2120502011 2 May 2012 1/1 5 Geography, Nature, Science
The Postman
. . . right after Costner has made his escape from the Holness Army. It's night; it's raining; it's the northwest.
No snow, but with those parameters it's a lot like winter, even in the summertime. The Postman is cold as a well-digger's ass in February.
212050301 3 May 2012 1/1 8 Politics, Statecraft, the Press, Money
America needs a prime directive. Ref Star Trek.
Next Generation, I think. Can't remember the concept surfacing in the original series.
We need a mindset which forbids us interfering in other cultures. Let them find their own way . . . like we did ours. I think there's a couple of Constitutional Amendments which cover that, at least in America.
"What's good for General Bullmoose is good for the USA." Al Capp — Li'l Abner.
. . . and "what's good for the USA is good for the rest of the world." — G. W. Bush (not his idea, he wasn't all that smart. His handlers; they always have handlers, don't they?) and likely a few other misguided U. S. chief executives
212050401 4 May 2012 1/2 15 The Movies, Show Biz
The stereotypical last rock scene.
Burials in western movies amount to covering the corpse with rocks. Lotsa rocks in the desert southwest. Besides, it's really tough to dig in the desert. Rocks is the right way to go.
I'm trying to remember if there was ever a scene where the rock layin' went from start to finish.
Nope. Don't think so. We just get to see the placement of the last rock.
Two Mules for Sister Sara with Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine.
The Earthling with William Holden; set in Australia. Most Australia movies count as westerns
212050402 4 May 2012 2/2 14 Funnies
These three rowdily clever — and reasonably intelligent — friends get on an airplane, heading home after a staff assistance visit to some far-flung corner of the enclave. They're in a three-seat row. It's a DC-9.
No sooner they settle in, fasten seatbelts, and kick off their shoes, the window seat says, "Hey, I think I'd like something to drink."
"Sit; I'll get 'em," says the guy in the aisle seat. He returns with three cokes.
About half way back to home-drome, aisle seat says, "Think I need to take a whiz; I'll be right back."
"Hey, how 'bout another drink?" says middle seat.
"Me, too," says window seat.
Aisle returns, cokes in hand, the basic physiological function filed away.
About a hundred miles out, the engine noise abates a bit as the flight deck crew begins the long, slow descent into home-drome.
Everybody, three-seat row included, begins to rustle around, getting ready for arrival. The three rowdy friends tighten seat belts, and begin to prep for landing.
They slip on their shoes.
Instantly, aisle senses the duplicity of his comrades.
"Why," he asks, "why do we do these things to ourselves? We are fellow professionals; we are buds . . .
"Why all this spitting in shoes?
. . . and why all this pissing in cokes?"
212050501 5 May 2012 1/2 15 The Movies, Show Biz
Only in the movies does the passenger get in the car on the driver's side, and then scoots over. Never happens in real life. Only in the movies. They always do it that way.
Why?
Guess it's really expensive to reposition the camera to the other side of the car. Cheaper to look stupid than move the camera.
Really?
212050502 5 May 2012 2/2 8 Politics, Statecraft, the Press, Money
News writers:
"Two pilots eject safely after F-15 crashes."
After?
I punched out once. An F-16 with catastrophic engine failure.
But it sure as hell wasn't "after" the crash.
212051201 12 May 2012 1/1 4 Education
'Suitcase' Simpson . . .
Robert B. Parker's Jesse Stone series. Death In Paradise.
Jesse (Selleck) is reading to the comatose Luther, a passage which explains how Simpson (the ball player) came by his name.
Miss Mary says, "Hold it."
Seems she taught the literary piece, and 'suitcase' refers to his feet, which were, it appears, as big as suitcases.
That hammers it.
'Nother, brand new, reincarnation professional pursuit . . .
. . . along with butcher, drummer, dancer (choreographer?), and the others (which I can't remember right now) . . .
Teacher. Of literature . . .
I know how to teach (jet fighter instructor pilot, JROTC, Sunday school, junior college math.) Literature.
I read a lot. That's literature. But literature is a helluva lot more than good novels. There's poetry. — that's intimidating.
212052201 22 May 2012 1/1 3 People
Six o'clock news . . .
Somebody is raffling off a vial of Ronald Reagan's blood.
Ye-e-u-u-ch-ch-ch- . . .
Let's say that an acquaintance — and his wife — have acquired the vial. They invite my bride and me over for dinner — along with a few other mutual friends. We are to be awed and impressed by their possession of a small tube of biological lubricant, ostensibly from the body of somebody known by a helluva lot more people than know us or you.
That is fuckin' sick.
I think I will go home early. Hopefully, sometime well short of the gran finale . . .
212052501 25 May 2012 1/4 2 Civilization
Learning . . .
. . . to do new things in old ways . . .
. . . or . . .
. . . to do old things in new ways . . .
Which is it?
Could be it's not the 'ways'
Could be it's the things we're trying to do . . . ?
212052502 25 May 2012 2/4 8 Politics, Statecraft, the Press, Money
The day will surely come when dictatorships will be no more.
When it finally dawns, with what precious little intellect the dictator possesses, that though one might imprison the body, not ever can one imprison the mind.
The day will come, surely God, when there will be no more Attilas, Hitlers, Stalins, Mugabes, Gaddafis, Cheneys, Assads, Obamas.
Indeed the day will come, I have no doubt, when humans won't even recall that those unsavory characters ever existed.
212052503 25 May 2012 3/4 10 God, the Bible, and Religion
" . . . one day is as a thousand years . . . "
Tim (Jonas) says, "God's got an awfully big clock . . . "
212052504 25 May 2012 4/4 9 Species, Ethnicity, Gender
" . . . No-oo-oo-o-o- . . . "
Sometimes, I can't tell if she's talkin' to the cat or to me.
212052701 27 May 2012 1/1 9 Species, Ethnicity, Gender
"Darling, will you just shut up an drive?"
Tora Tora Tora
Naval Intell guy to his wife as they are rushing madly to the White House with the news that a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor is imminent
The Navy guy is in a bad spot. He must do his duty, but he is obliged to defer to his wife.
Husbands.
They are the world's premiere diplomats.
212053101 31 May 2012 1/2 6 Military, War
The French and Indian War.
We're watching Last of the Mohicans, with Daniel Day Lewis, Madeleine Stowe, Russell Means, Pete Postelthwaite (GRHS), and a few other minor theatrical luminaries.
It was the French and the Indians (native northwestern hemispherians) against the British. The were fighting because they both wanted the same thing — control of what is known today as the North American continent (north of what was known then, though not by the belligerents, as what is known today, approximately, as Mexico.)
. . . and they slaughtered one another . . .
Why the hell didn't they just get together on a random Friday night and have a drinking contest? How 'bout an arm wrestling event between the respective champions?
No, they needed to do it the biblical way — Israel against the Philistines. David against Goliath. The important thing is that blood be shed.
Humans are a bunch of fucking ignoramusses.
Surely, somewhere, way out there among the stars, there exists a race far more worthy, far better equipped to populate the universe.
If we're it . . . Jesus . .
. . . there's one long-ass way left to go..
212053102 31 May 2012 2/2 9 Species, Ethnicity, Gender
I've been surrounded by women (wonder where that quaint term came from? — female of the species) most of my life: grandmothers, mother, full complement of aunts, sisters, nieces, and female friends, both old and young.
It is an incontrovertible truth: Men do not understand women.
. . . and the converse . . .
I'm 73 years old, and those truths are two of the ones I understand and hold inviolate.
What was the great Creator thinking . . . ?
212061301 13 Jun 2012 1/2 5 Geography, Nature, Science
(From LRTM . . . )
Is it possible that, if the mind of man — a man — could conjure a circumstance, any circumstance, could it be that that circumstance could actually exist at some place and some time?
212061302 13 Jun 2012 2/2 1 Birth, Youth, Age, Death
(From LRTM . . . )
This started out thinking about why it is that people want to live. Probably the most fundamental human drive is the desire to live. So, why do I want to live?
Because, I want to stick around and sense all that is in my world. And I think when the Great Creator invented humankind, He ingeniously included as a component — or components, maybe — an affinity for the beauty of the world and the universe.
It's why He made the grass green, why He made the mountains majestic, why the heavens magnificent, and why He made women beautiful (if you're a guy.)
So, the prospect of finding myself in a condition where I would be unable to sense the surroundings of the physical universe is repulsive to me. I don't want to die because continued life is fundamentally essential to sensation.
This could probably go further.
212061501 15 Jun 2012 1/1 1 Birth, Youth, Age, Death
(From LRTM . . . )
Human beings get better at things they do repetitively, like driving a car, or flying an airplane, or driving a boat, or wiping your ass, even.
There are some really, really important things that happen in life that you get to do only once. The two that jump right out at me are, number one, getting born, and number two, dying.
At my age and station in life, I think a lot about dying. You know, you don't live forever. The day's gonna come when that ol' sunuvabitch with the scythe will look you in the face and say, "Come with me."
And you don't have a chance to practice it. You don't rehearse it, you just . . .
. . . it's a come-as-you-are event.
Which, perhaps, suggests to me that there's more to dying than we know, or will ever know. Because nobody ever comes back and tells you what it was like — 'do this; don't do that' — etc.
212062101 21 Jun 2012 1/2 8 Politics, Statecraft, the Press, Money
Aung San Suu Kyi.
Nelson Mandela.
Two plus decades political prisoners.
Don't ever leave control of the guns in the hands of the weak. They will simply incarcerate those strong enough to orchestrate constructive change — who don't have any guns.
Weak gunmen are a curse upon human society. The strong must control the guns.
Today's case in point is Obama's Homeland Security Department which needs, apparently, 450 million rounds of hollow point ammunition. Not bean bags and blanks like those which armed Brian Terry and his Border Patrol colleague.
Just . . . what the hell . . . is going on? What's the plan? I am concerned.
212062102 21 Jun 2012 2/2 15 The Movies, Show Biz
Cruisin' the channels — the guy way — waiting for Miss Mary's movie proposals for the evening. Stopped, briefly, by Channel 49 COMW ('sposed to have something to do with comedy.)
Stephen Colbert. Spelled Kohl-burt, pronounced cole-bear. Bastard must be French.
This essobee is less funny than Letterman. Guess I ain't the demographic.
Stuck around for Jon Stewart. He had some reasonbly good political satire. May be hope for these bastards yet.
212062701 27 Jun 2012 1/1 8 Politics, Statecraft, the Press, Money
Equal protection of the law . . .
The Supreme Court three days ago ruled Constitutional the central issue in Arizona's immigration law (SB 1070.) Within hours, the Obama administration, through the Homeland Security Department, cancelled for Arizona the procedure by which local law enforcement officials turn over illegal aliens to the federal government for adjudication.
Here's the question:
Is it just Arizona, or does that cancellation apply to all states?
If it's Arizona only, what is the rationale of the Obama administration for singling out this one state?
The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution directly and specifically forbids unequal application of the law.
Unless his proscription applies to all states, not just to Arizona, the president and his Secretary of Homeland Security (of whom I am profoundly ashamed; she was Arizona's governor and should know better,) are blatently violating the Constitution. They are discriminating against seven million Arizonans. Why persecute this minority? It's not racism; Arizona citizens come from all ethnicities. It looks like the action of a petulant little tyrant who has been put in his place by the Supreme Court. He is rebelling; he is trying to punish the Court for not seeing things his way. And he thinks the way to do that is by excluding this State from participating like other states in enforcing immigration law.
Will he take the same action against Alabama? Georgia? South Carolina? Utah? Indiana? Against all the other States which have similar laws, now adjudged Constitutional by the Supreme Court?
Does he act, or doesn't he? And why? And how?
I also want to know what the Congress intends to do about that. What action? When?
The administration is saying in no uncertain terms that they do not intend to enforce the law. If a public official refuses to do his duty, what are we to do? There are legal and ethical procedures in place to hold them accountable, to remove them from office, to prosecute them for dereliction of duty. To send them to jail when found guilty.
How soon can we expect Congress to act? To what extent?
Or will the Congress simply abdicate its duty?
Paul (Gosar, U. S. Representative, Congressional District 1, State of Arizona.)
Jon (Kyl, U. S. Senator, State of Arizona.)
John (McCain, U. S. Senator, State of Arizona.)
I want and expect an answer.
From you.
Not a piece of bullshit boiler plate. Not a member of your staff. I want to hear from you.
Personally.
Quickly.
Affirmatively (new definition of affirmative action.)
I'm in the phone book. Call me.
212072301 23 Jul 2012 1/1 3 People
Punishment.
For people like Jared Loughner and James Holmes.
A series of personal conferences with someone really good at it to indoctrinate the murderer with the total and intimate details of the lives they destroyed. And fix their living conditions so that there is absolutely no possibility for them to commit suicide.
A person, such as Loughner and Holmes, intelligent enough to plan and commit their capital crimes, is also intelligent enough — human enough — to feel guilt, to feel abject, profound remorse for the lives they have destroyed.
Closure. Retribution — against the evil sunzabitches who perpetrated mass murder.
212072601 26 Jul 2012 1/1 15 The Movies, Show Biz
I think it may be possible to tell what an actor (actress) is like in real life by observing, carefully, what roles they choose to play — and how they play those roles — on stage or on the screen.
. . . Debbie Reynolds in The Unsinkable Molly Brown.
I have some good friends who transported Ms Reynolds in . . .
. . . not a Citation X, but in their C-172 . . .
The two craft constitute, approximately, both ends of the Part 135 spectrum. My friends owned and operated perhaps one of the world's smallest FBOs (google it) on one of the world's smallest 4-thousand-foot paved runways.
. . . in western Arizona.
God.
What a lovely place to fly!!
212072701 27 Jul 2012 1/1 8 Politics, Statecraft, the Press, Money
I see where the UN has failed to complete the deal on a global arms trade treaty. Part of the reason is that the Americans did not see in the proposed wording enough protection of our 2nd Amendment rights.
Any hint that the UN could or should have any part in protecting my right to " . . . keep and bear arms . . . " insults me personally and affronts my American citizenship. I do not need nor do I want their help. The 2nd Amendment and my country's sacred Constitution is sufficient to that purpose.
Anyway, the UN is corrupt in its administration and finances. And it is ineffective in its peace-keeping efforts in countries around the world, particularly in Africa. The short-comings of the present Washington administration are bad enough; both the president and the secretary of state are in favor of this ill-advised treaty. We don't need to add a bumbling UN to there misguided efforts.
Mark this as an early victory in unseating the Obama administration a hundred days from now. It's an important step toward taking back the America we knew a few decades ago. Let's keep the roll going.
212072801 28 Jul 2012 1/1 8 Politics, Statecraft, the Press, Money
120,000 . . .
. . . Syrians have lost their homes, lives, and way of life because a man named Al Assad cannot accept that he does not have the answer to Syria's future. His father did not have it, and now, 40 years later, he doesn't have it.
But the dumb sonofabitch doesn't know how to get his ass — and his weapons — out of the way of Syria's wave of the future.
What a bastard.
Dictatorships. They never work.
212073001 30 Jul 2012 1/1
NIFTY idea for a novel . . .
Converse of Waterworld.
Surface of the earth dries up (the water disappears deep into the interior of the earth.)
The historians, the archeologists, the scavengers sweep the earth's new surface for all the shipwrecks, for the detritus of all of earth's historical naval battles.
And what do they find . . . ?
And what history book revisions are required . . . ?
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