Frankly Speaking

Let's shoot this .50 cal at that piece of iron over there.

Hilarity ensues. Idiot is lucky he's alive.

Labels: gun control, pointless silliness

I'm in a little challenge with some friends, and I need your input. We're having a contest to see who can compile the best 16 track Ultimate Rock CD.

So, if you have any suggestions for songs that should be on this list, please leave them in the comments.

They don't have to be the best rock songs ever, just make the greatest mix.

What I have so far, in no particular order..

1. Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty - Strop Dragging My Heart Around


2. Golden Earring - Radar Love


3. Aerosmith - Dream On


4. The Beatles - Come Together


5. Marilyn Manson - Tainted Love


6. Pearl Jam - Better Man


7. Wreckless Eric - Whole Wide World


8. Rammstein - Mann Geggen Mann


9. Justin Timberlake - Bringing Sexy Back

Okay, that last one is just to see if you're paying attention. But now you see what I'm going for. I would like to mix some newer stuff with some old rock and give them something that leaves them guessing, never knowing what might come on next.

Those who help don't win anything, but you get my eternal gratitutde. And isn't helping your fellow man what it's all about, anyway?

Update
And just to get you in the mood, block out the next 8:48 and watch ZZ Top do their thing with La Grange. If you can watch this and not at least tap your feet, you have no soul.

Labels: all about me

Liz Claiborne died today at 78.

Women are asked to wear their purses at the elbow in her honor.


I know, I'm an asshole for making a joke out of her dying, but I couldn't resist.

Labels: pointless silliness

Operation Arrowhead Ripper is underway. The fighting is not perfect, but we are sending dozens of terrorists off to meet their 72 virgins, so I'm very happy.

If the only war news you get is from ABC, CBS, NBC or FOX, then you should also check outMichael Yon's latest dispatch. The man is doing the job that the MSM refuses to do. He deserves every commendations that can possibly be awarded him.

And, just as the surge begins rally kicking the shit out of Al-Qaeada, Dick Lugar pipes up to criticize the war. Dick. Your name is Dick, isn't it? You are a fucking moron.

Why is it that people are scared of good news? Do they not realize that we are in a war, and winning it would be a good thing. Maybe they ought to try seeing how it's actually going before opening their pie-hole in front of a camera.

Our government is full of some of the most spineless pussies the world has ever seen.

Labels: governmental idiocy, Iraq, war

Those crazy in the Taliban are at it again. This time they recruited a 6 year old boy as a suicide bomber.

Juma said that sometime last month Taliban fighters forced him to wear a vest they said would spray out flowers when he touched a button. He said they told him that when he saw American soldiers, "throw your body at them."

The militants cornered Juma in a Taliban-controlled district in southern Afghanistan's Ghazni province. Their target was an impoverished youngster being raised by an older sister — but also one who proved too street-smart for their plan.

"When they first put the vest on my body I didn't know what to think, but then I felt the bomb," Juma told The Associated Press as he ate lamb and rice after being introduced to the elders at this joint U.S.-Afghan base in Ghazni. "After I figured out it was a bomb, I went to the Afghan soldiers for help."

What do you know, a vest that sprays flowers. I'm sure they were just promoting good will among the nations. The Taliban, of course, denies the story.

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, denied the militant group uses child fighters, saying it has hundreds of adults ready for suicide missions.

"We don't need to use a child," Ahmadi told the AP by satellite phone. "It's against Islamic law, it's against humanitarian law. This is just propaganda against the Taliban."

Perhaps they haven't seen these pictures on My Pet Jawa of a 12 year old being walked through beheading a man.

But like Rosie says, "Who are the real terrorists?"

Labels: jihadistan

Okay, let me get this out of the way first; yes, it's cute. They played off the Soprano's finale, we all get it.

We can all appreciate Hillary as the gangster, staring down someone in a diner. Hell, just look at the long list of people who had their lives squashed during the Clinton Presidency. But does anyone for a second believe that these two ever actually sit down together and speak to each other civilly? Because that is one act I am just not buying.

Point number B. Bill Clinton is an ex-President of the United States. I didn't vote for him, but it doesn't change the fact that he was in the office. Now, can anyone tell me that they can picture any other ex-President doing a spot like this? Can you see George H. W. Bush, Reagan, Carter, Ford, or Nixon sitting in a diner and talking about Smashmouth?

Okay, Nixon said, "Sock it to me" on Laugh In, which is almost comparable. But somehow it seems a little classier. Maybe I'm just prejudiced because I always liked ol' Tricky Dick.

This is just one more in a long line of stunts for the Clintons to try to appear "cool". It started with Bill playing the saxophone on the Arsenio Hall show, followed by the infamous "boxers or briefs" question on MTV, and has culminated in this ad in which the mantle is being passed on to the next Clinton hopeful.

Hopefully we all have enough sense to vote for someone else. And by someone else, I really mean anyone but Hillary, D or R. Hell, I might even support a Ron Paul presidency over Hillary.

Labels: presidential politics

Last week a thirteen year old girl had her feet cut off on the Superman Tower of Power* ride at Louisville, Kentucky's Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom.

I have been to Kentucky Kingdom, before and after it was bought by Six Flags. I rode the Tower of Power back when it was called the Hellevator, and let me tell you, it deserved the name.

I like roller coasters. I like being being a little afraid on a ride. When something scares me, I try to do it anyway, because I don't like being afraid. But that ride scared the hell out of me. I screamed like a little girl the entire time, and got laughed at by all the little girls around me who thought it was the greatest thing ever invented.

Well, who's laughing now, huh?

If you really want to scare yourself into never going to another amusement park, check out this site.

I know I'm making light of this, but I really cannot fathom what that poor girl and her family are going through. In an instant their lives were changed forever. I would be willing to bet that there is going to be an extremely large check coming their way in the not too distant future.


*You have no idea how badly I want to make some jokes here that reference Frank Zappa's "Bobby Brown", but I'll refrain.

Labels: general rants

Apparently I was taking most of this week off.

Labels: all about me

A rampaging squirrel in Germany, with a foul temperament and big, sharp, nasty teeth*, attacked and injured 3 before being brought done.

The squirrel first ran into a house in the southern town of Passau, leapt from behind on a 70-year-old woman, and sank its teeth into her hand, a local police spokesman said on Thursday.

With the squirrel still hanging from her hand, the woman ran onto the street in panic, where she managed to shake it off.

The animal then entered a building site and jumped on a construction worker, injuring him on the hand and arm, before he managed to fight it off with a measuring pole.

"After that, the squirrel went into the 72-year-old man's garden and massively attacked him on the arms, hand and thigh," the spokesman said. "Then he killed it with his crutch."

How many times do we have to talk about the dangers of restricting gun ownership? See what happened here? If just one of these people had been allowed to carry a concealed weapon, this could have all been averted. We can all be thankful that he was resourceful enough to go for his crutch, or who knos how much damage this squirrel could have done.

As it is, these poor senior citizens will never be able to enjoy sitting in the park, feeding the squirrels again.

Thank G-d I live in a state that allows me to carry so that I can defend myself should any squirrel ever make the mistake of going after my nuts.


*Gratuitous Monty Python reference. How could I not?

In case you couldn't tell, this was sarcasm. I don't really believe any of that, but it's Friday and I'm feeling silly

Labels: gun control

I was reading Seph!'s blog the other day, and she was discussing music. In the comments it was disclosed that she was a closet Neil Diamond fan. So I guess I should come out, too. Yes, I've been a life long fan. I'll not be throwing my boxers on stage, but I do enjoy his music.

So here, for your guilty pleasure, are a few of my favorites.

Sweet Caroline


Cracklin' Rosie


Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show


And of course, Coming To America


You may now point and laugh.

Labels: all about me, music

Pay close attention to this commercial. Everything in it is a metaphor. I had to watch it a few times to catch a few of them. I'll give you a clue, though. The opening scene is a shower, and it's golden. You do the math.

Labels: pointless silliness

You have GOT to read this story on Fox News about Angelina Jolie's dedication to freedom of the press. I mean, in her latest film she plays the wife of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl, so she's got to be pretty hip on freedom of the press, right? Oh, but the hypocrisy is thick on this one.

Reporters were asked to agree to "not ask Ms. Jolie any questions regarding her personal relationships. In the event Interviewer does ask Ms. Jolie any questions regarding her personal relationships, Ms. Jolie will have the right to immediately terminate the interview and leave."

The agreement also required that "the interview may only be used to promote the Picture. In no event may Interviewer or Media Outlet be entitled to run all or any portion of the interview in connection with any other story. ... The interview will not be used in a manner that is disparaging, demeaning, or derogatory to Ms. Jolie."

If that wasn't enough, Jolie also requires that if any of these things happen, "the tape of the interview will not be released to Interviewer." Such a violation, the signatory thus agrees, would "cause Jolie irreparable harm" and make it possible for her to sue the interviewer and seek a restraining order.

She makes interviewers sign a contract stipulating what they can ask her about and how the tape can be used, or she walks and takes the tape with her. The story also outlines how Angelina and Brad squashed the press while in Namibia for the birth of their daughter.

It's all fun and interesting stuff, and you should keep it in mind next time she is playing goodwill ambassador and pontificating on how the rest of us should act.

Labels: celebutants, hollywood

A clip from Leno demonstrating just what constitutes "news" these days.

Labels: Iraq, mediots

I was going to wait until Friday to post this song, but after reading this post by Scott Chafin, I have to share it today.

Scott was posting about the idiot Roy Pearson, a judge, who is suing for getting the wrong pants at the Chinese laundry.

“These are not my pants,” Pearson recalled telling Chung when she handed him a pair of gray pants with cuffs. “I have in my adult life, with one exception, never worn pants with cuffs.”

“And she said, ‘These are your pants.’ ”

Pearson paused. He struggled to breathe deeply. He could not continue. Pearson blurted a request for a break, stood up, turned around and walked out of the courtroom, tears dripping from his full and reddened eyes

Reading the line "These are not my pants" I immediately began singing the song "These are not my pants" by Five Iron Frenzy. I'm sure most of you have never heard of them, but it's another one of my weird musical tastes.

I'm posting the video below, and you really need to listen to the entire thing. They go through half a dozen musical styles in the course of one song, and it absolutely cracks. me. up. I've watched this video, and you should forgo watching it. It's really, really bad. Just start it playing and then go on to something else while you listen to it. Trust me.

I've seen them in concert two or three times, and every time there will be at least one person in the audience wearing a white tee with "These are not my pants" scrawled across it. I'm telling you, it never gets old.

Labels: feminization of America, music

Brace yourselves, but I'm going to link to something on HuffPo, and I'm also talking about it favorably.

I'll wait while you get over the shock.

This piece by Jamie Lee Curtis (yes, the actress) is a great look at feminism and motherhood. Not that I've ever been either, but I still found it an interesting look at the Paris saga as it relates to raising a child in America. Especially a celebrity child.

Labels: celebutants, required reading

It's a few weeks old, but check out this interview with Gene Simmons about Iraq, racial profiling, and Hollywood.

Here's a little taste. When asked about Hollywood visiting soldiers, he had this to say.

It's not the policies and the bills; it's how we treat our military. It's how we treat our young men or women who go out there, at 18 years old, and risk their lives. There's no fame, they're certainly not getting rich, and a lot of them are dying, simply for something they believe. By the way, it's a volunteer army, all volunteer. The fact that anybody would have a fucking thing to say about that is astonishing. And the VA hospital that Sophie and I went to, it's about an hour and a half down the road from Malibu. These morons can't get up off their asses and out of their $10 million homes, get into their SUVs, and drive down to the VA hospital just to say, "Hey, what you do matters." Doesn't matter what they think of President Bush. It matters that 18-year-olds are getting out there and risking their lives. I didn't see a single person there. That's the most embarrassing thing. I'm furious at Hollywood.

I've always been a fan, but now I am really loving Gene.

Labels: hollywood

Okay, we've all seen the above example of how poor grammar can change the meaning of a sentence. Why, oh why is it so hard for news organizations to learn this lesson?

I was just reading this story about the idiots who beat a teenager to death over some text messages sent to someone's girlfriend. I clicked the link to read the story details, when I ran across this sentence.

A third teen with Jones and Bankston fled when the fight started to call for help.

So the teen fled after the fight started to call for help? When was the last time you heard a fight call for help? I've heard fights grunt and yell, but I've never heard one call for help. Uless it was calling for someone else to jump in and help kick this punk's ass.

I know I am not exactly the king of the English language, but come on, they get paid for producing work like this.

Labels: general rants, mediots

You gotta love it when the hopes and dreams of a large segment of the population are dashed to pieces against the hard rocks of facts.

In this case, it's the "fact" that driving a Toyota Prius will save the environment. The truth, as it turns out, is that you're better off driving a Hummer if you want to save the planet.

The piece by Chris Demorrow lays out in excruciating detail just why the feel good Prius is actually a very bad investment, and quite bad for the environment. This is a little long, but well worth the read.

As already noted, the Prius is partly driven by a battery which contains nickel. The nickel is mined and smelted at a plant in Sudbury, Ontario. This plant has caused so much environmental damage to the surrounding environment that NASA has used the ‘dead zone’ around the plant to test moon rovers. The area around the plant is devoid of any life for miles.

The plant is the source of all the nickel found in a Prius’ battery and Toyota purchases 1,000 tons annually. Dubbed the Superstack, the plague-factory has spread sulfur dioxide across northern Ontario, becoming every environmentalist’s nightmare.

“The acid rain around Sudbury was so bad it destroyed all the plants and the soil slid down off the hillside,” said Canadian Greenpeace energy-coordinator David Martin during an interview with Mail, a British-based newspaper.

All of this would be bad enough in and of itself; however, the journey to make a hybrid doesn’t end there. The nickel produced by this disastrous plant is shipped via massive container ship to the largest nickel refinery in Europe. From there, the nickel hops over to China to produce ‘nickel foam.’ From there, it goes to Japan. Finally, the completed batteries are shipped to the United States, finalizing the around-the-world trip required to produce a single Prius battery. Are these not sounding less and less like environmentally sound cars and more like a farce?

Wait, I haven’t even got to the best part yet.

When you pool together all the combined energy it takes to drive and build a Toyota Prius, the flagship car of energy fanatics, it takes almost 50 percent more energy than a Hummer - the Prius’s arch nemesis.

So the Prius may be environmentally friendly once rubber hits the road, but manufacturing this little devil decimates the environment. G-d you have just got to love the irony.

Through a study by CNW Marketing called “Dust to Dust,” the total combined energy is taken from all the electrical, fuel, transportation, materials (metal, plastic, etc) and hundreds of other factors over the expected lifetime of a vehicle. The Prius costs an average of $3.25 per mile driven over a lifetime of 100,000 miles - the expected lifespan of the Hybrid.

The Hummer, on the other hand, costs a more fiscal $1.95 per mile to put on the road over an expected lifetime of 300,000 miles. That means the Hummer will last three times longer than a Prius and use less combined energy doing it.

That sound you hear is Leonardo DeCaprio softly weeping as his beloved Prius is drug through the industrial sludge of its legacy.

If you really want to save the planet, you will all immediately demolish your Prius' and go buy a Hummer. It's the responsible thing to do.

Labels: inconvenient truth

Actually, I'm big everywhere. I mean, I'm 6' 3" tall and 240+ pounds, so that qualifies as big. But recently I'm getting a lot of hits from New Jersey. Specifically, Mt. Laurel, New Jersey.

I just thought that was interesting. You may now resume your search for pr0n.

Labels: all about me

Harry Reid pwned by Dennis Miller.

Ouch. Very ouch.

Labels: media

It's time again for me to share the music that has shaped my life. Today I'm going to focus on one group, because I've been a fan for quite a while. The Beastie Boys.


I was like 16 when Fight For Your Right was released, and I loved it immediately. My father, of course, hated it. All the more reason for me to play it as loudly and as often as possible.



Paul Revere. I cannot even tell you how many times I've heard this song in my life. It was a must play for every road trip for several of my friends.



And finally, Intergalactic. I know this is a lot newer than the others, but it is still one of my favorites. It's also the only song off of Hello Nasty that gets any play on my mp3 player / computer.

Yes, I own the Beastie Boys Anthology. I know that they are a bunch of raging leftists, but I don't care. Their music is just too much fun.

Now excuse me while I let the beat.. ummm.. drop!

Labels: music

I live blogged the Democrat debate (if you can call watching it for all of 5 minutes live blogging) but forgot to add my coverage of the Republican debate.

So, without further adieu, I give you my take on the Republican debate.

I went out to eat instead. And took some pictures of downtown Austin. And some bats.

How's that for a die-hard Republican like me?

Labels: all about me, presidential politics

Please pardon the expression, but I am totally in love with this woman.

Back story, two idiots were disrupting Northwest Airlines flight 470 when the following occurred.

Shortly before landing, Bob Hayden and a flight attendant had agreed on a signal: When she waved the plastic handcuffs, he would discreetly leave his seat and restrain an unruly passenger who had frightened some of the 150 people on board a Minneapolis-to-Boston flight Saturday night with erratic behavior.

Hayden, a 65-year-old former police commander, had enlisted a gray-haired gentleman sitting next to him to assist. The man turned out to be a former US Marine.

"I had looked around the plane for help, and all the younger guys had averted their eyes. When I asked the guy next to me if he was up to it, all he said was, 'Retired captain. USMC.' I said, 'You'll do,' " Hayden recalled. "So, basically, a couple of grandfathers took care of the situation."

Now for the good part. While her husband was running down the aisle and taking down the two idiots, Katie Hayden never looked up from the book she was reading.

Hayden's wife of 42 years, Katie, who was also on the flight, was less impressed. Even as her husband struggled with the agitated passenger, she barely looked up from "The Richest Man in Babylon," the book she was reading.

"The woman sitting in front of us was very upset and asked me how I could just sit there reading," Katie Hayden said. "Bob's been shot at. He's been stabbed. He's taken knives away. He knows how to handle those situations. I figured he would go up there and step on somebody's neck, and that would be the end of it. I knew how that situation would end. I didn't know how the book would end."

Emphasis mine.

I love this woman. "I figured he would go step on somebody's neck, and that would be the end of it." That, as I said in the title, is one tough broad. There's no other way to say it.

Labels: general rants, military

What would the battle of Normandy look like if it took place June 6, 2007 instead of 63 years earlier. Next time you're watching coverage of the current war, compare it to this.

Some stats about Normandy to consider on the 63rd anniversary. (I know it was yesterday, but I was traveling).

Over 425,000 Allied and German troops were killed, wounded or went missing during the Battle of Normandy. This means over 209,000 Allied casualties, with nearly 37,000 dead ground forces and a further 16,714 deaths in the Allied air forces. Of the Allied casualties, 83,045 were from 21st soldier Group (British, Canadian and Polish ground forces), 125,847 from the US ground forces. The losses of the Axis troops during the Battle of Normandy can only be estimated, about 200,000 German troops were killed or wounded. The Allies also captured 200,000 prisoners of war (not included in the 425,000 total, above). During the fighting around the Falaise Pocket by itself, the Germans suffered losses of around 90,000, including prisoners.

h/t Blackfive

Labels: war

Score yet another one for celebrity status. After being incarcerated for 3 days (5 if you count like the sheriff), Paris Hilton has been released from jail. The sheriff cites medical reasons. The press, to their credit, asked if he had been played by her crying.

...“What’s your comment to people who say she played you like a puppet on a string — she came in here, didn’t like it, it was hard and she got out?” he replied, “Once again, I just think that’s a different way of saying it, only the language is a little more — liquid. I would simply say that I understand that."

But don't worry, she still has to wear an ankle bracelet that only allows her 3,000 - 4,000 feet of movement. I'm sure her house is larger than that. This despite the fact that the judge in the original sentencing said that, "...she would not be allowed any work release, furloughs or use of an alternative jail or electronic monitoring in lieu of jail."

So really, if you want to get out of your sentence, there are a few steps you have to take.

1) Be a rich heiress
2) Cry a lot and receive daily visits from your psychiatrist
3) I'm sure doing some work on your knees doesn't hurt any, either. No wonder the sheriff was in such a good mood.

But I'm sure those 3 days in jail have taught her a valuable lesson about paying your debt to society.

Labels: celebutants

I leave Austin bright and early tomorrow morning, but I am already in love with this city. I'm getting ready to head out and take some pictures, but I had to tell you about supper last night. I ate at Eddie V's Edgewater Grill downtown, and oh. my. G-d. was it good. Monday night happy hour all appetizers are half off, so we drank Shiner Bock and ate appetizers until we could barely walk out of the place.

I can heartily endorse the following.

Tartare of Pacific Ahi
Seasoned with Sesame & Curry Oils with Sliced Avocado, Citrus Fruits and Crispy Onion Crackers

Maryland-Style All-Fresh-Lump Crab Cake
With Spicy Remoulade Sauce

Georges Bank Scallops in Tempura
Wok-Seared Asparagus & Shiitakes, Honey-Black Bean Glaze

Seared, Pacific Ahi Tuna
Soba Noodle & Shitake Stir Fry, Light Soy Broth

We also had a calamri salad, and the calamari literally melted in your mouth.

The Scallops were definitely the best thing we ate, though. I told the waiter to bring an order every 5 minutes until someone passed out, and then make it every 10 minutes. (Bonus points if you know where that quote came from) We ended up only getting two orders, but they were so good. Even with half price appetizers, we still spent $150 on dinner, but it was money well spent.

Now I'm off to capture the city on film compactflash card.

Labels: all about me

Well, I made it to Austin.. finally. Storms were blowing through DFW, so my flight was delayed by about 3 hours. I've made it to the hotel, had dinner at Hooters (because it happens to be right next door. Incidentally, how come every time I eat at Hooters I get the pregnant waitress? I mean, it's not that she was ugly or anything, but you don't go to Hooters to look at belly.)

Anyway, let's see about this debate. I just turned it on, and Richardson is talking about his Heroes Health Card. I'm bored already.

Flipping channels.

Giraldo is discussing Paris going to jail. I just threw up in my mouth a little.

AMCTV is showing Fast Times At Ridgemont High. I have that on DVD, so I'll skip the edited for tv version.

Oh look, Titanic is on. Nowhere near the boobies, moving on.

HBO is showing Over The Hedge. Anything Wanda Sikes says is funny. Her voice just cracks me up. Moving on.

I am not missing anything by not having television, that's for sure. I'm shutting off the teevee and heading off to bed. I've been up since 2:30 this morning, and I. am. tired.

Labels: all about me

Pill Wellman, manager of the Mississippi Braves, lost his mind Thursday.

They won't let you embed the clip, so go here to watch it. You won't be worry.

Labels: pointless silliness

I was going to write about what is going on in Venezuela, but they've got it covered at Publius Pundit.

One question, though. Am I a bad man because I look at the pictures of the protests and can't help but spend equal amounts of time abhorring what Chavez is doing to the country but also admiring the beauty of Venezuelan women?

Labels: governmental idiocy, pointless silliness

Just because most on the left claim to be atheist doesn't mean that they don't have a religion. I think this pretty much dispels that myth.

Visitors to the Gaia Napa Valley Hotel and Spa won't find the Gideon Bible in the nightstand drawer. Instead, on the bureau will be a copy of "An Inconvenient Truth," former Vice President Al Gore's book about global warming.

The Gaia and the Orchard Garden, 35 miles away in San Francisco, are attempting to be the first hotels in California certified by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Now let me clear this up before anyone accuses me of hating good ol' mother earth. I'm all for conservation. I don't believe in wasting resources just because we can. If they can build a hotel that conserves water and electricity, and still make a profit, then I say good for them. However..

Chang said 43 cities have asked him to build green hotels. Some offer incentives to help cover construction costs, which were about 15 percent more for the Gaia. Chang said it's saving 25 percent on electricity and almost 50 percent on water, which may enable the hotel to turn profitable next month.

American Canyon slashed Gaia's transient occupancy tax by $1 million over three years. Anderson waived a $100,000 environmental impact fee, in part because a green hotel may encourage tourists to stay longer, said Scott Morgan, city manager.

So the Gaia cost about 15 percent more to construct and saves on electricity and water, but isn't yet profitable. I haven't bothered to look up when it was built, so it may still be within what could be considered a reasonable time period to turn profitable. But they also had their tax slashed by $1 million and didn't have to pay a $100,000 environmental impact fee.

But the best line in the entire article, to me anyway, was this one.

"I started thinking that there are many ways I can save water," said Chang, 62. "I changed my shower habit from eight minutes to two minutes."

Then he changed his building habits, after 10 years of developing Holiday Inn and Hilton franchises.

Two minutes? How in the hell do you shower in two minutes? Granted, I'm bald, so I shave in the shower and that takes a few minutes, but how do you lather, rinse, repeat in only two minutes?

I bet he has a certain "air" about him.

Labels: biting sarcasm, inconvenient truth

I originally titled this one "Por La Sierra, Yo Me Voy", but I decided to stick with "Friday Flashback" so as not to confuse anyone. Especially me.

It's Friday again, which means it's time for Friday Flashback. Today's picks are more recent, but songs I really enjoy. The first one is from the opening credits of Desperado. it was written by Los Lobos (who's music I absolutely love) and performed by Antonio Banderas. [Disclaimer]BTW, I had already planned on posting these before I wrote the immigration piece below. I don't want this looking like some kind of attempt to make nice because I enjoy Latin music.[/disclaimer]

I don't know exactly what it is about this song that I like so much. The playing is mediocre, and Antonio should stick to acting, but I still really like this song. It comes up in rotation at my local Mexican restaurant fairly often, and the workers all enjoy laughing at the gringo who sits by himself and sings along. I don't know if they find it funnier that I eat there alone every time, or that I know the lyrics in Spanish, because I don't look like someone who should speak any Spanish. I couldn't look any whiter. Especially when I stop after work and I'm wearing my white man uniform of khakis and a polo shirt. At least I don't have a mini van any more.



This is from one of my favorite albums of all time, Flood by They Might Be Giants. I bought this cassette when it came out in 1990, and I absolutely wore. it. out. I used to listen to it every time I was on the lawn mower, on every road trip, and basically whenever I wanted to feel happy. Istanbul (Not Constantinople), Particle Man, We Want A Rock, and of course the song featured above are some of my favorites. I really need to get this CD, or download the mp3s. It's been too long since I had my fix of TMBG.

And finally, we have Rammstein.

Rammstein is one of my guilty pleasures. Their music is really very simplistic, but the driving guitars and constant drums teamed with the German lyrics totally do it for me. Most of my designated driving cd mixes have Rammstein on there somewhere. Du Hast is one of my favorites, along with Feuer Frei from the XXX soundtrack. Coincidentally, Feuer Frei is one of the redeeming qualities of that movie, the other two are Samuel L. Jackson and the stripper in the castle, because that scene is just hawt.

I can sing along with the lyrics to most of their songs almost as well as I know the Cancion del Mariacha lyrics, I just don't know what most of them mean. That's the curse of High School language classes. I can conjugate the hell out of some verbs, just don't ask me what they mean.

Labels: music

I started respond to Ed's comment in the post below, but it quickly grew too long for a comment, so I'm posting it here.

Insensitive, morally ambiguous, misguided? Yes. Racist? No

That's why I like you, Ed, you don't beat around the bush.

I do understand the plight of the immigrants. I see the crappy countries they are coming from, and understand their desire for a better life for themselves and for their children. But I also understand the need to protect our national sovereignty by being able to control who gets in, and when. Right now we can't even stop a guy infected with TB when we know his name and where he's coming from.

As to my beloved Minutemen, that's a bit of a stretch. However, I have been doing some reading about them, as well. You're right, there are a lot of really stupid people getting involved with this, and I would totally support having a large percentage of them beaten severely about the head and shoulders.

The concept of the minutemen is a good thing. Citizens volunteering to protect the border because, and we all know this part is true, the government can't and won't enforce immigration policy. We both agree on securing our border, and we both know that it's not just innocent, oppressed people who cross the border. I lived within 30 miles of the Mexican border for more than 7 years, and I've seen what happens when the drug cartels start fighting each other, crossing back and forth over the border. Something has to be done to stop that. I understand their desire to help, but if the Minutemen are nothing more than an excuse for people to shoot at Mexicans, than I support whatever bad things happen to them. It's called the rule of law. I still think it should apply to everyone. Someone shoots an illegal just because he's sneaking across the desert, than he ought to be locked up.

The problem I have with the current immigration bill, and the current problem with illegals, is that we should never have gotten into this mess to begin with. There are more than enough laws on the books to address what to do about immigration and illegals. All we've had to do all along is have someone in the White House that was willing to say "Okay, you know the rules, now enforce them" and this would have been stopped 20 years ago. And I'm blaming everyone in this one, from Reagan to W, because none of them have enforced the laws of the land, and this is the result.

The vast majority of Hispanics are completely silent about the idiots who are controlling the immigration debate. You have groups like MECHA, who want to see a large chunk of the U.S. returned to Mexico, as the face of Hispanics and that hurts everyone. Non-Hispanic voters in this country see someone waving a foreign flag, or flying an American flag upside down, and talking about how they want to reclaim their land, and they get pissed off. Whether they happen to be a racist or not.

Anyone who wants to come here legally and work to support themselves is welcome as far as I'm concerned. This is where we get into an argument about whether illegals are a net gain or loss on our economy. They typically work in lower wage earning jobs, meaning we get to keep our cheap labor and lower prices on produce and the likes. However, since they are lower income, they tend to receive more governmental assistance. Does it all balance out in the end? I don't know. I'll leave that up to people smarter than myself to figure out. What I would hope is that they would immigrate, take those lower paying jobs, teach their children the value of hard work and education, and the next generation would then go after an education and work in higher paying jobs, reducing the burden on the government. That, however, seems to be the exception and not the rule. And I'm not limiting that to Hispanics, because I know more Caucasians collecting government money than I do minorities. And a lot of them are 2nd and 3rd generation leeches on the system.

The real problems I have with the current immigration bill aren't that I want to limit immigration, it's with the bill itself. It's too lax in too many areas. It is yet another attempt by politicians to grand stand and show how much compassion they have for the poor minorities without ever actually doing anything to substantively help them. Rewarding the illegals for getting here without getting caught while penalizing those who are trying to follow the legal channels to come sends all the wrong messages to the world.

Why should anyone follow the rules if one segment of the country is exempt from them? Whey should my children pay out of state tuition to attend the college of their choice when illegals can pay in-state? Why should an immigrant from Europe or Asia pay obscene amounts of money to get here legally when the Central or South American gets off with a slap on the wrist just because they don't have an ocean to cross?

What we need is a level playing field. We need to enforce the current laws, and protect our borders. We can have the guest worker program, I have no real problems with that. But don't just allow thousands of Mexicans in to fill those jobs because they happen to be our neighbor. Are Africans less deserving of this opportunity just because they're in Africa? Would they work any less hard? Would they demand higher wages? Don't they deserve the same opportunity at freedom that all these Hispanic illegals want?

If we really wanted to help Mexicans, we should be doing all we can to help them clean up their own country. The rampant corruption and socialism in Mexico makes it nearly impossible for the common man to ever be more than he is. So he looks north and sees a chance at freedom. If I lived there I would probably feel the same way. However, just because I can empathize with their situation doesn't mean that I can condone their breaking the law. Or our refusal to enforce it.

Moving a country from rampant poverty to growing economy is not impossible, but the people have to want it. Just look at India.

For half a century before independence, the Indian economy was stagnant. Between 1900 and 1950, economic growth averaged o.8 percent a year -- exactly the same rate as population growth, resulting in no increase in per capita income. In the first decades after independence, economic growth picked up, averaging 3.5 percent from 1950 to 1980. But population growth accelerated as well. The net effect on per capita income was an average annual increase of just 1.3 percent.

They came from a stagnant economy just 50 years ago to being one of the strongest in the world. If India can do it, so can Mexico. Or Honduras. Or Guatemala.

But they aren't going to do it by sending their work force to American to pick lettuce.

Labels: la migra