Crackers anyone?

The other day I exposed a friend to this blog. After he browsed thru it he came back and asked me why I use so many quotes.
I explained him that those people were smarter than me. Why should I expose myself as a fool when I can fill all this space with the words of smart people and in doing so look smart myself.
After all, why should I sound like a politician when I can steal the words of Socrates? I'm a fool. The odds are so are you. The difference is I know it. I think I would rather talk to a person that quotes Confucius all the time than have to listen to his inane blather.
Being with a well educated parrot is superior to listening to the meanderings of a fool. Oh yeah, I'm a fool.

'Twas the day after Christmas.

Watching the news this a.m. I saw that Pamela Anderson was wanted by the IRS for $150,000 back taxes. As the story was presented pics of her were shown. She was born the year I graduated from high school. She looks like she;s my age. The reason for this blather is actually out of curiosity. Why is she in the news? Poor Pam is a model of depravity. The only reason the public is aware of her is because she made a porn film with her rock star husband. (I can't remember his name.) She has no talent other than random copulation. What the hell is this creature doing on my TV? What next? Is PBS going to make a 10 part documentary on the Marquis de Sade for Sesame Street?
The unfortunate truth is we have become the new Rome. Obama should go to Capri as to stay in keeping with the people he wants to be. He is following in the tracks of the Ceasers.
He has and still is creating blindly loyal bureaucracies. During the campaign we were encouraged to turn in the names of people that didn't agree with him. A lesson learned from STASI.
His bureaucracies are trying to seize control of media sources and and limit interaction between citizens. (Net Neutrality has been incepted by bureaucratic fiat, no congress involved.)
The health care(?) bill is firmly rooted in eugenics. Read it, I've gotten thru a lot of it. The constant and continual use of our money to create a dependent underclass that would be forever linked to his party, sort of like what the solid south was. (Incidentally, the loyal opposition is no better. Politicians would sell their mothers into white slavery to finance a campaign.) The cap and trade bill is designed to give the government control over resources. Has anyone noticed the centrally managed delivery of electricity as advertised by GE?
What does the first part of this have to do with the second part? Pam is a distraction. The crotch waving celebrities of no other talent have taken our eye from what is really happening in this country. The camel toe is thrown in your face as a voice says "Vote Obama".
The mixed martial arts shows have become our new gladiators and the christians the new christians. With a seemingly unending bloodlust and a completely undeserved feeling of intellectuality we gleefully watch intentionally induced mayhem while attempting to resign the forces of integrity into the margins by screaming "separation of church and state". (I would prefer the statement be "separation of state from church".)
Our moral compass has become inverted. As I've said before, I don't care if you believe in God, just live as if you do.

Hard Day at Red Rock

Today has been wonderfully hard to deal with.
It's the Tuesday before Christmas and I'm getting somewhat overwhelmed. For those of you that don't know I've suffered 2 serious brain injuries in my life. The first left me with epilepsy and the second emotionally off center. I think the second is the most troubling. I'm not really depressed but certain things make me cry. Spontaneously. No reason apparent. Things of extreme beauty like Yellowstone Park. Heroism like a construction worker lowering himself into a waterfall to save a mother and child. Some movies, most noticeably "On the Beach". etc.
Just a few minutes ago a customer walked into my shop and gave me a Christmas present. I'm crying.

About Art

Recently I became involved in an on line discussion about art. I am sure that the person I am/was chatting with have different concepts of what constitutes art.

To me it is a drive emanating from inside the human spirit. It demands the attention of other human spirits. It does not require a degree in art appreciation. A piece of real art stops you in you tracks. It makes you question whether or not you've been human enough. My literary character heroes are Don Quixote and Sam Gamgee. Whenever I see "The Persistence of Time" I'm torn between laughing and crying at the truth of it. MLKs "Dream" speech angers me because of what it tells me what we aren't. The cave paintings of France remind us all of the need to leave footprints.The Temples at Karnak remind us of how puny we are. The writings of Vonnegut make me think of what a ridiculous species we are. Art isn't in the eye of the beholder. It's in his soul.

I don't know know quite how to write this one.

I look around, I listen to people around me and I'm lost.
 What's wrong with you stupid assholes? You trample each other to get a TV! And you think this is OK! Kill for a half price uplift bra?
 Stop! Go down to the nearest halfprice bookstore and get a copy of The Aristos. Read it. If you got the cash fly to the amazon basin and live with the head hunters for a couple of months. They see life right.
 On Christmas Eve, don't pack presents. Take your kids into the living room by the tree, turn out the lights and read the Christmas Carol to them. I don't care if you're an athiest. The night isn't about the birth of some kid 2000 years ago. It's about the birth of what you can be. I don't know if there is an afterlife (although having been dead I think there is) but live as if there is. Believe in Santa Claus. We'll all be a lot better off.

Heraclitus - "The road up and the road down is one and the same."

This was brought on by this idiotic "Black Friday" crap. The most difficult question I ever get is "What do you want for your birthday/Christmas?" I don't want anything. Say "Merry Christmas" to me and go give $5 to some bum. Even better, give him a six-pack of good beer. Go to a nearby cemetery and say "Thank You" to some poor 20 year old soldier who never got to experience life. Or to a cop or fireman who was taken away from his family.
  The road up and the road down means we all have to make our choices. To go up is to choose the harder way. Going down is controlled by gravity, the universe takes control of you. Or you can choose to stand still. Those are all choices made on the same road.
 Black Friday is a surrender to the path down. If for no other reason than to please me, don't surrender.
"Kýrie, eléison, down the road that I must travel"  - Mr.Mr.

My Thanks

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving so I thought it only appropriate to give thanks where it's deserved.

1. I want to thank the Army for being so incredibly incompetent that I was sent to Ethiopia instead of Vietnam. Not because it was an easier life but because I met my incredibly beautiful wife of 40 years there.

2. I want to thank my wife for tolerating me for 40 years. I was, and probably still am somewhat off the rails. She raised 3 wonderful daughters while I was off around the planet making life miserable for others.

3. I want to than the Russians, Irani, certain criminals and a handful of others for giving me a job. Without you I would probably have ended up in prison.

4. I thank my friends, although they were as nuts as me. There aren't many people that would wander around Istanbul in the middle of the night looking for IEDs, or give me immediate support when a bunch of Arabs attacked my car in Frankfurt.

5. I thank my daughters (the only people who'll read this) for giving purpose to my life. Without them and my wife every thing would have been pointless.

Tomorrow is a day set aside to remember all this and the rest that goes with it. Thank you all.

Like

I'm watching "The Bucket List". Damn, I like Nicholson's character. I find an incredible affinity to his unrelenting sanity. Keep in mind that I'm not circling the drain but I am on the edge of the sink. This is easier to understand if you read the meanderings of August20th.
My Will: I want to be buried in a pine box with a cigarette between my lips in a space with a clear view of the sky.

What I'm writing about

If you happen to be one of my followers you've probably noticed that I've used quotes from somebody else as my title. This is done because I've read something that tweaked my interest.
I used to love to read. But Vonnegut is dead.
A quick nonsequitor: Afghanistans Mr. Karzai would do well to read the biographies of Ngo Dinh Diem and Salvador Allende. There's a time to cut and run and I think that time was yesterday.

Alexander The Great - "I am dying from the treatment of too many physicians."

I was thrown into remembering my medical past while watching some program touting the advances of the medical arts this morning. My only serious problem with doctors is they practice medicine. They always practice on me. Can't we wait until they got it down? I've been practiced on so many times that I'm amazed that I still function. A quick history:

1974 - I was assigned to the Diplomatic Mission in Bangkok, maybe the best assignment in the military. My kidneys quit. Talking with doctors in the following years leads me to believe I was poisoned. The American doctors NEVER came to examine me. One morning the nurse put a toe tag on me and I was sent to a Navy hospital in Chicago. When I arrived, the doctor I was sent half way around the world to treat me examined me and said the only way he knew I was sick was that the 2 week old paper work said I was. I was cured before I left Bangkok. He admitted me anyway. Specifically, to the hospice ward. Everyone around was considered terminal. (Except the guy in the bed next to me. He had out of control hypertension.) Nobody, nurses or medics could figure out why I was there. There was nothing wrong with me. I ended up spending Christmas and New Years on the ward, not sick, because the doctor went on vacation and forgot to give my case to another doctor. The one advantage to being terminally healthy is that you can do just about anything you want. That guy on the bed next to me (in the same situation) shacked up with the swing shift nurse and didn't spend more than a couple of nights in that bed. I just got myself into trouble. As there were no doctors seeing me, I changed the name on the chart to E5 Banana, placed a banana on my pillow, and left to tour the area. When I returned, no-one noticed I was gone all day. A couple of days later I built a model Boeing 747, complete with paint and decals, and flew it out of the 5th floor window. One time I was called down to the detailers (the poor guy in charge of giving jobs to capable patients) office. He assigned some silly job to me and I laughed at him and told him to screw off. He tried to threaten me with judicial action. At that point I reminded him that I was on the terminal ward and his threats didn't carry much weight. And so on...
1978 - Germany. There was an early morning alert in the dead of winter. I got my section ready to roll. During the down time I went to work on one of my generators. While trying to start it, it backfired, yanking the pull rope from my hand. At that moment the order to roll out came and we did a training rail load. When finished that afternoon we went home. My section put everything away and I went to the 1st SGT to report we were all done. While in his office I took my gloves off and saw my hand was very swollen. I immediately went to the clinic, where the medic told me my wedding ring had to come off. The swelling was too much to pull it off so it had to be cut off. It was cutting my circulation off. No one in the clinic knew how to use it so I took it and cut it off myself. I then had to drive myself to a major clinic where I was xrayed and found that that tendons were ripped from my fingertips and would need surgery to fix the problem. I drove myself to the hospital on Ktown, admitted and rushed into the O.R.. The anesthesiologist decided a local was adequate and started sticking me in the neck (3x) and the armpit (5x). At that point I explained to the doctor that within the next 5 minutes one of us would be asleep.
It's getting late and I,m tired of typing. More later.

Denis Diderot - Every man has his dignity. I'm willing to forget mine, but at my own discretion and not when someone else tells me to.

As usual I have been watching the news and the topic of the day seems to be the TSA Scanners that see everything. My problem with that is not that someone will get a look at my shriveled dongle. (I think half the city has seen me laid out naked on a table.) What I do see is the continual attack on Dignity.
As a young trooper I was taught the mechanics of subjugating a people.
1. Make them dependent on government.
2. Limit their mobility.
3. Censor their news.
4. Monitor their individual communications.
5. Encourage people to report their neighbors for "incorrect" thinking.
6. Control access to resources.
7. Subvert important industrial leaders through money or coercion.
8. Erode the individuals dignity.
Is there any part of this you recognize? or don't?

(Any engineering types out there? How about a low wattage xray laser strobe against a phosphor coated screen, like the inside of an old TV tube. No computers needed and immediate recognition of target density variations.)

A Note to all the morons out there!

I'm getting old, I'm always cranky and honestly, you people are pissing me off!
I fix computers. You break computers. But why do you always break them doing the same thing? The last time you picked your machine up I told you the viruses came in through Limewire. A week later you're back trying to scam me by saying that I didn't fix your idiot box because the virus is still there. When I find it again I read the date it came in on and it was after you took it home! I CAN READ YOU MORONS, unlike you. Every file and temporary Internet page on you machine is date/time stamped!
Then you try to argue with me about the source because you're too stupid to follow the advice I gave you last time. "Limewire has so much free music." you say. I have a sign in my window that says "If you're stupid enough to use Limewire, then you're stupid enough to pay me $200 to clean up the mess." If you think that $200 is free then I am right.
When you get the urge to tdo something stupid, hit your fingertips with a hammer. In your case it may take 15 or 20 hits but eventually you'll learn. Even earthworms learn.
Incidentally, Limewire doesn't cause the viruses. They come from other morons in the music you download. It's sort of like STDs. (Do you know what that is?)

Another thought

Odysseus-
Men are haunted by the vastness of eternity. And so we ask ourselves: will our actions echo across the centuries?  Will strangers hear our names long after we are gone, and wonder who we were, how bravely we fought, how fiercely we loved?
If they ever tell my story let them say that I walked with giants. Men rise and fall like the winter wheat, but these names will never die. Let them say I lived in the time of Hector, tamer of horses. Let them say I lived in the time of Achilles.

Today-Let them say I lived in the time of SloppyBJ_DJ

A Week Later

For those of you who don't know, 1 week ago I had another seizure. I spent
1 or 2 nights in the hospital. (I honestly can't remember which.) A week
later I find I have developed a tendency to go into a "1000 meter stare".
I'm hoping this passes because it's really annoying.
Sensory: It's like someone turned up the color intensity on the TV. No
distortions or actual color changes, just stronger. I really noticed that
my sense of smell has improved. While going thru the produce section with
mom I was able to smell each vegetable or fruit separately as I passed it.
Emotional: Since it's been only a week, it's hard to say what's going on.
As is usual I'm in a mild state of depression. It doesn't take much to make
me cry. (I just cried for Jason Bourne.) Usually, this mostly passes after
a week or two. I sincerely believe Atavan sticks to my brain cells like
cheap glue and it takes that long to wash out of my system.
Summary: When I put it all together, although I didn't suffer much
physical damage from the physical aspect, I am somewhat concerned about
what happened inside my head. (My description is it's like a stroke in slow motion.)
That's about it from the farside. Good Night.

Here we are again!

Political correctness has claimed another victim. Juan Williams was fired from NPR for giving an opinion. Right or wrong it was his opinion. He has the right to give it. His sin was giving it on FOX News Network, the only true news organization to give both sides of an argument. FOX consistently provides a contrasting voices to every issue. Actually, the fact that liberal Williams was  speaking on FOX is an indictment against NPR. And he's not alone. When was the last time you heard Hannity, Beck or O'Reilly live on NPR?  A monolithic news organization is not news, it's propaganda, more reminiscent of Soviet Pravda.

Have Mercy

I'm not sure but I think I'm largely back. Doctors accidentally tried to kill me and I've spent 2 years in a state of funk. I cried at movies that weren't comedies. I about lost it last night when on a brit detective show the father of the hero was laying in the hospital dieing. He looked at the ceiling and said "This is no way for a man to die." The son took him home and he died in his studio looking out at the world. I think I've found my mission in life. I don't want anyone to die staring at the hospital ceiling. If anyone out there knows how to set up a fund to get someone in the hospital to take some poor slob to the hospital solarium and pass there, let me know. The staff knows when it's very close to over. For Christs sake pull the tubes and wires and wheel him to a window. God will love you for it.

What I need to write about.

  In case you haven't guessed I'm closing in on my final destination. As I draw nearer I find myself spending more time wandering in my past. Luckily it seems to be restricted to the things I look back on fondly. I remember the times I met my friends throughout life. Mike, my next door friend when I was 4. Stan and Bill in the third grade, Larry in the Ninth grade (sitting on the steps, having just arrived in a new school from New York). It continues down the years with many, many people. I think of the night I met my beautiful wife at a table in East Africa and the wedding in Elko Nevada and driving back to post through a blizzard. I remember the birth of each of my 3 daughters in detail, along with their first day of school and so on.
  I remember the night I was trapped in a car by hyenas that were really hungry and being chased out of the desert by baboons when I got too close. To me, the day I caught a NATO ally in violation of the treaty during an investigation was closer than yesterday.
  If this is just my depression speaking, I'm sorry for boring you. If not, you've seen a few of my footprints.
Maybe all I or anyone wants is to leave footprints.

Mornin' Cousin Andy!

A Short One Today. After several generations of intensive inbreeding we have developed congress.

Good night citizen.

Todays subject is Political Correctness (from this point on called PC).

PC is simply another way of saying "I have no balls." It destroys debate or discussion of almost any subject because of the fear of offending. Newscasters constantly refer to the "N" word rather than giving a precise quote, but if I watch BET or Comedy Central "Nigger" comes out constantly.
My wife and I have a lot in common. I was born a white baby, to Catholic parents, in a small town in Minnesota. She was born a black baby, to Catholic parents, in a small town in Africa. Did you notice that only 2 (white/black and Minnesota/Africa, pronouns don't count) words were different in the sentences? The other 12 were the same. She is truly African-American. She hates the label, she is American, ask her. PC depends on labels. Labels divide us. We are Americans.
One last thought: Jingoist politicians (those that constantly repeat short easy to remember sayings) are using a technique akin to brainwashing.
Remember, the words "Liberte Egalite Fraternite" were pinned to every guillotine during the French Reign of Terror.

Your hole or mine

On July 4th I had another seizure. I was taken to the emergency room and then admitted to the hospital to recover. They put me in a room on the cancer ward in a room by myself (as is usual). When I was able to get up and around I left my room and headed down the hall in search of a cup of coffee. As I left my room I looked at the guy across the hall and he was just laying there staring at the ceiling. When I asked the nurse what was wrong with him I was told he was in the final stage of pancreatic cancer and would probably die in a few days. A few days later, at work, it hit me that that poor guy was going to die with the vision of holes in a ceiling as his last sight. I don't want to go that way. You can throw me of the side of the Grand Canyon or leave me in the middle of Death Valley at sunset. Whatever. Just not holes in the ceiling.

On Religion

I am a theist. (Space intended. If you don't know what a theist is move on.)
I believe that churches are worthless inventions of man. They are created to trap God and shave him into a creature of their own purpose. Usually that purpose is to gain control of  a certain number of people. Sometimes it's totally fraudulent to grab money.
I give this attribute to all religious leaders since. The only biblical person I would consider following would be Abraham.I believe Jesus died for his own sins. Primarily that of having too high of an opinion of  his fellow humans. Having low expectations would have allowed him to grow old. He spoke of the evils of his church. He tried to teach us that peace is found within. He said he was the son of God, but then, aren't we children of God? The bottom line? Don't fully trust anyone. Judas is still looking for silver.

My First Political Rant

Plato: "Those who seek power are not worthy of that power."

I once read an Isaac Asimov book in which an excellent concept was provided. Rather than having elections, political offices were filled by random drawing. A person was exempted only if he had some emotional or physical defect that prohibited him from fulfilling his appointed office.
Imagine a president and congress that operated independent of political affiliation.
Imagine a politician who would operate knowing that in 4 years he would forcibly be dumped back into the system he made.
The congress habitually exempts itself from the rules it makes for the rest of the people. Ending career politicians would greatly reduce the stupid that comes from D.C.
At this moment bureaucrats are more dangerous than the stupid and lazy politicians. Bureaucrats should be promoted from within their agencies, therefore providing some expertise to managing that agency. (The CIA, for example, headed by a intelligence professional who understood how it works, instead of some political hack who does whatever his party dictates.)  No 'crat should be allowed to keep his post for more than 5 years. (5 years because continuity is necessary while at the same time disassociating them from the election cycle.) Those politicians selected for positions that require access to classified information would need commensurate security background investigations, conducted by the military and using the exact same criteria that is used for soldiers. The punishment for violating ethical or criminal rules would be banishment to Kodiak Island with a sleeping bag and 10 pounds of hamburger. Works for me!

I decided to crank this thing off with computer advice. While your computer is still running:

1. Make sure your system boots from the CD first (in CMOS or Setup)
2. Go to http://www.ubcd4win.com/downloads.htm and download the program.
3. READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!
4. Burn the CD from the ISO file.
5. Boot from the CD. (It takes a while 'cause it's a CD)
6. After the system has completed loading, go to the command prompt.
7. Run "chkdsk C: /f".
8. Remove the CD and attempt to restart the system.

If it still doesn't start, seek professional help if you value your data. If you don't care about your data, reinstall your operating system.

Keep in mind that there is no such thing as a bulletproof System. Normally it's not the O/S that's bad. It's the crappy software that gets installed on the system.