Eat, Drink And Love Jesus

2009-10-07T22:38:00.007-05:00

I was thinking about 14 years ago when the Eureka School Board stopped the high school english teacher from teaching Chaucer's the Miller's Tale to the english students. This was soon taken up by national news that Eureka banned Chaucer! They were so upset. How could the school board do this?!

The Miller's tale is a favorite of mine. And yet I could understand why parents would be upset about the content of the story. The entire story is sexual in nature. There are plenty of stories in Chaucer that aren't racy. Was the English teacher trying to be controversial?

What struck me was the hysteria by the liberal media. Eureka BANS Chaucer!!!!! The book wasn't banned. Any of the students could have gone to the Eureka library and read the Canterbury Tales anytime with ease. I would have loaned any student a copy. You would have thought it was a book burning.

Now anyone can read The Miller's Tale on the internet. I suggest you read this story. It is highly amusing. I want to make sure that all high school student are able to read the Miller's Tale. They don't need any school board's permission to read it. They didn't then either. Please use your rights and read this version of the Millers Tale.

Chaucer's the Millers Tale

St. Patty's

2009-03-18T19:18:00.002-05:00

I don't usually have much reason to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but since I play in an Irish group now, it was more than a day, it was a season. I played for the Pair-a-dice Saturday, at Kelleher's Sunday, and four time Tuesday from noon to midnight.

One of my highlights was on Tuesday at the Bloomington Country Club. Instead of performing on a stage, we were strolling minstrels, roving from table to table playing Irish song and tunes. Toward the end of our stint there, a table asked us to play "Danny Boy". Our lead singer, Matt, does not like that song and would not sing it. In fact, most of our group abhors the song.

Earlier in the day, at the pub, Maggie Miley's, a man wanted us to play it and handed out lyrics sheets so we could sing the song. I sang along with the fiddle.

At the country club, I told the table sorry, I couldn't sing it because I left the lyric sheet at the pub. Jeff, our banjo player, said he had brought the lyric sheet and ran to get it. At the pub in the afternoon, when I sang it wasn't so much of a solo, it was more singing along with the fiddle, and people were talking and ignoring me anyway, but when I sang Danny Boy at the country club, all eyes were fixed on me. I thought as long as I was singing Danny Boy I might as well shmaltz it up and be the Irish Tenor.

My voice didn't betray me and I was able to hit all the high notes. The people in the room seemed to really enjoy it.

Later Chris, our mandolin player, complained, "Why would anybody want to hear Danny Boy?! I just don't understand it."

Birds cause emergency landings, aborted takeoffs

2009-01-31T10:55:00.003-06:00

OMG, there are birds up there! They're interfering with takeoffs, and landings! What can we do about these problems. Don't these f***ing birds know we need our skyways clear for jets?

I have an idea. Let's legislate that birds have to schedule flight plans from now on. Or we can round up all birds and put them in caged bird sanctuaries. Or we can have bird leash laws where all birds in designated areas must be tethered.

The very idea that birds think they can fly wherever they desire, willy nilly, causing our jets to have emergency landings, and aborted takeoffs! We need an action committee on this one. We need Obama to look into this in his first 100 days!

Breakin' the Law of Unintended Consequences

2008-01-25T17:33:00.000-06:00

The Law of Unintended Consequences tells us that when you are trying to do good, you may have an equal and opposite effect. You can see this when we pass laws that says we can't import goods made with child labor. The intention is to get children out of sweatshops, but it also has the effect of putting a hardship on those often very poor families.

One time, boy was I ever on the wrong side of the law of unintended consequences. It happened back during the blizzard of 1979 and 80. Some of you are probably old enough to remember that. Well, a woman driver slid off the snow packed and icy road on old route 24 and a man with one of those huge 4 wheel drive trucks decided to pull her out with some chains that he had. Back in '79 chivalry hadn't died. Now the problem was, it was so foggy that you could barely see the nose on your face and the man stopped traffic in both directions in order to pull her out.

At that time, I was working for my DAD at the veterinary clinic between Washington and Eureka. At 11:30 I decided to go home to Eureka for lunch. On my way home I suddenly saw the traffic stopped ahead and I slammed on my brakes, barely making it to a stop a couple feet away from the truck ahead of me. I was immediately concerned that I was going to be struck from behind. I was driving a Ford Pinto, and I don't know if you remember, but they were known to explode like a bomb when struck from behind.

A man was walking around attempting to control the traffic. I yelled at him to get the traffic going because I barely got stopped in time, and I was afraid that the next car was going to slam into me. Just as I was talking to the man, a car came skidding behind me, and the man went running back waving his hands for the car to stop. The car slammed into me and to my relief, the Pinto didn't explode.

The man in the car that struck me later said that if the other man hadn't run back toward him, he could have veered away from me. It was either hit the man or hit me. So there were two examples of the Law of Unintended Consequences: 1) The man with the 4 wheel drive truck stopping traffic in a terrible fog, and 2) the man who ran back to stop the car from hitting me. In both examples they were trying to do good, but had an equal and opposite effect.

Boy free for BJ

2008-01-17T00:18:00.002-06:00

This is an update for a blog I wrote last summer. I'm a little behind, but Genarlow Wilson was released from prison Friday, Oct. 26, 2007, after spending more than two years behind bars for a teen sex conviction, or if you remember from my last post, oral sex or a BJ.

Genarlow was a top student and athlete, who was homecoming king, and was being looked at by ivy league schools, but he had the unfortunate problem of being black in Georgia where the law states it's 10 years behind bars for a BJ!

This story still sickens me. Two wasted years. A travesty.

Happy New Year

2008-01-04T15:30:00.000-06:00

I can't believe it's 1988. Inside joke. :-|

I haven't blogged forever! I've written many blogs on paper but haven't taken the time to publish them. Rats! And I hear that blogs are out this year. I doubt that.

It's officially the political season. I'm not sure if I want to stick my neck out and blog on politics. Oops, I already did. Oh well.

My new years resolution is to make more TDFs and Ginger Beer.

Yeah!

Oh, and Hot Cross Buns too.

Yeah!

I have had two or three hot cross buns a day now for a couple of months and haven't gained a pound. In fact, I am going to write a new book on how to lose weight eating TDFs, Hot Cross Buns, and drinking Ginger Beer.

Van Halen Tour

2007-08-07T10:46:00.000-05:00

There are only a handful of guitar players that were not only good but had a vision, sound, and style that made them copied by other guitar players. Of my generation that would be Santana, Hendrix, Page and Clapton. Of those, Clapton probably forged the guitar style for a good decade.

Eddie Van Halen, no matter what you think of his group, was a true guitar hero in every sense. He started a trend that influenced everyone that came after him. He had flair and he had the chops. He may have been the last Rock guitar legend. That is because the guitar solo has fallen out of favor and also all rock bands are trying so hard to be like everybody else.

To alot of us, there is only one Van Halen and that is with David Lee Roth. As far as I'm concerned, after their album 1984, Van Halen broke up.

Good news for people like me -- Van Halen is going to tour with David Lee Roth.

Eisley live in Chicago

2007-08-06T19:29:00.001-05:00

Tomorrow night I will be in Chicago to see Eisley. They have a new CD out with an interesting single, "Invasion." The song is about "Invasion of the body snatchers" but was inspired by the book, not one of the movies.

There will be a new Snatchers movie called "The Invasion" starring that girl from down under, Nicole Kidman. It will be released August 17. Eisley, I hear, was in talks to have their song as part of the movie sound track but it fell through. Bummer for them.

Trouble in Daytona (part 4)

2007-08-05T12:26:00.000-05:00

Now if you remember, we used our last $40 to get to Nashville. We were penniless and our fuel gauge was on empty. The club had closed up and all the staff and management had gone home. Our bass player had gone home with his wife. He yelled out the window as they drove away, "good luck, suckers!" We had no cell phones or credit cards to help bail us out.

We were standing next to the truck under a single light behind the club wondering what we should do, when two women walked up to us. We didn't know them and they weren't at the show. They asked us what we were doing and we told them our dire situation. Without missing a beat, they asked us how much money we would need to get home. Gas was inexpensive at the time and we told them $40 would be adequate to get us home. They very freely gave us the money with smiles on their faces.

If there were ever two angels on this earth it would be those two women. Who know, maybe they were angels -- I would believe it if I was told that they were.

Trouble in Daytona (part 3)

2007-08-05T12:17:00.000-05:00

Our gig in Nashville was at Music Row Showcase, which our manager had been building up to us for the duration of the tour. Many stars had been discovered at Music Row Showcase -- that is where you showcased your wears to "music business insiders." We were an unknown commodity in Nashville, therefore no "insiders" showed up.

Our bass player's wife drove down to see the show. As I said, we were unknown in Nashville and we were playing for the door, which is not cool if you are unknown. "The door" means that you only get paid for those paying customers who come in -- there was no guarantee money.

There were six people who came to see the show -- they paid, we played. The way the money was divided up was that the Club got the first $150 and we got the rest. The Club did not make $150 which means we played for $0.

Trouble in Daytona (part 2)

2007-08-05T12:07:00.000-05:00

We had our manager with us, a light company, and a sound engineer. They were all on our payroll. Most of us didn't bring enough money to eat adequately, drink adequately, and party adequately. Our guitar player brought $200 and was robbed his first night in Daytona Beach. Some band members only took $50-60 with them because they thought meals were provided. We stayed at a (in)famous Daytona destination for Spring Break party goers -- The Safari Beach Motel.

As we were entering Florida, we had a flat tire situation which reduced the balance of the band expense money. The member's personal money soon ran out leaving them no other option but to draw out money from the band "nest egg" against future earnings. The members were then able to continue to eat, drink, and party while sucking all the band expense money dry.

By the time we left Daytona Beach 15 days later, we had $40 remaining to buy fuel to get us to the gig in Nashville.

Kool Ray and the Polaroidz -- Trouble in Daytona (part 1 of 4)

2007-08-05T11:44:00.000-05:00

In 1985 my group Kool Ray and the Polaroidz had a short tour through Georgia, 15 days in Daytona Beach, and then ending in Nashville for one night at Music Row Showcase. We received a large sum of our money ahead of time, and divided up a portion of it for band members to leave with their families, and then used the remainder for expenses on the tour. Everyone brought some money for personal expenses.

That's the set up.

Eagles New Album

2007-08-04T21:41:00.000-05:00

The last time the Eagles had an album out, they were CALLED albums and not CDs. Now, they're finishing up a new album, "The Long Road To Eden", nearly 30 years later. Their last studio album, The Long Run, was released in 1979 and was a huge hit. The Long Run, In The City, There's Gonna Be A Heartache Tonight, and I Can't Tell You Why were hits off the album.

The Eagles are able to play an entire evening's worth of hit songs, and one wonders why they need to release a new studio album now that will no doubt meet with a collective yawn. When they tour to promote their new CD, audiences will continue to demand the evening full of hits and not new material.

Judging from "A Hole In The World", a song that they released in response to the 9/11 attack, the new album is not going to have the edge or creativity that their earlier music had. There are acts that continue to put out good music even though they are old. James Taylor and Paul McCartney come to mind. Those two have never stopped writing music, though, and have put out new CDs throughout the 80s and 90s.

Joe Walsh said to Billboard Magazine, "[the music] is hard to compare to anything that I hear out there now." Really? What do you think Joe is listening to? It's probably not like anything out there right now -- but I have to ask, is that a good thing? Maybe they can take it to country music radio and TV, home of old rockers. We'll see if anybody cares.

I've Got Two Eyes

2007-07-30T22:42:00.000-05:00

I have long been against organ donation even though I know it saves lives. First, you have to be alive for the organs to be any good. A doctor makes the determination that you can't be saved and starts harvesting -- eyes, heart, lungs, kidneys, skin, all of you (kind of like whole hog sausage) -- while you are still alive. No thanks. Plus, doctors are using your organs to make money.

I'm sure it is not the first time this has happened:

A San Francisco transplant surgeon was criminally charged Monday with excessively prescribing drugs to a 25-year-old disabled man last year to hasten his death and harvest his organs more quickly.

Baby You Can Drive My Car

2007-07-29T02:22:00.000-05:00

An article here about babies being left in cars in their car seats under the hot summer sun. It shows that responsible and even doting parents accidentally leave their kids in their cars to die. I knew that people left their pets in cars with the windows rolled up in the summer, but babies?

A couple of years ago a child care center, near Eureka, took children out for some purpose, I can't remember, but anyway, they had the kids in a van. When they returned to the center, all the kids went into the building except for the baby who was in a car seat. An hour later, when they realized they had no baby, they went to the van to find a dead infant. Everyone thought that someone else had brought the baby inside.

I remember a man who put a baby in a car seat on the roof of his car, forgot about it, and drove all over with a baby on top of his car. Fortunately, that story ended with nothing deadly happening to the child.

Drat

2007-07-28T16:50:00.000-05:00

Car alarm again today. This summer I have heard car alarms 200% more than the past 30 years I have lived in my house. I think someone from a city must be visiting there "country mouse" relatives. I will post further as I discover more.

Maggie Mae

2007-07-28T09:32:00.000-05:00

Maggie, our beagle, has been sick since last Monday. At first it just seemed like she had the flu so we weren't too concerned, but watched her for progress. By Thursday she was still sick, and far from recouping, she was worse. I called the Vet. Fortunately, they had an opening that afternoon.

The doctor looked Maggie over. Does she have a cough? No. Just vomiting and diarrhea. How long has she been sick? It started Monday, but we just thought she had the flu. We'll take blood and run a profile, CBC, and also check for heartworm.

Maggie went to the back to get her blood drawn. 45 minutes went by. The doctor finally walked out to the waiting room and said to come back to the office so we could talk. I thought, hmm, maybe heartworm, or something that's going to be expensive. To our shock the Dr. said that Maggie's kidneys have stopped working and that she is going to die. She said that most people at this point have their dog euthanized to spare the dog and the owner any suffering. We decided that it would be better for Maggie to die at home and give her lots of love in the mean time. We try to keep her as comfortable as possible and pet her a lot.

Maggie is not well but she seems to really like all the extra attention that she gets.

Oh, Bother

2007-07-25T11:06:00.000-05:00

One of the great advantages of living in a small town is the absence of car alarms. When I first met my wife, Susan, I spent time at her apartment in Chicago. One of the things that drove me to distraction was car alarms going off in the middle of night, every night. I don't like a lot of noise pollution. It's a rare occurrence for there to be any noise over here on the edge of town at night.

So imagine my dismay when I heard the first car alarm go off the other night around midnight. It was one of those that has all the sounds in a row, first, a siren, then an alien space craft, then a fire truck, etc.

I hope this is not the beginning of a trend. I doubt it -- for now at least.

More Boys In Jail

2007-07-24T08:52:00.000-05:00

What the hell is going on that the world is coming to this?

A couple of boys ran down their school hallway after lunch and swatted some girls on the butt. This happened in Patton Middle School, which is just south of Portland Oregon. They were grabbed by the hall monitor and taken to the Principal's office, which seems fair though, to me, a little excessive. But the boys were not just talked to or given a detention, they were led out of school in handcuffs and were in juvenile detention for 5 days.

The boys, both 13, are charged with criminal sex abuse which could put them in jail for 10 years and put on the sex offender's registry. I saw one of the boys on the Today Show this morning, and he looks like he is barely going through puberty and is a complete geek.

This kind of horseplay between the sexes by teenagers was common when I was younger and I would guess it is still common now. It is the shrill politically correct climate and an over-zealous police officer and district attorney that turned this kind of teen play into a crime.

The record shows that both boys and girls were slapping each other's butts. The District Attorney, Bradley Berry, sounds like a complete nut case. He has already prosecuted two other boys for the same charge of felony sex abuse for swatting a female on the butt.

The District attorney should taken out of office now for abuse of his position. He is obviously making pubescent boys targets of his radical agenda.

Jail Time for 17 Year Old

2007-07-20T10:40:00.000-05:00

A 17 year old boy was jailed for having consensual oral sex with a 15 year old girl. The jail sentence was 10 years without parole. The ironic part is that the Georgia law states that only a misdemeanor sentence is given for sex when the partners are three years or closer in age, but oral sex is a mandated 10 years without parole. The boy has already served two years.

The really screwed up part is that the boy was a top student and athlete, who was homecoming king, and was being looked at by ivy league schools. His only downside? He's black. I can't believe that if he was white he'd be in jail right now. It's not that white people don't go to jail, they do. But do white athlete homecoming kings go to jail for a BJ? I don't think so.

I understand this is Georgia, but still, somebody has to stand up for this boy and quickly. This sentence is a travesty. To ruin a persons life for consensual teenage sex is beyond the pale.

She's Got Clouds In Her Coffee

2007-07-09T15:31:00.000-05:00

You know, I don't want to come down on Jamie Lee Curtis, but the blog she wrote for the Huffington post this morning is just too much.

Here is an excerpt:

"I ventured forth to be a very old groupie for my sweet husband and his mates playing Wembley on behalf of the planet at Live Earth with Metallica and Madonna."

She flew to England to go to the Live Earth concert at Wembley. Isn't it nice that she flew to England to be with her husband, Christopher Guest, who was playing in Spinal Tap at Wembley?

It's kind of like telling everyone she ordered an Ivory Tusk for her husband's birthday so she could help save African elephants. Or maybe she went jet skiing on Lake Michigan to help save the Great Lakes. She is just so clueless.

The whole point of her blog was to say she was paranoid about being involved in a terrorist incident, so her mind was thinking like a terrorist's mind. Ho, hum.

It reminds of the Carly Simon song, "You're so vain."

Well, I hear you went up to Saratoga
And your horse naturally won
Then you flew your Lear jet up to Nova Scotia
To see the total eclipse of the sun.

7/7/07

2007-07-07T22:48:00.001-05:00

I stayed up with Live Earth throughout the day. When Melissa Etheridge was on, everyone in the house started to complain and shout, "Turn it off, it burns!" She gave the kind of performance that gives the whole project a bad name. It's like, no wonder everyone hates liberals.

Alicia Keys was awesome. Her voice was just a little raw at some points, but other than that, she was inspired. Dave Matthews gave a groovy, funky performance. I was impressed by his drummer. Madonna sounded great, and her dancers were funny and fun to watch -- it was the 80s all over again. Foo Fighters were not good but the energy level was so high, no one seemed to notice how bad they were. Bon Jovi was loved more than any other entertainer in NY. They gave a good if uninspired performance. Smashing Pumpkins had more bad attitude than anyone else. They played their music like it mattered. They had the nerve to promote their upcoming CD, then Billy said, "and don't steal it off the internet like you did all our other songs. Just kidding." What did that mean? He looked bad hawking his CD during Live Earth and then he disses the audience? -- probably the largest audience he's had in 10 years.

One thing struck me. The New York audience was far more subdued than the Wembley audience. The Wembley audience was really into both the Foo Fighters and Madonna -- they jumped up and down, they raised their arms, they danced. The NY audience just stood there. I think they liked the entertainment, they just didn't demonstrate it.

Avril Lavigne Steals Song?

2007-07-06T21:22:00.000-05:00

An early 80s band has accused Lavigne of stealing their song "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend." You can hear it here.

I think they may have a point; however, I would probably give the nod to Lavigne because so few of the elements are the same and she makes the song her own. Pop music steals so much from itself, and always has. I think it has to be an open and shut case to be valid. To me, this is not open and shut. You be the judge.

---------------------------------------
later
After a few more listenings I amend my opinion on "Girlfriend." The main chorus material is the same, "Hey, hey, you, you," and then one follows with the word "boyfriend" and the other follows with "girlfriend." Musically, the "Hey, hey, you, you" is sung on one note and on the fifth of the chord.
The remainder of the two songs are different. I would submit, however, that the elements of the two songs that are the same, i.e. "Hey, hey, you, you," and "boyfriend," "girlfriend," are what make them identifiable and in the end, popular. So after more consideration, Lavigne did steal the song, or at least the "money" part of the song.

Gore busted for drugs

2007-07-05T09:34:00.000-05:00

Continuing the Gore theme, Al Gore III, son of Vice President Albert Gore, was arrest on suspicion of drugs. More here.

SOS Live Earth

2007-07-05T08:20:00.000-05:00

If you don't know it yet, Al Gore and his cohort Kevin Wall have a seven continent music event coming up on 7/7/07 called Live Earth SOS (Save Our Selves). The line up of musicians are the ones that you would expect -- Madonna, Metallica, Pussycat Dolls, Ludacris, Kelly Clarkson -- musicians who are willing to play music in order to save the planet.

We have seen the efforts and results of these type of awareness concerts with "Live Aid" and "Farm Aid." Those concerts were effective in bringing people together to watch music and feel as if they were doing something, and what more can we expect?

Seriously, the terms "environmental crises", "global warming", and "save the planet" were not made up in the past year. We have been using them for 40 years. Remember earth day?

John McConnell first introduced the idea of a global holiday called "Earth Day" at a UNESCO 1969, the same year that he designed the Earth flag. The first Earth Day proclamation was issued by San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto on March 21, 1970. UN Secretary-General U Thant supported McConnell's global initiative to celebrate this annual event, and on February 26, 1971, he signed a proclamation to that effect, saying:

May there only be peaceful and cheerful Earth Days to come for our beautiful Spaceship Earth as it continues to spin and circle in frigid space with its warm and fragile cargo of animate life.

Secretary General Waldheim observed Earth Day with similar ceremonies in 1972, and the United Nations Earth Day ceremony has continued each year since on the day of the March equinox. At the moment of the equinox, it is traditional to observe the day by ringing the Japanese Peace Bell, a bell donated by Japan to the United Nations. The United Nations also works with organizers of the April 22nd global event.

Many of the 60s generation, which Al Gore is apart of, have been trying to bring environmental awareness to the general public for 40 years. It has gone nowhere. And do we think that Metallica is going to inspire world leaders to do something seriously about global warming by pumping their fist in the air and yelling "Save the Environment?" On top of that, no one in the Gore camp has addressed population growth which I have written about in an earlier blog.

Over population goes hand in hand with carbon emmissions.

Security Heightened

2007-07-04T10:32:00.001-05:00

In an attempt to tighten security throughout the country, the US government has set up road blocks on all roads leading to Eureka Lake for tonight's fireworks. With up to a quarter of the Eureka population in one place, a terrorist could make a spectacular show with maximum carnage.

Mayor Scott Punke will spend the day in a bunker below City Hall.

quote of the day

2007-07-03T22:12:00.000-05:00

This is truly scary. Not for the faint of heart.

How can men find her sexy or attractive? Yipes!

Wilco

2007-07-03T20:21:00.000-05:00

MySpace, the great satan, is good for finding music that would be impossible to hear otherwise. One of my favorite finds is Wilco, a band from Chicago that I should have known about, but didn't. They have a new album, "Sky Blue Sky." They also have a downloadable song, "What Light," on their MySpace page.

Wilco's singer, Jeff Tweedy, has an understated delivery, steering clear of melodrama, that allows the listener to focus on the lyrics. His voice is powerful and rich. The band is not flashy, providing the right music for the songs. The production is simple but still interesting.

The other song on Wilco's MySpace page is "The Thanks I get," a low key rocker. This is one of my personal favorites.

It looks like they will be back in the US from their European tour in August. As yet they don't have any midwest dates. I'll update later.

The Real Inconvenient Truth

2007-07-03T14:33:00.000-05:00

This is republished from last week

Today, global warming, carbon emissions, and saving the environment are buzz words that play well in the media and dominate our limited attention span, but 38 years ago when I was still in high school, part of the equation in saving the environment included doing something about the exploding population growth. If there weren't so damn many people, the environment wouldn't be in imminent danger. And there really isn't very much we can do about it.

World governments can't halt global warming without capping population growth. But because the U.S. is a capitalist society, there is no such thing as over-population. We need growth in our population to fuel our economy. And today we live longer and enjoy low infant mortality rates.

Let's look at the history of world human population. In the time of Jesus, there were approximately 150 million people world wide, roughly the number of people in the US when I was born (1952). In the year 1776, the year the US gained its independence, there were about 800 million people in the world. That is a population growth of about 366,000 people per year since 1 A.D. By 1850, the world population had reached one billion. It took from the beginning of human existence until 1850 for the world population to reach one billion. It took until World War II to reach two billion. Today there are 6.5 billion people in the world. The world is adding approximately one billion people every 10 years. Some planners see the growth leveling off in the next 50 years at nine billion. Others see the world population growing exponentially as it has over the past 50 years.

It is difficult to comprehend the vast difference between one million and one billion. It would take you almost twelve days to count to one MILLION if you counted one number per second. To count to one BILLION, it would take you a little under 32 years.

No matter how many liberal do-gooders there are, such as Sheryl Crow and Melissa Etheridge, the environment is not going to be saved without controlling population growth, and that is never going to happen. Crow, who has given considerable thought to global warming, has suggested that people be limited to one sheet of toilet paper per "sitting", and Etheridge has provided music for "Inconvenient Truth" to save the environment. If we all live our lives as they do, we may not save the planet, but damn it, we'll feel good.

Just as it has been futile to try and legislate world environmental laws, it will be politically impossible to control population growth. As shown earlier, capitalist societies rely on population growth. And in third world countries where population growth is expanding the most rapidly, children are a family's wealth. For us to try and limit populations in those countries could be seen as tantamount to racism.

Conservatives don't think there is an environmental problem, and liberals think that changing all the incandescent light bulbs to florescent bulbs will save the planet, but neither is correct. The conservatives won't stand for anything impeding their accumulation of wealth, and progressives think that politics and technology is the answer. The answer lies in controlling the world population, and the light hasn't shown on that subject for over 30 years.

Incident at the Second Chance

2007-07-02T17:26:00.000-05:00

I was reminded of an occurrence that took place in 1981 when I was in the Idols, a four piece band. The group had been together a couple years and had a name in central Illinois and beyond. One of the members quit and I joined. Our first gig together was opening for the Romantics in Peoria at a showcase club called the Second Chance. I include a picture of the Romantics from '84 so this is pretty much what they looked like. As you can see they had big hair.

The romantics were very loud and the drummer hit the drums about as hard as I have ever seen. They had the hit "What I Like About You" and in 1983 "Talking In Your Sleep."

Anyway the Idols did pretty well and then after we played I stood in front of the stage and watched the Romantics. During one of the sets I saw a spider floating down from the ceiling on a thread. The ceiling was very high so the thread was very long. The spider floated down and down until it landed in the hair of the Romantic's bassist. So there was this spider thread going all the way from the ceiling to his hair and he had no idea. He was singing and acting so cool and yet he not only had a spider in that big hair of his, he still had the thread going all the way up to the ceiling. I looked around and nobody was pointing and laughing or anything.

Sunday news

2007-07-01T23:27:00.000-05:00

Today I did a little singing in church. I set up a mic for myself because there weren't any male voices, and I thought I may sing very quietly to add support. Well, it came to the end of a song and I realized that the other singers didn't know what to do, so I sang the ending. That's when all hell broke loose because the sound engineer had the mic turned up all the way and my voice was louder than the piano, guitar and voices combined. Everyone in the congregation looked startled. Then they all smiled when they realized that the world wasn't coming to an end, it was just me singing.

The words I sang were perfect--"nothing compares to the promise I have in You."

The Real Inconvenient Truth

2007-06-30T14:21:00.000-05:00

Today, global warming, carbon emissions, and saving the environment are buzz words that play well in the media and dominate our limited attention span, but 38 years ago when I was still in high school, part of the equation in saving the environment included doing something about the exploding population growth. If there weren't so damn many people, the environment wouldn't be in imminent danger. And there really isn't very much we can do about it.

World governments can't halt global warming without capping population growth. But because the U.S. is a capitalist society, there is no such thing as over-population. We need growth in our population to fuel our economy. And today we live longer and enjoy low infant mortality rates.

Let's take a moment to look at the history of world human population. In the time of Jesus, there were approximately 150 million people world wide, roughly the number of people in the US when I was born (1952). In the year 1776, the year the US gained its independence, there were about 800 million people in the world. That is a population growth of about 366,000 people per year since 1 A.D. By 1850, the world population had reached one billion. It took from the beginning of human existence until 1850 for the world population to reach one billion. It took until World War II to reach two billion. Today there are 6.5 billion people in the world. The world is adding approximately one billion people every 10 years. Some planners see the growth leveling off in the next 50 years at nine billion. Others see the world population growing exponentially as it has over the past 50 years.

It is difficult to comprehend the vast difference between one million and one billion. It would take you almost twelve days to count to one MILLION if you counted one number per second. To count to one BILLION, it would take you a little under 32 years.

No matter how many liberal do-gooders there are, such as Sheryl Crow and Melissa Etheridge, the environment is not going to be saved without controlling population growth, and that is never going to happen. Crow, who has given considerable thought to global warming, has suggested that people be limited to one sheet of toilet paper per "sitting", and Etheridge has provided music for "Inconvenient Truth" to save the environment. If we all live our lives as they do, we may not save the planet, but damn it, we'll feel good.

Just as it has been futile to try and legislate world environmental laws, it will be politically impossible to control population growth. As shown earlier, capitalist societies rely on population growth. And in third world countries where population growth is expanding the most rapidly, children are a family's wealth. For us to try and limit populations in those countries could be seen as tantamount to racism.

Conservatives don't think there is an environmental problem, and liberals think that changing all the incandescent light bulbs to florescent bulbs will save the planet, but neither is correct. The conservatives won't stand for anything impeding their accumulation of wealth, and progressives think that politics and technology is the answer. The answer lies in controlling the world population, and the light hasn't shown on that subject for over 30 years.

Attacks on Al Gore

2007-06-29T12:30:00.000-05:00

Al Gore repeatedly denies having ambitions for the White House and yet the personal attacks by the MSM that were rampant in 2000 continue today. Forget that Bush has trashed our constitution and our reputation abroad, Al Gore appears wooden and can't dance. Which is more important? Eric Alterman has a great piece about it here.

One thing I know

2007-06-27T09:30:00.000-05:00

The old adage that a corn stalk will be "knee high by he fourth of July" is simply not true, at least not in my lifetime. It is June 27 and the corn is already over my head in some fields, and I'm 6'2".

They said what? Whoops.

2007-06-26T08:51:00.000-05:00

Fifty High school students in the Presidential Scholar Program came to the white house with a lofty idea, to use that moment to tell Bush that the brightest and the best in the U.S. want him to stop his torture program. You can read the story here. Here is some of what it said:
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The handwritten letter said the students "believe we have a responsibility to voice our convictions."

"We do not want America to represent torture. We urge you to do all in your power to stop violations of the human rights of detainees, to cease illegal renditions, and to apply the Geneva Convention to all detainees, including those designated enemy combatants," the letter said.

The designation as a Presidential Scholar is one of the nation's highest honors for graduating high school students. Each year the program selects one male and one female student from each state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Americans living abroad, 15 at-large students, and up to 20 students in the arts on the basis of outstanding scholarship, service, leadership and creativity.
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Something about the words Scholarship and Bush used in the same sentence makes my head hurt.

Same Sex Marriage

2007-06-26T08:17:00.000-05:00

A few years ago, Mitt Romney sent a letter to Senators urging them to vote for a constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriage. And as part of that letter he told the story of a teacher who read the story "King And King" to his second grade class. "King and King" is a fairy tail about a prince whose mother is trying to find a princess for him to marry, but no princess seems to be good enough. The prince then falls in love with another prince, they get married, and on the last page the two princes are shown kissing.

I know Romney was gay baiting by trying to show that if gays can marry the next thing you know, the gays will be going after your second graders. Typical.

I personally don't care if gays get married and do not think there should be an amendment to our constitution to ban same sex marriage. That leaves the question, do I want a teacher reading "King and King" to my second grader (if I had one)? My gut feeling is that I don't. I don't want a book read to my second grader that has a gay political agenda. I wouldn't mind if my Freshmen in high school read it and then discussed the political implications with the class.

I found that my children have a different idea. They say they wouldn't mind if "King and King" were read to their second graders. None of them have children of school age, so that may influence their ideas. Most of my friends have the same opinion on gay marriage as I do, but I haven't asked them whether they would be open to their young children having "King and King" read to them.

The question for myself is, can I be for same sex marriage, and against the reading of the fairy tail "King and King" to young children?

Cheney Vice Presidency

2007-06-25T10:41:00.000-05:00

The Washington Post is running a four part series on Cheney and how through political maneuvering and strong arming, he has wielded control over Bush's presidency. Part two is running today.

There is also a great slide show with narration on Cheney here.

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add:
Here is the first installment.

My Horse

2007-06-22T17:39:00.000-05:00

I want to recommend some summer reading -- Stacey Levine's "My Horse and other stories", a book of short stories.

The stories in "My Horse" are surreal, bizarre, funny, grotesque and even quizzical, but never typical or average. Her language is narrow and stylish. And just like reading Shakespeare, you are drawn in (or possibly put off) by the language and ultimately begin thinking in the language.

Here is an example from the story "Cakes."

"Wanting to be full, very full, because I was not full, I wanted to make a kind of plan, an arrangement. I might have known what that arrangement would be; I might have known all along; I already knew; I had only to extract it; a plan is mere logic; I went out, walking; the city, constructed around me, moved as I moved; I walked inside a building; I spoke to some people, and soon I had a job."

I remember when I first read "Horse" in 1994, the closest thing I could relate it to was "Erasurehead" by David Lynch. Levine said that she loves Lynch's early films so I guess associating the two isn't that far off.

"My Horse. . . " has been out for about 15 years but it will seem new.

Intellectual Dishonesty

2007-06-22T15:17:00.000-05:00

Why do the lefty bloggers concoct something out of nothing?

__________________________________________________________________

This is from the Daily Kos and has been parroted other places:

"It's so classy, how Bush tells the black musicians to clean up after the politicians."

TRANSCRIPT
I want to thank our Chef, Paul Prudhomme, from New Orleans, Louisiana -- one of the great chefs in America. Thanks for coming, Paul. (Applause.) I thank Tony Snow and his bunch of, well, mediocre musicians -- (laughter) -- no, great musicians. Beats Workin, thanks for coming. (Applause.) Kermit, come up here. Kermit, we're proud to have you.

MR. RUFFINS: Well, thanks for having us.

THE PRESIDENT: Kermit Ruffins and the Barbeque Swingers, right out of New Orleans, Louisiana. (Applause.)

MR. RUFFINS: Thank you. Thanks for having us. We're glad to be here.

THE PRESIDENT: Proud you're here. Thanks for coming. You all enjoy yourself. Make sure you pick up all the trash after it's over. (Laughter.)

______________________________________________________________

It's plain to see, if you watch the video as opposed to reading the transcript, that Bush is telling the audience to clean up after themselves, not for the musicians to pick up the trash.

This kind of intellectual dishonesty will only make later statements unbelievable. The truth will come out.

Clinton's Theme Song

2007-06-22T13:10:00.000-05:00

No matter what I think about Hillary, no matter what I think about her Soprano's spoof, the theme song she chose is tired and forgettable -- Celine Dion's "You and I." Listen for yourself.

Samantha Henig gives a kind of history of the theme song on slate. The only problem I saw with her article was:

In the last few decades, though, with TV commercials the preferred platform for getting out a candidate's message, the campaign song has been transformed into mere entrance music. Even the most attentive voters could have missed the fact that George H.W. Bush chose the folk song "This Land Is Your Land" or that Bill Clinton used Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop."

I don't think anyone who voted for Clinton will forget Fleetwood Mac's exhilarating "Don't Stop." Unfortunately, Hillary chose a song that will make many people cringe. And now that her campaign has made such an extraordinarily big deal about the song, there is no way to ditch it. yuck.

Cheney Pisses Waxman

2007-06-22T12:39:00.000-05:00

Vice President Dick Cheney argues that the office of Vice President is not part of the Executive Branch of government, and therefore does not have to adhere to the requirements for safeguarding National security information with the National Archives. Read more here.

Blog Name

2007-06-21T17:29:00.000-05:00

The blog name that I wanted, "The Nuclear Option," was taken. The person who is using that name hasn't published one blog, so I was kind of annoyed. I had to think of something equally notable.

I recently had the chance to use "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die," in a sentence. That reminded of one of my favorite quotes from the new testament when Jesus said, "And I feast and drink, and you say, 'He's a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of the worst sort of sinners!'"

Hey, it's okay. Even Jesus was judged poorly in his day. Live a little, enjoy yourself, just remember to help others along the way.

One Thing I Know

2007-06-21T14:10:00.000-05:00

When a person uses a slogan such as think "outside of the box," they are not thinking "outside of the box."