Musings of a Dumb Ass

Musings of a Dumb Ass.............. Me and Charles Ray.......... We were unlikely friends, me and Monkey, him being more than 3 years my senior. We met the year I was twelve at a birthday party for some girl long forgotten and unimportant now. The weather was chilly but we hit it off right away and left the party to entertain ourselves and wound up walking the streets all night long singing 'A White Sport Coat and A Pink Carnation' to the top of our lungs and searching for cigarette butts still long enough to smoke. We had a blast that year and done things that would tie us together forever. We learned how to drink, chase women, con and get conned, and to have some time that neither of us gave a damn in. We hung out with the bad guys and the older boys but always reserved the right to exit whenever we wanted and never left unless we left together. We stole gas from John Holland's tractors and peach shed equipment for whose ever car we rode around in. We got caught in the act that summer and had to get down on our knees and pray for forgiveness while John watched to keep him from calling the Sheriff on us, and promised to go to church at Mount Vernon every service for a month to learn more about the Lord. We kept our end of the bargain but didn't miss a chance to fall in love with Jeff Wood's daughters. John Holland never realized hell itself couldn't have kept us out of church because that's the only place Jeff Wood's daughters could go. When me and Charles Ray realized the only way we could romance the Wood sisters was to work for the Lord we gave up and moved on. We took a joyride in one of Walter Meeks used cars which ended in a ditch by Bill Watson's house. We got the car out but figured we better get out of that business and returned it to the used car lot it came from. That was a wise choice and ended our life of crime forever. We worked in the peach orchards together and tried to chugalug a gallon of grape wine sitting in the huge culvert, it was almost tall enough to stand up in, that went under 64 highway by the Ark-Air drive in theater. We intended to sneak across the fence into the Drive In Theater when it got dark but somewhere before the bottom of the wine jug showed up I puked all over the front of my shirt and down into my lap and Charles Ray shit on himself. We just got too drunk to move at all and spent the night in the culvert puking and gagging and heaving till I finally shit on myself too. At noon the next day we were able to talk a little and solemnly swore we'd never drink any of that shit again. By about 2 in the afternoon we started thinking of a way to get through town without being seen. It looked hopeless. With all the puke and dried shit we were carrying around we were no candidate for help from anyone. Finally Charles Ray ventured out the end of the culvert and looked across the road toward the 64 Hub truckstop and motel and saw his brother Ralph's car at the gas pump. He shouted for me to run and we both tore out across the highway and up to Ralph's Car and got in the back seat. He had a date with Snooky Russell from Hartman and was embarrassed but we refused to get out and demanded he take us home. Charles Ray's mother gave us enough clothes to change into but wouldn't allow us in the house so we went over to Spadra creek and cleaned up standing in knee deep water and swearing we'd never do that again. We threw our nasty clothes in the weeds and closed that chapter. We used to go places. Nobody cared enough to wonder where we were or when we'd be back and so we went. We hitch hiked and it was wonderful. We went to Indianapolis to see the speedway. There was no race but we got them to let us in to look anyway. When we needed money we'd fix flats at a truckstop or clean up a trash pile for someone. We odd jobbed cafe's more than once for something to eat and slept across the ditch's along the highway. Once we hitch hiked to New Orleans because it sounded fun. We done other things up to the time we got married, him first, then me, then we just sorta drifted apart and lived life as it gave us what we had coming. Charles Ray was a great traveler. I read the old home town news paper on the internet, published weekly, every tuesday afternoon. Today's edition reported Charles Ray Left on another trip March 26. His funeral is tomorrow and too far away for me to attend. I hadn't seen him in 25 years. I wish I had visited him again when I could have....... Good luck Monkey....... We had a great time, better than most. If God offers you grape wine...... DON"T TAKE IT....... IT MAKES YOU SHIT ON YOURSELF!!!!!!!...................................

Musings of a Dumb Ass

Musings of a Dumb Ass We humans have a very strange history, and factually a strange present. On my journey through what ever this has been since I touched mother earth in the wee hours of that summer morning in Newton County Arkansas so many years ago, honesty, especially with myself has been what kept me together in whatever I done through life. Honesty isn't something that has to be a pain in the ass for all those around you, but it can be. No one has complete public honesty because we couldn't survive in such a world. But late at night in the time just before sleep takes us away to where ever we go in slumber, no matter who we are or what we may have done, the truth is always lurking about. That's when 'things' bother me. If I've done something not quite right, or maybe completely wrong, it starts nagging at me. My definition of honesty probably differs from most. I don't mind a rip snorting lie so much. If it insults my intelligence I get bored very quickly. If the lie is done to truly protect someone you care for, then you gotta respect the intent, although the end result probably won't do what the fibber hoped and it might come back and bite them in the ass in the most hurtful way. The kind of dishonesty that bothers me is the kind that sets the standards for life. If I make a decision that affects someones life in the negative because of anything dishonest and incorrect on my part, I am tortured beyond belief for way too long. My family was basically dishonest with each other as I was growing up and hypocrites to boot. We were Mountain people without any of the conveniences of those who lived in town and we loved the Lord. If you didn't, you were shunned, and in my case, Granny Bess would beat your ass to within shouting distance of the final curtain and it was a given, your love of the Lord would increase dramatically even as conciousness began to drift away. If any of Bess's daughters crossed her they were whores. If any of her sons misbehaved they just 'weren't no good'. Imagine my surprise when I found out more than one of their 13 children were born out of wedlock before they bothered to get married. And this was in a particularly rigid time and place, the teens of 1900 and very rural America. Was her behaviour with those around her a display of someone with honest convictions? Not really, but were in line with her sons who with the exception of a couple, all preached and saved souls for God, making certain to remain sober during church hours. In among all this craziness I started to pay attention to honesty and fought hard with myself to make sure I separated real from desired or imagined in my own life. To this day I remain devoted to myself when it comes to honesty with myself. If it was right, don't change. If it was wrong, don't be afraid to change. When I was about 12 years old or so, I was aware that Oral Roberts over in Tulsa healed people on television. It was the damndest thing I ever seen. He would chase demons out of troubled souls and cure cripples with just the touch of his hand, giving Jesus and God all the credit. He never failed. The show lasted several years, then silently faded away, but by then he was exhorbantly rich. He and his son run the University now and command much of the choice real estate in downtown Tulsa, and sell prayer cloths and such. Why don't they still heal the lame and sick and dying? They never announced a loss of power and connection with the Almighty, so one would presume they could still do it if they wanted to. So why don't they? Maybe it's because those pesky newspeople would want a 'behind the scenes' look at things. I'll sleep good tonight. I wonder if Oral has anything bothering him? Or George Bush? Or Hillary Clinton? Or, God forgive, Bill Clinton? Or George Clooney? Or anyone entrusted in running your country or spending your money? Or just messing around with the power to affect your life? zzzzzzzzzzzzz...............

Musings of a Dumb Ass

Musings of a Dumb Ass......... We Americans just aren't very good at asking the right questions, instead preferring to take whatever's the popular spin of the moment as factual and never thinking beyond the screen of the television set. The questions that should be asked are ridiculously simple and we should be ashamed that no one asks them. One of the things about the status of crude oil that should be noted is for oil imported from the Middle East, the 'lifting cost', or what it costs to produce a barrel of crude has changed very little in more than ten years. The present cost to produce a barrel of crude in Saudi Arabia is about $2.00 per barrel which exposes one hell of a stretch to the current charge of about $60.00 per barrel on the world market. This just raises a multitude of questions, all of which are never asked by The American Public. Saudi Arabia says it has no control over the escalating costs of crude even though little has changed in its own economy in forty years, so are they reluctantly accepting that $58.00 difference between cost and price and painfully depositing it in their own banks owned by the royal family to be disturbed only to buy a large share of the dollars we are printing so their most important customer... The USA... doesn't suffer a financial collapse? Another fact to ponder is the current cost to produce a barrel of crude in Iraq is about a dollar. This is a country that we are destined to invest three trillion dollars in to bring democracy to those who are more interested in when they can get their electricity turned back on and get the Americans out than to pursue the voting booth. For those who need to see all those zeros, here's what 3 trillion dollars looks like. $3,000,000,000,000.00 And you can look forward to paying every dime of it but you cannot find (at least I can't) what's happening to the oil Iraq is currently producing, how much revenue is it bringing in, where it's going, or even who the customers recieving it are! Yet no one is questioning anything about it. Why? Am I the only one to wonder about things like this? We've become unable to think about too many things that gave us strength, power, and dignity and have given over to living through today taking whatever is easiest, letting someone else set the rules and standards we live by and staggering on towards tomorrow with no conception of what tomorrow might hold for us and even worse, without the ability to dream about the impossible. This has brought us to a place of unbelievability in the marketplace. Currently General Motors is staggering around in circles trying to keep from collapsing under the load of an average 27 dollar an hour production line employee who's cost to the company baloons to an incredible $73.73 per hour when the benefits are added in. The cost for employee group health insurance paid out by General Motors annually is a whopping 5 billion 600 million dollars and costs the company more than the raw steel used to build their cars annually, falling in at about $1500.00 per car for health insurance costs alone! At the moment, General Motors and their direct associates are looking to cut 54,000 of the top paying jobs in this country, while most of us are either admiring those new Toyotas or praying for one. On second thought, maybe we're just too stupid to think of the questions that should be asked.................

Musings of a Dumb Ass

Musings of a Dumb Ass...... OK kids...... I've had more than average comment about how fun stuff is so much better than that political stuff I usually write about. I've been taken back a bit by that because I never thought of myself as particularly political. To me political is when someone is attempting to promote a point of view or cause you to change yours in support of theirs. While I suppose I would have to admit to hoping one or two might see things the way I do, I really don't think I ever suggested the one who lost the election would have been better than the one who won nor do I suggest that whomever is on the horizon would surely lead us to bliss. Instead I've always thought of myself as a lover of history. And using that as my guide, try to figure out what is the likely result of a continued course of sameness. I also am fascinated by human behaviour, honesty and logic, and like to try my hand at comparison and understanding, then try to tie everything up into a package of probable end. I love math and physics and am completely mesmerised by time and space. Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking are my hero's and I try soooo hard to understand the known facts about the universe and then think about what's not known, and overtaxing my pitifully inadequate excuse for a brain in the process very quickly. I am consumed by humankind's known history and never tire of poking around about what made us as we are and remaining basically confused about it. I also am in a constant turmoil about God and whether or not such a thing exists. It amazes me that all faiths, of which there are hundreds worldwide, all but a couple have a human, usually dead, that acts as a go between to either send a message to the almighty, or to explain to the followers what everything means. I am absolutely a creature of simplicity and cannot understand why God has a need to send me a message through or about any one or any organization. It would appear to me if the 'Main Man' has any desire to manage my thinking or behaviour, he would pay me an unmistakenly indisputable visit in his own behalf and tell me what he expects of me. Of course this puts me at odds with all the religions I know about and leaves me incredibly frustrated with old age roaring down upon me and no decisions about what corner to wait on for the pick up to occur when old age does the inevitable to me. I love personal memories. And sometimes those who were a part of them suffer the consequence of my keyboard, although never in an intentional show of disrespect, but instead a sharing of humor. So......... me political? Since I believe any move to replace Frick with Frack will only replace your guy ruling me with their guy doing the same, and unequivocally continuing on the same path, that makes me somewhat impotent as a politically driven person. For those who are looking for a laugh or to be entertained, I concede today's post to be pitifully boring and disappointing. Possibly the next one will be better.......................... stand by............

Musings of a Dumb Ass

Musings of a Dumb Ass.....It cost 35 cents for an adult ticket to go to the Strand theater. I was in the lurch that I could get in on a childs ticket (10 cents) but that day I was feeling pretty good because I'd done some clean up work around Mills Sinclair Station and Clifford Harmon had give me 2 bucks for my effort. That particular day the ticket seller was cute so I told her 'one adult please' and went through the doors into the lobby of the Strand to see "Tarantula" starring John Agar. It was a Wednesday matinee so there wasn't very many there and I chose a seat in the very near empty right side section towards the back. It was a perfect spot to see the movie, (I loved John Agar scary movies) and from where I was sitting I could see everyone who came in, and just in case Joyce Clayburn showed up I intended to buy her some damn popcorn or something and show her how things worked. The newsreels and advertisement had played, the cartoon had been shown, and the main feature had started and the tarantula had been given the dose of whatever that would cause it to grow as big as the 64 Hub truckstop and motel. I seen her come in but she was an older woman. I'd seen her around and knew her name was Minnie May Hall but she was like 13 or 14, and was probably out of my reach so I didn't put her on my list of things to do that afternoon as she took a seat a few rows down in the center section. I was intent on the movie and by now the Tarantula was growing fast and getting unruly and John Agar knew there was a problem. When it broke out and started tearing up buildings I knew this was going to be a 'goodern' and leaned forward in my seat in anticipation of getting scared to death in the ways only those horror movies from the fifties could do. I saw Minnie May get up and start for the aisle and I thought to myself 'this is a hell of a time to go pee' and was completely confused when she turned in to my aisle and plopped into the seat next to me saying 'This scares me to death'. All I could think of to say was 'Awwww.....it ain't real.' I was almost immediately aware of how she smelled. It was somewhere between fresh lilacs and what I imagined Doris Day would smell like and I leaned back and was just taken by the wonderfulness of her aura and was taking deep breaths to suck in everything about that great odor and not wanting to breathe out. I was getting light headed from her smell when the damned spider started killing people and Minnie May reached across and got my hand causing me to burp and bang my knees together. If she noticed, she didn't let on. The smell. Her smell was everywhere around me. I almost didn't care about John Agar anymore, but then something else happened, I don't know what because I was already legally blind from the wonder of the mystique of my own drama, and Minnie May let out the most precious yelp I'd ever heard and buried her face on my shoulder. At that point I experienced what would be my first stroke in life and my face was transformed into what I figured was a permanant snarl. Time stood still. The very thought of this incredible woman next to me with her head on my shoulder, now holding both my hands and whimpering was just about more than I could stand. I was afraid to move even the least bit and disturb the moment. So I just sat there enjoying. The snarl was beginning to ease off a bit and I was getting in control of the situation and thinking about trying to get my arm around her when she moved her nose up to my ear and whispered 'Don't that thing scare you'? I could feel her lips just brushing my ear and her breath was warm as she whispered. I think I wet on myself just a little and way to loudly proclaimed 'HELL...I AIN'T SKEERED OF NUTHIN'....... I sat there like a rock. She left her mouth against my ear. My ears were roaring and I no longer was aware of anything but Minnie May. I no longer cared about John Agar, the damned spider, Doris Day, Joyce Clayburn, a '55 Chevy or President Eisenhower. I was somewhere between heaven and hell. I wasn't about to leave, but I was too nervous to stay. I was having growing problems myself, instigated by Minnie May's smell and her face against my ear, when god forgive me a slight fart escaped me. By providence's kindness it was a quiet one and I never smelled it, and evidently she didn't either. I was so thankful and was again contemplating some kind of manly thing to do when she whispered into my ear 'Hmmmm... I feel good now.... and started rubbing my hand and arm...... There must have been a thousand feathers brushing my back and my skin was crawling off my body. I was leaning my head over so she could get further into my ear. She was running her fingertips up my arm and my right leg was bowing up in unison. when she went back down my arm my leg straightened out. I went completely blind and I'm sure I whimpered when she kissed me in my ear and at that point I was sure I was pissing on myself, but I didn't care anymore. We were sliding down in our seats and as far as I was concerned John Agar could go to hell in a '55 Chevy and take his damned spider with him, when Minnie May moaned just a little bit and found my snarled up mouth with hers. Some how I remember I looked up and she was just there. When her lips touched mine my mouth magically relaxed and I never had a more wonderful thing in my life. Her lips were SO soft and delicious and as she moaned, and smeared her lipstick around I became totally helpless and couldn't even moan when she stuck her tongue all the way down to my spleen. I just held my breath and tried to hold on to my sanity. I don't know if I actually fainted from lack of oxygen or if passion played a part, but somehow I fell off the seat and into the floor. I was too weak to move very fast, and by the time I was able to get back in my seat, the spell had been broken and that bastard Agar had the spider situation settled and the movie was ending. the overhead lights were on signaling the end of the movie when Minnie May smiled and patted my hand. She said 'I had a good time' .... and was gone! It was some time before I was able to stand up and walk. When I was steady enough to do so, I did. On the way out I met Joyce Clayburn in the lobby coming in. She came right up and said 'Want to sit with me'? I said 'Nah... already seen the show..... I wonder where Minnie May Hall is now, and how she's doing.... and if she still likes a John Agar movie?.........

Musings of a Dumb Ass

Musings of a Dumb Ass....Conditioned thinking and behaviour takes a long time to achieve. It often becomes so attractive that the ones being conditioned insist on helping even though they may not understand the destination they are being led to. In a conditioned world sometimes thought is forbidden. Crazy? Not so fast Pardner. It is unacceptable to question anything about the holocaust if it colors the Jewish slant on it. But there are questions. Not about The Germans hatred of World War 2 Jews, but were any facts misstated and have the Jews used their ill fortune to form world opinion and to excuse their modern day behaviour? To ask anything of this genre will produce the opinion you are anti-semetic. Only recently has the common man arrived to a thought process that allows him to question the war in Iraq without fear of total condemnation by even those close to him. This war of course should absolutely be questioned. We are afraid to discuss in a real way with honesty, racial relations in our country. The ones who ride this horse howl with such ferocity that we quake with fear and guilt at the very idea of asking 'are you doing anything for yourself'? We aren't able to define welfare anymore and are afraid to call it what it is, preferring to call it aid to this and aid to that or such and such program that doesn't sound welfarish, but is, and does little except rob the souls of the recipient and enable them to continue on as they are. We recoil in fear at the prospect of rearranging things to protect the future of America's young, such as social security letting those screaming the loudest continue on digging the hole. My father at 85 died in 2000, a 23 year recipient of social security. On examination, I found he AND his employers paid a combined amount just over 9 thousand dollars in his entire working life into the system. Most of those his age paid about the same. What was his return? Just over a hundred thousand in monthly benefits, grants to repair his house, 18 thousand and some change, Don't know how much food stamps etc. There was 24 thousand a year in funds from the gov's coffers for more than 3 years of nursing home care, round that off to 75 thousand, lots of medical care, too much to run down, but the last two years of his life found 61 thousand followed by 87 thousand (therapy treatments, medicines, hospitilization, surgeries, and intensive care stays, for a less than correct total of 341 thousand bucks. Not bad for less than 10 thousand invested. Multiply that by the millions just like that and you get a sense of where this is headed. In four months I qualify by age for social security benefits. Will I be signing up? Hell no. I'm healthy and I'll work till it's over. Besides, my concience won't allow it..................

Musings of a Dumb Ass

Musings of a Dumb Ass..... Abortion and the right to or not to has been a modern day argument for near 40 years and no closer to being settled than it ever was. Growing up in a world that unwanted pets were casually and systematically shot or drowned and slaughter animals killed and dressed in the front yard, Abortion and what it meant wasn't an issue where I come from. In fact, as girls became pregnant, and they did, there was always 'talk' about how they'd just get it fixed. Fixed meant taking the girl to a doctor who would do the deed, or taking care of it themselves. Taking care of it themselves meant they would ingest some chemical potion that would cause a miscarriage, try to over exert themselves or engage in a dangerous physical activity, or in the absence of a doctor or failure of the physical activity method, occasionally someone would try to use a coat hanger or some other tool to dislodge the sorry little bastard. In the absence of old fashioned guts my own mother chose the physical way to try to get rid of me by up to and including jumping off the barn, but I hung in there anyway, and here I am. Abortion and whether or not to, didn't matter much to me until I was about 40, and somewhere in there I started learning respect in a different way. Age does that to one. The argument really seems to center around when life begins. For me, the knowledge that if anything from the act of sex forward to live birth is interrupted, then life cannot continue. That would suggest to me without question or compromise that life does not begin with departure from the mothers womb, and instead begins at the union of the egg. The person who seeks an abortion is seldom willing to look at what was ejected from her body and instead tries to act like it didn't matter anyway. The people who assist and perform abortions have put themselves in a clinical position of thought and values that do not include the kind of respect for our species that must prevail for us to reach a level of satisfaction with life that is necessary for us to die in peace when we are old. I spent my life in the entertainment business, much of it in establishments and with people that didn't include true respect for life. Respect for life is drawn with a very large brush and I certainly don't think a puritan way is desirable, because a double shot of smooth whiskey has an element of heaven in it, and a cute ass still turns my head (does that make me chauvinistic?) but I Do believe that respect is still definable in everything we do and should not be breached. There is still great debate about President Clinton's blowjob and what it meant. Some believe it was just a good old boy having some fun. Some believe it might have been wrong but he should never have endured the embarrasment it created and certainly should have not led up to his impeachment. I believe that it was an abomination for the nation's top elected official to behave as he did in the house that belongs to the ages and the nation, talking to heads of states while He and Monica, under his desk, were giving a new meaning to the word 'head'. Not withstanding that, the damage he done to the moral fiber of generations of Americans is unforgivable, because, the most powerful individual in the world said it was OK by doing it, indicated that vows and dedication to marriage weren't important, then lied about it under oath. As a society we turned a very sharp corner of definition at that point in time and cannot return. We would do well to rethink our values in respect for life. I for one have eternal problems understanding how reasonable and intelligent people can sit at a table and talk about whether or not it's OK to kill a baby, and then believe they understand respect in its truest meaning.........

Musings of a Dumb Ass

Musings of a Dumb Ass..... Why do we need a face for bad judgement or atrocity? Is it because through that, we can feel less responsible? Does the face of someone to blame relieve all those present as the deed is commited a free ride when the consequences of such actions come to bear? When a ball team loses we blame the coach. Does that mean the level of individual play on the field was governed by the coach even though some of the players may have been ill, hung over or drugged? When a medical procedure doesn't produce the desired results we sue the Doctor even though many more faces have participated and the patient might not have been suitable for such an undertaking and known so beforehand. In a court of law when a large settlement case is tried the winning and losing attorney's will prosper or suffer from the verdict and the circumstances of the case and the recipients are usually forgotten before the settlements are awarded. In World War Two, Adolph Hitler will be forever viewed as the epitomy of evil. Does this mean the German populace who participated in the activities of the death camps should not have been held accountable? Most of them swore they had no idea what was going on in there even though many lived nearby and worked in them, not to mention the soldiers who pulled the triggers of the automatic weapons in the civilian killing fields and those who opened the valves of the gas lines of the sealed off rooms filled with victims, and those who stoked the furnaces to dispose of the bodies. Should we trade them forgiveness in return for the face of a crazy man to blame? We didn't even require a face to blame for the murderous and incredibly brutal ways of the World War Two Japanese. Somehow the one to blame faded off into nothingness and we now apologise for stopping their madness with an atom bomb, even though they burned those captured alive in trenches after they shot the legs out from under them, and as they took Nanking in the Ukraine it was considered great sport to rape a pregnant women then cut the fetus out of her belly and present it to their Commanding Officer still hanging from the bayonet. Our answer to that has been to line up to buy a Toyota, proclaiming it as the most wonderful thing ever built while Ford and General Motors have no occupants on the board who tried to slice the stomach of my father, but who must announce the jobs of thousands to be lost. Did any man in the street have any power to stop any of these disasters of history? Of course. It was called 'the vote'. And yes, public opinion and support was crucial, even if the voting process wasn't available, because warfare couldn't happen if no one supported it. So, here we are. Is George Bush and George Bush alone responsible for all our troubles? Hardly. Although The President can get us involved in military action, it can only remain small scale without the blessings of Congress. In the end, should we accept George Bush as the only one responsible for the most unnecessary and dangerous war in history? Or should we blame Congress as they led the march to stupidity hand in hand and in lockstep, most of them whom we had sent back election after election without thinking whether or not they had really done a good job or not and instead said 'their experience was indispensible. Or should we shoulder some of the responsibility because we don't have the honesty in our hearts to accept the fact that all elected officials work for us at our direction? And reserve the right to send them packing when they're unable to separate responsible from irresponsible. Of course that would require an informed and alert electorate.......duh

Musings of a Dumb Ass

Musings of a Dumb Ass...... Lately I've been spending some surf time looking over some of my fellow bloggers offerings and even getting forward enough to make comments on some of them, which I'm not altogether sure is the right thing to do, because a persons position or feeling on a given issue or situation is certainly their right and privelidge and anothers take on it might be an invasion or at best rude behaviour. Having said that, I must confess getting an e-mail or a post on my site is great, positive or negative, and I welcome them all. There's more than a few out there that feel The President is stupid and a liar and the truth doesn't dwell in him. Other's think that some lies are acceptable no matter. Since myself nor any of my fellow writers are not elected officials, the truth as we speak it is not any less important than than the utterances of those who lead us. What does set us apart is the obligation of honesty as it applies to the direction of the country we live in and our lives from day to day. First off folks, The President isn't stupid. Give it up and get it out of your way so your not encumbered in your own assessment of how we arrived to where we are. He does have a Rube way of speech, but so did Sam Walton. As to the lying end of things, after Bill Clinton's explanation of how the word 'is' is used and defined, we must all agree that the act of what appears to be lying may only be a variation of how you look at the truth. I prefer to think those who are in power both politically and financially live in a world separate to themselves and only THINK they understand everyone else's. While facts and figures may abound about an issue and be at the fingertips of those who make decisions, who among us truly believes they understand the misery handed out by the warlords of third world countries in Africa, and the hopelessness and heartbreak of a mother as she watches her baby as it dies from starvation, as she waits for it to be over? And who among us really believes any elected official has the first real life clue on how it is for a family in the ghetto or in the trailerpark or wherever, manages survival in the world the politician has designed for himself and is giving favoritism to those who made it easier for him to be where he is? The 'good old boy' club has been around since authority was invented and is chaired successively by those who manage to claw their way into the seat only to be the prize of their successor as time takes its toll. As I've surfed bloggdom I've seen an incredible amount of talent in wordsmithing. Most of it is expended in experiencing the writers emotion of the moment, or just enjoying their spot in life where they can be free of consequences for what they percieve as 'free thinking', some are experimenting, searching for the parameters of what they can make a reader believe, and some are trying to advance what they truly believe is correctness in a political party or position. The common denominator most share is the inability to look at a situation or fact as existing, without the evil intent or evil behaviour of an individual hell bent on personal gain being the sole reason for the situation or fact existing to begin with. Who among us would have the audacity to believe in our heart of hearts that any President in history or those to come in the future would have an agenda to destruct The United States of America? Instead, we the people have gotten to a place that truth and fact isn't what drives us, and instead we imagine a world that is variable and acceptable according to whatever makes 'our guy' look good and 'their guy' look bad, and what can we personally get the most out of and do the least for it. Me? I'm just a Dumb Ass...........

Musings of a Dumb Ass

Musings of a Dumb Ass.... When I was very young I fancied myself as a Democrat. Everybody knew there was a difference between them and the Republicans, and the Democrats looked out for the little guy . After the Viet-Nam war became something that haunted the concience of thinking people, a full dose of Lyndon Johnson, riots in the streets of Chicago during the Democratic Convention and a lingering suspicion that the great society would never be great because of the government, I began to think in a different way about things that were beginning to look a different way. I'm not sure exactly when I started admitting I was a Republican. Everyone knew there was a difference between them and the Democrats, and the Republicans weren't so bad about wasting taxpayer money on give aways to those who had no ambition. But after Nixon, Carter, Ford and Reagan I had trouble defining the basic difference between the two so I became a Conservative. Everyone knew there was a difference between the Conservatives and the Liberals. But after surviving Bush Senior, Clinton, and now Bush Junior, and a steady erosion of rights, economic stability, morals, respect and believability, and only two basic differences between Liberals and Conservatives ( Right to life and Right to bear arms), I've come to the conclusion that they're all just about alike, which leaves me only the option of being A Dumb Ass. After we so thoroughly bought into the Clinton fiasco only to turn around and be sucked in by the Bush debacle, Dumb Assism is the only thing left........ zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Musings of a Dumb Ass

Musings of a Dumb Ass..... Happiness? Does any one really have it? When you do have it, what makes it stay? If you lose it, was whatever caused it to leave a life altering experience? Or was it just a passing event of little importance? We humans are soooo complex yet so simple and the span of emotions we are capable of experiencing can be triggered not only by disaster and tragedy but also whimsy and silliness. When we are insanely happy we usually require little support but if we are unhappy sometimes we cannot get enough, and want to make everybody else as miserable as we are. The human body and spirit are put together in a way that we struggle for life until the last breath and go out gasping for just one more breath. We are different from all other living creatures in that sometimes it's possible for us to be forewarned and have a relatively correct timeline for our demise. Even though we may have this information at our disposal, our body and spirit still usually holds together valiently fighting the grim reaper trying to cheat him out of just one last breath. But then, occassionally we opt to end it all and whack ourselves, unwilling to fight the insurmountable and hopeless odds of continuing until nature runs its course and the inevitable end. People who actually do this, I believe, are generally individuals of incredible strength or on the opposite end, complete morons who have never acquainted themselves with life and the wonderfulness of it to begin with. I think many more consider offing themselves than is believed. This guy has, very seriously. What kept me from doing it wasn't that I got so far down to begin with, instead it was the knowledge that maybe great things were just around the corner if I just waited a bit, and it was so. Some like to threaten those who care for them with the deed. Then some like to play with whomever will pay attention to them. These kind almost never do it intentionally, but do sometimes wind up on the morgue slab because they went too far with what they believed they could control. So why would this Dumb Ass be wandering around in such a subject? Weeell, I stumbled onto a blog in which the writer has named a specific day to stop the clock because of terminal (I suppose it's terminal) illness, which is most certainly a factor that would cause me to consider the option. What is interesting in this is the writers desire to share not only his intent, but to include a growing list of charactures and his feelings about them as things go along. The writing is of such quality that it could make one believe it's an exercise in entertainment or a study of human behaviour. Or, of course it could be human tragedy at it's most painful. Whichever the case may be, I will follow it with interest until its over. Since the writer is the one looking for finality, and in all likelyhood will remain anonymous outside of his blog, how will I know when its over? Will the posts 'just stop'? Or will there be an announcement? And who will make it? And how will I know they're real? So many questions. Maybe I should go back to worrying about things with more probable answers. Like the way we treat each other and why we don't understand most of the rest of the world. Or why grass is green and the sky is blue. Damn.