June 25, 2025

Agree.

The right has very good conductors forcing an out-of-tune and time orchestra to play the shitty symphony composed by their musically illiterate benefactors.

While much of the audience has left, at least one out of three remain, in tone deaf wonder, believing what they're hearing is music for the ages.

January 26, 2025

Interesting how the NIH, CDC and FDA have now been uncharacteristically prohibited

from sharing information or making statements regarding public health concerns, while the CIA has apparently been given a megaphone to do quite the opposite.

It looks like those aspects of their charters have been exactly reversed. Everything is turning backwards, inside out or upside down.

P2025, up and running but not full steam. Yet.

January 18, 2025

Speaking of which ...

Here's a song from Robin Laing, celebrating the virtues of the 'crayture', an anthem to "the pulse of one small nation". These lyrics outshine the gorgeous song, IMO.

Take clear water from the hill
And barley from the lowlands.
Take a master craftsman's skill
And something harder to define,
Like secrets in the shape of coppered stills
Or the slow, silent, magic work of time.

Whiskey or the devil in disguise
At least to some that's the way it seems
But you're more like an angel in my eyes
Catch the heady vapours as they rise
And turn them into dreams

Bring home sherry casks from Spain, Sanlucar de Barrameda,
And fill them up again
With the spirit of the land.
Then let the wood work to the spirits gain
In a process no one fully understands.

Whiskey or the devil in disguise
At least to some that's the way it seems
But you're more like an angel in my eyes
Catch the heady vapours as they rise
And turn them into dreams

Oh, the spirit starts out clear,
But see the transformation
After many patient years
When at last the tale unfolds.
For the colours of the seasons will appear
From palest yellow to the deepest gold.

Whiskey or the devil in disguise
At least to some that's the way it seems
But you're more like an angel in my eyes
Catch the heady vapours as they rise
And turn them into dreams

When you hold it in your hand
It's the pulse of one small nation
So much more than just a dram
You can see it if you will -
The people and the weather and the land.
The past into the present is distilled.

Whiskey or the devil in disguise
At least to some that's the way it seems
But you're more like an angel in my eyes
Catch the heady vapours as they rise
And turn them into peaceful peasent dreams.

... I'm sober these days but still very much appreciate the craft and the rare drop or two of the creature upon my tongue. Thanks for your post and the reminder.

September 19, 2024

That's a good example of one aspect of his illness manifesting itself.

He's so self-deceptively tuned in to adoration/approval that an empty auditorium to anyone else, is actually filled with huge crowds cheering him on.

His inaugural crowd size was so much "bigger" than Obama's despite photo evidence otherwise. That delusion recently morphed into one where he claims his thuggish Jan 6th crowd was larger than MLK's estimated crowd of 250k.

He is seriously ill yet here we are, teetering on the brink, the false choice being considered by his supporters whom are unaware of our shared precipice.

June 21, 2024

Hang in there! The first week or so is the toughest. After that it gets easier,

at least for the MANY times I stopped for a bit.

The last time ‘took’ for me and I can proudly say I’ve been sober now for a year and a half. Laying off weed was easy, not so with much beer. I just wish it hadn’t taken 40+ years to discover the many benefits of being sober. Identify your personal triggers, learn to deal with them and continue down the path you just started. Getting back to the truck after a long hike, sitting down with friends to watch a favorite team play or a simple reward beer after mowing the yard are all triggers for me. They still are but manageable now.

Maybe go down to that convenience store you mentioned but walk instead. Bring back something else beside booze? Open that book you’ve been meaning to dive into that’s just been sitting on the shelf. Learn a new fiddle tune? Don’t play? Learn it on your guitar in DADGAD tuning. Don’t have a guitar? Borrow one from a friend, learn the tune and give the guitar back still tuned to DADGAD. It won’t hurt the guitar and your friend might learn something new too. THEN learn to play the fiddle. You and your guitar friend could start a band. 🎻🪕 Take up a new hobby — something you always wanted to try, but haven’t yet. The last several months I’ve been learning how to saddlestitch leather. There’s plenty of YouTube videos to get you started on whatever sounds fun.

I know, kind of cheeky suggestions but my point is, there’s a big world out there and plenty of ways to contribute to it while seeing how sobriety might fit your future. Good luck on your new path and if you stray, tomorrow’s another new day. 🙂

January 2, 2024

I'm with you there.

Shopping locally if possible, we try to minimize the use of Amaxon but when necessary have carefully navigated through the Prime jungle of toggles to avoid being inadvertently signed up.

Previously, we've always selected free shipping no matter how long it might take but with our most recent order discovered that's no longer an option. No matter how we juggled the weight of ordered items, it was a minimum of $6.99 and a week or so of delivery time UNLESS we either signed up for Prime or chose another, more expensive shipping option.

When necessary, we'll be losing convenience and looking into ordering direct from suppliers, pay their shipping costs and try to really avoid getting sucked into Amazon's dollar traps, though movie commercials appear to be without escape.

Just another example of how difficult it's become to keep from feeding all the hungry Beasts about us. Good luck in your own attempt to extract yourself from the maw of Amaxon Prime.

October 25, 2023

+1000. Exactly, a steady-state economy.

To me it is so obvious and makes perfect sense. There are limits we can't grow our way out of: That two bedroom house might work for a family of four, but not a family of twelve; that small island paradise independently sustained 500 people for centuries but now that its resource value has been discovered, it cannot independently support 100 times that number. Extend that thinking out to our little blue marble and you get the same result without reeling in growth and adopting some kind of steady state system.

40 years ago, economists/futurists Herman Daly and Hazel Henderson were proponents of withdrawal from growth based economic systems and embracing ones relying on sustainability. In my layman view, it makes even more sense now rather than continuing to feed the malignant growth that will soon enough be our undoing.

September 30, 2023

Other than a golf course or other manicured landscaping,

when is the last time tfg visited a park, walked a dirt path, a beach, a streamside or experienced any other natural setting?

Have his gouty toes ever felt sand or grass or anything other than shoes and socks?

Has he ever caught the wild scent of spruce or pine or a new-mown meadow after a fresh rain?

Have his ungloved fingers ever got so cold they hurt or he sweat from actual exertion rather than arrhythmia?

I'm going out on a limb here and gonna say nope and never — nothing other than viewing an external world from the inside of a car, plane, a building, a golf cart on a comfortable day and always surrounded by his yes-men, keen to jump at every bark.

September 19, 2023

I've a friend who has long lived a stones throw from Risch's quarter/quarter section of land.

They have both resided there as many new subdivisions explosively sprouted around their properties and elsewhere west of the airport and its noise impact area.

This noise issue is not a problem for my friend and is the first he's aware of since the F-4 Phantoms left their Idaho ANG mission some 30 years ago. Even then, living there came with the understanding that the airport and ANG runways were there long before either him or Risch. Why then did the junior Senator ever move to that white-picketted property to begin with?

Before his passing, former Gov. Cecil Andrus used to famously needle Risch for his squeaky-squawky, short-statured nature. I wish the Governor could still be here if only to hear him offer up more of his special Jimmy Risch observations.

This is a good piece of reporting from the Idaho Statesman that should shed some light on Risch's shenanigans. It looks like this may be an uphill battle for the Senator. Hopefully it remains that way and loses steam before any changes dangerously impact far more people and airport operations.

August 20, 2023

+1. Apart from politics, I'd add that what we might call popular culture

is shaped by the corporate boardroom as well. Those moneymaking schemes for the shareholders turn into what many people consider their personal "brand", what they identify with, the intentions of which is largely unbeknownst to themselves.

That ruthless corporate marketting is pervasive. It is insidious. I'd guess most people, including myself, don't realize just how inescapable it is despite ones level of awareness and any steps taken to avoid becoming part of it.