08 Celebration of What, exactly?

WOOHOOOOO, it's 2008 in eastern Australia. Just a minute ago I watched the (still going on) fireworks there live on TV (on Fox News.)

But around the world, how does spending millions upon millions of dollars each every December 31st help people who suffer in poverty?

One of the saddest things I ever saw on television -- watching some of the celebrations at the Millennium, on ABC with Peter Jennings hosting, there was a correspondent in Eritrea, I think. At midnight for that Time Zone, he, the reporter, did a brief live shot from a refugee camp in the desert.

There was No celebrating. No one even clapping. No one was even seen. The tents were dark and quiet.

People there could care less that it had just turned from 1999 to 2000.

They could care less that it was now Saturday and no longer Friday.

They just wanted a place to live that was safe and without war.

Many just wanted food and water so they could keep living... and so they could keep their children alive, as well.

When so many human souls live in such horrible conditions, what exactly is there to celebrate on New Year's Eve?

The thought of this night -- it makes me so sad. It pains me... it literally hurts me.

What exactly is there to celebrate? Ya know what tomorrow is? It'll be Tuesday... just another day.

NYE is just an excuse to shoot off fireworks, have a party, and selfishly spend money without a single care in the world for the needless suffering of others.

Hooray.

p.s. i still wish happiness and good health to everyone in '08.

Peace, Love, and Support The Troops!

Bush Has Broken Everything In The World

Wednesday night I did not watch Keith Olbermann's show on MSNBC. It's essentially never that I do watch, only once in a while out of curiosity, juuust to see what he's gonna say and how many times he introduces a non-liberal viewpoint to a story. (Never.)

On the FOX News Channel I did happen to catch Dennis Miller
define what MSNBC means...

Make
Sure:
No
Bush
Compliments

Two night ago I did catch some of Countdown With Keith Olbermann and here's what came to mind:

In their pre-show production meetings, they probably have a banner on the wall proclaiming something like:

IMPORTANT!!!
With EVERY story, spin spin spin to make Bush look bad!!!

Well, kicking off the show two nights ago was the fires in SoCal. No surprise. But what was so interesting was that within a mere minute or two, (God, it's so hard to refrain from calling him some sort of name here.... God, please hold me back from releasing the hounds!!!)

...within a minute or two, it was already inferred that Bush was responsible for these fires getting out of control.

And again -- not one single Republican, Conservative or opposite side of the issue viewpoint.

All that's allowed on his program is Air America type of propaganda for left-leaning Democrats, anything and everything to make the approval rating of the GOP dive while doing everything possible to bring about a nation of liberals so they always have the majority voice on every issue... that's what Air America is, right? I don't listen to the radio but that's what I hear about them. Is Air America responsible enough too allow honest debate like the Fox News Channel does? I'm guessing no. (I've seriously heard that what they mostly do is just insult those who have the gall to think with a conservative mind. Insults get so much accomplished and do so much to bring people together, don't they?) So Olbermann must be following in their footsteps, in a way, on the TV screen.

So sad.

Probably why so many people make fun of the "Faux" News Channel is because they have the balls to give both sides a chance to speak. Allow people to see TWO points of view and let them make their own minds up? Get out of here! Many liberals simply cannot stand that. Dangerous. Very dangerous. These people who speak from a conservative point of view, they must be silenced!!!! Right? LIBERAL VIEW ONLY!!!!

Also, doesn't the Fox News Channel get their Talking Points directly from the GOP and from the White House? That's the accusation, most famously by former CBS news anchor, Dan Rather.

Of course, he never defended his statement.

Keith Olbermann enjoys molesting little boys. It's an accusation. Do I have to defend my statement? Why should I? Liberals often never do. Where's the evidence Bush and cronies started the war in Iraq to steal oil to fatten their bank accounts??!? THERE ISN'T ANY. (Bush is dumber than rocks... but he's brilliant enough to fool everyone? Which one is it?!?!?!) Just idiotic statements made and never backed up. Just like the statement about Fox News and their talking points.

In a lunkhead kind of way, I want a Democrat president in '08 for one reason and one reason alone -- and that's to see if Olbermann will be fair and balanced when it comes to criticizing the new Commander in Chief. Or will he praise the new Pres at every turn while slamming all Republicans who don't bow down to the Dems wishes?

Wait. Paying attention to him so much is a waste of anyone's time so that's a really bad want to have so let me change it to -- I want Olbermann to just go away. Go join Air America so no one will hear you.

P.S. I think I have a cavity in one of my teeth. Should Bush be impeached for that? The buck stops there, doesn't it? Hey, Olbermann, how would you spin my possible cavity to reflect badly upon W.? There's a way for EVERYTHING, isn't there? If you found out that you and Bush both liked the same music, wouldn't you say something like -- he listens to it wrong, or: Bush liking that music just makes it worthless now. Something like that, right?

New York Mets are Pathetic Losers

mets are pond scum

losers

thanks for nothin', ya jerkwads

i would really love to say something like:
Thanks, Mets, for a great season
and a great push to make the playoffs.

...but they're just pathetic.

they're not even worth the time I spent on this.

U.S.: HANDS OFF IRAN!!!!! (?)

Being one who writes, and often a lot, I could very, very easily take some significant time and do 5,000 words on the president of Iran, Ahmadinejad, as well as those who support the U.S. butting out of Iran's business.

However, I'm not gonna type so much on that jerk or his misguided minions. I should. The reason is because it's always a good thing to have yet another voice speak out so strongly against Iran's despicable exteme Islamist government, from the Ayatollah on down. But even though this'll be brief, that doesn't mean Iran doesn't make my blood boil.

I feel good that the president of Columbia University, Lee Bollinger, slammed Ahmadinejad in his opening statement to him... but Ahmadinejad should never have been invited to speak there yesterday. I don't equate Ahmadinejad to Hitler... not yet but close. He should be spoken down to and laughed at and NOT applauded, and not given the respect a world leader normally should get. He most definitely should answer to the human rights abuses in his country. But my primary objection to his being here is he is arming terrorists who have killed American soldiers.

Now, some might not really say that's a bad thing, and they'll be dodgy about it, because they don't wanna show themselves as supporting the killing of American soldiers. But to some people it's right because afterall, the Americans are illegal occupiers, right? They're the real enemy so fighting the enemy is the right thing to do. Correct? No. Taking that position is just wrong. Look, it does not matter whether you want the U.S. to have victory somehow defeating the terrorists in Iraq and giving that nation a chance for democracy... or if you want them to come home now in defeat. It doesn't matter if you were for or against the war -- Arming men to kill Americans is something Ahmadinejad does and for that reason alone he does not deserve a forum to speak... anywhere.

Oh boy, so much to say and I've already typed more than I planned to.

Anyway... my favorite quote from President Dillhole speaking at Columbia yesterday is the following:

"Freedoms in Iran are genuine, true freedoms. Iranian people are free. Women in Iran enjoy the highest levels of freedom."

Hmmm... he's a world leader, the President of his nation. I guess we should leave Iran alone and let them go about their lives however they wish.

Do your own research: Iran rights of women

Iran "human rights abuses"

Wow, and I haven't even gotten into Iran's desire to build a nuclear weapon. Nuclear weapons? Why have just one?! Amadinejad said on 60 Minutes Sunday night, I don't wanna use exact quotes 'cause I didn't see it and I'm not gonna take a moment to look up a transcript, but he said -- Iran doesn't need a nuclear weapon.

I don't "need" ice cream or cookies. I want them, though.
They're a nice addition to life.

Maybe Iran doesn't "need" a nuclear weapon.
But wanting one would sure help to annihilate Israel.

Upload Hell

Dial-up internet is completely outdated and it sucks. Sucks. Sucks. Sucks. Sucks. Sucks. Sucks. Sucks. Sucks. Sucks. Sucks. Sucks. Sucks. Sucks. Sucks. Sucks. Sucks.

Sucks.



95% of an upload completed. That equaled OVER 8 HOURS.

Then the internet connection was lost... only 24 minutes left.

ONLY 24 MINUTES LEFT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And that's why I'm probably not posting anything related to music today.

What a damn load of crap.

False Alarm, Bob & Rob

Ear Update '07: Seems like it twas but a false alarm; I went off the rails like a crazy train, like I was drivin' my train a little high on cocaine, kinda freakin' out a little... but, dude, twas my hearing we're talkin' about here! What happened, I am guessing (afterall, I'm not really a doctor, I only play one on the internet,) is the first baking soda "flush" and then sleep turned into a slight infection. There's essentially no wax left in there to be the cause of a clog. Add in subsequent flushings of rubbing alcohol and olive oil and hydrogen peroxide, and the infection stayed, maybe even got a little worse. Oh well.

Good news is in the past 24 hours, my left ear has gone from about 95% useless to about 70% normal. There's still some mild pain, nothing making me angry, maybe only a 4 on the 0 to 10 scale. Almost always constantly aware I am that it's not right... but it's coming back to okay, I do believe.

Thanks to all the suggestions and well wishes.
Mucho appreciated, truly!

As an EMT, I'm always kind of hyper-aware of my well-being, always checking how all systems are functioning... and 'cause there was almost no way I was gonna see a doctor, and my freedom to enjoy music was suddenly gone, twas scary. I wasn't anywhere close to dumping my music, I even kept downloading through this mini-crisis... but it ran through my mind to be prepared for the worst so I can move on quickly rather than get stuck in depression should something very bad've happened.

In any freakin' case, it's still clearin' up
but was okay enough to Press Play on a little pre-Ratdog, sort of...

Bob Weir & Rob Wasserman -- 11/27/88
Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles
(opened for Jerry Garcia Band)

Walkin' Blues, City Girls, The Winners,
Fever, Victim Or The Crime,
This Time Forever, Easy To Slip -»
Bass Solo* -» Heaven Help The Fool
encore: Blackbird

* almost completely comprised of a song which is quite familiar
but I cannot place. oh well.

According to my Einstein-like calculations, this appears to be just the third Bob & Rob "show" ... even though it's not, at least in my opinion, technically a show, just a 47 minute opening set. Bobby's always had a legion of fans who came out to support him in his side projects while Jerry did his thing so there was no threat or anything of bombing. I've always dug these two playing together, going way back to maybe a year or so after this L.A. stand. Their chemistry here is good but it's a ways off from hitting a great pre-Ratdoggie dog plateau in the early 90's. Still it's fairly tight but listening closely and knowing the shows these guys have turned out when not opening for anyone, I can tell they're in an early stage of really getting used to playing as a two-some. What they churn out is a pretty decent set of tunes. I'm sure a lot of Garcia Is God, Bob Who? snobs didn't enter the theater until just before Jerry came on, but those who wandered in early to check out the opening set were welcoming and appreciative of the Bobster. Later on down the line, Weir-Wasserman shows weren't all that exploratory and never had immensely differing setlists but this is definitely a glimpse of the future and of better things to come for these two.

Thanks to John Detally for taping this!
Pretty sweet Sony D-6 cassette master -» digital;
B+ to A- sound.

listen to 11/27/88 from SugarMegs.org
or, in one long .wma file,
Right Click to dload 11/27/88 here

In Hell

All of a sudden life has changed. Hopefully temporarily.

This is only the end of Crisis Day 1
but I have absolutely no sign that anything's going to change.

Today was a great day for my leg.
Could've gone for a rehab hike,
but the day of rest was probably for the best.
Still it was yet another Zilch Day with no run and no hike.

Tomorrow I was planning on that hike...

but frankly I don't give a damn, not with my hearing loss.

Have tried:

• hydrogen peroxide
• isopropyl alcohol
• soap & water
• olive oil
• and again baking soda & water.

Which has worked? Nothing's worked.

My left ear is somehow obstructed or impaired almost completely. This is a very strange feeling. The most depressing thing about this:

I have lost my freedom to enjoy music.

There's no way I'm gonna use earphones and just hear in one ear. Play through normal speakers? I don't seem to do that much anymore... not that I'm done listening through speakers forever, just am not right now and not about to change. Why? Digital music files are on the computer and can't bring the computer to the other room or with me anywhere but besides, the computer's speakers are nowhere near loud enough or have the range stereo speakers do, and to listen through a normal CD player and normal speakers I'd have to buy CDR blanks and burn discs which I also don't do... I'm weird.

And even if I was going to, I'd still be hearing through only 1 ear while this odd feeling constantly attacks me. There isn't a single minute that goes by that life is enjoyable right now. This is messed up.

I'm actually somewhat scared. I don't get scared. Nothing scares me.
But now this does.

Music's almost a backbone of this life of mine... now what?

I'm actually already thinking of selling/giving away all my CDs and deleting the gigs of music files I have. At this moment right here right now -- they're useless to me.

Cloggage

What sweet relief in my ear last night when it became unclogged.

Sleep -> Wake Up -> Clogged.

Tried the baking soda & water dealie, twice. No luck.

This is BAD. Mildly panicking once again.

Absolutely cannot listen to music = VERY BAD.

I do not like being hearing impaired.

not good. WHAT WAS THAT? SPEAK LOUDER!

Earwax. Unless there are some freaks in society who don't have the properly formed gene that makes the body produce earwax, we've all got it.

So, I'm doin' a routine cleanin', no big whoop, using a q-tip dealie.

And then next thing ya know my hearing's mostly gone from my left ear.

It's like I pushed wax deeper in to clog the ear canal? Yeah, probably.

I've never had this happen before for this long of a period of time (about 4 hours now.)

I'm impatient and not being able to properly listen to music is really freakin' me out.

Now I'm reading about never inserting a q-tip into the ear canal. Oh great, so I may have made it worse.

In another window I'm reading about solutions to this... I've got a feeling it'll be all clear within a day or two at the most. Last thing I wanna do is go to a rip off artist a.k.a. a doctor to fix this.

Might be an easy solution but then again, I was q-tipping so far in there, I swear I was hittin' brain so this could be a problem.

Mostly -- I'm worried that I can't listen to music tonight! Or watch a movie. This bites.

UPDATE 11:47 p.m. -- I love thinking the worst 'cause when it's not the worst, there's a nice feeling of relief. Seems I mildly panicked for hours over nothing. Tried baking soda & water, two times and all clear!

America the Idiotic

Minneapolis Bridge Collapse

BREAKING NEWS: at least 9 killed, 62 hurt, some still missing. The tragedy happened over 12 hours ago yet it's still BREAKING NEWS... Matt Lauer of NBC's The Today Show is on scene as is John King of CNN's American Morning.

Other news on TV this morning: there isn't any. The world today revolves around Minneapolis and nothing else matters. That's not entirely accurate, Fox News Channel is running through other headlines at least every 30 minutes. So I do believe the rest of the world still exists but when something like this happens in America, you can't really be sure.

It's sad that life was lost and I feel for the families and friends of all of those affected. But why is American life more important than lives outside of this country (unless they're lives of American soldiers)?

In the Communist China province of Shanxi, at least 20 people have died since Saturday. Hundreds of thousands of homes have been destroyed. The rural poor are suffering so horribly. But neither John King or Matt Lauer has gone there to report on their plight. Nope. Why? Are the Chinese even human like Americans are human? I'd even venture a guess that neither of them has even spoken a word about it.

Tragedy happens in many forms. But it's American tragedy that matters to major media outlets such as CNN and Fox News and NBC. They stop everything to report and report and report and report on such incidents. They show the same video over and freakin' over. The same story is on a loop and meanwhile it's still BREAKING NEWS? And this morning a couple of 'em are showing on-screen their specially created-just-for-this "Bridge Collapse" and "Disaster Over The Mississippi" graphics complete with gloomy music. "WATCH US" these graphics say to viewers. "WE will bring you the VERY BEST news coverage of this event. Other news? Screw it."

Pathetic. I'm not saying they live for events like this but they milk it as best as they can while tragedy in other nations hardly gets a minutes worth of airtime... or maybe a bottom-of-the-screen news scroll mention.

God, I love this country. Born and raised here. There's so much that's so wonderful about this place. Yet so much that just plain sucks. I'm not surprised this bridge collapsed. Not surprised in the least. The population of this nation is out of freakin' control. There simply is no need to procreate. We're being inundated with illegal immigrants and single moms and moms and dads keep popping out kids that this country can't handle. With more and more and more people comes more and more wear and tear to infrastructure, not to mention more and more raping of the land by developers who see dollar signs where there are trees where they plow it all over and build more cookie cutter suburban sprawldivisions and big box stores. Tens of millions of more people equals more cars and trucks. Bridges were not built to sustain all of this forever. But our government should be keeping us safe and making sure bridges won't collapse? They wouldn't collapse if we didn't have so many darn people here. And inspecting and fixing bridges creates headaches and traffic and agitated people and it all costs money. Raise taxes? Then what? Raise 'em some more to fix more problems? No. We need LESS taxes and LESS people thus LESS problems.

God, I hate this country that I love. I long to move back to New Jersey which makes me wonder if I'm freakin' nuts, I mean truly clinically insane. I should be leaving this place for a saner environment (another country) with LESS people. Alaska is great for that but still it's United States territory. Part of me just wants nothing to do with country because it's so broken and seemingly only getting worse. Maybe the Democrats will fix our nation and make it beautiful and strong again, yeah, that's it, America needs a Democrat in the White House. Yeah, that'll fix everything (Chris thinks with dripping dripping dripping sarcasm.) Democrats will fix it all -- Whatever. It's not Republicans fault this country is so messed up. It's not Democrats fault. It's government's fault on BOTH sides of the aisle and it's the fault of stoopid Americans who go about living their lives so carelessly while expecting the politicians to take care of everything.

Give me a break.

Meanwhile -- Dear CNN, NBC, Fox News, et-freakin'-cetera, can we please have some OTHER news?

Now up to 31 dead...

Not only the worst shooting on a college campus ever -- it's the deadliest shooting ever in the United States ever. EVER.

Is there any wonder as to why I wanna renounce my American citizenship and move to Scotland or Australia?

a record breaker

Wonderful shooting today! (sarcasm, of course.)

Deadliest ever on an American college campus.

Utterly unbelievable? No. I'm not surprised that it happened but I am surprised by the number of dead. It's actually impressive in a totally sick & twisted way... I mean, 22 people shot accurately enough to kill (at this time that's what's being reported.) Twenty-two?!?! Columbine was like 14 and that was WHACKED. 22 is the surprising part of this. 22's not a whole lot more than 14 but it's exponentially greater.

Really makes me believe in the American citizen's right to carry a concealed weapon (while at the same time despising the fact that American gun violence is undeniably pathetic and sad and deplorable and etc, etc, etc.) If I was packin' a 9 (mm,) I woulda been makin' every effort to blow this person away, absolutely not wanting to, but I woulda taken every risk possible to end this if I had the opportunity.

Did the shooter take his own life. No word yet. If yes -- WHY?! Why can't such shooters live and tell their story? Instead they're cowards.

What even makes a person commit such a crime? Living in glorious America, I have become completely desensitized to this but still I wonder, as do millions of others, WHAT MAKES SOMEONE DO THIS?!!? Absolutely not rational. It goes beyond sane thinking. So sad that someone can have a mind that's capable of such a slaughter of human life.

22 immediate families left to grieve. How many more friends and family affected? Where was God in the shooter's life? Where was God in steering that person towards a life where this would never have happened?!? The possibility of this happening will go down so tremendously is someone who has a strong faith in Christ as Lord and Savior of their life. But apparently this shooter did not have that.

Not nearly as bad but still whacked in its own way, the Wikipedia entry for this tragedy, at some point in the early afternoon, was edited by someone who doesn't especially like America too much...

Was it really necessary to put down capitalism like that? If America was some sort of socialist society, would this not have happened?

P.S. now about 20 minutes later while watching on CNN someone's cell phone video while crouched outside somewhere on the Virginia Tech campus, being able to clearly hear a couple dozen gunshots, and knowing people died a horrible death from some of those bullets, I'm clearly now in quite a somber mood. Desensitazation doesn't always last. This tragedy is just mindboggling.

And now some active SWAT member on the phone with CNN is advocating physical security on college campuses, checking bags and bodies for weapons before they enter buildings. YAYYY, America the Police State (even more so than it already is.)