Drill and Export? Gas Should be CHEAPER!!!

Does it strike anybody else as wrong? What? Well this: for years we heard "drill baby drill" to get American Oil and Gas to get us off of foreign energy.
And now the big oil companies, having found oil and gas and ruining OUR LAND getting it out, are EXPORTING it over seas. To FOREIGN POWERS.

What the HELL is WRONG with this picture? Is it me or are the oil companies of the world raping us and laughing while they do it?
Oh Yeah. I hear them laughing.
Image: http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2010-03-04-Oilspillwink.jpg
Image: https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTLVQJou_RV0ikPw94ChRrSCzP9UX5tqbi-SVIery0_abMVF9ny8A 

Certainty: Where Does a Bear Sh**?

Fresh Bear Poo, about the size of a small cantaloupe

When I was growing up (not so long ago and still growing) we used two expressions to indicate certainty. “Is the Pope a Catholic?” and “Does a bear shit in the woods?”.

The Pope, the latest one anyway, is certainly a Catholic. And he is a simple Christian man as well. I think he knows exactly WWJD, and does his best to do it. I like the guy. Now about the bear.

Certainly most bears shit in the woods. But where they roam the streets of Lanark Village they most definitely shit anywhere they want. So maybe we should change the old certainty to “Where does a bear shit?” You know the answer. Just outside our gate in Lanark (Gulf Terrace actually) yesterday sometime just before 9AM we saw a large black bear walking down our street, quite far from our gate. No sign of poop anywhere in sight. Later in the day, around 3, we returned to find the pile pictured above right by the gate. In fact, not far from our dog Millie, lying on the other side of the gate. If only she could talk. From the size of the pile, the wetness of it, the feel and smell, it was very recent and deposited by a large animal. Probably the one we saw earlier just coming back down the road.

So I know at least one bear who doesn’t shit in the woods. (just kidding about the feel and smell).

Image: Bear Pile at the Gate at Lanark.

Remembering the gang

I got an e-card from an old high school friend and was reminded of my co-conspirators again. In another posting (http://searchesworld.blogspot.com/2011/11/last-man-standing.html) I reminisced a bit about the core group of friends who hung around in High School. For some reason the fab four came to mind today. Maybe it was the card from Harriet and the death last week of Steve E., a nice guy but not one of the core. Maybe it was the report this morning about the actor, Richard Griffiths (played Harry Potters Uncle Vernon), dying at age 65. Don’t know. But here is another part of the tale of the foursome, promised in an earlier post. The Great B & E escapade. Leaving out the details, let’s just say that the four of us attempted a b&e of friend's house when they were away on vacation. We wanted something his father had. Two of us got caught, Me and Max (aka John, but we called him Max to avoid confusion), and John and Murph didn’t. Since we were under 16 and the father spoke up for us, the penalty was a kind of probation and very stern warning not to get into trouble ever again. None of us did. John and Murph died in their early 20s, Max in his late 60s, and I am still going. That incident, the b&e, left us all with a profound sense of something akin to fear, but not really fear. We knew for sure that one more brush with the law and we would be up to our eyeballs in trouble. The fear was unknowingly doing something and getting “caught”. We walked a much different line after the trial, all of us, and to the day they died and I didn’t, we were better for the experience.

Of course, John and Murph didn’t have “strike one”, but they were sobered just the same. Now both are dead. Neither had children and probably their parents are long dead, so I am probably the vessel who holds their stories.  At least some of them. Max did marry and we stayed in touch to the end. His wife never wanted to discuss our “bad boy” days, and didn’t want their children to know the stories. Pity really. Max was a good man, father and husband, and part of why was his history. My children probably know most of the stories of the old days, some of which are in this blog in other places. And they probably have heard some about me and the old days that aren’t true. In any case, we are who we are precisely because of our history. Total history. The good, bad and ugly.

So on the eve of Easter and well into Passover I remember my mates fondly and sadly. Fondly because of all we experienced together and sadly because they are no longer here to remember with me. Just a thought for the day.

Image: http://www.mptv.org/pics/shows/i_remember/i_remember.jpg

Holder, Tea, Guns and Rednecks

It really burns my ass to see the Republican House pissing away time and money on vendettas. What now? They are going to try to impeach the attorney general, Eric Holder. Of course led by the Tea Party morons, this is just another racist diversion from what they should be doing: the REAL PEOPLE’S BUSINESS. Why caps? Because Boehner and Boys keep saying they are “doing the people’s business” when the try to legislate women’s health or repeal the Affordable Care Act. They are not. They are doing their own business and their business is to crap on the majority of Americans.

I really hope the bastards get voted out next time around.

Oh, and another thing. Exactly when is “Obama coming for your (my) guns”? Or, maybe a bunch of ignorant rednecks got taken in by the NRA and Gun Lobby to buy millions of guns and rounds of ammo. Which is the more credible possibility?

Morons.  Can’t live without them. Who would we have to talk about?

Image: http://chorpenning.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/white-trash-redneck-white-trash-gun-trailer-demotivational-poster-1217614619.jpg

Image: http://frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/holderbumfuzzled-259x350.jpg

HUGE SNAKES and tiny horses?

“As terrifying as the thought of a gigantic snake might be, or as precious as the thought of a football-size horse might be, don't go looking for them any time soon. These changes take centuries, not years. But you might want to leave your great-great-grandchildren a heads-up note, just in case.”

And so ends a pretty informative article on the relative size of animals as a response to environmental temperature. Warmer favors larger reptiles and smaller mammals and the converse for cooler. So far so good.

Then, is a classic case of total misunderstanding of the evolutionary process, the author makes the classic blunder: “- - - - centuries, not years.” The process would actually take millennia at the least, and more likely millions of years to actually come up with snakes the size of school buses and horses the size of small dogs. But wait, don’t we have mini-horses and gigantic anacondas already? Yup. And the anacondas live in tropical places and the horses live in apartments. How long did it take to get these out sized animals? Millions of years in the case of the snake, and dozens in the case of the miniequines. Problem is that snakes are already at the limit of their size or they would be bigger, and the horses are classic inbred freaks who wouldn’t last 10 minutes in nature.

So don’t worry. No bus-sized snakes for your grand kids or mouse-sized cattle either. Evolution takes longer than that, and besides, the conservatives assure me that there is no such thing as climate change.

Image and quote: http://news.yahoo.com/a-snake-the-size-of-a-school-bus--it-happened-before--and-could-happen-again-153534343.html

Wolf Killing Cowards

 

The photo pretty well says it all: A bunch of northern rednecks just in from a wolf kill and afraid to have their faces seen. Why? I would guess (hope) at least some of them are embarrassed, but somehow I doubt it. More likely they are just afraid to face others in the community who oppose the slaughter of wolves.

Who cares about wolves? You should. As mankind eliminates the top predators the effect on the structure of the ecosystem below them is dramatic. In the case of removing wolves, immediate growth in population of the large animals they cull results in overgrazing of the landscape and a cascade of other ecological changes. Reintroduction of wolves in the west is reestablishing the important balance, and the wholesale slaughter of wolves will simply reverse decades of progress in ecological restoration.

So who are these assholes? Real Men? Oh I don’t think so. Kill a wolf at 300 yards with a 30-06 then pose with the corpse in a mask? No, these are cowards. Plain and simple. For more information look up the Center for Biological Diversity website.

Image:http://action.biologicaldiversity.org/images/campaign_images/2013/Masked_wolf_killers.jpg
Center for Biological Diversity:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Biological_Diversity

More like 30000 Years of Art!!! Classical Gas Discovered!!

Add caption

April 25th, 2011. The day the more or less original ( Give or take a few frames, it is nearly identical to the actual video that aired on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour almost 40 years ago. (1.)) was posted on YouTube. I talked about it on May 8th, 2011, and didn't find it. Bittersweet them but delayed gratification now. What a treasure to stumble upon. I was just reading over a few old posts, making a few spelling corrections and came upon the original blog on Classical Gas (2), listened to a few covers and put a note on Facebook. I mentioned the art montage, actually known as a kinestasis , and lamented that I couldn't find it. A wild hair encouraged me to look again and there is was in a nearly original form. Reconstructed from the original student movie that was used to make the TV production. And even better is the VIMEO version posted much earlier. I have no idea why the search engine didn't pick this up 2 years ago.
It stands still as a seminal moment for anyone who saw it on the Smothers Brothers show. I hope you all watch it and remember it, and pass it on. I will.
VIMEO RECORDING: http://vimeo.com/612081
Image:https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicFIXyyPiShhK0xHrurnyTlQA7X1ylS2iYc5KQ3y2L7_wIzZiJtMHEkcLqwLZNVCQhzXj96Bx5tNgChfKgno1bkj7WdHT5ww8w5NBTohsvWHxtkoLQafzo0SXfqxPx0ed9iJZn8C2Eqxc/s1600/williams.jpg

What a DAY!!!.

 Got up to a great cool morning, walked then dive into the garage. Massive on-and-off cleaning and dunging. So, came across my old railroad lanterns, played with them, emailed a couple of sites for help and moved on to the Hallicrafters short wave radio. Plugged it in to a buzz. Looked up some info and found an antique radio group, joined and asked for help with the fixing of the WR-600.

Then, the real bonus: I found my copy of “The Great Drake” by Mario Cappelli. What a terrific story of heroism and adventure. I love it. I wish it were made into a movie, and with CIG as good as it is now, I think it would be a block buster. I traveled the cyberworld and couldn’t find anything on the web about him so I looked in Amazon, found the book and a review by his daughter, Dee. I am now in the process of trying to get in touch with her to find out more about her father and the story. Here is what one reviewer on Amazon said:

“If you are hurting because of the trials and tribulations of leadership and/or are doubting your abilities as a leader (or you know someone who is), you truly must read this book.”

You gotta read this classic. You will never be the same again, I promise. Amazon has them. Go Now.

What a DAY!!!! And it is only 1:42.
 
Image: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41fR6ngxxSL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

A Conservative War on Everybody but the Rich

This article (1) called “The Liberal War on Food Stamps” totally misses the point as I see it. The gist of the article is that liberals are calling food stamps “corporate welfare” and are thereby courting disaster from tea party types who would cut food stamp programs to end any kind of welfare. And the folks who claim this might just be correct. Tea Party types are dangerous morons who react to everything that they see as big government welfare with the same mantra: Kill It.

But they are wrong as well, because they are misreading the connection, probably on purpose. The point is this: By paying workers minimum wage, corporations are forcing the workers to seek help to survive by applying for subsidies to keep them alive. Seen in this context, working poor who receive government assistance instead of a living wage are benefiting the corporation by increasing the profit of the corporation and increasing the tax burden on the rest of us.

This is NOT a liberal war on food stamps. It is a liberal war on greedy corporations who systematically shirk their responsibilities as citizens (remember, the conservatives got them declared “persons”) to contribute fairly to the overall success of all citizens, not just the rich ones.

Liberal War on Food Stamps my ass. This is a Conservative War on Everybody but the Rich.

Image: http://b-i.forbesimg.com/modeledbehavior/files/2013/10/300px-Harlem_Micky_Dz10.jpg

1. http://www.forbes.com/sites/modeledbehavior/2013/10/31/the-liberal-war-on-food-stamps/?partner=yahootix

Tea Party Certifiably Insane

Isn't she Cute?

OK, I give in (never up). The rally this weekend in D.C. was the most moronic exercise ever. Palin, Cruz and a bunch of other Tea Partyers railed against the National Park Service for closing the monuments. THESE ARE THE MORONS WHO CRAFTED AND PASSED THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN!!!!! THESE ARE THE MORONS WHO INSISTED ON THE SHUTDOWN. THESE ARE THE MORONS WHO KEEP THE GOVERNMENT SHUT DOWN.  And now they rally and scream at the President, and some at the rally scream about the President worshiping the Quran. If you need a better definition of MORON, I am sorry, but I can’t think of one. THEY SHUT IT DOWN AND NOW DON’T LIKE THE CONSEQUENCES SO THEY RAIL AGAINST IT, WHILE AT THE SAME TIME NOT STOPPING THE SHUTDOWN. MORONS!!!!! WHO PUT THESE MORONS IN OFFICE?? OH YEAH, THE MORONS WHO WERE AT THE RALLY, BITCHING ABOUT THE CLOSINGS. SHEEEEESH.

Image: http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2013/10/131014_POL_TeaPartySarahPalin.jpg.CROP.promovar-mediumlarge.jpg