Fresh Briefs

I assume that compared to thirty something years ago when we were smart enough to know a bad war when we saw one and a dangerous, near-psychotic President when there was one, the American people now have IQ’s approaching room temperature.

The latest proof is the add by McCain (just when you think the Paris Hilton thing was bad) bringing in Moses to make Obama look bad.  I swear to God.  Literally. Take a look below after you put on your blood pressure cuff and monitor your own reaction.

If we are dumb enough and self-destructive enough to put McCain into so much as a Dog Catcher election, much less President, then we have slipped over the edge that has been so neatly waxed and polished by George Bush and company.

It’s a barometer on this country and whether we have jumped the shark.  The shark, by the way, is played by John McCain and you’re along for the ride. What do you do?

Technorati Tags: obama, mccain, commercials, presidential election. moses

News out reports that inflation jumped a record .8% last month, the highest since 1981. This is a surprise?

From cracked.com:

Bush Stance on the Economy

Why He Appears Mentally Disabled

The federal deficit has reached a new high because of the war in Iraq.

Why He’s Actually a Genius

Not only has he hung onto his own money while losing that of American taxpayers, he’s held onto his own life while, however indirectly, losing those of American taxpayers. America’s in pretty rough shape, but Dubya’s still super-rich and super-alive. How’s he so cunningly self-sufficient? Well, he has an MBA from Harvard, a school he got into and graduated from while his dad was still only Chief of the US Liaison Office in China (whatever that is).

The Pudding (Where The Proof Is)

Bush’s ownership stake in the Texas Rangers-originally purchased for $800,000-brought him $15 million when the team was sold in 1998. That’s a 1,875 percent return on his investment, and more money than you will ever see. (Unless you’re Donald Trump Jr., in which case, we’re very sorry about the above comment.)

Technorati Tags: george bush, inflation, bush, death of america

Man, you gotta love getting old……Did get to see my old college roommate from 30 years ago when he stopped into Austin and it was fantastic. Amazing how with some people (and I don’t have a lot that fall into this category) you can just pick up as if it had been last week, not ten years ago, since we last connected…..Why is gas so expensive? Nobody knows, they say, but the answer is this simple: We have to oil guys in the White House, making sure their friends can furiously rake in the cash before the party’s over in November….

Technorati Tags: price of oil, gasoline, Austin, roommate

If America was a brand name, which in many cases it is, we have seen that brand tarnished over the past few years to the point where it’s barely recognizable — like the glory of a classic, old Buick Regal reduced to a newer model that lacks the punch and appeal. Where we once led the world by example, by our collective — for lack of better words — our goodness — we have come across as a bloated, punch drunk bully who feels that force is the way to show our worth.  Our government has become not people-centered, but corporate-centered. The terrorists changed us, yes, which was largely their goal, but we have been changed by our leaders who now reward such things as torture, personal vendettas such as the one that led us into Iraq instead of following the terrorists all the way across Pakistan if necessary, the wishes of oil companies for more control as well as destroying the environment in the blatantly stupid cry of energy independence and, sadly, the list goes on and on.

We have shown the world not by our example of kindness and aid, but in the thunderingly ominous debacle involving New Orleans, the outing of CIA agents, the blustering about supporting our troops while we send them do to the wrong things in the wrong places at the cost of their lives, legs and brains, the orgy of blind-eyed support that led to the collapse of the home markets, the absolute inaction in the fact of environmental deterioration and much, much more.

We have let health care be determined by insurance companies and ignored centuries old examples such as found in Germany, given a Get Out of Jail Free card to cell phone companies that caved like paper bags to the administration and violated our civil rights to name but a few more points of interest or disinterest. We take our shoes off at airports thinking this is the government protecting us and making Homeland Security seem like it’s actually doing something. We’ve been 9/11′ed to death by politicians who need a convenient bogyman that will cover their actions.

Somewhere at the base of all this, though, on this Fourth of July are people. People for whom the goodness that once typified the dream that was America to many around the world in starvation and peril still is exhibited one to another. People who have the common decency of caring for others that our government (and, by extension, our image/reality as a country/brand) are there. I see them every day.

But even Superman would have no problem with, “Truth, justice or the American Way.” We have taken a brand and a world and tarnished both, and what it is to be America is a shadow of what it was was. Can we recover? I would like to say yes, but we have changed and have traveled down a road so far we must live what we have become. When we meet ourselves on that road, we’ll scarcely recognize the one that stands before us.

Technorati Tags: america, fourth of july, iraq, american, brand x, pogo

There is a special place in Hell, one beyond even the imagination of Dante, reserved for the son of a bitch who sent the “WARNING” pop-up to my wife’s computer which, when she clicked on “No Thanks,”, then turned the computer into guacamole…..How ’bout that Bush administration? In late 2007 they came up with a top secret plan that greased the way for the Special Operations forces to travel between Pakistan and Afghanistan after al-Qaida. The plan was never executed nor, of course, was Osama B. although we did dangle Sadam who had nothing to do with any of it. The Iraq War will go down in history as America’s (meaning Bush’s) Greatest Bait And Switch of All Time……We’re Number One! or so says the scientific magazine PLoS Medicine — The U.S. took first place as the world’s top consumers of cannabis and cocaine…..Who told women that pedal pushers (those pants that are mid-calf) are flattering?

Technorati Tags: sony, computer virus, george bush, iraq, al qaida, pedal pushers, fashion

Driving into work I heard some fantastic music on NPR, the work of Le Vent Du Nord (literally “Wind From The North”) featuring traditional Quebec flavors that have a range including French, Irish and Native American influences. When they first came on the radio, for a half-second I thought of Gordon Lightfoot, but that was just the first reaction.  Check them out…..Love those days when I’m not sure I’ll be around when a blog entry (like this) is set to post first thing the next morning. My brain has been acting up to the point of getting halfway down the stairs and having to stop and remember how to make my legs work to get down the rest. If NPR, besides having good music, wants to do a special on Brian’s Brain and the damages of a stroke, send the check and I’ll pen the script….My son, Scott, who went to NY a year or so ago in hopes of getting deeper into photography is making huge strides, and I couldn’t be happier — for him and that people around him recognize his talents…My sweet daughter, Katherine, just won a major employee award for the luxury hotel company she works for. Again, of course, same song second verse — it’s about time people recognized her. Nobody, of course, will ever see them as clearly and as appreciatively and lovingly as I do…..

Technorati Tags: npr, le vent du nord, gordon lightfoot, stroke, photography

I heard Keith Jarrett’s My Foolish Heart, which is nothing short of the archetypal jazz performance of a trio of piano, bass and drums, a combination that I’ve loved since I heard the Oscar Peterson Trio when I was a kid. Amazing is one word for the song, but unpack it and it means something like this: This is music you’d hear all by yourself in a small club in those wee, wee hours, hunkered down in a booth in the back while staring into the drink in a small glass. the kind of drink where the ice makes that crisp, clacking sound while the music plays and you drink and think and then drink some more, finally leaving the club once you’ve decided between using the Gillette or Wilkinson razor blades back in your one room apartment. Oh, yes, and did I mention the cigarettes?….George Carlin’s gone, sadly, but his last ten plus years pretty much were fueled on being angry and venemous with precious little in the way of the observational humor that was always his strong suit. It’s as if Kierkegard was a stand-up and, well, after a while it just doesn’t work. I’m thinking he went from being funny to being pissed off and bitter, which does make his upcoming Mark Twain Award rather an echo of the man whose name the award carries….Speaking of comedians, my wife and I saw Eddie Izzard at the Paramount here in Austin last month. His appearance was totally without pre-publicity, and my wife just stumbled onto the mentioning of his Austin date on his website several months ago. Call it kismet. Brilliant to the point where you can’t even remember a single punch line, it was all in the delivery/persona and it was a miracle to see someone walk out on the fantastically designed draped stage totally alone and unintroduced and launch into over two hours of talk and leave you wanting two more. I loved it, but would have liked just one good “I’m Darth Vadar –I could kill you with this tray” kind of line. If you don’t know Eddie Izzard or the Darth Vadar routine, click fast and go to YouTube. Hell, even the Legos are great…..

Technorati Tags: keith jarrett, george carlin, eddie izzard, darth vadar, brian robertson, mark twain,

Driving to work today I saw a weird configuration of bumper stickers on an older pickup truck. On the left bumper was a sticker which read, “THANK A VET.” On the right was a sticker that had a peace sign (you know, the old upside down Y with a circle) which, on closer observation at the traffic light was a Y made up of a bomber plane. Underneath the bastardized peace symbol were the words, “PEACE THROUGH FIREPOWER.” Between the two stickers, on the tailgate of the truck, was a small rectangular sticker showing a drawing of Obama with the word “Hope” underneath it. Go figure. I can’t. Or maybe I don’t want to. Perhaps the authorities might want to keep a close watch. In any event, I went on the Net but while I couldn’t find a picture of the PEACE bumper sticker, an equally horrific version did show up:

A plan to lift out country out of the economic morass we’re in. If for one day every business in the country would turn off their automatic answering machines that lead nowhere but a telephone wasteland and simply answer the phone, efficiently route people to the correct person and actually conduct business, our GNP would go up 22%.

Finally, a decent rain last night that let my wife and I sit on our back porch and — gasp — smell what rain actually smells like. There isn’t another fragrance like it in the world, and I suspect those little machines that reproduce the sound of rain so a person can sleep (and I love those things) should also find a way to release the smells. Of course, we’d sleep two days at a time and miss work …….

Technorati Tags: peace, obama, voice mail, rain, depression, peace through firepower,

If you don’t think the terrorists have won by changing America, maybe Bush’s plan to put a satellite in the sky for domestic spying might be mandatory reading……I just got word my new one act play, The Promise, has been selected for the Main Stage at the Pittsburgh New Works Festival coming up in September….Say what you want to about us hippies, we knew a crappy war when we saw one….After one, maybe two strokes, I rarely get through a day without an “Oh-Shit” moment when I find myself waiting and listening for something inside me to either straighten back up or totter over the abyss….

I love to play World of Warcraft, but, unlike my wife who has two major characters, I’ve puttered around for two years running all directions with a lot of different characters — sort of like my life, eh?…..Speaking of WoW, I hope you get a look at the new Blizzard project, Diablo 3. Those of us who cut our gaming teeth on Diablo have got to be excited. Check the links to the right for a connection…..I decided to launch this site with an rss feed from the beloved The Onion and, discovered the entire news feed from The Onion was about gays, which may no doubt gave a rather misleading slant to those showing up here for the first time…..

Technorati Tags: The Onion, world of warcraft, diablo 3, stokes, stage plays