Police File Charges Against "Naked Pope" Girl

Last month there was an annual Art School parade at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.  One of the CMU students, 19 year old Katherine O'Connor, participated in the parade dressed as the Pope, but naked from the waist down.  Her pubic hair was shaved into the shape of a cross.  She reportedly gave out condoms to the onlookers as she marched along with the parade.

Pittsburgh Police have now decided to file misdemeanor charges against O'Connor for indecent exposure.  Her supporters claim her "artistic expression" is protected speech under the First Amendment.

Why did O'Connor do it?  She probably just wanted to show off and achieve notoriety, using a leftist-approved meme, i.e. bashing the Church.   College students are always so brave and courageous while attacking the traditional culture; they will get pats on the head from their left-leaning teachers and kudos from their colleagues.  However, as former Communist David Horowitz has pointed out, "the issue is always the revolution," no matter what the issue pretends to be.

The left is determined to root out religion from the culture so it can be replaced with something else, i.e. an almost religious belief in the state.  Such incidents, like the piss-Christ photograph and the elephant dung-Mary, are designed to be a kind of cultural acid, slowly weakening the mortar that holds the bricks of western civilization together.  Over time we become less sensitive to such displays, weakening our will to resist the cultural and political changes the left has planned for us.

As for Katherine O'Connor, she has her own cross to bare.  If she gets off, it will be a close shave.

Zen and the Art of Playing Bass

Finally, finally, finally, I am making a serious effort to raise myself from the ranks of amateur bass players to professional bass players.

I have a long way to go.  But I have learned, thanks to a bass teacher named Dale Titus, that it can be done with patience and repetition.

Oh, the learning regimen is fairly traditional:  learn scales, learn modes, learn arpeggios.  Absorb scale theory and how it relates to chords and keys.  Learn every inch of the neck.

However, a lot of successful bass playing (or playing any instrument) is great execution.  Getting your fingers on the right fret at the right time, without string rattle or buzz, plucking those strings accurately and quickly -- those skills are hard to attain.  You attain them by playing exercises (Titus calls them "chop builders") slowly at first, concentrating on a good sound.  You then slowly increase the speed of playing those chops until you can do it quickly as well as accurately.

So much of learning an instrument is developing the muscle memory to play it well and right.  Break it into its various parts and learn each part well, taking as much time as you need to do it.  Keep at it on a daily basis.  If you learn one small thing each day, your knowledge and skill will accumulate faster than you think.

I think this principle works for mastering just about any skill or body of knowledge.   It's like the old but useful analogy of the snowball rolling downhill.

Boston Bombing Victim Jeff Bauman Waves Flag at Boston Bruins Playoff Game

Jeff Bauman, who lost both legs in the bombing of the Boston Marathon, waved the "Boston Strong" flag the Boston Bruins NHL playoff game.  Here's a great picture of him doing so (hat tip to Twitchy.com).  Jeff is a great guy who personifies the triumph of the human spirit over adversity.

Amusing Bunni's Lesson to Us: a Positive Message Ain't Bad

Stogie Bunnies?

One of the things I have learned from the late Carol Mack, who blogged as Amusing Bunni and died a week ago today, is that of a positive message.  (See Curmudgeon's lovely tribute to Bunni here.)  Bunni was upbeat, encouraging and nice to just about everyone.

Looking back through my last 3,000 or so blog posts, I feel somewhat depressed:  so much negativity.  Too much fighting, arguing, bashing other bloggers and getting bashed in return.  Blogging for me and for many has been like a bar fight:  I hit you over the head with an empty beer bottle and you return the favor with a bar stool.  Well, let's be honest, fighting is often fun.  However, it probably doesn't change anyone's mind.  If you were convinced I'm a fool before I smacked you in the mouth, you probably think I'm still a fool and a bully to boot.  This is okay if your only purpose is to vent.   That's not my purpose...or not the major one, anyway.

I love bunnies.  I have ever since my parents took me to see Bambi when I was around 6 or 7 years old.  I thought Thumper was great.  Nevertheless, I won't ape Bunni's style with pictures of bunnies, cats and squirrels.  What works for one blogger won't necessarily work for others (see my kind of bunnies in the pic above -- probably not what Amusing Bunni had in mind).  I can, however, find more positive things to write about, more life affirming, more hope engendering, more upbeat.  I'll try to do that, not exclusively, because "politics is war by other means" and "war is hell," to quote Clauswitz and Sherman.  Nevertheless, I'll try to use more humor, more explanation and less anger.  I won't stop fighting, but maybe I will hit people with a softer bar stool.  And I'll make a point of including more posts that don't involve politics.

Thanks for your great example, Bunni.

Geller Gets It (Finally)

For years Pamela Geller and her close associate, Robert Spencer, have been exposing the means and methods of jihad and the threat posed by Islamic mass-murderers.  However, they were always infuriatingly politically correct, never accurately defining the true nature of Islam (there is no "moderate" Islam or "radical Islam," there is only Islam, and it is irredeemably hostile and violent).

My late friend Lawrence Auster used to fume about this.  He thought Pamela Geller's approach was weak, as she never dared to speak the full truth about Islam and recommend effective cures for Islamic terrorism.    I know he really got under her skin a few times, since his blog "View From the Right" was widely read.

Auster began to change his mind about Geller after she began posting pro-Israel ads on municipal buses in various major cities, and suing cities to allow the ads after the cities initially refused them.  He even signed up for one of her seminars and found it of value.

Today Auster would be very proud of Pamela Geller.  She finally gets it.  She has an organization now called  the "American Freedom Defense Initiative" (AFDI) and its platform for rolling back Islamic incursions into western societies is solid.  For example, it recognizes that Islam is not merely a religion, but a violent, totalitarian ideology that does not deserve to hide its nefarious activities behind a demand for "religious" freedom.  Further, AFDI calls for a stop to Islamic immigration into non-Muslim majority countries. It also calls for a prohibition of foreign funding of mosques and Islamic Studies departments at universities -- as these are a form of stealth jihad.

AFDI is definitely on the right track, and not a moment too soon.

Read more about it at this link.

Hat tip to American Power.

Cancer Claims Another Conservative Blogger: Amusing Bunni, RIP

Amusing Bunni, RIP

Carol, who blogged as "Amusing Bunni," has succumbed to cancer.  She was diagnosed with an aggressive, untreatable form of cancer in October and was disabled from that point on.  Many bloggers sent her cash donations to help her stay in her home and pay the bills for the last few months of her life.  Carol died in a hospice last Sunday evening.

She released photos of herself taken in her youth; I enhanced the one included herein to show her lovely nose, which is almost invisible in the original.   She was a beautiful lady.  Go with God, Bunni.

Now Dan Riehl needs our help in paying his hospital bills for the recent pulmonary episode that nearly killed him.  Please consider a donation of any amount to Dan:  here's the link.

See more about Bunni here and here.

Bunni's blog is here.  Her last post was on April 1.

And Now For Something Completely Different....."Pipeline" and "Walk Don't Run" (Stogie Band Videos)

Too much negativity lately.  Time for a music video break!

My band played at a party over the weekend. Rockin' Mama Lorraine is one of the best guitar players I have ever played with, and she rocks out on these two old Ventures tunes, "Pipeline" and "Walk Don't Run."

Terry Bishop and The Giant Unfolding Conspiracy

Every Bad Thing That Ever
Happened Is The Result 
of a Giant Unfolding Conspiracy

Terry Bishop, conspiracy theorist, has attacked me in the comments section of my post "The False Flag Kooks Are Out In Force Re The Boston Bombing."  Terry blogs at the Site "Hard Nox and Friends."

Terry apparently believes that world history and every daily mishap, lunatic murder and tragedy is the result of a Giant Unfolding Conspiracy (GUC).  Oklahoma City, Aurora, Sandy Hook, now Boston -- all part of the GUC that is threatening to turn us all into Eloi, food for Morlocks.  If you don't believe me, read this:  read his rant here.  Note that Terry doesn't refute a single point in my blog post (he can't).  The dead, the maimed and wounded at the Boston Marathon are real people, not actors.  They were injured by a real bomb, not harmless "flash powder."  Only the truly delusional could believe such "false flag" nonsense.

What the conspiracy peddlers prove, is only this:  there are crazy kooks on the right as well as the left.  The "truthers," no matter which conspiracy they are pushing, are a great example of a theory in search of facts -- they are in ruthless pursuit, not of truth, but of an agenda.  Since most people aren't nuts, the "truthers" do conservatism far more harm than good.

Worse, they dishonor the dead and injured, the victims of such tragedies, by providing cover for the evil that harmed them.  Shame on you, Terry Bishop, and any other blogger who supports you in this dishonorable pursuit.

Hear Interview of Bombing Victim Jeff Bauman on ViralRead

Jeff Bauman

Jeff Bauman, the young man who lost both legs below the knee in the Boston bombing, gave an interview to a radio personality.  A recording of the interview can be listened to here.  Jeff describes what it was like to be blown up and nearly killed, and how it all went down.

Jeff made eye contact with Bomber #1 as he dropped his bomb-containing bag and departed.  Five minutes later the bomb blew off the lower half of Jeff's legs, as well as killing three people and injuring over 200 more.

Carlos Arredondo, a civiian in a cowboy hat, saved Jeff's life by pinching off the artery in his right leg, preventing him from bleeding out.  Carlos commandeered a wheelchair and rolled Jeff to an ambulance.  Since the explosion, Jeff and Carlos have kept in touch on a daily basis.  Jeff was invited to come to a Red Sox game for a presentation to the fans, but said he would only do it if Carlos could come too.

Listen to the interview at the above link.  Jeff is an inspiring guy, and Carlos is no slouch either.

The False Flag Kooks Are Out In Force Re the Boston Bombing UPDATED

It's amazing to me how many Americans are just plain nuts, bonkers, delusional -- completely devoid of any common sense or attachment to reality.

The tinfoil hat brigades are already forming to denounce the Boston bombing as a "false flag" operation.  One kooky website claims that all the wounded were "actors," that no pressure cooker bombs were set off, it was only "flash powder."  The blood on the ground wasn't the right color red, or there wasn't enough of it.  The man with a bloody stump with a bone sticking out of the end was merely wearing a prosthetic device.  And why did they escort him away from the scene in a wheelchair instead of using a stretcher?  Hey kooks, why don't you ask him?  His name is Jeffrey Bauman and he is 27 years old.  He lost both legs in the blast.  The Concord Monitor reports on WHY Bauman didn't bleed to death:

Bauman, 27, was waiting at the finish line for his girlfriend to cross when the bombs exploded. [Carlos] Arredondo was watching from nearby bleachers, handing out American flags while he cheered on members of the National Guard and a suicide prevention group that were running in honor of his two deceased sons. When the bombing hit, adrenaline and instinct kicked in, and he immediately hopped the fence and ran toward the people on the ground.

“There were so many people on the floor, so many serious injuries in the legs. It was unbelievable, people were everywhere,” Arredondo said.

When he saw the extent of Bauman’s injuries and the rapid loss of blood, he knew Bauman needed his help the most. He ripped up a sweater and used it to try to stop the bleeding from Bauman’s legs and immediately got the attention of a woman with a wheelchair. He placed Bauman in the chair and began pushing, but the fabric he used as bandages kept getting caught in the wheels. Arredondo took matters into his own hands, literally, throwing off the fabric and pinching closed an artery on Bauman’s right leg – the image of humanitarianism seen around the world.

“The picture that you see, that’s what it is and that how it happened, you know,” he said. “I was just trying to help him in every way I could, and thank God he gave me the opportunity to help this beautiful young man.”

When they finally reached an ambulance, Arredondo asked for Bauman’s name. “Jeff,” he managed to say, then spelled out his last name for Arredondo.

Carlos Arredondo, in Cowboy Hat, Saved Jeff Bauman's Life

The conspiracy crowd are unlikely to believe any of this, however.  Never mind the bits of shrapnel, the little girl who was perforated with numerous nails, the several other people who lost limbs, the four dead, including an eight year old boy.  Never mind the bbs all over the street, the dozens of injured with shrapnel, nails and bbs embedded in their bodies.  It was all a big put-on.

The people who believe this atrocity was somehow faked, are nuts.  They deserve our contempt.

See some of these kook sites here and here.

Meanwhile, check out a list of some of the bombing victims who lost limbs or their lives, here.  Yeah, these folks were all actors in the massive conspiracy, don'tcha know.  Flash powder my ass.

P.S.  Carlos Arredondo is a hero.  God bless him.