...interruptus...

As you may have noticed (or not...) I have been absent for a few days,... moving things and other minutia,.. but I shall return like a bungee cord with a death wish :)
Thanks to all my Peeps for the comments and the visits,... I love you all... yes even the ones who think I'm two sandwiches short of a picnic basket...

Shut up and sing!

No, I'm not stealing this title from Laura Ingraham's book,... and no, this is not a political posting (... at least no as far as elections are concerned) this is more about the way politics weaves itself to all facets of life (thanks to Quaker Agitator for the thought provocation). So forgive me as I segueway from full metal jacket politics onto a kinder, gentler version of it...

Why does Music affect us the way it does. To some (like my 5-year old) its nothing more a beat to shake the booty. To many, a way to unwind from something and escape the what-ever's of the day, a bona fide reception/expression of the social condition, a foil to play air-guitar as the Irish spring does its thing.... Most everybody loves it. you can feel its effect deeper than the cerebral cortex. Look at Beethoven, deaf yet able to discern over 8 octaves of the frequency spectrum by touch alone!

So what happens when you love a song,... this thing really rocks!... You've learned the words by the fourth playing and you are ready to baptize so and so as your favorite all time singer when suddenly,..... it happens. You begin to listen to the words, you begin to read his or hers political leanings... and just like that! Purgatory. You have a CD burn-in, you tear down your velvet coated posters, and have an anti-virus alert on your MP3 player alerting you of such an Artist's proximity...... What the hell happened?... You loved the music!

In 1981 I was a plebe sailor on my first cruise to the Pacific. It was January 7th, Reagan had just throttled Jimmy C. to the point that Carter conceded by the time the eastern States' polls closed. So here I was anchored off Pearl Harbor listening to Armed forces Radio.... Springsteen with the E-Street band, live in concert. Hawaiian sunset, single life, on my way to the Pacific rim Islands, and Springsteen was about to come in to the topside noodle via my RCA monophonic ear piece,... Heaven on Earth.

Let me stop for a minute. I worshiped the man. I ate Asbury Park for breakfast daily!. I knew all the words to the "Born To Run" album... (the fact that I had no idea what the words MEANT is another story). He was my boy. He was from Jersey, I lived in Jersey for years and my family still resides near the turnpike somewhere.

So back to the ship. Bruce goes off ranting about... "I don't know what happened last night in the elections but it sure scares me...." and he just launches into the coolest and rawest version of "war" I have ever heard. Just pulverized it. The crowd was going ape***t.... So why was I standing there comatosed like a teen who just found out his only condom on prom night had a hole in it? The musician that for so many years was my call to arms to the revolutionary ways of youth was now against what I was developing to be. I was a Reagan Republican to the bone marrow. Bruce just told me that my Commander-In-Chief was a war-monger who should be loathed and feared. I was crushed. I lost all musical innocence on that pier and hated him for it. Within the next 10 minutes all his albums (remember those?) were making like condemned frisbees out from the port bow of the ship,... my musical Hero's music was now sitting at the bottom of the bay just a few thousand yards from the USS Arizona Memorial.

I take pains now not to know anything about the Artists whose music I love. I don't want to know anything, ANYTHING, other than the way the song makes me feel, the way the bridge trasnposes up a half a key, what intervals the harmonies in the second stanza are atonal... I give token notice to the lyrics for fear of being disappointed, for fear of having to duel with the dicotomy of loving the song and hating the opinion. I wish I had never lost the blinders that made me hear music with the abandon of ignorance.

I have plenty of newspapers, TV shows, Magazines, Blogs, etc that keep reminding me of the Ills of Planeta Tierra without having it applied to music. As much as music has changed the world, I wish it had not changed mine...

So,... if I could send a message in a bottle to every artist who pens a song for someone to hear,... it would say "Please, don't talk to me, don't guide me or coax me..... just sing" ... Just sing...

FOR SALE: 1 vote

Ok. I'm done. Done with Bush, Durbin, Cheney, Schumer, Rice, Hagel, Byrd, Pelosi, Rumsfeld, Clinton, Kerry, Reid, the "other" Clinton, and any form, fashion or mode of politics blah, blah, blah,... done.
I am taking a self-imposed moratorium on political-themed postings for 2 months (God, the withdrawals, I feel the shakes already...) Anybody with enough gluttony to have read any of my postings or comments on other blogs has seen my patience virtually vanish overnight. I'm tired of sucking on the probervial dangling vinegar-piss, spigot-crotch. Done. Instead I will engage in my favorite non-political topics. I've had a million of such puppies brewing in my noggin' for weeks and although they are less important and meaningful than the political topics of the day, they will make me happier than the present crap ever will (no offense to my blogging brethren out there). I'll leave the mortar rounds, opinion-retort mental tennis, and political rantings to persons better able to perform the dance than I am.
But let me leave the political vortex with this. My vote is for sale. Yes Sir; step right up and place your little banner on my virtual lawn. The candidate who gets my vote just has to reply to these 10 questions. They are in no particular order of preference other than the way they oozed out of my frontal lobe. That is my price. The best answers gets my vote. Pure and simple. Democrat, Republican, Green, Libertarian, Communist, Socialist, Anarchist... Release the hounds.

1. Define me the military for the next 50 years. I want to know what you are going to cut, where troops will be stationed world-wide (and in what numbers), what obsolete weapons systems you are going to nix, what bases you are going to close, what overlaping Intelligence Community largesse you are willing to slice and dice, what is the benchmark for foreign deployment, and lastly what is the "evolution" (not exit) strategy for our role in Iraq and Af-crap-astan. I want to know what the goals are in 6-month increments, the time-benchmarks for them to self-defend and what will be the organization of our de-facto permanent presence there. (yes, I do realize we are not going anywhere,... I've seen that Manhattan-sized embassy my taxes are building near the Euphrates...)

2. Define the role of Government in the following: Education, Health Care, Energy development and Research and Welfare. Just those 4. I want detailed and long-term view and implementation of policy on each. Not some Clintonian or Reagan-esque utopian speech that gives plenty of visual dream candy but no substantive pragmatism on how you are going to get it done.

3. Name me ONE cabinet-level layer of government you are going to dis-band. Tell me why you are going to do it and why its demise is good policy. I really don't care which one it is. And yes, this is my Libertarian cheap-ass asking you to throw me a bone.

4. Define for me what is your view on Capitalism and Socialism. Since the American society is obviously shaping to be a morphing of some of the vestiges of each of these unique and opposing mantras I want to hear you tell me how the next 50 years are going to shape this tentative union. How Socialist are we going to become? Like northern snow-country Europe? Canada? Venezuela? France? England?... a combination thereof?

5. How are you going to redesign Social Security and Medicare? These are the 2 biggest elephants in the fiscal room and you guys just keep sweeping those tusks to the closet. You suckers in red ties (or lousy powder blue pant suits) don't want to face up to the facts do you.... You demonize anybody even doing a cursory attempt to fix it, you scare the feces out of the older population into believing their lousy $600 bucks a month will be a thing of the past, and you use it like currency to navigate the halls of legislation. You are all bastard-at-arms for not working on this, but I will give you one more shot to convince my cynical butt that you have the magic bullet. Go ahead,.. make my vote.

6. Yes or No. Are you going to build 30 new refineries and 30 new nuclear plants? (You know, sorta' like France is doing...). Give me a detailed reason why you've made your choice. Details, details, details. No double speak, focus-group tested, public relations firm designed, media-trolling one-liners. I want a 5,000 word thesis on your web site that any layman can understand and thereby hammer you with, once you are done.

7. Can you spend a year campaigning without mentioning the other person? I want to know if you can campaign on your own ideas, and on your own merit, that you can completely ignore any attack, verbal bomb, negative ad or cynical op-ed coming your way......... just break the mold of politico-speak. Talk about you, what you are going to do, what you believe in, why voting for YOU is best for Mother America. One year. Not even the minions in your campaign staff can do it for you. No press release, no "swift-boating", no late campaign "he had a DUI in his youth" morsel.... Zero.

8. Give me a concise plan to overhaul the immigration policy as it stands. Point by point, issue by issue.. from the State Department's archaic policy overhaul, to border matters, fence building, personnel security configuration, Work visas, guest worker programs, quotas of entries,.... the whole Magilla.

9. What is going to be the role of your wife or husband in your administration? Humor me please. Tell me what type of interviews will be allowed (Cosmo? Esquire? Mad Magazine?), what pet projects are to be made du jour, what type of White House china will be picked, ...will you have a pet? How many gala events will you hold in your first 100 days, how many cheap cufflings will you give out at the $5,000-a-pop diners, one-ply? or two-ply for toilet paper? and lastly will you use bullet-proof Toyota Prius' in the Presidential motorcades? (that last pebble was for you, Al G... the site of your 10 miles per gallon-guzzlin' limousine motorcade approaching the Democratic Convention on the night of your acceptance "Kiss" speech in 2000 is still in my mind as the epitomy of "An inconvenient truth" you hypocrite) ... and yes,... I still may see your "I love myself" movie.

10. A philosophical question. Explain to me the beauty of a country where it is mandated to the Military to handle the book of Koran a certain way, always with two hands, (and fully with the respect WE don't even offer to our own religious practitioners)... while serving the needs of prisoners at Gitmo, ... yet we can use the American Flag to roast marshmellows, wax the Volvo, clean your Cat's litter box etc., and no one should get offended over that. A quick Synopsis will do.

Ok, my political exile starts now. You can send you replies to as many of my friends as you like, ... they after all, live vicariously through my musings. This posting will self-destruct in 5 seconds.

You can call me "Al"

You ever wonder about the whole "Al" in the Arab language?... you know, that little 2-letter blurb in between two nearly unpronounceable names? I have to be honest, I have not even done a cursory google on it, I'm just assuming I kinda' know what it is.

I'm writing this with a gallon of lemonade within reach (its HOT today!), a 2 foot long straw, my daughter playing a Leap Frog game at my feet and my noggin' just plain tired from the first 2 days of a new job.....
So I'm sitting here wondering what to write,... the killings of the soldiers?... nope. Too depressing. Bush/Rove et al?... next. The war (here comes the up-chuck..), the left or the right or the middle or the center or the..., no! not today ... I just don't know. I am blasting through story after story, blog after blog, thought on top of thought. Nothing.

Then it happened. I see a photo of Saddam Hussein Al Tikrit....Bingo. I start reflecting that his clan or family is from the village or town of Tikrit. What if we Americans had the same tradition of having a suffix surname denoting where we came from. Now I'm cooking.

Lets see. I would be Dardin Edward Al Utica My Girlfriend would be Iris J. Al Arecibo, Betmo would be Betmo Something Al Elmira. ... my Dad would be Eduardo Al Ponce, My Mom Haydee Al Coamo..... QD would be Dave Al Toms River (just go with it QD)....and so on and so forth.

Tongue in cheek aside I think there is some honor and romance to this tradition. Not only do you honor your name and the heritage of your family, but the town you came out-the-chute in gets the props as well. Think of the possibilities (and the monologues by Jay Leno!)... Ronald Reagan Al Tampico (Illinois for those of you in Rio Linda), George Carlin Al Manhattan, Oprah Winfrey Al Kosciusko (Is this Mississippi or Slovakia?), Karl Rove Al Denver, Don Rumsfeld Al Chicago (appropriate), Abraham Lincoln Al Larue County (very Cajun...), Richard Nixon Al Yorba Linda (he must have been an illegal...), Dolly Parton Al Locust Ridge (or Blue Ridge Mountains for that matter...), Mark Twain Al Florida (no.. not the state, Missouri!), and lastly Condoleezza Rice Al Birmingham (sounds like platter #23 at Denny's).

Can you tell I'm bored outta' my mind?...

Bold Book Recommendation (no. 1)

Every Sunday afternoon I will try to recommend something bold to read. Something beyond the partisan rhetoric, he said-she said's or retreaded subjects. I do so for a simple fact. I love my Country. I disdain the fact that many of our problems keep growing while our leaders pee on each other's shoes in efforts to get in front of the closest camera or microphone. This is my intent to educate myself on options that they themselves are afraid to navigate. If you have such a book that you have read lately, share it with me. Share it with us. No big problem will have a simple answer or a one-matrix solution. It may take many things to stem the tide, to fix things, so that our kids, and their grand-kids do not look back into their early 21st century books and wonder "what the hell where my grandparents doing back then..."

I give you IN OUR HANDS by Charles Murray.

This is a seriously radical concept for doing away with our welfare programs and the culture of poverty,... forever. So radical that I've linked 2 great articles/reviews I happened to randomly find in my searches while pondering to purchase this puppy. It summarizes the content perfectly.

I just bought it,... it smells brand new,... my white chocolate mocha awaits in my night-stand, life is good...

"Imagine that the United States were to scrap all its income transfer programs -including Social Security, Medicare, and all forms of Welfare- and give every American age twenty one and older $10,000 a year.... for life" (from the inside flap of his book, I hope he does not sue me for reprinting without permission :)

That is the premise of his book. The below reviews will blow you away. Maybe you will not be a convert, and maybe your cynical views may challenge that it may look too good to be true. But problems of this magnitude demand reaching for new planes of thinking. I think he has done so.

An article on the book by Rick Martinez of Newsobserver.com
A great review in a posting at Crooked Timber's blog

Persona de la semana (parte 2)

In our last "Persona de la semana Parte 1" posting episode, my topic (Michelle Malkin) caused severe seizures and abnormal behaviour amongst my liberal friends. Quaker Dave in particular had his Truth-Pain voodoo doll at the ready and was deathly afraid of the bad mojo he may have inspired by his copious rants against Ms. Malkin. Since my aim is to illuminate important persons of today's socio-political village, I just had to throw the left a healthy bone to munch on...., I hereby present:

George Soros

Many facts and myths surround this billionaire international financier. Loved by the right when he was helping Reagan and Bush 41 debacle the Soviet empire and its stranglehold of eastern European countries, yet loathed by the current Neo-Conservatives for funding liberal groups such as Move-on. org and others of their ilk. It seems he has won both praise and scorn of both sides of the spectrum depending of course what mission he fronted at a particular time.
Below are some wide ranging links, both of flattery and disdain that I have gathered for your evening read. I confess I knew very little of him, ... mostly what Limbaugh and other right wing radio pundits had raised. I've studied plenty of additional information since then. I hope you do to.
I report,... you decide.

His Website

Currency speculation story & Insider trading conviction

How the Right Wing sees him

Why the Left Wing loves his money

.... Now if I could just get Malkin and Soros to have dinner with me..

Resurrection...

My first day back to bloggersville and I have a few observations:

The blogs are still PO'd at GWB. I admire people like Sarah and Betmo who have declared their sites politics and or Bush-free zones. It is such the tired subject. Every time I jump to a blog and its an Anti-Bush rant I tend to click away real quick. Not because I defend him,.. God knows i've opened some nice new orifices on him the past few weeks (oh no.. now its me the Secret Service will be after, Ellie...). Its just that the echo chamber has nothing new. Nothing. But here's something I mentioned today at Ellie's blog. Bush is on the rise. There is a convergence of events that may turn out to be a perfect storm for the Dems. Like them or not, the team of Josh Bolten and Tony Snow has snazzed up the Administration's image. At least to the real deciders of the elections, those dang independents. Here is my reasoning.

1. Has anybody noticed his poll numbers have gone up 8 points in under 2 months?... of course not. And people say the media in not biased. How many times you read this headline "Bush approval ratings fall to new low...", yet I've still to read a major editorial espousing his number's jump.
2. Rove is indictiment-free and can concentrate on what he does best, get back into Bush's brain and create deep worries to Carville and co. Rove may be many unmentionable things, but to deny he is an electoral math wizard is having your head stuck in the sand. A worry-free Rove does not bode well for the left.
3. Immigration. Now that he is pushing for English as the national language and National Guardsmen at the border, he is finally appealing to the red-blood Repubs and half the Blue-dog democrats who agree on this most nationalistic of issues. Once his approval numbers jump above 40% again he unleashed maddog Cheney onto Dennis Hastert and they will quickly fall into lockstep with a conference Bill. If its signed by October then the base begins to hope again. You think the dune buggy moment was corny? Watch the photo-op he pulls with Sherrif Arpaio in pink prisoner underwear.... and with all that jogging he does, you know he has the legs to pull it off...
4. Iraq. Call me a dumb-ass Troll but I see the thing turning. New Government, regular people turning in information against the terrorists, ... in spite of the up-spike of bombs, the hit on Zarquawi was HUGE. I've read 5th Estate's opinion that we killed a fly with a hatchet instead of capturing him and getting info... are you kidding me? think of the security issues, the mad bombers nuking every thing in site, the jihad marches in the Arab streets demanding his release,... TWO public trial instead of one.... no way. I'm glad he is room temperature. Lets see him try to do a clitoridectomy's on the 72 virgins up in Allah's presence. That's a popcorn moment if there ever was one.
5. Think of the way the Bolten/Snow team is milking news. They are creating news cycles, not reacting to them. Every 10 minutes there is another "good" story out. The Republican Congressional victory in California, Good economy, Bush surprise visit to Iraq, Zarquawi's sleeping with the fishes, National Guards building border fences, .... Tony Snow knows how to do this. Remember, he was mostly in charge of the daily message during Bush 41's Panama incursion. He knows the buzz words, he knows the news cycle ebb and tides, and most important he knows how to dress up a turd, no matter how bad it smells. Be afraid,... be very afraid.

Ok, no more Bush topics (well, at least until someone makes me...) Tomorrow is my long-awaited "Persona de la semana" version 2. ..... feels good to be back.

Back in the saddle...
Well, my sabbatical took a whole hell of a lot longer than I thought.... and I just accepted a new job to boot, so my fingers are in serious need of some WD-40... I have not written a thing in ages!
Lots news to catch-up to, blogs to read, blogs to loath, blogs to raise my eyebrow in bemused surprise,... and as always doing the merry round of my "favorites" :)
Thank you all for the kind words while I was away, .....
... now let's see,... what do I write about tonight....

Be right back :) ...

My absence the past few days have been due to Blogger being a pest, ruining my last template (hence the new digs), and just making my blogging moments miserable,.... but the second (and most important) reason is that this weekend is a good weekend for Truth-Pain. The love of my life is moving up from San Diego to begin a life with yours truly.
I have missed you all and have missed the witty banter... but fear not. Once the boxes have been stowed away and she has re-decorated my bath-room I will return to your midst's....
Life is good...

Today is not a good day...

...for people that love MEAT HEAD.

The Rob Reiner-backed Proposition 82 went down in defeat in yesterday's elections in the people's Republic of California.
Prop. 82, a pre-school program backed by the Teachers Union would have imposes a 1.2% tax to wealthier individuals and couples to fund what many considered a boondogle of an entitlement. I still don't understand what it is about the liberal establishment that believes that additional taxation and social programs are better for America. Has there ever been a social program of which they prefer LESS of? I'm not basting on a "nanny-state" argument here, but I have yet to hear a progressive say "you know, this social program is too large, or obsolete, or not doing the job,... lets kill it" (have you?)

...for people that hate ANN COULTER
This conservative bombastic Bimbo of blow-hards is laughing all the way to her Broker's office. I fully disclose that I read her, and yes I own 2 of her books. Not for any particular reason other than I find her books entertaining as hell. But you know me, I'm a glutton for a good time. And to me that alone is worth the price of admission.
But is she evil and mean? Well, "mean" being a subjective thing I would have to say yes (to some). I think the bombs she lobed at the Jersey Girls were grenades of the highest acerbic order. Coulter was not very classy in her verbiage and if you are a believer then she may very well perish in Hades,... nobody can fully know the pain associated with losing a loved one at the World Trade Center, nobody. I admit it, Coulter's way is not a paragon of decency. But thinking this was not a pre-meditated barb to sell her book and get the left reeling is being naive. Why is she all over the news? Is it really because she is a great talent? ( I don't particularly think so), is it because she is a Pulitzer prize winning writer? (nope). She makes news because she is one of the smartest and shrewd marketeering authors of today. She plays the liberals like the proverbial Red Violin. The media and bloggersphere are so predictable that it becomes a popcorn moment whenever she says something. EVERY time she opens her pie-hole, ... they listen!. All she had to do was rant about the Jersey Girls agenda and like Pavlov's Dogs, the Left Wing ate the bone. I know some think she is dangerous because she influences people. Yeah, ... but so does the Bible and the Koran, so let's not give her too much credit people. Stop listening to her and she will be the Dodo bird of punditry in 6 months.... But I know you won't stop :)

...If you are a Canadian
Dangit, what happened? You are supposed to be nicer than us, ...more compassionate, a better society than we are, ... a better Country, a much fairer and principled Government (present Prime Minister excluded, of course), a country that accepts the wonderful and peace-loving religion of Islam....
Ooops.. I guess they want to lop-off YOUR heads too....
I don't wish you ill Canada,... but welcome to the jungle.

.... If you dont have a sense of Humor

If you lack a sense of humor, or if your political correctness gives you aneurysms at the thought of laughing at social satire, please....leave now. You've been warned. This little morsel of chuckles is from Publius' blog. Let me just say this,... I shared it with 4 Mexicans, 2 Wasp's, and most of my Latin family,... they ALL laughed... lets see what I get from the peanut gallery ...

http://americancomedynetwork.com/FLASH/MexTourism.htm

Hey Republicans..., Bush is a liberal !

It occurs to me that being a republican these days must not be very pleasant. Not only has GWB avoided the principles of conservatism for ya', but when he finds himself in a pickle poll-wise (don't believe it when Tony Snow says he doesn't look at them..) he rolls out Gays, Guns and God to try and rev up the base.... or better said, most of you die-hard Republicans.
I fee ya,.. I really do. I got hosed a couple of times by Reagan. And when Bush 41 pledged the famous "read my lips, no new taxes" and went ahead and raised them anyway,... I felt de-virginized again. So in the spirit of giving Republicans just as much lumber as I lay to the Democrats I submit the following point. The boy is a liberal.
He promised "no nation building" and stuck it to you anyway by pumping more money in Iraq and Af-crap-astan than he's pumped into any combination of Urban or Rural development, period. Even after hammering Clinton on this very subject you would think it would have been seared in his mind as to what promises to break and which not to. Regardless of where the hell and what foreign Country the money is going to, if he is spending on nation building, that is being a liberal..... (You got hosed!). What part of "Small Government" does he believe in? Not to say that a prescription drug benefit is not a noble intent. Even my libertarian brain acknowledges that we can't expect people to spend their Social Security on medicine that comes from a systems that does not fully adhere to the principles of fair market competition. The pharmaceutical companies have been riding the Health Departments largesse for decades and has done it mostly under the press' radar. This Godzilla of an entitlement is going to make Social Security and Medicare look like chump change in about 30 or 40 years. I hope I'm dead by then, seriously. Billions on entitlement programs is liberal mantra folks. (you got hosed!). He fails to protect the border the way it it is mandated by the Constitution. Even democrats agree that his "comprehensive immigration" policy is a good and cooperative way to work together with the other side of the aisle. Let's see, ... Liberal immigration and amnesty policies,... yep,... (you got hosed!).
So now that the new and improved Bolten-led staff realizes the base is taking a vacation from voting in 06', they roll the Gay Wedding discrimination Act or whatever its called. Amazing the cojones. And these are the same people that complain about Democrats rolling out the race card every time THEY are in a pickle. This is not 2004. The marriage ammendment is not going to save Bush's butt this time around. I think you guys are all staying home in 06'. And I dont blame you one bit. In 1996 I voted for Clinton just to pee on the GOP's grave. I've been a libertarian ever since.
I feel sorry for you guys, I really do. You thought you were getting a classic conservative, and you got a War-lovin' President ....a free-spending, illegal immigrant-inviting, ...... Liberal.
Hey Rush, Life must suck for those in Rio Linda.

The way we were...

This little internet rant has been around for awhile, but it still makes me smile....

TO THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE 30’S, 40’S, 50’S, AND 60’S First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing and didn’t get tested for diabetes. Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pickup on a warm day was always a special treat. We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. We ate cupcakes, bread and butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren’t overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem. We did not have Playstation’s, Nintendo’s, X-Box’s, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no internet or internet chat rooms…..WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them! We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms and although we were told it would happen, we did not out vary many eyes, nor did the worms live in us forever. We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!Little league had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that! The Idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! This generation has produced some of the best risk takers, problem solvers and innovators ever! The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL! And YOU are one of them!

CONGRATULATIONS! Send this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good. Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn’t it?!

Getting out of "there"

Solutions part 2 - The War in Iraq
The past week has been about putting down the yelling, the ranting, ... putting the bull-hornus-maximus in the holster and trying to listen cognitively to opposing view points. I think I've listened hard and about as well as I can. Nobody has won me over with anything of issues yet (but in truth I have not asked for specific solutions from my blog brethren either), except that I can testify that not all the progressive/liberals are as linguini-spined in matters of security and military issues as I have been led to believe by the pundits. Not that I thought that was a true-ism but having blog chats has certainly crystallized that for me. Progressives love America just as much as my fellow conservatives,... they just have a different prism in viewing the road to our salvation as a nation.

A couple of weeks ago I started my solutions-driven blogs ("Show me the money") where I espoused my solutions and or ideas for the major problems of our times. That particular posting addressed the Federal Budget. This one takes on a trickier subject. The war in Iraq.

So, in the spirit of "what if's", if I were King for a Day, and had to come up with a plan of action pleasing both Republicans, Democrats, US and Foreign interest.... well here's my stab as Secretary of State. Condi, eat your heart out.

IRAQ: THE EXIT STRATEG(ER)Y

Step 1.
Declare an independent State of Kurdistan. The idea of Iraq being a nation of loving sectors is fool-hardy and the adhering of the British geographical lines of yesteryear is not something that has to be maintained. The biggest screamers have been the Turks for fear of having an independent Kurd state to their southern border. Tough, welcome to the new world order of geo-politics. The partition of the Kurds, -who don't want anything to do with the rest of the country anyway-, will make the task of the Sunni-Shiite cooperation a less vexing problem.
This wont please either party but it will surely please my sense of real life Monopoly.

Step 2.
The immediate re-deployment of an additional 75,000 troops from bases in Germany, South Korea and Japan to the country. The events in the next 36 months will happen at breakneck pace and as such, a massive show of force will scream out that we are not screwing around.
Both Democrats and Republicans have been questioning Rumsfeld for not putting enough boots on the ground? There, I gave you your damn numbers, now shut up and let the Generals bring this home.

Step 3.
Once the Kurds are out of their mery way and start building their own McDonald's, have the Iraq Government declare a sundown to sunrise curfew. Security has to start somewhere and although major steps have been taken to put forth security infrastructures, it hasn't been soon enough. The American/Coalition forces will patrol the country during the night, and Iraqi regular army and police patrols will be in charge of the day. No excuses. They start standing up right here and right now.

Step 4.
And here is where the bullet hits the bone. Being King means making tough choices. Goodbye press. All foreign press has 2 weeks to get out of the country, period. Why? simple. First of all insurgence depend on the free publicity that the press is more than willing to provide their ratings-starved cable networks back home. Sorry, follow American Idol and Paris Hilton for a few years, your ratings will be met. Second reason? I won't have my Generals conduct a war with one arm tied behind their backs. Haditha in my view was an aberration and not a systemic failure of military policy. Release the girth of American might and let the full weight of the "dogs of war" roam Babylon. Let's see terrorists and insurgents last 6 months with the US military giving no quarter to their tactics and no press looking over the GI's shoulders. The populace will have 2 choices and they will be clear. One, have the military machine raid every square inch of Iraq at the smallest tip and take by force whomever they are harboring, or two, they start beating their own Bushes (no pun intended) and take charge of their own destiny once and for all. This policy will be relayed via airwaves and leaflets throughout the country. Hell hath no fury like a pist-off chained-to-political-correctness military. We tried it the pretty way first. We're done with that. Folks, close your eyes and change the channel if you don't like what's coming, just like you do at home with your TV. You think this is without precedent? Read what Eisenhower, Patton, Marshall, Bradley and Westmoreland did in their campaigns of war,.. the press did not have as free reign as historian-journalists testify so as to buttress their present desires. The military held the press at chains lenght, and at will. It is optimum for us liberty or speech lovers?.... no. But I can live with it. The press will be under the predicates of Marshall law. A contingency of reporters will be escorted via Government interior ministry (yes, the same one that is in charge of the police force, stay with me people, it gets better). The interior press will have their reporting filtered for content under a UN review board. No incendiary material pro or against the government will be shown and only information-heavy content will be allowed via airwaves. Any satellite press transmissions from afar and other countries (Al-Jazeera) will be jammed with AWACS aircraft on a 24/7 basis until operation Iraqi kick-butt concludes.
(I feel compeled to clarify,-due to some post-posting coments- that most of my "dogs of war" rhetoric was my sarcastic musings getting the better of me... I'm not really espousing a fire and brimstone military mentality here...)
This step will be popular with Republicans but not too much with the Democrats whose nipples will pop at the thought of such draconian measures,... so here's a bone for the Demos....

Step 5
A final and fixed date for troop withdrawal will be announced in a major U.N. security council resolution not to exceed 36 months. I know the argument Limbaugh, so save it... "but the insurgents will just wait us out and take over the country once we leave"... not really. You pound the country with the tender loving care espoused in step 4 and there will not be one citizen who will put up with living in those conditions for such a long time. The snitchers will come out in force, and the lifeline of the insurgency being a free press and sympathetic populace will all but disappear. The date will tell the population, the world, and both parties the following
1. Its up to you, the Iraqi people. Keep the insurgence amongst you and they will rule you in 3 years.
2. The security and military forces will have a hard-date to get their s**t together and not a sunset more. If they are not ready, its their fault. A nation that cannot see the value of getting ready to be independent and sacrifice for its long-term existence deserves to be swallowed by the least common denominator of its people.
3. Such a time-line allows both the political and economic apparatus to be set, allows the security matrix to get a reality-check that the times of screwing around the gravy train are over.
This will piss-off the Republicans but hey, I said I was King so live with it. Besides the Demos got hosed on step 4.

Step 6.
A massive master web-site created and updated by the Coalition forces and reviewed for veracity by a commission consisting of military, government and UN observers will give the world a real-time situation room-type view of the events as they unfold. This will be the mother of all websites. The operational readiness of all Iraqi battalions will be graded by the hour if necessary. The civil infrastructure status will be on display... in fact every single and I mean EVERY single parameter of civil readiness will be there for all the world to hold the Government, the Coalitions Forces and the Iraqi Forces accountable day after day of their progress (or lack thereof). No press to spin it, no editorial content to make it better or worse than it really is. Nothing. The eyes of the world just has to look in their PC's every morning and see the progress, live and in living color.

Step 7.
Benchmark accomplishment dates for controls, infrastructure operational readiness, sector withdrawals, government decrees etc will be kept to the letter of the word. Each and every met date and benchmark will be loud and proud. The world will know that there is action, there is progress and that there is no equivocation in parameters. This will be run with the efficiency of the Borg (any Star Trek fans out there?...)

Step 8.
At the end of these steps, and once the final hour of the 36th month has passed by, the most coordinated effort of power transfer in the history of the planet will take place. Military flags will be lowered and raised, and pomp and circumstance will welcome a nation of Sunni-Shiite forced to do by yoke what they refused to do on their own.
If the government falls the next day, it wont be for lack of effort, lack of coordination, or sleeper cells that took 3 years off and cleaned the rust off to continue the hate and discontent. It will fall because the people, the PEOPLE did not understand the stakes, and do not deserve to be free.
Let the tower of Babel fall for all I care. Bring the boys home..........

There, it took me 45 mintues to do this and only a few Democrats and Republicans are really angry at me so I guess we can further define this to apease the fringe. You tired of bitching and moaning?... me too! Solutions is the way of the future. Talk to me about SOLUTIONS. I don't want to hear one more word about Bush. Yes, I will admit he is dumb, stubborn, whatever it is... he is the damn Anti-Christ if it can move this along. You happy now?... Good. Now where is the American "can-do" spirit? If Bush/Rumsfeld can't do it,.. then lets drive THIS bullhorn up their butts and see what happens. It can't be any worse that the current status quo.
I am open for business,..

Ok, my Kingdom just ran out of Quarters...now where the hell is my remote.......

The Good of America

Pessimists need not apply...

Editor's Note: This is a re-post of a rant I did about a month ago. I bring it back just to gain a measure of levity into the blog. The themes have been as heavy as a yoke lately, a lot of soul-searching between myself and the gracious visitors to my site. I know many ills still afflict mother America,.. but just for today lets celebrate the preponderance of good that we are blessed with.

One of the reasons you don't hear too much good positive news on the cable shows, the network news and (my least favorite) self-important blogs, is because negativity sells. Sensationalism catches the eye. With sex, drugs, political scandals, blow-hards on the left and right, and flying human limbs coming at you in HDTV quality then who needs good news? Who wants to hear about the good of a Mother Theresa, the men and woman of our military building schools in Iraq, pro-bono lawyers doing good work for the less fortunate and good congressmen writing salient legislation when you can have 4 pandemics-a-gettin', 3 tornadoes-a-destroyin', 2 suicide bombers-a-flyin' and an Illegal in a pear tree (uh... picking pears of course). Well, not being one to shy away from ruining the day of the "the world is coming to an end" crowds here and abroad, I humbly submit to you my top ten reasons why America Rocks!
(DANGER: continuing this read may give you fuzzy feelings, happy joy-joy smiles and a severe case of optimism. We are not responsible for changes in your perspective or voting habits.)

1. More people want to break INTO America than are trying to jump out.
Even when somebody PROMISES to leave the country should this person or that person get elected,... they still stay!.. amazing.

2. Two massive hurricanes in 2005, 2 wars abroad, and still the economy booms.
What a country! I know this is going to get a few comments on the social injustice, the minimum wage, the outsourcing of jobs, the poverty, the sick, the this and that. Reality check. Its called CAPITALISM. It will never be a Gene Roddenberry Utopia. A small percentage of the populace will still fall through the crack no matter how little the crack is (that should be a rap song...) . There will always be unemployment no matter how little a percentage, there will always be ills to cure, mouths to feed and issues of concern. But compare our way of life, our economic might against anybody in the planet. Its not even close.

3. Freedom of speech and discourse!
Self-explanatory by the medium you are reading at the moment. Americans enjoy the greatest amount of venues in which to vent their frustrations than anybody else (give or take a few Nordic countries I guess..) The number of countries who enjoy this liberty is not as large as it should be.

4. 230 years old!, a baby in world perspective, and look where we are.
Think about those 1000-year old cultures and countries that look at us in disbelief and envy. There is a reason we are the "great democratic experiment". In two centuries we broke the back of Communism and the Soviet Bloc, put a man on the moon, discovered cures for diseases, gave the world the internet (give Gore the credit, see if I care...) spread democracy to places far and wide (I can hear it now...), swindled the indians out of their own land (ooops, sorry!), bought the Louisiana territory for a pittance, explored the west in horse-back, and in saving Europe's ass (twice) from self-implossion, the only " imperialism" land grab of note was keeping just enough hill-sides to bury tens of thousands of our beloved dead. Love it or hate it, we enjoy a position of leadership never before enjoyed by a nation of such youth.

5. Can you say Blues, Jazz, Baseball, Basketball, the Automobile, Computers, etc?
This list can be 1000 miles long. The contribution of the American know-how to the planet's well being can't be measured. The gains in medicine, technology, transportation, food distribution, ... there is a reason that most of what China does is a take-off of US technological prowess. The inventions of note gathered outside the US can be counted in few hands.

6. The BEST health care in the world. Period.
Whether its fair, cheap, available to all is a subject unto itself and a topic for another heavy day. Don't believe me? Try getting a appointment to see a Doctor in Canada. Its easier to get your dog cared for than yourself. Where would you like to have YOUR spleen removed... here?... or in Istanbul?

7. TV. Over 600 channels of everything from the sublime to the mundane.
In 15 minutes of your time you can surf from Disney cartoons to porn. (sorry, free speech folks!) We may not like everything on the menu, but the menu is robust.

8. Our giving, our non-profits, our help organizations.
Name one country with more world volunteers, more funding for diseases and special causes, more non-profits for habitats AND habitation, more foreign aid (and believe me, it hurts me to mention the foreign aid bit)

9. America the Beautiful
(... the fruited plane is not a Limbaugh invention folks...) Valleys, lakes, ocean coasts, marshes, forests, canyons, deserts, rivers, mountain ranges, 4 seasons, fauna, wildlife, national parks, and (my daughter's favorite) shopping malls.

10. The fact that a simple man like me, of humble origins, non-humble views, many faults and un-perfect in life can have a forum to say this, right here and right now is a living testament that in spite of all the daily grumbling of our state of affairs, we have it better than anybody else, period. We have "miles to go before we sleep" and can't diminish our faults and mistakes... but lets just take today to celebrate the good of America. There is always tomorrow to complain.
(p.s. I've changed my mind (Blame the citizens of Binghamton, NY) ...the complaints department is now open people,... but only after you've spent 5 minutes smiling :)

Persona de la semana (parte 1)

Disclosure:
I am blatantly ripping this idea from Quaker Agitator's blog. Anybody who has visited his site is familiar with his unique formats and the very cool people he has high-lighted for various reasons, especially his love of music and music artists. I thought it would be cool to celebrate, express -or otherwise- a person that I admire, not admire or want others to be aware of.. (excuse the dangling preposition) .... a light-hearted way to segeway from one serious topic to the next... Besides, my carpal tunnel is killing me (I HAVE to learn to edit...) Thanks in advance to Quaker Dave for the formatting idea, ...credit is due.
My first "Person of the Week" (Time, eat our heart out...) is:

MICHELLE MALKIN !!

What is it about this diminutive dynamo that has the left in a huff, adoring masses on the right, a fixture on the cable shows,... and me totally confused as to who she is?. I'm not kidding. I guess I've been in a cave somewhere because up to the time I saw a rant on her views on illegal immigration I had no idea who this powerful dame was!... I kept seeing her name come up like the plague in left-wing blogs and my curiosity was perked enough to give her due diligence.
So.... in the interest of fairness (don't you just love how I use that word so subjectively?) I submit to you the following links.
I report, you decide :)
Her Biography
Her Website
What she has written recently
There!... now that you have the information needed, you can defend her (or not!) the next time you see someone's nipples pop out at the sound of her name.... (I have GOT to do this more often, this is just WAY too much fun... Next week? I return the favor and highlight someone the Right-Wing would love to burn at the stake....)

I guess I'm still a Libertarian.. (the horror!)

You Are a "Don't Tread On Me" Libertarian

You distrust the government, are fiercely independent, and don't belong in either party. Religion and politics should never mix, in your opinion... and you feel opressed by both. You don't want the government to cramp your self made style. Or anyone else's for that matter. You're proud to say that you're pro-choice on absolutely everything!

What political persuasion are you?

I want to thank "An American Aries" for finding this little nugget of whimsical fun. To say this a scientific questionaire is to be blind as a bat, but what the hell, just enjoy the dang thing. Besides considering the topics i've been chatting about lately I thought this to be a good and light way to finish what has been an otherwise bombastic and theme-heavy week.

Enjoy your weekend, I'm not resting,... i have 5 postings in the oven for your glutony :)