What a bunch of bally-hoo....

So here's a meat-and-potatoes post for all you who crave such things:

First item: What is it about the older British bands feeling a need to try their hand out at some good old USA country music? The Beatles did it, the Rolling Stones, even Elton John did it... the list is long... it's an odd practice, one that intrigues me. On a related note, I was listening to American Routes the other week, and they had Willie Nelson in the studio, just him and his guitar. I am not a lover of country music per se, and I certainly have never counted myself to be a Willie Nelson fan at all. But I can now understand those who are.

Second Item: In the last nine months or so our family has dumped 4 cylinders of combustion engine from our ownership. I went from 8 to 6, and last weekend ThatOneWife set herself up with a nice little Audi, going from 6 to 4. We're happy for the change, and I must say it's nice to look at the average mileage reading and notice it hitting close to 30 MPG.

Speaking of that, the idea of a "Gas Tax Holiday" is just about the lamest thing I have heard in a good long time. It's the result of election season pandering, and it shows Sen Clinton to be the "nothing changes" candidate she is widely regarded as being. Obama is right to not support the measure.

Think about it - the break serves to do two things: first, it rewards us for driving our big cars, and consuming just as much, if not more than we always have, and second, it penalizes those who need the break the most - they are the ones who are driving the 1987 Tercel, with three good tires and one donut-sized spare, to and from work each day, barely getting by. They drive six miles a day and walk to the grocery store. While the folks in the Excursion are packing off from Indianapolis to Disneyland for a week this summer. That's bad crap, and it's bad policy. In the US, we use as much gasoline/oil as the rest of the world COMBINED. Until that changes, we have nothing to complain about.

Third Item: We went to see The Producers last night at the PTC. I have to say that it was about the best thing I've seen there in a good long time, if ever. You need to go see it. I was a little apprehensive at first... one or two of the voices weren't the best - but as things moved along, the voices got warmed up, and it was great. The show is true Mel Brooks Over The Top Comedy, and it was funny - I was surprised at the fact that they didn't really change any of the bawdy references. I would also say that much, if not all, the Jewish humor and jokes were lost on our whitebread audience. It was friggin' funny.

Fourth Item: All this Rev. Jeremiah Wright crap is giving me a headache. The fact that the Repubs are loving the idea that the longer this battle goes on within the Democratic Party, the better it looks for them. We've all heard about democratic voters who will vote for McCain if one or the other of the two Democrats becomes the nominee, and vice versa, we hear about Republican voters who would rather vote for one of the two Democrats before casting a vote for McCain. What the self-professed independents will do is anybody's guess.

But here's the thing, see... everybody is jumping up and down about Reverend Wright and how poisionous his speech is, but from what I can tell, it's essentially this:

He preached that God doesn't like the way America has been treating blacks for the past couple centuries or so. He even went so far as to suggest that the United States hasn't always acted in the best interest of its black citizenry.

HOO-BOY, that's some pretty radical stuff right there.

Yes, the U.S. has made some progress on the civil liberties front - due almost entirely to huge sacrifices made by black civil-rights workers, and no credit can go to the white politicians and conservative opinion writers who, by and large, have strenuously resisted every civil-rights push in history.

But here's the real thing - a short time ago, McCain aggressively courted, and eventually won, the endorsement of Reverend John Hagee. Who's that, you ask? He's a televangelist from Texas (are they from anywhere else?) who runs a church called Cornerstone Church and founded Christians United for Israel (CUFI). CUFI is one of those groups that think the US must take up arms in defense of Israel (there are MANY of these groups - I've written about them before...) Their position is not one motivated out of any political policy agenda other than the simple fact that if this country was founded based on inspiration from God, as everybody likes to claim, then there is no other position to take than to simply take up arms to defend Israel as the only nation in the history of the world that was actually established by God himself.

If you REALLY want to be scared,go here. If you don't want to go there, here's a quote from Hagee:

"The United States must join Israel in a pre-emptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God's plan for both Israel and the West... a biblically prophesied end-time confrontation with Iran, which will lead to the Rapture, Tribulation, and Second Coming of Christ."

Whack-job who got dropped on his head as a baby.

Hagee claims that the end of times is near, and we must take up a position to defend Israel and make peremptory strikes against those who oppose them (Iran being the most prevalent among those in the cross-hairs of their guns). I say that if the end is near, Hagee and his ilk will be its cause, and I can only hope it will be him who is the center of attention at that time - and I don't mean that in a good way either.

The point is this: which of these two lip-flapping, jaw-clacking morons gives you more cause for concern? I'll take problems in the black church over problems in Israel any day of the week, including Sunday.

Fifth Item: Eldorado Texas. Most recent reports state that at least half of the minor girls in state custody either ARE or HAVE had children. Also, they reported yesterday that there is a lot of evidence of physical or emotional abuse of many of the boys that have been interviewed by authorities as well. The news last night stated that, "This broadens significantly the list of potential victims." In fact, what it does, is broaden the list of EFFING PIG SUSPECTS. Here's a little question for you: How many of those EFFING PIG SUSPECTS do you think are still hanging out at the ranch, just waiting for the fuzz to show up again and round em all up like the scum they are? No, many of them have undoubtedly fled the scene, just like they did from Utah when our idiot AG couldn't figure out what to do, and just like their moron leader was doing when he was busted driving around the countryside in an Escalade with his inbred entourage, piles of cash, wigs, and myriad pre-paid cell phones.

It was comical watching the AG on TV the other night defending himself against Harry Reid's comments about how inept Utah was in the same type of case that put Warren Jeffs in prison. Comical I'm tellin' ya. Utah has a long and documented history of ineptitude and tolerance of polygamy, and to stand back and point to a case where you put one dude in jail on a rape charge when that was so obviously only the tip of a very large iceberg is utterly laughable. Yearning For Zion??? Right. How bout Yearning For Some Multiple Young Poon-Tang. That's a little more to the real point, isn't it?


And that, as they say, is that.