Monday, June 23, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
Mini Them
I just discovered Three Stooges Minisodes on YouTube. They are condensed versions of Three Stooges short films, which were just that, short. And now they're shorter. I really see no need to ever leave the house again. All Three Stooges, all the time. (And why is it that three middle aged men beating the crap out of each other is funny? I don't know. It just is.)
If They Only Had a Heart
Congress has redone the wiretapping laws after many months of discussion. For the most part, it's not that bad a deal in terms of civil liberties and the invasion of the privacy of Americans. There are more safeguards in the law than some conservative lawmakers would have preferred, which is a good thing. The one mystifying bit of this deal is the immunity for telecommunications companies, making invulnerable to lawsuits from American citizens who think their rights may have been violated.
According to this deal there will be a judicial oversight to determine if the phone companies received a legitimate request from government for a wiretap. And that's where the problem with immunity comes. Just because the government makes a request, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea, but more importantly, a governmental request isn't necessarily legal. It's the duty of every American citizen to decide if what the government is asking them to do is proper and legal. When immunity is granted in situations like this, it's like telling these companies it's alright to forgo their responsibilities as Americans, which the telecommunication companies appear to be all too willing to do.
The mystifying part comes in as to why the Democrats caved in on this matter. The Democrats have been talking a tough game about stemming the tide of George Bush's imperial presidency (and the precedent Bush has set for future administrations), but the Democrats, in control of Congress, have not acted tough. Quite frankly, they have acted timidly, or simply have not acted at all, as if they are still an out of power party cowering in the corners, fearful of even the shadows of Bush and Cheney.
According to this deal there will be a judicial oversight to determine if the phone companies received a legitimate request from government for a wiretap. And that's where the problem with immunity comes. Just because the government makes a request, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea, but more importantly, a governmental request isn't necessarily legal. It's the duty of every American citizen to decide if what the government is asking them to do is proper and legal. When immunity is granted in situations like this, it's like telling these companies it's alright to forgo their responsibilities as Americans, which the telecommunication companies appear to be all too willing to do.
The mystifying part comes in as to why the Democrats caved in on this matter. The Democrats have been talking a tough game about stemming the tide of George Bush's imperial presidency (and the precedent Bush has set for future administrations), but the Democrats, in control of Congress, have not acted tough. Quite frankly, they have acted timidly, or simply have not acted at all, as if they are still an out of power party cowering in the corners, fearful of even the shadows of Bush and Cheney.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Cancer and what you can do about it
I hate cancer.
I hate the word cancer. I hate what it is.
I hate the fact that there probably isn't a family in the United States that hasn't been touched by cancer in one way or another.
Cancer is a thief. Cancer is a robber. Cancer is a destroyer. Cancer is a killer. Cancer is a stealer.
Cancer steals your loved ones and someday may steal you.
Cancer has left a scar on my face, but that's nothing.
Cancer took my mother at age 56. She should have been able to grow old and grey and watch her son lose his hair.
But cancer stole her.
There are people on this earth, though, who are trying to kill the killer. Some of those people are scientists funded by the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.
On November 9, 2008 this foundation will be hosting Go Vertical Chicago, a stair climb at Sears Tower, as a way of raising money and awareness in the fight against cancer.
I will be doing this stair climb, all 186 pounds of me. Yes, I will be hauling my fat butt up 103 flights of stairs. That's 2,109 steps. That's a lot of steps. It may take me awhile. I may still be climbing by this time next year.
But it will be worth it because I intend to raise some money in the effort to kill the killer. And to raise money, I need the help of anyone who may read this blog on occasion, if you can spare it. I know these are tough times, but if you can part with even a few dollars, I would appreciate it greatly.
If you can and you want to donate with a credit card, or you just want to see some more information, you can visit my personal Go Vertical web page just by clicking right here. When you get there you can read more info about the climb and the foundation and click on Go Donate to donate by credit card.
If you just wish to pledge now and pay later by cash or check or credit card, or if you prefer to send cash or a check directly to me, contact me at my personal e-mail, which can be found in my profile at the upper right hand corner of this page in the "About Me" section. It doesn't matter how much you give, even if it's only a dollar, it will help. And it will be appreciated.
I hate the word cancer. I hate what it is.
I hate the fact that there probably isn't a family in the United States that hasn't been touched by cancer in one way or another.
Cancer is a thief. Cancer is a robber. Cancer is a destroyer. Cancer is a killer. Cancer is a stealer.
Cancer steals your loved ones and someday may steal you.
Cancer has left a scar on my face, but that's nothing.
Cancer took my mother at age 56. She should have been able to grow old and grey and watch her son lose his hair.
But cancer stole her.
There are people on this earth, though, who are trying to kill the killer. Some of those people are scientists funded by the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.
On November 9, 2008 this foundation will be hosting Go Vertical Chicago, a stair climb at Sears Tower, as a way of raising money and awareness in the fight against cancer.
I will be doing this stair climb, all 186 pounds of me. Yes, I will be hauling my fat butt up 103 flights of stairs. That's 2,109 steps. That's a lot of steps. It may take me awhile. I may still be climbing by this time next year.
But it will be worth it because I intend to raise some money in the effort to kill the killer. And to raise money, I need the help of anyone who may read this blog on occasion, if you can spare it. I know these are tough times, but if you can part with even a few dollars, I would appreciate it greatly.
If you can and you want to donate with a credit card, or you just want to see some more information, you can visit my personal Go Vertical web page just by clicking right here. When you get there you can read more info about the climb and the foundation and click on Go Donate to donate by credit card.
If you just wish to pledge now and pay later by cash or check or credit card, or if you prefer to send cash or a check directly to me, contact me at my personal e-mail, which can be found in my profile at the upper right hand corner of this page in the "About Me" section. It doesn't matter how much you give, even if it's only a dollar, it will help. And it will be appreciated.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Fleeing Thoughts: History Past and Present and Moles, too
-A recent Washington Post column presents President Bush as a man trying to sell himself to a disillusioned public as a leader who will be judged well by historians down the road, citing examples such as Harry Truman as presidents who were unpopular in their time but fared better as the years past. The article stated that Bush was a history major at Yale. What?!?!?!??! This guy was a history major?!? The man who shrugged off a question from Bob Woodward about how history will judge him, saying, "We don't know. We'll all be dead." This person who has an utter disregard for the basic concepts of democracy that this country was founded upon was a f#*$king history major? I really don't know what to say about that...
-The die is cast and Prince Barack of the Land of Lincoln has been anointed by the Party of Donkeys to be the next King of All the Land, the only obstacle remaining between the once and future King B and the White Palace is a pesky little thing called an Election. A lot of things can go wrong between now and November, so wrong that the drawbridge over the moat in front of the White Palace may be drawn up before the Good Prince crosses, leaving that Son of a Bush, the evil Warrior of the Arizona Desert to fly into the palace on wrinkled bat wings. Uhhmmm....what the heck was I talking about...oh, yeah. Obama has a lot of potential stones in his pathway, none bigger than his vice-presidential choice. Hillary, I think, may be out of the question for him for oh, so many reasons, but Obama needs the female Democrats to come out in big numbers for him. Smart money says McCain chooses a woman as his running mate in an attempt to get those votes. Obama can choose a woman other than Hillary, such as Arizona governor Janet Napolitano, which would make things delightfully dicey for McCain in his home state in the fall election. Some women will say if Obama is going to choose a woman, why not Hillary? Obama will need to offer Clinton something other that the vice-presidency to make her happy. What that is, I don't know.
-Please, for the love of God, I don't want to hear another word about the mole on R. Kelly's back. The mute button on my remote control is getting worn out.
-The die is cast and Prince Barack of the Land of Lincoln has been anointed by the Party of Donkeys to be the next King of All the Land, the only obstacle remaining between the once and future King B and the White Palace is a pesky little thing called an Election. A lot of things can go wrong between now and November, so wrong that the drawbridge over the moat in front of the White Palace may be drawn up before the Good Prince crosses, leaving that Son of a Bush, the evil Warrior of the Arizona Desert to fly into the palace on wrinkled bat wings. Uhhmmm....what the heck was I talking about...oh, yeah. Obama has a lot of potential stones in his pathway, none bigger than his vice-presidential choice. Hillary, I think, may be out of the question for him for oh, so many reasons, but Obama needs the female Democrats to come out in big numbers for him. Smart money says McCain chooses a woman as his running mate in an attempt to get those votes. Obama can choose a woman other than Hillary, such as Arizona governor Janet Napolitano, which would make things delightfully dicey for McCain in his home state in the fall election. Some women will say if Obama is going to choose a woman, why not Hillary? Obama will need to offer Clinton something other that the vice-presidency to make her happy. What that is, I don't know.
-Please, for the love of God, I don't want to hear another word about the mole on R. Kelly's back. The mute button on my remote control is getting worn out.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
I Didn't Know Diddley. At least, not personally.
Bo Diddley dead.
Bo Diddley was definitley one of the founding fathers of rock and roll. Yeah, every Bo Diddley song sounded more or less the same and that was cuz of the Bo Diddley beat. Why, yes, the Bo Diddley beat was simplistic, but man, it was catchy, get yer feet to tappin' and yer butt to wigglin'. Couldn't be helped, you just had to when you heard the Bo Diddley beat.
Ok, they were simplistic songs that all sounded alike. But it must be admitted the cat had an influence. Would George Thorogood have a career without Bo Diddley (and John Lee Hooker)? You can hear the Bo Diddley beat in songs from the '50s up to the present day, and not always in artists that you would think would have a Bo Diddley beat in their repetoire. Sure, you can understand when the beat shows up in the Rolling Stones' version of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away," and you can dig it in George Thorogood and his classic rock take on the Bo beat. And yeah, you can get into the groove when the Pretenders do "The Cuban Slide". But the Smiths? Yeah, the melancholy Brits slowed the beat down and turned it into a suicide trance on "How Soon is Now," my favorite Smiths song, not that I have many.
So, yeah, Bo was an influence. And now he's gone. Long live Bo Diddley and the Bo Diddley beat.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
A Day at the Races
I love the smell of grilled food and engine fumes in the morning. It smells like...like victory. Well, victory for some, losses for others, and for all the intermingling of the pain and joy of competition. In short, it smells like a day at the races.
What better way to welcome June than to go to Byron Dragway in beautiful Byron, Illinois. It was my first visit there and, just as any man should, I enjoyed it. Blue sky and bright sun shining down on a drag strip in the middle of rolling Illinois prairie, a place teeming with fast cars, motorcycles, snowmobiles (yes, snowmobiles) and women with tattoos on their legs. Who wouldn’t like this?
To be fair, you don’t need to be a man to enjoy car racing; my wife liked it as well. There’s something captivating about a car or a snowmobile (yes, I said snowmobile, now stop asking) shooting down a strip of pavement at top speed. The races and time trials only last a few seconds, but they’re a pretty exciting few seconds.
What brought us to the track this fine day was our friend C.J. Williams and his Ford Mustang. It’s a beautiful black machine (the car, not C.J.) and it’s fast and it’s loud. That’s the thing about auto racing. Loud and fast. Lots of noise and speed and fumes and plumes of smoke as the tires spin at the start of the race and it’s quite a sight. It’s the kind of sight that leads one to suspect that what we see at the racetrack are little boys (and girls too) grown up and able to play with expensive toys. But beyond the money spent, there’s love, love for creating a machine capable of getting up to speeds well in excess of one hundred miles an hour in only a few seconds.
Racing is a test of the ability to build and maintain a machine that will be super fast while not flying apart at the seams, and the skill of the driver to make the machine do what he wants it to do. Racing is competition, something beloved by Americans from the early days of our country.
Ultimately though, racing is fun. That’s why the racers race, and that’s why people watch. And that too, the urge to have fun, is also very American. I mean, where else do they race snowmobiles on dry pavement? You don’t see that sort of thing in the former Soviet Union, do you? Nope. Only in America do snowmobiles race on blacktop. Why do it? Because we can.
Man and machine: Pictured below, C.J. Williams and his Ford Mustang.
What better way to welcome June than to go to Byron Dragway in beautiful Byron, Illinois. It was my first visit there and, just as any man should, I enjoyed it. Blue sky and bright sun shining down on a drag strip in the middle of rolling Illinois prairie, a place teeming with fast cars, motorcycles, snowmobiles (yes, snowmobiles) and women with tattoos on their legs. Who wouldn’t like this?
To be fair, you don’t need to be a man to enjoy car racing; my wife liked it as well. There’s something captivating about a car or a snowmobile (yes, I said snowmobile, now stop asking) shooting down a strip of pavement at top speed. The races and time trials only last a few seconds, but they’re a pretty exciting few seconds.
What brought us to the track this fine day was our friend C.J. Williams and his Ford Mustang. It’s a beautiful black machine (the car, not C.J.) and it’s fast and it’s loud. That’s the thing about auto racing. Loud and fast. Lots of noise and speed and fumes and plumes of smoke as the tires spin at the start of the race and it’s quite a sight. It’s the kind of sight that leads one to suspect that what we see at the racetrack are little boys (and girls too) grown up and able to play with expensive toys. But beyond the money spent, there’s love, love for creating a machine capable of getting up to speeds well in excess of one hundred miles an hour in only a few seconds.
Racing is a test of the ability to build and maintain a machine that will be super fast while not flying apart at the seams, and the skill of the driver to make the machine do what he wants it to do. Racing is competition, something beloved by Americans from the early days of our country.
Ultimately though, racing is fun. That’s why the racers race, and that’s why people watch. And that too, the urge to have fun, is also very American. I mean, where else do they race snowmobiles on dry pavement? You don’t see that sort of thing in the former Soviet Union, do you? Nope. Only in America do snowmobiles race on blacktop. Why do it? Because we can.
Man and machine: Pictured below, C.J. Williams and his Ford Mustang.
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