The Sun : A Bright Spot

The sky will fall on December 21, 2012. Or maybe the 22nd.

There are sites that sorta explain it. One site quotes a real NASA report that states:

Many forecasters believe Solar Cycle 24 will be big and intense. Peaking in 2011 or 2012, the cycle to come could have significant impacts on telecommunications, air traffic, power grids and GPS systems. (And don't forget the Northern Lights!) In this age of satellites and cell phones, the next solar cycle could make itself felt as never before."

The rather alarming headline on the non-NASA site:
NASA Announces 2012 Destruction Probable

Dude! Ahhhhh!!! Run!!!

NASA made no such announcement.
What NASA said is that solar activity, which according to predictable cyclic movements is due to peak in 2011 or 2012, may have a significant impact on modern electronic communications. Losing your Wi-Fi sucks. It is not, however, the end of the world.

The author interprets "2011 or 2012" thusly:

I find it quite a coincidence that this major happening is forecasted (sic) for 2012, as this exact timing correlates to the ancient Mayan prediction of the end of the dimension.

Pardon my English, but "2011 or 2012 " is not an "exact time" at all- it's a vague range of dates. And what does "end of the dimension" mean anyway?


The site will also sell you mp3 files that will give you "Psychic Powers" if you download them-for a fee...I see a rip-off in the future.
That's the bad news.
The good news?
There isn't much future left.
The future, as everyone who isn't me knows, is scheduled to end on or around 12/22/2012.


See, there are some Cosmic Alignments taking place in 2012.

- There will be a Transit of Venus across the Sun, an event so rare that it hasn't happened since 2004.

- There will be, as noted above, an usually active period of solar magnetism; a Solar Maximum, as described by NASA. This hasn't happened since 1958.
We might see awesome Northern Lights and experience really crappy cell-phone coverage.
My advice: Stock up on ammunition, barbed-wire and books.

- According to experts, there will be a Galactic Alignment - the winter solstice Sun will align with the Milky Way's equator or something...NASA is trying keep this information under wraps, which sort of proves that it's gonna happen...the Government Eggheads don't want us to know, but it's too late...the secret is out.
According to expert interpretation of ancient Mayan astronomy, the Alignment will occur on Dec. 21st (or the 22nd), 2012- the final day of the Mayan Calender, give or take thirty-six years.

-My Car Talk desk calender ends on 12/31/2008. This is pretty close to 12/22/2102.
Nine days and four years, to be precise.
Nine plus four equals thirteen.
According to experts, 13 is a magickal number.
Quite a coincidence, eh?

- This Alignment will place us in the path of a Comet/Planet named Nimburu. NASA recently sent an unmanned probe (code name Deep Impact) to a comet's surface - allegedly for the sake of so-called "scientific research". The real mission was to test the feasibility of planting a nuclear 'bunker buster' bomb under the comet's surface...if successful, this technology will be used in a vain attempt to prevent NIMBURU from smashing into the Earth and turning us all into fossil fuel, just like it did to the dinosaurs.

-Some experts claim that the World is gonna End. This might be true if your life depends on GPS technology...winter of 2012 will be a bad time to be lost in the woods. Even a traditional compass might not work, the earth's magnetic field might be all fuckity...you could try to get your bearings from the stars, but the Earth might be shifted on it's axis, so even if you know how to navigate old school, the stars won't be where they should be...or they'll be obscured by a fiery, toxic, earth-encompassing cloud of post-collision soot and debris.
My advice: Choose your 2012 winter vacation site wisely. Deep underground or off-planet is best.

The 'glass half-empty' crowd can concern itself with the short-term inconveniences produced by a comet-induced global extinction, but I think it's better to be optimistic about such things- every life-smothering cloud of inter-planetary dust has a silver lining if you look hard enough.

To an oil-dependent optimist, the idea of a Earth/comet collision is good news, because oil is actually a renewable resource. Fossil fuels are called "fossil" because they are composed of old, dead things. In the 'big picture', oil is the ultimate Biofuel- it can be made from just about everyone, given enough patience and sacrifice.

Sure, it will be difficult on us , our kids and their grand-kids, but ten million generations from now our descendants will once again have cheap, plentiful gasoline.
They will enjoy this ample supply for roughly one hundred years; after which a comet once again hits Earth, everyone dies and the 250 million-year cycle begins anew, give or take a few years.

Let's take the far-thinking approach.
The driver of today is the gasoline of tomorrow.
Together we can be the future.

Look to the stars.
See ya in the tank.

Vinyl Is For Giving

My selection of vinyl may have some pops and scratches , but it will never give away my name or email and it will never turn me over to the FBI for sharing it with the world.
Vinyl is permissive.
Vinyl is forgiving.

This weekend's first show, Songs From The Big Hair (the 80's ):

The Damned- Street of Dreams
Derek Sunshine sez: "The Damned are like a real-life Spinal Tap. They changed image with whatever they thought was cool- punk, goth, metal...whatever". Well, I'll be...

XTC- This World Over
Great post-apocalyptic ballad about a father and son visiting a crater.

Snakefinger- Kill the Great Raven (Live)
"You can call me Phil. Or Snake. Either one." Snakefinger said that to me after his only Richmond show. Then we got stoned for hours. A month later he was dead.

George Clinton- Airbound
Let's put this Clinton in the White House. The Mothership Connection is funkadelicious and peaceafied.

Scorpions- Every Minute, Every Day
Back in high school, if you had told me that one day I would be playing this album on the radio,
I would have said: "What? I can't hear you! I'm in the backseat and you have the fucking Scorpions blasting my ears out!"

Motorhead-I'm the Doctor
"You'll feel better if you take these little pills/I'll give you sixty bottles/I believe in overkill..."

Danielle Dax- White Knuckle Ride
"Crazy little Charlie took a trip on an airplane/With his hands full of triggers as he flew into the sun..."

King Crimson- Heartbeat
One of my old bands once opened up for Adrian Belew's 'Bears'. Belew wouldn't deign to speak to us, but their bass player did. We gave him a tape. After the show, we were loading our van and the window of his tour bus opened. Our tape came whizzing out and landed on the sidewalk. It was depressing.

Talking Heads- Born Under Punches
But hey, I can't hold a grudge that long. Belew is all over this album.

The Kinks- Catch Me Now, I'm Falling
I saw this tour. I was in 9th grade. Awesome.

Pere Ubu- Ice Cream Truck
Disgruntled Mid-West anti-pop.

Golden Palominos- Omaha
Is that what's-his-face from REM? Is that the drummer from David Letterman's old band? I dunno.

Magazine- The Great Man's Secrets
Psst...c'mere. I have something I wanna tell you.

Adrian Belew- The Momur
Dude. See how magnanimous I am? Bask in my benevolent forgiveness, you fuckin' twanger.

Coffin Break- Diane
These guys used to play in Richmond quite often. They were always too loud, but I liked them anyway. Scary song.

Robyn Hitchcock- Slipping in the Midnight Fish
Yeah, I know I recently played this on my other show, but I really get a subversive, perverse thrill from it. Indulge me, eh? This is one of several songs from today's list that features sardines. I'll send a bag of money to whomever finds them all.

Lou Reed - Turn Off The Light
Yeah, I know I play a lot of Lou Reed. I can't help it. It's an addiction.

Crack The Sky- Big Money
I am the dogs of war, I am the cocaine whores
Who eat the life from you, I am your wildest dream...
Big Money will set you free

Asia- Ten seconds of hell for which Messrs. Howe, Wetton and Palmer will never be forgiven

I saw this band in concert and watched in amazement as a group of hippies stood up in the front row, gave the band the finger and stormed out. The show was that bad. It really was.
A few years later, I was telling my new hippie roommate about that concert- he told me that it was he who had flipped the bird. He was also dating my high school GF at the time. Small world. Too fucking small.



Grace Jones- Everybody Hold Still
To me, this is a Sly and Robbie album that Grace Jones sings on.

Mother Gong- The Upwardly Mobile Song
Robots and Yuppies. Spot the difference.


Tom Verlaine- Postcards From Waterloo
Tom was in Television, not on television.



Opal- Revelation
What a cool album. Remember the Dream Syndicate?

Wire- Ahead
Geez, I like Wire. I suppose I can forgive them for helping spawn 'house' music. Maybe.

Replacements- Black Diamond
It's a Kiss cover.

Elvis Costello- Watch Your Step
Too late. My foot is in it.

The English Beat- Sugar and Stress
Were you a rocker or a mod or both? I walked both worlds and still do. It's a tight wire.

The Stranglers- It's a Small World
Yes, it is.

My Bloody Valentine- Lose My Breath
This pre-emo CD has really fuzzy album art. It sounds blurry too. I thought I'd enjoy hearing it again, but it really annoyed me. Ah, well.

Tom Waits- 16 Shells from a 30.06
"I'm gonna whittle you into kindlin'"



That's all for Saturday.

Sunday morning I got up at 6am and did another show.
I've been doing a dawn show every Sunday for eight months. I must be nuts.


The New Breakfast Snob:

Funkadelic- Freak of the Week
Shit! Goddamn! Get off your ass and jam!
Fuck. Can't play that song...I'll play this one instead.

Tranquility Bass- 5 Miles High
I don't know much about these guys . It sounds like they smoke lots of indoor weed.



Larry Graham- The Jam
"My name is Larry, Larry Graham, but you can call me...b'rooombapboommmp"
Jumpin' jaysus! It's like looking at Tom Jones with a 'Fro and a P-Bass, ya know what I mean?


The Who - Postcards
Postcards are a running theme this weekend. I am having a lovely time and I do wish you were here.

Steeleye Span- The Lowlands of Holland
Postcards from Europe are a running theme this weekend.

Damien Dempsey- The Jar Song
"That's the way they came..."

The Flaming Groovies- She's Falling Apart
The Groovies get trippy and sad. On the original Kama Sutra vinyl.
Mmmm...Kama Sutra vinyl. That should be good for a few google hits.

Hot Tuna- The Highway Song
This, to me, is a feel-good song. It's raining, but who cares?

Fairport Convention- Genesis Hall
Look, I've already 'fessed up about this stuff...

10 CC- You've Got a Cold
10 CC were a really clever band. Is that an Arp sneezing?

Talking Heads- Memories Can't Wait
Hear all that stuff? That sound? That's Brian Eno. Fear of Music is my favorite Heads album

Fiona Joyce-The Juggler
Usually you can judge a CD by the cover, but this song is the exception. Terrible cover art, but a beautiful song about a dude who can't keep his balls aloft.

Grin- You're the Weight
"Wanna sink my boat in your ocean..." What is that all about?

Alan Parsons Project- I Wouldn't Wanna Be Like You
This guy is the real brain behind Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side...Ampex+Parsons= Midas.

Curtis Mayfield- No Thing (The Cocaine Song)
"I'm so glad that I'm set free"
When I was a kid, I didn't know what this song was about. Now I do. I really do.

Lou Reed- Babyface
Oh my. That's not a happy song, is it?

Robert Fripp-Chicago
I would like a deep-dish pizza stuffed with Frippertronics. That would be my perfect meal.

The Stranglers- Tank
This should be used in Army recruiting ads..."drive your very own tank"
It never goes out of style.

Cream - World of Pain
Have you ever dropped acid and stared at the cover of Disraeli Gears? Whew...it's an eyeful of mind-candy.

The Kinks- Last of the Steam-Powered Trains
I can relate to the defiant obsolescence expressed in this song. I played it from the original vinyl, which is in glorious Monophonic.

Quicksilver Messenger Service- Pride of Man
Pickin' up on yesterday's thread of nuclear holocaust.

Captain Beefheart- Rock and Roll's Evil Doll
Scorpio.

Can- Mother Upduff
Another European postcard- a travelogue really. Considerable time is spent in Italy.

Crack the Sky- Maybe I Can Fool Everybody Tonight
"The last place I want perspiration odor is under my arms."

Be Bop Deluxe- Ships in the Night
"Without love, I am a desert". Camels live in deserts.

Jethro Tull- Thick as a Brick
Your what is in the where? How did it get there? Yuck.

Clannad- Love and Affection
Is that too much to ask for? A timeless question.

Jefferson Airplane- Wooden Ships
The line about the purple berries always reminds me of the balloon girl from the original Willie Wonka movie. What exactly did the Oompa-Loompas do with her?

Well, that's what I did this weekend. It's pouring rain this morning so I'm staying inside and taking a nap. I talked to my grannie and she sounds pretty good, so I can rest a little easier.
It's been a good weekend.
I hope you all had a good one too.

My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains

A double-shot of programs this weekend.
First, Songs From The Big Hair, our weekly 1980's show. This week I was training JY, a new volunteer. She has previous DJ experience and picked up our system easily; it was nice having another person in the booth.
DJing is sort of a lonely job, y'know? Like being a lighthouse keeper or something.



SONGS FROM THE BIG HAIR

Replacements- Go
12" vinyl on 45rpm. Hi-Fidelity! Go! Go! Oh, wait...later for them.

Danielle Dax- Big Hollow Man
I call my program 'The New Breakfast Snob' in honor of Michael Hawkesworth, the original Breakfast Snob. Mike had an all-nighter show on Park City, Utah's NPR station. He let me hang out while he played weird art rock and experimental punk. Among other things, he turned me onto Danielle Dax . Mike and I once played live on his station, doing a Residents-style Casio, feedback and poetry jam...Mike, this one's for you.

God will provide the way You read about it every day -I'm tellin' ya All you gotta do is pray And furnish His house with silver

X- Poor Girl
So, like, if you call me with a serious problem and you ask me to help you, I will.
And I won't take it lightly. But don't talk to me when you are drunk, because being drunk is your problem.
You should know better.

Lou Reed- Don't Talk to me About Work
This is another sore subject.

George Clinton- Tweakin'
Chuck D joins George C for some serious slammin'.
Hookin' into the extra input...

Oingo Boingo- No Spill Blood
Who makes the rules? Someone else!
This is Danny Elfman's old band. Great arrangements and lyrics...now go watch The Forbidden Zone.

The Kinks - Add it Up
So I have done the math, see? And it doesn't add up.
It never does.
I can triple-check it, but it won't help. The error is caused by a constant variable and it all adds up to nothing.

The Stranglers- Ice Queen
I was never sure of the accurate score...and so it goes.

The Damned - Grimly Fiendish
Yep.

The Soft Boys- I Got the Hots for You

Well, yeah, whatever. *yawn* So what else is new?

Meat Puppets- Meat Puppets
It's amazing that the Meat Puppets were allowed to record a second album. Their first one is almost unlistenable.
Their second LP is a modern Lo-Fi classic.
This is from the first album.

Snakefinger- The Model
Former Residents guitarist Snakefinger does a great cover of a Kraftwerk orange.


Lizzy Mercier Descloux - Wawa
Antena - Easy Street
Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls
New Order - Thieves Like Us

I let JY fly solo for a couple cycles while I listened in another room, filling out her evaluation. Before she went on she asked :"Is 'West End Girls' too Top 40?"
I didn't want to admit that I had no idea what a 'Pet Shop Boy' sounds like, so I said, sure, play it.
Now I remember...aaargh...yeah, it is too Top 40.
Nevertheless, I gave her high marks in every category because she earned them- welcome to the station, JY!

Chameleons - Up the Down Escalator
The Go Go's - We Got The Beat
Psychedelic Furs -Sleep Comes Down
Cowboy Junkies - Sweet Jane

JY's second set- The Furs reminds me of...well, nevermind. It's a fond memory.
Whim enjoyed the Chameleons, which I second...thanks for tuning in!

Crack the Sky-All the Things We Do
Am I the only living Crack the Sky fan? These guys were great- they used to play around Baltimore when I was a teen. Terrific band, but I think there were problems-nevertheless , John Palumbo rocks! Meat guitar played with a scalpel, not a cleaver.

Pere Ubu- Bus Called Happiness
It passes without stopping, splashing mud on my trousers as it roars past.
I hear the laughter of aquatic mammals. They are laughing at me.

XTC- Poor Skeleton Steps Out
Joey D. Viver!

Nena- 99 Red Balloons
This song is about nuclear annihilation. Let's take it one step further- how about we divide the world's nukes into two equal piles and place one pile at the North Pole and one at the South Pole?
Bam! The polar icecaps become a gigantic cloud of cleansing radioactive steam! All of humanity's problems are solved in an instant.

Elvis Costello- Poisoned Rose
Dude.

Cocteau Twins- Violane
Years ago , one of my female friends asked me why I liked this CD, they told me that straight punk dudes weren't supposed to like the CT's.
But this CD sounds so good it's impossible for me to dislike. Production...how did you get that sound? I bought my first set of condenser microphones after hearing this record.
That's why I like it.

Talking Heads- Once in A Lifetime
Same as it ever was...


( For deep delving into the video vaults of the 1980's go directly here: the Eighties)
-------------------------------------------

The following morning found me back on-the-air, this time it's my weekly show:
THE NEW BREAKFAST SNOB

Steeleye Span- Blackleg Miner
Feeling like some Celtic beats this morning, this is a recent acquisition and it sets me up nicely.

Fairport Convention- The Way I Feel
This version of the Gordon Lightfoot song is wonderful. The way I feel is not.

Maire Brennan- Beating Heart
Does she mean 'beating heart' as in 'beating a baby seal to death with a baseball bat?'
I don't think so, but that's what I hear anyway.

Claanad- The Other Side
Maire Brennan is the lead singer for this group, which has several members with the surname Brennan. Like a family or something...more great production.

Pentangle - The Hunting Song
"Whoever said, 'the heart is a lonely hunter' should have their head stuffed and mounted above my mantelpiece."
-AB

Velvet Underground- Sunday Morning
Yes it is. This song, like the one before it, features bells. Bells trail off, bells lead in; it's an epic cross-fade.
A beautiful moment of transcendental DJ bliss. I wish someone else had heard it.

Damien Dempsey- The Jar Song
Damien Dempsey sings about getting drunk with the likes of Shane MacGowan...have one for me , boys!

The Kinks - Mr. Pleasant
Last week's listener request, filled too late- which sort of fits with the theme of the song...

Sweetwater- Crystal Spider
Look. I like trippy 60's bands with chick singers. I just do. OK? Sheesh...

The Pretty Things - October 26
If I wanted to/could I depend on you/...my friend?
And the guitar sadly shakes it's head and walks away.

Loreena McKennitt- Caravanserai
I want to be a Druid. Really, that's how good this is.

Tom Waits- Shake
If you bastards don't behave, Tom is gonna show up at your door with a gun totin' preacher, a pair of knife-wielding hookers and a wagon-full of hot tubes. Enough!

Eleanor McCovey- Whisper and Prayer
Haven't I heard this somewhere before? It all sounds familiar.

The Wipers- No One Wants an Alien
Yeah. I know that. I really do.

Jade Warrior- Three Horned Dragon King
This record has an op-art pinwheel on the label instead of a song list. When it spins, you get dizzy if you look at it. Groovy.

The Alan Parsons Project- The Raven
I feel a strong affinity with E. Allan Poe and I love Alan Parsons' production.
I should do an 'all-Allan' show one day...oh, nevermind. I did that last year.

The Stranglers- The Raven
I LOVE the Stranglers. A lot. Angry keypunk! And that bass has serious growls, like a hungry Tyrannosaurus, y'hear that?

King Crimson- Model Man
Look for the signs/ look for the symptoms...
Not a model man/not a saviour or a saint/imperfect in a word/make no mistake
but I/give you everything I have/ take me as I am ...

Dude.That and two bucks will get you a cup of coffee.

The Who - Faith in Something Bigger
Inside ourselves.

Motorhead- I Don't Believe a Word
Neither do I. I want to believe, but I don't. Sorry.

Robyn Hitchcock- Midnight Fish
This album is on opaque white vinyl. That makes it very difficult to see the groovy decay between the songs...it's a good thing that I'm an expert, otherwise playing this could be dangerous.

Television- Prove It
Or not. I already knew that.

Cop Shoot Cop - Two at a Time
Using up your lucky days two at a time...

Neil Young- Welfare Mothers
I really wanted to play this on Mother's Day- my mom had a wicked sense of humour and would have approved- she gave me this album!- but I decided to wait until today.
Neil shoulda got an award for bein' so gentle and extra-sensitive...dee- vorrrr-ceeee...

Be Bop Deluxe- Panic in the World
The more things change, the more they don't.

Capt. Beefheart- Crazy Little Thing
How'd ya get a name like Crazy Little Thing? Maybe it was the name that drove you crazy all along

Pere Ubu- Nobody Knows
Sure they do. They just don't care.

Jethro Tull- Teacher
Ah, there's slight problem with your term paper. You see, I Googled your subject- Franco's rebellion- and it appears that you just printed an entire article from Wikipedia.
Leaving the URL at the bottom of the printed page was a dead giveaway.
Still, I'm giving you a C-minus just so I don't have to look at your stupid face next year.

Them Bones

" Success is not no violence."

UPDATE: This is just a piece of political 'filler' I did because Dubya's incoherence, wrong-headedness and incompetence fills me with great pain. This blog really isn't about politics anymore, but thanks for visiting anyway.
___________________

I guess my willpower isn't as strong as I thought.

Somehow I fooled myself into believing that I could just walk away and never look back- but it's never that easy, is it?

So here I am. Alone with the cable news and Godzilla help me I'm gonna do it because I can't stop it.
Lou Dobbs is my enabler.
I'm writing about politics again. Just a quick one, then I'll quit again. Promise.
Oh hey, sorry about the last time.

No one can see me if I don't hit publish, I think, and my battle is lost. Another tab opens, another set of headlines are scanned...and I wait for the rush.

And wait.

It's a rush alright. A torrent of sewage loosed from the cancerous bowels of Hell.

I can't believe I used to enjoy this. But it begins again:

The 222-203 vote to override Bush's veto fell far short of the two-thirds needed, effectively killing the $124 billion supplemental appropriations bill.

George Bush is still President? How is that possible?

He just said this when asked about the ongoing collapse of Iraqi society- I quote:

" Success is not no violence."

My shame and despair deepens to an almost unknowable depth.

I feel the need to hurt myself.

" Success is not no violence."
" Success is not no violence."
" Success is not no violence."
" Success is not no violence."


I guess it's only fitting that he describes his goals using a double negative.

"" Success is not no violence." =" Success is violence."

Mission Accomplished.

He continues:

There are parts of our own country that have got a certain level of violence to it.But success is a level of violence where the people feel comfortable about living their daily lives. And that’s what we’re trying to achieve. And that’s what we’re trying to achieve.

What level of "comfortable" violence is acceptable to you? Your family? I'm hoping none.
Were the Va. Tech shootings "comfortable?"
Worse things happen in Baghdad every single day-
why is it acceptable there but shocking here?

A War Child's Portfolio

When I was child we had a war. It was very far away and nobody seemed to understand what it was about. We heard about it every day because of the daily, detailed body counts, enemy and friendly ; this helped teach us the idea that some lives are worth more than others.

Between 'Nam bodycounts and Apollo Missions, I watched Planet of the Apes and Godzilla movies, so it was only natural that I'd write comic books featuring war between Apes and Dinosaurs, wars often fought in outer space.

My mother somehow managed to save some of them- she was literally homeless for months at a time, yet she held onto these. She's been dead nearly ten years and I am just now finding the strength to sort through the few possessions she left behind, but it's something I need to do.

Often, I find myself paralyzed with memory.

It's hard to deal with, but I want to share something that is important- to me anyway. It's a little lesson about how kids see war.
Let's start with one of my kiddie comics:


No big deal , right? Kids like war movies and monster movies- and by the time ( 1973?) I drew this , I already had a good idea of the difference between fake war and real war.

In real wars, you never got to see the grown-ups that you liked again- or if you did, they were never as much fun to be around after they were done with their war as they were before they went.

In fake wars, you got to see the adults later, in other movies, and they never stayed dead very long.

In my fake wars, dead was dead. When we played 'war' in the schoolyard I would argue that you don't stand up after you get 'shot'- you die and you stay that way.
In my comics, nobody won the wars, the only result was a dry recitation of casualties. Just numbers, really. I even blew up a planet in one story, which was years before Star Wars...

Apes and dinosaurs. Surely that's just a young child's fanciful imagination, right?

See for yourself:

In the circle in the bottom right hand corner it says "Make War No More. Peace". Even as a kid, I knew right from wrong, and war is almost always wrong.

Those bodycounts are among the most vivid memories I have of childhood- when I picture our old black and white Zenith console, I see a collage of Cronkite, NASA and 'Nam...countdown to lift-off, backwards to Zero; count forward to death, tick, tick, it's OK because more of them died than of us; who's playing? Kent State vs. Khe Sanh? March into madness...

Anyway, I was looking at those old scribblings as I was watching a cable news show called "This Week in War"- like it was a Sports show or something- and sure enough, there were the same old bodycounts...this time they move and blink and come with fancy animations, but it's still the same old death-as-numbers...and the more death we see the number we become.

That numbness may be the only thing saving us from madness.From noticing the madness, anyway.

In my mother's things I found another drawing. It's from a few years later and it scares the hell out of me because it's mine and I don't want anything to do with it.
There are parts of my life that I just cannot remember at all and this picture is part of that.

That blood disturbs me- thirty years after this drawing, I had boozed my insides into leaky, blood-soaked Swiss Cheese, and a fair amount of it came up through my mouth, nose and even my ears.
My hospital gown was the same color as that of the figure in drawing.

My question to parents: What would you do if your 10-year old drew a picture like the one above?
My mom took off, re-married and stayed away for years - she took this picture with her.

Was she hiding it?

To protect me?
To protect her?
Who? Why?

I'll never know.

I feel helpless.

While Rome Burns

This is a start, but it's a little slow and it's a little late. And it contains a lot of unnecessary political timidity:

The White House is likely to face its most significant confrontation with Congress so far over its handling of the Iraq war after House Democrats agreed on Thursday on plans to debate a simple resolution next week that would oppose the escalation of the war but express support for funding the troops already on the ground

No rational person would interpret opposition of troop escalation as a lack of support for our troops, be they on the ground in Iraq, at home or elsewhere.
The argument that opposing the escalation is somehow 'unpatriotic' is absurd. It's a last desperate to defend the indefensible.
Listen to this bullshit:

However, John Boehner, House minority leader, attacked the coming debate as "nothing more than political theatre that means nothing. And I believe that it demoralises our troops in the field."

I would point out that sending our already tired soldiers and Marines back to Baghdad for a third or fourth deployment demoralises our troops.

Perhaps living in a state of kill or be killed for weeks and months on end in a strange and hostile land , bearing daily witness to carnage and brutality - while trying to do your duty for a President who gleefully proclaims: "you ain't coming home while I'm the Decider"- perhaps that is demoralising.

A case could be made that long, repeated deployments overseas can have terrible consequences at home.
.

" Since the 2003 invasion, divorce rates in the military have skyrocketed, with a 28 percent increase among enlisted, and almost 80 percent among officers, according to MSNBC. Experts estimate that there will be at least 100,000 war-related divorces by the time the war ends. The veterans and military families here today say that, for them, "It never will."

Divorce is demoralising.
PTSD is disturbing.
Orphans are a bummer.
And lets not talk about bombs or the nerve impulses of severed limbs.

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And lets not mention global warming.
There's still quite a few Republicans who claim that there's no man-made climate change.
They don't seem to understand that this is no joke.
To this delusional Congressman, our global crisis is little more than a fart joke:

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., an outspoken skeptic of global warming, questioned whether the temperature changes weren't cyclical.

"We don't know what the other cycles were caused by in the past," he said. "It could be dinosaur flatulence. Who knows?"

Haha. Very funny. Maybe it's cow farts. Maybe it's an old lady in West, Texas. Maybe building more coal plants will solve all our pollution problems:

The official treaty to curb greenhouse-gas emissions hasn't gone into effect yet and already three countries are planning to build nearly 850 new coal-fired plants, which would pump up to five times as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as the Kyoto Protocol aims to reduce.

And if there is such a thing as global warming- which there isn't,of course- it's Nancy Pelosi's fault, according to an increasingly desperate sounding GOP who would rather talk about anything but the Iraq:

The jet that Pelosi has produces 10,000 pounds of carbon dioxide an hour, far more than the previous speaker used," said Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C. Pelosi's predecessor was Rep. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.

Flying in a large Air Force plane, Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., said, "appears to remove any spending controls from our operations and dramatically increases our impact on the environment especially climate change."

This attack was so absurd it caused the White House to issue a true statement to the media, setting a historical precedent for the Bush administration.

... presidential spokesman Tony Snow, "This is a silly story and I think it's been unfair to the speaker."

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You know, if we could do this :

...(and include Cheney as an accomplice) then Nancy Pelosi would be President.

Then she could use Air Force One.