Just come out and tell me you want me to contribute...

Got this "survey" from the DNC the other day. While it purports to be a "Grassroots Survey of Democratic Leaders", what it really wants is my money. And, if I had any laying around, I'd be more than happy to give it to them since (as you might be able to tell from some preceding posts) I have nothing good to say about either the current incumbent President or the rest of his party. However, this stealth approach to my wallet does annoy me.

What also annoys me is that the questions on the survey are so constructed as to almost demand certain answers. For example, take question 7:

Do you support new tax cuts targeted at working families?
Response 1: Yes, with our econmy struggling, working families need a tax break. Response 2: No, additional tax cuts at this time will only worsen the federal deficit.

See? It is obvious what answer they want (and expect) respondents to supply. The whole thing is constructed the same way. And that annoys me as much, if not more, than the fact that the whole thing is actually a request for donations. (Suggested minimum being $35: inflation rears its ugly head.)

Ah, screw it...the whole thing landed in the circular file...They'll start getting money from me next month...but it won't be at the level they think they want...On the other hand, it will be regular and monthly from October through the national elections next year...

Somethng has gone terribly wrong...

I grew up in the post-WWII years. I was born in 1945 (OK, so now you know I'm an old fart at this point in my life...), so my formative years were pretty much during this country's golden age. Sure, there were termites in the foundations so the whole thing was pretty shaky to say the least, but, still, those were, for some of us, golden years.

I grew up in a town in central New Jersey where we could leave our doors unlocked pretty much all the time...as a kid I never had a key because I didn't need one...the doors of the house were never locked. My town was a town of...I dunno...about 30-40,000 souls, and we had no problem with kids wandering around at will. None of my friends and none of my younger sister's friends were ever bothered. As a ten-year old kid, I could ride my bike just about anywhere in town without worrying about "strangers". Hell, as a 5-year old kid, I used to walk a couple blocks to friend's houses to play. Nobody thought anything of it.

I bring all that up to emphasize that my background is not the same as the background of adults who are 30 years younger than me. In many ways, we are from different places even though, geographically, we grew up in the same physical space.

I have mentioned before how much I like Fred Clark's writing. Frankly, I think he should be much more widely known than he is. I think he writes as well as any syndicated columnist from my youth...Fred is one of those people who grew up in the same space I did, only 30 (mol) years later. However, he is one person with whom I feel that I share something. For example, his latest blog entry Inquisitors is, once again, something I wish I had the talent and skill to write. I heartily recommend it to one and all: click on the link and read this.

If you go back about 4 years or so in my blogs, you'll note that I did not support Mr. Bush for a second term (for that matter, I did not support him for a first term although my support for Al Gore was tepid at best...to my eternal discredit.) I did not think Mr. Bush was the effective leader he tried to portray himself as being. However, I did not think that he was, frankly, as evil a man as he has turned out to be. George Bush has made me ashamed to be an American. If I had been alive in the the ante-bellum years of this country (and had the same ethical bias I have today) I would have been ashamed to call myself an American while my fellow citizens held other humans as chattels. George Bush has, by his absolute disdain for our freedoms, put himself in that same class of people. And he has sullied and stained our name and our honor. He is, in fact, the same kind of man as was his arch nemisis, Saddam Hussein. One of the things that give me hope is my faith that he will join Saddam in some corner of hell once he sheds this mortal coil.

When I was growing up...when parts of this country were Camelot...for some..., I was proud that we were the "good guys". Of course, when we played "cowboys and Indians" the Indians were always the bad guys and the cowboys were the good guys...it took me a until I read "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" to realize that my European ancestors were good at treating anyone not from their ethnic branch of the human tree badly...but, still, we were the good guys. We stood up for the oppressed; we fought for the ideals enshrined in our founding documents. Even though we built this country upon the forced labor of black humans whom the white Europeans enslaved on land basically taken by force from the native inhabitants, the ideals embodied in our Declarations of Independence, our Constitution and our Bill of Rights were shining goals for us to strive to attain. George Bush has sullied, stained and defecated upon those ideals, and, in the process, he has mortally injured this nation.

I could say more, but...not now. All I will say is that it is ironic that the freedom of expression that this medium engenders is both a strength and a weakness. It gives a huge number of people a public platform from which to declaim, but those very numbers tend to obscure and attenuate...depreciate what they are saying. Like I said, Fred Clark should be a respected syndicated columnist rather than a slightly obscure Blogger. (I say "slightly obscure" because he does have a following, which is a lot more than I can say for myself...) Those of us who have been lucky enough to find him...to find this bit of gold amid the dross...are the better for it. I just wish that more of our fellow citizens also had the benefit of his clear vision.

'Nuff said...

When did this happen?

OK, maybe I'm old and becoming less and less in tune with the zeitgeist, but since when where vampires and werewolves the good guys? I thought that these particular denizens of the shadow world were pretty much the bad guys. I mean, they both run around killing people: they have to kill people...it is what keep 'em alive. But not so much any more. We have Remus Lupin in Harry Potter: he's a werewolf, but a nice guy too. Then there is Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden: Dresden is a wizard (a la Merlin), but his half-brother is a white vampire--and a good guy. (White vampires don't drink blood, they suck straight life energy from their "food". Now, this is not as immediately fatal as the blood sucking variety of vampire feeding, but, ultimately, unless the White Vampire is very careful, the food source does die.) Then we have Laurel Hamilton's vampires, whats-her-name Rice and now Stephenie Meyer's new teen heroine who appears to be a vampire.

Personally, I prefer the old model. Vampires, of any description, were the enemy, and one did whatever one had to do to kill 'em.

Moving on, now that the Harry Potter saga has come to an end, I would like to commend a new Harry to you all. I am referring to the above mentioned Harry Dresden. This Harry is also a wizard (the only practicing wizard in the Chicago phone book), who lives in a slightly more complex world than Rowling's Potter. The good thing about this Harry is that his creator, Jim Butcher, has already penned 9 or 10 (I lose count...) books in the series, and he plans to go for about 23 or 24 total. Butcher has created a world very much like our own, but larger. Butcher's world has wizards and witches, warlocks and demons, faeries and trolls, pixies and elves, Knights of the Cross and Fallen Angels. It is a very rich tapestry, and one that is still in the process of creation. Reality building is one of the reasons I like this series. Pick up the first book, Storm Front, and give it a whirl. I think you'll like it.

---------------- Now playing: Zero 7 - In the Waiting Line (Radio Paradise - DJ-mixed modern & classic rock, world, electronica & more - info: radioparadise.com) via FoxyTunes

Some further thoughts about Corporate America

It seems to me that greed driven capitalism is inherently and fundamentally antithetical to the ideals espoused in our constitution. Our country was founded upon the ideal that "all men are created equal": Meaning, of course, that we each have an equal voice in our governance. However, wealth perverts that ideal. The enormous economic power that our large corporations (and some individuals) wield readily translates into political power...especially in an era when political dialogue has sunk to the level of the 30-second sound bite/political attack ad.

Rather than looking for ways to make our society more egalitarian and to make this country a place where all citizens enjoy both political and economic freedom, the culture of greed has become pervasive. "I've got mine (or "I want mine") and to hell with the rest of you" has become our guiding ethos. That is partly the reason we have become xenophobic about our borders. Where we once welcomed immigrants to our shores, we now, selfishly, demand that our borders sprout walls to keep the rest of the world out. In fact, rather than spend the money those walls would cost to improve the lives of the poor of the world (so maybe they wouldn't want to emigrate to the golden shores of the United States), we selfishly think only of preserving our good fortune. I think part of this is an innate understanding that the pie is finite, and, if we share it with others, that will ultimately mean less for ourselves. Like I said, our ethos is now driven by greed and selfishness.

And even in our own country, the divide between the "haves" and "have nots" segments of our citizens is growing daily. The middle class, the skilled workers, the clerical and retail trades people are being squeezed like never before. Corporate employees in the high five figure and up pay ranges do their damnedest to squeeze more and more out of those in the lower pay ranges so that their salaries and benefits can become larger and larger. When corporate income does not meet expectations, it is not the upper levels who suffer--no, it is those at the bottom of the pay scale. The mantra from the executive offices is "cut the hours of the guys at the bottom first." It is wrong, but it is also the natural outcome when one has bought into the "gimme mine" mindset.

The great strength of the United States over most of its history has been the size and strength of the middle class. It is the middle class which has provided both the economic and political stability of this country. That middle class is now in danger of becoming...impotent. As economic and political power migrates to the wealthy individuals and corporations, the ability of the middle class to ameliorate the damage being done to our country evaporates. As the poor multiply, the society becomes more and more unstable. We are, in fact, sowing the seeds of our own destruction. It is time we, as a country, started to once again engage in substantive political debate and stop letting ourselves be lead by the noses by the spin merchants. It is, in fact, time for your wake-up call, America...

I've got writers block...or something similar

I got tired. I got tired of posting shit that nobody (except for one or two who do it out personal--for want of a better word--loyalty) reads. I got tired of being creative for no particular gain. Plus, I am still in the process of writing two business plans and the marketing materials for one business. And I am still working for the self-proclaimed "world's largest bookseller". That gig is sucking the psychic life out of me like one of Jim Butcher's White Court vampires.

Corporate America...I have come to the understanding that corporate America is as anti-American as was the old Evil Empire (and the newly aspiring reincarnation of same) . For example: on the 4th of July, the day that all, and I mean all but those who absolutely must be at their posts to preserve public safety, security and order, Americans should be celebrating the ideals and sacrifices that make this country possible, will see most corporate retail establishments open. OK, by corporate I mean big box. All the big box retailers will be open for business. This is, in my opinion, as anti-American as it can get. These retailers are cheapening the day by intruding commerce upon a time that should be set aside as being special. They are distracting the populace from the true meaning of the day. They are keeping their employees from being part of the communal celebration of the founding ideals of this society. And yet these self-same despoilers will drape themselves in patriotic colors and imply that coming to their stores is, in itself, an act of patriotism.

Bullshit!!

That's all...just Bullshit

Happy Fourth of July to all my fellow countrymen....

My Friday 10 on Sunday....

OK Fred, Here’s my Friday 10 a two day(s) late….

Kristin Hersh Echo
Kirsty Maccoli In These Shoes
Joni Mitchell Raised On Robbery
John Prine Ain’t Hurtin’ Nobody
Liz Phair Ride
Gomez How We Operate
Sinead Lohan To Ramona
(Also Bob Dylan, but I like Sinead’s
cover better)
Cowboy Junkies Las Vegas
Beta Band Dry The Rain
Zero 7 In The Waiting Line

No special theme: just what shuffled through the old…OK, new….MP3 player.

Twiddling thumbs

In effect, that is what this post is...I'm twiddling my thumbs while I reload my Sansa MP3 player. It has been about a month since I have posted anything...although I have had about twenty posts that I had planned--just never got around to actually writing them down. It has been a sort of up and down month. On the one hand, I got my Outback wagon so now I can haul stuff from point A to point B without nearly as much hassle as it was in the Saturn sedan, while, on the other hand, things like work and the swimming pool have been thorns in my side. First, let's deal with the good stuff. As noted above, I got my Outback wagon. In addition to making it easy to haul stuff around, it is just a cool car. It is, more or less, a basic model in that we didn't get any real whistles and bells. However, it comes with so much cool stuff that I didn't really think I needed much else. The built-in in-dash CD player plays MP3 disks, so I can use disks I burn myself...that works out to about 10 hours (mol) of music which is a day's drive anyway you look at it. In addition, it has a jack which allows me to hook up the MP3 player, and that adds about 2 gig worth of music or about 30 more hours. I don't have that much music that I really like. Aside from the music, we got the manual transmission 'cause I think it gives more control in snow and other adverse road conditions. And, anyway, I prefer manual trannies. All in all, it is a very comfortable car to drive and ride in. Not as quick around the corners as the Saturn, but, hell, it's a wagon. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I also got a gas grill this spring. I gotta tell the world that it is a great grill. Much less work than charcoal and the food tastes pretty much the same. I have been having a great time cooking on it for the past three weeks. My dear wife has pretty much closed down the stove and oven for the duration of the summer. About the only time they get turned on now is to handle overflow from the grill. I have the old charcoal grill out on the patio next to the new gas grill, but I have yet to have had the urge to fire it up. I think the only time it will be used this summer is this coming Memorial Day weekend when I plan to have a cook-out and pool party for my collegues at B&N. All in all, the gas grill is a real plus: big thumbs up!! Also, as mentioned in that earlier post, I got a new MP3 player. Way back when (2000, I think), my wife got me an RCA Lyra player for my birthday that year. I think the biggest memory card I ever had for that player was maybe 128meg. I don't think it could handle more than 256 meg...I know that it was limited to about 4-5 hours of music...and it ate batteries at a prodigious rate. That was it for me until two years ago when my daughter and her hubby-to-be got me a Sony Walkman CD-player which could handle MP3 disks burned on the computer. That gave me about 650 meg of storage to play with, and, for the most part, it has sufficed. However, now I am totally ruined. My new SansDisk Sansa player has a gig of internal memory and will handle up to 2 gig of external (SD card) memory. I just loaded the internal memory with 174 tracks or about 15 hours of music, and I am now working on building another playlist with about the same number of tracks for a 1 gig SD card. Now that I have been introduced to this slightly long-in-the-tooth technology, I am already thinking about my next player. This one's screen is a little small, and the firmware doesn't allow a great deal of programming flexibility. However, those small little quibbles aside, this little beast is soooo much better than any portable music player I have ever had that there is literally no comparison. 'Nuff for now...bitches and moans later...

Here's my problem with copyrights

So, the CRB has denied all petitions for a new hearing on their unconscionable ruling vis-a-vis royalties to be paid by Internet webcasters. Nobody is denying that royalties should be paid by said broadcasters, especially those who are using music created by others to make money. However, since most of the royalty money paid does not go to the artists who actually created the works in question, there is my first sticking point. My second sticking point has to do with people getting paid over and over for what is essentially one piece of work. Most of us regular people (as opposed to "creative" types)don't get paid multiple times for one piece of work. I understand the need for creative people to get paid, and paid well since it is they (and not the suits) who make our world a little better, and, if it were not for the suits taking such a big hunk of the pie, music would be available for mere pennies per track.

Sometimes this world really confounds...

I don't know where to begin. The shootings at the Virginia Tech campus just plain boggles my mind. That a person could kill 32 other people, with apparently little or no emotion or remorse, and then put the gun to his own head makes me believe in the existence of evil as something tangible in this world. To think that a mere human could do such a thing without being possessed by something black and horrible from outside of himself is hard for me. I think of the innocent kid that this person once was, and I wonder what could have brought him to this end. It is both easier and, in some ways, less scary to be able to assign ultimate blame for this horrible event to some outside agency which is both malevolent and self-aware. I would much rather have actual demons and a devil to contend with rather than something random and impersonal. At least with demons, one has some sort of a chance. At least if there was an absolute evil out there, the converse, an absolute good, would also have to exist. And that means we at least have a fighting chance. For things like the VT rampage to happen "just because" leaves us impotent and without any chance to alter events. That I can't accept.

My heart goes out to those left behind; parents, siblings, grandparents, other family, loves and friends. I grieve for all those promising lives cut short and for those who, although older, still had so much to offer this world. And I feel a sort of grief for the young man who did this atrocity, but I feel more grief for the innocent child he once was, and for the promise and hope that was snuffed out by his own hand.

Bushes' 2006 tax bill: $186,378 - Yahoo! News

Actually, I'm not really interested in the fact that that the Bushes' 2006 tax bill: $186,378 - Yahoo! News. I'm more interested in the fact that the President of the United States, a going concern with a budget of over a trillion dollars and at least a couple million employees (if you count the military), has a salary of $400,000. People, I think that the President of the United States should be the highest paid citizen in the country. Make his salary the cap, and then adjust all the rest to what they actually should be...

Really, if you want your sports stars, entertainment personalities and corporate executives to make tens of millions of dollars per year, then give your President a slightly larger amount. After all, he is the person who guides our societies destiny for his term in office. So, put a marginal tax rate of 100% on every dollar of earned income in excess of what the President makes. Be sure to include in the definition of "earned" income such things as performance royalties and bonuses. Allow people who build or create things to gain riches from those sources, but make sure that huge fortunes do not get passed on to heirs who have done nothing on their own to derserve such wealth. (If the holders of great wealth wish to create charitable foundations to preserve and distribute income from those fortunes, sobeit. That I can live with.

To get back to those taxes, my wife and I, together, made a little more than 1/3 of what the George and Laura paid in taxes, yet our tax rate was within a few percentage points of theirs. This is not equitable. What George and the rest of the "gimme mine" crowd forget is the concept of "noblesse oblige". For those who do not recognize this concept, it basically states that those who have more have a moral obligation to help those who have less. This can mean sharing your cardboard refrigerator carton with someone who doesn't even have that to "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." Nobless oblige falls somewhere between those two extremes, but this generation of Americans have turned their collective back upon that concept. So, I say tax the rich more and more heavily on each and every one of those marginally incremental dollars.