Grey Complex, Azure Sky

The U.S. Armed Forces: progressives, iconoclasts just don't get it

2012-01-28T19:25:00.000-05:00

Q: "Okay, but why should I respect them, either? They signed up to do a job. They get paid, and nothing they do has any effect on my day-to-day life, nor my "freedom". They're mostly young kids who got hoodwinked into killing people and risked getting killed themselves. Why are we expected to treat vets like they're "heroes"? Why not teachers, social workers, volunteers or the millions of other people who do a shiatty job, but actually do something for America and Americans?"

---

   A: Nationalism, simply put. If you care about our nation being able to kick the crap out of other nations, then this matters to you. If you don't care about our ability to kick the crap out of other nations, then this likely doesn't matter to you.
   HOWEVER;
If you are an American Citizen (which I assume you are), then whether you like it or not, you have benefited indirectly from the use of the U.S. military as a means of international policy enforcement. We benefit from cheaper goods, cheaper labor, supportive (albeit corrupt) allies... etc etc etc. These people who are returning, like it or not, helped enforce that policy that you now enjoy the fringe benefits of. You don't owe them anything, but you should see that their role in conflicts contributed to your way of life, however minutely. Putting aside for a few minutes the larger political picture and saying "thank you" to them for their efforts is something important.
   Just try to have a measure of sympathy and pity for these returning soldiers, but the last thing they need is more scorn and animosity tossed their way. Casual indifference is what allowed them, as individuals, to sign up for a job that forces them to kill people. Casual indifference towards them is now what you seem to display. Casual indifference is a cancer in our society. I think you can do better then that, and I think EVERY human being deserves more then that. Don't celebrate what they did; celebrate that they don't have to do it anymore. Show them loving kindness, and hope that it helps them to see that not everyone in the world is an asshole who will as soon spit on you as shake your hand.
/Pro-Peace
// My sympathy goes out to those who served

~ fark.com (LINK)

Article: Allen West on the Marines Incident: 'Shut Your Mouth, War Is Hell'

2012-01-24T18:59:00.000-05:00

Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), a former Army lieutenant colonel, told THE WEEKLY STANDARD in an widely republished e-mail exactly where liberal pundits could stick their opinions regarding the Marines allegedly urinating on a few corpses. While the incident was wrong, it is amazing - the speed of information - and the speed to self-righteous indignation of the American media, and how quickly we seem to go after our own with the greatest zeal. Is it any surprise that we now have sketchy "allies" like Russia jumping to get in a few hooks and jabs at the American human rights record whenever they can? Yet they do, and it is absurd and sad.

Excerpted from the Weekly Standard, January 13, 2012

“I have sat back and assessed the incident with the video of our Marines urinating on Taliban corpses. I do not recall any self-righteous indignation when our Delta snipers Shugart and Gordon had their bodies dragged through Mogadishu. Neither do I recall media outrage and condemnation of our Blackwater security contractors being killed, their bodies burned, and hung from a bridge in Fallujah.

“All these over-emotional pundits and armchair quarterbacks need to chill. Does anyone remember the two Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division who were beheaded and gutted in Iraq?

“The Marines were wrong. Give them a maximum punishment under field grade level Article 15 (non-judicial punishment), place a General Officer level letter of reprimand in their personnel file, and have them in full dress uniform stand before their Battalion, each personally apologize to God, Country, and Corps videotaped and conclude by singing the full US Marine Corps Hymn without a teleprompter.

“As for everyone else, unless you have been shot at by the Taliban, shut your mouth, war is hell.”

Rand Paul, the next Rosa Parks?

2012-01-23T22:57:00.003-05:00

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/rand-paul-in-pat-down-standoff-with-tsa-in-nashville/

Sen. Rand Paul, known for espousing libertarian values like his father, presidential candidate Ron Paul, was detained by TSA at the Nashville, Tennessee Airport today after a sensor presumably alerted on his leg. When ordered to prepare for a pat-down, Paul refused and requested to return through the machine, to the ire of dronelike TSA security enforcers who called police. When Paul asked to use his cell phone to call his lawyer, he was told that he would be forced to endure a pat-down. The entire debacle lasted over two hours, caused Paul to miss his flight and a speech before 200,000 U.S. citizens. TSA and its leader, the failed Arizona governor Napolitano do not apply prudence when enforcing inspections, instead opting to make the process as difficult as possible and focusing their attention on scrutinizing the elderly, minors under ten years of age, and Medal of Honor recipients.

Legal note: Article I, Section 6 of the Constitution provides general immunity for congressmen from being detained. A Republican, Sen. Paul did not show his credentials or demand special treatment given his political position, but stood his ground until he could be released.

On grad school

2012-01-22T14:22:00.002-05:00

Soon I will be able to proudly say, "Without those two bottles of Bailey's next to my coffee maker, I would've never survived grad school."

Here's Rage Guy on the grading scale:

Cagey's listening to

2012-01-21T21:59:00.001-05:00

The Church, 'Feel', Priest = Aura (1991)

New genre: "Dream Pop" (...Dream Pop?)

...Somehow in that test, I always come up preferring 'feeling' to 'thinking'.

Media attempts to sabotage Gingrich in primaries

2012-01-20T19:51:00.001-05:00

“I think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country, harder to attract decent people to run for public office.”

The crowd erupted in applause.

“I am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that!”

“Every person in here knows personal pain, Gingrich elaborated. “To take an ex-wife and make it two days before the primary a significant question in a presidential campaign is as close to despicable as anything I can imagine.”

“I am frankly astounded that CNN would take trash like that and use it to open a presidential debate.”

When King attempted to explain that it was not his network that aired the report, Gingrich would not let him off that easy. Incensed, he roared, “Don’t try to blame anybody else. You and your staff chose to start your debate with it. Let me be clear, the story is false.”

Excerpted from The Blaze, http://www.theblaze.com/stories/fiery-gingrich-avoids-answering-ex-wife-question-blasts-cnns-king-and-vicious-negative-press/

~~~

How many ex-wives of Democrats has ABC sought out? They just don't do it. So they know what they're doing. They know they've got a president who can't win on his record. Now, that's another thing. This always gets me. Are journalists monogamous? Are journalists faithful? Are they clean and pure as the wind-driven snow?

This is what's always fascinated me. These people, the sports writer guys, the news media guys, they all get to sit in judgment as though they live perfect lives -- and then when you try to turn the focus on them, "Oh, no, no, no! I'm just the reporter. What -- what -- what I do doesn't matter." It certainly does because you are not reporting. You're passing judgment. But there's never been an investigation of, say, Brian Ross and who he is. You know, how did he get his grades? Where did he go to school? How did he get out of school? How did he get the job at ABC? Who does he know? How did he whatever? We never get that about journalists, and when you try? Ooh, they have a conniption fit! I know what some of you leftists think: "You're really going a long way here to avoid talking about Newt."

No, I don't need to talk about him. What needs to be said about Newt? It's out there. It's out there. I don't know. Fifty percent of the country has been divorced.

Excerpted from Rush Limbaugh.com, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2012/01/19/drudge_screwed_up_abc_s_plans_for_the_marianne_gingrich_interview

Everything I ever wanted

2012-01-20T19:23:00.001-05:00

Butter dish: check
Blue pisser water: check
Automatic garage door opener: check
Co-ed tennis partner: hopefully

2012-01-17T20:22:00.001-05:00

Some favorite scenes from my pick for the best film of 2011, The King's Speech. 10/10.

"I'm a naval officer! I'm not a king."
~~
"I have a voice!"

"Yes, you do."

On haphazard modern journalism

2012-01-17T20:17:00.000-05:00

Elements that would complete an otherwise good article are far too often missing. I read a story today about an iPad having been stolen, and the owner using his techno-geek-wizardry to try and turn the tables on the culprit through publicizing some photos. I've seen these 'crime with a twist' stories quite a few times by now: the bad guy snaps some mugs and posts them, and the owner sees it all happening in near real-time, and uses the 'power of social media' to identify the criminal and solve the crime ahead of the police.

So, give us the pictures!

This story lays down the basics, but provides no photos, to which a reader states the blindingly obvious:
Where are the pictures? What is the purpose of this story? Are we supposed to help? If so, how? Is this article intended to be a warning to consumers? Is it to highlight the capabilities of cloud-based storage? Is it to continue saturating the market with everything 'Apple' regardless of the content-less story? Where is a link to the original Yahoo article attributed?

LINK: http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/887347-owner-of-stolen-ipad-using-icloud-to-provide-weird-clues-to-whereabouts#ixzz1jlS6pJrR

Of course, it's nice not being subject to the same rules; but yah, where were the frakking pics?! Should I post one?

Back later

2012-01-14T13:22:00.000-05:00

Going camping.

Unplugged

2012-01-13T19:31:00.001-05:00

They just can't comprehend

I made a bunch of heads a$$-plode at the local cable company - they just couldn't comprehend: As of the 9th January, I have liberated myself from cable television, a.k.a. the boob tube, a.k.a. the idiot box. No plans for now to buy the digital receiver, once offered for free by the government. Feels great. I'm not trying to be ironically hip, either. Do hipster wannabes also do this? I hope not. Got myself a new magazine subscription. Have a backlog of books that demand to be read. What was the last straw?

I will admit that t.v. will be can be a luxury. Firstly, I have never permitted t.v. in my bedroom. I have a radio in there - a t.v. set would interfere on my concentration on - sleeping. If you have a t.v. or especially a computer you work on in your sleeping quarters, be wary, somewhere I picked up that it's not that healthy. Now, when I visit friends or the Mudville Sports Bar of Broken Dreams, t.v. will definitely be something to behold with awe.

They tried to keep me. A literate-sounding man from D.C. called me, "Customer Relations". He offered to drop ten dollars off my monthly bill. Finding him undeterred, I served him up with the unabridged version of my diatribe on the insipid Kardashians slutfest hour, the addition of the Oprah Winfrey Billionaire Self-love Network, the 4/24 of my channels being QVC, 2/24 being public access, and et cetera. I should have tacked on how much I think 'Animation Domination' is a steaming pile and some added some Idiocracy anecdotes for good measure (The most celebrated t.v. show in the year 2212 is "Ow, My Balls"). Or how about the 3-year-old on ABC's 'Modern Family' who will be using the f-word in defiance of decency standards in broadcasting? (STORY: http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/?p=7940) Corrupting babies, yeah, the Godless generation is a fan. Pretty twisted if you think about it. I told the customer loss rep that he sounded like he'd been to college. (Unlike the rank and file customer service rep, he was one of the elite Praetorian ones.) He said he went to George Mason. He must have been young and unspoiled, my intuition told me he was truly interested in keeping me as a customer. I don't know the motive, unless he was under duress. Feasible.

In 'Idiocracy', a t.v. viewer of the future watches "Ow, My
Balls" while beset by continuous advertising

Editor's note

2012-01-12T00:50:00.000-05:00

Several of the quotes from a recent post (02 JAN 12) had inadvertently been erased. The corrected post appears here: http://makalakapisei.blogspot.com/2012/01/cagey-quote-compendium.html
-Cagey

Cagey's listening to

2012-01-12T00:26:00.000-05:00

Screed: "Where have all the fighter pilots gone?"

2012-01-10T23:59:00.002-05:00

I got this from a friend of mine! Thought it good enough to pass on................
Beginning with McNamara the powers that be decided to run the Air Force like an 8 to 5 business. Warrior leaders of General LeMay's stature were no longer to be found. The fundamental job of the military, "kill people and break their things", became seriously hampered by "rules of engagement" whose guiding logic is political, not successful combat. I agree with the author. If and when the US military is defeated, it will be running the best Day Care centers in the world. GCB.
We used to go to the Officers Club or NCO Club Stag Bar on Friday afternoons to drink, smoke and swap lies with our comrades. Think about this when you read the rest of the letter below:
What happened to our Air Force/Marines/Army/Navy............. (or Military)?

Drinking then became frowned on. Smoking caused cancer and could "harm you." Stag bars became seen as 'sexist'. Gradually, our men quit patronizing their clubs because what happened in the club became fodder for a performance report. It was the same thing at the Airman's Club and the NCO and/or Top 3 clubs. Now we don't have separate clubs for the ranks.

Instead we have something called All Ranks Clubs or community clubs. They're open to men and women of all ranks....from airman basic to general officer. Still, no one is there. Gee, I wonder why. The latest brilliant thought out of Washington is that the operators ("pilots?") flying remote aircraft in combat areas from their plush desk at duty stations in Nevada or Arizona should draw the same combat pay as those real world pilots actually on board a plane in a hostile environment. More politically correct logic?

They say that remote vehicle operators are subject to the same stress levels as the combat pilot actually flying in combat. ----- REALLY...you're bull-shitting me!!!???

Now that I've primed you a little, read on.

There are many who will agree with these sentiments, but they apply to more than just fighter pilots. Unfortunately, the ones with the guts to speak up or push for what they believe in are beaten down by the "system."

"Unfortunately there is a lot of truth in the following text - supposedly, Secretary Gates had a force beating the bushes to learn who wrote this....

Where have all the fighter pilots gone?

Good Question.

Here is a rant from a retired fighter pilot that is worth reading:

It is rumored that our current Secretary of Defense recently asked the question, "Where are all the dynamic leaders of the past?" I can only assume, if that is true, that he was referring to Robin Olds, Jimmy Doolittle, Patton, Ike, Boyington, Nimitz, etc.?

Well, I've got the answer:

They were fired before they made Major! Our nation doesn't want those kinds of leaders anymore. Squadron commanders don't run squadrons and wing commanders don't run wings. They are managed by higher ranking dildos with other esoteric goals in mind.

Can you imagine someone today looking for a LEADER to execute that Doolittle Raid and suggesting that it be given to a dare-devil boozer - his only attributes: he had the respect of his men, an awesome ability to fly, and the organizational skills to put it all together? If someone told me there was a chance in hell of selecting that man today, I would tell them they were either a liar or dumber than shit.

I find it ironic that the Air Force put Brigadier General Robin Olds on the cover of the company rag last month.

While it made me extremely proud to see his face, he wouldn't make it across any base in America (or overseas) without ten enlisted folks telling him to zip up his flight suit, get rid of the cigarette, and shave his mustache off.

I have a feeling that his response would be predictable and for that crime he would probably get a trip home and an Article 15. We have lost the war on rugged individualism and that, unfortunately, is what fighter pilots want to follow; not because they have to but because they respect leaders of that ilk. We've all run across that leader that made us proud to follow him because you wanted to be like him and make a difference. The individual who you would drag your testicles through glass for rather than disappoint him.

We better wake the hell up! We're asking our young men and women to go to really shitty places; some with unbearable climates, never have a drink, have little or no contact with the opposite sex, not look at magazines of a suggestive nature of any type, and adhere to ridiculous regs that require you to tuck your shirt into your PT uniform on the way to the porta-shitter at night, in a blinding dust storm, because it's a uniform.

These people we're sending to combat are some of the brightest I've met but they are looking for a little sanity, which they will only find on the outside if we don't get a friggin' clue. You can't continue asking people to live for months or years at a time acting like nuns and priests. Hell, even they get to have a beer.

Who are we afraid of offending? The guys that already hate us enough to strap C-4 to their own bodies and walk into a crowd of us? Think about it.

I'm extremely proud of our young men and women who continue to serve. I'm also very in tune with what they are considering for the future and I've got news for whoever sits in the White House, Congress, and our so-called military leaders. Much talent has and will continue to hemorrhage from our services, because wanna-be warriors are tired of fighting on two fronts - - one with our enemies, another against our lack of common sense.

Take it or leave it....that's just the way it is, no. if's and's or but's...................

Worthy of passing on ??? OK...........if not shit-can it !

Judge Brown
Veteran

Haiku of Stumbling home around the 1500 block of University Ave.

2012-01-09T19:31:00.002-05:00

Do you see that girl?

Do you think she might be drunk?

"He" is not a "she".

~by Cagey
Hmm, was that the night after the college radio station party, or the night I met
fmr sweetheart Y.?

QOTD

2012-01-07T23:49:00.000-05:00

"What is that, like turbo or somethin'?"

~ The mom of my best friend Mike S., while reacting to my strained kid-like explanation of a capacitor out of my "Jr. Science Lab", and whose son had been my best friend prior to bloodying my head in third grade during a fight when we used big heaps of dirt as pretend hand grenades. Accidentally. Turbo was one of the best things about the 1980s. I love this quote.

Cagey on 'xenophobia'

2012-01-06T13:21:00.000-05:00

   Despite what liberalism says, I never noticed any problems with any xenophobia the year I lived in Japan. Probably because I chose to wear a belt and chose to have good manners. I also greeted people in their native language instead of our dialects of Mefirst or Yodawg.
   I know this is not fair to Americans, because wearing belts or practicing genteel behavior is an affront to diversity, and by helping others, we would lose our competitive advantage.
   However, it must be nice to live somewhere that you can safely leave your front door unlocked in any part of the country.
   Psst: You're all XENOPHOBES!

Loyalty

2012-01-05T22:12:00.000-05:00

How does this sound to you? Two months ago, you plan a winter camping/fishing trip that will take place one week from today. You invite your friend who hasn't gone out in over two years because he is occupied with two businesses he runs from his home. You arrange to get a canoe and other gear for him. You and your friend are really excited for the chance to go test your mettle against the elements and do man stuff. Then, your friend's wife suddenly decides ... yesterday, that she wants to take a whirlwind trip that weekend to - let's say - Florida, and buys tickets for that exact weekend. Oh, and that leaves nobody to watch the kids. So... ...

Pizza ethics

2012-01-04T23:15:00.002-05:00

At issue is poor customer service in a pizza restaurant. I was weaned from pizza; I have always enjoyed it, even through the great sledgehammer incident of the early 1980s when I saw my precious smashed before my very eyes. I rank my restaurants; I'm active in rating them online, and I duly realize the predilection of folks to opine on the negatives more frequently than dishing out a, "Hey, good job." I am neither too quick to become defensive nor overcritical, realizing some battles aren't worth the effort.

On New Year's Day a pal and I feasted on sumptuous hangover pizza. Mine had prosciutto (yes, prosciutto), peppers, and gouda cheese reminiscent of the great Provel of St. Louis. Leftovers packed, we left. The waitress was friendly enough, but when we got home, they had packed us the wrong pizza (the overpowering Greek one with entire cloves of roasted garlic and mounds of feta aboard - yick).

I have a slightly different opinion on this than she in that as a hybrid Christian-Buddhist, I feel we should be humble and excuse the oversight; she believes we should have made a stink about it. Other peoples' germs, etc. etc. The compelling argument of hers was that, "It should be a core competency of servicepeople to not screw that up, it is not too much to ask." Something clicked inside me that set my pizza-rage aflame: I was reminded of the expectant hamburger gourmand Wimpy, set to feast on a delicious burger of lettuce, onion, pickle, kumquat, and not getting his prized slider that fateful day, he entered "Hamburger Heaven." Due to his habitual nonpayment ("I shall gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today!"), he was ultimately denied by the irascible burger chef and fell apopleptic. I was in Pizza Heaven.

Demanding satisfaction in this instance was not my style, but I at least wanted to call this to the attention of management because it *was* disappointing and I want to test the Buddhist way. I have about 30% confidence that we will be treated to a replacement.

The moral of this story: Pie-p up when you don't get your hot-za, or forever hold your piece.

QOTD

2012-01-03T11:53:00.002-05:00

"Fear is conquered by perfect love."

1 John 4:12, 16-19

Flotsam and jetsam: Cagey quote compendium

2012-01-02T12:21:00.004-05:00

Let's ring in the new year with some good quotes.

From an article about leftists in Hollywood criticizing the Obama White House:
LINK: http://www.gossipcop.com/matt-damon-obama-elle-magazine-one-term-president-balls/

The leftists in Hollywood believe - as SERFS do - that, once "It is accomplished" (their socialist agenda), things will just be BETTER. What they fail to understand is that THEY are the very vehicles for the opiate delivery system of slavery. Once successful, the movement won't need them, and, thus - will simply eliminate them. Once the government has control of everything, there will not only be no NEED for their services - freedom of expression will no longer even be TOLERATED. They are ushering in their own (and our) slavery. The "court jesters" will only be given influence for so long before their king settles all matters, for once-and for all.

From the comments of an article regarding the Girl Scouts' admission of a so-called transgender 7 year old boy:

“He is a 7 year old boy, so he can not be a girl scout!! He is not a girl and doesn't know what transgender means. I have a 5 year old who wants to be a ninja, but I cannot raise him like a ninja because that would be absurd. When this child grows up he will have options to explore but he is a boy and theres nothing any of us can do about that now.”

LINK: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/dsmnandy/girl-scout-troops-transgender-child-disband_n_1163971_124690688.html

From an article by Selwyn Duke on the flawed nature of atheism:

LINK: http://thenewamerican.com/opinion/selwyn-duke/10238-christopher-hitchens-godlessness-is-not-great-how-atheism-poisons-everything

That is to say, Hitchens claimed that religion was the cause of all sorts of bad things, such as “sexism,” murder, and oppression. Yet can you scientifically prove that anything is bad? If there is no God, it follows that what we label “morality” is just an invention of man. But then what is it but consensus opinion, but perspective? Sure, we may take it as axiomatic that murder is wrong, but an axiom is a self-evident truth that requires no evidence. And what was Hitchens’ famous saying?

“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”

Quotes from the comments on an article about "gay" coffee:

Being gay is something to tolerate, not "celebrate".
Associating things with homosexuality in order to be trendy and gain favor with the morally and socially misguided is just another of a long line of examples of the decay of our society and "defining deviancy down".
LINK:http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/12/24/williamsburg_roaster_debuts_gay_coffee/?comments=all#readerComm

From the comments of an article about a lady who donated a kidney to a complete stranger:
Being a christian is irrelevant - Andy, Portsmouth, 29/12/2011 7:45
----------------------Andy, no one is trying to take away the credit from this wonderful lady, but we should not take away her faith either, the very faith that drove her to believe 'God said it was right'. The problem with Atheism is: when a person commits an inhuman crime against another in the name of religion, then 'religion is the root of all evil', yet when someone is driven by their faith in God to do something they themselves believe they will not do if not for their faith, atheists don't want to acknowledge the fact that the idea of God isn't bad after all. (spelling corrected)

From an article about Girl Scouts of America misdirecting and misleading Girl Scouts to trust left-wing propaganda machine Media Matters:
Hey Encinom, I’m not religious, nor do I give a rat’s behind about religious issues in politics, but this goes way beyond religion. The liberal philosophy is NOT something I want to indoctrinate my children with. The last thing I want to see is my children grow up becoming your typical whiny, spoiled, petty, entitled, crybaby, “victim,” liberals. I actually want them to be independent, strong, and open-minded, not some self-serving, self-righteous, 2-faced pseudointellectual preaching open-mindedness and tolerance, while stereotyping and generalizing against anyone who disagrees with them. You leftists are absolutely pathetic, and are no different than any religioius fanatic, or brainwashed collective-think sheep in N.Korea et al. In many ways, you are no different than the little hormonal girls you are trying to brainwash in the Girl Scouts. So go back to Media Matters, and stroke your insecure ego. After all, you bear no responsibility for anything you do, huh? It’s all the fault of someone else. Dingbat.
LINK: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/girl-scouts-book-refers-young-readers-to-liberal-media-matters-to-clear-up-media-misinformation/

From the comments in a forum discussing the poor treatment of a video gamer by a customer sales rep:
You nerds are sublimating all of your pent-up anger and shame from all of the childhood bullying you ever suffered on Mr. Christoforo. Give it up. Continuing to beat up on him will never compensate for your prior and current athletic and social inadequacies. You have become the bullies you revile -- except with no varsity letter and no cheerleader poontang. So go back to your geek lairs in your parents' basements and resume posting pictures of your cats and toothy homeschooled wives. The winners will be collecting our year-end bonuses shortly, and snorting cocaine off of the asses of hotties you can only dream about. /dons asbestos suit
Russ1642: buckler: Nihilist's Guide to Reticent Entropy: So basically, in order for me to succeed in this world, I have to be willing to take advantage of the kindness of a teacher or "save the world" type of person, and in order to get their attention, I have to seem defective in the first place.

~~
P1: Seeming non-defective works against me because nobody like this wants to come to my rescue and fix me. And here I am, thinking I shouldn't beg or look for charity, when the real way to succeed is to find someone charitable and milk them dry. Well, apparently being a type-A Alpha male who's little more than a bully who's willing to connive and step on anyone you have to in order to advance works well, too. Nice, huh?

P2: Find a book on sociopathy or psychopathy. You'll see that Christoforo fits the model very well. These are the kinds of people who can do pretty much any act, up to and including murder, and then justify it afterwards. They think they're the victim, that they've done nothing wrong. Pretty much the last people on the planet you want to emulate.
P1: This wraps it up nicely. I really wonder what it would be like to be a complete sociopath for a day, completely uncaring about the consequences of any act I did even if I get caught doing it.

LINK: http://www.fark.com/comments/6850135/Article-comes-with-built-in-headline-I-cant-worry-about-fact-that-there-isnt-a-bus-big-enough-for-me-to-throw-Paul-Christoforo-under-The-internet-did-that-for-me-I-think-they-set-him-on-fire-too?viewmode=1&startid=73959355

From a Washington Times article quoting outspoken Rep. Michelle Bachman on the problems of government regulation and business formation:
Our tax code has 3.8 million words and is too complicated for the average American to understand, and it has a corporate tax rate of almost 40 percent that makes America hopelessly uncompetitive. It advantages companies large enough to hire an army of lawyers to exploit it. I’ll end the practice of crony capitalism and special-interest influence in Washington because, as a federal tax lawyer, I’ll abolish the tax code, the place where most of Washington’s influence peddling occurs. I’ll replace it with one that is simpler, fairer and flatter, in which every American pays something, even if it is $10 a year, because every American has a stake in America.

Reforming our tax code and ending crony capitalism will send a signal to small businesses, the true job-creation engine of our economy, that they’ll be treated the same as large corporations. Lowering corporate tax rates will make American businesses more competitive and keep them from shipping jobs overseas. That overhaul will include repatriating the more than $1 trillion held overseas by U.S. corporations that could have an immediate private-sector stimulative effect on our economy. These economic policies will send a signal that we will enact permanent free-market solutions for our economy and end the temporary gimmicks that have had such devastating effects.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/29/little-time-to-save-america/

From the comments in a forum discussing whether hipsters find Kindles or old books trendier:
What makes you a hipster online changes so fast that you can go from being a boring asshole to a hipster and back again several times a day.
What makes you a hipster in real life is those stupid hipster glasses.
sigdiamond2000: So wait...am I or am I not a hipster for reading books
I want to make sure I'm not offending the sensibilities of the fat, sexless loser who keeps submitting these "hipster" headlines.
Butthurt much?
The cute thing about hipsters is they appear to represent themselves as intellectuals, yet appear to accept/reject others on superficialities.
Anyway, I like physical books because I can get them for as little as FREE and I can give them to people when I'm done with them.

LINK: http://www.fark.com/comments/6851830/-2000-Hey-look-at-me-I-read-books-in-my-trendy-bookstore-2010-Hipster-Hey-look-at-me-Ive-got-a-Kindle-before-anyone-else-2012-Hipster-Hey-look-at-me-I-still-read-physical-books-in-my-trendy-bookstore?cpp=1
That is to say, Hitchens claimed that religion was the cause of all sorts of bad things, such as “sexism,” murder, and oppression. Yet can you scientifically prove that anything is bad? If there is no God, it follows that what we label “morality” is just an invention of man. But then what is it but consensus opinion, but perspective? Sure, we may take it as axiomatic that murder is wrong, but an axiom is a self-evident truth that requires no evidence. And what was Hitchens’ famous saying?
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.” -Christopher Hitchens: Godlessness Is Not Great — How Atheism Poisons Everything

“He is a 7 year old boy, so he can not be a girl scout!! He is not a girl and doesn't know what transgender means. I have a 5 year old who wants to be a ninja, but I cannot raise him like a ninja because that would be absurd. When this child grows up he will have options to explore but he is a boy and theres nothing any of us can do about that now.”
-Christopher Hitchens: Godlessness Is Not Great — How Atheism Poisons Everything

Cleaning out the mailbag: Icy Bridge signs

2011-12-13T20:51:00.001-05:00

In the great Commonwealth of Virginia, we have signs with little blue decals (not pictured) that supposedly change color when the bridges freeze. Not being satisified with a run-of-the-mill answer, I contacted the Dept. of Transportation to explore the mechanism that turns the symbols blue.

Dear Sir or Ma'am: I've always been curious about those yellow diamond bridge road signs. They have reflectors that are supposed to turn blue during freezing conditions to warn of potential ice. How do they work? I have never seen them activate - do they turn blue due to chemical changes in the reflectors? Does a thermometer trigger a strobe in the reflector? Etc. Thank you for clearing up this long-standing mystery!

Please see below about your “mystery.” VDOT does not use this type of sign; however, I have seen some in a few cities. You may want to ask the City Traffic Engineer in the city you are seeing the signs about the device."About fifteen years ago there was a particular company that tried to market such a device. The trouble was, the trigger for changing the color was not only affected by temperature, but to humidity as well. Thus, it would change color at different temperatures on different days based on the humidity. Also, if the sign were in the sun and there were shadows on the bridge, the bridge could reach a potential for freezing long before the color changed in the buttons. To my knowledge, this device never made it past the trials."

Sleep well, gentle reader.

2011-12-02T17:31:00.000-05:00

"Aut inveniam viam aut faciam"

Cagey's listening to

2011-11-28T13:56:00.000-05:00

The Smiths - 'There is a Light that Never Goes Out' - The Queen is Dead (1986)

Morrissey - 'I'm Not Sorry' - You are the Quarry (2004)

Cagey sing-a-long

2011-11-27T20:24:00.000-05:00

There is only.... one chance for us all

And we must surely.... make sense of it all

Try to bring peace on earth

Not to bury your enemy

Try to bring peace on earth

Or we aren’t worth anything

Try to bring peace on earth

For piece of mind

There is only.... one time for us all

And we must surely.... stand to the call

No peace on earth and the blame lies at our feet

There’s no peace on earth, no virtue, I see only pride

Do what you can

When you see a wrong try to mend it

A little is a lot

Show them what it means to be human

Show them how it feels to care

There is only.... one chance for us all

And we must surely.... make sense of the call

An effort for peace is it not worth buying?

An effort for peace for future life

An effort for peace just to say goodnight

Do what you can

When you see a wrong try to mend it

A little is a lot

Show that what it means to be human

Show them how it feels to care

Do what you can

Do it

Its not what we are Its what we do

By what we do we shall remembered

Live by the sword die by the sword

We take the word around the world

We’re all to blame we’re all the same

In fact, false truths, in mirrored lives

You see through me I see through you

But underneath you’re just like me

"Do What You Can" - The Fixx - Walkabout (1986)

STEVEN SEAGAL ENERGY DRINK HAIKU NO. 3

2011-11-27T17:07:00.001-05:00

CRISP EFFERVESCENCE

DEADLY MOVEMENT BREAKS YOUR BONES

SUBLIMATE IMPULSE

-------------------------------------------------------

“I have made a lot of mistakes. But I've worked hard. I have no fear of death. More importantly, I don't fear life.” ~ Steven Seagal

GCAS Music Video of the Year

2011-11-25T23:38:00.000-05:00

Duran Duran released 'Girl Panic' this month from their new album, All You Need is Now, a production with the new wave sophistication and star power that helped make the '80s the greatest decade. George Michael tried this trick before I read, but Duran Duran were among the first putting supermodels in the music video format that was just debuting. The production comes off a brilliant original, and cast are Naomi Campbell as Simon Le Bon, Eva Herzigova as Nick Rhodes, Cindy Crawford as John Taylor, Helena Christensen as Roger Taylor. The storyboard follows the troupe through a drunken hazy day through London to the set of their 'video shoot' in a 9 minute tongue in cheek rock star interview and retracing of a lost day's events, with a cool nod to just a few other videos chiseling out the DD archetype: Rio, Notorious, The Chauffeur, Ordinary World, and Girls on Film.

Article: "Girl Panic", Rolling Stone, (LINK), 9 November 2011.
Article: "Yasmin Le Bon on the Duran Duran video, her dream campaign & unexciting editorials!", Grazia Daily, (LINK), 9 November 2011.

The Obama Economic Record

2011-11-21T22:24:00.000-05:00

Good job.

source: US Senate Republican Policy Committee

Should a Hooters girl be allowed to speak to students at their school?

2011-11-20T23:09:00.003-05:00

Huge ripples in the internet yesterday on this question. What's your opinion? I say, "Yes, of course."

A now famous picture illustrating the concept between progressive feminist fantasy and reality.

-The article in question: (LINK)

-The best comments:

Great, a para-legal that THINKS she is a lawyer. Our economy, which is basically swirling around in the toilet, is being run in Washington by mostly lawyers. I would rather fire all of the lawyers, and para-legals, and put the Hooter's Girls in charge. I'm sure they could do a better job and certainly they will show more respect to the citizens of the USA. Unfortunately Ashley, you got your name in the SPTimes, which in this case is NOT a good thing. Because other parents will not agree with you, you have probably doomed
your son to ridicule. Good job.

Many a college student waited tables through college. Nothing wrong with learning customer service. keeping track of multiple tasks and team work.

-The story of an amazing Hooters girl who made her way to Vice Presidency of the company: (LINK)

-The quote by Dr. MLK, Jr.:

Fin.

The funniest thing I read today: "The Chewbacca Defense"

2011-11-17T23:08:00.000-05:00

Excerpted From Wikipedia.

   Johnnie Cochran using the Chewbacca defense against Chef in South Park.The Chewbacca defense is a legal strategy used in episode 27 of South Park, "Chef Aid", which premiered on October 7, 1998, as the fourteenth episode of the second season. The aim of the argument is deliberately to confuse the jury by making use of the fallacy known as ignoratio elenchi, or a red herring. It starts by stating that Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. The argument continues from there, the false premise leading to a series of nonsense conclusions. The concept satirized attorney Johnnie Cochran's closing argument defending O. J. Simpson in his murder trial. The Associated Press noted it as an example of Cochran's position in popular culture. The concept has become a minor Internet phenomenon, used frequently as a running gag on satirical sites and in forums as a form of rhetoric.

   In the episode, Chef contacts a "major record company" executive, seeking only to have his name credited as the composer of "Stinky Britches". Chef's claim is substantiated by a 20-year-old recording of Chef performing the song, as well as a copyright held by MacElroy. The record company refuses, and furthermore hires Johnnie Cochran, who files a lawsuit against Chef for harassment. In court, Cochran resorts to his "famous" Chewbacca defense, which he "used during the Simpson trial", according to Gerald Broflovski.

   Cochran: "...Ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, I have one final thing I want you to consider. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk. But Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now think about it; that does not make sense!

   Gerald Broflovski: "Damn it! ... He's using the Chewbacca defense!

   Cochran: "Why would a Wookiee, an 8-foot-tall Wookiee, want to live on Endor, with a bunch of 2-foot-tall Ewoks? That does not make sense! But more important, you have to ask yourself: What does this have to do with this case? Nothing. Ladies and gentlemen, it has nothing to do with this case! It does not make sense! Look at me. I'm a lawyer defending a major record company, and I'm talkin' about Chewbacca! Does that make sense? Ladies and gentlemen, I am not making any sense! None of this makes sense! And so you have to remember, when you're in that jury room deliberatin' and conjugatin' the Emancipation Proclamation, does it make sense? No! Ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, it does not make sense! If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must acquit! The defense rests."

   This penultimate statement is a parody of Johnnie Cochran's closing arguments in the O. J. Simpson murder case where he states to the jury: "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit!" in reference to an earlier point in the trial when prosecutor Christopher Darden asked Simpson to try on a bloody glove found at the murder scene and the glove turned out to be too small for Simpson to put on easily.

QOTD

2011-11-15T00:30:00.002-05:00

Science sees no further than what it can sense.

Religion sees beyond the senses.

~Unk.

Flotsam and Jetsam

2011-11-14T01:45:00.008-05:00

 Updated 19 NOV 11

2000s Jaguar S-type

Older, '90s style Jag, just as the beautiful
lines and grill started coming off.

Which limp-wristed lisper decided to make the newer S-type Jaguars look so gottamned effeminate? With the effete, heart-shaped/butt-shaped grill I guess I can understand why mechaphilia exists. There is nothing masculine about this car whatsoever and little redeeming; I would be mortified to be seen driving this car; I'd have to hire a driver so I could duck down in the back seat.

If you were a store manager, and in consideration of your employees' sanity, would you have the courage to turn off the Christmas music that begins on November 1st during non-peak hours, while keeping it quiet from management?

Sense experience that doesn't get enough consideration: the hearing of old mechanical sounds (LINK)

"Worst First", (LINK) the idea to keep kids cooped in away from playgrounds, safe from the obsessive and incipient fear of unseen danger lurking everywhere, seems to be today's modus operandi of the Defense Department's leadership philosophy.

Finally, a quote of the day: "Liberalism is the f__t upon which wafts diversity." (source Unknown) Balkanization, and a lack of national unity and moral outrage is what leads to incidents like the elderly man attacked in Chicago, to the extremely tragic urban blight of Detroit. I'm not inclined to give you an earth-shattering essay defending this statement (one: that's not my writing style, two: reductio ad absurdum), please don't think I'm here to harp on ethnicity or the issues of dogmatic multiculturalism; I'm talking about the kind of permissiveness, relativism, fear and one-dimensional thinking so entrenched in our culture which has set the conditions for all this to happen. This bystander attitude. Don't criticize. It's at the heart of the school lunch debate going on right now: yeah, limited government, health public policy and so forth, but could there be an inherent cultural sub-agenda coming from top down acknowledging that America's cultural vibrance is on a track to oblivion unless we get strong again? Physically, as well as morally?

Cagey's listening to

2011-11-11T15:04:00.001-05:00

...My three favorite Robert Plant songs...

Robert Plant - Heaven Knows (1988)

Robert Plant - Ship of Fools (1988)

Robert Plant - Big Log (1983)

2011-11-10T22:33:00.000-05:00

leaves dancing

Cagey's listening to

2011-11-08T11:57:00.002-05:00

RUSH - Manhattan Project, Force Ten, Time Stand Still - Chronicles (1990)

Rush is a Canadian band I didn't come into until later along the way. I love the crystalline, perfect sound of synth they incorporate into their music, like in the first 15 seconds of Manhattan Project through the three chimes, creating an expectant mood. Is this New Wave, or does it just borrow elements?

'Cool Little'

2011-11-04T23:19:00.005-04:00

This grey autumn afternoon
We found a cool little park
With a cool little name ("Brigadoon")
With a cool little playground
And a cool little stream running along the side
Beyond the edge
We found a a cool little path
('Path' seems to fit better than 'trail')
Leading into a cool little forest
That had cool little breaks in it that you had to push aside
And led to a cool little spot
Where you could see a cool little lean-to across the river
Further still, a group of cool little improbable wildflowers that
Rustled in the cool little breeze
And then you popped out from the other side of the trees.

Endurance

2011-10-27T15:39:00.000-04:00

Compassion

2011-10-27T00:22:00.001-04:00

From Buddhism: Introducing the Buddhist Experience, by Donald Mitchell.
For educational purposes only.

Cagey's listening to

2011-10-24T16:02:00.000-04:00

Innermost Station by Cause and Effect

Cause and Effect - Innermost Station (1997)

Initiative

2011-10-24T01:37:00.000-04:00

I'm on blog lockdown until I cook up some more material for my classes. Friends, the light at the end of the tunnel (or 'L.A.T.E.O.T.T.') is flight from Mudville. Keep my eyes on the prize. Anyway, oh yes, initiative. I am wearing my workout gloves more often around the house, trying to bring back Jud Nelson's trend from The Breakfast Club (1985), that greatest of '80s movies from what arguably was the greatest year of the decade. Why did people do that? Were they weighted for combat? Besides keeping my hands warm and comfortable, if I need to lift heavy things, they're already on, and I just seem to have more power in everything, as with similar totems (G.I. Joe in my pocket, ring, crucifix, a tidy desk, etc.) I feel about 77% more effective. You know what I like about the change in seasons? More pockets. Brain's warmed up now. See you in a few days, feel free to drop a line.

Strength

2011-10-18T22:55:00.001-04:00

The most difficult thing I ever had to do? Being the guy who never won in "tag", I used to think it was making the soccer team, and wanting to quit everyday after practice but not following through. Never having had the pleasure of having to run very far, we did these brutal things called "120s" in which we'd sprint to one end of the field (120 yds.) and then jog back, rest a few seconds, and do it again. Exhausted and dehydrated, we'd go to 7-11 after and load up on Snapples, Gatorades, and chug-a-lug. --- However, no, I think one of the tough things was listening to a tape of my late pa, who with me presumably on his knee at the time said, "We'll never abandon you." That tape sat on my desk for months since the first time I tried to listen to it, the second wasn't so bad. I guess I have never had a good sense for time, how it heals and restores. History has always seemed so abstract to me outside of the moment. Five years ago, ten years ago, the 200+ years of the U.S. I read about in books (just finished reading about President Hamilton's and Vice President Burr's pistol duel - Good Heavens, how does time obscure these things?) and the 2,000+ years A.D. Abstract, but all very real, the sum of those events ending in today. Just some half-finished thoughts, but I promised myself I'd get this put down, and what I set out to say is buried somewhere in the middle.

Cagey's listening to

2011-10-17T02:05:00.000-04:00

Lesser known bands who contributed to Karate Kid III (1989)

In a Trance - Money Talks

Listen to your Heart - The Little River Band

Walls That Bend - Jude Cole
(His "First Impression" from the KKIII soundtrack unavailable)

Commitment

2011-10-12T22:18:00.001-04:00

This photograph documents the sad end to my golf shoes. I had these shoes tucked away in my golf bag, a pair of freebies I never realized came with a great set of clubs I bought from a friend. When I made my discovery early this summer, I was proud: no longer would I have to be seen around the country club wearing a pair of New Balance cross-trainers. I was finally part of society.

They'd been sitting for years inside a zippered pocket on the golf bag, a kind of void space forming the structure of the bag in which you'd never think to look. The last recesses of original hull construction they look on a ship before calling off a man overboard search. So, for years these shoes sat in the garage, from Maryland to San Diego, from San Diego to Mudville, waiting for someone to need them. When I found them, I was delighted to give them new life. I lovingly polished them with a bit of white polish, covering the scuff marks, going around and around the toes with that perfect measure of pressure, and treating them as well as I did my favorite dress shoes. "Wow, Nikes. Probably at one time $150." I thought of the story of the The Velveteen Rabbit, or How Toys Become Real, by Marjorie Williams. So many allegories...

They'd seen the course once or twice before with their previous owner, maybe they were a bit neglected. After a game or two, I noticed the sole on the right shoe was coming loose. "Nothing I couldn't patch up back at home with a good gob of fabric glue," I muttered.

Good as new. They went around another game or two, enjoying their newfound life and covering a lot of ground. But the years in the heat had taken their toll on them, as I found on hole number three at the Metro Golf Course on a soggy early afternoon, the swankiest place in town (one of Mudville's neighbors where you're actually expected to wear a belt and tuck in your shirt). "Bernie, these shoes are falling apart, I might have to call it quits early." Every step I took, the top of the right sole would smack up to the bottom of the stitching (or whatever that correlates to in the anatomy of a shoe) making a loud "CLOP CLOP" report. "Keep playing, when it falls off you can go home." So every step walking to my ball from the cart path was "CLOP ped CLOP ped CLOP ped CLOP ped." Boy, it was soggy out there. Then, the bottom of the left sole did the same, so it was, "CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP." No reactions from anyone, oh well, keep playing.

When the right sole was almost done, I showed it to Bernie again, who helped me by taking a firm grip on it and ripping it off. My shoe didn't seem in any pain. So I played like that for a little while, and then the left sole - just fell off on its own. Now I was just playing with the leather and cloth and stitches on the bottom of each shoe, kind of in the manner of construction of rock-climbing shoes. I was happy because I could now run to the ball without worry, it was kind of "combat golf" that day: I would make a crappy shot and then run to the ball to keep a good pace with the more experienced guys. A good workout nonetheless; we weren't allowed to drive onto the fairways because of the rain so I logged a good couple hundred yards of jog/sprints that day.

Without warning, on the right foot, I could see my toes sticking out, but I stuck with it (them?). We were nearing the end of the last hole, and this was no time to throw in the towel. Finally, I ended up taking off the right shoe, and playing with only one shoe and a sock. Then in my socks. But I didn't give up, and my shoes didn't give up on me. A little apprehensive about disapproving snorts from anyone who might see us in this state, I still felt good about not quitting. Nonetheless barefoot , I realized that maybe there should be more dignity involved. "Come on shoes, this place isn't good enough for us. I'm taking you home."

Protest malaise strikes Mudville

2011-10-11T23:07:00.001-04:00

(Click to embiggen)

What a cartoon! This diagram has a large amount of truth to it, from everything I'm hearing. Interesting, but only modestly so in the past few weeks. We have political malaise - don't know what the protests are angry about except Wall St. Are they mad about the mass bailouts? Not really. Are they mad about the government spending us into oblivion? Not particularly. They don't appear to have a cause. They're loud. If they're against The Fed, they have my attention. One skinny-jeans hipster did unspeakable things to a police car. I saw a poster in downtown Awfulk protesting something, but nobody seemed to care.

Keep in mind these questions: Are the protestors being manipulated? What are their motives? Why are the liberals praising them, but lambasting the Tea Party, who's driving force was the most earnest desire to unfudge [expletive redacted] the hemorrhaging economy?

Article: The BBC fails (to understand the Tea Party movement)

2011-10-11T03:14:00.002-04:00

A perspective looking outside-in can always be useful to pry us free from our customary sources. Look how every aspect of life is now micro-managed in Britain (see 'Nanny State' at right), then look back to the U.S. Then "wash, rinse, repeat."

Excerpt:

The British generally and the BBC in particular have a real problem understanding the obsessive suspicion in which the power of central government is held in the US. This is not some funny redneck eccentricity: it is fundamental to the Constitution which gives individual states much greater sovereignty than the countries of the European Union enjoy.

Source: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/janetdaley/100052632/the-bbc-completely-fails-to-understand-the-tea-party-movement/

Journalism's big black eyes: Does anybody remember when...?

2011-10-10T10:16:00.003-04:00

   Journalism is predictable: it's full of "strategery" and hot-tempered. That's part of why I left. I'm thinking about the highs and lows since last fall, which invariably are crowded out of the public conciousness within the span of a week or two. For example: the big shock of summer 2010, the JournoList, never to be mentioned again, seemed to expose the major rift between illiberal leftist journalism and mainstream U.S. society. The rabble-rabble-rousers quickly abandoned the JournoList scandal (take a peek over at BigJournalism.com) and oozed on over to WikiLeaks for the time being, but the issues remain...

   Information is lined up like chess pieces. The JournoList actively discussed smearing public figures (Palin, etc.) from the safe tower of the "Fourth Estate." What happens to them now? It's a blip on the radar. According to blogger Trevor Loudon, "At least a few, perhaps many, were committed Marxists who saw journalism, not as a profession, but as a revolutionary tool." Or, people leap to conclusions, demanding blood. "Sherrod at USDA is a racist." The police officer acted "stupidly."

   And what happened to the outrage over WikiLeaks? Not one, not ten, but NINETY THOUSAND documents compromised? Well, founder Ass-ange under house arrest, but not really under lock and key for his treachery of the western world, but awaiting possible extradition for an easy gotcha of sexual assault. Why do they always try to take down the big fish with secondary charges? To bank away time while the legal beagles work out the details on making the larger case stick? I don't understand how this cretin still lives. Another imponderable is how the right is temporarily misleading itself on the legitimate termination of Anwar al-Awlaki  earlier this month. And any American daring to champion Wikileaks deserves to be tarred and feathered.
  I wish we placed the same importance on civics as we did the LeBron James decision... seriously. Remember that one? Over the span of a year, he went from hero to zero to hero after he left the Cavs for the Heat. (Remember the Ohioan gaggle led by the Governor himself that begged him to stay as if he were a religious figure...?) Now he's doing self-deprecating McDonald's commercials while ESPN does the PR analysis (Unbelievable.) I guess you have to come up with lo-o-o-ts of filler to round out the 24 hr. infotainment cycle.

Flotsam and jetsam

2011-10-06T18:23:00.003-04:00

Hey now! I need to write early when I'm milling about waking up, or late at night when, unfortunately, I have the most energy.

LT Poopers just finished cleaning my morning yogurt cup and I'm checking my news feed.

So in the news... not sure what all the hullaballoo is about Steve Jobs' passing. (R.I.P., by the way.) Was he like Bill Gates, who defied convention and succeeded wildly after he eschewed "traditional" education? (Which today, doesn't hold a candle to a classical college education). A nobleman? A visionary? Anything more than a grand corporateer? Why have 14 people on my Facebook made some kind of comment? The first few probably were those that wanted to "scoop" everyone. The next wave, just looking for an excuse to use the bullhorn. A few geeks were legitimately disturbed.

UPDATE: O.k., Steve Jobs was cool. (LINK) He hung out with the Hare Krishnas across town, walking 7 miles for his meal. He did leave college, but only because it was overpriced (bonus points), and only took a $1 yearly salary since 1997 (major cool).

~~
Speaking of corporateers, in my section of Mudville, we have several cookie-cutter "big box" style pet stores already, and across the street some new pet superstore is going up. Why? Monstrous concrete plazas teem with Harris Teeter and Walgreen's. How many huge pet stores and drug stores do we need in the same 5 mi. radius? This is why people call southeastern Virginia "Strip Mall Hell."

For the sake of revenue, the city council in tandem with the real estate owners have deemed it necessary to choke the life out of a small Shell gas station that had been run by the same family for 41 years - and replace it with another Walgreen's. Their rationale was about the corniest thing I've ever heard: that this promotes the "live/work/play environment" we strive for. G*d, what, is this The Sims? Enough is enough - so ugly, so tacky. We're lucky we haven't named it "towne centre" yet, which inevitably follows in the cycle of snobbishness.

Keep the little guys in play - do your part to support them. As to the pet store sitrep - I have at least FOUR massive pet stores within five miles of me. To be fair, the new one is a privately owned local franchise, so I will support it. We sag, we lag, our industry and production is nearly completely foreign-based, efficiency ordered, convenience centered. So as an appropriately placed reminder of what's lurking up-river:

"China has enjoyed a long time running a massive trade surplus against the united states and other countries and as the country has grown fat with our money and we have grown fat on their cheap goods the American people are hurting for jobs and low wages and it is time for the free ride to be over." ~roguepatriot

No big box post would be complete witthout letting it be known that we welcome our new Big Box overlords! Down with creativity and self-enterprise! Up with live-work-play "towne centre" concrete oasis with Walgreen's at the heart!

We have it good. But we also have it bad. We are living the lives of leisure and comfort that our parents and their parents and so on wished for us. No full comment from here yet on all these micro-protests being staged ("Occupy Wall Street") but they're getting a lot of negative publicity. Lots of self-contradiction (capitalism vs. mandates for freebies), lots of confusion, lots of shilling for propagandists like George Soros.
~~
So here's some bachelorrific stuff to end on: Last night approx. 11:00 P.M., I went to work on repairing the sh!tter, which is leaking at a slow rate, leaving a high water mark on the sides. I did this while listening to Wes Craven's Swamp Thing, then I marveled at the synchonicity of these two events.

I fixed a heavy frying pan today which was warped at the center (dented outward) and did not distribute the heat evenly. I lamented at not having a hammer handy to do this. So I put it on the countertop upside down, and smacked it with a palm heel. Suddenly, this confirmed my status as a man. Still can't cook fried chicken worth a **** though.

As I tossed out the empty package of roasted vegetables, which had been used to top my fried chicken sandwich, the container splattered leaving olive oil trickling down the wall. LT Poopers needed a little bit of guidance, but she was able to mostly lick the wall clean, and that spared me from wetting down a sponge and doing it myself. I'd like to thank my parents on up for affording me this privilege.

The Lone Marine

2011-09-29T22:54:00.002-04:00

Stupid sounding entree names trying to be fancy, yet sound dumb

2011-09-29T12:43:00.003-04:00

Whoever came up with the idea to add "bang-bang" as a prefix for a shrimp or chicken dish - should be shot. Your entree name is not exotic or hip. You are neither cute nor snappy. It doesn't sound Thai or Vietnamese, which you're trying to conjure. You are dumb.

My personal motto

2011-09-27T23:28:00.000-04:00

"Work harder, not smarter."

It just seems... so right. I'm getting a bit teary eyed, even.

QOTD

2011-09-27T01:33:00.003-04:00

We are more filed, recorded, digitized, data-based, monitored, demographically studied, tracked, cookied, and mal-wared to death than anyone could have ever imagined. I fear that the "face book" generation has lead us down the dark road of servitude to "the cloud."

~Unk., from the comments on a recent story about MRI innovations purporting to reveal the "mind's eye"

Bros don’t f***ing pay attention to rules. I can honestly say that had I paid attention to rules and societal norms, I wouldn’t be the bro I am today. We’re told our entire life by parents, the media, school, books, f***ing everything that some day when we grow up we’ll find the “girl of our dreams” and get married, buy a house, have kids, then spend the next 25 years of our life working some shitty job we f***ing hate, just to make sure our kids can have some “Dora the Explorer” back pack. F*** that. The truth of the matter is that someday, bros will probably marry a woman, but in the words of that Black guy in GLADIATOR, “Not Yet." ~broslikethissite.com

Poem: "The Picket Guard"

2011-09-24T03:52:00.000-04:00

by Ethyl Lynn Beers

``ALL quiet along the Potomac to-night!"
Except here and there a stray picket
Is shot, as he walks on his beat, to and fro,
By a rifleman hid in the thicket.
'Tis nothing! a private or two now and then
Will not count in the news of a battle;
Not an officer lost, only one of the men
Moaning out, all alone, the death rattle.

All quiet along the Potomac to-night!
Where the soldiers lie peacefully dreaming;
And their tents in the rays of the clear autumn moon,
And the light of their camp-fires are gleaming.
A tremulous sigh, as a gentle night-wind
Through the forest leaves slowly is creeping;
While the stars up above, with their glittering eyes,
Keep guard o'er the army sleeping.
There's only the sound of the lone sentry's tread
As he tramps from the rock to the fountain,
And thinks of the two on the low trundel bed,
Far away, in the cot on the mountain.

His musket falls slack, his face, dark and grim,
Grows gentle with memories tender,
As he mutters a prayer for the children asleep,
And their mother--"may heaven defend her!"
The moon seems to shine forth as brightly as then--
That night, when the love, yet unspoken,
Leaped up to his lips, and when low-murmured vows
Were pledged to be ever unbroken.

Then drawing his sleeve roughly over his eyes,
He dashes off tears that are welling;
And gathers the gun closer up to his breast
As if to keep down his heart's swelling.
He passes the fountain, the blasted pine-tree,
And his footstep is lagging and weary;
Yet onward he goes, through the broad belt of light,
Towards the shades of the forest so dreary.

Hark! was it the night-wind that rustled the leaves?
Was it the moonlight so wondrously flashing?
It looked like a rifle: "Ha! Mary, good-by!"
And his life-blood is ebbing and plashing.
"All quiet along the Potomac to-night!"
No sound save the rush of the river;
While soft falls the dew on the face of the dead,
And the picket's off duty forever!

Interpreted as song: (LINK)

Cagey's listening to

2011-09-23T21:01:00.001-04:00

Underworld - Peach Tree

Underworld - Moon in Water

Underworld - Born Slippy

Logophiles, unite!

2011-09-23T13:33:00.001-04:00

Why do people ask, "Can I be honest with you?" when it's much better to ask, "May I be candid?" or "May I be frank?" or "May I speak to you without inhibitions?"

~~~

So, I found this note, written to myself, on my desktop today:

"Every wave, an impetus to move,"

Puzzling at first, but I think this was something about the relative suckitude of the greater Mudville area. Not sure if I was thinking about crime waves, waves of pain, social change, or etc. What's clear is that I need to move soon in order to grow. Any interpretations?

[Update, 11 OCT: The wave represents the months Jan.-Dec., which listed from top to bottom, resemble a wave, and too many months of me slogging down in Mudville.]

QOTD

2011-09-21T22:04:00.002-04:00

"Draw me not without reason,
Sheath me not without honor."

(LINK)
(LINK)

Webbed foot capers

2011-09-19T22:28:00.002-04:00

   Finally, FINALLY. Clear photographic evidence of an extraordinary event. If I were to merely tell you without showing you, surely you wouldn't believe me. I have seen this maybe five times in my life - same kind of stats you'd get playing the lotto.

   The rare timing of these strange duck-chickens crossing the road while I'm driving through is nothing short of amazing, but there is one more funky piece to this: they cross using the crosswalk. For awhile, I kept my camera in my car just in case I'd have the luck to see it again, but for a time I didn't. During this period, I lost my regular camera and now only have my crummy cell phone camera.

   To increase the believability factor and to enhance everyone's experience, I made one of those magnification boxes like I'd suppose you see on CSI, or NCIS. Could I summon your help, readers, in figuring out what kind of fowl these are walking around my neighborhood in open defiance of cars? I searched the web for ‘spottled ducks’, but no joy. Without further ado:

[UPDATE, 21 SEP: "Muscovy Ducks" - strangely, not Muscovites, but W. Hemisphere natives]

Here they are again. I've been to the Keys and Panama, so we're cool - I've seen this sort of thing, but around here, it's a phenomenon.

Pictured at the shopping center, these ducks clearly DGAF.

The dichotomous key and leaf identification

2011-09-16T23:43:00.001-04:00

Soon the leaves will make their way softly to the ground making their crackly carpet, a grand reminder of the circle of life. If only I could remember the name... "dichotomous key"! That's it. I was trying to help the neighbor kid with his fall science project and remembered this tool for leaf detectives. I also finally found the name of the big tree on the terrace, by the lake. It's an American Basswood. Very climb-worthy, I just haven't taken myself up yet. Should probably wood-burn a calling card and tie it up to the top limb, like I'd always planned, but never gotten around to.

The names of trees, as those of friends, should be learned and used when you talk about them. Names are convenient handles by which we designate a particular object. Until we know the names of trees, our interest and appreciation for these beautiful and majestic plants is truly hampered. The information here is designed to help you learn to identify "your trees."

http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/plantsci/trees/f436-1.htm#The

Article: "College may be dangerous for men"

2011-09-14T22:32:00.000-04:00

In an aptly titled column "College may be dangerous for men," the September 14, 2011 Phyllis Schlafly report nails the mark on this "We must repudiate men" dogma.

The feminist apparatus is constantly grinding out phony statistics about sexual assault and harassment, accusations that men are naturally batterers, and that women never lie or make errors in sexual allegations. The feminists are unrepentant about the way they and the prosecutors (toadying to the feminists) accepted and publicized lies that destroyed the reputations of the Duke Lacrosse men and of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Now, even more than before, colleges push this propaganda - not sure why the federales have to press it in to the universities, like thumbs in so much clay. I'll never forget when one of my best friends was hauled away, thrown in jail for fitting a very vague DESCRIPTION of an assailant. Name pushed through the press, legal fees, and no apology or significant change in status, just that he was no longer a primary suspect of interest - or whatever the bureau-cowardspeak is that says one thing, but not totally, as to leave inroads open later if they want to change their mind.

I wish I could send this article to my friend, to hopefully help him feel a bit vindicated, but the potential cost is too great; that I might resurrect damaging feelings of his undeserved public humiliation.

Cagey's listening to

2011-09-14T13:53:00.004-04:00

Enya - First of Autumn

Enya - Adiemus (1997)

Enya - Anywhere Is (1995)

...The First of Autumn :)

Funny, I first heard the Clannad themes from the movie Clear and Present Danger. And I first learned of Clannad in a small "Irish" pub somewhere in Japan. And now I find out Enya was in Clannad. Yes. (Pre-empting your question, 'Would you date her?' Yes, I would totally hook up with her.)

Joe vs. Jose - land of the free stuff

2011-09-13T18:54:00.002-04:00

Thought this was an interesting, to the point explanation of why we need to look at this problem and address it. It's not racism. It's being accountable for your needs and responsibilities like the rest of us.
Interesting when you work the numbers.

You have two families: "Joe Legal" and "Jose Illegal". Both families have two parents, two children, and live in California.

Joe Legal works in construction, has a Social Security Number and makes $25.00 per hour with taxes deducted.
Jose Illegal also works in construction, has NO Social Security Number, and gets paid $15.00 cash "under the table".
Ready? Now pay attention...
Joe Legal: $25.00 per hour x 40 hours = $1000.00 per week, or $52,000.00 per year. Now take 30% away for state and federal tax; Joe Legal now has $31,231.00.
Jose Illegal: $15.00 per hour x 40 hours = $600.00 per week, or $31,200.0 0 per year. Jose Illegal pays no taxes. Jose Illegal now has $31,200.00.
Joe Legal pays medical and dental insurance with limited coverage for his family at $600.00 per month, or $7,200.00 per year. Joe Legal now has $24,031.00.
Jose Illegal has full medical and dental coverage through the state and local clinics at a cost of $0.00 per year. Jose Illegal still has $31,200.00.

Joe Legal makes too much money and is not eligible for food stamps or welfare. Joe Legal pays $500.00 per month for food, or $6,000.00 per year. Joe Legal now has $18,031.00.
Jose Illegal has no documented income and is eligible for food stamps and welfare. Jose Illegal still has $31,200.00.
Joe Legal pays rent of $1,200.00 per month, or $14,400.00 per year. Joe Legal now has 9,631 .00.
Jose Illegal receives a $500.00 per month federal rent subsidy. Jose Illegal pays out that $500.00 per month, or $6,000.00 per year. Jose Illegal still has $ 31,200.00.
Joe Legal pays $200.00 per month, or $2,400.00 for insurance. Joe Legal now has $7,231.00.
Jose Illegal says, "We don't need no stinkin' insurance!" and still has $31,200.00.
Joe Legal has to make his $7,231.00 stretch to pay utilities, gasoline, etc.
Jose Illegal has to make his $31,200.00 stretch to pay utilities, gasoline, and what he sends out of the country every month..

Joe Legal now works overtime on Saturdays or gets a part time job after work.
Jose Illegal has nights and weekends off to enjoy with his family. Joe Legal's and Jose Illegal's children both attend the same school. Joe Legal pays for his children's lunches while Jose Illegal's children get a government sponsored lunch. Jose Illegal's children have an after school ESL program. Joe Legal's children go home.
Joe Legal and Jose Illegal both enjoy the same police and fire services, but Joe paid for them and Jose did not pay.

Do you get it, now?

Cagey's listening to

2011-09-12T17:13:00.000-04:00

Trip - Deluxe Edition by Cause and Effect

Cause and Effect - Trip (1994)

10 years later

2011-09-11T23:04:00.001-04:00

An artist's representation of the 9/11 memorial park at the Pentagon.

   LISTEN to Michael Savage on 9/11/2001 (LINK). Let it get you mad. He had it right, and don't sugarcoat, it -WAS- OUR- Pearl Harbor.

   Nice hearing rocker tributes all day on the radio. "Don't mistake our kindness for weakness," said Tommy Shaw, among others.

   I think about the "blow it all back to the stone age" vs. "precision targeting" and feel we have done a good job, with the exception of the relentless courts-martial against many combat personnel and overcomplicated rules of engagement.

    I was in Dahlgren when we got the word. We raced back to Maryland and got down to work. The next several weeks are hard to remember.

President Bush with retired firefighter Bob Beckwith. Beckwith, 79, regained
his mantle during a spot decision, venturing to the disaster site in NYC.

Article: Firefighter tells story behind iconic moment with George W. Bush (LINK).

"...I want her to be as grateful as I am every day, to live in these great United States." ~John Wayne

Rad '80s spotlight - China Crisis

2011-08-27T22:54:00.007-04:00

   "They composed some subtle masterpieces during the 80's, and were just one of a number of brilliant bands that were on the edge of the radar screen like so many others playing second fiddle to the smash hit stars such as Duran Duran, Wham! and Madonna." ~inthe00s.com

   China Crisis attracts because its simplicity defies easy explanation. For me, one of them thar' metaphysical fellers, the more I spun my wheels, the more I got stuck in the mud. Over time, I came to own their five main releases from the 1980s, less reluctantly each time. The personal appeal - something with feeling light and airy - is apropos for the confident time period, and for one aspiring to "openness".

   This new(?) C.C. song was just revealed to me by poking around on the largely defunct MySpace - "Watching Over Burning Fields." As an instrumental, it stands on its own, is solemn, not quite sentimental, evocative of the era's mood maybe a layer or two beneath the surface. Like the rest of the best of New Wave, it came from the U.K.

   C.C. isn't even one of my top ten favorite bands, it's their light and airy uniqueness and RELATIVE obscurity that makes me want to know more. (Don't worry, I'm not a frigg'n hipster.) Ambitious name, had heard of them before, why not. I don't want to make them into something they're not or come off like they've moved me into thinking they're the best "quieter" band ever. What I like is that they didn't run around with hubris after their successes but rather continued enjoying making music. In fact, my entire fascination of late with C.C. is about curiosity - background on them has been hard to find. They have been quite a puzzle: first, why their musical style?

   At first, I did not care for their blend (I hate to say it, but "elevator muzak" from a different age is what I was thinking), but now my happy realization is that what typifies all I've seen to date on them is subtle yet powerful. From there, why the name? There is a certain starkness they create.

   The purport/tenor of their name & music: Is it their interest in the unknown, other hemisphere? Is it political? Sociological? What influenced this?

   Finally, now that they've grown on me (kind of like the kid in class or person you never thought you would end up liking, but did), what is thematic to them?

   Is there any unity of theme among their covers?
   Among their songs?

   I see them pair the perspective of large and looming artifacts of the new age with atmospheric music on Fire and Steel,  as well as tension of scaled simplicity against the vulnerability of wide-open landscapes. In addition, clear evidence of theme is seen on the album art for 'Shapes', of Minimalist/Modernist nature. "Minimalism argued that extreme simplicity could capture all of the sublime representation needed in art," says that ubiquitous online encyclopedia, and I celebrate in a realization that this whole thing takes flight from these uniting structures.

   Found this trivia page recently: http://web.archive.org/web/20090804143406/http://geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Towers/3059/trivia.htm
Take a look! This guy is obviously a huge fan by the amount of memorabilia he collected.

  All in all, I feel they were just of the mind to make music, I've seen written up as borrowing from blues, reggae, among other styles and, of course, new romanticism/new wave. They rejected "African and White" being interpreted as a political statement; others say this was blatantly political.  Finally, a different review concluded layering was their strength and trademark: flute over trombone over keyboards among other innovations. Since there is little info on this subject, I wanted to offer some general thoughts of my own. I hope this doesn't come across as a bunch of haughty b.s. from a dabbler in symbolism; but you don't just reduce art to equations. However, there is an analytical process, you get some subjectivity, discussion and scrutiny, and finally some general conclusions - temporary or enduring, which can aid our appreciation.

My favorite C.C songs:

10.Red Letter Day
9.Blue Sea
8.Good Again
7.No More Blue Horizons
6.Wishful Thinking
5.African and White
4.Watching over Burning Fields
3.Arizona Sky
2.Here Come a Raincloud
1.Soul Awakening

Public Service Announcement

2011-08-26T14:27:00.000-04:00

To the people line-dancing at Hardee's: You are obstructing my path to the ketchup dispenser.

Flotsam and jetsam

2011-08-26T00:52:00.006-04:00

IDIOCRACY IN THE NEWS

Martin Luther King statue:

I was trying to explain to an acquaintance why it wasn’t proper for such a statue to be built outside of the U.S. What kind of national greatness is that?! She said, “But I heard the Chinese are great sculptors.” So I’m looking for some good granite around here to bang my head into.

Carrier skipper will be retained in USN:

Meet Captain (CAPT) Owen Honors. If you don't live in Awfulk, or don't follow the military, you may not have heard of CAPT Honors, the former executive officer (#2 guy) of the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier. Running a naval unit or shore facility is a big deal, but the carrier guys are kind of a big deal. That is a lot of steel to possibly run aground. So the standards for the naval officer are to be "beyond reproach." So the good captain made a series of humorous short videos to show on the ship CCTV to promote good hygiene, etc., poking fun at himself and others to drive home his points and connect with the modern audience. So stuffy as we are, many people in and out of the military prejudged the captain, said it should end his career, that he must have zero defects and be sacrificed to the altar of political correctness. And now today, we learned that a panel of admirals (men with God-like status in the Navy, tantamount to Generals in the Army, etc.) will spare him the ignominy of a forced "out." We also heard of the danger of stifling thought.
“Misconduct?” said CAPT Honors' lawyer, Gittins. “That’s crap.” Speaking after the admirals’ decision, “The surface warfare community – they just don’t do that.”

Gittins said he thinks the real take-away from the case is that the Navy prefers safe, conservative leaders who don’t push the envelope or try out-of-the-box methods.

URL: http://hamptonroads.com/2011/08/navy-panel-officer-raunchy-video-case-should-stay-navy

Article: Student ranks thinning for blogging Pa. teacher
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (AP) — More than 200 parents have told a Pennsylvania school district they don't want their children taught by a teacher who called students "frightfully dim" and "disengaged, lazy whiners" on her personal blog.

Comments (like diamonds from coal, the gems are always buried at the bottom of the article):

Ever seen the movie "Idiocracy"? That is where we are headed... I have 4 of them.... all dumber than a post. Hate to say it, but it's true. I worked my #$%$ off to teach them better... they chose differently. I was "too strict" according to them. Now not one of them can hold a job. When they do work, it's for peanuts and mostly temporary work. Range in age from 18 to 26. Lazy, dumb as hell every one. `knuckleheadjim
I have said many, many times "Idiocracy" is not a movie, it is a preview.... What happens when government intervenes between parents and their children... Their interference works equally well in the financial field, equal lawsfield, immigration field, etc., etc....If I were a teacher, I am SURE I would feel the same way..

All you have to do is read Facebook posts and comments on Yahoo news articles to see the truth. More and more people are graduating from school with serious deficiencies in grammar, spelling, history and government, and critical thinking skills, but ask them about sports and entertainment and they can "skewl you". I believe that the fault for this is shared by both parents and teachers, but I also believe that the teachers would be better able to teach the kids if the government got the hell out of the education system. Teachers spend about 50% of their time with administrative issues, conforming to the #$%$ government regulations, another 25% socializing the kids (as ordered by the government), and only 25% of the time actually teaching the subjects needed to survive in the world. It's time to eliminate the unconstitutional U.S. Department of Education from the federal budget and return those powers and tax dollars to the individual school districts, teachers, and parents. Then, we need to return the disciplinary method to the schools and homes. Yes, this means corporal punishment. Better to bust their butts than to turn them over to the cops and the justice system, which is the current method. It's pathetic to see students graduating with a lifelong criminal record for schoolyard behavior. But that's another argument for another day..
URL: http://news.yahoo.com/student-ranks-thinning-blogging-pa-teacher-105622659.html

WEATHER

Poopa-cane 2011 preparations underway

Having sortied the entire Second Fleet for
hurricane avoidance, LT Poopers takes
shelter some two days early from
the impending U.S. East Coast
atmospheric event "Irene".

I just finished a quick meteorology seminar, and feel I know a little bit more about how hurricanes work. Well, the weather-guessers are saying this is gonna be the big one. Have been stocking up on pork & beans and ammo. The CDC recommends 3 days worth of clean water (1 gal./day), dry stores, etc. I have checklist upon checklist. I guess I won't joke about shooting looters since this the era of political correctness. Twain would, however.

CIVICS

"THE PROGRAM"

On Thursday, September 11th, 2011, an American flag should be displayed outside every home, apartment, office, and store in the United States . Every individual should make it their duty to display an American flag on this tenth anniversary of one our country's worst tragedies. We do this honor of those who lost their lives on 9/11, their families, friends and loved ones who continue to endure the pain, and those who today are fighting at home and abroad to preserve our cherished freedoms.

ART

The Fixx and artist George Underwood

Discussion ongoing regarding album cover selection for The Fixx's upcoming album: Here's a gallery of George Underwood's album art: http://www.georgeunderwood.com/pages/album-covers/93 - Underwood did 'Reach the Beach', 'Pharoahs' and 'Calm Animals'. Not being an art guy, is it safe to say his work is Surrealist? Surprises me that I hadn't looked into the artwork before, given the amount of time I've spent peering into nooks and crannies on album art origins, especially a ton of contemplation on China Crisis pairing of art and music. Cover art, and the humble liner pages are aspects of the finished music 'product', which need to remain relevant and valued!

FEATURE

ADULT SITUATIONS, ADULT LANGUAGE

I'm not the LEAST bit hippie, but I like to think I can achieve peace of mind like a kid who can get lost in the azure sky from time to time, filtering out the world below. From bills to no more snow days, check out this blog article about the unpleasant realities of adulthood.
URL: http://www.iheartchaos.com/post/9336308534/list-soup-11-things-that-suck-about-being-an-adult

Cagey's listening to

2011-08-24T22:24:00.002-04:00

OMD - 'Of All the Things We've Made' - 1983

Cagey sing-a-long

2011-08-21T20:09:00.001-04:00

I love the breeze

The one I miss is in the breeze

You are the breeze

I love the water

The one I miss is in the water

You are the water

I love the life

The one I miss is in the life

You are my life

Now I am possessed

The one I miss is my possession

Maybe you're still around

Maybe you could still be found

I love the life

The one I miss is in the life

You are the life

I'm in distress

The one I want is my distraction

CHORUS:

Maybe you're still around

Maybe you could still be found

What can I do or say

To see there's no holding back?

Seeing this old place reminds me, maybe you're still around.

I love the child

The child I kiss is in the man

You are the child

I am possessed

What I want is my possession

CHORUS

I categorize The Fixx's music in many moods - the most significant being 'bravura', 'arioso', and 'misterioso'. This melody and accompaniment are definitely among the more upbeat of their ballads.

Cagey on Technology

2011-08-21T19:33:00.000-04:00

"Gentlemen, we can rebuild them. We have the technology. We have the capability to completely eliminate the twist tie from the face of the Earth."

QOTD

2011-08-20T22:35:00.000-04:00

"There is something quite nice about getting an actual personal letter in the mail, even if that fact isn't going to get a nation of people who write in 140-character belches to pick up a pen." ~Unk.

Crop circles in my yard: LT Poopers is on the case

2011-08-19T22:45:00.001-04:00

Zimbio.com's list of famous Republicans

2011-08-14T17:10:00.000-04:00

Feature link: http://www.zimbio.com/Famous+Republicans/articles
Full List:

1. Stephen Baldwin
2. Jessica Simpson
3. Britney Spears
4. Tony Danza
5. Clint Eastwood
6. Sarah Michelle Gellar
7. Mel Gibson
8. Kelsey Grammer
9. Drew Carey
10. Matthew McConaughey
11. Freddie Prinze Jr.
12. Heather Locklear
13. Arnold Schwarzenegger
14. 50 Cent
15. Bruce Willis
16. Adam Sandler
17. Sylvester Stallone
18. Vince Vaughn
19. Tom Selleck
20. Alex Trebek
21. Angie Harmon
22. Elisabeth Hasselbeck
23. Joan Rivers
24. Donald Trump
25. Chuck Norris
26. Ted Nugent
27. Marie Osmond
28. Gary Sinise
29. Shannen Doherty
30. Alice Cooper

Fitty's in the GOP? Righteous!

Great Ideas (working title) by Cagey

2011-08-04T17:35:00.002-04:00

What if:

-...I relocated and opened an all English speaking American themed restaurant overseas hiring only those of American descent? Would people probe my authenticity by trying to speak to me in American dialects? Would they ask, "Is it o.k. if I speak English?" Like when I go into a Japanese restaurant and ask "Nihongo daijobu desu ka?" 邦人スポークこれで?

-...I had an all-day Mad Max marathon today? If that's wrong, I don't wanna be right.

-...I opened a small business? Is the current regulatory environment in the U.S. too restrictive to allow small businesses to sustain themselves before government gets its cut? And like Michael Savage asks, why do lawmakers no longer use the word "taxes", but instead complain that with the debt ceiling concessions made to the lefties, they will not get enough "revenue"?

Thanksgiving 2021

2011-08-02T08:01:00.001-04:00

   "Winston, come into the dining room, it's time to eat," Julia yelled to her husband. "In a minute, honey, it's a tie score," he answered. Actually Winston wasn't very interested in the traditional holiday football game between Detroit and Washington.
   Ever since the government passed the Civility in Sports Statute of 2017, outlawing tackle football for its "unseemly violence" and the "bad example it sets for the rest of the world," Winston was far less of a football fan than he used to be. Two-hand touch wasn't nearly as exciting.
   Yet it wasn't the game that Winston was uninterested in. It was more the thought of eating another Tofu Turkey. Even though it was the best type of Veggie Meat available after the government revised the American Anti-Obesity Act of 2018, adding fowl to the list of federally-forbidden foods, (which already included potatoes, cranberry sauce and mince-meat pie), it wasn't anything like real turkey. And ever since the government officially changed the name of "Thanksgiving Day" to "A National Day of Atonement" in 2020 to officially acknowledge the Pilgrims' historically brutal treatment of Native Americans, the holiday had lost a lot of its luster.
   Eating in the dining room was also a bit daunting. The unearthly gleam of government-mandated fluorescent light bulbs made the Tofu Turkey look even weirder than it actually was, and the room was always cold. Ever since Congress passed the Power Conservation Act of 2016, mandating all thermostats-which were monitored and controlled by the electric company-be kept at 68 degrees, every room on the north side of the house was barely tolerable throughout the entire winter.
   Still, it was good getting together with family... or at least most of the family. Winston missed his mother, who passed on in October, when she had used up her legal allotment of live-saving medical treatment. He had had many heated conversations with the Regional Health Consortium, spawned when the private insurance market finally went bankrupt, and everyone was forced into the government health care program. And though he demanded she be kept on her treatment, it was a futile effort. "The RHC's resources are limited," explained the government bureaucrat Winston spoke with on the phone. "Your mother received all the benefits to which she was entitled.. I'm sorry for your loss."
   Ed couldn't make it either. He had forgotten to plug in his electric car last night, the only kind available after the Anti-Fossil Fuel Bill of 2021 outlawed the use of the combustion engines-for everyone but government officials. The fifty mile round trip was about ten miles too far, and Ed didn't want to spend a frosty night on the road somewhere between here and there.
   Thankfully, Winston's brother, John, and his wife were flying in. Winston made sure that the dining room chairs had extra cushions for the occasion. No one complained more than John about the pain of sitting down so soon after the government-mandated cavity searches at airports, which severely aggravated his hemorrhoids. Ever since a terrorist successfully smuggled a cavity bomb onto a jetliner, the TSA told Americans the added "inconvenience" was an "absolute necessity" in order to stay "one step ahead of the terrorists." Winston's own body had grown accustomed to such probing ever since the government expanded their scope to just about anywhere a crowd gathered, via Anti-Profiling Act of 2022. That law made it a crime to single out any group or individual for "unequal scrutiny," even when probable cause was involved. Thus, cavity searches at malls, train stations, bus depots, etc., etc., had become almost routine. Almost.
   The Supreme Court is reviewing the statute, but most Americans expect a Court composed of six progressives and three conservatives to leave the law intact. "A living Constitution is extremely flexible," said the Court's eldest member, Elena Kagan. " Europe has had laws like this one for years. We should learn from their example," she added.
   Winston's thoughts turned to his own children. He got along fairly well with his 12-year-old daughter, Brittany, mostly because she ignored him. Winston had long ago surrendered to the idea that she could text anyone at any time, even during Atonement Dinner. Their only real confrontation had occurred when he limited her to 50,000 texts a month, explaining that was all he could afford. She whined for a week, but got over it.
   His 16-year-old son, Jason, was another matter altogether. Perhaps it was the constant bombarding he got in public school that global warming, the bird flu, terrorism or any of a number of other calamities were "just around the corner," but Jason had developed a kind of nihilistic attitude that ranged between simmering surliness and outright hostility.. It didn't help that Jason had reported his father to the police for smoking a cigarette in the house, an act made criminal by the Smoking Control Statute of 2018, which outlawed smoking anywhere within 500 feet of another human being. Winston paid the $5,000 fine, which might have been considered excessive before the American dollar became virtually worthless as a result of QE13. The latest round of quantitative easing the federal government initiated was, once again, to "spur economic growth." This time they promised to push unemployment below its years-long rate of 18%, but Winston was not particularly hopeful.
   Yet the family had a lot for which to be thankful, Winston thought, before remembering it was a Day of Atonement. At least he had his memories. He felt a twinge of sadness when he realized his children would never know what life was like in the Good Old Days, long before government promises to make life "fair for everyone" realized their full potential. Winston, like so many of his fellow Americans, never realized how much things could change when they didn't happen all at once, but little by little, so people could get used to them.
   He wondered what might have happened if the public had stood up while there was still time, maybe back around 2011, when all the real nonsense began. "Maybe we wouldn't be where we are today if we'd just said 'enough is enough' when we had the chance," he thought. Maybe so, Winston. Maybe so.

~ Unk.

Article: "How Americans Learned to Ignore Their Own Religious History"

2011-08-01T20:08:00.000-04:00

"How Americans Learned To Ignore Their Own History", by David Barton, excerpted from ADF website, 1 AUG 2011: http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/TruthandTriumph/4-2/OnTheSquare?referral=E0711D3G

Named by Time magazine as one of the nation's 25 most influential evangelicals, nationally acclaimed author and speaker David Barton is founder and president of WallBuilders, a pro-family organization committed to restoring America's knowledge and understanding of its history – and particularly the faith heritage that shaped that history.
How did Americans come to forget or misunderstand so much of their own history?

Part of it is through a process termed "deconstruction" that has dominated American teaching for the last 50 years – a process whereby you point out the negatives and not the positives. So that if you ask Americans to list 10 things about America we should be ashamed of and 10 things we can be proud of, they will fill the list of negatives before they fill the positives.
We also teach the exception and not the rule. At Duke Law School, I put a picture of the signers of the Declaration of Independence in front of the students, and said, "Who do you recognize?" Everybody said, "Well, there's Jefferson, and Franklin" – and nobody gave me a third name. I said, "There are 56 guys up there – give me the others." Nobody gave me a third name.

The point being they can all recognize the least religious Founding Fathers, but they had no idea who the others were, nor that 29 of the 56 had seminary or Bible school degrees.

We've been trained that they're all just like Jefferson and Franklin, when Jefferson and Franklin really are the exceptions, not the rule, when it came to their spiritual condition.

What are the implications of that misinformation for our culture?

When you want to change public policy, you change your perception of history. Most people appreciate the fact that America is Number One in the world in prosperity and stability. But we're also taught that this is the result of a secular founding, secular documents – we have a "godless" Constitution, and that's why we've lasted for this long.
And if you're taught that, and you like what we are and you want to keep it that way, that implies that we've got to keep this thing secular. We've got to make sure that we don't get all these religious folks involved. We've got to make sure that there's this rigorous "separation of church and state" …because that's what you think history was based on. And the way you present yourself in the past is what you try to become in the future.

What makes the separation of church and state issue so critical in today's political climate?

Separation of church and state was actually a Christian idea – it comes right out of the Bible. The phrase had been used by preachers for 200 years before Jefferson picked it up. When he wrote that, everybody knew what he was talking about. He very specifically attached that phrase to the Free Exercise Clause [of the First Amendment] – which made it very, very clear that because of separation, the government would never [interfere with] public religious activities. For the next 150 years, every case that used the phrase "separation of church and state" used it to keep religious expressions in public, and to keep government from secularizing the public.

Then, in 1947, in Everson vs. Board of Education, the court said, "We think Jefferson messed it up. He should have attached the separation metaphor to the Establishment Clause, not the Free Exercise Clause." Separation now means the government can interfere with religious activity. That is the means by which secularists can go against the overwhelming majority of the nation.

How did our classrooms come to be so hostile to American history and its religious heritage?
For 300 years, we taught students how to think. We shifted that paradigm in the 1920s: instead of how to think, the object is now knowledge. "We the teachers will tell you what you need to know, and you're going to spit it back to us." We came out with new forms of testing: multiple choice, fill in the blank, true/false. And, we shifted into teaching culture, not history. We don't care who we were – only who we are. The emphasis becomes "right now," not the past. And once we've separated ourselves for 50 years from teaching the past, we can now rewrite the past to be what we want it to be. That gives us justification for wherever we want to head right now.

Steven Seagal energy drinks in hand!

2011-07-24T22:32:00.004-04:00

Update 3: Another bad-a$$ed fan tribute! Man, these get me pumped!

Update 2: Steven Seagal parody with Lightning Bolt! It's awesome, the people you meet online.

Update 1: Lightning Bolt commercial! Damn, it feels GOOD to be a part of pop culture history!

It's a lotta great things goin' on in the kitchen!

Still Life a l' Celebetaire (Bachelor Still Life), by Cagey. Every
item in this composition has profound meaning. For example,
the A. Palmer ice tea is on hot standby for 50/50 Vodka mixture.

I've been waiting for this moment for years, my Steven Seagal energy drinks have finally arrived. It's a cannon blast of motivation.

I also wired my fridge to play "Winner Takes It All' by Sammy Hagar when I open it.

Cagey's listening to

2011-07-23T22:40:00.002-04:00

Moody Blues - Your Wildest Dreams (1986)

Moody Blues - Deep (1988)

Cagey Electronic Cavalcade

2011-07-22T22:27:00.010-04:00

I'm in Electronica/New Wave mode.

Trip - Deluxe Edition by Cause and Effect

Cause and Effect - Trip

Duran Duran - The Man Who Stole A Leopard
My favorite new DD song in a LONG time.

M1 - Never Far Away Radio Edit
(with Idiot Drivers Compilation)

Miami Vice Score: Jan Hammer feat. Grace Jones feat. Fleetwood Mac - Lethal Seductions (sequel)

It's Over Now (1994) - Cause & Effect

Antarctica - Vangelis; Covered by Ed Starink - Synthesizer Greatest Vol. 1

Air - Run

Renegade Soundwave - Renegade Soundwave (Leftfield Remix)

Kris Menace feat. Fred Falke - Fairlight

FPU- "Ocean Drive"

Street Hawk Adventures By Giullano Pilati (The Long Road For Wisdom)

Duran Duran - Time For Temptation (Come Undone B-Side 1993)
(When are these guys gonna put all their killer B-sides on an album already?!)

Duran Duran - "Beautiful Colours"

Underworld - Peach Tree

Underworld - Moon in Water

Not sure how exactly I went from Space Shuttle to Delta Force

2011-07-22T22:26:00.001-04:00

I almost, almost applied to the shuttle program on a dare once. At least it'd have been a good story for kids someday. Anyway, I grew up in the heart of the era, watching Space Camp and all that other '80s goodness, proud of our nation. However, watching the Atlantis landing yesterday, I am a bit PISSED that the mission control guy kept trying to one-up the pilot, a.k.a. mission commander with final remarks! If I could find the script, I'd love to show you exactly. Instead, I'll simulate.

"Welcome home, Atantis."
"Thanks, Mission Control. The shuttle has taken the hope and inspiration of mankind to the stars and back."

"Atlantis, the staff here was watching you all the way like a loving parent cradling her child as the guiding light of the stars nestled you in her soft bosom."

"I constitute a part of Cagey's unique
experience with the shuttle program."

"Mission control, this is Atlantis. After thirty years of the shuttle program, we're just glad you helped us home safely one more time. That's a wrap."

"Atlantis, this is Mission Control, thanks for your remarks. On behalf of a grateful nation, we are also glad you are home, glad as the father to the Prodigal Son, we welcome you with open arms, forever shall we cherish you and forever shall we remain guardians of the tranquil majesty of the night, the sea of dreams, the hearkening nocturne of which the celestial magnificence chants, we are but a lonely mission control who dared to dream that we could perform this mission, and here on the ground we had an absolute professional team that was utterly satisifed in driving the adventure."

"Mission Control: Atlantis. Yeah, thanks or something."

So to try to replace my remembrances of Mission Control's speech with something else patriotic, I started thinking about Delta Force instead.

Delta Force, Chuck Norris

Anytime I hear this theme by Alan Silvestri I go wild. I get patriotic and I want to ride a motorcycle with missles on it and shoot at 711 stores and muslim churches called mosques while eating a bacon cheeseburger! Come join my Delta Force. Kill them all let Allah sort them out! Allah loves bacon. I'm the Baconator! ~'Bigdanny77'

VJ Day, Honolulu Hawaii, August 14, 1945

2011-07-21T21:42:00.002-04:00

VJ Day, Honolulu Hawaii, August 14, 1945 from Richard Sullivan on Vimeo.

QOTD

2011-07-21T15:17:00.013-04:00

"Be as good as your dog thinks you are."

~From a sign outside a church here in Mudville, U.S.A.

"If you voted for Obama in 2008 to prove you’re not racist, you’ll have to find someone else to vote for in 2012 to prove you’re not an idiot." ~Unk.

"Babel, Inc.: We live in the era of the great divider, not the great uniter. People letting themselves identify strictly inside party lines must be insane at the wheel, and our country's brakes have been cut. Democrats fancy themselves intellectual giants using big-kid words like 'jingoists' to describe people that love the United States. If you hate the United States, the Democrats love you, but not as much as they love themselves. Republicans dislike the Democrats, which makes sense because the Democrats have turned hypocrisy into an art form. Other than that, they don't dislike much else, because they are in want of a position. The Independents? They just have a strong dislike for the political plutocracy." ~Cagey

"Without a common moral code and Christian heritage, our nation will splinter into Balkanized factions. There would be no social glue to hold us together any longer. Since the 1960s, America’s cultural disintegration has accelerated. We have become more secular, more perverse and ultimately, more decadent."

"The modern left understands one fundamental reality: Destroying Christianity destroys the culture and civilization it spawned. They are inextricably linked. This is why socialists, such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Saul Alinsky and George Soros, have championed militant anti-Christianity, free love, contraception and abortion. Smash the family and traditional morality and the economic system they gave birth to - capitalism - will fall." ~Jeffrey Kuhner

Frickin' YUM!

2011-07-19T19:42:00.005-04:00

I kind of fancy myself like the lid lifter guy sometimes when my swagger overflows.

Tuscan nirvana, with futuristic slicing technique

My self-esteem must be recovering because I just made my first action figure of myself, and I am back to writing petulant request letters to corporate food headquarters.

~~~~~~~~~

Dear DiGiorno:
I am writing on 3 points today:

1) I respectfully request you NOT discontinue the new Tuscan Style Chicken pizza. You have reached the pinnacle of applied pizza science and it would be a tragedy that you discontinue it. Please quell the rumors circulating on the internet!
2) This is my second time writing in - this time I would like to requisition the regular stores in the 23464 zip code carrying this item - could you please confirm? I intend to stockpile all remaining Tuscan Style Chicken pizzas in local inventory. Thank you again for your outstanding product

3) I noticed on your website that you do have international positions. I am a professional consultant and strategic studies student, and I wish to apply for any of your executive-tier positions in Japan. Request any applicable guidance.

Thank you,

Cagey

~~~~~~~~~

Also, the guy on the Freezerburns blog dissing this product is a frickin' nimbnut (not really, but I disagree with his review). He says, "So overall, I was disappointed, but I ate the whole thing. Don’t want to waste food, but I would never buy this again. If you like ranch dressing, you’ll love it. If not, don’t get it, you can’t scrape off the sauce." Too bad every commenter below him went completely 180. YOU'LL GET YOURS, BUDDY!

Update: Form letter response?! Well, I never! (Read on only if you're really interested in knowing the epilogue.)
~~~~~~~~~
Dear Mr. Cagey, [* Editor's note: EGAD!]
Thank you for contacting Nestlé® on the Internet. Questions and comments from our consumers are always welcome! We have read your email and researched your inquiry. For more information on career opportunities, please visit our website.
As you may know, we produce and market a variety of products. While we would like every store to offer each item we make, it is their decision as to which products they will carry. If you don't see the product on the store shelf, we also encourage you to ask the store manager for an "item not available" or "I want this item" request form and fill it out.According to our records, you may be able to purchase this product at one of the stores listed below;[redacted for security reasons]
To find stores in your area selling the meals which interest you, please use the Store Locator tool available on our Nestleusa.com website. You can access that directly by clicking Nestleusa.com. If the item is not available in our item locator, this would mean the information is not yet available.
Once again, thank you for your interest in our products and we hope you'll visit our website often for the latest information on Nestlé products and promotions.We appreciate your interest in our company.
Sincerely,
x
Consumer Response Representative
~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Ms. X, [Note: informal comma used as opposed to formal colon, in response to her informal comma]
It is I who should be thanking you for your rapid response! You must share my passion.
Conducted mission to Kroger in Kempsville with negative results. Worse for the wear yet undeterred, I will continue my search. Thanks for the tips.
On the job opportunities – that’s terrific. I was hoping maybe you had an “in” with the CEO or felt any groundswell for any hot Japan jobs coming down the pipe. (Are you in good with anyone?) I’m willing to do what it takes to land this one. My interests are loyalty to the company first, obviously, but also geographic in nature and I eventually hope to homestead there – in a place that’s safe for my (future) family. Hoping to brand myself as an area subject matter expert by gaining experience in the hot zone.
Please convey my compliments to your staff. I hope by expressing interest in the Tuscan Style Chicken pizza, I can help ensure it will be around for years to come.
All the best,
Cagey

I am so totally stoked right now!

2011-07-17T23:17:00.001-04:00

Just purchased: Six (6) cans of RARE, out-of-production Steven Seagal energy drinks. Not only it is a chance to peacock in front of the world, it's come to me not to remarket them, but to share them for the good of humanity. Part of the appeal is bedrocked not only in my own association with the Seagal name, but I feel I'm elevating in the social strata, wait 'til I bust these puppies out at work. However, Steven does not want me to be greedy. Steven does not want me to be vain. Yes, Steven. I obey.

Some of the summaries on the web are hysterical:

ROUND 1: ASIAN EXPERIENCE
SUMMARY: Fruit-flavored genocide in a can.

"After I bought my 16 oz can of Steven Seagal's Lightning Bolt, Asian Experience flavor, I took a long moment to examine the shiny black can, looking for any information that would prepare me for the power I was about to receive. Instead of fully describing the design, I'll just ask you to do this: Picture in your mind what the packaging of an energy drink made by Steven Seagal would look like. Yep, that's about it."
"Inappropriate use of Chinese symbols? Check. Barely coherent copy on the back? Check. Bizarre 'Asian' ingredients? Check. Picture of Steven on the front that looks like it was taken in 1987? Check." - http://www.agonybooth.com/agonizer/Steven_Seagal_s_Lightning_Bolt.aspx

Considering trademarking my own energy drink with a friend, and retiring early. The goofier it sounds, the more inner clarity the plan has - I'm not much of a risk-taker anymore, but doing this could actually yield something good. Look at Michael Savage's son who founded the Rockstar beverage brand. Look at the popularity of Red Bull. So, energy drink brewmaster: That's the fourth built-in redundancy in the Cagey strategic plan (if that and all other retirement plans fail, it's off to professional body-building and selling out my blog by installing Google AdSense). Moreover, I need a frickin houseboat, like, yesterday.

PICS WILL FOLLOW IN ONLY A MATTER OF DAYS...

Cagey's listening to

2011-07-13T19:58:00.008-04:00

Bach - Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major BWV1007 - Mov. 1-3/6

Stuck in my head all day, and thank high Heaven for the internet that I could find it (and also for Heaven's gifts).

Samuel Barber - Adagio for Strings

I believe this was the title music for 'The Endurance', one of my favorite documentaries. Update: I learned that this piece is also associated with the 1986 Academy Award (Best Picture) winning 'Platoon'. (The movie my dad was willing to bend the 'R' rating rule for in order for me to see for some reason... but we never made it to the theater.)

Copland's Fanfare For The Common Man (tribute by Asia)

A mega-group playing under the pseudonym "Passengers", with Luciano Pavarotti, from an enigmatic album first heard during my college radio station days...

David Sylvian & Sakamoto Ryuichi, "Forbidden Colours"

David Sylvian & Sakamoto Ryuichi, "Heartbeat/Tainai Kaiki II"

It speaks to ghosts and souls alike
Springs to life, and doesn't think twice
Wrapped in the blood sail
Bathed in snow
Nailed to the source and it won't let go
Fed on the Bible, grown from trees
It opened the mind and the heart was free
A home in the silence, safe from sound
Where trouble sleeps and the light is found

What is this shiate?!

2011-07-12T16:35:00.001-04:00

Great moments in lexographical orthodoxy:

The '90s: "Deez nuts," is introduced to common slang. "D. Snutts" becomes one of my pseudonyms.

The '00s: "I know, right!", an expression of agreement, invades the country from rap salons.

Today: "Really?! Reeeeeally?!" becomes the latest noxious trend in urban drawl. Formerly known as "Seeriously?! Seeriously?! Are you m* f'n seerious?!" with a high inflection that the speaker uses, in order to sound knowledgable and authoritative, and to offend the senses.

If you weren't aware of any of these, they'll hit you like nails on a chalkboard when you hear them now!

Bonus annoying trend:

What is with people putting memorials with names, slogans, tombstones and birth/death dates on their rear windshields? "R.I.P. such and such." Weren't you depressed enough before? If you want to show us that you're grieving, I truly sympathize, but why is the automobile suddenly the place to put that stuff? I don't get it, seems conspicuously gaudy to me.

Coming up on GCAS

2011-07-11T10:08:00.002-04:00

Coming up:

Cagey News Compendium

- More spoiled kids, spoiled legislators, and cultural flotsam and jetsam.

Mysteries Revealed, part trois

- My recap on the intricate discoveries made in the first half of 2011 and some uncharacteristic, effusive gratefulness for life in general.

Check back every week or so, I'm slow, but I'll be back!

Cagey's listening to

2011-07-09T22:41:00.003-04:00

Took a little nappy-nap and somehow The Platters were there...

Bob Seger

Cagey's listening to

2011-06-29T06:26:00.002-04:00

'Sleep', Cause and Effect, Artificial Construct Part One, 2010
http://www.causeandeffect.com/

Cause and Effect on the album's iconography:
Cause and Effect ‎"@David - The squares represent the elements of a song with the red one being voice and the others being instruments. The four lines represent the 4 songs on the EP and their different lengths."

"Champain tastes" - slang experimentation zone

2011-06-25T01:54:00.009-04:00

Couture

I remind you all of a little secret: I'm a producer, I make things happen. It's a lot of girls out there trying to equate couture with culture, but this isn't France. What the hell, don't they even know how to spell? We do it up American style. And I learn a lot of phraseology from New York YouTube videos.

You know how we do it; salute when you see money. Looking like money, indulging in city life. I was dabbling a bit in the murky underworld of online dating and I found a fellow hopeless romantical that professed a palpabul taste for the finer thingys in life. Thus, her headline, "Champain tastes". There's nothing wrong with the 50 lb. bag of irony involving the modern spelling of the word; in fact, it's a lot of people that wonder how to even get things that romantical at all. U R probably wondering if a relationship with someone use to exquisite things is attainable. This fair lady has made no pretense of her desire for the finer things in life, and Stan would have to get hurt for trying to out-pimp the original pimp. (Credit: my long-time friend 'Blood Dragon')

According to "dat grl", here's some things you can do to upgrade your swag and hopefully give a little taste of the old world style (pre-1980). Doin' my gentsklman shiate, a lot of people don't have the savoire faire, but I take exception with people who don't like double-breasted suits. Step up your savvy.

"Take her to a very nice hotel, then @ night take her to a nice romantic dinner(have crab), have the imployes at the hotel cover your room with candels and rose peddals white and red, a glass of champain, smooth music(lets get it on) chocolet covered strawbarrys, whipped cream, in the champain glasses make sure you have frozen blue barries in them cuz it makes the champain taste extra sweet. and make sure you have her outfit put out on the bud for her to put on langerie and make it red."

Always da hopeless romantic, I recently scoured the infotainment machine for some advice on a fondue. I want to impress some seafood-eatin' biatches. This is what my peeps had to say:

Champain tastes

Crab (or surimi, its a heavy dip, doesnt matter too much), artichoke hearts, mayo, cream cheese, parmesan cheese, garlic powder, salt, pepper...

Some combination of those, oven safe dish, 15-20 minutes @ 350 until bubbly.

And to all the haters telling me to put "GHB" (I looked that up, that means date-rape drugs) in my crab dip or frontin' my style, well, bugger off!!

Cagey's listening to

2011-06-21T23:34:00.002-04:00

Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 2

My pa's favorite composer...

Steps to expository writing, simplified

2011-06-18T19:00:00.000-04:00

by Cagey

- What
- So what
- Therefore
Now pay me a million bucks and royalties in perpetuity.

On Baltimore living

2011-06-17T10:15:00.000-04:00

I wonder wny Baltimore escapes so much of the national focus (blight) that is heaped on Detroit. I used to live right outside of greater Baltimore, and I can't imagine having to raise kids there. "Daddy, why don't we ever go past the Patapsco Valley State Park?" "That's the DMZ, honey. That's where all the Obama voters live and kill each other in broad daylight. It's a very bad place."

Presenting the new official Cagey motto

2011-06-16T20:25:00.000-04:00

~~~ "Work harder, not smarter." ~~~

Cagey's listening to

2011-06-15T01:10:00.001-04:00

Some assorted videos & fan montages from one of the least-known but most extraordinary Duran Duran albums, 'Big Thing' (1988). But Cagey, why don't you put up some material like 'Notorious'? An Amazon.com review by RW Griffith nails the deal with this largely unknown album:

Then there are tracks like Too Late Marlene and Palamino, which are sadly underrated and highly neglected even though they are beautifully written and are transcendent in their tone and melodies. The centerpiece of the album for me though is Land, at 6+ minutes is Duran Duran's longest song(Even longer than The man who stole a Leopard), but you'll never notice because it's a masterfully written song. It's not a ballad in the typical sense of the word, but it has some amazing, just amazing guitar work done by Warren Cuccurullo.
The edge of America is also incredible, I don't completely understand what it's about, but just like Land, it's amazingly written. Big Thing is an album that is easily overlooked, mostly because the best tracks on the album were underplayed and didn't achieve single status.

I also love the lyrics and the feeling to Land - "Headlights in the dawn," a sense of leaving, and other verses that lament and savor the anticipation of departure. Also appealing because, well, a poignant reminder of my own sailing schtuff, burning days at sea, and the suckitude my friends are feeling floating around away from their loved ones.

Cagey's listening to

2011-06-11T00:45:00.000-04:00

Urge OverkillMistake
1995

The bridge around 2:00 is sublime...

Today's rant

2011-06-03T21:39:00.004-04:00

As I sit hacking away here at the keyboard, I am comforted in knowing that LT Poopers is busy with her new rawhide bone. Both of us are trying to work in earnest.

Greetings Sir or Ma’am:

My phone rep was very pleasant, but after about 3 loyal years with you, I’m switching companies. I seek a cell to land line program for two numbers I dial frequently.

I was told I could get some “everything” option or other (“option overload” – I am confused). I only want simple web browsing, ~450 or fewer “anytime” minutes, and unlimited daytime calling to my two desired “friends & family” numbers.

This is why I have to switch services. I don’t need everything-web-everything-call-everything-text-everything-everything-unlimited-+300minutes-to-landline-versus-300-to cellular-onlytime minutes, I just wanted a so-called “friends & family” plan to call what few friends & family I have left.

Regards,
Cagey

Postcards from Cageyville

2011-06-02T15:05:00.002-04:00

Dear Friend,

Here procrastinating again, but have a full head of steam. In fact, I had a huge discussion on it last night as we talked about the ramping up to get from the simple 'knowledge' layer of thought up to the 'evaluative' layer of thought - the part generally required to go from infotainment consumption up to essay writing. Prepare for a cannon blast of motivation, and as always, I wish you were here.
Yours,

Cagey

Essay: "Focus the Fire Inside"

2011-06-01T00:25:00.002-04:00

by CAPT Francis D. Bonnadonna, CHC

Tragedy is more than a terrible turn of events.
Classically, it refers to a gifted person who is ruined
by a flaw of character. Of all the situations I’ve
encountered as a parish priest and Navy chaplain,
tragedies are by far the saddest. It is troubling to see
gifted individuals destroy, by their own actions,
the respect their hard work and dedication has
built. Sometimes stellar individuals with potential
to live life really well bring all their potential to
nothing. Instead of the “good life,” their success
turns to ashes.

In every person there is a hunger—an emptiness. The
ancients spoke of a fire inside a person kindled by the gap
between desires and the inability to satisfy
them. What one does with that fire, that
hunger, is spirituality. It shapes actions
and choices. Spirituality is not something
optional and esoteric, but is an essential
part of what it is to be human. As fire can
destroy or enrich life depending on how
it is used, so can spirituality either be
destructive or enriching. It all depends on
what we do with the fire inside.

St. Augustine believed we fail to live well when we love the
wrong things. Wrong things tear a person apart and are
destructive. Loving the right things not only integrates a
person and helps them be successful, it enhances and builds
their community.

Central to the idea of living well is the way in which the virtues fit together. Greek philosophy speaks of happiness —eudaimonia: literally the good spirit—as the outcome of living well. The classical virtues are temperance, courage, fortitude and justice.
Different cultures and traditions have added to these basic four. For instance, the ancient Romans added things like honesty and frugality. What is key is in order to live well, these virtues must be embedded in our life by practice.

When we love the wrong things, our lives come apart. That
disintegration impacts more than the individual. It has a
corporate dimension because it impacts our shipmates, our
unit and even our community’s mission effectiveness. In
this way, personal failure to live well has a strategic, or long
term dimension. Ultimately, it degrades our ability to protect
our nation. Throughout the last year, there have been many
tragedies in our military. Talented, gifted leaders have been
lost, not only to combat, but to loving the
wrong things. What has been the impact to
Sailors whose lives have come apart because
of loving the wrong things? The military family
is poorer for their loss.
Chaplains and religious program specialists
bring the resources of faith to help people
live well by loving the right things; the things
that integrate instead of destroy a person.
They are an enabling asset to help focus the fire inside. They
help you harness that creative energy and potential inside so
that you are spiritually healthy and contribute positively to
your families and shipmates. When you are spiritually healthy,
you live well and that rising tide lifts the whole community.
Your command religious ministry team adds strategic power—
not for an hour, but for a well lived life. Use them.

What can I say? I'm an art afficionado.

2011-05-31T17:41:00.001-04:00

One of the greatest hobbies, amid an unforgiving backdrop, in a still-motion film = packed with Vitamin A-wesomeness.

Why folks sometimes don't do things that seem logical

2011-05-31T14:31:00.001-04:00

While walking along a beach, an elderly gentleman saw someone in the distance leaning down, picking something up and throwing it into the ocean.
As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, picking up starfish one by one and tossing each one gently back into the water.
He came closer still and called out, "Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?"

The young man paused, looked up, and replied, "Throwing starfish into the ocean."
The old man smiled, and said, "I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?"
To this, the young man replied, "The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don't throw them in, they'll die."

Upon hearing this, the elderly observer commented, "But, young man, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can't possibly make a difference!"

The young man listened politely. Then he bent down, picked up another starfish, threw it into the back into the ocean past the breaking waves and said, "It made a difference for that one."
-Unk.

Cagey's listening to

2011-05-17T00:18:00.000-04:00

The U.S. Navy has been described in two chapters: pre- and post- Top Gun. I'm giving Al Corley another shot because the color and tempo of this song reminds me of Take My Breath Away, the iconic '80s subdued naval mega-ballad from Top Gun. I'm starting to work out a nominations list for a Top Gun II soundtrack - this week, Top Gun is 25 years old! Didn't make the AMC reshowing though, I can never sit through that movie anymore - but I would've loved the free poster they were giving away.

More Berlin from Cagey's Extraoccidental album. Another city-named band... what else does Berlin evoke for me? Misty bridges and Golgo 13, I guess. Haven't been there yet.