun and a power drill during the course of CIA interrogation. According to the sources, who like others quoted in this article asked not to be named while discussing sensitive information, Nashiri's interrogators brandished the gun in an effort to convince him that he was going to be shot. Interrogators also turned on a power drill and held it near him. "The purpose was to scare him into giving [information] up," said one of the sources. A federal law banning the use of torture expressly forbids threatening a detainee with "imminent death."

Well, that definitely opens up the problem, and addresses directly the issue of whom we are and whom we want to be. It's particularly interesting and relevant as Quentin Tarantino's new fantasy opens.
I have no real problem in war with killing enemy leaders. Individual soldiers for whatever reason is a radically different solution and, if  you don't have a war, that's a different situation. Not to quibble, but we don't have a war. We have some clusterfucks on-going. One might argue, successfully, that we have an ideological conflict and I could live with "Wanted Dead or Alive" posters going up all over the middle east. But, once we get them alive, then we're responsible to keep them alive. It may be reassuring to want to say with the basterds that killing "Natzis is out bidness, and bidness is good..." but not giving into temptations like that is one of the reasons that I can say that the expected breakout of Jeffersonian democracy and Friedmanesque capitalism (Milton, not Tom, although Tom carried a lot of water for them) was powered not merely by propaganda but by idealism...note that ideology and idealism have the same root.

Oh, remember the bad guys torturing Chloe's boyfriend with the power drill in 24 a few years back. Was some retired agent or paramilitary or hell, the agency itself, providing technical assistance? Or, worse yet, were the same guys inventing what went on getting hints from 24? 

Speaking of Tarantino, I caught a bit of him talking about the film and what he had been listening to while working on it over on "Little Stevens's Underground Garage" and one was this song from a very silly movie, Roy Orbison's "With this much shit, there has to be a cowboy ", which he didn't use in the movie. Tarantino said nice things about the film, which scares me a lot. Our most famous auteur is insane, but we knew that already.  I'd skipped that movie and probably still will, and couldn't find a video of th song by Roy. However, this is from a Gibson sponsored celebration of Roy's birthday a while ago by Peter Conroy, and it's worth listening too both in and out of context.

Tsunamis of red ink in a red state and it probably didn't have to be that way!

Well, the AXE's variation on the Cromwellian theorem (By the bowels of the Lord Jesus Christ, I beseech thee to consider that thou may be wrong) probably doesn't apply, but it's interesting to see how much the symbiosis of capitalism and right wing Christian conservatism tends to screw over right-thinking Christian conservatives. The AXE has spent a reasonable amount of his life in the south, and a number of visits to Alabama have caused me to be kind of fond of some of the people and some of the places. Although I hate the climate, and find the stereotypical things infuriatingly funny but mainly infuriating still...lots of the people are really nice and mean well. Watching Jeff Sessions rotate on the head of a pin over Sotomayor reminded me of the problems the Germans faced over de-nazification. Certainly, Senator Sessions came out in favor of the wisdom of any white judge over anybody of color back in the days when his sheet was pure polyester, along with his suits. Still, once you get to know them and they get to know you a bit, you can have a lot of friends in Alabama.

If anybody is left. Here in Culifoorneeah, the budget is making a lot of people crazy. But, in Jefferson County, Alabama things are beyond crazy...and, short of discovering gold in the city parks, are getting worse. "... last week, the director of the Jefferson County public nursing home was told that the county could no longer afford to bury indigent patients...Across town at the juvenile detention center, the man in charge was trying to figure out how to feed the 28 children in his custody when the entire cafeteria staff is let go. The tax collector warned local school districts to expect a six-month delay to get their share of property taxes. In family court, administrators plan to delay child support, custody and child abuse cases, leaving some children in the hands of the state indefinitely..." Life is about to become cold, short and brutish in Birmingham, a city that back in the days when we made stuff in this country was compared favorably to and referred to as "The Pittsburgh of the South."

The racism and hubris of the past is a factor, but really, the government has been in the hands of far-right, Christian Conservatives for decades. The Karl Rove Justice Department that probably framed a moderate, successful conservative Democratic Governor and tossed him in a maximum security federal pen and then into solitary for his own protection for 7 years hard time without  any of the consideration normally shown to white collar to do hard time for crimes that are pretty arcane was really part of the same corrupt, lizard people mind-set that has resulted in the Birmingham debacle...money, power, lies and screwing those below you.

Now, Seigelman is an ironic target for a couple of reasons. Unlike the stereotypical Southern Baptist governor, he's Catholic. His wife is Jewish, the first state First Lady to not be a Christian. He held all four of top Alabama elected posts. He went to 'Bama, where he was a frat man and head of the Student Government Association. He was undoubtedly a frat man -- shades of Greg Marmalade. However, his law school was Georgetown and he was a Rhodes Scholar. He also was an engine for economic growth, doubling the size of Mercedes in Birmingham, bringing Hyundai into the state and on and on and on. Shit, the guy looks like a moderate Republican...and they did this to him. Meanwhile, in Birmingham...

“Outside of the city of Detroit,” said Robert A. Kurrter, a managing director with Moody’s Investors Service, “it’s fair to say we haven’t seen any place in America with the severity of problems that they’re experiencing in Jefferson County.” Moody’s rates Jefferson County’s credit lower than any other municipality in the country...In July, the county asked Gov. Bob Riley, a Republican, to declare a state of emergency. Mr. Riley declined, delicately explaining that his authority extended to tornadoes but not to tsunamis of red ink. Jefferson County, which includes Birmingham, could be compared to a person who has lost his job, watched his retirement investments evaporate and is stuck with a house that is worth less than what he owes the bank...Adrilisa Steele, 34, a juvenile probation officer, said, “We are probably going to be standing in line for services like everyone else.”Ms. Steele meant lines for unemployment insurance and food stamps, but at the courthouse, the lines for car tags or driver’s licenses were already very long."  

Like Bible Camp, only without the hope...

Tiffany, smite this motherfucker. Smite, Smite, Smite. Have nutria invade his underpants...

This is what's wrong with intellectuals as a general class of asses. Just what kids need more of -- regimented time and thought. This dweeb is about as much of a totalitarian as Benny the Rat, only without the Gemutlicheit...

Any hope of rapproachment is on hold...what the fuck does that mean...?

Theocracies, no matter how benign, are not democratically elected and organized for the transfer of power. Of course, I was worried that the Ayatollahs, confronted with a mild version of reform, would arrange an airplane accident for the new guy. While I hate to agree with John Bolton about anything, this result is better for us...because, if a modernist, moderate guy took over from that fucking batshit clown, we'd lose a lot of laughs.

Frankly, there's a strong possibility that the little weaselly twit actually won. He ran as a populist, and the students and cities are what we get to see. Most indications are that the country, as a whole, is fairly committed to the Shiite theocracy in Tehran. Students generally get it wrong, at least the first couple of times. I remember being amazed and amused at all my "liberal" friends who were broken and bewildered by the failure to elect George McGovern over Richard Nixon. Sheeeitt. Watergate aside, no chance. Yes, he was better in most ways from Nixon, but you had to pay attention. Instead, they listened to their own bullshit...

At some point, things in Iran will change. This isn't the point. Cohen is being disingenuous. Richard Engel of NBC thought it might be a watershed. Can anyone say Tienanmen? In 1989-92, China was pretty close to a theocracy, worshiping at the altar of Mao while doing other things. The students thought that it was the dawning of another day, a new day. Worked well for them, didn't it? China evolved into something far different than Mao...it still isn't a democratically elected representative government, but it's different. And, Iran will ultimately be different than what Khomeini thought he was creating...just not yet.

Anarchical Facists versus Fascist Anarchist...Welcome to the Hotel California

Lawmakers ( AXE comment: Great, truly great Americans...which is code for gutless political hacks...) responded with vows of fiscal austerity. But Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico said a more dramatic effort may be needed.  "We are in dire need of streamlining," he told Reuters. "We should have a conversation about what our priorities are as a state. ... I don't think we can go through this budget and try to offend the least amount of people."That marks a dramatic shift for the legislature's Democrats, who typically fight against spending cuts, said Bill Whalen, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and former speechwriter for former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson.R epublicans likewise must make a bold gesture, Whalen said, noting they could back new revenues despite their anti-tax pledges and over Schwarzenegger's opposition to tax increases. Both parties have to be mature about this and be open to compromise," Whalen said.  

Years ago, I was tooling around the streets of Panama City, Panama in the evening with my lesbian buddy in a rented Toyota when we passed a 1 Star Hotel -- The Hotel California. Now, at the time Panama was inundated with mass transit in the form of ChivaChiva buses...old Bluebird School buses marked by murals of local folk heroes -- Clint Eastwood, Madonna, Michael Jackson. You know, key figures in the rise of the Isthmus. Panama had devolved badly, and the old Canal Zone was a great example of exactly how things could go wrong in a liberated, benign (kinda) fascist (sorta) place.

Well, I'm getting those vibes again...only now it's in California. About 11 years ago, I was working with recruiters in Olympia, Washington where we were competing with California for highway engineers. CalTrans had out-sourced a lot of it's design and environmental work, to speed up recovery from the Northridge Quake and the last San Francisco quake, until someone -- probably the AFL-CIO but who knows -- had gotten an amendment to the constitution passed saying that if Civil Servants had ever done the job, then the job was a civil service job. Other states were also in the mix, and California started to hire engineers based on internet applications without checks or interviews. The roads still suck.

I think of this as the state faces a fairly devastating mess. I have thought since coming down here that there was something critically wrong with the state's fiscal situation. I grew up in the NE, where we had high taxes and excellent services. I spent a lot of my life in Germany, where they had high taxes and marvelous, cutting edge, state services. I've lived in states with moderate taxes (Washington, Arizona) and low taxes (Texas) and basically, you get what you pay for. However, in California, you face a combo of very high taxes (how exactly is my state taxable income higher than my federal?) and really fucked up services.

And, baring a miracle, it's going to get worse. I envision mass deputization of militias, because there are no more cops on local payrolls. CHIPs will be patrolling in 87 Honda Civics. The libraries will close, the hospitals will close. Armed gangs made up of terminated grammar school teachers and members of the local PTOs will swarm Rodeo Drive and Mullholland, seeking food.  Best thing that could happen would be to have the coastal region fall into the ocean and the valleys flood.

A good outcome  is no longer possible. California now has the worst bond rating among the 50 states. Income-tax receipts are coming in far below expectations. On May 11th Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor, sent a letter to the legislature warning it that, by his latest estimates, the state will face a budget gap of $15.4 billion if the ballot measures pass, $21.3 billion if they fail. Prisoners will have to be released, firefighters fired, and other services cut or eliminated. One way or the other, on May 20th Californians will have to begin discussing how to fix their broken state.

 Since California's odd governance( budgets require 2/3 majorities to pass as do new taxes!) combined with a bewildering inability to see further than the end of the dick of the governator, which is not so great after all the steroids, are condemning it to something other than greatness. California is the new West Virginia because of the inability of politicians to say no to their core constituencies. Soon, everybody will be saying no to everything. Jerry Brown and Bob Guccione and Tom Cruise are slouching toward Bethlehem, like a bizarre two-thirds (cause that's all we can afford!) of Dorothy and the gang on the way to OZ. Or, maybe The fourth chapter in The Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy...while California looks nothing like Gloucester, there's a lot of Sanford Neighborhood Watch-thinking in the whole California myth. 

cuts home -- and scolded lawmakers for not tackling California's "budget madness" as he has long urged. "Behind those numbers are kindergarteners that are learning how to read, firefighters risking their lives to keep us safe, or health care workers ensuring that our elders remain at home, or our law enforcement protecting our streets and so on," he said. But "we have to only spend what we have." (AXE snark: Arnie is a bright guy, but nuance in a non-native language isn't easy to pick up. Yes, the money in the budget does real things, important things. But, "we have to only spend..." implies that the money is there. It's not. The correct usage would be, " we must only spend"...But, translation is difficult. Are his speechwriters outsourced to Vienna?")

Sunday, 17 Update...

Wisdom. The The old gray lady ponders the political implications. Basic response from AXE, anyone who wants the job ought to be institutionalized.

“It’s not much of career builder; it’s more of a career ender,” said Jerry Brown, 71, the state’s attorney general, who was governor from 1975 to 1983. “But I feel I could bear that better than the other candidates.” (AXE commentary: Prescience. I try to ignore Jerry Brown and wasn't aware that Attorney General Moonbeam was interested in reprising his greatest hits. Who the hell is next; run Nancy since Ronnie is incommunicado?

Yeah, probably correct. Despite the healthy Zen lifestyle, you're old. I'm not sure but what age discrimination might not be a bad idea in political office. Granted if that were true, we'd have a court somewhat to the right of Pompey, but given the nature of things with the folks in charge the last 8 years, but still...

Then again, maybe not. Right-wing, occasional good idea generally loony-tune Chuckie down in Tejas is babbling on-line about running for President of Texas. Brown is a left wing, occasionally (often enough to scare) loony-tune who has successfully run this state, run Oakland, and put some malefactors in the calaboose. So, maybe it would work. Or, maybe not...What's Tom Laughlin doing these days?Coven - One Tin Soldier