Another Solution to our "Immigration" Problems

MGF dreamed up this for a bumper sticker. We could make some money don't you think?

Enron "Leaders" Guilty As Sin

I like bats much better than bureaucrats. I live in the Managerial Age, in a world of "Admin." The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid "dens of crime" that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business concern.
-C.S. Lewis, Screwtape Letters, preface

Do It

Test yourself here. Only 10 questions sizes you up.

My political philosophy is shown here and how I size up with the rest of them.

May is Mental Health Month - Size Yourself Up

mental health

NOUN:
1. A state of emotional and psychological well-being in which an individual is able to use his or her cognitive and emotional capabilities, function in society, and meet the ordinary demands of everyday life.
2. A branch of medicine that deals with the achievement and maintenance of psychological well-being.
3. A person's overall emotional and psychological condition: Since witnessing the accident, his mental health has been poor.

From: American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language

I'm OK, I guess.

The Good Book

Blogging the Bible
What happens when an ignoramus reads the Good Book?
Find out here.

Surprise

Buy it here, or much cheaper From Russia With Love.

He's My Man

Hear a great interview with Field Commander Cohen from NPR's Fresh Air here. It is well worth it. If you no nothing of Leonard Cohen nor his music. You are, at least in one way, truly lost.

Put Buckingham Nicks Out On CD Would Ya?

If you care. Even if you don't, do it for the rest of us.

Sign the petition here.

Released 1973
Also called "BN"
Dedicated to Aaron Jess Nicks, Stevie's grandpa

Track Listing
Crying In The Night
Stephanie
Without A Leg To Stand On
Crystal
Long Distance Winner
Don't Let Me Down Again
Django
Races Are Run
Lola (My Love)
Frozen Love

Interactive Show of the New Orleans Flood of 2005

Very well done. Find it here.

Feeding The Fish

Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of funnies here.

Sonic vs. Microsoft - 5 Year Performance

Check out the difference in growth between a hamburger vendor and the country of Microsoft. They are each compared to the S&P 500 and the Dow. Home Depot, which I own, is even sadder. I've got to dump it for the flavored slushee vendor, don't you think? I don't know much about much but people like Sonic in good times and bad. In good times they will pay a premium 'cause it's no big deal, and in bad times they will pay a premium for comfort food. How's my logic? Am I missing something here?

Politically Speaking

Maybe Next Year

My homeboys are out for the year.

Edmonton Oilers' Shawn Horcoff scores past San Jose Sharks goalie Vesa Toskala during the third period in Game 6 of the second round of NHL playoff hockey action in Edmonton on Wednesday, May 17, 2006. The Oilers won, 2-0.
(AP PHOTO/CP. Jimmy Jeong)

Can I Just Say It For All The World To Hear?

He is such a pompous asshole. There, I feel better now.

Who Me?

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

On Recent Wars - Things Not Figured Out

Fred Reed on Something:

"In 1964 I graduated from a rural high school in Virginia with a senior class of, I think, sixty. Doug took a 12.7 through the head, Sonny spent time at Walter Reed with neck wounds, Studley I hear is a paraplegic, another kid got mostly blinded for life, and several, whom I won’t name, tough country kids as I knew them, came back as apparently irredeemable drunks. (These were kids I knew, not all in my class.) It was a lot of dead and crippled for a small place. For what?

"Cowardice? I was on campus in 1966 on a small, very Republican, very patriotic, very conservative, very Southern campus. The students, and their girlfriends, were all violently against the war. So, I gather, were their parents. Why? Were they the traitors of the Warrior’s imagination? No. They didn’t want to die for something that they didn’t care about.

"This eludes the Warrior. Always, he blames The Press for the waning of martial enthusiasm, for his misunderstanding of the kind of war we are fighting. Did the press make Studley a paraplegic? Or kill the guy with all the tubes who died in the stretcher above me on the Medevac 141 back from Danang? Did Walter Cronkite make my buddy Cagle blind when the rifle grenade exploded on the end of his fourteen? Do the Warriors think that people don’t notice when their kids come back forever in wheelchairs?

They don’t get it. "

Read the entire essay here.

My only comment is pictured above.

Cheaper Gas in South Carolina This Summer

Governor Mark Sanford has proposed suspending the 17 cent state gas tax this summer. I'm for it. SC House has approved but many in the Senate don't want to do it. Too many pet projects they want to spend the taxes on. What do you think their constituents would say were the good senators to ask them?

A Leadership Lesson

"I See You"

"Among the tribes of Northern Natal in South Africa, the most common greeting, equivalent to "hello" in English, is the expression: Sawu bona. It literally means, "I see you." If you are a member of the tribe, you might reply by saying Sikhona, "I am here." The order to the exchange is important: until you see me, I do not exist. It’s as if, when you see me, you bring me into existence.

"This meaning, implicit in the language, is part of the spirit of ubuntu, a frame of mind prevalent among native people in Africa below the Sahara. The word ubuntu stems from the folk saying Umuntu ngumuntu nagabantu, which, from Zulu, literally translates as: "A person is a person because of other people." If you grow up with this perspective, your identity is based upon the fact that you are seen - that people around you acknowledge you as a person.

"During the last few years in South Africa, many corporations have begun to employ managers who were raised in tribal regions. The ubuntu ethic often clashes subtly with the culture of those corporations. In an office, for instance, it’s perfectly normal to pass someone in the hall, while preoccupied, and not greet him. This would be worse than a sign of disrespect under the ubuntu ethic; it would imply that you felt that person did not exist. Not long ago, an internal consultant who had been raised in a rural village became visibly upset after a meeting where nothing much had seemed to happen. When a project where he had played a key part came up for discussion, his role was not mentioned or acknowledged. Asked later why it bothered him so much, he said, "You don’t understand. When they spoke about the project, they did not say my name. They did not make me a person."

"We (should) aspire to the mutual respect and openness that is embedded in the spirit of ubuntu. You could argue that we invoke each other’s potential by our willingness to see the essence of each other. We see you. We are glad that you are here."
From the Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, by Peter Senge, et al. (1994)
______________________________________________________
Have you ever had an encounter with another person that made you question your existence or your value as a person? I did. Years ago at a former employer I was in a situation, a staff member’s office birthday party. You know how they are. You can’t have too much fun, because everyone’s got work to do and you’ve got to get back to it. Often times these people are not even your friends but you are merely acquainted. This party happened to be in the executive suite, so factor that in too.

I happened to ask a simple, friendly, benign, small-talk question to a very senior senior leader that was also at the party. I’m sure he heard me. There is no way he didn’t. He completely ignored me. Did not answer, did not acknowledge my question. He simply turned away from me, completely dismissive. Up to that point in my life I had never experienced such utter disrespect from anyone. Nor have I since. It affected me so, I guess that’s why I bring it up. That experience still stings. I’ve wondered if there is a place or a book where this executive learned this? Was it some sort of "power technique" to ensure that I knew my place in relation to him?
This person also did not acknowledge my mother’s death to me after I had been away for a week or so to be with her and my family. He knew. There is no way he didn’t.

I guess I can only hope he’s changed, for his own good. And for those around him now.

Make it a habit to acknowledge others. See them. Let them know that you know they are there.

This One Made It

So many others went missing. Never forget.

This song is sooooo great. Thanks Bruce Springsteen. You're Missing

Semi Deep Thought

"Dislike of the models that have become the symbols of an opposing school of thought may partially or completely seal off the work of one thinker from another, until some third thinker notices that they are both saying something worthy of impartial attention."
Peter McKellar

Found in The Crack In the Cosmic Egg by Joseph Chilton Pearce, 1971


See my post on Ideology.

Ever Feel Like This?

When I'm at the pump I usually calculate in my head how much more or less per tank I'm paying as the price goes up or down. It's appears to be insignificant at the time, nothing to be concerned about. I'm over that now.

No Terrorism Here...

...nothing to see here, move along...


I stole this from Bane Rants. He's on my favorites list. Interesting dude, whoever he is. I sort of look at him as an average USAian blogging about his life and commenting on what he's learning and seeing. Bane is often not happy. And if you can't handle sailor's language, you may want to avoid Bane's.

Happy Birthday Burt Bacharach - 78 Today

MGF thinks anything from BB is smaltzy. I say he was a master of melody and sentiment along with Hal David.

So call me sentimental.

Mr. Biggs

Groove. Move Your Body by the Isley Brothers. From the Eternal album. Got to love Ernie Isley's guitar that takes you back to "Who's That Lady?" doesn't it?

"Can we go halves on a baby?" Sweet line.

Enjoy it!

Ideology

"Ideological certainty easily degenerates into insistence upon ignorance."
Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan

I used to be an ideologue. I'm thinking it must have been the Prozac prescribed for me that helped me recover from all of my certainty about almost everything way back when. I now describe myself as used to being "more Catholic than the Pope." Eventually self-respecting ideologists will see that the world doesn't always cooperate with their ideology, thereby making such ideology suspect to the open-minded. The other alternative would be to take up practicing denial of reality, which can really land one in a precarious mental state. (Note the hint of former depression above.)

One contributing factor to my loss of ideology, in my case "fundamentalist" Catholicism, was when a former priest that used to serve in my parish church was found heniously murdered in the New Orleans French Quarter. He was found nude. A male bad-boy prostitute was eventually found to be the assailent. Fr. "X" was possibly more Catholic than the pope too and would not hesitate to preach at all services about how we were just not "good enough, loyal enough" Catholics, or sentiments to that effect. He'd have the altar-servers kneeling before him after mass for his blessing like something out of the 50's pre-Vatican II.

All churches have hypocrites. My church has at least one too, me. But this experience really derailed my allegience to Holy Mother Church.

Enlightenment

"For some seekers, spiritual enlightenment is the ultimate commodity. They believe that through diligent meditation and self-improvement, there will come a day when it will no longer elude their grasp. Breaking through to the singular state of cosmic consciousness, they will forever after own it, free and clear. Permanently illuminated! Never to backslide into the dull ignominy of normal human awareness!

Here's what I have to say about that: It's a delusion.

The fact is, the nature of perfection is always mutating. What constitutes enlightenment today will always be different tomorrow. Even if you're fortunate and wise enough to score a sliver of "enlightenment," it's not a static treasure that becomes your indestructible, everlasting possession. Rather, it remains a mercurial knack that must be continually re-earned.

If you want to befriend the Divine Wow, you must not only be willing to change ceaselessly you have to love to change ceaselessly.

Lucky you: All of creation is conspiring to help you live like that."

Rob Brezney

"Enlightenment...don't know what it is." Van Morrison

Don't Celebrate: The Babe Would Say "Fuck This Guy"

1992 (Top)
Bonds led the Pirates to their third consecutive -- and last -- division title while winning his second MVP award.

1998 (Middle)
While Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were turning baseball upside down with the home run race, Bonds had a typical season: .303 average, 37 home runs, 122 RBIs.

2001 (Bottom)
Shattering his previous career high of 49 home runs, Bonds broke Mark McGwire's three-year-old record for most homers in a single season: 73.

A different view here.

Oh Alright! - Boys Will Be Boys

It's called "Passion."

Jorge y Mi

I feel I must opine on our president. Though it matters not. Except for the record.

Random thoughts about why I am not a GWB supporter though I voted for him twice. I would have never voted for John Kerry due to his complete lack of qualifications for the job. W was the governor of Texas so he was minimally qualified. The businesses that he led through GHWB’s (Bush 41) influences never amounted to much. I was never a W fan, but he’s a total goat rope now for me. A goat rope is completely useless, right?

In no specific order:

Harriet Miers selection
The budget deficits
No tax reform
No Social Security reform
The Downing Street Memo
Went along with neocons push for war with Iraq
No WMD (go back and look at the film. There is Cheney saying he has no doubt that there is WMD in Iraq). They will blame those assertions on THEIR faulty intelligence though!
Dick Cheney is still in office
Spying on Americans
Gas prices on his watch. He is in bed with Big Oil
After 6 years in office he addresses our “addiction” to oil
Failure to lead and find better resolution to war in Iraq

His "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." remark two days before Brown was fired.

Bush continues to misrepresent as a "war on terror" the struggle our country and the rest of the civilized world faces. For some reason he cannot bring himself to call it what it is, a war with extreme Islamo-facism/fundamentalism.

As If Anyone Could Ever Care Less

This is the first CD I ever purchased. It was 1986 and I was living in New York City. I recall being completely blown away by the beginning of the CD - the percussion on the song "Shout." This album has stood the test of time.










This was the first vinyl album I ever bought. That would be if I don't count the compilation album that I bought (COD) from the AM radio station KFRC in San Francisco. Teaser and the Firecat. Purchased at the J.C. Penny in downtown San Jose, probably in 1972.

War is Hell...and Heartbreaking

The night before the burial of her husband's body, Katherine Cathey refused to leave the casket, asking to sleep next to his body for the last time. The Marines made a bed for her, tucking in the sheets below the flag. Before she
fell asleep, she opened her laptop computer and played songs that reminded her of 'Cat,' and one of the Marines asked if she wanted them to continue standing watch as she slept. "I think it would be kind of nice if you kept doing it," she said. "I think that's what he would have wanted."

Photographer: Todd Heisler - The Rocky Mountain News - November 9, 2005
Entire Story: "Final Salute" found here: http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/news/finalSalute/

Barbecue Season

Got this in an email today!

After the long months of cold and winter, we will soon be coming up
to summer and BBQ season. Therefore it is important to refresh your memory
on the etiquette of this sublime outdoor cooking as it's the only type of
cooking a real man will do, probably because there is an element of
dangerinvolved. When a man volunteers to do the BBQ the following chain of events are
put into motion:

Routine...
1) The woman buys the food.
2) The woman makes the salad, prepares the vegetables, and makes dessert.
3) The woman prepares the meat for cooking, places it on a tray along
with the necessary cooking utensils and sauces, and takes it to the manwho
is lounging beside the grill - drink in hand.

Here comes the important part:
4) THE MAN PLACES THE MEAT ON THE GRILL.

More routine....
5) The woman goes inside to organize the plates and cutlery.
6) The woman comes out to tell the man that the meat is burning. He
thanks her and asks if she will bring another drink while he deals withthe situation.

Important again:
7) THE MAN TAKES THE MEAT OFF THE GRILL AND HANDS IT TO THE WOMAN.

More routine.....
8) The woman prepares the plates, salad, bread, utensils, napkins,
sauces and brings them to the table.
9) After eating, the woman clears the table and does the dishes.

And most important of all:
10) Everyone PRAISES the MAN and THANKS HIM for his cooking efforts.
11) The man asks the woman how she enjoyed "her night off." And, upon
seeing her annoyed reaction, concludes that there's just no pleasing
some women....

Jorge's Gett'n On Board

WASHINGTON -- President Bush yesterday recognized the Mexican celebration of Cinco de Mayo a day early with a call for immigrants to learn English, even as his spokesman denied that the president sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" in Spanish during the 2000 campaign, saying his Spanish wasn't good enough. "Those who come here to start new lives in our country have a responsibility to understand what America is about and the responsibility to learn the English language so they can better understand our national character and participate fully in American life," the president said in a ceremony at the White House East Room.

The Washington Times Published May 5, 2006

We should all be fearing for our lives.

Please read this essay by Charles Krauthammer.

http://regimechangeiran.blogspot.com/2006/03/today-tehran-tomorrow-world.html

It's more serious than a heart attack. This appears to be one thing that Americans of sound minds should be on the same page about. Our very survival is at stake.

Apparently the Russians and the Chinese though won't even support UN sanctions against Iran. Maybe because the very survival of the U.S. is at stake? No skin off their back. They'd like to see us down and out?

Ya Think??????

Like Father like son?

"WASHINGTON (AFP) - Patrick Kennedy, a six-term congressman and member of one of the country's leading political clans, may have received preferential treatment after crashing his car in a dawn accident, US media reported."

New diagnosis: Sleep driving? Kennedy claims he had been taking Ambien. Where I come from that might be called DUI, Driving Under the Influence...

Kennedy was apparently up driving around in the middle of the night to get to a congressional vote. What a consciencious guy! What a hard worker! The House was recessed though. He must not have gotten the word.

Boys Will Be Boys

I'm told that this is a view from Amalfi. That would be in Italy. How about that coastline? Ah Italian girls.

Zac Got Life

Moussaoui got life in prison yesterday. Neal Boortz suggested on the radio today that they should make his cell rotate so he would never know where Mecca was. I understand that he'll be way down in the ground in a very small cell for 23 hours per day. I'm ok with the verdict.

Appeal to the Great Spirit

This is the painting inspired by the famous sculpture of "Appeal to the Great Spirit" which can be seen in front of the Mueseum of Fine Arts in Boston MA, and also in the office of the President in Washington D.C. Not sure of the artist yet. It's one of my favorites of all time. I have a print of it in my office. The Beach Boys used a likeness of this figure on their Brother Records label.

Sculptor: Cyrus E. Dallin 1907. He was an American sculptor who worked and lived in Arlington MA. His bronze monuments and Native American sculptures can be seen throughout Massachusetts and the rest of the United States. Born in Springville, Utah and trained in Boston and Paris, Dallin came to public notice after winning a competition with his Paul Revere statue that can now be seen at Boston's Old North Church. Cyrus Dallin's sculpture of the Angel Moroni was placed atop the Salt Lake Temple in 1892.

The Snake That Poisons Everyone

It topples governments, wrecks marriages, ruins careers, bursts reputations, causes heartaches, nightmares, indigestion, spawns suspicion, generates grief, dispatches innocent people to cry in their pillows. Even its name hisses. It' s called gossip. Office gossip. Party gossip. It makes headlines and headaches. Before you repeat a story, ask yourself, is it true? Is it fair? Is it necessary? If not, shut up.

Mr. Harry Gray - Chairman of United Technologies Corporation in 1981

For Her

Magic Time


There may be more magic time

A time when it stands still, though hours on the clock click and tick on

There may be more magic time

A time when smiles and laughs and consensual amusement comes easy as breathing

There may be more magic time

Time when sparring was fun and easy and neither cared about winning and hurt was not
possible ‘cause we knew we really cared from the very start

There may be more magic time

Time when kisses kept us together and common sense was only a foreign intrusion from some
oh-so-practical past

There may be more magic time

Time when buttons unknown pop out, are pushed, awakening an amazing experience possible only through her magic

There may be more magic time

May there be more magic time

8/3/05

Served Proudly, 1981-1984

As an officer. USS Flint (AE-32) The Bedrock Bullet Company. Wasn't able to differentiate my ports and starboards as well as I should've. Certainly not cut out for it. But serving in the Navy was a great experience.