uncle duke

is it just me– the similarity is scary–

zarex

okay, i’m sitting at work doing the keyboard thing and all of a sudden it hits me–a memory from the seventies and the north-east coast– za-rex– sometimes the trips down memory lane are just plain creepy– of course the za-rex leads right into . . .

surprise . . . surprise . . . surprise . . !

who would have thought that it could possibly be true? do you mean to say that they have lied to us??? who would have thunk it!!

A study by two nonprofit journalism organizations found that President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The study counted 935 false statements in the two-year period. It found that in speeches, briefings, interviews and other venues, Bush and administration officials stated unequivocally on at least 532 occasions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to produce or obtain them or had links to Al Qaeda or both…

and the snails bring the garbage too–

we received the following in the postal mail today– this is a paper prayer rug that allows the prayer (or is that prayee or prayor) to kneel on the picture and gaze into THE LORDS eyes– note the tear coming forth from the right eye??? he obviously is in a lot of pain– get your knees off his chest fool!!!

after getting so pissed off at folks for sending annoying e-mail (see the previous post) it was amazing to get this garbage in the mailbox– of course it probably is a scam ( i was laughing as i typed that)– i of course found humor in the different ways that THE GOOD LORD can assist people that respond to the mailing– here are some examples–

check it out, check it out, check it out!!! “GOD BLESSED ME WITH OVER $5,000.00″ “RECEIVED $10,000.00″ “17 ACRES OF LAND” “NEW CAR AND A JOB”– damn that’s my kind of god!!! where do i sell my soul??? this stuff was almost as good as an “awake” brochure– if you would like to enjoy this material yourself you can even access this crap, excuse me, stuff online here–

www.biblicalprayer.com and www.aboutsaintmatthewschurches.com

enjoy!!!

have you received this yet???

like a lot of people, there is one thing that annoys the hell out of me more then anything else when dealing with computers– forwarded mail– do you know anyone that sends forwarded mail??? chain letters??? sexist jokes??? racist jokes??? patriotic jokes??? you name it, they send it and they don’t even care whether you really want to read it or not, they are going to send it to your address because they have to send it to 10 people or they won’t

a) go to heaven

b) have good luck for the day

c) meet the person of their dreams

d) be patriotic and a good supporter of our troops

e) be american

f) be christian

do you receive this kind of stuff??? does some fool that you know send it to you??? do they also send you everyones addresses because they have not figured out how to hide all the other addresses or they really don’t care about anyone else??? do you wonder if there are viruses attached to everything they send??? doesn’t it drive you crazy???

we recently received an item that i will use as an example– it’s called

Subject: I am not breaking this one sorry!]our soldiers

this was an e-mail comparing the lives of our soldiers over-seas in iraq and afghanistan to the lives of americans that are not “at” war–

here are some examples from the letter

you stay up for 16 hours
He stays up for days on end.

You take a warm shower to help you wake up.
He goes days or weeks without running water.

You complain of a ‘headache’, and call in sick.
He gets shot at as others are hit, and keeps moving forward.

You put on your anti war/don’t support the troops shirt, and go meet up with your friends.
He still fights for your right to wear that shirt.

You make sure you’re cell phone is in your pocket.
He clutches the cross hanging on his chain next to his dog tags.

okay, first . . . why is it that some people think that if you are anti war that you also don’t support the troops??? i am definitely against the war but i support the troops 99.9%– those men and women are doing what they have been trained to do and the majority of them are doing a damn good job– some folks think that you can’t be for peace and for the soldiers at the same time– these folks don’t realize that nobody prays for peace the way our soldiers do– and what is this “he clutches the cross hanging on his chain” crap– you know i really do wish that people would keep their stupid religions to themselves–

these letters often close in similar ways in order to test your “________”– here’s the closing for this letter–

If you support your troops, send this to 7 people.
If you don’t support your troops well, then don’t send this out. You won’t die in 7 days, your love life won’t be affected, and you won’t have the worst day ever.
You don’t have to email this. It’s not like you know the men and women that are dying to preserve your rights.

REMEMBER our Troops, and do not forget them LATER
Lest we forget -
KEEP THE CHAIN GOING

letters like this are tolerable in a small amount but some folks don’t realize that 1 e-mail a day or every other day is acceptable but 5-10 e-mails with the same kind of foolishness is really only annoying, insensitive and harassing– now if we could only get everyone to read blogs–

griffin house

just downloaded griffin’s new recording “flying upside down”– i am in my first listen still but just like “lost and found”, the recording is excellent!!!

the second song on the recording “it’s happening again” is great– my sentiments exactly– download it and check it out!!!

“. . . and it was hard to have forgiveness for the things they did that day

and the president decided we should make their people pay

so we dropped on nagasaki and we cut them down to size

and the one we dropped on hiroshima left them vaporized

and i heard some christians say ‘what would jesus do?

what if you were on the wrong side would he point the gun at you?’

and they read through every word of matthew, mark and luke and john

so they could see if killing was the side that christ was on

i remember when i was a younger man

we were soldiers fighting in a foreign land

now i’m older and it’s happening again . . . .”

it’s happening again

griffin house

karl rove on . . .

i recently received an e-mail calling my attention to an article by karl rove in the wall street journal– the sender obviously realized that i would probably miss this piece as the wsj just doesn’t have enough comics for my taste– i always felt that if a newspaper couldn’t find a little time for humor then i definitely wasn’t going to waste my time with it–

i have never read an article by karl rove– i never was planning on reading an article by karl rove and when i began reading the article it was with a measure of smug certainty that i would call the author a name half-way through and then x-out the page–

i am uncomfortable saying it, but i like the way karl rove writes– and i am talking about writing as a means of conveying a message to a reader regardless of the content within– his style is quite simple and in fact it almost appears to be dumbed down– just perfect for my level– although i have been affectionately calling him a stupid bastard disguised as a pompous ass for years, i never really thought him to be so and in fact i would have thought his writing would be more comparable to george will or william f buckley jr’s– kind of a political stephen donaldson using every word in the dictionary to convey the simple thought of jack and jill running up the hill– of course he has been dealing with george w for eight years, so . . . . it’s kind of like parents that spend 90% of their time with toddlers– “georgie want to bomb iran now?”

the article “Why Hillary Won” (and i had to go back and check the name of the article) was concerning hillary’s recent win in the new hampshire primary– however, when reading through the article the reader can come to the conclusion that the article could have just as easily been titled “why obama lost”, “differences between barack and hillary” or perhaps just cutting through all the bullshit “i’m writing about hillary but I really want you to focus on obama in a negative way”–

karl starts with a reference to jack cade a real man of the fifteenth century who was used by shakespeare in “henry VI”– jack cade’s famous line is “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” karl states that after this primary jack cade would possibly call for the pollsters to be killed instead of the lawyers–

this whole reference though possibly quite innocent, is ironic considering the bush administrations dealings with dismissing lawyers– also, the inclusion of violence to this article at the very opening gets the reader thinking of their own personal safety and those individuals that may be present in society that may put ones safety at risk– keep in mind folks . . . who’s reading this article–

of course, if i wanted to be even more paranoid (and believe me, i can be) i could believe that this is a code to a “sleeper” to take action, but i won’t go there . . . yet . . . . perhaps in the next post–

karl then moves into explanations of why things went the way they went– a quaint reference to reading chicken entrails “ugly, smelly and not very enlightening.” (ooh yum) and then we are off and running–

a quick stop at the kind of neighborhoods that were responding to the candidates– working class and less-affluent rural areas voting for hillary, college towns and the gentrified neighborhoods of more affluent communities voting for obama– gentrified . . . uh-huh . . . implies . . . think about it first and then look up the definition– definitely some shucking and jiving going on here–

in short karl compares the different areas as beer drinkers (hillarys voters) and wine swillers (those folks that supported obama)– swillers??? karl then states that there are more beer drinkers then wine swillers in the democratic party– i guess we can assume except for iowa– oh right, there must be a lot of wine swillers in iowa–

after insulting most of the democrat voters in new hampshire in one way or another karl then moves on to say that “Mrs. Clinton won a narrow victory in New Hampshire for four reasons.” (narrow victory, is that good or bad?)

first reason, karl states that hillary targeted women democrats, especially single women– wow, that was a smart move!!! and thank god that they were mostly beer drinkers!!! and continue to thank god that they were in new hampshire!!! obama on the other hand was obviously going for the married wine swilling men that were in iowa–

second reason, according to karl, hillary had two powerful personal moments– (i’ve had a couple of those myself, and let me tell you . . . ) hillary’s first moment came during a debate

“when WMUR TV’s Scott Spradling asked why voters were ‘hesitating on the likeability issue, where they seem to like Barack Obama more.’ Mrs. Clinton’s self-deprecating response — ‘Well, that hurts my feelings’ — was followed by a playful ‘But I’ll try to go on.’”

karl states that this moment “reminded democrats what they occasionally like about her.” occasionally . . . . wow karl, that sure is a twisted way to put it– of course when obama followed with “You’re likable enough, Hillary.” karl thought that this remark was needless and dismissive–

karl then went on to further frown upon obama by stating “His trash talking was an unattractive carryover from his days playing pickup basketball at Harvard, and capped a mediocre night.”

i’m not sure why karl thought that he needed to throw in a comment about obama’s basketball playing days– i mean, c’mon, . . . obama’s a tall african-american– of course he played basketball– right???

karl then briefly touches on hillary’s other personal moment and then goes straight into his third point on why hillary won a narrow victory–

third reason,

Third, the Clintons began — at first not very artfully — to raise questions about the fitness for the Oval Office of a first-term senator with no real accomplishments or experience.

think about it . . . do we really want a first-term senator in the oval office??? do we really want him sitting in that chair??? do we really want a tall . . . basketball playing . . . man from harvard . . . sitting in that chair???

and not only should we question him sitting in the chair but . . .

He is often lazy, given to misstatements and exaggerations and, when he doesn’t know the answer, too ready to try to bluff his way through.

key words here folks “lazy, given to misstatements and exaggerations” etc. etc.– ooh, more shucking and jiving going on here . . . sounds like a damn liar to me!!!

i read the rest of the article continuing to smile at the smoothness of karl’s style and yet somewhat amazed at the transparency of it all– but of course, i reminded myself, this is the wall street journal and it is important to remember who the readers are– karl isn’t writing anything here that the readers don’t already know or think– karls style of writing, which appears to be quite simple, is just subtly reminding the reader–

the race race

i recently had a relative say to me that they wouldn’t vote for obama because he is black– the statement was “i would never vote for a black man for president”– i take this sort of statement as i would a comment from rush limbaugh, ann coulter, bill o’reilly etc etc– ignorant, misinformed, out of touch– knock knock, hello hello, it is 2008, time to go, are you feeling ok???–

admittedly us liberals spend a lot of time spinning our heads over what our lesser intelligent under the counter-part conservatives say– bill o’reilly said what in an african-american restaurant?? stone the ignorant bastard to death!!!

of course the statement my relative made wasn’t “i would never vote for barack obama for president” . . . no, the statement directly stated a black man– no indication made as to qualifications, experience etc etc, only race–

perhaps it’s just a fear thing– you know, that deep rooted fear that a lot of white men have that all the white women secretly want to be with a black man thing– that the black man’s thing is a bigger thing– and the fact that once a black man is elected it will be no secret thing that his black thing is a bigger thing anymore– perhaps it’s just a fear thing–

of course, i view all of this from lily-pad lane, we live in the country and the racial make-up is a little on the light side– the most recent “modern” changes in our neighborhood were the amish moving into the area and it appears that there aren’t many folks of african-american descent amongst them–

yes, at the time i thought to myself “what an ignorant racist thing to say” . . . and although i still believe this, i have had to re-evaluate the racism of my own view because i on the other hand would vote for obama and one of the main reasons is because he is black–

it appears to me that a lot of folks would rather accept the status quo, not rock the boat, and although there is an elephant in the living room, excuse me, could you hand me the bean dip? yes it has gotten rather dark in here– it must be those new economy lights we purchased . . . .

but seriously, . . after katrina??? with incidents like the jenna 6 taking place in our country of freedom and opportunity for all??? can we still deny the racism that needs to be addressed??? and if in doing so do we also make our choices based on race???

personally, if obama is the democratic nominee then he definitely has my vote– it is time to rock the boat a little and though it may be a little uncomfortable for some of us for awhile, i whole heartedly believe that the end will justify the temporary shake up–

Barack Obamas concession speech in New Hampshire

I want to congratulate Senator Clinton on a hard-fought victory here in New Hampshire.
A few weeks ago, no one imagined that we’d have accomplished what we did here tonight. For most of this campaign, we were far behind, and we always knew our climb would be steep.

But in record numbers, you came out and spoke up for change. And with your voices and your votes, you made it clear that at this moment – in this election – there is something happening in America.

There is something happening when men and women in Des Moines and Davenport; in Lebanon and Concord come out in the snows of January to wait in lines that stretch block after block because they believe in what this country can be.

There is something happening when Americans who are young in age and in spirit – who have never before participated in politics – turn out in numbers we’ve never seen because they know in their hearts that this time must be different.

There is something happening when people vote not just for the party they belong to but the hopes they hold in common – that whether we are rich or poor; black or white; Latino or Asian; whether we hail from Iowa or New Hampshire, Nevada or South Carolina, we are ready to take
this country in a fundamentally new direction. That is what’s happening in America right now. Change is what’s happening in America.

You can be the new majority who can lead this nation out of a long political darkness – Democrats, Independents and Republicans who are tired of the division and distraction that has clouded Washington; who know that we can disagree without being disagreeable; who understand that if we mobilize our voices to challenge the money and influence
that’s stood in our way and challenge ourselves to reach for something better, there’s no problem we can’t solve – no destiny we cannot fulfill.

Our new American majority can end the outrage of unaffordable, unavailable health care in our time. We can bring doctors and patients; workers and businesses, Democrats and Republicans together; and we can tell the drug and insurance industry that while they’ll get
a seat at the table, they don’t get to buy every chair. Not this time. Not now.
Our new majority can end the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas and put a middle-class tax cut into the pockets of the working Americans who deserve it.

We can stop sending our children to schools with corridors of shame and start putting them on a pathway to success. We can stop talking about how great teachers are and start rewarding them for their greatness. We can do this with our new majority.

We can harness the ingenuity of farmers and scientists; citizens and entrepreneurs to free this nation from the tyranny of oil and save our planet from a point of no return.

And when I am President, we will end this war in Iraq and bring our troops home; we will finish the job against al Qaeda in Afghanistan; we will care for our veterans; we will restore our moral standing in the world; and we will never use 9/11 as a way to scare up votes, because it is not a tactic to win an election, it is a challenge that
should unite America and the world against the common threats of the twenty-first century: terrorism and nuclear weapons; climate change and poverty; genocide and disease.

All of the candidates in this race share these goals. All have good ideas. And all are patriots who serve this country honorably.

But the reason our campaign has always been different is because it’s not just about what I will do as President, it’s also about what you, the people who love this country, can do to change it.

That’s why tonight belongs to you. It belongs to the organizers and the volunteers and the staff who believed in our improbable journey and rallied so many others to join.

We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can withstand the power of millions of voices calling for change.

We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics who will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks to come. We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check. We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.

But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we’ve been told that we’re not ready, or that we shouldn’t try, or that we can’t, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people.

Yes we can.
It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.
Yes we can.
It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom through the darkest of nights.
Yes we can.
It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.

Yes we can.
It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballot; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.

Yes we can to justice and equality. Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity. Yes we can heal this nation. Yes we can repair this world. Yes we can.

And so tomorrow, as we take this campaign South and West; as we learn that the struggles of the textile worker in Spartanburg are not so different than the plight of the dishwasher in Las Vegas; that the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA; we
will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in America’s story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea – Yes. We. Can

b,b,b,baby it is cold outside . . .

we can argue about a degree or two but it is cold enough to . . .