Cartoon Time

This is fun for the whole family so go get the kids !

I'll bet it was a good show !

I'll just bet this was a good show back in 1974, The Band and Todd Rundgren too ! Wow ! This was on the first leg of Clapton's 461 Ocean Blvd Tour.The previous nights show was at St. John's Arena in Columbus,Ohio and the following night would be in Buffalo New York. The lineup for this band was : Eric Clapton Guitar, Vocals, Jamie Oldaker Drums,Dick Sims Keyboards, Carl Radle Bass, George Terry Guitar  and Yvonne Elliman Backing Vocals.

They played these songs :

Smile
Let it grow
Can't find my way home
Willie and the hand jive
Get ready
Blues power
Little queenie
Tell the truth
Crossroads .

This poster, and a few others had been stored at my Mother's home under a rug.

John Boehner's America

Booklynbadboy at Daily Kos on the Boner's statement in Dickey Scaife's paper this past week :

"They're snuffing out the America that I grew up in" - Rep. John Boehner, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 6/29/10

I don't know the America John Boehner grew up in.


I don't know what it's like for a high school graduate to be able to get a union job at a factory and earn enough money to support a wife and kids. I don't know what it's like to be born at a hospital and have my parents rejoice at my birth rather than cower in fear of the bill. I don't know what it's like to have food, clothing and housing expenses constitute reasonable percentage of household income.


I don't know what it's like to grow up as child without fear of gangs, crooked police, and a proliferation of guns and ammo. I don't know what it's like to get a job as a paperboy or delivery boy because those jobs are done by adults. I don't know what it's like to come home to momma or poppa every day because one wage earner can support a family. I don't know what it's like to attend well-financed public schools with well-paid teachers that are the envy of the world. I certainly don't know what it's like to attend an inexpensive private school like John Boehner did because today only the wealthy can afford private school.


I don't know what it's like to have shop class in high school or apprentice programs to learn a trade. I don't know what it's like to be able to simply pick a college, write them a letter, and then attend. One has to hire a consultant these days and I couldn't afford that. I don't know what it's like to have no worries about my parents mortgaging their home to finance my education. I don't know what it's like to get through college without amassing a mountain of debt and ruined credit. I don't know what it's like to have multiple job prospects upon graduation.


I don't know what it's like to look forward to 30 years at one company. I don't even know what it's like to have one profession! I can't even begin to fathom what it must have been like to have an inexpensive, reliable vehicle to go from place to place. Good roads to go from place to place. Inexpensive gas to get from place to place. Public transportation that didn't take 15 percent of a paycheck. I don't know what it's like never having to choose between food and gas to get to work every day.


I don't know what it's like to go to a bank and be offered one type of 30-year fixed rate mortgage. I don't know what it's like not to have to worry about bank fees that cost more than small household appliances. Usury laws. Boy, those must have been nice! There were all those heavy regulations on banks that were in place since the 1930's. John Boehner didn't have to worry about financial crashes during his first 37 years of life because there weren't any. Since deregulation began in 1982, I've had three.


I don't know what it's like to live under a government that looked out for ordinary people. Never have. I don't know what it's like to have a government that did great things like build national highway systems or explore the heavens. Or alleviate poverty in city centers and far-away mountains. I don't know what it's like to never have to worry about the national debt. That's because in John Boehner's America rich people paid taxes. I bet it was really awesome to live in an America that was a net exporter rather than importer. A nation that was a creditor and not a debtor. A nation where the brightest minds and best salaries went into science and engineering rather than banking and advertising.


I don't know what it's like to know there is a pension waiting for me when I retire. I've got to risk it on the stock market or else I'm surely screwed, assuming I'll have any money to save. Maybe if I can overcome 29.9 percent credit card rates, disappearing private sector unions, $100,000 student loans, 15-year adjustable-rate-mortgages, kids at underfunded, inadequate public schools, health insurance that costs more than food, the saving up of the 401(k) and then cashing in of the 401(k) and then saving up of the 401(k) again, maybe I'll just barely have some inkling of the America John Boehner grew up in.


I do know what it's like to have very low taxes. Hooray.


John Boehner grew up in an America ruled by FDR's Democratic majority. I grew up in an America ruled by Ronald Reagan's Republican majority. The America he grew up is already "snuffed out." I doubt he will ever realize that it was people like him who did the snuffing.

Happy Birthday USA !

New cat in the neighborhood

The cat Shadow took off for better pastures though he does return every several weeks to visit and eat. He must have found a soft touch family up the road and adopted himself to them. My neighbors got a new kitten to keep Stewie company. Their grandchildren named him Sammy. He excels at tail chasing but continues to practice at that ancient art.

 This is Sammy

and this is Stewie

Here.............is Crazy Personified.............

These are her own words.......I swear to God......

I know that sooner or later the truth will be out and my legal efforts will be vindicated and probably will be part of history books. I know that the moment one judge order discovery or reverses prior ruling, the hounded will end and many will have an egg on their faces. I might run again in 2012. I might run for Congress or Senate. I have time to decide...I believe in entertainment there is a term “triple threat”, meaning someone who can act, sing and dance. I know I am a triple threat in politics, particularly after I succeed in Obama litigation. I can go to women’s groups and bring my message to them, I can go to Eastern European churches and talk to them in Russian, and go to Romanian churches and Hispanic groups and Jewish temples, where I can speak to them in Hebrew better then Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein taken together. If the contest of this election doesn’t succeed, next election is in 2 years. There are congressional races every 2 years, Diane Feinstein will be due for re-election in 2 years. She will be close to 80 years old then. I read about her. She used to be an attorney, married to a surgeon. I am an attorney and I am a dental surgeon.

This........is what crazy is.......................................................I refuse to believe that 374,000 people....liked what she is about...................NO FUCKING WAY !

Memorial Day

From "Morning-A Death" by Vietnam War soldier Basil Paquet:

I'd sooner be a fallen pine cone this winter
In a cradle of cold New England rock,
Less hurt in it than nineteen years.
What an exit! Stage left, fronds waving,
Cut down running my ass off at a tree line.
I'm thinking, as I hear my chest
Sucking air through its brand new nipple,
I bought the ticket, I hope I drown fast,
The pain is all in living.

H/t to Rude Pundit

I think that if soldiers and poets reminded us more often of how terrible war is, then there might be less of it.

Let's just go someplace wonderful

Angels.......yes, .....these are truly........the voices of Angels.....the song...Mary...............

Rewriting History And Civil War Memory

This piece by Jon Meacham, editor of Newsweek, in an Op-Ed piece for the New York Times, "Southern Discomfort," sums up the whole point behind the latest push to rewrite the history of the War Between The States, he writes :

As the sesquicentennial of Fort Sumter approaches in 2011, the enduring problem for neo-Confederates endures: anyone who seeks an Edenic Southern past in which the war was principally about states’ rights and not slavery is searching in vain, for the Confederacy and slavery are inextricably and forever linked.
That has not, however, stopped Lost Causers who supported Mr. McDonnell’s proclamation from trying to recast the war in more respectable terms. They would like what Lincoln called our “fiery trial” to be seen in a political, not a moral, light. If the slaves are erased from the picture, then what took place between Sumter and Appomattox is not about the fate of human chattel, or a battle between good and evil. It is, instead, more of an ancestral skirmish in the Reagan revolution, a contest between big and small government.
We cannot allow the story of the emancipation of a people and the expiation of America’s original sin to become fodder for conservative politicians playing to their right-wing base. That, to say the very least, is a jump backward we do not need.

Kevin Levin has an always thought provoking blog called Civil War Memory. He holds an M.A. in philosophy from the University of Maryland (1994) and an M.A. in history from the University of Richmond (2005). He writes "I started blogging in November 2005 and as of February 2010 have written over 2,000 posts. I blog about subjects related to how Americans have chosen to remember and commemorate the Civil War."

Thankfully the media circus is beginning to die down over last week’s Confederate History Month proclamation. I ended up watching more of the “debate” on the major news channels than I care to admit. It was downright painful to watch. The most disappointing aspect of it all was the almost complete absence of any professional historians. You would think that the major networks could have mustered up at least one legitimate historian. The closest I saw was a half-way decent interview that Rachel Maddow conducted with Patricia Harris-Lacewell, who teaches politics and African American Studies at Princeton. More often than not the audience was treated to the same talking heads who clearly do not understand the relevant history.

Another who writes on the Civil War regularly is Robert Moore at Cenantua's Blog :

Frankly, secession and the motivation to fight wasn’t a “grass roots movement”, but was sparked by those who benefited from slavery and saw the voice of the slave states/rights of these states (let’s call it the real threat to States’ Rights) to impact national legislation severely compromised. Furthermore, the common people were used as pawns. There were many a common dirt farmer turned soldier that felt that the conflict was better defined as a rich man’s war, poor man’s fight. I think a fair number of these same common soldiers began to realize with the passage of the Twenty-Slave Law they were much better defined as pawns in the deadly game.

The use of the tea party analogy shows us even more that some Confederate celebrationists are out of touch with the reality of history, and continue to fail to understand the more complex picture of why Southerners were in the ranks of the Confederate forces.

Earlier Moore wrote :
What has really happened here is that there have been multiple missed opportunities… to educate responsibly, and spread more understanding of our collective past. Instead of rushing to paste a “boogeyman” sign on the backs of people from history or placing halos over the heads of just as many, we need to get a grip on ourselves and our national history. Like it or not, it ALL has a place in understanding who we are today. In fact, I think what we are seeing is a fine example of why we should have a Civil War History Month in Virginia… not to praise and hate, but to pause, educate, and understand.

This debate is a constant topic on sites relating to the war and  has been for a long time.

Fact is, They Can't Have Their Country Back

David Mixner nails down the The anti progressive Right : Constantly On The Wrong Side Of History
Mar 29 2010

The time has come for the American right wing to pack it up, stop its hatred and end its disruption of American society. They have proven time and time again that they are almost always on the wrong side of history. Time to end the 'lock and load' mentality, lawmakers who have 'targets' semi-imposed over their faces and the new code word for racism and homophobia of "We want our country back." Back to where and to whom?

The extreme right record of utter and total failure to stop the march to progress is the reason we should not have to bear their craziness anymore. The record is numbingly clear: They were wrong about Social Security. They were wrong on integrating the military forces under President Truman. They were wrong about McCarthyism in the early 1950's. They were wrong about passing civil rights legislation in the 1960's. They were wrong on Medicare. They were wrong about women rights. They were wrong about 'trickle down economics.' They were wrong about tax breaks for the rich. They were wrong about the war in Iraq. They were wrong about climate change. They were wrong about LGBT rights and they are wrong about healthcare reform.

Can you imagine our world if they had been successful in stopping any of the forces for change above? We would have a world with our seniors poor and unable to have healthcare. We would have African-Americans unable to vote. We would see women relegated to being housewives and not leading our nation. All homosexuals would still be in the closet with many having lobotomies, committing suicide and being arrested. The world has become and is still becoming a better place because of progressive legislation and ignoring the calls, shouts and anger to protect the narrow-minded status quo.

Fact is, they can't have their country back. Their country is moving forward into a greatness with a richly diverse and exciting population. Their country is still a place that still believes individual freedom and equality for all its people no matter if they are popular or not. As Frank Rich pointed out in his column this week in the New York Times, their country now has an African-American President, a woman as Speaker of the House, a Hispanic on the Supreme Court and a gay man as head of the Banking Committee in the House. Those who seek to end this march into the 21st century simply can't turn back the tides of time.

All they can do is make us more divided, pay a higher price to protect the people of this nation, fill the air with anger and make the march of progress a heavier burden. Time for them to realize that for the last 100 years they have been on the wrong side of history. I say to them: Give it up and enjoy your new healthcare and make sure your children are at last getting adequate care. I am willing to bet that in five years every single mindlessly angry voice will be using this new healthcare system and many of them will be saved economically by it. Progress is good. Generosity is appreciated. Intelligence is revered. Get used to it.