Sorry, But It Was Funny

We're referring to the previous post.  If you weren't so mean, you might know that.

This whole physical ball game has just about pushed my patience as far as it goes.  I have had it with this.  Several splendid days of no trouble.  Then an almost attack at practice yesterday.  Sorry, Karen, the school music regional director or some such, says it is called rehearsal.  Practice is when you learn your part.

To me practice is when you learn how to interact with the others to best effect.   I get where she is coming  from.  Anyway, at practice it was miserable for awhile.  Just short of emergency hot shower mode.  We threw drugs at it.  Pain killers.  Either they helped or it was almost done running its course by then.  Maybe both.

This has not been happening, and the temps have been near or at 100 some of the time.  For the last two years, this kind of heat would totally put me down.  No way could I sweat and work in it.  This week I did.  So, I was all confident to the point of even thinking maybe I don't need to cart around extra clothes and things like that.

Then boom.  But today is ok, if no energy is ok. Few other odd looking manifestations but long sleeves fix that.  Even so, I was able to wear short sleeves, T-shirts,  to work in.  And linen one for that party--E's kid turns 12.  That was outside in a park by some lakes.  lots of sun and heat.  No prob.  A miracle, it was.  

This is one lame set of contenders.  From what we think is available.  But Gary Johnson is good, and if you are so beyond koolaid addled that you suspend belief on cause and effect, in order to better serve your preordained argument, the Green Party candidate would be a winner.

Odd, but I would vote the Green party before I would Hillary.  And I am not a fan of theirs. Just goes to show you.

Whenever I pop my head up out of the sand to see what's happening in the news world, I am stunned by the blatant Hillary lies, both by and about her, and I wonder if Trump isn't trying to convince people not to vote for him.

Running Trump against Hillary may be the only way people would look at her as a calm, sober, even tempered leader.  It backfired I think.  Trump is worried about getting elected, so he will try to talk the public out of it while acting the part of the serious campaigner.

Going through the Lyrics Folder--this cracked me up

For the first time in many months, maybe even a year or two, I decided to look at my lyrics folder.  Actually, Chris, of Valor and Lace, wanted me to send lyrics to him and Emily to see if they could work with them. He liked what he heard Cliff playing of my songs at a party last month.

That is nice.

So, I was hunting down those lyrics and clicked on other titles to see what was what.  One of them rang no bells with me.  There was a phrase or two that seemed like me, but the rest?  No idea.  I will claim it.

Then there is this, which caught me by surprise.  And I am the one who wrote it.  Being me may be an experience which is different from what you'd think.  It is different from what I would think.

Poor ME  (She Did You Wrong)

oh the woman did you wrong

there ain't no doubt

rushed in wearing blinders

my ego knocked me out

red flags were flying, 

like a lighthouse in the night

yet I sailed on

into the rocks

poor me

poor me

I'm a rudderless

ship in a stormy see

and the love of my life

is absentee

poor me 

poor me

it's all her fault

she's a meany

Stuff like this does not grow on trees.  If it did, maybe someone would pay for it like they do almonds and pecans and grapefruit. 

.

No One Is Commenting On The Best Part

Bizarre as it is, the Republican convention is rolling along in Cleveland.   Allegedly "peaceful protestors" attempt to block traffic and impede the free travel of strangers and pedestrians.

I've only seen a few bits and pieces.  I cannot watch too much of any political convention.  The fact that they make a circus out of it, pretending to be patriotic, is nauseating.  The may as well put up a neon sign that says, "You are all suckers.  Thanks for being so easy to control and herd."

Really.  Here we are, deciding who of the mutants who want big government power gets the job.  And how do they apply?  They throw a big party with balloons and red, white and blue everything. Banners, buttons whistles hats signs confetti and much much more.

HOOPLAH GALORE!!!  Vote for me, we hate them.  But THEY also throw a circus party, and lie and ridicule and pretend.  I give up ever trying to convince my Bolshevik relatives that democrats really are the road to totalitarianism in many ways and they are cronied out the wazoo.

Anyone who thinks the republicans are more crony bought than the democrats is sadly mistaken. Why do you think they want to pretend government should decide which ideas and which technology to subsidize and who to ignore or burden with unnecessary red tape.

The conventions are so similar to big car sales.  The target the lowest common denominator.  And the base greed in most people.  Then carnival atmosphere helps cover their lack of restraint.  And people cheer and make noise for the cameras.

The best part of anything I have seen was the clip showing Melania right before she took the stage.  Donald is saying something to her with his hand getting some side of breast action.  Plain as day. and I get it.  Melania is kind of hot.   Top shelf, in the world of trophy wives--and I actually don't mean that in a condemning way, or even critical.  Nothing wrong with that.  In a way Trump would be a trophy husband, too.  Any billionaire or multi-millionaire fits the bill for that.  Especially if they are famous.

I was on the edge of my seat, worried he was going to fondle her even more, on national TV.    Imagine my surprise when the big flap was over her telling the same lies in the same words about what her parents taught her, as Michele Obama did when she was at the Obama nominating circus. All of it is a show like waving shiny lures in front of mindless mullet.
multitudes of followers and believers.   Like my koolaid addled, bolshevik relatives.

I will not argue this stuff with anyone any more.  I actually hate to argue.  Even if I have the logic, hands down,  I will stumble and look stupid, even to myself, as the illogical opponent accomplishes all by being fast talking, so a lie can be sandwiched between two truths before I register the rapid fire talk.

That sense of belonging and purpose, and the intoxication even a little power brings is enough to entice plenty of political volunteers and candidates.  And people like to have a team they can call their own.  Cowboys.  Yankees.  That sort of thing.  Someone probably said "I hate the Yankees", or "Cowboys suck", and that proves my point. You make my case.

And he did not fire the speechwriter responsible.  She'll have to use more caution next time she tries to throw them under the bus.  I figure he is keeping her close.  Or her story is totally fabricated.   According to her Melania read some of Michele's remarks that she liked, helping the writer craft the speech.  If Melania did that then she knew that part was a copycat thing.  So she has to take blame, if we are to be absolutely honest.

I think it was a set up and the speech writer has a bulging offshore account somewhere.   Or an odd publicity stunt.

Coverage by cnn msnbc and pbs was laughable.  No pretense whatsoever of neutrality.  I love it how the one channel had a couple of fake republicans there.  I was not fooled.

I haven't heard the word "gravitas" lately.  Maybe if I watched more.  In my world I hear little to no talk about sustainability and such.  "Sustainability" is code for "we are going to trash some companies  while promoting others, like the ones owned by our friends, and the taxpayers will foot the bill!"

That's how code works; one word can translate into a paragraph.

I heard Hillary was going to tag some guy whose name I forget, for VP.  Probably too much competition and cat-fight potential if she tagged Elizabeth Warren.  aka Crazy Horse.

Actually I feared that ticket because I was sure it would win and I think Clinton is dangerous as can be.  Moreso than Trump, and he worries me re Constitution.  But he at least says he's a Constitution guy.  

I just don't get why.  I don't know why HIll is running either.  Maybe to avoid prosecution.  Really it is insane,   Only deranged people run for president any more.

As Many Truths as Lies

A lot anyway.  When people say they dread a police stop or even eye contact, I believe it.  For whatever reason, I feel that way.  And I am magically cloaked in white privilege.  It glistens like glitter.  I'm a thousand watt privilege person.

So I am supposed to have no apprehension of police because I am white.  And I am supposed to pretend that I am no more likely to be shot by a black or hispanic in the heavily segregated neighborhood than I am a white or Asian.  But then there are factors behind the factors, etc.

What you do is decide upon your conclusion.  Like, I want it to be true that despite affirmative action and racial preferences given to those who are not me, I am given special treatment for being white.

Because then I can feel guilty.  We have some very well meaning people out there just running on and on babbling utter nonsense.  But there are bits of truth.  Cops bully.  And I remember when it was real easy for bigoted cops to annoy innocent black people.  But those same places are often now policed by departments in which minorities are more than represented proportionately.  They don't want to work the 'hood either.

What has been created in just a few generations is not good.  Civil war stuff.  And I am not sure who is what.  You have those who are going to be violent with no real stated goal, and the rest of the population.  People defending against thieves and bullies.  That is what it is becoming.

For whatever reasons, I was stopped more times than I can count in Miami.  One time at night at a gas station, the creep shined his light so I could never see his face.  He held our id for 45 minutes with his spot light shining behind me so I couldn't see him or what was what.  That was before easy access social media.  Never did say why I was detained, if I was being detained.  No clue.  No apology no nothing upon returning my license and going away.  But plenty of threats when the least thing was questioned when he first began his episode of harassment.

I am not typical of whites in this regard.  But I sure have no guilt or illusions of privilege in Miami.

So, some of the annoyance and overstep of our laws and subsequent enforcement, not to mention entrapping type sting operations, are abusive.  And it is the norm for blacks to feel that way---can't trust cops and they never mean you good will.

But if you want truth, go all the way.  How much more likely is it that blacks commit murder than other groups?  How much more likely are minority cops to use deadly force than white cops?  I state it that way because statistics show whites as less trigger happy than other groups.   They need to get the truth.  All things play together, but don't pretend.

The take a truth and then stop traffic and lie to further some crazy plan.  And I am stunned at the white guilt pouring out on the internet.  People seem a little unwilling to recognize the stats that make their case flimsy.  If they really want to find a good answer, they need to accept what is true without prejudice one way or the other.  You can't make a fake problem to cover a real one and expect resolution. But that is what happens.

Forceful Demonstrations are not Peaceful

Blocking traffic is not a peaceful act.  It is an exercise of force.  It is wrong.  This is why they made steamrollers..

Any idiot who tries to pretend that such mob behavior is peaceful is afraid to observe reality and step away from the Great Pretense for a minute.  Use force, then do your best to escalate any response into a bloody battle.

Are people just hypnotized?  Are they idiots?  They will tell you they are "fighting for justice" by standing in the road impeding traffic, possibly preventing someone from getting medical help, inconveniencing others.  Some may be needing to be somewhere on time, like the airport.  Some may have bladder issues.

It makes no difference what people are doing, you have no right to interfere with their daily lives because you are all hyped up over total lies.  And I don't care what has you agitated, you do not get extra rights over others as payment for your victimhood.  That is nonsense.  But that is what we do; we reward victimhood.

It is the grown up version of the booboo patrol---those adults who seem afraid to give positive guidance or reinforcement to children, but they always treat the kid great and make a huge deal out of any little booboo.  "Oh, you poor thing!!!  Come here.  Did that mean ground skin your knee?"  Victim in training.

No justification for screwing up the daily routine of others.  By what right do they think their activities of mob action carry more worth than whatever the strangers on the highway are up to?

Check yo privilege and you'll find you ain't got no stopping traffic on a highway bridge privilege.  Stupid, or just psycho?

Greedy for Anger

I want to get this thought done quickly before I head off to a birthday music jam/ open mic kind of party.  Some very good players will be there.

Anyway, as a result of some comments on facebook, of course, I have come to the realization that some people seek out excuses to justify anger and, in a way, bigotry.  And the case in mind is actually a koolaid guzzling angry leftwing guy.  But this applies both ways. 

It becomes not so much a matter of true principle as a matter of emotional fulfillment.  Some kind of fix for whatever is released in your brain when you can convince yourself the enemy is there, and needs stopping.  Needs ridicule and hate in any case.

People tend to crave justifiable anger.  Rarely is sport anger a very constructive pursuit.  But you look around, you see it in the illogical, regardless of alleged political beliefs.  The thuggish thought patterns are the same.  It is bizarre.  

You've heard people wind themselves up given just the slightest trigger.   Both sides.   And it is pretty much based on fiction; all the emotional stories.  The events are real but just about nothing else being discussed is based on truth. 

I have to go.  Depression and anger, as well as other emotions cause various bio chemical reactions in the brain and body. People can get addicted to one or another of those triggers.  

Beyond Orwellian Lies

I have not read all about it.  Some about it is more like it.

There is not anything I ought to say.  We can watch as stories change and theories that could only have been conceived under the influence of LSD multiply like mentally challenged rabbits.

I worked all day.  I left one tv on to one of my least favorite propaganda outfits--maybe msnbc.  I was rarely in that room but every time I was they were rehashing and live covering and interviewing and trying to force conclusions that are anything except what most people would conclude, given the pieces leading up to this point.

All day long various people talked to on-the-scene correspondents; all attempting to further themselves in some way.

This is real death and they are trying that self serving garbage.  "They" are the people who should shut up, but won't.

It Could Have Changed History

If this had been the leading promotional image for Ron Paul in 2008, perhaps history would have taken a different turn, and for presidential candidates we would not be confronted with a possibly homicidal maniac, and a man who continually shoots himself in the foot, apparently just to prove he can do so and still keep walking.  It is frustrating.

White Privilege!!!!!!

Editorial note: some comments I just can't publish for the same reason I cringe when Trump says something with which I might partially agree, but in such a way as to sabotage the point altogether.  No offense intended, but I do not care to treat race as a virtue or a character flaw.  Others can do the mass herd thing.  I see that as the problem---people act like all of a race are supposed to march to the same drum.  I can't go with that, no matter how large a portion of a group are conformist morons.   Not that I don't inwardly go ballistic when they do things like compare statistics by race to prove victimhood where it doesn't exist.  They hate to bring out true violent crime stats based on race.   And that is fine, just don't pretend people who are not motivated by race are somehow responsible for all this fictitious oppression

These guys remind me of people I used to know and hang with at different points in my life in NC.  According to pandering white politicians, and professional racists like Sharpton,  Black people can't think for themselves, especially if they are 2nd amendment types who understand the value of individual choice.  They even know that ethnicity is not race, and neither ethnicity nor race is a virtue or a vice.   This is the kind of North Carolina I felt at home in.





Bet no one calls them "uncle Tom" or whatever to their faces.
 (I need to read the book.  I think Tom was actually a player for freedom in the underground railroad. Got to read it. I admit my ignorance)
Don't strike me as prideless doormats.  Quite the contrary.  Just proves Hillary and that crowd wrong; it is not required that you be a victim and an idiot to be "of color".  I get part of the reasoning.  Really.  But it assumes a sort of special privilege for an elite few who decide how things work and how resources are used.  And by whom.  It is impossible to get that point through the koolaid addled mind.  They will regurgitate all mnor of trivia which is related, but not germane, to the case at hand.  So it is like a tangent festival that never ends.  I cannot do it.

I think a lot of that humor is regional.  It seems so familiar and natural. I miss that, now that I see it.  They remind me of a couple of people I worked with at different times in Greensboro.  Both of whom are responsible for putting me on to Lee Oskar.  The first guy, Aronia, said I reminded him of Lee.  Of course it was just because I played harmonica.  He drove the golf cart and I played harp as we did our rounds at the nice FBO at Greensboro airport.  Then a few years later another guy, Richard, I think, loaned me an album.  It is probably their fault that I still play.  Bastards.

And here's another slice of the Piedmont, NC area where I lived.  I played music with the guitar player on left's father, and maybe some relatives of the others.  Plus a lot of stranger times with aunts and such were had.   I still prefer their version of this tune to any I've heard.  The kid on the left is wildly, world-class skilled, but equally self destructive, apparently.  I understand that and feel bad that he is not at the top of the world in music; he could have been, I think.

All Performers Are Crazy

Probably by definition.  Non crazy people aren't really into performing; dancing, singing, playing music, etc.   I don't think they are.  If I had a lifetime of confident sanity under my belt, I doubt I would play what we loosely call music.

Today looked like it would be swell, but ended up what I consider a depressing bust.  I sucked, the viola sucked.  Maybe the bass was OK.  Communication from the front person was again a little lacking.  But I was off anyway.  One thing off throws everything off.  I just have to not play when someone is too out of tune or off key.  Viola sometimes is off and I just go tacit or try to throw some helpful note so she'll go toward the right pitch.  Doesn't work.

Her husband somehow throws her off every time he is there.  Especially when he does this video thihng at her side of the stage.  And then she mugs for him, and no one is paying attention to making a killer background with blend and counterpoint and all that.  It becomes as if no one else is there.

No idea why either one of them think that little routine is appropriate.  I guess I will discuss it.  Or not.  I almost think if people don't have sense by now, forget it.  Although I really have changed my viewpoint in ways, and hence my behavior to some degree.  Got to allow others that same latitude.  Maybe.

Anyway, sound guy seemed great until it came to how I do harmonica and he just couldn't accept that I may know what I am doing.  It is just that almost no one uses the same approach.

I even have it so I use my mic, go through an equalizer stomp box, and one that controls reverb, then into the DI box to the board.  All they have to do is unplug their mic and plug in my line out from the boxes.  I do this because it was the only way I had control to keep it from coming back like broken glass.  For this music, direct through the PA really is best.  If you can get it your way.

People who do sound hate anything new, anyone who does their part differently than what they usually see.  Even if it is not complicated or demanding.  They will sabotage you, I swear---either spite, or ignorance, or both.

So toaday they guy wants to act like I'm crazy.  Great.   Nothing I could do.  To just shut him up I offered to just sideline my stuff and use the vocal mic sitting there.  OH no.  He didn't sucker for that.  Or maybe he did.  His ego wouldn't let it look like he just wasn't up to the other way.

It still took him forever to quit messing it up.  Harmonica is one of the hardest things as far as the amplified sound.  Guitar players doing sound are your enemies if you play harp.  Well, OK, guitar players are often everyone's enemies, but that is another matter.

It was a hard time.  The band thinks I played well, and that worries me.  I kept trying to feel a connect with the others, kept telling myself to have fun.  Didn't work.  Part me, and part everyone.  Ultimately I see the kinky husband as the catalyst to disaster.   If I am mugging for someone while playing, there is little chance I am properly tuning in the other players so I mesh like I should.  The other thing is that I think her husband gets jealous of her playing with us.  He is the type to criticize and she'll play insecure.  I think she is made of titanium so I don't get how wimps can totally jar he footing and make her screw up just by looking at her.

Oh well.  It is probably my failing that I don't get it.  I am not the one with a marriage of great duration.   Or anything of great duration of significance.