Tiger got to hunt,
Bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and wonder why? Why? Why?
Tiger got to sleep,
Bird got to land
Man got to tell himself he understand.
“The will of the people… is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.” –Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waring, 1801.
“In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happened, you can bet it was planned that way.”
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945), 32nd US President
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
April 16, 1953
Well that was interesting. Yesterday John received an e-mail talkling about a concer being held in a warehouse on the west side. We figured we’d go check it out since Ann E. DeChant and the Volta Sound were going to be there. I hope this place has concerts again, because the crowd was hip and the music was cool. The warehouse appeared to be someone’s apartment, but had a stage and plenty of little nooks to lounge in. The picture is taken from the roof, behind the stage, and the red light was shining on the bands. Apparently I missed the best band when I ran to get some food… Infinite Number of Sounds had a video running during their set, and their songs were synced up to the scenes. John said it was rad.
Now that Kofi Annan has said the Iraq war was illegal, and the word is out that if the entire world could vote, Kerry would win… what’s YOUR reason behind voting for Bush? Oh, my fault. Nobody who reads this website could possibly vote Bush. The next time you meet someone who says they’re voting Bush, after you’re done pummeling their genitalia with your fists, present them with the aforementioned query. If ‘r3tr0′ uses your response online, we’ll send you a free t-shirt! (Although, the shirt will be the one currently stuck to the asphalt outside my house.)
Why is it that the neocon cartel is unable to even acknowledge what the situation is really like over in Iraq? Again, my fault. It’s an election year. The truth is, the most commonly predicted outcome for Iraq appears to be civil war. That’s how bad it’s going. There is no ‘bright side’, no light at the end of the tunnel. What’s most disturbing to me is knowing that Bush and his cronies have already received numerous briefings indicating the utter failure of our “mission” in Iraq, yet they’ve effectively kept it a secret. I’m not expecting a presidential candidate to come out and admit failure, especially “no-mistakes Bush”, but at the very least they could elude to the intelligence findings, the independent research conclusions - all of which mention a chance for civil war. Why is this so disgusting? Because what it comes down to is Bush using his always-positive take on things to further his campaign while soliders continue to die at his expense. It means a lack of objectivity in favor of a winning ticket.
One thing Bush will not be getting away with is the re-categorization of fast food jobs as ‘manufacturing jobs’. Those of you who’ve read my blog for a long while might remember reading about this before. The House has ruled against the move, which would have been another outlet for Bush’s positive spin on things. I like how at the bottom of this article it just says “About 2.67 million manufacturing jobs have been lost nationwide since Bush took office in January 2001.” Why don’t you tout that figure around more often, Bushie?
My concern over pushing for war against Iran is once again being justified. A big story today is the discovery of what is purported to be a nuclear weapons facility of some kind. Iran has already denied any such activity at the site identified by the US. Already, talks of Israel striking Iran, and US invasion and occupation are sprouting up. At home, talks of me leaving the fucking country have begun! I may not be behind Kerry like every proper Democrat wants me to be, but I have a feeling that if Bush is re-elected, Iran is next. The worst part is, we can’t possibly have enough troops to undertake “another Iraq.” Does that spell draft? As little credit as I give Bush, he’s already stated he thinks the situation can be handled diplomatically. Still, knowing Bush’s idea of “diplomacy”, we should all be concerned.
On Monday I went out to dinner with my papa and stepmom and had some seriously delicious tuna at Fat Cats in Tremont. I also tasted my stepmom’s duck, which was fantastic.
So yesterday I didn’t post a blog entry because I was out on the golf course, being pampered like a crusty old republican. The company that securely stores and also destroys confidential materials for us, Iron Mountain, held a scramble at Tanglewood Country Club in Chagrin Falls. The course was as gorgeous as it was difficult, though. If I’d tried to walk all 18 holes I might have died. When I arrived, my car was put through ‘mandatory valet’, and my bag was mounted to a cart without me needing to do anything! I then recieved a sleeve of golf balls, a long-sleeve shirt, a golf towel, a Punch cigar and a complimentary cutter. They gave us lunch and let us hit the putting green and driving range. After we warmed up they let us go on the course. For a 4-man scramble we didn’t do that great (-2) but we had fun. Afterward, they held a raffle for those of us who didn’t already win anything, and I won a Browns’ helmet headcover! Sweet.
For once, I completely agree with a statement John Kerry made. Calling George W’s presidency the “excuse presidency” was just about the most dead-on assessment I can imagine. “The president would have us believe that his record is the result of bad luck, not bad decisions, that he’s faced the wrong circumstances, not made the wrong choices.” You’re absolutely right, John… but why do so many people seem to feel empathy for GW and his ‘plight’ as president? We should all expect our presidents to make things happen, not make excuses. Hindsight is 20/20, and anyone can backpeddle their way out of a poor decision. Perhaps Bush’s inability to admit mistakes has subliminally influenced people into thinking “yeah, I guess he really hasn’t made any mistakes.”
I find the presence of this article in the ‘top stories’ category somewhat alarming: Radio problems ground flights in California. It really seems like perhaps the media knows more about this than they’re allowed to report. As if a planned radio disruption took place and they don’t want panic to ensue, yet it needed to reported in order to prepare people for what might be to come. Or, I could be a complete conspiracy nut. One or the other.
The Baghdad Burning blog has been updated. I recommend you read it.
I’m getting rather pumped for the Cleveland Browns’ season, especially after the 20-3 win over the Ravens on Sunday, so I went to ClevelandBrowns.com to see what kind of information I could gather. I of course gave into their poll about who’d take the AFC North this year, and voted my conscience, da Browns. It didn’t immediately register that I was dealing with the most biased population imaginable, but after seeing the poll results, it was abundantly clear.
Browns: 80.2%
Ravens: 9.3%
Pittsburg: 7.8% (Probably all residents of Pittsburg trying to sabotage the vote)
Cincinnati: 2.7%
Looks like we have a winner! GO BROWNS!
Here’s a comic I just found…
Man, that sure seemed like a long weekend to me. Friday night the Moon had a show at Peabody’s, which went pretty well. We ended up swindling a 10pm set time, so most of the people who came to see us had arrived by then. Afterward, we bailed out early to party at my house. I got to bed about 3:30am and the next morning the kitchen floor was sticky with beer and dirty shoe filth. It was a recuperation day if I’ve ever had one. I ended up falling asleep at about 10pm. Sunday was the Smitty Tour, were Jay and I were partners in a 2-man scramble. Unfortunately, when one of us hit a good shot, so did the other - and it was the same for bad shots. So while we didn’t really work too well as a team, we managed to get two skins and win $15 each. Nice. Our foursome finished so quickly that we had almost an hour to watch the Browns game, which was a fantastic triumph over the Ravens @ 20 to 3. After that I went out to the Flying Fig for dinner with my mom. Eggplant salad, seared halibut, two kinds of African wine, and french press coffee. Mmm.
Let’s start today off right, with a refreshingly positive view of our current president, honoring the victims of the 9/11 tragedy. In such a somber moment as this, the best way to show respect is probably to put a hand over your heart… or… in this case… your gut. Come on Bush! Are you even from this country? Given the look on his face, perhaps he just ate too much mexican the night before.
This just in… Iraq situation is shitty at best and not getting better. It may be a big shock to Americans who live in caves and have no telephones or televisions, but there’s no denying that the insurgents are striaght fuckin’ shit up. They’re growing in numbers, while US troops already can’t keep up with them. So ah, Kerry, you wanna rethink your “plan” of pulling out the troops during your first term? How about within 15 minutes of being sworn in?
More news on the Genesis space probe that totally slammed into the ground last week… it seems that they may actually be able to recover some data from undamaged capsules. Less talk, more awesome space research, guys. Disprove the existence of God or something. Shake things up.
I know Americans are world-renowned for their laziness, but this is taking it one step too far if you ask me: a power-nap center called ‘Metronap’ has been set up in NYC. I suppose the goal is really to curb laziness, or late-day lethargy that always seems to happen after we eat our usual lunch of two big macs and a fish filet. So it’s not all bad. If nothing else, you look awesome laying in your futuristic pod bed.
This reminds me of a Nick-style creation: deep-fried Oreo cookies! In fact, Nick, when you come here this month, I say we make these. We’ve got to counter-act all the health benefits incurred by consuming fresh juices somehow!
Next time you find yourself wandering aimlessly through Springfield, the home of The Simpsons, at least you’ll have a map handy.
Thanks, Ev, for your touching birthday wishes. This morning when I woke up, I completely forgot it was my birthday. After about 15 minutes of browsing the web I realized what day it was, and thought “hmm, what should I do differently?” The answer was absolutely nothing… except I listened to The Real Kids at an extreme volume the whole way to work, and didn’t care one bit when I was stopped behind a semi and every other lane was still going 70.
The Moon has a show tonight at Peabody’s, and while we hope things go well, Peabody’s is generally so fuckin’ disorganized that we’re anticipating some major miscalculations on their behalf. We’re supposed to go on at 9:30, for the record. That way on Monday when I post again I can laugh and say how far off they were! My ankle may still be a little sore from last week’s bike accident, but it won’t hinder my ability to rock.
The news blows today… really. I’m not just wussing out because it’s my birthday. The hurricane’s about to hit Jamaica, we’re STILL talking about Bush’s military record, people are finally getting around to recognizing that a genocide has been going on in Sudan for a really long time, and the family of John Ritter is filing a malpractice suit against the doctors that misdiagnosed an aortic aneurysm as a heart attack. Poor guy died last Sep. 11th.
All I will say is: why ARE we still talking about these god damned military records? The poll on CNN.com asks ‘Has the debate over the vietnam-era military records of Bush and Kerry changed the way you will vote?’ 89% said no. Take the fucking hint, media people! We don’t give a shit!
Hello World Wide Web. First things first, Happy fucking Birthday RDS!!!
My name is george bush and I’m an Asshole, Oh… Sorry, really my name is none of your biz. I can tell you I’m not Everest Curley. Nor am I the Famed RDS. Ultimately names mean squat!
so it goes…
I’m not going to tell you about the news because frankly retro kicks ass at it. But I may rant and rave about our wonderful and beautiful and always right U.S.A.
so it goes…
Well I’m off to sleep with myself. Good night, RDS HFB.
This is probably the latest in the day my blog has ever been updated, but with good reason… I’m busy. Last night I went to see the band Trainwreck, featuring Kyle from Tenacious D, at the Beachland Tavern. It was fuckin’ fantastic. Not only were they hilarious and entertaining between songs, but they completely rocked too! The lead guitarist made me want to break his hands in the back alley he was so damn good. I heartily recommend you check them out.
I’m not the least bit surprised about this: the world would pick Kerry as their president. After surveying 35 countries, Kerry won over Bush in a landslide. If only those people were voting. How could I have found a better supporting argument for so many of my theories and motives for disliking Bush? Big thanks to whoever conducted this survey.
Well Bush, the truth has finally come out about your military records. Personally, the best credentials you can have in my eyes are if you HADN’T ever served in the military AND you protested the Vietnam war. Still, the media spews whatever meaningless filth it wants, so here we are. Today’s development is that people have come right out and said they aided Bush in getting into the National Guard, so he wouldn’t need to go to Vietnam. Try sidestepping around that!
So here we have a draft-dodging lunatic, and now he’s bombing more innocent civilians in Fallujah. For what?!! I’m sure the mother and father of the infant pictured in this article would love to hear why you just fucking blew up their house.
At least this family knows who to blame.
Remember the article I posted about how NASA was hiring Hollywood stunt pilots to capture the Genesis capsule? Well, the god damned parachute never opened. Just imagine how pissed you’d be if after 3 years and infinite planning, THIS is what you’re left with. Needless to say, it smashed into the ground at about 200mph and cracked wide open. The collected solar wind particles probably just scattered into the air.
Awesome insect-eating robot uses human waste to digest and power itself.
I’m so pissed about Mayor Campbell proposing a smoking ban for Cleveland, that I’m just going to give you a link to the letter I’m sending to her. That way I don’t need to rant all over again and get all worked up. Click here to download it. (It’s in Microsoft Word format.)
This comic’s pretty funny. Take a look at the boss’ face.
Lesson learned: circumcision is for experts only. A man actually tried to circumcise his own son after getting inspired by some bible passages. Hey Jesus, you getting this? I think whatever it is you were trying to say has gotten lost along the way.
This morning simultaneously marked both the lowest point for any political campaign in the history of the world, and (if a single American buys this bullshit) the lowest point for citizens of the USA. Dick Cheney sunk so low that worms and other burrowing animals towered over him. He had the fucking audacity to suggest that voting for Kerry would invite a terror attack. Cheney, how dare you? I mean, you’re already potentially the most maniacal, two-faced theif this country has ever seen. You HAD to go and smuggle fear tactics into the election in such a blatant fashion, didn’t you? You really have no shame. The thing that really upsets me is that people believe shit like this, and Cheney knows damn well he can take advantage of the frightened masses to further his demented agenda. If Kerry were elected president, Cheney said the nation would risk falling back into a “pre-9/11 mind-set” that terrorist attacks are criminal acts that require a reactive approach. Instead, he said Mr. Bush’s offensive approach works to root out terrorists where they plan and train, and pressure countries that harbor terrorists. Oh yeah? That’s been working? You could’ve fooled me! In fact, every day that Bush remains in office is a day we risk offending minority groups and foreigners so substantially that they would be driven to attack us. Not to mention we’re now tied up in a disgusting, senseless conflict, our intelligence community is in shambles, and terror threat levels have become trivial. This whole “pre-9/11 mind-set” is a fucking crock of shit, too. Nobody else has had a chance to try out an alternative approach, Cheney! And how would we “fall back into” this mind-set? We’ve already passed that point, and with or without Bush, nobody wants to be attacked again. Nobody would be complaining if we were ONLY attacking al-Qaeda camps, or still in Afghanistan looking for Osama with minimal troops. Yet now we’re fighting “insurgents” and “rebels” in a conflict that has nothing to do with terrorism. The only terrorism we’re combating is terrorism we brought upon ourselves by occupying a country we have no business in. Going on the offensive is a fine tactic, Dick, but only when you know your enemy. Swinging wildly, blindfolded, in the region where you and your racist cronies believe all bad people come from, is utterly pointless and a tremendous waste of our money and resources. Not to mention, today marks the 1000th American solider death in Iraq. So happy anniversary, Dick. Way to prioritize your profits over human lives.
I would imagine nothing like this has ever happened before: a 2001 Onion article about Bush that was originally completely ludicrous actually proved to be accurate! So chak.org decided to link to articles that illustrated just exactly how accurate the predictions were. Back then I could tell Bush was a liar and that the next four years were going to be a bumpy ride, but never did I think he’d manage to this much harm to our international reputation and the general welfare of our citizens. It sure didn’t take him long, did it?
Last night on Ken & Ev’s porch we were talking with a guy about barking dogs, and I recall mentioning our famous non-stop barking dog across the street: Yappy. Countless times I considered shooting that dog between the eyes to put him, myself and the rest of the neighborhood out of our collective misery. I actually liked the dog, but it was trapped on a second-story porch and hence, would never shut up. Anyway, those people have since been evicted and Yappy is no longer a problem. Well, I knew the owner was a pretty ruthless guy, so I never attempted anything. Boy am I glad I didn’t! Down in Cincinnati, a man barged into his neighbors house after getting a complaint about a barking dog! He tried to handcuff them, and ended up shooting the woman twice. They’re both OK, apparently, but … wow. What kind of crazy fucker gets that bent out of shape about a noise complaint?! Maybe that’s where Yappy and his owner moved!?!
Holy hopscotch motherfucking triple son of a god damned bitch. I just about finished one of my biggest blog posts ever only for my browser to crash before I could post it. FUUUUCCCKK!!! See, this sucks because after I’m done I couldn’t ever go back and reproduce it exactly. Nor am I in the mood to type anymore. Well, shit. I think I need to smoke about 10 cigarettes at once right now.
So this weekend was a good one, with plenty o’ beer drinkin’ and fishin’. Saturday I got my new car stereo put in, and also added a powered antenna to the mix because, as I think I mentioned on here before, my car’s antenna got broken off. It’s plenty loud now.
Sunday I went out to Katy & Bob’s farm to see all the goats and catch some fish. You can check out some of the pictures here on this little webpage I made. We had good luck then because it was evening, but the next day I fished from about 11-4 and only caught a catfish and some little bass and bluegill. I was so tired last night that I went to bed at 9pm and didn’t wake up until my alarm went off!
Our “Little Buddy” Iraq (as Bush would call it, apparently pretending to be The Skipper talking to Gilligan) could be in danger of breaking down to civil war. It seems that there is little hope of satisfying the diverse interests of the many groups that comprise Iraq. What’s worse is that because many of those interests and beliefs are echoed by one neighboring state or another, a civil war in Iraq could bloom into a war for a good chunk of the middle east. Is this what Bush is really after? I have no idea, but it seems to me that if you want to protect Israel from millions and millions of Arabs, a good way to do it would be to pit them against one another. All I’m saying is to QUESTION EVERYTHING.
Bushie-poo, I wonder what you meant by: “Too many OB-GYNs aren’t able to practice their love with women all across this country.” Perhaps you could have gone with a more benign medical practice… neurology for example. Now all I can think of is you and your chimpanzee grin carrying out all your favorite obstetrician/gynecologist malpractice fantasies. Talk about Freudian slips!! You’re sick! Sick I tell you! Especially since recent polling by me in a bar indicates that 2 out of 2 women prefer a female OB-GYN over a male one.
Lately a lot of people have been discussing the distribution of wealth in this country. I am no exception. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has some interesting data on the matter - specifically what kind of fiscal shift took place to upset the balance. Take a look at the first table in the Appendix. Over the past fifty years our wages and salaries have grown at a very substantial rate while corporate profits enjoyed a smaller, steady increase. In 2001 the shift was so severe it surpassed what would be the opposite situation. Corporations began taking raking it in and the little man had nothing to show for it. I also think that the ‘Employer Contributions for Insurance and Pensions’ shows how out of control the insurance industry is right now. From 1949 to 1982, those contributions never increased by more than %15, mostly increasing by less than 10%, but in 2001 they increased by 25%.
I find it upsetting that this article is really concerned with the health of e-commerce, rather than finally proving a 150-year-old mathematical theory called The Riemann Hypothesis. I first heard about this hypothesis on NPR’s Talk of the Nation, where guests discussed prime numbers. It proposes that there is a pattern to how prime numbers occur. Seems simple enough, but since they’re still only “close” to solving it, it must be one tough son of a bitch to prove. So why does this effect e-commerce? Encryption. Supposedly, once the discovery is made, any hacker could decrypt sites and rake in the credit card numbers. Personally, I’ve been sitting around waiting for this to happen, and as soon as I have the numbers I’m going to order everything that Musician’s Friend sells. My whole life has hinged on the discovery of this proposed pattern. I understand everything BUT the occurance of prime numbers, and within seconds of the release of this information, can begin deconstructing the world’s most secure systems. (Yeah, right.)
10-year-old shot in face. Blunt, eh? This headline represents everything that’s wrong with local news media, and the trend to go for “shock value” to increase ratings. I’ve corresponded with Nick about this matter as well, and one thing I’ve noticed is that if the victim or offender is a minor, their age will always be mentioned. ‘14-year-old raped’, ‘6-year-old drowns in father’s yogurt’, ‘11-year-old hit by three trains in a row’. You never see the age of adults. ‘Man defecates off Bay Bridge, falls’… instead of ‘53-year-old man defecates off Bay Bridge, falls’. It’d be nice if news agencies didn’t find it necessary to capitalize on tragedy, but I digress.
This is more my style: Airplane’s Toilet Ice Crashes Garden Party. The only thing that must be mentioned is the use of ‘crash’ and ‘airplane’ in the same sentence. But let’s face it, ice has never made an ILS approach and a clean centerline landing at your nearby airport.
I don’t want to dilute the funny here, so just look at the third picture down on this lovely real estate posting.
I guess prison ain’t so bad. Cable TV, three square meals, weightroom, anal sex, rec time, and plenty of spider venom to shoot up! Some very clever inmates in Australia have been breeding and milking venomous spiders to shoot up and get high on. They may have been diluting it, but good lord! Call someone in B.C. or Amsterdam!
EVEREST! You were just telling me the other day you got to ask Jane Campbell about putting some windmill turbines on the Lake Erie coast, and what do we have here?! The Great Lakes Science Center is thinking about doing just that. The Cleveland Foundation is saying they’d put up the $160,000 needed to construct one. The article says that such a turbine would produce enough power for 10-20 homes. That’s not a whole shitload, but imagine if we were to use a chunk of Burke Lakefront or find some other spot out East… we could seriously supplement our need for other powerplants. I wonder if they’d let me put one in my yard to power my home.
