Road to Melancholy...

I ended up at McG's last night...stopped on the way home to pick up a Cobb salad from Red Robin for Chris...I ordered a pot roast sandwich for me (don't bother...not worth it)...had a drink while waiting...got home...tried to eat the sandwich and threw half of it away...decided to go and practice darts (my euphemism for drink...yeah...maybe I do have a problem)...when I got there the bird was still in the dart room...maybe I am just shallow (well...ok...that is a given) but I do not like having that cage in the dart room...anyway...played some darts with a young kid that that Shannon gal is dating...he was tatted on his neck and arms...reminded me of one of Ray Bradbury's books, a collection of short stories, The Illustrated Man...I will always remember that book because the last story is such a heart-breaker...a tragedy that makes my stomach want to empty...leaves me with a hollow feeling...like now...even to revisit it in memory...sorry...sad tangents should be banned...ok...segue into music...one of the salesmen came in with a CD...Modest Mouse...listening to it now...alternative sound...though have been noticing that the alternative sound is or has moved to an English music hall sound...similar to early Beatles...not copies...just bits and pieces that are like an homage to the past...or it could be that I have lived so long that all music is beginning to sound the same...hope not on that latter thought...life would start to become boring...living and listening to life as reruns...egad...again...melancholy...so be it...seems to be my path today...

JUST PASSING TIME

At what pace...

Do we run this race?

How do we measure...

Our daily pleasure?

 

We crash through minutes

And wade through hours

To complete a day

We ignore the flowers

 

What do we spend...

With really close friends?

How do we find...

Enough time?

 

Conversations are hurried

Feelings are buried

How do we live so long?

And still do so much wrong?

Buy Gawd!

http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/ed_buckner/quotations.html

Conversational Smoking

Conversational smoking

Slow draws from the stick

Talking points sharpened

And served up in a riff

Smoldering oral fixations

Tenderly caress

White smoke creations

From wanton lips

Conversational smoking

A verbal intercourse

Glowing red cherries

Are evenings smoky source

Friends exhaling clouds

Of smoke and words

Through parted lips

Drift facts obscured

Karaoke Conversations

Karaoke conversations

Highly structured fugues

Heavily edited "see ya laters"

Toe tapping "how do you do's"

Karaoke conversations

Rhythmic

Monologues

Dialog free

Karaoke conversations

Smokey lyrical lusts

Playing o'er a scene

O' verbal thrusts

Karaoke conversations

Nothing rhymes in the end

As consecrated demons

Reveal desired sins

Tilting at Windmills

Was trying to come up with a riff for this morning...seem to be plumb out of the little beggars...not that riffs are important to anyone but me...and not really to me...just a certain enjoyment to stringing words together and somehow making the whole thing look like it was intelligently designed...though I do think that some of the riffs evolve...with no segue he moves on to another subject...reading another Jack Reacher novel...finished Tripwire (which was good)...this one is Persuader (probably spelled it wrong)...am stalled half way into the Hitchens political review of George Orwell's writings...and am about 100 pages into a Dawkins tome on evolution...seems that right now it is the fiction that my attention favors...have to admit that Reacher is fun...by five pages...someone has died...and a mystery is afoot...visceral vigilante violence void of normal societal moral codes...that vigilante in all of us cheers him on...justice served as fast food...quick and hot...

...pleased to meet you...can you guess my name?

Sometimes I think we should be able to vote how our days should go...can see some problems with that...one is to have your vote minimized...everyone voting will want to have a good day and thus voting for ones self would seem to be the thing to do...if everyone votes for their self that is a single vote per person...though can see some people voting that someone else's day is either extra special good or bad...that might be the tipping point on the voting...at least a way to game the system...do not vote for anything for yourself...always vote for or against someone else...as long as the majority of people vote for themselves...your vote would have a better chance of actually pairing up and working...along those lines of reasoning...I am voting that you have an excellent Friday.

anonymous from email this morning...

For a kiss to be really good, you want it to mean something. You want it to be with someone you can't get out of your head, so that when your lips finally touch you feel it everywhere.....A kiss so hot and so deep you never want to come up for air.

A Night At Belles (Part V)

In the course of conversations with Jerry, Belle had learned much. Jerry was a xhuman Gorilla as a result of the military special forces division. He had served for 6 years as an NCO xhuman. When his enlistment was up he opted not to revert to human. By that time xhumans were becoming common among the populace. He had gotten used to the extended sensory feedback, along with the strength issue, that being a Gorilla had added to his abilities. After leaving the military he became a bounty hunter. It was in the course of this line of work that he had met up with Jim.

Jim was from the Seven Sisters constellation. Among the first aliens to land on Earth. That was 300 years ago. He had been exploring and studying Earth and its inhabitants every since. Jim did not talk. He communicated by images. It was a hit or miss affair as humans generally do not take well to the unique feeling of someone mucking about in their minds. Jerry was special in that the information flow would go both ways. The loneliness that continually followed both of them when apart, was now gone and a sense of whole was now the norm...

A Night At Belles (Part IV)

...that was 3 monsoon seasons ago. Jerry and Jim were perfect as handymen. Well at least Jim was. He always seemed to be able to lend a hand at something. For brute strength they were both equally matched, Jerry's agility and climbing ability were a plus when heights were involved.  

 

Their work as bouncers evolved over time. Early on, Belle noticed the effect the pair had on rowdy clientele, a shock value effect that seemed to work over and over again. Seldom were they ever challenged and only twice now had the challenges progressed to violence. Both times the provoking parties had easily been removed from the premises.

Belle also noticed that neither Jerry or Jim were interested in the girls for anything more than friendship and conversation. The vocalizing of the conversations were by Jerry, but he would at times preface a question or answer as coming from Jim. It was apparent that Jerry and Jim were connected at a deeper more intimate level than first thought.

A Night at Belles (Part lll)

(The Madam, Belle, had hired Jerry and Jim 3 monsoon periods ago. They had shown up on her door step in the midst of a down pour. Bedraggled, wet, and hungry.)

 

The sight of a forlornly soaked Gorilla and Satanic faced, four armed, Centaur caused Belle to step back away from the door. It was an involuntary move, more from surprise than fear. Belle had seen it all. So she had thought.

 

Jerry spoke first, "Good evening Madam." The words were distorted because of the long canines which were made more visible when he talked. "My name is Jerry and this handsome devil to my left is Jim. I am xhuman and Jim is off world from a place that is not pronounceable by human or xhuman throat. Actually Jim is not his real name but the name that I have given him. But I digress. We are both strong and willing to work. We are also hungry. Would you have something that we could do that would earn us a meal?"

 

Belle had intuitively known that she was going to be touched upon for food at the minimum. While Jerry was explaining his and Jims presence on her doorstep, she was tallying up the To-Do's that had piled up since the last bouncer/handyman had mysteriously disappeared. She smiled, "I do have some things that need repair, but by the looks of both of you I can see that food should first be offered. The first meal is on the house as should be to troubled travelers. Then we will see what you can do to earn a dry place to sleep and more meals. Tell me, what are you able to eat?"

 

She stepped aside and motioned the odd couple to enter....

A Night at Belles (cont)

Jerry and Jim abandoned the front doors to start mingling with the crowd. They were not there to socialize. They were there to cool emotions. The Kodon warriors out numbered the girls by over 3 to 1. Jerry and Jim seemed to know exactly the right time and place to be when emotions started heating up. By their very presence an island of calm would ripple out and around them. This crowd was going to be difficult. Soldiers by their very nature are not easily cowed. As the smell of alcohol, hemp and sex began to fill the room the risks for violence increased. Jerry and Jim knew violence well, it was the death that accompanied it that they continuously tried to avoid. 

 

The Madam, Belle, had hired Jerry and Jim 3 monsoon periods ago. They had shown up on her door step in the midst of a down pour. Bedraggled, wet, and hungry.

A Night at Belles

The Madam checked the clock on the the wall. It was time.

 

She signaled the two huge bouncers, Jerry and Jim, to open the doors.

 

Jerry was naked. Gorilla naked. Ex-human, now a Gorilla with human intelligence thanks to DNA splice technology. Jim was off world non-human and communicated through Jerry. Jim was analogous to a Centaur with four legs but with four arms also. Jim's' face was red and topped with goat like horns, his teeth sharp as if each filed to a point. A smile from Jim made one feel like dinner.

 

Then Jerry and Jim opened the wide double doors and the noisy mob of Kodon soldiers poured through.

 

The 27 girls in the adjoining room giggled nevously...it would be a busy night.

TGIF

Friday is like a gimmee day...full of potential...from Friday springs the weekend...a quest to cram excitement into two days...at times Friday begins the weekend...making a three day weekend...and three days can be magic...sometimes it seems all of our happiness hinges on Fridays...we have sayings with religious overtones...Thank God It's Friday!...well maybe we only have the one saying...maybe you can think of more but right now I can't...but the nubbin of truth that I am trying to get at here is that Fridays hold a special place in all of our hearts...not as a day of work...but as a day that ends the week and begins the weekend...so what I am advocating here is that we officially recognize Friday for what it has become...the semi official beginning of the the weekend and the end of the drinking drought that the work week hobbles us with out of necessity I am sure...for if we drank during the week like we drink on the weekends...well...AA would have new, "Hi, my name is John and I am an alcoholic." every day...not that many of us fully recognize the drinking ban that is in semi force during the week...but the weekend just seems to kick the chocks out from under the wheels of the train of excess that regularly leaves the station sometime on Friday...TGIF...

Another Monday Evening Shot to Hell...

I painted...actually just stained some oak back splash boards for the
bathroom make over...then went to the store...the modern male
equivalent to hunting...the rest of the evening was listening to the iPod
and couch potato napping...I have found a new author to read...Christopher
Hitchens...a very rude British emigre...witty...suffers fools not...I do not
agree with all he says...but love the clarity that he brings to the
discussion...puts me in mind of Thomas Paine (wrote Common Sense and Age of
Reason) of American Revolution fame...both Brits...both wicked smart...both
opinionated...both very protective of the American experiment...Paine died a
pauper and friendless but it was his pamphlet Common Sense that coalesced
public opinion against the crown...and the proceeds from the sale of the
pamphet he donated to the revolutionary cause...Hitchens is not advocating
any revolution but having started out a Marxist and evolved to a
Libertarian... his views...at least to me seem revolutionary...

Richard Dawkins

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6474278760369344626

The link above will take you to a debate...this is how debates should be...civilized discussions...the video is 70 minutes long...but Dawkins and McGrath are excellent speakers. Worth your time...

Imperial Prez rebuttal by David Brin

http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2007/05/from-sublime-to-ridiculous-to-just_12.html

Below is an excerpt from Contrary Brin posting...the whole post is delicious...this is sublime...it is attributable to Russ Daggett via Brin...

...According to Bush, Congress doesn't have the power to condition its war funding on a directive to redeploy troops from Iraq. This is just a continuation of his practice of appending signing statements to legislation making it clear that he reserves the right to ignore any laws he doesn't like.
Lately, many Administration apologists have been yapping that Congress has no business involving itself in matters like oversight or Foreign Policy at all!

In fact, and as a reminder, Article I of the US Constitution makes it pretty clear that Congress is the branch of government that sets war policy. Among the powers of Congress:To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;To provide and maintain a Navy;To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;And if that is not clear enough, it also gives Congress the power,To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Our Weekend

Our weekend was fine...We had a nice time at Meg and Mickey's...Saturday was spent at the big box store collecting plants for Meg and Mick's new raised garden area...on Sunday went to Emerald Downs for some horse racing...something that Mick had planned as a mothers day thing for Megs...seems a lot of people had the same idea...I broke even bet wise...spent all my money on food and beer...was fun...got home to Yakima at 9 last night...couch potato tired...surfed the TV...stopping mainly when naked people showed up on the screen...when the clinches were over I would continue surfing...was not into dialogue or plot...am blaming such behavior on my maleness...but not apologizing for it...you know...the surfing thing...ended up at CSPAN watching...well not really watching...just a semiconscious fade in fade out kind of viewing...on the life of Einstein...probably was interesting and educational...certainly was soothing...

GAO Peak Oil Report PDF

Feb 2007 report from the GAO on Oil...I have not read it yet...it is on my to do list.

Roscoe Bartlett (R) Rep. Maryland is the source.

http://www.bartlett.house.gov/uploadedfiles/GAOCrudeOil.pdf

Real Climates April Fools

Well worth the time. If only for the sheepish grin you will have.

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/04/the-sheep-albedo-feedbacki/

Actually it is as good an idea as some of the outlandish stuff in MSM now...

Killing Frost...

Morning,

...the Orchardists will be complaining loudly today...paper says record lows last night...when I opened the door to get this mornings paper I could hear the wind machines thrumming in the distance...strange that this is a common sound...not natural...but common...a kind of white noise...like traffic or sirens...only confined to mornings and random morning musings...cold spring mornings used to greet us with a dirty sooty cloud that would cover everything...the dirtiness overlooked because of the perceived protective powers of the heat from the pots and the smudge clouds that cloaked the trees...spring then, though a time of renewal and beauty was also a time of gray mornings and sleepless nights...

The Future and Tyrannical Republican Party

Reading Talking Points Memo this morning and there was a very good link to Salon and Glen Greenwald that you should read.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/04/01/romney_giuliani/index.html

Why am I scared?

how I spent my evening....

had chili for dinner...washed that down with a beer...making me a code red on the Homeland Security Terror rating...I am sure they would have labeled me equivalent to a dirty bomb...you know the one that does very little physical damage...it is the fallout that is the killer...after loading my body with this potentially explosive mixture, I went to the store...the key here is to keep moving and ignore the people falling and writhing in your path...keep repeating that you are on a "mission from God"...as I was leaving ...large black government vans were pulling up and people in HazMat suits were swarming out of them...courdoning off the whole supermarket with that yellow "Do not Cross" tape, like on CSI...I went home to watch the whole thing on tv...because everything is more real on tv...hey...pull my finger...

David Brin is straightening it all out for us...

....Russ Daggatt is on top of his game. Here’s his latest:

Bush is Still Trying to Figure Out Which Side We're On

At this point, you may be getting really confused. It's really not that complicated:

We were attacked on 9-11 by al Qaeda which was in cahoots with the Taliban, all a bunch of radical Sunni Muslims.
Most of the 9-11 terrorists were Saudis and Saudis provided the money and ideology for al Qaeda. Saudi Arabia is our ally.

When we drove al Qaeda and the Taliban out of Afghanistan, they regrouped across the border in Pakistan where they have been more or less unmolested ever since. Pakistan is the only Muslim country with nuclear weapons, the technology for which they provided to North Korea, Iran and others. Pakistan is our ally.

Saddam Hussein, a secular Arab nationalist, had nothing to do with the 9-11 attacks and brutally repressed racial Islamic fundamentalists. He also was the major rival of the radical Shiite government of Iran next door. He was a close friend of the Bush family foreign policy entourage... until he stopped being controllable and made the mistake of offending neighbors who were even closer Bush family friends.

So, we overthrew Saddam Hussein and... installed a pro-Iranian Shiite government in Iraq. Are we having fun yet?

After 9-11, Iran supported us in our overthrow of their other major rival, the Taliban in Afghanistan (who, you will recall, harbored al Qaeda who attacked us on 9-11). Having overthrown Iran's two major geopolitical rivals, Saddam and the Taliban, we actually managed to make relations with Iran WORSE in the process -- saber-rattling at intervals perfectly timed to drive Iran’s moderates and students back into the mullahs’ arms -- demonstrating political finesse that would have made Machiavelli -- well, Don Rickles -- proud. (Bush called them "evil". Showed them. heh, heh, heh)

In summary, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan (which has nuclear weapons), who finance and harbor al Qaeda, are our allies. Iran, which had nothing to do with 9-11 and helped us overthrow the Taliban, is "the enemy." So we overthrew the largest secular Arab government, and Iran's major rival, and installed a pro-Iranian government in Iraq. Because Iran is an existential threat. Which aspires to acquire nuclear weapons (like Pakistan, which is harboring al Qaeda and the Taliban -- and is our ally). Got it yet?

And since Iraq seems to be in the midst of a sectarian civil war between the Sunnis (backed by our Sunni allies in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere) and the Shiites (backed by our existential enemy, Iran), it's clear we need to stay and fight in Iraq on behalf of our existential enemies, the Iranian-backed Shiites.

Simple.

Well, maybe not so simple. But, fortunately, we have the geopolitical genius of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney figuring this stuff out so we don't have to. All we need to know is that they're fighting "The Enemy" and "The Terrorists" (whoever that happens to be today -- it's classified).

Seymour Hersh has the one MUST READ piece this month, in . I hate to edit it or pull out selective quotes. Read . But the crux of his piece is that the Bush administration has essentially decided to REDIRECT ITS ATTENTION away from radical Sunni jihadists -- i.e., the folks who attacked us on 9/11 -- and instead take sides in the brewing Sunni-Shiite civil war in the Middle East. In fact, he says we've pretty much decided to throw in our lot with the Saudis and buddy up with the al-Qaeda wannabes:

"This time, [a] U.S. government consultant told me, Bandar and other Saudis have assured the White House that "they will keep a very close eye on the religious fundamentalists. Their message to us was 'We've created this movement, and we can control it.' It's not that we don't want the Salafis to throw bombs; it's who they throw them at -- Hezbollah, Moqtada al-Sadr, Iran, and at the Syrians, if they continue to work with Hezbollah and Iran."

But if they created and control it... doesn’t that mean that, back in the summer of 2001...


Ooooog. Now Russ has me depressed. And confused. So let’s simplify. Time for a modified truism.

Fool my leader once, shame on you.
Fool my leader twice, shame on my leader.
Fool my leader a zillion times?
Clearly, my leader is cahoots with you and I am the fool.