Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Large Crowds In Honduras Support the New President

50,000 people marched today in support of the new Honduran President and the impeachment of former President and leftist Mel Zelaya.

Memorial to Muslims' Mumbai Massacre

Ah, the useful things one can do with a couple of copies of the Qur'an.
I'd love to have a collection of rare, ancient Qur'ans, handwritten in Arabic script on ornate parchment. Would I donate them to the Library of Congress? Give them to the Islamic Studies Department of Princeton University?

No, actually I would use them to express my true feelings for a religion that practices mass murder of innocents and installs anti-Semitism as one of its major religious precepts.

I would rip out a page and burn it each time I hear of a new Muslim atrocity, whether it be a massacre as in Mumbai, an honor killing of a young girl, the execution of a gay or apostate, or the random shooting of a school girl on the streets of Tehran.

I'd rip out that ornate parchment page with the fancy handwritten script, put the fire to it and watch it burn, listen to the chirping sound of the flames, smelling the acrid scent of the smoke, and richly enjoying the experience. With the daily reports of Muslim atrocities around the globe, it wouldn't be long until my stash of Qur'ans was just a pile of ash.

If you hear of anyplace that has a special on Qur'ans, do let me know.

Update: Am I too harsh on Islam? Really? Read this before answering.

Pamela Geller on the Sarah Palin Haters

Pamela Geller has just posted an excellent article on the lunatic left's rabid hatred of Sarah Palin, most recently expressed in hateful, Photoshopped pictures of Palin's infant son, Trig Palin.
The terrible argument the lefties are using to justify their disgraceful behavior is to say that Palin made Trig "fair game" by bringing him on stage at the Republican National Convention. They say she herself made Trig a tool of political propaganda and can't now complain about the Photoshops. Liberals are very good at making up ridiculous arguments on the fly to support their grossly immoral, anti-human and anti-American behavior.

Geller points out, however, that Barack Obama brought his two young daughers on stage at the Democratic Convention. Does that make the little girls "fair game" for slander and ridicule?

Don't worry, those little girls are safe. We on the Right represent civilization; it is the Left that represents barbarism, nihilism and rabid hatred -- to the point of attacking infant children with disabilities.

Why does the Left hate Sarah Palin with such wild abandon? Because Sarah Palin is pretty, useful, wholesome and NORMAL. And they're not.



Obama, Chavez, Castro & Ortega: Birds of a Feather

Michael Ramirez nails it with this cartoon.


Also: See IBD's editorial on the crisis: "Banana Democrats"

Monday, June 29, 2009

Viva Honduras Libre!

Kudos to one of my favorite blogs, Infidel Bloggers Alliance for their coverage of the events in Honduras.
Honduras, a democratic, non-socialist nation removed their President in a legal impeachment procedure after President Mel Zelaya attempted to institute a referendum that would amend the Honduran constitution, allowing Zelaya to serve beyond his legal term limit. However, Zelaya had no legal authority to do this, and the Honduran Supreme Court ruled the referendum illegal. When Zalaya persisted, ignoring the Supreme Court's order, the Supreme Court ordered him removed from office by the Honduran military. Governmental rule was then immediately handed over to a civilian authority.

Zelaya is an ally of both Fidel Castro of Cuba and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, two communist leaders; it is believed that Zelaya was attempting to thwart Honduran law in order to install a far left government in Honduras. With his removal, Honduran democracy was preserved.

Barack Obama and his administration have sided with Castro and Chavez in calling for Zelaya's reinstatement. Once again Barack Obama shows his true colors; he is no friend of freedom and the sooner he can be legally removed from office, the better it will be for America and the rest of the free world.

Leftwing bloggers and pundits are saying that Zelaya's legal impeachment was a "coup." But it was not a coup at all.

Read the facts in the Wall Street Journal's article here, "Honduras Defends Its Democracy."


Update: Right Wing Nuthouse has the latest facts on the Honduran situation, and they further prove that Zelaya's removal was lawful and necessary.

Fausta's Blog is being extolled for the best coverage of the Honduran situation. Give her a read.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Stogie Movie Reviews: Deconstructing Hollyweird

Since I am out of work due to the Democrat economy, I rented a bunch of movies this past week. I am going to review them now so you won't have to waste your time and money on most of them.
1. In the Electric Mist, starring Tommy Lee Jones.

Tommy Lee Jones is one of my favorite actors. He seems so Southern and down to earth, a man's man, courageous and confident. Well, he usually does, anyway. I didn't like him in that awful flick "No Country for Old Men," where he seemed senile and incompetent. I didn't like him much in "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" either, because of the unspoken premise: border guards are the bad guys and illegal aliens are the good guys.

However, in "Electric Mist" he returns to form as detective Dave Robicheaux; he plays a good guy battling a mobster in the bayous of Louisiana. He goes to a party and someone laces his drink with LSD; he then begins to see the apparition of Confederate General John Bell Hood, who sits with him on the porch or in church and talks about life and war, and advises Robicheaux on the troubles that he faces. Levon Helm plays John Bell Hood and does a remarkable job; he even looks like John Bell Hood. Hell, I'd love to have the ghost of a Confederate General advising me what to do; Nathan Bedford Forrest would be my pick. He kicked some serious Yankee ass.

I loved the rainy, green, mossy, swampy views of Louisiana, a place of mosquitos and big weird bugs and alligators and crawfish and lightning and Southern lore; what's not to like? I'd love to live there. The film is exciting but doesn't have much of a plot; nevertheless, for a story with no real plot it was quite entertaining. I recommend it.

2. The Reader, starring Kate Winslet.

In post-war Germany, Kate Winslett is Hannah Schmitz, a single woman and former Nazi prison guard. She has an affair with a 16 year old student, Michael Berg, played by David Kross. There are a lot of realistic sex scenes and Kate Winslet is nude for much of them. Since Hannah Schmitz is illiterate, she likes to have Michael read to her, since she can't read herself. He reads; then then they copulate with wild abandon. In truth, this is another plotless film; its subject is sex and the story built around it is simply to give the sex a thin veneer of plausibility.

Later, after Hannah breaks off the affair, she is arrested and put on trial for war crimes, for nasty things she did as a Nazi guard. A report is produced that witnesses say she wrote; and if she wrote the report, it would prove she was the leader of the women Nazi guards. If she were the leader, she would therefore be most culpable in allowing a group of Jewish women to die during a bombing raid. However, Hannah couldn't have written the report because she was illiterate; however, she is too embarrassed to admit this to the court so opts for life in prison instead. One must retain one's dignity, after all. Priorities, ya know.

There's more but it's pretty boring and irrelevant to the non-existent plot, so this will have to suffice. If you like exciting and realistic sex scenes, rent it, but don't rent it expecting a real story line. Quite a bit of the dialogue consists of "OOOH! AAAH! MMMM!"

3. Revolutionary Road, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.

DiCaprio and Winslet are a young couple, Frank and April Wheeler, living in Connecticut in the early 1950's with their two young children. Frank works in an office job he hates, but it pays the bills, while April stays home with the kids. The poor Wheelers enjoy a nice family lifestyle in a nice home in a nice neighborhood, but as Hollyweird knows so well, this is the worst form of human oppression. Imagine, having to work for a living. What's the world coming to. Frank is shown riding the train to work, surrounded by legions of men in similar suits and fedora hats, all of them interchangeable in one great moving mass of boring human conformity. The message here is obvious and heavy-handed; there isn't a modicum of subtlety.

Then one day, April has a bright idea: let's sell the house, take our savings and move to Paris. She will work as a stenographer while Frank sits on his butt all day and figures out what he really needs to do to achieve Nirvana. So they go about packing and putting the house on the market, but then two terrible things happen to stifle their flight to paradise: Frank is offered a lucrative promotion at his place of work, and April gets pregnant. How terrible; a baby will spoil their dreams. April ponders an abortion and even buys some rubber-tubing contraption to carry out her own abortion; but Frank objects. They fight; she tells him he isn't a man and she doesn't love him. Finally, she attempts her own abortion and bleeds to death. End of story.

The moral of the story is obvious: in the bad old days, abortion was illegal; abortion is an enlightened method by which modern women free themselves from responsibility so they can move to Paris and become Beatniks. April died because she lived in a less enlightened time.

It was crappy movie. Don't waste your time.

A Message to Liberals: I WILL NOT OBEY

There comes a time in political life when respecting "the law" must end. That is when "the law" is blatantly unconstitutional and so destructive of human rights and liberty that obeying "the law" would be a crime. These are the times when "civil disobedience" is called for, a principle now being demonstrated in the bloody streets of Tehran.
Therefore, I at this time would like to announce my brazen and blatant disobedience to illegal laws passed or planned by the Obama Administration.

I WILL NOT OBEY WHEN:
1. When "the law" says I must turn in my guns, I WILL NOT OBEY.
2. When "the law" says I must pay a significant portion of my income to losers and layabouts under some "Cap and Trade" scheme, I WILL NOT OBEY.
3. When "the law" says I am prohibited from publicly criticizing Islam or liberalism, I WILL NOT OBEY.
4. When "the law" says I must abide nationalized health care in order to get medical treatement, I WILL NOT OBEY.
5. When "the law" says I must drastically reduce my standard of living to alleviate non-existent "global warming" I WILL NOT OBEY.

We can stymy the goals of this evil, unamerican administration by refusing to meekly go along with its program. CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE NOW!

It is time to proudly adopt the label of REBEL and take the pledge of Civil Disobedience to Democratic Fascism.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

To Hell With It -- Let's Just Secede

It appears that Congress will be successful in passing its "Global Warming" bill and Cap and Tax scheme. There is no global warming, of course, but the bill will allow Congress to finally enact leftwing fascism in America, controlling every aspect of our personal lives and taxing us until we bleed.
If you think the economy is bad now, to quote Barack Obama "You ain't seen nothin' yet!" Be prepared to live at a lower level, to give up opportunities for a better life, to go without.

As the Democrats pursue their radical agenda to remake America into a socialist tyranny, we must begin thinking of radical responses. Since this country is ostensibly built on the "consent of the governed," we must withdraw our consent. The federal government vastly exceeded its Constitutional role some time ago and it's time to actively fight the monster it has become.

It is time for a radical reorganization of the individual states of the union. Those red states who dissent from the Democrats' radical agenda should simply put the federal government on notice that its bold new unconstitutional forays into health care and energy are null and void.

Further, the Supreme Court has been so corrupted with activist judges that it can no longer be trusted to arbitrate Constitutional disputes. The Supreme Court has become, not the ultimate defender of the Constitution, but its ultimate executioner. It subverts the Constitution far more often than it upholds it. The Supreme Court under Obama will take that final step to being merely an arm of the radical left; they will fire the coup de grace that will finally put the old document out of its misery. Which means that it will not be a "living document" but one that is quite dead, thank you.

In other words, Congress can pass a new fascist agenda until it's blue in the face, but we do not intend to obey it or abide by it. And if the Dems attempt to enforce their unconstitutional new laws at the point of a gun, we should be prepared to fight them.

We need a new Magna Charta of sorts. It should include the following:
1. A Supreme Court that is highly politicized and dedicated to politcal activism and "legislating from the bench" is not the court envisioned when this country was founded. Hereinafter, any Supreme Court decisions that are clearly unconstitutional will be disregarded and of no effect in the individual states as those states see fit.

2. Any cap and trade wealth redistribution scheme is null and void in any state who refuses to go along; no such taxes will be assessed or collected in such states by the federal government.

3. All federal restrictions on oil drilling, off the coast or within the interior of the United States, are null and void.

4. Any laws passed to subvert the 2nd Amendment and to disarm the populace are null and void and will not be enforced.

5. Any federal taxation that exceeds a reasonable rate needed to carry out the true Constitutional role of the federal government will not be collected or remitted to the federal government. All individual states should immediately take over the assessment and collection of federal taxes from its citizens and remove the federal government from the process altogether.
A new coalition of willing states should be formed immediately, for the purpose of resisting the new federal tyranny of the Obama Administration and the Democratic Party; of standing together and even to raising a common militia if needed for their own protection, and if ultimately necessary, for the secession of such states from the United States and the forming of a new nation dedicated to the original principles of the Founding Fathers.

We are facing a radical new fascism and the situation calls for an appropriate response, i.e. one that is bold and determined to resist the new tyranny now being foisted upon us. Let us rise to the challenge.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Jimmy B. Webb: What's a Libertarian-Socialist?

My friend Donald Douglas at American Power is having a blogfight with Jimmy Webb over at Brainrage. Jimmy insists that he be called "James B. Webb" but calls Professor Douglas "Don."

Jimmy says he is a "cynical libertarian-socialist." The terms "libertarian" and "socialist" seem to be mutually exclusive, but then again, this is the looney Left we are talking about, where all things are possible, including economic perpetual motion, otherwise known as socialism. Socialism has never been made to work, but Jimmy and friends are right on the verge of making it happen. Any century now.

So again I ask, what is a "libertarian-socialist"? I think I have found some possible definitions.

A libertarian-socialist is:

1. Someone who wants to be free to pick your pocket.
2. Someone who wants to live a destructive and dangerous lifestyle yet be free of criticism or consequences.
3. Someone who calls you a fascist for opposing "progressive" fascism.
4. Someone who wants to redistribute the wealth, i.e. from you to them.

Well that's a start. Feel free to add to the list.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Linda Kellen Biegel: Liberalism as a Form of Insanity

The lady on the left is Linda Kellen Biegel, official blogger for the Democratic Party of Alaska. She is a study in "Palin Derangement Syndrome," someone who hates the Alaskan Governor with all her might. Earlier she had filed a frivolous ethics charge against Governor Palin. Her complaint was dismissed a couple of weeks ago. As reported by Newsmax:

The latest complaint to be decided [in Palin's favor] was filed by Anchorage
resident Linda Kellen Biegel, who took issue with Mrs. Palin for wearing to a public function a jacket made by a company that sponsored the governor's husband, Todd, a snow machine racer. Ms. Biegel asked the personnel board to determine whether Mrs. Palin was abusing her position to serve her personal and financial interests.

Palin called the complaint "asinine political grandstanding," and the board's independent investigator said there was no evidence of wrongdoing.

Obviously Biegel had filed a frivolous complaint simply to persecute a public figure that she personally despises. This was only one such false ethics charge filed against Governor Palin -- there have been a total of fourteen, all of them decided in Sarah Palin's favor. It should be clear that these ethics complaints are merely the dirty politics we are used to seeing from the Democratic Party, i.e. petty, mean and small. The Democrats, in their parallel world, often call conservatives "haters." Clearly this is projection; when it comes to irrational hatred, the Left is in a class by itself. Biegel is a good example.

In her complaint, any lack of ethics was that of Biegel. However, she wasn't through yet. This week Biegel posted a vulgar Photoshop on her blog that showed Sarah Palin holding her Down's Syndrome infant, Trig. Biegel had distorted Trig's face into something ugly and unnatural. It was a creepy and hateful thing to do and caused outrage in the conservative blogosphere.

Earlier today I responded to Biegel's hate with an insulting Photoshop of my own. After thinking about it, however, I deleted it. Instead of trading insult for insult, I would rather address Linda Kellen Biegel by asking her a question:

Linda, why do you hate Sarah Palin so ferociously? Surely she has done nothing to deserve your wrath. Isn't it true that Palin is just a scapegoat for other frustrations and bitterness in your personal life? Does she look like the pretty girl who stole your boyfriend in high school? What's really going on in the dark corners of your subconscious?

I'd really like to know...but I suspect you don't even know yourself.

Michael Jackson, RIP

I remember about 20 years ago Mrs. Chomper and I were sitting in a bookstore/coffeeshop with twirling ceiling fans overhead. We were drinking coffee and eating lollyberry pie and talking about this singing and dancing sensation, Michael Jackson. This was about the time he had recorded "Billy Jean" and "Beat It." I told Mrs. Chomper that I thought Michael Jackson would be another megastar in the tradition of Elvis and the Beatles. He was quite an extraordinary talent. What I didn't foresee, however, was how someone so troubled could shred his life in spite of his great talent.

In later years Jackson bought and paid for large amounts of plastic surgery that turned him from a handsome black man into a freakish pixie-like Queen, with white makeup like a Geisha and ruby red lips like some nightmare clown. Whereas I had liked the original Michael Jackson, I didn't like the gay painted pedophile that he later became. I always hoped that he would somehow reclaim some aspect of his original self. Alas, it was not to happen. Due to as yet unexplained causes, he died today of cardiac arrest. He was only fifty years old.

Everyone has their favorite Michael Jackson song that, when played, takes them back to a particular time and place. Mine was "Ben," sung by Michael when he was still a preadolescent member of the Jackson Five. Back when that song was popular, around 1971, I was divorced from my first wife and my two sons were living with her and my replacement, who turned out to be a drunk and a sadist. My sons lived in terror of him as he would fly into violent rages without warning. The song "Ben" reminded me of my two sons, particularly the younger one. The song was originally about a rat named Ben in a movie by the same name, but that didn't matter. It was a hauntingly lovely and sentimental song and it expressed my feelings for my abused sons:
I used to say
I and me
Now it's us
Now it's we

Later my ex-wife got smart and divorced the SOB, and gave me custody of my sons. The new Mrs. Chomper raised them as her own and they were never abused again by anyone.

Here's the song, sung by Michael Jackson when he was still young.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

North Korea Threatens to Wipe US "Off the Globe"!

Diana Krall: The Look of Love

My quest for modern jazz performers continues. Last week I discovered Norah Jones. This week I discover Diana Krall. She, like Norah, is an accomplished jazz pianist and singer. I want to learn who are the hottest, most popular jazz singers and musicians today. Maybe my friend Pastorius can help me out here and give me some more names. I want to listen to these artists, study their techniques and learn their music.

Monday, June 22, 2009

When Despair is Knocking at the Door

Today was my first full day of unemployment and already I feel the clammy hand of fear clutching at my gut. The recession-on-steroids continues to gobble jobs like the Blob gobbled people in that 1959 horror flick. President Clueless continues to prolong and worsen the situation. Al Qaeda has expressed their desire to use Pakistan's atomic weapons on America and North Korea continues to threaten nuclear war over trifles. Every silver lining has a cloud. It's easy to hear despair knocking at the door of my mind and I feel like curling up in a fetal position in some dark corner and sucking my thumb. Paralysis seems only natural in such a situation, to just give up. But I can't do that. I have people depending on me, not to mention a dog and two cats. And those cats get mean when they don't get fed.
I took my bass down to a street corner and played bass riffs, hoping to collect some coins from the passers-by. One of them offered me a dollar to stop and a wino with a cardboard sign told me to get off "his" corner. I just can't get any respect. I feel rejected, dejected and ejected.

I should count my blessings. Unlike poor little Neda Soltan, I still draw breath. There are worse things than having to face difficult problems...like not having to face difficult problems because you are dead. I don't have to live in a place like Iran (not yet anyway). I'm still on the right side of the grass.

Tomorrow I will send out some more resumes, looking for temporary and contract work, even though it seems hopeless. But you know, I am just too damned mean and onery to quit. So when despair knocks on my door, I will open the door -- and kick despair right in the nuts.

Neda Soltan, the Face of the Iranian Revolution

Her name was Neda Agha Soltan and she was 27 years old. Stories on the web indicate that she was standing along side her father at a protest rally in Tehran, Iran. A regime police thug hiding on a roof shot her in the heart and she died in about two minutes.
Why shoot a harmless young woman? Perhaps the goal was to create terror among the protestors, to demoralize them and make them give up. The evil Iranian regime had faked a democratic election without any intent of abiding by the vote; it was all for show. President Ahmadinejad, the regime's goon, ran third in the vote but was declared the winner anyway. Then the protests began, resulting in the despots responding with deadly force.

The cowardly vermin who pepetrated this atrocity are beyond disgust. Our hearts go out to the Iranian freedom fighters. May this evil regime soon be consigned to the dustbin of history.



Sunday, June 21, 2009

Norah Jones Sings "Cold, Cold Heart"

I learned the bass line to this song yesterday when I practiced with a local guitar player. Here's a video of the very lovely Norah Jones singing her smooth jazzy version of this great old Hank Williams tune. The bass line is easy to play but simple things are often the most beautiful. I have an acoustic string bass like the one being played in the video..and I love it!

Saturday, June 20, 2009

The Iranian Revolution Has Begun: Thousands Battle Police In Tehran

Tonight the hearts of all freedom-loving people are with the people of Iran, who apparently have escalated their mass protests into revolution against the harsh Islamic regime.
The Washington Post tells part of the story here. Roger Cohen posts an on-the-scene report here.

Finally, Right Wing Nuthouse has a stirring post on this history-in-the-making event.

The reports indicate thousands of protestors are confronting police units and even turning them back. Some police units are wavering, finding it repugnant to beat and kill their fellow citizens. In other cases, the protestors have grabbed weapons from the police and used them in fire fights.

The demonstrators were angered and upset by last week's presidential elections which are widely viewed as fraudulent. The elections returned Ahmadinejad to power over his greatest challenger, Hossein Mousavi. Street demonstrations have grown larger and more violent.
The Iranian government has attempted to crush the demonstrations with force, only to see them grow stronger and more determined.

Perhaps President Bush was correct when he asserted that the desire for freedom is universal among the peoples of the earth. One can only hope so.

The Ghost of Tennessee Ernie Ford Sings About Obama

Tennessee Ernie Ford was most famous for his song "Sixteen Tons" that was released in early 1956. Now his ghost has come back to update the song. It's now called "Two Trillion Tons." Well that's inflation for ya.



Hat tip: ARRA News Service

Friday, June 19, 2009

Barack Obama: He's Come to Save the Day!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!


Hat tip: Jack Dallas

The Calin Wultur Loses Its Virginity

And no, it wasn't because I'm kinky. My Calin Wultur Panormo string bass got to play (musically, I mean) with another musician tonight, for the first time. I went over to the guitarist's house and took the Calin with me. The guitar player is a software engineer in Silicon Valley and had his garage turned into a very impressive playing and recording studio. We listened to some recordings of old songs remade in a very modern and jazzy style by singers like Norah Jones. I really like that chick. She can definitely SING. She takes ancient songs like Hank Williams's "Cold Cold Heart" and turns it into something bluesy with a very cool beat.

Any way, guitar-man put a microphone in front of my bass and I played through the sound system. With this kind of amplification, none of the tone of the bass is lost at all and the Calin sounded warm and punchy. We played together for about an hour and the music was a soothing balm for my troubled soul. This group plays the kind of music that I love and I should fit right in. I'm anxious to practice some more.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Barbara Boxer: Call Her Bitch, She's Earned That Title

Barbara Boxer is certainly an arrogant and snotty woman. She's been wrong on every political position she ever held. You'd think that would make her somewhat humble; but she isn't. Liberals are wrong, immoral, and anti-American and they're proud of it.

Her comment to the General recently was a case in point. Only in the Fruitcake Factory known as California could such an obnoxious BE-OTCH be elected and reelected as a U.S. Senator.

As far as insisting that she be addressed as "Senator," I suggest we give her a new name. From now on, she's Babsy-Cakes, Queen of the Kitchen and Number One Floor-Mopper.

Now there's a job she might actually be able to handle.

Songs of Freedom: "That Long, Lonesome Highway"

Son #1 lives in Washington State and is in the business of repairing and restoring Harley-Davidson motorcycles for resale. He told me this week that he has a powerful urge to just head on out; he hears the call of the open road and would like to bike around the country and see the great places in the good ole USA. I told him that reminded me of a TV series that was popular in 1969 & 1970 called "Then Came Bronson" starring Michael Parks. Parks, as Bronson, rode his Harley all over the country and each week he was in a new place meeting new people and facing new problems.
The theme song of the show was "Long, Lonesome Highway," and Michael Parks sang it himself. It's one of those freedom songs that sticks in your head, and I remember the words four decades later. I always wondered what happend to Michael Parks, but I saw him recently in Chill Bill #2. You probably did too, without knowing who he was. He played Esteban Vihaio, the Mexican pimp with the genteel manners and fine clothes who tells the protagonist where she can find Bill, played by the late David Carradine.

Son, this one's for you.



Here's Michael Parks in "Kill Bill No. 2".

Chillin' Out

In my last few days at work I have been very productive. We are having our annual audit and I have done so much work greasing the skids for the auditors; creating the trial balance, financial statements and footnotes using their own software; making many adjustments to clean up the books; and preparing multitudinous schedules and analyses. Today and yesterday I prepared the tax provision, which is quite technical and mind boggling. I love to wrap my mind around complex problems and solve them. I can make Excel tap dance across the stage and sing Dixie; I be an Excel STUD, even if I do say so myself. Pivot tables, anyone? Nested if statements? Nothin' to it.
I figure I have saved my employer about $50,000 on the audit fee this year; but he's too dumb to appreciate it. In any case, I will leave that place with lots of confidence in my skills and abilities.

I got a call this week from a guitarist who has an acoustic group and they would love to have an acoustic bass player. So tomorrow after work I am going to go by his place and jam a bit, find out what we both know and how well we mesh. It should be fun. Playing with live musicians is so much better than just practicing to records; if you mesh well you energize and inspire each other.
He's going to give me a CD of their recorded music so I can start learning their repertoire.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Scotch and Soda

This is one of my favorite all time tunes. It was recorded by the Kingston Trio in 1958 and captures the dizzy, out-of-sorts feeling of early love. Yes, romantic love does indeed make you "feel high." The little redhead who made me feel that way was my date for the Senior Prom. Her name was Jackie Palmer. If you're out there, Jackie, this one's for you.

Bob Shane is the singer. There is a video following this one showing a live performance of the Kingston Trio with Shane singing this, his most famous song. I ran both because the audio in the first is substantially better; but the second gives you an idea of what this popular singing group was like. I assume that most of you are too young to remember them.




Sunday, June 14, 2009

Kim Jong Mentally Ill Threatens Nuclear War

The pathetic excuse for a human being, Kim Jong Mentally Ill, that runs the Communist cesspool known as North Korea has stated he will "weaponize" its plutonium and promises to wage nuclear war on the Korean peninsula.

We should take these threats very seriously as we are dealing with a megalomaniac with delusions of grandeur. But that's enough about Barack Obama; let's talk about Kim Jong-Il.

K.J. Mentally Ill appears to be nearing the end of his life and may decide to commit suicide and take his country with him, i.e. by starting a nuclear war. We should have been suspicious when he started combing his hair like a mushroom cloud. Let's face it, there's no better phallic symbol than a nuclear tipped warhead and K.J.I. seeks to compensate for the fact he is only four feet tall...not to mention his other shortcoming.

Not to fear, however. We have our own glorious leader whose willingness to talk to anyone without preconditions, and to apologize for all of our wrongs either real or imagined, will save the peace. He will do this by assuring K.J. Mentally Ill that America is not at war with mentally-deranged megalogmaniacs, never has been and never will be. In fact, we have more mentally-deranged megalomaniacs than any country in the world. They're called "Congress."

Obama may even go to North Korea and bow to the Emperor. This will reassure the madman running the joint that he has nothing to fear from America. Jong-Il will then stop counterfeiting US $100 bills, stop his nuclear enrichment program and join hands with Obama and William Ayers and Nancy Pelosi and sing "Kumbaya" until the tears roll down their cheeks. Bill Clinton will be flown in to teach Jong-Il how to pick up girls. Seriously, in order to stop this threat we have to get Kim Jong-Il laid. World piece depends on it.

Oh I am so glad Barack Obama was elected, aren't you? If he hadn't been, we would not now be witnessing Ahmadinejad and Jong-Il beating their swords into plowshares. Or maybe nuclear detonators, I'm not too clear on that.

Sunday, June 07, 2009

Ugh, the Recession Just Got Personal

On Friday I was laid off from my job; I expected it sooner or later if the economy didn't improve.  So now I am back in the hunt for work, at a time when work is scarce.  Strangely enough, my employer asked me to stay on for another few weeks to help with the external audit, but as an independent contractor rather than an employee, and at a rate that represents a substantial raise.  Are they stupid or what?

In any case, it gives me maybe another month to look for work but I have to start immediately.  So today that's what I'll be doing.  Looking for work in the bluest state in the Union, the most socialized, the most heavily taxed, and one of the most economically depressed.  


Monday, June 01, 2009

Red State Rockers Rock Around the Bail-Outs!

This group contacted me and I like the music their playing, especially the words. Very catchy tune.