The Sunday Comics, Lightning Man Style

I think this could end up a weekly feature!

Who doesn't love to read the comics on Sundays?

As always, culled from various sources, and some were even made by me. That's how I roll.

What am I listening to?

It's no secret that I despise commercial Top-40 radio. I make that point known every few weeks or so when I review the latest offerings of pop radio, and generally shred them.

In the car I usually listen to talk radio, for three reasons. Firstly, I'm by myself in the car most of the time & can listen to talk without fear of annoying a passenger. Secondly, it educates me and stimulates my cerebrum. It keeps me on top of the fluid situations of the day. And lastly, it keeps me awake. Remember, I get up at 0230AM for work and leave at 3AM. If I just listened to music, it's way too easy to just mentally tune it out and nod off into highway hypnosis, a sure way to end up in a ditch or wrapped around a tree. With talk radio, I have to pay attention to the discussion and keep alert, wrapping my mind around what the host is saying and formulating my own thoughts on the matters.

Now, at 3AM, one would think I'm listening to that mainstay of night-time talk, the tinfoil hat conspiracies and ghosts and aliens and what not talked about on Coast to Coast AM. You know, the Area 51 stuff first made popular by Art Bell and then taken over by George Noory. I listen occasionally but a lot of what they discuss there is what I consider kook-fringe stuff like alien abduction, remote viewings, and ghosts. Instead, I've started listening to the Midnight Trucking Radio Network, a really great conservative show hosted by Eric Harley & Gary McNamara out of Dallas & syndicated nationwide. I found them by accident about 4 months ago on, of all things, AM-760 WJR out of Detroit. Yes, Detroit; I'm picking it up from almost 700 miles away.
Once I get into Charleston I usually lose the feed, though not always, and switch over to All Night With Jason Smith on ESPN. Sure, the only sport I truly follow is hockey, but I like to stay up on things so that I don't sound like a dolt in a sports-related conversation. I find 99% of all sports talk to be excruciatingly dull but Smith delivers a fun, offbeat, laid back show without coming across as a pompous know-it-all.

During work hours (4AM to whenever) my radio time is limited. Occasionally I work alone and blessedly my MP3 player has an FM receiver built-in, so I'll often listen to my local FM talk station's morning show for news updates & stuff. I'm friends with the hosts on Facebook so it's not like I'm listening to strangers but rather spending the morning with folks I know. (Big shout out to Kelly Golden & Kyle Mercier at 94.3 WSC!)

At 9AM, it's Glenn Beck when I can. I know, it's kinda cliche and I'm anything but cliche. Beck is polarizing and the Left despises him. I think he's funny as hell most mornings, and very engaging. He's sincere, almost to a fault. His crying jags are melodramatic and he's a bit religious-preachy for me at times. But I really enjoy his show and actually prefer it to Rush Limbaugh.

Speaking of Rush.....I've always had a love-hate relationship with Rush. I started listening in the mid-90's and found his whole "America Held Hostage: Day (whatever )" intro to the show during the Clinton years was melodramatic, and his blatant ass-kissing of Newt Gingrich got old fast., always referring to him as "Mister Gingrich" in a smarmy hero-worship tone. At times he sounded like the Joseph Goebbells of the GOP, a mouthpiece for the Republican Party who would blindly agree with anything with an "R" after their name. However.......

Since Obama was coronated, I've buried my hatchet with Limbaugh. He's a lot funnier now, and I think the humor is what's warmed me up to him again. It's not so much that he's toned down his rhetoric, but that it's no longer just rhetoric to me. He declared war on a hostile adminsitration hell-bent on destroying the nation, and he's spot-on with his observations. We've got a lot more common ground now, and I listen to him on my way home, especially since he's up against Ryan Seacrest's sugar-coated crapfest on pop radio. My only real beef with Rush's show now is one that I've always had: his callers. Oh my GAWD what a sycophantic bunch of ass-kissing idol-worshipping goobers. The first 30 seconds of every call is a verbal fellatio session full of plattitudes and ball-fondling. Then he feigns humility, humbly thanks them, and then they drone on with some obvious point or other. I listen to the monologues and such and then flip the station when he takes calls.

After Rush, the fun continues. There's a brilliant show syndicated out of Tampa that you should check out. The Schnitt Show, hosted by Todd Schnitt, is funny, irreverent, insightful, and well worth the listen. If he's not carried locally for you, he's also on XM/Sirius on the Extreme Talk channel.

I don't listen to Hannity, mostly because no one locally carries it and because I can only listen to so much "serious" political talk in a day. I can't get past Michael Savage's voice; sorry. Likewise, I trouble listening to Mark Levin. I know most of you love the guy but his voice grated on me the few times I've been able to catch his show. Dude's a genius, and I liked what he had to say, but my local stations don't carry him and, well, the voice thing.....

BUT.....life is not all Talk Radio for Steve! No way!
I'm a music fan, and I do listen to a lot of stuff. And just for you guys here's a look at what I'm currently keeping stocked on the MP3 player. Most of it is 80's & 90's New Wave & Alternative, and for the bulk of you it'll be bands you've never heard of. That's okay; I like being different.
10,000 Maniacs—More Than This
A Flock of Seagulls—I Ran (Razormaid Mix)
A Flock of Seagulls—Space Age Love Song (Razormaid Mix)
A Flock of Seagulls—The More You Live The More You Love
A Flock of Seagulls—Wishing (Extended Mix)
Adam Ant—Ant Music
Adam Ant—Prince Charming
Adam Ant—Stand and Deliver
Adam Ant—Strip
Adam Ant—Wonderful
Alice Deejay—Better Off Alone (Original Mix)
Alphaville—Forever Young (Club Mix)
Apollo 440—Don’t Fear The Reaper
ATB—9PM (Til I Come)
ATB—Too Much Rain (United DJ’s Mix)
B21—Darshan
Barenaked Ladies—Brian Wilson (live)
Barenaked Ladies—Jane (live)
Barenaked Ladies—The Old Apartment (live)
Belouis Some—Round Round
Benny Benassi—Satisfaction
Big Head Todd & The Monsters—Bittersweet
Black Lab—Time Ago
Blank & Jones/Robert Smith—A Forest
Bloodhound Gang—Mope
Bloodhound Gang—The Bad Touch
Blur—Boys and Girls (Pet Shop Boys Remix)
Book of Love—Modigliani
Book of Love—Tubular Bells/Pretty Boys & Pretty Girls (Ivan Ivan Medley)
Book of Love—You Make Me Feel So Good
Brandi Carlisle—The Story
Breaking Benjamin—Breath
Breaking Benjamin—The Diary of Jane
BT—Blue Skies (Album Mix)
BT—Never Gonna Come Back Down (Eric Kupper Mix)
Camouflage—Love Is A Shield (12” Mix)
Camouflage—That Smiling Face (Technopop Mix)
Camouflage—The Great Commandment (Loungo Mix)
Chris & Cosey—October (Love Song)
Climie Fisher—Love Changes Everything (Clearmountain Mix)
Concrete Blonde—Everybody Knows
Concrete Blonde—Joey
Concrete Blonde—Tomorrow Wendy
Crazy Town—Butterfly (Remix)
Danny Hutton Hitters—Wouldn’t It Be Good
Danny Wilson—Mary’s Prayer (Paul Stavely O’Duffy Mix)
Darude—Sandstorm (Original Mix)
David Bowie—Absolute Beginners
David Gray—Babylon
Depeche Mode—A Pain That I’m Used To (Tom Wax Rework)
Depeche Mode—Better Days (Zombie Room Extended Single Mix)
Depeche Mode—But Not Tonight (Apaathy In Motion Mix)
Depeche Mode—Clean (Demo)
Depeche Mode—Come Back (Demo)
Depeche Mode—Dream On(Roger Erickson Mix)
Depeche Mode—Enjoy The Silence (Bill Hamel Mix)
Depeche Mode—Enjoy The Silence (Roger Erickson Mix)
Depeche Mode—I Feel Loved (Intervox Mix)
Depeche Mode—I Feel You (Demo)
Depeche Mode—If You Want (DJ Serge Version)
Depeche Mode—In Your Memory (Heavy Club Version)
Depeche Mode—John The Revelator (Tom Wax Rework)
Depeche Mode—Judas (Demo)
Depeche Mode—Light
Depeche Mode—Little 15 (Demo)
Depeche Mode—Martyr (Island Remix)
Depeche Mode—Newborn (Telam Project Mix)
Depeche Mode—Nothing’s Impossible (Demo)
Depeche Mode—Oh Well (Edit)
Depeche Mode—Only When I Lose Myself (Demo)
Depeche Mode—Precious (DJ Dan Short Mix)
Depeche Mode—Shake The Disease (Remixed Extended)
Depeche Mode—Stories of Old
Depeche Mode—Strangelove (Hijack Mix)
Depeche Mode—Surrender (Demo)
Depeche Mode—The Sun & The Rainfall (1995 Mix)
Depeche Mode—Walking In My Shoes (Demo)
Depeche Mode—World In My Eyes (Area 51 Mix)
Dido—Life For Rent
Dido—Sand In My Shoes
Dido—Thank You (Deep Dish Moscow Mix)
Dido—White Flag
Double—The Captain of Her Heart
Dynamite Hack—Boys In The Hood
Echo & The Bunnymen—The Killing Moon (All Night Version)
Erasure—Always (Manhattan Clique Radio Remix)
Erasure—Breathe (Onge’s Extended Ambient Mix)
Erasure—Fingers & Thumbs (Sound Factory Remix)
Erasure—I Could Fall In Love With You (Monteverde Extended Mix)
Erasure—Precious (Delobbo Single Remix)
Erasure—Sucker for Love (Extended Mix)
Erasure—Sunday Girl (Extended 12” Mix)
Erasure—Take Me On a Highway
Eurythmics—Who’s That Girl?
Failure—Enjoy The Silence
Flickerstick—Beautiful
For Squirrels—Mighty KC
General Public—Tenderness (Extended Remix)
GiGi D’Agostino—I’ll Fly With You
Greeeeen—Hajikero
Haircut 100—Boy Meets Girl
Haircut 100—Love Plus One
Heaven 17—Let Me Go! (12” Mix)
House of Love—Christine
Icehouse—Birds Fly (Whisper to a Scream)
Iggy Pop—Candy
Invincible Spirit—Devil Dance (Wired)
Invincible Spirit—Push (Original Mix)
Jimmy Somerville—But Not Tonight
Just Jack—Snowflakes
Kelly Osbourne—One Word (Chris Cox Radio Remix)
Kings of Leon—Sex on Fire
KMFDM—Dogma
KMFDM—Juke Joint Jezebel (Original Single Edit)
Level 42—Something About You
Lily Allen—The Fear
Lords of Acid—Scrood Bi U
Madonna –Hung Up (Radio Mix)
Madonna—Sorry(Single Mix)
Marc Almond—Tears Run Rings (Disconet Mix)
MARRS—Pump Up The Volume
Metallica—Whiskey In The Jar
Michael Hutchence & Bono—Slide Away
Midnight Oil—Bullroarer
Ministry—Thieves
Mirror featuring Dave Gahan—Nostalgia
Molly’s Yes—Fall Down
Monaco—I’ve Got a Feeling
Monaco—Kashmere
Monaco—Shine
Monaco—What Do You Want From Me?
Morrissey with Siouxsie Sioux—Interlude
Morrissey—Alma Matters
Morrissey—Certain People I Know
Morrissey—Glamourous Glue
Morrissey—Irish Blood, English Heart
Morrissey—Let The Right One In
Morrissey—Pashernate Love
Morrissey—The More You Ignore Me
Morrissey—The National Front Disco
Morrissey—The Never Played Symphonies
Morrissey—Tomorrow
Morrissey—We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful
Morrissey—You’re Gonna Need Someone On Your Side
Morrissey—You’re The One For Me Fatty
Muse—Starlight
New Order—Here To Stay
New Order—Paradise (98 Peel Session)
New Order—Subculture (Full Extended Remix)
New Order—Temptation (98 Peel Session)
Olive—I’m Not In Love (Single Mix)
Olive—Love Affair
Olive—You’re Not Alone (Oakenfold & Osbourne Mix)
OMD—Pandora’s Box (Andy McCluskey 7” Mix)
OMD—So In Love
OMD—Telegraph
Paul Oakenfold with Britanny Murphy—Faster Kill Pussycat
Paul Oakenfold with Shifty Shellshock—Starry Eyed Surprise
Peach—On My Own (RH Factor Vocal Club Mix)
Pendulum—Propane Nightmares
Pet Shop Boys—Always On My Mind
Pet Shop Boys—Being Boring
Pet Shop Boys—Delusions of Grandeur
Pet Shop Boys—Home and Dry
Pet Shop Boys—I Don’t Know What You Want
Pet Shop Boys—I Wouldn’t Normally Do This Kind of Thing
Pet Shop Boys—In Denial (Aries Club Mix)
Pet Shop Boys—It Always Comes As A Surprise
Pet Shop Boys—Jealousy
Pet Shop Boys—Liberation (7” Mix)
Pet Shop Boys—Red Letter Day (Original Mix)
Pet Shop Boys—Se A Vida E
Pet Shop Boys—Somewhere
Pet Shop Boys—Yesterday When I Was Mad
Pet Shop Boys—You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You’re Drunk
Peter Gabriel with Afro Celt Soundsystem—When You’re Falling
Peter Gabriel—Biko
Peter Gabriel—Solsbury Hill
Peter Murphy—Cuts You Up
Peter Murphy—The Sweetest Drop
Plumb—Cut (Bronleewe & Bose Radio Mix)
Plumb—In My Arms (Bronleewe and Bose Radio Edit)
Plumb—Stranded
PM Dawn—Set Adrift On Memory Bliss
Prodigy—Firestarter
Psychedelic Furs—Heaven
Psychedelic Furs—Love My Way
Psychedelic Furs—The Ghost In You
Psychedelic Furs—Until She Comes
Q-Lazzarus—Goodbye Horses
Rammstein—Du Hast
Rammstein—Stripped
Recoil—Faith Healer (Radio Mix)
REM—A Perfect Circle (MTV Unplugged)
REM—At My Most Beautiful
REM—Daysleeper
REM—Electrolite (Live)
REM—Fall On Me (MTV Unplugged)
REM—Falls To Climb
REM—Fretless
REM—Hope
REM—Imitation of Life
REM—Leaving New York
REM—Losing My Religion (2010 Tony Pryde Remix)
REM—Strange Currencies
REM—Swan Swan Hummimgbird (MTV Unplugged)
REM—Walk Unafraid
REM—You Are The Everything (live)
Roxy Music—Love Is The Drug
Roxy Music—Slave To Love
Seether—Rise Above This
Semisonic—Singing In My Sleep
She Wants Revenge—Tear You Apart
Shiny Toy Guns—Burning For You
Shiny Toy Guns—Don’t Cry Out
Shiny Toy Guns—I Owe You a Love Song
Shiny Toy Guns—Le Disko
Shiny Toy Guns—Major Tom
Shiny Toy Guns—Money For That
Shiny Toy Guns—Photograph
Shiny Toy Guns—Rainy Monday
Shiny Toy Guns—Rocketship
Shiny Toy Guns—Stripped
Shiny Toy Guns—Turn To Real Life (For The First Time Remix)
Shiny Toy Guns—You Are The One
Silversun Pickups—Lazy Eye
Snow Patrol with Martha Wainwright—Set Fire To The Third Bar
Snow Patrol—Run
Space Cowboys—I Would Die 4U
Stereophonics—Dakota
Suicidal Tendencies—Institutionalized

Talk Talk—It’s My Life (Razormaid Mix)
Terence Trent D’Arby—Wishing Well
The Airborne Toxic Event—Sometime Around Midnight
The Alan Parsons Project—Don’t Answer Me
The Bolshoi—Books on the Bonfire
The Cure—Breathe
The Cure—Cut Here
The Cure—Just Like Heaven
The Cure—Spilt Milk
The Del Fuegos—I Still Want You
The Housemartins—I Bit My Lip
The Jayhawks—Waiting For The Sun
The Josh Joplin Group—Camera One
The Killers—Bones
The Killers—Read My Mind
The Killers—Shadowplay
The Killers—Smile Like You Mean It
The Killers—When You Were Young (Jacques LuCont Mix)
The Lightning Seeds—Pure
The Mighty Lemon Drops—Inside Out (Live)
The Mission UK—Butterfly On A Wheel
The Ocean Blue—Between Something & Nothing
The Offspring—Gone Away
The Offspring—The Kids Aren’t Alright
The Push Stars—Any Little Town
The Sheila Divine—At The Opportune Moment
The Sheila Divine—Hum
The Sheila Divine—Like a Criminal
The Timelords—Doctorin’The Tardis
The Veronicas—Untouched
Tonic—You Wanted More
U2—All I Want Is You
U2—Bad (Live from LiveAid)
U2—City of Blinding Lights
U2—Far Away, So Close
U2—Miracle Drug
U2—Night and Day
U2—One
U2—Original of the Species
U2—Red Hill Mining Town
U2—The Saints Are Coming
U2—The Unforgettable Fire
U2—Until The End Of The Weorld
U2—Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses?
Ultravox—Dancing With Tears In My Eyes
Underworld—Born Slippy (Nuxx Mix)
Versant—Push Away (demo)
When In Rome—The Promise
Yazoo—Nobody’s Diary (2008 Copycat Remix)
Yazoo—Only You (Subway Mix)
Zombie Nation—Kernkraft 400

The Sunday Comics, Lightning Man Style!!!

As always, culled from various sources and sometimes even made by me!

National Medal of Honor Day

Today the news was mostly full of anger & hate, vitriol and venom, and finger-pointing from both sides of the political aisle in regards to this fiasco in Washington that's been foisted upon the American people by this administration.

Largely unnoticed and not spoken of is the fact that today is National Medal of Honor Day, honoring those who have received this nation's highest award for valor, the Medal of Honor.

There are only 91 living recipients of this medal, of the 851 medals awarded since Pearl Harbor.

Of those 851, 523 were awarded posthumously.

237 of those remaining recipients died after receiving their medals.

The average age of the living recipients is 74.4 years.

Of 464 awarded for service in WW2, only 20 are alive.
Of 132 in Korea, 13 remain.
Of 246 in Vietnam, 58 are living.
Both recipients from Somalia were killed in action and received their medals posthumously.
Likewise, all six of the recipients from the current Global War on Terror were awarded posthumously.

Of the living recipients, 62 were Army. 9 were Navy. 5 were Air Force. 15 were Marines.

God bless you all.

Note, readers, that I call them recipients, not winners. Most people awarded this medal died in the action that merited the award. It's not a prize; not something you win. It's not some cheap trinket. It's not something that any sane, rational, mature person wants to receive. It's something to be taken very seriously.

The recipients are often quiet people. They are humble about their actions, and many were even reluctant to even accept it, simply saying they were doing their duty. Many accepted their award and said they were doing so on behalf of those who didn't survive, who didn't make it, who couldn't receive an award, who couldn't go home.

Regardless of your politics, regardless of Left vs. Right, regardless of your faith, take a minute to be thankful for these brave people who went in harm's way so that you would be free to enjoy all that this country has to offer.

The Entremanurial Spirit in America

One of the things that makes America great is how our people are infused with this great entrepreneurial spirit. Up until recently, small startup businesses were everywhere, generating the commerce that moved the American economy forward, furthering the American Dream.

America was built on entrepreneurs, not just inventors. Looking back through history, Henry Ford was an entrepreneur. He didn’t invent the automobile, but he built an automotive empire by pioneering the mass-manufacture of them. Samuel Colt or John Browning didn’t invent the gun, but they are synonymous with shooting. Guys like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Michael Dell didn’t necessarily invent the home computer, but they took them to new levels. Ray Kroc, Dave Thomas, and Harlan Sanders didn’t invent burgers and fried chicken, but their restaurants are ubiquitous household names. Jim Koch didn’t invent beer but he’s hand-built what many (like me) consider the finest brew in this nation. These are guys who started off in garages, basements, kitchens, shacks, and little workshops and took it to the moon & back.



Like him or not, Ron Popeil is a frikkin’ genius. Sure, he was originally an inventor, but he also in addition to his products invented the infomercial. The Pocket Fisherman, Spray-On Hair, everything-O-Matic, Mr. Microphone, the Smokeless Ashtray, his electric food dehydrator; everyone’s owned at least one Ronco product in their lifetime, or at least a knockoff. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Joseph Pedott, who brought us The Chia Pet, and The Clapper.

My personal favorite entrepreneur isn’t even an American, to be honest. For some reason I’ve always found Sir Richard Branson to be pretty cool. The guy never graduated from high school but built 360 companies under the Virgin name.

However, these days our nation is sadly infected with something that I had to invent a new word for to add to the English language. It’s what I refer to as The Entremanurial Spirit®. An entremanure is someone trying to make money via bullshit means, ie: bullshittery.

Two of the original entremanures in America are Joe Francis and Jim McBride. For those of you unfamiliar with their names Francis is the man behind the Girls Gone Wild franchise and McBride is perhaps a bit better known by his website name, Mister Skin.

Francis has made a cottage industry out of wandering from bar to bar during spring break and summer vacations in various popular locales, filming young girls barely legal enough to sign a release let alone legal to drink, as they show us their teats (and often more) and make out with their equally drunk, hot friends, or wrestle with them, or give strip shows, or take showers with them. I’ve been to hundreds of bars in my 40+ years and have yet to EVER see anything even remotely close to what goes on in these DVD’s, so either I was going to the wrong bars or those guys are crop-dusting entire cities with aerosol Roofies before they go filming. There never seems to be a shortage of nubile young tartlets clamoring to show us their funbags and engage in heavy petting with their best friends on camera, as evidenced by the hundreds filmed in the series. A quick check of Wikipedia listed 140 titles in their series. Seriously. They rake in over $40 Million a year.



Mister Skin, Jim McBride, is the guy who really did make the website dreamed about by the guys in the movie “Knocked Up”, a Wikipedia-like compendium reference guide to nudity in film. The site can tell you every possible naked moment for every possible star. Why watch the whole movie looking for someone’s left nipple, when they tell you at exactly what second it’s visible through a wet t-shirt? Now you can skip those pesky things like, say, plot and dialogue. After a 2000 appearance on Howard Stern’s show, his site took off and he gets over 7 million hits a month. It took me 2 & a half years to break 100,000.

Seriously. These guys are making ducats hand over fist over what amounts to sheer naked bullshittery.
                                    Jim McBride can tell you everything naked. For a fee....

People who sell the naming rights to their babies on eBay? Bullshittery!

There’s enough stupid baby names out there already thanks to Hollyweird without a kid named GoDaddy.Com Jackson. Likewise, selling advertising space to GoldenPalace.com on your pregnant belly is bullshittery.

Selling a Cheeto or a burnt waffle with an alleged image of Jesus on it? Bullshittery.

If you see deities on snack foods and scorched pastries you’ve got problems. Why not sell clouds on eBay because one looked like Homer frikkin’ Simpson? Likewise, people who buy this shit should be punched in the throat. I should find the people who sold glass-encased rhino turds on eBay a couple Christmases ago to save the rhinos and sell them one of mine own turds and claim it looks like a Burmese python.




The people who ruined a good thing by bootlegging the Calvin & Hobbes characters into an evil kid who pees on everything and selling it on stickers & shirts? Bullshittery of the highest order. I loved the Calvin & Hobbes comic strip, and Bill Watterson never licensed C&H for anything, let alone something like that. It’s probably part of the reason he hung it up when he did.



But our latest wave of entremanures are the Gangstalicious, Thugnificent, Pimptatstical Urban Entremanures who take a $400 car, outfit it with $15,000 worth of stereo equipment, roll on down to ColorTyme to rent some fly-ass dope 26” rims, and then paint the car to look like some sort of rolling advertisement for a nationally trademarked product. I’m not sure if this is some sort of ghetto-fabulous urban in-joke to mimic the look of NASCAR rides, but I heard first hand from one of them that most of these guys do it to garner attention and then subit photos to the actual companies in hopes of gaining official sponsorship. The guy we talked to gets a stipend from Trojan condoms for his car’s décor. Seriously.

In the past year, I’ve seen a Suburban with the Big Red gum logo, a chocolate brown ride with the UPS/88 logo, a green & yellow John Deere car, an orange Lumina with Home Depot’s logo on the hood, a gold ride done up with Miller High Life, and others advertising Coke Zero, Oreo cookies, Skittles, Steel Reserve malt liquor, a pink Ford Contour festooned with various Disney princesses, and two McDonald’s cars. And that’s just here in greater Charleston and Colleton County, SC; upstate towards Greenville I spotted, I shit you not, a car done up completely painted in Burberry plaid. My buddy Chris spotted a guy in Greenville who did his K-Car (Yeah, seriously, a freakin’ Dodge Aries K-Car!) done up to duplicate the old #2 Rusty Wallace Miller Lite race car.



Bullshittery, all of it. Hitching your future fortunes to a dream of a big check from corporate America just because you took it upon yourself to pay out of pocket to have a guy paint your Olds Cutlass to look like a rolling Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups package is just plain bullshittery.

But, even a blind squirrel finds a nut now & again, and at some corporate board meeting a CEO is giving the okay for advertising money to be sent out to some kid with a Lee Press-On gold smirk and pants 5 sizes too big, who drives around his local hood in a pastel pink piece of shit ’89 Caprice Classic former police cruiser with Pepto Bismol on the doors.

When the Merde Hits the Ventilateur....

"In a sluggish economy
inflation, recession
hits the land of the free.
Stand in unemployment lines,
blame the government for hard times.

We just get by however we can.
We all gotta duck when the shit hits the fan.

Ten kids in a Cadillac
stand in line for welfare checks.
Let's all mooch off the state;
gee, the money's really great!

Soup lines...free loaves of bread...
Five-pound blocks of cheese...
Bags of groceries...
Social Security has run out on you and me.
We do whatever we can;
gotta duck when the shit hits the fan..."



The above song is by The Circle Jerks, an early-80's punk band mostly known for the couple of songs they contributed to the soundtrack of the film "Repo Man". This is the acoustic version from the soundtrack CD instead of the thrashy version. It's the way I always knew the song.

As always, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Twenty five years later we're in the liberal nanny state Utopia of Big Government doling out freebies and our economy is in the crapper. Sounds like the Carter 70's all over again, and this song was written in the aftermath of those years as Reagan was rebuilding the economy.

Dogma

Many many moons ago I was a fan of the band KMFDM, especially in their earlier electronic days. My interest has waned over the years though as the sound became more thrashy & guitar-driven. I digress...
On their 1996 album "XTORT", there was a spoken-word track (well, mostly spoken word) called "Dogma", which had started out as a poem called "Indictment" by Nicole Blackman. In fact, she's the one doing the speaking on the song.

I was listening to the song today, and it struck me interesting how appropriate some of the sentiment is today. What started off as probably an anti-Conservative rant fits really well in today's anti-Liberal climate and with today's completely messed-up economy and social climate. I also find it a funny coincidence that it was released in 1996 at the height of the Clinton presidency and holds true in the Obama reign.....

The track is probably not going to be your cup of tea, but I thought ya'll might find it interesting too.

All we want is a headrush
All we want is to get out of our skin for a while
We have nothing to lose because we don't have anything...
Anything we want anyway...
We used to hate people;
now we just make fun of them.
It's more effective that way.
We don't live.
We just scratch on, day to day,
with nothing but matchbooks and sarcasm in our pockets.
And all we are waiting for is for something worth waiting for.
Let's admit it; America gets the celebrities we deserve.
Let's stop saying "Don't quote me" because if no one quotes you,
you probably haven't said a thing worth saying.
We need something to kill the pain of all that nothing inside.
We all just want to die a little bit.

We fear that pop-culture is the only culture we're ever going to have.
We want to stop reading magazines,
stop watching T.V.,stop caring about Hollywood,
but we're addicted to the things we hate.

We don't run Washington and no one really does.
Ask not what you can do for your country,
Ask what your country did to you.

The only reason you're still alive is because someone
has decided to let you live.

We owe so much money we're not broke' we're broken.
We're so poor we can't even pay attention.

So what do you want?
You want to be famous and rich and happy,
but you're terrified you have nothing to offer this world.
Nothing to say and no way to say it,
but you can say it in three languages.

You are more than the sum of what you consume.Desire is not an occupation.
You are alternately thrilled and desperate,
Sky-high and fucked.

Let's stop praying for someone to save us and start saving ourselves.
Let's stop this and start over.
Let's go out - let's keep going.

This is your life - this is your fucking life.We need something to kill the pain of all that nothing inside.
Quit whining that you haven't done anything wrong because, frankly,
you haven't done much of anything.

Someone's writing down your mistakes.
Someone's documenting your downfall.



Nicole Blackman at a speaking engagement.

Sean Penn = Asshat

Sean Penn tells HBO that journalists who call Hugo Chavez a dictator should be behind bars......

Here be douchebaggery.

Why is it that every time Penn opens his suck-hole I want to stuff greasy rags down his throat?

He had such promise in 1981 in Taps, and was pretty funny in 1982 in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. And then the wheels fell off the bus, or more rather fell off the economical green hybrid electric hydrogen microscooter LibMobile....

And calling for the imprisonment of someone for calling another a dictator is the sign of...c'mon, say it with me now......a dictator. No wonder Madonna left his ass while she still could.

You knew it was coming......

....................................................................I couldn't resist...........................................................




What happens when you take a wild animal, capture it, throw it into captivity, force it to do unnatural tricks to amuse snot-nosed kids and fat tourists in ugly shirts and sandals, breed it (usually artificially, and confine it to an artificial environment much smaller than its natural habitat?

Often, it just enjoys that safe sedentary lifestyle. But then you have the rare occasion when one of them SNAPS and becomes a special on Fox, ie: When Chinchillas Attack....


It kinda makes me wonder if they get a little bored and just need to revert back to their instinctual behaviors....like the chimp that snapped and tried to eat the face off that lady last year.

People act so freakin' shocked when a wild animal reverts to its natural behaviors. Was it really that surprising when one of Sigfried & Roy's tigers finally put one of them in intensive care?


So, really, how can we all be so shocked that something called a KILLER whale might suddenly get tired of jumping on command and licking the sweaty faces of theme-park goers for a couple frozen-assed mackeral chunks and do something drastic? I mean, let's be realistic. It's got a huge mouth full of teeth as big as your fist. It's frighteningly intelligent. It hunts in groups or solo. It's not called the Cuddly Whale. It's not the Might Hurt You Whale. It's not a Bruiser Whale, Nibbler Whale, or Bump You Whale. It's a KILLER whale.

Now of course, we have one who's a serial killer whale. Tillikum is now suspected of having killed at least three people. Something keeps setting off Talcum the Homicide Whale....and folks were all worried that they might euthanize one of the the largest & oldest orcas in captivity. Ummm, are you expecting them to Free Willy his ass & just set him loose? Are you high?

What happens when you let loose a human who has a history of violent behaviors? They have a tendency to do things like, oh, say....rape and murder and shit like that. They just found a 17-year old girl in a shallow grave in California and the suspect in custody is a convicted sex offender. Who didn't see that coming? So you wanna let loose a moody whale with a homicidal streak to roam the oceans of the world like a cetacean version of Jason Vorhees? WTF?

I love whales. I find them beautiful and fascinating. But I'm not about to stick my head into one's mouth.

By the way...after all that effort, good old freed Willy (Keiko) still died a little more than a year after being set free, after millions of dollars and six years of re-training in how to be a wild orca again. He stopped eating and became lethargic after contracting pneumonia, beached himself, and died.

So, just in case you're one of those wingnut PETA douchebags who want our Finned Freddy Kreuger to roam free after many years of captivity and three deaths, and for those of you who think killer whales are all soft & plush & cuddly, here's some reality...



Look at the cuddly Shamu battering the shit out of those cuddly dolphins and porpoises before eating them....




Hey kids, next time you wanna see Shamu do a trick for a frozen hunk of cod, think of how he'd rather climb up on the beach to eat a delicious & cuddly seal...


Grey whale, the other other white meat. Nom, nom, nom, nom......




Special thanks to SteeBow in Daytona, who helps me give pics the Obamination Treatment.