In My Opinion

(Our friend Foonman was discussing the last Oregon Duck game with us the other day, and he was admonishing us to write something about the team.  So on a whim we challenged him to write something for us.  Just like that, he did - see the following.  We've known Foonman since the glorious 70's.  He's a University of Oregon graduate Alum and as you'll soon discover is very passionate about the Ducks. Foonman is retired and lives in Oregon City, Oregon.  Bad Hat has never had a sports commentator until now, and we hope he continues to give us His Opinion. - ep rush)

            SSFF…  (Started Stumbled Farted and Fell)…That was our wonderful (sic)

 U of O Ducks on Saturday last.  Or was it?  Ah, the plot thickens.  Actually someone made a grave error and ran in North Eugene High School at the last minute.  Perhaps I shouldn’t say that, but face it, I’ve seen high school teams play with more fire than the Ducks did on Saturday against Arizona.  Ever since the loss to Stanford and subsequently losing a shot at the title, our Ducks have played without desire.  You could see it on their faces and practically read their minds:  "Without the title game to shoot for, why work so hard?" and "Rose Bowl? been there, done that."  And as for the look in the Arizona players' eyes we could see that they wanted to win, they wanted this game and they wanted to beat Oregon.  

Obviously, we were out-played, and certainly out-coached.  When we got put down, we didn’t get up swingin’.  Oh, there was an occasional effort, but in the words of Yoda "Do or do not, there is no try."  Alabama doesn't have that choice.  Their only option is to WIN!  They have that fire. Their coach has that fire, their whole staff has that fire.  We didn't, and sadly, don't.  We “try”…We fail.  

Mostly I blame the coaching.  You can bet that if Chip Kelly was still here they would have won.  He wouldn’t have let them lose.  He wouldn’t have let them just "try" to win.  I say get rid of this Mark Helfrich guy and get a decent coach.  It’s like Chip gave Helfrich the keys to this finely tuned, extremely technical, perfectly working Maserati with these instructions:  "Just keep it on the road."  But Helfrich wasn’t qualified (or capable) of driving such a machine and ran it off the road.  Whatever happened to the spread offence that worked so well?  And what about Nick Allioti?  How many times do you run your boys into solid stone wall before it dawns on you that "gee whiz, this doesn’t seem to be working."  DUHH!  

Do this:  Add up the number of plays up the middle in both Stanford and Arizona games, and divide by how many times the play was successful.  What’s the average?  Is this good coaching?  And what the hell happened to our defense?  How is it that they can get to our Quarterback but we cannot get to theirs?  When I played, it was hit and hit and hit again if necessary.  Now it seems that our linemen hit and fall down, or worse, hit and hang on.  I can’t say how sharp these linemen and defensive backs are, but it doesn’t take a lot of intellect to know that if you close your hands and/or arms on a opposing player in defense, you're going to get called for...wait for it…HOLDING…another DUHH.  At the beginning of the season we were so confident in the red Zone and especially at the goal line, that we regularly went for 2.  Now we can’t even punch it in from 2 feet out.  I was so disappointed with Saturday’s game that I almost couldn’t finish my whiskey.  Almost.  I’ll tell you what - I’m seriously concerned about the civil war game.  I can see it now - the icing on the cake - beaten by OSU. Oh the pain, the heartbreak, the shame. OH THE HUMANITY ...!

One more thing.  Who in hell makes the decisions concerning uniforms?  This is ridiculous.  Forgive me, but I think school colors are necessary!  Who in their infinite wisdom decided that silver and gray (or whatever that color was) promotes school pride?  Or brown/olive green or whatever that was?  Why not just put them in fatigues.  Oh wait, they did that too. Now I’m damn proud of my school colors.  And I want to see them on my football team’s uniform.  No college team needs 180 different football uniforms.  I think 6 is plenty. Enough for home and away games, and enough for a little variety, but all having some yellow and/or green on them.  U of O is a very well-to-do school thanks to our “special” alum, but it’s just plain rude to flaunt our financial position the way we do.  Much better to take ½ to 2/3 of that revenue and use it on lowering tuition for low income students.  See you next week.

G.B. Foonman   

The View From Mudville

(Our precious Duck football team got their collective butts kicked yesterday afternoon by a highly motivated Arizona team in Tucson.  And along with that loss went our chances for a BCS championship game, PAC-12 Championship game, and our chance to put our thumb on our nose and wiggle our fingers at every football team on the East Coast.  It wasn't even close.  The Wildcats plowed through us like snakes through a blackberry patch.  Final score: 42-16.  Ouch.  But as we sit here licking our wounds and preparing chips and dip for the Pity Party sure to come, we Duck Fans remain loyal to the team.  The Ducks gave us a very exciting year, and we're still going to finished the season with a 9-2 record, assuming we beat the OSU Beavers next Friday night.  But I digress ...)

• Have you heard, or even actually used, the cute little app called SnapChat?  Apparently it's a little app that lets users send photos of gawdknowswhat to other people and then within minutes the sent picture just disappears forever.  Pretty handy for those of us who post drunken half-naked pictures of our latest post-football parties on Facebook. The app was invented by a 23-year-old Stanford student named Eric Spiegel.  Well it turns out that this little app is so cool that some really rich dude named Zuckerburg offered Eric 3 Billion Dollars for it.  That's Billion, with a "B."  $3,000,000,000.  But Eric turned the offer down flat.  Nope.  Not gonna sell it.  Mark Morford explores the reason behind Eric's refusal in "13 Reasons To Turn Down $3 Billion"
•  The United States government has issued a warning to all Americans who wish to travel to North Korea for vacation:  "Don't."  Well that certainly makes a lot of sense to me, and in spite of all those plans I made to travel to Pyongyang next Spring, I will heed the warning.  At first I reasoned that the US government was merely trying to keep Dennis Rodman home where we can keep an eye on him, but then I found out that an 85-year-old Korean War veteran named Merrill Newman had been "detained" by North Korean authorities while he and his wife were on vacation in Pyongyang.  Will someone tell me what the hell was he doing there?  What, Club Med in Siberia was all booked up?  Good grief.
•  As I said before, I hate George Zimmerman.
• Who says big, huge, enormous, corporations don't have heart?  Take McDonalds, for example.  McDonalds understands it's $7 per hour employees might be a bit money stressed this holiday season, so they've offered advice on the corporate website to help their people save money.  They advise, for example, that employees sell their Christmas presents for cash.  And what do employees do if their company doesn't do much for their employees?  Help themselves, bygawd. A Walmart store in Canton, Ohio is holding a food drive to help out employees whose wages might not be enough to pay for food.  Don't that just make you feel warm all over?
  
• Back in 2005, Hendrik Hertzberg of The New Yorker, wrote of filibusters:  Absent Senate filibusters, the anti-lynching bills of 1922, 1935, and 1938 would have become law, bringing federal force to bear against racist violence and possibly allowing the civil-rights movement to achieve its victories decades earlier; direct election of the President would have replaced the electoral college in time for the 1972 election; and nearly all Americans would now be covered by a program of national health insurance.  Now shift to 2013 and the Democrats have pulled what someone named "the nuclear option," and filibustering is now practically a thing of the past.  This is good, right?  Right.  As long as Democrats hold the majority.  (Click Here)
• California now has the largest number of people without health insurance in the nation, according to the California Healthcare Foundation.  More than 20% of Californians are uninsured. Paul Krassner writes "Healthcare Is So Horrible Here That Thousands Rely On Free Clinics - And You're Fined If You Don't Use Prescription Drugs."  Long title, but an interesting article.

  

  Happy Thanksgiving

• I never have liked John Stossel.  Uppity in-your-face pretend know-it-all, Stossel is consistently not only wrong, but irritatingly so.  He's a perfect fit for Fox News.  Thursday morning on something called "Fox and Friends" Stossel shared a clip of him sitting on a New York City sidewalk with a fake beard and a cardboard sign asking people for help.  He said he just begged for an hour, but added "If I did this for an eight-hour day I would've made 90 bucks.  Twenty-three thou for a year.  Tax free."  Elizabeth Hasselbeck, who just recently bought a $4 million home in Greenwich, "gasped in horror at the prospect of poor people earning $23,000 a year."  Their conclusion?  Don't give homeless people money, it only encourages them. To do what?  Eat?

Organized Treason

When you watch the news over this next year, here is a lot of what you are likely to hear from Republican
Congressmen, and probably to a lesser extent from Republican Senators, who tend to think and speak more individually.

But the GOP Congress Members?  Umm, not so individual.  They seem better at memorization, and appear more wedded to the idea of marching in lock-step...  rather than doing anything heretical like independent thinking.  If they were working to unite our people, to encourage the American people to work together to solve an issue that threatened our Country, I'd be far more sympathetic to such behavior.  For example, in a time of war, there would be social value in uniting behind a single point of view.

But when the issue is to try to hamstring the effort to reform America's staggeringly costly and not notably effective healthcare system, I think it is fair to say that this sort of "party line" attack is as tawdry as the mindless slogan pandering of those who waved Mao's "Red Book", and through their efforts cost the lives of something in the range of 100 million Chinese people, before the "Great Leap Forward" and the "Cultural Revolution" were over.  How many Americans will needlessly die as a consequence of this partisan hogwash?  10,000?  100,000?  What could one call the actions that cripple and kill our fellow Americans?  Traitors, perhaps?  Think about it.  These cheese heads are using a well-meaning effort to reform, expand, improve and rein in the costs of America's healthcare "system" as leverage for their efforts to grab political capital.

If this were happening in Italy, we'd all shake our heads and ask, "What can you expect from such a corrupt system"?   During this year, the rest of the world is going to be asking the same question about us.  The effort will fail, healthcare will improve in this country, preventive care will save enormous personal and social costs for the indigent and impoverished, but the pace of positive change will be slowed by these well-dressed weasels, busy banking donations from parts of our massive Medical/Industrial Complex.  17.8% of GDP.  Gosh, it sounds "too big to fail", right?  We HAVE to let it keep preying on the public, or else...  I mean, or else we might have a recession or something, right?

Uh, no, the money not wasted on our current healthcare system could be spent and invested in things which improve the lives of individuals and are of enormous value to our economy.

It will all work out, but how many will have to needlessly die because of these troglodytes?  Who will hold them responsible?  I suspect the voters will, in spades, but what a terrible cost will have been paid, in the process.

It's like watching a slow-motion train wreck. 

It's ironic.  When a Congressman gets caught scoring "coke" he gets a $250 fine and a year of probation, while an African-American kid might do some jail time.  When a bank embezzles a Billion or so, they get a fine, which doesn't seem to be used to compensate the homeowners who have lost money.

If your actions lead to the death of one individual, the penalties are serious.  But when thousands are killed, by misguided partisan boneheadedness, who pays the penalty for that?  You guessed it.  No one.  Instead they get a very cushy healthcare plan and a generous pension.  Even if they might have failed a drug test or two along the way.

But the wind is being sucked out of the current Republican Party.  One might even say that "the party is over".  Those who blindly believe their slogans are sharply divided between a smaller group of reasonable conservatives and a steadily growing group of those who are misogynist, racist and hate "big government".  The battle between the old-school GOP and the whatever we're supposed to call it camp is going to be as passionate as their disjointed attack on the Democratic Party in this mid-term election.  And a house divided can rarely stand.

Are we on the way to becoming a three-party nation?  You know, kind of like Italy?  (no offense to Italians, but really, a Prime Minister who has "bunga-bunga parties"?)

But as we get started on this, these will be the sounds of the Republican echo-chamber; and this is the "playbook" that these overage elementary school students will be working to learn to recite, in lockstep, ad nauseum; (click here)

Arthur

"I'm Afraid I've Got Some Terrible News"

Fifty years ago I was an eighteen-year-old high school student, a Senior, at South Eugene High School.  On

November 22 of that year I was sitting in "study hall," an assigned class where students actually had to sit at desks and quietly study, something which is not a big part of our school systems' curriculum these days, or so I've been told.  These "study halls"  were each assigned a teacher, this one was watched over with stern kindness by Alyce Sheetz, also my journalism instructor, and who ranks somewhere in the top 2 of my all-time best teachers' list.  I'm not sure of the exact time of the following event, it was somewhere near noon, but suddenly the studious quiet was broken by the P.A. system's speaker suddenly coming to life with the squeaky sound of someones hand picking up the microphone.  It was the school Principal, Clifford Moffitt.  "I'm afraid I've got some terrible news," he began, "President Kennedy has been shot during a motorcade in Dallas, Texas."

I had been glancing up at the P.A. speaker over the blackboard during the start of the announcement, but at the end of it I remember staring straight into Alyce Sheetz's eyes.  For some reason, out of all the 20-some kids in the room, she was looking directly at me.  For just a second, she and I shared the most devastating news I had ever heard.  For a moment, pictures of JFK flashed before my eyes.  Kennedy, the youngest President ever elected, who had followed the oldest man to hold the office; this vibrant, healthy, handsome man had been SHOT.

Since it was near lunch time, and because all sense of time seemed to just melt away, Mrs. Sheetz told us to just go, and report back after lunch.  I wandered out into a hall full of hushed chatter, shocked faces, kids walking like zombies.  Some of the girls were crying.  I walked out of school, heading for the little burger shack down the street.  As I left school one of the things I remember hearing was some kid suddenly blurting out "They finally GOT the son-of-a-bitch!"  I don't know what happened to that kid, but I didn't hear him again.

The burger shack was about three blocks away from the school and as I walked I began to realize I was in some stage of shock.  I was breathing strangely, the colors of the day were oddly off, pale, washed out, and I seemed to be on auto-pilot, not really knowing where I was going, but knowing I would get there anyway.  I'm sure I was walking with someone, or perhaps several others, but I have no recollection of who it was.  The next thing I remember, I was in the burger shack, lots of people milling around, no one really ordering anything, the radio blaring in the corner (remember, this was before video machines, and even TVs were rare in cafes'.)  I ordered nothing, just stood there.  It was there I heard it.  On that little cheap radio in the corner. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was dead.

I left the shack alone, and walked purposefully back to my high school.  Perhaps I was hoping for the sanity of an afternoon class, or maybe Mr. Moffitt would come back on the P.A. and tell us it was all a mistake, that the President of the United States is just fine, that people were going to be punished for this horrible joke.  I was within a half a block of the school when several of my classmates walked by going the other way.  "School's been cancelled, go home," I was told.  Apparently it was no joke after all.

Since it was Friday, we had the weekend to recover slightly, at least, but then they declared the following Monday a national day of mourning.  The rest of the week is a complete blur, except I remember clearly, sitting in front of our Stromburg-Carlson black and white TV, watching the funeral procession, listening to the steady beat of the funeral drums, and the clip-clop of that riderless horse.  I think I cried for two days straight, off and on.  So did most everyone else.

JP

Congressman Radel's "Problems"

How about tossing Trey Radel out of Congress, for life?  He failed a drug test, badly, and so he should be recalled immediately and prevented from ever running for Public Office again.

Does that seem too harsh?

That's exactly what Radel voted for, with regard to Food Stamps.  Fail a drug test and you're disqualified.

Ironically, there is some logic to the idea of giving drug tests to those applying for Food Stamps, as long as it isn't a disqualifier.  The costs of giving those using drugs a course of intensive therapy would be far, far less costly than imprisoning them in a street bust.  You know, like the one that nabbed the Congress-critter.  Who was all drunk, so he had to repeatedly score coke in order to...   in order to what?  Sober up?

The logic of the "Rob Ford" defense is dubious, at best.  Can Radel point to any incidents of public intoxication?  None have been mentioned.

The idea of buying a highly illegal and addictive drug in order to self-medicate one's alcohol problem is...   what would you call it?  Astoundingly poor judgment?

A childhood friend's father was a Doctor who apparently had a drinking problem and attempted to deal with it by taking Morphine instead.  How's that for questionable judgment?  Apparently that is a fairly common phenomena among Physicians.  One could even suggest that working in a hospital was as dangerous as living in a bad neighborhood where drugs were readily available.

Let's start talking about drug abuse, instead of letting it be the cash cow of the Prison/Industrial Complex.  Poor guys without good legal representation?  Send 'em to the local Prison, which incidentally is run by a private corporation, who in some cases are giving Judges "back-handers" for sending them healthy inmates, who can be put to work at slave labor wages in order to enrich the parent Corporation.  Seriously, isn't that a gussied-up modern form of slavery, with about ten or twenty moral shortfalls involved?

How on EARTH can we permit bullshit like that to continue to thrive in our "exceptional" country?  In Bangladesh one might expect it, or in Romania or Zimbabwe.  But here?  In our country?  in 2013?

Can some tech guru divert their attention and resources from the exploration of an endless lifespan or space and please set up an organization to focus on the plight of the hundreds of thousands who should NOT be in prison, but instead should be out in the community, under close supervision and counseling.  Oh gosh, just like Congressman Radel says would be appropriate for him.

I'm going to give Radel the benefit of the doubt.  It is possible that he will come to his senses and realize what a hypocritical dick he has been, with his vote against Food Stamps.  He may also (let's hope) become a voice for less imprisonment.  If he was poor and black, he'd be in prison right now.  Guaranteed. If he grasps that truth, and has an ounce of moral sense, this could in theory turn him into a far, far better and more principled man.

Or else he can continue to be a Republican Tea Party douche.  He has an opportunity to become a better and decent human being.  What he does with that opportunity will be worth watching.  But in the meantime, resignation would probably be the most appropriate step.  That should give him a lot more time to get therapy and reconsider his views on life, instead of him rushing through an upscale "rehab" clinic and rushing back out to try to cling to his Congressional seat.  That's a recipe for disaster.

Arthur

A Random Rant

The Republicans are having a lot of fun moaning about our having to waste/spend $250 Million in the effort to provide affordable healthcare to all of the people of our great country?  

AN OUTRAGE!!!   Oh, that $24 Billion the "shutdown" cost, we won't be upset about that...

Unless the Republican assholes realize that the American people are perfectly capable of doing math, and that

$24 Billion is NINETY-SIX TIMES LARGER than $250 Million

...then there really is no hope for them.  And did they notice that during the critical period of getting the online website up and working, our government (not THE Government, okay?) was distracted by a large group of proto-McCarthyite self-aggrandizing douchebags, preening before television cameras and telling colorful lies to the American people.

Those of you who are preening self-absorbed douchebags know exactly who you are.  But what you may not realize is that the American PEOPLE have figured out who you are.  And what you are. We don't like the amount of our money that you just pissed down the drain, or the uneasiness you caused in other nations, or how you emboldened our enemies and caused concern among our friends.

Talk to someone who was in Hong Kong, Europe or China during the "shutdown" and you will learn that their press and politicians had a field day with it.  One of my sons was in Italy and the Italians were making snarky remarks about how fucked up our government had become.  The Italians!  I mean, what nerve!  I told him he should have said he thought that if our President had some "Bunga-Bunga" parties maybe things would have gone better.  He said he did say something a bit like that and they didn't think it was funny.

When the Italians, who are wonderful people but who have a bizarre circus for a government, feel bold enough to crack jokes about the US, that will tell you what a stupid, stupid display of douchery the shutdown was.  It was, to put it bluntly, as stupid as something that Berlusconi might have done.  Oh wait, that he DID do, on October 3rd.

One might suggest: Ted Cruz = Silvio Berlusconi.

A different type of brainless self-absorbed moron, but similar psychiatric problems.  Different styles of self-absorbed fools.

Oh, and when Calgary Cruz went down to Texas after the Shutdown fizzled?  He told an audience there that he was "glad to be back in America".  Seriously? I love Texas and have a lot of family there, but America, the America Cruz swore an oath to uphold the laws of, is a great deal larger, and a great deal more united, than a divisive twerp like Cruz will ever understand, until the express train of public opinion rolls over him.

I'm working to help a family member get on the ACA in Texas, which the Texas State government has worked hard to keep from working.  Consumer Reports Magazine lists 14 ACA Insurance companies who are open for business in Texas.  Nice try Cruz!  Nice try Governor Perry!

We, the American people, are going to remember what you did this year.

 

Arthur

The Hateful Season

Ah, Fall is definitely in the air around here.  As I've said, and say constantly (some say too much), Oregon is the ONLY place to be this time of year.  On a good day it's foggy in the morning, clears off around noon, hits about 65 in the afternoon, and gets down to about 35 at night.  The trees are on fire with color, and the neighborhood wild life is active and busy gathering food for the winter.  We have a huge window looking into the back yard, and you can find me sitting here watching it all happen, brandy in hand, the latest Stephen King novel by my side.  Retirement is good, my friends. But I'll spare you any more of this drivel and digress ...

• We've noticed lately, with some degree of fear and loathing, the increasingly vitriolic hate
  
  messages being vomited out on the Internet.  Scanning some of the most popular news sites, for example, one can find the most obscene comments made by what seems to be professional haters.  While I doubt there are vast numbers of these people out there, they certainly are as vocal as they are undereducated.  For example, a small set of them seem to have great difficulty writing President Obama's name in a sentence without throwing in a couple "F" bombs.  Hate. Hate. Hate.  Some people think the anonymity of the World Wide Web brings out the worse of people.  Mark Morford comments: "You Are All Completely Insufferable"
• And while we're on the subject of hate, how 'bout them Republicans?  Some of them have such a hard time keeping their stupid idiotic thoughts to themselves, like the South Carolina Republican party official who thinks transgendered people should be "put in camps."  Well, I have nothing against camping, but I do think it should be voluntary.  Here's "10 Nutty, Vile and Absurd Utterances From the Fringe This Week."
• Arthur did a great job on his report concerning the government shutdown (see below), and he sent us this link written by Frank Rich.  It's a very interesting essay that points out that shutting down the government isn't by any means a new idea.  Check this appropriately named: "Frank Rich on the History of Government Shutdowns."
• And how about this?  It needs very little introduction, you just know it's going to be good.  Thomas Friedman compares the Tea Party wing of the G.O.P. to the tactics of the P.O.G. — “Party of God” — better known as Hezbollah.  Oh my, this is getting to be fun ...
• As we said, some people HATE President Obama.  And usually when someone HATES something or someone, they also FEAR it.  Here's an interview with a true typically misinformed Obama hater.  See if you can feel the fear in his answers.  Click Here
• Back in the dark ages, or was it the light ages? who remembers, I used to enjoy Dennis Miller's intellectual humor.  His humor at that time was mostly harmless, and most of it was really funny.  But something happened to Dennis Miller during the Bush administration.  Like an uneaten banana, he turned bad. He began spewing hateful rants against Liberals who were criticizing the Bush-Cheney plan to invade Iraq after the Sept. 11th attacks.  He turned vehemently Conservative.  He immediately ceased to be even remotely funny.  Last Friday Dennis, on a radio program, told an alleged small business owner to fire all his employees who support Obamacare.  Oh Dennis ...
• And speaking of Dick "We Call Him Dick" Cheney, it was revealed this week that The Dark Lord, former president George W. Bush’s right-hand man in the “war on terror,” had his heart implant altered to prevent terrorists from hacking into it.  Also mentioned in this article "Cheney said that despite being aware of numerous studies showing a significant link between severe heart disease and memory loss, depression and hampered decision-making, he wasn’t worried about it and was not counseled on it either."  I don't know whether to laugh my ass off, or just sit down and cry.

JP

PS:  Ed Note:  Here's some inadvertently left out comments from Arthur.  Thanks!)

Just to add one interesting note, the odd and secretive share of a Jamaican Investment Fund   "Ted" Cruz owns an "informal share" of?  The one registered in the British Virgin Islands?  (Sounds dodgy already, right?)  That isn't supposed to be worth anything, really, its just sort of a "dormant investment"?  That one?  Remember that about five months ago the British got ahold of all of the secret accounts in the British Virgin Islands, and are making quite heavy-handed deals with the owners to cough up taxes on those accounts and their earnings.  What do you want to bet that someone in our government, who doesn't like "Ted" very much this week, could convince the Brits to do a little digging for our government, informally of course, all between friends, and gather some interesting dirt on little Teddy?

I'm not entirely clear why, but I find the guy's face really, really yucky to look at, what he says is slimy and bullying, and in the end he reminds me of people that I instinctively dislike and distrust.  Aside from that he seems like a lovely rodent.

Arthur

The Shutdown, Race, High Crimes and Medical Costs . . .

In the wake of the failed attempt to hold our nation to ransom, some of the attempted kidnappers are pleading innocence.  My suggestion is that we take such protestations with a large grain of salt.  Personally, I don't see much difference between the actions of those miscreants and the actions taken by Somali pirates.  In fact, I see no difference.  Attempted hijacking is attempted hijacking, regardless of where it takes place.  Is trying to hijack a large boat a worse crime than trying to hijack a small sailboat?  Okay, if you think that, then tell me;  what degree of crime is it to try to hijack an entire government?  Our government?

Of course, when a hijacking goes badly wrong, everyone involved runs away from the area, claiming that they were only there by accident, and they CERTAINLY were not involved in that attempted crime!!  Oh no!

How much did this adventure cost our nation? (Click Here)



Ted Cruz aka 'A Lovely Rodent'

Many have suggested this was all about the Presidential ambitions of Senator Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz, aka "Calgary Cruz", in recognition of his having been born in Calgary, Canada, to a Cuban/Canadian father and an American mother.  Senator Cruz is a dual citizen of Canada and the United States.  He announced on August 19th, 2013 that he would renounce the Canadian half of his citizenship, but it turns out that it takes about ten months for Canada to get through the process of letting go of one of their citizens.  Wait, so Cruz was born of an American mother (gosh, just like Obama was...) and there is clear documentation that Cruz was born in another country (Canada).  According to Donald Trump we all need to ask to see Senator Cruz's BIRTH CERTIFICATE, to make certain that he was physically born in the United States, rather than in say, Kenya, Canada or Cuba...

But there is one key difference between Cruz and Obama.  Cruz is light-skinned enough, that although some Cubans show a strong African heritage, Cruz does not.  And so...  the Rightwing doesn't seem to care where he was born, what his citizenship was at birth, or any of that nonsense, as long as he's white.  There is one set of laws if you are dark-skinned, another if you are white.  Have you all forgotten that?

Ironically, both Cruz and Obama attended Harvard Law School.  Small world, isn't it.  Obama got far better grades.

So the "Birther" and "Tea Party" movements, which are fairly closely linked, share some curious characteristics;  they are racist, and they are tools of enormously wealthy conservatives who fund fake "grassroots" organizations that are fighting against progressive and accountable government in the United States, to keep our government from controlling their businesses in any way...   you know, with liberal efforts like concern for the environment, health care for workers, good public schools, roads and an egalitarian society.  Crazy stuff like that...  while Rightwing Billionaires would prefer to have government stay out of their way, so they can grab more, more, more Billions!!  And control State, local and the Federal Government!!  Because...   uh, because power apparently creates a thirst for greater power, for more money!!

A nationwide grassroots effort called "Flush Rush" has had a surprisingly powerful impact on the career path of Rush Limbaugh.  More than two thousand advertisers have told Clear Channel that their ads may not be used on Rush's radio program.  As the number of advertisers who ARE willing to support him dwindles, consumer pressure against those businesses has gained strength.  If you don't believe me, take a look at how many ads there are for "Angie's List" on MSNBC.  Those are the ads that no longer are on the Rush Limbaugh show, after a huge protest against the company.  And the list is an increasingly long one.

It is pretty easy to find out which businesses Koch Industries owns.  None of their products are unique.  Maybe a person would prefer a type of toilet paper they make, as compared with what a competitor makes, but the odds are good that they could find a brand they liked almost as much.  Certainly good enough to encourage them to switch.  And then there are the businesses who can be encouraged to simply stop carrying Koch Industries products.  After all, those are the bastards who gave $200 million to organizations like "Freedomworks", who in turn badgered and bribed GOP candidates to follow their guidance, not the guidance of their local constituents, let alone looking out for the welfare of their constituents.  That's what Congress is supposed to be about, but the changes in Campaign Finance law have allowed scum like the Koch brothers to cast their net across our nation, buying up candidates and districts with large donations and such powerful threats that they currently OWN a large bloc of the US Congress.  Yes, Virginia, some US Congressmen are whores, I'm sorry to have to tell you that...

Or rather, the Koch brothers used to own a large bloc of Congress and parts of the Senate. Yesterday those titles got challenged. 

And this is just the beginning.  Whether this ass-backwards attempt to grab control of our economy and our public health care costs our country $5 Billion, $12 Billion or $24 Billion in financial losses is not important.  Two conservative douchebags, almost single-handedly, tried to grab control of our government.  A kind of soft-core coup d'etat.  How should we feel about that?  Impressed?  surprised? or furious?

Some have suggested that the Republican right is terrified the "Affordable Care Act" will be wildly popular with the American people.  I think they are right.  Omigod! (say the wingers) it might be like the New Deal, all over again!!

Indeed.  Medical Care in the United States costs twice as much as medical care costs in any other country on the planet.  When they caution us that medical care is what...  18% of our national economy? so we'd better be careful what we do, it raises an obvious question, "Why the hell does health care cost so much?"

When I was a child it certainly didn't.  According to numerous studies we don't provide the best care in the world, by one measurement we rank the 38th best in the world.  Number 1 for costs, 38 for performance, when the population as a whole is judged.

A recent article about a guy who needed a hip replacement said he found that it would cost him $68,000 to have the surgery in Colorado.  He looked around and discovered that he could have an identical surgery done in Belgium for $13,500.  Including round trip airfare.  He is very happy.

Did you wonder why there was a big to-do about a tax on "Medical Devices" in Affordable Care Act?  Because that is a huge monopoly industry in our country.  Do you think they might have a small army of lobbyists?  or maybe an army and a half?  Count the lobbyists and you can pretty well tell who is trying to steal the farm.  Right?

So, that's part of what happened yesterday.  The back of the beast was broken.  The nutbags got their nuts cracked.  Our government is open again and people who are owed money are getting paid once more.

Now the work begins.

It is time to run these bastards out of town on a figurative barrel.  We don't really use barrels or hot tar anymore.  We're much more modern.  But what is important is that the fight has started, and we can't back off from it until we have taken our democracy back.  I've got a few things to say about Fox News as well.  Their parent corporation, "News Corp" is in deep trouble in the UK over phone and Internet tapping, bribery of police officials and the list goes on.  Does anyone want to bet that News Corp hasn't done the same things here in the US, in their quest for power?  If so, it might be time to call them to account for those crimes.  We should not have a two-tier legal system, that jails those who are poor and hides its eyes from the crimes committed by the powerful, well-connected and wealthy.  That's NOT the foundation our country.  Our job, as citizens, is to keep pressing our government to become more fair, more transparent, more even-handed and more just.

We've got some work to do.  But yesterday was a very good day, for about fifty different reasons.

Arthur

P.S.:  Within the Republican Party there are roughly three factions;  pro-business moderates, social conservatives and the Tea Party caucus. They aren't getting along very well these days.  And things are about to get even more interesting.

You Know What Pisses Me Off?

As I get older, I seem to reach a new level of curmudgeory every day.  Things and occasions that I
used to just shrug off, are now beginning to, as my Dear Uncle would say, "raise the hackles on my back."  I am becoming a natural curmudgeon; I understand now why cats hiss and dogs growl.  I suppose as with any situation in life, there are multiple reasons for this life change in me; natural aging (approaching 70); having to sit down to accomplish normal activities, i.e. putting on my pants, peeing in the middle of the night, etc., and of course my habit of reading the damn newspaper every morning.  I thought you would be interested (and why the hell wouldn't you?) in a few of the things that piss me off, not necessarily in order.

• Cats.  These are the domesticated(?) house pets who, in spite of hours and hours of personal counseling and gentle guidance, still do not understand the significance of the "Litter Box."  We have a cat, one who my wife occasionally reminds me is "even older than you," who delights in doing his business just INCHES from his own personal litter box, cleaned and raked daily like some sort of Japanese sand garden. Ever try to discipline a cat? 
• The Big Sports People In Charge.  Can someone tell me WHY baseball great Pete Rose has been permanently banned from Hall of Fame consideration, while the freaking idiot Michael Vic is still allowed to play football for the Eagles?  Apparently, boys and girls, it's okay to strangle dogs with your bare hands, just as long as you don't bet on a game ...
• Republicans.  Well you knew this one was going to be in here, didn't you?  But not all Republicans piss me off.  Just the ones who are gloating and grunting and pointing their stumpy little fingers at Obama for occasionally acting almost as bad as Dubya.  What?
• Ball Point Pens.  I'm talking about the ball point pens that you pick up to sign something with, and you absolutely have to find some OTHER piece of paper to scribble some squiggle of graffiti to make sure the stupid thing will write.  Think of the poor defenseless scraps of paper thrown away every day, simply because they were forced to be a test subject for a stupid pen.
• George Zimmerman.  That one probably goes without saying.
• The True Entitlement Class.  Righties love to bitch about food stamp families and welfare Cadillac drivers, but the true "entitlement" assholes are the idiots who drive their convertible Mercedes down from the hills who think they are entitled to park ANYWHERE they feel like, like an Applebee's Curbside space, and go inside to eat while those of us who are there to pick up our meager meal have to park somewhere else and walk ALL THE WAY over to the Curbside office to get our stuff.  (Okay, that one was kinda specific, but it really pisses me off.)
• Thank you.  I feel somehow better.

A Moving Experience

We've moved again.  The owners of our rental house on the hill finally retired at whatever they were doing in Texas, and have nudged us out of their dream home in Eugene.  The fools.  First of all, they're Texans.  Texans don't assimilate into our hippy-liberal-vegan-Saturday Market-type of

lifestyle easily.  One or two "y'alls" and they find themselves being treated like Chihuahuas without a green card.  And secondly, living on an extreme incline is very hard on old retired hips, especially the "ups," and not forgetting the "downs." But, we wish them well. Sorta.

Now, moving.  Who of us hasn't at one time or another said these words:  "I hate moving."  Moving an entire household is a semi-religious experience much like embarking on a pilgrimage to some mountain top shrine, where upon arrival you're beaten senseless by savages with sticks.  And when you're near 70 years of age, they set fire to your body afterwards.  But it had to be done.  And bygawd, thanks to a select few of my friends and family, we did it.

I realize now, for sure, why we have friends.  Friends will drop in unexpectedly, eat your food, borrow your lawnmower, flirt with your wife, spill your whiskey on your carpet, and sleep on your couch.  And they, and their pickup trucks, will help you move.  Over the past several days I have had the most extraordinary help of friends such as Dan Budd, Vic Hansen, and especially Vern Wells, and I mention them only because these names should be carved into some special granite monument to friendship everywhere.  Thanks, guys.  You actually saved my aging ass. 

The new place is cool, mainly because it's located on flat ground; no hills to climb to the front door; the car door won't slam shut as we're trying to get the groceries out of the back, and we can actually grow vegetables and flowers in the back yard because the freaking deer don't come down this low.  The old house we referred to as "The Hill House," because, well, it was on a hill.  We christened this house "The Hobbit House," because of the unusual placement of windows on the east wall of the living room.  They're located high on the wall, definitely not for gazing out of, and reminds me of a basement apartment I once rented in the 70's. But it's cool. I think we're home.  And I just have one more question:  WHERE in the HELL did we get all this CRAP?  Expect a monster garage sale.  But I digress ...

• Are you gluten intolerant?  ohwellshithellyes, that gluten stuff is messing up my body, and after I stopped eating bread and stuff I feel SOOO much better so I must be gluten intolerant, right?  Another question; can you actually feel WI-FI energy pulsing around you from sinister machines not only in your house, but from around your neighborhood?  Well, chances are, you're not, and I'm pretty sure, you can't.  How about MSG?  Is it really killing you?  How about this one, Are You a Sex Addict?  Ohfercrissakes ... Let's let Mark Morford straighten you out here:  Attack of the Gluten Intolerant Sex Addicts
• From various news sources, especially that Fox thing, we hear constant reports of local and international Muslim terrorism, plots and attacks, bearded head-towel wearing maniacs driven to madness by the evils of  that godless religion.  Seems kinda funny (not) that we don't hear so much about the Christian driven terrorists.  Christian terrorist, you say?  What in heaven's name could we be talking about?  Well, check this article out and get back to me:  "Ten of the Worse Terror Attacks by Extreme Christians and Far-Right White Men"
• Our beloved Republican Party is continuing its bizarre love affair with the late Ronald Reagan.  Ever since Reagan's death Republicans have been attempting to name everything possible after The Gipper, including airports and aircraft carriers.  Now they want to name 3.4 million square nautical miles of ocean after him.  So how does the "Ronald Wilson Reagan Exclusive Economic Zone" sound to you?  Jesusmaryandjoseph.
• As of this morning, the United States Government hasn't been able to get its hands on fugitive Edward Snowden, that evil man who had the audacity to inform the American people (and others) what the United States Government was actually doing.  The government's frustrating chase of Snowden has been, at the very least, quite entertaining to watch.  And there's much more to the story according to Professor Noam Chomsky in this article: "Is Edward J. Snowden Aboard This Plane?"
• In our never-ending search to bring you the best of the best top ten lists, here's one that Fox News haters will love: "The 10 Worse Fox Interviews of the Decade"  Enjoy!

Signs

So here was this moth.  I first noticed it on a Sunday morning, when I was going out to get the newspaper.  My first thought was that somehow a rogue wind had blown a leaf into a spider's web and suspended it above the porch light.  I was intrigued because of the size of this thing, a bit smaller than my outstretched hand.  Then I noticed this "leaf" had feelers, or antennas, and what appeared to be wings.  While I stared at it, it changed from a leaf to a well camouflaged moth.  I took it as a sign.

In some Native American folklore, a moth is a sign, or symbol, that some important event or emotion is about to be offered and learned.  Any of you who have read Carlos Castaneda knows what I'm talking about. So, naturally I prepared myself.  I went into the house, had breakfast, and forgot all about it. 

The next morning as I went down to once again get the paper, the moth was still there.  In the same place.  Day two of the moth visitation.  Was it dead?  Stuck to the wall perhaps, or dying and refusing to let go of the wall?  I found this a bit unsettling, and contemplated brushing the creature off the wall with a broom and to be done with it, but Castaneda wouldn't like that, so I left it where it was.  On the third day I started talking to it.  I brought my coffee out on the porch that third morning, and after observing that it had actually moved a few feet to a space below the porch light, I sat down on the step opposite the moth. "So look," I says, "what's the deal here?"  The moth, rudely, said nothing.  I figured I'd try the direct approach.  "You've been sitting on this wall for three days and you're starting to give me the creeps."  And then the big question:  "Are you trying to give me a sign?"   The wife appeared on the other side of the screen door and asked me who I was talking to.  "The moth," I said.  To her credit she replied "oh, okay," and closed the door.  I returned to the creature and asked one more time, "What IS IT?" 

We're moving at the end of this month.  Packing up and leaving, going to a new house down the hill a ways, to just as nice as this place with a beautiful big back yard.  A much larger yard for the cat and dog and those of us who like to putter.  And lots of big trees.  By the way, the moth left the afternoon of the third day.  It's waiting for us down the hill.  But I digress ...

• So we just lived through another American Fourth of July celebration, a reason to buy hundreds of dollars of explosive devices and set them off at all hours of the day or night, depending on which annoys your neighbors the most.  The 4th of July is a truly American holiday, sort of really loud Thanksgiving without the turkey.  Most right-wing Americans think the 4th of July is a time to celebrate white, Protestant, small town America, (think Sarah Palin).  But with all the problems this country is facing right now, what really is "E Pluribus Unum?"  Paul Krugman reports.
• So it's a sign of times that the people of Egypt have elected a leader fair and square, and after a short couple of years decided to get rid of him.  What?  Is it just me, or does this NOT sound like democracy?
• In a surprisingly intelligent move, the Supreme Court finally struck down the not-so-intelligent Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which leads to the demise of the ultra homophobic California Proposition 8.  Fox News and their Republican doom sayers promised death and hell fire to all of America.  To quote grinning Conservative Idiot Mike Hucklebee, "Jesus wept ..." although it's difficult to understand this statement as Jesus said absolutely nothing about marriage or homosexuals.  At any rate, while the Right Wing of America was contemplating slashing their collective wrists, the Left Wing of America was celebrating, big time.  It was like a big crack in the dome of depression had appeared and bright light suddenly shown through.  Mark Morford describes what it was like:  "Conservatives Don't Dance."
• And then we have our dear sweet Paula Deen.  Apparently rubbing two sticks of butter together isn't going to get her out of this one.  Paula got herself in hot water a couple years ago when she revealed she had developed type-2 diabetes, but kept on pumping out incredibly unhealthy recipes for her Food Network fans.  Strike one.  Lately, during a deposition for a court trial, Paula admitted to using the "N-word," which despite being strike two, is a big yawner
  
  considering Ms. Deen's extremely accurate portrayal of a ignorant slow talking southern racist, y'all.  Strike three came when it was revealed that Paula was not only a racist, she's a anti-Semitic homophobe too.  My my, how shocking.  So, for now, we American Food Network watchers will have to get by without Paula Deen's syrupy exaggerated southern homilies, and get back to eating healthy.  (I don't know about you, but I'm really going to miss her "Donut Burgers;" a hamburger patty wedged between two halves of a glazed donut.  Mmmm, y'all.)
• The United States Government has now built a fence, or a wall, between the US and Mexico that is over 650 miles long.  California, Arizona, and New Mexico are almost completely fenced off.  The Berlin Wall, in contrast, was only 87 miles long.  Apparently this isn't near enough for the Right-wing media (Faux News) who repeatedly distort the Obama Administrations efforts to keep those pesky Mexicans from coming over the border and stealing our strawberries.  Certifiable nutcase Michelle Malkin states that the government has failed "to secure the states against invasion," and "this current administration has done everything in its power to sabotage immigration law."  However, as usual, a quick check of the facts says something completely different.  This Is What Border Enforcement Actually Looks Like. 

War and Remembrance

(We decided to allow the Boy to have two of his friends over tonight, for an overnighter.  The other two are basically good kids, one has a little bit of a potty-mouth, but he apologized last time and promises he'll watch his language while he's in the house.  This is their last year of middle school and they're growing fast, entering that realm of hormones and high energy, wonder and illusion, and the days of killing Nazi thugs and evil aliens on their video games will be soon drawing to a close.  High school girls are coming.  I want to warn them, but they wouldn't listen to me.  What do I know, anyway.  At any rate, I got hot dogs and potato salad for them later, and Dad's homemade waffles in the morning.  It's a three day weekend, it should all be okay.  It's once again Memorial Day weekend.  I've put the flag up, perhaps prematurely, and as our tradition, the family will be going up to the cemetery and placing flags and flowers on our loved ones graves on Sunday.  Don't like to go on the actual Memorial Day, 'cause of all the people.  I guess, when you think about it, it's kind of a silly thing to do, and I never regularly did it like I do now, but when Uncle Bob died I made a promise to myself to visit his grave at least once a year.  On behalf of all of us here at Bad Hat, I wish you a very happy Memorial Day weekend.  Drive safe.  But I digress ...)

• Well golly, where to begin.  We've been gone for so long there's SO much stuff to report on, so let's just touch on the big ones, okay?  Tornadoes!  Big ones, global warming mothers of destruction wreaking havoc on innocent Oklahoma towns, throwing babies and cuddly animals halfway across the county, sucking parents right out of their shelters, wiping out elementary schools, pre-schools, day care facilities, Oh My Freaking F-5 God (on the Fugita scale).  Whyohwhy does God allow these things to happen?  Waitaminute, maybe it's not God doing all this afterall.  MAYBE it's the GOVERNMENT!  Conspiracy theory radio host Alex Jones says the government IS doing it.  Ohboy.  This is whole new kind of crazy.
• The NRA is also a twitchy clown car of paranoia and failure.  Well, by golly, I guess that pretty much sums it up.  George W. Bush is a sad, awkward loser.  Yes, I've noticed that too.  Pretty pathetic, actually.  Mark Morford makes these statements and more with a fascinating article called "Nine Amazing Truths You Already Suspected."
• Consider this:  The Boy Scouts of America, long a homophobic Christian based organization for the indoctrination of young boys, has finally bowed to pressure from the reality-based culture it exists in, and has said it will allow gay children to join its ranks.  (First question, why would gay children want to...?)  But wait, the BSA still retains its ban on gay scout leaders.  Ah yes, that "morally straight" clause.  Well, we salute the BSA for it's outstanding forward-thinking on this issue, but still advise any young man to stay away from joining this organization, just as we advise against joining the Catholic Church and eating at Denny's.  'Course that's just our opinion.
• GOP War On Sex Update:  An all-male panel of House lawmakers considered a bill on Thursday that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy across the United States, without exceptions for rape, incest or health of the mother.  Notice it says "all-male panel."  Yes, once again, righteous male Republican members of congress have gathered together to decide what's best for a woman's body.  Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), the bill's sponsor, says that he hopes President Barack Obama will stand up for fetuses in the same way he stands up for the nation's poor and sick. "He is their president and they need him so badly." 
• I was watching the Today show the other morning, and after a while my attention got sidetracked with something else.  I left the TV on as I went into another room for a bit and when I returned I glanced at the set and saw a hunched up little elderly man, more troll than human, who was creaking out little homilies.  His face was so puffy with age that his eyes were just slits, and it was difficult to gauge where he was looking.  Was he looking at the camera?  Were his eyes closed tight?  I finally began to listen to what he was saying, and I paused for a while, watching him as I would watch the aftermath of a horrible car accident.  This man, I would realize later, was Pat Robertson.  This little man was advising the married women in his audience that even though infidelity by their husbands is a natural thing, the hapless wife could keep their straying mates home more if they kept the house clean.  And if you, like I, found that advice to be more than a bit odd, here's the 10 Most Absurd Sex Tips From the Christian Right.
• The current administration has been embroiled in several "scandals" recently, and thinking back on it, most second term administrations seem to have had them.  One of those Obama administration "scandals" is the IRS auditing of extreme right-wing "tea party" groups.  Unfortunate, I suppose, but before we really get into some kind of argument here, read this article entitled "How Did the IRS Get Investigatory Authority, Anyway?"
• Here's some good news:  President Obama has called for an end to the "War On Terror."  Naturally that pissed off the Conservatives, whose motives of operation call for instilling fear and loathing upon the general populace.  The President said "We have to be mindful of James Madison's warning that 'no nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.'"  Now if we could just call a halt to the ridiculous "War On Drugs."

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Tribute to The Old Man

The Old Man

We had to put The Old Man down Friday.  Cats are known for many things, living long is one of them, and occasionally you'll hear of one living to be a ripe old age, and Rutger, aka The Old Man was nineteen years old.  A respectable age under any circumstances, and considering his lineage, rather remarkable.  I've considered this column, this one about The Old Man dying, for some time now.  We've all suffered through countless writings where the writer obviously loved his pet, and needed for whatever reason to ease the pain of sudden loss by sharing the otherwise mundane life story and tearful goodbye scene at the end.   And of course most of us have suffered through the actual loss of a beloved pet/friend/companion, and realize how utterly intense it can be. 

I'm writing this because my wife says I should.  And I believe she's right, so bear with me.

The Old Man was born under a porch in Goshen, Oregon, to a much littered feral mother, sort of a feline neighborhood prostitute.  The litter of four was distributed free to good homes as usual and my wife was one of the recipients, in April of 1994, when the kitten was barely two weeks old.   She named him Rutger, after one of her favorite actors at the time, Rutger Hauer.  From the very beginning Rutger was slightly off, a bit different kitten-wise.  He would wait in ambush for any moving object to walk by and pounce on it like a hungry leopard.  He could scare the crap out of perfectly rational adults at any given time, and the look in his eyes didn't help to calm the victim.  It was "The Look" that made Rutger who he was.

First of all, it was the shape of his eyes.  He looked ... angry?  He was a staring contest master, and I swear people could feel him staring at them from across a room.  The Look was unnerving to say the least. He was not an easy cat to make friends with.  His disposition matched his visage,  maybe it was because of his feral family tree, and in general he didn't like humans, especially humans touching him.  Most cats arch their backs when petted, Rutger would bow his back and sink to the floor to get away from an offending human hand.  But this reaction wasn't out of fear.  Rutger feared nothing.  He had the most aggravating attitude of any domestic animal I've ever known.  He took life at his own speed.  You couldn't shoo him, shush him, startle him, or heaven forbid train him to do anything.  But at the same time, for some reason, he commanded respect out of all around him.  I think it was those eyes, The Look.

There were a few humans allowed to touch him; the daughter, the wife, and on occasion, me.  He was known to have actually played feline games with us once in a while, which would last until he tired of us.  We would be allowed to pet him too, if only for a few minutes until he ended the session with a quick unapologetic bite on the end of a finger.  We always felt honored.

Toward the end he mellowed, of course, and in spite of diagnosed heart and liver problems, stayed relatively healthy for most of his 19 years.  The other pets in the house treated him like a revered grandfather, The Old Man, and they would visit him at his special spot on the couch where he would appear to council them on the ways of the world, while licking and cleaning their fur.

The end came quickly.  In his later years he had developed arthritis in his hips, and had mastered a peculiar little walk, but on Wednesday morning his hind legs weren't working right at all.  He was walking like a drunken rabbit, splayed out on the tile floor, struggling to get to the water dish.  Vet said he had probably had a stroke, what with his heart problems and age.  Thursday, after another apparent stroke, the hind portion of his body hardly worked at all, and he stopped eating.  He allowed us to hold him and pet him, which we did all day, and he was communicating with those eyes all the time.  He didn't appear to be in any pain, and there was no fear.  Friday morning he couldn't stand at all and appeared paralyzed.  He lifted his head slightly and looked at me, and The Look was gone.  He was tired.  My wife held him close as we drove to the vet, and he went to sleep quietly, calmly, and with great dignity. 

I'm not much of a "cat person."  But The Old Man earned my respect, and in the end, my love.  He was a fine curmudgeon.

Happy Tax Day - Monday Update

(We experienced a sad moment the other day when we heard that the world had lost one of its best improvisational comedians, Jonathan Winters.  I remember listening to Jonathan Winters records in my late teens and falling in love with his repeating characters such as Maudie Frickert and Elwood P. Suggins.  Back in the 50's and early 60's, comedians were a bit different than now, a little more clownish and a lot less profane, and we bought their LP's to listen to over and over until we had them all but memorized.  How many of us old guys can still do a Cosby bit?  ("Noah!" "Is that you Lord?")  One of my favorite Winters routines involved a boy named Lamar Jean who after telling everyone he was going to fly, scotched-taped 147 pigeons to his arms and jumped off a cliff.  He was actually doing well until "some damned fool throw'd a bag of popcorn in the stone quarry and he bashed his brains out."  While his style of improv never worked for a TV series, he guest starred on every talk show available.  It was difficult for him to even star in movies, although those of us who knew him will never forget his roles in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," and "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming."  While some comedians of that era played comedy a bit more sophisticated than Jonathan, i.e. Bob Newhart, Shelley Berman, and Mort Sahl, he was the only one who could take a plain stick and improv with it until tears rolled down your face in laughter.  Of course part of the sadness I'm feeling is that Jonathan Winters was a part of my youth and early adult life, and his passing reminds me of our own mortality. Here's five of Jonathan's funniest bits.  Rest in peace Jonathan.  But we digress ...)

•  Karen Brauer, president of something called Pharmacists for Life (and I don't even want to get into that one) was quoted as saying “When these [drugs] are right out there with the bubble gum, they’re going to be part of the date rape cocktail."  What?  What's this?  Some sort of "roofie" drug to knock out an unsuspecting young lady at a party?  Well, actually no, what Karen is so alarmed about is that a federal judge has finally ruled that emergency contraception (Plan B) be made available to all ages without a prescription.  Available even to the under 17 set.  Shocking, you say?  About time, you say?  Wait 'till you read what Mark Morford says.  "Bubblegum and the Date Rape Cocktail."
• We're growing increasingly weary of gun ownership advocates who yammer on incessantly about how more gun laws "won't stop gun tragedies from happening," "won't stop crazy assholes from using assault rifles against classrooms full of small children," and who complain like it's the end of the world because stores are running out of ammunition to buy lately.  A distant friend of mine wrote on FaceBook the other day that he was disgusted with whomever was "dragging the parents of the Newtown kids out and parading them in front of the cameras to further gun control legislation."  I "unfriended" him, a satisfying tool that should be available in real life too.  No one ever said controlling the flow of guns in this country would eliminate gun violence, any more than creating tough pollution laws would eliminate pollution in this country.  The Second Amendment is obsolete, even the conservative New York Post thinks so, and those who constantly throw it in the face of concerned citizens to defend their insane obsession with high-capacity firearms are in need of counseling, at least.
• And while we're on the subject, here's a little item you may have missed.  Apparently the National Rifle Association sponsored a NASCAR race the other day, and during it a drunken man in the infield pulled out a gun and committed suicide.  Let's see, I believe that's called "Irony." 
• From the I Really Wish I Hadn't Said That Dept.:  From singer(?) heart-throb Justin Bieber, after visiting the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam the other day, "Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a belieber."  Cute.
• And finally, a Republican Congressman from Texas named Steve Stockman, has written a new bumper sticker for his campaign.  It reads: "If Babies Had Guns, They Wouldn't Be Aborted."  Seriously.

  

We Got Crabs In Netarts Bay

(So we got that pesky birthday thing done with and now I'm one year nearer to the average obituary age.  And never mind the fact that I thought the big day was on Saturday, when actually it was on Friday.  But, oh well, I'm now firmly planted in my sixty-eight year.  Jonathan's spring break week was exciting for us both.  We left Mom to tend to the livestock and he and I traveled to the far northwest to visit long time friends Jerry and Cheri' at their new beach house in Netarts, Oregon, of all places.  Netarts is a small village about 6 miles west of Tillamook, Tillamook being where they make all the cheese.  Jerry took Jonathan out into Netarts Bay for his first lesson in crabbing, and even though the crabbing at that time wasn't very good, they managed to bring home two large males.  The Boy had his first taste of fresh crab that evening, with drawn butter and garlic, and declared it outofthisworld.  And Jeez, I didn't even mention Easter.  Some of my friends have sent me messages claiming "he is rizen."   I'm working on a story for the Syfy Network along those same lines.  But I digress ... )

• What could possibly go wrong with this idea?  Wal-Mart is considering having customers deliver online purchases to other customers who live near the route they may be taking home.  In other words, Wal-Mart will offer you a discount on your own purchases, if you'll kindly drop off a few packages to other customers who've bought something on-line.  As this article points out, this is "taking exploitation to the next level."
• Here's a sobering and frightening look at the short history of drone strikes committed by the United States government.  Pitch Interactive, a California-based data visualization shop, has created a beautiful, if somewhat controversial, visualization of every attack by the US and coalition forces in Pakistan since 2004. We're still not sure of the legality, let alone the morality, of these pilotless, video-game killing machines, in spite of the fact that it keeps our pilots out of harm's way.  Something doesn't smell right.  Check this out, from Mother Jones, and you decide.
• As much as it pains me to say this, even defense-spending Republicans are alarmed about the newer military drones.  "Boeing, the aircraft manufacturing giant from Seattle, helped defeat a Republican proposal in Washington state that would have forced government agencies to get approval to buy unmanned aerial vehicles, popularly known as drones, and to obtain a warrant before using them to conduct surveillance on individuals."  David Taylor, a Republican member of the state legislature, introduced a bill to regulate drone use. The proposed law quickly won support from several Democratic party politicians on the state Public Safety Committee, as well as members of the ACLU.  Is the end of world coming, or not?  Holy Cow!
• Being, or at least claiming to be, an atheist is not an socially acceptable position to take as yet, but we're gaining on it.  To attempt to take a purely scientific view of life is not popular with approximately 50% of Americans.  I used to refer to myself as a "militant agnostic," because that phrase made me smile, and it was really close to what I really felt about all this nonsense.  But now I'm nearing 70, I feel I have a right to declare myself.  I am NOT a believer in superstitious mumbo-jumbo, no matter how it's dressed up.  And our numbers are growing.  Our numbers are growing so fast that some people, like Frans De Waal, are saying that militant atheists have created a new religion.  What do you think?
• And along those same lines, here's something you probably didn't see for Easter.  Hope you found all your eggs, and the bunny was good to you this year.