They Promised to Loot

Coney Island looters.   Nothing brings out the part of humanity we can do without like a hurricane.  Just hang by the stores when the floods and high winds recede.

They must figure the cops can't get to them.  I wouldn't want to risk being on the bad side of NY cops.  Large people who don't care for pesky mischief, is my impression.

We've got people who are either incredibly stupid or really believe their rationale for this theft.  Or both.

Here's a choice quote from a proud looter:

"Look, they've been looting our wallets for too long," said a young male who claimed he helped himself to a TV at the Rent-A-Center.

“It's about time we start taking this sh—back," the youth, who identified himself
as Jesse James, told the Daily News

Dang, Jesse, you are truly one of the great thinkers of our time. Taking it back? As if he gave the stores the goods he is now stealing.

One difference seems to be that when the store loots his wallet, he is voluntarily trading money for goods. In this case, the store is not a voluntary partner in the transaction. Drop Jesse in the ocean a couple of miles off shore.

The only reason people spout such tripe is because they get hints in media and politics that their sorry hatred of anyone who has built something is righteous and reasonable.  They know the are just leeches but as long as people will pretend otherwise they'll milk it for what it is worth.  

Jesse should have been shot right there. End of problem.

Perhaps if the education system and a lot else had been managed and designed properly, young Jesse would have a clue regarding economics, morality, and freedom.  That takes more than public education but it is a start.  Teaching people they are victims and that one person's wealth makes others poor is not a good solution.  And that is the idea being promulgated by numerous politicians, most schools, and general scuttle butt on the street.

Good thing it is so hard to own firearms in NY, otherwise shop owners and such might have been in the mood to shoot people wrecking what they've built even more than the storm has.  And that would be so terrible.  How do cold heartless people like me expect these disgruntled consumers to get their revenge?
  

A Darwinian Opportunity

My feeling on the matter of private firearms, home made weapons and looting is this:  while maybe not making it mandatory---any shooting, destruction or battering of looters should be lauded.  No stupid trial or hindrance should be forced on those who shoot those who use storms to rob the community, whether they be invading homes or business.

Some say, "Oh but is it worth a life over material things like laptops and TVs?".   Yes.  Those lives are a detriment to the rest of the living, and if it is known that you can shoot looters in the act with impunity then maybe only the dumbest and most worthless of looters will go down.

I'm almost certain you can't make a case that the world is a better place with those creeps in it.

If this topic comes up and they hear my view, I wonder if they'll want me on a jury when I go Wednesday for jury duty.  I suspect not.

Wondrous Things

That which induces one to wonder is wondrous.   Among the many things which were stimulating wonder and investigation was the Electoral College.  I wonder why I didn't apply for that school when I was thinking of applying to colleges and universities.  The truth is, I only got one app sent, maybe two.  Auburn wanted something more which I ignored.  I applied there and FSU at the beginning of my senior year.  FSU pretty much automatically said ok due to test scores. I was clueless.

Some schools expect some level of overall gpa.  If you have a year to go, and you aren't making super grades now, seems wise to withhold admittance until the book is closed.  So, I took the easy way.  In-state school that is the greatest distance from Miami.  Too bad all wisdom ended there.

Anyway, I've never set foot on the Electoral College campus.  However, I hear some talk about people who want to do away with the institution.  This is where freedom gets tricky, and democracy, over valued.  Pure democracy is certainly not a high virtue, it just is.   You have to limit what the collective can inflict on the minority.

Both the Senate and the Electoral College are hedges against the tyranny of the majority.  That is what it is called when freedom of the few is restricted by the many, even if it doesn't infringe on them.  The first premise to get is that the USA is a democracy in a republic.  A constitutional republic.

That means there are preset limits and parameters set which are supposed to contain those with power lust.  It's a losing battle but it does slow them down a lot.  Over time, it slows them less.

Anyway, there is a wisdom to weighting some power by geography.  For one thing it more evenly gives voice to a variety of the subcultures in this country.  I can tell you that Miami and small town Wisconsin are worlds apart.  A native of either would experience sever culture shock if he found himself in the other's town.    For me, moving to North Carolina was a huge cultural adjustment.

Eventually I learned the language and even spoke it.  Maybe I adapted because I had decided I liked NC and the people and that was that.   I absorbed some of the culture, but a real southerner can tell I'm like southern lite.  Miami left my bunch with no real sense of a culture.  Miami was never quite like the heartland even before it became majority hispanic.  We spoke english, which may have created a bond with America, and most of Miami was from NY and the midwest--interesting mix.  New Yorkers had a bad stereotype going for them back then.  Apparently there were plenty of volunteers to keep the reputation going.

A direct election based on total popular vote could result in a few big cities, primarily coastal, having control.  It could leave some very diverse, long established sub cultures out of the sphere of influence altogether.  As much of this country that is federal land, who wants their landscape controlled by a few cities which are very different from your town?

Anyway, I wondered about that but see it as a kind of safeguard.  Even if the guy who wins gets fewer popular votes, and that turns out to be the current neo-bolshevik, I won't change my tune about that fine place of higher learning.

I have a friend who thinks replacing Biden with Putin would be just what is needed to fend off this Romney fellow.

I forgot what else caused me to wonder, drat!

It seems I end up with people playing music everywhere I go.  Another little party and the people all end up playing.  That is mostly what gets me invited, I think, although it goes beyond that after awhile. It seems I am somehow a fixture in this ongoing network.   I meet some interesting people this way.  It puzzles me, though, whatever 'it' is.

I've never seen so much bluegrass and country as out in the sticks California.  That's why they call it country and western.   I'd never given much credence to western part.  Now I understand.

It is good.

I hope that storm doesn't mess up your life or your stuff.

Hmm...a few of these musicians have the means and expertise to possibly hash over some of the ideas I've had in the late 70s.  The times have almost caught up, except government subsidizes their cronies while people like me would just deal with the market.   I have no excuse for never following up on this.  I found the burn came from unexpected places so the one I did follow awhile was abandoned in confusion.  It worked, at least.

Maybe this accelerated rate of meeting those who would get this stuff, and know the flaws, is not a mistake.  Maybe it is one of those new saints delving in the affairs of man.  Saint Poccahontos.  Maybe her holiness spells it otherwise.  I'll learn the right way so that this encouraging trend continues.

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AP Racism and Freshman English, FSU

Having lived in what some would term diverse communities for much of my life, I observe with sadness and scorn the many stories I hear and see about racism.   In Miami, during the 80s and 90s, my condition of birth was shared by a minority of citizens.

What I found was that since Cubans were considered a minority in federal terms that they found it relatively easy to discriminate on any basis which suited them.  It is human nature, to a point.  Not that I didn't have plenty of Cuban friends I did.  I liked their coffee and much of the music, etc.  But life is life.

One work experience was rife with sexual and ethnic discrimination.  I was one of the very few white males (few males of any stripe) in the place, and they took their shots.  I did not pursue legal recourse or any of that, although I probably had a better case than many I've seen in the news.  Hey, if they didn't want what I had to offer I could go elsewhere.  And I did.  So, bully, woman, hispanic.  She did seem a little underhanded but I believe she seriously regretted it by the time I left.  OK. Not to the point.

Still not to the point; I was just thinking that I bring out strange things in women.  I must learn to harness this somehow.  If I could learn to direct their reaction to something less dramatic than homicide.

Now the AP has a story about some university guy's study showing explicit and implicit racism.  It mostly focusses on white against everyone.  I tend to think this is a thing which has a kernel of truth and a bushel of BS.

When you have a culture in which young people who don't act like punks are ridiculed for "acting white", would you say that is a racist phenomenon?  I would.

The study uses techniques and questions which are iffy at best.  It seems to go the way of my English professor at FSU.  He wanted us to pull all sorts of hidden meanings and symbolism out of everything.  He was very keen on homosexual symbolism.  I caught on and finally wrote a paper for the class.

To write the paper I got stoned and drunk and invented every possible bit of sexual, homosexual, and maybe even trisexual context to the most inane of passages.   It was to the point of absurdity.  He ate it up.

I fear the same is being done with the subject of racism.  Since it is tough to find outwardly and overtly in the places they look, they claim it has gone underground.  That's like that cop who asked if I was going to be a good boy and admit to stealing some stuff and tell him where it was, OR was I going to act like a criminal and deny any knowledge of it.

I didn't steal the stuff.  So, damned if you do or don't.  It is the same thing here.  According to Chris Matthews and some others, if you are not a fan of Mr. Obama's political philosophy and way of handling the job, you are clearly racist.  It carries on like that in other areas but right now any of the usual political lampooning aimed at Obama is liable to be tagged as racially motivated.  Maybe it even has a bit of sexual symbolism too.  Maybe lesbian love symbolism, I don't know, ask my ex professor.  That dimwit.

You can find prejudice and bias and racism everywhere if you choose.  That does not mean that hate and unkindness lurk there, just that you can delve into the absurd they way I did at FSU.

Those crying race over and over are doing more to foster tribal disdain for others than even the KKK.  They've done it so successfully that some black thugs have killed people and justified it with things we know nothing about like the shooting of a black kid by a jewish hispanic man in FL.  Well, his dad was jewish I think, so he may be a druid for all I know.  The point is there.

For the record, lots of people do not much like other races.  At least they prefer their daughter marry only chinese, or black, or white or hispanic or arab or whatever.  It is how people are.  That doesn't mean they carry this all that far and seek to eliminate or even hurt the feelings of others.  They usually don't.

I remember a jewish guy getting the very evil eye for bringing me into his house in high school.  I remember a black guy's grandmother not so discretely cussing him out for dragging me in the door.  It happens.  I knew they meant no awful harm, and I figured maybe they were right--I'm a bad influence.

Oh, I should explain.  The default nationality in my discussions is my own, USA American.  Since the friends mentioned above were also born citizens, I did not list a continent or country in order to describe them adequately for the purpose of the story.  Continentally, we were all American-Americans, even though Canada and a bunch of places are in South American and North America.  It's a quiz to name which one contains Canada and Mexico.  You got a 50/50 shot, and everyone in my class passes if they pay the green fee.  That's what I call it, "a green fee".   Save the world, pay up.  You'd never guess that my teaching career started and ended on the same day.

The thing is, people in parts of California, or in Wisconsin or more homogenous places read these stories and assume all this racism must be southern white rednecks out to make trouble.  Some of that may exist but nothing like they pretend.  So, people outside actual interaction with lots and lots of other ethnicities form opinions about the fiction they are fed as fact.

All the while ignoring that, per capita, blacks are highly racist--far more so than whites in this century---, hispanics are more tribal than whites, and often rival blacks in their racist thinking.  It is obvious and easily tested.  Go walk into a predominately black area of Memphis.  If you are black walk into a white area.  The former has a 99% chance of being harassed or beaten or otherwise made to feel unwelcome. The latter has maybe a 10% chance of receiving dirty looks and maybe a rude question.

People know this.  Yet the race thing is still played as if it is some other way.  That is the reality of the here and now.  Study it, search for it, make your Jesse money off of it, or maybe try to quit fueling it and pitting group against group--usually based upon condition of birth.  This mythological belief system must go.  Maybe one person doesn't like another or disagrees with him or her, and the whole race thing is secondary, or so far from the issue at hand that no one has thought of it.

Crying racism, even though you have to claim it is underground, is much easier than actually debating philosophy or dancing through a logical syllogism.  It is shameless pandering and an attempt to discredit and squelch opposition without having to explore and win a point in discussion.

I've got no time for racism, I'm too busy being islamaphobic, and for good reason.

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Stay Dry Easties

While we sweat the Santa Anas and heightened fire risks, you nor'easters are in for another assault altogether.  If you live on low land that could flood, don't wait until the water is way up and you have to sit atop the chimney.

These events always cause me to think of the value of being able to produce electricity on site.  It is silly that by now most buildings aren't self sufficient.  But we have to subsidize our friends while pretending this is a government job.

Don't forget, it was the same basic bunch who made it illegal to produce your own power not so long ago.  Those of you in love with regulation no doubt bought the story at the time that it was for your safety and so everyone would pay their fair share.

OK, so most places are dependent.  That means those in the storm path need to get things set so you can get by without official utilities for awhile.  If you worry about FEMA or someone not coming and getting you out of your house or telling you that breathing is easier above sea level, then I guess we'll see you on the news.

Hurricanes and other storms are pretty much a game of doing for yourself what you can with what you've got.  There will be a few people in your neighborhood who can think.  Glue yourself to one if you are baffled about which way is up.  Or, if you thrive in such emergencies,  calm the panicked ones who may seek your counsel in one way or another.

Good luck.  I hope it goes away and nobody loses anything.

Genetically Controversial

One of the ballot initiatives, here in California, deals with genetically modified food labeling.    At first glance I thought, oh, I wonder what defines genetically modified.  Several strains of various vegetation have been created or modified by grafting, hybridization, and tweaking this and that to aid in the natural selection process.  Does that count?

I also thought it would be interesting to see if most of what I eat falls into the genetically modified food group.  But I had to delve a little into the measure to see what I could see.  What I could see was that some food which matters not to me has to be labelled while other products don't.

Without coming right out and saying it, the measure almost calls out company names and insists they label, while being sure to lay down big speed bumps for mom and pop operations and small farmers.  It is not even across the board.

That is usually the case with regulation that looks dandy on its face, but then turns out to be a case of special interest and/or company A getting something in to screw over company and/or special interest B.  The old government-business partnership which we are told is commerce heaven.

I'd like to know if my chips have been modified with some kind of gene that makes me stupid if I eat it, but this initiative doesn't look like a reliable way to know anything.  Dog food would be required to label but some things that I actually eat wouldn't.  I forgot the specifics.  They lost me when I realized that when they drew the line they gerrymandered to include some but not others.

Today, in a parking lot, a guitar player's wife asked me if I eat genetically modified food.  Probably.  She has a sticker on their car in favor of prop 36 or whichever it is.  I asked if this wouldn't add to food costs and administrative costs.  "Oh no, they just have to add a little to the label, it costs almost nothing. Vote for it, that is all you need to do."   I pretended I would, even though we already know my mail-in ballot has already been sent in, read, and tossed in the trash by my political adversaries.

I'm pretty sure I voted NO because I saw it as an open door to cutthroat corruption, and because implementing it and enforcing it are sure to affect costs, and now we have more food police bureaucracy.  Maybe if it had not been such a pick and choose type of thing.

That was what blew me away back when NAFTA came about.  I skimmed it---a rather hefty tome--and discovered they named specific companies and dictated who could do what where.  That is not free trade, that is the spoils go to political allies and those who own a piece of government.  If it is not a document describing principles and rules, but rather one bestowing certain rights to specific firms, then it is garbage.  That's my view.

Anyway, what if the genetically enhanced food I've been eating has twisted my mind and if it were untwisted I'd not think this way at all?  I'll bet I could sue someone if only I could remember what I thought before their genes made me think like this.

Shock therapy.  Like what put me off of Playboy way back when.   I was in the Air Guard doing about 25 or so make up drills.  Since they had no women's barracks, they put me up at a Holiday Inn.  Had to be equal.  So, I was wild and crazy and ended up with a slightly older woman who had a fairly new set of enhanced hoots.  Ever since, I have preferred real life.   The stuff in the magazines all looked fake after that.

Just my luck, as time went on this sort of installed baggage up top has become way too common and popular.  I say, if you aren't reconstructing, just leave it be.  In any case, my view of such matters changed and stayed that way.

So what would shock me into not thinking how I think?  See what genetically modified food does to one's mind?  Maybe that explains our governor, ex governor, senators and difficulty of legally throwing anything away.


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Dots

The nature of where I work, and for whom, often puts me in a position to watch the dots connect on some minor level which ties into the big picture and the things we see and hear on news outlets.  It is very strange and can be interesting.  Due to past experiences, it is not surprising to see how vastly different public talk is from behind the scenes actions.   Anyone should know that.

After all, how many times have we seen public figures and celebrities arrive on the scene in a private jet or limousine, then proceed to tell us about the evils of carbon footprints or using more than one square of toilet paper.  Hypocrisy may the best word to describe the times.  We've had various ages throughout history; stone age, iron age, age of reason, renaissance, and now the age of hypocrisy.   You have avowed racists labeling everyone else as racist, and very wealthy people instigating class warfare.

It seems unprofessional to give details regarding my work circumstance or specific discoveries which connect dots to the highest levels of national politics.  I will say that the sunrise powerlink project which I've mentioned many times was a money making scheme and possibly had more motive, none of it actually involving green energy as claimed.  It does touch politicians of both parties, and some of their money people behind the scenes.

It does no good to know what goes on because there is nothing to do about it, and most people would rather hold on to myth than confront truth.  I would.  But I do not look up to the big players except for the fact that they are energetic and not lazy.  But they are not very good people.

Lately, though, I don't know if I think of myself as very good people.  Not all the bad, just not worth much.  This may change.

Nonsense

That was the gist of the previous post.

So, now on to life and worry.  It is not in my power to put into words the things I actually want to put in writing.  The thought is there, but not clear and defined.  I think the truth is too harsh for me to explore unless it is heavily sugar coated.

That is one theory, anyway.  It is not so easy to be who I am or am not.

I smooth the guilt for my negligence by doing odd good deeds as opportunities arise.  

We shall see what happens.

If You Read Nothing Else before you vote, Read This

OK, now all the presidential debates are over.  The main dog and pony show is over, and if you are like me, you need to be told what to think of whatever you saw, heard or read.

So, I'm willing to go without so that I may tell you what to think etc.

I only heard the last, maybe 40 minutes of the scholarly intercourse on the car radio.  On the way home from Poway practice.  This guy's stuff is hitting on a style of playing I have been after but rarely find.  It is the sort of thing that relies on more nuanced, clean playing than when I am with a plugged in, drummer backed band.  Johnathan may have landed a drummer, so we'll be semi plugged in.  Still driven by his 12 string guitar, which he can pull off.  And the bass player is really making a difference. He's getting aggressive and taking chances which are hitting the mark, musically.

Oh, back to what you must do.  I was going to suggest you write me in for Nobel Prize.  But, after weeks of writting up petitions and campaign posters, they tell me that no Nobel Prizes will be voted on in the November election.  Not on the ballot.

Imagine my shock.  Maybe you should write me in for every office, local state and national, to protest this injustice.

Oh yea, the girl singer was doing an eery high harmony on one song, and the notes were up in the highest three on the D harp.  That is high.  I'd have to do the musical equivalent of counting on my fingers to pin down the exact note by name and social security number.  Very clear and unstrained.  It is cool to go to the same note and work it so that you can't tell the voice from the harp then we go to different notes.

All you need to know is that you're in tune.  It is the most important thing.  That is why you needed to read this if nothing else.  Without being in tune, the rest becomes irrelevant.

Aren't I deep?

I was enjoying the drive home from work and practice, realizing that I've never lived in a place this geographically interesting.  But for just the ocean and beach my favorite is NC Outer Banks.  No cowboy mountains out there, though.  Easier to live where I am.  Easier for me, not everyone. But I tend to be mobile.  Somehow, though, even when I'm restless, I have little desire to get away from here. Laws and taxes and such would be the only reason I'd cut out, I think.  So far, it is OK.

Now that I think of it, it is possible that there may be something more important to read before you vote.  Can't imagine what; unless maybe you are walking right now and there is a "NO TRESPASSING__WE WIL KILL YOU!" sign just ahead.  It is better that you read that sign, comprehend it, and avoid trespassing.   It is tough to think of anything more important to read.

Jury duty.  October 31.  Halloween hangin' I guess.  Ha. Anyone knows that isn't true.  I would not throw the book at people who don't deserve it.  This is the second time in a couple of years.  I sat around for a few hours, then they sent us home.  I doubt I'd get on a jury if they asked me questions that touch on just about any subject.

Is Nothing Sacred Anymore?

So, I spotted a story about the Pope (el Papa, if you are from S. Florida) naming seven new saints.  Apparently this move was to spark interest in certain groups around the world.  I don't know.  They finally have a native American saint--not sure what tribe.  Probably had high cheek bones like the Massachusetts politician.  My info could be bad, but I detected a hint of PC pandering in this big saint fest.

Maybe it was Pocahontas who got tagged for sainthood.  That would make sense.

I'm thinking the Church has been infiltrated by the people who run the Nobel Committee---especially those responsible for awarding the peace prize.  If they start canonizing jihadists we'll know the church has finally jumped the shark.

Don't think this guy made the cut, nor his alter ego over his shoulder there.  Like many holy men, he freaks me out and I wouldn't want him in my car or house.  I think he's holding a molotov cocktail which he's about to light and throw.  Now, you don't see the Pope doing that.  Give credit where it is due.

I did not see myself on his list.  Even my mother was not on the list and everyone knows she was a saint.  My ex-wife didn't make it, but that is probably less surprising than it should be. Somehow, I'm just not buying it.  The people who invent things like air conditioning or toilet paper are never recognized by the Church, any church, and they have done more to alleviate pain and suffering than all the holy persons I've ever met, or about whom I've read or heard.

Those were just two examples of helpful inventions and things that make life better, not the only ones.  If you've ever had a migraine headache and happened to be lucky enough that the prescribed pills worked, I can tell you that, at that moment, the inventor of those pills was holier in your aching eyes than any pope or mullah or rabbi or saint.

Could my bad attitude and irreverence result in Benny appearing like this, floating around in my room giving me the stink eye?  I hope not.  Now I won't be able to sleep--I'll be too scared.  Always getting into trouble.

This is why I will probably never be admitted into the priesthood, and it is unlikely that I will ever be named Pope.


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I.B.

There are a number of Bs in the San Diego area; OB, PB, IB, and maybe even more I can't recall.   In North Carolina OB means Outer Banks, and it is one splendid coastal area, maybe my favorite ever.

Here, OB means Ocean Beach.  It is a bit congested and tight as far as driving, but it is a cool beach.  Then there is Pacific Beach nearby which seems to attract drunk lunatics who stab each other under bizarre circumstances like while being run over or riding bikes and skateboards.

IB stands for Imperial Beach, which is the furthest south you can go without crossing the line into Mexico.  Tijuana is just south of this beach.  IB is the one where I'd have a place on the ocean if I could.

Some time ago I visited a relative of my friend, Sally, there.  Right on the beach, it was a memorable place and great times.  Sally lives a long way off so that all changed a bit.  However, I was invited to a party in IB this weekend.  Another case in which playing harmonica got me on the list.  The people wanted some music players so I guess I got lumped in with a few others.

This couple recently scored a condo which is on the same street as Sally's people but about half a mile north.  Their place is also ocean front but in a condo building, as opposed to a quad-plex like the Sally folk.  They are on the first floor with a large patio.  You walk off the patio and you are on the beach.

I said it before, IB is the best kept secret in SoCal.  I think you could enjoy ocean front there more than in LaJolla or many of the better known places.

Anyway, it was a nice gathering, and we had a great time in the living room playing music.   Three guitars, and more singers, and my own bad self.  I'm always impressed with people who seem in tune with one another and appear to find hosting a group so natural and easy.  It was a very comfortable evening.  I didn't manage to pick up any chicks, though, but it could yield results in the future.

this photo robbed from the intertube webs was taken very close to the party condo. Sally's people are to the left on the other side of the pier a ways. Pic doesn't do the place justice, but then I don't want to encourage riffraff to come settle there anyway.

I'm kind of sick of being the lone ranger.  Even so, if I don't fit, I can't pretend just for fear of being alone. Perhaps I need to work on being a bit more flexible and eligible.

It was not the type of evening which made me feel awkward or lonely though.  It has just begun to bother me some.  There is some indication of interest in some quarters but I don't quite feel what I'd like, so back at square one I guess.

Still, how cool is it to be playing music with nice people, in a plush crib, looking out at the best breaking waves you could ask for?  The water is a bit cool at this point for going in without a wet suit. That is the biggest drawback to this coast.  But the sound and feel of IB is tough to beat anywhere.

It felt all the better because I had been there before and knew something of the place.  Maybe IB has not seen the last of me.

Voted Too Early

Free Pot Offered To Lure Residents To Vote...

Not much else to say, except maybe I should have settled further up the coast.  If you can't vote often, may as well vote happy.

I wonder if I should have held off on that mail in.  Maybe Descanso or Alpine will get creative at the last minute; give away obamaphones or free gas.

Oh well, my ballot has already made it to voter central by now, where Igor probably opened it, read it, and tossed it in the trash.  How can a mail-in ballot possibly be secure and secret?

Sort of a civic placebo I guess.



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See It Like

In about 1979 Miami thought a good PR campaign would be to center an ad with sex appeal around the slogan, "Miami.  See it like a native".  I think they kept the slogan but had to change the graphics.

They printed a bunch of the posters but were immediately slammed by feminist groups who called it sexist, degrading, etc.  I guess the critics were not women who enjoy scuba diving topless.

Lately, I keep wondering if they think it is sexist that only men have to register for selective service--the draft, should they decide to enforce that.  Few heed the warning, but I still believe that those who have pushed the military to cover all groups will wonder what happened when the mood swings and they start forcing people into military service.  

Many will pine for the days of don't ask, don't tell.  I say that not because I care who serves sbut because I am not a fan of the draft and hope those who are not on board with whatever war comes up can find a way out which doesn't involve hiding out in another country.  I'm a fan of having the choice and taking advantage of any loophole to secure that choice.

Anyway, I was thinking of untapped markets, and the idea of travel tours to Benghazi came to mind.  I'll bet no one is doing it.  

Imagine the new poster:  Benghazi.  See It Like An Infidel.   Or, if you want to see it like a native, we'll issue rifles and grenade launchers to our tourist group and maybe bomb some buildings.   It will be a whole new genre in the travel world.  I doubt the eco-tourist will find much to do in that part of the world, but that's just a small part of the tourism market.  Adventurous thrill seekers will love these outings.

We'll definitely have waivers signed which confirm the client's understanding that this may be a trip of no return.  Like they do the disclaimers on most prescription medication, people will probably ignore the unpleasant possibilities.   

Always looking for a new angle to enter an interesting business venture.  Maybe the Libyan government will hire me to do PR and help change their image so they can bring in tourist dollars. 

There may be a few details that need ironing out before we actually market the tour.  It would definitely be a ballistic tour.  Of that I am certain.  "Try not to lose your head" will be a little sub-slogan.

There was a take-off on the 'see it like a native' effort in Miami, which was more visible on the streets of South Florida than the official version.  That may have been due in part to the fact that after the feminist outrage, the city actually shredded all the posters.  23000, I believe.

But, for a time, the most ubiquitous bumper sticker in Miami had the words "Miami. See It Like A Native" with a picture of a gun aiming at you.  It was done so that you were facing the business end of a .38 or some common pistol of the time.  I can't find a picture of that but wish I could.  It was the most appropriate symbol of S.Fl. during the early '80s.  

I think some version of that might serve my Libyan tourist enterprise very well.  

All that is left is to deal with the minor details involved in getting this thing rolling. 

I think I could put together a few different tours:  Benghazi.  See It Like A Jihadist, as well as the one for infidels.  Whatever we settle on is sure to be a big hit.  

hmmm....what about Green Jihadist Libyan Tours?  We'll go in with bow and arrows made of recycled materials.  Not sure what we'll do for explosives---maybe do that thing with smashing paper bags full of air.

Missing the Mark

There have been a number of women with whom I could have, or should have, stayed for the duration.  Not all at once, of course.  Cases of missed opportunities.  In each situation the culprit that spoiled things was my difficulty with real life, I think.  (There is an internal debate whether one or another would have been the best choice or if I actually never knew any of them.  I settle for assuming I should have stayed married for better or worse.  She was quite adorable back in the day, which is why I left before totally ruining her life.  That is truly insane, maybe)

That thing my brother once said about how I am, or could be, extraordinary, if you could get past that often comes back to haunt me.   Mostly because he was right, and because that is a hard thing to define, yet I know it is as real as rain.   He said it to someone I was with at the time.  One of the few who ever met my family.

It doesn't matter in the details.  I was too afraid and confused to know how to feel like I was worthy anyway.

Sometimes I hit the road for fear of destroying some nice girl's life.  I use the term "girl" loosely.  We were legally adults in these cases.  Sometimes I just took too long being aloof and they opted to find a better way without me.  That showed sound judgement I thought.

As well as withdrawing socially, I withdrew professionally, and there were times when I actually had some sort of profession.  I had as much confusion in many work situations as I did in relationships.  I'm not sure I regret the stands I took in the workplace based upon principle, even though it was a quick path to the exit.

At this point, all that leaves me worried and scared.  I'll deal with the fear. I always do.  But I have nothing much to go on as far as which way to go from here.  Many years have been passed assuming I would disappear somehow out in the ocean or in a remote mountain with high drops.  That is a lot of work and takes some doing.

I know right from wrong in most cases, and I see through the power structure, I think.  On the other hand, I'm pitifully naive when it comes to people and normal life.  Very odd mix.

There is a pattern which I see fits in both relationship land and work.  Both are activities in which I would love to be immersed.  I actually enjoyed work situations in which I had to put in 12 or 18 hour days, just because that was what was needed to win a particular battle.   Yet I managed to escape those vocations for reasons which have no real validity.

I wonder what is next.  I'm tired of hiding out, and I don't think I'm ready to give up altogether.

Being sick tends to bring out this sort of thought.  Being alone does it as well.  There are those who have done it right, and I am not one of them.  I'm proud, or relieved, yet a little angry that the rest of my family is doing it right.  I wouldn't wish on them what I've been through or what I go through, but I don't think they are that much smarter and better.  It is just that if they have a "that" to get past, they have been able to do it, and I can't.

They tend to think of me as creative and somewhat artistic.  I'm thinking maybe they are wrong.  The only thing supporting their view is something I read recently which claims that artistic, creative people are more likely to be mentally nuts.  Especially writers, they say.  They are more suicidal and such.   But my writing lacks imagery, and is grammatically weak.  Not to mention boring.

I guess I'll end this confession here.  It may be all fiction, and something I dreamt up for no reason.  Or not. Who cares?  Possibly others have felt that same disconnect which prevents them from defining their nemeses and waging the holy war which would set them free.




.

Oh NO, I watched the 1st minute

Geez!   I'm so glad I didn't watch this debate on video earlier.  Just catching it on radio as I wandered around doing a few errands was easier.

1st question:   I'm in college and whine whine whine, what about a job whine whine whine?

My answer:  Face it kid, you are about as dumb as a rock and if you really want to spare you parents and all the people you mention further pain, drop out, leave town, and dive into a live volcano.   Who would hire an idiot like you?  Get real.
Next question.

What a crazy thing that set up is.  Huge, ugly woman making a name for herself, and you are stuck on an empty stage with a barstool.  No wonder I'm not president.  I would have exploded the first time I had to participate in a pretend forum like this.

I wish I could fast forward to question which basically asked Romney how he'd approach running against George Bush.  For crying out loud people Bush hasn't been there for four years.  What a plant that question was.  Idiotic.

I'm not sure I can take any more of the video.  It is painful, especially knowing that the job involved here affects billions of lives and trillions of dollars.  I would have taken a stun gun or taser to half the questioners if I were up there, and had my way.  If only they could have done that;  "that's a stupid question and you're a whiner, here's some free shock therapy.."

I need shock therapy after watching only a few minutes of it, and listening to the whole dog and pony show.

Conclusion: most of humanity wants tyranny not freedom.  Nothing I can do for that.  Best thing is to just piddle with the things in life that I enjoy and dodge The Man as best I can.  Maybe shed a tear for friends and family who go along with the feudal lords, and leave it at that.  I think I'll skip my earlier vow to be nice to strangers and those in need, and animals.  Screw them all.

Can't Wait to See the Movie; more debate

This time, I heard the whole thing on radio.  I guess it was the whole thing, but it wasn't easy to be sure.  I thought I heard someone throw a punch but couldn't tell who did it.  Probably the totally unbiased moderator, who in no way is out for self promotion.

The questions were selected by the moderator from totally random undecided voters.  Oh, come on, give me a break.   I guess it didn't make any difference since the format of the answers and rebuttals went like this:

Question: blablablabla, so what about blablabla?

Answer: Thank you, Syphilisia, for this question, and thank everyone in the world who I will now name for blablabla.  I'm glad you asked that because it gives me time to tell you that my opponent is a liar, a pedophile, and he hates you...blablabla

Rebuttal: None of what my opponent just said is true and he is a liar, a pedophile, and he hates you..and I'd like to further sa...

Moderator: time's up let's move along

Both candidates: shut up!!

Moderator: OK, Mr President, you can say a little more.  Romney, sit down or die!

I'd like to see how the visual worked out.

I found myself yelling at both of them through the radio.

Some parts were a train wreck.  Whether it splits hairs or not, the pres. did not actually label the terrorist attack in Libya an act of terror until way later than they said.  He danced around it prior to weeks after the fact.  They drew it out of something he said which was totally non committal and meaningless the day after.  Romney, to my dismay, did not hammer him for apologizing for that stupid video over and over.  I would have hammered that.  Why does the president apologize for the freedom we have to create satire, opinion, cartoons etc.?   That was unaddressed.

The rest was a flurry of so many trillion here, and so many there, with each being told he was full of it.

I am not thrilled that neither is really a minimalist where governmental function and authority are concerned, but I know from his own words that Obama sees no real value in limiting government's powers as long as "it works", in his opinion I guess.  Ends justifies the means kind of guy.

Mitt has a bit of that ends justifies means too but maybe a little less gung ho.  As far as big money, I think Obama is the guy for those who manipulate markets and make money off of money.  Mitt is the guy for industries that produce stuff, but maybe steamroll their way a bit.   If you were fooled into thinking dems are all about the poor nobodies and reps are all about daddy warbucks, well--you've been fooled.  It's pretty much not quite like that.  Nobody is for the nobodies, not even the nobodies. They just want their obamaphones, and the little crumbs that buy their votes.

It will continue to come down to the same split seen over much of the world.  Do you want central control of wealth and resources and personal freedom or not?  Lately the or nots are in the minority.  I'd think anyone who has experienced stuff done through committees at work and elsewhere, and who has witnessed the bizarreness quotient which spikes the further up the management ladder you get in many companies, would be allergic to more centralization and proliferation of rules and regs.

How to Make Me Vote For 4 More

To sway my vote all that is needed is for Louis Farrakhan, Jesse, and the usual charlatan demagogues to encourage and threaten riots if Romney is not elected.

Then I'll vote the big O and say, riot, you sorry morons, riot.

I can't believe that this sort of underhanded extortionist tactic has not been smashed by both sides.

Good thing I live out in an area where rioters are not likely to tread.  It would be a long hike, and people out here would not observe the same rules of engagement those whose businesses get trashed in riots have to observe.

Nothing on either side of this stupid contest has angered me more than the whispers and proclamations of intended riots.  When you make race a character value in and of itself, this is what results.  And who profits?   The charlatans who control and keep people ignorant and angry.   All based on no value beyond tribal hatred. Al, Jesse, and others who play that game.  Some black, and some white.  Michael Moore attempts to incite racial hatred and class hatred---pretending that under the baseball cap he isn't a disgusting rich fat white man.   It is a money maker, an industry unto itself--if you have the stomach for it and don't mind lying, and inciting violence, even murder.

I guess I'll just mail the ballot in.  No one has threatened to riot if Obama wins, which was dumb of the democrats, because I vote whichever way brings on the threats.

This is another facet of the Great Pretense and I'll go out on a limb and break the taboo code on this subject with the truth.

The truth is, in this century, today, the vast majority of racists who are white are self loathing and prejudiced against whites.  They pretend that they are exempt from their genetic group. Whites are presently the largest group and it is a tiny minority who are racist when it comes to other groups.  The majority of blacks are racist against whites.  Maybe not the 95% or so who vote purely based on race, but a large number.  Groups like La Raza, by their very name, are racist, but may not represent the overwhelming majority of hispanics.  In some areas, hispanics are predominately racist toward whites and blacks.

In the last few years, or so, the encouragement by crooked "leaders" and misguided idiots toward tribalism in the name of ethnic pride and fighting racism where it didn't exist has served to create hatred and mistrust in a very sick way.  The code of the Great Pretense demands that we ignore reality, rewrite present day news and past history in order to pander and appease to the point where we pretend threats of violence based on race, as long as they come from easily consolidated voter blocks, such as inner city blacks, are somehow intellectually valid and not insanely inappropriate.  The more conformist among us and the media will just sweep it under the rug and pretend it isn't what it is.  So many other areas of life have been dealt with in this manner as we've accepted the general tenets of Pretending that it comes quite naturally now.

Regardless of the election outcome, what has become a mass pretense won't change much.  We are still under a spell that has caused us to lose sight of what freedom is, and what actually defines the word "rights".  It is a slow process of selling out which took a longer time than I've been alive.  Blind acceptance of so many strange things; from foreign policy to government-business partnerships (so-called crony capitalism), to pretending the democrats were the party of civil rights, which they were not.  Not to give republicans a pass.  They gave us the TSA.  And both have put soldiers in harm's way when they could have done better.  But even in military matters there is a Great Pretense.  We're there--wherever--to win hearts and minds, so don't shoot until they shoot you.  Win hearts and minds?  Are these people really that stupid or insane?  I doubt it.  We just don't know what their real goals must be.  Psychotic or sociopathic would better describe it.

But we go along for fear of being accused of lack of patriotism or of being racist.  Screw that.   And in some circles, if you don't go along with the prescribed program, and you disagree, then you aren't "really" black, even though you are black.  Remember when the usual charlatans were debating whether Obama was "black enough"?   Those people should be jeered off the stage, or the pulpit.  But who wants to experience the wrath of the mindless mob?

The Pretense tends to taint debate on everything, even abortion.  It is assumed that if you don't want to pay for someone else's mishap that you are depriving them of reproductive freedom.  You want to supply me with suitable sex partners, and I'll be the judge of that, then maybe I'll consider chipping in for everyone else's birth control, and after the fact adjustments.  Or not.  That is one discussion which has become way out of bounds.  It is legal to have an abortion.  Some people don't like that and say so. It is still legal, and would be tough to change.  Paying for it is another animal.  Tying having it paid for by others to allowance or denial reproductive rights is an illegitimate stretch.  Reproduce if you can.  Smoke em if you got em.  But remove the pretense from the discussion.

Country Guitar Kindness

A guitar player, who also plays bass, drums, and harmonica, and has played country since forever gave me this delay pedal the other day.  

We were talking about what I like to play through, amp wise, and I mentioned that the main thing other than the amp was a delay, and I'm set.  I have all the microphones I need for the moment.  I always come back to the Audix Fireball anyway.  The next step up would be a very costly mic and I have no call for that unless I am playing scenes which I am not now playing or likely to play.

that's all I need for now, just the basic delay with proper controls. The Bassman will do well with this I think.

I found the generosity quite touching.  Cliff and Linda and I were over at this guy's house and he went into his workshop/music gear room and came out with this delay pedal.  He said he has a few of them.  He does have the gear, no doubt.  He and his wife have hosted some cool events at his house with the PA set up on his back patio, with a lot of musicians playing.

There is a bit of that going on in East county and around San Diego.

I guess I'll start using amps more and maybe bringing the delay and my own mic with me to some of these things.  It could be worth it.  Not much call for the amps just yet though.  That may change when we get out and about with the people I've been practicing with in Poway.  Why not ride with it even if I wonder if I'm nuts.

Deed is Done; Official Ballot Marked and Sealed

My number one motive for getting my official mail in ballot marked and sealed in its envelope was to avoid spilling coffee or food sauce on it.  The longer it floated around this hovel, the higher the risk for an aborted suffrage situation.

I wonder if anyone received a ballot marked "unofficial"

I did a little background checking on some of the propositions on the ballot.   In one case an allegedly neutral random citizen committee redrew lines for voting districts.   Do I want to go with their plan?   How do I know?  Let me check out this committee and see what's up.

A typical condescending pretense.  A committee of professional busy-bodies, most of whom have never lived life in the real world, or else they spent their entire adult lives with an ax to grind because Mom and Dad were sad and lonely.

So, No, I doubt that committee is less corrupt and misguided than whatever it is they were to change.

School boards, and this and that board or commission of vague purpose, I voted those whose titles indicated some real life private sector experience, plus one military guy who I think might be outspoken and intimidating to the others.  I almost wrote you in but wasn't sure if y'all wanted the job.

Now do I send in my vote to help get the momentum going my way, or do I wait until the last minute so I can cast the deciding vote that saves the world?   I'm leaning toward getting the momentum  going. That is what leaders do, they lead.  Besides, what if I lose the sealed envelope?  Better to get it in the mail so someone else can lose it.

I'm having trouble suspending disbelief in this process.  They open the ballot, and see who I voted for or against, and I'm to believe the noble state employees in CA will not do their best to queer my voting deal?   I don't buy it.  And I obviously did not vote in the way that hard core public sector people would vote.

Despite my previous post, I went the route of maximum freedom, least cost.   I voted down a measure to tax those who make 250k or more some additional amount for the next seven years for two reasons.  One, I think it is very dangerous when a person can vote to tax another and be exempt himself.   Two, I do not think this will do anything but chase more people in that income category, and small businesses, out of state.  They abuse the money they have.

It was fun trying to vote for three or four out of a list of names which were all unfamiliar to me.  I ruled out names if they were prosecutors, cops, lawyers in general, or appeared to be lifelong public employees.  I voted for a couple of nurses, small business people, engineers.  Doesn't mean they aren't Bolsheviks, but they are less likely to be sadistic wackos who love to cage people or beat them with sticks.  Less likely.  That is the best I can do.

This may be the year that The Great Pretense, in all its many incarnations, finally implodes in on itself, or explodes on everyone and everything.  Just like the Mayan Calendar said.  Really, I have no idea what the Mayan calendar said.  I don't think those who tell us what it says actually know.

It ends soon.  They probably just figured they'd mapped out stuff far enough into the future for the time being and took a break.  Or else they figured out this would be when the Great Pretense became impossible to sustain.  In one way I hope so.  In another I don't because things will get messy for awhile when the overdo 21st century Enlightenment flashes onto the scene.

This has got to be as un-secret as having my picture taken with the list of my voting choices.  My name is printed on the outside of the ballot envelope and I have to sign the outside as well.  Gee, I wonder whose ballot it is we are pulling from this envelope?  I guess the best check in this system is that so many CA public workers and officials are morons and may be stumped by that question.

I only regret that I didn't make sufficient copies to confuse the process.  I was even unsure on one measure.  To do it over, I'd vote the other way on that.  Oh well, let us hope this particular measure is never one that touches me personally.

I did vote to weaken three strikes.  Take away the barroom tough talk and look at reality and you know this has been abused and is a way to take incompetent judges and dishonest others in the justice system off the hook.  Let baseball be baseball and life be a little more rational.

Oh, for one of the school board things I voted for a kid named Zack, who is a student at a local university.  I pictured myself at that age, having nerve to get on the ballot.  Maybe it was a dare.  You know he'll be thrilled to get elected, or get any votes.  And his name is Zack.  That's a name you can trust.  His odds are good.  There were 8 slots and only 13 choices.

Reminds me when there was a write in campaign at my last college to grace me with an honorary degree.  They had a suggestion box for such purposes.  I won't say that this effort in no way included me, but it did get legs and many people submitted that suggestion even when I wasn't supervising.

Flip Flop

Maybe I have finally lost it, or found it, or neither.

Suddenly I realized that I need pressure.  I need to be told, loosely, but not all that loosely, what to do.  Make it look like I am self supervising, but present impossible tasks and problems to be solved yesterday with just about 72% of the resources normally required to get the job done.  That is my best element.

So, this obviously means that I do need the elite to run my life from a distance.   Good thing I didn't send in any of my official election ballots, or copies.  I may vote the complete opposite of what I had in mind.

Who needs freedom when they only waste it?  I have been so blind.   No, the people who mysteriously "fight" for my class, and my future deserve my vote and a big piece of any money I may make.  Or if I don't make any, they will help me out.  The point is that I wouldn't even know what fighting for the middle, left, or right class is, so how could I ever do it myself?

Maybe it is upper and lower rather than left and right.  Middle must be the best one because that is the one everyone is talking about.

No way this is working.  I need a crazy high pressure job with incompetent crooks at the levels above me and I need no time to be confused and think about these class fights, or fighting for class.   Whatever it is.

Many times I try to write what is really going on or what I fear or what I think, but I can't do it.  There is a barrier to that.  I can't really tell the truth.  Sometimes I hint, but then I wonder what is really the truth.

I think I'll catch some sun out east of here tomorrow to try to heal this dread illness which has lasted almost a week.  It has improved daily since maybe wed. or thurs.  Tues was the worst and wed. wasn't good.

My biggest fear is that I will never change.  I really hate to waste the little time there is, and I think I will because that is the only thing I am good at, wasting wealth in any form; money, intelligence, connections, talent, anything.

That means freedom is wasted on me, so I will now become one of the neo-bolsheviks and people will like me and I can make snarky comments to shoot down philosophical points rather than try to use reason. And I can blame all the happy people for making me sad and lonely.

Vote Early and Often, I Do

That could be slightly misleading and unnecessarily self incriminating, however I am never sure I've broken laws when I actually read the text of them.   I know it is illegal to run into the mall doing a happy dance naked while selling hashish candy, yet if I were to read the applicable statutes and codes, I'll bet I'd be tempted to fulfill that naked, happy, drug-food selling, enterprise fantasy.

But, law schmaw, I say.  Who needs no schteenkink law?  This is California, home of sunshine and Moonbeam.

So, my official election ballot arrived in the mail.  My neighborhood is a mail in voting deal, by default.   I think I could change that if I cared to go through the bureaucracy to do it.  My theory is that the least amount of business I conduct with governments of all levels, the better off I am.

That may come from the fact that I may have just managed to squeak under the radar long enough had I ignored the draft way back when.  But no, I made sure I was on top of things, so they suspended the draft while I was in basic training for the boy scouts.  Air Force basic, actually.  Much the same, I'd think.  Believe it or not, at that time, and probably still holds, the USAF had a measurably brighter level of enrollment than the other services.   Working the mess hall on KP made me acutely aware that if this was the cream of the crop, our crop was seriously troubled.

Would it be unseemly to sell my ballot to the highest bidder?  That may be illegal, but no ID is involved. Just sign and mail it in.

I worry that if I do it too soon, my vote will have no impact.  If some issue is really close, and I wait until the end to send in my vote, then maybe my vote will be the deciding one that saves the day.  It is always the last votes that decide things, so the first ones may as well just be tossed out.  Right?

We've got lots of propositions on the ballot here in CA.  Some are easy and straightforward.  Some are a little trickier.  Often things sound good but turn out to have little hidden pockets of evil lurking behind happy faces.

They have one that eases some of the draconian possibilities in the three strikes law.  I'm sorry, but I find the three strikes thing a bit worrisome from the get go.  You have crimes.  You have punishments.  Then you have a law taken loosely from baseball and baseball metaphors.  The problem is that it is a wide open opportunity for anything from vendetta to racism to corruption to further cloud justice.

Handle the regular laws right, make it ok to shoot people who threaten you and yours, and forget these sports allegory things.  How about if someone is arrested four times and beats the rap each time, he gets a total reset like a first down?  Maybe give him a get out of jail free card for his efforts.

If you think long enough you can come up with three strike situations, four ball circumstances, maybe something akin to ruffing the passer, and on and on.  We can eventually just meld all criminal law with sports rules from popular games.  I suspect the scrabble and chess nerds will not get a fair showing but will gleefully complain.

Most crime problems have to do with The Great Pretense and stupid philosophies which prohibit people from protecting themselves and their property.  That coupled with the fact that it is safer for police to harass those who can pay the fines, yet don't have any power, than it is for them to go in busting gangs.  Anyway, three strikes may sound emotional satisfying, but it is nonsense which avoids the real issues.   The real issue being that the Great Pretense approach has not worked out very well.

OK.  I think I'll photocopy my ballot and vote now, then again later when it might be the decisive difference which changes the world.

Debate Digest vol 2012-2

Tonight they had what is called a "debate". 

When Hilary ran, she called everything a "conversation". That is still used in lieu of "debate", "discussion" and other words that hit the mark better than "conversation" in many contexts.  Hillary gave that one legs.


 The only useful thing about a vice presidential debate is that it keeps us from having a debate between first spouses or candidates' kids (hope I didn't give them any ideas).  I guess it gives you someone to yell at through the screen, too.

 People have less use for vice presidents than they do for first spouses. Except for me, I have no use for the stupid first lady crusades, and wish they'd all go be quiet and quit spending tax money.

 I'm probably not of the majority view on that matter, not sure. It seems people are all for such unelected royalty garbage if they are in agreement with the First Cause du jour.   They miss the principle or just don't care.


Tonight in  nutshell

"If I'm lying, Lord, bring a bolt of lightening down upon this infidel sitting to my left!"

Getting Away despite the plague

Had to get out even though I did not feel like driving much. As you can see, looking east was sunny and nice, then driving seven miles west and facing west, the heavy clouds came rolling in. Big surprise, we may get some rain tomorrow, and I have to work tomorrow, sick or not. Few places I've lived offer such easy escape and great scenery. Maybe nowhere I've lived was as conducive to escaping the madding crowd. Odd that I would find that in Southern California. The state is nutso, yet it is geographically swell. Except for the constant fire fears. I do not care for that.

Hot Ginger Tea

This odd illness, which acts much like a cold, drags on.   I noticed this and decided it was time to pull in the big guns.

Until a little while ago I was using over the counter cold/flu/tumor/and else medicines, along with some PM cough formula.  I have not been overdoing the dosage since it doesn't take much for me to react.

The store bought stuff has been doing OK, but it tries my patience when 100% of any airflow through my nose is blocked.  So, the only hope I know is Hot Ginger Tea.  It is not all that tasty, but who in this condition can taste well?

By Hot Ginger Tea I mean any form of ginger available.  I boil a cup of water in the microwave.  I dump in a bunch of ginger from a seasoning can which claims to contain ground ginger.  I add some milk or half and half.  I had milk.  Then I add some sugar; honey would be first choice but yo no lo tengo.

this must be raw form ginger.  as you can see it runs around on its belly and you can't tell what's an arm or leg for sure.  hunters use leaf blowers with a hose on the sucking side to convert the device into a giant vacuum cleaner--best way to ginger hunt.

The Tea is sipped while one contemplates the dark night, the odd sounds from the mule down the way, and items about life which are both uplifting and down-lifting.   One sip and I noticed that I could breath gently through my nose.

It took me over a decade, from the first time this cure was suggested to me, for me to actually try it.  Since then I have bullied and bored friends by singing the praises of Hot Ginger Tea every time the topic strays to the difficulties of sore throats or extreme congestion due to various illnesses.  One out of maybe ten people who have been told of this miracle have actually tried it.  Most suffer in uncomfortable, know-it-all, congestive smugness.

this is the Ginger Rogers variety of Ginger.  Much harder to catch, and much preferred over the little herd animal shown above.

I think the next really good instrumental piece I create will be called Hot Ginger Tea.  Maybe it could be a regular song.  I throw in some things to get a rating label banning kids from buying my album.  That will boost my sales to minors.

Stranger Days Than Some, but not others

So, the old open mic circuit seems to be shuffling around some.  I know the people who appear to be the kingpins, who set up the sound, such as it is.  But I don't know what they really do, why, or where they dwell.

That is all irrelevant.   I attended the one at the Moose lodge and it was, I don't know, just was.   Fantastic stage, bit hall, not so good a PA was brought in, and the guy did not know how to run it in this hall.  Result; instruments loud, and a little too muddy on the bass side, and vocals too weak.

Then there was the one over the weekend, by the courthouse where I have Halloween jury duty.  It worked well enough.  Same PA as the one at the Moose place.  They have big moose heads here and there on the wall.  I wondered if perhaps these meese had insulted the prohet, pbuh, or drawn cartoons, which resulted in the good, old fashioned beheading.

This observation alerted me to the possibility that this alleged Moose lodge may be a front for radical islamists who behead moose for carrying freedom of expression too far.  It is curious that PETA is nowhere to found in such cases, which leads me to believe they have a political agenda which subverts their alleged true concern for animals.  Everyone is afraid of the soldiers for the religion of peace, even PETA and NOW.

At one of these things, the local who title's himself Harmonica John was playing.  He had a wild looking female singer with him.   He sits there on a stool, playing guitar and sometimes playing a harmonica in one of those brackets that collars the neck.  Dylan used that.

HJ is a good player, for sure.  I would never name myself harmonica john, since so many others play and it implies a "one and only" boast.   I have cautioned people who tried to tag that label on me that it is a wrong thing to do.

Anyway, I was roped into going up on stage with this egomaniac, against both my wishes and better judgement.  People do no always see the underhanded antics going on with musicians.  I have come to be able to spot them fairly quickly.  Nothing I could do about it in this case.

I asked the key and fortunately received a quick reply.  I could tell the guy was about to explain to me how to crossharp but I turned to grab my harp, ignoring him. "Well, WE'RE in G, but....".

He'd just given me a lecture about microphone usage.  Not a lecture really, but a little nonsense designed to mark territory.  I knew the song would be something I'd never heard, with progressions which I'd never seen and which were in no way catchy or memorable.  I was right.  Any halfway decent harp player knows how to throw curves. And he's plenty good enough, I'll give him that.  But there is a smallness in sacrificing courtesy for a competition in which only the host cares to compete.

I muddled my way through and got out of there soon as I could.  Whether HJ actually succeeded in making me look inferior, I can't say.  I doubt he managed it too well.  I didn't bite, so I was able to give a wave as if I'd enjoyed the charade and get out of there.  You run into a lot of that sometimes. Too many people had been telling this guy about me and I do not think he liked it.  Don't blame him.

What do people think when they tell one performer how much they like another performer who plays the same instrument, or does the same thing?   No one wants to entertain that garbage. They just don't.  So, what my lovely friends end up doing is making enemies for me before I even meet certain people.  I might have been able to get along and learn something, but when I am met with less than Southern courtesy and hospitality, I don't return.

And now, for the first time in years, I have the congestion cold flu virus of unknown origin,  It is unacceptable.  I thought Obama was going to cure all that.  The damned slacker has not put gas in my car, paid my rent, or cured my illness.  He didn't even give me a phone.

It is probably nothing more serious than ebola.  I think I may live.

Times like this cause me to look back in self hatred for allowing myself to skate into this future without a compassionate woman at my side.   Then again, most who got away weren't that compassionate.  I can see it now,  "Oh, you poor baby.   I'd hug you but I don't want to get sick.  I'm going to stay at my friendd's/mothers/a hotel until this thing passes.  There's plenty of soup in the kitchen.  Just heat it up or whatever.
  Seeya!"

So, in reality, I am not missing that support and unconditional love I try to con myself into believing I could have had.   I'm not sure which picture is sadder.

Nowhere Else to Turn

The more I hear and see religious movements and rationale for one sort of intrusiveness on individual rights or another, the less inclined I am to embrace their tenets.   I don't despise religious beliefs, in general, except when they involve stoning and inhibiting mobility; stopping traffic and passage.

Live and let live is rarely encouraged by most holy people if they are given opportunity to have power over strangers.  That puts me off.

Even so, when it comes down to it in my own life battles, I find the only place to turn in desperation is to something far inside and yet far outside myself.  There has to be something which is a source, for want of a better word, which can clear the fog in me which inhibits productive action and peace of mind.  It matters not whether it is real and tangible or not.  One thing I know, and that is that all that is is not necessarily visible or detectable through the normal senses.  Science backs me up on this.  So does experience.

this is from a few years ago, my first time at the very left edge of the continent


I find it hard to justify by logical proof, yet certain experiences, and the fact I am still in this life, cause me to believe some thing or invisible entities have influenced matters in my life a time or two.  It would be swell if they'd come fix me now.

And there is some fixing to do, I can tell you that.  The stupid part is that I should be able to do the better part of it myself.  It is like trying to drive with the parking brake firmly engaged.  Why I have trouble releasing it is the question.  And knowing it needs releasing, what's stopping me from doing it?

I'm trying to straighten out the trivia that clutters my environment, my mind and life, yet the brake is there in a way I feel.  Like trying to keep your eyes open in a boring lecture and losing the battle.  For motivation, I am attempting to convince myself that I can become more available to have a hot woman in my life.  One who won't just bring drama and crazy trouble.

Already the drama and crazy trouble variety cross paths now and then, but I've learned to sting and run before becoming embroiled in all that.  It is not the way to go.

Maybe I will never be better, good enough for what I want.

In the mean time I'll run political campaigns like an armchair quarterback, and try to avoid owning a handgun or lethal doses of morphine.

It seems trite to discuss spiritual aspects of life, claiming I'm not religious but I'm spiritual.  What's that even mean?  Maybe I'm not religious but I'm a desperado.  And I'm sure angels like me.  Despite myself, I'm sure something other dimensional and fairly powerful likes me because I'm unusually lucky in ways that I outwardly do not deserve.  But, perhaps there are reasons which aren't all that visible which earn me the consideration I've received.  Not to be immodest, but I suspect so.

Now, to exercise simple courtesy by taking care of the gifts I've received.  That is the key, the problem, and the goal.

I still believe in elves and angels.

Perhaps It Is a Form of Paranoia, or not

Yes yes, you win. See? I put my hands up. Ignore the man with the knife behind you. You win big. Everyone says this

Fortunately, I was unable to listen to the full presidential debate due to a band practice here on Ballistic Mountain. I caught some of it on radio then practiced.

Later I heard and read what people had to say, viewed a video excerpt or two, and then I noticed that little red flags were being thrown all over the playing field that is my muddy mind. When Chris Matthews doesn't gush and all but publicly offer the President unspeakble personal favors, something is amiss.

I think I know what is happening here; ROPE A DOPE. Remember that from Mohammad Ali when he fought...I forget who. Maybe Foreman. Rope a dope.

I'll bet there is a method to this madness. First you have Obama hedging the bet by claiming he's just OK at debates, but that Romney is really good at it. And then you hear he has that dolt John Kerry coaching. Really? I would imagine the best coach would be Axelrod or some other tough associate.

Anyway, if Mitt were to pay me, I'd figure out when the knock out punch is coming, and exactly where it will land.

The whole affair is a bit sad because I do not want the current crop of Bolsheviks to remain in power. The problem is that I haven't heard the challengers say, "Hell no, we won't make you buy insurance or else pay government, and force you to justify your existence".

They haven't offered to abolish this tax system in favor of something that doesn't terrorize and befuddle. Both groups are all for government-business partnerships which is code for cronyism and corruption. And that retards true innovation and better long term practices in many fields of endeavor.

So, it is what it is. If Obama wants to pay me, I could offer classier ways to beat his opponent than pretending he murders people's wives and doesn't make his union trash collector feel warm and loved. And I wouldn't use the absurd accusation that he's rich, therefore evil.

Romney would be harder for me to help in some ways. I would certainly confine things to foreign policy and domestic economic practices. Forget some of the other. I'm not sure if I'd even address the odd bit that he's a woman hater because he isn't for forcing taxpayers and insurance to pay for birth control. I'd have him make it clear that it was up to individuals to pay for it for others if they choose, and up to insurance companies. Not a federal issue, especially since you can't buy insurance across state lines. That's pure smoke.

I guess they both need my help. I would charge Obama more than Mitt because I do believe he is a Chavez style socialist and I find that troubling. Romney is not too far behind him, but he's a little less so.

So many people want to get into calling each of them names like idiot, etc. And make their attacks personal and, in the case of many Hollywood people, really vile and out of line. Then they pretend to be thinkers and on some higher plane of awareness. I think they still suffer from the Jr. High insecurity that makes people ridicule others so they can be considered cool, and keep out of the line of fire themselves.

There is no winner in these debates until the end. You'll know who won when you know who lives in the White House next year. All else is irrelevant.

But, just wait, the Obama camp will spring this rope a dope thing soon enough. Too much eager insistence that Obama lost the alleged debate from people in the press who normally make no qualms about being devoutly religious when it comes to protecting and praising this guy.

I've seen worse in the past and they said things like, "Well, Bill, I think he was off his game, but still had a slight edge".  The spin is too minimal.  The weakest spin comment I saw labelled Obama's supposedly weak showing as the "incumbent curse" and  said that the president was sooo busy, he had little time to prep.

Come one.  The guy went on the View with that bunch of cackling nincompoops.  I'd rather be bored at home debating John Kerry than get stuck with that noise. No time?  If you know what you've done and why, and what you plan, it would help.   Fund raising like all other politicians. It is totally bizarre.

The spin is suspiciously weak, the criticism too freely given by supporters, and mostly it doesn't really address the substance of anything. It is a marketing ploy--like the New Coke.  Remember that?

No, I'm not buying it. It is a cleverly laid plan, and I suspect Republicans may stupidly walk right into the trap, which is generally their MO anyway. Noone can do something stupid during a campaign like they can. It is frustrating because this is one time I am actively voting against someone.

Yep, I'd trade the devil I know for the one I don't in this case.

It kills me to play along and say bad things about 'sigh' Oooobamah.  I'll still keep you in my dreams, Mr. President.  (can I keep my "Chis M hearts Barack O" license plate?)

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