New era in politics?

    I could be wrong, again, but it appears that the 'dead-brain' era in politics that be have been enduring for the past six to eight years is coming to an end, at least for a little while.

    Now that it's obvious that the President and his Bushistas have squandered their political relevance, many strong political currents are swirling. Some are obvious, such as Barack Obama's change message. And some are deeper, American's reaction to the economy or their need for security. Eventually the Presidential race will float like a cork in a storm on top of this national soul-searching.

    Heck there are even signs that the national media, except for cable TV, is going to participate at times. But you have to look very closely.

It turns out that ducks and chickens aren’t as crazy about eating slugs as you might thing. I dumped a bunch of the slimly little things in the backyard and the poultry just walked away.

Anyone need a dozen spare slugs?

The truly devout conservatives have been stumbling over themselves the last couple of weeks blasting John McCain as 'not a true conservative.' Today, James Dobson said there was no way he would vote for McCain. Perhaps, since old-guard conservatives and their radio talk show yackocracy are left without a candidate for President, their days of real influence are over. Yes, they have a lot of money and use it effectively to get quoted in the national media, but after the debacle of George W. Bush, they aren't able to demonstrate any real political power of their own.

George Bush

   Everyone should consider very, very carefully when they pick their President every four years. History – recent and ancient – demonstrates that the President of the United States is a very powerful office, particularly when supported by sizeable piece of the Congress – and we elect a President for four years no matter what happens.

   The war in Iraq is extremely unpopular as is its main supporter George Bush. But Bush, blind to majority opinion in Congress and the population, continues to execute an aggressive policy in Iraq.  History will document Bush as one of history’s most inept Presidents, but, hey, he has a year left and there isn’t anything anyone can do about it. A vote for President should be a serious decision.

 

All the media types seem to be bashing Democrats in the Senate for the all-night marathon before losing a key vote on their Iraq War withdrawal measure. They used phrases that the vote as a ‘sound political defeat’ for the leadership, etc. A foolish concept since everyone new what the vote would be before they started that is except for one Maine Republican who defected her party because of her tough reelection battle in a fiercely independent state.

Of course lost in the noise was the fact that a majority of senators would have voted for the measure had it not been for the rule that requires 60 percent approval of proposals brought to the floor. This is the same rule that bottled up civil rights legislature for decades until the early 1960s. In a way the Dems made their point and are now moving on.

There is of course a danger. A poll last week by the Associated Press noted that the approval rating for Congress is even lower than President Bush’s. It’s hovering in the 20s. If the Democrats are going to curry favor with the electorate for the next election, they are going to have to fix this. While Harry Reid looks good to the party’s base supporters, his image is probably way too shrill for most Americans. But then he might be the only distinguished member of the Senate that isn’t either 80 years old or running for President.

I picked up a CD version of one of the greatest rock albums of all time, "Who's Next" by The Who. I have carefully preserved the vinyl version for years, but by comparison it's aural muck. But when you play this reprocessed CD on the big old power stereo that takes back to the 70's, it's near Nirvana, and not the Cobain version. The CD version does justice to the lead riffs in the bass lines, rattles the house to the timbers and sends the kid scampering to her room as if I were playing the best hits of the Mamas and Papas. Particularly driving were the opening keyboard bars of Barbara O'Reilly that build into crashing bass. You can't play this stuff properly on an IPod. Maybe I should save my allowance for 'Tommy.'

Al Gore is turning into a new type of American hero. He has beating the American political system by working “off the grid,” becoming a more potent political force than the dozen or so dwarves running for president. And he is driving the country’s media nuts because he is taking his case for global climate change directly to the public and American opinion leaders. Who needs Maureen Dowd? They are doing all they can to suck him back into the political system, so they can hammer him. In turn his newest book is about the decline of the American media. Gotcha!

Did you ever notice that when you try to be funny --really funny, not teasingly funny--you just end up annoying everyone?

I got some new rubber shoes from my brother for Christmas so I can walk in the backyard without fear of chicken residue. Life is much better. I wish there was something like this I could wear at work.

Everyone nees to be special. It's one of the rules of modern life. Those days when folks suffered along in silence and anonimty are gone. There are just too many people, modern life is just to frenetic. Anymore, if some
one is doggedly trudging down the rainy road of life, Whack! they'll get it right in the kisser by some guy barreling by in a Hummer without mudflats.
Being special is fine in moderation and as long as everyone gets their turn. The problem is that some people carry this "being special" business to excess and the rest of are expected to go along. We see this a lot on TV when a football wide receiver catches a long ball for a touchdown and ESPN makes us endure his celebration antics.

Hormones and bio-chemicals are greatly overlooked. As you got older you realize how much our your life has been prompted by biochemical signals. Feelings of appiness, fear, pleasure and lust are usually just the reponse to some chemical released by a tiny gland somewhere in your body or from somewhere in the depths of your brain stem.
Now take testosterone. It does all kinds of things for everyone. men, of course, more than women. It builds muscle mass, stimulates energy and hair growth. Men are just flooded with testosterone in their late-teens and early twenties, and then after we have done our little bit for genetic diversity, it's all down hill from there. Of course, civilized lifestyles have changed the timeline quite a bit but our genetic coding has never caughtup.
Anyway, the older you get the less testerone is produced with the obvious results. A friend of mine who probably would prefer to remain nameless and blameless, once espoused the theory that as the amount of testosterone a man's body produces decreases, there is an increase in the amount of another undiscovered hormone we can call the Cranky Man Hormone. The older you get the more of the hormone is produced. I was running around touting this theory, until my wife instructed me that this is a bad theory and a really lame excuse for being cranky.

First of all they are not my chickens and ducks -- the are Lorraine's animals. They have names, but I don't even know what they are. Today I am working on the computer and the ducks started pecking at the deck window expectantly. When I turn, they just stare at me. Who knows what a duck wants? After a while I noticed two chickens staring at me through the front window. I looked at them and they started clucking and pecking at the window. Like the ducks, they look like they are bored and want to some one to play with. It's quite an load to be expected to entertain poultry. . .

Bobby McFerrin had it right -- Simple pleasures are the best. Consider the new generation label printers. Is your life is in disorder? Putting labels on things and things will automatically start snapping your organizational issues into easy to organized and classify categories -- 10-penny nails, flat-head screws, paint thinner, white bread flour, sugar, basil, small-throated g-nocks, 100-graine point, reference books, ducks, spin-vane tape, garlic powder, Lorraine, wide egg noddles, motor oil, Janice, Angelina, chickens. Try it it works!
That is except for cats. It's really hard to get an adhesive label to stick on a cat.

I've read a few blogs lately which seem to be very personal diaries of the authors journey through life. What they see walking down the street, self-analysis of their dreams ("I was being chased by a huge monster which had the head of my sixth-grade teacher.") "Does that girl I met when I was 22 still think of me?" or a scientific analysis of where belly button lint comes from.
This blog will only post significant thoughts, uh, which, I guess, why there are significant gaps in the dates of the postings and, uh, which, I guess, why there aren't very many.

I've been told by my wife that she'd prefer -- make that insists -- that I not be cranky. That would put the title of this blog in danger. Hmmm. A dilemna Marital Harmony vs. an Anti-Hero Personna. Well, it was a pretty lame personna anyway. Look for more posts about flowers and soft, fuzzy puppies.

Its getting to be the dog days of August now. Which means it's turning from baseball season into football season -- whether we like it or not. Mostly what pro football fans seem to do is sit for the sofa for hours watching other guys hammer each other into submission while ignoring the fact that most of the team probably won't last out the season. It also seems to require a lot of grunting. If you are older and need to relearn how to grunt, you can watch Fox Sports for a remedial. I still don't get it though. It would seem by watching TV that there are vast areas of the country where grow men gather in rooms with mass quantities of beer, grunt and watch people artlessly smash into each other. Myself, I watch the Seahawks . . . when no one is looking . . . and it's after baseball season . . . after the chores are done. .. and, uh, when I don't think anyone will catch me. One more time from the top "I,m a man, I can change, if I have to . . ."

Now we have chickens?!?! Your basic scrawny 2 mcnugget chickens. They basically wander in circles and cluck, which is pretty much what you'd expect chickens to do. Not much to watch. One did drop an egg they other day. Kind of small 2 mcnugget egg. Lorraine now follows the chickens around yelling at them to pop out more eggs. There should be a rule to live by here. The only one I can think of is "Don't be a chicken."

This is my first note and strangely enough I can't think of anything to write. Figures!