==========
TOM: "History teaches that the great civilizations crumble from within. America, the shining STAR of all human endeavors, is in mortal danger because irrational mystics took over the universities,molding the minds of [almost] every young adult searching foranswers. I was there, after my military time, in the late-60's:every class was statist rubbish and training grounds for violent,NON-democratic revolt."
==========
I was a Real Estate major to begin with and ended up majoring in Economics (maybe the social science of the business world if even that stretch would be allowed). My last semester I had an academic scholarship which paid my tuition and books. This was the BUSINESS dept. -- no place for irrational mystics at a conservative university (BSU) in an even more conservative state (Idaho). Even if I accept your premise that is was their goal to mold impressionable young minds -- like you, I went to college AFTER my time in the military -- so the military had ample opportunity to shove my skull into THEIR mold first. IF the university mold is the one that prevailed, I can be no less than grateful for that. The university taught me to expand my horizons and that increasing my intellectual capacity comes with increased social responsibility -- the university never once asked me to risk death for THEIR cause.
==========
TOM: "I understand what happened to people like you & "sail", and I sympathize."
==========
So what happened? Share your understanding. Enlighten us oh wise and wonderful war hawk! Were we DUPED in the process of pursuing higher education? Seeking answers and enlightenment; embracing learning and knowledge as a never-ending lifestyle . . . we ended up DUMBER? Does that really make sense to you?
==========
TOM: "But your anti-ideology is wrong, wrong, wrong. You support apres. candidate that has no values...because you have none yourself."
==========
I support NO president OR presidential candidate. They've ALL already sold their souls to the highest bidder and the auction for this particular contest is ongoing. The one able to raise the most money will win. They don't represent us anymore -- they represent the interests of extremely wealthy and powerful business interests -- and if you can't see that, it is YOU that I feel sorry for. They no longer compete for our votes; they compete for dollars -- it's the truest and most consistent way to measure who will win ANY U.S. political contest. And how dare you pass judgment on my values? You are ill-informed and pompous -- shall I adopt YOUR values?
==========
TOM: "You claim to love everyone, and have no concept of whatlove is, certainly have none."
==========
So tell me more about YOUR love. This kind of "love" so genuine and protecting which encourages his children and grandchildren to march themselves into the gears of a military machine which seeks nothing more than to rip them limb from limb? A kind of love which expects them to become landing grates for a military-industrial complex that has grown so powerful and so wealthy that it now can purchase political power and influence and advance IT'S OWN agenda purely for profit? What kind of love is that?
==========
My love seeks to SAVE my children -- and their children -- and their children from this murderous horror that far too many of us have accepted as the price we must pay for freedom. What freedom in a nation with the highest per-capita incarceration rate in the world? What freedom in a nation where white males stand a 1 in 11 chance of being incarcerated in prison for some portion of their lives? What freedom in a nation where 1 in 4 black males will end up in prison for some portion of THEIR lives? Land of the free? Gimme' a break! My love was encouraged -- briefly -- by the promise of America becoming a "kinder, gentler nation." What encourages your love? Missiles and Bombs and BIG Guns?
==========
TOM: "You don't believe in patriotism, and honoring our young people who have volunteered to defend you...because you have no idea of what the value of America is."
==========
The type of nationalism (aka "patriotism") you extol is dangerous. It's volatile and it gets people killed. Moreover, it has NOTHING to do with democracy, the will of the people, or freedom. It has EVERYTHING to do with fascism. The other key ingredient of fascism is absolute intolerance of those with differing opinions. Sound familiar? (Like Bush having protesters removed to a "designated protest area" far removed from his ears and his eyes?)
==========
TOM: "It is SO sad, that the most articulate...are [usually] the mostdeluded....and THAT is the "death-knell" I really fear, for the sakeof my children & grandchildren."
==========
"The most articulate are the most deluded." The smartest are the dumbest. The fastest are the slowest. The richest are the poorest. Do ANY of these statements ring true for you?
==========
The "death-knell" is that our federal government has been taken over by a group (some call it a cult) of 8 or 9 men with an ideologue, a clear ideology and their agenda doesn't give a flip about your personal freedom OR mine. It's about securing our temporary position as the supreme military might of the world and projecting that position as far as possible into the future absolutely REGARDLESS of the cost in dollars or human lives.
==========
Read it and weep -- all 90 pages of it -- at: http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf
==========
If the above addy is displayed on more than one line, type it in or copy and paste -- the link won't work if the addy is displayed on more than one line.
==========
sail4free
==========
Sunday, July 25, 2004
Sunday, July 18, 2004
Those Who Yearn to Be Free
==========
My response to Onyxman's post at Capitol Hill Blue -- Military & Veteran's Issues: Baby Killers of Iraq War (a thread prompted by news coverage of a parade where a soldier sporting a "Support Bush" sign was reportedly greeted with "Booo" and "Baby Killer!")
==========
ONYXMAN: "There is certainly a mythology about servicemen returning from Vietnam being spit on and called babykiller."=
=========
I've never personally been called "baby killer" but I was spat on by a high school girl riding a school bus while I walked alongside a road in my Air Force uniform in El Paso, TX in '72. These incidents probably have been exaggerated beyond their proper proportion but they did happen.
==========
ONYXMAN: "I'm not saying such things never happened, but I never heard about such things until long after 1974, and of all the friends I have who served in Vietnam none ever experienced this.
==========
All these years later, it's difficult to remember how extremely unpopular the Vietnam War was by the time it finally ended in '75. The first movies about that war ("Full Metal Jacket" and "Platoon") didn't DARE be released prior to '85/'86 as there would have been no market for them. (Compare that to how quickly we saw movies about Desert Storm -- some of them where even of the "comedy" genre.) The reason you didn't hear anything about it until "long after 1974" is because NOBODY wanted to hear about "it". Many Nam Combat Vets with the most to tell STILL don't talk about "it" -- but their soaring rates of homelessness, failed marriages, addiction, depression and suicide tell a story that most folks STILL don't want to hear -- and they sure as hell don't want to PAY for it!
==========
We have no stomach for the REAL cost of war in this country (all our "enemies" know this) and we've never had the stomach for it. We have had -- and may have again -- forced conscription (the draft) because they can't get enough warm young bodies to feed the meat grinder (military-industrial complex) any other way. Of course, NOW we have a new prison-industrial complex to more effectively deal with those who won't offer themselves as a living sacrifice to the war machine.
==========
We worship the few "heroes" that make it home in one piece but even they know the REAL heroes are rotting in the ground (hopefully) somewhere. And our ever-generous and empathic government grants a 30% disability check to those who have lost "only" one arm or "only" one leg.
==========
So is someone's anti-war comments at a parade "right" or "wrong"? I dunno...the political "right" has so distorted the meaning of that word, I'm reluctant to use it for anything anymore. Others who are far better informed than me from around the world are shaking their heads in dismay at America -- this "deeply troubled nation" I read about in one article. Once we were known as "land of the free" and "home of the brave". With the highest per-capita incarceration rate in the world in a time where comments against the administration are considered un-American or un-patriotic, it's sad those phrases have become so laughable. I'm living in a country which is rapidly losing forever its credibility as a beacon of hope for those who yearn to be free -- here AND abroad.
==========
sail4free
==========
My response to Onyxman's post at Capitol Hill Blue -- Military & Veteran's Issues: Baby Killers of Iraq War (a thread prompted by news coverage of a parade where a soldier sporting a "Support Bush" sign was reportedly greeted with "Booo" and "Baby Killer!")
==========
ONYXMAN: "There is certainly a mythology about servicemen returning from Vietnam being spit on and called babykiller."=
=========
I've never personally been called "baby killer" but I was spat on by a high school girl riding a school bus while I walked alongside a road in my Air Force uniform in El Paso, TX in '72. These incidents probably have been exaggerated beyond their proper proportion but they did happen.
==========
ONYXMAN: "I'm not saying such things never happened, but I never heard about such things until long after 1974, and of all the friends I have who served in Vietnam none ever experienced this.
==========
All these years later, it's difficult to remember how extremely unpopular the Vietnam War was by the time it finally ended in '75. The first movies about that war ("Full Metal Jacket" and "Platoon") didn't DARE be released prior to '85/'86 as there would have been no market for them. (Compare that to how quickly we saw movies about Desert Storm -- some of them where even of the "comedy" genre.) The reason you didn't hear anything about it until "long after 1974" is because NOBODY wanted to hear about "it". Many Nam Combat Vets with the most to tell STILL don't talk about "it" -- but their soaring rates of homelessness, failed marriages, addiction, depression and suicide tell a story that most folks STILL don't want to hear -- and they sure as hell don't want to PAY for it!
==========
We have no stomach for the REAL cost of war in this country (all our "enemies" know this) and we've never had the stomach for it. We have had -- and may have again -- forced conscription (the draft) because they can't get enough warm young bodies to feed the meat grinder (military-industrial complex) any other way. Of course, NOW we have a new prison-industrial complex to more effectively deal with those who won't offer themselves as a living sacrifice to the war machine.
==========
We worship the few "heroes" that make it home in one piece but even they know the REAL heroes are rotting in the ground (hopefully) somewhere. And our ever-generous and empathic government grants a 30% disability check to those who have lost "only" one arm or "only" one leg.
==========
So is someone's anti-war comments at a parade "right" or "wrong"? I dunno...the political "right" has so distorted the meaning of that word, I'm reluctant to use it for anything anymore. Others who are far better informed than me from around the world are shaking their heads in dismay at America -- this "deeply troubled nation" I read about in one article. Once we were known as "land of the free" and "home of the brave". With the highest per-capita incarceration rate in the world in a time where comments against the administration are considered un-American or un-patriotic, it's sad those phrases have become so laughable. I'm living in a country which is rapidly losing forever its credibility as a beacon of hope for those who yearn to be free -- here AND abroad.
==========
sail4free
==========
Bush & Torture, Inc.
==========
Thanks for that list of links. Having read a few, these are excerpts which leaped off the page for me. Looking forward to a time when Bush & Co. will be tried for THEIR war crimes, perhaps we can use some of these techniques they condone to get the truth from them? Anyone with any experience in the "reality of war" will tell you that information a captured soldier might know that has ANY intelligence value must be "sought out" in the first 24 to 48 hours. After that, whatever he knows is old news and of no value. This reality is made even more obvious by the de-centralized structure of our latest "enemy." Group leaders typically might know one other group leader and who the two of them take orders from and that is IT. Members of the small groups know even less. None of them have any knowledge of the bigger picture or long-range tactics and they are purposely DENIED that information -- for their own "protection" and to protect the mission. You can torture a man to death but he can't tell you what he doesn't know. Therefore, to torture and interrogate a captive beyond those first 48 hours is a senseless and cruel act -- debasing the tortured AND the torturer. I hold every soldier PERSONALLY responsible for everything he/she does. They have a moral obligation to resist and stand against what they know in their heart of hearts to be wrong. Better to risk a few years in the brig with integrity and morality intact than spend the rest of your own tortured life suffering the consequences of "just following orders."
==========
Do we not believe that every single human who has suffered at our hand will not exact his own personal and terrifying revenge? Will they not be motivated all the more to reek their bloody revenge against this nation which has condoned these heinous acts? (I know those would be my thoughts, "Do whatever it takes to stay alive and make these fuckers pay nine times over for what they have done to me and my friends and family.") We are planting the seeds of our own destruction. What happened to "land of the free" and "home of the brave?" There are no words to describe the depth of loathing and contempt I feel for those who support this administration and their criminal acts. The only difference between our nation's treasonous and illegal acts and those of the playground bully is SCOPE -- the intellectual depravity and the insecurity which motivates such behavior are one and the same. Woody speaks the truth when he says, "This government was founded by, of, and for the people but everybody feels it like a giant open sore -- they don't represent us anymore."
==========
sail4free -- survivor of advanced POW training at Fairchild AFB in Spokane, WA in 1972/Vietnamese Linguist for USAFSS from '71 to '75.
==========
The Bush administration has shamed us all, reducing us to the level of those governments that also have wonderful laws forbidding torture, but condone it anyway.
==========
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29858-2004Jun9.html
==========
Legal and constitutional experts have expressed astonishment at the judgments made by administration lawyers on interrogation techniques. In one memo, written in January 2002, Mr. Gonzalez told President Bush that the nature of the war on terror "renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions".
==========
A separate memo, written by Pentagon lawyers in March 2003, stated that "the infliction of pain or suffering per se, whether it is physical or mental is insufficient to amount to torture. [The pain] must be of such a high level of intensity that it is difficult for the subject to endure".
==========
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtmlxml=/news/2004/06/13/wguan13.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/06/13/ixworld.html
==========
"I accept the legal conclusion of the attorney general and the Department of Justice that I have the authority under the Constitution to suspend Geneva as between the United States and Afghanistan, but I decline to exercise that authority at this time," the president said in the memo, entitled "Humane Treatment of al-Qaida and Taliban Detainees."
==========
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040622/D83CC3P80.html
==========
sail4free
==========
Thanks for that list of links. Having read a few, these are excerpts which leaped off the page for me. Looking forward to a time when Bush & Co. will be tried for THEIR war crimes, perhaps we can use some of these techniques they condone to get the truth from them? Anyone with any experience in the "reality of war" will tell you that information a captured soldier might know that has ANY intelligence value must be "sought out" in the first 24 to 48 hours. After that, whatever he knows is old news and of no value. This reality is made even more obvious by the de-centralized structure of our latest "enemy." Group leaders typically might know one other group leader and who the two of them take orders from and that is IT. Members of the small groups know even less. None of them have any knowledge of the bigger picture or long-range tactics and they are purposely DENIED that information -- for their own "protection" and to protect the mission. You can torture a man to death but he can't tell you what he doesn't know. Therefore, to torture and interrogate a captive beyond those first 48 hours is a senseless and cruel act -- debasing the tortured AND the torturer. I hold every soldier PERSONALLY responsible for everything he/she does. They have a moral obligation to resist and stand against what they know in their heart of hearts to be wrong. Better to risk a few years in the brig with integrity and morality intact than spend the rest of your own tortured life suffering the consequences of "just following orders."
==========
Do we not believe that every single human who has suffered at our hand will not exact his own personal and terrifying revenge? Will they not be motivated all the more to reek their bloody revenge against this nation which has condoned these heinous acts? (I know those would be my thoughts, "Do whatever it takes to stay alive and make these fuckers pay nine times over for what they have done to me and my friends and family.") We are planting the seeds of our own destruction. What happened to "land of the free" and "home of the brave?" There are no words to describe the depth of loathing and contempt I feel for those who support this administration and their criminal acts. The only difference between our nation's treasonous and illegal acts and those of the playground bully is SCOPE -- the intellectual depravity and the insecurity which motivates such behavior are one and the same. Woody speaks the truth when he says, "This government was founded by, of, and for the people but everybody feels it like a giant open sore -- they don't represent us anymore."
==========
sail4free -- survivor of advanced POW training at Fairchild AFB in Spokane, WA in 1972/Vietnamese Linguist for USAFSS from '71 to '75.
==========
The Bush administration has shamed us all, reducing us to the level of those governments that also have wonderful laws forbidding torture, but condone it anyway.
==========
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29858-2004Jun9.html
==========
Legal and constitutional experts have expressed astonishment at the judgments made by administration lawyers on interrogation techniques. In one memo, written in January 2002, Mr. Gonzalez told President Bush that the nature of the war on terror "renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions".
==========
A separate memo, written by Pentagon lawyers in March 2003, stated that "the infliction of pain or suffering per se, whether it is physical or mental is insufficient to amount to torture. [The pain] must be of such a high level of intensity that it is difficult for the subject to endure".
==========
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtmlxml=/news/2004/06/13/wguan13.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/06/13/ixworld.html
==========
"I accept the legal conclusion of the attorney general and the Department of Justice that I have the authority under the Constitution to suspend Geneva as between the United States and Afghanistan, but I decline to exercise that authority at this time," the president said in the memo, entitled "Humane Treatment of al-Qaida and Taliban Detainees."
==========
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040622/D83CC3P80.html
==========
sail4free
==========
Friday, July 16, 2004
Thoughts From Within
==========
Thanks a BUNCH for that link -- here are the words for anyone not able to view it:
==========
THOUGHTS FROM WITHIN
==========
I sometimes feel like an alien creature for which there is no earthly explanation
Sure I have human form -- walking erect and opposing digits,
but my mind is upside down.
I feel like a run-on sentence in a punctuation crazy world.
and I see the world around me like a mad collective dream.
==========
An endless stream of people move like ants from the freeway
cell phones, pc's, and digital displays
"In Money We Trust,"we'll find happiness
the prevailing attitude;
like a genetically modified irradiated Big Mac is somehow symbolic of food.
==========
Morality is legislated
prisons over-populated
religion is incorporated
the profit-motive has permeated all activity
we pay our government to let us park on the street
And war is the biggest money-maker of all
we all know missile envy only comes from being small.
==========
Politicians and prostitutes are comfortable together
I wonder if they talk about the strange change in the weather.
This government was founded by, of, and for the people
but everybody feels it like a giant open sore
they don't represent us anymore
And blaming the President for the country's woes
is like yelling at a puppet for the way it sings
Who's the man behind the curtain pulling the strings?
==========
A billion people sitting watching their TV
in the room that they call living
but as for me
I see living as loving
and since there is no loving room
I sit on the grass under a tree
dreaming of the way things used to be
Pre-Industrial Revolution
which of course is before the rivers and oceans, and skies were polluted
==========
before Parkinson's, and mad cows
and all the convoluted cacophony of bad ideas
like skyscrapers, and tree paper, and earth rapers
like Monsanto and Dupont had their way
as they continue to today.
==========
This was Pre-us
back when the buffalo roamed
and the Indian's home
was the forest, and God was nature
and heaven was here and now
Can you imagine clean water, food, and air
living in community with animals and people who care?
==========
Do you dare to feel responsible for every dollar you lay down
are you going to make the rich man richer
or are you going to stand your ground
You say you want a revolution
a communal evolution
to be a part of the solution
maybe I'll be seeing you around.
==========
Hear Woody speak out at:
http://www.voiceyourself.com/03_thoughtsfromwithin/03_poem.php
==========
Thanks a BUNCH for that link -- here are the words for anyone not able to view it:
==========
THOUGHTS FROM WITHIN
==========
I sometimes feel like an alien creature for which there is no earthly explanation
Sure I have human form -- walking erect and opposing digits,
but my mind is upside down.
I feel like a run-on sentence in a punctuation crazy world.
and I see the world around me like a mad collective dream.
==========
An endless stream of people move like ants from the freeway
cell phones, pc's, and digital displays
"In Money We Trust,"we'll find happiness
the prevailing attitude;
like a genetically modified irradiated Big Mac is somehow symbolic of food.
==========
Morality is legislated
prisons over-populated
religion is incorporated
the profit-motive has permeated all activity
we pay our government to let us park on the street
And war is the biggest money-maker of all
we all know missile envy only comes from being small.
==========
Politicians and prostitutes are comfortable together
I wonder if they talk about the strange change in the weather.
This government was founded by, of, and for the people
but everybody feels it like a giant open sore
they don't represent us anymore
And blaming the President for the country's woes
is like yelling at a puppet for the way it sings
Who's the man behind the curtain pulling the strings?
==========
A billion people sitting watching their TV
in the room that they call living
but as for me
I see living as loving
and since there is no loving room
I sit on the grass under a tree
dreaming of the way things used to be
Pre-Industrial Revolution
which of course is before the rivers and oceans, and skies were polluted
==========
before Parkinson's, and mad cows
and all the convoluted cacophony of bad ideas
like skyscrapers, and tree paper, and earth rapers
like Monsanto and Dupont had their way
as they continue to today.
==========
This was Pre-us
back when the buffalo roamed
and the Indian's home
was the forest, and God was nature
and heaven was here and now
Can you imagine clean water, food, and air
living in community with animals and people who care?
==========
Do you dare to feel responsible for every dollar you lay down
are you going to make the rich man richer
or are you going to stand your ground
You say you want a revolution
a communal evolution
to be a part of the solution
maybe I'll be seeing you around.
==========
Hear Woody speak out at:
http://www.voiceyourself.com/03_thoughtsfromwithin/03_poem.php
==========
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Dyed in the Wool Mal-Content?
==========
SHIRLEY: "Dear sail 4..................I have read two of your posts, one describing the stupidity of those who feel fighting for their country is an honorable thing. To say that I totally disagreed with you on that one would be a classic understatement. Now this last one which
starts out singing the rights of the hermit ends with your negative opinion of law enforcement.
I better understand your first post now. Though it is not to say you may not have good reason, you are a dyed in the wool mal-content. I am sincerely sorry for you. You must be extremely lonely. Even receiving a message of disagreement beats the heck out of being
ignored completely."
==========
If applying a label allows you to "pigeon-hole" me, then go ahead -- but I assure you I won't be staying in that crappy little box for long. I'd rather be "a dyed in the wool mal-content" any day than someone who simply accepts the status quo and trots around cheerleading, "Go Team!" I find MUCH of what is going on right now with our government, THEIR war, our police state, etc. to be completely UNacceptable and I will use any platform I can to say, "I'm mad as hell -- and I'm NOT going to take it anymore!" If that makes me a mal-content, then I wear the distinction with pride.
==========
There is no reason to feel sorry for me but I feel sorry-ER for anyone who thinks it somehow UNpatriotic or wrong to question their government which knowingly sends YOUR children off to die for no good reason that will stand up to the light of truth. If you want your children and their children -- born or not born yet -- to die for honor, then by all means . . . simply drive them to your nearest recruitment center and hand 'em over. Uncle Sam will have his way with them and there's a 50/50 chance they'll actually come home alive someday -- though they may be a little screwed up in the head for a while -- like forever. If you're not so lucky, they'll come home in a box or maybe not at all -- ever. But shouldn't we all be willing to pay any price for "honor"? Surely we can keep pumpin' 'em out faster than Uncle Sam can get 'em killed, don't ya' think?
==========
I'm far from lonely; rarely ignored and -- for what it's worth -- I've had several positive comments on those two posts and yours is the only negative one so far. Does that say more about what I've written/posted or more about you? My opinions regarding the military, and my empathy with those who challenge the system in good faith and lose for no good reason, and my "negative opinion of law enforcement" are based on personal life experiences combined with similar experiences involving my family and friends. Those bastards shot and killed my grandfather's brother in the doorway of his trailer in Pasadena, CA. The LAPD cuffed my Dad (middle-aged, white and 240 lbs.) and jerked him backwards repeatedly until he passed out. Then they let him drop which cracked his head on the blacktop. (Among themselves, this little procedure is known as a "pop and drop.") One-on-one, he could've pounded either one of these creeps into salt. As a result, he spent the rest of his short life with a visceral FEAR of police. The esteemed civil servants here in good ole' small-town Boise, ID shot my good friend's unarmed 18-year-old son in the head at point-blank range and killed him instantly. (Apparently spinning your tires on Main St. carries heavier consequences these days.) (We went through a "phase" here in Boise where our mortality rate at the hands of the police was higher than LA or Chicago. The citizens got "up in arms" and threatened to fire all the bastards and -- suddenly -- and for a few years now, we've had hardly any of those so-called "righteous kills." I guess all the bad guys got the word and go someplace else now.) Yeah, I've got a few "issues" with the policia and I won't be getting over them any time soon. (Nonetheless, I give them every opportunity to be decent and a few times they've actually surprised me by being something more than nazi goons.) I was in the USAFSS for four years as a Vietnamese linguist from '71 to '75 -- I listened to the impassioned pleas of local women and children begging for a ride from their American "friends" as Saigon fell in the spring of '75 and we left 'em all standing there crying in disbelief to fend for themselves against almost certain death after YEARS of us promising them we would never do such a DIShonorable thing. So I think I'm entitled to make a few observations based on that experience. And, yes, I think it's pretty shitty when eight heavily-armed officers of the law have nothing better to do than roust out some poor soul who's been living in one place for ten years on $30 a month and harming no one. If you don't think any of that stuff is a little crummy, then I suggest we should all be feeling sorry for YOU.
==========
Nonetheless, you're just as entitled to your opinions as I'm entitled to mine and I thank you for yours -- it's not like I really think everyone is going to agree with me all the time. Where would be the fun in that?
==========
sail4free
==========
SHIRLEY: "Dear sail 4..................I have read two of your posts, one describing the stupidity of those who feel fighting for their country is an honorable thing. To say that I totally disagreed with you on that one would be a classic understatement. Now this last one which
starts out singing the rights of the hermit ends with your negative opinion of law enforcement.
I better understand your first post now. Though it is not to say you may not have good reason, you are a dyed in the wool mal-content. I am sincerely sorry for you. You must be extremely lonely. Even receiving a message of disagreement beats the heck out of being
ignored completely."
==========
If applying a label allows you to "pigeon-hole" me, then go ahead -- but I assure you I won't be staying in that crappy little box for long. I'd rather be "a dyed in the wool mal-content" any day than someone who simply accepts the status quo and trots around cheerleading, "Go Team!" I find MUCH of what is going on right now with our government, THEIR war, our police state, etc. to be completely UNacceptable and I will use any platform I can to say, "I'm mad as hell -- and I'm NOT going to take it anymore!" If that makes me a mal-content, then I wear the distinction with pride.
==========
There is no reason to feel sorry for me but I feel sorry-ER for anyone who thinks it somehow UNpatriotic or wrong to question their government which knowingly sends YOUR children off to die for no good reason that will stand up to the light of truth. If you want your children and their children -- born or not born yet -- to die for honor, then by all means . . . simply drive them to your nearest recruitment center and hand 'em over. Uncle Sam will have his way with them and there's a 50/50 chance they'll actually come home alive someday -- though they may be a little screwed up in the head for a while -- like forever. If you're not so lucky, they'll come home in a box or maybe not at all -- ever. But shouldn't we all be willing to pay any price for "honor"? Surely we can keep pumpin' 'em out faster than Uncle Sam can get 'em killed, don't ya' think?
==========
I'm far from lonely; rarely ignored and -- for what it's worth -- I've had several positive comments on those two posts and yours is the only negative one so far. Does that say more about what I've written/posted or more about you? My opinions regarding the military, and my empathy with those who challenge the system in good faith and lose for no good reason, and my "negative opinion of law enforcement" are based on personal life experiences combined with similar experiences involving my family and friends. Those bastards shot and killed my grandfather's brother in the doorway of his trailer in Pasadena, CA. The LAPD cuffed my Dad (middle-aged, white and 240 lbs.) and jerked him backwards repeatedly until he passed out. Then they let him drop which cracked his head on the blacktop. (Among themselves, this little procedure is known as a "pop and drop.") One-on-one, he could've pounded either one of these creeps into salt. As a result, he spent the rest of his short life with a visceral FEAR of police. The esteemed civil servants here in good ole' small-town Boise, ID shot my good friend's unarmed 18-year-old son in the head at point-blank range and killed him instantly. (Apparently spinning your tires on Main St. carries heavier consequences these days.) (We went through a "phase" here in Boise where our mortality rate at the hands of the police was higher than LA or Chicago. The citizens got "up in arms" and threatened to fire all the bastards and -- suddenly -- and for a few years now, we've had hardly any of those so-called "righteous kills." I guess all the bad guys got the word and go someplace else now.) Yeah, I've got a few "issues" with the policia and I won't be getting over them any time soon. (Nonetheless, I give them every opportunity to be decent and a few times they've actually surprised me by being something more than nazi goons.) I was in the USAFSS for four years as a Vietnamese linguist from '71 to '75 -- I listened to the impassioned pleas of local women and children begging for a ride from their American "friends" as Saigon fell in the spring of '75 and we left 'em all standing there crying in disbelief to fend for themselves against almost certain death after YEARS of us promising them we would never do such a DIShonorable thing. So I think I'm entitled to make a few observations based on that experience. And, yes, I think it's pretty shitty when eight heavily-armed officers of the law have nothing better to do than roust out some poor soul who's been living in one place for ten years on $30 a month and harming no one. If you don't think any of that stuff is a little crummy, then I suggest we should all be feeling sorry for YOU.
==========
Nonetheless, you're just as entitled to your opinions as I'm entitled to mine and I thank you for yours -- it's not like I really think everyone is going to agree with me all the time. Where would be the fun in that?
==========
sail4free
==========
Saturday, June 19, 2004
The Burning-Issues Trap
==========
STEVE: "Natural. There's the real issue. You gotta separate yourself from the shit you've taken on as "you" along the way. The "false self", as it's been described. Is this along the lines of what you're saying?"
==========
We have to acknowledge that 98% of what we think is US is nothing more than a huge pile of CRAP that we have accepted from our parents, our teachers, our coaches, our pastors. We have made it OURS without really questioning it or even understanding that it should ALL be questioned. How else do we explain the very high percentage of adults who practice the same faith as their parents? Eat the same food? Have the same favorite dessert? Enjoy the same sports? Drive the same brand of cars? We THINK all of that is us. But it's NOT us. It's us struggling to live a life that ALL those influential people in our lives will approve of and give us some "atta-boys" or "atta-girls" for. If we REALLY had the balls (or the ovaries . . . Tits . . . what DO girls have -- that compares to BALLS I mean?) to live the life we imagine, we couldn't bring ourselves to care what any of those people think. Not that the "input" of others has NO value, but what we think about our own lives should be at least 100 times MORE valuable. We can live our lives STILL trying to please someone who has been dead for 20 years! STILL seeking their approval -- still yearning to impress them with all that we've done. Still waiting for that "atta-boy" -- from a dead person. It's insane, Man! But how many of us do it? And how many more do it without even realizing it? And how many more realize it but are in denial about it? Their dreams for us are THEIR dreams! They weren't REAL for them and they shouldn't be REAL for us either. Dead or alive, we simply must let their dreams return to them and dream our own dreams and live them out in the real world as best we can -- whether or not they approve (and they probably won't, but who cares?)
==========
STEVE: "Haven't you found that your emotions are a kind of barometer to let you know where you are and how you're doing? Kind of a signpost saying "dead end" or "stop ahead"? Or are we talking about two different things?"
==========
Totally. My barometer is neighbor's barking dogs. When my life is in balance, I hear them and they bug me a little but I can redirect my thoughts and energy to something else. When my life is OUT of balance, I'm thinking, "There's nothing more fucking useless than some STUPID dog that sits there barking his stupid head off all day when no one is home to hear his "warnings" anyway. But it's not really the dog that is stupid, it's their owners that are STUPID! How inconsiderate of someone to own an animal whose sole purpose in this life is to annoy every neighbor within earshot of his dog?" See how that works for me? So NOW when I find myself getting upset about some stupid worthless barking dog, I catch myself and the following conversation ensues: "Okay, take a deep breath here cowboy . . . breathe . . . what's going on? Who's pissing you off and you're not doing anything about it? Find your balance -- retreat to your safe place -- let it go."
==========
Of course, what's most revealing about this to me is the dog is still barking. His behavior is unchanged. His owner isn't likely to grow a brain in this decade. ONLY my response to the stimulus has changed -- and that is sufficient to change EVERYTHING.
==========
STEVE: "Someone who's "right" must see all the "wrong" in the world. Does he simply accept it for what it is, understanding how unawakened people are, or does he set about to change it and them...or, more to the point, *through* them? Where does rebellion fit in, or does it change into something else?"
==========
To me, TRUE freedom is freedom from the need or desire to change others -- about anything. None of us has a perfect lock on what is "right" or "true." Our perceptions are so distorted by our life experience, it's impossible for us to see anything clearly. It's like peering through smoke that's all around us; always hoping it will clear up but it never does. All we can say about anything -- with any accuracy at all -- is these were my choices . . . this is what I chose . . . and these were/are my consequences. While constantly acknowledging YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary).
==========
Ultimately, I must accept that I have little or no ability to change anyone -- they do what they do for their very own and very personal reasons -- it has NOTHING to do with me. The MOST I can hope for is to have some tiny amount of influence with someone: maybe they'll hear something I said and it will plant a seed in their own thoughts; maybe they'll read something I wrote and be inspired to rethink where they are on an issue. But it's ALL up to them; it has NOTHING to do with me. And I can't afford to care whether any of this happens or not. Nothing others do is because of me.
==========
STEVE: "Many "enlightened" people have sought to spread their understanding to others, and some have been seen as rebels against the current system. I wonder to what degree rebellion and being awake go hand-in-hand. They're pretty close, I think. Up to a point?"
==========
H. Jackson Brown, Jr. said, "People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost." To me, the ultimate "rebellion" is not really caring all that much about what other people think. In other words, if others have no desire to read and learn and grow and exercise their minds with reasoned discourse and logic, how does that make me an idiot? Any time we cross over into that we-are-the-enlightened-ones-and-everybody-else-is-an-idiot mode, we are behind enemy lines and we must be extremely careful. It's a trap designed to restrain us and contain us -- that we should be forever held UNwise and UNfree. It's no different than religious faiths who are convinced they are the only ones who are going to heaven and all the other faiths are going to hell. If "they" are right, then my prayer is that they be transported to wherever their ultimate destination is . . . NOW . . . that the rest of us may suffer in peace.
==========
I love that scene in Platoon where the young man is explaining his reason for joining up: that he didn't think it was fair that only the poor kids had to fight for their country. The older and wizened black soldier observes, "What we have here is a CRUSADER! You got to be rich thinking like that."
==========
I was an early fan of Harry Browne's "How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World." At one time, I thought I must've memorized the whole book. It certainly has been a major influence for most of my adult life. One of the chapters talks about the "burning-issues trap" and Harry must've listed 20 "burning issues" of the day = abortion, unions, immigrants, discrimination, poverty, war, hunger, etc. He wrote about the futility of dedicating our lives to any of those causes thinking we could achieve significant change for ANY one of them, much less for ALL of them. For example, abortion has always been a "polar" issue and I suspect it always will be -- the two camps are never going to lay their weapons down and come to an agreement that everyone can live with (unintended pun). As a young rebel looking for my cause, I was quite disappointed. Imagine the revelation, though, when I looked again at that same list -- 25 years later -- and realized what he had written was absolutely true: there had been no significant change for ANY of those issues. If anything, things had gotten worse. Since my original reading, dumb-ass bible tampers had executed so-called abortion doctors. The so-called "pro-lifers" had waged war on the so-called "pro-choicers" and that battle continues to this day.
==========
(I did notice, though, that virtually all prominent "pro-life" speakers are so freakin' ugly that their credibility is compromised. I mean: "What are you doing up there pretending this is a relevant issue for you? Because that would mean there was some possibility -- however remote -- that you could actually become impregnated (perhaps by tripping and falling on a fertile man with genetic blindness AND an erection?) and then be faced with the moral dilemma of whether to abort or not and -- looking at you -- I'd say it's a sure bet that ain't EVER gonna' happen!" Aww, shit -- I did it again. Sorry, Kathleen.)
==========
During those 25 years, my own "strong" convictions sailed back and forth across the battle lines -- wanting first to stand united with "no money in the offering plates until my sisters are free" and later wanting to encourage a world so filled with love that no unborn child would ever be unwanted; where churches of all faiths would "practice their lofty preachin' " and embrace and encourage and support these young and often poor and often poorly educated women who had no support network and no options and no money and no place to go instead of them being kicked out by their own parents AND often shunned by their church "family" as well. So here I am -- now 30+ years later -- pretty darn sure that my "strong" convictions about abortion NEVER really had much impact . . . regardless of what side of the fence I was on at the time. The controversy rages on like the wild fire it is and will continue to do so LONG after I'm gone -- to wherever it is I'm going -- if I'm going anyplace, that is. Some place other than where those IDIOTIC 7th Day Adventists go -- I hope . . . or maybe that is what hell would be for me: searching through 142 kazillion souls for eternity -- never finding even ONE that would agree with me.
==========
sail4free
==========
"To fall in love is easy, even to remain in it is not difficult; our human loneliness is cause enough. But it is a hard quest worth making to find a comrade through whose steady presence one becomes steadily the person one desires to be."
-Anna Louise Strong
==========
"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear."
-Thomas Jefferson
==========
Try saying this one six times -- real fast:
"I'd rather be a could-be if I cannot be an are; because a could-be is a maybe who is reaching for a star. I'd rather be a has-been than a might-have-been, by far; for a might have-been has never been, but a has was once an are."
-Milton Berle
==========
STEVE: "Natural. There's the real issue. You gotta separate yourself from the shit you've taken on as "you" along the way. The "false self", as it's been described. Is this along the lines of what you're saying?"
==========
We have to acknowledge that 98% of what we think is US is nothing more than a huge pile of CRAP that we have accepted from our parents, our teachers, our coaches, our pastors. We have made it OURS without really questioning it or even understanding that it should ALL be questioned. How else do we explain the very high percentage of adults who practice the same faith as their parents? Eat the same food? Have the same favorite dessert? Enjoy the same sports? Drive the same brand of cars? We THINK all of that is us. But it's NOT us. It's us struggling to live a life that ALL those influential people in our lives will approve of and give us some "atta-boys" or "atta-girls" for. If we REALLY had the balls (or the ovaries . . . Tits . . . what DO girls have -- that compares to BALLS I mean?) to live the life we imagine, we couldn't bring ourselves to care what any of those people think. Not that the "input" of others has NO value, but what we think about our own lives should be at least 100 times MORE valuable. We can live our lives STILL trying to please someone who has been dead for 20 years! STILL seeking their approval -- still yearning to impress them with all that we've done. Still waiting for that "atta-boy" -- from a dead person. It's insane, Man! But how many of us do it? And how many more do it without even realizing it? And how many more realize it but are in denial about it? Their dreams for us are THEIR dreams! They weren't REAL for them and they shouldn't be REAL for us either. Dead or alive, we simply must let their dreams return to them and dream our own dreams and live them out in the real world as best we can -- whether or not they approve (and they probably won't, but who cares?)
==========
STEVE: "Haven't you found that your emotions are a kind of barometer to let you know where you are and how you're doing? Kind of a signpost saying "dead end" or "stop ahead"? Or are we talking about two different things?"
==========
Totally. My barometer is neighbor's barking dogs. When my life is in balance, I hear them and they bug me a little but I can redirect my thoughts and energy to something else. When my life is OUT of balance, I'm thinking, "There's nothing more fucking useless than some STUPID dog that sits there barking his stupid head off all day when no one is home to hear his "warnings" anyway. But it's not really the dog that is stupid, it's their owners that are STUPID! How inconsiderate of someone to own an animal whose sole purpose in this life is to annoy every neighbor within earshot of his dog?" See how that works for me? So NOW when I find myself getting upset about some stupid worthless barking dog, I catch myself and the following conversation ensues: "Okay, take a deep breath here cowboy . . . breathe . . . what's going on? Who's pissing you off and you're not doing anything about it? Find your balance -- retreat to your safe place -- let it go."
==========
Of course, what's most revealing about this to me is the dog is still barking. His behavior is unchanged. His owner isn't likely to grow a brain in this decade. ONLY my response to the stimulus has changed -- and that is sufficient to change EVERYTHING.
==========
STEVE: "Someone who's "right" must see all the "wrong" in the world. Does he simply accept it for what it is, understanding how unawakened people are, or does he set about to change it and them...or, more to the point, *through* them? Where does rebellion fit in, or does it change into something else?"
==========
To me, TRUE freedom is freedom from the need or desire to change others -- about anything. None of us has a perfect lock on what is "right" or "true." Our perceptions are so distorted by our life experience, it's impossible for us to see anything clearly. It's like peering through smoke that's all around us; always hoping it will clear up but it never does. All we can say about anything -- with any accuracy at all -- is these were my choices . . . this is what I chose . . . and these were/are my consequences. While constantly acknowledging YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary).
==========
Ultimately, I must accept that I have little or no ability to change anyone -- they do what they do for their very own and very personal reasons -- it has NOTHING to do with me. The MOST I can hope for is to have some tiny amount of influence with someone: maybe they'll hear something I said and it will plant a seed in their own thoughts; maybe they'll read something I wrote and be inspired to rethink where they are on an issue. But it's ALL up to them; it has NOTHING to do with me. And I can't afford to care whether any of this happens or not. Nothing others do is because of me.
==========
STEVE: "Many "enlightened" people have sought to spread their understanding to others, and some have been seen as rebels against the current system. I wonder to what degree rebellion and being awake go hand-in-hand. They're pretty close, I think. Up to a point?"
==========
H. Jackson Brown, Jr. said, "People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost." To me, the ultimate "rebellion" is not really caring all that much about what other people think. In other words, if others have no desire to read and learn and grow and exercise their minds with reasoned discourse and logic, how does that make me an idiot? Any time we cross over into that we-are-the-enlightened-ones-and-everybody-else-is-an-idiot mode, we are behind enemy lines and we must be extremely careful. It's a trap designed to restrain us and contain us -- that we should be forever held UNwise and UNfree. It's no different than religious faiths who are convinced they are the only ones who are going to heaven and all the other faiths are going to hell. If "they" are right, then my prayer is that they be transported to wherever their ultimate destination is . . . NOW . . . that the rest of us may suffer in peace.
==========
I love that scene in Platoon where the young man is explaining his reason for joining up: that he didn't think it was fair that only the poor kids had to fight for their country. The older and wizened black soldier observes, "What we have here is a CRUSADER! You got to be rich thinking like that."
==========
I was an early fan of Harry Browne's "How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World." At one time, I thought I must've memorized the whole book. It certainly has been a major influence for most of my adult life. One of the chapters talks about the "burning-issues trap" and Harry must've listed 20 "burning issues" of the day = abortion, unions, immigrants, discrimination, poverty, war, hunger, etc. He wrote about the futility of dedicating our lives to any of those causes thinking we could achieve significant change for ANY one of them, much less for ALL of them. For example, abortion has always been a "polar" issue and I suspect it always will be -- the two camps are never going to lay their weapons down and come to an agreement that everyone can live with (unintended pun). As a young rebel looking for my cause, I was quite disappointed. Imagine the revelation, though, when I looked again at that same list -- 25 years later -- and realized what he had written was absolutely true: there had been no significant change for ANY of those issues. If anything, things had gotten worse. Since my original reading, dumb-ass bible tampers had executed so-called abortion doctors. The so-called "pro-lifers" had waged war on the so-called "pro-choicers" and that battle continues to this day.
==========
(I did notice, though, that virtually all prominent "pro-life" speakers are so freakin' ugly that their credibility is compromised. I mean: "What are you doing up there pretending this is a relevant issue for you? Because that would mean there was some possibility -- however remote -- that you could actually become impregnated (perhaps by tripping and falling on a fertile man with genetic blindness AND an erection?) and then be faced with the moral dilemma of whether to abort or not and -- looking at you -- I'd say it's a sure bet that ain't EVER gonna' happen!" Aww, shit -- I did it again. Sorry, Kathleen.)
==========
During those 25 years, my own "strong" convictions sailed back and forth across the battle lines -- wanting first to stand united with "no money in the offering plates until my sisters are free" and later wanting to encourage a world so filled with love that no unborn child would ever be unwanted; where churches of all faiths would "practice their lofty preachin' " and embrace and encourage and support these young and often poor and often poorly educated women who had no support network and no options and no money and no place to go instead of them being kicked out by their own parents AND often shunned by their church "family" as well. So here I am -- now 30+ years later -- pretty darn sure that my "strong" convictions about abortion NEVER really had much impact . . . regardless of what side of the fence I was on at the time. The controversy rages on like the wild fire it is and will continue to do so LONG after I'm gone -- to wherever it is I'm going -- if I'm going anyplace, that is. Some place other than where those IDIOTIC 7th Day Adventists go -- I hope . . . or maybe that is what hell would be for me: searching through 142 kazillion souls for eternity -- never finding even ONE that would agree with me.
==========
sail4free
==========
"To fall in love is easy, even to remain in it is not difficult; our human loneliness is cause enough. But it is a hard quest worth making to find a comrade through whose steady presence one becomes steadily the person one desires to be."
-Anna Louise Strong
==========
"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear."
-Thomas Jefferson
==========
Try saying this one six times -- real fast:
"I'd rather be a could-be if I cannot be an are; because a could-be is a maybe who is reaching for a star. I'd rather be a has-been than a might-have-been, by far; for a might have-been has never been, but a has was once an are."
-Milton Berle
==========
An Ignoble Cause
(Prompted by Steve's comment about James Hetfield's obvious support for a few Marines -- fresh from Iraq -- who went onstage during MTV's tribute to Metallica:)
==========
It's hard not to respect someone risking their life for what they believe -- even if what they believe is a program force fed to them while they sit at attention receiving their download -- truth discernment disabled but eyes wide open. Even if they've never yet had to question what they believe or why they believe it or how they came to believe such nonsense in the first place. These young recruits don't have a friggin' clue what they've gotten themselves into. Yet to the extent we consider it unavoidable that a slice of our poor and a chunk of our youth must bleed and die to feed the government's insatiable war machine, I suppose we should at least TRY to be grateful to them for being stupid enough to waste the promise of their young lives so the rest of us can fart and burp and indulge ourselves all the more with our petty flag-sticker-on-the-bumper patriotism. Most of us never question any of it any more than these poor kids do before spilling their priceless blood in some third-world country most of 'em couldn't find on a map.
==========
Maybe they're signing up for a shot at college (like I did) or money up front for some new piece-of-shit car they've been having wet dreams about. (Never mind they won't be able to drive the stupid thing while making all those payments the whole time they're overseas but they haven't thought that far ahead.) Or -- in the case of our southern cousins -- they're signing up to get U.S. citizenship for themselves and their familia immediately instead of the usual five-year wading period (typo intended). There are those who feel compelled to serve like their Dad did -- or uncle -- or brother -- whatever -- it's all the same stupid wierd glory and honor shit. But the truth is they are ALL just like we ALL were as 17 & 18-year-old boys -- young, dumb and full of cum -- or for the girls: young, dumb and full of whatever it is that makes them do stupid shit. As if all this macho/macha bullshit is gonna' make the virgins go weak in the knees when they get back home anyway -- with their uniforms laden with parallel stripes and shiny medals and colorful ribbons. (Assuming these aren't pinned to their rotting corpse, that is.) Stoked on the hormones of youth invincible -- stronger than dirt -- with zero sense of their own mortality -- or the fragility of nerves and vessels beneath their young skin which keep their spirit clinging to life while they sleep.
==========
Steve mentioned his own boys and I flashed to "Legends of the Fall" -- an epic portrayal of a father's anguish as two of his sons insist on following in his footsteps. Ultimately, of course, he's unable to prevent them from going to the front. One son is killed and the other forever "damaged goods." The father suffers a stroke when he learns his youngest has been killed. I know it's just some stupid movie but war IS hell -- no one ever wins -- it's an inescapable loss of innocence, humanity, morality, decency, faith, and love. Strip away all those calls from the grave about honor and glory and valor and service for God and country and the rest of all of that horse shit and you're left with the reality of young dumb men killing other young dumb men for reasons they are absolutely incapable of comprehending and we ALL -- as a society; as a culture; as PARENTS -- are to blame for the level of their ignorance which permits them to feed their innocent lives into this gaping mouth of death. For what that they could possibly rationalize in their young lives? Cell phones and rap? Cruisin' main street with some spinners, a little chrome under the hood, a few beers in the belly? Trash-talkin' some little cutey into taming a wild boner? (Are YOU willing to risk death NOW for a shot at some of that later? 'Cause that's purely messed up my little brother.)
==========
It's an UNnatural act to pull the trigger and blast a hole in a beating heart. In WWII, the powers that be learned that only 15 to 20% of young men could pull the trigger with lethal intent -- and this was while they were being shot at! They might fire repeatedly in the general direction of the enemy, but only a small percentage would take steady aim with a calm focus which says, "Mother Fucker, you're going DOWN!" By Vietnam, that figure had increased to 85%. The way we protect our young sheep and then escort them to the slaughter house hasn't changed; only the methods of military indoctrination and programming -- in other words, teaching impressionable young minds how to HATE -- has changed.
==========
Their way of accomplishing this remarkable feat is simple enough -- stomp the new recruit's self-image and self-worth into the dirt. Break him down (physically and psychologically and spiritually) until he is lower than snail slime -- essentially nothing. Then rebuild him in the powerful image of his trainer -- as a mighty killer. Suddenly all his talents, all his value, all his image are centered around his ability to kill. He feels as if he owes his very existence to this goon who cloned him. Some guys (those with the lowest self-esteem to begin with -- usually because they had some stiff-necked prick, often-former-military, nazi tyrant for a Dad) take to it like a fish to water and many of them end up as our "disposable heroes." For a few years, someone will read their name out loud on Veteran's Day. Or a picture of what they once were will flash briefly on a TV screen for Memorial Day. The smarter and more confident individuals are reluctant but they're under INCREDIBLE pressure from their peers and trainers to conform to this fantasy of a soldier, a strong man -- one who knows how to kill stuff real good. One who could rip the enemy's pulsating heart out with his teeth and come up grinning from ear to ear with blood pouring off his chin. The trainer's use every resource to exploit "weakness" and reward every movement (no matter how small) towards their goal -- all the while admonishing the troops, "if you ever want to go home again -- to all that pussy, Mom and apple pie -- you better learn this shit; you better get it right." As one former soldier has shared from his marine training, they'll even have them stand in formation -- look to their left and then to their right -- and tell them that one of those guys they just looked at will be going home in a box. [What they don't tell the poor fuckers is half of them are going home in a box regardless of what they do or don't learn -- stray rounds, road mines and RPGs (Rocket Propelled Grenades) don't give a shit about who gets dead.]
==========
I was moved by an article written about the growing number of amputees who "survive" modern warfare. Thanks to flak jackets, many more soldiers survive injuries that would've surely been fatal in conflicts as recent as Vietnam. Another consequence of that enhanced protection is that due to advanced technology and voice-activated software, having all your limbs still attached to your body is not worth as much as it once was. Many of these amputees -- who have lost only one arm or "only" one leg -- are only getting 30% disability. Just a small token of how wonderfully our loving government can be expected to care for those it has knowingly placed in harm's way. It's been estimated that only HALF of veterans who are completely blind receive any benefits at all. The other half are unaware they're even eligible for benefits. I guess we can't count on Uncle Sam to track them down and tell them, can we? And now the government requires soldiers to make any claim for service-connected disability within two years of their date of separation when systems may not begin to show until many years later. It's been estimated this maneuver by the government will deny 90% of gulf-war veterans any claim to future disability. But I digress.
==========
Fresh home after their woundings, all the amputees are treated to guided tours of special places, expensive gifts and visits from famous people, photo ops with smiling war hawks and solemn actors. This all takes place at a special pre-release center for amps (amputees) prior to them returning to their home towns to become nobodies again (remember ALL their "new" self-image and self-worth revolves around their ability to kill and they're newly "retired" from the killing biz) and start cashing all those fat 30% disability checks. In the early days, all of the amps are honor-and-glory-speak: we're there (wherever "there" might be that week) for all the right reasons; doing the right thing by all these poor people; advancing freedom and democracy; blah, blah, blah. After a few drinks, one of the amps leans forward at a dinner party and whispers in the reporter's ear, "Of course we sorta' HAVE to believe that. Otherwise, this (glances down where his leg used to be) and THIS (holds up the severed stump of his right arm) was for NOTHING!"
==========
The weight and brutality of that spoken truth won't fully sink in until many months or even years later. But when that moment of truth slams the front door and comes stomping angrily towards his wheelchair, there won't be any of his "honor and glory" buds chugging champagne around some fancy dinner table to help defend him against this newest enemy. When MISERY comes knocking, he's gonna' be around for a good long while. The visits from actors and government leaders smiling for dollars will be a faint and distant memory. All that will be left forever are the disabilities: physical -- emotional -- psychological -- financial -- relational; a pounding disenchantment with the war machine who once so brilliantly disguised herself as his lover -- a dirty keyboard -- and that 30% disability check.
==========
sail4free
==========
"He who joyfully marches in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice." -Albert Einstein
==========
"What is the use of physicians like myself trying to help parents to bring up children healthy and happy, to have them killed in such numbers for a cause that is ignoble?" -Benjamin Spock
==========
Sunday, June 06, 2004
Cry Baby!
==========
(Posted to gonzobeats 6/04.)
==========
KATHLEEN: "I THANK GOD for our system (flawed as it is). I would gladly go to jail unjustly and wrongly accused if it would save one child from the abuse I suffered FOR YEARS till help finally came."
==========
FWIW, I have no tolerance for those who abuse children -- emotionally or any other way. I've been known to force cars to the side of the road until the drivers quit reaching behind the seat and pounding on some poor kid. I WILL get in someone's face at each and every opportunity to save a kid from the BS I grew up with. I wish I had a video camera to keep with me at all times to document those who abuse their children and I would be an active advocate in their prosecution. People who abuse children should be sterilized immediately as they have proven their inability to nurture and encourage. Until they make me king, though, we and our children suffer in the presence of countless inequities but our system is more than flawed. If it was broke, we could fix it. We can't fix it. It is beyond repair -- like a cancer growing out of control which contaminates everything it touches. From 1980 to 2000, our nation's population grew 20%. In that same time, our prison population grew 315%! We are putting Americans in cages 16 times faster than they are being born! That reality is absolutely NOT acceptable to me! Actual crime rates declined during most of those years and only an estimated 25% of the decline was due to our massive increase in incarceration rates. That means 75% of the decline is due to "other" reasons: like high rates of employment, less racial discrimination in the workplace, fewer trained killers returning from wars begun by stupid politicians, the decline in the crack epidemic, etc. 29% of the black men born today will spend some portion of their life in prison. (In Washington D.C., the figure is 75%.) 1 in 8 black men ages 25 through 29 is already IN prison -- as we speak. In poor black communities, there are only 64 adult men for every 100 adult women -- the rest are in prison. It is proven that children from fatherless homes have a MUCH higher rate of imprisonment, so the cycle continues generation after generation with absolutely no end in sight.
==========
By far, the largest increase in prisoners is due to drug use and possession -- which hasn't changed significantly -- only the politics and policy have changed. The lion's share of increasing rates of incarceration is due to IDIOT campaigns like "war on drugs" and "just say no" and IDIOT legislation like "three strikes and you're out" and "truth in sentencing" which requires offenders to serve 85% of their sentence absolutely no matter what with NO regard for the big picture and NO regard for the whole story. As an example, in CA a young Spanish male was convicted of burglary as a juvenile. Later -- as an adult -- he was convicted of armed robbery. His cousin was new to the states and needed a driver's license for work but couldn't read English so good. So this poor man took the written portion of the test for his cuz' and got caught. Apparently such an unacceptable threat to our personal security is a felony in CA so that was his third strike. He's currently serving 26 years to LIFE in a CA shithole. His incarceration will cost the state of CA one million dollars over the next 26 years. Does the system get any dumber than that? Do I feel sorry for CA and it's budget crisis? Hell no!
==========
Despite such lunacy in action, TX and CA (#2 and #3, respectively, in the $40 BILLION dollar per year domestic livestock industry -- the feds get top honors) have actually managed to reduce their incarceration rate slightly (due to the rising cost of their structural insanity, no doubt) while other states continue to corral free-rangers in increasing numbers. Rates of increase in federal prisons in recent years have been SIX TIMES those of the state averages. (Thank ya' Bushy -- I feel SO much safer now -- you moron.) Oklahoma (of all places) has the highest STATE rate of incarceration so you might want to travel AROUND that state. (Any bets on whether the Native American rate of imprisonment is 4 or 5 times their percentages in the general population of the state?) HOW has any of this made our country safer and free-er?
==========
Most of these drug-related incarcerations are not even criminal offenses. They are "moral" offenses -- the result of our legislators staggering up on their moral high horses and -- in all their infinite wisdom -- knowing so much more about what is good for each and every one of us than we could possibly EVER know. These friggin' hypocrites have higher rates of DUI convictions in the last year than the general population . . . higher rates of domestic abuse than the rest of the population and they're laying down the rules for the rest of us? There is something seriously WRONG with that picture! And we are to place our faith in a solution to this problem with them? Gimme' a freakin' break!
==========
Less than 50% of our prisoners are doing time for violent offenses but they ALL suffer the same indignities and loss of respect and loss of reputation (for life!) REGARDLESS of their offense. Some states have actually finally figured out that "short" prison terms do more harm than good (read: cost the state more than they ever imagined) because of "interruption" of family relationships, jobs, friends, etc. All states count cons when it will increase their political receipts and yet cons aren't allowed to vote (ever again -- even after release in some states).
==========
KATHLEEN: "We have a freer country than so many others BECAUSE so many people that dare to take away our freedom are in prison."
==========
As long as we have the highest rates of incarceration IN THE WORLD, this is NOT "land of the free" for you or me or any one of us. For every 100,000 U.S. citizens, 715 of them are in prison (that's dangerously close to 1% and we'll be there in no time at our current annual growth rates). Our nation's prison population recently went above TWO MILLION! This is not a nation of free people. This is a nation imprisoned by its own government. (Someone hit the nail on the head by recently proclaiming WE are the ones in need of liberation.) For comparison, Canada has 116 in prison (for every 100,000 of population). Most of our European nations (who we are considered to be "most alike") have numbers below 100.
==========
I refuse to tap into his "climate of fear" campaign this son of a bush and his frenzied, wrinkle-dicked, jacked-up-on-Viagra, chronies whip up in their secret circle jerks and drip out like salty pablum for the masses to lick up off their shiny shoes. Let em' go home and attempt sex with their ugly wives and enjoy a "sweet death" in the effort. Their balding craniums surely contain no more than a small ball of white puss sloshing around in clear fluid. I fear the ultimate consequences of their Satan-spawn-inspired, John-Wayne-testosterone, brain-fart-adventures FAR more than I could ever be afraid of some dumbass, suicidal "terrorist." In fact, I think we should do all we can to hasten these little tyrants into martyrdom at a very young age -- BEFORE they have a chance to breed. Let's do the human gene pool and future generations a huge favor. With our fear, we have given these flakes in power a blank check to do whatever the hell they want to do for as long as they choose to do it. And, believe me, they're taking FULL advantage of us praying our hearts out and sobbing and wringing our hands in fear of the boogie man. Because we think the boogie man is out there somewhere -- someone other than US. And we think our leaders can protect us (how is not clear) from the boogie man. But our leaders know the real boogie man is US and that prize fighter is their fearless leader.
==========
Our entire political system has been bought and sold to the highest bidder. We already have the best democracy that money can buy. Business need no longer fear government regulation because big business IS the government regulators. Their CEOs and piss-boys head up all those agencies anymore and they simply do whatever they want. Who is going to challenge their authority? Some of us city-zens here in this great ole' "land o' the free?" Unless we have more money than humans should ever be allowed, we're not even in the game anymore. This game was over before it began. We already know how this story ends. We're all like the goofy kids with bad skin, buck teeth and cheap glasses -- clinging to the fence crying after the teams have already been chosen and the muscle heads are out there slippin' on their dainty little jock suits. Yeah -- you go ahead and tell the teacher, you little pussy! Cry Baby!
==========
sail4free
==========
(Posted to gonzobeats 6/04.)
==========
KATHLEEN: "I THANK GOD for our system (flawed as it is). I would gladly go to jail unjustly and wrongly accused if it would save one child from the abuse I suffered FOR YEARS till help finally came."
==========
FWIW, I have no tolerance for those who abuse children -- emotionally or any other way. I've been known to force cars to the side of the road until the drivers quit reaching behind the seat and pounding on some poor kid. I WILL get in someone's face at each and every opportunity to save a kid from the BS I grew up with. I wish I had a video camera to keep with me at all times to document those who abuse their children and I would be an active advocate in their prosecution. People who abuse children should be sterilized immediately as they have proven their inability to nurture and encourage. Until they make me king, though, we and our children suffer in the presence of countless inequities but our system is more than flawed. If it was broke, we could fix it. We can't fix it. It is beyond repair -- like a cancer growing out of control which contaminates everything it touches. From 1980 to 2000, our nation's population grew 20%. In that same time, our prison population grew 315%! We are putting Americans in cages 16 times faster than they are being born! That reality is absolutely NOT acceptable to me! Actual crime rates declined during most of those years and only an estimated 25% of the decline was due to our massive increase in incarceration rates. That means 75% of the decline is due to "other" reasons: like high rates of employment, less racial discrimination in the workplace, fewer trained killers returning from wars begun by stupid politicians, the decline in the crack epidemic, etc. 29% of the black men born today will spend some portion of their life in prison. (In Washington D.C., the figure is 75%.) 1 in 8 black men ages 25 through 29 is already IN prison -- as we speak. In poor black communities, there are only 64 adult men for every 100 adult women -- the rest are in prison. It is proven that children from fatherless homes have a MUCH higher rate of imprisonment, so the cycle continues generation after generation with absolutely no end in sight.
==========
By far, the largest increase in prisoners is due to drug use and possession -- which hasn't changed significantly -- only the politics and policy have changed. The lion's share of increasing rates of incarceration is due to IDIOT campaigns like "war on drugs" and "just say no" and IDIOT legislation like "three strikes and you're out" and "truth in sentencing" which requires offenders to serve 85% of their sentence absolutely no matter what with NO regard for the big picture and NO regard for the whole story. As an example, in CA a young Spanish male was convicted of burglary as a juvenile. Later -- as an adult -- he was convicted of armed robbery. His cousin was new to the states and needed a driver's license for work but couldn't read English so good. So this poor man took the written portion of the test for his cuz' and got caught. Apparently such an unacceptable threat to our personal security is a felony in CA so that was his third strike. He's currently serving 26 years to LIFE in a CA shithole. His incarceration will cost the state of CA one million dollars over the next 26 years. Does the system get any dumber than that? Do I feel sorry for CA and it's budget crisis? Hell no!
==========
Despite such lunacy in action, TX and CA (#2 and #3, respectively, in the $40 BILLION dollar per year domestic livestock industry -- the feds get top honors) have actually managed to reduce their incarceration rate slightly (due to the rising cost of their structural insanity, no doubt) while other states continue to corral free-rangers in increasing numbers. Rates of increase in federal prisons in recent years have been SIX TIMES those of the state averages. (Thank ya' Bushy -- I feel SO much safer now -- you moron.) Oklahoma (of all places) has the highest STATE rate of incarceration so you might want to travel AROUND that state. (Any bets on whether the Native American rate of imprisonment is 4 or 5 times their percentages in the general population of the state?) HOW has any of this made our country safer and free-er?
==========
Most of these drug-related incarcerations are not even criminal offenses. They are "moral" offenses -- the result of our legislators staggering up on their moral high horses and -- in all their infinite wisdom -- knowing so much more about what is good for each and every one of us than we could possibly EVER know. These friggin' hypocrites have higher rates of DUI convictions in the last year than the general population . . . higher rates of domestic abuse than the rest of the population and they're laying down the rules for the rest of us? There is something seriously WRONG with that picture! And we are to place our faith in a solution to this problem with them? Gimme' a freakin' break!
==========
Less than 50% of our prisoners are doing time for violent offenses but they ALL suffer the same indignities and loss of respect and loss of reputation (for life!) REGARDLESS of their offense. Some states have actually finally figured out that "short" prison terms do more harm than good (read: cost the state more than they ever imagined) because of "interruption" of family relationships, jobs, friends, etc. All states count cons when it will increase their political receipts and yet cons aren't allowed to vote (ever again -- even after release in some states).
==========
KATHLEEN: "We have a freer country than so many others BECAUSE so many people that dare to take away our freedom are in prison."
==========
As long as we have the highest rates of incarceration IN THE WORLD, this is NOT "land of the free" for you or me or any one of us. For every 100,000 U.S. citizens, 715 of them are in prison (that's dangerously close to 1% and we'll be there in no time at our current annual growth rates). Our nation's prison population recently went above TWO MILLION! This is not a nation of free people. This is a nation imprisoned by its own government. (Someone hit the nail on the head by recently proclaiming WE are the ones in need of liberation.) For comparison, Canada has 116 in prison (for every 100,000 of population). Most of our European nations (who we are considered to be "most alike") have numbers below 100.
==========
I refuse to tap into his "climate of fear" campaign this son of a bush and his frenzied, wrinkle-dicked, jacked-up-on-Viagra, chronies whip up in their secret circle jerks and drip out like salty pablum for the masses to lick up off their shiny shoes. Let em' go home and attempt sex with their ugly wives and enjoy a "sweet death" in the effort. Their balding craniums surely contain no more than a small ball of white puss sloshing around in clear fluid. I fear the ultimate consequences of their Satan-spawn-inspired, John-Wayne-testosterone, brain-fart-adventures FAR more than I could ever be afraid of some dumbass, suicidal "terrorist." In fact, I think we should do all we can to hasten these little tyrants into martyrdom at a very young age -- BEFORE they have a chance to breed. Let's do the human gene pool and future generations a huge favor. With our fear, we have given these flakes in power a blank check to do whatever the hell they want to do for as long as they choose to do it. And, believe me, they're taking FULL advantage of us praying our hearts out and sobbing and wringing our hands in fear of the boogie man. Because we think the boogie man is out there somewhere -- someone other than US. And we think our leaders can protect us (how is not clear) from the boogie man. But our leaders know the real boogie man is US and that prize fighter is their fearless leader.
==========
Our entire political system has been bought and sold to the highest bidder. We already have the best democracy that money can buy. Business need no longer fear government regulation because big business IS the government regulators. Their CEOs and piss-boys head up all those agencies anymore and they simply do whatever they want. Who is going to challenge their authority? Some of us city-zens here in this great ole' "land o' the free?" Unless we have more money than humans should ever be allowed, we're not even in the game anymore. This game was over before it began. We already know how this story ends. We're all like the goofy kids with bad skin, buck teeth and cheap glasses -- clinging to the fence crying after the teams have already been chosen and the muscle heads are out there slippin' on their dainty little jock suits. Yeah -- you go ahead and tell the teacher, you little pussy! Cry Baby!
==========
sail4free
==========
Sunday, May 23, 2004
Old Rigs & Old Friends
==========
(Posted to Boondocking 5/04.)
==========
DANIKA: "We also smelled oil and checked it on the way down, we were completely out. What causes an rv to burn oil so fast and how do I fix it?"
==========
Unless you're blowing smoke going down the road, your RV is probably not burning oil as much as leaking it. There are lots of places it can leak, front main bearing seal (goes around the crankshaft at the bottom of the engine) -- more commonly, the REAR main bearing seal which usually leaks more because engines are commonly installed in a sloping position (lower at the back than in the front). Leaking valve guides are notorious leakers on older-style engines but these DO cause the leaking oil to enter the combustion chamber which will cause smoke sometimes -- best check is to let off the gas for a few seconds (while going down the road) and then give it the gas again while looking in the mirrors -- if you see a puff of smoke and then no visible smoke? Valve guides leaking. If you're smelling the burning oil, most likely the oil is leaking from your valve cover gaskets out onto the exhaust manifolds where it smokes whenever the engine is running. Replacing valve cover gaskets on an older engine
is a simple and low-cost maintenance item. Seals and gaskets go bad from age as much as mileage. There are a few "gypo" oil additives out there that MIGHT soften the rubber seals and make them seal a little bit better for a while but the only REAL solution is to replace them. Switching to 30 weight oil (or even 40 weight for a high mileage engine in the summer time only) will help some.
==========
In the meantime, you MUST do whatever is required to make sure your engine is never more than one quart low. Most engines only have five quarts and one quart stays in the filter. So if you're more than one quart low, oftentimes the oil pump pickup tube can't find any oil and you're sucking air which doesn't lubricate very well. I put a used 400 in my '72 Chev and found out the hard way it was in tougher shape than I thought. I was pulling a 32' fifth wheel round-trip from Boise, ID to the Lost Coast in North CA. About three hours into our trip, something wasn't quite right and I pulled over to take a look. It was night and the exhaust manifolds were red HOT! Oil was THREE quarts low and in my haste to get oil in the beast and restart it BEFORE it seized up, I spilled a bit on the exhaust manifold. It burst into flame immediately so I'm down there blowing the fire out. All to say BTDT (Been There -- Done That).
==========
For the rest of the trip, I had a little timer I set on the dash for one hour and every hour I'd find a safe place to pull over and check the oil. Most stops it took a quart -- sometimes I'd get lucky -- but if it was only 1/2 quart low, I'd pour that much in. Took 32 quarts of oil to drive those 1,600 miles and lots of spark plugs, but we made it without blowing the engine.
==========
Old rigs are like old friends, a little TLC goes a long way. Keep
your speed down -- grab a lower gear and not too much RPM climbing hills and you might be amazed how long they'll last. When climbing hills, turn the radio OFF and listen carefully for "pinging." If the engine is pinging, back off on the gas until it stops pinging. Higher octane gas will help prevent this while climbing hills and probably the only time the higher cost of premium fuels can be justified.
==========
I got 305,000 miles on my original 350 with a large 12' camper and towing a boat. I had hoped the "newly rebuilt" 400 was going to be my salvation, but I left it in my nephew's truck too long and no doubt he ran it low on oil and low on water more than a few times. Which reminds me -- watch your engine temp -- especially when climbing hills. If she starts to overheat, turn your rig heater on HIGH and roll the windows down and slow down -- grab a lower gear IF the engine is lugging. The heater will dissipate quite a bit of heat and help your radiator cool the engine. If this doesn't pull the heat down in a few minutes, then pull over and let the engine run until it DOES cool down or shut her down, raise the hood and have lunch. Check your coolant level each time before heading out -- when the engine is cold -- make sure you understand how "coolant recovery tanks" work if you have one. Consider adding one if you don't -- sticking the drain hose from the radiator pressure cap into an antifreeze jug filled 3/4 full with 50/50 mix will do in a pinch -- secure with a bungy cord so jug stays away from the fan, belts, etc. Do you have automatic trans?
==========
Another thing to watch VERY carefully, keep your trans fluid up -- 15 minutes of overheating and that sucker will be toast! Change auto trans fluid and filter AT LEAST every 25,000 miles and change it immediately if it is "off color" or smells burnt at all. (Look carefully at the fluid on the dipstick when you check it . . . put some between your thumb and finger -- smear it around a bit and smell it.)
==========
Oil and trans fluid -- and the time spent checking them OFTEN -- is CHEAP compared to mechanics and rebuilds and that BIG can of worms they can open up!
==========
sail4free
==========
(Posted to Boondocking 5/04.)
==========
DANIKA: "We also smelled oil and checked it on the way down, we were completely out. What causes an rv to burn oil so fast and how do I fix it?"
==========
Unless you're blowing smoke going down the road, your RV is probably not burning oil as much as leaking it. There are lots of places it can leak, front main bearing seal (goes around the crankshaft at the bottom of the engine) -- more commonly, the REAR main bearing seal which usually leaks more because engines are commonly installed in a sloping position (lower at the back than in the front). Leaking valve guides are notorious leakers on older-style engines but these DO cause the leaking oil to enter the combustion chamber which will cause smoke sometimes -- best check is to let off the gas for a few seconds (while going down the road) and then give it the gas again while looking in the mirrors -- if you see a puff of smoke and then no visible smoke? Valve guides leaking. If you're smelling the burning oil, most likely the oil is leaking from your valve cover gaskets out onto the exhaust manifolds where it smokes whenever the engine is running. Replacing valve cover gaskets on an older engine
is a simple and low-cost maintenance item. Seals and gaskets go bad from age as much as mileage. There are a few "gypo" oil additives out there that MIGHT soften the rubber seals and make them seal a little bit better for a while but the only REAL solution is to replace them. Switching to 30 weight oil (or even 40 weight for a high mileage engine in the summer time only) will help some.
==========
In the meantime, you MUST do whatever is required to make sure your engine is never more than one quart low. Most engines only have five quarts and one quart stays in the filter. So if you're more than one quart low, oftentimes the oil pump pickup tube can't find any oil and you're sucking air which doesn't lubricate very well. I put a used 400 in my '72 Chev and found out the hard way it was in tougher shape than I thought. I was pulling a 32' fifth wheel round-trip from Boise, ID to the Lost Coast in North CA. About three hours into our trip, something wasn't quite right and I pulled over to take a look. It was night and the exhaust manifolds were red HOT! Oil was THREE quarts low and in my haste to get oil in the beast and restart it BEFORE it seized up, I spilled a bit on the exhaust manifold. It burst into flame immediately so I'm down there blowing the fire out. All to say BTDT (Been There -- Done That).
==========
For the rest of the trip, I had a little timer I set on the dash for one hour and every hour I'd find a safe place to pull over and check the oil. Most stops it took a quart -- sometimes I'd get lucky -- but if it was only 1/2 quart low, I'd pour that much in. Took 32 quarts of oil to drive those 1,600 miles and lots of spark plugs, but we made it without blowing the engine.
==========
Old rigs are like old friends, a little TLC goes a long way. Keep
your speed down -- grab a lower gear and not too much RPM climbing hills and you might be amazed how long they'll last. When climbing hills, turn the radio OFF and listen carefully for "pinging." If the engine is pinging, back off on the gas until it stops pinging. Higher octane gas will help prevent this while climbing hills and probably the only time the higher cost of premium fuels can be justified.
==========
I got 305,000 miles on my original 350 with a large 12' camper and towing a boat. I had hoped the "newly rebuilt" 400 was going to be my salvation, but I left it in my nephew's truck too long and no doubt he ran it low on oil and low on water more than a few times. Which reminds me -- watch your engine temp -- especially when climbing hills. If she starts to overheat, turn your rig heater on HIGH and roll the windows down and slow down -- grab a lower gear IF the engine is lugging. The heater will dissipate quite a bit of heat and help your radiator cool the engine. If this doesn't pull the heat down in a few minutes, then pull over and let the engine run until it DOES cool down or shut her down, raise the hood and have lunch. Check your coolant level each time before heading out -- when the engine is cold -- make sure you understand how "coolant recovery tanks" work if you have one. Consider adding one if you don't -- sticking the drain hose from the radiator pressure cap into an antifreeze jug filled 3/4 full with 50/50 mix will do in a pinch -- secure with a bungy cord so jug stays away from the fan, belts, etc. Do you have automatic trans?
==========
Another thing to watch VERY carefully, keep your trans fluid up -- 15 minutes of overheating and that sucker will be toast! Change auto trans fluid and filter AT LEAST every 25,000 miles and change it immediately if it is "off color" or smells burnt at all. (Look carefully at the fluid on the dipstick when you check it . . . put some between your thumb and finger -- smear it around a bit and smell it.)
==========
Oil and trans fluid -- and the time spent checking them OFTEN -- is CHEAP compared to mechanics and rebuilds and that BIG can of worms they can open up!
==========
sail4free
==========
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
Chasing Our Souls?
==========
Additional excerpts from "My Soul Said to Me."
==========
(Page 264) "Can you imagine what the world would be like if everyone knew by the age of fourteen who they were and why they are here? If indeed we do have souls, it represents a great failure of Western culture that the question of who we are and why we are here is either never asked or that it requires fifty years to answer instead of fourteen. That is how great leaders wind up never running for president, how poets wind up on academic committees, how spiritual leaders wind up in dentistry and how men like Dan Quayle wind up in the White House."
==========
(Page 265) "On this subject, Martin Prechtel says that in the Mayan culture, the boy must first marry his soul before he is ready to marry a woman. Bly says that when this does not happen, a man will look for his soul in a woman. I have asked many groups of men what feelings accompanied the times they fell in love, and their answers always include that sense of wholeness and completeness. I personally found that the ecstasy and sense of wholeness I had when I finally connected with my soul felt incredibly similar to the times I had fallen in love. No wonder we get so mixed up. Perhaps this difference between being connected with the soul and looking for our soul in another person defines the difference between WANTING as opposed to NEEDING a partner. The women in my classes at Project Return and at Tulane have always said they could tell the difference between a man who wanted them and a man who needed them."
==========
For any raging co-dependents out there (like I used to be . . . I'm getting better . . . I think . . . I hope), wanting is GOOD --needing is BAD. Can you imagine saying (or hearing) this
statement? "I want you but I don't need you." Yet -- from a
relationship perspective -- that's the healthiest place to be.
==========
I went through an extremely painful phase in my life where I wanted -- needed actually -- a relationship in the most desperate way. And it just wasn't happening! It was as if I was invisible! In my classes, they were saying "you don't deserve somebody until you don't NEED them" and I thought, "What possibly compares to that in the rest of life?" You don't get a house until you don't need one? You don't get a job until you don't need one? You don't get a raise until you don't need one? I did find one analogy that made perfect sense -- confirmed by personal experience -- you don't get a loan until you don't need one.
==========
At some point -- after enduring this pain and anguish for so long and worried that I might spend the rest of my life alone and die alone -- I came to a place where I got comfortable with a thought, "You know what? I just MIGHT spend the rest of my life alone and I need to REALLY be okay with that!" I determined to make ALL my decisions from that point on as if that was to be the reality of my life = single, alone. I was going to float my houseboat at the lake and -- in the summers -- commute to work from there. In the winters, I was going to live in my camper for free and save money to fix up my camper, my truck, my houseboat. Nothing grand or glorious to "save" the world or anyone else, just to save myself -- indulge and nurture my own soul -- who I was and what I wanted to do . . . for the first time in nearly fifty years of life.
==========
Almost immediately, things began to change. People of the opposite sex were beginning to SEE me again! It was the most incredible feeling. ALL that BS they were saying in those classes was proving to be true. Now that I NEEDED no one, my options were unlimited!
==========
I learned later that "needy" people are only attracted to and found attractive BY other needy people. It's as if someone who is needy enters a room of 100 people partying and 99 of them are healthy and one is needy. For the two who are needy, it's as if they're both wearing huge, flashing neon signs that only they can see. They'll find each other in five minutes or less. This is why folks in unhealthy relationships have a history of unhealthy relationships. If they were to end their current relationship withOUT taking that excrutiatingly lonely and painful time to discover their soul and make peace with IT and marry IT, odds are almost certain they will end up in yet another dreary and miserable and unhealthy relationship. Turns out folks who are healthy in this department are actually REPULSED by folks who are needy and co-dependent.
==========
Harry Browne once wrote "there is nothing more lonely than being in close proximity to someone who doesn't understand you." This has become a defining guide to health in relationships for me. No matter how wonderful I might THINK someone is; if they don't know me -- understand me -- SEE me with perfect clarity -- and STILL love me? Then I'm still alone, regardless of feelings expressed or how many times they say they love me.
==========
In the final analyis, our own soul -- our own SELF -- is the only
person we can know with absolute certainty will be with us until the day we die. It's imperative we get to know that elusive persona and love them best and FIRST and then share the surplus of that great and growing love with someone else. It's not about what they can give to you. It's all about the surplus of love you already have which you want to share with them. We must put the wood in the stove (no pun intended), nurture the flame, and THEN get warm instead of stomping around, cursing and glaring at the stove, "Make me warm so I can put some wood in ya'!"
==========
sail4free
==========
Additional excerpts from "My Soul Said to Me."
==========
(Page 264) "Can you imagine what the world would be like if everyone knew by the age of fourteen who they were and why they are here? If indeed we do have souls, it represents a great failure of Western culture that the question of who we are and why we are here is either never asked or that it requires fifty years to answer instead of fourteen. That is how great leaders wind up never running for president, how poets wind up on academic committees, how spiritual leaders wind up in dentistry and how men like Dan Quayle wind up in the White House."
==========
(Page 265) "On this subject, Martin Prechtel says that in the Mayan culture, the boy must first marry his soul before he is ready to marry a woman. Bly says that when this does not happen, a man will look for his soul in a woman. I have asked many groups of men what feelings accompanied the times they fell in love, and their answers always include that sense of wholeness and completeness. I personally found that the ecstasy and sense of wholeness I had when I finally connected with my soul felt incredibly similar to the times I had fallen in love. No wonder we get so mixed up. Perhaps this difference between being connected with the soul and looking for our soul in another person defines the difference between WANTING as opposed to NEEDING a partner. The women in my classes at Project Return and at Tulane have always said they could tell the difference between a man who wanted them and a man who needed them."
==========
For any raging co-dependents out there (like I used to be . . . I'm getting better . . . I think . . . I hope), wanting is GOOD --needing is BAD. Can you imagine saying (or hearing) this
statement? "I want you but I don't need you." Yet -- from a
relationship perspective -- that's the healthiest place to be.
==========
I went through an extremely painful phase in my life where I wanted -- needed actually -- a relationship in the most desperate way. And it just wasn't happening! It was as if I was invisible! In my classes, they were saying "you don't deserve somebody until you don't NEED them" and I thought, "What possibly compares to that in the rest of life?" You don't get a house until you don't need one? You don't get a job until you don't need one? You don't get a raise until you don't need one? I did find one analogy that made perfect sense -- confirmed by personal experience -- you don't get a loan until you don't need one.
==========
At some point -- after enduring this pain and anguish for so long and worried that I might spend the rest of my life alone and die alone -- I came to a place where I got comfortable with a thought, "You know what? I just MIGHT spend the rest of my life alone and I need to REALLY be okay with that!" I determined to make ALL my decisions from that point on as if that was to be the reality of my life = single, alone. I was going to float my houseboat at the lake and -- in the summers -- commute to work from there. In the winters, I was going to live in my camper for free and save money to fix up my camper, my truck, my houseboat. Nothing grand or glorious to "save" the world or anyone else, just to save myself -- indulge and nurture my own soul -- who I was and what I wanted to do . . . for the first time in nearly fifty years of life.
==========
Almost immediately, things began to change. People of the opposite sex were beginning to SEE me again! It was the most incredible feeling. ALL that BS they were saying in those classes was proving to be true. Now that I NEEDED no one, my options were unlimited!
==========
I learned later that "needy" people are only attracted to and found attractive BY other needy people. It's as if someone who is needy enters a room of 100 people partying and 99 of them are healthy and one is needy. For the two who are needy, it's as if they're both wearing huge, flashing neon signs that only they can see. They'll find each other in five minutes or less. This is why folks in unhealthy relationships have a history of unhealthy relationships. If they were to end their current relationship withOUT taking that excrutiatingly lonely and painful time to discover their soul and make peace with IT and marry IT, odds are almost certain they will end up in yet another dreary and miserable and unhealthy relationship. Turns out folks who are healthy in this department are actually REPULSED by folks who are needy and co-dependent.
==========
Harry Browne once wrote "there is nothing more lonely than being in close proximity to someone who doesn't understand you." This has become a defining guide to health in relationships for me. No matter how wonderful I might THINK someone is; if they don't know me -- understand me -- SEE me with perfect clarity -- and STILL love me? Then I'm still alone, regardless of feelings expressed or how many times they say they love me.
==========
In the final analyis, our own soul -- our own SELF -- is the only
person we can know with absolute certainty will be with us until the day we die. It's imperative we get to know that elusive persona and love them best and FIRST and then share the surplus of that great and growing love with someone else. It's not about what they can give to you. It's all about the surplus of love you already have which you want to share with them. We must put the wood in the stove (no pun intended), nurture the flame, and THEN get warm instead of stomping around, cursing and glaring at the stove, "Make me warm so I can put some wood in ya'!"
==========
sail4free
==========
Saturday, May 15, 2004
Trip to Moab, UT
==========
Recently returned from a quick 4-day trip to Moab, UT -- 575 miles each way from Boise, ID. I wanted to avoid all the traffic and smog in Salt Lake City, UT so I drove down through Jackpot, NV south to Ely, NV and east from there to Moab. I was surprised how scenic that portion of NV is -- towering snow-covered mountains to the west and a pleasant drive. There were LOTS of motorhomes and fifth wheels on the road so the word must be out or maybe I tapped into the annual northern migration of snowbirds this spring.
==========
It was a little windy in Moab so I left early and spent the nite deep in the mountains on the east side of the large mountains you see in the SLC valley. The most spectacular view -- by far -- of those mountains IS from the east where hardly anyone takes the time to go. Most of the campgrounds were still snowed in and closed but found a great free area just inside their recreation zone ($3 for a day pass) down by a creek. Sat on my steps with the door open for the longest time -- enjoying the sun and no wind -- drinking coffee and reading my latest houseboat book -- watching our Min Pin dart in and out of the undergrowth. I couldn't help wondering how long I might be able to stay there for free -- or nearly free -- so quiet, not a single other vehicle or person the whole time we were there.
==========
Then we curved back onto the interstate and jammed on home. At 9.5 MPG and $2.00/gal. for gas -- towing that 30' fifth wheel is a rich man's adventure! Looks like my future X will end up with it anyway -- probably just as well for a poor boy like me. I used to get 13 and 14 MPG with my large pickup camper as long as I kept my speed at 55 (which I always did when there were passengers in the back . . . guarantees that nice open lane in front of me to minimize panic stops) -- half the fun should be getting there, right?
==========
Seems there is a lot of cheap land in southern areas which are too hot in the summer and in northern areas which are too cold in the winter. I'd rather not own ANY land any time of year but I have a lot of tools and equipment that I can't part with (my backup plan if I end up self-employed again) and a houseboat, a utility trailer, an old fifth wheel frame (my future homemade houseboat trailer), a 14 X 70 mobile home and my old work van so I pay $120/mo. just for storage. Guess I'd rather have that go towards a land payment and have something to show for it someday. I could store all my stuff there and end up with a future "home base" in the bargain. This area is too cold in winter for most RVers (though we have rapidly increasing numbers of full-timers who stay here year 'round) but it's great in the summer and I could spend my winters RVing and houseboating in the southwest where it's warm Oct through Mar.
==========
We have a local guy who sells mountain property for 2% down and carries the paper at 10% interest -- monthly payments are 1% -- no credit checks or any of that BS. He doesn't file the paperwork until you have 10% equity because so many would-be buyers wash out the first year. A $17,000 acre I was looking at can be had for $340 down and $170/mo. -- it has a leveled off building pad and a road to the pad from the common road -- utilities in the area but not TO the site. There is a community spring nearby which would suit me just fine . . . lots of folks haul water from there. Unfortunately, it's too far out for a reasonable commute (especially during winter), but we could live cheap in our RV during the week and retreat to the property on weekends, eh? Access is easy enough in the summer but 4WD -- sometimes with chains -- is required for winter travel once you get off the paved road very far. If someone else buys property from him because of your referral, he gives you 5% of the price they pay as a credit towards your own purchase. Hmmm -- so if I could find 20 people to buy an acre, I get mine for free? Now we're talkin'!
==========
sail4free
==========
Recently returned from a quick 4-day trip to Moab, UT -- 575 miles each way from Boise, ID. I wanted to avoid all the traffic and smog in Salt Lake City, UT so I drove down through Jackpot, NV south to Ely, NV and east from there to Moab. I was surprised how scenic that portion of NV is -- towering snow-covered mountains to the west and a pleasant drive. There were LOTS of motorhomes and fifth wheels on the road so the word must be out or maybe I tapped into the annual northern migration of snowbirds this spring.
==========
It was a little windy in Moab so I left early and spent the nite deep in the mountains on the east side of the large mountains you see in the SLC valley. The most spectacular view -- by far -- of those mountains IS from the east where hardly anyone takes the time to go. Most of the campgrounds were still snowed in and closed but found a great free area just inside their recreation zone ($3 for a day pass) down by a creek. Sat on my steps with the door open for the longest time -- enjoying the sun and no wind -- drinking coffee and reading my latest houseboat book -- watching our Min Pin dart in and out of the undergrowth. I couldn't help wondering how long I might be able to stay there for free -- or nearly free -- so quiet, not a single other vehicle or person the whole time we were there.
==========
Then we curved back onto the interstate and jammed on home. At 9.5 MPG and $2.00/gal. for gas -- towing that 30' fifth wheel is a rich man's adventure! Looks like my future X will end up with it anyway -- probably just as well for a poor boy like me. I used to get 13 and 14 MPG with my large pickup camper as long as I kept my speed at 55 (which I always did when there were passengers in the back . . . guarantees that nice open lane in front of me to minimize panic stops) -- half the fun should be getting there, right?
==========
Seems there is a lot of cheap land in southern areas which are too hot in the summer and in northern areas which are too cold in the winter. I'd rather not own ANY land any time of year but I have a lot of tools and equipment that I can't part with (my backup plan if I end up self-employed again) and a houseboat, a utility trailer, an old fifth wheel frame (my future homemade houseboat trailer), a 14 X 70 mobile home and my old work van so I pay $120/mo. just for storage. Guess I'd rather have that go towards a land payment and have something to show for it someday. I could store all my stuff there and end up with a future "home base" in the bargain. This area is too cold in winter for most RVers (though we have rapidly increasing numbers of full-timers who stay here year 'round) but it's great in the summer and I could spend my winters RVing and houseboating in the southwest where it's warm Oct through Mar.
==========
We have a local guy who sells mountain property for 2% down and carries the paper at 10% interest -- monthly payments are 1% -- no credit checks or any of that BS. He doesn't file the paperwork until you have 10% equity because so many would-be buyers wash out the first year. A $17,000 acre I was looking at can be had for $340 down and $170/mo. -- it has a leveled off building pad and a road to the pad from the common road -- utilities in the area but not TO the site. There is a community spring nearby which would suit me just fine . . . lots of folks haul water from there. Unfortunately, it's too far out for a reasonable commute (especially during winter), but we could live cheap in our RV during the week and retreat to the property on weekends, eh? Access is easy enough in the summer but 4WD -- sometimes with chains -- is required for winter travel once you get off the paved road very far. If someone else buys property from him because of your referral, he gives you 5% of the price they pay as a credit towards your own purchase. Hmmm -- so if I could find 20 people to buy an acre, I get mine for free? Now we're talkin'!
==========
sail4free
==========
PET bottles full of PEE at 250 PSI
==========
Starbear7 wrote: "Its ok, it gives the dui offenders something to pick up along the highway on the weekends."
==========
That sucks! On the weekend? That really cuts into a guy's drinkin' time! Not the voice of experience, I presume?
==========
I've heard in Sweden that a first DUI offense rewards you with a special license plate which identifies you as a convicted DUI offender for the rest of your driving life. 2nd offense? You never drive again -- legally at least.
==========
I've no way of knowing if this would work in this country or not but it sure beats the hell out of locking up otherwise productive men and women at incredible expense to our society. We have a helper at work who's doing time for the THIRD time for DUI and he already knows how many months he has to wait to get his license back. It's pretty obvious to me our system rehabilitates no one. If I had to do time, I'm pretty damn sure I'd be a LOT more motivated to drink heavily upon release than I was going in.
==========
We wage "wars" on drugs and terrorism and every kind of stupid SHIT but we never really get serious about dealing with the root causes of ANYTHING! How about a war on child abuse? Or stupidity? Or poorly-paid teachers? Or poorly-paid childcare providers? Or anything we MIGHT actually be able to do something about?
==========
Texas administers special tests to third-graders so they can anticipate how many prison cells they'll need to incarcerate these youngsters when they get old enough to put in a cage. Do you think just MAYBE if we can predict their destiny with such a test at age 8 or 9, we might also be able to intervene with enough love and respect to CHANGE that destiny?
==========
No amount of negative consequence -- not even the threat of death -- is going to stop ANY of these behaviors our society (in all it's infinite wisdom) has declared are unacceptable. Whatever we do to "them" -- they will always do MORE to us. And we just don't get that, do we? ==========
We think MORE jail time is going to stop crime and there is absolutely NO evidence this is true. ==========
Criminals don't plan on getting caught. So why would they even care or think about what the consequences might be? The focus needs to be prior to the crime. Some folks are mentally handicapped and that needs to be dealt with for what it is. The average reading level in a typical state prison is fourth grade. There is cause and effect written in big bold letters, but the powers that be apparently don't read much anymore either. WHERE are the modern-day statesmen who will stand on principle and integrity and just let the chips fall where they fall, instead of kissing up to their mindless constituents to get re-elected and selling their souls to the highest corporate bidder?
==========
But for others, all the questions need to begin with WHY. WHY is perfect and natural sobriety just not quite enough for some people? WHY is there such pain in their emotional life that they feel the NEED to numb it with drugs and/or alcohol? WHY does our cultural result in such strong feelings of alienation and psychological PAIN for so many of our people? WHY don't they assign proper inestimable value to a strong, clear mind which will serve them well until the day they die of old age? WHY do some people NOT show extraordinary respect and consideration for every living thing? WHY have we -- as a society -- failed our fellow human beings so miserably? WHY is it more important to have a new car, or a new house, or a new whatever than it is to spend that quality AND quantity time with our children who demand and deserve our un-divided attention? WHY can't we learn that our children don't give a spit about all that material crap we think is so necessary? WHY can't we learn they'd be better served by 2 hours a day of our un-divided attention than a free ride some day at some expensive yuppie university with the obligatory bright yellow or red convertible?
==========
sail4free
==========
Starbear7 wrote: "Its ok, it gives the dui offenders something to pick up along the highway on the weekends."
==========
That sucks! On the weekend? That really cuts into a guy's drinkin' time! Not the voice of experience, I presume?
==========
I've heard in Sweden that a first DUI offense rewards you with a special license plate which identifies you as a convicted DUI offender for the rest of your driving life. 2nd offense? You never drive again -- legally at least.
==========
I've no way of knowing if this would work in this country or not but it sure beats the hell out of locking up otherwise productive men and women at incredible expense to our society. We have a helper at work who's doing time for the THIRD time for DUI and he already knows how many months he has to wait to get his license back. It's pretty obvious to me our system rehabilitates no one. If I had to do time, I'm pretty damn sure I'd be a LOT more motivated to drink heavily upon release than I was going in.
==========
We wage "wars" on drugs and terrorism and every kind of stupid SHIT but we never really get serious about dealing with the root causes of ANYTHING! How about a war on child abuse? Or stupidity? Or poorly-paid teachers? Or poorly-paid childcare providers? Or anything we MIGHT actually be able to do something about?
==========
Texas administers special tests to third-graders so they can anticipate how many prison cells they'll need to incarcerate these youngsters when they get old enough to put in a cage. Do you think just MAYBE if we can predict their destiny with such a test at age 8 or 9, we might also be able to intervene with enough love and respect to CHANGE that destiny?
==========
No amount of negative consequence -- not even the threat of death -- is going to stop ANY of these behaviors our society (in all it's infinite wisdom) has declared are unacceptable. Whatever we do to "them" -- they will always do MORE to us. And we just don't get that, do we? ==========
We think MORE jail time is going to stop crime and there is absolutely NO evidence this is true. ==========
Criminals don't plan on getting caught. So why would they even care or think about what the consequences might be? The focus needs to be prior to the crime. Some folks are mentally handicapped and that needs to be dealt with for what it is. The average reading level in a typical state prison is fourth grade. There is cause and effect written in big bold letters, but the powers that be apparently don't read much anymore either. WHERE are the modern-day statesmen who will stand on principle and integrity and just let the chips fall where they fall, instead of kissing up to their mindless constituents to get re-elected and selling their souls to the highest corporate bidder?
==========
But for others, all the questions need to begin with WHY. WHY is perfect and natural sobriety just not quite enough for some people? WHY is there such pain in their emotional life that they feel the NEED to numb it with drugs and/or alcohol? WHY does our cultural result in such strong feelings of alienation and psychological PAIN for so many of our people? WHY don't they assign proper inestimable value to a strong, clear mind which will serve them well until the day they die of old age? WHY do some people NOT show extraordinary respect and consideration for every living thing? WHY have we -- as a society -- failed our fellow human beings so miserably? WHY is it more important to have a new car, or a new house, or a new whatever than it is to spend that quality AND quantity time with our children who demand and deserve our un-divided attention? WHY can't we learn that our children don't give a spit about all that material crap we think is so necessary? WHY can't we learn they'd be better served by 2 hours a day of our un-divided attention than a free ride some day at some expensive yuppie university with the obligatory bright yellow or red convertible?
==========
sail4free
==========
$240 Dollars a Square Foot?
==========
A link about some over-priced modular home (shipped down from Canada no less) talked about folks in San Fran paying $240 dollars a square foot for a house. I don't care how much money somebody has, that's just obscene. Unfortunately, our tax system rewards these high buckers who spend their money on housing. In the early years, virtually all of one's payment goes to interest and mortgage interest is tax-deductible. So if you're in a 50% tax bracket, essentially Uncle Sam is making HALF your house payment! This complicity makes our government responsible -- in large part -- for the ever-increasing cost of housing driven by speculation and greed with no end in sight.
==========
As your income decreases, Uncle Sam pays a smaller and smaller
percentage of your house payment until your income is low enough that you pay zero tax in which case Uncle Sam doesn't make ANY of your house payment either. The rich get richer, while the poorest 20% of Americans average $5,226 dollars a year . . . shameful . . . in this so-called land of plenty where those inclined to build their own small and simple home must constantly fight tooth and nail with the powers that be to do so.
==========
How can I begin to understand these rich people who sleepwalk through this life; look at REAL human needs all around them and can't find anything better to spend their money on than some castle to glorify themselves and impress their other rich friends? It doesn't make me want to be like them. It fills my heart with contempt for them! It makes me pray for an earthquake to level the lot of 'em -- again. I hope they choke on their stupid fish eggs!
==========
sail4free
==========
A link about some over-priced modular home (shipped down from Canada no less) talked about folks in San Fran paying $240 dollars a square foot for a house. I don't care how much money somebody has, that's just obscene. Unfortunately, our tax system rewards these high buckers who spend their money on housing. In the early years, virtually all of one's payment goes to interest and mortgage interest is tax-deductible. So if you're in a 50% tax bracket, essentially Uncle Sam is making HALF your house payment! This complicity makes our government responsible -- in large part -- for the ever-increasing cost of housing driven by speculation and greed with no end in sight.
==========
As your income decreases, Uncle Sam pays a smaller and smaller
percentage of your house payment until your income is low enough that you pay zero tax in which case Uncle Sam doesn't make ANY of your house payment either. The rich get richer, while the poorest 20% of Americans average $5,226 dollars a year . . . shameful . . . in this so-called land of plenty where those inclined to build their own small and simple home must constantly fight tooth and nail with the powers that be to do so.
==========
How can I begin to understand these rich people who sleepwalk through this life; look at REAL human needs all around them and can't find anything better to spend their money on than some castle to glorify themselves and impress their other rich friends? It doesn't make me want to be like them. It fills my heart with contempt for them! It makes me pray for an earthquake to level the lot of 'em -- again. I hope they choke on their stupid fish eggs!
==========
sail4free
==========
Eat the Rich
==========
posted:
Not Ready for Prime Time by Tim Grieve
==========
"While Bush has found time to visit his ranch in Crawford 33 times in the last three and a half years, he has given only 12 solo press conferences. Tuesday night, it was easy to see why. The president -- who won't testify before the 9/11 commission unless he can do it in private and only if his vice president can come with him -- presided over a press conference that left him looking like a high school kid surprised by a pop quiz on a book he didn't read'."
==========
Further evidence that having a lot of money -- which is all it takes to be prez anymore -- is NO proof of mental acuity. In "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" the author details how the prez served his country during the Vietnam War in the Texas Air Guard. Turns out that is where All the rich genteel Texans send their youngins to preclude them being shot at with real guns and real bullets in a real war which might make REAL holes in their pampered asses.
==========
On a 100 point test to determine eligibility for fighter pilot school and starting order, our infamous commander in chief scored a 25 -- one point above the "too dumb to fly" score of 24. Yet, magically, he leaped ahead of scores of men with much higher scores to begin his flight training almost immediately.
==========
THAT, my friends, is the kind of bullshit that pisses me off to the residual core. Perhaps I'd feel differently about such things if I had a cool G or so to play with, but I would sure hope not. I'd like to see these rich fucks fight their own war for a change -- instead of using our children as cannon fodder to advance their selfish neo-conservative agenda.
==========
I think Aerosmith got it right:
Eat the Rich: there's only one thing they're good for
Eat the Rich: take one bite now - come back for more
Eat the Rich: I gotta get this off my chest
Eat the Rich: take one bite now, spit out the rest
==========
sail4free ~ four years into sending my daughter 25% of my take-home pay so she can attend a cheap college and develop her intellect sufficient to compete with the rest of us working-class mortals who are required to honestly EARN our blessings.
==========
"But there's one good thing that happens
When you toss your pearls to swine
Their attitudes may taste like shit
But go real good with wine"
==========
Not Ready for Prime Time by Tim Grieve
==========
"While Bush has found time to visit his ranch in Crawford 33 times in the last three and a half years, he has given only 12 solo press conferences. Tuesday night, it was easy to see why. The president -- who won't testify before the 9/11 commission unless he can do it in private and only if his vice president can come with him -- presided over a press conference that left him looking like a high school kid surprised by a pop quiz on a book he didn't read'."
==========
Further evidence that having a lot of money -- which is all it takes to be prez anymore -- is NO proof of mental acuity. In "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" the author details how the prez served his country during the Vietnam War in the Texas Air Guard. Turns out that is where All the rich genteel Texans send their youngins to preclude them being shot at with real guns and real bullets in a real war which might make REAL holes in their pampered asses.
==========
On a 100 point test to determine eligibility for fighter pilot school and starting order, our infamous commander in chief scored a 25 -- one point above the "too dumb to fly" score of 24. Yet, magically, he leaped ahead of scores of men with much higher scores to begin his flight training almost immediately.
==========
THAT, my friends, is the kind of bullshit that pisses me off to the residual core. Perhaps I'd feel differently about such things if I had a cool G or so to play with, but I would sure hope not. I'd like to see these rich fucks fight their own war for a change -- instead of using our children as cannon fodder to advance their selfish neo-conservative agenda.
==========
I think Aerosmith got it right:
Eat the Rich: there's only one thing they're good for
Eat the Rich: take one bite now - come back for more
Eat the Rich: I gotta get this off my chest
Eat the Rich: take one bite now, spit out the rest
==========
sail4free ~ four years into sending my daughter 25% of my take-home pay so she can attend a cheap college and develop her intellect sufficient to compete with the rest of us working-class mortals who are required to honestly EARN our blessings.
==========
"But there's one good thing that happens
When you toss your pearls to swine
Their attitudes may taste like shit
But go real good with wine"
==========
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Wise Use Movement?
==========
Posted to gonzobeats 3/4/04:
==========
Walker posted: "one thing i've never understood about the "wise use
movement" is that it advocates selling off big chunks of BLM and
other lands to private (rich, usually)parties who then can put up
fences and deny access to regular people who have been going there
for years. a few people benefit and everyone else loses."
==========
There's more to that story -- at least here in Idaho -- where logging
not so long ago was a major industry for this state and the lifeblood
of every small mountain town here. Now our logs get hauled (at great
and increasing expense) to Oregon -- the closest sawmill. Because
the Forest Service sells their trees well below cost of production,
it's a glaring example of corporate welfare . . . always has
been . . . and I predict . . . always will be. Once roads are
created, the Forest Service has a legal obligation to maintain those
roads because recreational access is supposed to be one of their
mandates -- admittedly a low-priority one. Due to rising labor
costs, this is expensive -- especially when one considers how long it
takes for tree farms to bear fruit again -- AND when one
factors in that those new trees -- too -- will be sold for a tiny
fraction of their value (production cost).
==========
So their grand solution -- aka the "wise use movement" -- is to sell
those "liabilities" (thousands of acres of recently logged and
replanted real estate) cheap to whomever can buy them. Of course,
there are restrictions to make sure these vast holdings remain in one
piece and aren't simply subdivided by some greedy glutton and sold
off to the highest bidder. This ensures that only individuals who
already have more money than humans should be allowed are able to buy
them. Curiously enough, the new private owner has NO obligation to
maintain any roads OR to allow any public recreational access. 20
years later -- when the trees are big enough to log again -- he can
sell the logging rights back to the Forest Service and they can sell
them again for much less to whichever logging outfit they're looking
to prop up at that time.
==========
These shell games are becoming more elaborate all the time but the
moral implications of their crime do not change. These are public
lands -- owned by each and every one of us -- roads already built
should be maintained -- regardless of cost. Those who make money
from these lands -- primarily loggers and lumber companies -- should
pay enough to cover the ACTUAL cost of producing the resource they
harvest. Otherwise, it's a false economy -- unable to EVER sustain
itself without a constant influx of cash from Uncle Sammy -- welfare
for corporations which already have way too much money and power and
control.
==========
States like Idaho are s-l-o-w-l-y learning that tourism is the
cleanest game in town and folks aren't coming here to gaze into our
mining tunnels or slosh through our feed lots or get sunburned in our
clear-cuts. They're coming here to float white water rushing down un-
damned rivers (typo intended) and to bike or hike or ride horses into
the Frank Church wilderness areas (where no motorized anything is
allowed). It costs relatively nothing to preserve these natural and
scenic resources which can earn this state monumental chunks of money
from now on -- indefinitely. We only have to exercise enough self-
restraint to keep from plundering what precious few native areas
remain.
==========
It's been said we can judge a civilization by how it treats the least
of its citizens. I think we'll also be judged on our ability -- or
the lack thereof -- to show restraint and NOT rape and plunder every
last stinkin' living thing for our own VERY short-term greed! Why
are so many of us so unforgiveably selfish that we just don't
friggin' care what life will be like on this earth for the children
of our children's children . . . 1,000 years from now . . . 10,000
years from now?
==========
sail4free
==========
Posted to gonzobeats 3/4/04:
==========
Walker posted: "one thing i've never understood about the "wise use
movement" is that it advocates selling off big chunks of BLM and
other lands to private (rich, usually)parties who then can put up
fences and deny access to regular people who have been going there
for years. a few people benefit and everyone else loses."
==========
There's more to that story -- at least here in Idaho -- where logging
not so long ago was a major industry for this state and the lifeblood
of every small mountain town here. Now our logs get hauled (at great
and increasing expense) to Oregon -- the closest sawmill. Because
the Forest Service sells their trees well below cost of production,
it's a glaring example of corporate welfare . . . always has
been . . . and I predict . . . always will be. Once roads are
created, the Forest Service has a legal obligation to maintain those
roads because recreational access is supposed to be one of their
mandates -- admittedly a low-priority one. Due to rising labor
costs, this is expensive -- especially when one considers how long it
takes for tree farms to bear fruit again -- AND when one
factors in that those new trees -- too -- will be sold for a tiny
fraction of their value (production cost).
==========
So their grand solution -- aka the "wise use movement" -- is to sell
those "liabilities" (thousands of acres of recently logged and
replanted real estate) cheap to whomever can buy them. Of course,
there are restrictions to make sure these vast holdings remain in one
piece and aren't simply subdivided by some greedy glutton and sold
off to the highest bidder. This ensures that only individuals who
already have more money than humans should be allowed are able to buy
them. Curiously enough, the new private owner has NO obligation to
maintain any roads OR to allow any public recreational access. 20
years later -- when the trees are big enough to log again -- he can
sell the logging rights back to the Forest Service and they can sell
them again for much less to whichever logging outfit they're looking
to prop up at that time.
==========
These shell games are becoming more elaborate all the time but the
moral implications of their crime do not change. These are public
lands -- owned by each and every one of us -- roads already built
should be maintained -- regardless of cost. Those who make money
from these lands -- primarily loggers and lumber companies -- should
pay enough to cover the ACTUAL cost of producing the resource they
harvest. Otherwise, it's a false economy -- unable to EVER sustain
itself without a constant influx of cash from Uncle Sammy -- welfare
for corporations which already have way too much money and power and
control.
==========
States like Idaho are s-l-o-w-l-y learning that tourism is the
cleanest game in town and folks aren't coming here to gaze into our
mining tunnels or slosh through our feed lots or get sunburned in our
clear-cuts. They're coming here to float white water rushing down un-
damned rivers (typo intended) and to bike or hike or ride horses into
the Frank Church wilderness areas (where no motorized anything is
allowed). It costs relatively nothing to preserve these natural and
scenic resources which can earn this state monumental chunks of money
from now on -- indefinitely. We only have to exercise enough self-
restraint to keep from plundering what precious few native areas
remain.
==========
It's been said we can judge a civilization by how it treats the least
of its citizens. I think we'll also be judged on our ability -- or
the lack thereof -- to show restraint and NOT rape and plunder every
last stinkin' living thing for our own VERY short-term greed! Why
are so many of us so unforgiveably selfish that we just don't
friggin' care what life will be like on this earth for the children
of our children's children . . . 1,000 years from now . . . 10,000
years from now?
==========
sail4free
==========
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Invincible -- How Microsoft and Wal-Mart Can Lose, but Can't Be Beaten
==========
Loved this article by Robert X. Cringely and I'll be a regular reader of his stuff from now on. It details why these giants no longer fear competition and the only viable threat to their prosperous futures is within their own organizations.
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20020905.html
==========
Loved this article by Robert X. Cringely and I'll be a regular reader of his stuff from now on. It details why these giants no longer fear competition and the only viable threat to their prosperous futures is within their own organizations.
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20020905.html
==========
Monday, April 12, 2004
Why Build It Yourself?
I am travelling around the U.S. by bike and I have realized that getting back to the basics really opens your eyes to just how scared we've become...I've met some wonderful people and discovered what we say we are all about FREEDOM
To be truly free is to follow your own path and see your world completely without the restrictions of what society deems normal...
We must ask ourselves the next time we stress about anything...Does it really matter...
Experience Life without restrictions and you will begin to understand why we are here...
==========
http://www.geocities.com/xistencenext/
==========
Why should I build one when I can buy it?
Not too long ago I was talking to a teenager who wanted a chess set made from military figures. It was very expensive and I told him that since he already had a collection of military figures, we could make a chess set from them. I went on to explain how we could make the board from some nice wood squares and maybe even make it into a table with a drawer underneath to keep the figures in. He looked at me and said, “Why should I build one when I can buy it?” Well, I guess that is a good question to ask when a person is looking at boat plans.
When I was a boy we had food and shelter – and a good family life – but not a lot of money. My Dad didn’t hesitate to tell us he couldn’t afford something we wanted – not needed – but wanted. So my younger days were filled with building things. I had friends who would come to my house and we would plan out and build soapbox racers, forts, clubhouses and anything else we saw on the “Little Rascals” TV show. When I became a teenager my father had a list that he kept by the kitchen door of projects for me. I would finish one and scratch it off the list, and start another. But these items were not chores like taking out the trash! They were jobs like dig out a basement under the house or convert the pantry into a bathroom! To this day I tolerate lists, but I hate them!
So what has all this got to do with why a person should build a boat (or anything else for that matter)? Because in a lot of us, there is still a need to create with our hands something wonderful. Also – like the Dad of my youth – we could not afford to buy the boat of our dreams. I am convinced that if cost is the only consideration, and you want an 18-ft. bow rider type of boat, you would be better off buying a used one than building it. They are numerous and they are reasonably priced. But put a cabin on your boat, and the cost starts to climb considerably.
So why not buy a used boat and fix it up? That is a very good option if you can find a sound boat. The used boats we looked at were very expensive for their condition. I also found that sometimes it was harder to rebuild something than to start fresh and build from scratch. One gain is that when you are finished, you will know the boat inside and out. You know the value and quality of your own labor – and also – you can fix anything on it without paying some over-priced mechanic to do the work for you. You can’t use the boat while it’s being worked on anyway, so why not spend that time doing the work yourself?
==========
To be truly free is to follow your own path and see your world completely without the restrictions of what society deems normal...
We must ask ourselves the next time we stress about anything...Does it really matter...
Experience Life without restrictions and you will begin to understand why we are here...
==========
http://www.geocities.com/xistencenext/
==========
Why should I build one when I can buy it?
Not too long ago I was talking to a teenager who wanted a chess set made from military figures. It was very expensive and I told him that since he already had a collection of military figures, we could make a chess set from them. I went on to explain how we could make the board from some nice wood squares and maybe even make it into a table with a drawer underneath to keep the figures in. He looked at me and said, “Why should I build one when I can buy it?” Well, I guess that is a good question to ask when a person is looking at boat plans.
When I was a boy we had food and shelter – and a good family life – but not a lot of money. My Dad didn’t hesitate to tell us he couldn’t afford something we wanted – not needed – but wanted. So my younger days were filled with building things. I had friends who would come to my house and we would plan out and build soapbox racers, forts, clubhouses and anything else we saw on the “Little Rascals” TV show. When I became a teenager my father had a list that he kept by the kitchen door of projects for me. I would finish one and scratch it off the list, and start another. But these items were not chores like taking out the trash! They were jobs like dig out a basement under the house or convert the pantry into a bathroom! To this day I tolerate lists, but I hate them!
So what has all this got to do with why a person should build a boat (or anything else for that matter)? Because in a lot of us, there is still a need to create with our hands something wonderful. Also – like the Dad of my youth – we could not afford to buy the boat of our dreams. I am convinced that if cost is the only consideration, and you want an 18-ft. bow rider type of boat, you would be better off buying a used one than building it. They are numerous and they are reasonably priced. But put a cabin on your boat, and the cost starts to climb considerably.
So why not buy a used boat and fix it up? That is a very good option if you can find a sound boat. The used boats we looked at were very expensive for their condition. I also found that sometimes it was harder to rebuild something than to start fresh and build from scratch. One gain is that when you are finished, you will know the boat inside and out. You know the value and quality of your own labor – and also – you can fix anything on it without paying some over-priced mechanic to do the work for you. You can’t use the boat while it’s being worked on anyway, so why not spend that time doing the work yourself?
==========
Peak Oil
Even the Saudis are aware of the situation. They have a saying that goes, "My father rode a camel. I drive a car. My son flies a jet airplane. His son will ride a camel."
==========
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/PageOne.html
==========
Matthew Simmons, Energy Advisor to George W. Bush
In a recent interview, Matthew Simmons largely echoed Dr. Goodstein's sentiments. When asked if it was time for Peak Oil to become part of the public policy debate, Simmons responded:
It is past time. As I have said, the experts and politicians have no Plan B to fall back on. If energy peaks, particularly while 5 of the world’s 6.5 billion people have little or no use of modern energy, it will be a tremendous jolt to our economic well-being and to our health — greater than anyone could ever imagine.
==========
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/PageOne.html
==========
When the Oil Crash comes, our civilization is going to get knocked back to 1765. We will not recover, as there is no economically available oil left to discover that would help us recover.
==========
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/PageOne.html
==========
==========
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/PageOne.html
==========
Matthew Simmons, Energy Advisor to George W. Bush
In a recent interview, Matthew Simmons largely echoed Dr. Goodstein's sentiments. When asked if it was time for Peak Oil to become part of the public policy debate, Simmons responded:
It is past time. As I have said, the experts and politicians have no Plan B to fall back on. If energy peaks, particularly while 5 of the world’s 6.5 billion people have little or no use of modern energy, it will be a tremendous jolt to our economic well-being and to our health — greater than anyone could ever imagine.
==========
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/PageOne.html
==========
When the Oil Crash comes, our civilization is going to get knocked back to 1765. We will not recover, as there is no economically available oil left to discover that would help us recover.
==========
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/PageOne.html
==========
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
Envious of the Rich?
==========
In response to my remark about someone paying $1,800 dollars for a single set of plumbing fixtures for one shower and that they must have "more dollars than sense," David (a fellow member of our cheap-shelter group on Yahoo) posted: "Envy is a sin, sounds to me like they have enough sense to know how to make lot's of money."
==========
David -- please don't take this personal -- it's really not meant to be. I had actually responded to the larger part of your post (defending the virtues of log construction) but it slipped into cyberspace when the library computer turned on me -- frustrating. (I'll try again "later.") You mentioned "envy" and it stuck in my frustrated craw triggering the following rant -- for what it's worth:
==========
When I was 17 or 18 -- and a fresh convert of "Think and Grow Rich" and "The Very, Very Rich and How They Got That Way" -- I believed personal wealth was a proportional yardstick -- a measure of one's contribution to the greater good of all mankind. If I've ever experienced any evidence in support of that belief -- and I doubt it -- it's been so long ago, I've forgotten what it might have been. It's been said that if the population of the world were reduced to 100 people -- with all our prevailing inequities intact -- the 6 wealthiest among them would all be white and all 6 of them would live in the U.S. Yet the average annual cash income of the poorest 20 percent of Americans is $5,226 dollars. That's an incredible disparity of wealth within our own borders and it's a problem. It grows into an even greater disparity of wealth internationally which will continue to cause us tidal waves of grief.
==========
Before I forget to ask: Will someone PLEASE summarize for me the cosmic levels of genius which our corporate CEOs must have stuffed in their shiny bald heads to earn or somehow justify the obscene amounts of money these clowns make every year? Every shareholder who allows their money to be leveraged to inflate these prima donna egos is a criminal accomplice to the ongoing crimes of these CEOs who lie and cheat and steal and do whatever it takes to prop up the value of their morally bankrupt stock.
==========
All indications are this shameful disparity will only continue to increase as our government mechanisms at all levels are increasingly owned and operated by the very profit-seeking business interests they are SUPPOSED to govern. Does this mean I'm envious of these gluttonous self-serving leaches while they build their heavens here on earth? Hardly.
==========
There was a time when I truly believed the wealthy were richly blessed because of their measurable contribution to the improvement in quality of life for all of us. Thanks to their insatiable appetites for MORE -- of everything -- I can no longer afford the intellectual laxative of such mealy-mouthed hogwash.
==========
sail4free
==========
In response to my remark about someone paying $1,800 dollars for a single set of plumbing fixtures for one shower and that they must have "more dollars than sense," David (a fellow member of our cheap-shelter group on Yahoo) posted: "Envy is a sin, sounds to me like they have enough sense to know how to make lot's of money."
==========
David -- please don't take this personal -- it's really not meant to be. I had actually responded to the larger part of your post (defending the virtues of log construction) but it slipped into cyberspace when the library computer turned on me -- frustrating. (I'll try again "later.") You mentioned "envy" and it stuck in my frustrated craw triggering the following rant -- for what it's worth:
==========
When I was 17 or 18 -- and a fresh convert of "Think and Grow Rich" and "The Very, Very Rich and How They Got That Way" -- I believed personal wealth was a proportional yardstick -- a measure of one's contribution to the greater good of all mankind. If I've ever experienced any evidence in support of that belief -- and I doubt it -- it's been so long ago, I've forgotten what it might have been. It's been said that if the population of the world were reduced to 100 people -- with all our prevailing inequities intact -- the 6 wealthiest among them would all be white and all 6 of them would live in the U.S. Yet the average annual cash income of the poorest 20 percent of Americans is $5,226 dollars. That's an incredible disparity of wealth within our own borders and it's a problem. It grows into an even greater disparity of wealth internationally which will continue to cause us tidal waves of grief.
==========
Before I forget to ask: Will someone PLEASE summarize for me the cosmic levels of genius which our corporate CEOs must have stuffed in their shiny bald heads to earn or somehow justify the obscene amounts of money these clowns make every year? Every shareholder who allows their money to be leveraged to inflate these prima donna egos is a criminal accomplice to the ongoing crimes of these CEOs who lie and cheat and steal and do whatever it takes to prop up the value of their morally bankrupt stock.
==========
All indications are this shameful disparity will only continue to increase as our government mechanisms at all levels are increasingly owned and operated by the very profit-seeking business interests they are SUPPOSED to govern. Does this mean I'm envious of these gluttonous self-serving leaches while they build their heavens here on earth? Hardly.
==========
There was a time when I truly believed the wealthy were richly blessed because of their measurable contribution to the improvement in quality of life for all of us. Thanks to their insatiable appetites for MORE -- of everything -- I can no longer afford the intellectual laxative of such mealy-mouthed hogwash.
==========
sail4free
==========
Thursday, March 25, 2004
The Ultimate Insult Letter?
This was originally published at www.krazylarry.com/longinsult.html
Imagine receiving one of these...he certainly has covered all the bases. LOL
You swine. You vulgar little maggot. You worthless bag of filth. As they say in Texas. I'll bet you couldn't pour piss out of a boot with instructions on the heel. You are a canker. A sore that won't go away. I would rather kiss a lawyer than be seen with you.
You're a putrescent mass, a walking vomit. You are a spineless little worm deserving nothing but the profoundest contempt. You are a jerk, a cad, a weasel. Your life is a monument to stupidity. You are a stench, a revulsion, a big suck on a sour lemon.
You are a bleating foal, a curdled staggering mutant dwarf smeared richly with the effluvia and offal accompanying your alleged birth into this world. An insensate, blinking calf, meaningful to nobody, abandoned by the puke-drooling, giggling beasts who sired you and then killed themselves in recognition of what they had done.
I will never get over the embarrassment of belonging to the same species as you. You are a monster, an ogre, a malformation. I barf at the very thought of you. You have all the appeal of a paper cut. Lepers avoid you. You are vile, worthless, less than nothing. You are a weed, a fungus, the dregs of this earth. And did I mention you smell?
Try to edit your responses of unnecessary material before attempting to impress us with your insight. The evidence that you are a nincompoop will still be available to readers, but they will be able to access it more rapidly.
You snail-skulled little rabbit. Would that a hawk pick you up, drive its beak into your brain, and upon finding it rancid set you loose to fly briefly before spattering the ocean rocks with the frothy pink shame of your ignoble blood. May you choke on the queasy, convulsing nausea of your own trite, foolish beliefs.
You are weary, stale, flat and unprofitable. You are grimy, squalid, nasty and profane. You are foul and disgusting. You're a fool, an ignoramus. Monkeys look down on you. Even sheep won't have sex with you. You are unreservedly pathetic, starved for attention, and lost in a land that reality forgot.
And what meaning do you expect your delusional self-important statements of unknowing, inexperienced opinion to have with us? What fantasy do you hold that you would believe that your tiny-fisted tantrums would have more weight than that of a leprous desert rat, spinning rabidly in a circle, waiting for the bite of the snake?
You are a waste of flesh. You have no rhythm. You are ridiculous and obnoxious. You are the moral equivalent of a leech. You are a living emptiness, a meaningless void. You are sour and senile. You are a disease, you puerile one-handed slack-jawed drooling meat slapper.
On a good day you're a half-wit. You remind me of drool. You are deficient in all that lends character. You have the personality of wallpaper. You are dank and filthy. You are asinine and benighted. You are the source of all unpleasantness. You spread misery and sorrow wherever you go.
You smarmy lager lout git. You bloody woofter sod. Bugger off, pillock. You grotty wanking oink artless base-court apple-john. You clouted boggish foot-licking twit. You dankish clack-dish plonker. You gormless crook-pated tosser. You churlish boil-brained clotpole ponce. You cockered bum-bailey poofter. You craven dewberry pisshead cockup pratting naff. You gob-kissing gleeking flap-mouthed coxcomb. You dread-bolted fobbing beef-witted clapper-clawed flirt-gill.
You are a fiend and a coward, and you have bad breath. You are degenerate, noxious and depraved. I feel debased just for knowing you exist. I despise everything about you, and I wish you would go away.
I cannot believe how incredibly stupid you are. I mean rock-hard stupid. Dehydrated-rock-hard stupid. Stupid so stupid that it goes way beyond the stupid we know into a whole different dimension of stupid. You are trans-stupid stupid. Meta-stupid. Stupid collapsed on itself so far that even the neutrons have collapsed. Stupid gotten so dense that no intellect can escape. Singularity stupid. Blazing hot mid-day sun on Mercury stupid. You emit more stupid in one second than our entire galaxy emits in a year. Quasar stupid. Your writing has to be a troll. Nothing in our universe can really be this stupid. Perhaps this is some primordial fragment from the original big bang of stupid. Some pure essence of a stupid so uncontaminated by anything else as to be beyond the laws of physics that we know. I'm sorry. I can't go on. This is an epiphany of stupid for me. After this, you may not hear from me again for a while. I don't have enough strength left to deride your ignorant questions and half baked comments about unimportant trivia, or any of the rest of this drivel. Duh.
The only thing worse than your logic is your manners. I have snipped away most of what you wrote, because, well... it didn't really say anything. Your attempt at constructing a creative flame was pitiful. I mean, really, stringing together a bunch of insults among a load of babbling was hardly effective... Maybe later in life, after you have learned to read, write, spell, and count, you will have more success. True, these are rudimentary skills that many of us "normal" people take for granted that everyone has an easy time of mastering. But we sometimes forget that there are "challenged" persons in this world who find these things more difficult. If I had known that this was your case then I would have never read your post. It just wouldn't have been "right". Sort of like parking in a handicap space. I wish you the best of luck in the emotional, and social struggles that seem to be placing such a demand on you.
P.S.: You are hypocritical, greedy, violent, malevolent, vengeful, cowardly, deadly, mendacious, meretricious, loathsome, despicable, belligerent, opportunistic, barratrous, contemptible, criminal, fascistic, bigoted, racist, sexist, avaricious, tasteless, idiotic, brain-damaged, imbecilic, insane, arrogant, deceitful, demented, lame, self-righteous, byzantine, conspiratorial, satanic, fraudulent, libelous, bilious, splenetic, spastic, ignorant, clueless, illegitimate, harmful, destructive, dumb, evasive, double-talking, devious, revisionist, narrow, manipulative, paternalistic, fundamentalist, dogmatic, idolatrous, unethical, cultic, diseased, suppressive, controlling, restrictive, malignant, deceptive, dim, crazy, weird, dystopic, stifling, uncaring, plantigrade, grim, unsympathetic, jargon-spouting, censorious, secretive, aggressive, mind-numbing, arassive, poisonous, flagrant, self-destructive, abusive, socially-retarded, puerile, clueless, and generally Not Good.
(yes, I'm done now)
Imagine receiving one of these...he certainly has covered all the bases. LOL
You swine. You vulgar little maggot. You worthless bag of filth. As they say in Texas. I'll bet you couldn't pour piss out of a boot with instructions on the heel. You are a canker. A sore that won't go away. I would rather kiss a lawyer than be seen with you.
You're a putrescent mass, a walking vomit. You are a spineless little worm deserving nothing but the profoundest contempt. You are a jerk, a cad, a weasel. Your life is a monument to stupidity. You are a stench, a revulsion, a big suck on a sour lemon.
You are a bleating foal, a curdled staggering mutant dwarf smeared richly with the effluvia and offal accompanying your alleged birth into this world. An insensate, blinking calf, meaningful to nobody, abandoned by the puke-drooling, giggling beasts who sired you and then killed themselves in recognition of what they had done.
I will never get over the embarrassment of belonging to the same species as you. You are a monster, an ogre, a malformation. I barf at the very thought of you. You have all the appeal of a paper cut. Lepers avoid you. You are vile, worthless, less than nothing. You are a weed, a fungus, the dregs of this earth. And did I mention you smell?
Try to edit your responses of unnecessary material before attempting to impress us with your insight. The evidence that you are a nincompoop will still be available to readers, but they will be able to access it more rapidly.
You snail-skulled little rabbit. Would that a hawk pick you up, drive its beak into your brain, and upon finding it rancid set you loose to fly briefly before spattering the ocean rocks with the frothy pink shame of your ignoble blood. May you choke on the queasy, convulsing nausea of your own trite, foolish beliefs.
You are weary, stale, flat and unprofitable. You are grimy, squalid, nasty and profane. You are foul and disgusting. You're a fool, an ignoramus. Monkeys look down on you. Even sheep won't have sex with you. You are unreservedly pathetic, starved for attention, and lost in a land that reality forgot.
And what meaning do you expect your delusional self-important statements of unknowing, inexperienced opinion to have with us? What fantasy do you hold that you would believe that your tiny-fisted tantrums would have more weight than that of a leprous desert rat, spinning rabidly in a circle, waiting for the bite of the snake?
You are a waste of flesh. You have no rhythm. You are ridiculous and obnoxious. You are the moral equivalent of a leech. You are a living emptiness, a meaningless void. You are sour and senile. You are a disease, you puerile one-handed slack-jawed drooling meat slapper.
On a good day you're a half-wit. You remind me of drool. You are deficient in all that lends character. You have the personality of wallpaper. You are dank and filthy. You are asinine and benighted. You are the source of all unpleasantness. You spread misery and sorrow wherever you go.
You smarmy lager lout git. You bloody woofter sod. Bugger off, pillock. You grotty wanking oink artless base-court apple-john. You clouted boggish foot-licking twit. You dankish clack-dish plonker. You gormless crook-pated tosser. You churlish boil-brained clotpole ponce. You cockered bum-bailey poofter. You craven dewberry pisshead cockup pratting naff. You gob-kissing gleeking flap-mouthed coxcomb. You dread-bolted fobbing beef-witted clapper-clawed flirt-gill.
You are a fiend and a coward, and you have bad breath. You are degenerate, noxious and depraved. I feel debased just for knowing you exist. I despise everything about you, and I wish you would go away.
I cannot believe how incredibly stupid you are. I mean rock-hard stupid. Dehydrated-rock-hard stupid. Stupid so stupid that it goes way beyond the stupid we know into a whole different dimension of stupid. You are trans-stupid stupid. Meta-stupid. Stupid collapsed on itself so far that even the neutrons have collapsed. Stupid gotten so dense that no intellect can escape. Singularity stupid. Blazing hot mid-day sun on Mercury stupid. You emit more stupid in one second than our entire galaxy emits in a year. Quasar stupid. Your writing has to be a troll. Nothing in our universe can really be this stupid. Perhaps this is some primordial fragment from the original big bang of stupid. Some pure essence of a stupid so uncontaminated by anything else as to be beyond the laws of physics that we know. I'm sorry. I can't go on. This is an epiphany of stupid for me. After this, you may not hear from me again for a while. I don't have enough strength left to deride your ignorant questions and half baked comments about unimportant trivia, or any of the rest of this drivel. Duh.
The only thing worse than your logic is your manners. I have snipped away most of what you wrote, because, well... it didn't really say anything. Your attempt at constructing a creative flame was pitiful. I mean, really, stringing together a bunch of insults among a load of babbling was hardly effective... Maybe later in life, after you have learned to read, write, spell, and count, you will have more success. True, these are rudimentary skills that many of us "normal" people take for granted that everyone has an easy time of mastering. But we sometimes forget that there are "challenged" persons in this world who find these things more difficult. If I had known that this was your case then I would have never read your post. It just wouldn't have been "right". Sort of like parking in a handicap space. I wish you the best of luck in the emotional, and social struggles that seem to be placing such a demand on you.
P.S.: You are hypocritical, greedy, violent, malevolent, vengeful, cowardly, deadly, mendacious, meretricious, loathsome, despicable, belligerent, opportunistic, barratrous, contemptible, criminal, fascistic, bigoted, racist, sexist, avaricious, tasteless, idiotic, brain-damaged, imbecilic, insane, arrogant, deceitful, demented, lame, self-righteous, byzantine, conspiratorial, satanic, fraudulent, libelous, bilious, splenetic, spastic, ignorant, clueless, illegitimate, harmful, destructive, dumb, evasive, double-talking, devious, revisionist, narrow, manipulative, paternalistic, fundamentalist, dogmatic, idolatrous, unethical, cultic, diseased, suppressive, controlling, restrictive, malignant, deceptive, dim, crazy, weird, dystopic, stifling, uncaring, plantigrade, grim, unsympathetic, jargon-spouting, censorious, secretive, aggressive, mind-numbing, arassive, poisonous, flagrant, self-destructive, abusive, socially-retarded, puerile, clueless, and generally Not Good.
(yes, I'm done now)
Hot Rod Mota' Home
"Because of Dubya and Bin Laden's hard work, the economy is thrashed. Rent is devouring the workingman's paycheck. Many young working people wonder, will I ever achieve the dream of owning my own home? Not likely. But, you can own all the amenities of a home with zero rent. It's my way and it's the highway. It's the mota'home lifestyle."
Subject: Code Evasion & Living in the Streets
Laren wrote: "Some people have really strong opinions about
alternative housing:
Log onto http://lylebarkley.blogspot.com/ for complete information.
http://tinyurl.com/ncb8
.............And I was thinking about building in that county."
==========
These are the confrontations that get innocent people killed. We had
one of those "show-downs" here in Idaho and Randy's wife and son (and one FBI not-so-sharp-shooter) were killed over it and he STILL can't live in the house he built with his own hands (not that he would ever want to after two days of his wife lying dead on the dining room table in front of his daughters). My grand uncle was shot and killed by police in the doorway of his mobile home in Pasadena, CA for supposedly pointing his .22 at an officer. (Word to the wise: if you have a weapon in your hand -- pointed at the police or not -- and they decide to take you out? You're dead already . . . and those
freakin' dog lickers (thanks, Chris) will LIE to support each other's
testimony till the cows come home.)
==========
As much as it suits my rebel nature to engage in various flavors of "code evasion" -- I guess I just don't have the stomach for it anymore. It is sad beyond words what our nation has become -- where the "haves" dictate what is acceptable housing for the "have-nots." I think they'd rather have someone sleeping in the street than living in a mobile home on their own land and that requires a level of rash reasoning and limp logic that I'm incapable of and would never aspire to.
==========
So my intent is to comply and sleep in the street -- in my camper --
and keep moving around as needed to stay one step ahead of those who claim in their infinite wisdom to know more about what is good for me than I could ever know. (I used to dream of having my life so "together" that I could spend all my waking moments telling others how to live their lives, but then I turned 20.) Of course, I'll spend most of my free time out in the boonies where the idiocy density isn't quite so high. (I think it's because bears
and cougars EAT all the stupid ones.) This reminds me of a GREAT
article which appeared in our local Boise Weekly -- the only true "alternative" paper in this rapidly-expanding Yuppiedom. Title is "Hot Rod Motor Home -- Mota' Home Lifestyle." Here's the whole article from my top-secret-krypto data base:
==========
Oh . . . it's written by Conrad Evarts (definitely MY kind of people). Illustrations are by Ben Wilson (but I guess you can't see those -- author standing at his BBQ with his mota'home parked between two lamp posts; his cat swatting at a butterfly -- and another one with author posed next to his quote: "Rent is devouring the working man's paycheck...") Hope you enjoy it as much as I have!
==========
HOT ROD MOTOR HOME (Mota'home lifestyle) by Conrad Evarts
==========
PART I (of 3)
==========
Because of Dubya and Bin Laden's hard work, the economy is thrashed.
Rent is devouring the workingman's paycheck. Many young working
people wonder, will I ever achieve the dream of owning my own home? Not likely. But, you can own all the amenities of a home with zero rent. It's my way and it's the highway. It's the mota'home lifestyle.
==========
For under five grand you can have yourself an inhabitable hot-rod motor home and live free in any state in the United States. I've
lived and worked in comfort and style on the streets of Washington,
California, Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana and Montana taking a cue
from the blue hairs and keeping the rubber on the road while chasing
the bizarre.
==========
I've lived in all these places without packing a box or renting a U-
Haul. In fact, I'm sitting at my dining room table right now, just a
few miles from downtown Seattle and my dishes are in the same
cupboard they were back in Albuquerque. My clothes are hanging
unwrinkled in the same cedar closet as in Baton Rouge. The same
damned cat that I can't get rid of is sleeping on the sofa I took
with me when I bolted from California after a mix up with a Chilean
business associate. Amazing? Yes! Impossible? No! It's the
mota'house lifestyle.
==========
HERE'S HOW:
Get cash . . . get a motor home. Finance nothing. If you need five
grand quickly, get renter's insurance, buy a DVD player, digital
video camera, Bose Wave Radio, etcetera. Video tape it along with
some of the junk in your home. Include your yard sale dishes, rusty
bicycle and costume jewelry to retain credibility. Return said gear
for a refund, then call the cops and report a burglary. If you're
not stupid, you'll have a check in a month. Don't sweat the story
you're going to tell the police, you'll never see them.
==========
Pick up R.V. Trader magazine. Start looking at motor homes, house
hunting. Find the features you like. Find one with style. Think
Shazaam. I'm somewhat of an entertainer so I prefer Formica tables,
icemakers and a bed built for three, and that's just what I have.
==========
There are a couple tricks to having the comforts of home without
forking out the loot. What do you want? Narrow it down. Hot
showers, cold liquor and an entertainment center, right?
==========
Electricity makes entertainment and a generator makes electricity.
No less than 4,000 watts if you want to run the A/C all day while
watching Rocco flicks and getting high with Miss La Mesa and Miss
Santee on Fiesta Island in San Diego.
==========
Up north it's a bit different. Now that I'm hiding in the woods west
of Seattle, I'm relying on a built-in propane furnace to keep my sun-
shy sheet shredders toasty. If you're north of Arizona ya' must have
it.
==========
Showers are healthy and water heaters are included, but supplying the
water for your showers can be a bitch and the showers are so damn
small that I can only fit one size three with a medium bust in with
me. It's my cross to bear. If you're living for free, you have to
steal the water and it's irritating. But you must, so here's how:
get a long hose, find a discreet spigot, and after hours fill 'er
up. Office complexes work great, tire stores, paint stores, anything
that is dead on Sundays or after seven, there's a beauty parlor in
Morgan City, Louisiana, that I cotton to. Again, don't stress about
law enforcement, Officer Friendly has raced past me and my garden
hose dozens of times while responding to a call of hot, fresh maple
bars at Krispy Kreme. If you see me standing alongside one of
America's byways after dark with a loud shirt, garden hose and a
cocktail, honk and wave. Damn, stop for a drink.
==========
Where to park? Skip the R.V. parks. You'd think there is a scene
like in the film "The Long, Long Trailer" starring Lucille Ball and
Desi Arnaz. Freindly Aryan travelers rushing out of shiny aluminum
pods wearing orange vests and carrying steaming hot casseroles to
help you back your behemoth in. Well there's not. Most of the
senior citizen R.V.ers are about as sociable as a Klansmen at the
Million Man March. If it's a choice between rescuing a woman who's
been backed over by her motor home and solving the Daily Double,
they'll stick with Alex. If you're under 95-years-old they assume
one of three things: you're a rolling meth lab, you're a sex offender
that doesn't want to register or worst of all, you're one of those
damn-hot-shot-dot-commers that somehow avoided selling the best 40
years of your life to the man.
==========
And the price! I'm sorry but a piece of frosty grass with an
electrical outlet in Hays, Kansas, is not worth 21 dollars a night.
Supply and demand, man! We were the only ones there in November.
Fool!
==========
So now that you're avoiding the leering eyes of Earl, Bessie and
Snowball the poodle, where to sleep, cook and chill? This is the
best part. If you're on the run, as I was recently, Wal-Mart. They
love motor homes. They encourage motor homes to overnight in their
parking lots, although they don't encourage dumping your dishwater
all over their lawn as I've seen some rude outlaws such as myself
do. Some of the high dollar diesel mota'houses push the welcome to a
two-week stay. Two weeks of free rent, if you're living in your
motor home, is a two- to three-hundred dollar savings. Saving three
bills while junking up the parking lot of a multi-billion dollar
leach isn't just savings, it's a political action. Just don't shop
there.
==========
What are the drawbacks to wallowing in Wal-Mart's selfless
generosity? There's no scene, no community. If you think the
silence is golden among the "Golden Girls" set, get ready for a
slightly more hotstile version of an R.V. park. For some reason your
mota'house takes on the characteristics of a large planet among
asteroids at Wal-Mart. If you're just trying to kick it for the
evening you'll notice that every teenager's car is pulled by some
anger gravitating directly toward your foundation-free home at speeds
rivaling the space shuttle. I park next to light posts, but it's
still nerve wracking to be mixing a drink and look out your kitchen
window as a multi-colored Honda CRX hurtles toward you only to veer
off right after you drop the ice cube tray on the floor and duck
behind the stove.
==========
I personally think Wal-Mart is jinxed, and I got this message
straight from Jesus, or Allah, Or Gaia or Buddha or maybe the Dali
Lama. His/her signature was very twisty and I couldn't read it as I
ran for my life. We were on our way to Grand Isle, Louisiana, (isn't
everyone?) and stopped for the night at a Wal-Mart in Denton, Texas.
I was making a stir-fry, while one of my crew took a shower and the
other got loaded on catnip and chased a rubber ball up and down the
mota'house. The rain came down and I mentioned that the rainstorm
was more severe than anything I'd seen growing up in the Republic of
Hillyard. The only other English-speaking crewmember yelled from the
shower that gully washers happened all the time in the desert, the
other crewmember stared at the wall and slurred "meow." I continued
to stir-fry, then stopped to look out the window. I saw in the not-
so-distant distance something I'd only seen once, in "The Wizard of
Oz." "Uh, that looks like a funnel cloud out there!" I let everyone
know. Two responses lulled me into false confidence, "I can't hear
you, I'm drying my hair," came from the bathroom. "Meow," came from
the sofa. So I stir-fried. Then an alarm blared and sticks and beer
cans and other debris started pounding the mota'house windows. I
looked toward the Wal-Mart tire center and saw savvy Texans lining
their trucks up against the cinder block wall. "Get dressed it's a
@#%#* tornado," I yelled as I stopped stir-frying. I jumped out the
door while my cat batted an imaginary monarch butterfly around the
air in front of her. When I was outside and the door closed, that's
when God made it real clear how he/she felt about Wal-Mart. A branch
whacked my head and rain soaked me as I ran across the lot and an air
raid siren cheered me on. I pounded on a Ford's window and the sweet
old woman waved me in. Fifty loaves of white bread she collected for
her cow that had died three days earlier (it's true, it's Texas) sat
on the seat and blocked my path to safety. "What should I do?" I
screamed. "Move the bread and get in," the seasoned tornado survivor
yelled over the wind as she fiddled with the radio. The funnel cloud
danced closer. I said I'd be right back and ran, much like Dorothy
but with worse hair, back to our mota'house. "Get the cat and come
get in this truck!" We ran. We moved bread. It got quiet. I
suggested deep prayer and meditation, Granny Cowbread informed us
there was no need, she'd survived 17 tornados. I did some basic
statistics in my head and realized we jumped in the wrong truck, so I
prayed and God talked again. The twister came through and it all cut
loose. The truck rocked, we watch our motor home waddle across the
way. Big things that usually only fly outside the grip of gravity
raced past the tire center wall, really big things. Then the radio
announced that the twister had moved on to twist another part of
Texas further east. I'm extremely superstitious so many things in my
life changed that night. I now avoid Wal-Mart, low fat Asian food,
white bread and my pet is attending Catnip Anonymous.
==========
HOT ROD MOTOR HOME (Mota'home lifestyle) by Conrad Evarts
==========
PART II (of 3)
==========
"So, where to park, where's the love? Everywhere that retail
commerce isn't. Seattle: Along the water under Alaskan Way and
certain portions of Capitol Hill. San Francisco: The industrial area
between the Mission District and the Bay. Los Angeles: Screw that!
You want to sleep on the streets of Los Angeles? You're a nutcase
and you're on your own. San Diego: Mission Bay by day, Morena
Boulevard by night. The great thing about some of these locales is
you get nicely landscaped waterfront property for the low price of
nothing.
==========
San Diego is the best. (Hats off to you, Jim Wroten!) You have the
choice of about eight huge parking lots and Fiesta Island right on
Mission Bay (don't swim in it, San Diego has more sewage leaks than
Nairobi). It's close to bus lines, shopping and several coin-op
laundries. At bedtime just drive over I-5, find a level spot in the
Action Thrift Store parking lot or on Morena Boulevard and shut her
down.
==========
San Francisco and Seattle have recently passed laws against living in
your vehicle. To avoid further penalization of the poor just
remember the difference between a legally parked vehicle and an
illegal habitation. The difference is you answering the door, so
don't. And remember, the number one secret to getting by: if you're
cool, other folks will be cool. In San Francisco one of the reasons
cited for outlawing the lifestyle was that mota'homes were getting
their mail delivered to nearby factory mailboxes and business owners
didn't like strangers rifling through their mail. So be cool.
==========
Whichever city you like, look around, you'll spot the outlaws. Look
for tagged motor homes that have a window or two covered with plywood
and a pet food dish on the sidewalk.
==========
The best part of urban motor homing is there's more of a scene in the
parking lots than most apartment complexes. I've had more parties,
BBQs, tool loans and, "How was your day?" with my kickback
neighboring gypsies than any apartment house.
==========
HOT ROD MOTOR HOME (Mota'home lifestyle) by Conrad Evarts
==========
PART III (of 3)
==========
Important: buy a big block V-8, 460, 454, 440. You don't want to be
that a-hole that's jamming The Grapevine, I-8 East to Alpine,
Snoqualmie Pass, I-5 from Medford to Shasta, I-70 westbound out of
Denver. Just get a big block with balls. I've driven it all from
South Dakota to New Orleans to Montana to Seattle and back to Mulege
B.C.S. and my 454 smokes all them speed bumps.
==========
Now what's funny is that I know a lot of folks are going to be
distressed by a defiant young American whose found a way out of the
tedium of stationary living. An American that chooses not to
subscribe to the stagnant immobile lifestyle imposed on us by the
hounds of industrial capitalism can be upsetting. There are going to
be those readers that object to the notion of robbing those that rob
us. And during their sputtering outrage as they voraciously consume
this column along with a bad cup of Folgers and another box of
Entenmanns that they don't need, they will justify their choice to
submit to the dominant paradigm by picturing me and my crew huddling
outside a food bank waiting for a can of pork and beans, or
panhandling one step ahead of the S.P.D. or the L.A.P.D. or the
S.F.P.D. or the LMNOPQ or eating dandelion salad from some
city park. Well, just so you know, that ain't me. At our last jobs
in San Diego my crew and I made a combined annual income of over
$100,000 at professional jobs while living for nothin', and we saved
it in the bank and we partied like freakin' rock stars!!!
==========
Finally, when you see my bug-eyed face in your rear view mirror and
I'm leaning over my super-sized steering wheel and flashing the
headlights of my rusty, swerving Chevrolet, when I'm chewing on your
rear bumper and sparks are flying, when you hear the throaty voice of
Satan roaring from my dual exhaust pipes, know this: a man's home is
his castle, and that makes him king, and The King loved his pills and
guns.
==========
Courtesy of Pulp Syndicate
==========
END OF ARTICLE
==========
sail4free
==========
Subject: Code Evasion & Living in the Streets
Laren wrote: "Some people have really strong opinions about
alternative housing:
Log onto http://lylebarkley.blogspot.com/ for complete information.
http://tinyurl.com/ncb8
.............And I was thinking about building in that county."
==========
These are the confrontations that get innocent people killed. We had
one of those "show-downs" here in Idaho and Randy's wife and son (and one FBI not-so-sharp-shooter) were killed over it and he STILL can't live in the house he built with his own hands (not that he would ever want to after two days of his wife lying dead on the dining room table in front of his daughters). My grand uncle was shot and killed by police in the doorway of his mobile home in Pasadena, CA for supposedly pointing his .22 at an officer. (Word to the wise: if you have a weapon in your hand -- pointed at the police or not -- and they decide to take you out? You're dead already . . . and those
freakin' dog lickers (thanks, Chris) will LIE to support each other's
testimony till the cows come home.)
==========
As much as it suits my rebel nature to engage in various flavors of "code evasion" -- I guess I just don't have the stomach for it anymore. It is sad beyond words what our nation has become -- where the "haves" dictate what is acceptable housing for the "have-nots." I think they'd rather have someone sleeping in the street than living in a mobile home on their own land and that requires a level of rash reasoning and limp logic that I'm incapable of and would never aspire to.
==========
So my intent is to comply and sleep in the street -- in my camper --
and keep moving around as needed to stay one step ahead of those who claim in their infinite wisdom to know more about what is good for me than I could ever know. (I used to dream of having my life so "together" that I could spend all my waking moments telling others how to live their lives, but then I turned 20.) Of course, I'll spend most of my free time out in the boonies where the idiocy density isn't quite so high. (I think it's because bears
and cougars EAT all the stupid ones.) This reminds me of a GREAT
article which appeared in our local Boise Weekly -- the only true "alternative" paper in this rapidly-expanding Yuppiedom. Title is "Hot Rod Motor Home -- Mota' Home Lifestyle." Here's the whole article from my top-secret-krypto data base:
==========
Oh . . . it's written by Conrad Evarts (definitely MY kind of people). Illustrations are by Ben Wilson (but I guess you can't see those -- author standing at his BBQ with his mota'home parked between two lamp posts; his cat swatting at a butterfly -- and another one with author posed next to his quote: "Rent is devouring the working man's paycheck...") Hope you enjoy it as much as I have!
==========
HOT ROD MOTOR HOME (Mota'home lifestyle) by Conrad Evarts
==========
PART I (of 3)
==========
Because of Dubya and Bin Laden's hard work, the economy is thrashed.
Rent is devouring the workingman's paycheck. Many young working
people wonder, will I ever achieve the dream of owning my own home? Not likely. But, you can own all the amenities of a home with zero rent. It's my way and it's the highway. It's the mota'home lifestyle.
==========
For under five grand you can have yourself an inhabitable hot-rod motor home and live free in any state in the United States. I've
lived and worked in comfort and style on the streets of Washington,
California, Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana and Montana taking a cue
from the blue hairs and keeping the rubber on the road while chasing
the bizarre.
==========
I've lived in all these places without packing a box or renting a U-
Haul. In fact, I'm sitting at my dining room table right now, just a
few miles from downtown Seattle and my dishes are in the same
cupboard they were back in Albuquerque. My clothes are hanging
unwrinkled in the same cedar closet as in Baton Rouge. The same
damned cat that I can't get rid of is sleeping on the sofa I took
with me when I bolted from California after a mix up with a Chilean
business associate. Amazing? Yes! Impossible? No! It's the
mota'house lifestyle.
==========
HERE'S HOW:
Get cash . . . get a motor home. Finance nothing. If you need five
grand quickly, get renter's insurance, buy a DVD player, digital
video camera, Bose Wave Radio, etcetera. Video tape it along with
some of the junk in your home. Include your yard sale dishes, rusty
bicycle and costume jewelry to retain credibility. Return said gear
for a refund, then call the cops and report a burglary. If you're
not stupid, you'll have a check in a month. Don't sweat the story
you're going to tell the police, you'll never see them.
==========
Pick up R.V. Trader magazine. Start looking at motor homes, house
hunting. Find the features you like. Find one with style. Think
Shazaam. I'm somewhat of an entertainer so I prefer Formica tables,
icemakers and a bed built for three, and that's just what I have.
==========
There are a couple tricks to having the comforts of home without
forking out the loot. What do you want? Narrow it down. Hot
showers, cold liquor and an entertainment center, right?
==========
Electricity makes entertainment and a generator makes electricity.
No less than 4,000 watts if you want to run the A/C all day while
watching Rocco flicks and getting high with Miss La Mesa and Miss
Santee on Fiesta Island in San Diego.
==========
Up north it's a bit different. Now that I'm hiding in the woods west
of Seattle, I'm relying on a built-in propane furnace to keep my sun-
shy sheet shredders toasty. If you're north of Arizona ya' must have
it.
==========
Showers are healthy and water heaters are included, but supplying the
water for your showers can be a bitch and the showers are so damn
small that I can only fit one size three with a medium bust in with
me. It's my cross to bear. If you're living for free, you have to
steal the water and it's irritating. But you must, so here's how:
get a long hose, find a discreet spigot, and after hours fill 'er
up. Office complexes work great, tire stores, paint stores, anything
that is dead on Sundays or after seven, there's a beauty parlor in
Morgan City, Louisiana, that I cotton to. Again, don't stress about
law enforcement, Officer Friendly has raced past me and my garden
hose dozens of times while responding to a call of hot, fresh maple
bars at Krispy Kreme. If you see me standing alongside one of
America's byways after dark with a loud shirt, garden hose and a
cocktail, honk and wave. Damn, stop for a drink.
==========
Where to park? Skip the R.V. parks. You'd think there is a scene
like in the film "The Long, Long Trailer" starring Lucille Ball and
Desi Arnaz. Freindly Aryan travelers rushing out of shiny aluminum
pods wearing orange vests and carrying steaming hot casseroles to
help you back your behemoth in. Well there's not. Most of the
senior citizen R.V.ers are about as sociable as a Klansmen at the
Million Man March. If it's a choice between rescuing a woman who's
been backed over by her motor home and solving the Daily Double,
they'll stick with Alex. If you're under 95-years-old they assume
one of three things: you're a rolling meth lab, you're a sex offender
that doesn't want to register or worst of all, you're one of those
damn-hot-shot-dot-commers that somehow avoided selling the best 40
years of your life to the man.
==========
And the price! I'm sorry but a piece of frosty grass with an
electrical outlet in Hays, Kansas, is not worth 21 dollars a night.
Supply and demand, man! We were the only ones there in November.
Fool!
==========
So now that you're avoiding the leering eyes of Earl, Bessie and
Snowball the poodle, where to sleep, cook and chill? This is the
best part. If you're on the run, as I was recently, Wal-Mart. They
love motor homes. They encourage motor homes to overnight in their
parking lots, although they don't encourage dumping your dishwater
all over their lawn as I've seen some rude outlaws such as myself
do. Some of the high dollar diesel mota'houses push the welcome to a
two-week stay. Two weeks of free rent, if you're living in your
motor home, is a two- to three-hundred dollar savings. Saving three
bills while junking up the parking lot of a multi-billion dollar
leach isn't just savings, it's a political action. Just don't shop
there.
==========
What are the drawbacks to wallowing in Wal-Mart's selfless
generosity? There's no scene, no community. If you think the
silence is golden among the "Golden Girls" set, get ready for a
slightly more hotstile version of an R.V. park. For some reason your
mota'house takes on the characteristics of a large planet among
asteroids at Wal-Mart. If you're just trying to kick it for the
evening you'll notice that every teenager's car is pulled by some
anger gravitating directly toward your foundation-free home at speeds
rivaling the space shuttle. I park next to light posts, but it's
still nerve wracking to be mixing a drink and look out your kitchen
window as a multi-colored Honda CRX hurtles toward you only to veer
off right after you drop the ice cube tray on the floor and duck
behind the stove.
==========
I personally think Wal-Mart is jinxed, and I got this message
straight from Jesus, or Allah, Or Gaia or Buddha or maybe the Dali
Lama. His/her signature was very twisty and I couldn't read it as I
ran for my life. We were on our way to Grand Isle, Louisiana, (isn't
everyone?) and stopped for the night at a Wal-Mart in Denton, Texas.
I was making a stir-fry, while one of my crew took a shower and the
other got loaded on catnip and chased a rubber ball up and down the
mota'house. The rain came down and I mentioned that the rainstorm
was more severe than anything I'd seen growing up in the Republic of
Hillyard. The only other English-speaking crewmember yelled from the
shower that gully washers happened all the time in the desert, the
other crewmember stared at the wall and slurred "meow." I continued
to stir-fry, then stopped to look out the window. I saw in the not-
so-distant distance something I'd only seen once, in "The Wizard of
Oz." "Uh, that looks like a funnel cloud out there!" I let everyone
know. Two responses lulled me into false confidence, "I can't hear
you, I'm drying my hair," came from the bathroom. "Meow," came from
the sofa. So I stir-fried. Then an alarm blared and sticks and beer
cans and other debris started pounding the mota'house windows. I
looked toward the Wal-Mart tire center and saw savvy Texans lining
their trucks up against the cinder block wall. "Get dressed it's a
@#%#* tornado," I yelled as I stopped stir-frying. I jumped out the
door while my cat batted an imaginary monarch butterfly around the
air in front of her. When I was outside and the door closed, that's
when God made it real clear how he/she felt about Wal-Mart. A branch
whacked my head and rain soaked me as I ran across the lot and an air
raid siren cheered me on. I pounded on a Ford's window and the sweet
old woman waved me in. Fifty loaves of white bread she collected for
her cow that had died three days earlier (it's true, it's Texas) sat
on the seat and blocked my path to safety. "What should I do?" I
screamed. "Move the bread and get in," the seasoned tornado survivor
yelled over the wind as she fiddled with the radio. The funnel cloud
danced closer. I said I'd be right back and ran, much like Dorothy
but with worse hair, back to our mota'house. "Get the cat and come
get in this truck!" We ran. We moved bread. It got quiet. I
suggested deep prayer and meditation, Granny Cowbread informed us
there was no need, she'd survived 17 tornados. I did some basic
statistics in my head and realized we jumped in the wrong truck, so I
prayed and God talked again. The twister came through and it all cut
loose. The truck rocked, we watch our motor home waddle across the
way. Big things that usually only fly outside the grip of gravity
raced past the tire center wall, really big things. Then the radio
announced that the twister had moved on to twist another part of
Texas further east. I'm extremely superstitious so many things in my
life changed that night. I now avoid Wal-Mart, low fat Asian food,
white bread and my pet is attending Catnip Anonymous.
==========
HOT ROD MOTOR HOME (Mota'home lifestyle) by Conrad Evarts
==========
PART II (of 3)
==========
"So, where to park, where's the love? Everywhere that retail
commerce isn't. Seattle: Along the water under Alaskan Way and
certain portions of Capitol Hill. San Francisco: The industrial area
between the Mission District and the Bay. Los Angeles: Screw that!
You want to sleep on the streets of Los Angeles? You're a nutcase
and you're on your own. San Diego: Mission Bay by day, Morena
Boulevard by night. The great thing about some of these locales is
you get nicely landscaped waterfront property for the low price of
nothing.
==========
San Diego is the best. (Hats off to you, Jim Wroten!) You have the
choice of about eight huge parking lots and Fiesta Island right on
Mission Bay (don't swim in it, San Diego has more sewage leaks than
Nairobi). It's close to bus lines, shopping and several coin-op
laundries. At bedtime just drive over I-5, find a level spot in the
Action Thrift Store parking lot or on Morena Boulevard and shut her
down.
==========
San Francisco and Seattle have recently passed laws against living in
your vehicle. To avoid further penalization of the poor just
remember the difference between a legally parked vehicle and an
illegal habitation. The difference is you answering the door, so
don't. And remember, the number one secret to getting by: if you're
cool, other folks will be cool. In San Francisco one of the reasons
cited for outlawing the lifestyle was that mota'homes were getting
their mail delivered to nearby factory mailboxes and business owners
didn't like strangers rifling through their mail. So be cool.
==========
Whichever city you like, look around, you'll spot the outlaws. Look
for tagged motor homes that have a window or two covered with plywood
and a pet food dish on the sidewalk.
==========
The best part of urban motor homing is there's more of a scene in the
parking lots than most apartment complexes. I've had more parties,
BBQs, tool loans and, "How was your day?" with my kickback
neighboring gypsies than any apartment house.
==========
HOT ROD MOTOR HOME (Mota'home lifestyle) by Conrad Evarts
==========
PART III (of 3)
==========
Important: buy a big block V-8, 460, 454, 440. You don't want to be
that a-hole that's jamming The Grapevine, I-8 East to Alpine,
Snoqualmie Pass, I-5 from Medford to Shasta, I-70 westbound out of
Denver. Just get a big block with balls. I've driven it all from
South Dakota to New Orleans to Montana to Seattle and back to Mulege
B.C.S. and my 454 smokes all them speed bumps.
==========
Now what's funny is that I know a lot of folks are going to be
distressed by a defiant young American whose found a way out of the
tedium of stationary living. An American that chooses not to
subscribe to the stagnant immobile lifestyle imposed on us by the
hounds of industrial capitalism can be upsetting. There are going to
be those readers that object to the notion of robbing those that rob
us. And during their sputtering outrage as they voraciously consume
this column along with a bad cup of Folgers and another box of
Entenmanns that they don't need, they will justify their choice to
submit to the dominant paradigm by picturing me and my crew huddling
outside a food bank waiting for a can of pork and beans, or
panhandling one step ahead of the S.P.D. or the L.A.P.D. or the
S.F.P.D. or the LMNOPQ or eating dandelion salad from some
city park. Well, just so you know, that ain't me. At our last jobs
in San Diego my crew and I made a combined annual income of over
$100,000 at professional jobs while living for nothin', and we saved
it in the bank and we partied like freakin' rock stars!!!
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Finally, when you see my bug-eyed face in your rear view mirror and
I'm leaning over my super-sized steering wheel and flashing the
headlights of my rusty, swerving Chevrolet, when I'm chewing on your
rear bumper and sparks are flying, when you hear the throaty voice of
Satan roaring from my dual exhaust pipes, know this: a man's home is
his castle, and that makes him king, and The King loved his pills and
guns.
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Courtesy of Pulp Syndicate
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END OF ARTICLE
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sail4free
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