Floating a day …

Posted on July 9, 2009 by BoxcarOkie

hammock-large

Out to Lunch …  Check Please.

07-20-09  I could not have said it better if I had said it myself:

“I haven’t been ill. I haven’t been busy (more than usual). I haven’t been on vacation. I haven’t been abducted by agents mundane or alien.

I simply haven’t been here.

There are times when one gets tired of words. Of saying/writing or listening/reading them. And when one gets tired, one has to go away. Distance works wonders.

I don’t know if I will be churning out posts daily anymore. Stimulating the muse is quite a different thing from flogging a dead horse, and pressure has never elicited performance wonders from me.

Stick around, and take it easy.”

The Daily Waffle

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Wednesday Early Morning Musings

Posted on July 8, 2009 by BoxcarOkie

Good morning America, how are ya?  I am here, your native son, I will have gone many miles before this day is done.  An old line from an old song.  A slight breeze waifs across the porch this morning, in the distance a lonely freight pulls the hill at Crossroads, and her whistle pierces the night air. Such a lonely sound.

Early morning.  It is one of those rare occasions when everything seems right with the world, the dogs are not barking, the police helicopter (The Ghetto Bird) is roosted somewhere far away, and the noise of the city isn’t as bad as usual.

Sitting on the porch, like an old well worn sponge, I soak it in.

It is amazing what can happen when you give yourself permission to spend some time alone.  It gives you a chance to think, quietly and without distraction.  Being alone gives you a break, a chance to breathe and to lighten up.

It is the best of times and the worst of times.

Yesterday was good, the best of times, I was invited to write for someone else (a magazine) and my worth as a wordsmith was appreciated, seldom do I receive a notable comment  of such nature.  It was the worst of times, I announced that I was going to pack it in and stop putting out this daily rag, and no one even commented that it would be missed.

Times are hectic, I am busy … Life is filled up with a lot to do.

We can become lost in the task of day-to-day living and just getting here and there.  Well, I am here, I have been here for a long, long time, and I am tired of it.  They say that the average American will purchase three homes in his/her lifetime.  I suppose that is true, you buy the first one, you start the family, and the apparent need for the second bigger house arrives.

You grow old, and you downsize, you have the empty nest to contend with, all of a sudden, it is quiet and much too big.

Such is our lot in life; we have arrived at this juncture in time.  Taking it one step further, I suppose we are fortunate, the wife and I.  We still have a roof over our head after this many years, and we don’t have a lot of company living with us.  A full 11% of American population between the ages of 35-44 are now living at home, during a time when they should be productive wage earners and out on their own.

The MJ (Michael Jackson) thing seems to be over with, at least for right now, and that is good.  Now we can get back to the impotent things in life, Dick Cheney, the economy and the melting Ice Caps, the loss of the polar bears.


climate change

I tire quickly of celebrity news, it is kind of like Chinese Food, okay while you have it, but later on, afterwards, you are going to be hungry for something else.  I don’t understand all of this hoopla over a demented entertainer, another troubled soul from a dysfunctional family, who died begging for another “fix” from his in-house medical staff.

People used to take drugs, now they do them.  And in the end, the results are usually the same …. Tragic.

What a missed opportunity, all that talent, and it all went to waste in the end.  Here is a man who should have had a love affair with life.  All it took was the commitment to reflect upon the miracles of life itself and to remember, each day, how lucky he was just to be alive.

And he tossed it all aside.  Maybe he is better off now, who knows.  Time to move on, morbid reflections upon the dead and departed, is not my strongest suite.

One of the most popular posts on this site is “Men are pigs” it gets a lot of hits, I don’t know why, but it does.  Now new evidence to support this theory has emerged, and it is some 35,000 years old according to the people who have discovered it.

An ivory sculpture that could possibly be the oldest piece of sculpture ever discovered is an erotic sculpture of a voluptuous woman.  The small ivory sculpture dates to an era in which humans first began settling Europe, and depicts a woman with giant breasts, open legs and detailed … uh …. “personals” (vulva).  It also appears that the ancients in our world, were much like us.

Wow, Igor gets a woody and we have conclusive proof.

The sculpture appears to be so sexually exaggerated to the point it is almost pornographic in nature.  It was carved out of the tooth from a “woolly mammoth” and it could have been a pendant on a necklace.  Perhaps it was some kind of fertility symbol?  Found in a German cave, it proves that mankind had the ability to think abstractly and create symbolic art and that caveman had brains like modern humans.

It also proves, that nothing has changed in 40,000 years, men are pigs, they always have been, they always will be.  Makes me wonder:  Did they tell the little woman, that they were going over to the cave next door, but not to worry; it was just to “read” the cave art and nothing more?

2:40 A.M. (CST) … Life and living is good, I don’t care where you live.  Count your blessings.

So much for Wednesday, under a clear full-moon-lit sky.  Another Hump Day for a five-day-minimum wage slave in Oklahoma, hang in there, you almost have it made.

OOO

“The cartoon courtesy of Center for American Progress” (online)

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Something Stinks

Posted on July 7, 2009 by BoxcarOkie

Smells badSomething Is Rotten In San Jose.  A California office building was evacuated when someone tried to clear out the rotten food from the office refrigerator.  In the end, a total of 18 emergency vehicles’, 50 fireman, and numerous hazmat teams responded to the AT & T Call Center in San Jose.

All this a direct result of someone trying to clean out the office refrigerator.

The stench from the refrigerator was overwhelming and it cleared the building of some 325 employees into the parking lot, seven persons  sought medical attention at a local hospital.  Veteran firefighter Capt suspects the putrid, liquefied item was originally some kind of meat.  He also added that “sometimes meat, a dog or a human, when the all start to rot, it is a horrible thing.”

Thank you Capt. for passing that information on.

Sort of reminds me of an old joke.  A lady, selling cosmetic’s is riding up in an elevator and she has to pass gas, so she lets it fly!  She then reaches into her bag of items, and pulls out some pine scented room deodorizer and sprays it generously around the confines of the elevator. A few floors later, the doors open, and a drunk gets on. He immediately starts to sniff …. Sniff, sniff and then he turns and looks at the lady.

She says to him, “Is there anything wrong?” and the drunk replies, “Uh, I dunno.  Does it kind of smell like a pine tree farted in here to you?”

As for San Jose?  Mama always kept a open box of Arm &  Hammer in the refrig, and it seemed to do the job.  That must have been some powerful smell. It could be much worse, you could be living in India for instance.  India has 41 cities that are now currently over 1 million in population.  The rapid growth of these mega-cities is overwhelming municipal services, leaving many with mounds of rotting trash, sewage flowing directly into polluted rivers and middle class neighborhoods that are now encircled by slums.  Count your blessings.

Here is something else that stinks.

The way America is doing business is pathetic.  Now let me set the stage for you.  If you are late on a bill, you pay a penalty, if you are late on a credit card, thirty-nine bucks, late on your house, penalty and possible forfeiture.  Now I have routinely ordered stuff here lately and it was promised by a certain time, but isn’t delivered.  I ordered some plastic, promised by Friday on the third Friday I complain and they give it to me the next day.  I have some upholstery work being done, promised in two weeks, it is now in the FIFTH WEEK and I don’t know when I am going to receive it.

Now here is the rub, they take our business, and our money, but they do not deliver on time, or anything resembling close to the promised date, and they still charge us FULL PRICE for the item, when we pick it up, sometimes literally weeks later. That sucks.  It is no wonder we are considered a debt ridden cheap third world country.

Check this one out, this will scare the **** out of you.  The co-pilot of the regional air carrier Coligan Air that crashed in Buffalo in February was making about $16,000 per year.  Now consider this, the average truck driver in the USA makes about $40,000 per year and a city bus driver, $31,720.00.  I don’t know about you, but I want “well paid happy people up there in the cockpit” not someone who is worried about how he is going to pay his VISA Card or Cable TV bill.

Not being a big fan of airports and all that, I don’t believe I have all that much to worry about. You however might have reason for concern.  But for me, I know I am not flying any more, my flying days are over.  Another thing, all of this airport security, the questions, intrusion, screenings, searches is just one more way of reducing your liberty in this country.

Thank John Ashcroft and the Patriot Act, Bush and company, for that.

They are just reminding you that they can still **** with you any time they want.  American’s are like that, they will trade off what little of their freedom they have left, in exchange for the feeling … the illusion … of security. That is the way we are, in our minds, we create absolute, point-to-point cause–and-effect assumptions about things when, in fact, there’s really nothing holding those assumption in place other than our own thinking.  We are no safer now than the day when the twin towers came tumbling down, we just like to “think we are.”

Think about it.

Lot of Internet chat rooms and sites talking about the MJ (Michael Jackson) thing.  Asking people “for their opinion on it.”  Which always strikes me funny, they ask for the opinion, and when someone gives it, they flame them for it because they do not agree with it.

Let’s see …. Let’s all pool our ignorance and form an opinion.

Someone said it much better than I could.  They said:  “The rhetoric of the rant is the dominant form of public comment on the Internet, where the pithy, personal, scatological attack has become a minor art form, rather like sculpting excrement.”

That should about sum it up.

Next?

I have been invited to submit articles for a Bus Conversion Magazine in Florida.  It is nice to be recognized for your talents, and it makes one feel somewhat special.  I have often written bus related items on the side and have not posted them here.

We are soon to move to the country, and we will have no cable service or Internet.  I am not sure I want to pursue sat. Internet service or Dish TV at this time, it is kind of up in the air, I may in fact, shut it all down and retire from posting and writing altogether.

As I have a lot of things going on right now, I have not made a conscious decision as to whether or not I will do this new thing, but it is nice to be invited.

Everyone wants to be chosen or invited, it is nice to be recognized for your efforts.

OOO

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Another Canicular Summer Day

Posted on July 6, 2009 by BoxcarOkie

Going to get hot today, might be time to find a shady spot and get in it.  Oklahoma is that way in the summertime, hot and muggy.  El Ex-Presendente Mr. Bush came and gave his speech in the Oklahoma Panhandle this weekend, he is currently stumping all the Dairy Queens and 7-11 stores across the nation, watch your local paper for another appearance by him soon.

I suppose he said something brilliant like:  “I’ve reminded the prime minister … the American people, Mr. Prime Minister …. Over the past months, that it was not always a given that the United States and America would have a close relationship.”

Spoken like a true national spokesperson if I ever heard one.

Grandbabies have packed up and headed south, they live in Houston, Texas.  It is always interesting when they are here, listening to them talk, what they say, the questions they ask.  All part of the growing up process.  I am so happy that they do not live in Florida.

Florida prison officials are apologizing for using 50,000 volt stun guns on children on Take Your Sons and Daughters to Work Day.  State corrections officers report that 43 children were stunned at three separate prisons, most with their parent permission.  Never the less, I cannot imagine what these people were thinking to administer this device to children.

The thing that got to me was the article said, “most” of them with parental permission, does this mean that “some” didn’t want it, but got it anyway?

Pretty sick, no matter how you color it.

New word for the day boys N girls, are you ready?  HETEROPATERNAL SUPERFECUNDATION.  Now that is a mouth full.  This is a totally new word that was put into the dictionaries here lately in Texas after a woman gave birth to two twins that had DIFFERENT DNA and she admitted to have been sleeping with two men when they were conceived.

Learn something new every day ……

A small Spokane, Washington, distillery developed a small army of volunteers to bottle and package its vodka and gin for NO pay, as long as they get free shots of the products and the end of their shift.  It has grown quickly by word-of-mouth (the best advertising in the world) and has become very popular.  I worked for an outfit for over twenty-four years, and all they ever gave me was a paycheck and a hard time.

The current debacle over the Michael Jackson death continues, all the tabloids have jumped on it, and every stupid commentator in America has an opinion on what actually or really went down.  I just cannot fathom America’s obsession with celebrities and the fact that they almost canonize a drug addict and do their best to elevate him to sainthood.

Meanwhile, down in Texas (again), a couple reported finding a Cheetos cheese snack that bears a strange resemblance to Jesus.  They are currently trying to sell it on Ebay and claim that “if it only brings .25 cents, we’re going to eat it.” Now if that don’t bring a tear to your eye, nothing will.

I see where Congress has passed legislation on the credit card companies and they cannot raise interest rates unless you are 60 days in arrears, and have to put the rate back down, if you make your payments for six months on time.  No more penalties on borrowers who exceed their limits on their cards.  And they have to give your children back to you when you pay up.

Of course the credit card people countered with “they would be FORCED to issue fewer cards, and credit would be harder to come by, and the economy would suffer because of this.”  Which in essence means, no more mail solicited cards to dogs and cats, 4 year old children and whatever.

It is awfully hard for me to feel sorry for these bozo’s, who charge 37% on their money, but pay you less than 1% on YOUR MONEY in savings accounts in their institutions.

Here you go …. It must be true, I mean, I read it in the tabloids.

I am standing at the checkout counter at the local China-Mart and there it is.  An ingenious North Carolina teenager allegedly brandished a banana rather than a gun while holding up a store then he tried to eat the evidence.  The 17 year-old tried to rob an Internet Café with the fruit held beneath his shirt, but the staff overcame him, said the police.  He did manage to eat the banana, but failed to eat the peel, which the police duly photographed and took into evidence.

It has to be Monday … It just has to be.

OOO

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Tickle My Fancy

Posted on July 3, 2009 by BoxcarOkie

Good morning, another missive chocked full of misplaced apostrophe’s for all you nit pickers, we guarantee this post to be totally free of anything that actually resembles real news.  If you are out of a job and having trouble making ends meet, you can roll this up and eat it, it has been said that “it is full of baloney” which our lawyers say to tell you “has no real nutritional value” and could possibly harm you if consumed without copious amounts of water.

The Whitehouse has forged a groundbreaking agreement to increase the average fuel efficiency of cars and light trucks to 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016 (Oh, hahahahahaha, I think I just hurt myself!) which is more than today’s average of just under 28 mpg.  The new standards which are a product of the Obama administration and with the auto industry, environmentalists, will raise mileage requirements 5% between 2012-2016.  This is projected to save 1.8 billion gallons of oil, which is about the same amount we imported from our Arab friends last year.

Now everyone release a collective sigh, and insert a yawn here … we have been down this road before, and it is always, without exception, turns out to be a dead end.

My Hero!  Neil McCallum was waling on a beach in Queensland, Australia, last week when a kangaroo hopped past him and started swimming in the ocean.  Soon, the animal was caught in a dangerous riptide and found itself being quickly pulled out to sea.  Knowing that hammerhead sharks were in the area, McCallum ran back to his house, grabbed his surfboard, paddled out, and herded the kangaroo to a nearby sandbar.  After resting for  a while, the exhausted kangaroo bounded away.  “But not before he looked back at me“ recalled McCallum “as if to say Thanks For That Mate!”

Just kind of brings a tear to me eye, it does.  Here is another one I came across this week.  Leave it up to the news media to get it wrong every time.  I am reading my copy of the Television schedule for the week and there it is, plain as day:

“SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN SISTERS.”

(I mean, duh.)

You can always count on them to get it totally wrong, at least in this neck of the woods you can.  Reading the newspaper around here is always a kick anyway.  You find the totally absurd and really strange stuff in our local paper.  Like the expressions mentally disturbed and emtotionally impaired.  I would much rather prefer plain language: crazy, insane, nuts.  After all, if you spend any time at all watching the late night news, you would see that the world is crazy, and many of its inhabitants are insane.  Then again, it could be me, perhaps I am just nuts and did not know it.

A gambler was arrested, charged and convicted of not paying his gambling debts and writing bad checks.  He was then sentenced to a state mental hospital to serve his time, as the judge ruled that gamblers are afflicted and need medical help, not incarceration.  So they shipped him off to the state mental hospital for treatment.  After being there for a while, he started to flip out, not being able to place a bet was taking its toll on him badly.

So he walked up to this inmate in the yard, and he said to him, “I am a gambler.  They have sentenced me to this place because they say I am nuts, but it isn’t really so.  But I need to place a bet, I want to bet, I have to be able to bet on something.”  The inmate nodded his head in agreement and then said, “Hey man, we got everything here that they have in the real world.  You can place a bet if you want to.”

So the bookie said, “I can?  How do I do that?” and the inmate replied, “Well, we bet rocks.  We pick up rocks from here and there, and then we go over there to that guy, you see that guy sitting over there?  And we place a bet with him, he is our local bookie.”

The gambler then walked over to a flower bed, and deftly extracted this HUGE ROCK and waddled over to the bookie, and dropped the boulder at his feet …. Whooooomp!

Then he said, “I want to place a bet with you.”

The bookie looked at the rock and then looked at the gambler and said, “I aint betting with you.”  The gambler went ballistic and said, “Why?  Why not?” and the bookie said …. “Anybody that wants to bet that MUCH has to be crazy.”

(No good huh?  Well Whadya expect for free?)

Talk about bad taste, what a “low class act” this seems to be.  They are reporting that Michael Jackson’s family is going to hold a memorial service in the Staples Center in LA and they are going to charge $25 per person to attend.  That really sucks, and 500 thousand will show up to attend it, who pays for the traffic control, the cops, all the associated services connected with this?  You do.  I never heard of anything like this, talk about a circus, even Elvis wasn’t this bad in the end.

Well, being as I am starting to sound like some kind of “cranky old Uncle Regis” or something like that.  I will move on.  Here it is!  Just in time for the weekend.  Good News and of course, Bad News.  First the bad news.  Because of the Wall Street meltdown has resulted in thousands of fewer well-paying jobs, there will be less for the new crop of college graduates to choose from this year.

Now for the Good News.   Because of the Wall Street meltdown has resulted in thousands of fewer well-paying jobs, there will be less for the new crop of college graduates to choose from this year.

Now you are scratching your head and saying (hopefully not aloud, you are at work, remember?) that doesn’t make sense, that is exactly the same.  Take time to think about it, because there is a shortage of thousand of jobs on Wall Street, this means the brightest, the best, the smartest we have won’t be devoting their life to pushing around stacks of worthless paper for the bankers.

They can now find or locate a job in the private sector and put all that brainpower to work on matters of importance to us all.  Global warming, energy depletion, our crumbling infrastructure.  Instead of filling the pockets of the greedy Fat Cats and the rich, they can be working on priorities that benefit us all.

That is the Good News … Enjoy your weekend.  We will see you on Monday.

OOO

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Open Secrets

Posted on July 2, 2009 by BoxcarOkie

4thSecond day of July, soon we will be into the “dog days” of summer, I wonder where that expression originated?  We have all these sayings in this country that I am not aware of, or rather, I am not sure of the meaning or manner in which they arrived on the scene.  How about “belief system” that is one, or “seating area,” “facial area,” and doing this on a “daily basis.”

Stuff like that bugs me, I cannot seem to get it out of my mind.

Which brings me to, “open secret” how do you have an open secret, secrets by their very nature are supposed to be withheld, and not open.  How about “resident alien” hmmmm, now let’s see, you are here, illegally, but they claim you are a resident?  And then there is the bank teller who tripped the “silent alarm.”

Uh huh, sure.  Here is another thing.  Explaing how your shoes came to be called “Wingtips” will definitely not get you laid.  Soooooooo, I am looking at an ad for a popular I phone and one of the features it has is this:  “SimpleMind Xpress” and I ask you, do I have to say any more?

One of the terrible things about one’s quest for truth is, you usually find it. (And if you came here looking for it, well, you are just out of luck, sorry)

65% of Americans say they expect newspapers to be extinct within ten years.  17% think that will happen sooner, possibly within three years, and people in the 18-29 age group, of them a full 83% say that they give newspapers less than 10 years period.  Which figures, 18 year olds don’t have much time to read, they are too busy going to spring break or chasing skirts to worry about the inconsistencies of the world or the problems that humanity faces.

Certainly they have no time to stop and read a newspaper.

Sarah Palin may have inadvertently reduced her popularity in her own state.  Popularity ratings for the governor have dropped from a healthy 85% in March of 2008 to just a paltry 54% today.  About 42% of all Alaskans now view her negatively, with many saying she’s put her national ambitions above serving her state.  Now why would a “politician” do something like that?  I have never heard of such a thing.  John McCain was spotted outside of Phoenix driving in the fast lane with his left blinker on, Bush well we all know what happened to Bush.

The Democrats are now being blamed for the end of the world, date yet to be announced.

Speaking of blood sucking parasites, (nice blend eh?) bats are starting to die off in record numbers, some half a million of them this year.  Now normally most people would say “who cares?”  But bats believe it or not are very useful animals (opposed to politicians who are not) and they serve a good purpose in life (opposed to politician who … Oh well, y’know).

The bats seem to have developed this fungus that first grows on their nose, and then spreads to their wings.  This would be the “black plague version of disease” for these little animals.  One bat can consume about 3,000 mosquitos in a single night, think about that the next time you are outside and you get bit.

(If you get bit by a politician, just swat him with your checkbook)

It could be possible that the entire eco-chain is breaking down, now they are reporting in Arizona that a new strain of mutant rabies is spreading in the animal population there.  First discovered in bats, it has progressed down to foxes, skunks and other animals.  It is not carried from animal to animal by bites, but rather by close social contact, this is something new.

Have Americans learned their lesson?

For the first time ever, Visa reports that debt transactions on its cards have exceeded credit transactions.  In the last three months of 2008, Visa processed $206 billion in debt-card activity.  50.4 percent of its total transaction volume.  Do you know how to tell if you are over your credit limit?  When the girl swipes the card, all the lights in the store, briefly dim.  If this occurs, you are in trouble.

Since the beginning of 2009, 11,600 securities brokers have left the industry.  In all of 2002 the worst year for bankers in recent history, only 11,500 bailed out at that time.  The remainder are entering the Federal Witness Protection Program.

Last night I dreamed that I was being interrogated by the FBI for something I wrote, which is strange, because I have not written anything about the FBI recently that I can recall.  It sure was frightening to me, woke up in a cold sweat and did not know the reason why.  A few days ago, I dreamed I was a catalytic converter underneath a Ford 150 pickup out in the Oklahoma Panhandle.

When I woke up that morning I was totally exhausted.

Our kids are visiting for the July 4th holiday, we have the grandbabies for awhile and the new one has arrived, he is a beaut.  One thing about our children, they get together and make “beautiful babies” and I am of course, a little bit prejudiced about that.  Nice that they are here, special time for sure.  Something special in life, when a seven year old looks up at her grandmother and inquires …. “Will grandpa smell like that when he gets to heaven?”

That’s priceless.

It is now time for me to get back to my business of researching terms unfamiliar in life to the members of society in general.  Like:  Rhino Horn Stockpile Management, Minimum Standards, and Best Practices.  Remember, if you come across any “open secrets” this day, it is your duty, your obligation in life, to keep them to yourselves.

OOO

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Mid Week Chill

Posted on July 1, 2009 by BoxcarOkie

global

Well, I am still somewhat lost, but here is the good news, I am making good time.  It is already Wednesday.  So things are truly looking up, there might be hope for me yet?  I am just trying to stay cool in an increasingly hotter and hotter world.  It was for instance, so hot yesterday, I saw a dog chasing a cat and they were both walking!  (drum roll, take my wife please!)

I thought I had read it all yesterday.

Yesterday I read where a lady selling cosmetic’s (I won’t say who, they usually drive a PINK CAR) was so irritated because another housewife in Florida would not open the door, that she took a dump on the woman’s porch and left a rather, how shall we say this?

A rather fragrant reminder on her porch that was surrounded by toilet paper.

Now I thought that was bad, but this morning I am reading of a six year, scientific study that was done in New Zealand on Sauvignon Blanc, as a combination of passion fruit, asparagus, and cat’s pee.  Uh huh, you read that right.  I suppose if you had a whole lot of cat’s pee it obviously wouldn’t be great.  Isn’t it amazing what a little can do these days?

Well, Whadya expect, it IS Wednesday for cryin’ out loud.

A medical student in New Jersey said that he was suspended from the school of medicine and dentistry for insisting that he’s a white African-American.  He was born in Mozambique before moving to the United States, and described himself in a class assignment on identity as “White African American.”  The faculty of the school, having nothing better to do I suppose, berated him and matter of factly stated “that no white person could refer to themselves as White African American.”

When the student persisted, he was suspended for two years, and he is now suing the school.  Now it seems to me, that if one was born in Cape Town South Africa for instance, to parents of say, German heritage on your fathers side (there are a lot of them in Africa I am told) and your mother was American, that he/or she as the case may be,  could very well be “White-African American.”

What do you call someone who drops out of medical school ….. A dentist.

An Ohio teenager was suspended from his fundamentalist Baptist school for taking his school girlfriend to a dance in public (her senior prom).  He was said to have violated a Baptist contract against dancing and rock music.  I hear that is why you never see them actually dancing, they don’t want anyone to think they are making love standing up. Give the kid a break, with all the other evil stuff going on in this world, you would think they have a better place to expend their energies.

How about all these Amish kids riding around in their buggies with open containers of beer, and no one is doing a thing about that!  Huh!  Huh!

With all the religious turmoil and persecution in the world, with all the bullying of people around the globe by religious zealots, it is comforting to know, that we have our very own version of the Taliban right here in our own back yard.  I believe there is a verse in the bible, where it states, “that David danced before the Lord.”

I rest my case your honor.

Well, I crossed the line on religion (I am not supposed to do that here) so I might as well go for the entire nine yards this Wednesday morning.   Here is a little political morsel for you to chew on.  I mean, I am already in trouble for the above, might as well take the shot.

Joe The Plumber says that he is quitting the Republican Party because they support excessive government spending.  He opposes any cuts in defense, Social Security (by the way, that runs out of money in 2037 so you better get signed up ASAP), Medicare, or Medicaid, and noted that he keeps his kids away from homosexuals (I am not making this up).

Isn’t it wonderful, we still live in a country where you are allowed to regale in your stupidity.

It has been rather slow here lately, not a whole lot to panic about.  You remember it wasn’t that long ago that we were all in a panic about this pig flu (swine flu) and walking around like zombies with surgical masks on and wearing buttons that said … the sky is falling, the sky is falling.  Where infectious diseases are concerned, I guess panic is good.  Without panic in this country, nothing really happens.

So you need panic, we have to have panic, if we did not have it, well, everything as we know it would stop.

Which is kind of strange, over 500 million people will contact malaria this year, and possibly 1 million or more will die from this water borne disease, but here in America and the rest of the west, there is no panic, no fear.  Conversely, for the swine flu, test kits have already been shipped to all fifty states, and there most likely will be a cure or vaccine out by late fall for the disease.

I didn’t panic then, I am not feeling panicky right now, I am just trying to chill, take it easy and make it to the weekend.  Men don’t show their emotions, except rage, because it takes strength to show soft emotions and most men do not posses that inner strength, they would rather go out and just kill something for instance, than talk to it.  Most men just don’t have that kind of soft strength that is required to get by in this day and age, so they panic.

The next time you find yourself in a sticky situation, feel a tinge of panic rising to the surface, which is in all reality going to be some time today or tomorrow, remember that you do have a choice in how you handle it.  Just because God gave you that extremely large forehead, this is no reason for you to take it personal and bail out on the Republican Party, there is still a lot of work to be done.

We now return you to your regular programming.

Think about it.

OOO

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July Index

Posted on July 1, 2009 by BoxcarOkie

[07-01]  Mid Week Chill Well, I am still somewhat lost, but here is the good news, I am making good time.  It is already Wednesday.  So things are truly looking up, there might be hope for me yet?  I am just trying to stay cool in an increasingly hotter and hotter world.  It was for instance, so hot yesterday, [...]

[07-02]  Open Secrets Second day of July, soon we will be into the “dog days” of summer, I wonder where that expression originated?  We have all these sayings in this country that I am not aware of, or rather, I am not sure of the meaning or manner in which they arrived on the scene.  How about “belief [...]

[07-03]  Tickle My Fancy Good morning, another missive chocked full of misplaced apostrophe’s for all you nit pickers, we guarantee this post to be totally free of anything that actually resembles real news.  If you are out of a job and having trouble making ends meet, you can roll this up and eat it, it has been said that [...]

[07-07]  Another Canicular Summer Day Going to get hot today, might be time to find a shady spot and get in it.  Oklahoma is that way in the summertime, hot and muggy.  El Ex-Presendente Mr. Bush came and gave his speech in the Oklahoma Panhandle this weekend, he is currently stumping all the Dairy Queens and 7-11 stores across the [...]

[07-08]  Something Stinks Something Is Rotten In San Jose.  A California office building was evacuated when someone tried to clear out the rotten food from the office refrigerator.  In the end, a total of 18 emergency vehicles’, 50 fireman, and numerous hazmat teams responded to the AT & T Call Center in San Jose. All this a direct result [...]

[07-09] Wednesday Early Morning Musings Good morning America, how are ya?  I am here, your native son, I will have gone many miles before this day is done.  An old line from an old song.  A slight breeze waifs across the porch this morning, in the distance a lonely freight pulls the hill at Crossroads, and her whistle pierces the [...]

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Tough New Stance

Posted on June 30, 2009 by BoxcarOkie

This morning, among the usual gaggle of “you just got to read this” I find a request to switch my domain name over to some outfit in Canada.  It seems the people that just charged me to renew my name, now want to rid themselves of it, and toss me aside to these people in Canada.

Now ordinarily that would not be a big deal, I don’t really care who handles the name, but they want me to get an access key from the old people, to give to the new people, and they claim “they won’t do it” because I don’t have the key.

You know what?  I don’t really give a flyin’ —- about any of it!

Who is it that gives these people the right to come in and hassle us like this?  That is the part that really galds me about all this name change crap, who gave them the right to put this monkey on my back AFTER they collected a renewal fee from me.

So I am somewhat bent out of shape today.  Like I really needed this kind of —- this morning.

If you want to change the ____ name then do it, you don’t need to bundle me up into a tight little knot and make me dance thru hoops.  So that is the story, I sent them BOTH a message and told them to kiss the part of me that goes over the fence last. I may or may not be here in the future, because I did not comply (despite the fact that I have previously coughed up the dough).

Contrary to popular belief, I do this for a hobby, I certainly can live without it.

Not having time for idle BS like this, I chose to ignore it.  It is just another intrusion into my life that I can control, and I choose to worry about more important things in life.  Such as doggy doors on the back of the house, are they really a good idea?  You might think so, it gives Rover free reign to come and go as he pleases, but when you find a possum hanging from the towel rack in the bathroom, is it really worth it?  Stuff like that.

I got a notice, it said, you need to renew your domain name, I coughed up the funds thru PayPal, case closed.

LEAVE ME ALONE.

Things are not looking good for Obama Motors.  Only 21% of voters support his plan to bail out GM, as part of the structured bankruptcy proceedings put into place to save the ailing auto giant.  67% oppose the plan outright, and do not support ownership which gives the government a 60% ownership in the company.

As usual the waste of money will usually cure itself, for when there is no money, there is no more to waste.

Yesterday gasoline in my area was selling for $2.17 per gallon, which I hear, is rather cheap.  This morning it is $2.29 and you can say what you want, but these —– are gouging us.  No reason for a spike like that, no real reason, that is.  Gasoline prices have soared by a full 20% since April (how you doing on your wages, you get a 20% increase?) and the average is around $2.50 per gallon nationwide.  So what does all this do, forces people to make hard choices.  Cancel travel plans for the summer, there goes the recovery and the economy stalls once more.

As bad as things look now, Americans have lived through worse.  We seem to always be able to muster up this optimism and hope, almost to the point of being, irrational in nature, to get us going again.  Are we going to be able to do that again?  In the late 1830’s and 1840’s people were broke and desperate in this country.  Believe it or not, this was after real estate speculation got out of control, sound familiar?

Most Europeans when surveyed today are somewhat pessimistic about their financial problems, whereas, Americans find themselves for the most part, optimistic and upbeat despite the dismal numbers.

Believe it or not, one of the few things we have left for us, is change.  We have the option to change, we have the option to accept it at face value, no matter what it is, or walk away from it.  As you learn to respect the value of a quiet mind and place your attention on the moment, you nurture your ability to be present-moment-oriented, free from your worries, concerns, and inner tribulations; all those things that eventually turn into insecurity and self-destructive or erratic behavior.

I may or may not have a domain name after today, and you know what, I really don’t care.  The important fact is that I paid my dues and I should have it without having to jump thru all these hoops that have been set before me on my journey thru time.  You see the simple fact of the matter, when you get down to the nut-cutting, where the rubber meets the road, is this:

As I said in the beginning, I don’t need a domain name in life to continue … I can do very well without it or this … the “choice” is up to me, despite what they say.

Just because some dope drops a bag full of excess baggage in front of you, that doesn’t mean you have to pick it up and carry it down the path of life.

Think about it.

OOO

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Up On The Soapbox Again

Posted on June 29, 2009 by BoxcarOkie

Hi Guy’s, greetings to all of you this Monday morning, I trust you had a productive and fruitful weekend and were sated and amused.  As I am an inquisitive sort, I often wonder about things.  All sorts of things.   Things in general, things that don’t seem right, this thing and that thing.

Take Ol T Boone Pickens, my favorite West Texas Oil man, for example.  Before the elections Ol T Boone was on every channel, telling us we had to get rid of the trucks, that we were dependent on foreign oil and that we needed a windmill in every back yard.

This includes Martha’s Vineyard Teddy, you don’t get a pass on this either.

Where is he now?  You don’t see hide nor hair of Ol’ T Boone and I am wondering, “What happened to this West Texas brush popper?  He doesn’t seem to be anywhere to be found these days.”  Could it be that Big Oil discreetly told him to shut up?  Perhaps pointing out to Ol T Boone, that talking about national energy problems and God forbid, unabashedly presenting solutions to those problems, was not in his best interest. That it might be more prudent for him to just be quiet, if he knew what was good for him.

Here is another “thing” that bothers me this morning.

Why is it we are constantly being dumbed down or kept in the dark on most everything, like mushrooms, fed a constant diet of BS and never allowed out into the sunshine.  Why is it we are always being “fed bad math” when it comes to oil and oil reserves in this country?

Why is it when a report is issued that is favorable in nature, why is it never “reported.” Being as T. Boone Pickens, an oil man, the modern day energy savior of the country, has all the answers.  Perhaps he could tell us why was this particular U. S. Geological Service energy based report was kept hush hush?

The U. S. Geological Service issued a report in April (’08) that only scientists and oil men knew was coming, but man was it big.  It was a revised report (hadn’t been updated since ’95) on how much oil was in this area of the western 2/3 of North Dakota; Western South Dakota; and extreme Eastern Montana.  Check this out: The Bakken field is the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay, and has the potential to eliminate all American dependence on foreign oil.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates it at 503 billion barrels.

Even if just 10% of the oil is recoverable … at $107 a barrel, we’re looking at a resource base worth more than $5.3 trillion.  When first briefed, legislators on this were virtually ignorant of its existence, you could practically see their jaws hit the floor. They had no idea.’ says Terry Johnson, the Montana Legislature’s financial analyst. This sizable find is now the highest-producing onshore oil field found in the past 56 years reports, The Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

It’s a formation known as the Williston Basin, but is more commonly referred to as the ‘Bakken.’  And it stretches from Northern Montana, through North Dakota and into Canada.  For years, U. S. oil exploration has been considered a dead end.  Even the ‘Big Oil’ companies gave up searching for major oil wells decades ago.  However, a recent technological breakthrough has opened up the Bakken’s massive reserves and we now have access of up to 500 billion barrels.

And because this is light, sweet oil, those billions of barrels will cost Americans just $16 PER BARREL!  That’s enough crude to fully fuel the American economy for 41 years straight. And if THAT didn’t throw you on the floor, then this next one should – because the report is from TWO YEARS AGO.  You can read all about it.  (U. S. Oil Discovery- Largest Reserve in the World! Stansberry Report Online – 4/20/2006)

Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains lay the largest untapped oil reserve in the world. It is more than 2 TRILLION barrels .. On August 8, 2005 President Bush mandated its extraction. In three and a half years of high oil prices none has been extracted.

With this mother-load of oil why are we still fighting over off-shore drilling?

The report also reported this stunning news:  It is entirely possible that we have more oil inside our borders, than all the other proven reserves on earth. Here are the official estimates:  8-times as much oil as Saudi Arabia  - 18-times as much oil as Iraq – 21-times as much oil as Kuwait – 22-times as much oil as Iran – 500-times as much oil as Yemen – and it’s all right here in the Western United States.  I find it somewhat curious that no mention is made of Venezuela who we import 5% of our crude.

HOW can this BE? HOW can we NOT BE extracting this?

Because the environmentalists and others have blocked all efforts to help America become independent of foreign oil.  The major oil companies secreting it away doesn’t seem to help matters any either. Again, we are letting a small group of people dictate our lives and our economy.  WHY?  James Bartis, lead researcher with the study says we’ve got more oil in this very compact area than the entire Middle East -more than 2 TRILLION barrels untapped.

That’s more than all the proven oil reserves of crude oil in the world today, reports The Denver Post.  Don’t think ‘OPEC’ will drop its price – even with this find?  Think again!  It’s all about the competitive marketplace, – it has to . Think OPEC just might be funding the environmentalists?  Got your attention/ire up yet?  Hope so!  Now, while you’re thinking about it … and hopefully find yourself just a little bit P.O’d, do this: you should stifle yourself.

The next time you want to complain about gas prices (and you will, Americans LOVE to complain) remember this .. because by doing NOTHING, you’ve forfeited your right to complain … cold hard fact of life, sorry. I just wonder what would happen in this country if every one of you sent a copy of this to every one in your address book.

By the way… this is all true …That is the truly sad part.

If you have any problem with it and doubt its validity, please check it out at the link.

Think about this the next time you are reaching deep into that pocket to pony up some bucks for a tank full of liquid gold.  If any of you happen to come across Ol T. Boone, let me know, I want to ask him a question or two.  We now return you to the REAL NEWS in this country, which seems to be which movie star or media personality and/or celebrity is currently pushing up daisies.

OOO

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