This place was created near the end of the twentieth century just for the heck of it..
Monday, April 30, 2001
After a couple of days contemplating the nature of things, and watching the Red Sox I have a couple or three things to say. The losing streak continues and woe is me the season is over---not really, but it is fun to start the wait till next year whining now anyway.
As to the nature of things, this big bang story is around and I say "....yeah, and so......." Nobody really understands this stuff anyway. To me this kind of simple stuff of science fiction coming to be fact is much more important. Besides I can understand it.
And I am more convinced than ever that this stupid and vengeful little guy is simply and completely a wholly owned subsidiary of the vast right wing conspiracy. This I not only understand, but I know it. I know it . I know it.
And since for personal as well as political reasons I have more than usual interest in the goings on in Taiwan, I found this editorial to be very interesting. Sort of contradicts the monolithic view of Taiwan that the press here usually gives us.
Friday, April 27, 2001
The Vieques fiasco is still with us I guess. This story in the NYT is one of the few stories that even mentions that the judge, while lacking the moral strenghth to just tell the Navy no mas, has at least said that they should try to find a way to stop.
And the NYT also has this story on another injustice, the murder of Amadou Diallo by some New York thug-cops a while back. I guess they are going to retrain the thugs to do what? Better distinguish between a wallet and a gun or how to go back to the practice of carrying a spare gun to plant on the victims of their thuggery.
All I need now is a new story on Elian Gonzalez. Well, this one from a wacko site that gets all bent bacause Colin Powell said something good about Fidel Castro will have to do. Now am not a Powell admirer, nor do I think he is the brightest guy in the world, but saying that he (Castro) has done some good and isn't really a threat to the US is hardly worth getting all crazy over. But the wackos on the right will not let this one go. Another nail in the Powell coffin I think.
As to worrying about all that baloney -fat, no way! The weather promises to be decent, I am enjoying the( American Leauge East ) baseball season---the only one that matters--so far, so I plan to do nothing for the next couple of days except watch a little baseball on the TV and sit out on the back deck and contemplate the nature of things---no, not this one.
Thursday, April 26, 2001
I don't know about you, but I sort of like this quote from the latest dinobirb story: If nothing else, Dr. Norell said, the discovery "shows us that advanced theropod dinosuars may have looked more like weird birds than giant lizards." It's a nice summary. And It does remind me a little of another weird bird. And the even funnier one.
And today, other than the usual stuff about another screw up by the jerky little guy, the only thing I enjoyed in the paper was this ....you guessed it another Zippy strip.
Meanwhile, the jerky guy seems to have caused a lot of confusion with his stupid China comments. The pentagon is caught off guard. But China with their subdued reaction seems to know they are dealing with a very ill informed, stupid and inarticulate guy and don't even take him too seriously. I believe that they , like us, know that he is not calling the shots.
Wednesday, April 25, 2001
I suppose what's next is getting "detained" for a day or two for shopping on Sunday or violating other blue laws that remain littering the books in a lot of juristictions. Here are a couple of news summaries of the latest Supreme Court ruling which seems to make it easier to one day permit any and all to be jailed for any reason. I think this is sort of scary. And with Souter joining the wacko's on this one you can see how fragile the handful of sane justices is. And if the crew pulling Bush's strings get him to....but you already know all this, don't you.
And since the 100 day baloney will be all over the place during the next few days, here is a sort of traditional mainstream official summary , a cutesy self-serving summation, and a site that is not neutral.
Tuesday, April 24, 2001
So the Navy sub skipper gets a letter in his file and gets to "resign" with a full pension and honors all for being derilict in his duties and stupid to boot. That's as good an example of the phony military code of discipline as there as been recently.
And they will probably find a way to say these CIA characters were just doing their duty too.
But let them catch some kid with a little dope and ...well we can't build prisons fast enough. But wait, only if it's a poor kid or a wrong kid. There is room for second chances if it's a rich kid or a good kid.
Finally, for no good reason exept that I am intrigued by this picture.
Monday, April 23, 2001
I saw a little blurb about this exciting medical news in my morning paper. And could anyone tell me what's so bad about this. The article in The Hartford Courant has much more information and emphasizes the students point of view and their hope to make health care a right here in the U.S I tried to find more about this, but the small piece in www.granma.cu/ingles/index.html was all I could find.
It's always hard to find positive Cuba stories. On the other hand the web is full of wacko anti Cuba baloney like this..
My local paper has added a new section that they call Latitudes. It is published on Mondays on page two and has news from Latin America and the Caribbean. Unfortunately it does not feature this section on it's awful website. I will write. to them and suggest that they begin to do so. The Latitude section is relevent.
This shoot down story won't go away for a while. The bushies are very slow in getting the facts out once again.
And the last of the first seven versus the hated Yankees didn't go like we all wanted, but there are still a dozen more to go. What a season so far.
Friday, April 20, 2001
You know we, as a culture, just keep getting either stupider or more simplistic or just plain off the wall. Today, there is a poll that says families are the key to preventing Columbine like acts. And then there is the story that states families are the solution to Columbine like acts by getting their insurance companies to fork over big bucks. I don't get it. I know there is a connection and some big observation to be made from these two stories but I can't come up with it. So all I can do is point to it . You figure it out.
And I can't help but think that this public execution idiocy is part of the mix. The public display of Biblical retribution being used to provide some insane form of closure as salve for our cultural embrace of violence. Again I don't get it.
I should stick to watching baseball games.
Thursday, April 19, 2001
Once again, as I was reading my paper and sort of listening to C-SPAN during morning coffee, I discovered how out of it and unlinked I am when I read this story in the cutesy style section of my paper. In fact, when I was unassembling the paper to read in my prefered order and saw the Bush billboard, I actually thought it was a current bushism. The little dude was in my state yesterday afterall. Well obviously I was wrong. So, late but nevertheless finally tuned in and hip, here is some more stuff about the " all your base are belong to us" craze that nearly passed me by.
Or should I have just been better never than late to this one. By the way, the ellis island link still hasn't worked for me. I am still trying though.
Wednesday, April 18, 2001
So it's a fairly cold and dreary day out there today. It may rain or snow a little. Last year, it snowed a little and slightly covered the forsythia on this day, but that was a rare event for last year of no winter. This year of all winter is getting very old.
And the little sappy guy is coming to my state today. He's going to play school. There's a good boy. Play nice while the wacko's in this group and others like them continue their onslaught against the rest of us. All the while using the little fool to lull us. Ah, I said I wouldn't whine about this anymore. So I won't.
This new Ellis Island Site will be very interesting once they get it online and actually working. Here you try it. All I got was some sort of error screen. Maybe it will work later.
I enjoyed this pretty good cartoon shot at faith-based baloney-fat. I saw it in my local newspaper. It's on the mark.
And hey, how about those Red Sox.! .............If I am not mistaken I can say "...were number one too". Get it. That's a sort of joke.
Monday, April 16, 2001
Since this is Patriot's Day and also Marathon Day in Boston, I will tell a story about another little road race. A long long time ago, my mothers mother--my grandmother--took me out in front of our tenement house in Salem to watch for and clap as an old guy ran by during a running of what we called the Salem Marathon, but was simply a little five mile or so summertime road race. She seemed to love the guy. He was Clarence DeMar who ran in Salem a lot I think. Grammy Guerriero gave me my first sport's hero. This was around the time of the war, probably 1943 or so. Just before she died.
Today a bunch of other guys will run in the venerable Boston Marathon and a lot of them will probably remember Clarence DeMar. Johnny Kelly, another marathon legend, who will not be running, certainly does.
Here is a follow- up to my e-commerce story from last week. And a follow-up baseball story about as bizarre a game as I have watched in a long time.
Today, I will watch the game and the race on TV.
Friday, April 13, 2001
This morning om C-SPAN I was presented with an "analysis" of this foolish drivel by Sally Quinn. What could this socialite woman have to say about anything that could be of possible relevance or interest to anyone except other full of themselves foolish foppish creatures like her and her ilk!!! Then to add inury to insult, C-SPAN gave me an hour of the new Chris Matthews ---who has become even more full of himself than silly Sally.Matthews--- pretends to be some kind of neo-populist "real" man when all he is is another political infotainer with a shtick. For a change, the folks calling in had more to say than either of these "featured guests".
My morning paper had this story in it's business section. And this feature in it's sports section. Now these are both real and relevant. And if this story which I lifted from Drudge is true, that's really relevant. What's happening to us?
And once again, because of the season and the fact that in my house, year round, there are always packages after package of these ranging from brand new spongy soft to year(s) old granite hard.
Thursday, April 12, 2001
What kind of depravity is this. Are these people all madmen?
Wednesday, April 11, 2001
So take down the yellow ribbons! In a move, not quite in the same leauge as the Reagan gang swapping arms for real hostages, the bushies swap mea culpas for semi-hostages/guests of our friends the Chinese partners,....... eeer, no strike that competitors. So I guess the beret deal is still on. And thank goodness that awful man Jesse Jackson didn't have to go over there.
Now I guess there will be some sort of big welcome home stuff for the 24 newly minted sort-of heroes. Unless the wackos on the right want to go after them for not crashing their plane into the sea to save it from the Red peril.
Tuesday, April 10, 2001
I haven't the inclination nor the inspiration to say much today. So just go have a look at Salon.com for some interesting stuff. This piece and this one both caught my eye.
Despite once liking old Avalon Hill games like Gettysburg, and D-Day , I never got much beyond Space Invaders in computer games. I actually still play a PC version of that every once in a while.
And the political piece at Salon is fun if you follow these wackos like I do. Otherwise forget it.
Anyway, like I said , nothing today.
Monday, April 9, 2001
So, they didn't take my advice and try a simple " Gosh. we are sorry for ...." That's because they are all as stupid as hapless George W. is, or so it seems. Instead, the bushies are going to be lulled into a silly semantics game and be conned into jumping thru a few more hoops. Idiots!!! But it is very funny to watch.
Meanwhile, The NY Times has called my attention to the heart wrenching story of the poor family struggling to make ends meet way down at the bottom of the top two percentile of income here in the good ole USA. Now I finally know why the bushies must help these poor folks.
How on earth does the Times find the gall to even publish this crap. Who could possibly feel anything but contempt for these people who are whining about the struggle living on an income of $300,000 per year. If this wasn't so sick, it would be funny too.
Friday, April 6, 2001
I'm a little----no, strike that ------a lot bored by it all today. I don't even feel like whining about the Red Sox who are hitting as a team at .198 and who, as a team, are 0 for the season(18) in hits with runners in scoring position.
I did get my new version of Napster to work (finally) yesterday. They had deprived me and all variants of me of access because of a Roy Orbison song I had downloaded a while back. I figured out how to cheat them by going to this site and finding a little program that wiped my computers nerve centers of all the secret stuff that the new Napster put there. I like it even if it's all just magic to me.
I am starting my weekend right now!!!
Thursday, April 5, 2001
Even if you don't like baseball, or the Red Sox, try to find a video clip somewhere to watch this guy 's very strange three step wind-up and delivery. It's very different. I watched some of the game and listened to the final few innings on the radio. I actually remember listening to Mel Parnell's no-hitter back in 1956 or so but I don't rember Monbo's game only 33 years or so ago. The only problem with the game is that our kazillionaire guy went 0 for about $176,498.33 last night bringing his season's totals to 1 for $323,438.57. All figures could be off by a few cents one way or another.
Speaking of numbers, being a geezer who thinks a lot about the olden days lately, I have been playing with this calculater just for the fun of it.. It has not proved anything to me fo far, except that I never have really understood what the modern concept of "money" really is. A nice collection of pretty rocks, or a bunch of cows, or a harem, the ability to cast spells, or other such things which once measured wealth , I do understand.
Here is one wacko's answer to the so-called spy plane crisis. Mine is a lot cheaper and easier. Just say it!!!
Wednesday, April 4, 2001
Last Sunday, I was bored and was clicking around on the TV when I encountered this show on C-SPAN 2. I missed the first 65 minutes or so, but did see the rest of it. Studs Terkel is just great. He is 88, some stuff gets by him now and he rambles on a little more than usual, but he remains just great. The only problem with the show is that it was hosted by that little uptight zealot of the worst kind Steve something-or-other. You know, the guy who looks like one of the wacko youth fanatics in an old Dianne Arbus photograph with Goldwater buttons, pimples and flag pins all over his coat, or the one of a kid with a grenade, who might have grown up to work for C-SPAN. Despite Steve's innane occasional question, Studs was just fine .If it's ever re-run have a look.
Here is a recent quote from Studs. I can't remember where I got it but it is a comment about recent times.
":Forget about all the Monica bullshit. That's not important. What's important is that Clinton had a great chance to be progressive.The country was ready but the word didn't come.He listened to that pimp Dick Morris. He moved the party sharply to the right, and now we have to recover from it. A terrible, terrible missed chance.The country has never been more ready for universal health insurance. Every family in the country is worried stiff about it. It doesn't matter how right wing they are, they're all worried."..............And of course he is right!
Forget it. The US Postal Service cannot do this. Two days without mail cannot and will not be tolerated. Period and end of story. Goodness, gracious, I remember the halcyon days of twice a day mail delivery. And when most mail was not junk mail.
And just so we won't forget who we have as titular leader of the free world for the next four years, I will from time to time post reminders like this one from Slate.com
Tuesday, April 3, 2001
Yesterday, I found this story somewhere else, but will usurp it for use here today. As you know, I am a huge fan of Zippy the Pinhead and often confuse it for life or is it vice versa. So the story of the toppled over icon is important. It is!
I came across this story to be right out of what I used to call future fiction in my morning paper. It's the un-subtle stuff of bad social/science fiction. See what I mean about 2001!!! What's next? . ............Well so much for U-Haul
And yes, I was not happy about the game yesterday, the baseball game that is. I couldn't have cared less about the baasketball game. I don't like Coach K. In fact I...oh, never mind.
And you guessed it, the wackos are really obsessing about the spy-plane and all that jazz. I like all the dancing on the heads of pins that the "legal experts" are doing with the whole thing. And the Chinese reaction to it.
Monday, April 2, 2001
The first quarter of the science fiction year is over. And so is my obsession with the despicable, stupid, and deceitful George W. Bush, and the bush/Cheney administration. This gang, which I believe will do more harm to the progressive cause than even the hated Reagan bunch did, will keep on going. From time to time they will be slowed and even stopped. I will from time to time point this out. Before I move on to other stuff though, I want to say that even the so-called "field of dreams" baseball initiative of the inept George W. is an insult. From my prejudiced perspective, this has less to do with baseball than it has to do with being a slap at the midnight basketball programs of the Clinton years. See what I mean about being obsessed.by this crowd? So, enough of that!!!.
But speaking of baseball, sort of anyway, I did watch a few innings of Opening Day between the Rangers and the BlueJays. The BlueJays were the "home" tam despite the game being played in Puerto Rico. The huge salary of A-Rod was a huge distraction, and will be throughout the season. Too bad. For baseball, not for the overpaid player.
Just for your information, if you want to get a fair and reasonable view of politics from anything on TV give "Face The Nation" on CBS a shot. This is by far the best of the Sunday shows and makes the chubby self-promotion of entertainer Tim Russert obvious, over on NBC and the silly MSNBC. As for the really stupid Sam and Cokie show on ABC, forget about it. The crap on FOX is not even worth mentioning.
I don't know about anyone else, but I think that "The Sopranos" TV show over on HBO is not as good this year as in the past. I can't put my finger on the reason, but something's missing. After waiting for over a year for the new season, that's stinks.
Today, the Red Sox open in Baltimore. For the first time that I can remember, there will be no local TV here in central Connecticut and what's worse, no local radio. The Hartford radio station that carries the Red Sox is opting for their normal talk show junk instead, since it's a day game. Fortunately, I have a bunch of good radios and can get the game on one of several fairly close by radio stations including a first for the area, a ( WPRX AM Radio, Bristol, CT---no web site) Spanish Language broadcast.
And, doesn't this silly and sort of ominous stupidity "take the cake" as my mother used to say.