Inkhorn Piepowder

'The Devil Went Down to Georgia' co-writer killed

2011-10-13T18:44:00.000-07:00

'The Devil Went Down to Georgia' co-writer killed

2011-07-29T07:01:00.000-07:00

From Wired article by Spencer Ackerman http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07/senators-ask-spy-chief-are-you-tracking-us-through-our-iphones/

In a letter that Sens. Mark Udall (D-Colorado) and Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) will send later on Thursday, obtained by Danger Room, the senators ask Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, “Do government agencies have the authority to collect the geolocation information of American citizens for intelligence purposes?”

Both senators are members of the panel overseeing the 16 intelligence agencies. In May, they sounded warnings that the Obama administration was secretly reinterpreting the Patriot Act to allow a broader amount of domestic surveillance than it had publicly disclosed.

The Age-Old Question | TalentZoo.com

2011-05-19T09:58:00.000-07:00

The Age-Old Question | TalentZoo.com

Boehner's Budget Deal Poem/Song Maybe

2011-04-15T06:47:00.000-07:00

you can never do enough and you always do too much
a raindrop in the ocean
what shoulda been a victory feels like defeat
congress is in a commotion

speaking privately in order to be candid
we're dismantling shelves for elvs
I think my leadership needs to probably sit down
and have a come-to-jesus with themselves

I can't criticize a basketball player
who faces two on one all night
This bill is not perfect, no cause for celebration
it's just baby steps to the right

Liberals likened it to getting stabbed in the heart
Conservatives just stubbed their toe
But the inability to unify the rank and file
is a wound that will grow and grow

Cynical Political Rant #23

2010-11-04T07:37:00.000-07:00

(Edited from NPR article contributed to by Todd Holzman)

Fresh from sweeping election victories, Republicans jockeyed with President Obama to claim the political high ground Wednesday, with both sides pledging bipartisanship but warning against a return to gridlock.
A conciliatory Obama called the vote "a shellacking" at a White House news conference. He promised to find areas where Democrats and Republicans could work together, but in a nod to his health care overhaul, said it is important "not to spend the next two years re-litigating the decisions of the last two years."

Republicans, meanwhile, wasted no time in declaring that Tuesday's capture of the House and gains in the Senate and key governorships was a de facto mandate to roll back what they see as the excesses of the Obama administration.

Rep. John Boehner, the man likely to be the next speaker of the house, said at a Wednesday news conference that he was humbled by the mandate the American people had given his party.

"We are ready to roll up our sleeves and go to work on the people's business," the Ohio Republican said. He was joined by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who headed the GOP campaign that grabbed 10 governorships for the party.

In line with the Pledge to America -- a campaign manifesto unveiled by Republicans only two months ago -- Boehner said the party's top priorities were to cut spending, foster job growth and reduce the size of the deficit.

Obama's health overhaul law was also in the crosshairs.

In earlier remarks, Boehner denounced the legislation passed earlier this year as a "monstrosity" that must be repealed and replaced by "common sense reforms."

Obama called Boehner late Tuesday to congratulate him and offer his hope that the two parties could work together.

"We discussed working together on the people's priorities -- cutting spending and creating jobs," Boehner said. "We hope he is willing to work with us on these priorities. But as I have said, our new majority will be the voice of the American people as they expressed it so clearly yesterday."

Boehner said Speaker Nancy Pelosi had tried to reach him by phone. "She left me a very nice voicemail," he said, adding that he felt confident there would be a smooth transition as Republicans take up the reins of power in the House.

McConnell called it "a happy day for the three of us."

But the Republican trio was short on specifics, which Boehner assured would be forthcoming in the months ahead.

Now watch as the Republicans play their role to continue the devastation to our national interests in favor of their collective special interests. This is the good cop/bad cop art of Global Capitalism folks. And pay close attention to Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a long time buddy to those international monetary vampires. He might be Mr. 2012. He is going to use the Bush play book it seems and say, "I don't want to be President. Why would I when I have the greatest job in America as the Governor of Texas(snicker,snicker)." This is by no means a defense of the Democrats. They suck to be sure. Obama and his crew in the legislature have done a terrible job listening to their constituents across the board on almost every issue they have tackled these past two years. One got the feeling that the Democratic majority forgot they were elected by the citizens of their districts. Their voting seemed to indicate an allegiance to party over the people. Don't be surprised when the GOP does exactly the same thing. Many of the players are the same from just 4 years ago when they did almost exactly the same. No GOP member of the house is going to do anything without the OK from the brass. They will not really take to heart the needs and wants of their citizens. Let's really see if spending goes down or if it just moves around to the interests that the GOP favor. Although, Obama could pull a Clinton and just go along, then take credit and win re-election. If you can't beat'em, join'em. Rand Paul might actually try to practice what he preaches. But if it is not sanctioned by the GOP leadership in their over-all strategy to maintain power, he will be marginalized. They like the Rick Perry types. No trouble makers allowed on Capitol Hill, eh? Unless they are homeless psychotics beating drums outside the gates and yelling at tourists, Haha. I do like that we have had such short turn over laced with strong rhetoric. We might actually get enough of us paying attention to call them all on their scams. Funny that term limitation is not an issue with any of these bums. I think it is an absolute necessity. And we need total transparency between contributions and legislation. Once and for all, let's have this be above board. Choose whatever political party you want, just insist that they not be whores.

Shinyribs Mixing Engineer Wins Grammy

2010-02-03T09:19:00.000-08:00

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/6841882.html

This is a link to a story about Steve Christensen who just finished mixing my Shinyribs record, "Well After Awhile" before he went out to the promised land and got himself some hardware via Steve Earle's TVZ. George Reiff, who produced Well After Awhile brought Mr. Christensen in from Houston,TX. to do the mixing chores. Christensen works as the top engineer at Sugar Hill Studios in the H to the O the USTON. http://www.sugarhillstudios.com/history.html This is the recording studio where Sir Doug manager Huey Meaux http://www.laventure.net/tourist/sdq_meaux.htm made so much history, good and bad. But, that's a different story. Congrats to Steve O. Sometimes the good guys win.

2010-01-18T13:51:00.001-08:00

The major flaw in all is the way the call comes from the other or not. I will never know the why or what for before anyone else.

Armadillo Songs

2009-11-16T07:01:00.000-08:00

If an armadillo could talk about her particular misery I would not hesitate to accompany her with a planking attempt on my mandolin, threading her narrative together more than she might want. At the cursing of a prolific digger I would fling dried dung and song. "That is a god damned lie that Armadillo just told." Her nine banded suffering is unmatched by any warm frog, hers is infinite on a hot night mouthing sticks and leaves. Along with ticks, wasps, mosquitoes and spiders she marks her calendar until the moisture of autumn when the air turns swampy cool. The quartet swimming in her womb serenade fire ants on charango's made from father's. When they sing "Arroyo" I stop my planking and listen. I can only hope to mimic that wild harmony, as fragile and enduring as the egg stores of the antbeds spiked with bluestem.

3 win Shinyribs Tix for Ribtober

2009-10-07T07:24:00.001-07:00

Three researchers whose work delves into how information encoded on strands of the lyrics of Shinyribs is translated by the chemical complexes known as ribosomes into the thousands of proteins that make up Shinyribs music will have to fight over a pair of free tickets to the upcoming month of Shinyribs shows, the Swedish Academy of Sciences said Wednesday.

The trio are Venkatraman Ramakrishnan of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England; Thomas A. Steitz of Yale University; and Ada E. Yonath of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.

Dr. Yonath, 70, said on Wednesday that she was both surprised and not surprised at being awarded tickets to all Shinyribs' shows for Ribtober.

Speaking by telephone from her daughter's house in Kiryat Ono, Israel, she said people had long been telling her that her project was a potential winner. But at the same time, she said, there were "many, many people with fantastic work standing in line." She is the first Israeli woman and the third Israeli to win tickets to Shinyribs shows.

Each scientist will get part of the prize, worth 10 million Swedish kronors in total, or $15 US in a ceremony in Stockholm at midnight after the sacrifice of a goat and the offering of the virgin bloody Mary to the weeping Jesus of the Volcano.

If the sequence of lettered words and melodic amino acids in the songs form the blueprint for some of the best damn songs being written, ribosomes are the funky factory floor. In a news release the Swedish academy said the three, who worked independently, were being honored "for having showed what the ribosome looks like and how it functions at the down home level."

The ribosome research, the academy said, is being used to develop new honky-Tonkin hippie-gospel hybrids.

Dr. Ramakrishnan was born in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India, in 1952 and obtained his Ph.D. at Ohio University, and holds American citizenship. Dr. Steitz was born in Milwaukee in 1940 and received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1966. Dr. Yonath was born in Jerusalem in 1939 and received her Ph.D. at the Weizmann Institute in 1968.

Politeness Washes Off With The Myth

2009-08-18T22:33:00.001-07:00

Politeness washes off with the myth, the money creeps all want a piece of it. They'll never understand the soul of a man. I'll buy odds they'll try and buy you out of it. A man is the ark and Noah is the soul charged with the task of serving a goal. The blue print to the key to heart. Each creature in a pair but placed apart. Defined and tagged, categorized and flagged, compartmentalized and dragged through the calm of the ocean long and blue and strong til the crow comes back with mud on his own. Responsibility and commitment to be the burden and the blessing to share that timeless moment when he gazes down at the children that have come to join him there. Look in the mirror old man and see that wild eyed boy throwing knives from his knee, killing snakes, shooting guns and winning hearts for the crown to come. That old boy is still alive smashing silver swords against the spring. All this time in gradual decline, God only knows how you feel.

Euphemism-ism #61

2009-08-01T16:54:00.001-07:00

Clogged Condiments #1

2009-07-31T09:38:00.001-07:00

In the blue light of the Nugget Casino's late night Rosie's Cafe at my faux acid stained table there it sat assuming the familiar shape and unmistakable green labeling we all are accustomed to expect from it, a bottle of green Tabasco sauce. It sat next to its red kin. I chose the green from the pair of pepper shakers explicitly, in mind anyway,to tilt the scale of popularity a bit more in favor of the inferior. It's not that I particularly favor this over it's cayenne cousin. As a middle child though I sometimes want to send a message to the inanimate world of condiments that indeed variety is the spice of life.
Imagine my perplexed confusion when upon the first few shakes nothing fell out of its green neck. No emerald drizzle on my plate; no jalapeño drops on my gastronomic investment. Looking down the barrel of the bottle I spied a white petroleum-like gleem. A plug of waxy build-up, I wondered? Upon further inspection it appeared the entire bottle had congealed as if having been injected with melted candle wax then left to harden on what would eventually become my table.
I have never in all my years of dining at all sorts of restaurants, diners, cafes, greasy spoons encountered such a peculiar chemical state in which I found the green bottled, less popular sibling of that most famous condiment from Avery Island, LA.
Out of concern for my fellow diners who might later inhabit this table I tried to inform my wait person of this questionable bottle of mild jalapeño sauce. But she did not take it or touch it or even look at it. She looked at me though like maybe I was at fault somehow. Then she scowled and commented on the attire of another woman passing by, "That's not a skirt, that's just panties with a vest and a jacket. " She then explained to me, still holding the bottle aloft with some obvious concern, that someone would come and get it. This sounded plausible and I reconsidered my moderately alarmist position. I left it there, uncertain of the outcome. And tonight in the Nugget Casino in Sparks,NV. there very well may be a bottle of congealed green tabasco sauce sitting and waiting to tempt the hand of another unsuspecting patron. I can only hope that my cry for help was heeded and I have saved someone from the unwarranted frustration and derailed desire that I experienced.

Villanelle fatman

2009-07-29T15:15:00.001-07:00

If you will recall I posted a quick cut up poem thing recently here. It was pretty lame, but had some fun imagery in it. I thought I might try and use it as raw material for a poetic form I have been wrestling with lately. It is called a Villanelle. It consists of 19 lines; 5 stanzas of 3 and a final one of 4. The 1st line of the 1st stanza is repeated as the last line of the 2nd and 4th stanzas. The 3rd line of the 1st stanza is repeated as last line of the 3rd and 5th stanza. And these two lines follow each other as the last two lines of the poem in completion of that last four line stanza. Rhyme scheme is a/b/a. Got it? Yikes! You of average intellect like myself must see how confusing it can get using the right and left brain. This is why I decided to go with some "tasso" poem as I call these kinds of stream o' conch things. It free's up some resources in the skill-skull. In question is the use of "linoleum" in the second stanza as a rhyme for that scheme. I like it though, especially since it was in the original piece of tasso.

The fatman is sick with juiciest sickness.
Radiant, terrible tenderness sleeps with my sister again.
The measure of time seems such foolishness.

The fatman enters quietly with a fat little quickness
Slides dirty little feet bottoms over linoleum.
Sick with juiciest sickness?

When dogs run their tung's over her thickness
Nipples grow raw red and distended when
The measure of time seems such foolishness.

The moment goes through the street fighting fitness.
Convinced these mistakes just pretend
The fatman is sick with juiciest sickness.

To answer concern my sister's health is good I am witness.
That line of cancer was bad metaphor, Ben.
The measure of time seems such foolishness.

Some would disdain this writing in "hickness"
The doctor has warned me of my on-going sin
The fatman is sick with juiciest sickness
The measure of time seems such foolishness

Euphemism-ism

2009-07-29T12:49:00.001-07:00

Monty felt nausia at the very sight of the prarie gifts left by Jacko. They were moist and steamy and smelled of waffles and eggs.

Poof

2009-07-28T20:11:00.001-07:00

A shaking is in order. I have become too lazy. Too much sleeping in the moonlight. If I didn't know better I might think life was passing too fast for me to taste. But this is a human condition; the melancholy of age. Even in the very young there exists this wistful feeling of time turning the corner dragging its shadow. And for
me it is no different. I pine for the old times and am wary of the new. So much laughter has passed my cheeks I feel at once blessed and afraid. Is it all gone? When my youngsters bloom that angsty teenage thorn will they droop like our drought-doomed Texas tomatoes? Another summer sneaks by before my eyes. It walks like a dog having chewed a birthday toy yet still undiscovered. And I sit on the couch staring at
my ugly toes. When I dead I wonder will they talk about my cooking, singing, writing? From mobundia I stammer with mayo and bread to my lonely bed. Certainly the laughter will not forget us. For sure love will live here always. Always maybe never knew itself that way. Never though had to know what it was. Without this self awareness we might have wandered off unchecked into the wilderness or the bank vault or the suburban walk-in cooler then poof, gone; dripping away into the mundane ether. My this is all too murky and pitiful. Sorry tonhabe dragged you this far in without so much as a cause. Blogs to me are whimsical joints built upon mostly second thoughts. It having been a while since I wrote aloud this has been of interest primarily to me. Perhaps there is a grain of something universal in it though and you gained a tip or more of insight to yer own wallop of an existence. Hope so anyway. Poof!?

Wick quit up poem Fatman

2009-07-27T10:50:00.001-07:00

The Fatman is sick with juiciest sickness.
Radiant terrible tenderness sleeps with my sister again.
Cancer surgery is the poetry of surprise.
The fatman enters quietly on fat little feet
And proceeds to slide his dirty feet bottoms over the linoleum like a dog tongue across raw nipple.
The measure of time always fools me.
This moment must go and I must watch the street move beneath.
When that happens mistakes were made.
I have got to stop.
The Dr. is waiting for those fresh faces to arrive.

Obama, Gates and Policeman

2009-07-24T13:43:00.001-07:00

Would somebody please shut up about this! The media feeding frenzy is disheartening and disappointing to most I imagine. The health care debate being too complex and boring for the infotainers, an alternative is presented that provides us with easier either/or decisions. A. Obama is a fuck up or B. Black people are rightfully angry still. C. Yawn.
I am often portrayed by some as card carrying GOP member and yet others call me a pinko commie. How is this? When the left was beating up Bush I often defended him if I found the media to be at fault of misrepresenting the situation. I agreed with most on the right that the office of the President deserved respect and support from all citizens of the nation. I still believe that one should afford this same respect for the commander-in-chief even in disagreements. Most on the right are exposing the inherent hypocrisy with the way they are attacking his every idea and every word. I find it offensive and unpatrioric behavior much like the left's treatment of Bush. It is fine to disagree and debate. But when the minority party starts making accusations based on paranoid delusion and pure spite, we have sunk to the
level of uncivilized governing or damn near it. And with The Press having given way to The Pull of cable "nooz" we are headed down a very disturbing path. Everybody needs to go to their rooms for a little while and think about what they said. Then we'll talk about the punishment. Act yer age not yer shoe size.

Ghost Train

2009-07-21T14:56:00.000-07:00

Train on the mountain rocks they are falling/Raining like fountain full of pennies and nails
Rolling like a marble off of the thumb/A runaway rocket shot from a gun
The devil's winchester/Crows are cawing/Shadows on the water ringing the bells
Ghost train roasting the roses/Burning up all the fruit on the vine
Ghost train sing in the old way/Brutish, fat and sublime

Early in the morning I saw the vultures/Swinging shotguns from a sycamore tree
Knives all shining in the new rising sun/ Storms on the ocean don't care about me
Judge said "cold blood" and winked his eye/ Sang the verdict to "Clementine"
Hotcakes and sausage for my last meal/ Does anyone know how I feel?

I wanna dance with my daughter/ Teach the golden rule to my sons
Bury the hatchet with my Mother and Father/Taste my wife's tears when my time comes
This ghost train is slow, damp and lean/ 10,000 years and i'll be free
Ghost train roasting the roses/Burning up all the fruit on the vine
Ghost train sing in the old way/Brutish, fat and sublime

Poor People Store

2009-07-15T09:07:00.001-07:00

You can get more at the poor people's store, the poor people's store where you can get it

some knock off jeans with irregular seams
chairs made of beans and some beauty creams
Christine Auguilera black mascara
corn tortillas and some brown alovera

You can get more at the poor people's store, the poor people's store where you can get it

some socks with flames, pills for yer pain
razors infused with the essence of rain
cigarette lighter that says I'm no quitter
and a fish that sings take me to the river

You can get more at the poor people's store, the poor people's store where you can get it

panty hose, no doze and I suppose there's even some clothes
that you wear well and makes you smell, the smell you smell
when you get out of jail

You can get more at the poor people's store, the poor people's store where you can get it

Passenger Safety Information cut up

2009-07-14T00:35:00.001-07:00

You can wear glasses while tampering with, disabling or destroying someone physically or mentally without a companion or adult such as a small child you cannot or do not wish to say only "I do not want to sit in an mechanism." For your convenience the following use of these functions must:

A. Read English enough for sitting through the increase of the cellular gate smoke.

B. See well enough to read away the gate smoke captain's fire water lenses* or contact danger behind you.

C. Hear well enough to speak of the door as a gate smoke device.

* a child from the safe path can look up and around until a crew member can weigh as much as 65lbs (30kg)

Oregon Country Fair

2009-07-13T11:24:00.001-07:00

GeoTagged, [N44.03409, E123.08443]

I cannot really begin to describe this 40 year old hippie festival without having to sit and re-envision the proceedings,processionals and parades that went on all night and day until the rain came pouring down. Then it became a celebration of mud. I have spent many a time at muddy festivals. And this was no different. If one really considers oneself faithful to the philosophies of the great passivists and buddhists of our time,then one has no other alternative than to take position alongside all the other freedominant's. I make up that word to describe the perception or one man's perception of the mood of ivention with which these things are coinciding.
I generally feel a global swagger amongst even the lowliest volunteer, a grand disposition to please permeates the entire event from top to bottom. It would seem all participants take their cues from the inhabitants. The inhabitants are the creators of the whole scenario and infrastructure over all these years. Though it is a collaborative experiment between all who attend. 7000 volunteers and 60000 unique visitors with minimal security is impressive. I did not see one fight or even a quarrel until the day we left. An old guy who was disrespected by a young man barked him into submission and compliance. And frankly it was refreshing after all the love and peace.
I am still working on the language to describe all that I saw. But it is so vast and diverse and surreal I fear the over wrought results. I have already said too much. In fact just forget I ever said anything. Nothing happened no one saw anything so let's all just go back home and go to bed.

To test

2009-07-12T21:19:00.001-07:00

Reverse Recording Good Times

2009-07-09T09:38:00.001-07:00

Reverse recording has been around as long as recording technology. There are lots of ways to accomplish this but lately it has become much easier for the average person to turn their words around at the push of a button. I recently got an iPhone. And I must say it is every bit as great as reported. The app. scene is what makes these phones so versatile. One can find app's for virtually any task needed. From tip calculators to 4 track recorders, mirrors to news aggregates to tuners and amoritization the list in varied and at times amazing.
Last night I was on the way back to the hotel after a gig at the Tractor Tavern in Seattle. I was showing some of the guys different app's and letting them play around with them. Claude was using the voice transformer recording
himself with robot voice, deep voice, static, echo, etc. One of the choices is reverse. He said when they were kids they had a few different sounds they would make which when recorded and played backwards would reveal spoken words. He tried some but none were working. I realized at this point one could say something then listen back while learning the phonetic pronunciation. I tried it saying "let me in" in a slow deliberate voice. Listening back it sounded like "may bell. " So i tried saying may bell into the recorder and then playing that back. Lo and behold it sounded as if I was saying "let me in." I tried lots of words and phrases after that and lots of them worked. I was cracking up it was so cool. This is not ground breaking information that language is built from many different sounds. But this is one of the most entertaining ways to hear and understand the way this works. I suggest you give it a try. Some things are just too unnatural sounding to repeat. But if one takes time to go over it and practice it a few times the accuracy improves.

Tehran Twitters

2009-06-22T06:26:00.000-07:00

Not to be too cynical about the on-going revolutionary movement in Iran, but the hype around the use of Twitter is kind of nauseating. On one hand it is a way to get information out of repressive political borders. On the other hand it is a totally unreliable source of information created for the use of Americans to gossip about themselves. To lend such validity and credence to this texting format is a mistake that will eventually blow up in the face of cable news. Just because something is said over and over on the Internet does not make it true, or maybe it does. As information multiplies it seems to become less informative and more noise. How hard would it be for a government to manipulate the Twitter-sphere?

Austin's Noisey Laundry

2009-06-07T19:30:00.000-07:00

I know lots of you think Austin Texas is the greatest thing since live music began. And, I would not argue with you on the merit of the music alone over the last 40 years or so. One could say that the live music scene and all of its feathers give this peacock its plumes. Many cities can claim similar musical histories, some more colorful, some more productive. But, none can really stand toe to toe with Austin as a brand. Once we claimed the "live music captial" moniker it was just a matter of time before we were on the lips of music fans around the world. And, now Austin more than anywhere besides maybe New Orleans has set up home right there in the middle of the chaotic musical landscape with South By Southwest, Austin City Limits Festival and its many artists and bands traversing the globe.
At the same time the city has undergone phenomenal economic growth through high tech and real estate sectors. Once it was obvious the city was booming leaders began an ambitious plan to attract residential development downtown. The intention was good. After watching their Texas cousin cities go through massive growth and unchecked development Austin seemed determined to do it a different way. All along there has been an effort among many to try and "preserve" a way of life much loved by all. The obvious challenges are myriad and complex. And as we enter the new world of downtown density cultural clashes are erupting.
A series of complaints and city legislation to appease all parties involved has lead to a group of confusing laws serving mainly the private property rights of the residential occupants over the will of the greater citizenry. For years old Austin institutions have been falling like the walls of Jericho as the march of progress takes its toll.
Taken at face value it almost seems like the drive is towards a city of enlightened affluence and lots of new things. In my opinion we have fallen prey to the developers and their easy money like every other sprawling southwestern city. I would probably have a hard time finding many that agree with this though. Life has been good here for most of us, myself included. Lately though I can sense a change in the attitudes of the city that could signal a threat to my way of life here. I am speaking of course of the recent rash of citations for sound ordinance infractions.
It was the understanding of most that the going Db level was 85. But, somehow some other zoning ordinance has been overriding this and causing out-door restaurants to be capped at 70 db. From experience I can tell you that it is impossible to satisfy a large crowd of 200 or more people with a db level of 70. And in Austin this is even more frustrating. We have a huge audience of music lovers who want to feel and hear the great music coming off the stage. This is a given at any music venue on any given night.
I read that things were in the works to change the low db level to help out our many local out-door restaurants. But, still last Thursday as my band, The Gourds played to a packed house at Shady Grove a fire marshal trotted in and cited them for a sound ordinance violation. At the same time a huge crane moved silently over head building a monstrous residential complex next door. The irony was not lost on me. It made me wanna make some noise about this issue. I think it is high time the Austin Music Community come together to flex a little political muscle just so we get respect and keep respect when we needed it most.
The city council is apparently "hard at work" trying to figure out a way certain restaurants in residential zones can eclipse the 70 db level designated for them. Normal venues/cocktail lounges have an 85 db level. Some restaurants are considering changing their zoning designation to "cocktail lounge." But. many neighborhood zoning plans will not allow cocktail lounges in their hood. The neighborhoods in Austin, it should be understood, are very powerful. City Council will rarely go against their wishes. I normally appreciate this aspect of our city government. But, there must be exceptions for long standing iconic businesses on major thoroughfares. To me it is common sense. And as Councilman Martinez says, "it's not about a db level, it's about compatibility." What this means to me is that the wants of the few do not out weigh the needs of the many, at least as far as live music goes. If all of the out door restaurants stop having live music, then it takes money out of musicians pockets. Like it or not this city has created a musical economy that must be maintained.

NFL 92 NFC Championship Game

2009-03-16T23:18:00.000-07:00

I watched the '92-'93 NFC Championship tonight on NFL network. Boys and niners. My 11 year old son was beside himself actually watching Emmit Smith playing at the top of his game. Really awesome to watch. It was the game in which Jimmy Johnson coined his famous phrase, "How bout them Cowboys!" It was interesting watching that moment. Jerry Jones reaction was not jovial or happy even. I think he may have felt jilted not standing up there with Johnson. Just a weird observation filtered through the perspective of history. That is an odd tension that arises between men who share the same vision of success without the capacity to appreciate the role of others in that mission. Johnson was obviously arrogantly enthusiastic to the point of being contagious to the team. Which, was his whole intention. It was honest though. That was mixed with his own personal quest for greatness and legacy. Jones was just plain jealous I think. His tragic insecurity with his role in the building of the team was the only weakness to the franchise at that moment. Without the well known firing of Jimmy Johnson and the hiring of his Okie rival Switzer I am sure the Cowboys would have won 3 in a row and possibly 4. They were at that moment the greatest team the NFL has ever seen. Perhaps the recent Patriots are as good.

Year End Wrap Up NCAA Football

2009-01-09T06:49:00.000-08:00

Now we see what happened. Oklahoma blew their chance at a national title. No big surprise here. The Sooners have become perennial bowl game failures, going 1-5 for their last 6 and losing 3 in a row to the likes of Boise St and West Virginia. They are great in the regular season, but somehow lose focus in what some have called, the second season. They had a month to prepare for Florida and failed to put more than 14 points on the board. Sam Bradford looked lost much of the time. The pressure sunk his accuracy to average. Stoops should be fired, ha! He can't win the big one without the great Josh Heupel. Where is he selling cars now? Barry Switzer Toyota in Norman?
Florida is a great team with great coaching all the way around. Urban Meyer is a class act in my book. I hate Florida, but not as much as I did when "Ball Coach" was there. I detest any adding of the word "nation" to the end of a team mascot name. Just want to be clear that I will not allow anyone to ever use the word in regards to Shinyribs consensus #1 , The Mighty Texas Longhorns. I am a fan, but do not consider others fans as anything resembling my socio-economic or cultural-political interests. We are not a nation. The era of nation building is over, friends. It is a brave new world order. One that apparently cannot function properly. I will not get into the fact that Texas could have whipped either one those lame ass looking teams. USC obviously could have walked away with it as well. Bama had their chance to play Florida. Utah has nothing to say, really. They played no real opponents from either the PAC-10 or Big 12. They did beat Alabama, though, which is something unexpected. And, they did get a great Carl's,Jr. endorsement along with the coveted no.2 spot in the AP. Texas at 4 and USC at 3, whatever.
As for the rest of the Big-12. Texas Tech sucked it up in the Cotton Bowl of all games. Thanks Red Raiders, you really did great things with that upset. If you ever get there again, act like you've been there. Wait until the game clock is at zero before you take the field in unwarranted, tortilla fueled hysteria. Missouri ,thanks, you are a credit to the conference. Kansas, good job, you make us all look better. Oklahoma St. y'all need a gut check. You did absolutely nothing to help us this year. You couldn't beat Tech or Oklahoma. Then you lost to Oregon. How can I even look at you. Shameful. Nebraska representin B-12, awesome job Huskers. I don't want you to get too good though, so back off a little. A rising Nebraska is like a rising Germany in my book. Scares me to see images of Crouch tossing that option. I hate red and white teams running the option. The mighty Texas Longhorns won in big styles against those Sooners of the Big-10 Ohio State. When was the last time the Sooners played Ohio State? Last time was 1983. Come on Okies, schedule some real games for a change. You gots to play somebody other than Texas. I see you are going to play the Buckeyes in 2016-17. Good luck with that.
All this legislation is tacky. I hope none of my elected officials waste time trying to bring the BCS to justice. I mean I hate it, but it ain't the place of the Government to address. Just plain stupid. Great year for college football though. My favorite moment is still Texas Longhorns beating OU. That is always great. The Texas Tech game was of course my most anguishing moment. So so close. I am still kicking myself for not catching that ball. And then not knocking Crabtree out of bounds. Oh and for not staying in bounds on the last drive to run the clock. Oh if we could have that one back we would be standing over the carcass of the Florida Gators right now hoisting the crystal ball. Next year, we'll get'em. Texas-ou is gonna be a hell of a game next year, as well as Texas vs t-tech. Revenge will be sweet as pecan pie. HOOK'EM!

BCS/USC as if it matters rant

2009-01-03T07:49:00.000-08:00

TEXAS-As if it matters, indeed. The year was 2003, I believe. LSU beat the Oklahoma Sooners for the BCS National Title. USC beat Michigan in the Rose Bowl. Suddenly a flood of media questions about whether the Trojans were actually the best team in the land swept the analysis booth. Next thing we knew the AP Writers had given their title to the Trojans, as if it mattered. By the time they were matched against Texas in the 2005 Rose Bowl nat'l championship game, the same media were talking openly about USC playing for their 3rd national championship. The revisionist historians had effectively stripped The Tigers of their rightful crystal from 2003 and acted as if the BCS had just not existed that year. It was a disgusting display of the media's power of shaping public perception. At that moment only people in Austin and Baton Rouge were immune to such illusion. And, let us just thank the great Vince Young and his mighty Texas Longhorns for vanquishing the Disney-like smoke and mirrors hoisted up around L.A.'s football franchise. No retractions or apologies to LSU were ever said or printed anywhere. None of those jack asses on ESPN or sports talk radio ever corrected their over zealous suggestive remarks.
One thing we learned about that moment is that in the absence of an NFL franchise, L.A. claims the Trojans as their pro team. Every major media outlet in the world has at least operations their, if not headquarters. It is arguably the largest market in America. Covering their teams brings more viewers from that market, which brings higher ratings and more Ad dollars, which keeps the fake snowball growing.
I was still shocked Friday morning as I turned on what is increasingly becoming ESPN's version of "Good Morning America." I was greeted with images of USC victory over Penn State in the Rose Bowl. No surprise that the number 5 team had beaten the number 8 team, really. But, you'd have thought you were in Lubbock when Texas Tech beat then number 1 Texas. Pete Carrol in all his class actually suggested his team should have been in the National Championship game. He actually said that USC could beat OK or FL, not to mention Texas or Alabama. Of course Mr. Carrol is savvy at the sound bite and spin game. Over and over they played his little bit. Over and over they had some post-steroidal rock head saying in his honest opinion USC belongs in the debate, as if their is some debate included in the BCS formula. With Utah's victory over Alabama, the unanimous number 1 team for most of the year and with their(Utah's) 13-0 record should we include them in that nebulous debate? If USC had played and beat Alabama, it is possible they might just cancel the rest of the games and crown them on the spot. Could USC beat Utah? You see where I am going with all of this. PLAYOFFS!
As long as the BCS is the target I am OK with any and all doubts cast on those results. But when the automatic recipient is USC when sitting in the top 5, I take serious issue. Either we need playoffs or more inter-conference play as we had with Texas vs Ohio State in the 2005-2006 seasons or USC should play Texas, Oklahoma or Texas Tech every year. And they should play one of the top SEC teams from the previous year. SEC is still the toughest conference. Big 12 is now a close second. PAC-10 and Big-10 are third passengers for sure. And when you lose an early season game to the Oregon State Beavers because you cannot stop their undersized running back, you have no room to get up at the Rose Bowl and suggest you have the best team in the land. I would like to see them play Oregon St. again. That was fun to watch. GO BEAVERS! And somebody tell them to take that back to back bullshit down, it is a bold face lie.

Brokaw Calls For New Gas Tax

2008-12-07T08:24:00.001-08:00

On 'Meet The Press' this morning, in his last appearance as the interim host, Tom Brokaw suggested his guest, President-elect Obama, take advantage of surprisingly low gasoline prices nation wide by taxing the price back up to 4 dollars a gallon, since, as Brokaw said,"the American people were prepared to pay that."

I don't know anyone who was prepared to pay 4 dollars a gallon. In all my years of standing at those god forsaken pumps at thousands of different crappy stores filled with beer and soda refrigerators and junk food I have never had so many conversations with so many fellow Americans about the price of the juice we were pouring in our tanks. No one was understanding or prepared for it. Everyone was suspicious and angry about it. How Tom missed that is obvious. He is cushioned from the reality of everyday life and probably hasn't pumped his own gas in decades.

Brokaw's thinking seemed to be based on the discouragement of those Americans who drive larger, less fuel efficient cars. This is garden variety thinking on environmental fears of global warming and a bogus national defense argument. One would think Tom, being from South Dakota would understand the needs of rural farmers and ranchers who are reliant on such vehicles to manage their businesses. These folks rely on truckers, as well, to transport those goods to their respective means and ends. This all adds to the prices of these various products derived from these commodities. I was profoundly befuddled by Brokaw's naivete about basic economic forces in regards to fuel price. I think it is obvious that the spike in energy costs, beginning with Hurricane Katrina, were the catalyst leading to the current mortgage failures. People on the economic edge were lent money when fuel costs were low. After Katrina, gas prices spike over 2 bucks a gallon. The rest is history. It wasn't long before prices rose across the board and family budgets were strained to the point, in many cases, of deciding between paying the mortgage or buying groceries and keeping the lights on.

As he signed off he thanked all of "us," the people who watch 'Meet The Press' in his grand fatherly way. Without a twinge of irony he advised incoming host David Gregory that this program is important beyond the Potomac. It is important to Middle America, which is their code for hicks in the sticks, rednecks, farmers, the great unwashed. It is the equivalent of "colored" for his generation, the progeny of "the greatest." To Brokaw, I am sure, none of this means much. He loved his NBC news, sure. And maybe he is civil to his contemporaries at the competition. But, the fact that he would jack the price of gas back up to four bucks without the slightest reservation is truly disappointing.

Judge misses obvious sentencing joke for OJ

2008-12-06T04:20:00.000-08:00

(LAS VEGAS (AP)—O.J. Simpson is headed to prison for at least nine years, but a prosecutor says the former football star could have spent less time behind bars if he had accepted a plea deal before he was convicted.

Clark County District Attorney David Roger said Simpson was offered a deal for less prison time than the nine- to 33-year prison terms the graying former football star was sentenced to on Friday for kidnapping and assaulting two sports memorabilia dealers with a deadly weapon)

I really think the judge should have seen the obvious 32 year sentence, just as a kind of cruel joke. Not that I really hate OJ or anything. I was fairly ambivalent about the double murder thing. Murder is wrong, of course. And I would never murder anyone. Though having my wife cheat on me with some young dude would, no doubt make me consider such options. After that it is anybody's guess as to how I might deal with having committed such a crime. As for his attacking two sports memorabilia dealers, well I would have to guess that sports memorabilia dealers are among the lowest, sleaziest geeks roaming the slimy geek world of the memorabilia industry. Again, just a guess from Mr. Crime Ambivalence over here sitting in my comfy lazy-boy blog. While I am on subject about "juice" I am sure someone has thought about the odd convergence of Bills bad Superbowl luck and the timing of the murder. Four in a row they lost from 91-94 and then boom OJ murder,WTF!

Padre

2008-12-02T08:25:00.000-08:00

Take yer time my last and easy Tejano friend
a song about oil
the right sides of cheeks and the sweet days of bicycles
took me away
to here
the dark beer
in this white body
in a new glass of green
never in my new house
my hot back yard
black on the ends of
a grackles wing

Cold beer of Port Isabel
and the brightness surrounding shadows
the blush in the cheeks of Mary's face
while St. Francis stands above a turkey's leg
smiling absent, unaware
What I stole I replaced
What I lost I retraced
What I found
was a face
of untouched grace
and grief

with due regards to James Wright

Dow drops on News of Recession

2008-12-01T20:18:00.000-08:00

OK, so some how we were in a recession last Christmas and didn't even know it. Now today we finally have official word that, yes, indeed, we are in a recession. Oh shit, thought the hive mind of Wall St. we are in an F'in' re-friggin'-cession, yo! Sell that shit and let's get out of here. Oh, wow, I thought we were just having the worst financial global crisis in a hundred years, not a fuggin' RECESSION! OMG, what are we gonna do. Sell, sell, sell,sell! Put that Iphone to good use, bro! Make the call, sell it all. Each day as we go along it is becoming increasingly clear that no one knows what the they are doing. They are just making this up as they go along. At least they keep reminding us that it is going to get worse before it gets better. My deepest thanks to all those involved in this latest chapter of destructive greed in our nation.

A Credo of Sorts

2008-11-29T18:16:00.000-08:00

"I experience words intimately, I love to sniff about them and let them sing in my flesh, flame up and go out and rekindle, that I might place them like jewels when the time comes for them to sing in a song. I believe in unfettered expression, in following the thought wherever it might lead, and in spontaneity of inspiration, but I also believe that the poem requires attentiveness to shape and sound. I am innately suspicious of "first thought, best thought," having seen many a first thought that plays a surface tune without ever piercing to the depths below. The poem requires groundwork, sweat, it must be earned and is not a given, and one must attend to it as to a favorite scene, a recurring day-dream, a deep node of suffering, a demanding muse, a falling petal. Further, Williams said one must "go back to the people" because the poem that is disconnected from human need has no depth or sustenance for the readers who come to it."

David Cope

For a long while I traveled this shallow country with nothing but the first thought in mind. I felt there was something else. And when one grows and lives in this place there really is some depth there, not obvious to most people. But, I have moved deeper from this place. The shape of a song has always been key to what I do. The shape and structure of the lyrics as well I have always worked hard to maintain stability. But, the materials were exotic, not what most humans need. I was building houses out of ground beef at times, cars out of wood and toasters out of egg shells. Which was all great fun. But, when the song was over, there was an emptiness, a shallowness. When critics took me to task on such, they were never armed with the intellectual power to get at it. I had the advantage of journalistic commerce and the benefit of the opaque doubt. I do not mean to slag my work over the last 15 years. I am proud of it. It stands up on its own, oddly clothed and distorted. If nothing else it lead me here.

I have been going back and re-writing old songs to make them more narrative and linear. So many things felt unfinished. I was maybe a bit lazy and dishonest. Often I would just use what ever came to mind when a tune was first emerging and later dress it up with some cut-up or some kind of tossed off embellishment. The fear was always about writing something derivative ans spohomoric. I just did not want to write drivel. But, that is the real challenge. To write something that people understand.

I have been writing a lot lately. This time of year is usually a time when songs come spilling out all around me. I do not ever ignore them, either. I am sure my family gets tired of hearing me strumming and humming and tapping my pen against the page. But, it is really what gives me great joy in this world. Even if I wasn't doing this for a living, I would still be doing it. Yep, I'm a lifer. Enjoy.

Mr. Death toll risin'

2008-05-13T19:23:00.000-07:00

I got a question from my old friend, Julius Washington Irving Berlin, yesterday. A current events rhetorical question that I entertained with a response.

"the myanmar cyclone kills 62,000 to 100,000...a few days later the china earthquake kills over 20,000...what the fugg is going on out there russell? also, why do people not get all that upset (internationally) when it's a natural disaster, rather than a terrorist attack? seems like in both cases it's just a matter of fate. "

Terrorists attack is of human origins and based on perversion of scripture. Natural disaster is the origin of what the scripture was trying to explain, God. I see war in the same way as natural disaster, by the way. It is inevitable that people will die. That does not make it any less traumatic for those that experience the loss. But, it is a miracle that anyone is even here experiencing this reality in space and time. When something as mysterious and unexplainable as a cyclone or an earthquake wipes out so many lives, there is nothing to be outraged at, except life. You see? How can anyone bitch about the loss of life when life itself is just as unexplainable as that loss? This is the trade off for consciousness maybe? Driving in my car, hearing the rising tolls of these destructive events, I feel like Spock. In my heart I consider, weakly, how I would feel if I were caught in the middle of something like that. It is a small fear that streaks through me, shallow, like oil on water. Then I consider the possibility that our government has control of the primal powers of the Earth, and this makes me cock my eyebrow like that famous Vulcan. Then I have to make some maneuver in my car and the thought is gone. By the time I get to the my barber I can only think about how to tell him how short I want it. Then we talk about the Spurs and Hornets. If one stops and thinks about it, really, then it is staggering. But, what can be done with that? Send some money somewhere, get involved on some greater level with an organization that helps the folks?... pray? The book of Job is about this. I think the discussion can be informed greatly from reading this.

Anton Newcombe's depressed futility of melody

2008-05-05T09:33:00.000-07:00

"We Are The Niggers Of The World," an epic, Chopin-on-Valium piano instrumental, is beautifully-written, but Newcombe plays it the way newborn horses walk—that is to say, poorly. The beauty of it is that all those fumbled notes and labored arpeggios only serve to heighten the depressed futility of the melody, creating a pathos that wouldn’t exist if it was actually played well. A man who can’t be bothered to record more than one take of a song for which he is technically ill-suited is a man with a nation's worth of conviction.

This is typical crap one reads in any number of fanzines or blogs on any given day one makes the mistake of choosing to waste their time reading what some chump thinks about a given musical product released to the asteroid-like collapsing market of rock show biz. I know folks who love this Anton Newcombe shit bag. I gots no problem with him or his antics at all, as long as I never have to deal with it directly. There is a long tradition of brat rock to be sure. I mean, rock n roll at its very core is the music of spoiled ass American brats with no remorse for their mistakes in judgment. This culture of entitlement, though, also brought us the "nanny state" and the "Reagan Revolution" which birthed the deregulation of energy and communications industry and the "war on drugs." I see direct correlations between these seemingly disparate channels of pop culture, economics and politics. Perhaps it is just that I choose to see those relations. Overall, though, I think it is obvious that our culture has been modified towards, what I interpret as a dumb luck conspiracy of effete incompetents. This is not a new or provocative thought. And I may be fertilizing cliche with a risk of redundancy on such matters, or spitting at myself. With this in mind I could not resist sharing a bit from a review I read recently on line. The apologetic worship of the writer is nauseating. The review honestly says this piano piece sucks, but if it had been played correctly it would not have carried the same emotional weight? Such bullshit. This might be the beginning of my redundant, hate-filled fantasy of reviewing the reviewers. If I had more intellectual fire power I might attempt it. But I am just as lame and ill-prepared as the rest of this generation of losers produced by the baby boomer wave of neglect in public education. To be fair to those chronically self-obsessed off-spring of The Greatest Generation, it has been a steady decay from the start of the 20th century on. And it don't look good. As long as we have creative writing courses, though, at least we can find ways of saying that our shit don't stink. Guys like Anton Newcombe can be praised for their idiot genius by scribes of mediocrity tilling the dead soils of the WWW.

New Kind Of Servitude

2008-03-26T12:56:00.000-07:00

"Supreme power covers the surface of society with a network of small, complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered but softened, bent and guided. Men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to be nothing better than a flock of timid and industrial animals, of which government is the shepherd."

Alexis de Tocqueville

Veggie Bible

2008-02-17T12:11:00.000-08:00

"And the flesh of slain beasts in his body will become his own tomb. For I tell you truly, he who kills, kills himself, and whoso eats the flesh of slain beasts, eats of the body of death. For in his blood every drop of their blood turns to poison; in his breath their breath to stink; in his flesh their flesh to boils; in his bones their bones to chalk; in his bowels their bowels to decay; in his eyes their eyes to scales; in his ears their ears to waxy issue. And their death will become his death.”

MLK poem, 1st amendment and The N word.

2008-01-15T07:36:00.000-08:00

"Negro is an archaic racial term referring to people of high melanin content mainly of African origin. Prior to the shift in the lexicon of American and worldwide classification of race and ethnicity in the late 1960s, the appellation was accepted as a normal formal term both by those of African descent as well as non-African blacks. Now it is considered by many an ethnic slur.^[1]^[2]^[3] "Negro" means "black" in Spanish and Portuguese, and the Italian "nero" is similar (Latin: niger = "black")." from Wikipedia.
Wow, I guess this just happened. I did not know this was considered an ethnic slur. I wonder when African-American will be considered an ethnic slur? I feel dirty all the sudden, afraid I am gonna offend somebody with a word that was once considered acceptable.
My son is studying MLK in class this month, of course. He had a poetry assignment and used the subject of the iconic civil rights leader for one of his compositions. Within the poem he used the word, "negroes." I felt a little twinge in my conscience when he said it. I saw a flash of the Michael Richards apology on Letterman, when he was laughed at for using this word. Thinking with my "institutional" brain I had a suspicion that this word could have fallen from acceptance since I was a lad. I punched it in Wikipedia and boom there it was in black and white.
Of course I told him that this word has become an old-fashioned word. I felt it was right for his poem, though, and should not change it. He had just watched lots of films and read several books that used the word gratuitously. MLK, himself, he said, used the word in his famous speeches.
This discussion lead to us looking at the 1st amendment and talking about the implications of it. We both decided the word was right for this work he created and he would stand behind it armed with his first amendment rights. Who knew that the word negro would lead to such a wonderful experience for me and my boy.
His poem:

"MLK"

Martin was a very brave man.
The joiner of segregation.
The one who readied the nation.
He and his family were threatened many times.
Many Negroes didn't even have two dimes.

I do have some underlying fear that he will turn the poem in and it will cause some sort of ruckus , resulting in Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton holding a sit-in outside our house. I guess I better stock up on non-perishables and bottled water in case we are descended upon by the media circus.

Student Printz - Scientists cure cancer, but no one takes notice

2007-12-25T19:35:00.000-08:00

Student Printz - Scientists cure cancer, but no one takes notice

Cowboys Packers NFL Cable

2007-11-29T20:35:00.001-08:00

I was grouchy all week about the fact that this game would not be shown anywhere I could easily view it because of good ol' greed. It has never been lost on me how corrupt the men in professional sports are. I know they are soul less vampires hell bent on hoarding wealth; Anal retentive mongers of resources; asshats with no hope for rehabilitation. The way they are and the way they do things is highly regarded by most people. At the very least no one really pays much attention to them and their lack of a moral compass.
As the game grew closer I ping pong'd between wondering where I would watch the game and how I would burn my Dallas Cowboys cap. I flirted for the first time with walking away from my Fanhood for another spectator sport, like English Premiere or UT women's volleyball or Buddhist Pro-Am Wrestling, PBA, PGA, MLS? I made a a few calls, but no one was really around all week. The emails were silent on the subject. The prospect of squeezing into a sports bar filled me with a low grade fatigue. Although Big Games at Sports Bars can be fun. I was not in the mood. And the fact that I had no choice was key in my perception.
The day of the game I realized I had been in the house pretty much for 6 days with a sick kid. My experiments with quasi-vegetarianism were crumbling like ground round. The black bean chili I had in the crock pot smelled delightful and tasted perfect but for the still uncooked black beans. I had wondered why all the recipes called for canned black beans instead of dry. This is why. One must cook them for a solid 10-12 hours before they are soft enough to chew. Still at this hour that chili is simmering on the stove, waiting for the frijoles negros to soften. With this in mind I breathed slowly and tried to imagine somewhere that would be showing the game, but that would not have a bunch of people in it getting drunk and slobbering all over the floors. A church, electronics store, day care facility, school library, nothing really came to mind worth a damn. I had family an hour and a half away that had the satellite service which was paying the NFL's price for their content. But it seemed a long way to go on a school night to watch a game. I had a friend who had it at his house, but he was out of town. He said I could go watch it at his house, but he'd need to tell his gun totin' neighbors I would be there. I never got that worked out to my satisfaction. I had little choice but to listen to Brad Sham on the radio. But, where i live that local AM station does not come in very clearly. There is lots of noise and fade out's, tremolo static and the like. I scoured the internet looking for some illicit feed from local Dallas TV stations or an NFL network hack of some kind. I was surprised that there was nothing. Out of all of the "3000 free TV channels on the internet" ad's I looked thru, none of them had the game. I finally came across one that claimed to have NFL network. For a few dollars I could tap in. So, I stupidly, desperately gave them my info and charged the price for their service. Of course as soon as I got in I clicked on "Sports Programming" and saw a tab for "American Football." Beneath that it said, "There is no game." And the NFL network was no where to be found. I sent them an email asking for my money back and gave up. Then I remembered something my wife had told me she saw about NFL.com showing it on line. I went to check it out, but it didn't look good. I only found weird interviews with Deion Sanders and some of the players. Some ad's here and there scared me off a couple of times. I tried the radio for a while and listen to it. But, as I grew impatient with this old world scenario, I clicked over once more to NFL.com and found a live-ish broadcast of the game there.
It was a bit jerky and buggy, but it was the best thing I could get. I felt an exhaling in my chest, a relaxation that I would not be totally alienated from the sports entertainment empire this night. The game was good. Lots of scoring and playmaking, yadayada. The coverage on the web site was delayed a bit I figured out from listening to the radio in conjunction. That was not a big deal for me. I am usually a little behind anyway.
One truly disappointing thing about the coverage was the disembodied voice of long time Cowboy hater Bryan Gumble. Knowing he is a commentator on this network really turns my stomach. It was a good thing then that my black beans were retarded. Chris Collingsworth I don't care for much either. But I have gotten used to him. And having the dust from Costas' aura on his well tailored suits helps me stomach his slightly morbid arrogant tones. Gumble is just flat out lame, though. Even if I excused his Cowboy hate, he lacks the basic competence even of Deirdorf. He got lots of things flat wrong. Calling delay of game when it was false start, calling injured players by the wrong name multiple times until he finally got it right. The last interference call on GB that gave our beloved Pokes the win was challenged and questioned over and over by Gumble and Collingsworth and later by the "in-studio" team member Rod Woodson. Who would be a bigger Cowboy hater than Woodson. Jack ass.
In the end the Cowboys won and all was right with the world for that moment. But, this has really changed my opinion of the NFL. I know my fathered stopped giving a shit a long time ago. For the same reasons as a lot of men. When money becomes the driving force behind any entertainment it loses some mysterious quality that only exists in systems that are naturally populated and nurtured by their inhabitance. Across the board we can see this to be true: Music, Art, Literature, Academia, Sports, education, farming, etc. Lots of things have been transformed into robotic systems proving over and over their vast advantage in efficiency. NFL network is not one of them. They are a behemoth in cosmic coverings. I gotta go check on that chili. Go Cowboys!

Texas Voters Fail To Show Up

2007-11-07T06:27:00.000-08:00

16 Props. 9 Billion in new spending. 12 million registered voters in Texas. 1 million voted to pass every Prop. Ridiculous. I am pissed off at the people of Texas right now. I am gonna call all 12 million of you and fart in the phone. Ya bunch of lazy asshats! You deserve what is coming at you right now. For the million of you that voted...I cannot believe we passed Prop 12. Look at what is happening with the TxDOT and their toll road fiasco. You have been sold out to Spain. When the light blue helicopters come to take yer children away don't come cryin' to me.
OK, I feel better now. Maybe I should look at it in a more positive light. It take less than a million people to make a law or a change to an existing law. That is pretty easy to sway opinion. And even better, if one can somehow keep the law off the media radar it is likely to pass. Because, people seem to react to their ignorance in the voting booth by voting for something they do not understand. I think it might be some kind of psychological syndrome named for that. It could be thought of as a variation on Stockholm Syndrome. But, it is different.
Here is a picture of the proceedings wherein our Texas leaders sold us out to the Cintra-Zachary company. Put this one in yer family history photo album so you can show yer grand kids exactly the moment our national soverignty was lost forever. We can all personally thank Rick Perry for his distinguished role as puppet in this caper. Be sure and see what a nice life Mr. Perry has after he leaves office. Something tells me ol' Rick is gonna be taken care of. And when it cost us all a hundred bucks to drive to Dallas for the Red River Rivalry we can be secure in the fact that it cost Oklahomans the same as it does Kansans and Canadians and Mexicans and everyone in fuggin' North America. We will all be paying out the nose to drive anywhere if we are even allowed to drive anymore. By then the Climate Change witch hunts may have already taken this priviledge away from us.

Ok...rant over.....

Chinese Youths Crazy for English Alphabet Tattoos : UsedWigs

2007-10-28T19:31:00.000-07:00

Chinese Youths Crazy for English Alphabet Tattoos : UsedWigs

This is hilarious. Chinese teens getting English alphabet characters tattooed on'em. Same stupid joke that has been played on Americans with Chinese alphabet tat's.

Kid Rock Waffle House Fight Club

2007-10-22T10:03:00.000-07:00

Kid Rock played a sold out show in Atlanta and he couldn't think of a better idea for food than a waffle house? I mean, come on, who is managing this dudes' tour? Certainly they could have had a meal arranged somewhere other than popping into a waffle house. The dude should have food on his friggin bus. Anyway, he had some girl with him and, low and behold, her boyfriend happened to be there at that waffle house. Imagine that....sounds like Kid Rock got suckered into going there. Pretty strange if you think about it. I wrote about Trace Adkins doing a tour of Waffle Houses sometime ago as part of a promotion for his new record. For Kid Rock I am thinking we can do some kind of combo deal for a Waffle House Fight Club deal. What d'ya think? Kid Rock takes on the 2 or 3 finalists from a week long elimination tournament.

We Are Puttin It Away, Whoooo!

2007-10-22T09:59:00.000-07:00

In 2006, the world used 3.9 billion tons of oil. Fossil fuel usage in 2005 produced 7.6 billion tons of carbon emissions, and atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide reached 380 parts per million.
More wood was removed from forests in 2005 than ever before.
Steel production grew 10 percent to a record 1.24 billion tons in 2006, while primary aluminum output increased to a record 33 million tons. Aluminum production accounted for roughly 3 percent of global electricity use.
Meat production hit a record 276 million tons (43 kg per person) in 2006.
Meat consumption is one of several factors driving soybean demand. Rapid South American expansion of soybean plantations could displace 22 million hectares of tropical forest and savanna in the next 20 years.
The rise in global seafood consumption comes even as many fish species become scarcer: in 2004, 156 million tons of seafood was eaten, an average of three times as much seafood per person than in 1950.

Water fight in Caldwell County

2007-10-15T06:29:00.000-07:00

Disturbing going's on out in Drippin'. Save the water.

WATER AND POLITICS

Water fight in Caldwell County splits neighbors, political allies

Some want to pump from aquifer and sell to cities; others fear wells will dry up.

By Laylan Copelin
AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, October 14, 2007

DELHI — Former Texas Comptroller John Sharp once was a political godfather to state Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs. In 2002, Sharp, then running for lieutenant governor, hosted one of the first fundraisers for the fresh-faced Rose, who was just out of college and challenging a Republican incumbent.

Today, Sharp and Rose are not speaking. The relationship had deteriorated to the point that immediately after the legislative session, Sharp said he was "sympathetic" to someone challenging his fellow Democrat for re-election.

The source of their falling out? Water.

Specifically, Rose refused to give Sharp's friends — water developers — special treatment in a bill trying to bring groundwater regulation to this Caldwell County ranching community for the first time.

"It was just dead wrong for Caldwell County," Rose said.

Sharp is now downplaying the disagreement.

"There were a number of people upset because they thought Patrick had said one thing and did another," Sharp said. "I am over it. If you get mad at a politician every time they tell you one thing and do something else, you would die of a heart attack in short order."

Rose said he never made a deal with Sharp or anyone else.

"The only people upset are those who don't live in Caldwell County who wanted to make money off selling Caldwell County's water," he said.

The eastern extremes of the county are a no-man's land, a rare sliver of water-rich Texas on the outskirts of Austin surrounded by pumping regulations but beyond any regulatory hand on the local spigot.

It is a microcosm of the money, politics and tension between rural communities with water and the state's sprawling urban areas. Water (read money) is so emotional it pits neighbor against neighbor and, in this case, split political allies.

On one side are Delhi rancher Tony Spears and Austin developer Ken Wendler, who recruited Sharp's help in trying to sell water to the thirsty cities of San Marcos, Buda and Kyle, among others. The Spears-Wendler venture had envisioned pumping 40,000 acre-feet of water annually — about one-fourth of what the city of Austin uses in a year.

On the other side are landowners who turned to Rose because they fear their ranch wells would be pumped dry by such enterprises.

When Rose's groundwater legislation died in the Legislature in May, nobody got what he wanted. Rose didn't get the water district he had promised Caldwell County residents; Spears and Wendler didn't get the ability to move ahead with their venture. There were hard feelings all around, and emotions are still running high in eastern Caldwell County.

Pamela Hohman, a fourth-generation rancher tired of legislative intrigue, has gathered signatures of 95 landowners who want a vote next spring to decide whether to join a neighboring water district in Gonzales County.

"We don't mind sharing our water," she said. "But we don't want our wells pumped dry."

Spears, who made his money in billboards and land development, is not giving up.

"People down here think I'm the devil," said Spears, who's lived on his S Bar S ranch in Delhi (pronounced Dell-high) for 16 years. But, he added, "the water is there; the need is there."

Proposed Plum Creek expansion

In March, Rose introduced legislation to extend the boundaries of Caldwell County's only water district, the Plum Creek Conservation District, to include the area around Delhi. Wendler's lobbyists brought Rose a version that would have exempted any well their client had contracted to drill or might drill in the future as part of their initial venture.

In essence, Wendler and Spears wanted the groundwater district so they could show the security of orderly regulation to obtain financing and attract customers. But Wendler said they also needed their future wells exempted from any pumping limits to make the deal work.

Wendler said the plan was to drill 10 to 15 wells over 2,000 or 3,000 acres in eastern Caldwell County. Without the pumping exemption, Wendler said, the venture couldn't go forward under Plum Creek's rule that there must be 12,000 feet — more than two miles — between wells.

Rose refused. Instead, he passed his version, without the pumping exemption, in the House. It died in the Senate in the waning hours of the session after Sen. Glenn Hegar, whose district includes Caldwell County, said he was unable to forge local consensus on groundwater regulation.

But the Katy Republican first rattled Caldwell County residents with his own language exempting existing water wells before finally pulling the language. He denied offering the language on anyone's behalf.

"It was (my) amendment to get everyone's attention," he said. "I was trying to get them to the table."

Caldwell residents seek annexation vote

The bill's death just moved the fight from the Capitol hallways to the back roads of the county.

Residents in eastern Caldwell County could vote as early as May on whether this unregulated area would be annexed by the Gonzales County Groundwater District, which has some of the state's most stringent limits on pumping.

But Spears may have found a way around the vote. He is considering asking Plum Creek to annex his ranch and his allies' land — without a vote — so they can continue to pursue selling water.

Hohman and Spears' conflicting strategies could leave eastern Caldwell County with a patchwork of rules over an aquifer that is not bound — or protected — by political lines.

Robert Wilson, Plum Creek's lawyer, has researched the law.

"I don't see anything in the statute prohibiting it," he said of annexing Spear's ranch, even though it's not contiguous to Plum Creek's boundaries.

"Do I think there would be a huge hue and cry?" Wilson said. "Yeah."

Told of Spears' plan, Hohman said, "I guess it's worth millions of dollars to Mr. Spears to undermine the lives and welfare of his neighbors."

Spears said he wants to do the right thing.

"I want science to dictate what happens in the aquifer," he said.

Texas 130 helped pave way for project

At first blush, Sharp seems an unlikely player in a local water fight. A longtime lawmaker and comptroller, he has been out of office since 1998. He ran twice for lieutenant governor in the past decade and lost.

He's a principal at Ryan & Co., one of the nation's leading tax consulting firms, and last year helped Gov. Rick Perry and the Legislature create the state's new business tax as a way of cutting local property taxes.

This week he's appearing with Perry in support of a constitutional proposition to provide $3 billion in bonds for cancer research, a measure sponsored in the House by Rose.

He's still mentioned as a possible candidate for governor in 2010.

It's Sharp's political cachet, his longtime friendship with Wendler and his ties to Rose that brought Sharp into the Caldwell County fight. That, and the construction of Texas 130, a 90-mile toll road from Georgetown to Seguin that has developers dreaming of miles and miles of Texas subdivisions, according to Wendler.

Last fall, Dallas investors called Sharp looking for land along the southern half of the toll road. He referred them to Wendler. (About the same time, Sharp, who's a real estate broker, and Wendler created Trans Texas Strategic Properties, a vehicle for real estate deals that they haven't used yet.)

Wendler said he found plenty of land in southern Travis and Caldwell counties, but little water. Without water, the subdivisions could not be built.

He sensed a different opportunity: Develop water, not land.

Wendler said he found the closest available water in eastern Caldwell County, which sits on the edge of the massive Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer. In the middle of Wendler's target was the Spears' ranch of several hundred acres straddling the county line.

Wendler phoned Spears out of the blue. Wendler's lawyers reserved a corporate name, T.K. Aquatrans, and the two men began looking for water deals.

The lack of a groundwater district, however, was a problem.

Ironically, water experts say, the lack of government regulation — rather than encouraging a land rush for water rights — makes it too risky for thirsty cities like San Marcos or Buda, or even private water developers like Wendler and Spears, to bring the water to market.

Few, including Wall Street, are willing to gamble millions on pipelines and wells without knowing the rules.

Wendler turned to his friend Sharp for help during this spring's legislative session.

Rancher had defeated regulation

Sharp said he had no financial interests in any water deals. At Wendler's request, however, he began accompanying Wendler to meetings where his political cachet could help with potential customers and investors, including a water company from San Jose, Calif.

Sharp's ties to Rose meant the most to Wendler.

At Wendler's request, Sharp had one goal: Making sure that Rose, Spears and County Judge H.T. Wright agreed that Plum Creek's water district should be expanded to include eastern Caldwell County.

Spears' involvement would be a problem. In some quarters, he was considered radioactive.

In the past, Spears had been an ardent opponent of any government regulation of his water. His neighbors credited Spears with killing Rose's legislation in 2005, and Spears had once donated money to Wright's election opponent after a falling-out with the judge over water regulation.

"I dislike everything Tony Spears stands for," Wright said last week.

In another twist, Spears' cousins were battling Rose at the Legislature because the lawmaker was trying to regulate their rock-crushing business in Hays County.

Sharp talked to Rose, Spears and Wright separately.

Despite the obstacles, Sharp said he thought there was a consensus that the Plum Creek district would be expanded. He denied being involved in raising the prospect of special treatment for the Spears-Wendler water venture.

40,000 acre-feet a year to be pumped

After Sharp had drawn the broad strokes, Wendler's lobbyists filled in the details with a bill expanding the Plum Creek district but exempting their clients, and others, from pumping regulation.

A cover page provided by Wendler's lobbyists outlined a proposal for T.K. Aquatrans to pump 40,000 acre-feet yearly from the area. It claimed the pumping would not harm the aquifer.

Rose said he refused to consider it. "Decisions this important need to be made by locally elected officials," he said.

He said he didn't learn that Spears was involved until late in the legislative session and didn't know that T.K. Aquatrans was Spears until last week.

For this story, Spears did not acknowledge that he was the "T" in T.K. (as in Tony and Ken) Aquatrans, although Wendler confirmed it.

"It was a group talking to me about a deal," Spears said. "It fizzled."

Sharp said he was unaware of the bill's details, including exempting future wells from any regulation, although the lobbyists copied their e-mails to Sharp. He said he didn't read them because his secretary screens his e-mails for him.

Wendler said he and Sharp talked from time to time about the legislation's progress.

A challenger for Rose?

After the legislative session ended, there were rumors that Rose's critics were searching for an opponent for him.

Sharp said he was aware of the effort but denied being part of it.

"I have not called anybody about running against Patrick," Sharp said.

He added, however, that when it seemed a Democratic opponent might surface this summer, he took the would-be candidate's phone call.

That challenge, however, fizzled.

"I've calmed down," Sharp said last week.

Rose is vowing to refile his groundwater legislation if the Delhi residents decide not to join Gonzales County's district. Hegar suggested the Legislature might have to revisit the broader issue no matter what happens during the interim.

2009 could be another year of Capitol intrigue for the Delhi residents.

"I've been disappointed in what the impact of money and the potential of profit has had on issues like water that's so important to Caldwell County," Rose said.

Greensburg-Kansas-before-after-tornado

2007-10-09T13:56:00.000-07:00

Greensburg-Kansas-before-after-tornado

Yummy Diamonds

2007-10-02T08:35:00.000-07:00

★☞ SelectSmart.com 2008 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE SELECTOR | American President Candidates Biden Bush Clark Clinton Constitution Party Democratic Party D

2007-10-01T05:06:00.000-07:00

★☞ SelectSmart.com 2008 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE SELECTOR | American President Candidates Biden Bush Clark Clinton Constitution Party Democratic Party Dodd Edwards Gore Gravel Green Party Hunt

Pretty cool and accurate. Pretty much all the front runners were way down my list. And, no surprise Ron Paul was number one 4 me.

Rick Salomon, Vampire to Wed trampy Pam

2007-09-30T19:13:00.000-07:00

This is an absurd character that inhabits this planet Earth. Rick Salomon is a guy that is known only for his involvement with highly suspect and superficial women in the entertainment biz. Shannon Doherty, Paris Hilton and Pamela Anderson. His only qualification is that he was born into the Hollywood industry, literally, he was the son of a Vice Pres at Warner Bros. He married and had a couple of kids in the 90's with a well known voice actress, Elizabeth Daily. She did the voice for Tommy Pickles in Rugrats and Buttercup in The Powerpuff Girls. She was also in Rod Stewart's Young Turks vid in the 80's and she played Dottie in Pee Wee's Big Adventure. Somewhere along the way this guy lost it, left his family and hooked up with Paris Hilton. Turns out he is the guy in the "1 Night In Paris" amateur porn flick that captivated young cyber-voyeur imaginations a few years back. He was married to Shannon Doherty during this time and I guess once she got wind of his porn actor aspirations with Ms. Hilton, she split. Luckily he did not reproduce with her. Obviously this guy is much lacking in moral character. So it comes as no surprise that romantic masochist Pam Anderson has filed a marriage license with Mr. Salomon. This guy is a walking, talking sign of the Apocalypse, without a doubt. He has two daughters from Daily, apparently. I wonder what they will think of their father and all his escapades? He smells of vampire to me. Really that is the only way to describe this behavior among the Hollywood elite, Vampires. But they would like that description too much, so we have to come up with a better way to say they suck.....

McDermott and Rose Divorce

2007-09-27T19:32:00.000-07:00

I don't know who this guy is,Dylan McDermott, but I decided it might be fun to write about Hollywood gossip from the perspective of someone who never watches movies and, generally, only kids TV and sports programming. It turns out this cat McDerm, as I'll lazily refer to him, is splittin' up with his wife, Shiva Rose. They have been married for 12 years and have two kids. This always surprises me when I hear about someone I know gettin'a D-I-V-O-R-C-E. Not that I know these creeps or anything. But, it is odd I think. At 12 years it seems like one would consider the truth that this is a good thing and just needs to be worked out. Some patience must be had to let the relationship develop thru whatever downturns and low points may have occurred. Sometimes things just don't work out, sure. In relationships this old and older it always seems mysterious when they vaporize. And when other people write and read about it, well that's friggin' weird. This was a short little snippet of a story, so I take it that this cat is not all that, dig? I did learn something interesting from an interview he gave in which he describes falling in love with his wife at a coffee shop somewhere. She was a total stranger, mind you. He was basically a lecherous caffeine junky probably looking at every girl that came in the joint. The barista was just about to call the cops when in walked Shiva, lookin' so fine. And McDerm explains, "I was in love with her right away," he said. "For her, it was a little longer, you know, a couple of years. But for me, it was right away. I guess it was grace."
There ya have it right there. She never really loved him. He chose her, she did not choose him. I suspect he was "in love" with her for a year maybe, two? Then the kid came and his movie star life....ya know the story. He drifted, probably was makin' time with lots of gals, movie star and all. Then right at about ten years of marriage he was just about ready to call it quits and bam another kiddo..."surprise McDerm, I am a little bundle of joy!" He sticks around, which is admirable. In this day and age, a man of wealth and fame does not need to stick around much. So they tried to make it work, but it just ain't happening. And now, the end has come for this 40 something couple from California. Somehow I wish they could keep it together, ya know, for a few more years and then maybe, just maybe things would line up and boom another baby. Looking at them they seem like very cool people, stable, smart, friendly, sexy, without any noticeable flaws. They could both go right now and get lucky with just about anyone they know, I am sure. But that is not the point really, is it? This is a family that is losing its core, its soul, it life. A family is being destroyed because these maggots can't get their shit together. I doubt their kids care that they are movie stars or TV stars, actually, I guess. No, their kids just no this is mama and daddy and they are bustin' up for no good reason. Sucks for the kids, it really does. Maybe it is suppose to be though. Maybe this is one of a series of events that will end up rattling the reality around us all, the ripples building into a crescendo of speculation and promise.

william-mackenzie_gallery-of-geography_1870_western-united-states_2000_2450_600.jpg (JPEG Image, 2000x2450 pixels) - Scaled (23%)

2007-09-21T06:47:00.000-07:00

william-mackenzie_gallery-of-geography_1870_western-united-states_2000_2450_600.jpg (JPEG Image, 2000x2450 pixels) - Scaled (23%)

This is a cool map of the Western U.S. in 1870. Arizona and Texas look particularly odd.

ScienceDaily: Flu Virus Trots Globe During Off Season, Mixes With Other Viral Strains

2007-09-21T06:37:00.000-07:00

ScienceDaily: Flu Virus Trots Globe During Off Season, Mixes With Other Viral Strains

Interesting article about how the flu virus from a previous season dies out and goes on a vacation, of sorts, to reinvent itself. Then it returns in genetic disguise to wreak havoc once again. It sounds like Pokemon stuff, really. It seems diabolical. Anything global seems diabolical to me though. I am kind of paranoid about global viruses. I wouldn't say it is irrational or anything. But, whenever there are global events that alter policy or economy or both I look very close at the details. This is maybe the beginning of some kind of real understanding about global viruses that should serve to lessen fears. This cold easily be used to create more fear. I have always wondered why fl viruses emerge in the fall and winter months. I assumed the medical science community had already figured this out. But, apparently, they have not. We do not know, for sure, why flu viruses erupt seasonally. I have always thought it had to do with schools. The obvious shift in our culture is the school year, which comes after millions of people travel all over the world and return home.

Poison Popcorn

2007-09-10T17:37:00.001-07:00

http://tinyurl.com/2ev9xm

This is an article about Popcorn Lung. Apparently there have been workers at popcorn factories getting sick from this toxic vapor for some time now. One would think that was enough to abandon use of this synthetic butter product by the producers. Now there is a consumer case of this lung disease. This guy was diagnosed with popcorn lung after eating two bags of popcorn a day for 10 years. He said often he would break the bags open and breathe in the buttery vapors, thinking of course it was B-U-T-T-E-R. No it was D-I-A-C-E-T-Y-L. After reading this you might want to know about organic popcorn: http://tinyurl.com/ywkano

Generic Names For Soda

2007-08-31T02:29:00.000-07:00

Here is a map, broken down by county, nation wide, that expresses through differentiation in colors the regional diversity in generic names for soda. Texas,for instance, has lots of people that say,"coke" in meaning for all sodas. And where that is good for coca-cola, it could also mean people just do not respond to brands in controllable ways. Though I suppose we know we do, maybe on some collective level we lose that capacity. Really I am just impressed with this map. I love seeing research done on seemingly meaningless crap. The infinite resources available to science and academia are indescribable without the use of terms of giant-ism. In all likely-hood, though this was maybe produced by a marketing research company for a large soda manufacturer. At any rate it is interesting. If yer like me you will be wondering what the "other" names are.

http://fallenangel.furtopia.org/JUNK/total-county.gif

Resigned

2007-08-27T18:21:00.000-07:00

For the might of the sword he lay down on the floor and wept
For the heart of the people he betrayed his own blood and swept
the bones into the corners and stained with the urine of self he
cropped the photo's to reveal nothing but the chink in the armor,
the perfume in the pocket,the shoe on the other foot, the mighty
warrior brought down in the fight, shot down, shown the door and mocked
by the talentless licking their TV's to savor the last morsel smeared, splattered
dried to flake since the day he testified before the senate
His silence will stick now and many will sing of justice watching
the back of his black hair quiver in his gate leading out over the
carpeted rooms and listening devices

Frequency Of Atlantic Hurricanes Doubled Over Last Century, Climate Change Suspected

2007-08-02T08:35:00.000-07:00

These folks seemed to have the conclusion first. They then rummaged through the data to support this conclusion. I am a layman. But why study 1900-1930, 1930-1940 and 1995-2005. Looking for averages is interesting. But, with something as complex as the weather, averages mean nothing. It's like when the Ag's and Horn's meet on the field of battle. Averages mean nothing. And then if they studied 1930 as part of their first group, shouldn't they not include that in the second group? This really skews the numbers I think.

Science Daily — About twice as many Atlantic hurricanes form each year on average than a century ago, according to a new statistical analysis of hurricanes and tropical storms in the north Atlantic. The study concludes that warmer sea surface temperatures (SSTs) and altered wind patterns associated with global climate change are fueling much of the increase.

A new climate study indicates that hurricanes and tropical storms became more frequent in the Atlantic Ocean during three distinct periods over the last century, as shown in this graphic. The first part of the 20th century (in white) was relatively quiet, with an annual average of 6 observed hurricanes and tropical storms. The annual average increased to 10 after 1930, and then reached 15 from 1995 to 2005 (in darkest shading). This graphic shows both the total number each year (blue line) and the nine-year running average, calculated from four years back through four years ahead of a given year. Called a running mean, this method smoothes out year-to-year variability to reveal the long-term trend. The new research associates the increasing storms with rising sea-surface temperatures. (Credit: Illustration by Steve Deyo, Copyright UCAR)

"These numbers are a strong indication that climate change is a major factor in the increasing number of Atlantic hurricanes," says Holland.

The analysis identifies three periods since 1900, separated by sharp transitions, during which the average number of hurricanes and tropical storms increased dramatically and then remained elevated and relatively steady. The first period, between 1900 and 1930, saw an average of six Atlantic tropical cyclones (or major storms), of which four were hurricanes and two were tropical storms. From 1930 to 1940, the annual average increased to 10, consisting of five hurricanes and five tropical storms. In the final study period, from 1995 to 2005, the average reached 15, of which eight were hurricanes and seven were tropical storms.

This latter period has not yet stabilized, which means that the average hurricane season may be more active in the future. Holland and Webster caution, however, that it is not possible at this time to predict the level at which the frequency and intensity of storms will stabilize.

The increases over the last century correlate closely with SSTs, which have risen by about 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit in the last 100 years. The changes in SSTs took place in the years prior to the sharp increases in storm frequency, with an SST rise of approximately 0.7 degrees Fahrenheit leading up to 1930 and a similar rise leading up to 1995 and continuing even after. The authors note that other studies indicate that most of the rise in Atlantic SSTs can be attributed to global warming.

Natural cycles and global warming

The unusually active hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005 have spurred considerable research into the question of whether more intense tropical cyclones are correlated with natural cycles, global warming, or some other cause. The new study indicates that natural cycles are probably not the entire cause because the increase has happened across the last century rather than oscillating in tandem with a natural cycle.

The study also finds that enhanced observations in recent decades cannot account for all of the increase. To observe storms in the Atlantic more systematically, meteorologists began relying on data from aircraft flights in 1944 and satellites about 1970. The distinct transitions in hurricane activity noted by Holland and Webster occurred around both 1930 and 1995.

"We are of the strong and considered opinion that data errors alone cannot explain the sharp, high-amplitude transitions between the climatic regimes, each with an increase of around 50 percent in cyclone and hurricane numbers, and their close relationship with SSTs," the authors state.

While the number of storms has steadily increased, the proportion of hurricanes to all Atlantic tropical cyclones has remained steady. Hurricanes have generally accounted for roughly 55 percent of all tropical cyclones. However, the proportion of major hurricanes (those with maximum sustained winds of at least 110 miles per hour) to less intense hurricanes and tropical storms has oscillated irregularly, and has increased significantly in recent years.

Last year's storms

The 2006 hurricane season was far less active than the two preceding years, in part because of the emergence of an El Nino event in the Pacific Ocean. However, that year, which was not included in the study, would have ranked above average a century ago, with five hurricanes and four other named storms.

"Even a quiet year by today's standards would be considered normal or slightly active compared to an average year in the early part of the 20th century," Holland says.

The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research manages the National Center for Atmospheric Research under primary sponsorship by the National Science Foundation. Opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this release are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Reference: Greg J. Holland and Peter J. Webster, "Heightened Tropical Cyclone Activity in the North Atlantic: Natural Variability or Climate Trend?", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, July 30, 2007.

908-mischievous-aussies.jpg (JPEG Image, 321x416 pixels)

2007-08-02T08:23:00.000-07:00

Speed Cam Revenge-
Texas is experimenting with these cameras in the western part of the state. Won't be long before we have these things everywhere I am sure. All in the name of safety. The safety police are not safe for any of us. But this article from an Aussie news paper, if it is indeed true (I just don't like to check snopes every time), illustrates that a bit of intestinal fortitude coupled with some mischievous creativity can do a lot of good.

Frank Zappa Strasse

2007-07-31T08:06:00.000-07:00

What once was street 13 in the industrial outskirts of east Germany, among the dismal communist era buildings they have found a new name on the street sign. Frank Zappa Strasse. A group of about 160 bands who rehearse in a building on this street have lobbied for a long time to rename this street after the iconic, freaky American rock star composer. "Mr. Zappa, what do you call this kind of music you play?"

Alaska pt. 2

2007-07-29T21:47:00.000-07:00

DAY TWO: Juneau is a place one can see a glacier, mountains, bald eagles and great cultural history. One can also find plenty of 20 dollar entree’s, diamonds, Russian nesting dolls, t-shirts, totems and cute little Eskimo dolls. Oh yes and in the summer giant cruise ships, massive fuggin’ cruise ships full of consumers crawling around like ants ripping apart a bug carcass to bring back to the colony. OK, that is pretty bad writing. But, this is a BLOG fer Gidsacks.....eh? Not having a vehicle at our disposal we took advantage of the hotel shuttle and city buses. Lots of walking once we got dumped downtown. We ate overpriced fishes and then contemplated taking the Mendenhall Glacier. The others went for the glacier run. I was just not up to hiking a mile up to a glacier after the day of travel we’d had. Instead I hit the tourist stores in hopes of procuring a bevy of trinkets and keepsakes that might assuage the thirst in my brood for contact with the lonely, violent west. I was able to find some shirts and other odd things for not too much; wooden eggs, Russian toys etc. When I finished my attention turned towards getting a ride back out to the hotel. I waited for an hour for a city bus which was packed with rush hour workers......zzzzzzzzzz.....out like a light.....
DAY THREE: Wow I just passed out there. I could not keep my eyes open. Took a long afternoon nap, then woke up and wondered out, still dazed, into the meadow at Fort Seward in Haines to lay in the sun. Apparently we homo-sapiens have some kind of button on us that the sun can push to put us right. So, to take up where I left off...long story short I found my way back to the hotel amidst the great unwashed and bedded down early. Being 3 hours behind Texas time, it felt later than it was. We woke up about 6am to prepare for a ferry ride up an inlet to Haines. Luckily we were on the fast ferry. The bigger slower ones can take 4 hours or more to make the trip. This one made it in 2 hours+. Claude saw a whale, which he was way too proud about. It was almost as if he was bragging about it. Funny, I have never known Claude to brag about anything??? We had a fine time though jutting through the water. Arriving in Haines we were taken good care of by the kind folks there. Renee and Brita delivered us and the Clumsy Lovers to our respective hotels where we proceeded to spend the day in the blue sunshine. Oh yes, it was a beautiful day in Haines. This place was established by the building of a fort, as I understand it, Fort William Seward. There was some kind of border dispute between the yanks and canooks (sp?). So the Canadians built a fort. As Brita put it, the only thing they ever fought was boredom. Our hotel was once the commanders quarters. If there are ghosts here I know they are Canadian, so no big, eh? Are there any Canadian ghost stories? We took in some lunch together and then blomp, nappy yo! We woke up in the late afternoon and were met by our guide Lindy who took us out to Chilkoot lake to try and see some bears. Bears are just beginning to consider coming down from the mountains to catch some fish in the rivers. They are still eating mostly grass, though. We stopped beside a river where the salt water meets the fresh. I saw a seal slipping back down towards the salty stuff on her way back from a salmon run. There were eagles feeding their eaglet in a nest, mountain goat trotting down the side of a mountain, as they tend to do and then boom out of the grass along the river I saw it.....ta da...a bear. A coastal brown bear which is the same as a grizzly. This little guy was about 3 years old and had been given the name of stockings, because of the dark fur on his legs. He was limping and appear as if he had been shot by a local homeowner. He was jamming on the grass around there. Wow, chomping on it y’all. From there we went up to the lake itself and saw some more eagles. We also got a special privilege from a local dude that I cannot speak of. It was cool though. Made it back to the hotel just in time to get some salmon for my damn self. Claude hooked up with Damon Hoffman to go out and check crab pots and fish maybe. I couldn’t do it, I had to eat, yo. I have not seen or heard from him this morning. Should be interesting.
DAYFOUR: Sometimes in my travels I meet people that seem to belong, truly where they are and as they are. The spectrum of values in this regard is vast and complex. On the positive side of this I would place my new friends in the little town of Haines, AK. Damon and Renee Hoffman are two such folks who impressed with an ease of grace I do not normally witness in this world. So full of humility and kindness are they that they would probably dismiss such talk as I am making here. So I will not go into great detail about what makes them such wonderful people. Those who know them understand this very well. Those who might know them hopefully will realize their fortune when this occurs. I certainly did. I met them independent of each other throughout the first day in Haines. When I finally put it together that they were married it was a moment of..”of course they are” joy. At any rate I wish the best for them and their town, friends and family. There were many folks much like them here. The open, friendly spirit we were met with over and over again during our stay was as stunning as the landscape around us. Perhaps one cannot help but be in such gleeful contentment during the summer days of this place. The winters must be long and cold. The clear, blue sunshine summer days are rare and to be enjoyed. I would like to think that they are as joyful a people in the darkest of winter. Forgive my romantic tone. It is just that way today. Sleep deprived and full of salmon I board this ferry bound for Juneau. Home is not too far away. By tomorrow night I will be back in my rainy Texas home with my glowing family. I do long for them. But I will not soon forget this lovely place.
The Southeast Alaska State Fair is a classic local fair full of a few antique rides like the carousel, ferris wheel, strong man hammer slam, dunk booth etc. Lots of great food and other community booths with good info for the folks here. We did an early afternoon “teaser set” for the fairgoer. This is for the fact that they turn the house for the evening concerts. We were given the task of tempting the early fair patrons to return in the night for a longer, more far out show. After such beautiful weather rain set in that evening. But these folks have no problem with rain. As one fellow explained, he always wears shorts under his rain gear cause one never knows what the weather will do. No worries, though, we were playing in a covered area. Folks got out of the rain and into the show. Bluegrass 101 an outfit out Juneau opened up the show and got the people jumping early. Then the candle dancers, a group of women and girls from Haines did their routines of sway and fire to the enjoyment of everyone. Soon we were launching into our show with an introduction by Gabe, another charming sparkler of a person. As it turned out Gabe and me had a mutual friend that we connected on, Jim Trowbridge of Shreveport,LA who lived and loved out in Colorado for some time. The show was loud and jubilant. Much dancing and hi-jinx swirled about the place. We kept it rolling for a couple of hours into the 1am hour I am sure. It was a bonfied great time here in the last frontier. I forsee a return trip someday soon. Until then we shall keep you in our hearts, Alaskans. Cheers!

Alaska pt 1 (Bing thread)

2007-07-28T10:22:00.000-07:00

DAY ONE:Waking at 5am after a midnight bed time is never good for a body. But, there it is, the sound of a cell phone alarm singing me to consciousness. I continued my careful consideration of what needed to be done and in what order; What time should I be there at the airport; Gear consolidation to avoid extra baggage charge, etc. Getting there early is always worth it for me. I hate being late and rushing to make a flight. That is never good for a body. So, sleep deprivation vs.compressed time stress? Sleep can be revisited on a plane, the unknown damage caused by that kind of stress might not be as easily dealt with. My experience today on Alaska airlines has been really great. There is a mellow vibes running throughout the people who work here. The customers are in turn, seemingly, pretty laid back as well. Early morning flights are generally easier that way though. Later in the day weather and other delays have a way of amplifying the stress of the situation. Austin to Seattle was long and sleepy. I read the NYT and then listened to Bing Crosby and Bob Dylan (not at the same time). I don’t know that I have ever made clear how much I love Bing Crosby, definitely one of my favorites singers. A lot of folks find him to be pretty square, compared to other crooners from his day. And, yes he was pretty cheesy and owned by the evil empire. His voice, though and his phrasing were unmistakable, unique and delightful when heard with these ears. Bing was one of those singer/celebrities that were always in our living rooms. He permeated the American popular culture for decades with an effortless style. I have heard he was an ass hole to his wife and kids. I don’t doubt it. I would imagine most men from that era were ass holes to their families. To be fair, I think, lots of men still are ass holes to their families. I am not an ass hole to my kids and wife. I am proud of this fact. But, if Bing was I am sorry to hear it. His voice is still one that I love to listen to. Generally I shy away from passing judgment on musicians, actors and other artists based on their dirty laundry. Immunity to the media hype surrounding some of these is not easy to nurture. I have fallen prey to my share of tabloid temptations. These are usually centered around those that are not considered “artist.” Having these no-talent, fame whores bashed in the media is fine by me. But, Bing, I think is better than that. So I ignore that stuff. It should be between him and his family. Yes, I know that he is dead. But death does not end that kind of shit. When that kind of abusive stuff happens inside of families it is forever. This is an interesting idea. What kind of emotional echoes might we all be living with from events that occurred generations ago. If ones great grand mother was sexually abused, how might that influence the experience of her descendants? If the abuse is a known fact or not the ripples might be long lasting. There would not necessarily even be ways of defining or identifying these ripples. In that sense, maybe knowing Crosby’s personal family history could be enlightening to the listener.

Hurricane Stat.

2007-07-26T20:58:00.001-07:00

During the most recent 50-year period, 1957 to 2006, 83 hurricanes hit the United States, 34 of them major. In contrast, during the 50-year period from 1900 to 1949, 101 hurricanes (22% more) made U.S. landfall, including 39 (or 15% more) major hurricanes.

ruston mower

2007-07-26T15:52:00.000-07:00

Watch out that was a close call, hope nobody got that shit.

Paradox sham

2007-07-25T20:47:00.000-07:00

OK, so it is true I posted this stupid poem thinking it was written by the Dolly Llama. Well it wasn't and now I look like a real baffoon to all you internet savvy buddhists. Our entire nitch market threatened by my stupid, naive haste to publish this stupid F'n poem. Man, I will never believe anything on the internet again having to with the Dali Yama. I should email him so he knows somebody is taking advantage of his image on-line.

The Paradox Of Our Age

2007-07-24T19:03:00.001-07:00

We have bigger houses but smaller families;

more conveniences, but less time.

We have more degrees but less sense;

more knowledge but less judgment;

more experts, but more problems;

more medicines but less healthiness.

We’ve been all the way to the moon and back,

but have trouble in crossing the street to meet our new neighbour.

We built more computers to hold more copies than ever,

But have less real communication;

We have become long on quantity,

but short on quality.

These are times of fast foods but slow digestion;

Tall mean but short characters;

Steep profits but shallow relationships.

It’s a time when there is much in the window

But nothing in the room.

His Holiness the 14^th Dalai Lama.

The Death of Dynamic Range

2007-07-22T22:21:00.000-07:00

The Death of Dynamic Range

Rock Rap Confidential

2007-07-20T15:06:00.000-07:00

Rock Rap Confidential-HT Get Health Coverage if you are an actor, musician. Bob Graham sent me this link and it is very interesting

ROky and Earth Changes

2007-07-11T23:24:00.001-07:00

The sky broke open and thundered on us in the way to Mississippi tonight. Johnny's pizza was good to us, but we never saw D Green at the Casino in the Port city. Scratchy bugged me all the while listening to Roky. I am obsessed with Cold Night For Alligators. There is something about that song that has always captured my imagination. Creature With The Atom Brain is a close second. It might happen some night soon that we break into a mini-Roky tribute. Or maybe we'll do a whole record of Roky songs. That would go over like lead balloon. Now that Roky is well and jammin it all over the world, nobody wants to hear anyone but him do his songs. As well it should be. I think maybe Roky was just killin time til 2012. The lizard people are coming back to bestow upon their offspring the rule of the earth, me thinks. It is obvious isn't it? So many sightings over Mexico City. Get ready, especially is you are one of us bug people. Those lizard aliens will eat us all I am sure. They are not expecting Roky to be ready. I think they thought they dealt him a final card years ago when they trapped him in a cloak and dagger dilemma. I am no Roky super fan or nothing. I love some of his stuff. But, it is interesting to me to see people getting into him for only the "feel good" part of his story. It is not that I do not want his audience to grow and for him to appear on an episode of Hannah Montana and throw egg in the face of B.R. Cyrus. I do want this to happen. But, it is just weird to see lots of people listening to some of these freaked out tunes. I mean Atom Brain is friggin' tripped out, yo. And he is always on about lucifer and satan and shit. Yet it is a love fest when he plays. People joyously singing Night Of The Vampire is kinda weird man. I think it is good weird. I just wanted to point it out here, though. I understand why this is happening. A minor miracle has taken place and Roky is better. It is cause for raucous joy. But, this could still have something to do with Earth Changes.

Bacon Trees Rule

2007-07-09T08:05:00.000-07:00

All hail the end of rain here in Central Texas. Our annual average rainfall is 36in. Last I checked we were at 34in for the current year. In March Lake Travis was more than 12ft below normal. Now it is 60ft over. (These are not official numbers folks. Purely derived from anecdotal trolling) There is no doubt though that we have gotten massive rains over the last 6 weeks. The Gourds show this past weekend was memorable for it being the debut of our newest material from our brand new recording, Noble Creatures. As a matter of fun I ran an anagram engine on that title and came up with many entertaining alternatives. But, seeing as sharing anagrams is akin to sharing photo's of a family reunion with strangers on an airplane, I will spare you the list. My fave though was the graphic,"Bacon Trees Rule." This reminds me I bought some bacon this past Saturday at the Sunset Valley Farmers Market. I need to cook that up this morning for the kids. What if bacon grew on trees and pigs were made of arugula? Andy Langer came out with Chet Himes and recorded the show for XM Cross Country Armadillo Radio Hour. There was a short interview section we did before the show. Langer asked me to describe this thing again. Nothing against Mr. Langer, but jeez, do the Drive By Truckers have to constantly describe what it is they do? What do The Flatlanders call their music? Alejandro, what do you call this kind of music? Does anyone ask the meteorologist what kind of rain this is? (bad analogy) Are we that "far out" that we have to explain it all the time to everyone in the music media? I told Mr. Langer that 40 years ago this music would have been called rock music. In the same way Graham Parsons or The Band were called rock music. The problem comes not from the invention of any new musical forms, but from the innovations in music marketing. Like most of society the music business has become specialized and fragmented to the point that a band like us confuses more than enthuses. Does anyone remember free form radio when DJ's actually picked out and played music they liked? There was a time when record labels were run by people who loved music, understood great art and talent when they experienced it and based their marketing on such. There was a time when a talented person with a good song could be heard on a wide scale. There was a time when great music enriched and united collective society. I am not saying that we are the greatest thing since Chuck Berry. I just want to illustrate that we make music in a simple way. For better or worse, very little thought goes into what we do with it. We have no image, no marketing plans, no delusions of grandeur, no lust for super fame. Our role is to challenge the conventions of commercial music product and provide a true alternative to the pablum of the mainstream. Snobby, maybe one could perceive it that way. I went on to explain that when people hear our music they understand what it is. It is pretty simple music with obvious sources that illuminate the derivatives. Lyrically the songs can be impressionistic and non-linear. But, with a small amount of imagination one can derive narratives or other equally valuable patterns from them. This approach gets back to the fragmented elements of our aforementioned "splinteriffic" world. Politics, economics, health care, religion, media and pop-culture when taken at face value, for me, possess a highly surreal texture and mostly disorienting themes. The abstract and obscure are being amplified as quickly as processor speeds. If one is paying attention one might experience similar effects on the imagination. The butterfly effect of this phenomenon is disturbing. As a writer I try to describe the world I live in. Sometimes I write simple lyrics about simple things, sometimes I write twisted lyrics about freakishly humorous things. I never seek to make these more palatable for anyone. I would hope rather that some might, as some do, take an interest in their own interpretation of these words and gather some insight into their own experience. This is what I think art has always done for humans. Having a music journalist ask me to explain "art" is both a maddening and numbing moment that requires much more time and atmosphere than is possible in the average interview. This is why so many have their "talking points" when in the orbit of media drones. I suppose it would benefit me to conjure such gizmo's of dribble. Or maybe for the duration of this round of interviews I will answer every question with the adorable and engaging phrase, "Bacon Trees Rule."

Psychology Today: Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature

2007-07-06T21:44:00.000-07:00

Psychology Today: Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature

ScienceDaily: Fossil DNA Proves Greenland Once Had Lush Forests; Ice Sheet Is Surprisingly Stable

2007-07-06T10:54:00.000-07:00

ScienceDaily: Fossil DNA Proves Greenland Once Had Lush Forests; Ice Sheet Is Surprisingly Stable

Interesting new findings coming form ice corp samples of greenland ice sheet. Basically, when our world was 5 degrees warmer 125,000 years ago the ice sheet did not melt away and cause a huge rise in sea levels. I think the current warming is not such a big cause for alarm as many are suggesting. And only a small percentage can be linked to our carbon foot stomping. Most of it should be blamed on the Sun.

Newsvine - Armwrestler Sends Lookalike to Weigh-In

2007-06-25T17:07:00.000-07:00

Newsvine - Armwrestler Sends Lookalike to Weigh-In

Gmail - add farms and ranches to forests ... and you have most of land stewardship's challenges ...

2007-06-18T08:34:00.000-07:00

Gmail - add farms and ranches to forests ... and you have most of land stewardship's challenges ...

ScienceDaily: Sleep Disorders Highly Prevalent Among Police Officers

2007-06-12T22:19:00.000-07:00

ScienceDaily: Sleep Disorders Highly Prevalent Among Police Officers

This is just goofy the way somethings work out in this world.

ScienceDaily: Slow Wave Activity During Sleep Is Lower In African-Americans Than Caucasians

2007-06-12T22:18:00.000-07:00

ScienceDaily: Slow Wave Activity During Sleep Is Lower In African-Americans Than Caucasians

Wow, this is tricky shit here.

0288007.4.jpg (JPEG Image, 496x525 pixels)

2007-06-01T14:12:00.000-07:00

0288007.4.jpg (JPEG Image, 496x525 pixels)

FEMA Concentration Camps

2007-05-25T19:42:00.000-07:00

FEMA Concentration Camps

ScienceDaily: Astrophysicists Find Fractal Image Of Sun's 'Storm Season' Imprinted On Solar Wind

2007-05-25T18:48:00.000-07:00

ScienceDaily: Astrophysicists Find Fractal Image Of Sun's 'Storm Season' Imprinted On Solar Wind

The last time I felt like this I was throwing a football in the rain watching the tracers in the sky skim like blue electricity. Toots was in my house singin' Pressure Drop. And their were faces in the trees.

2007 storm predictions

2007-05-22T07:18:00.001-07:00

Based on historical data and general theory Dr. Shinyribs is calling for anywhere between 15-25 experts predicting a dangerous hurricane season. This is generally the time of year we start seeing these "experts" trotting out their charts and graphs explaining why we did not have a bad storm season last year and why this year will be off the charts. The one year they did not predict such a robust cavalcade of storms was 2005, the record breaking year that lasted until almost Christmas. Based on this theory of expecting the opposite of what the experts expect, Dr. Ribs expects there to be a normal hurricane season, which is worth paying attention to. Ribs suggests folks watch or read about the weather conditions as they develop through the summer. If, by chance, a storm develops in the Caribbean it should be monitored thru a credible weather reporting service. Upon the event that it looks as if the storm might land in yer town, make preparations accordingly. Consequently, we suggest ignoring the predictions of "experts" and get on with enjoying the summer.

Clean energy claim: Aluminum in car tanks - Green Machines - MSNBC.com

2007-05-19T22:32:00.000-07:00

Clean energy claim: Aluminum in car tanks - Green Machines - MSNBC.com

Solved, the problems of global warming and dependence on imported oil. Oh, but why would we want to solve this problem. For some it is not a problem at all, but a goldmine. I felt a subtle rage today paying 3.09 a gallon. Two years ago I was paying a buck a gallon. I have heard the excuses that American oil refineries are not operating at full capacity. This sounds ridiculous to me. Why would they shut down during the time of highest demand? Why? Why? Same reason they will not let new technology eliminate our need. The free market sometimes is not free. There are times when the greater good outweighs the individuals interest. This is one of those moments in history when our American experiment must re-invent itself and do what is best for her people over the interests of global financial concerns. This is actually what is best for the whole damned world.

Houston - News - Doug Supernaw - houstonpress.com

2007-05-18T13:56:00.000-07:00

Houston - News - Doug Supernaw - houstonpress.com

The world is a fabulously twisted place where odd things are always being smashed together. New tones and tints are forever being smudged into novel realities. Doug Supernaw is/was one of the worst examples of the Nashville death culture being spewed upon the public airwaves by corporate networks of globalist shitheels. The history of country music and the American songbag is a brilliant metaphor and microcosm for the phenomenon of cultures being ravaged by profits. The current holy war might be thought of as a culture trying to reject western consumerism and all of its negative effects. I am not trying to lay a guilt trip on the ol USA. But, all universal golden ages aside, one only has to consider the rich cultural heritage inherited by the 20th century and its given state at the on set of the 21st century. The obvious contrast is stark and disturbing. Supernaw's demise gives me some sense of a cosmic retribution. WHoooooohoooooo!!!

Phone Poles

2007-05-09T20:59:00.000-07:00

There are hidden codes on phone poles wherein an elite group of unknown's are communicating with eachother.

Smart Dust

2007-04-25T20:03:00.000-07:00

I just heard about this stuff called Smart Dust someone has invented. It is basically tiny particles with computer chips in them. They can rough their own surface and attain flight by way of air currents or they can smooth themselves out and sink back to earth. This is like dust. But it can be controlled by military forces. Like much of the future it is scary and fascinating, a flaming object headed directly for us.

ScienceDaily: Bee Colony Collapse Disorder And Viral Disease Incidence Under Investigation

2007-04-24T19:37:00.000-07:00

ScienceDaily: Bee Colony Collapse Disorder And Viral Disease Incidence Under Investigation

My prediction is that a company is going to introduce a robot bee that does the same work, if not better, than the average bee. These Robot bees will be marketed worldwide to an eager, desperate Ag. industry. Eventually, an environmental catastrophe will come of this. Killer Bees were nothing compared to this coming hive mind.

Fishermen go after protected sea lions - Yahoo! News

2007-04-20T06:06:00.000-07:00

Fishermen go after protected sea lions - Yahoo! News

Hmmmm......I think if the Sea Lions are gonna be killed because they are stealing fish from fishermen, then greater restrictions should be placed on catches. Can't do much about the Dam. But, the real problem of commercial over fishing should be addressed. It is a tough sell to the politicos, when it means eliminating the livelihoods of constituents. Still though, killing animals for taking their share of the food supply in a given region is ridiculous. I keep thinking about sea lions with rifles picking off fishermen for stealing the fish. Absurd? Not anymore so than the proposals to legalize what amounts to the slaughter of hundreds of sea lions. I sing songs for a living. You don't see me out shooting songbirds for stealing songs, do ya? If the fish are disappearing then these fishermen should see the light and begin re-training to find other work. Lots of people these days have to change courses in mid-stream. What makes the fishermen so special?

Kremlin: Police overreacted amid protest - Yahoo! News

2007-04-18T06:15:00.000-07:00

Kremlin: Police overreacted amid protest - Yahoo! News
How very sporting of the old KGB killer to admit that "some" of the police overreacted to the legal demonstrations and protests this past weekend in Putin Square. Garry Kasparov, who has become a spokesman for the Anti-Putin forces observed that the heavy turnout of security forces only reflects the inner weakness of the Putin regime. This kind of shit makes me appreciate our Constitution. We should resist any and all attempts to alter or subvert our precious liberty. Regardless of any dogma or debate, the basic tenants of our Great Experiment must go unmolested.

The Shrubbery -- New Lincoln-Kennedy Similarities Uncovered!

2007-04-17T17:39:00.000-07:00

The Shrubbery -- New Lincoln-Kennedy Similarities Uncovered!
Uncanny, mind boggling!

It's more than just Imus - Newsday.com

2007-04-13T06:43:00.000-07:00

It's more than just Imus - Newsday.com
This is the best take on the Imus mess I have read or heard. This guy Shaun Powell is good writer. I like his emotion about this news conference and the missed opportunity of the Rutgers girls. And his straight talk to the "black folks."

Coffee Lovers, Smokers at Lower Parkinson's Risk - Yahoo! News

2007-04-09T23:32:00.000-07:00

Coffee Lovers, Smokers at Lower Parkinson's Risk - Yahoo! News
OK, add this to the list of reasons to smoke. Number 2 behind "Cuz I like it." Make sure and refer to the list of reasons not to smoke. I think maybe smoking can lower the risk of Parkinsons because it kills you before Parkinsons can develope.

SPASSPOST = SPAPO, Dam funny

2007-04-08T11:51:00.000-07:00

Beaver Dam Letter

Drive for Mideast peace gains momentum - Yahoo! News

2007-03-26T06:01:00.000-07:00

Drive for Mideast peace gains momentum - Yahoo! News

I always love these "peace initiatives" in the mid-east. Slaughter becomes tedious after a while and they seem to need to break it up with some peace talks. Maybe they just need to time to restock the weapons and mop up the blood. I know they have a reorder in to their war merchants in Dallas/Ft. Worth. (95% of Israels weapons come from there) 3 of the last 7 Presidents have come from TX and another from Arkansas. If we get another Clinton in the Whitehouse then I think it is safe to say we have been sold down the river folks. Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton. I think we would have to start looking at the goings on in Arkansas and Texas during the Reagan administration, when Clinton was Gov of Ark and Bush was VP. The locals tell of weapons and drugs being flown in and out of Mina,Ark. during the Iran/Contra days. Between that and the savings and loan mess I think we could find the seeds of this conspiracy. But hey, whatever brings peace to the mid-east, right?

ScienceDaily: Researchers Question Validity Of A 'Global Temperature'

2007-03-18T21:33:00.000-07:00

ScienceDaily: Researchers Question Validity Of A 'Global Temperature'

Here is a sturdy volley from some scientists.

BibleGateway.com - Passage Lookup: 1 Corinthians 13

2007-03-15T23:11:00.000-07:00

BibleGateway.com - Passage Lookup: 1 Corinthians 13

Hormone paradox may help explain teen moodiness on Yahoo! Health

2007-03-13T15:00:00.000-07:00

Hormone paradox may help explain teen moodiness on Yahoo! Health

The culture of the teenager is a phenomenon of the industrial revolution. Obviously there are a multitude of profound physical and emotional changes going on as we grow into adulthood. I question the validity of this research on the grounds of over generalizing a vast and varied group of mammals we like to call teenagers. My research shows that there are just some people that come into this world to create drama in all the lives around them. This may be just the age where many of these hairless apes figure out how to use highly emotional behavior to manipulate the people in relationships around them. Typical of our diagnoses obsessed society this research can be used to absolve teenage people of responsibility for their behavior. And of course there is probably a special drug coming down the pipe to help these poor little ones with their difficulty.

Human Power

2007-03-11T21:01:00.001-07:00

This is one of those things one comes across every so often that makes one firmly swat one's palm against the flesh covered skull of the forehead in an attempt to eradicate the feeling that one has just been shown as the apathetic uncreative boob that one suspected one was. So obvious.

Test

2007-03-10T08:43:00.001-08:00

The dog is a test that ends with ultimate frisbee.

My Way News - Man Tries to Cash $50K Check From God

2007-03-02T22:29:00.000-08:00

My Way News - Man Tries to Cash $50K Check From God

Some weird parallel universe I am in.

Odd Scars

2007-02-25T19:25:00.000-08:00

Here it came and spun out under the canopy of media shroom clouds. That venerable dirge of glamor and glitz. I generally detest all things Hollywood. The city-state itself is harmless enough. But the ethos, the philosophy, the economic engine, the moral compass that is Ho-Wood has grown sour and suckish in my life. I used to watch the Oscars when I was a kid because it was really the only thing on and my mom wanted to watch it, I guess. It was sort of a default programming decision back then. It was marginally better than the Labor Day Telethon, if only for the fact that it was a few hours shorter and Jerry was not blathering on and on. My wife was saying something today about finding someone else's fingernails in a used car. It dawns on me just now that the oscars is akin to this. It is like someone else's fingernails coming into our presence. This is always unwelcome and we are generally powerless to avoid it. OK, this is a poor metaphor. But it is at least as good as the undoubtedly bad one liners uttered 2 nite at Holywads big dance. I wish I could spell out the sound of popeye gagging on his own spinach. Agggcckkkk,accggkkkk, kah kah kah koolckgggghhhhrrrrrrarrr.

cloudseeders

2007-02-17T07:35:00.000-08:00

"Professors John Latham and Stephen Salter have proposed a radical idea to help fight global climate change. The two have designed a fleet of yachts called "cloudseeders," which would pump fine particles of sea water into clouds, thickening them to reflect more sunlight back into space. Their calculations show that a mere 3% increase in cloud reflectivity could be enough to balance global warming caused by higher CO2 levels."
Now that is refreshing and cool news. I say let's do it. If we could just modify our politicians to emit fine particles of seawater instead of hot air and vomit we'd have it licked by the end of the year.

New Scanners for Tracking City Workers - New York Times

2007-01-23T07:16:00.000-08:00

New Scanners for Tracking City Workers - New York Times

This is all very surprising to me. I had no idea that biometrics and RFID had come so far, so quickly. How long before we are all required to have some sort of body invasive bit or chip to conduct basic commerce? How long before the people who brought you seat belt laws and smoking bans and 5 second broadcast delays want to use this technology to protect you from yerself? This could get out of control very fast.

BREITBART.COM - Man shoots friend in argument over height of late soul singer James Brown

2007-01-11T19:11:00.000-08:00

BREITBART.COM - Man shoots friend in argument over height of late soul singer James Brown

I love this story because it is true to the spirit of the man, James Brown. This kind of passion seems to be just senseless violence on the surface. Really, it is, I know. But, maybe it has some place in the bigger picture of things. If i can get fruity on ya here for a moment. Maybe this kind of insanity creates ripples of energy that fuel the universe in some cosmic way. God moves in mysterious ways is the old notion. It is a funny story, though.