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Rush… Bad For Republicans, Pt 3

Here’s Rush:

The whole reason that there is a resurgence of piracy, which is something that was thought to have been stamped out a couple of hundred years ago, is precisely because idiots like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama think pirates and terrorists — and this is terrorism — are criminals, not enemies.

Gee, and here I thought that piracy has been an ongoing problem throughout the 20th Century…. Oh, it HAS! And here’s a few maps of piracy incidents from 2005 through 2008. In fact, the Rand Corporation reported:

Acts of piracy — boarding a ship to commit theft or another crime — totaled 2,463 actual or attempted incidents between 2000 and 2006, according to the report. The overall problem is almost certainly even greater than the figures suggest as researchers suspect nearly half of all piracy attacks are not reported, usually because of fears about subsequent investigation costs and increases to insurance premiums.

The report opens by stating that open seas piracy was on the rise. In 2008. Hey, wasn’t that when G. W. Bush was in office; when criminals like pirates were terrorist?

Why Rush Is Bad For The Republican Party, Pt 2

“I want to single out Jonah Goldberg of National Review for being the first that I saw to have the proper reaction to the rescue of Captain Phillips from the merchant marine organizers, and that was to congratulate President Obama for a job well done. I would not only like to jump on the bandwagon, but I’d like to say I don’t think the Navy had that much to do with it.”

-Rush Limbaugh

This is a bit like watching a movie where someone has blown up a bridge, and the train cars plow off one at a time, in slow-mo. Before this ended with military action, you were led to believe by Rush and others that no action was being taken because Obama would not allow the military to do its job. He is a weak anti-military socialist. Apparently, Rush now dismisses Obama’s decision to allow the use of force against the Somali Pirates. This is how a reader at The Corner sums it up:

In particular, I think Rush has one meritorious point: the pirate situation is cheap PR for Obama personally.

Two points:

(1) Not that it wasn’t apparent before, but there is NOTHING SHORT of Obama becoming a completely different person, an ultra-conservative one, that will please the far right, and

(2) doesn’t Rush’s criticism of Obama validate the left’s criticism of Reagan’s invasion of Grenada – it was a cheap PR move for Reagan?

I know the two incidences are a bit different, but not by much. Of course, the far right wants to invade Somalia… yesterday. Question. If Obama did that, would he get more respect, even though we would be stuck in yet another never ending conflict on foreign soil?

As if this were not enough, on Sunday evening radio host Bill Cunningham was critical of Obama for deciding to bring the surviving pirate to the U.S. to face trial. Why? Because he would have a defense attorney and it would take years before the pirate would go to trial. Better to hand him off to the Kenyans for a swift trial and execution. First off, prisoners who are imprisoned in other countries, on the behalf of the U.S., tend not to stay in jail for long in other countries involved in the Global War On Terror – Yemen, I’m looking your way. Anyone here who believes that the Pirate Consortium (or whatever they call themselves) would not be able to bribe Kenyan prison guards or officials into “accidentally” releasing said pirate captain, please raise your hands. The captain who was kidnapped is a U.S. citizen, making this a crime with U.S. jurisdiction. And I’m sure his family would rather have the trial here. Oh, but I forget. Our justice system is tainted with incompetent liberals, and they tend to botch cases, like the one involving Ted Stevens…. Oh Sorry. That was under conservative oversight.

Joan Armatrading

I’ve been a fan for ever, But suddenly, I’m infatuated with her guitar work. Her talent. Her music.

“If I can feel the sun in my eyes and the rain on my face, why can’t I feel….
love”.

Brilliant!!!

And she has a new album out. Here’s a video. If I can learn to play guitar half as good, I’ll be more than happy.

And You Wonder Why I'm Switching From Bass To Guitar!

PS. I’m not really switching, but still…

I'm Baaaaaack!

For the week that was, I got an average of four hours sleep per night. Did lots of driving from Fresno to San Diego, then back again. Sang Karaoke with best friend Paul, including a few Crowded House duets. Gave him my old guitar for his birthday (see post on new guitar). Had a long overdue practice with my San Diego band RareForm. Helped RF guitarist and wonderful friend Cliff move heavy furniture form his upstairs rooms (reminder to self – NEVER live in a two story house), and helped him transport stuff to his new house. Spent a wonderful evening talking teacher stuff and catching up with RF drummer / wonderful friend / employed teacher Dan Pena and wife Eileen. Learned how to play “Free Bird”, then forgot it again (sorry Cliff, it didn’t stick), and went to Mission Beach and played a song on my guitar I wrote for a friend who is no longer with us (more on that in the next post). And, as if that was not enough, I was extremely busy through Easter, doing Easter things with the Sonic-Mate’s family.

Last night I finally got a good eight hours worth of sleep, and as The Joker once said: “…Now I’m tanned, I’m rested and I’m ready to give this old town a wedgie again!”

Have to go repair a spa now. Be back soon.

Me No Bloggy Long Time.

Well, not a long time, but it feels that way. I’m in San Diego to help Cliffie, my RareForm guitarist move. I haven’t had much access to the intertubes and I won’t until I get back to Fresno. Be patient. Will blog more when I get back. I have more stories to tell.

Sometimes, Good Things Do Happen!

Here’s the story.

Wednesday night, I noticed my neighbor was working on his 1967 Buick Riviera (a rare car), a car he has ben restoring for the last year. I walked over to his house to check his progress. While chatting with him in his garage, all the while inhaling the carbon monoxide fumes from the running car, I noticed a Taylor acoustic guitar leaning against the workbench.

“That’s kind of pretty” I said as I picked it up to check it out.

My neighbor Juan (name change just because that’s what everyone does when telling stories) explained that he got it for his ten year old son so he could learn to play. He also said that now the kid is learning to play drums, and doesn’t pick up the guitar much anymore. The strings were strung on the guitar wrong, and they were black, probably from the guitar sitting in the garage for months as Juan intermittently saturated the garage with car exhaust. The finish was dull and the fretboard was oxidized. It was quite obvious it hadn’t been used at all in a very long time.

I let him know that if he ever decided to sell the thing to let me know.

Fast forward to Sunday. Greg and I were loading the Subaru wagon with stuff we were taking to Goodwill. I saw Juan across the street and went over to ask if he had anything he might want us to take to Goodwill. While I was there, I made an offer. I proposed that we trade acoustic guitars. I explained that mine is already strung and ready to play, and it’s probably not as expensive, so it won’t be so bad if the kids scratch it or bang it around, a concern he expressed the other day. He wanted to see my guitar, so I went home and fetched it. When I brought it to Juan’s he held up the Taylor and said “You know what, you can have it. The kids will just break it, and at least I know you’ll use it”.

Taken aback, I re-offered to trade my guitar. He insisted that he wouldn’t take it, since his kid has lost interest in learning, and besides, he bought it a a garage sale for twenty bucks. In retrospect, I might have heard that wrong.

Wow! OK. So now I have this free guitar, probably worth four to six hundred bucks. I know Taylors can be a bit pricey, but since he got it so cheap, I figure it is probably one of the lower end guitars. I bring it home, set it down, and me and the Sonic-Mate go to Goodwill and go shopping,

A few hours later we’re done shopping and get back home. I pick up the guitar to give it a better inspection. I look at the model number then go to the intertubes (that’s internet for non-republicans) to see just what kind of deal I got for this free guitar.

Click Here.

I normally don’t curse on my blog, but in this case I’ll make the exception. I almost SHIT my pants. This can’t be right! But it is. I got a $3000.00 Taylor 614CE…. For freaking free!!!!!

I restrung the Taylor with Dean Markley Alchemy strings, and I gotta tell ya – this guitar plays like butter. It is sooooooooooo smooth. Makes me seem like I’ve been playing guitar for years. If I were to sell it, I could get at least $1300 easy, but I’m keeping it. Even if I had the money, I would never think to spend that much for a guitar. What can I say – I’m a cheapskate.

PS. I wanted to post about this yesterday, but I was not convinced that I would be able to keep it. In the real world, you just don’t come across an instrument like this in this fashion. I had to make sure to the best of my ability that the guitar had not been stolen. My neighbor would not have stolen it. Hell, he (and I, for that matter) had no idea what he had. But since I know he bought it ubercheap from a garage sale, and that is where a lot of hot instruments are sold, I had to be sure. I know what it’s like to have a favorite instrument stolen (yes, I still cry over my missing Peavey DynaBass, burgled in 2000) and if this Taylor was taken from someone else, they should get it back. I checked the guitar serial number with an on-line site and with the police department data base…. and it cleared. The Taylor 614CE would appear to be mine!

File Under: The Dog Ate My Homework!

So a few months back, I was fiddling with a slap and pull technique on bass (yes, I know, I was born funkless, so why bother). I was working on a slap and double pull, which when played right, sounds something like boom chi-ta boom chi-ta boom ch-ta. The slap double pull kinda sounds like a railroad steam engine makes. Around that same time, we had a gig at the Full Circle Brewery. With that beat in my head, I wrote a nice set of lyrics for a song about a guy in the turn of the century who is sick of his boring life, ditches his girl, and heads out west on the railroad for a grand adventure. OK, so I wrote the lyrics on a napkin, a normal procedure when writing lyrics in a bar, with every intention of retyping the words on the computer. That never happened. Instead, the napkin sat on my desk for three months… until last week-end, when a certain four legged creature got curios about the contents of my desk… and well, to paraphrase the late Paul Harvey, you know the rest of the story.

PS. Not all is lost. I did recover half of the napkin, so I still have some of the lyrics. They’re sitting on my desk, yes, probably for another six months. And NO, I’m not going to try and get the other half.

Sad, Yet Hopeful News

I just found out that one of the students I taught last year during my student teaching tenure was shot over the week-end. He was hanging out with some friends (other students in last year’s class) and another group pulled up and started talking smack. One thing led to another and someone in the rival group pulled a gun and shot in the air and then shot toward the ground. The ground bullet apparently ricochet”d and went clear through my former student’s abdomen. His gall bladder and spleen had to be removed, and he was on life support for several days. The good news is that he is not only breathing on his own, but is able to walk around a little today. And of course this is the student, of all of them, who would try and keep the others from getting into trouble. This kid is VERY lucky to be alive.And it looks like he will have a speedy recovery – fingers crossed.

My Thoughts On The Looming Prop 8 Ruling.

For some reason, the guys over at Gay Patriot always seem to get my bloggy juices flowing. Today Dan, a.k.a. Gay Patriot West, wrote a post suggesting how the Same Sex Marriage advocates should refocus their efforts to gain the legal right to marry in the state of California. A commenter replied:

So whether the court should legally uphold Prop 8 is a matter of whether or not we can win a theoretical future to reverse the damage? It’s not a matter of constitutional rights, whether or not the vote or amendment was legal, whether or not the text on the ballot was a revision or an amendment – all of this is irrelevant?

The question before the court is not whether the act of two homosexuals having the legal right to marry. No one in the state of CA has legal standing to bring that case. .. yet. The court ruled that Prop 22 is unconstitutional, so the people of the state who disagree with that ruling, a bare majority but a majority none-the-less, amended the Constitution to say that is not legal for gays to get married. A Constitutional amendment, by its very nature, overrules the courts. That is why the state AG had to argue that Prop 8 was a revision, instead of arguing that it’s still unconstitutional. And before Prop 8 had passed, another group had tried and failed to convince this same court that Prop 8 was a revision instead of an amendment, which is one of the reasons everyone expect this latest challenge to fail.

Now, what will be interesting is how the court rules concerning the status of those already marred and what will happen next. If the court rules that those marriages are null and void, then those couples could stripped of their marriage status could sue to get their married status back. I don’t think this would present a strong case legally. If those marriages are allowed to stand as most expect, then that would open the door to lawsuits by unmarried gays, claiming unequal treatment under the law. This would still be an awfully hard case to win, but it would have a better chance.

Either way, the best course of action is to present a much better campaign to win the hearts and minds of the California public on the merits of allowing gays to be legally married.