Tuesday/Wednesday overnites

Hoist the colors, raise the sails, put the Black Flag high my son, and let us set sail for new horizons, new years, new peoples and New Lands

. . . . .Today's soundtrack, still sticking with that soundtrack that runs in my head and has so many personal songs to me on it - This Time Around by Cross Canadian Ragweed on the Garage CD. An absolutely excellent version of this song, written and originally done by the Randy Rogers Band.

. . . . .Today's movie moment - "My father's people say that at the birth of the sun and his brother the moon, their mother died. So the sun gave to the earth her body, from which was to spring all life. And he drew forth from her breast the stars, and the stars he threw into the night sky to remind him of her soul." - Hawkeye (Daniel Day Lewis) to Cora Munro in The Last of the Mohicans.

Happy New Year!
The video below is the fireworks that were set off over Sidney Harbor while you slept in celebration of the New Year, remember that tomorrow is always now somewhere.

. . . . .The one thing that I want to carry forward from 2009 is a 3 word phrase:

"Yes we can"

. . . . . I'm going to keep this parlor game up for a while, have fun with it -
. . . . .My Last Supper portrait? If someone painted it for me? Jim Morrison at the center, with Elvis and Johnny Cash at either end, and Jimi Hendrix, Bon Scott, Waylon Jennings, Keith Moon, John Bonham, John Lennon, Steve Marriott, Lonesome Dave Peverett, Phil Lynott & John Lee Hooker sitting at the table. The DaVinci code version of course, with Janis in the Mary Magdelene spot.

. . . . A favorite parlor game of some folks is the 10 dead people you'd like to have a dinner party with. Not me, since I believe in neither Heaven nor Hell, but in an Afterlife where it's all the same, my favorite game is the 5 people you'd most like to spend a evening of the eternity with playing poker in a greasy, groovy blues rock bar with the ones mentioned in the above paragraph as the house band. My poker table? Doc Holliday, Crazy Horse, Jesse James, Alexander the Great & Gen. George S. Patton.
. . . . .So, the game now is for you to e-mail me your house band and your poker table mates for an eternal evening of straight up rock-n-roll poker. You mail it, I'll publish it.


. . . . .I said all along this year that I wanted a President who was smarter than I am, and definitely smarter than the last one. Check this article out here by Tom Edsall who points out that the stage is set for this President to have an unprecedented say in Domestic policy issued from the White House, and not Congress or at the Cabinet level. That's why, unlike many other New Radicals or Progressives I welcomed his Cabinet picks, Economic team picks and National Security team picks. All of them are smart veterans of Washington who know how to manuever, and all of them have a reputation for being fearless and having balls of steel when it comes to confrontations with other politicians. Bold action and decision are what is going to be called for to steer the ship of the Republic away from the rocks it's headed towards, and this bunch will give us bold actors.

. . . . .Alright, straight off into it. Mixed messages coming in on Israel's military offensive against Hamas in the West Bank. CNN reports here that Ehud Olmert says that the 4 day old offensive, so far strictly air attacks, is only the beginning as Israel readies ground troops and tanks. There are reports, at the same time, that Israel is considering a 2-day truce to allow humitarian aid into the Gaza strip.

. . . . .This is not going to away. Obama will inherit it from Bush, who has conveniently gone on vacation. However, I'm going to give Bush a break on this one. In this DebkaFile report from back on December 1st, Bush's last meeting with Israeli officials turned very stormy when he warned them then about attacking Hamas, and thus by extension, Iran.

. . . . .In the meantime, Iran is watching it all closely. What no one is talking about here in the U.S., but is making news worldwide, is that outrage in the Mideast over Israel's offensive against Hamas is also being directed against Eqypt, whom many in the Mideast feel is another 'puppet-state' , like Israel, of the U.S. Check this one out here from the Taiwan News , for that update. Back in February, Time magazine here warned of a coming Israel-Hamas war. Back in March of this year, the London Times very boldly and plainly stated that Hamas wages Iran's proxy war for them on Israel.

. . . . .This does all tie back together, neatly, and also speaks to what a disastrous mistake our military exercise in Iraq (all in a twisted scenario of George Bush trying to prove himself, and win the love of, his father, George Herbert Walker Bush) was. Iran's historic cultural ties are Shia in nature, whilst Egypt's and Saudi Arabia's are Sunni in tradition and culture. In other words, we removed the balance of power in the Mideast by taking out Saddam Hussein, whom George Bush Sr. helped install while the Director of the C.I.A. When we leave, the Sunni's and Shiite's will have no one to stop them from attempting to slaughter one another anymore. Tribal, religious and cultural ties will pull Iran in quickly to support the Shiite's and Egypt and Saudi Arabia will quickly step in due to their ties with the Sunni's. At that point, the 3 remaining biggest boys on the block on the Mideast will all be going after one another, right on the border with Afghanistan, where the Taliban and Al-Queada, supplied by Pakistani terrorist cells through the Khyber Pass will no doubt follow their own Shia ties and join in, with India growing increasingly nervous and still mightily pissed off about Mumbai, and the Pakistani ties the terrorists there had. See how quickly this grows out of control?

. . . .In the meantime, one of Iran's signatory treaty partners, Russia, is getting ready to alter their Constitution to allow Putin to become President again. In this one from Raw Story, they claim that it already happened today, extending a Presidential term from 4 years to 6, and paving the way for former President and current Prime Minister Putin to return as President. Meet the new Russia, same as the old Russia.

. . . . .Talk about spin and trying to get some legs underneath some legacy stuff. In this one here, two former aides of outgoing President Bush claim that "he never recovered from Katrina"! Sorry, but working out of New Orleans, and spending 50% of my time traveling in and out of that city, working there, staying there, this one pisses me off, big! That city and it's marvelous people are the ones who have not recovered, but still fight through every day to try and rebuild their city. Out of the incredible string of blunders over the last 8 years, out of 8 years of the worst Presidency in history, he wants his oral history and spin to say that "Katrina was the tipping point, and the political nail in his coffin"? Come on!

. . . . .I have to give Blagojevich credit for at least having balls, despite being a felon and wrong-headed. Just as it looked like everyone could clear themselves of this mess. When it looked like the President-elect, his staff and transition team could get clean, the damn fool goes and appoints Roland Burris, a former Illinois politician and Blagojevich fund-raiser to Obama's empty Senate seat today! Despite being under Federal indictment for trying to sell that seat! Either he's crazy, stupid or both!

. . . . .Got to try and get some positives in here. During this holiday season, remember the folks over at Share Our Strength. They bring positive action everyday to the issue of childhood hunger in America, over 12 million children went to bed hungry tonight here in this country. That isn't right, please try to do what you can.

. . . . . As always please remember our Veterans, and the sacrifices they've made. Please check out the wonderful, compassionate folks over at the Wounded Warrior Project, who work with severely wounded, traumatized and disabled veterans to help them transition back into civilian life. No matter how tough any of us have it, try to think how much tougher it would be missing a hand, an arm, a leg or to go through every day with skin that had gone through severe 3rd degree burns. They're good folks, doing good work who deserve your thoughts and prayers. They remind us constantly, that "the greatest casualty is to be forgotten".

. . . .The idiocy never ceases. Ann Coulter (whom I freely admit to loathing and despising), after appearing on Fox News and calling President-elect Obama "an atheist" and asking "if we can get all of his aliases before he swears in on the Koran", is scheduled to appear on Jan. 6, 2009 on the Today show and promote her latest published swill. The good folks over at Media Matters are asking folks to call NBC and ask them not to let her appear. Follow the link here to their call to action.

. . . . .And more Media Matters, who have had the good sense to name Fox News Sean Hannity as their 2008 Misinformer of the Year. Way to go folks! Call it the way it is.

. . . . .I found this one absolutely priceless, in which Colin Powell's top aide calls George W. Bush a "Sarah Palin-like President"

'[I]f we put aside the question of corollaries and consider Bush's and Palin's characteristics as politicians and would-be leaders, the comparison isn't too far-fetched. Both were out of their depth seeking national office, both are strikingly uninformed, both suffer from an eerie misguided confidence, and both seem to consider policy details as minor annoyances to be ignored. '

. . . .While I'm veering off into one of my favorite territories, that of going after the extreme Right wing buffoons of the Republican party (which is much like shooting fish in a barrel these days), picked up on this one here by Jacob Heilbrunn in The American Conservative, in which he explores the question of where the Neoconservatives go from here now that they solidly shipwrecked the Republican party on a reef with no repairable ship.

'The result has been something of an identity crisis in the ranks of the neocons. Like not a few revolutionary movements that have fallen on hard times, neoconservatism is experiencing a schism. Two camps are starting to face off over the question of the true faith, with the first embracing orthodoxy and the second heresy. The question they face is simple: Should the neocons continue to move right, serving as the advance guard of an embattled GOP? Or should neoconservatism become true to itself by returning to the center? Will the movement, in fact, morph back into what it was at its inception in the late 1960s when it belonged firmly to the Democratic Party—moderate on domestic issues and mildly hawkish on foreign policy?'

. . . . .Late Tuesday night, Franken up by 50 votes in the Minnesota Senate seat recount.

. . . . .Anthony Gonzales is going to write a tell-all book on the Bush administration? Anthony freakin' Gonzalez? Mr. Waterboard? Mr. stand by Ashcroft's bed while he's near death and browbeat him to sign a memorandum authorizing torture? Geez!

. . . . I've been re-running some of my favorite longer pieces from the year, here on the last day of the year, I want to put up my favorite, the one entitled "My America" written about a month or two before the election.

IN MY AMERICA

. . . . . .In my America, a man shouldn't have to be afraid because he dares to strive for the nation's highest elected office, but wasn't born all-white. In my America, he shouldn't have to worry about the safety of his wife and children because the other guy and his partner made a conscious decision to incite the ugliest tendencies of angry, howling anonymous mobs and inflame the fires of racism.
. . . . . In my America, no one is able to get away with spewing hatred and obscene epithets about someone they've never met because the man or woman standing next to them will stop him or her and tell them that the right to free speech is the right to an opinion and a differing viewpoint, not immunity for exercising racism, threatening assassination or assaulting someone's character.
. . . . .In my America, that doesn't happen because one of God's messengers was shot in Memphis for the same reasons, and we have to believe that he died knowing his death meant something, that it would never happen again. It doesn't happen because 3 souls died, alone and afraid, in a field in Mississippi because they dared to have principles and believed that all American citizens deserved the right to the same schools and a vote that counted as much as any others and we were ashamed and learned from that.
. . . . . In my America, it doesn't happen because brother stood against brother at places like Gettysburg, Chickamauga and Bull Run as a nation ripped itself in two, and another of God's messengers was shot for believing that "our forefathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" and we learned from that, we learned that "a house divided cannot stand against itself".
. . . . . In my America, that doesn't happen because over 300 men, women and children were massacred at Wounded Knee for the crime of not being white, not being Christian and wanting to pray. It doesn't happen because it happened over and over again, at Sand Creek and countless other places, as an entire race of people, the original inhabitants of this continent were almost hunted to extinction because they were "godless heathens" and we felt guilty and ashamed.
. . . . . In my America, words like liberty, freedom and patriotism mean exactly what they were intended to mean, what men like Jefferson, Washington, Adams, Madison, Paine, Franklin and countless others risked everything for. Those words aren't twisted to incite the flames of Fascism, and used to exclude and hate because another holds a different viewpoint or opinion than yours. Those words are used to include and hold promise.
. . . . . In my America, we remember the blood that our fathers and grandfathers shed on the beaches of Normandy and Iwo Jima. We remember the acres of crosses that stand in every National Cemetery as they left this place and went to fight the tide of Fascism and Nationalism that was threatening to engulf the world. We remember that they sacrificed for liberty and freedom, for the chance for every man and woman to work and better their families. We remember that they came home and quietly went back to work on farms and in factories and raised us, and we honor their sacrifice and hold our liberty and our freedom as the precious gifts that they are, and remember that same liberty and freedom is guaranteed to each and every other citizen of my America and they remind us silently that our efforts are demanded now and called upon to stem any tide of Fascism that may now be rising within our own borders.
. . . . . In my America we don't panic because our 401K lost some imaginary value and we may have to work a few months longer than we planned. We remember the elderly person down the road who needs some gas money to get to the doctor, or the family who is just getting by with small children that needs a bag of groceries anonymously dropped on the doorstep.
. . . . . In my America we remember that we are spending $2 billion dollars a month on a pointless civil war in a foreign country and we get angry that a child is going to bed hungry somewhere tonight because their parents can't afford food, or is huddled against the cold because they have nowhere to live because their family has no money. We get angry because an elder is eating dog food, if anything at all, because they cannot afford anything else. We get angry because a father or a mother dies and leaves their family alone because they can't afford an operation or a trip to the doctor. We get angry when even a single child will go without a Christmas. We get angry and we demand of our leaders that they stand accountable for these travesties and use that same money to take care of our children, our elderly and all of us whom others count on to be there everyday.
. . . . . In my America, we remember that we have sacrificed over 4,000 of our youngest, best and brightest to a fruitless cause and remember to honor the ones who do make it home, because we know that their young souls have seen and done things we cannot imagine in order to survive to get home to their families and to take care of the man standing beside them in battle. We remember that over 30,000 of these young men and women were maimed and wounded and we become outraged at the lack of treatment our government gives them after asking them to sacrifice so much. We become angry and we demand of those who would lead us that they stand accountable.
. . . . . .In my America, we don't torture, we don't spy on our own citizens, we don't hold prisoners outside the rule of law and apart from an equal hearing. We know that we have to hold ourselves to a higher standard, and we are accountable to it, and that as long as we are silent, we give our voice away to those who would twist it and use our silence as assent.
. . . . . In my America, we remember that we have a voice and that we have power. We remember that we can stand up and demand different, demand accountability, demand better, demand more from those who would put themselves in the position of being our leaders. We remember that they work for us and not the other way around. We remember that is was our ancestors, our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and on back who sacrificed, who bled, who strove, loved and prayed for all of us.
. . . . . In my America, we hold that sacrifice as a holy obligation to become now who we were meant to be and rise up. Rise up and remember that the same blood flows in our veins as flowed in the hearts and veins of our family lines, our parents and grandparents.
. . . . . In my America, we will not be afraid and we will speak out, we will act and we will once again restore honor and pride to our spirit. The coming generations of our children demand that we act, that we speak, that we rise up as one and it will no longer be my America, it will be our America.
. . . . . In my America, we will once again become that shining city upon the hill.
. . . . . In my America, even though you may be or feel alone, you will stand, you will speak and you will hold because you will not be afraid. Know that in the desolation there are angels watching over you, angels who would give their last breath for you, angels who would walk with you alone down the darkest alley against countless odds to make sure that you came back out alive, angels who will be there always.


. . . .Outta here, kiss your kids, tell the ones you love out loud that you do, savor and hang onto the precious small moments, in the end they're all we have. Go out today, change your world, and in so doing, change the world.

The Desolation Angel

Sunday - In between Christmas and New Year's

The bell has been raised from it's watery grave. . . .Do you hear it's sepulchral tone? We are a call to all, pay heed the squall and turn your sail toward home! Yo ho, haul together, hoist the colors high. Heave ho, thieves and beggars, never shall we die.

. . . . .Today's soundtrack, you'll have to watch the Youtube video below, it has today's song on it, one of the last pieces off of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, which actually is one of those albums that plays in my head constantly, a scary thought for anyone who knows me. Yes, it plays there all the time, along with all the rest of the songs that mix in.

. . . . .Today's movie magic moment - You already had it. The Black Flag opening line above is the song sung at the beginning of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

. . . . .The weekly video address from President-elect Obama found on Change.gov is below. Go ahead and click the link and listen to his holiday address. In this week's, from a personal standpoint, he hits on two things that I beat mercilessly like a little tin drum. Respect, prayers and our thoughts for our veterans and those in uniform who are serving overseas, far from home is the first theme. The second theme he hits on is our own willingness to work, our own willingness to sacrifice for the common good and that fact that turning this country around will take all of our efforts, not just a governmental effort.


. . . . .The Clinton's have taken much flak over the years, and have been the target of many conspiracy theorists over the "47", the list of people associated with them going back through the years who have died under circumstances other than natural causes. Well, I guess we can start adding Rove, Cheney and Bush in the same breath as the Clinton's. In the hubbub of the last couple of weeks, the death of top GOP strategist and Rove's top IT consultant Michael Connell got shoved into the back pages. It shouldn't have been. In this one, by Michael Edsall, it's revealed that Connell was deposed earlier this year and was about to give testimony in the ongoing Federal case concerning voter fraud in the Ohio 2004 Presidential elections. As well, his death will impede any further investigations into Republican Party voter fraud activity, as his position as the GOP's top Internet consultant and strategist, and his positions in both Bush campaigns and the McCain campaign put him on the inside of GOP vote manipulation efforts. This isn't just me, investigative journalists like Larisa Alexandrovna have revealed that Connell was one of their sources. As well, investigative journalists who publish on the likes of Raw Story, Velvet Revolution, ePluribus Media, and a host of other investigators are all calling for a further FAA investigation into the crash.

. . . . .So, the question for an organization like MoveOn, which essentially was founded to combat the tyranny and despotism of the Bush years is what next? They did their job, brought an entire grassroots movement and internet movement to the Progressive end of the table and now, what's the agenda? Well, according to founder Eli Pariser, in this piece here on Politico today, the voting membership of MoveOn has narrowed, in true democratic fashion, MoveOn's focus to 5 areas that are in complete agreement with Obama's agenda: universal health care; economic recovery and job creation; building a green economy; stopping climate change and end the war in Iraq. I'd like to see MoveOn stay a viable organization, they sustained the Progressive movement, and introduced the Democratic Party to new media and how to use it.

. . . . .Can't help it, the video below is so stunning. It's a depiction of what would happen if an asteroid hit the Earth. The addition of the Pink Floyd soundtrack takes it from dazzling or depressing into something that is thought provoking and otherworldly.


. . . . .My Last Supper portrait? If someone painted it for me? Jim Morrison at the center, with Elvis and Johnny Cash at either end, and Jimi Hendrix, Bon Scott, Waylon Jennings, Keith Moon, John Bonham, John Lennon, Steve Marriott, Lonesome Dave Peverett, Phil Lynott & John Lee Hooker sitting at the table. The DaVinci code version of course, with Janis in the Mary Magdelene spot.

. . . . A favorite parlor game of some folks is the 10 dead people you'd like to have a dinner party with. Not me, since I believe in neither Heaven nor Hell, but in an Afterlife where it's all the same, my favorite game is the 5 people you'd most like to spend a evening of the eternity with playing poker in a greasy, groovy blues rock bar with the ones mentioned in the above paragraph as the house band. My poker table? Doc Holliday, Crazy Horse, Jesse James, Alexander the Great & Gen. George S. Patton.
. . . . .So, the game now is for you to e-mail me your house band and your poker table mates for an eternal evening of straight up rock-n-roll poker. You mail it, I'll publish it.

. . . . Second straight day of the Israeli Defense Forces bombing the hell out of the West Bank and Gaza Strip going after Hamas, third straight day of India and Pakistan doing the nuclear staredown. Our new President will need our prayers, our strength and our support when he takes office. Enough of the Rudy Blagojevich nonsense. He (Blagojevich) did it, he's corrupt and he'll go down. Obama, Emmanuel, Axelrod, Plouffe et al had nothing to do with it. Blagojevich made his own choices, willingly and the President-elect didn't get into bed with him. Move on.

. . . . . .I made reference yesterday to the New Radicals, I wasn't referring to the band of the early '90's. Far from it. The New Radicals is a movement founded by Julia Moulden, whose book, We are the New Radicals is "A Manifesto for Reinventing Yourself and Saving the World". Please check them out, and check out the book, it's about harnessing the skills we all learned along the way towards becoming middle-aged and now putting that to work to save the world for our children and grand-children.

. . . . .And since I've been doing retrospectives of the year, and I seem to be in a music video mood today, I'll put the video below and close with the one that had the most impact on me. It was the one Dave Stewart put together during the election, American Prayer, and I believe that it still has relevance.


. . . . .I'm out. Tomorrow, and until just after New Year's Day, I'll put up the one called My America that got written about a month before the election. Kiss your kids, tell the ones you love out loud that you do, believe in yourself, hang on to the precious moments, go change the world. You gotta believe folks, sometimes hope and faith are all we have.

The Desolation Angel

Holiday weekend updates

So then my son, we relax a bit, enjoy a feast or two with family and friends, and then set sail again, under the Black flag, to confront those who would take from those weaker than themselves that which they have not earned.

. . . . .Spotty updates here during the holidays, I won't apologize, just been busy with trying to get the whole family/holiday thing arranged.

. . . . Todays' music - The Man Comes Around - Johnny Cash off the American Recordings series, I'm glad Rick Rubin had the vision and the genius to go to Johnny and ask him to record what he wanted to. Those 5 records are a lasting legacy of the gift that Johnny was, a true artist, rebel and visionary.

. . . . .Today's movie moment - ". . . .as you well know, appearances can be deceiving, which brings us back to the reason why we're here. We're not here because we're free, we're here because we're not free. . . .There's no denying reason, no escaping purpose, because, as we both know, without purpose, we would not exist." - Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) to Neo (Keanu Reeves) in The Matrix Reloaded.

. . . . .Today's biggest news? Israel's airstrikes on Hamas in the West Bank and the Gaza strip. The original 6-month cease-fire expired back on December 19th, and Israel states that it feels the need to not just perform these airstrikes, but keep them up, until they are satisfied that the Hamas infrastructure in the Gaza strip in destroyed. The timing of this is curious. We have less than 24 days now until the inauguration of a new President. By performing military actions against Hamas in the West Bank, Israel runs the risk of pulling Iran into the picture, and setting up an Israeli-Iranian confrontation that will not take long to flare up, possibly only 72 to 96 hours, with the U.S. State Department and Armed Forces in a curious kind of holding pattern, being brought on by the extremely weird transition taking place, with the President who isn't President yet kind of in charge, while the President who is in charge is just kind of chillin' waiting out his last few days.

. . . .Ditto the situation just across the Asia Minor sub-continent with tensions escalating to fever-pitch in India and Pakistan. Pakistan has moved it's troops to the Indian border, fearing an Indian military incursion. The troops being moved came from the Afghani border, where they were battling Taliban and Al-Queada insurgents. Which leaves now only the American troops that are stationed in Afghanistan to go after Al-Queada and the Taliban, while the American troops stationed in Iraq continue to battle Sunni and Shiite insurgents, who by the way are being supplied by Iran and, you guessed it, Hamas. Today, car bombs in Iraq killed at least 22, and wounded 64. Start to see the picture here? There are factions at work here who are working to make sure that the entire Mideast is in flames by the time he takes office and is put into a no-win scenario.

. . . . . As well, remember that India and Pakistan are both members of the nuclear neighborhood, and have always said that lobbing nukes at one another is a true option for them and not out of the question.

. . . . I get the feeling that our new President will be tested right from the get-go, as in before Inauguration Day, and there's not going to be much time for festivities on Inauguration Night, as in, place your hand on the Bible, swear to uphold the Constitution, give a speech, wave and go straight to the Situation Room.

. . . . .Things are not getting much better on the domestic front - after this dismal (for retailers, that is) Christmas shopping season. A consulting firm that specialize in turnarounds for large retailers estimates that approximately 25% of all retailers will go bankrupt and close within the next 2 years, despite any economic turnaround that may occur. Despite what you may think, these numbers are absolutely unprecedented, and eclipse any that might have cropped up during the First Great Depression.

. . . .Friend and reader Kay Mejia sends the following along. She has created an Action alert on Congress.org, along with a video that gives some rather eye-opening facts about the Federal Reserve and the creation and movement of money. Check it out here, at this link.

. . . .In addition, Kay sent along the following, which she wrote to one of Michigan's Senators, Debbie Stabenow:

Thank-you once again for keeping me apprised about Michigan's stance at the Federal level. I do not agree with you this time, however. The Big 3 have had more than enough time to address their arrogant approach to marketability and I do not support Bridge Loans for Chrysler and GM (Ford does not need one). I believe they must rebuild the manufacturing, engineering, and compensation areas of business if they are to survive. If they cannot commit firmly and contractually to that goal, then we should let them fail and support the manufacturers that choose to remain competitive, allowing them to expand operations and fill in the gap left by 2 of the Big 3 failing.

As far as the UAW goes, these workers should be willing to compromise on wages in order to insure retirement and medical benefits. They could be given vested stock as an incentive to make the required compromises. They need to be willing to suffer a short-term period of reduced life style in order to insure a long term income. Same goes for the rest of us, btw.

Finally, I am not a homeowner and never have been and am not willing to put any more of my tax dollars into a system that rewards incompetence and greed. The homeowners suffering bankruptcy can still afford to rent within their means, as I do. The housing market is another industry where excessive Union demands have inflated costs to the point that $250,000 for a house has been dirt cheap in most areas of Michigan (besides slums and areas without work). And the contractors keep building McMansions instead of reasonably sized & priced homes.

I bill $60-100 per hour, so I rent NOT because I couldn't afford a McMansion (though I've been out of work so long this year that I really could not right now!), but because I thought the market over-inflated by the time I finally started making decent money. If I could see the outrageousness of the housing market, surely other average Americans could as well. I have no special knowledge or education in economics or investments. What I do have is common sense, an attribute most other Americans share and would have benefited from had they chosen to use it.

Believe it or not, I am a liberal Democrat. I DO believe in helping those in true need of it - and helping them wisely. What I don't believe in is rewarding bad judgement or criminal behavior. And BTW, the bailout was just plain stupid. The last step in any major takeover bid, whether in business or when taking over a country, is to strip the entity of it's assets. We've just seen a run on the treasury succeed, so cash and liquidity are now gone. And we've also seen an export of most of our other current assets (knowledge, shares in successful ventures, jobs, wealth created here, etc.). The final step will be a run on the last of our natural resources, which Bush has already moved on.

Wake up, for all our sakes! We should be supporting new businesses that support us. We don't need the stock market - it's a gambler's paradise full of hucksters. We should be investing as communities in the geographic areas we live in or in a group we have personal expertise with, and supporting this by legislating visibility and using tax dollars to soften the blow while we transition. Michigan should be hiring the best and brightest of marketing & advertising minds in order to develop a strategy to gain a lion's share of Green manufacturing and building. We could take the money we pay local farmers NOT to grow crops, and invest it in local organic farms and greenhouses to insure a food source for ourselves. We rely far too much on other countries to supply our basic human survival needs. Again, in terms of plain common sense, this is just stupid.

If the government we have cannot get it together to support the people of this nation, instead of the profiteers of it, then the government needs to be replaced by a system that works - another area where we could use minds brilliant in change management and organizational restructuring. We have think tanks all over the country that would do this for us for a small fee if they got to publicize their success in a new, highly public market like this.

We would be using the best minds in business (with the best minds in the world of charitable endeavors monitoring), giving us credibility from within the business world in these endeavors.

Thank-you for your time and service. I can only imagine how tough it's been for you in the last 12-16 years, and how exciting a time it may be for you now. I was excited as well, until Obama supported the bail outs, named 'business as usual' staff to key posts, and has generally upheld the status quo. Now I'm worried. I thought we Democrats had finally voted someone with cahones into office, and - especially at this time in history - we NEED the democrats to stand up and be radical in overcoming the challenges 'we the people' face today. I hate having to watch yet another politician to see whether I can trust him. I believed in Obama and campaigned for him. I do not want to become one of the masses that take to the street in anger while the rape of Americans continues.

. . . . .The Republican Party continually amazes me. It would seem to me that the repudiation given to them back in November for running a campaign based on racism and hate would have at least let it's intelligentsia know that the politics of division and exclusion, the politics of Rove had run their course, and the beast now threatened to consume the Master. Nope, they don't frickin' learn at all. Witness the distribution of a CD by Rick Saltsman, who is running for RNC chair, which contains the song "Barack the Magic Negro". After a curious 22-hour silence, the current, sitting RNC chair is attempting to distance himself as far as possible from this sick, twisted, racist piece of crap, but only after that 22 hour silence on it. It had to be picked up by The Hill, by Talking Points Memo, by the Huffington Post and by Politico for RNC chairman Mike Duncan to issue a statement indicating that he was "appalled" by the distribution of the CD by Saltsman. Yet, as of tonight, there is no official repudiation of Saltsman for this stunt by the rest of the Repub leadership; Rove, Huckabee, Thompson, et al. The sickest piece of all of it has to be Saltsman's statement on it: "I think that RNC members have the good humor and good sense to recognize that. . . . . songs for the Rush Limbaugh show are light-hearted political parodies."

. . . . .I don't view any of this, not a word, not one bit of it, as doom and gloom, or as a reason to be depressed. To effect change, one must first have a realistic view of what's going on. When you or I have a clear picture of what really is, it becomes possible to make choices and effect change where we can have the most impact on our world around us, and thereby effect change in the larger sphere. I point you all to this great little piece by Julia Moulden on becoming a New Radical, that is, people like you and I, who have acquired a skill set and tools along the way and put them to work changing the world and bringing about cause and effect on the larger issues.
Her Top 10 Reasons to become a New Radical?

1. You will change someone's life
2. You will change your own life
3. Your skills are needed
4. You will discover the power of synchronicity
5. Your view of the world will change
6. You will influence those around you
7. You will meet exceptional people
8. You will feel connected to something bigger
9. You will play a part in saving the world
10. You will die happy

. . . . .Outta here, kiss your kids, tell the ones you love out loud that you do, hang on to what's precious, don't just sit there, go out and change the world.

The Desolation Angel

Monday

The time is now son, we must sail into the frozen northern seas, where the ropes themselves creak and groan from the weight of snow and ice and the howling wind ripping through them, flying under the Black Flag to meet those who would deceive the innocent face-to-face, eye-to-eye

. . . . .Anyone who wants to dispute what's going on with the climate should've been anywhere along the corridor between Detroit, Chicago and Minneapolis from last Friday on through the weekend. Yes, kids, storms are getting worse, colder, more snow accumulation, all of it. It's real.

. . . . .Today's soundtrack, again staying on that theme of the music that runs through my head and becomes my internal soundtrack for my life, Minutes to Memories, by John Mellencamp off the Scarecrow album, the one where he realized that he was an artist and songwriter, not just an entertainer, and started the brilliant career that we've been blessed to listen to.

. . . . .Have you ever heard a better place name than Irish Bayou? It's lyrical and evocative. That's one of the reasons I love where I work and spend 50% of my life.

. . . . .Some days, you wake up and know for real that there are endless possibilities that come with the new dawn, that it is truly possible to live, at least for a moment, in a state of grace.

. . . . . Today's movie moment -"She showed him it was OK to live again" - Rayburn (Christopher Walken) talking about Creasy's (Denzel Washington) quest to save the little girl he was charged with protecting in Man On Fire.

. . . . .We could go on and on about politics and the economic meltdown today, but it's in everyone's face so often, I'd like to spend a little time talking about the people and organizations out there that are trying to make a difference and work for social justice. In what's going to be the toughest Christmas in a long time, at least 2 decades, there are still folks out there trying to be beacons of hope.

. . . . .One of my favorites, The Wounded Warrior Project. This organization works with severely and traumatically wounded veterans to try and help make the transition back into civilian life and live as close to normal a life as possible with the permanent disfigurements, loss of limbs, severe burns, and traumatic injuries that they have. Their motto - "The greatest casualty is being forgotten".

. . . . .Another of my favorites, Share Our Strength, who remind us that tonight 1 out of 6 children in this country will go to bed hungry, that's over 12 million children. This week especially, no child should go without a meal, go to bed hungry. In the Northern tier of states, the temp is in the teens and mostly below that, ranging to below zero. Can you imagine being a small child and going to bed both hungry and cold? Please check them out, they're an umbrella coalition whose mission is a simple one, stop childhood hunger, with a pretty comprehensive, sensible plan to do so.

. . . . .The Axis of Justice, founded by Tom Morello (both of Rage Against the Machine and performing as the Night Watchman) and Serj Tajanian, is an organization founded by these young rockers to enact social justice. This holiday season, as Tom so eloquently puts it, please remember that poverty and hunger are crimes, and it's everyone's chance to be a crime fighter. Go check them out, and sign up to be a part of The Nightwatchman's Holiday Mission, and be a crime fighter yourself.


. . . . .Enough for today, it's a busy holiday season, and I know that everyone is busy with family, last minute shopping, etc. Please remember that there are those surrounding you, invisible people who have not led as fortunate a life. Do more than pray about it, go do something, anything, even one small act. Prayer without action, faith without works, is empty. You're all good people, with good hearts, now follow that heart, go be a Desolation Angel.

. . . . .I'm outta here, kiss your kids, tell the ones you love out loud that you do, see ya tomorrow.

. . . . .I'll run the Lost 10th/Black Flag essay again today, below -

I'm asked about the quotes that begin the posts each day and the reference to the Black Flag. I'll finally tell the story, as I was told it. It's one of those that even if it isn't true, it's good enough that it should be.

I was told. . . . . .
. . . .Centuries ago, during the Roman Empire, the 10th Legion was the most feared military machine in the known world, marching under a red banner and a golden eagle. They were loyal to Caesar, and loyal to the ideal of Rome. Caesar had built the legion out of the best soldiers that the Roman Army had to offer, out of gladiators, out of slaves, out of free-roaming soldiers who had come from Celtic tribes, the Britons and the Picts, from the Gauls, and from the Sarmatians of the Russian steppes. The 10th was made of hand-picked soldiers by Caesar, not mindless brutes or killing machines, but soldiers who could think, who could improvise and act, yet still fight as one unit, 10,000 of them. You didn't volunteer for the 10th, nor were you drafted and put in it, you were tested, picked and then trained. It is said that the soldiers of the 10th believed, each and every one of them, that they had been Hell's Lieutenants, doomed and damned souls who had been sent to Hell and trained by the Lord of the Underworld to lead his Armies in the Final Battle, but after being trained, had reclaimed their souls and their honor, rebelled against the Dark Lord and wrested the chance to go back to Earthly realms one more time to claim redemption, restore honor to their souls and be loyal to one man and one cause, to fight against the forces of darkness and tyranny that were threatening to engulf the world.
Caesar fought at the front of this Legion, side by side with each of them, unlike any other General or Emperor in Roman history, and his reason for hand-picking each of them, for training them, for teaching them to think and to understand loyalty and honor? His reason for instilling in them the same ideals that he had for the future of Rome and restoration of the Republic? Simple, he knew that the time of the Emperors had come and gone in Rome and it was time to restore the Senate, and to give the people a seat and a voice therein, to restore the Republic and democracy. He knew that he would need the 10th, their fierce loyalty and pride, their belief in his ideals to make it happen should the ruling class of Rome object, which he knew they would, drunk with power and greed as they were.
. . . .When Caesar returned to Rome to accomplish this, he left the 10th camped far North of Rome, he didn't want the people of the city being frightened by the appearance of the fiercest legion in history at the gates of the city, nor did he wish to immediately resort to a military option to wrest control from the ruling class, but instead had hoped for his rival's better nature and their own share in the best interests of Rome's future to prevail. As history records, this didn't happen, and Caesar was murdered in the Forum, betrayed by his own ideals and belief in what Rome could become, betrayed by those who expressed their own alliances with him.
When word reached the 10th Legion of what had occurred, two options presented themselves. They could storm the city, and wreak vengeance for their sworn leader, but the ideals that he had trained them in could not and would not allow them to do that and kill their fellow citizens, so they threw down the Red banner that they had fought, bled and died under for so long, taking Caesar's eagle with them, and turned their steps and faces North, marching under a Black Flag. The true 10th Legion left Rome that day, and afterwards, men like Mark Antony, Caligula and Nero tried to resurrect it, but as Rome and the known world fell towards ruin and darkness, the true 10th was never heard from again.. . .
. . . .Some say that the soldiers of the 10th after going North for a while split in three directions, some to the East, some the West and some to the North. The Sarmatians, the Gauls and some of their other brothers went East, back into the Russian steppes, while those who went West went back to their Celtic, Briton and Pictish homelands taking many of their comrades with them, while those from the far Northern tribes took some of their brothers with them and returned home to become Vikings, fierce fighters. Those who had returned to Celtic homelands eventually interbred and married within the Celtic tribes, and when finally forced into a corner were able to repel what Armies Rome had brought back to Britain and repel the Saxon invaders. Those who went East, well. . ., it is said that a true Russian has never been defeated in battle, I think that's accurate, just ask Napoleon or Hitler. Those who went to the far North, their reputation is well cemented in history, and they were the first travelers to North America, not the Europeans, and some say those that stayed intermarried with the indigenous peoples there. It's said that the bloodline of the 10th flowed through the Knights Templar, whose mission it was to protect the bloodline of the Grail, and history would show them once again betrayed by the representatives of that ideal that they had believed in, in that case the Pope and the Church.
. . . .Just as the Grail bloodline flows throughout European and Middle Eastern history, just as the shaman and medicine people of the old European tribes had to become traveling troupes of gypsy actors, jugglers and musicians in order to survive and keep their bloodlines intact, becoming in this day and age rock and roll musicians, so to has the bloodline of the 10th survived down to this day. Throughout history, wherever a Black flag is flown, whether it be pirates, renegades, outlaws or anyone who cannot live by a society's rules, mountain men, cowboys, bikers, buccaneers, outsiders, loners,whoever, but is always willing to sacrifice themselves to make sure that those who cannot speak for themselves, those who have no voice anymore, those who have been so beaten down that they have no will to fight, those whose hands and minds have never known violence but who work to heal and help others, those in need of protection; those who work and stand under the Black Flag protect them. The Black flag strikes fear into the hearts of those who would keep what they've stolen, those who know in their hearts that the only position they have is one that they gotten to by trampling on others and keeping them down. For those people who look for hope, for a protector, for justice, for someone in whose bloodlines flows the blood of the legendary Lost 10th, they know that the Black flag offers protection and haven. So, people, the song's been sung, the bells have rung out, the signal fires have been lit and Black flag has been hoisted high, it's time then for the descendants of the legendary Lost 10th to become who they were meant to be, to earn redemption, at long last, for their ancestors and to find justice for the people. The election wasn't a revolution, it was only a start, and now those who would work for the betterment of the people will need protection, will need guardians from the forces that would stop them, the people who see the fuel for their own greed and their lust for power being stripped away from them. Time then, for the Lost 10th to rise again as one, to think, act, fight and defend as one unit. You all know who you are, you hear it in your blood, it's a whisper that becomes a stirring. You know each time the soul of a member of the 10th is reborn into the world. Time then for desolation angels, for night walkers, for pale riders, for dog soldiers, for guardians, for warriors, for heroes to stake their sashes to the ground, to raise their shields and banners and and turn themselves, standing proud and strong, to face the growing forces that will threaten to engulf the people, and make their final stand, triumphant, under the Black Flag.

. . . .And that's the way the story has been told to me, so I pass it on to you all.


The Desolation Angel

Sunday - Solstice Night

It's time then my son, to quiet ourselves, to enjoy our connection as family, to reflect on our mistakes and victories, on those we've helped and those we've hurt, to celebrate our elders and our children, to take quiet pride in standing tall, in picking ourselves up after being knocked down, in stepping up into the ranks when one of our own is struck down, and know who we are, as a people who live, ride, and sail under the Black Flag.


. . . . .Today's soundtrack - Bruce with One Step Up off the very under-rated and under-appreciated Tunnel of Love CD. Anyone who knows me knows how important music is to me, I have a few theme songs, songs that are soundtracks to my life, really the internal soundtrack. The songs that I put up here every day are definitely always a reflection of where I'm at, but I don't often play the ones that are me, the real me. The promise is that I'll do that, take the risk and the chance. It is risky and chancy for me, since I don't often let anyone hear them in sequence, it's almost too revealing, but some things have shifted in my life and maybe it's time to do that.


. . . .I've done more than one piece this year, longer ones, ones that I do take some pride in, I'll rerun them for the last couple weeks of the year down at the bottom of the post where I always put the longer pieces, the essays. Todays' will be a re-run of the story of the Black Flag and the Lost 10th, which explains the references I make every day at the top of the post.

. . . . .I'm tired, down deep in my bones tired. Maybe that's what solstice is, being quiet, going deep inside and reflecting.

. . . . .Haven't been updating daily for a few days, actually the last couple of weeks, sorry about that. Lots going on, lot of quiet time to heal up and start to feel better.

. . . . .This one is personal, but Cody, Caleb, Calvin, Roseanne, Emily, Carrie, Catherine, Aunt Mary; thank you for the best Christmas gift I've ever gotten. I love you all, when I was alone last night finally, I cried for a really, really long time. It was good.

. . . .Today's movie moment - "There is magic in fighting battles beyond endurance" - Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris (Morgan Freeman) in Million Dollar Baby

. . . . .On to the politics, that we've all been so sorely missing.

. . . . .This week's Saturday address from President Obama can be found at the link here to Change.gov. He introduces the members of his science team. This is exciting to me for a couple of reasons; the people he's putting on his team are definitely folks unlike any we've seen in Washington for a loooonnng time. They are all people who have definite opinions on global warming and climate change (for one thing, they know it's real!) and will have some ideas about what to do around that topic. The second thing that impresses me is that he thinks enough of science, research and knowledge to make the introduction of his science team as big a deal as his introduction of his economic and national security teams.

. . . . .This has got to be the oddest transition in Presidential history. We essentially have an acting President who's not been inaugurated yet, while the sitting one has decided to start giving interviews in which he throws out mea culpa's and apologies for governing badly. I mean, GWB just now noticed that? Hunh?!

. . . . . .For those who have been wondering about Joe Biden and his silence (up until now), he was on the airwaves this morning on ABC's This Week. He came on full-bore too. The link to it can be found here. The transcript can be found here. Joe's first job? To chair the White House team focused on allowing the middle class to first recover, then grow. Other opinions - The the auto industry bailout will require sacrifices from the union (as a 20 year veteran of that industry, both UAW hourly and management, all I can say, it's about damn time!). That he will not lose his focus on closing Guantanamo. The economic aid and recovery plan being readied by the Obama team will focus on job creation, on energy efficiency at the level it should have been at all along, that of the average home and household and on a complete, comprehensive record-keeping system for all medical records for every U.S. citizen. (I presume this is in preparation for universal health care.)

. . . . .And of course, as this administration nears it's well-deserved ignominious end, Darth Vader, err, Dick Cheney has emerged from his undisclosed location to impart Dark side wisdom to the masses over on Fox News on Sunday. The link to the video is here.
. . . .Cheney's confessions and imparted wisdoms? That he did indeed tell Senator Leahy to "F*@k himself" on the Senate floor in the run-up to the Iraq War and has no regrets about it. The folks over at Think Progress have a full transcript of it. RoboDick still sticks to the claim that absolutely anything that a President does during war is legal, anything. He also kindly took the time to mock his successor, Joe Biden about some particularly fine points of the U.S. Constitution. Only one problem with all that. Biden has 10 times to intelligence of Cheney. Biden was right about Article 1 of the Constitution, and Cheney wasn't. No surprise there, since Dick never read the damn thing anyhow. The day he walks out will be one of the brightest days in U.S. Constitutional history.

. . . . .I agree with Cenk Uygur, the religious right cannot utter another word, another peep, even a small sound about gay marriage and homosexuality until they execute an adulterer, if they're truly going to "stick to the Bible":

"The religious right picks and chooses which parts of the Bible they want to apply. And they choose based on which outsider group they would like to hate next. First, they emphasized slavery in the Bible when they wanted to hate black people. Now, they emphasize the parts condemning homosexuality so they can hate gay people.

They are completely and utterly disingenuous. They don't mean a word of it. They don't give a damn what the Bible says. They just want to use it as an instrument of hate."

. . . . .Which brings me to the case of Rick Warren being asked by Obama to give the invocation at the inauguration. I am not a member of the Left screaming about the choice. I find Rick Warren only mildly annoying. He's not a screaming, hate-filled evangelical nutbag, like many on the Right. If Obama's job is to be uniter and to build bridges, then all parties need to be invited to a seat at the table and to be under the umbrella. It's our job now to look at those who have been our opponents for the last 8 years and find the good in them, appreciate our differences and prove that we can have a rational discourse and debate. It was the mistake that led ultimately to the Repub's downfall back in November, that of building a party, a platform and a White House entirely on the politics of exclusion, separation and hate.

. . . . .For those who missed it (and that would be most anyone in the U.S. who blinked during it) the press conference that Illinois Governor Rudy Blagojevich on Friday, it's not even worth a link to the video. 2 hours build-up to 90 seconds of "I didn't do it, I'm innocent" then quoting a Rudyard Kipling poem completely out of context and no questions. I don't think the man gets it. This ain't Mayor Richard Daley and the old Chicago machine. This is the Feds, and in particular, Patrick Fitzgerald, that is one prosecuting attorney that would scare the hell out of me if I was in his sights. You're going down, Rudy. The only defense now is to prepare for it.

. . . .Of course, since I've not veered off into one of my favorite driving lanes, that of poking fun at the extreme Neoconservative wing of the Republican party -
. . . My favorite Republican lady, Caribou Barbie. Check this article out here, which details the arrest of Bristol Palin's future mother-in-law on drug charges. C'mon Sarah, defend the boy and his family again publicly, I love it when you do that.
. . . .Did you check out this video of Hardball the other night when Chris Matthews grilled noted Neoconservative Republican hawk Frank Gaffney? Matthews absolutely eviscerated Gaffney when Gaffney responded to Chris Matthews assertion that "4,000 people may disagree with your opinion" when Gaffney basically said that the reasons and falsehoods fed to the American public didn't matter in the run-up to the war and said:

"It is regrettable that they had to die," Gaffney said, "but I believe they did have to die," citing Hussein's chemical, biological, and nuclear capabilities. "The danger was inaction could have resulted in the death of a great many more Americans than 4,000. And that's the reason I'm still delighted that we did what we did."

. . . . .The internal report by the Obama team was released and Rahm Emanuel is cleared of anything at all to do with the Blagojevich fiasco. He made one phone call, only one, and it was a courtesy call. Read it for yourself.

. . . .As I said above, I'm re-running some of my longer pieces from the year. That said, this is the one that I wrote, finally, that explains the references to the Black Flag that are up top of every post.

I'm asked about the quotes that begin the posts each day and the reference to the Black Flag. I'll finally tell the story, as I was told it. It's one of those that even if it isn't true, it's good enough that it should be.

I was told. . . . . .
. . . .Centuries ago, during the Roman Empire, the 10th Legion was the most feared military machine in the known world, marching under a red banner and a golden eagle. They were loyal to Caesar, and loyal to the ideal of Rome. Caesar had built the legion out of the best soldiers that the Roman Army had to offer, out of gladiators, out of slaves, out of free-roaming soldiers who had come from Celtic tribes, the Britons and the Picts, from the Gauls, and from the Sarmatians of the Russian steppes. The 10th was made of hand-picked soldiers by Caesar, not mindless brutes or killing machines, but soldiers who could think, who could improvise and act, yet still fight as one unit, 10,000 of them. You didn't volunteer for the 10th, nor were you drafted and put in it, you were tested, picked and then trained. It is said that the soldiers of the 10th believed, each and every one of them, that they had been Hell's Lieutenants, doomed and damned souls who had been sent to Hell and trained by the Lord of the Underworld to lead his Armies in the Final Battle, but after being trained, had reclaimed their souls and their honor, rebelled against the Dark Lord and wrested the chance to go back to Earthly realms one more time to claim redemption, restore honor to their souls and be loyal to one man and one cause, to fight against the forces of darkness and tyranny that were threatening to engulf the world.
Caesar fought at the front of this Legion, side by side with each of them, unlike any other General or Emperor in Roman history, and his reason for hand-picking each of them, for training them, for teaching them to think and to understand loyalty and honor? His reason for instilling in them the same ideals that he had for the future of Rome and restoration of the Republic? Simple, he knew that the time of the Emperors had come and gone in Rome and it was time to restore the Senate, and to give the people a seat and a voice therein, to restore the Republic and democracy. He knew that he would need the 10th, their fierce loyalty and pride, their belief in his ideals to make it happen should the ruling class of Rome object, which he knew they would, drunk with power and greed as they were.
. . . .When Caesar returned to Rome to accomplish this, he left the 10th camped far North of Rome, he didn't want the people of the city being frightened by the appearance of the fiercest legion in history at the gates of the city, nor did he wish to immediately resort to a military option to wrest control from the ruling class, but instead had hoped for his rival's better nature and their own share in the best interests of Rome's future to prevail. As history records, this didn't happen, and Caesar was murdered in the Forum, betrayed by his own ideals and belief in what Rome could become, betrayed by those who expressed their own alliances with him.
When word reached the 10th Legion of what had occurred, two options presented themselves. They could storm the city, and wreak vengeance for their sworn leader, but the ideals that he had trained them in could not and would not allow them to do that and kill their fellow citizens, so they threw down the Red banner that they had fought, bled and died under for so long, taking Caesar's eagle with them, and turned their steps and faces North, marching under a Black Flag. The true 10th Legion left Rome that day, and afterwards, men like Mark Antony, Caligula and Nero tried to resurrect it, but as Rome and the known world fell towards ruin and darkness, the true 10th was never heard from again.. . .
. . . .Some say that the soldiers of the 10th after going North for a while split in three directions, some to the East, some the West and some to the North. The Sarmatians, the Gauls and some of their other brothers went East, back into the Russian steppes, while those who went West went back to their Celtic, Briton and Pictish homelands taking many of their comrades with them, while those from the far Northern tribes took some of their brothers with them and returned home to become Vikings, fierce fighters. Those who had returned to Celtic homelands eventually interbred and married within the Celtic tribes, and when finally forced into a corner were able to repel what Armies Rome had brought back to Britain and repel the Saxon invaders. Those who went East, well. . ., it is said that a true Russian has never been defeated in battle, I think that's accurate, just ask Napoleon or Hitler. Those who went to the far North, their reputation is well cemented in history, and they were the first travelers to North America, not the Europeans, and some say those that stayed intermarried with the indigenous peoples there. It's said that the bloodline of the 10th flowed through the Knights Templar, whose mission it was to protect the bloodline of the Grail, and history would show them once again betrayed by the representatives of that ideal that they had believed in, in that case the Pope and the Church.
. . . .Just as the Grail bloodline flows throughout European and Middle Eastern history, just as the shaman and medicine people of the old European tribes had to become traveling troupes of gypsy actors, jugglers and musicians in order to survive and keep their bloodlines intact, becoming in this day and age rock and roll musicians, so to has the bloodline of the 10th survived down to this day. Throughout history, wherever a Black flag is flown, whether it be pirates, renegades, outlaws or anyone who cannot live by a society's rules, mountain men, cowboys, bikers, buccaneers, outsiders, loners,whoever, but is always willing to sacrifice themselves to make sure that those who cannot speak for themselves, those who have no voice anymore, those who have been so beaten down that they have no will to fight, those whose hands and minds have never known violence but who work to heal and help others, those in need of protection; those who work and stand under the Black Flag protect them. The Black flag strikes fear into the hearts of those who would keep what they've stolen, those who know in their hearts that the only position they have is one that they gotten to by trampling on others and keeping them down. For those people who look for hope, for a protector, for justice, for someone in whose bloodlines flows the blood of the legendary Lost 10th, they know that the Black flag offers protection and haven. So, people, the song's been sung, the bells have rung out, the signal fires have been lit and Black flag has been hoisted high, it's time then for the descendants of the legendary Lost 10th to become who they were meant to be, to earn redemption, at long last, for their ancestors and to find justice for the people. The election wasn't a revolution, it was only a start, and now those who would work for the betterment of the people will need protection, will need guardians from the forces that would stop them, the people who see the fuel for their own greed and their lust for power being stripped away from them. Time then, for the Lost 10th to rise again as one, to think, act, fight and defend as one unit. You all know who you are, you hear it in your blood, it's a whisper that becomes a stirring. You know each time the soul of a member of the 10th is reborn into the world. Time then for desolation angels, for night walkers, for pale riders, for dog soldiers, for guardians, for warriors, for heroes to stake their sashes to the ground, to raise their shields and banners and and turn themselves, standing proud and strong, to face the growing forces that will threaten to engulf the people, and make their final stand, triumphant, under the Black Flag.

. . . .And that's the way the story has been told to me, so I pass it on to you all.

. . . .I'm out. Kiss your kids, tell the ones you love out loud that you do, celebrate the little moments, they may not come around again.

The Desolation Angel

This is Sunday - the Church you carry in your heart

So we set sail, my son, now into uncharted waters, under the Black flag, heading for the undiscovered country.

. . . . .You want frickin' excitement, I'll give you excitement. Try working out at sea on an oil platform with the Naval Air Station holding unannounced combat maneuvers in your area. Try a fighter jet screaming across the deck at about 100 foot breaking the sound barrier just as it reaches your platform. 3 rapid sonic booms at that level sound remarkably like your entire platform just blew. There was more than one man running screaming for the abandon stations, so I don't feel so foolish, just a little bit.

. . . . .Today's musical selection - Bruce (of course, again) - Long Walk Home from the Magic CD.

. . . . . I've held off, haven't updated since mid-week last week. I've been watching the automotive company bail-out posturing, and will watch with some vigor tomorrow morning. Here's where I stand, as someone who worked for 20 years for Ford Motor Company as both a U.A.W. represented electrician and as a manager and as someone who worked for 4 years for G.M. before that as a U.A.W. represented electrician:
- I worked as an electrician, was skilled and licensed long before I came into an automotive plant. My father and I did houses as a sideline. My primary training was in building large industrial complexes, like nuclear power plants, chemical tank farm plants, large manufacturing facilities, laboratory research facilities. I not only could pull wire, terminate, bend conduit, mount it but could weld my own brackets and braces, run heavy equipment to set my own equipment, and rig that same equipment. We were trained to do every aspect of our job.
- My first night on the job as an electrician with Ford (bear in mind that this was 1986) I was told to go over and change out a 5 HP motor. After I had disconnected the motor, I got my head bit off for attempting to do what I thought was my job. What I didn't know was that we would have to wait for the tinsmith to remove the guard, the oil line repairman to disconnect the lube line to the motor bearing, and 3 millwrights to (a) pull the belt and pulley (b) pull the motor mounting bolts (c) run the hi-lo and boom to pick up the old 5 HP motor and set the new one, then reverse the entire process with the same cast of characters.
- The UAW has done it to itself over time. Out of 80 electricians that I worked with, there are quite possibly only 13 that I would even remotely consider giving the name "electrician" to the skillset they had.
- The management was just as inept. When I became a manager, when attempting to actually manage a workforce and make people accountable, I was pulled by my superiors in management into an office and told to cool it and not start a war. Everyone, and I mean everyone, in my plant depended on things running on overtime to make their household budgets.
- I'm an expert in maintenance systems, when I tried to put that expertise to work and bring some of that plant into the 20th century with techniques and tools that would bring more reliability and uptime to the equipment, first the plant controller shut it down, since he didn't see that there was any pay-off at all in preventive or predictive maintenance, then I was shown the door.
- As a side note, guess who's come knocking at my door now that I've hung my own shingle out as a maintenance systems expert.
. . . . . Those are all facts, and I worked for the one company out of the three that says they don't need cash right now to stay alive. The UAW has shot itself in the foot continually, and must, absolutely must take a look at their contracts and start making concessions to get themselves grounded back in the reality that the rest of us must live in.
. . . . .As distasteful as it is, the automotive companies absolutely must be helped to stay afloat. There will be a total job loss of between 3 and 5 million jobs if they go down. The unemployment compensation claims from that many jobs alone would be more than the supposed bailout itself.
. . . . .There absolutely was a place and function for the unions in their beginning. They need to look at the guild model and adapt themselves to the 21st century. If the union leadership is that concerned about working conditions, about employee safety, about fair labor practices then they need to walk their talk and get themselves to Central America and Southeast Asia and help those workforces.
. . . . . One of the terms and conditions should be simple. Everyone, absolutely everyone down to the level of plant management, from CEO and Board of Directors on down to that level has to go. No compensation, no unemployment, (they're salaried) and hit the street. Find out what it feels like to be on the mid-level managers who got that same treatment for the last 3 years. I know, I was one of them.
. . . . .Can't be done, you say? What about the expertise, you say? The best boss I ever had in my life opened every morning meeting with the same question. 'Who is going to make money for the company today?' God help you if you were salaried overhead and raised your hand. He reinforced day after day that management's only job was to knock down barriers and roadblocks for the people who were actually going to run and maintain machinery that made product and profit, that the true equipment owners were the people who ran the machinery.
. . . . My friend, Jim Howell, sent the following to the 5 largest papers in Alabama over the weekend, I think it's quite fitting:

An Open Letter to the People of Alabama:

Hello! My name is Jim and I’m an autoworker… Let me tell you something about me. I’m in my late fifties and I work under contract for a tier one supplier. We contract workers get a good hourly rate, but there are a few things missing; sick leave, holiday pay, vacation leave and health care. The majority of people working in the automotive supply lines, tiers one, two and three are much like me. We do not begrudge the UAW workers, because we know that all of the new hires come in at wage rates that are competitive with non-union shops. Oh yeah, there is one other thing of personal interest-- my contract expires on Dec. 19, 2008 and the project will not be funded into 2009 regardless of bailout status. Here in Michigan, this recession business is old hat, we’ve been in one for the entirety of the twenty-first century!

But there is something else about us up here that I want to talk about. We give, even when times are tough. In the wake of Katrina and the inept response of the authorities, the Big Three auto companies gave, with no strings attached, a combined $150 million dollars to the people of the gulf coast. Thousands of individuals in Michigan, including myself, took time from work and volunteered to build modular housing for Habitat for Humanity. We sent hundreds of homes south to help with those that we would never meet. We worked from a run-down warehouse, in a run-down neighborhood, in a run-down town – Detroit. Every time we left for the evening, we felt good about ourselves, we felt good about our city and we also felt that we might just be sending a ray of hope to an area of our country that sorely needed it. That feeling that we shared while beating nails into boards during those weeks cannot be purchased for any sum of money.

A storm has now hit the upper mid-west. It is different than a hurricane, though its effects will be just as devastating and even more widespread. It’s a storm partly of our own making. It’s also a storm made worse by ten or a hundred times by the greed and stupidity of a fairly small number of investment bankers around the world. But in the end, we must all share in the blame as most of us have at least tried to live beyond our means. This storm isn’t going to go away because we are frustrated or mad or just plain tired of it. Its only going to go away if we can all work together to help each other and it may be long and hard work.

Detroit needed a “bail-out” some years ago to help Chrysler. It came in the form of a loan and in the end, the U.S. Treasury made a $330 million profit on that loan – Chrysler was good on their word. Detroit needs the help of the country again. Detroit is asking for a lot of money, make no mistake about that. Detroit is now asking for a loan with many ‘strings attached’, not a handout. At best, there will be many painful changes ahead for people living up here in the north country. At worst - well, we just can’t go there.

We are entering a time in the crucible for our country. It is our country-- north, south, east and west. We are all Americans, brothers and sisters, and we need to come together in service to one another. We all need to learn how to reach out and offer help where it is needed. Today it is Detroit, next week it may be a Native American Reservation in the Dakota’s, next year it may be another hurricane in the Carolina’s or possibly an earthquake on the West Coast. We’ll all get through this by sticking together and the crucible will make us stronger and better people for our efforts.

. . . . .I'm outta here for today, I'll get back on the political track tomorrow, but felt like this one needed to be fairly well focused going into tomorrow, and folks, if you think it was a rocky, rough road politically and economically last week, wait until tomorrow's market openings. Also, this week, we'll take on the Illinois Governor, the Minnesota recount, and new credit card rules that are going into effect next Thursday.

. . . . .Kiss your kids, tell the ones you love out loud that you do, hang on to what's precious

The Desolation Angel

Resurrection Day

We've lost many a brother and sister, many a ship, sacrificed much that was dear to us by going where we must go, doing the things that our fate demanded of us, while we lived, fought and bled under the Black flag my son. We've lost many a battle and a fight . . . . . . . . .but we've never, never lost a war, and never will. . . . now you understand that it isn't about the victory in a single fight, but it's the ability to get back up one more time, stand your ground, face your defeats, and get back into the fray.

. . . . . .Today's soundtrack - more Bruce - The Rising off the CD of the same name

. . . . . .Today's movie moment(s) - "I broke my own rule, I started to give a fuck . . . . and I brought you guys along with me" - Lt. A. K. Waters (Bruce Willis) in Tears of the Sun
. . . . . . "Everything that has a beginning has an end" - The Oracle to Neo - Matrix Revolutions

. . . . . . I got some reaction from the Monday post, specifically some of my statements about Christianity, and they were good reactions. Let me clarify a couple of things. My statements and beliefs concern Christianity, not the existence of a Prime Mover, whatever you may call him or her, or the world of the Spirit. I firmly believe in the world of the Spirit, it's very real to me, and some very, very real things have happened to me. That leads to my statement "I don't believe in an imaginary friend for adults". I meant that. I don't think that the Prime Mover is (a) imaginary or (b) somehow invisible or works in unseen, distanced, remote, paternal way, as most ( I said "most") Christian religions portray God. In my world, the Spirits do very solid, real things and, I might say, like to be treated as if they're right here, right now. The other one that got people riled up was my saying that I didn't believe that a sane, sentient being would send their only son to be sacrificed for us. I still don't. What I do believe was that Jesus was just as much a son of God as I am, as we all are. the deal for him was that he that got clue pretty quickly and early on in his life. For further clarification, just look at the pen name that I use, and have always used for this particular exercise in singular espousement of viewpoints. I couldn't believe that if I didn't (1) believe in the existence of the world of the Spirit & (2) that we all, each and every one of us mundane humans, are capable of living in both this world and that one at the same time.

. . . . . My greatest fear about Democrats having an absolute lock on political process has already come true, and this before Inauguration Day. It's what frustrates me about that party so, their own ability to successfully shoot themselves in the foot while taking two steps forward. I realize full-well that Blagojevich is not associated with Barack Obama, but the bottom line is that this just flat isn't good press for him. The Governor of Illinois putting his seat up for sale. I am encouraged by the response by this afternoon of all 50 Democratic Senators calling for Blago to step down and Barack Obama's calling for his resignation.

. . . . . .Man, talk about an ingrate! Think Progress now reports that Joe the Plumber, on Glenn Beck the other night, says that McCain 'made me feel dirty' and that he 'appalled' Joe, and that he 'wanted to get off the bus'. One question then, you schmuck, why didn't you?

. . . . . . Sometimes, sometimes I'm forced to look at the gap between my dreams, my hopes and what reality is. Sometimes that gap looks wider than the Grand Canyon, and sometimes it looks like a crack in the sidewalk. Right now in my life, that gap looks wider than it's ever looked, and I'm tired, tired down inside, in ways that I don't like to feel.

. . . . . I'm always thankful for a new dawn, a new day.

. . . . .It makes me grateful for a friendly voice on the phone, it reminds me to keep my heart open.

. . . . .It makes me grateful for chances, for hope, for lighthouses.

. . . . .Kiss your kids, be good and gentle with yourself, tell the ones you love out loud that you do.

Peace out
The Desolation Angel

Desolation Angel - Weekend Edition

It's a fine day, my son, when the ship's beginning to be refitted and set to sail, soon the Black flag will be flying high again and ready for battle!

. . . .Today's musical selection - Bruce of course, he's been pulling my through all this, it'll stay that way for a while. Thanks Boss. This one is brand-new, and if you were sharp, you could pull it for free for 24 hours last week. It's called My Lucky Day, off the Working on a Dream CD that will be available on Jan. 27th of next year (not that far away now).

. . . . .Today's movie moment - "I was out of bullets" - Bruce Willis as Det. John Maclane in Live Free or Die Hard after killing a helicopter with a car.

. . . . .It's a given for me that I can't stomach Christianity in any of it's forms. #1, I don't believe in an imaginary friend for adults, #2 I don't believe that any sentient being in his/her/it's right mind would send their only son down here to sacrifice themselves for us schmucks, we've managed to screw a lot shit up throughout history and #3 I don't believe that any words that (a) were recorded in a completely dead, lost language (which was edited by a group of rulers at Nicea, who decided right then and there what the rest of humanity would hear for the rest of time), (b) lost and burned through the Dark Ages, (c) transcribed, translated, interpreted and recorded by a bunch of monks into Celtic, translated again into Old English then finally (d) grabbed onto by a bunch of power-mad greedy men who used those same words masterfully to control entire populations and segments of society; were or are in any way "God's word". Knowing that, I'm going to turn it on it's head. I am a strong, vocifierous proponent of gay rights, and specifically, the right of gay marriage. Doesn't matter that I'm a pretty macho hetero guy, I think it takes a set of rhino balls to be openly gay, a ton of courage and integrity to do that. I'm also not a big proponent of marriage, but that's strictly a personal position, overall it's an OK institution, and it's not up to me to deny anyone the right to try it out. All that verbiage is an intro to this, the best article I've read this weekend. Lisa Miller in this week's Newsweek, lays out the Religious Case for Gay Marriage.

"Let's try for a minute to take the religious conservatives at their word and define marriage as the Bible does. Shall we look to Abraham, the great patriarch, who slept with his servant when he discovered his beloved wife Sarah was infertile? Or to Jacob, who fathered children with four different women (two sisters and their servants)? Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon and the kings of Judah and Israel—all these fathers and heroes were polygamists. The New Testament model of marriage is hardly better. Jesus himself was single and preached an indifference to earthly attachments—especially family. The apostle Paul (also single) regarded marriage as an act of last resort for those unable to contain their animal lust. "It is better to marry than to burn with passion," says the apostle, in one of the most lukewarm endorsements of a treasured institution ever uttered. Would any contemporary heterosexual married couple—who likely woke up on their wedding day harboring some optimistic and newfangled ideas about gender equality and romantic love—turn to the Bible as a how-to script?
To which there are two obvious responses: First, while the Bible and Jesus say many important things about love and family, neither explicitly defines marriage as between one man and one woman. And second, as the examples above illustrate, no sensible modern person wants marriage—theirs or anyone else's —to look in its particulars anything like what the Bible describes. "Marriage" in America refers to two separate things, a religious institution and a civil one, though it is most often enacted as a messy conflation of the two. As a civil institution, marriage offers practical benefits to both partners: contractual rights having to do with taxes; insurance; the care and custody of children; visitation rights; and inheritance. As a religious institution, marriage offers something else: a commitment of both partners before God to love, honor and cherish each other—in sickness and in health, for richer and poorer—in accordance with God's will. In a religious marriage, two people promise to take care of each other, profoundly, the way they believe God cares for them. Biblical literalists will disagree, but the Bible is a living document, powerful for more than 2,000 years because its truths speak to us even as we change through history. In that light, Scripture gives us no good reason why gays and lesbians should not be (civilly and religiously) married—and a number of excellent reasons why they should."

. . . . .For those who didn't see it, or didn't watch it, the Sons of Anarchy just finished a brilliant run on the FX network. It ranks with Deadwood or the Wire, it's that damn good, and those were the two finest programs to ever run on television. My son Cody pointed this out to me, in Kurt Sutter's blog, the creator, writer, producer, director behind the show, he makes a very pointed and direct case to people just how stupid it would be, and is, for people to buy rip-off SOA cuts (colors, for those of you who are uninitiated, the leather vests worn by bike riders) and wear them on the street. Sutter did some very serious background investigation before producing the show, actually went to outlaw clubs and asked their permission, after letting them see how respectfully and accurately he was going to portray chapter and club life. To the point, where to many folks who ride, these are very real characters, and no one, no one, who isn't a true SOA (I know, I know, sounds strange for television characters, but you just gotta go with it) will be allowed to wear their colors. If you don't know what I'm talking about, read the blog after the jump, go to FX Networks, or Hulu, or some other site and catch up on the show, on the blog site itself is a link to the episodes, if you see only one, catch the season finale, The Revelator. The season finale, especially the last 15 minutes, was some the best work yet that I'd seen done on television.

. . . . .Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich (and current Obama advisor) has this to say about the current economic situation.

"Today's employment report, showing that employers cut 533,000 jobs in November, 320,000 in October, and 403,000 in September -- for a total of over 1.2 million over the last three months -- begs the question of whether the meltdown we're experiencing should be called a Depression.

We are falling off a cliff. To put these numbers into some perspective, the November losses alone are the worst in 34 years. A significant percentage of Americans are now jobless or underemployed -- far higher than the official rate of 6.7 percent. Simply in order to keep up with population growth, employment needs to increase by 125,000 jobs per month...

...When FDR took office in 1933, one out of four American workers was jobless. We're not there yet, but we're trending in that direction."

. . . . .I am soooo looking forward to The Day the Earth Stood Still with Keanu Reeves playing Klaatu. If there was anyone more perfect for that part, I don't know. Still on the movies thing, and speaking of Kurt Sutter above, avoid the new Punisher movie opening this week, Kurt walked off the damn thing after they garbaged it up.

. . . . .The auto industry which 3 to 5 million of us up here in the Midwest depend on for jobs, the round-up:
- Paul Krugman, "The Auto Industry May disappear"
- Sen. Chris Dodd "The head of GM must step down under any bailout agreement"
- From Politico - Sen. Shelby of Alabama has promised to filibuster any auto bailout bill, and put the Big 3 out of business.

. . . . .Referencing my post above in which I explain my problem with some particular belief systems that evangelicals want to claim we are a society based on, but I reject, due to the stupidity that we as humans exhibit on a minute-by-minute basis. How about this one, from the Washington Post, which records a second death at a Wal-Mart this merry Holiday shopping season, and this time we have a quantifiable amount that a human being's life is worth - $393 to be exact. . . . . Come on, people, we all say we're better than that, but are we really? When this shit goes on and on?

. . .I've been asked to re-run this one for a while, so I will, I'm asked, quite often actually, about the quotes that begin the posts each day and the reference to the Black Flag. I'll finally tell the story, as I was told it. It's one of those that even if it isn't true, it's good enough that it should be.

I was told. . . . . .
. . . .Centuries ago, during the Roman Empire, the 10th Legion was the most feared military machine in the known world, marching under a red banner and a golden eagle. They were loyal to Caesar, and loyal to the ideal of Rome. Caesar had built the legion out of the best soldiers that the Roman Army had to offer, out of gladiators, out of slaves, out of free-roaming soldiers who had come from Celtic tribes, the Britons and the Picts, from the Gauls, and from the Sarmatians of the Russian steppes. The 10th was made of hand-picked soldiers by Caesar, not mindless brutes or killing machines, but soldiers who could think, who could improvise and act, yet still fight as one unit, 10,000 of them. You didn't volunteer for the 10th, nor were you drafted and put in it, you were tested, picked and then trained. It is said that the soldiers of the 10th believed, each and every one of them, that they had been Hell's Lieutenants, doomed and damned souls who had been sent to Hell and trained by the Lord of the Underworld to lead his Armies in the Final Battle, but after being trained, had reclaimed their souls and their honor, rebelled against the Dark Lord and wrested the chance to go back to Earthly realms one more time to claim redemption, restore honor to their souls and be loyal to one man and one cause, to fight against the forces of darkness and tyranny that were threatening to engulf the world.
Caesar fought at the front of this Legion, side by side with each of them, unlike any other General or Emperor in Roman history, and his reason for hand-picking each of them, for training them, for teaching them to think and to understand loyalty and honor? His reason for instilling in them the same ideals that he had for the future of Rome and restoration of the Republic? Simple, he knew that the time of the Emperors had come and gone in Rome and it was time to restore the Senate, and to give the people a seat and a voice therein, to restore the Republic and democracy. He knew that he would need the 10th, their fierce loyalty and pride, their belief in his ideals to make it happen should the ruling class of Rome object, which he knew they would, drunk with power and greed as they were.
. . . .When Caesar returned to Rome to accomplish this, he left the 10th camped far North of Rome, he didn't want the people of the city being frightened by the appearance of the fiercest legion in history at the gates of the city, nor did he wish to immediately resort to a military option to wrest control from the ruling class, but instead had hoped for his rival's better nature and their own share in the best interests of Rome's future to prevail. As history records, this didn't happen, and Caesar was murdered in the Forum, betrayed by his own ideals and belief in what Rome could become, betrayed by those who expressed their own alliances with him.
When word reached the 10th Legion of what had occurred, two options presented themselves. They could storm the city, and wreak vengeance for their sworn leader, but the ideals that he had trained them in could not and would not allow them to do that and kill their fellow citizens, so they threw down the Red banner that they had fought, bled and died under for so long, taking Caesar's eagle with them, and turned their steps and faces North, marching under a Black Flag. The true 10th Legion left Rome that day, and afterwards, men like Mark Antony, Caligula and Nero tried to resurrect it, but as Rome and the known world fell towards ruin and darkness, the true 10th was never heard from again.. . .
. . . .Some say that the soldiers of the 10th after going North for a while split in three directions, some to the East, some the West and some to the North. The Sarmatians, the Gauls and some of their other brothers went East, back into the Russian steppes, while those who went West went back to their Celtic, Briton and Pictish homelands taking many of their comrades with them, while those from the far Northern tribes took some of their brothers with them and returned home to become Vikings, fierce fighters. Those who had returned to Celtic homelands eventually interbred and married within the Celtic tribes, and when finally forced into a corner were able to repel what Armies Rome had brought back to Britain and repel the Saxon invaders. Those who went East, well. . ., it is said that a true Russian has never been defeated in battle, I think that's accurate, just ask Napoleon or Hitler. Those who went to the far North, their reputation is well cemented in history, and they were the first travelers to North America, not the Europeans, and some say those that stayed intermarried with the indigenous peoples there. It's said that the bloodline of the 10th flowed through the Knights Templar, whose mission it was to protect the bloodline of the Grail, and history would show them once again betrayed by the representatives of that ideal that they had believed in, in that case the Pope and the Church.
. . . .Just as the Grail bloodline flows throughout European and Middle Eastern history, just as the shaman and medicine people of the old European tribes had to become traveling troupes of gypsy actors, jugglers and musicians in order to survive and keep their bloodlines intact, becoming in this day and age rock and roll musicians, so to has the bloodline of the 10th survived down to this day. Throughout history, wherever a Black flag is flown, whether it be pirates, renegades, outlaws or anyone who cannot live by a society's rules, mountain men, cowboys, bikers, buccaneers, outsiders, loners,whoever, but is always willing to sacrifice themselves to make sure that those who cannot speak for themselves, those who have no voice anymore, those who have been so beaten down that they have no will to fight, those whose hands and minds have never known violence but who work to heal and help others, those in need of protection; those who work and stand under the Black Flag protect them. The Black flag strikes fear into the hearts of those who would keep what they've stolen, those who know in their hearts that the only position they have is one that they gotten to by trampling on others and keeping them down. For those people who look for hope, for a protector, for justice, for someone in whose bloodlines flows the blood of the legendary Lost 10th, they know that the Black flag offers protection and haven. So, people, the song's been sung, the bells have rung out, the signal fires have been lit and Black flag has been hoisted high, it's time then for the descendants of the legendary Lost 10th to become who they were meant to be, to earn redemption, at long last, for their ancestors and to find justice for the people. The election wasn't a revolution, it was only a start, and now those who would work for the betterment of the people will need protection, will need guardians from the forces that would stop them, the people who see the fuel for their own greed and their lust for power being stripped away from them. Time then, for the Lost 10th to rise again as one, to think, act, fight and defend as one unit. You all know who you are, you hear it in your blood, it's a whisper that becomes a stirring. You know each time the soul of a member of the 10th is reborn into the world. Time then for desolation angels, for night walkers, for pale riders, for dog soldiers, for guardians, for warriors, for heroes to stake their sashes to the ground, to raise their shields and banners and and turn themselves, standing proud and strong, to face the growing forces that will threaten to engulf the people, and make their final stand, triumphant, under the Black Flag.

. . . .And that's the way the story has been told to me, so I pass it on to you all.
. . . Kiss your kids, tell the ones you love out loud that you do, hang on to what's precious. Outta here until tomorrow.

The Desolation Angel

Thursday morn early

Some battles my son cost dearly, but we always stand tall, and have never quit, never lost, hoist the skull and crossbones, raise the Black flag high, tattered and torn, but still flying!

. . . . .For those of you wondering about yesterday, you can check out Wednesday's post in the Archives column over on the left. It's amazing what some sleep, some food, a couple of the right phone calls from the right people, a couple of the right e-mails can do. The Angel's back, he's still standing, he's pissed off, he's bad, he's kickin' ass and takin' names and he's still the best! See ya later on today with a full update to the post.


. . . . .Today's musical selection - Light of Day - possibly the greatest Bruce track ever not recorded on a studio album, and was only captured on his MTV Plugged special some years back. Those who know me, and know me well, are aware of the fact that I don't consider Bruce just the best artist, songwriter and rock and roller that this generation has ever been blessed to have, but that I consider him this nation's and generation's poet laureate, capturing what our lives have been like over the arc of history. In my case, as I'm sure there at thousands like mine, he's chronicled my life, with some very spooky exact situations and details as it goes. This song, well, this song, given the last couple of years, and especially the last 48 hours, captures it all. Don't just rock out to it, listen to the lyrics, there's a couple of lyric lines that will make you laugh out loud, do a "holy shit, how'd he know" if you know me, and know the details of my life. Enjoy.

. . . .Tom Summerlin forwarded this one along this AM, from Mitch Albom, the Free Press. We've had the pleasure for years up here of reading Mitch everyday, while the rest of you probably only know his books, or his appearances on TV. Mitch said it all for those of us from up here in the Rust Belt, the 5 million folks who depend on manufacturing, and always have, to make a living. You'll pardon me, but I'm going to quote the entire thing, it's that good:

"Good morning. First of all, before you ask, I flew commercial. Northwest Airlines. Had a bag of peanuts for breakfast. Of course, that's Northwest, which just merged with Delta, a merger you, our government, approved -- and one which, inevitably, will lead to big bonuses for their executives and higher costs for us. You seem to be OK with that kind of business.

Which makes me wonder why you're so against our kind of business? The kind we do in Detroit. The kind that gets your fingernails dirty. The kind where people use hammers and drills, not keystrokes. The kind where you get paid for making something, not moving money around a board and skimming a percentage.

You've already given hundreds of billions to banking and finance companies -- and hardly demanded anything. Yet you balk at the very idea of giving $25 billion to the Detroit Three. Heck, you shoveled that exact amount to Citigroup -- $25 billion -- just weeks ago, and that place is about to crumble anyhow.

Does the word "hypocrisy" ring a bell?

Protecting the home turf?

Sen. Shelby. Yes. You. From Alabama. You've been awfully vocal. You called the Detroit Three's leaders "failures." You said loans to them would be "wasted money." You said they should go bankrupt and "let the market work."

Why weren't you equally vocal when your state handed out hundreds of millions in tax breaks to Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, Honda and others to open plants there? Why not "let the market work"? Or is it better for Alabama if the Detroit Three fold so that the foreign companies -- in your state -- can produce more?

Way to think of the nation first, senator.

And you, Sen. Kyl of Arizona. You told reporters: "There's no reason to throw money at a problem that's not going to get solved."

That's funny, coming from such an avid supporter of the Iraq war. You've been gung ho on that for years. So how could you just sit there when, according to the New York Times, an Iraqi former chief investigator told Congress that $13 billion in U.S. reconstruction funds "had been lost to fraud, embezzlement, theft and waste" by the Iraqi government?

That's 13 billion, senator. More than half of what the auto industry is asking for. Thirteen billion? Gone? Wasted?

Where was your "throwing money at a problem that's not going to get solved" speech then?

Watching over the bankers?

And the rest of you lawmakers. The ones who insist the auto companies show you a plan before you help them. You've already handed over $150 billion of our tax money to AIG. How come you never demanded a plan from it? How come when AIG blew through its first $85 billion, you quickly gave it more? The car companies may be losing money, but they can explain it: They're paying workers too much and selling cars for too little.

AIG lost hundred of billions in credit default swaps -- which no one can explain and which make nothing, produce nothing, employ no one and are essentially bets on failure.

And you don't demand a paragraph from it?

Look. Nobody is saying the auto business is healthy. Its unions need to adjust more. Its models and dealerships need to shrink. Its top executives have to downsize their own importance.

But this is a business that has been around for more than a century. And some of its problems are because of that, because people get used to certain wages, manufacturers get used to certain business models. It's easy to point to foreign carmakers with tax breaks, no union costs and a cleaner slate -- not to mention help from their home countries -- and say "be more like them."

But if you let us die, you let our national spine collapse. America can't be a country of lawyers and financial analysts. We have to manufacture. We need that infrastructure. We need those jobs. We need that security. Have you forgotten who built equipment during the world wars?

Besides, let's be honest. When it comes to blowing budgets, being grossly inefficient and wallowing in debt, who's better than Congress?

So who are you to lecture anyone on how to run a business?

Ask fair questions. Demand accountability. But knock it off with the holier than thou crap, OK? You got us into this mess with greed, a bad Fed policy and too little regulation. Don't kick our tires to make yourselves look better"

Wednesday

Hey folks,
Pain is staying up all night watching the sun rise, knowing that you're just around the corner to the light of day, knowing that you're halfway to heaven, but only a mile out of hell, and that you can never go home again, not the way you knew it.
Kip (The Angel's left for a while, hopefully he'll be back soon)

Tuesday (The Man Comes Around)

It's time then my son to fly the Black flag high and proud, on a tall mast. Tell them who you are!

. . . . . .Tuesday catch-up after getting back into the swing of it yesterday. Let's see. . . Vickie's Memorial Page link has been parked over on the left hand columns, it's the top ones in the links to other sites, just go down the page a bit . . . . . I finally ran an explanation of the Black flag references that start every post, that's under Archives, just click on the Welcome to the World one. . . . .Ran Lulu's, Jim's, Barbara's, Tom's, Eric's and Charla's contributions on "change", you can find those under the Archives section as well in various posts in the month of November, go ahead and explore. I'm still running your contributions, go ahead and e-mail me and I'll post it. We're taking that theme and letting it run an undercurrent of justice; social, economic, environmental and otherwise, so anything that you want to contribute along those lines, go ahead and we'll see where that goes (T-dogg, we're all still waiting for you to weigh in!)

. . . . . Today, December 2, 2008 is my son's 21st birthday. Happy Birthday Caleb! You are loved so much. Enjoy the day, you deserve it.

. . . . .Getting restless, it's time to get back on the road, get out to sea, something. Gotta move for a while again.

. . . . .Today's movie moment: "Bring . . bring it home? Alright, let's bring it home. If you was hit by a truck and you was lying out there in that gutter dying, and you had time to sing one song, huh? One song that people would remember before you're dirt. One song that would let God know how you felt about your time here on Earth. One song that would sum you up. You tellin' me that's the song you'd sing? That same Jimmy Davis tune we hear on the radio all day, about your peace within, and how it's real, and how you're gonna shout it? Or. . . .would you sing somethin' different? Somethin' real, somethin' you felt? Cause I'm tellin' you right now, that's the kind of song that truly saves people. It ain't got nothin' to do with believing in God, Mr. Cash. It has to do with believing in yourself." Sam Phillips to Johnny Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) in Walk the Line.

. . . . .Today's soundtrack - Daddy's Farm by Shooter Jennings on the Put the O Back in Country CD. You all may know Shooter, you just don't know you do. The dead ringer for Waylon in the movie mentioned above, Walk the Line? That was Shooter. I love his music, he takes on the Outlaw mantle well and definitely ain't no poser. His music is the perfect blend of country and rock, and his band the .357's rocks out. I mentioned a while back that he had put together a new CD, Waylon Forever, released here just recently, of tracks that his dad, Waylon had cut with the .357's before he died. If you're looking for a stocking stuffer, it kicks ass. He and his lady, Drea DeMatteo had a new baby this year. I hope his new daughter, Alabama, and her mom and dad have a good Christmas.


. . . . .Yesterday, December 1st, was World AIDS Day, it was the 20th anniversary of the same. The theme was "Leadership". AIDS is a disease that has now become, in my opinion, a disease of social, class and economic injustice. HIV has not gone away, far from it. The African continent is literally being ravaged by the epidemic, and depending on income and societal wealth, continues to run unabated through lower-income and poverty-stricken areas of every nation. In our own country, inner cities are still prime target areas. This is not a "gay" disease,I hope that stigma has been long removed, it's a disease that will eventually, if a cure is not found, decimate humanity. Please support your local AIDS education and support/help organizations. For more information about HIV/AIDS, it's spread and the efforts to stop it, click here.

. . . . .Couple of things that I want to pick up on here. GWB's televised interview on ABC last night and it's notable quotes. On Iraq "I was unprepared for war". On the current financial crisis "I'm sorry it's happening". Sorry George, you put on the big boy pants and sat in the seat you wanted. You made the decisions and no amount of mea culpas buy you forgiveness. You were and are the worst President of modern times, and it's good to see you go.

. . . . Tina Brown, lately of Vanity Fair, has started a new online webzine, The Daily Beast, much in the manner of Salon or Slate. It's a good read, with several, intelligent, well-written authors everyday. Granted, it's the intelligentsia and elite of the Right wing, but it's the branch that understood where Rovian politics would take them, and understood that Sarah Palin was the natural result of that direction. One of the best pieces I've read in it for some time now is this one here. Jeffrey Hart, who is a grand old man, of the Grand Old Party weighs in:

"Palin holds multiple wacky religious opinions: creationism (Genesis read literally); the imminent end of time and the coming of the Rapture (the saved suddenly wooshed up to Heaven); and a belief she won her race for governor of Alaska because of a laying on of hands by an African clergyman noted for chasing a witch out of town for causing automobile crashes. She now says that she is waiting for God to tell her whether to run in 2012.. . . .
The lethal problem for Republicans is that while religion of a particular kind is central to their party today, it is also toxic to moderate, independent, suburban, young and, more inclusively, educated voters.. . . . .
But putting clear blue water between moderate Republicanism and the religious right would undoubtedly give rise to a third party, a breakaway Christian Party"

. . . . .This is something I've said all along now during the election cycle. I want her around, she will split the conservative "base", they can go their own way, and experience decreasing political influence, as their numbers shrink further and further, and the true shape of American politics begins to form up, that is a reflection of who we truly are as a people, a very diverse nation. For support for this argument, keep reading to get to Frank Schaeffer's piece belows.

. . . . .Also from the same source, this piece on the end of a peculiar era in American politics, and I've referenced it before, that of Cheney's emergence (finally, we hope) from his "undisclosed location" on Jan. 19th. Michael Schaffer pens this piece on men no longer having to answer to "Dick".

. . . . .Ah, the Bush family. How's about Jeb (remember him, hanging chads, Katherine Harris and all) weighing in with a piece in which he declares that the Republican party needs to set-up a "shadow government" to counter the Obama administration. They just don't know when to quit, do they?

. . . . .Frank Schaeffer, who has become one of my favorite bloggers, weighs in on the extreme right-wing nutcases who are throwing themselves on the floor, gasping like fish out of water over Obama's election with this.

"Every single one of these hate e-mails assumes a basic premise: President-elect Obama has -- through some nefarious underhanded means -- tricked our "Christian nation" into following him so that he can secularize our God fearing people, impose "anti-Christian" laws, and generally drive the goodhearted, moral and Christian American people over a cliff of socialized sexual decadence.

Aside from the absurd inaccuracy of this oddly paranoid vision, stoked by the likes of talk radio's village idiots, half-truths, exaggeration and outright "he's a Muslim isn't he?" lies, there's an even more basic problem: the evangelical right wing, Roman Catholic right wing and their Orthodox, and Mormon counterparts circulating these hate emails don't seem to have noticed that--

A), We live in a pluralistic democracy that never was a Christian nation, in the sense that, say, Byzantium was when ruled by an Orthodox emperor in league with the Orthodox Church hierarchy of Constantinople, or that the papal states were in the Middle Ages, or even the way that the Massachusetts Bay State colony was under Puritan rule.

And...

B) Have any of these folks noticed that today they are in a distinct ideological numerical minority now whatever our historical American beginnings were?"

. . . .It's been a day now, the opinions from the talking heads, the pundits and the analysts are coming in, and as I said yesterday, the names floated yesterday as part of his Security team and Foreign posts are getting rave reviews, and people see this as a seismic change, and a chance for America to gain respect in the world again and become a leader, rather than a "rogue nation". I especially love Nancy Pelosi's comment that world leaders be wary of "treating Hillary Clinton in a sexist manner, they'll pay for that."
. . . .Along those lines, how about the rumor floating today that William Jefferson Clinton is going to be the one named to take her Senate seat? Think about it.