Deep breath - woosa - woosa (nod to Michael Bay and Bad Boys 2)

Saturday October 10, 2009

. . . . .ATTENTION: Residents of the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes, do not be alarmed! That large shiny object in the sky is not a nuclear weapon, it is something called The Sun. Sightings are rare and occasional, so sometimes people forget and get frightened, it's a naturally occurring phenomenon and nothing to be afraid of. Thank you, go on about your business.

. . . .OK, back on track after yesterday, thanks, just had to get that out of my system.

. . . .I'm at work on the yearly list that I always put together for the music lover on your list for Christmas shopping, The 10 Albums Of Music You Should Be Listening To But Aren't, it's almost complete, I've got the first 7 on it.

. . . .Everyone knows about this year's big releases, the ones that you already have, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band's Magic and U2's No Line On The Horizon, but there's a whole lot more good music that's been put out this year that you should have in your player, but don't. The list

- The Black Crowes Before The Frost - Definitely the Robinson brothers in peak form, all Crowes, rock and roll with that true American feel with a touch of the Rolling Stones and The Band kicked in, recorded up in Woodstock, NY in Levon Helm's studio that he hold his Saturday Night Rambles in.
- Sonny Landreth From The Reach - Quite possibly the best living guitar player that you've never heard of, everyone, and I mean, everyone, showed up in the studio to help out this Cajun in his hometown with some killer cuts
-Derek Trucks Band Already Free This guitar prodigy, Butch Truck's nephew and Susan Tedeschi's husband, the Allman's able replacement for Dickie Betts is wonderful with his own band, which has a much more Third World music flavor to it.
-Robert Earl Keen The Rose Hotel America's best songwriter, Lyle Lovett's college roommate at Texas A & M with another beautiful collection of songs reflecting the human condition, and of course another Robert Earl classic, Is There Wireless in Heaven
- The Zac Brown Band The Foundation What Kenny Chesney and the all the rest of the country crossover wannabe's should really sound like, solid chops and a great funky feel behind some good slide playing and country shuffle beats.
- Cross Canadian Ragweed Happiness And All Other Things Red Dirt's first and foremost most prominent band steps out again with their unique '70's vinyl rock and roll LP flavored sound. Whenever the members of the band are asked whether they play rock and roll or country, they normally just grin and say "Yes".
- The Band of Heathens One Foot In The Ether Austin, TX's best house band just gets better with each outing, tight, rhythm driven music. Cut you have to hear L.A. County Blues
- John Fogerty and The Blue Ridge Rangers Ride Again Fogerty, once upon a time, after leaving Creedence and settling the legal problems went into the studio and recorded a straight up Americana album with The Rangers. They ride again, with a fine collection of Americana roots music. Have to have cut - When Will I Be Loved dueting with Bruce.
- The Drive-By Truckers The Fine Print A great collection of B-sides and covers from Patterson Hood and the folks from Alabama, which allow them to cut loose from their normal narrative driven single story format of other Trucker's albums.

. . . .That's the first 9, as we go into the last quarter of the year. I have my ideas and hopes as to which one will be Number 10, but I have to listen to them both for a while before deciding. I don't know whether or not it will be Kris Kristofferson's new one, or the one, at least highly anticipated by me, from Roseanne Cash. Who knows, maybe it'll be a tie!

. . . .Anyhow, as we head into the holidays, get a couple of these for the music lover on your list, they'll appreciate them, truly, and appreciate your great taste in seeking out music that doesn't get as much airplay as other stuff does.

. . . .I love weekends, because this gets easier. The news of the day writes itself constantly, and there are a ton of bloggers, writers, columnists who all write in the same style I do, and have somewhat the same viewpoint. (Hey, I never promised fair, it's my column, I get to write what I want, from the viewpoint I want!)

. . . .And of course, yesterday was a doozy. Now, let's get something straight. I can't and won't go into the validity of the President's Nobel Peace Prize. It's an independent, sovereign organization, just like the IOC was, and my opinion, your opinion count for absolutely nothing, zero, zilch, nada, the big zip. Got that? I don't have a vote, you don't, and in the end, every opinion on it is worthless, because, it was awarded to him by them, and they get to do what they want. Before you go discounting it and participating in another stupid, fucking Facebook poll, remember something, it's an all or nothing deal. Make sure, in your own mind, that you understand, that again, as a sovereign organization awarding it to him, they get to do what they want, and if the award presented to him was invalid due to his body of work, that it's also invalid for Mother Theresa, Desmond Tutu, Alexander Sakharov and others. If it's invalid because it was awarded once to Yasser Arafat, it also then is invalid for Theodore Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.

. . . .Which is also the reason that I'm so frakkin' puzzled. I'm an American first, and the President of my country just was awarded a prestigious honor, that reflects well on the whole country. But then, I'm an independent Libertarian who lives in the United States of America on the planet Earth with a bunch of independents, moderates, centrists, progressives, liberals and looney Democrats. I don't live in Rushistan on the Planet Beck with a bunch of wingnuts, whackos, Righties, Republicanists and neocon-tras.

. . . .There is plenty to be highly critical of in this Adminstration from a policy standpoint, the particular burr under my saddle is the absolute ownership of the Fed and White House by Goldman-Sachs and JP Morgan Chase, and I think that this country's monetary and fiscal policy is a runaway freight train loaded with dynamite, and the Health Care Reform bills getting ready to pass are absolutely criminal due to big PHrMA's deal with the White House and the Health Care Insurance's lobby's ownership of the White House and Congress, but I don't, absolutely don't understand the emotional hysteria and the whacked out attacks that have no substance.

. . .Great gal named Larissa Alexandrovna in at-Largely, who does some fine writing, you can check her entire column here:

I for one don't think Obama has gone far enough in ending the many violent and destructive policies of the previous administration. But then again, I also live in this reality and have watched the changes Obama has made being attacked by right-wing extremists as a move toward socialism, communism, fascism, and every "ism" they could muster.

He has been called a democracy hating commie for his condemnation of the military coup in Honduras.

He has been attacked as a terrorist sympathizer and anti-Semite for not bombing Iran on his first day in office.

He has been called a traitor to our allies for his efforts to dismantle the missile defense shield plans in Eastern Europe - idioctically embarked on by the last administration.

He has been attacked as a traitor to our troops for pushing back against the military - industrial - complex and their propaganda outfits demanding an increase of US troops to Afghanistan.

He has been denounced as evil incarnate for daring to attempt the closing of Gitmo and suggesting that the people being held there be brought into US prisons. When the psychotics on the right side screamed we cannot have terra-terra-ists on our soil, in custody, in secure prisons (as though we don't now have terrorists in domestic prisons), he convinced other nations to take the detainees- for which he was also attacked.

So, while I have no problem with legitimate criticism from both the left and the right (as I have said previously, Little Green Footballs continues to earn my respect) of the Nobel Peace Prize in general and of Obama's award in particular, what I do have a serious problem with is those who attack rather than criticize and not on legitimate points, but out of pure hate.

Let me show you some of these Hatriots in action today (as my good friend Shoq has started calling them):

[MORE BELOW THE FOLD]

Stop the ACLU (the name of the blog should it explain it all):

Yay! Congrats to Barack Obama! He has been awarded the Nobel Appeasement Prize! He has now joined an exclusive club that holds the ranks of such peace lovers as AlGore(2007), Jimmy Carter (2002) and terrorist Yassar Arafat.

Apparently Al Gore, Jimmy Carter are terrorists like Yassar Arafat? Or are they terrorists simply because they are Democrats? And what of the full list of winners that Obama will be joining? People like the 14th Dalai Lama, Elie Wiesel, Desmond Tutu, Mother Teresa, and Andrei Sakharov, to name a few. Does Obama not join them but only Yassar Arafat? As I noted above, you can disagree with some of the past choices, but overall, the winners have been well deserving, remarkable people. And, as I also already noted, you can be critical of Obama's win based on legitimate issues. But to simply attack Obama and somehow call him a terrorist is not acceptable.

Shiksa Malkin is typically shocked (shocked I tell you) because Obama has done NOTHING to deserve the award:

"From community organizer to Illinois state senator (present!) to U.S. Senator for 143 days before moving into the White House…and now, the recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize — not for anything he’s actually done, but for the symbolism of what he might possibly accomplish sometime way off in the future."

And yet she devotes endless hours in attacking what Obama has done? I don't get it. Either he has done nothing, in which case she would sit quietly knitting or he has done something, for which she continuously attacks him. The latter wins.

But my favorite of the day comes from the drug-addicted, Viagra popping, sex-tourist himself, Rush Limbaugh:

"This fully exposes the illusion that is Barack Obama," Limbaugh told POLITICO in an e-mail. "And with this 'award' the elites of the world are urging Obama, THE MAN OF PEACE, to not do the surge in Afghanistan, not take action against Iran and its nuclear program and to basically continue his intentions to emasculate the United States."

Yep, he outed the conspiracy that clever man. The world leaders got together to give Obama the Nobel Peace Prize to somehow magically have Obama "emasculate the United States."

These people clearly have proved that whatever country they live in, it is not the United State of America, because the US is apparently a nation that they hate. From cheering our loss of the Olympic bid (because Chicago deserved to lose for having given rise to Obama); to openly hoping that Obama's domestic and foreign policies fail - and with those failures, our nation fails (but who cares so long as Obama fails); to calling for a military coup to overthrow a democratically elected leader of the United States; to countless acts and words aimed at destroying the country if that means also destroying their number one target, Obama.

Just to be clear, No, Obama is not the country, is not equal to the country, is not the same thing as the country. But, for the right-wing the country is a necessary casualty in their war on Obama.

. . .Matt Taibbi in his blog over at True/Slant:

It’s sort of the same, only in reverse, with all of this anti-Obama stuff. There are plenty of rational reasons to disapprove of the Obama administration. There are plenty of curious policy decisions in his history already and he has already drawn plenty of real ideological lines in the sand that people looking to whine about something could whine about, if they so chose.

But instead of that, the opponents of Barack Obama seem determined to make a villain out of him almost solely on the basis of his completely innocent and irrelevant behaviors. Instead of bitching at him for things like giving away billions of dollars via his Public-Private Investment Program — a natural rallying cry for conservatives, you would think — they’re constantly getting on his balls about stuff that has no relevance to anything at all, much less the conservative-liberal divide. It’s almost as though the haters have an emotional attachment to the notion of Obama as being guilty of and responsible for everything, from bad weather to the lack of good movies outside of District 9 to the flattening out of Brandon Webb’s sinker.

This Peretz piece in the New Republic is one of the weirdest examples I’ve seen yet. Peretz blithely recounts the episode in which Obama traveled to Copenhagen to pimp Chicago’s Olympic bid, recounts the humiliating decision by the IOC to stiff Chicago first of all, then jumps in a bizarre non sequitur to the above conclusion that Obama must be a “clinical narcissist,” I guess for going to Copenhagen at all.

Then he finishes with this passage, which is weird even by the already sky-high weirdness standards of our leading pundits:

Chicago will survive its disappointments and Obama will, as well. It is the other stage sets on which the president struts–like he strutted in Cairo and at the United Nations–that concern me.

I know that the president believes himself a good man. My nervy query to him is: “Does he believe America to be a good country?”

I’ve been reading the piece over and over again and I can’t figure out that last line. Is Peretz trying to say that Obama’s decision to go to Copenhagen to press for America to win an Olympic bid means he doesn’t believe America is a good country? At best, what you get from going over Peretz’s reasoning is that Obama’s people should have done a better job of divining ahead of time that the IOC planned on snubbing them. How does he jump from there to Obama not believing America is a good country?

The Peretz piece is just a high-end version of the bizarre anti-Obama propaganda that has been circulating on the internet ever since his campaign began, consumed in mass quantities by people who apparently are incapable of even clicking through to a link. I had one person send me a link to an Infowars.com piece by Kurt Nimmo warning that Obama was going to institute mandatory national servitude. The relevant section:

Obama’s vision of the American dream, however, will not consist of Americans freely choosing to volunteer to work in their communities and neighborhoods. It will be a requirement. “Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year.” (Emphasis added.)

This is the first time I’ve ever seen someone write “emphasis added” and mean it in a literal sense — they literally added the emphasized passage. This section was preceded by a link to the actual text of the Obama-Biden President-Elect website., and that text, for those who can read English, reads as follows:

Obama and Biden will call on citizens of all ages to serve. They’ll set a goal that all middle school and high school students engage in 50 hours of community service a year, and develop a plan for all college students who engage in 100 hours of community service to receive a fully-refundable tax credit of $4,000 for their education. Obama and Biden will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55, while at the same time promoting youth programs such as Youth Build and Head Start… The Obama-Biden administration’s volunteer initiatives are still taking shape, but take a moment now to let us know that you’re interested, and we’ll keep you posted on all the latest developments.

The really weird part about this stuff, and similar Alex Jonesian non-controversies like the birth-certificate issue, is — what kind of person worries about stuff like this? Are there people out there who really believe that this milquetoast Democratic Party bureaucrat is going to turn Head Start into the Komsomol? And let’s just say Obama was born in Africa. He wasn’t, but let’s just say. Who gives a fuck? Are there not enough real problems out there for people to worry about?

It seems to me that the determination of the Obama haters to worry about irrelevancies and nonsense, and not his real policies, is evidence that they find something soothing in this villain-fantasy. Clearly, for one thing, the fantasy does not involve worrying about or even thinking about real problems. It allows people to transfer real anxiety and fear and anger over real problems into this fictional arena where the only thing to worry about is the presidency of this evil black Wizard of Oz-like figure who lies about his birthplace and has secret plans to institute a clearly-will-never-happen program of national servitude.If you’re in that place mentally, you might as well be playing Dungeons and Dragons. There’s no way thoughts like this can ever feel completely real, which maybe is the idea.

Maybe if you spend enough time dwelling on these imagined terrors, like the creation of Obama-friendly “civilian security squads” (the Obama-Stasi!), you might eventually forget for a few minutes that you owe $89,000 in credit card debt. Is that what’s going on here?

Or maybe this is over-thinking all of this, and maybe Marty Peretz is just getting old and losing it. Either way, it’s weird stuff. Even by American standards.

. . .Bob Cesca, over at his most awesome blog:

If only the establishment press and cable news doofs were as critical about the pretext for the invasion of Iraq as they are about the current president winning THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE! there would be 40,000 American soldiers and countless Iraqi civilians who'd be living their lives in relative peace right now.

I'm seriously wondering if any level of success this president achieves will actually be described as such. The President of the United States just won the Nobel Peace Prize -- only the third sitting president to ever achieve this -- and it's being treated like a freaking gaffe. Seriously, based on what I've read and overheard, you could easily replace the words "Nobel Peace Prize" with "clinging to their guns and religion."

Simply put: This is only a good thing for America. Nothing less.

Adding... And as for some of the liberals who are treating this like a negative, shame on you, too. This is a great day for the American presidency. But it's more than just about any one man. This is about our collective reputation in the world. If you can't recognize that, then I don't know what else to tell you other than to remember how embarrassed you felt just a year ago when the previous president had utterly reduced our nation to a laughing stock. Show some appreciation for the big picture.

. . . .GottaLaff, over The Political Carnival has this to say, reporting on what the DNC had to say:

Via our pals at The Mudflats. If only more of our representatives were this direct and forceful:

"The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists — the Taliban and Hamas this morning — in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize. Republicans cheered when America failed to land the Olympics and now they are criticizing the President of the United States for receiving the Nobel Peace prize — an award he did not seek but that is nonetheless an honor in which every American can take great pride — unless of course you are the Republican Party. The 2009 version of the Republican Party has no boundaries, has no shame and has proved that they will put politics above patriotism at every turn. It’s no wonder only 20 percent of Americans admit to being Republicans anymore – it’s an embarrassing label to claim."

They not only described the Rushpublics, they described every tantruming two-year-old I've encountered at an airport or dentist's office.

. . . .And finally, because today is Saturday, and Bill Maher was on HBO last night, and today is the National Equality March, Bill with today's last word and New Rule:

New Rule: Everyone deserves equal rights. That's why they're called "equal" and "rights." Tomorrow night President Obama will speak before a gay rights group, and on Sunday there will be a massive gay rally in Washington, or as I call it, the Million Mo March. Which makes this weekend the perfect time for Obama to announce he's repealing "don't ask, don't tell" and committing to a full-throated endorsement of gay marriage. One, because it's the right thing to do and two, because it will throw the conservative base into such a frenzied, pants-shitting panic that they'll drop all that BS about death panels and socialism and let us all get some actual work done.

But of course that's not going to happen. I can tell you what the president is going to tell his audience tomorrow: How much he supports them. How much he agrees with them. And how he wishes he was President so he could help them out. But here's the thing about being president. There isn't a lot you can do without either Congress, Oprah or Goldman Sachs behind you. But there is one thing the president can do with the stroke of a pen: He can let gays serve openly in the military. It's called an executive order. Harry Truman wrote one in 1948 for blacks in the military, and that was that.

"Don't ask, don't tell" has always been bad policy that was made out of a bullshit political compromise. You know, like you're doing now with health care. It never made sense to begin with: "Here in the Army we're all about honor. And trusting the man next to you. Now lie to my face about your sexuality, Johnson, or I'll report you behind your back." But forget all the good arguments for repeal, like because it was promised to us in the campaign or because it gets lonely on a submarine. Do it because it'll make Rush Limbaugh explode like a bag full of meat dropped from a helicopter. Do it because it'll make Sarah Palin go rogue in her pants.

Because here's the thing about today's conservatives: they're not bright. They can't keep a lot of ideas in their head at once. And by "a lot" I mean "two." If we can get them all worked up about fighting the gay menace, it will siphon away all that crazy, right wing, town-hall energy from all the other big issues they've been fighting. The tea-baggers don't know what the word "socialism" means. But they do know what the word "gay" means, because their hairdresser explained it to them once, and they don't like it. They will be drawn to it like a moth to a flamer. Bush was practically re-elected on a promise to keep boys from kissing. Which is ridiculous, because if you want to stop gays from having sex, wouldn't you let them get married?

But seriously, the sheer rage of the tea-baggers can be so easily redirected that some times I wonder if Rush doesn't just spin a giant wheel of hate every morning to come up with ACORN! William Ayers! Birth certificate! It's like faking throwing a stick for the dog. "War on Christmas." "Obama's talking to school children." And "gay" is the easiest stick to throw.

Health care and the environment are complicated, but it's not hard to keep track of the places that God allows you to put your pee-pee. I mean, you can count those places on one hand. And that hand isn't something you should be using either. A year ago, if you had asked your average wing-nut neighbor what he thought about health care reform, he would have shrugged his shoulders and gone right back to eating his Moon Pie. But he's pissed-off about it now, why? Because it's in their nature to be pissed-off. They have a pre-existing condition called the Conniption Fits. The tea-baggers have taught us all an important lesson in modern politics: If you want to be taken seriously, act like a fucking loony-tune.

In fact, let me explain how the right-wing mind works: wing-nuts get up in the morning, get their "news" from Fox or Drudge, and then spend all morning drinking coffee and getting all worked up about whatever Fox and Drudge tell them to get worked up about. "Mexicans - Grrr! Socialism - Grrr! Van Jones - I don't know who he is, but sure... Grrrrrr!" By the time Rush comes on at noon, they're ready to just start demanding we build a wall around Andy Dick. And when Glenn Beck shows up at five, they're seeing red - right through the blue from the Viagra.

But while Glenn is busy explaining to his viewers that when he cries it's a butch thing, Obama and the Democrats can sweep in under the gaydar and pass real health care and real climate change bills. This is how we fight fire with Fire Island. When Obama speaks tomorrow, he should not only revoke "don't ask, don't tell," but also change our military's slogan to "An Army of Buns." And starting next year, gay busing. Yes, if there aren't any gay families in your community, we'll bring them to you. Your field hockey team can thank us later.

And when they get out there on Sunday, Gay Nation also needs to do everything in their power to scare the hell out of right-wing homophobes. I want to see you guys rollerblading down the Mall in nothing but a speedo and a nun's habit, holding a sparkler in one hand and a penis popsicle in the other.

. . . .And that's the way it is:

. . . . .. . . .We can salvage this shipwreck of a Nation. It will take all of us working together. It will take all of us understanding the concepts of the Great American Experiment, the political process of the Republic. It's amazing, I don't see eye-to-eye on every issue with my friends, but we respect one another's opinion, share information, share facts, and we don't talk over one another or at one another, we talk with one another. It's amazing what happens when a group of people who share the common goal of leaving a better country for their children and grandchildren can do when they sit down with one another as human beings, and realize that we each have power, and together, we are unstoppable.

. . . .I'm going to ask this of you for the next 30 days. Turn your TV off, turn your radio off. Start to use that beautiful mind that your Creator gave you, that your underpaid, underappreciated High School teachers tried to develop. If you hear something, if you read something, if someone sends you an e-mail that says "this bill will do this", or "this politician says this", I'm asking you to check it out. Check it out this way, use some of the following fact-based sites, who exist solely for the purpose of data and fact-checking.
- If whatever you've heard or read concerns a bill in Congress, use the following -
- Open Congress, it's non-partisan and devoted to a complete tracking of every bill in Congress, both houses. How a bill is developed, who is sponsoring it, what the riders are, what the discussion around it is.
- GovTrack, again non-partisan, non-commercial and open source; devoted to the same things, tracking Congress.
- Open Secrets, one of the most important ones, it tracks the lobbying money and campaign contributions flowing to your congressperson, and most of the time is a pretty good predictor of how they'll vote.
- Political Party Time, non-partisan, devoted to solely tracking political fundraisers, and letting you know exactly what parties your Representative and Senators are throwing for fundraisers and who is attending and how much money they're throwing at them to gain influence.

. . . .If someone sends something to you saying "this is so" or "that is so" or "the President/Senator/Representative said this" use the following:
- Fact Check, non-partisan, designed to separate fact from bullshit and fiction
- Snopes, devoted to the same thing.
- Politifact, devoted to getting to the truth, and separating out the lies that are spread.


. . . .I keep doing this not because I don't have faith, but because I do have faith. I have faith in the ultimate triumph of the spirit, intellect and heart of the American people. I have faith that the people I know want to leave something better for future generations, and know that something is terribly wrong, and want to do something about it. I do it because Paine and Jefferson were brilliant, unique singularities and were right.

. . . .I keep doing this because I don't believe in big imaginary friends for adults, I don't believe in alien conspiracies running the Government, I don't believe the Roswell bodies are at Wright-Patterson, I don't believe that a big portal will open up on Dec. 21, 2012, I don't believe that the spaceships will show up.

. . . I do believe that the people who have fucked everything up are greedy, avaricious human beings who have been able to steal from the American people, to harm them, who have run unchecked because no one calls it out for what it is. I believe that if we shine the light of day on it, if the people of this country have had enough, we can change it, and change it for the better.

. . . . I keep doing this because I do believe that people, human beings, unchecked will continue to do what they've done throughout history, and throughout the history of this country. Together, they will find the solutions and provide better for their children and grandchildren.

. . . .I believe in us, I believe in people. I believe in the beauty, power and grace of the individual.

. . . .I do this for everyone who's ever walked that lonely road of knowing what they do, what they believe, what they know is right. I do it for everyone who's ever walked that lonely road of faith, hope, love, hate, justice, war and peace.

. . . .I do it because I believe in justice, in all it's forms.

. . . .I do this everyday for the people and kids who are tattoed, pierced and inked and keep getting told to get "into the mainstream". I do this everyday for those guys who wear black that you don't understand, you just know there's something about them, and that when the chips are down, when you have to walk down a dark alley somewhere, and you know what's waiting for you at the end of it, and you can only take one person with you, that's who you want walking with you, because you know you'll come back out alive, and that guy doesn't care what it costs him.

. . . .I do this everyday for the outcasts, the misfits, the ones who don't fit and who will turn their back on you and walk away when you try to make them fit into a mold. I do it everyday for everyone who does it their way, knows that they're paying a high price for it, but the freedom is worth the cost.

. . . . I do this everyday for outlaws, cowboys, renegades, pirates and fallen angels. I do it everyday for the people who understand that rock and roll can save their soul, that redemption can be found in a 3-chord lick from a vintage Les Paul. I do it for the men and women who aren't afraid to turn it all the way up, who keep looking for an 11 setting on a volume knob that only goes to 10, who know that rock and roll's got nothing to do with age.


. . . .If right now, you're doing something you don't want to do, stop it. If you've surrounded yourself with people who want you to do or be something other than who you are, walk away. If you've got people around you who actually let it slip out that they think you "should be doing (fill in the blank here)" and it involves your life, your future, your existence as an individual, walk away, right now, and don't look back. You don't owe anyone anything. Live fearlessly. If the people around you can't accept it, can't accept you as you are, really are, they aren't and weren't friends anyhow.

. . . .Don't march to anyone else's drumbeat, don't drink the Kool-Aid, anyone's. Right, Left, conservative, liberal, Democrat, Republican, Christian, Buddhist, Pagan. Use your own mind, that's why you were given one. Examine, question, do what's right for you first, everything else will fall in place from there, quit looking for the path, you're already on it.

. . . .Come out of the gate each morning with both barrels blazing, pedal-to-metal, full-tilt boogie, all-in and balls-out, what's stopping you? Do you want to live forever? That'd be boring.

. . . .Got your back. somewhere out there in the night

. . . .Kiss your kids, tell the ones you love out loud that you do. Seize the precious moments before they're ripped away from you. This rodeo is a one-way ticket and no one, absolutely no one gets out alive. There aren't a lot of second chances, and we don't get to dictate terms and circumstances of how the ticket gets punched. This ain't no dress rehearsal, and the curtain's gone up, it's real and right now. It's not about yesterday or tomorrow. It's about right fucking here, right fucking now. This, what you're reading, what you're hearing, is the proof, the words, the sounds and the sights of someone changing his own life and his own world and not being afraid to put it out there. What have you done for yourself lately and why are you waiting? Do it now.

The Desolation Angel
from somewhere halfway to Heaven, and just a mile out of Hell

You know someone like me, there's still a few of us left. If we have to, we'll stand at the gates of Hell and hold the last train home for you.. . . . . .