On the Other Side of Madness

What the other side is, I don't know.  Not this side I guess.  Or not that side.

Still I implore all parents and relatives of girls to fight against the idea of registering them with selective service.  Nothing guarantees that a draft won't be used to provide personnel for some future war which is even worse than VietNam, or other bloody "limited war" police action.  Those events are dishonest at their core, and trade on the honor and patriotism and loyalty of unwitting service people.

I don't care what a badass your daughter is.  It is about tyranny and making changes which, in reality, dim the hope that we might get some real change when it comes to making war.  Arming people who make war.  Then we fight those people and arm other future enemies in the process.   Your daughter is formidable, no question.   If they drafted her, she couldn't wear those same clothes, and the fishnet stockings.   Oh, geez.  Took me a second to realize that was the outline of the edge of the jacket.  That's a relief.

People are nuts, though.  So often your candidate or point of view can be shown to have serious errors and inconsistencies, but the kneejerk reaction is to defend it.   Discovering a belief to be wrong is no fun.  You feel like you are out on a limb and it just got cut.

But to be so ego bound that you ignore the truth doesn't reflect well on you.

I don't even know what I think about some things any more.  I do still believe that the national passtime in the West, the USA, at least, is pretense.  And a corollary off of that would include victim mining.   Searching out any hint of bias, bigotry, discrimination, etc. and finding ways it could be taken as offensive to us.  That is what we do.  And the passtime has never been so popular.

Having lived in more than one locale in which my kind were in the minority, I witnessed official minorities using their local majority power to freely and openly discriminate against all others in ways the general population hasn't seen for over fifty years.   But, once again, we pretend.  We pretend so much that we actually give credence to complaints by these same people who play victim while wielding the power.  Similar to the Obamas complaining about fictitious episodes of "profiling" when they were in stores and such.

They know they are lying and so do we.  The mistake is often the assumption that one os profiled due to race or sex when it may something else altogether.  My theory is that bullies in government, whether police, public school teachers, or tax creeps direct their sadism upon those they deem as lacking the power to fight back.  They may assume that various groups lack power so they hone in on them, but power is the real factor, not race.

Days are hard and tonight we play some sort of music and the Navajo.  Not my favorite place.  Oh well. It could be good if nothing is like last time.  Remember to pick up ear plugs.  We are the featured group but there will be loud jamming and horror before and after.  I will bring an amp in hopes I can thwart their usual efforts to make me sound like broken glass.  Worst job on sound board I have dealt with in awhile.

Rockers I guess.  Pure rockers seem to have no sense of dynamics, nuance, beauty or anything other than wall to wall noise. Loud.  I'd give that stuff more credence if its practitioners could adapt a little, realizing there are other forms of noise and music out there.

Why do I even bother to do this?   I do not know.  And I am losing all interest in any of it.  I only do it because I think if I let it go, maybe I will let everything go.  I have not much left to release, as far as life activities and social interaction.

Not caring and not being stirred by things sucks.  I do not recommend it.  If you are married, stay married.  If you have any semblance of family and love in your life you'd be a real idiot to queer that deal.  Many people do.  Fools.  Oh I am 45 or 50 and I want to explore living life for ME.  Time to grow and blablabla.  What utter stupid nonsense.  But we pretend still.

In any case.  Don't let them broaden selective service.  And it is not a good idea for everyone to serve two years or whatever.  Putting everyone of age under total control of the state could be disastrous. Brave New F'ing World.

Sameness Is The Rallying Cry For Lemming Fools

Long ago, when I warned some imaginary LBGT,etc. community that eliminating the "don't ask, don't tell" policy was not necessarily a victory for them, I was treated as if I gave a damn if LBGTBOB people become soldiers or not.   I suppose it was implied that I was ungrateful to badass lesbians who survived crazy mid eastern wars.   Not the case.

The case is, I do not like the draft or the fact that you have to "register" with Selective Service even when no draft is place.  It is one thing to voluntarily sign up to go wherever the corrupt bastards send you, and another thing to be forced to join and forced to go wherever the bastards send you.

It used to be that you could jump out of the closet and into civilian life.  Didn't matter if you were drafted or not.  So, if you were being sent to some bloody battle of questionable creation, history, and goal, you could wave your rainbow flag and be excused.  I guess your permanent record would say "flamer" or some other hostile term.  In these times, though, no one would care.

But losing that power in order to be just like everyone else was a mistake, in my view, until we rid ourself of forced registration when we have no draft and no defensive war.

If there were no threat of a draft, then I'd say they had scored a victory with the new policies.

Now they are talking about forcing women to register for the draft.   I think the never ending striving for sameness is screwing you.  Yay.  Women can do combat.  If our foreign policy wasn't F''d up for the last hundred years (or many decades at least), we would not be engaged in combat at this time.

If anyone who never went through it thinks that sweating out your draft lottery number and trying to figure out how to be patriotic but not disrupt your life for a manufactured war designed to line pockets and consolidate power,  is a pleasant way to spend the last of high school is mistaken.

Depending upon various factors, such as home environment,   some people are more adversely affected than others.

So, of course they let women walk right into the trap. We don't think that maybe it sucks to have this easy power looming over everyone at 18.  No, we tie it to equality somehow.  It is a sucker's game.

Instead of only making it legal for the state to enslave young men to do battle at the whim of the powers that be, now we can put the clamp on every new adult.  We can point to Israel or Switzerland or some other non-analagous country.

I get sick of fools comparing the U.S. to small, relatively homogenous countries and cultures.  That is like comparing the country to Rhode Island or Arizona.  We're a little to diverse and, ideally, power is spread out among the states, communities and people, for the most part, rather than concentrated in the upper echelons of the central, federal,  government.   That was the design, anyway.   That's when we had less creative interpretation of the Constitution, and principle was a commonly understood term.  Unlike the present..

Not a single candidate running on either side that I am sure would not energize the draft.  We really do seem to be run and controlled by an elite ruling class.  And people just play their role.  All it takes is a little free (or pretend free) stuff, and/or a chance to be considered a victim; a martyr even.  Get that going and the general population will give you all their 18 to 26 year olds.

This is not a nice development.  They are making noise--various career military-political types.

Volunteering is good.  It would be better if those controlling how the military is used were not crooks.    
Being forced to participate in their psychopathic efforts to stabilize things, and bring democracy to lizards and lice, is not the same thing.  It is legalized slavery. The state is not the owner of your life.
If you find that the state is the owner of your life, then something is seriously amiss.

Rather than require women to sign up, let's just do away with the sign up altogether.

Some Colds Do End

Soon, I will find myself a primary care physician, also known as a basic doctor.  Until then, things like colds will go untreated by expensive medicine; just the OTC stuff.  No insurance or other aberrations were involved.  No antibiotics.

Some people think the antibiotics did the trick.  I doubt it.  With me it ended almost suddenly.  I keep thinking it is a trick and that I'll be coughing again in no time, etc.   Energy is suddenly improved.  Less over-the-edge depressed.  I knew that could change but not by reasoning.  By all reason the depression lies and anti-pep talks make more sense than having any spirit of hope.

But that is not how things really work.  I have a shot at doing fairly well and even improving and building up some.

I discovered that others had experienced a similar illness lasting roughly a month.  Most of them are sure the antibiotics finally knocked it out.  I wish people would go easy on that stuff.  The bad guys are becoming immune.

Some Colds Never End

This is over the top.  Must be making up for all the time I have gone without a serious cold.  Like it just adds time for every past year I went cold free.

Another conspiracy, I think.  They are evil.

Missed the Big Debate

All I caught were some highlights.   Hillary trying to stir up class warfare in Flint because if they weren't poor and black, but rich and white, like some Detroit suburb, then no one would let there be lead in the water.   She blatantly panders to the half-baked, mob action mentality.

In ways, almost all the candidates play that game of half truth and smear rather than building a case or proving points.  I find Hillary the most blatantly transparent panderer.  Trump, too is pandering.  In either case it is a bummer if you may agree in some measure with anything either says.  They make the point look absurd and designed to get a rise out of a target audience.  And it works.

But Trump is not doing this stuff in the same way Hillary does.  He is queering the deal.  That is good in some ways, remains to be seen in others.  From my viewpoint.

Why do I even know any of this?  I am attempting to avoid news and trying to become a no information voter.  For now.  It takes very little time to figure it out if you have to choose.  In case of a tie, write yourself or an esteemed other on the ballot.

I think we should have elected Bill Richardson in 2008 because he said he would cure breast cancer in five years.  I'm thinking if you figure out how to cure one cancer, you may have the key to curing other cancer as well.  If only we had elected Bill.  Breast cancer would have been cured in 2014.

Do you think the reason he hasn't gone ahead and cured it anyway is just sour grapes?   He could have cured breast cancer, but only as president.  That is not really playing fair, but I say if he can do it, let's give him the job.  If he fails we'll ruin him and make life miserable for him.

I so wish he were running.  Who is that third guy with the dems?  Is he just like a fake candidate so it doesn't look too rigged?

It was such a fun thing when they were having those 2008 debates and everyone making claims about jobs and things to blame on Bush.  Then Bill just comes out of left field smugly declaring, "I'll cure cancer in five years as president!".  Boom.  They ignored him, like he never said it.  It blew me away.

It's like they all knew they stood no chance against a cure for cancer.  So if they pretended they never heard it, maybe those listening would forget.  Most of them did.  But being a lover of women, I remembered. We missed our chance.

I have heard bits and pieces of republican debates too.   I haven't heard about a cancer cure though.  Getting Mexico to pay for stuff, that kind of thing.

To me Hillary is kind of an embarrassment.  Her day is done.  Really.   But there are those who look through the pandering, through the corruption, through every obvious self serving maneuver and pretend any light shed on the subject is biased, sexist, this-ist, that-ist.   Those are mostly the practitioners of politics of physical condition, ethnicity, other condition of birth or other non-philosophical attribute.   Reasoning is not to be found thriving in that crowd.

 Nothing as egregious about the big act put on by the others pretending to run for president.  Her platform is that she's a woman and she likes to instigate resentment riots.  Let's see if Flint gets out of hand or just plays victim.  This time they blame the governor.  In Katrina they blamed the president.

Both republicans.  I blame Michael Moore.  I know for a fact that he put all that lead in there.

Finally, One of Them Used the Number

So, playing music when you are young and smooth tends to attract self destructive women who want to know you better--or so they think.  At this point, I am no more young and smooth.  Now I attract other weirdos who want to play music.  If I liked to play, that would be good.  Sometimes I like music playing OK.

Well, my friend who used to be the house manager, making her my semi-boss, was in town for one day.  They had a little get together at the upscale house where she was staying.  She invited friends to come say hello.  There, she introduced me to the broad with the Irish name.  Very fit lass considering she may be near enough my age.

I gave her my cell number so she could contact me to "see where I am playing".  I did not hear anything for a day or two.  I figured I would not hear.  Then I received a text of inquiry from her.  That is new.  Maybe she is hoping to trick me into her lair.  One can only hope.

If I ever get rid of this nasty chest cold and cough, maybe I will feel suitable for making friends.  Even with the respiratory gunk I have somehow managed to play OK.  Odd how that works.

I have tried several forms of cold medicine from sudafed to robitussin.  I think mixing it up helps it work better.

Anyway, you never know how these things will go.

Only the T Shirt is Missing

Seriously, Sean?  What is it with you?  Every Latin American thug, thief, murderer and tyrant attracts you like crazy.  I think there is something going on here, you kinky kinko.

I do appreciate the fact that you did not wear your Che T shirt for this photo op with murdering drug lord, Guzman.

Friggin' Sean.  And he attempts to play the intellectual.  It is all acting to him I think.  The trouble with real life is the writers for his scripts involving his real dalliances with foreign governments and criminals are pretty lame, and possibly illiterate.

A party in the House of a Thousand Spirits

Every now and then I marvel at the places I find myself visiting, wondering, "How did I get here?".
This was one such occasion.

The connection to this event was the Day of the Dead in Old Town a couple of months ago.  There is a group that plays it every year.  They are aficionados of old Mexican and American music and the mix of the two.  They are not spectacular, but they are serious.

I'm not sure they are real.   I had this same odd vibe when I was a young child, maybe 9 years old, and we took a detour to an old town with ruins--Mayan?--near Guatemala City.  The town is called Antigua, I believe.  And it was a highly surreal and creepy place.  The undead.

So, I heard this party is an annual thing and was under the impression that is was like a big music party with people bringing food for the buffet and their own drinks.  The latter part was the biggest hit.

Those people just keep milling about ever so slowly swirling in a counter clockwise direction around the buffet table.  Perhaps they hadn't eaten due to some pagan fasting ritual.  All I know is they were some eatin' fools.

Earlier in my life I was often the youngest in a group, youngest in my job, not that old.  Most of the time I am not the youngest guy in the room or even in the youngest 2/3.  Tonight I was in the youngest eighth.

People brought instruments and there was a room, where you put them, as you would coats in some places. I thought no one would ever play.  Oh, did I say; we were there because Sande works for the historical society that handles a lot of that Old Town stuff. And she'd never been but wanted to go.

She and Karen and I ended up playing some of her stuff.  A guy jumped on piano and did a great job playing along. As did a violin and mandolin.  That was kind of nice the crowd still scared me.  As did the house itself.

It is an old house.  It holds more rooms than one might think upon approach from outside.  Once inside the dark wood trim and seven hundred native American dolls line to ceiling trim along the dark wood running along all the walls and doorways.  Lots of doorways and halls, it seems, and everywhere were people.  Old people who did little but stand or sit and eat.

There was a grumpy old guy who was very tall and miffed that Sande didn't play When the Saints Go Marching In.  He had some harmonicas and was up for it.  Later, in one of the many rooms a piccolo sort of flute thing and a couple of fiddles were playing Irish sounding stuff.  It was good.  The grumpy guy busted out into Yellow Rose of Texas, sort of, on his harmonica.  Couple of choruses and that was that.  Not much back up there.

I forget the name someone said applies to that sort of doll.  Someone else confided in me that many native American tribes find such collections offensive because the dolls have religious-spiritual significance and this trivializes it.  Or some such.

Along the lower half of the main hallway there is a dark wooden, oldish Spanish looking cabinet built into the wall.  It has one place where there is wooden door covering a shelf inset, about 2 feet wide and 1 high.  It threw itself onto the floor with a big bang.  No one was near it, but the strange owner of the house, who I believe is a gringo but likes to dress like a mariachi, insisted someone brushed against it as they walked by.

I know it was some ticked off spirits and gods from ticked off tribes.  That place has got some weird vibe going on.  At least most of the others seemed to know everyone or a lot of people.  There must have been fifty people or more.  And this house would have been tight for a family of four, despite all the little rooms and seemingly redundant hallways.

Seriously.  I was told there were 700 dolls.  They lady has collected them since age 5.  Probably hundreds of years ago.  It looked more like 7000.  They lined the entire house.  Everywhere.  And banjos and obscure folk string instruments, but the dozen.  Maybe it gives the Indian spirits something to do.  Feather, not dot.  What?  Is that racist or culturally insensitive.  I mean it in the best of ways.

My first thought, was of voodoo.  It just looked like some of them might be good for some ritual hoohah.

A fish in just a splash or two of water.  Mostly like out of it though.  But I did like the way some responded to my showboating.  I did, a little bit.  I was playing along and doing what I should most of the time, but a few times a ride fell to me and I had fun with it.  I like it totally acoustic like this, sometimes.  I think I appeased the spirits.  They thought the crowd was very strange, too.

It is a cool house but not even the bedroom was free of wall to wall voodoo American dolls and other things from long ago. I would feel like they were going to jump me from all sides.

Many of the people are or have been associated with the Whaley House--a reportedly haunted edifice in Old Town which also houses the historical outfit's office.  Some people go crazy there.  They start saying things like, "they don't want us in here right now".  That kind of thing. Referring to the ghosts.    The girl Whaley killed herself there. In the outhouse I think. Apparently the old man is the one opposed to changed and people coming and going.

So, what a mix--native American angry, insulted gods and spirits, and the crazy Whaley ghost victims.  Makes for an unusual party.  Had I not still been wiped out sick I probably could have stayed and made mischief--or friends--or both.

OK. Here you go.

I keep thinking about these mini dwellings that run on solar and wind.   Rather than prisons they should just corral thousands of those things, fit each with a shower and latrine--not group.  You got security and such and it costs much less. And you have a shot at letting a person earn some dignity.
I'm serious.  Many other factors would be in play to thwart evil doers, by design.  I believe in non lethal man traps much more than I believe in the "we know there is rape" system we have now.

Admittedly I have noticed many people--mostly women---who seemed to relish the threat of what jail implies in connection with actual culprits or imagined, hypothetical ones.  Too many people go to jail who do not deserve to go. And putting those that do need a time out in a rape and thug ruled environment, you don't break the pattern for the families and groups who know their way around the yard.

That can't be what I was really thinking.  Can it?

But, here's the deal.  If I could get one of those houses, I could figure out how to whittle my belongings down or maybe store a small amount somewhere.  Then I could pull that sucker in somewhere, hang awhile, then maybe move elsewhere.  Always hang at a camp ground for awhile.  Ideally it could be placed three months or so at a shot.  Not sure the bano--pretend that's the other Spanish n with the tilde--situation on that european unit I saw.  I think it was one of the Scandinavian countries where they made it.  Could even be Germany.

Still doesn't settle the bano--tilde n--question.   I could design something. And there are components on the market.    Now and then you go to one of those deals like at campgrounds where they can empty your waste tanks.

Another gig at Pine House Cafe in Mt Laguna, in February, with Valor and Lace band.  Right now there is snow up there and they require chains.  I may try to find some prior to the gig.  I've always wanted to.  It is not really far.  Maybe 35 or 40 minutes.  Cool place.  Pacific crest hikers are through there a lot, too.  Sande, too, will be booking.  I need to figure how to avoid conflict or anyone worrying about being shorted.  It is hard to explain how I need both of them at this time.

They are my lifelines, in a way.  One group provides one thing and the other, something else. I offer both groups a little different thing, but in both I am fattening the background more than running single note leads.  I feel freer and more intense, usually, with Sande's music.  But there is a feeling of helping Valor and Lace grow.  And it keep getting better.  The more I see of country and learn, the more respect I have for that world.  There are some killer performers and groups, and song writers floating around Nashville,  apparently, who are doing very well.

Lots of cool women like country.  I got hit on at the Pine House last time.  Never happens much any more.  Almost never.  I'm surprised it wasn't like this by twenty years ago, so I can't complain.  But I do, right?  Cracking up

I need to get my marketing hat on.  Chris/Valor and Lace is a good visual stage presence.  Good looking 30 year old guy and girl.  And he's got the Marine thing going which maybe helps his general presence.  Not sure.  But he has that kind of presence that you can't manufacture, teach, or whatever.  He just is, and it fits.  Emily is quite an impressive presence as well.  I'm also learning that she can be one of those fun people on stage too.  It has taken both a while to start loosening up and having fun with it.  That may be one reason Richard has worked so hard to bring me into the heart of this band.  He and I set an example.  Or try.  Got to have fun with it, and don't fight it.  Unless you just enjoy angry sounds, getting all wound up and playing is no good.

Got to get over this cold and learn the stuff for the big Country at the Grand event at the Horton Grand theater downtown.  Around the corner from hard rock. Playing it next week I think.  Alread a ton of gigs between now and end of February.

Almost a Shame

Only Almost.

Since I quit addressing matters of state so much, I drifted into matters of what ails my lifestyle, and general tone of psyche.  That is highly unfair to those who enjoy reading some of my stories.  They want to back hand me when I sound weak and uncertain; defeated.  Only some of them.

Maybe that is a wonderful thing.  Often it takes a balance of positive and negative stimulus to get a person to move.  And not give up. I prefer it heavily weighted in favor of those who read, yet do not verbally or emotionally back hand me.  (or physically, for that matter!)  Works best if the back hand readers are in the minority.

Now, if you have only two or three visitors, it makes it all harsher I think.

As far as public affairs and politics, Anything not in the progressive playbook has been so ridiculed, in somewhat erudite circles, that these seemingly bright people refuse to look at their own established order and its flaws, corruptions, abuses, and fits of waste and negligence.  The assumption always made is that if you don't like the status quo in this country, then you are what the media portrays as "the other side".   I don't even know for sure what the first side is trying to do.   The PR is based on ridicule as much as anything, and half truths fly like projectile vomit.

And the alleged opposition plays at opposing abuses, but then they get as far away from constitutional doctrine as the first group.

Republicans have had the House for awhile.  And enough power to do things if they are worth doing. But they do not want half of what they say.  The people on both sides are pandering to their own precinct's demographic.   Give the people what will keep you in a job.

For that reason, disagreeing with an elected official or the party of that official does not mean you are gung ho in support of the other body of panderers.  It is an insult.

Really, look at the old fashioned "stump speech" or bar b que in the park, with bands and carnival-like decorations, pep rally marching band music.  This is how people audition for the job of making laws; either protecting or eroding your rights.

Somehow I find the blatant con-man, back slapping bully mentality to be thuggish and plainly disrespectful.  But the news and the parties putting on the show continue with this nonsense.  They'll pretend seriousness with cookie cutter talking points which permeate the internet, but which are invariably very cleverly skewed.  Half truths.  But to talk people who can't critically assess the nuances of an argument out of blindly jumping on the bandwagon is a waste of time.

Just get the marching band to strike up a lively rendition of "Happy Days Are Here Again!" yippee.
That and a pack of smokes will buy you a vote or two.

I definitely do not want to join the culture that is developing of people absolutely cutting off friends who support someone they don't like.    I'm waiting for someone to be refused when they order a Trump cake of some kind.  Then people will point at what happened when bakeries refused to do a wedding cake for same sex couples.  It would be interesting,  but the divide and attitudes are not interesting.  They are ominous.

Seems like someone on facebook had a big post--apparently cut and pasted from a talking point site---saying that if you could support a guy like Trump, you were clearly no longer their friend.   That was the bottom line.  It went through a litany of Trump offenses, twisting facts where needed.  It worked itself into a fit of self righteousness before casting out the evil supporter of he whom you do not support.

People could think whatever they want and still be harmless if actual power of government had been severely limited over the years.  But that in itself appears to be a philosophy.  Unpopular one.  But it stands to reason that the more power it has, the more prone to abuses.

But that also goes for the unsupervised public as they develop resources and such.  Few have the integrity to do what is right rather than what provides some form of immediate gain; whether it be money, power, fame, etc.  What you end up with is a government fronting for the powerful, even as they pretend to put them in their place and all that.  Right and wrong, as far as should be enforced by government is not that complicated, in reality.

But we cleverly developed the habit of making laws so complicated that no one knows what they say or how to comply.  That brings in lawyers. Big surprise. What it does is cover how the corrupt collude to use government to lock themselves in in their industry, and lock many others out.

See?  Just explaining how I see things in the most general sense, while claiming I am now a-political, has become a lengthy, tedious process.

So, we can conclude that while other material here may be acutely down lifting, maybe it is not a shame that I haven't felt like discussing public affairs.