Tax Day + One

72 degrees, overcast, breezy, good day for walk. I just fired up the big, red mower and took care of the acre or so of weeds I call a back yard. We desperately need rain: as I mowed I could see 1/4-1/2" cracks in the ground already and it's only mid-April. The local farmers haven't even planted anything because there isn't enough water in the ground for seed germination. We won't be growing any corn for ethanol here, that's for sure. Ethanol: now there's a good ruse that's been swallowed by everybody. Sheesh. Talk about corny jokes!What an earful! (Ouch)

Ever since the press first"reported" (if that's what they do?) Barack's remarks in San Francisco,supposedly denigrating those of us less fortunate, who carry guns to Church, I have done almost nothing but read articles, op-eds and commentaries about that ludicrous episode.Seeing as everyone else and his brother (or sister) has already quoted it all, I'll pass here. You can read the quote anywhere. So far, I think I've read 33 pieces, but I've stopped counting. Some are good, some are just fluff and some are just dead wrong and are just a waste of space. I don't want to add to that growing pile or necessarily add myself to the ranks of "bitter" people (I've come to hate that word, along with "elite", both taken out of context and used inappropriately), but I do need to write something. This meaningless, time-wasting harrangue has got to stop. We are ignoring the other calamities around us, too many people have said the same things over and over again, and this horse is more than dead. Enough, already. And one more stinking word from Hillary about learning to shoot behind her cabin as a child (while swilling beer in a bowling alley) and I will be seriously ill. Apparently, many of the rest of us stopped drinking so she could start. I can't wait to hear what kind of story she will make up next. Maybe sniper fire at the airport in Wilkes Barre?

One ugly event that almost got missed was reported in a short piece on MNSNBC.com, about the tax day pronouncements and hot air by some guy named McCain. McSame. McSrewloose. Mc something. Anyway, he used the opportunistic opening to announce his proposals for ludicrous and dangerous gas tax cuts that won't really help, put the country much further in debt, will further cripple funding for the infrastructure of our highway system, cost even more jobs and throughout it all keep the military spending for the Middle East at current levels. And with no increase in benefits for returning GI's. I wonder how he got started owning those eight homes he has? I know the money didn't come from his wife's recipes(another dumb blonde trophy wife?). And the coverage of his whole little publicity-oriented stunt disappeared in about three hours. Almost no one, except the American Progress Action Fund, saw fit to comment on the idiocy of it all. Maybe everyone else was bitter. Or too busy bowling for dollars with Hillary to notice.

Maybe by later today the "bitter" end will be in sight, but unfortunately last night Keith Olbermann (Countdown) devoted the first half his show to the subject (at least Eugene Robinson spoke on something else)and there were no less than five pieces still droning away this morning, on or about "bitter" and "cling" and elite", in the NYT, alone. I hope it all stops soon. My head hurts from all this reading (Oh, crap! Barbara just sent me another one!)and I could use a break. Slorider has suggested a frontal lobotomy for me. I'll think about it. It would put alot of people out of my misery.

Meanwhile,
Life goes on in Texas.

Miserable Technology

As my (predictable)bad luck would have it, Murphy's Law struck again Thursday morning. I was all set to make a blog entry and then write an article and my PC monitor died. I was left stranded. Everyone else, it seems, buys electronic equipment and uses it for years, but almost everything I touch breaks of dies or malfunctions either immediately or within a year or so. And it always happens when you least want it to or expect it. So I've lost a day or two. Fortunately, Barbara had a spare, used monitor parked on her office floor, so now I am back in business. ( she seems to have her pnuemonia on the run, by the way. We both hope that the next time she goes to Portugal, she brings back something else)

I spent the latter part of the morning disassembling portions of the fence that runs around my back yard. It's 30 (?) years old and showing it. Time for a trip to Home Despot for new 2X4's. I definitely need more exercise.

SPEAKING OF OLD AGE: Did I really hear Bill Clinton, in defending Hillary's repeated gaffes about Bosnia and sniper fire, blame part of it on her being tired and having a "60 year old mind"? Hell. I have one of those! I know I shouldn't be running the country and I guess she shouldn't be, either! Thanks for the friendly reminder, Bill.

BLOG COMPLAINTS: Yes, I'm sorry, but you do have to sign in with Google to be able to post to this (or any other) blog. A pain in the neck but SOP, I guess. Please try again, Ron?

ABOUT TO HAPPEN: Tomorrow I get a second opinion about my missing and broken teeth. Maybe this dentist will actually be able to do something. The last one became very disinterested when he found out I had no big money in my pocket or insurance.

Saturday night I'm going to a Passover seder with Barbara, hosted by one of her friends. It should be a great chance to re-visit a large part of my spiritual/Biblical past, and I can rest assured now that Charleton Heston won't be there (just kidding). I'm looking forward to it, very much.Passover is another ritual observance that got tossed and relegated to dereliction when Christians starting creating their own holiday calendar. Oops.

HOORAY!: I was very pleased to see that the world of cable TV news and reporting finally discovered Rachel Maddow this week. While a staple at Air America Radio for some time now, MSNBC TV put her on to sub for Keith Olbermann this past week and she blew everyone's sock's off. (Earlier in the week she completely emasculated loudmouth Joe Scarborough...and it couldn't have happened to NICER GUY.)

Also, for a really aggressive essay on our current state of affairs (this you will NEVER see or hear on MSNBC) and what we can do about it, try this one:

www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_william_080412_can_Americans_stop_b.htm. In fact, reading opednews.com regularly wouldn't hurt anyone.

This article is a call to rebellion, at least literary in nature to start, and moving on from there. And if you have read anything in Wash. Post or the NYT in the last two days, you can easily sniff out the clear evidence that Bush and Co. are trying to ready us for war with IRAN. It is becoming more and more inevitable almost every day, it seems, that this next bloodbath will be in our laps before the end of his term. I'm very nervous and so are many others.

And Barack and "bitter" comments? Why must everything that this man or his pastor says get blown out of proportion and interpreted so badly? Hell yes, people are bitter and hang on to bad beliefs and therefore bad practices. I grew up in a bitter family in a bitter cultural setting. My father and his cronies always voted for the very people that routinely screwed them. What Barack said is true, for crying out loud. Why deny it? Most of small town and rural America is bitter because they always get the short end of the stick. That the media acts so surprised (and thinks everyone else should be, as well) that there is bitterness in the way people feel just flabbergasts me. Barack is not so out of touch as Hillary wants us to think. It's the rest of us who are out of touch. I suppose it doen't hurt as much to be out of touch, not to read about the war and forget about the 4000+. I've said this before: we don't pay attention, we don't vote our minds and then we complain when it is too late. And too late right now means throusands dead and wounded, a crumbling economy and infrastructure, massive job losses and the continuing loss of a middle class. The greatest one-liner I've read all week comes from Lee Camp, on ALterNet:"President Bush is like a colorblind child with a Rubik's Cube."

Once again, I get emails and phone calls from those who disagree with me. Don't do that! Write it here!

Life goes on Texas.