"Elected Officials are Fundamentally Dishonest"

What you are about to read is a letter to the Editor of the Newtown Bee.  I became aware of this by an email forwarded to me from a friend of mine in Florida who didn't know if it was real or not.  I googled it, and it's real.

You will never, in one hundred thousand million lifetimes, ever read or hear about this from Organized Media.

That's one reason why there's a blogosphere, and you're now going to read this here.

It can also be found at this link:  LINK

To the Editor:

This letter was forwarded to Barack Obama, John Boehner, Chris Murphy, Dick Blumenthal, Elizabeth Esty, and Harry Reid

I live in Sandy Hook, CT. My family and close friends weren't harmed on December 14. That day impacted 26 families with an indescribable, staggering pain and anguish. For most of Sandy Hook, it merely affected us with an inescapable intensity of sadness and grief.

Gun control has long been a focus of many in this country. Though I'm not knowledgeable of all the nuances of the Second Amendment, based on the Founding Fathers' circumstances, it had far more to do with enabling the citizenry to protect themselves against tyrannical government than against local psychopaths. It is about providing a balanced firepower so when King George's successor came knocking on your door, you could fight back. Government today is no less inclined to abuse its authority than it was then. Based on the absurd and ongoing power grab that is present day Washington, it's as threatening as ever.

That so many of you view the NRA with its resistance to further restrictions on firearms as intransigent lunatics has far more to do with how you conduct yourselves in office than it does with the NRA's actions.

You in public office are fundamentally dishonest people. You lead lives of deception at every turn, structuring your lives as comfortably as you can while governing with an indifference and arrogance that is absolutely maddening. When the country is reeling from financial disaster, you waste a trillion dollars on a health care bill we can't afford and you've never read. You claim it's critical because health care costs are killing this country... no they're not, you are! You are killing this country. You endorse the ongoing slaughter of millions of unborn children and whine when terrorists are water boarded. You can't lecture us right in Newtown High School about not doing enough to keep our children safe, while simultaneously slaughtering the unborn. You fabricate the intense, media laden drama of the fiscal cliff and lack the courage to do anything about truly reforming the obscene gluttony of government. You know you'll be out of office before the bill comes due… you don't care and have no integrity nor honor.

You lie whenever and wherever you need to to move forth your agenda. Were you able, you would purge the US of guns… every last gun in the country, if you could. So please forgive Wayne LaPierre and those of us who don't trust you as far as we can spit. You're a dishonest lot, motivated by a distorted worldview. If mass murder prevention were truly your goal, you would welcome armed security wherever needed. It is outrageous that we protect our money with far more firepower than we protect our children.

I have never owned a gun, nor wanted to as intensely as right now. You'll stop restricting guns when only you have them.

Brendan Duffy

4 Chestnut Knoll Drive, Sandy Hook January 8, 2013

40 Years of Bachman-Turner Overdrive!

Forty years ago today the first album by Bachman-Turner Overdrive, called Bachman-Turner Overdrive, was released by Mercury Records under catalog number SRM-1-673.  The band had been formerly known as Brave Belt and had released two albums on Warner/Reprise under that name.  Sales of the Brave Belt albums weren't much to the Warner execs' liking, and the band itself was undergoing some changes.

It is said that their name was inspired by the trucker's magazine Overdrive.  The band was at a truck stop outside Windsor, Ontario, where they had just concluded having lunch.  Stopping off to pay for it, Randy Bachman and Fred Turner noticed the magazine.  They were thinking about changing the band name and were considering "Bachman & Turner" back then but wasn't sure about how that would fly since Seals & Croft were using a similar naming scheme and they weren't a soft rock act.  The word "overdrive" seemed to fit the style of music that they were playing, and thus they became Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

As the name was being changed, Randy Bachman asked Warner/Reprise for a release from their contract so that they could sign as "Bachman-Turner Overdrive".  An album that was to have been called Brave Belt III had been recorded, and as soon as they were released from their contract Randy offered that album to Warner/Reprise, who refused.  Randy kept on sending the tape to various record companies, encountering 23 rejections before being signed by Charlie Fach of Mercury Records.

From what I know, Randy had spent $100,000 on the recording of that album, plus touring costs.  Mercury offered them $100,000 for two albums, that is, $50K per album, but Mercury also wanted them out on the road to promote the album.  What followed in 1973 was an exhaustive tour to promote the album.  The album stayed on the charts for over a year, but never got higher than #68.  What happened was that the album would sell well where they played, but wasn't selling where they hadn't played yet.  It went on to achieve gold record status in the United States and Canada, but took a long time in doing so.  I didn't get my copy of it until November 1975, so there's no doubt that back catalog sales were helped out in their heyday of 1974-75.

BTO went on to record several albums before disbanding in 1979.  They re-formed in 1983, and again in 1988.  The "Not Fragile" lineup last played together in fall 1991, and Robbie Bachman led a version of BTO which played the county fair and casino circuit until the end of 2004.

If you've read my past posts, you already know that Randy and Fred reunited in 2010 to record and tour as "Bachman & Turner", as that Blair Thornton and Robbie Bachman hold the rights to the BTO name.  I can't tell you what Randy and Fred are planning to do this year.  Chatter has it that new dates are being planned but I have not emailed Fred to find out what's going on, and even if he tells me I may not be able to pass that along, nor would I without his permission, and no, I'm not going to ask for permission.  I do personally believe that he wants to go out with Randy this year and we can only hope that Randy feels the same.  Their last gigs were in New Zealand a few months ago, and it could be that Fred's on a break and working on restoring his collection of vintage Corvettes (I would like to be in his garage some day to see his 'vettes!).

Incidentally, today is also the birthday of Jim Clench, who played and sang with BTO from fall of 1977 until the spring of 1979.  He would have been 64 years old today.

It will be a year and a half before I can claim 40 years of fandom, but that will likely arrive quickly the way life seems to be accelerating for me.

I can say that the songs sound just as good today as when I first heard them.

To all the members of BTO:  "thank you for the feeling"!

Some catching up to do.........

I know, it's been several weeks since I last posted.  I've gotten an email or two about people asking me how I'm doing.  There are lots of things going on in life right now that I've been busy doing, and as a result I don't seem to have a whole lot of free time lately.  It's all good, or most of it anyway, and I remain alive and well.

Sheila and I have been seeing a lot of each other over the past several weeks.  Most weekends we spend the whole day doing something together (today she's at her house getting caught up on some things too).  Last weekend we did a lot of walking.  Weekends before it was barbecuing, visiting, or going out to eat.  Last night we went to a baseball game.  Next weekend is the county fair.  When she comes over later on, I'm firing up the grill and slow-cooking a flat brisket.

We've been doing a lot of things together, and having lots of fun. 

However, I feel the need to catch up here, and to post some random thoughts and observations.

 

* * * * * * *

Dennis Rodman was over in North Korea not so long ago.  A lot of people, most notably on the talk radio circuit and a few here and there on Fox News have a problem with him.

Me, I don't have a problem with Dennis Rodman going over there.  I really don't.

My problem with Dennis Rodman is that he came back.

* * * * * * *

There seems to be a push in some (if not all) in the "blue" states to tighten gun control laws in the wake of some tragedies.  There are even some efforts on the federal level.

I can't point to a single law, passed or proposed, that would have prevented these tragedies.  Connecticut will require the registration of high capacity magazines while outlawing the possession of newer high capacity magazines.

First of all, the criminals aren't going to register their magazines.  They simply won't.  Those in favor of this law must know this, yet they insist on magazine registration.

That tells me that the purpose of this law (and other laws requiring registration of firearms) have only one purpose.  That purpose is to let the government know where the legally held firearms are.  They don't seem interested in knowing where the criminally held firearms are.  Why is that?

A conspiracy theorist will tell you that the purpose of these laws are to set the stage for a future confiscation.

I find that kind of viewpoint difficult to disagree with. 

As I've said before, criminals don't register their guns.

* * * * * * *

While driving around Tuesday night, I tuned in to one of the talk radio shows, and it was Andy Dean interviewing a professor.  I unfortunately did not catch this professor's name or which institution of higher learning he was with.  The professor criticized Andy Dean for not wanting to "invest" in infrastructure such as roads and bridges.

I don't know about the professor, or about you, but me, when I think of the term "invest" and the act of investing, I'm doing so because I want to get some sort of monetary return on this. 

How do I invest in the widening of some interstate highway somewhere?  There's no toll being collected on that highway (at least not here in the West) and no dividend that the highway is going to pay me.  There might be a publicly owned construction firm that I could buy stock in, but I wouldn't be "investing" in it since I'm not allowed to designate a portion of my tax dollars to purchase stock in that company. 

Likewise, there are extremely wealthy owners of sports franchises in Major League baseball or the NFL who demand that the city buy them a new stadium using public funds.  The politicians then beg the voters for another tax increase in order to "invest" in that new stadium or arena in order to keep the team.

If the word "investment" is accurate in these instances, then how come the major Wall Street corporations don't form consortia to "invest" in new ballparks and basketball/hockey arenas? 

Two reasons.  One, they don't have to if they know that gullible voters can be suckerered into increasing the sales tax, and two, the projects won't return money anyway.

Seattle blew up the Kingdome a few years back, and they're still making payments on it.

* * * * * * *

This brings up another topic.  Sheila and Iwere talking about baseball strikes that seem to occur every so often.  I remember that one back in 1972, the one in 1981, and especially the one in 1994.  There always is some debate over what the cause of the strike is.  Some say the baseball players are being greedy, and others say the owners are being greedy.  I'll go so far as to say that both sides are greedy, and that one consequence of a bunch of money gathering in one place is that everybody who is near that money will get into a bitter fight over who that pile of money belongs to.

I have another theory as to why there are baseball strikes, hockey lockouts, and other labor disputes in professional sports.

The cause of these strikes are the fans.

When the strike is over, the fans always come back (there were a lot of fans who did not come back after the 1994 baseball strike; and who never will).  The fans are willing to pay $10 for parking, $60 for a ticket, $8 for a beer, $4 for a hot dog.......it's the fans who keep coming back, no matter what the price is, that is causing these labor disputes.

If the fans were to form a union and demand lower ticket and concession prices and to go on strike until their demands were met, they might stand a chance of actually winning such a strike.

 

* * * * * * *

Yes, we went to a baseball game last night.  Parking was free, the great seats were $10, and we got a good honest game out of it.  It was the Triple A Tucson Padres, who are in their last year in Tucson, hosting the Fresno Grizzlies.  Next year they play in El Paso, and unless the local Golden Baseball League franchise is re-activated we will be without baseball here in the Old Pueblo next year.

Tucson isn't exactly a baseball town.  The Sidewinders did not get fan support, and now they're in Reno playing as the Aces.  The Tucson Padres came here with their owners expecting Escondido to build them a new ballpark, but that fell through.  El Paso then agreed to build a new ballpark for them and it will be ready next year.

I like minor league ball, in that you get an honest game.  The players are all itching to move up to the majors, so they're not yet crybabies. 

As for major league ball:  I won't go. 

When the players came back after the 1994 strike, I went on strike as a fan and I'm still on strike.  I can't so much tell you the teams who have been in the World Series since then.

 

* * * * * * *

Don't forget to pet a dog or a cat.

There's a New Lady in my Life......

I can now make this public.

I am in a committed relationship with an extremely attractive brunette named Sheila.  Our first meeting was for lunch, and usually first meetings for lunch last an hour or so.  We were there for five hours talking, discovering that we have a *lot* of shared interests.  Also trying to keep my jaw from dropping to the floor when I first saw her was a good sign.

Our second date was to have been a day trip to Bisbee, but it instead ended up being a weeknight dinner at a Chinese restaurant.

We didn't do the day trip to Bisbee.  We instead visited at my house from the morning until she had to leave at night, only leaving the premises to get lunch at a restaurant I'll have to tell you about sometime.  She was also over here the next day, for most of it.

She's a more private person than I am, so out of respect for her privacy I will not post a picture of her (unless she approves but again, she's a private person), nor can I disclose how it was we came to meet until she says I can.  It wasn't eHarmony; I gave up on them for good last November.

I may have met her at a country & western dance lesson, or it may have been a cooking class at a community college.  Was it an encounter at Safeway  in the express line where we started talking and couldn't stop?  It wasn't work as that I don't date co-workers so that's all I will say.

We are going to give this a go and see where we go from here.  For starters I want a good honest relationship and I have every reason to believe that that is what I am going to get.

Starting Off on a Sad Note.....

Last week there was a death in the family.  My aunt Anne unexpectedly passed away on the 29th.  There was no inkling that anything had been wrong.  My uncle is understandably still in shock over this.  They had been married for 61 years.

I'm going to ask that you keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

* * * * * * *

I was away from home for Christmas this time, visiting family and friends in San Jose.  The trip went mainly well.  There was a bad traffic backup in L.A. at high noon due to a big rig catching on fire, which backed us up for seven miles.  At that point it was too late to make that north turn at San Berdoo so I-210 it was.  Once past that, traffic actually moved at a decent pace.

At the Wheeler Ridge split of I-5 and CA 99, the CA Highway Patrol was running traffic breaks onto the I-5 portion, and after that big rig thing I wasn't in the mood to join the parade.  I took 99 up a ways and then cut across on highway 223.  All of 99 probably ought to be resurfaced, but the People's Republic has decided that the bullet train linking Fresno and Bakersfield is more important.

On the return leg of the trip there were Jersey barriers along stretches of 99 north of Bakersfield, but I couldn't tell if they going to resurface or widen it.

Maybe they're destroying a lane of it for the train.

* * * * * * *

My schedule was tight; and getting sick for a couple of days didn't help matters any.  If there had been time I would have taken three days to get back, and maybe I would have done the stretch of Route 66 near San Bernardino.  As it was I was trying to get to Quartzsite for the night (an early start helped).

I could have stopped in Blythe, where there are five or so motor inns to stop at for the night, but I don't like Blythe.  I stopped there for a quick refreshment and I saw what I had seen there on a previous trip:  a bunch of loiterers hanging around doing nothing, aside from waiting for you to leave your car so that they could break into it.

There are several hotel/casinos along I-10 near Palm Springs, which would have made for nicer accommodations, and maybe that's what I should do the next time I do this kind of trip.

* * * * * * *

I think this is going to be it for this evening.  I'm not yet entirely over my cold and I think an early bedtime this evening would be wise.

Don't forget to pet a dog or a cat.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone out there a most Merry Christmas!

May 2013 bring you joy, prosperity and good health!

The World Was Supposed to End Today

For the past year and a half or so, we've been hearing plenty about how the Mayan calendar was suggesting that the world was going to end today.  The History Channel was running programming on this topic from time to time (and even today, giving us a welcome break from the other non-history programming they show) and these past few days there seemed to be this buildup.  Just one week ago I learned that Shock Top brewing was selling this special "End of the World" brew (I tried some.....and liked it). 

I remember when Mark was telling me two or so years ago about how some folks were saying that this was really it; the world would end on the 21st of December in 2012.  I responded jokingly by saying "that ought to be about right".  Last week someone was saying that the earth's magnetic poles would somehow reverse positions and someone else was saying that the sun would go out for three days, and both of these someones were serious......they were sure it was going to happen.

For the past several months my theory about the Mayan calendar was that they ran out of room, and thus stopped.  I developed some other theories this past week.  It could have been that whoever it was who was doing the calendar reached the solstice for this year and said "the hell with this, I'm not working on this stupid calendar any more!"  Or it could have been that the Royal Chieftain of the Mayans told the guy "you've worked long enough on this calendar, we now need you to help us build some pyramids".  We don't know.

But as for them picking out the date of the solstice, and how they were able to do that.....well we've had people studying the stars for 5000 years or so and my thinking is that some sharp minds figured out that the sun rose at its northernmost point in June while rising at its southernmost point in December.  They figured out that the midpoints were in March and September.  If you're an astronomer/astrologer some thousands of years ago and your king thinks that the stars foretell the future and charges you with figuring it out or have your head chopped off, you're going to spend a few years figuring out where the sun rises each day of the year.  You're going to know which constellations appear in the evening for each month.  You're going to keep track of the moon and the observable planets.  Point here is, is that it shouldn't surprise us that the Mayans knew when the winter solstice would be. 

Civilizations may have used the winter solstice to determine when the year started.  They may have used one of the equinoxes.  A year doesn't have to start on January 1.  It can start on any day that you want it to.  Choosing a solstice or equinox is a more recognizable reference point than the other days.  A year ending on the winter solstice isn't really a bad choice......the days start getting longer after that for the next six months. 

As for those few who really got fixated on this.....who bought into this........who really thought that this was it.........

..........they need professional help.