I've been busy

Beginning immediately after 9/11, George Bush and his cadre began incessantly dwelling on, and harping repeatedly about, FEAR They have used this emotional flash point to stir up the ire and angst of the American people to justify military actions and many extensive rights abuses. All of their empty rhetoric, the slanted vocabularies, made-up, goofy, catch phrases (Stay the Course) and impassioned “speechifyin’”, as W would say, have been aimed at making people afraid . This has all been done to generate and sustain support for the war on terror, the (now civil) war in Iraq, the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan and the mauling of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. But recently, identification and recognition of fears in this country has taken a new turn for the worse. The upcoming election and the sloganeering that has come with it have sought to obfuscate fears and ignore them more than ever before. Tragically, the new rhetoric being used by the presidential campaigners and amplified by the MSM has severly muddied the waters of concern, and this in turn has bred a sub-strata of loathing and resentment in the cultural conscious which no one is openly discussing. And that aforementioned mainstream media can be held almost completely responsible for most of the issue-dodging and general confusion.

In the last eight years, Americans have become so accustomed to constantly being told (by the government, government mouthpieces and the MSM, what to fear, that they aren’t exactly sure what they are supposed to be in fear of, anymore. We have grown numb and largely insensitive. Most of us don’t give much thought to Bin Laden any longer, and the continued bungling and ineptitude of the hastily assembled DHS, according to what we read, should make us grateful that the threat Bin Laden once posed is no longer imminent. We couldn’t handle it anyway. By all accounts, we haven’t really fought many terrorists “over there” and it doesn’t look like they will be “over here”, anytime soon. Mostly we seem to be slaughtering innocent Iraqi civilians and getting our own military forces blown up by the side of the road. But the incessant generation of fear-fostering rhetoric, i.e., lies and MSM dithering, continues. Most recently, the simultaneous appearances of .Bush and the Pope on the same platform in Washington, both spewing platitudes (lies) surrounding the feigned morality and humanitarian qualities of the institutions they both represent, simply masks over the many real fears that Americans harbor and wrestle to the ground every day. In the best and most honest moments, people know that the Catholic Church and the United States government, both on scandalously worldwide scales, are neither moral nor humanitarian. If they were, given their size, money and power, the entire world would not be immersed in a continual bloodbath. But if you listen only superficially, the fears are mildly subdued, momentarily, and people go on. But so do the lies and duplicities but soon then the underlying fears resurface. And the campaigners go on mostly missing the point until they are forced to address a fear and then the MSM makes sure we go back to talking about flag pins and Bosnian sniper fire or McCain family recipes. The MSM of course covered the Pope meticulously.

In reality, fears exist in abundance in almost every aspect of American life. The foci of our fears are both large and small, male and female, and of course they are either well-founded or based completely on wild disinformation or specious claims .Even two lines plucked from a sermon by Rev. Wright can cause fears of perceived raging anti-Americanism in America’s heartland. It doesn’t take much to start a brush fire, but they can burn for days.

If you believe the television, radio and newspapers, American men are for the most part in fear of hair loss, not having a good set of ABS, erectile dysfunction, some quarterback’s torn leg muscle and not owning a red convertible. Also reported on TV, women live in fear of gray hair, wrinkles(Botox, please), weight gain (and loss), weight loss(and gain) equal pay, great legs and an equally fast car. Both men and women, according to lesser read sources, fear for the economy in general, their mortgages, Social Security, immigration, some privacy rights, the growing national debt, sexual repression, the ecology of waste management and global warming. And the price of gasoline. And the price of gasoline. And the price of gasoline. (That repetitive noise you hear in the background is Fox News)

Fear can also be hastened by having (or losing) a child in this senseless war, losing your
job or having Enron steal your entire retirement plan. It can be caused by a pointless furor over your own brand of patriotism, an unnecessary blow-up over that ugly word “bitter” or an off-hand reference to guns or religion. An op-ed in the NYT today, by Bob Herbert, says that, in America right now, “ignorance is not bliss, it is widespread”. There are staggering numbers of high school dropouts every day, making up a huge percentage of the population that seemingly knows nothing about our history, culture or politics. This one very disconcerting fact alone doesn’t help much if we wanted to wage a war on “fear”(which we ought to). Even many educated people are confused about immigration and the economy. And not even being able to know who is President right now, doesn’t help the cause. I wonder what these drop-outs fear? Not much, I fear.

And fear, justified or not, can run deep, down below the surface of what we are able to speak about, aloud . We are fearful and afraid when we sense that we can not trust someone or something, but are not always able to articulate that thought. To bring this discussion back to the current political conundrum, the other night, on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart had the “audacity” to come right out and ask Barack Obama, were he elected President, if he would immediately “enslave white people”? The audience roared but you must wonder how much of it was nervous laughter. Along those same lines, there must be some readers here for whom Hillary Clinton reminds them of a stern, scolding mother. Do you let that image pass, or swallow that dark fear, warranted or not, and go on? (In addition to worrying about the risk of having her disapprovingly slap you alongside the head, there is the fact that, as President, she would also have her finger on the button for the bomb. She has already threatened Iran.)

And just to keep everything balanced, how many people are perhaps reminded of their drunken Father or crazed Uncle when they see an aging John McCain and worry about his reported predilection for rants, tirades and name calling? He would have the bomb, too, remember. Even the Washington Post admits he has a “temperament problem” which is a rare occurrence of the MSM reporting a salient fact.

I have to stop here for a moment: the most glaring example of how badly skewed the MSM has made the political debate was almost the entirety of the ABC democratic debate coverage, which dozens have written about and decried over the past week. Nearly the entire first hour was devoted to the “fluff” issues, in the midst of which a woman voter from PA was allowed to ask Obama about his patriotism. If you read the follow up accounts of this woman’s family situation, you now know that she has major employment, financial and health issues facing her, including the possible imminent death of her husband. Did she ask about any of those real issues? Those fears? No, she asked about Obama’s dedication to the flag. This is just how confused the MSM and the rhetoric have made the American people. We don’t even know which fear is important anymore. Baffling but true.

Other fears, of course, have a more obvious grounding. It is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid four-letter expletives when describing the damage Bush and Cheney have done to this country, our international reputation, or the damage of all manner to other countries around the globe. There are blogs and web sites every day that forecast a coming revolution, warn that the current government will suspend democracy in this country, that we all need to think about moving to Canada or Bolivia or that express the open and real fear that Cheney will manage to drop a bomb on Iran, either very soon or soon after McCain would take office. Will we be shortly overrun by Mexicans? Do the Chinese really own most of us? Is there a real need to embrace Islam in Kansas? What’s with Wal-Mart, anyway? Fear is here, every day. But other than Keith Olbermann making fun of it every night, on Countdown, no one is talking about it much. And the MSM? Well, they can barely get around to revealing that Cheney has been flying around the world, inside a stainless steel camper trailer, strapped down inside a military cargo plane. I wonder what he is afraid of?

Fear is posted in the title of this essay as an acronym. Perhaps now is the time to examine how many other and varied emotions and images the word generates when taken
apart. “Fear” is an “F” word, and Fear can come, for instance, from the nearly overwhelming sense of fragility that seems to surround us. We never know how long
any entity will last, hold up, survive, or when, like a pension fund, it will just collapse. Fear is the response when the job of the average American is about to be shipped to India and the CEO of that same company gets fired and receives millions in severance compensation at the same time. Fear arises when the fragile nature our lives is swept away by a Katrina event, our health coverage is abruptly cancelled or we get old and our teeth fail with no way to address the problem. Fear arises when you realize that government officials are addressing the fragile aspects of our existence with only facades or appearances of caring and action, rather than anything akin to the real effort and attention actually required. The words and rhetoric are all facetious, we can not trust them and then we are beset with fear. We become fatalistic in our vision of the future and hence become more fearful. The next calamity just brings more fallacious official responses and a total lack of real action or resolution, and the circle of failure remains unbroken.

Politicians and public spolespersons have an entire tableau of phoney excuses and one-liners to deny the existence of the basic fears that are harbored by all Americans except the very rich. W and the Pope can stand on the podium all day and blather, but they have not and will not change anything. What reason have we NOT to be afraid or fearful? We have just been lied to again. Trust is out the window. Maybe this is when some people chose to cling to religion. I can’t say I blame them.

There are many words beginning with “e”which the e in the word fear might elicit, but the two that speak the loudest are ennui and entropy. Ennui is that human characteristic that enables a person simply not to care at all. Ennui is an emotional and intellectual vacuity that allows one to ignore the obvious fact that the world is falling apart around them and it simply doesn’t matter. If the article I cited earlier about ignorance and bliss is even partially true, then it follows that at any moment we may be surrounded by sheer masses of people who just don’t care. Period. And they will do nothing about their circumstances or surroundings until all is lost. They outnumber the rest of us and that makes me afraid. You should be fearful as well. You are either one of them or one of us. Hmmmm….sounds familiar. Something about “with us or against us”? Rhetoric. Phraseology. Lies. Speechifyin’.

Entropy, that slow and certain, deliberate and obnoxious deterioration of the brain, that malady that affects the faculties and the reasoning abilities of all humans, is one of fear’s greatest enablers. We can’t stop this but we can be aware of it and curtail it somewhat as a predictable ocurence in our society. When entropy affects the masses, as it did it in the collapse of Rome or the rise of Nazism, collective thinking turns into a puddle of ooze and widespread atrocities and human degradation follow. Whenever ennui and entropy are on the horizon, and hand in hand, fear is not only warranted but mandatory.

For perhaps the first time in the 200+ years of this country, the contributors of fear are everywhere, and in greater abundance than ever before.

The “A” and the “R” in fear just take us down many of the same literary avenues , with
more and different inferences and explanations. But this method of exegesis gets old, so I’ll stop at these relevant terms: Anger, antipathy, angst; rancor ,restlessness ,reactionism. Somehow they seem all to relate to “bitterness”. How odd and timely. While much has been said, claiming that people are in fact not “bitter”(angry), but that Barack Obama mis-spoke terribly (that is apparently Hillary’s personal option), the opposite is much more likely the case. At a small gathering not long ago, I casually mentioned to someone that everyone seemed to recognize that we were in a recession except the President and his financial advisors. Once again the (small) crowd roared. What came forth was anger, rancor, bitterness and the fact that everyone was afraid about the future. That is to say, what gripped them most was FEAR of what might lie ahead. And, as I recall, no one was wearing a lapel pin. No amount of faux patriotism was going to mask this deep-seated discomfort. It wasn’t outrage, but it was full enough of fear to prompt just that. Canada, again.

Mankind, it seems, will only tolerate living in total fear for just so long, then something must happen, something’s got to give. At some point, the recognition of fear becomes a loathing of that fear and its consequences. (The consequences, of course, are almost always some kind of misery). We all know what it means when someone says, “I’m really loathe to talk about that”: it means the topic is disgusting, vile, unpleasant and distasteful. But it does not deny its existence. When we say we loathe a person, we are making it clear that we dislike them (and usually what they stand for) immensely. We’d rather not talk about them, but they are there, their existence is reality and it must be dealt with out in the open.

America is loathe to talk about our fears, at least much beyond those that the government and the MSM are willing to offer up about terrorists on the front page of the newspaper… although much of that is now in doubt, as well: the Pentagon seems to have its own op-ed people on staff. But you may not find that story in the NYT. We should be loathe to pay any attention to the MSM, at all, after that revelation.

But we seem to be waiting…for something. Of course, the world was waiting while it loathed what it thought it knew about the Nazi Holocaust, and when we opened the doors at Auschwitz, we stopped loathing and became horrified; we were loathe as a nation to address the plight of African Americans until Dr. King was shot, civil rights legislation was brought to the foreground and we unearthed a few dozen dead bodies.; we have been loathe to work on equal rights for women, in this country as well as around the world, until the inequalities and human atrocities became so obvious and unavoidable that they can no longer be ignored; we are loathe to talk about or act upon the indignities and intolerable cruelties of our inept VA system for injured war veterans until one of them is our son or brother or cousin; we have been loathe to address the inadequacies of our educational system until we find out our nephew can’t read; we complain about gas prices and ignore the relatively small taxes we pay for it, then loathe any discussion of
the crumbling highway infrastructure; we tolerate subsistence wages for farm workers but loathe any real discussion of meaningful immigration legislation and minimum wages and then complain about the price of milk and tomatoes. And then there is the administration’s lip service to global warming and greenhouse gasses: we’ve just come to loathe having to listen to him. Should I go on?

It is time to stop feeling loathe to talk about the real fears in America and listening to the MSM. Fear and loathing in America must stop. Ennui, fallacious platitudes and patriotic symbolism as false cover-ups for inaction must end. We do not need to live in fear. We do not need to go on loathing that we actually do live amidst those fears. We don’t need to listen to lies and specious substantiations and justifications for national or worldwide miseries.

Stand up, talk about your fears, stand up on the street corner, tell the truth, tell people you really are bitter and VOTE. Stop loathing and don’t be afraid. Our current generation of “leaders” have been deaf and blind to the real fears of America. Urge the campaigners to start talking about the real issues and fears and loathing BEFORE they get elected (and tell the MSM to listen), so that they may act on those fears AFTER they get elected. Other wise, we may be just washing another eight years of our civilization down the drain. Be afraid. Be VERY afraid. And whatever you do, don’t watch Fox News.

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.

Wednesday maybe hump day

But we don't seem to be getting over it, this week. Everything seems stuck, including the news.

I just got an email from Ron, friend, confidant and apparently someone used to reading this blog, asking if I was ill? There was no blog. I'm just late, that's all. But it's been hard getting started today. But of course I'm ill, Ron. Haven't you been reading this long enough to figure that out?

Anyway, most everything I've read today has been a story about how little was said in the congressional hearings, yesterday (and today, it seems). And from the sources I have that allow comments, they are almost universal in a sense of dismay, disillusionment and downright despair. Little is said about Crocker, per se, but the gloves have come off big-time about Petraeus, Be-Trayus, or whatever you chose to call him. Everyone feels betrayed, yet again, everybody knows he's just a portable, military mouthpiece for W&Co., and there are lots of people quoting Dwight Eisenhower, when he warned us long ago of the "military industrial complex". Well, he got that one right.

WWII was a long time ago, now, but it was followed closely by more wars from Korea first, and then on around the globe, and we haven't stopped killing one another since. Petraeus isn't going to say anything to slow or stop this: his paycheck is on the line. And Crocker...well the first part oif his name is crock, you figure out the rest.Another stuffed shirt diplomat. We have wasted another year and several hundred more lives and another trillion dollars and are being told to expect the next act to look just like the last, and cost about the same. And, as someone asked in an op-ed I read this morning, "To win WHAT, exactly?"Beats me.

And the congress, no matter which side of the aisle they sit on, has everyone equally angry and disgusted. I guess they are all Repugnicans and Damocrats, after all. No guts, no will, no capacity to do the job they were hired for. In all of the moaning and bemoaning I read this morning, one blogger asked why these elected officials can't seem to remember that they work for US? Well, we pay them too much and don't hold them accountable and then we reward them by re-electing them. And you are surprised? Mindless, greedy (often salacious)twits.

Then you have beautiful, not-downtown Eldorado, TX. A small, quasi-religious compound in the southwestern desert, where older men can, in plain sight and with seemingly complete sanctioning, rape and molest young girls and women, practice physical pornography and exercise pedophilia to their hearts content. The comments here have been all over the place as well. Some have shared my personal horror at these atrocities of sexual abuse (and its simply contorted ape-like thinking), some have defended the rights of the occupants there to "opt out" of conventional society, some have blamed it all on Mitt Romney (I really like that one!) and one woman even asked why it was always one man and multiple women, and not the other way around? I wonder what she is looking for?

But it is troubling and disturbing and needs to be dealt with. Unfortunately, the freedom to express one's self in this country has also promulgated the opportunity to repress someone else, mentally, physically and sexually, and do it in the name of God, to boot. The male ego and the psyche that can go with it is sometimes frightening. Going back to where I started this blog, that ego and psyche combo must surely have alot to do with that military industrial complex and why we go on feeling the need to blow one another up, subjugate the powerless and make disenfranchisement a standard practice for those who have the most money (oil)...but I'm not a shrink.

Slorider (Jen) has expressed reluctance to enter her comments on this blog. Not necessary. I know you all have things to say, because you send them to me in emails. Put it out on here. See what everyone else thinks. I'm getting a little nervous, now, wondering just exactly who DOES read this, anyway?

And you should all read Mark Morford today (www.sfgate.com/columnists/morford/archive/), if you haven't already. You all need the juice. Meanwhile,

Life goes on in Texas.

Slow day

I was a little surprised to see how bland and dull the news was this morning. There is not much going on unless you realize that most of the world is finally getting on board with boycotting the Olympics. It looks like this morning the French tried to blow out the torch. I know everyone has different feelings about this, but why the IOC ever decided to have the games in China is beyond me. The place is dirty, corrupt, economically off-balance, greedy, growing too fast...wait a minute...that's sounds like most places...never mind.

But mostly, and especially with the Tibetan furor in full swing, why would a country like that want to draw so much attention to itself? It is as if they holding up and waving a large (red) flag that says, "Hey! Look at us! We really love to oppress people! Please come see us and spend your money but don't talk about all the crap you see going on. And we'll hold your cameras until you leave!"

Of course they already have most of our money and real estate, anyway, so perhaps it doesn't make much difference.

But I am uplifted by one essay I found. Truthdig published a piece this morning by Chris Hedges, called, On Secular Fundamentalism. www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080407_on_secular_findamentalism/.

To fully appreciate the real significance of this, you MUST READ the comments. This one got everybody going. Right, left, WRight, Wrong, happy to hear it, infuriated, and gleeful and really pissed off. This is wonderful. Good writers don't write to get people to agree with them: they write to get people to start talking and chew on the issues. Mr. Hedges did a great job of that, read it yourself and decide. The truth is, I suppose I fundamentally dislike fundamentalists of any ilk, religious or secular, so I can't really fault the author on any point he makes. This essay isn't worth a street brawl, or bloody noses, but some heated discussion would be nice.

Speaking of bloody noses, there's always the Democrats to talk about. But let's don't. While they waste time, McCain is making hay. Condi for VP? Oh, please. I wonder who HER pastor is?

Barack says that the WAR in Iraq is costing the average American family $100.00/mo. Others say that is conservative. I say it's obscene. Just look at it this way, that $100.00 won't even keep gas in the car for a month. And let's see....we went over there to protect the oil supply, right?

Remember the 4,000 from last week? Most have forgotten, already. And two more killed in the Green Zone, over the weekend? Look out, here come the Petraeus Chronicles. It's a good thing, that,

Life goes on in Texas.

Why I'm not happy

I was right, yesterday: today's paper had the headline, "80,000 jobs lost". And that is just the report from March. That's alot, even for America. I feel less bad today than I did, yesterday.

Then: "Clintons make 109 million in eight years"...from talking. And most of it came from companies who have largely funded H's campaign. And she wants me to trust her with my money, my integrity and the future of my country? Fat chance, snowball in hell, and all that.

Or: "Bush pledges more troops for Afghanistan to NATO". Next year. Who in the hell is he speaking for? Not me?

How about: "Pentagon renews Blackwater contract for another five years.". Oh joy. That means McCain will only have to renew it for another 95 when he takes office. The fox not only guards the henhouse, he built it, patrols it, charges too much rent and sells dead chickens out the back door. Being under an FBI investigation doesn't seem to stop the military brass from giving them big bucks. My (your) tax dollars at work.

Ah, yes: "Both Hillary and Obama are lying about what they will do about forces in Iraq, after elected", or something like that. Seems like we're gonna stay there, no matter what. Calling the Bagdahd embassy the "Green Zone", by the way, is just another way of referring to the obscene amounts of money we have and will continue to pour into it. Excuse me....why?

And then there are the blog discussions of the silence of Rumsfeld, et.al., about the new revelations concerning the DOJ memos and waterboarding. But we don't do that anymore, or so I've heard.

I'd go to Tibet and meditate, but I'd probably get shot or beaten bloody with an Olympic Baton. Which was probably made in China, I suppose.

But it's OK. I just ANOTHER email, asking for donations, from a ANOTHER group in Oregon that wants to pursue impeachment against The Shrub, The Dick and I don't know how many others. Another noble cause that will flounder and fail because nobody really cares. How much did you pay for gas, today?

It's such a nice day. I should be outside instead of reading all this crap.

Life goes on in Texas.

Some good, some bad

Sorry I have missed a day or so. Jen (SloRider) has already chastised me for being behind with the postings. And if you read her comments, I mis-labled her on several counts. I stand corrected for that and for talking about Gina as a "customer". She started out that way (and still is) but is also an important person in many other ways. Apologies there, as well. Gina reminded me, very aptly, that this blog would reach out to many more people, perhaps, than I usually chat with, and accuracy in depicting others was very important. "Y'all" just keep calling me to task. I'll get it right, sooner or later.

First off is that you should make a trip to www.sfgate.com/columnist/morford/archive and read "The Very Best Thing About Barack." Enlightening, positive, uplifting and hopeful. Even Mark Morford can make the sun shine, sometimes. He's even crankier than I am but I suppose that's why I read his stuff all the time. Highly recommended. Mark is usually pissed off enough about things for most of us, all at one time.

I mentioned in an earlier blog that I might have a job. Well, that didn't work out. When I never made it past the interview with the staffing agency, I got really (momentarily) angry. But then something strange happened. Suddenly, from every corner (The NYT, Google, NPR, the local paper) I got overwhelmed by stories about job losses, cutbacks and the exportation of jobs overseas. When I searched the news archive of the NYT for jobs, the first ten articles were about recent job losses. If you ask Google, the list of jobs lost or in the works to be lost goes on for pages. Our local computer manufacturing giant, Dell, has just announced it will cut something like 8,000 jobs in the next few months (they are busy flying back and forth to China). So, while I was busy being miffed that I'd been rejected for a simple job, thousands and thousands of other people are being laid off daily, and probably just as many are getting rejection notices as I did. I'm not special and I'm sure as hell not alone. Of course the other side of that coin is that all the execs and CEO's and board members are still getting bonuses and perks. The oil companies just reported more in quarterly profits than God has in his savings account, the boys at Dell get to keep their $4M private jet and nobody on Wall Street seems to be going hungry. What a mess. What a shame. What a disgrace.

Out of the blue, I heard yesterday from my dear old friend, Tom Wilson. It's been more than a decade since we talked. He's still working hard on residential energy conservation, I'm still haranguing about it. In this case, it's very good to have the past catch up with you. Thanks, Tom. Nice house you bought. Wait???YOU bought a house? Wow.

Tom and Mark Morford would like each other. I like both of them.

Life goes on in Texas.

As it turns out, I didn't make the cut because someone forgot to list being bi-lingual, English/Spanish, as a requirement, on the job posting. I got to thinking and wondering about how many others didn't get hired for more heinous reasons: they were the wrong sex, color, nationality or age. I suppose I got off easy. So I'm not so angry anymore.