BAM!!!bi

where was this guy before the deer crossed the road? Shooting this one in the butt, apparently. Wait a minute-is that a girl? Can't tell. Androgyny in camo gear. OK.

I've often noted that many of the wild animals in America have absolutely no regard for private property, human life, or rules of the road. My standard operating procedure is to take that fact into account when driving, experiencing the temptation to pet and cuddle bears, raccoons and the like, and when sleeping in the woods.

I'm the kind of guy who avoids rabbits, and even coyotes, when I'm driving, not to mention children and bicyclists. But, as luck would have it, I was unable to avoid Bambi. Maybe it was Bambi's mother.

The scene of the execution was not far from home, on the winding road from Alpine. Tonight I was in the mood to just slow poke, driving 35 and 40 mph on a 55 mph road, because there was no traffic. It had been dark for a short time.

So, as I rounded a curve I saw an animal start to enter the road ahead from the right. I began to slow but I was already close to the creature. It ran across, so I thought it was history, then it ran back across and I thought my dodge to the left had cleared it, then it did a 180 and dove into the front of the passenger side fender doing significant damage.

All the above took less than half a second. Bam! was the sound. And since the thing was to the side, it wasn't run over and didn't jar the car enough to set off airbags. I'm wondering if this rude animal wasn't depressed and intentionally entering into a fatal relationship with my vehicle. Fatal attraction.

After all, I thwarted its first two attempts. In the end BAMbi won.

My car seems drivable but maybe a little edgy. I'm lucky it pushed things in and not down onto the tire.

I'm also lucky there was no need to deal with El Cajon Highway patrol people. Now I have to get the car into an ElCajon body shop early to meet the insurance guy and pick up a rental. The first $500 of the repair is on me.

Once again I discover the hazards of California. There are times you just can't do anything. That is one of the reasons I chill on that road. But in all the time I've lived here that is only the second deer I've seen on that highway between Alpine and Descanso. Dusk and shortly after are the worst times for animal abuse. Animals abusing people and their property.

The worst part is that it is going to take forever to empty the car. I hope I find money in the process. The good thing is that I am lucky enough to have a means of getting it fixed, and I am unscathed. Too bad I'm not a carnivore. That was a big animal.

Oh Geez, while I am posting

With all the war, the debt, the gangs in the streets, trial by sensational media reports, etc., how did marriage become such a topic?

I am not sure I totally get gay marriage, as it seems a little different than my Ward and June Cleaver image of happy family bliss. But it really is not my business. Not in the political sense, because I don't even think government needs to be in that business. Were it not for tax structure and a few things, who would care?

If it is not defined or banned already, I'd vote against any definition or ban. I vote against anything that adds ink to the rules except for term limits.

Somehow I am now a mail-in only voter in CA. As near as I can tell, everyone out on my mountain is mail-in by default. I guess if you live more than five miles from a voting place they do that. I was able to vote to reduce the term limits of some state offices from 14 to 12 years. I guess 6 two year terms is plenty. I'd reduce it to three given the chance.

Here you can vote for anyone in the primaries for senate but not president. I was stuck with only the libertarian choices for president. I could have voted for a republican, democrat, or whatever on the senate one. I voted for the democrat I thought had the best chance of defeating Diane Feinstein. The woman is a crook and a menace.

For the last three years I've been surrounded by people opposed, vehemently, to the Sunrise Power Link project. According to Diane, there has been no opposition at all. I guess she missed the dozens of lawsuits, and thousands of letters she and others received. She and Arnold were on the same page on this--a bipartisan bit of corruption.

I doubt I'd vote for that person I thought would have a chance against Diane in the primaries, in the major election, should she win the nomination, because the only people close to my philosophy are not to be found in the democratic party. Libertarians won't win, although I think Ron Paul could have come close in the republican boondoggle had he not been ignored and shut out by the press as much as he was. I vote the philosophy, not the man. He's the only one with a clear philosophy.

For judges I voted for anyone who was not in the prosecutor's office. And for schoolboard and the like, anyone whose brief bio did not list being a public employee or official. So, the freelance writer got my vote for school board.

Being a scrooge I vote no on bond issues. If schools were managed and run as I see fit, then I could see putting money into my plans. More of the same? Nope.

I also voted no on raising tax on cigarettes. If they decide to tax beef under guise of heart disease research I'll vote no on that. The two things are analogous, and show how people think a thing won't get them, but miss the basic principle involved. Just wait, it will come around to bite those who think ripping off others, of whom they disapprove, is perfectly right.

Harmonica Endeavors and Semi-Reviews

Blablablablabla...evidently, I am driven to prolific midnight posting.

So, as I listened to the tunes I need to learn, it became evident that either he recalled the wrong keys, or else something made the prescribed key unfit. I do not believe the recording and playback somehow slowed or increased in speed because the one tune that I had been exposed to, so I knew what key was right, worked as it should.

I was able to find the key for most of the songs. On one I found I could use the chromatic with the button in. Is that C#? In other words Db? One was oddly in B, or B was all that would work.

So, I figured it was time to update the harp collection. No matter where I go, Lee Oskar harps, and most other suitable instruments are a lot of money. It turns out that harpdepot.com has the best prices and selection for my purpose.

I've dealt with them in the past and they are reliable and honest. They also sell a little known brand called Bushman. It is a German made brand which doesn't outsource to odd countries, and they make a good harp which lends itself to overblows--the technique which allows you to bend a note up in pitch. Usual bending on harmonica is only down.

The price on these is pretty good and you can replace reed plates like on a Lee Oskar, so I got a few in major keys like Ab, Db, F#, and something else. I also go a Gminor in a Lee Oskar.

They have some cheapo harps that are a bargain but I didn't get them. A set of 12 in a durable case for $40. They send a lot of those overseas to military people, so if you know someone over in the thick of this stuff, let them know and they'll probably send them a cool set of harps.

It sounds like good practice harps. Sometimes a harp that plays but won't quite do what expensive ones do is good for working your ability to coax things so it is a piece of cake when you go to the hotshot harmonica.

I saved nearly $10 each by not getting the Lee Oskars, but I hope I don't regret it. I've had some Bushmans for a long time with good result. The trick is to get the one called Soul's Voice and not the Delta Frost. I've owned both, and the SV is more durable and cleaner sound. The cost is about the same.

For overblows people have been paying over 2 or 3 hundred dollars for customized marine bands and Golden Melody Hohners, and now companies are building them in a similar fashion to custom harps but they are still over $100 for one diatonic harp. Supposedly they overblow well so you can play them chromatically for the most part. Of course you are stuck with that particular key's sound characteristics, but it adds versatility.

Suzuki has come out with one I'd like to try someday. Like the customizers, they use a rosewood comb. I guess they have reeds of the right size and such which do well with the overblow bends, and they claim to be set up out of the box for it. That has to do with how reeds are offset, and zzzzzzz. Sorry, I was putting myself to sleep.

Anyway, I figure I better have the tools since I think the people I'm hooking up with are for real, and it could result in recording more than just for them. I'll know things are good when playing nets out in the black financially. So far it has cost me more to play than I've made. That is generally the case, however, I am beginning to think I may have more worth than that.

What I play is a limited thing, but it is a niche which few people fill, so, in reality, I have a better chance making it pay than most guitar players would, because there are so many of them, and usually they are the frontman. If they need what I do, they very rarely can lay down that track themselves. I'll try at any rate. It seems good female singers, who can sing back up or lead, may also fit a similar demand--but possibly moreso.

One thing for sure, this stuff is becoming highly challenging.

How Many Trillion in Debt and Alarmed Over What?

People are sometimes annoyed at me--well one or two people--because I tend to question or point out items that governments take upon themselves to monitor or control, which I think they have no business even considering. I realize we elect people to office and the theory is that we are the government.

I do not, however, recall how it came under the purview of we the people, or they the government to oversee my body fat index. As if this country is not hemorrhaging money we do not have, tax dollars are spent on studies about obesity, and plans to control our behavior in the name of projected health care costs. Hey, die young and fat, and even if you run up the doctor bills a bit, it may all come out in the wash.

But that is predicated upon the dubious idea that everyone else is paying the doctor bills. See how socialism is a slippery slope? It leads to a type of thought that gives everyone the right to intrusively mind everyone else's business. And people just can't restrain themselves when that kind of power comes their way. This syndrome is quite evident already if you pay attention to various causes and efforts at changing behavior through taxation and official coercion.

It does strike me as arrogant and nervy for government officials to put out all this press about some big scare regarding obesity and the numbers they expect by 2030. Most of the House and Senate appear to be more than well fed. Maybe they just want to keep people off balance so they won't notice how they destroyed manufacturing and many other job opportunities through corrupt mismanagement, often of things they had no business managing.

I'm thinking my new belly may already be shrinking, but I encourage people to store up what they can because we're being robbed blind and run into bankruptcy, not to mention the assault on farms and food being conducted by the same people who gave us the fat police. You can take the phrase fat police two ways. Both fit.

And people wonder why I think no law is not necessarily more dangerous than governments gone wild.

I suggest buying up clothes with vertical stripes, and maybe dark colors. I hear that makes you appear thinner. You may not be pulled off to a re-education farm to reduce your BMI if you go for thin looking garb and keep a low profile.

What will be next, I wonder. If you had told me that governments would be in the business of wanting to discuss and control your diet and body fat fifteen or twenty years ago, I would have thought it was a joke.

Oh well. I don't really get angry. I just do all I can to not cooperate and to not have anything more to do with any government office or program than I have to. I hope never to utilize even medicare. I don't fault those who do. I just can't stand the forms, the people, or anything else involved with collecting a benefit from a system which I think creates its own demand. It is like me raiding my neighbor's refrigerator over and over until he can't afford to buy food, then offering to throw him some crumbs, provided he jumps through the hoops I arbitrarily design for him.

Then I point out how important my crumby program is and how much it helps. Forget that I helped create that demand. Spooky stuff.

Maybe they just came out with this in case Romney picks Christie for a running mate. It sets the stage for that being politically incorrect because he's rather over weight. Of course, I'm still supporting Ron Paul.

Not that I think it makes much difference, and I doubt things will ever be near perfect. But I like to say what I think while I still can, and often I feel cautious and paranoid about that. The western world is likely to experience a bit of upheaval in the coming years, and what shakes out may be interesting. It is unnecessary for it to have developed as it has, but it comes down to the greed for money and power of the populace as well as the people with the guns.

Constantly fighting expensive inconclusive wars takes a toll on resources. So does maintaining big blocks of dumbed down voting groups, and controlling every facet of life. They kind of go hand in hand though. Peace and freedom sound nice but people have not been educated in a way that promotes either. Their thinking has to change for those words to actually apply to the culture.

No, I Don't Even Like Playing Music

I use the term "music" very loosely. Maybe not as loosely as rappers or some other fringe elements do, but looser than I think is legitimate. I make noise, and occasionally it is mildly pleasant. Never is it really earth shaking in the way that some things are.

All this time and effort, then after a frustrating thing like yesterday, I want to run from the experience altogether. No desire at all to play. I just want to travel and sleep and eat spinach omelets with cheddar cheese and tomatoes and fried potatoes and sour cream, and oat meal and grits, and blueberry bagels, and potato chips later on.

In truth I find music major type classically trained musicians to be a pain, and I find the self taught catch as catch can types a pain. The worst to deal with are still guitar players who idolize off the wall writers of stupid songs, and who can't get it through their head that it is polite to let you know they are switching tunes and keys. These guys expect everyone to follow them but just try to get them to follow you and they are sunk.

I actually did that yesterday. I made them follow me in C minor. It was really only about 2 chords they needed. The mandolin guy caught on. The guitar guy was totally lost even when the other guy showed him. I know, I did it out of frustration and to see if it would dawn on the guy what a pain he'd been. At least I could accurately tell him the key.

Today, I am thinking I have no desire to play anything with anyone. I only want to find something useful to do that pumps blood to my brain. And I want a change of venue to something less fire prone.

Maybe the sub-tropics. Cuba, if we can oust Castro and any Che supporters. So, if Cuba ever frees up, I recommend seriously educating Carlos Santana before letting him in. Just keep Sean Penn and other Castro sycophants out. Put it in the constitution.

OK. So forget playing any music, and let's get this Cuba thing out of the way. Someone obviously had some reason for allowing that. I'm hungering for my sub tropical roots.

But for the ocean and geographical ambiance mostly. Miami has never been a very nice, easy, polite culture. Pre-Cuban influx it was dominated by the ruder elements of New York City culture, mixed in with other rude yankee influences. Then the Latin American take over just made the place a little louder, more colorful and less predictable. Not more polite as far as I know.

But now there is easily available Cuban coffee everywhere. Anyway, it is sub tropics and that is what I long for, sans the high powered city insanity and shallow culture.

Secret Hollywood TV Techniques

When I watch selected shows on Hulu, some contemporary, some not, I often notice things in dialog or acting which must have been taught at the same school.

One technique used in drama, more by actresses than actors (is it ok to say actress rather than female actor?) is the the to and fro eye dart. This is used when the actor is "searching" the eyes of the other character who may be saying something like, "Of course I don't love you anymore."

They will focus on a face shot of the searching character who is staring into the eyes of the other character. Many actors have mastered the technique of making their eyes shift quickly back and forth, but only just a little bit each way off of center. They can do it rapidly, like maybe 5 times or so in a second. It is supposed to convey earnest bewilderment, I think.

Remember that in your next audition.

Dialog is different and I need to make mental notes of all the typical phrases. Of course, just like in politics and news commentary, the phrase "at the end of the day" has become common. It replaced the over use of the phrase, "the bottom line is...".

Fictional characters will likely never stop "playing a hunch". I'm grateful that "and your point is?" hasn't run as far as it could have. "having a lot on my plate" found its way into many scripts, sometimes on every page, but seems to have faded. Now I only hear that from my brother.

I suppose "you're (he/she/it's) going down" is often about the easiest way to say it so that cliche is not quite as pure hollywood.

It is clear that some actors and/or directors come from whichever school thinks reciting lines with a full mouth of food is great for adding a realistic touch. They clearly have been taught the technique and they all do the eat and talk delivery identically. To avoid actually grossing everyone out while doing this is an acquired skill, considering you have to utter your lines audibly and articulately.

I think it is a stupid device. In real life, my friends rarely attempt that, and if they do, I generally let them know I have time to wait until they swallow before hearing what they have to say. Michael Landon, RIP, was a great proponent of the talk-with-food-in-mouth acting school. That is quite clear. He was also a fan of the fake uncontrollable laughter scene. It was a good time killer if the script was a little short, I guess.

I go great lengths of time without catching current TV, and even on hulu I still avoid any show with canned laughter. It is my little protest. Some people won't buy foreign products or shop Walmart. I boycott laff track driven entertainment.

I'm going to keep an eye out for other techniques so we can employ every cliche and seemingly pointless acting and scripting device when we create our own show.

While I am at it, I hope to discover why Alec Baldwin thinks he's funny. He simply is not. I've yet to find any humor in his humor.

Beach Blanket Bingo

In an odd twist of fate strangers call me every once in awhile these days regarding playing some kind of music with them. The latest call was from a guy whose name rang no bells, and I could not recall ever playing with him at any of the open mic venues or other events I've attended.

He said I played with him and his wife, who plays paercussions. His plan has to do with another charity event, and the details are still a little vague. I think he wants me to sit in with him and/or others.

Not wanting to limit my horizons too much I agreed to meet down at the beach to jam a little with him and some other people he said were showing up. He gives detailed resumes of whoever else is supposed to play, and I tune out such things. If you say you know Joe Dokes and he's famous or played with Bach or whatever, it means zilch to me.

All I care about is if I can fit with the people and if what they play is not completely abhorrent to me. That is a little negative but many guitar player/singers of the acoustic world tend to play things which seem like they lack real melody, and which contain chord changes that have no purpose as far as what makes sense and sounds pleasing to me.

Often the songs are famous and made someone tons of money. Usually things that did not grab me when they were rising in the marketplace, and things which I couldn't imagine wanting to cover.

So, I showed at Ocean Beach and after a second did recognize the guy. I still don't recall playing with him and his wife. A mandolin player and violin payer showed up. The violin was tentative but I liked how she played. The mandolin was not bad either. He seemed to know what he was doing and be capable of fitting with others better than the other three. I guess it worked out, but I cannot recreate even a shred of any of the songs in my head because they just didn't have whatever it is that memorable tunes have. They seemed like those tuneless odd songs Mike Douglas used to sing on his show.

I'm sure it works and sounds different to others. Maybe because I did not know the songs and how they sounded originally, I found no attachment to them. A lot of that going around--someone covers a tune in such a way that you can't even recognize it even though you know how the original sounds.

Maybe I'll play his benefit. Just for the exposure. It is probably a decent service that proceeds help fund. But, I confess, I'm not there because I think I am "doing good" or "giving back". I could care less about giving back because I haven't taken that much. If I were to give back it would go to family and friends who really deserve it and who have sacrificed for or because of me. Not random charities. That is how I roll.

It was a strange session, and I guess I added to it, but it seemed the guy did not really know the songs he was doing, and he never knew what key he was in. I finally just asked him to name a chord or two that would be involved and guessed it from there. I can find it but it is a pain. If I paid enough attention I would be able to know immediately the key just by hearing it. I'm working on paying attention.

I'm often finding people thinking they are in A when they are in E minor or D or G or something. Today most often they thought it was in C but it was actually in G. Close enough. They were in tune, and that is good. I just don't get the idea that this angle is going to move my experience and education forward. I'm turning into a snob maybe. Maybe not.

There is just a limit to how much I am willing to play that I don't find engaging.

I think I want to get a giant hot air balloon and make it my home. Just float around on the wind, sometimes waving to the people below while I eat popcorn, watch movies on my computer and just be lazy in the clouds.

Back to the Better Way

So, I'm reading the Factotum blog, and, for once, I find information I can use. Generally it is like a foggy window into how the other half lives. Which other half, I am not sure. Probably the half that doesn't find it odd that people think it is odd when a retired football player offs himself. Or when anyone does, for that matter.

And, in the midst of all the wit and wisdom, I find out that you can return to the old and improved blogger interface thing. I had not even tried. That is how they get you--resign yourself to tyranny or political correctness or the ninety nine percent, and don't look any further.

Now, I wonder if being in the ninety ninth percentile would count with the people who love to speak in terms of "we"? I'm guessing it won't register with ninety nine percent what that means.

It is worth bragging if you are in the ninety ninth percentile on standardized tests and that sort of thing. It means you are in the one percent who did better than the other ninety nine percent. You are smarter as far as their tests go. But keep it to yourself or the ninety nine percent will rough you up and take your lunch money.

Actually it is odd how life turns. Nerds become gangster politicians or else they own them, and then it all goes askew.

I have angered more than one friend because I cannot say I think the occupy business is grassroots, sincere, and truthful. I do agree that it was crooked who got bailed out in the big American spend off, and all else about how that was handled. Who cares.

They think things get better through one approach and I do not like that approach. They are wrong, as usual, but they think I am wrong. That is why they are the ninety nine percent who don't get it, and I am the one percent who does.

Best of all I got rid of the abusive interface which harassed my browser and added clicks to the process.

Thanks Factotum. Class Factotum is in the one percent who figured out this escape route.

Twists and Turns

So now the guy calls me and I began practicing.  This is the one who is talking doing shows, recording and whatnot.  No big money anytime soon.  But, I'm working with him and a girl who is classically trained with some kind of opera experience.   I guess everyone like that plays piano.  She does.

It is clear that this guy knows what he is doing in the sense that professional musicians who can go to a studio with charts and such know what they are doing.  Lots of original stuff to learn.  This is not electric ladyland.  Maybe just one step removed from what I do with the mountain friends but a little more polished, and I am being told specific things they'd like me to do.  That is a first.

Everyone I ever played with seemed incapable of telling me what they wanted.  All they ever said was play a little more, usually.  This guy says, how about playing this riff at this point in time.  Old habits die hard.  So this is the biggest challenge to date, but should result in more playing.  Then what?

I only have five or six tunes to figure out and become comfortable enough with from varying standpoints by next Saturday.  Since I haven't heard but maybe one of them in terms of knowing what is desired, I need to be ready to play harmonic things as well as straight melody lines and guitar lines.  That way I can do any of it at any point as suits the guy who wrote the tune.

This plays on all my shortcomings, however it is not beyond my scope to pull it off.  It is a learning opportunity.  They think I've got a good ear, but I noticed this guy tuning his 12 string and never saw him use any base line reference--no tuner.  Nothing.  And he did it while carrying on a conversation.  It sounded in tune to me.  Every time I've heard him he is in tune.

Fortunately I remember bits and pieces of music training as a kid.  Mostly I forgot or blocked it all out.  It helps that I know the notes on a piano.  So I have a little intuition about minor 2nd and related keys.

You never know what curves you might be thrown.  I played a tune tonight at open mic with a guy who was pretty sure the song was in G.  I had a host of harps at the ready.  I could tell immediately that cross harp for G nor straight harp were the ticket.  It worked out well using an Eminor harp.   The other option would have been 3rd position in D, but notes would be limited.  Guitar players who don't play in combos can really be out there when it comes to knowing what's what or communicating it.

I've become pretty good at knowing when I can't count on the key they think is needed.  It is a little game to me.  Lots of times the nature of the piece is better suited to something which is not the typical harp for that key situation.  Of course, tonight, I can see no way that tune was in G.  Whatever it was, use Eminor.

The house guitar player really hates me.  He will make a big deal introducing everyone else up there and conspicuously pretends I'm not there.  I think I got the better of him by ignoring his sleights.  Most people there know me and feed my ego enough.

This new challenge will do the trick of bringing me back down to reality.  It is cool to be recruited by people who seem extremely skilled and professional, and who appear to have a realistic plan.   We'll see how it goes.  It will take a little time, but maybe not that much.  Should be recording in July I think, and shows probably sooner.

I just want to sleep and eat and travel and hope my belly sets a trend and becomes the thing that defines the desirable new man of the new century.

Lift The Veil Of Right and Left

For their own convenience and to promote their agendas through propaganda techniques, people in public life, in the media, and in mindless mob actions tend to label things "right wing" and "left wing".  Terms which are all but meaningless if you try to hold the labels down to a test based on definition.

One is given to believe that right wing means law and order, no social programs, big on war.  And that left wing is big on government services and control of resources, social programs, not big on war but big on aiding other countries.   These are bad definitions, because when I really go to define these things, and try to keep my own extreme bias out of it, it makes no sense.

Most of the time, I would be in line with what is considered right wing--except that I think government ought not be involved pro or con in matters like abortion, marriage, or internal affairs of other lunatic states in the world.

I'm left wing when it comes to not making laws about social behavior.  But when I think of it, left wing does make laws about behavior and taxes behavior and much else.  We agree and disagree.

Here's where the terms get botched.  They always report things like "radical right wing neo-nazis blow up in attempted parallel parking caper".   Here's the news; Nazis are left wing extremists!  They are bigoted socialists, just like the Black Panthers, Al Sharpton, and Jesse Jackson.  That is, if you class Sharpton, et al, as left wing, which most people do.

If capitalists are somehow mainstream or right wing, and socialists and communists progressively left wing, then Nazi, which is socialist by definition, is a lunatic version of left wing.

You can't class something as left or right based on racism alone, although I find left wing groups, or what get labeled as left wing to be more abundantly racist that those on the right.  White supremacist groups are very few in number and have little support.  They are usually labeled right wing.

Racism in left wing circles is rampant; Black Panthers, race based hiring and admissions policy, race based contract awards, Al and Jesse inciting crowds against people based on race rather than fact--or when facts are not known--Duke rape case, whatsername Brawley, Trayvon Martin, the riot that killed the Jewish guy in NY, etc.

The whole one wing or the other thing is a bit convoluted.  But if wings must be labeled, the reality of where more violence and hate is generated is opposite from the picture painted of left wing, compassionate---right wing, violent.  But then, it is rare that the most common forms of hate crimes are labeled as such.  And everyone knows it.

But the whole idea that a violent crime needs to be treated differently depending upon the why and the victim, is absurd.  I don't care why you beat me and raped my dog, I don't like it.  The hate crime concept is absurd and only designed to make some groups more special than others.  That is how it works in practice.  Not sure which group hate-crimers fall into. I guess they usually call it right wing, but in reality, that doesn't hold water.

Anarchists, on the other hand, should be right wing, since no government is the antithesis of a socialist or communist state.   The so-called anarchists we see these days can't possibly be anarchists in the true definition of the word.

If you do not believe in laws and a body of authority to enforce them, you certainly cannot say you are allied with the communist party, and it seems odd that you have an official logo, flag, and organize to protest because you think certain groups aren't regulated enough and that unions should have more power.  Lot of "archy" in that.  Your name suggests you are all about no archy at all.

Liars.

I just thought I'd mention that left right confusion.  I'm thinking of getting new flags made which I can send to the mis-labeled anarchists.  It would be a capital I instead of capital A in the middle of a circle.  Or maybe a question mark, as a friend suggested. The I would stand for idiot.  Then they could really be in solidarinosc; "Idiots of the wold unite!"  Plenty of takers for that proposition.

I'll go back to reclusion.  Politics has become an odd religion to many, and often people bring their religion into it.  Left, right, and who knows.  You tell me Chris Matthews does not have the same awe and worship of Obama as any Christian has of Jesus.  So his religion is government as it now exists, while many want to bring in Christianity, Islam, you name it.

What a pain.  Government should have such limited power that you can't even slide any of this stuff in. But it does have power.  That's what people do.  Just look at any condo association if you don't think power feeds on itself and that the average Joe won't let power go to his head.  Few can resist abusing even minor power.  I, of course, am one of the very few who is not one to abuse power when I have it.

So, once again, I truly am your best hope for president.  I'll even marry someone and promise she won't waste time and money on some cause like dirty fingernails in America, or dandruff in the workplace, or the tattoo epidemic.  Imagine that?  No subtle royalty behavior being foisted upon a nation which forbids titles of nobility, and royal power.   It would be the first time in forever.

Those people who swooned over the Kennedy years calling it Camelot have no idea what they were saying.  You really want to live in a monarchy?  That is your dream, so you imagine a presidential family that you like to be our ruling monarchs?  And you imagine yourself bowing as their carriage passes by?  You freedom hating fool!