SOTU

Dear Teacher,

The one thing I learned tonight is that I can pick any buttharp out of 6 notes and nail it with Jethro Tull.

Do I get bonus points for that?

Signed,

konagod (with love most sincere)

Flower Power

Back when I was around 8 years old I went to visit my grandmother in Dallas. She was a manager of apartment complexes in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area in the 60s and 70s.

I had been out there for some reason....the Texas State Fair or something. And for $5 I bought one of those mechanical sunflowers that would move to the sound of music.

I took it back to my grandmother's office where her hippie girl hired help saw it and was impressed. Hippie Girl wanted to buy it from me. George Harrison was playing in the background.

I refused to sell. Hippie Girl offered me a profit..offering to give me $8 or $10 for this piece of trash which, oddly enough, was not made in China at the time. Probably made in the USA.

But I refused to sell. Because I did not believe in the profit motive. I thought it was dead wrong. And I steadfastly refused. I felt like I was cheating her.

Not much has changed since I was 8.

A Fine Choice of Wood Screws

As you can tell from my posts lately, I'm very disillusioned with the direction our country is going and with 62% of Americans agreeing with me, I'm in the majority...except that I seriously doubt we'd agree on the solutions.

Ever since Obama started pushing health care reform and all those on the rabid right started waving tea bags and absurd socialism signs, I've been having some fantasies. If only that man could wave that magic wand and instantly create some more socialism, above and beyond what we've already got (and upon which, the rabid right is heavily dependent).

I'm not as anti-capitalism and free enterprise as my anger lately would indicate. I rather like having a choice when it comes to the food I put in my mouth and the products I use to clean my teeth and hair. Pickles come to mind. Even when it comes to roasted peanuts, I swear I can tell a difference between the Emerald label and my local HEB label. I prefer the local HEB label, and for all I know they come off the same assembly line. I do, however, have major issues with corporate giants gobbling up small producers under their umbrella, all in the name of market share, corporate profits, and pleasing their shareholders.

I think we would could stand to benefit from breaking a few old habits and doing some taste tests and perhaps we could start to wean ourselves away from branded items owned by the likes of P&G, Kraft, PepsiCo, Unilever, and others that are "too big to fail." You know, the shit you think is the best only because you've seen it advertised on television six thousand times vs. the store brand which might cost 20% less but you've never seen it advertised, and therefore it doesn't have that cache of a major corporate label behind it.

As much as I love having choices, there are clearly situations where I have them and honestly don't give a shit. I'm not sure I need 35 different olive oil choices, but since it is a food item, I sure wouldn't want to deprive another person of their personal joy. And besides, some of those labels are small producers, not corporate behemoths, and we need more of those.

When was the last time you went to buy nails at Home Depot and were confronted with a choice between 6 or 7 different manufacturers? And did that lack of selection bother you? Nails are important, as are wood screws. They kinda sorta hold our houses together. But you don't see ads in magazines, or on TV, for either nails or wood screws. And what's out there must be pretty damn good because I've never taken either purchase back for a refund, or driven around to see if Ace sells the same brand as Home Depot. Nor has my house caved in on me. Or the last house, for that matter. Most of us don't much care, nor should we. If it's a quality product, we're happy. If it's not, word will soon spread and another manufacturer will step in to fill the gap.

Another area where I honestly could care less is in the fuel industry. I think we'd be better off if the state owned oil & gas production in the country. Aside from when I was young and using my dad's Conoco credit card, I've never sought out a particular brand of fuel. I've used it all: Exxon/Mobile (before the gay boycott thing started), Texaco, Chevron, BP, Phillips 66, Valero, you name it, I've used it. And you know what? Despite all the pissing contests between them with boasts of Techron, and other bullshit, I can't tell a difference, and I drive a performance sports sedan. I've driven a Honda Civic and I've driven a beat up Toyota Corolla. And not once have I ever said, "Ummm, I'm running on empty but I'm going to pass on that Texaco because there's a Chevron six miles up the road and my baby is jonesin' for some Techron."

I do not care what I put in my car. Call it Amerigo, make it a state-owned monopoly, and you won't get anything but a loud cheer from me. The wasted money on advertising, the corporate executives and shareholders of one fuel company trying to gain market share over another, the mergers and acquisitions in an effort to be numero uno, would all disappear. And good riddance to it. If my car runs, I'm happy. And I think it's safe to say, after the BP disaster, not only do we need to move away from that source sooner rather than later, their interests in alternatives are purely self-serving.

Another area I wouldn't be the least bit sorry to see disappear is the competition in the cell phone arena. Good fucking grief! I remember when I came back from London in 1984 and suddenly the telecommunications industry had been deregulated. I needed to call my parents from a pay phone and had to make a choice of which corporate carrier was going to handle my long-distance call. I didn't give a flying fuck then, and I sure as shit don't give a flying fuck now. "You're using Sprint? Uggh, dude, AT&T is the only way to go...more bars in more places you know?"

Fuck that noise. I have AT&T on my cell phones here in Austin. I keep it because I have my mother on my plan and she lives in southeast Arkansas. I used to have Virgin Mobile and on a trip to my mom's back about 8 or 9 years ago, I didn't have phone service for like 500 miles, including the entire time I was at her house.

Sheldon took his phone to North Dakota this month and had spotty service at best. Maybe Verizon would be better up there. But maybe down here in this valley where we live, Verizon wouldn't work at all, and maybe at my mom's house it would be the best of all. Who knows and who cares, and who wants to spend the time and money trying to figure out which provider is going to handle you best in all the places you need to visit.

Honestly, when I'm on the phone with someone, not once have I ever been able to figure out whether they are using Sprint, Verizon, AT&T or whatever. It doesn't matter! What we want is good service, good bars, and access across the nation. And maybe Canada. The state can seize that industry for all I care, invest in one universal comprehensive area of coverage, we're all on the same network, all one big Amerizon family plan. Easy. Less choices to stress about. Less advertising and competition and pissing contests and unhappy shareholders and executives shitting their britches over market share after dropping from #2 to #3.

And let's throw the banking industry in here while we're at it. Give me one national bank owned by the government with decent interest rates and tellers who are happy because they are paid well since they aren't competing with shareholders demanding dividends and rising stock prices, and have free government health care. Better yet, give me that option and the option to stay with my credit union. Credit unions vs. a national state-owned bank. Fair enough. Stop the gouging with check fees and ATM fees. A check is a check and it moves through the system with ease regardless of whether it's a Chase, Bank of America, or Wells Fargo check. At the very least, regulate the banks, break the behemoths up into regional banks.

I could live without a choice of airlines as well. But then I never fly so I'll spare you my diatribe on that industry. If I needed to fly from Austin to Little Rock, I'd be stopping in either Dallas or Houston regardless of whether I chose Delta, Continental, American, or Southwest, and the fares and taxes are all about the same, so why do I care? It's competitive clutter. Take some of those profits and bonuses going to executives and share it with the underpaid pilots and stewards! How 'bout that?

In my utopian dreamworld of the Evil Socialist Obama, I would drool at the prospect of eliminating the corporations that control our television, radio and newspapers. Allowing corporate conglomerates to monopolize the local media was one of the biggest mistakes ever perpetrated upon an ignorant populace. Why did we stand for this? Why does Clear Channel, based in San Antonio, need to own six radio stations in Memphis and another 850 stations elsewhere? (They also own six stations in the small market of Bismarck, North Dakota!) Oh, stupid me: money for executives and shareholders, and the ease of production-line programming so they can inflict the same stinking pile of overplayed songs on EVERYBODY. Sorry, I took a momentary leave of my senses. Who cares what people in Bismarck or Memphis want to hear? Feed them what they think they need and they'll never know the difference. Most of them are too young to remember real rebel radio anyway. You know, stations with DJs who could get a wild hare up their ass and decide to play Thick as a Brick in its entirety. That was back when radio was actually exciting and unpredictable.

I just get so annoyed with the ridiculous portrayals by the right of President Obama and his "road to socialism." I could show them what a real socialist looks like.

Things Are Only Going To Get Better

Or worse. Depending on how you view it. And how you view it is about to change.

Sorry, no links. This is philosophical theory at work.

But make no mistake, I am pissed off. And I'm about to lay it all out there.

Give me a few days to assemble my weaponry.

In the meantime, keep an eye on the Quote of the Day to the left. It's where I'm going.

My Sentiments Exactly

It's not my work but it sums up my feelings lately...

This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the U.S. Department of Energy.

I then took a shower in the clean water provided by a municipal water utility.

After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC-regulated channels to see what the National Weather Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather was going to be like, using satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

I watched this while eating my breakfast of U.S. Department of Agriculture-inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

At the appropriate time, as regulated by the U.S. Congress and kept accurate by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the U.S. Naval Observatory, I get into my National Highway Traffic Safety Administration-approved automobile and set out to work on the roads build by the local, state, and federal Departments of Transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the Environmental Protection Agency, using legal tender issued by the Federal Reserve Bank.

On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the U.S. Postal Service and drop the kids off at the public school.

After spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the workplace regulations imposed by the Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health administration, enjoying another two meals which again do not kill me because of the USDA, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to my house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and Fire Marshal's inspection, and which has not been plundered of all its valuables thanks to the local police department.

And then I log on to the internet -- which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration -- and post on Freerepublic.com and Fox News forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can't do anything right.

Another Thorn for the Right-Wing

Thankfully we have one breath of fresh air in the midst of the health care debacle. By a vote of 68 to 31, the Senate has confirmed Sonia Sotomayor as our next Supreme Court justice.

Democrats celebrated the successful nomination and relatively smooth confirmation process as a bright spot in a summer when they have been buffeted by several challenges, including rocky progress on their attempts to overhaul the nation’s health care system, President Obama’s falling approval ratings, the climbing unemployment rate and other lingering economic problems.

Shortly after the vote, President Obama said he was "deeply gratified" and confident that Judge Sotomayor would become an outstanding justice. The ideals of "justice, equality, opportunity" that guide the high court are the very ones that made the judge’s "uniquely American story" possible in the first place, the president said.

Now if we could only have such a smoothly paved road to health care reform complete and total overhaul. I'll have to get to this another day but I simply cannot fathom why we have subsidized childhood education for those who wish to use it (and private schools for those who don't), subsidized transportation networks (where toll roads aren't creeping in), subsidized fire departments, police departments, and military (coupled with the highly-successful private industry aspect). We even have subsidized health care for the elderly.

But when it comes to the working folks, or those who have been laid off, or those who are simply too poor to afford insurance, we just can't have that kind of "socialism" involved in our health care, despite the fact that we can handle "socialism" in the form of the aforementioned benefits.

I just don't get it.

This all reminds me of the push to get the US to adopt the metric system back in the 1970s. That went nowhere fast. I recall some of the same freak-outs from the right-wing back then, that the metric system was some Communist plot so that when the Russians marched in, we'd all be set to their liking and they wouldn't need conversion charts.

Delusional then, delusional now.

Is Obama Kenyan?

He has Kenyan blood. And I suppose that's enough to ignite the racists who are scrambling to find any possible way to have the guy removed from office. But personally, I could give a rat's ass whether he was born here.

konagod isn't real fond of political borders, passports, and all that shit. It's OUR planet; we should be able to move about the place as we fucking choose.

And that's why I'm a radical. And that's why I'm scratching my head, unable to comprehend all this complete and total bullshit.

And I thought the election of Obama was going to give us a breath of fresh air after 8 years of Bush. Think again, konagod, think again.

My brother has regular email exchanges (why, I'm not sure) with a crazy fanatic who was in his graduating glass. He forwarded me an email from her today which I will now present to you regarding Obama.

He may not be the reason that Dearborn is the Muslim capital of the US; however, he is turning the Gitmo guys out as fast as he can. There soon will be many Dearborn’s if he keeps going the way he is. If the auto industry started this in Dearborn, hang on, because Obama just gave General Motors to the auto unions and the Government. I detest this man and refuse to call him my president. Maybe you approve of socialized medicine and healthcare; however, I had a taste of controlled healthcare, Workers Comp, and I almost was not able to use might right arm again. I had to take matters into my own hands and work around the system to find a competent doctor and have another surgery to fix what the first incompetent doctor did.

Now, he wants Congress to pass his healthcare before they go home for their break and hear what their constituents really want, which is not what the Messiah wants. He is the most arrogant and incompetent President that we have ever had. He has lied about everything he said during the campaign except the part about CHANGE. He just lied about what that change would be. Go back and read up on Hitler and see how he got started. There are so many similarities that it hurts.

Folks have also forgotten that the democrats have had control of things for a long time (even when Bush was in office). They have caused all of this to happen. Yes, George Bush was not right to start the Stimulus Plan and Obama is wrong to continue it.

OK, how many absurdities can you find in this? Aside from the part about Democrats having control while Bush was in office. Hell, Democrats aren't even in control now!