Good morning Boys and Girls!

This is my last morning sitting at this exact place to write my posts. Been here a year, and I've enjoyed it. I've liked looking out the window to my left and seeing the sun rise.

It's tiny, but it's been plenty big enough for just me. One bedroom, a living room, kitchen and a tiny bathroom where you have to be careful about how you get up off the stool or you'll bump your head on the ceiling since the toilet is set under the point where the roof-line takes its bend.

My computer is set in a large open closet-ish space off the living room, maybe six by eight, with the window, as I said, to my left. I can't see the television from here, but I can hear it and with a single step up and off the chair I can stick my head around the corner to look at it if I hear something that gets my attention. I've spent probably eighty percent of the time I've been awake in the apartment here at the computer on an old kitchen chair I grab from the small two person table which I replace if I'm having a guest, though I've invited just a few here this past year.

It's been a strange time in some respects, but I've enjoyed it. Where I'm moving to is about fifteen miles miles north of here, but I'll be about the same distance from the city as I am now, and it seems that I'll be avoiding the expressways more often which will be nice. I took something out there after work last night and then drove here in as direct a route as I could figure out and it took me about a half hour and I put 21 miles on my odometer.

I'd say I'll miss the sound of my coffee maker gurgling its signal to me that my coffee's ready - as it is this very instant - but of course, I'm taking it with me. Should have named it! -I love it like a pet. (Nine bucks at Big Lots...) Maybe I'll call it Betty from now on - or should a coffee maker have a male name?

I suppose I'll miss the pool, but I really haven't used it much. The idea of having it there has been nice after hot days at work, but the apartment is air-conditioned and usually when I'd get home, after washing up and sitting down here to check email or comments on this blog, I'd cool off quickly and find myself involved in writing something or other, or looking something up, and wouldn't get around to going down to use the thing.

All in all? It's been a great transitional place to be, and I'll take fond memories with me, even though the apartment itself is pretty damn strange, what with it's late sixties era dark paneling and wallpaper that could be ten years older yet. Heck, my computer looks completely out of place here - an alien object transported back to a dingy room set in 1968.

Still, I like the place.


Be good to everyone.

Good morning Boys and Girls.

Every now and again my sense of humor - or what I THINK is my sense of humor - gets me in trouble. Evidently it did last night. I try to tell any new friends I meet that if I say something that could be taken as mean and hurtful, or, if looked at another way, as funny and light, please take it as funny, because I'll never deliberately say something mean, even though I do goof around a lot.

Here, where you can't see a sardonic smile or hear tone of voice or inflection, I MUST learn to be more careful, or I must learn to use the language more effectively. Can't tell you how many times over the last couple of years I've upset people who took something seriously that I meant as a toss-off humorous aside. Maybe it's the medium as much as the messenger, but since it's me using the medium here, it's my responsibility.

Last night someone quoted a portion of a silly, (and I'd hoped, funny) comment I made on PastorDave's blog as a sort of self-evident proof that I was being unreasonable or worse... and I think it offended a couple of other people... And I was KIDDING!

Anyway... I'm sorry.

Be good to everyone.

Good morning Boys and Girls!

Got a call last night... it wasn't pretty.

(ring)

"Hello."

"surrogate?"

"Hey, Hi Jesus!"

"Hello."

"How are ya?"

" I just got done reading your last few posts. THAT'S how I am."

"What?"

"surrogate, my NAME is on that blog. I..."

"Oh. You didn't like the tawdry stuff yesterday? I was just fooling around."

"MY NAME IS ON THE BLOG!"

"...sorry."

"I'm pissed off."

"It was supposed to be funny!"

"I'm not laughing, and what's with you saying you're not a Christian?"

'Well, I'm not, in the usual sense of the word. I was trying to be clear."

"You believe in me?"

"Well, of course. I.."

"You believe what I taught, and have been trying to teach your stubborn behind?"

"Well, I believe what you SAY. I don't believe everything people say you said, or how it's been interpreted. I..."

"That's NOT the point surrogate. "Christian" isn't especially a term I like, but it's about all there is. You saying you're not a Christian sort of defeats the purpose of having my name on the blog... Doesn't it? Unless you're mocking me..."

"No, come on, you know better. Look Jesus, the term Christian, to Christians, seems to mean that you believe that you came primarily to save souls from damnation, to free us from sin, or at least to assure that our sins are forgiven, so that we can have eternal life! And, that you are equal to GOD! The Lamb, all that..."

"So?"

"So.? SO??? Well, that's not what you tell me you came for..."

"What does that have to do with you proclaiming yourself NOT to be a Christian?"

"Well, I just..."

"You just what? What were you thinking?"

"I... I'm not sure."

"So you thought to yourself, "let's see, I'm not a Christian in the way other people define the word, even though I know I AM a Christian in the sense that matters to me, so I'll proclaim to everyone that I'm not one." Brilliant."

"Well..."

"And then. what? -two days later you follow it up with some weird cloaked porn, once again on a page with MY name on it."

"I'm SORRY!"

"Okay."

"You want me to delete the posts?"

"Absolutely not. You can post this conversation. I don't need people thinking you had my blessings on this, this... drivel."

"Did you like the song parody?"

"The "My Favorite Things," thing?"

"Yeah."

"Eh. It was cute I guess. Kind of depressing though."

"Okay. I thought it was good, but... Listen, you still coming this weekend?"

"Of course."

"I'm getting a truck. It shouldn't be too bad."

"I'm not worried about that. You've really disappointed me."

"I'm sorry. Forgive me."

"Oh I forgive you, I know it wasn't malicious, but it was damn stupid."

"Where are you?"

"L.A."

"Really? I'm surprised. You always say you don't like L.A."

"Just the traffic. Takes forever to get anywhere. Out here seeing a couple of friends."

"Actors?"

"No, but one of them is a producer. Documentaries. He got an Oscar a few years ago for... I forget the subcategory, but it was on homeless kids in South American cities. Wonderful work, but it hasn't changed anything. He's really down. He tackles tough subjects, works on them a long time and eventually it gets to him because he's come to realize that just pointing out the problems doesn't do much to correct them."

"That's true."

"Alright, I've got to go. I'll be in on Friday. Think my plane gets in around five. I'll email you the flight info later today."

"Okay. See ya Jesus."

Bye surr.

(click)


Be good to everyone.

Good morning Boys and Girls!

This will be a busy week for me, and I won't have internet service for a few days, meaning my posts will come from the library starting Friday through next Wednesday. How exciting huh? Bet they'll be chock-full-of-goodness, what with me sitting amid all those books, drawing, osmosis-like, brilliance and light from all those wonderful writers.

The branch I frequent for my constant audio-book needs has some of its computers grouped together in a little pod thing, but they have others, many others, actually, placed here and there at nice little one person table/desks. The place is starting to look more and more Starbucks-ish as they do a gradual remodel, and the casual atmosphere lends itself to creativity and relaxed thought... and yes, they even serve coffee.

So I was thinking, if I get to a computer over in the auto-repair section, will my posts reflect that in some way? Or literature? What if I'm writing right next to a collection of Shakespeare?

"Will not, oh good person, fairest of the fair, and most just, you allow me, as you yourself did on the occasion of the (pick special occasion) to enter your home via this best of his majesty's net(s)-of-inter, still unchecked and strong of will and purpose? I beseech thee, it will remain so."

...or what if I end up in children's section?

"The man sat down to write
But something about him isn't right
The gleam in his eye made us all run in fright
because, what if he's crazy and bites?"

It'll be fine, as long as I don't end up in Science Fiction, or worse, the adult Romance section...

"Her husband been gone for far too long. And now, this surrogate labored above her, moisture glistening off his beautiful bald head. Her guilt, if any, intermingled with her excitement and now took her to heights she'd never reached before, and her gasps and moans of extasy filled the entirety of the cramped back-seat of his old rusty Lebaron. As she climaxed - again - four small words escaped her lips rhythmically amid exhalations of pure relief, exhaustion and appreciation..."

Be... good... (heavy breath) to... everyone!

Good morning Boys and Girls!

The boys in the band are playing the intro...

Spotlight's on and I step into the light, cigarette in one hand, bourbon in the other, props both, and to sporatic and unenthusiastic applause I walk to the middle of the stage, (well, dining room,) and start to talk over the music..."

"Hello ladies and gentlemen! WEL-come to the show. I love performing here at the Sunnydale Assisted Living Facility, and I'm so glad to be back with you tonight!

(I signal Sneaky Pete and the rest of the band and they go into the flourish, changing the tempo to cut time...)

Dut dut dut, Dah dah dah,
Dut dut dut, Dah dah dah

(I take a drag on the smoke, spin, toss the mike up in the air, catch it and, just exactly on the down-beat, pointing at various members of the audiance, and (of course) to the tune of "My Favorite Things" I begin...)

Hello, good people, here at the Da-le...
So glad you're still with us, and still can ex-hale
May be the last stop for you on your way
It might be that next year contains your last DAY!!!

(Dut dut dut, Dah dah dah)

Like you, I'm aging, -Feel it, all the time
I know my life's clock' s'bout ready to chime!
My eyesight is going, my hearing is hell.
Though so far there's no prob, with my sense of smell! (I pinch my nose and point at one old guy in the corner)

(Chorus)

I resent it, as we all do
It's unfair, and rude
Just at the time we might do as we please,
We can't eat our favo-rite fooooods...

(Dut dut dut, Dah dah dah)

We hope our children aren't spiteful and cruel,
And still come to see us, in spite of "the drool"
But now that they're busy, with lives of their own
Why waste a Sunday here at the Rest Home?

(Dut dut dut, Dah dah dah)

Probably someday, they'll be here themselves
looking at photographs, there on the shelves
Of their kids as youngsters, of us and of them
just dried flowers, of which are left, just the stems

(chorus)
"Assisted Living." What a slogan!
Makes it sound, so nice...
Why then, would none of us, choose it again?
Stab me? Sure, dooooo it twice.

I play shuffle-board, and I tried to learn bocci
but all of the bending was hard on my knees
Scrabble and crazy-eights take up the days
But how much Majong can a sane person play?

(Dut dut dut, Dah dah dah)

They say this this is step one, not really a "home."
We're free to go shopping, take walks, or just roam.
But this isn't what I had planned for my life,
As I said ear-li-er, get me a KNIFE!

"Not an-o-ther, frigging jello
Why'd I live so long.
Now, I sit here, listening to this mor-on,
Singing this aw-ful song...."

I wave and bow...

(not a single person moved... I exited, and the band sort of... well, Sneaky Pete wants twice the money next time. Bastard.)

Be good to everyone!

Good morning Boys and Girls.

Over the past couple of weeks, people have told me how smug my attitude is regarding this war, this administration, and the large number of my fellow citizens who equate supporting those two with being a good American, and non-support with being unpatriotic.

Perhaps I do sound smug, but I really can't worry about it. What I find, is that people who support this war and this bunch have gotten to the point where logic doesn't enter into the conversation.

They, along with the rest of us, are afraid of terrorism, (which means, in some respect that the damn terrorists are succeeding to some degree,) and think that we have to "fight them over there, so we don't have to fight them over here..." This, of course IS absurd. We have to fight the specific acts of terrorism wherever and whenever we find them being plotted. The war in Iraq doesn't have diddly to do with that.

In fact, no matter how many people we commit to the effort, or even how many countries we recruit to fight the fight, as long as we're seen as the Great Satan, or an Imperialist force in their world, we will NEVER end this, and sending more and more people into the fray will never do anything but fan those flames. You cannot defeat an idea with bullets, no matter how crazy the idea is.

If that knowledge is smug, so be it. I don't claim to be right about much in life, but this I know down the marrow of my aging bones, and the proof continues to pile up every damn day. Listened to an interview with Joe Lieberman a few minutes ago. I've always loved Joe Lieberman. His book, "In Praise of Public Service" (I think that was the title...) was just great, and I know he speaks from his heart on his support of the war.

But? He's just plain wrong on this one, and listening to him, as he distanced himself from the specifics of how the administration has conducted the war, while insisting that leaving Iraq still isn't a good idea, even he admits that he doesn't really know what needs to be done. He just thinks leaving would "give the terrorists a victory" and he doesn't like the sound of that. Understandable. But, you don't wage war just so you don't look weak. The fact is, this war IS weakening us. The marines just recalled 2500 more people, some of them in their 40's for goodness sake.

Try this.

If your family is robbed, and your neighbor tells you that he saw a guy in a green van pulling out of your driveway and heading east. Do you drive east, look for a green van in a rough neighborhood and then beat up whoever owns it? No. Why? Well, first it's wrong. Second, you're gonna piss off the friends and acquaintances of the guy you beat up, along with pretty much anyone around who sees you do it - or even just hears about it, aren't you? Hell, after a while it won't even matter that you claim to have done it because you got robbed. It's just plain stupid - especially if you wear a t-shirt with your name and address on it while you're beating the guy up.

And what if lots and lots of people see you do it?

Hell, what if it's video-taped for broadcast on the news?

Be good to everyone.

Good morning Boys and Girls...

A little fairly tale...

Once upon a time in a rich land, born of a love of freedom and full of lots of different kinds of people, lived a rather large group of people who thought God favored them and their land over all others. The rest of the people in the land thought, if they believed in God at all, that people all over the world we're probably favored by God equally, but their voices were largely ignored or ridiculed.

This "annointed" stance bugged much of the rest of the world.

The leader of the land at this time was part of the group. He and his minions thought that God's special love of their land justified just about anything, as long as it was done within the spirit of that certainty. So this leader, who just weeks earlier could not have found his target country on a map, sent his troops to attack a smallish nation with a bully ruler and brownish insignificant people, promising great eventualities, eventually - in a few weeks, perhaps.

Ironically, even many people who claimed to be men and women of God, and would, one might think, have at least some understanding that nations and countries come and go in the blink of an eye in terms of eternity, (or even in terms of the planet itself,) started to make their decisions about things based solely on how it would affect the citizens of their own land, some even openly suggesting that people who would dare threaten their land ought be treated as gnats to be swatted lest they swarm.

God, in his wisdom and love, tried to show this group who considered themselves "special" in this land that his love was universal and not site-specific by deliberately doing nothing, knowing that, for them, unfortunately, the lesson they needed to learn could only be absorbed and assimilated by their own experiences - since they refused to learn from history and would certainly not listen to anything contrary from anyone even within their own borders who tried to reason with them, calling them cowards or worse.

This, even though even none of the leadership of this group had ever gone to fight themselves even when given opportunity. Instead they merrily went about sending out the young poor of their land to do their bidding, all the while talking tough and castigating anyone who disagreed with the tactics.

And time ticked.

Eventually, a couple of generations down the road, this once great generous, tolerant and benevolent country had annoyed the rest of the world to such an extent that many nations joined forces to squash it out of existence simply because they'd tired of the arrogance of the presumptive stances taken by the leadership of this group of people.

This was extremely ironic as well, since the group, whose members had always touted democracy as the only way to go, government-wise, had in fact cheated the nation's very electoral processes to gain power in the first place. And now, justifiably, this nation who saw fit to treat others as gnats, became a past-tense bug flattened on the unforgiving fast-moving windshield of history.

And God smiled as his children learned.

What grows is the crop that's been planted.

Why not plant hemlock?


Be good to everyone.

Over the past two days, I've received 89 more new fake blank comments.

I don't have time to fiddle around with it. I've tmailed Rocky about it, but no response. I need a way to delete comments in bulk or a way to block this particular user or computer, assuming it's one computer doing it. It must be a program, can't imagine a person spending that much time doing it.

I've got a new post written but, think I'll wait to start posting till this is resolved. Annoying.

Take care 

Good morning Boys and Girls.

This isn't a "real" post, as I'm leaving here in a few minutes for a half-day long social golf thingy one of my customers is throwing for his employees. Three other vendors and I were invited and are playing together so we bought a few goofy prizes for the employees as a thank-you for the invitation and we're heading out early to put super inexpensive sleeves of golf-balls on the carts for everyone and then we'll have coffee and/or breakfast together before the event starts at eight.

So... if you get a chance and are interested... go to my post from July 18th and open the comments. You'll see that there are a dozen or more blank comments from... no one. And that's after I've spent time deleting at least twice that many over the last week or so. Seems like one particular post will be hit for a few days... then another, and always an old one. Anyone else getting this kind of spam comment? Or is it spam at all of some sort?

Now the real weird one... Anyone noticed that the titles of their posts are getting changed somehow?

Just curious.

I'll write something "real" later or tomorrow morning.

Enjoy the day all, and BGTE.

Good morning Boys and Girls!

Got-ta get up...
Got-ta get up...
Got-ta get up...
In the mor-or-or-or-ning

Got-ta get up...
Got-ta get up...
In the mor-or-or-or-or-ning, time.

This little ditty runs through my head almost every morning. It's a song from... what? I can't remember. Maybe a musical I never saw but heard a few songs from on the radio? I remember it starts with this chorus, and then goes into a couple of verses to which I also don't remember the words, though the melody is crystal clear in my head.

c,d, f, f,
c,d, f, f
c,d, f, f
d, f, a-g, a-g, a-g, a-g,

c,d, f, f,
c,d, f, f
d, f, a-g, a-g, a-g, a-g, f

Annoying. Between this constant morning thingy and the fact that if I hear or think of a song I like - or even a snippet of one - it stays in my head for days till another takes its place, there is always music running through my head. Sooo... Oh God, here we go... The big admission.

I whistle.

All the time.

Unless I'm in conversation with someone, or I'm listening to an audio-book, or if I'm playing golf... I whistle all the damn time. Not loudly, and sometimes it's more of a hollow blowing of air that only I can hear - without real tone, but it accompanies the tunes in my head just fine... then other times... it's real whistling, loud and proud and, I'm sure, annoying to those who hear me.

I assume I picked up the habit from my Grandfather who was a wonderful man, a preacher, who was forever singing or whistling when he was alone - or even when he wasn't. I got such a kick out of him when I was little.

The family cottage, or that's how we thought of it, though it was really his and my Grandma's, was in Ossineke, Michigan, about twelve miles South of Alpena on a road that swings off US 23 along Thunder Bay, a small inlet on Lake Huron.

The cottage itself was (and is, though now it's a proper house) around 150 yards up and off the shore, though that figure would vary from year to year with the water level, and leading down to the shore was a path made up mostly driftwood planks pulled from the lake, except for a section over a wooded lower area where the path was built up a bit.

In my mind's eyes and ears, I can still see and hear my Grandfather walking down toward the beach, his arms usually full of something or other carrying stuff for us or my Grandma, signing at the top of his lungs, "All things bright and beau-ti-ful, all creatures great and small..."

What a wonderful character he was. I loved him dearly. Suppose if I picked up this strange habit from him, I should just be glad of it and shut the hell up, or whistle.

Be good to everyone!

Good morning Boys and Girls.

Ankle's getting better. Sun's out and it's cool and crisp outside this morning. Couldn't ask for a nicer day.

The next couple of weeks will be a little hectic, though I'm hoping to be able to keep posting each day assuming I can come up things I think might be worth reading, the real challenge for all of us, huh?

Left Jesus a voice-mail Sunday and he called me back last night...

(ring)

"Hello."

"Hey surr."

"Hi Jesus. How you doin'?"

"Fine. Feeling good. Glad about the cease-fire."

"Me too. Think it'll hold?"

"Mmm. For a few days anyway. Never know over there."

"Yeah... Hey, you still coming over for Labor Day Weekend?"

"Planning on it. Why?"

"Feel like helping me move a few things?"

"Uh... sure. What's a few things?"

"Well, it'll take a day. But at least you'll have your own room when you come to visit."

"Really? Wow. No more of your ever-so-comfortable couch?"

"Nope." Now you'll have an ever-so comfortable pull-out sofa. I'm making the spare room, where my office will be, into a guest room as well. My desk doesn't take up much space."

"Sounds good. You're buying dinner when we're done."

"Of course."

"Any Chinese buffets near the new place?"

"Two that I've seen."

"Two? Cool. We're so there. (chuckle)"

"(chuckle) I'll find out which one is better between now and then. Labor day itself I'll cook-out. Irish Red gave me a great recipe you'll love. I'll adapt it for the grill."

"Wonderful. How's his baby?"

"Cute as a button."

"Cool. I see you and Kurt have been at it again."

"I know, I know. We do that."

"You've sure made a lot of friends from the blog, haven't you?"

"Yeah, I have. I'm thankful for it."

"You should be."

"You get a chance to keep up on many  of the blogs on tBlog?"

"Some. I read most of the people who comment on yours just cuz I see the same names all the time. I like most of them. I tend to like the funny ones since it's sort of a diversion for me."

"Makes sense."

"Oh shoot, someones trying to call in. I hate call waiting."

"(chuckle) Me too. Okay. I'll catch you later."

"See you next weekend."

"Bye Jesus."

(click.)

Good morning Boys and Girls.

Cloudy skies here. Summer seems to be beginning its slow slide toward autumn. It was in the fifties overnight; great sleeping weather.

Thankful I'm not flying anywhere soon.

At Heathrow yesterday, people waited up to seven hours to get through security, some only then to find out their flights had been cancelled.

Watched 60 minutes last night where Mike Wallace interviewed Iran's president for two segments, and came away from it again thinking that some of his beefs were indeed legitimate and that it would do us no harm to address them; a sentiment I'm sure will earn stern reprimands from those who would see such a thing as appeasement. -Almost as though once we've decided someone's our enemy, the complaints that gave them that status in the first place simply cease to exist.

It's frustrating to love one's country so much that you're willing to see and deal with it's shortcomings joyfully amid those who also love the country but more the way a dog loves it's owner, ignoring faults and having a fierce sense of loyalty based primarily on familiarity alone.

This, perhaps, explains our dog-like willingness to attack at the first signs of trouble, lashing out at anyone and everyone who might be an intruder with growls, or barred teeth or worse.

We are supposed to take those who make wild statements about wanting to eradicate "the Great Satan" at their word and act as if they speak for everyone who has issues with us, while ignoring the actual leaders who have often made far less vehement and more reasonable statements explaining why even some completely reasonable people from their regions also feel anymosity towards us these days.

Do I think the president of Iran has a complete handle on reality? No. Of course not. His anti-Zionist stance is not going to result in everyone in Israel happily packing their bags and moving to Miami. And he thinks the Holocaust was a PR deal... Crazy, admittedly.

Of course we too have lots of people in this country who feel exactly the same way, don't we? That doesn't necessarily mean that everything else he says is crazy. If that were the case, (where someone believing something that's just not so disqualifies everything else that person says) we'd have to disqualify everything anyone says, cuz I promise, we all have one or two beliefs that are not based in reality, at least to others.

For a synopsis of the interview, go to the 60 minutes web site, though you'll have to get through the first few minutes before they seemed to get comfortable with each other.

Sounds like they've just cracked a possible plot to blow up the Mackinaw Bridge here in Michigan. Great.

Seems to me we'd sure be better off if we somehow worked to make allies of more of the world in this war on terrorism. I know, I know.. Iran is a terrorist haven. Syria is a terrorist haven. There's LOTS of terrorist havens over there. I say, we could change that without war. Impossible? Nah. It's not.

Be good to everyone.

Good morning Boys and Girls.

Saturday morning lazy-thing going on here. Slept in till damn near eight after waking up at five-thirty and deciding I would fight my internal alarm and go back to sleep for an hour or two. It was an epic struggle that lasted all of about ten seconds.

I won.

So, coffee in hand, I'll attempt to write the post I've avoided writing for days in the name of keeping things light and fluffy around here.

Oh well.

I'd like to lay out my idea of a sound strategy that the US, Great Britain and the other allies involved in the Iraq War should "undertake to effect and implement." (Stuff we ought do, for those of us sick of politico speech.)

(1.) We should, over a six month period, bring every troop home. We should set a specific date for the last soldier to leave and inform the standing democratically elected government of Iraq that that is our intention.

(2.) We should close every single military base in the Middle-East over a five year period and leave that part of the world alone to settle it's disputes as they see fit while offering non-military support to those countries and groups needing humanitarian help.

(3.) We should set a date ten years hence to end the importation of all fossil fuels and begin an Apollo style project to enhance and discover new and more efficient methods for fueling our transportation devices and heating our homes, and other buildings.

Now the biggie.

(4.) We should begin a compulsory conscription program for ALL young adults once they've graduated from High School or have gotten to graduation age, if they've quit school. This means everyone. Men and women would be required to give two years of service to the country in some capacity; be it in the military, providing security at our borders, assisting the elderly, working for social service agencies, or even cleaning up the highways.

The "Jobs" would be defined and prioritized by congress with commensurate pay and other residual benefits to the young people being set on sliding scales to encourage people to go where we they are needed most during any given period of time.

All of the kids would be put through some sort of basic training prior to being deployed in their chosen field, and all would be required to serve at the President's pleasure when and if an emergency arises.

The key to this "draft" being accepted will be ensuring that there are no 4-F's or other "Daddy got me out of serving" situations. The only people who would not be forced to serve in some manner, would be those incapable of doing ANYTHING for the country. I'd think, for instance, that bed-ridden disabled people who can neither speak, type or use any of their limbs might be allowed to skip this right of passage into citizenship, but those cases are not all that common. For conscientious objectors? There will be plenty for them to do too that have nothing to do with serving in a military capacity.

(5) I suggest a constitutional amendment limiting Presidential power that precludes him or her from ordering attack on any nation that has not attacked us directly or declared war on us... This shouldn't be needed, but evidently... it is.

(6) We need to strengthen and reorganize our covert overseas intelligence abilities. This does not mean we need to be assassinating foreign leaders on an ad-hoc basis, but it does mean that when we find a Saddam type messing with his people, we do what we can to help those people get rid of the guy without sending in bombers and marines.

The flip side of this coin is that we as a nation never again make nicey-nice with thugs when it's "to our advantage."

I know, I know, this is super-simplified. Hey, I'll be happy to go on for days here, but who among you would bother reading it? I'm not sure even I would.

Be good to everyone.

Good morning Boys and Girls.

After long and careful thought, I have made a big decision.

I will now refer to myself as...

...

...

(ready?)...

...

Obadiah.

Huh? Like it? HUH?

Where, you might ask, did this come from?

Well, It's an Old Testament name that shows up in a few books, but that's not important now.

No. I'm taking my new name from where I heard it the first time back in high school.

I wasn't in Guys and Dolls as a freshman, but I think it was the first musical I'd seen on stage at any level. Sarah Brown, the female protagonist from the Save-A-Soul mission falls for Sky Masterson, who is "likes-a-wise" (sorry, gots to gets with the lingo-o'-the-play heah') enthralled with her. Sky's an inveterate gambler and all-around wise-guy, but with a heart of gold and Sarah, an all-around good girl, has a heart made of similar, or if possible, an even more precious metal.

At some point in the play, when they've finally given in to the fact that they're smitten with each other, she asks his name. He sheepishly tells her. The great slick and sly Sky Masterson's given name?

-Obadiah.

I've always loved that for some reason. -Kind of like finding out Sting's real name was Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner. Strikes me as wonderfully funny.

So? I want rename myself Obadiah as a double twist on the idea... ya know, where a geeky dude who acts like a know-it-all pundit half the time also wants people to think he's an okay person and therefore takes on this moniker to serve THAT end. Huh? HUH!? Great idea, don't you think?

Oh I won't change my name on here. I like surrogate just fine, but out in the real world? -I'm thinking this will change my whole life!

(ring)

"Hello. Obadiah here."

"Hey, uh, O-ba-dee-aoo, -am I pronouncing that right? Well whoever the f*ck you are, get your ass over here. I need you to do a job."

"Yes sir!"

(click)

Hmm. Guess it wouldn't change much after all.

Damn.


Be good to everyone.

Please read Dr. Forbush's article called "Another Review of our Current Situation.... and I mean, really, read it.

Good morning Boys and Girls.

How about that? Lieberman lost. I'm surprised. I thought he'd pull it out. A good man, but a good man with bad ideas about the merits of this war. He says he'll run as an independent, and he may do well since he didn't lose by much and he might pull a bunch of centrist Republicans, except most of the "centrist" Republicans I know have had it with this war too, so his positions may hinder him in that effort. We'll see.

.......................

How about those conjoined twins in Utah who've been separated? Is that amazing or what? Seems like every time you hear about this sort of operation taking place one or both of them end up dying, but so far it sounds like they're doing well. Great news.

.......................

As a kid and a younger man I was a Detroit Tiger fan.

(For those of you outside the U.S., that's our local baseball team. Baseball is a game that makes very little sense. It's object is to beat the bejesus out of a small white ball which is thrown at your head by "pitcher." Through a series of convoluted maneuvers, you're supposed to have more of your team's players completed the task of running around a decent sized circle - in short, one quarter circle bursts, which is interrupted by long periods of inaction - than your opponents.)

This year, I find myself caught up in their success and have watched portions of at least a couple of dozen games. Last night when they lost, I actually felt a slight jolt of disappointment, something I haven't felt since I was thirteen or fourteen years old.

.......................

Last night just before I went to sleep, I checked tblog and there on tblurt were rinna and godsmack/crazedone/april. That was nice to see.

Be good to everyone.

Good morning Boys and Girls.

Sunny and warm here but not oppressive. Hope we've seen the last of the severe heat for a while.

The violence along the border between Israel and Lebanon is escalating. Things in Iraq look to be working toward civil war. So, things are looking up for those who think war is the answer. Tit for tat rules the day.

We'll hear about how evil the other side is and how, with stern resolve, we can eradicate this menace from the earth. We're stronger, they'll say, if we put our forces together, good will triumph over the forces of darkness.

The fact that both side are using this exact same argument will escape the ideologues on both sides. "We are right because we are right!" The chant will gain ferocity as the months pass, and perhaps there will be an all-time high watermark passed by the flood of unleashed passions and bitter anger from the disorganized leadership on both sides of the issue.

We are the Great Satan to them. They are the embodiment of channeled evil to us. As they make their attacks using all weapons available to them against us, we will do the same, though for now, perhaps we'll avoid using the ultimate weapons so we can not only hold them in reserve, but that so we can hold ourselves out as the side with "restraint." As I said, for now anyway.

How many of the participants will ever accept that it's only the grand genetic lottery that placed "us" here and "them" there, and that had birthplaces been reversed, not a damn thing would have changed. See, it's exactly the same mindset, either way. It's "We're right and they're wrong" that fuels it all.

And please, don't use the Hitler analogy. Why did Hitler come to power? Because the conditions imposed on Germany after the FIRST world war were so onerous and caused such economic havoc, that people actually VOTED the jerk into office. (Let's not even get into the relatively minor incident that triggered that first one.)

Hitler's election is proof that while democracy is a nice system, that it can backfire, just like it will do if it's imposed in the Middle-East under OUR auspices now or in the near future. Heck, we're going to help give official power to the very groups we're so worked up about, unless, of course we rig the elections. Democracy is a gift people must give to themselves, at least if it's to work for the people living under it.

Be good to everyone.

Good morning Boys and Girls.

It's a lovely Sunday morning here in our part of the Mid-West, which is actually still in the Eastern half of the country. I've never understood that. -A holdover from before the West was won? I suppose we're really just the Great Lakes region, what with the Great Lakes all around us and all... But we think of ouselves as Mid-Westerners, just without as much of the characteristic lilt to our speech.

Which brings me to the subject of today's... What? Thing.

For the first time in my life, people have started to tell me I have a very distinct accent. Twice in the last week people have asked me where I'm from and assumed I was from New England some place. I was shocked. "Why," I said, "I'm from Michigan. We don't have much of an accent, unless you get up to the U.P. where that Minnesota, Northern Wisconsin and North Dakota thing starts to kick in."

"No," they'd say, "Aren't you from Boston or New Hampshire or somewhere over there?"

"No. If we have any accent at all it sounds like the ubiquitous T.V. anchorman. Flat and boring."

"Well, a lot of the people around here do, but not you. You sound like you could run an inn in Vermont." At which point I started thinking of the brothers Daryl and Stephanie the maid from Bob Newhart's second TV show, good, but always a weak sister to his first.

"You're nuts." I'd say, tossing off the comment, which was easier to do with the first person who made the observation than with the second, who said something similar.

"See?" they'd say. "Can't you hear that bit of Kate Hepburn in your voice? Maybe a pinch of Kennedy in there? - one of the lessor Kennedys; maybe a third-cousin in the Teddy wing? Kind of nasal... a little clipped?"

"Oh come ON. I do NOT have an accent!"

"Just a bit," they'd say, holding thumb and index-finger an eighth of an inch apart, squinting with one eye completely closed and sounding like Robert De Niro in a mob comedy describing his level of annoyance after a minor screw-up where the wrong guy is offed during a "hit".

I give up. Maybe I should move North and East to fit in; to be with my people. Buy an inn. Wear plaid shirts and get a wife who wears sweaters from the early eighties. Maybe hire Tom Posten as my handyman. Start to stutter a bit in incredulity when someone says something shocking.

Or I could give up talking altogether.

No. Bad idea. That would make far too many people jump up and down for joy.

Be good to everyone.