Wednesday, August 29, 2007

A sad day for New Orleans and America

Bush tells New Orleans: 'We understand'
By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS - President Bush commemorated Hurricane Katrina's devastating blow Wednesday with a somber moment of silence. Across town, in a symbol of a federal-city divide that persists two years after the killer storm, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin marked the levee-breach moment with bell-ringing. . . .

"If George Bush's government were as good and decent and focused as the people of New Orleans, whole parts of the city would not still look like the storm just hit. This is a national disgrace," said Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, who launched his campaign last year from the devastated Ninth Ward.


For the Moron Monkey Boy (Bush the Chimp) to show up in N’Orleans on this sad occasion takes one of three things: balls the size of watermelons, a “what the fuck have we got to lose” attitude or down right moronic ignorance and naivety. I’d say in this case, his handler puppet masters have the attitude and there’s no guessing as to what qualifies the Monkey Boy.

Where does it stop? This POS president got up before a group of veterans recently and pledged a better VA. He visits wounded soldiers at Walter Reed and does the same. He goes to the Minneapolis bridge collapse and talks all serious and sad (of course with the ever present smirk on his punk face) and then starts waving and smiling like he’s campaigning to bystanders. He calls a plan to cut the forest "Healthy Forests," his plan that cuts school funding is call "no child left behind." WTF?! Why does the media gloss over this kind of shit? They have strong opinions on everything else political and social, why not the mock bullshit of this administration? Why does the public not scream and shout back at this little spoiled brat, punk ass, insensitive, uncaring, imbecilic front monkey? I don’t get it.

You can learn a lot of things watching what goes on in the barnyard. I’ve got two horses and an old withered sheep that hang out together in my pastures. The sheep has had a bum leg for the past week or so. Those two horses exhibit a lot of concern for that poor old sheep., They hang out at the barn for long periods of time when I know they’d rather be up in the pastures eating fresh grass and they won’t leave it’s side when it does make it up to the pasture. There's a certain connection between living beings that can manifest itself in many different ways.

I‘ve got a lot more respect for those horses than I do for the current President of the United States or any of his handlers.

American Heros and Leaders

Ex-astronaut planning insanity defense
By TRAVIS REED, Associated Press Writer

ORLANDO, Fla. - Former astronaut Lisa Nowak is pursuing a temporary insanity defense on charges that she assaulted and tried to kidnap a romantic rival, according to a court document released Tuesday.


“Temporary” insanity?! WTF?! What exactly is “temporary?”
“Temporary” as in from the time your little sick ass brain thought that the best course of action in your life was to pack a bag with a BB pistol, disposable diapers, rubber tubing, plastic garbage bags, a black wig, a folding knife, a hammer, latex gloves, a cache of unindentified pills and a few other items including a computer disc containing pictures of an as yet unidentified woman in “various stages of undress” and in “bondage situations,” then drive 1,000 miles to do ‘god knows what’ to someone who was fucking the guy you wanted to be fucking or were fucking or whatever. On top of that, you’re a Navy test pilot and NASA astronaut.
Yea, you’re fucking insane alright, but it aint temporary and nobody better say it is and sweep the whole thing under the rug. This bitch needs treatment. . . long term treatment. . . like, lock the door and throw away the key treatment. . . keep her kids away from her.
Man, back in the day we thought Buzz and Ed Mitchell might have been a little weird. . . not much, just a little eccentric, but this winged whack job makes them look clearly like the sane straight arrow men they really were.
That brings us to the space agency that hired this little twisted sister. NASA is one big cluster fuck. They can’t accomplish a schedule of manned launches because of hardware problems they can’t seem to fix and they end up with THIS little personel problem. Oh, and the latest rumors coming from an internal investigation into astronaut selection are that a couple of NASA astronauts have actually flown drunk. WTF?!
Somebody, somewhere has GOT to figure out how to get NASA back into the business of space exploration and back into a culture of excellence that reflects the spirit of Apollo. That will take a vision and a goal. Is that possible in today’s society?


Craig says 'I am not gay,' did no wrong
By TODD DVORAK, Associated Press Writer

BOISE, Idaho - A defiant Sen. Larry Craig denied any wrongdoing Tuesday despite his guilty plea this summer in a men's room police sting, emphatically adding, "I am not gay. I have never been gay."


Whats with these right wingers and homosexuality? They are so et up with their own bullshit that they can’t even face their own homosexuality even when confronted with it head on. This guy has apparently dodged rumors and accusations about his homosexuality for years. Now, after being popped by a cop for public bathroom homosexual misconduct . . . wouldn’t it be nice to get homosexuals out of the closet AND the public restrooms? Most of the gay men I know are very classy and dignified gentlemen. What’s with all the “public restroom” publicity?. But back to the senator from Idaho (He da ho). . . Do yourself a favor buddy and fess up. You know you’re a closet gay, we know you’re a closet gay, I’m sure that wife you’ve been parading around all these years knows it too. Maybe once you’ve admitted your own homosexuality you’ll be more likely to vote FOR legislation that helps people in the gay community and AGAINST legislation that is blatantly prejudicial against gays.
What I’d like to see is Sen. Craig get up before the media like he did yesterday, but instead, admit that he is homosexual, apologize for being so repressed that he had to resort to public restroom hijinks aplogize for voting against the gay community in the senate, and then swear that with whatever time he has left in the senate, he will do whatever he can to support the gay community.
Not gonna happen, but wouldn’t it be nice?

Y'all just do the next right thing. Deep down inside you know what it is, now just do it.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

America the Beautiful (and its own third world absurdities)

Efforts to crack down on lead paint thwarted by China, Bush Administration
By Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Tuesday, August 21, 2007

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration and China have both undermined efforts to tighten rules designed to ensure that lead paint isn't used in toys, bibs, jewelry and other children’s products. . .
The Bush administration has hindered regulation on two fronts. . . to press for greater inspections of imported children’s products, and it altered the focus of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), moving it from aggressive protection of consumers to a more manufacturer-friendly approach.


Who are the people in this country who would vote for this republican neo-con corpo-fascist pack of dogs?

U.S. poverty rate declines significantly
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The nation's poverty rate dropped last year, the first significant decline since President Bush took office.
The Census Bureau reported Tuesday that 36.5 million Americans, or 12.3 percent — were living in poverty last year. That's down from 12.6 percent in 2005.


Wow, 0.3% decline. I wonder what manipulative number crunching led to that figure. These numbers are all put out by the government.

Let’s put these numbers into perspective. . . “12%” doesn’t sound like much, does it? Well, that’s more than one person of every ten in the United States of America is living in poverty.

In 2006, the poverty rate for those under the age of 18 was 21.9%. That means more than one of every five children lived in poverty. That is the highest figure for children living in poverty in the developed world. The rate for African-American children was far higher and closer to 40% which translates into more than one of every three black children living in poverty. How does that make you feel about your country all you flag waving, uber patriotic, twisted nationalist slack jawed morons?

How about this figure: The infant mortality rate in the United States of America is about 6.5 deaths per 1,000 births. That means, for every 1,000 children are born in this country, 6.5 die in the process. That’s by far the worse infant mortality rate in the developed world. Every single western nation has a better record than that. Japan is 2.8, Spain is 4.3, Canada, 4.6 Portugal, 4.9. With all our technology and billions of dollars spent on wars and corporate welfare, more babies die at birth here than in any developed country in the world. WTF?

Shall we talk about health care? 45 million Americans don’t have any health insurance. They depend upon free clinics and emergency rooms that bill them later ruining their credit and future earnings. That’s about one of every six Americans without insurance. The amazing thing is that these numbers are getting bigger because the federal government is covering less people because they are cutting the edges off coverage. . . they’ve gotta fund the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq somehow. . . while employers, and we’re not talking mom and pop shops here, are cutting coverage for their employers.
Guess what, it’s not like that in other developed countries. They HAVE universal health care.
Meanwhile, insurance companies are fighting every claim they receive in the hopes that you, the covered ones, will give up and pay it yourself. Let’s face it, insurance company policy makers have become the low life scum suckers of this society. These folks have become monsters making record profits while cutting payouts. . . and we thought the sludge sucking oil company execs were bad. . . these guys are directly taking big fat chunks of change out of YOUR pocket. Hey, you paid the premiums for all these years and now, you’ve STILL got to pay the bills. WTF?
Next time you get a bill that your insurance company refuses to pay, fight them on it. Fight them tooth and nail. Send them copies of your bills, call them every day about it. EVERYONE needs to do that and not roll over for these recreant pieces of shit who want to screw you and your children.

What have we covered here? Consumer protection, infant mortality, poverty and health care and they all pretty much suck in this country compared to other countries.

Yea, “America, love it or leave it.” I happen to love it here. Wide open spaces, still certain freedoms not available in a lot of other places and I can afford to enjoy those things, but next time somebody tells you, “this is the greatest country in the whole wide world,” laugh at them. They’re stupid and willfully ignorant. It’s not really, by many standards of human existence. In fact, it sucks here for a lot of people. . . a lot of poor, uneducated, uninsured people.

So fuck all you flag waving nationalist bullshiters. Stick your patriotic cheerleading pom-poms sideways up your proletariat ass. When you get off your ass and begin demanding that your politicians do something about poverty and healthcare instead of worrying about non-issues like “gun control” and “abortion” (WTF is the matter with you simpletons?!?!) then I’ll listen to your simplistic propaganda bullshit, until then, fuck you mother fucking right wing bozos.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Call a friend!

A friend died this week. . . an old, old friend. At one time, we saw more of each other than our wives. Most of the basic skills I learned that provided me a successful career in the business I was in, I learned from him. We didn’t always get along. In fact, there were times when we yelled at each other and treated each other with distain, but through all that, he held me to a high standard of action that was second to none. I learned a lot from him. I never told him how much his mentoring meant in my life.

I’d been meaning to give him a call the past year or so. I hadn’t talked to him in years and I thought we could have a pretty enjoyable conversation if we got together. I never did and now I feel a certain sense of emptiness. I’ve felt this before. It’s when there just is no closure on a relationship or someone’s passing. Had we talked a few months or a year ago and had a big laugh, I wouldn’t feel like this. I know that’s true from experience.

So why am I writing this? So that when I say this, maybe one person reading this will take my sage advice (I am the sagacious Hillbilly, afterall).
Go look up the number, pick up the phone and call someone you’d really like to talk to who had some importance in your life. It might be your last opportunity. You will feel good about it and they will feel good about it. Be kind to them and yourself.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

More WTF?!

Study: Chick Magnets Today Look Like Cavemen
Jeanna Bryner_LiveScience Staff Writer_LiveScience.com
Thu Aug 23, 12:35 PM ET

Guys with bulldog-like faces have been chick magnets throughout human evolutionary history.
A recent study of the skulls of human ancestors and modern humans finds that women, and thereby, evolution, selected for males with relatively short upper faces. The region between the brow and the upper-lip is scrunched proportionately to the overall size of their heads.
Among the men who fit the bill: Will Smith and Brad Pitt.

Well hell, that explains a lot.

Troubled ex-astronaut back in court
By TRAVIS REED, Associated Press Writer

ORLANDO, Fla. - Former astronaut Lisa Nowak, accused of attacking a romantic rival, asked a judge Friday to let her remove her electronic monitoring ankle bracelet, saying that it cuts her ankle and gets in the way of her military boot laces.
Nowak promised to abide by all court orders if the GPS monitoring device is removed, including not having any contact with Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman, the woman she is accused of pepper spraying in an airport parking lot.

Shut the fuck up puta. You were given the best job in the world and you went about acting like a complete moron and terrorized an innocent victim. They should put a collar around your neck you pitiful piece of shit!

Seale gets 3 life terms for '64 killings
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS, Associated Press Writer

JACKSON, Miss. - James Ford Seale, a reputed Ku Klux Klansman, was sentenced Friday to three life terms in prison for his role in the 1964 abduction and murder of two black teenagers in southwest Mississippi.

Seale, 72, was convicted in June on federal charges of kidnapping and conspiracy in the deaths of Charles Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee, two 19-year-olds who disappeared from Franklin County on May 2, 1964.
. . .
Charles Marcus Edward, a confessed Klansman who admitted being involved in the attack, was the prosecution's star witness against Seale and received immunity for his testimony,
Edward said Seale and other Klansmen abducted Dee and Moore near Meadville, forced them into the trunk of Seale's Volkswagen and drove them to a farm. The two were later tied up and driven across the Mississippi River into Louisiana.
Edwards said Seale told him that heavy weights were attached to the teenagers and they were then dumped alive into the river.
Seale was arrested on a state murder charge in 1964, but the charge was later dropped. Federal prosecutors say the state charges were dropped because local law enforcement officers in 1964 were in collusion with the Klan.

What can anyone say about this? It just makes you want to puke.

Well, next time some ignorant self righteous rednecked moron says “get over it” in reference to the attitudes and feelings of minorities in this country, consider that these things went on well into the sixties. Hell, it went on into the 90s down in Texass and probably other places. I remember the sixties very clearly. My children were very effected by the things that I did, saw and otherwise experienced in the 60s. I was highly effected by what my parent’s generation went through in the 30s and 40s. Man, when I read stuff like this and then I hear someone say “get over it” I just want to grab the dumb redneck slack jawed dimwit and slap the shit outta them.

Now, who were the local law enforcement officers who were “in collusion with the klan?” The feds need to pour people and resources into these areas and root out every guilty party still alive. Make a statement and let everyone know that 1.) such acts are repulsive and can’t be tolerated no matter how long ago they occurred and 2.) amends need to be made to the African-American community for the fact that these acts weren’t dealt with when they occurred.


Twenty two (22) children have died this summer in the United States because they were left in hot cars. WTF?!
Usually by people who forgot that the child was in the car when they got out, forgot to drop the kid off at daycare, or thought the other spouse had taken the child, etc. WTF?!
Wake up you bunch of moronic proles. Get into the game.
Too many people are having children. If you aren’t going to make your children your #1 priority, don’t have them.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Things that make you say WTF?!

Now, everyone knows that has read any of my posts, that I often sit here and say to myself “WHAT THE FUCK?!” Of course, there are various degrees of my astonishment. Take today for example; today my WTF Quotient went from the highly amused to the horrific.
This evening I caught a little news piece that went like this. . .

The Texas Rangers became the first team in 110 years to score 30 runs in a game, setting an American League record Wednesday in a 30-3 rout of the Baltimore Orioles.
Trailing 3-0 in the opener of a doubleheader, the Rangers scored five runs in the fourth inning, nine in the sixth, 10 in the eighth and six in the ninth.

I’m not much of a sports fan, but I am an American male, so I do like a little bit of baseball now and then and understand something of the game. So when I read this, I just had to shake my head, laugh and say “what the fuck?” Texass Rangers?

Earlier in the evening I shook my head a little harder, got a disgusted look on my face and said “whaaat the fuck?!” when I read about a local Atlanta civic leader who came out in strong support of that poor misunderstood young man “Michael Vick.” Like I’ve said, I’m not a sports fan. I didn’t know who this guy was until he became famous for killing dogs.
Let’s put things into perspective. . . We kill innocent animals every day. Cattle, chickens, turkeys, sheep, goats, all kinds of fish even baby cattle and baby chickens get slaughtered by the millions. People go out and hunt wild animals and kill millions of them every year from bear and bambi looking deer to pretty little doves. All this carnage serves the purpose of providing food for someone’s table, even if it does sometimes involve “sporting” activities that are anything but fair, but it is ultimately about consumtion.
Americans love their pets. We spend billions a year taking care of our pets and our dogs often become close members of our family, so when we hear about people using dogs as objects for blood sport, many of us become repulsed. It’s a cultural thing. A deep ingrained piece of our culture. Our dogs are part of who we are. But we don't JUST get repulsed by the use of dogs iin blood sport. It is also illegal to use chickens in a similar manner even if it is popular right here in the hillbilly state. I kill lots of chickens and other poultry here on the farm, but having them kill themselves for my enjoyment? That's perverse by most standards.
So back to the local Atlanta civic leader. . . This guy said things like ‘Vick is not necessarily guilty but he is ‘cutting his losses and taking a plea” and that he should be ‘welcomed back into the community without a loss of his football career.’ He also compared fighting and killing dogs to hunting. Really, he did.
When a civic leader, a leader in one of America’s greatest institutions says things like this, you gotta stop and say “what the fuck?!”
Nope, Mr. Vick and the rest of his dog fighting brethren are at least morons. Did this guy not grow up in the American culture? Did he not know what kind of reception he was going to get when his dirty little secret was revealed? He didn’t? Well then, he’s a moron.
But how about the civic leader who defended him? Well, I suspect Mr. Vick has filled this civic leaders coffers a time or two. Nuf said?

But who really gives two shits about Michael Vick and his dog fighting enterprises or the some baseball team from Texass? What really catches my eye is when someone in power, someone who should know better, someone who holds decisions of life or death over millions of people does something or says something so incredibly stupid that it makes your eyes get all real big, your mouth hangs open and your head drops in total disbelief and you turn around and in an elevated pitch and volume you declare “WHAT THE FUCK?!?!”
You know who and what I’m talking about. Yes, I’m talking about the Moron Monkey Boy and his comments about Iraq in relation to the wars with Japan, Korea and Viet Nam. I mean, come on. This fucking village idiot said that the lesson learned from Viet Nam is that we need to persevere and not cut and run. Not the age old lesson that a mighty military can not ultimately win against an indigenous force fighting for it’s own territory and ideas. Nope, it’s all about not employing “cut and run” tactics. As if we don’t already have enough proof that this guy is a semi-retarded moron with a drug and alcohol addled brain. . . do we really need his puppet masters loading his lips with absurd crap like that? Perhaps American society is as evil as the Islamic fundamentalists say we are. Why else would we deserve to have this as our president or be so totally ignorant as a group to freely elect this absurd moron to the position of the presidency?
Things that really make you just say “What the fuck?!”

How about these headlines:

Russian Woman sets fire to ex-husband's penis

Wow, they get to keep the penis in Russian divorces, eh? Well, that’s one way to keep families together.

Atlanta considers banning baggy pants

Basically, you aren’t going to be allowed to show your underwear in Atlanta. That’s right all you peachy girls and boys, no thongs out the back of your hip huggers and no wearing your pants down around your thighs with your boxers out.

Now, my gut reaction to this was “YEA! at least people will LOOK less like morons in Atlanta,” but then I thought (after about 3/10ths of a second), “who the fuck do these city officials think they are, telling people how to dress?” Reminds me of my parents generation back in ’69. Fuck these putos.

And here’s hopin y’all have a pleasant and fun filled weekend with no hassles. Remember, it’ll be what YOU make it.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Things I know little about

Holy fucking bat shit Robin! Say it aint so. How could this be? Go tell Josh and Sarah!
You mean, minority youth are more dissatisfied with life than white youth? But we’ve always gone so far out of our way to be nice to those people!
Yea, yea, whatever. Here are the facts according to an AP article titles “White Youths Happier than Others.” . . . Amazingly, they even used the term “others.”

“According to an extensive survey of 1,280 people ages 13-24 by The Associated Press and MTV, 72 percent of whites say they are happy with life in general, compared with 51 percent of Hispanics and 56 percent of blacks.”

Aw shit, I wrote a pile of bullshit that picked apart this article and the facts and figures associated with what I perceive as some suspicious claims and numbers (I thought they were portraying too many minorities happy with society), but I just trashed the whole thing. Ya know, despite years of study by me both independently and as a student in a graduate program in Cultural Studies, I don’t know jack squat about what people of color might think or believe about where they stand in the American scene today. I’ve taken classes on minority issues taught by minority scholars. I’ve read numerous books on monirity issues written by minority authors. I’ve discussed the issues ad nauseum with minority friends and even lovers. I can’t say that I have any more significant a handle on the real issues than I did 30 years ago when I was smoking pot and drinking beer with a bunch of black guys I worked with in my first real job. I don’t have a clue what it feels like to be an outsider in my own world. . . well, maybe a clue, but that's about it.
I will tell you dull know-it-all white people one thing however. When you hear a black person talking about race relations or other related topics do one thing: LISTEN! I know you like to criticize and trivialize every black person with an agenda. You’d really like it if we could “all just get along," but guess what Charlie, minorities in this country have real issues with the way things are. They KNOW how it is to be a minority in America. So quit accusing other people of “acting like victims,” or “whining” or “feeding at the trough” and shut the fuck up and listen. Even if it's somebody you really hate like Al Shapton or Jesse Jackson. Yea, yea, I know they intimidate you and don’t give a damn what you think. Hell, I wish they’d talk to Cornell West or Henry L. Gates once in-awhile myself, but Jesse and Al are more available I suppose.
So sit there, shut up and listen to what minority people are telling you and believe it or not, you know-it-all obnoxious uneducated buffoon, you might learn something.

Here’s one I do have some idea about:

One in four read no books last year
By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press Writer
Tue Aug 21, 11:06 PM ET

WASHINGTON - . . .One in four adults read no books at all in the past year, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Tuesday. Of those who did read, women and older people were most avid, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices.


Bullshit! I don’t believe for a minute that 75% of Americans have read a book in the past year even some pitiful work of fiction or mythology. Who are you people who responded to this survey trying to kid? We live in potentially the most informed society now or ever on Earth, but people seem less informed than ever. Could it be because the slack jawed proles would rather sit around dumb at night and watch action movies or Oprah or download porn from the internet than get themselves informed on issues that matter. Maybe this part of the article in question is more accurate:

In 2004, a National Endowment for the Arts report titled "Reading at Risk" found only 57 percent of American adults had read a book in 2002, a four percentage point drop in a decade. The study faulted television, movies and the Internet.

Another big surprise from this report:

The Bible and religious works were read by two-thirds in the survey, more than all other categories. Popular fiction, histories, biographies and mysteries were all cited by about half, while one in five read romance novels. Every other genre — including politics, poetry and classical literature — were named by fewer than five percent of readers.

Fiction and religious mythology are overwhelmingly the most popular types of reading material and nonfiction and classic literature is the least read. So much for American sophistication.

Try this: pick up a book. . . any book. Read it. It aint hurt me one bit and I’m purty shur it won’t hurt you none neither.

Oh, and you might shut the fuck up and LISTEN the next time some minority person is on your TV or otherwise in your space talking about race relations, etc., really, just listen and consider that what they are saying might have some truth and your preconceived bullshit notions of the whole world based upon the sheltered little white world you live in might really be bullshit and relevant to only the sheltered little white world you live in.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Business as Usual

Ever been stranded on a big ol’ jet airliner? Sat on the ramp for a loooong amount of time. If you’ve got long legs and worn out knees like mine and crave the wide open spaces like me, you remember every minute of such an event.
How about the six hour wait at the terminal because one connection missed another connection or a mechanical malfunction occurred or my favorite “we can’t find a crew.” Oh and then there’s the grandaddy of all terminal delays that sometimes makes you an overnight guest at a local hotel: “sorry, but we’re overbooked.” “but I made my reservation six weeks ago?!” Sorry, but we’re overbooked.”
Those are the times when you SWEAR you’ll never fly with that airline again. Well, time has a way of forgetting and we always seem to book the flight that is cheapest, easiest, fits our schedule, or some other convenience criteria.

Maybe if there were regulations and standards put upon the airlines for customer treatment. sort of a Traveler’s Bill of Rights. Some set of procedures for dealing with a customer who is traveling with a four year old child who is stuck for hours on a plane sitting on the ramp. Maybe time limits for such circumstances like ‘if the plane sits on the ramp for more than 55 minutes, and doesn’t appear to be headed out anytime soon, it has to taxi to a gate or close to a gate and let the passengers disembark.’ Makes sense right? In fact, a number of measures have been introduced into the legislature, but all of them were killed. Huh? Don’t the congresspeople and senators fly the airways?! Well, not alot of them. Remember, these are rich folks who pretty much stick with private transportation which includes private jets and when they can’t take their own private jets, well, let’s just say, ‘they make arrangements.’ But more revealing is the fact that (according to USA Today), the nine major airlines and the Air Transport Association gave 2.4 million dollars to “house and senate candidates, political parties and other PACs.” They also spent $15 million dollars in lobbying. Fuck these putos.

OK, let’s go over this again: Go to your computer and type in http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home maybe you can just click on this link.

Now find your senator and congress person and e-mail them the message that you are sick and tired of their greedy little hands taking airline money while you have to put up with the airline’s poor performance. YOU are the one sitting on the ramp in a stuffy cramped airliner and YOU are the one who sits in an airports for ten hours to travel on a ninety minute flight. while they fly private or first class and take big bucks from airline PACs. Let them know that YOU don’t like it and YOU vote. You do vote, don’t you?

While you’re writing your senator and congressperson, you might want to enquire as to why the folks who have been employed by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) are a bunch of knuckle headed morons. Yes, I said “ARE” a bunch of knuckle headed morons. These slack jawed, ‘I wish I were a real cop but couldn’t pass the tests’ buffoons have GOT to go.

You know, if you’re going to make air travel in this country into something that is painful and humiliating to the traveler, at least hire some folks who can do the job with a bit of dignity and respect for the otherwise innocent victims of the procedures. I realize it isn’t the fault of the overweight, creepy looking and dull acting TSA employee that I have to take my shoes off and be searched every time I get on an airplane (my kids say it’s the dark bushy eye brows that give me away as a “terrorist”) while thousands of miles of border between the USA and Canada and Mexico are wide open wilderness and thousands of huge cargo containers enter the country unchecked on a daily basis. It’s not the fault of these Neanderthalic knuckle dragging half witted imbeciles that I get my finger nail clippers or my Swiss army knife keychain confiscated while a guy with an obsidian blade twelve inches long and as sharp as surgical steel could slip through unnoticed. Naw, I don’t blame them for having the good fortune of getting into a position they are overwhelmingly unqualified for. None of that is their fault, but I’d like a few of the congress people and senators who went along with the gutting of the Constitution of the United States and has handed the Bushistas every little shred of power they asked for just who is responsible for this boondoggle called “TSA.” Could these experts of federal legislation that we elect to serve us not see the potential abuse of these things when they passed such horrid legislation? If not? Why? Who? When? I’m no expert at anything and they scared the holy shit outta me when they were proposed.

So why haven’t the fucktard liars we elected during the last cycle done something about all these things the American public mandated them to do? Oh never mind. I think I answered my own question.

Hope y’all are havin a good Monday. It’s still too hot and too dry around here.

Friday, August 17, 2007

News and Headline tidbits. . . or not

I was going to do a headlines post today, but ya know, the headlines are nothing but a tangled mass of human waste. Maybe it’s just my ADD, but it seems to me that there is just an overwhelming amount of bullshit going on in the world with nothing of any significance occurring. Henry David Thoreau said that once you’ve read one headline, seen one train wreck or one ship wreck, you’ve seen them all and there’s no sense in wasting your time watching. Consider for just a minute that he may have been right back there in 1859 when he was penning the monumental work “Walden.” Do we really need this nonstop barrage of headlines and exclamatory video streaming into our houses telling us of the latest disaster and what we should all be afraid of next? Could it be that we are being scammed?

Let’s look at reality. In Utah, a mine collapsed killing six miners (I know, they’re still trying to get them out alive, but we’re being realistic here). Then, three more were killed yesterday trying to rescue the first six who were already dead. Sounds like somebody fucked up to me. So what? There is nothing I or any other of the 100 million households in the USA who have the live streaming video piped into their houses on a continuous basis from five full time cable news networks can do about it. Are we supposed to sit in front of our televisions and watch with out fists clamped and sweaty brows in one big nationwide prayer meeting? Will that bring them all back alive and resurrect the dead?

How about this NASA Shuttle drama? Will the gouge in the heat shield keep out the hot plasma that envelops every object tearing its way into and through the Earths atmosphere? The NASA engineers (well, some of them at least) say “yes, we don’t need to fix it.” It took them days to come to that conclusion and there are a number of engineers who say they do need to fix it. With that kind of doubt, why not fix it? The reason they give is that space walking is too dangerous. Listen up, astronauts and cosmonauts have been walking in space for over 40 years now. Alexi Leonev was the first, followed by a fellow named Ed White, then Eugene Cernan, then Buzz Aldrin then. probably a hundred or so others from Gemini till now. There ought to be a fairly good knowledge base of how to do work in space. Is it really THAT big a deal?
This past week NASA cut short a space walk because one of the astros noticed a small tear in the outer covering of his glove. WTF?! Gene Cernan had a big hole in the back of his space suit on Gemini 9. He sure didn’t cut short his time outside the space craft even though he was pioneering the procedure, was physically exhausted and overheated with his heart pounding out of his chest in stroke conditions with a face plate totally fogged over. Who are these wimpy little astronauts they’re sending up today?
But back to the real story. . . will the shuttle come apart due to leaks in the heat shield because NASA decided NOT to fix it while in orbit? Probably not, but excuse me if I pass on watching the reentry on TV. You see, I’ve seen one shuttle explode and another come apart during reentry because some group of engineers at NAA decided everything was A-OK and I really don’t want to witness another horrendous tragedy. Hopefully I’ll be able to catch a replay later in the day of a successful landing a the Cape, but just in case these 21st Century NASA engineers are wrong I think I’ll pass.

How bout the latest economic outlook? If that aint enough to make you want to pack away a years worth of groceries from your local LDS supplier, dig a big hole in the back of the cellar, start laying up a concrete perimeter and store a few thousand rounds of high powered rifle ammunition, I don’t know what is. Our economy is being held up by a few tiny golden threads and one of the more important of them is being held by the Chinese which led one cable news talking head to proclaim that China is our best economic friend and they need to send us toys spiked with lead and food that is poisoned. Their economy depends upon it. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be able to keep buying our debt. So the next time your kid is playing with some Mattel toy made in China, you stick a brush full of Chinese toothpaste in your mouth or your dog is eating food with fillers from China, think about how they are our friend and we need to support their economy by ingesting and exposing our children to their poison products.

Have I digressed? Did I miss the mark of my original intent. Oh well, that’s about par for the course in my world. I get distracted easily.
Here, let me try and rescue myself from my distraction and get back to the original intent of my post:
The endless stream of news you sit and watch on CNN, MSNBC, Faux. . . I mean FoxNews or my favorite, CNBC (Cable News Babe Channel) is all a bunch of BULLSHIT.
There. Everybody understand now?

Y’all have a great weekend. Start by not bothering yourself with watching “the news.”

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Science and the neo-con scum

I’ve got to admit, I’m a science guy. I pretty much exist on the terms of science. Just about everything in my world can be explained scientifically and for good reason. . . we’ve got a lot of science that explains a lot of stuff. I live in a quiet rural part of Appalachia, so I can draw upon the knowledge I have from acquiring a degree in biology (remember, don’t tell the neighbors) to pretty much figure out how and why most things happen out here. Logic, reason and investigation have gotten us into the sorry mess our society is in today and it will get us out if we want it to.

The problem we are faced with today is that science does very little to support the right wing corpo-fascist agenda that dominates our society. In fact, science in many cases runs contrary to their agenda of greed and power mongering. From stem cell research to global warming, the response of the right wing neo-cons is always going to be in line with the agenda of the corporate royalists.

Take a look at a few of the issues of science that have become political issues. Let’s start with something simple like the Spotted Owl in the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest. Both the Society for Conservation Biology and the American Ornithologist’s Union while working FOR the current republican administration agreed that the policy of the administration was a disaster for the spotted owl. They proclaimed that the government DID NOT make use of the “best available science” as required by the Endangered Species Act, in deciding to expanded areas for cutting old growth forest. . . . I’ve been to those old growth forests of the PacNW and I personally believe that to cut a single acre of what is left is a crime against humanity. So a bunch of corporate lumber barons want to cut all our natural resources for a quick and easy profit so the republican administration skews, lies and twists science in a way that allows the proles and the politicians to go along with their recreant agenda of greed.

Of course global warming is off the table entirely. That would cause us to have to take a serious look at industrial emissions and regulations on motor vehicles and anything else with an internal combustion engine. Man, would that cut into corporate profits. So instead of letting the science speak for itself, the republican administration and their science whores use tiny bits of manufactured information put out by their bought and paid for scientists at some fringe government research facility to support their agenda. Forget that their tiny bits of information are completely contradictory to the overwhelming majority of scientific information available or that there are tons of good scientific information that totally contradict their tiny shreds of piss poor pseudo science. Global warming threatens their profits, therefore it HAS to be dispelled at all cost. Pitifully the proles open wide and gobble these big loads of neo-con spew.

Everyone knows that right is wrong and the truth is lies, right? Well, if not, take a look at how the current republican administration labels their programs that cater to the maximum profit agenda of the corporate royalists: A program where corporations can pretty much pollute at will by trading “credits” with each other is called “Operation Clear Skies.” Another that opens forest to more logging at an accelerated pace with less restrictions is call “Healthy Forests.” Fuck these lying pieces of shit. Why does the media, the politicians on the left and the public let these recreant scum sucker get away with this kind of horrendous bullshit? WTF is the matter with you people?! We should be out in the streets tearing this country apart for having our future and the health of our future generations so compromised by these corpo-fascist bottom feeding scum.

One after another, groups of scientists, scientific organizations, individual scientists including twenty nobel laureates in a prepared report have stated that the Bush administration ignores, distorts, lies and otherwise twists scientific reality.

How about this one: A panel of specialists on lead poisoning working for the CDC was about to recommend that regulations on lead be strengthened since it has been found that even very small amounts of lead can cause brain problems in young children. Before the recommendations could be made, former presidential candidate and then HHS secretary “Tommy” Thompson (Bush lackey and appointee) fired two of the members of the panel and replaced them with people with connections to the lead industry. WTF?!
Nice people huh?

Welcome to America2007. Science does not rule. The President of the United States believes that “intelligent design,” which is nothing more than religious mythology, ought to be taught right along side of evolution in the science classroom. WTF?! This mental midget is representing the United States of America??? Is it any surprise that American students are progressively falling behind their counter parts in Europe and Asia in math and sciences?

Sometimes the reality of this period in American history is difficult to comprehend. This country was built on the application of science and reason. Where has it all gone?

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

CHEAP LABOR!

When I think about all the exportation of jobs from our country it sometimes seems like such a complex economic issue that I think it’s unsolvable. Afterall, we’re talking about resources, labor, transportation, development and a host of other variables. Then I read a story like the one quoted below and it all becomes very clear to me: CHEAP LABOR.

“. . . children as young as 8 were abducted or recruited from bus and train stations with false promises of well-paying jobs and sold to kilns for about $65.
The victims were forced to work almost around the clock, beaten, and deprived of pay, nourishment and basic medical care.”

Sounds like some horrible 19th Century industrial revolution nightmare doesn’t it? Nope, China, 2007.

The same sort of thing is going on in countries all over the world where CHEAP LABOR is exploited in order to make cheap goods for the western market. From South America to Malaysia, children and other hideously oppressed workers are toiling away in conditions that would make the average American recoil in horror. Your most rat infested, shit covered, naked on the streets anxiety riddled dream probably wouldn’t compare to some of the reports I’ve read about human rights abuses in the name of CHEAP LABOR.

“How terrible” you proclaim upon being informed of such atrocities, but will it effect your buying patterns? When you go to your local mega mart and scarf up some of those $9.67 dress shirts will you stop and think about who made them where? When you grab some item off the shelf that is entirely or partially made of cheap stamped out plastic parts from Malaysia or China will you think about the consequences of your purchase? How about that boutique coffee you drank and paid $4 a cup for while the poor South American or African farmer living in squalor who produced it was paid less than cost. Remember the last banana you ate? Possibly produced by workers who make pitiful wages and are exposed to dangerous pesticides without any protection. The list is as long as the products we crave. . . chocolate from the Ivory Coast, athletic shoes and even mid eastern rugs.

If you’re like most of the feeble proles in this country today you’re saying to yourself “there’s nothing I can do about any of THAT.” Well, actually, you pitiful moron, there is. You can start by contacting your congressperson and telling them that you demand that they support House Bill H.R. 1992, “The Decent Working Conditions and Fair Compensation Act.” Then you contact your senators and demand they support Senate Bill S.367, again “The Decent Working Conditions and Fair Compensation Act.” “But I don’t know how to contact my senator or congressperson.” You whiney little prole. Are you going to remain an inept buffoon your whole life? Quit whining like an ignorant little child and try this: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home
This site lets you type in your zip code (you DO know your zip code, don’t you?) and then gives you a list of all your federal and state elected representatives. Wow, even YOU can do that. You can then e-mail or phone them. . . DO IT NOW.

The biggest problem is that these bills have been held up since January. What seem like simple issues of human conscience have turned into a fight against the corpo-fascist CHEAP LABOR advocates. The funny thing is that they are making the humanitarian argument that these bills will destroy the lives of foreign workers by taking jobs away from them. Can anyone else see the bitter irony dripping off those comments like a $50 a day porn queen covered in . . . oh never mind. . . these lousy recreant bastards claim to be worried about the fifty cents a day they’re paying their slave labor in Honduras while the idea of uprooting millions of Americans from their good paying manufacturing jobs makes them want to dance in the street. Fuck these POS corporate royalists and fuck their POS bought and paid for legislators who go along with such tripe and bullshit.

Contact your legislators NOW and get this bill onto the floor and let’s see a show of hand from these self serving politicians.

So next time you listen to some politician or corporate talking head making some complex issue of jobs, foreign imports, etc., remember, it’s all about CHEAP LABOR.

The other thing you can do, which will go against the grain of American proletariat ignorance, is arm yourself with knowledge. Know where the products you buy are coming from. Ask the retail clerk about the product. Sure, they won't know a damn thing either, but at least it gets other people thinking and maybe, just maybe one of them will stop and find out some information. Hey bozo, you're reading this on the internet, right? Well, guess where I learned the pitifully scant amount of knowledge that I have aquired on the subject. Right! The internet. The next time you go to Google, instead of typing in "big tits" or "mega cocks," try something like "labor issues," "slave labor" or "CHEAP LABOR!"

Inform yourself you sorry assed ignorant prole. Don't walk around like some slack jawed hillbilly moron.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Tidbits of Headlines with Sagacious Notes

NASA finds gouge on Endeavour's belly

SaggyHill - What a surprise. America’s space shuttle has turned into a cluster fuck of astronomical proportions. These guys have two priorities: one political, the other safety. They can't get either right they are so unfocused. A recent study suggested that nobody, from the top down has a vision of what NASA really is about.
How did the spirit of Apollo become so lost within NASA?

Virgin America enters airline fray
By JOHN WILEN, AP Business Writer
Thu Aug 9, 10:47 AM ET

NEW YORK - Just as major airlines are beginning to return to profitability after cutting capacity to lower costs and boost profits, Virgin America entered the fray.

SaggyHill - I’ve been waiting for this to happen. Airlines in other countries have not been as hard pressed as American airlines have been. I’ve wondered for some time now when an off shore company is going to enter the market and teach the domestics how to run an airline. Now if we can get the federal gov’t to get their shit together and begin running our airways and airports in a way that makes sense and reflects reality we might get back to some sort of efficient system of high speed transportation.

Bush war adviser says draft worth a look

SaggyHill - Good idea. Now let’s see if this generation of spoiled self centered brats reacts like my generation of spoiled self centered brats did.

Giuliani: I misspoke about ground zero
AP - Fri Aug 10, 7:11 PM ET
WASHINGTON - Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani said Friday that he misspoke when he said he spent as much time, if not more, at ground zero exposed to the same health risks as workers combing the site after the Sept. 11 attacks.

SaggyHill - “Misspoke?!” He lied like the slimey little New York politician that he is. “Misspoke” my ass. This guy is about as creepy as any presidential candidate I’ve EVER seen.

Romney May Sweep Iowa Straw Poll

SaggyHill - HA! Surprise, surprise. A dull rich middle aged smiley faced white guy will win in Iowa. I wonder how Obama and Hillary will do against Edwards?

China to map "every inch" of moon surface: report
Fri Aug 10, 1:22 AM ET

BEIJING (Reuters) - China aims to chart every inch of the moon's surface, the chief scientist of the country's first lunar exploration program said in comments published on Friday.

SaggyHill - Big huge YAAAAWWWNNNN. Make sure you don’t miss all the footprints, tire tracks, descent stage rockets, lunar rover vehicles and other debris left behind by the American explorers who were there over 30 years ago.
Or maybe you’d like to borrow our hi-res photographs taken by numerous unmanned lunar craft and eight different crews who spent a total of weeks in orbit around the moon and on it’s surface. That will save you a lot of bother. Maybe spend some of that money cleaning up your backyard.

Brain chemical has key role in ADHD: studies
Reuters - Mon Aug 6, 4:01 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two studies published on Monday showed the importance of a brain chemical in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, with researchers saying it might help explain why people with ADHD often are substance abusers.

SaggyHill - Well great. Couldn’t you have come up with this 40 yrs ago BEFORE I went through hell getting a college degree and later all those months of rehab?! Geez, a little too late, but thanks anyway. See Mom, it wasn't just because I was a bad boy.

Rare White Dolphin Declared As Extinct
By CHARLES HUTZLER Associated Press Writer
BEIJING Dec 13, 2006 (AP)

A rare, nearly blind white dolphin that survived for millions of years is effectively extinct, an international expedition declared Wednesday after ending a fruitless six-week search of its Yangtze River habitat.

SaggyHill - The Yangtze River is an industrial sewer. Environmental problems are not high on the Chinese government’s list of priorities. Remember that every time you buy some cheap POS “Made in China” product that you just can’t live without.

'Great Show': Perseid Meteor Shower Peaks Sunday Night
Joe Rao_SPACE.com Skywatching Columnist_SPACE.com
Sat Aug 11, 7:30 AM ET

The annual Perseid meteor shower is expected to be at its best this year, producing one or two meteors per minute during peak hours.

SaggyHill - There’s not much more wondrous than a sky full of meteors.
Enjoy the show.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Who's running what in this country?

Day after day I hear people bitch and complain about George Bush. George Bush did this and George Bush wants to do that or George Bush believes this. . . are you people really that naive? Have you ever watched or listened to the Moron Monkey Boy who is posing as the President of the United States? This guy is more disconnected than Ronald Reagan in his last couple years. I know people who live father up the holler than I do with 4th grade educations that make more sense and have more commitment than this bozo when they talk.

Folks, you’re giving this little trust fund baby WAY too much credit. To begin with, this guy isn’t committed enough to anything to have an opinion of his own on anything. He has spent his life flitting from one thing to the next that his daddy set-up be it fighter jets in the ANG, an oil “exploration” company, the Texas Rangers baseball team or governor of Texass. If Bush the Elder didn’t set it up and his associates and accomplices in world crime didn’t give it their financial support, Baby George wouldn’t have had anything to do in his life. Look at reality folks; the Monkey Boy has accomplished NOTHING on his own in all his 60 some years. WTF makes you think he’s running this country? How in the hell would someone with such a miniscule amount of real life experience be making serious decisions effecting the future of our country and the world (this hillbilly shutters at the thought that maybe he is).

Get real America. This is a guy who had hardly traveled outside the borders of the United States before he became president. Curious George? Hardly. This is a guy who has a hard time constructing sentences and picking words and all the best language coaching in the world has not improved his skills very much over the past 8 yrs.

What really pisses me off is the way the mainstream media panders and tip toes around the obvious. Just yesterday watch some dumb talking head discussing how decisive and committed to principle the Top Moron (my words not the talking head’s) has become. What a fucking joke. The corporate royalists have simply decided “damn the torpedos, full speed ahead.” They’re going to squeeze out every last drop they can get before their little 8 year party get severely attenuated with a left wing victory in ’08. They know it’s going to happen, so what the fuck, they’re like a crack addict that know the family is going to descend upon them in the morning and haul their ass away to rehab for 30 days, but the night is still young, they’ve got a loaded check card in their pocket ad they’re going to suck as much crack through that pipe as they can between now and morning. George Bush commited to principle? Uh huh. And the proles swallow it whole as the media dishes up another portion of neo-con spew.

Another thing that grinds my ass; Baby Bush is a punk. He’s a little smart assed playground punk. Am I the only one who notices the ever present smirk? Am I the only one who notices that no matter what he’s talking about, be it human disaster or his own war crimes, he always has that half cocked smirk on his face? What the hell kind of president is that? What the hell kind of human being is that? But it’s all part of his history. I remember hearing interviews with guys he went to college with who said he was a smart ass punk who liked to deride others at every opportunity. People who were in the ANG with him said he was an outcast who thought he was better than everyone else. I’m sure there are other sources for such information, but you get the idea. The guy is a punk. If he’d grown up in my part of the country like the rest of us, he’d have ended up sweeping the floors at Wal-Mart or maybe he’d have worked at the hardware store. He certainly wouldn’t have gotten into the ANG for flight training. He’d have never risen to the position of running anything more than the day clean-up shift and his political accomplishments would have been no more than maybe a position on the town recreation board.

So who does run the country? Who knows. Some bunch of corporate elitist whores I suspect. I don’t believe the guys at the top even talk much about Bush the Moron Monkey Boy except to marvel at how they’ve gotten away with what they have with such an incompetent puppet. They probably figured four years of raiding the national treasury and undermining the laws of the land and the Constitution of the United States would have been great, but to get eight whole years?! I suspect there is some layer of bureaucracy the interfaces between the front line administration appointees who tell Bush the Chimp what to say at every occasion and the top dog corporate royalists.

I know, you’re probably right now thinking “wow, that hillbilly mother fucker is a regular conspiracy theorist.” Hardly. I don’t believe most conspiracy scenarios I hear. Oswald acted alone. What I’ve stated above seems obvious to me. You see, I have great respect for the office of President of the United States. I have great respect for the Constitution of the United States and the government that has been established around it. With that commitment, I pay close attention to what’s going on in this country. I have since I was a young boy growing up in the 60s. . . yea, grow up in the 60s. . . that’s my problem.

Like us hay farmers say: keep your equipment greased and pray for rain.

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Absurdities of Human Concoction

Ok, I’m not the smartest hog at the trough or even close. I fact, I’ve been told at times in my life such things as “you’re dumber in the head than a hog is in the ass” or as one former co-worker always liked to point out “you’re dumber than a sled track.” Often, I’ve had a hard time disputing such claims, but despite that, I have to ask: who are these people who passionately believe in things like UFOs, the Loch Ness Monster, Big Foot, ghosts, that old West Virginia favorite the Moth Man and other such absurd legends and how do they find the intellect to wipe their pitiful asses?

Show me a shred of evidence. I don’t mean some video of a guy in a gorilla suit or a footprint made from a wooden form. I mean real evidence like a clear piece of video or how about a sample that can be analyzed for DNA. Now that would be decisive. Alas, such pieces of the puzzle are NEVER produced.

How about UFOs? Thousands of these things have been sighted all over the world. Have we ever seen a single piece of material supposedly taken or left behind from one of these objects? Do we have anything other than some fuzzy video of a pie plate wizzing through the air or a bunch of lights bouncing around that could be anything? Nope. Not a single tiny shred of real physical evidence. Nothing, despite decades of reports and insistence by a group of under stimulated mostly white male weenie whack jobs.

So what is it that leads people to believe in things that don’t really exist?

I understand that every so often someone witnesses something that they can’t explain or they see something and jump to conclusions. I was driving home one night along the ridge leading to my homestead and I saw a head bobbing along behind a huge clump of briars alongside the road. It looked like some big hairy red headed ape looking dude that would have had to have been 8-10 feet tall. It was creepy. It was a deer. I saw the deer cross the road in the headlights way ahead of me. What if I were a little bit less grounded in reality, a little bit more prone to jumping to conclusions, a little bit more excitable and I hadn’t seen the deer in the headlights way ahead of me on the road? Yup, there’d have been a Big Foot sighting right here in rural West Virginia. The lunatic fringe would have descended upon this idyllic quiet locale like a bunch of . . . well, frenzied lunatics.
And speaking of big foot, anybody who has ever seen Robert Lee White in their headlights stumbling up the road toward home drunk on a Saturday night might also make the mistake of thinkin they done seen something supernatural if they didn't know Robert Lee. . . all 6'4" and 350lbs of him. The other thing is, Robert Lee hasn't shaved since he got home from Viet Nam in '71.

Another time I was driving along Booger Creek Road in broad daylight and I saw ahead of me a really, really big cat. It was jet black and looked big enough to carry off one of my big turkeys. My eyes about popped out of my head. Guess what, it was a normal size feline belonging to my neighbor about a mile up the road (surprise, surprise), but I thought it was much further away when I first saw it scamper across the road than it actually was. Once I got up to where the pussy cat had crossed the road and disappeared into the woods, I realized my mistake. . . again, what if I were just a little less sceptical and prone to excitement and jumping to conclusions. Yea, we’d have had panthers on the creek. . . and I’ll bet I coulda found one or two other folks who had seen the same giant feline a time or two over the years.

That leads us into the realm of “cryptozoology” (yaaaawwwn). I don’t like to brag to my friends or neighbors out here on the creek where we all pretty much farm for a living, but I’ve got a degree in biology. Yup, a genuine BS degree from an accredited university. I also have a degree in “physical sciences,” but that don’t matter in this here conversation. . . oh, and don’t tell the rest of the farmin folk out here in the outback of Appalachia. They might take to lookin at me all suspicious if they wuz to find out such information about my background. . . but back to cryptobiology: WTF is “cryptobiology?!” Is there some school of supernatural phenomena where you can get a degree in cryptobiology? These whack jobs go around looking for animals that don’t exist. Yup, they’re specialists in things like the Loch Ness Monster and Big Foot. Remember I told ya there’s not a single shred of evidence that these things exist? What do they study? I tell ya, it’s just amazing the things that people will believe these day. Hell, I can understand why medieval folks believed in dragons and such. They didn’t have scientific analysis, infrared cameras, media coverage and other modern contraptions. I’ll bet a good con man from the 21st century could go back there in time and end up owning the world, but this IS the 21st Century folks. Let me state the obvious for you: Cryptobiology is pure bullshit and the people who claim to be cryptobiologist are morons. Biologists study real living things. We measure, count, analyze, compare, survey and observe real life. You can’t do those things to stuff that doesn’t exist or nobody has ever seen.

I could go on, and on and on, and don’t even get me started on paranormal studies or psychic phenomena. . . I’ll spare you. Cryptozoology, ufology, paranormal studies, etc. are all scams perpetrated by either con men and women or people with serious mental disorders who have a powerful need to believe in something that doesn’t exist. So next time somebody starts talking about Big Foots or UFOs, blow them off. Walk away. Don’t entertain their madness. Come on out here to Booger Creek and I’ll introduce you to Maggie Louise Blalock. When she’s comin at ya with all that big curly blond hair blowin in the wind you think she been out in the garden pickin over-ripened honeydews and when she’s walkin away you’ll swear she’s got a couple of bear cubs fightin in a burlap sack. You’ll forget all about the bozo who wuz talkin about big foot or UFOs.

Y’all have fun.

When you believe in things that you dont understand,
Then you suffer,
Superstition aint the way
Stevie Wonder - Superstition 1972

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Kids, Eyes and Video Tapes

I just read an article about people who have been sitting their infant children in front of DVDs that supposedly teach them language skills. The sad thing is, that a study done by the University of Washington and the Seattle Children’s Hospital Research Institute lead by one Professor Frederick Zimmerman claims that “For every hour a day spent watching baby DVDs and videos, infants between 8 and 16 months old understood an average of six to eight fewer words than infants who didn't watch them.”

Well aint that some surprise to this poor dumb hillbilly. Gee, you mean if I DON’T interact with my children but instead plant them in front of a video screen they will learn less than if I DID interact with them? Folks, sometimes I wonder about WTF these highly educated young parents of today’s society think is really important. I’d bet that many of these parents who have sloughed off their parental responsibilities to some stranger in some unknown locale who authored some mindless DVD are the same ones we see cruising down the interstate highways with their children in the back seat watching movies on a video screen that pops down from the ceiling. WTF?! Don’t you want your kids to observe and be aware of the world around them? Don’t you want your children to understand what is going on in the world and be situationally aware of their environment? What is the matter with you people? Is it really so difficult for you to deal with your children that you need to shut them away in front of a video screen so that they will sit transfixed for hours at a time while you do whatever mundane unimportant shit that you occupy your time with? Why did you have those little darlings to begin with? Just to say you could? I’ve got news for you moron; I can show you plenty of ignorant hillbillies with not even a high school education who have populated the world with likewise ignorant little hillbillies. You having kids is no accomplishment to hang your hat on. Check back with me in 20 yrs and we’ll talk about you child rearing “accomplishments.”

That leads me to another different but related topic. . . think long and hard young parent about what you are doing today. The same goes for you young non-parents. When you hit mid to late middle age there will come a point in time where you will suddenly get all wide eyed and say “what the fuck was I thinking? Why the fuck did I decide to do that?!” Yea, you will. It doesn’t matter what you do today, it doesn’t matter if you listen to every word I say and try your hardest to avoid it, you WILL eventually say that, it’s just a matter of how traumatically it effects you.

Here are a few things you might want to consider:
Pursue your passions. Nothing else really matters in life. Don’t settle for some dead end job that you tolerate because it pays well. Dig deep inside and figure out what and who you want to be and then BE IT.
Decide what’s important in life for you. If having kids is it, then go for it. Do it with passion. Do it with all the intellectual ability you can muster. Make it the most important thing in your life. Grow your common sense around them. If something else is more important to you, then don’t bother with the kids. There are enough slack jawed morons running around in the world today. No sense in you contributing to the pool.
Now, did I say that if you have kids you can’t do anything else? NO! You can do lots of things and pursue lots of passions, but the kids need to be the #1 top drawer item on your agenda and YOUR actions need to reflect that commitment. . . or, you can just travel along through life grasping at whatever bullshit the corporate marketing bottom feeders (yea, that puts you on the bottom below them) shove down your throat hoping that it all solves your problems, makes your children smarter and you more beautiful. G’luck with that.

Ok, back to the kids in front of the video screen. . .

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Welcome to my Sagacious Appalachian World


WTF?! I’m a blogger now? Yea sure. This’ll turn out like everything else I wrap my ADD brain around. . . a whole lot of self hype and excitement and then two weeks later. . . nothing. So stayed tuned and YOU can observe the mad workings of the Sagaciously ADD Hillbilly.

I was going to call myself the “AngryHillbilly,” but I noticed that there is a preponderance of “angry” bloggers and hell, I don’t have a damn thing to be angry about anyway. I’m a white American male with a slight bit of education and free time (obviously I’ve got too much “free time”). I’ve exerted minimum effort in life and received maximum gain. People like me have NOTHING to be angry about. Perhaps at some point in the future we’ll take a look at why so many white males are so damn angry (it better be soon as my attention to this effort will soon wane). We’ll also be looking at why so many white males are messing up this country, why they are such a bunch of fear filled morons and why they are so fucking insensitive or seemingly oblivious to what is REALLY happening in the world.

Wait a minute, maybe I DO have something to be angry about. These pissy assed white males are destroying this country and a few others besides. They’re selling away the future of my children and grandchildren. They’ve raided the national treasury and put us so far into debt that 60,000 Sam Waltons working for the rest of the millenium won’t get us out from under. Don’t I have the right to be angry about that? They’re blowing up other countries, killing hundreds of thousands of people getting thousands of American soldiers killed FOR NOTHING!!!! Angry? Me? Naaaw.

Terrorism?! Did you say “terrorism?!?!” You can take that term and blow it out your pitiful puny ass. “Terrorism” aint nuthin but a bunch of hype the corpo-fascist propagandists have used to scare the bejusus out of you (what’s “bejesus” and how does it get into you?) and make you fall in line while they pillage the national treasury and gut the Constitution of the United States. I love the Constitution of the United States. Why should I BE ANGRY??

Ok. you get the idea. We won’t be giving any ‘wink and nods’ to Alberto Gonezales here at Sagacious Hillbilly. We probably won’t say anything good about neo-cons or other lock stepping politicians. George Bush’s puppet masters won’t get no slack at all.

So stick around and pay attention kids as I sagaciously inform you of how the world really operates, but don’t expect anger or indignation. . . at least, not much. . . maybe.