My Thoughts On 9/11

Freedom Ain't Free Dammit....

I've been pretty much sitting around here this week distracted with personal and other professional crap for the most part but in the back of my mind I  knew that the 10th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks on NY City and the Pentagon and Pennsylvania was coming up.

Fox NEWS and the local and national newspapers have all been hyping things up but to me it pisses me off that this date on the calendar has to be HYPED UP in the first place.

After all...what isn't there to understand about a bunch of towel headed Muslim Jihadist assholes coming over here from third world countries where they don't have toilets or hot and cold running water or electricity and cable TV and blowing us all up because we have toilets and hot and cold running water and electricity and cable TV ?

Seriously, if you follow the news stories about these shitheads which did the 9/11 airliner strike thing these limp penised little Arab boys spent the time they weren't in the flight training program sitting in HOOTERS and in local TITTY BARS while at the same time praising ALLAH and looking for their 72 Virgins. They hated America and Americans but they enjoyed the very things that they could not find in their own countries.

It's the ultimate parody of their religious faith that as far as I can tell that each and every one of them came here to the United By-God States of 'Merica years in advance of their attack on us and our way of life and lived as Americans and took advantage of all of the conveniences and privileges available in our country and our way of life here in North America.

And then they proceeded to attack us.

But what is more insidious today is the attack we are suffering from within our country.  From within our own GOVERNMENT.

The idiot Mayor of NY City isn't even going to let there be Clergy or any prayers offered at tomorrow's "Official" ceremony.

The idiot Mayor of NY City and stupid Governor of NY isn't even making any special accommodations for "first responders"--fire fighters and police men---at tomorrow's "Official" ceremony.

I say it's a sad state of affairs when we don't need the towel headed jihadists to attack and change our way of life here in America.

They've already won this war because we're attacking ourselves from within... 

Obama's Waterloo

God Save the Queen The US of A

I've seen a bunch of crazy crap happen in my lifetime Ladies and Gentlemen.

Heck, I've done a bunch of crazy crap in my lifetime.

Just ask some of the guys and girls I went to high school and college with and they'll tell you so.

But any way...I tried to sit through our so called "President's" speech last night on his "jobs program."

I say "sit through" because before it was over with I was ON MY FEET...

not cheering, but yelling at the TV pacing back and forth bitching and complaining because this guy is so full of crap.

Pat got mad at me and Missy the Turbo Pup went and hid in her crate.

I'm serious Ladies and Gentlemen, if you buy this load of bull hockey being sold by our Chief Executive I have some Ocean front property in Nevada I'd like to make you a good deal on...

"Peggy" Strikes Again

I'm Past Being Tired Of Dealing With Indian Call Centers

OK...here's my latest gripe this morning.

Freaking Software Companies selling you "convenient" downloads of their products with limited times to actually download and install their product.

Take Norton 360, for example.

They sold me a "one to three computer" version of their product about a year ago for 79 bucks or something there abouts, and I jacked around and only installed in on one of my five computers, and since I didn't pay them the extra ten or twenty bucks for the "extended download period" I've spent most of the past year without anti virus/spyware protection on my primary laptop.

Then last week I was snooping around my bank and credit card statements online and noticed a charge from Symantic for $76.46. I was thinking WTF is this and realized that my crappy single copy of the antivirus/anti-spyware software had "AUTOMATICALLY RENEWED" itself, when today I can go online and  buy a new copy of the three computer download for less than $50...or better yet I can go to Best Buy or Staples and buy a DVD which I can hold in my hands and install on up to three computers any time I want, but NooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

I'm in download SOFTWARE HELL and I've called their stupid customer support line three times now and ended up hanging up THREE TIMES NOW because I get some freaking idiot AKA "PEGGY" from India or Bang Ladesh or somewhere else that can't understand and barely speaks the KING'S FREAKING ENGLISH and after I concisely tell him what I want--MY MONEY BACK--he proceeds to start asking inane questions and trying to convince me not to CANCEL MY FREAKING "SUBSCRIPTION" TO THEIR SOFTWARE SERVICE.

I'm too old for this crap, Ladies and Gentlemen.  I'm going to get my walking stick my walker on my scooter and ride down where ever it is that I need to ride down to in Southern California and kick some ass this morning. And If I need to get on an airplane and fly over to India in the process and teach everyone in the room the meaning of the words "I WANT MY MONEY BACK" I'm liable to do just that.

(taking a big breath here boss...)

That will be all...for now...

Today's Tropical Weather Tip

Tropical Storm "Maria" Pretty Far South...

I'm sitting around this afternoon pretty much just picking my nose and scratching my ass trying to get focused, and in the process my review of the local and international weather maps I noticed something which might be of interest to you in the next 7 to 10 days.

Check out this map showing the present location and predicted path of the 13th storm of this season--"Maria":

That path...Ladies and Gentlemen...is pretty darn far south toward the equator for this point of Longitude on the map.

That path could take this storm...even only as a tropical storm rather than a Hurricane...over places like Trinidad & Tobago or even Aruba if it doesn't swing north like predicted.

And if that storm continues Westward from that low Latitude for long enough then we might better be remembering a storm called ANDREW.

Of course it's yet to be seen, but I'm just saying...

(And I reserve the right to say "I told you so" in a couple of weeks...)

The President Talks About Jobs Tonight

My Belly Button Has Been Puckering and Un-Puckering For Days Now...


I somehow missed the Republican Debate last night.  I scanned around the channels but Comcast was still acting up and I was too lazy to look in the newspaper to find out what channel it was on.

I guess that there is a pretty good chance I can't miss the President's address to both houses of congress tonight because it will be broadcast on every channel except the Food Network and Comedy Central.

Then again I could manage to fall asleep since I guess it will pre-empt Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy which run at 7 PM and 7:30 PM.

I bet you $100 that the speech will include the words "investment" (government spending), "revenue" (new taxes on the wealthy), and "infrastructure improvements" (government and/or Union jobs) at least about a dozen times each.

The whole thing (The American Jobs Act) will be dead on arrival to Congress because the House will never pass it because they've already seen it a couple of times and rejected it out of hand every single time.

Obama is so far in over his head as President that he can't find his own ass with both hands, a metal detector, a Geiger counter,  and a flashlight.

"Country Roads" And Other Stuff

My Absolute Favorite Singer

I've seen James Taylor perhaps a dozen times in person, and my vocal range allows me to do some of his most famous songs in a manner and style similar to his I'm told.

I have a fairly broad range of musical taste but Mr. Taylor and Jimmy Buffet best fit my lifestyle and mindset most of the time, and I'd like to think that if I had pursued music as a profession rather than a hobby I could have been in their company as peers given the chance and having expended a great deal of effort to get there.

That said...YouTUBE gives us a look at a couple of really nice selections this morning for your enjoyment...



Then There is "Fire and Rain" which I do fairly regularly on Karaoke night at our local pub:

A George Wallace Democrat Talks Modern Politics

Get A Nice Glass of Cold Sweet Southern Iced Tea And Sit Down For A Minute...


For those of you which haven't been paying attention or are just wandering by this blog, you need to know that I was born and raised a "George Wallace" Democrat as a child, and the experience has affected me and today I think grounded me in a form of political sanity continuing throughout all of my Adult life.

You see, you had no option back then in Lower Alabama when I was a non-voting child.

Just like it was Black and White, it was Republican or Democrat, and as the old saying goes you could run a Yellow Dog on the political ticket and most people would vote for the Dog over a college educated white or black boy any and every day back then if it had the word Democrat by its name.

It was the North against the South--a war that had already be lost or won depending on your perspective.

It was the University of Alabama versus Auburn University in Football...Bear Bryant and "Shug" Jordan leading the charge.

But things have changed and my mind has wandered over the past 52 years and 4 days, and in my wandering I'm constantly WONDERING what the hell has happened to this country in the process?

Are we really just a country full of stupid selfish people that will vote and do anything offered as long as it puts money in our pockets and allows us to sit around making bad decisions while letting other people pay for the results?

Are we really all that excited about "HOPE and CHANGE" when now after almost three years there's barely any change left in the cash register drawer?

I HOPE that there might be CHANGE for a twenty dollar bill, but the way things are going with this government if you give them a TWENTY they'll ask for another FIVE as a fee for making CHANGE.

Is it just ME?

It's Raining...

All Over The world Hard Here In West Knoxtown...

As I've said about a Zillion times before if you know me in real life, and I've probably written it many hundreds if not a thousand times before here on this blog...

...being a self proclaimed student of math and statistics...

there's a good reason the old grey haired men which went to their graves before us decided to put numbers together and produce things like "means" and "the bell curve" and most importantly...

A V E R A G E S.

Averages aren't really just designed to report the classroom grades of so-called "students" sitting in Government buildings against their will.

Averages tell us how things have been and probably will be--without some new outside influence--in the future.

For instance, if the average temperature in September in a given location in the US is 84 degrees F, and recently you've been in that city on those dates and the temperature was 64 degrees F...

...there's a pretty darn good chance that later this month or at least at the same time next year or years that the sun is going to show up and make things 94 degrees F just to get things back to AVERAGE in the record books.

We're going through that same sort of thing this Labor Day weekend with the local rainfall average here in Knoxtown.

It started raining before lunch time yesterday and it hasn't stopped since then.

Not really a hard threatening Thunderstorm type of rain...

...I'm talking a SOAKING kind of rain that comes down real steady and after 24 or 36 hours adds up to a pile of water in your back yard.

The Turbo Pup's swimming pool is almost overflowing right now because of the rain.

Here's the "Storm Total Map" from the NOAA website for our area

We really needed the rain because the month of August set some records for dryness here, but then again Mother Nature has a sense of humor and just to get the AVERAGES straightened out she sent us all of the water in one shipment I guess.

So things are back to normal here in Eastern Tennessee come Tuesday Morning after the Holiday weekend, and I hope everyone had half as much fun as I did in the past three days.

Regards Y'all...

Monday Morning Music

A Well Planned "Impromptu" Public Performance

There was a time...about a hundred years ago 35 years ago, when I held a musical instrument in my hands for at least three or four hours every day. Between practice at home and then band practice during the school weekdays, followed by Friday nights at half-time in the football stadium, I probably sat or stood with a trumpet in my hands for 25 hours each week.

Then there were the guitars--both electric and acoustic--and a little piano/electronic keyboard, and in more recent years I've run around the planet carrying a briefcase full of Honer and Lee Oscar Harmonicas (and of course my real Austrailian Didgeridoo which has never left my house)....

But the point of this story this morning is that music and making music has been a nice part of my life. I've never really been good enough or otherwise made any money doing it (playing music) in the process, but I have played solo for 10,000 people at one time in a football stadium, and I've blown my harps for small crowds from Key West to Savannah to Atlanta and now Knoxville over the past 15 years...

and when my Blog Idols over at Powerline mentioned this YouTube Video of the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra just showing up in the City's Central Train Station and putting on a performance of Ravel's "Bolero"...



...I was wishing I could participate in something like that...

Pretty nice, eh?


More at 3:30 AM...Check out this version...