Growin' Up

I took month-long vacations in the stratosphere

   and you know it's really hard to hold your breath

I swear I lost everything I ever loved or feared

   I was the cosmic kid in full costume dress

Well, my feet they finally took root in the earth

   but I got me a nice little place in the stars

And I swear I found the key to the universe

   in the engine of an old parked car

I hid in the mother breast of the crowd

   but when they said "Pull Down" I pulled up

   - Bruce

Didn't Mean to Bug You

I know what you're thinking.  At least it sure seems that way.

     Down down, you bring me down

     I hear you knocking at my door and I can't sleep at night

     Your face, it has no place

     No room for you inside my house I need to be alone

     Don't waste your words, I don't need anything from you

     I don't care where you've been or what you plan to do

     - "I Am the Resurrection", The Stone Roses (1989)

Where have you gone?

Time Gone By: Chinese Democracy

     I've been sittin' here

        just wastin' time.

     Drinking, smoking, thinking

        trying to free my mind.

     - "Wasting Time", Kid Rock (1998)

Well Axl Rose needed way more than a couple months in that smoky room.  17 years to be exact.  That's how long it took to develop and produce Guns N' Roses' new album, "Chinese Democracy".

Overall it's a catchy record.  A hard rocking title track kicks things off.  And rock it does!  One of the best lead-off songs I've heard.  An okay industrial banger called "Shackler's Revenge" fills the #2 slot. "Better", a solid pop metal tune, follows... and is better than "Revenge".  Batting cleanup is a kick-ass power ballad named "Street of Dreams", showcasing everything you'd ever want from Axl Rose. The rest of the disc streams in similar fashion.

Production quality is excellent.  The sounds are layered, yet clean. Rhythms vary from simple to complex, but remain groovy and natural. Great diversity of tones, instruments and volumes too. There's cohesiveness throughout.

On another level though, I'm struck by a sense of deja vu.  It's like Axl - holed up in his studio for the better part of two decades - picked up every cool lick and technique of the era and incorporated them into this record.  The piano in "Street of Dreams" sounds exactly like a Queen tune from 1984.

"Better" has a distinct Linkin Park feel, alternating between a syrupy chorus and a growling metal verse.  "If The World" at #5 contains a cool bluesy groove, but a Spanish guitar intro seemingly pulled from the opening to "Hotel California" unplugged.  Track #6, an instrumental titled "There Was A Time", has an old school Metallica vibe with a touch of Neil Young and Erasure for balance.  And I definitely flashed back to Rob Zombie's "Dragula" during "Shackler's Revenge" - truly not sure if that's good or bad.

Sonically, I'm more partial to this album than large swaths of the Use Your Illusions.  That's thanks to masterful engineering and a much tighter set list.  Of course, after 17 freakin' years you should have time to figure those things out.  But I'm not inclined to rank ChiDem up with such masterpieces as the "White Album", "A Night at the Opera" or "The Joshua Tree" let alone "Appetite for Destruction".

Then again, maybe I should just shut up and rock.  It's solid enough to enjoy.

Bottom line:  B+ for hard rock, outstanding production, and a decided stick-to-it-tiveness.  Demerits for derivative elements and too frequent pits of easy listening.

     Time fills the pages

     Turn the page

     Time will not stop

     It will have its way on you

     - "Time Gone By", Izzy Stradlin (1992)

Of False Expectations & GI Joe

"Chew the backbone, a solar system, these clever convicts"

     - Kasabian

Nearly 8 weeks ago, I railed on the U.S. Congressional bailout plan designed to mitigate the burgeoning economic meltdown.  Then, it was the financial titans seeking salvation from their reckless lending and byzantine derivative portfolios.

Today, it's the auto industry with hands out crying poverty while eschewing even 1st class commercial.  Does anyone else see the irony of an auto exec flying anywhere, private or otherwise?  Those guys ought to have arrived on Capitol Hill in stretch Hummers  and bitchin' Cameros with at least a dozen speeding tickets on the 8 hour drive from Detroit.

That fact alone qualifies the Big 3 for Chapter 11, not a federal handout.

Another problem with government intervention is the false expectation that everything would be solved; "all trouble gone blub blub blub," quoth Leslie Neilson.

Seven weeks ago, our feckless leaders granted one man -- Treasury Secretary Henry "Hank" Paulson -- control of more than $700 Billion dollars; money to be spent in any way he saw fit in pursuit of economic stability and restored investor/consumer/commercial confidence.  No dice.

Consider:

• Since Oct 1st, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has shed 30%. Yesterday, it broke through the 8,000 floor of resistance and looks to test 7,000 in coming days.  Ditto the Nasdaq, S&P, Nikkei, Hang Seng, FTSE, CAC-40, DAX, Bovespa, Merval, and Jakarta Composite.
• All sectors of the global economy are plummeting:  Banking, Media, Automotive, Industrial, Technology, Retail... you name it.  Auto sales practically do not exist. Advertising is worthless. Orders have been canceled like falling dominoes throughout the global supply chain.
• Global markets are as bad -- or worse.  This is not an American phenomenon caused by our own reckless traders.  They are everywhere, possibly even in greater numbers "there" than "here".
• Oil broke through the $50 floor of resistance yesterday.  Five months ago -- a lifetime! -- it was nearly triple.  The pace and scope of its decline is as staggering as it is unprecedented. Commodities of all sorts are experiencing a similar fate.
• Home prices dropped 9% nationally in Q3.  Denver was down 11%, Cleveland metro down 12%, Chicago minus 13%, Miami off 17%, Las Vegas down 28%, and San Diego down 36%.  With "no bottom in sight" according to Standard & Poors.

So good job, Hank!  Your bailout didn't work.  Or if it did, things are not appreciably better than the freefall we otherwise would have experienced.  What's the difference between a 30% loss and 40% at this point?

Except $700 billion... or much more depending on your accounting method.

Instead, the bill was passed hurriedly under great duress.  Further, it created the false expectation that pain would be minimal and vanquished quickly.  In the public's mind, the problem got worse simply by virtue of the fact it didn't get better.  And it did get worse. So now that our government aided the financial sector, it means we need to extend a hand to other areas of the economy.

Well, the steel industry had been operating at 90% capacity as of mid-August.  Selling prices were at record highs.  Now that industry expects a 50% operating rate by December 1st, with a corresponding price drop.  No demand, no production, no orders to suppliers.  How about a little help for an otherwise healthy industry clearly impacted by meltdown instead of one (automotive) already distressed?

Or closer to home, me?  I didn't do anything wrong.  I bought a house within my means.  Got a 30-year mortgage with a boring 5-1/8% fixed rate.  Sure I'm still making payments on time. But how's about a little something to grease the wheels, help out with some credit card debt. And you know, Christmas is coming; my kid needs a GI Joe with the kung-fu grip.

Naturally, I'll pay that mortgage.  If I don't I lose the house -- no matter its depressed value.

But the credit cards?  I might let them slide.  And why not?  After all, how much is VISA/MasterCard/Discover/AmEx/Diners Club/et al going to get for that repossessed GI Joe?

I guess they'll be next off the jet.

A Wild & Crazy Guy

It's official:  Hitler had only one ball.  Somewhere Steve Martin is smiling...

Closed Minded Rednecks

Well isn't this one delicious?

Well, not for the human tragedy in the murder of a woman who apparently changed her mind about joining the KKK.  Nor for the fact the KKK exists and continues to attract new members. No, not that part.

It's this:

     "It's kind of impressive for a group with a pretty small

      IQ to be able to cleanse that site so well," (St. Tammany

      Sheriff Jack) Strain told reporters.

Hey, Sheriff!  Isn't that a little flippant considering, you know, a woman was killed and all?  Perhaps you could back that statement up. Be a little more specific or soften your comments a tad.

Whoops!  Just read on to the next paragraph:

      The group was discovered after (alleged killer Raymond

      "Chuck") Foster's son and another (Klan) member went

      to a local convenience store on Monday and asked the

      clerk how they could remove bloodstains from their

      clothes.

Sheriff, you have my sincerest apologies.  Don't forget to throw away the key.

PS  When are the sterilizations scheduled?

Open Minded Liberals

Once again, Buckley says:

     "Though liberals do a great deal of talking about hearing

      other points of view, it sometimes shocks them to learn

      there are other points of view."

Case in point the video linked here.  [Please endure the 15-second commercial at beginning.]

More irony in the article linked here.  Please note this particular church does not actively protest against or derogate gays.  Just holding firm to their beliefs.

So whose rights are being infringed here?

Anyone?  Anyone?  Buehler?

Willful Ignorance: the List

• The "blindly religious" who abhor challenges to their Faith, defending it without regard to inconvenient or contrary fact.
• Judgementally religious -- absolutely certain of God's will -- who scrutinize all that is wrong in other people's lives.
• Unwed teenage mothers who know all they need is their baby's love.
• Absentee sperm donors who confuse the ability to impregnate with fatherhood.
• Middle age black folks who think Obama will pay for their gas and rent.
• Middle age white folks who think Obama is a Muslim socialist.
• Fat white chicks and their skinny Puerto Rican boyfriends.     She:  "He's the only one who ever accepted me for who I am." He:  "She's everything I ever wanted in a woman... and more yo."
• Foreclosed mortgagees who still can't figure out why they couldn't afford the loan they obtained through a shady dealer, with no down-payment, little savings, insufficient income, and suspect documentation -- all at variable interest originated when rates were at historic lows.
• Tax cutters who ignore the fact money needs to be spent -- hence raised -- on roads, bridges, security, and the social programs they passive/aggressively demonize but refuse to cut.
• Tax spenders who ignore the fact that the public is pretty well maxed out paying for stuff they can only afford without excessive tax burdens.  And that programs such as counting bald eagles and subsidizing the wool industry aren't high on most people's priority lists.
• Gay activists demanding their lifestyle be accepted, approved, and consecrated by religions that are based in part on the tenet that homosexual activity is sinful.
• Ideologues forsaking their own humanity to deny the validity of two individuals' love for one another.
• Classic Rock DJ's who think the latest Eagles album counts as new music:  "It's a banner day at Z-98 folks!  We've got a new song from Nazareth coming up.  But first a greaaaaat tune off Dennis DeYoung's latest..."
• Anyone who doesn't turn the dial after hearing the above.
• Homophobic, misogynistic, racist, elitist bloggers who confuse intelligence with intellectualism and display no sense of irony; calling out the thorn in the eyes of others while ignoring the beam in their own.

More to come...

Jumbo Shrimp

A lot of folks believe it's a contradiction to be both conservative and intellectual.  Sadly, this sentiment is reflected in many of today's leading conservatives.  Sarah Palin's nomination sealed it.

It would be nice to have some smart people in the room.  Smart people are curious, like to study, and are good at constructing complex models to explain complex situations.  But I dare say we need a couple of idiots around as well.  They're very good at not understanding how complex models are designed to work.  Their shortcuts or paralysis due to lack of comprehension are very good at ruining the otherwise perfectly constructed model.

Most people aren't smart or dumb.  In fact, most people are average intelligence - though they (we) would like to think otherwise.  Above all, most people deal with complexity by living according to tried & true standards of behavior.  Call it a values system.

The genius of the Framers of the Constitution was that they designed a fairly simple system by which people may govern themselves.  The United States -- no matter how in need of top talent at all times -- is capable of surviving, indeed thriving, without brainiacs in charge.

If we had one really smart person running the show, what happens when he or she dies?  Or more likely with smart people, gets bored of running the show?  To whom does the country turn for supreme guidance of all that is good and informed?

The country requires neither a surplus of over-educated know-it-alls nor -- as is unfortunately the current chic everywhere -- the willfully ignorant.

Bottom Line:  As the world needs ditch diggers, so too does it need intellectuals.  It's important to recognize each has their own place along the continuum.  As do we all.

** This post subject to major revision due to the fact I spit it in about 2-1/2 minutes.  Guess I think I'm really smart... **

Meet the New Boss

The change, it had to come

We knew it all along

We were liberated from the fold, that's all

And the world looks just the same

And history ain't changed

'Cause the banners, they all flown in the last war

Phil's Head

Calling all the neighbors

Time to make amends

Whiskey floods the table

Aw, good friends 'til the end

They're making silly faces and it's tasting bittersweet

This is just the way of the world Joe said...

Anatomy of a Collapse

Two reasons for the Fall:

I.   Fundamental Unseriousness

     "The man who would be the oldest to embark on a

      first presidential term has chosen as his possible

      successor a person of negligible experience.  Any

      cook can run the state, said Lenin, who was wrong

      about that, too.

      America's gentle populists and other sentimental

      egalitarians postulate that wisdom is easily acquired

      and hence broadly diffused; therefore anyone with

      a good heart can deliver good government, which is

      whatever the public desires...

      John McCain's opponent is by far the least experi-

      enced person to receive a presidential nomination

      in the 75 years since the federal government became

      a comprehensively intrusive regulatory state and

      modern weaponry annihilated the protection the

      nation derived from time and distance.

      Which is why McCain's case for his candidacy

      could, until last Friday, be distilled into two words:

      Experience Matters."

       - George F. Will

         conservative author & baseball fan

         Sept 3rd, 2008

II.  Sept 23rd - 29th

      Sept 23rd:  Calls for immediate bailout plan to be

                       passed.  Emphasizes that it must be a 

                       "clean" bill, free of pork and add-ons.

                       Draft is 3 pages long.

                       Never considers whether any form of a

                       market-based solution, in whole or in

                       part, is viable.

      Sept 24th:  Suspends campaign and proposes the 

                       postponement of 1st presidential debate

                       in transparent attempt to cast Obama as

                       more interested in politics than allaying

                       public economic anxiety.

      Sept 26th:  Participates in debate even though a

                       bailout plan had collapsed in Congress,

                       undermining the entire reason he had

                       suspended his campaign.

      Sept 29th:  Votes for a 450+ page Senate Resolution

                       jam-packed with pork and add-ons.  Now

                       very associated with its creation in the

                       public's eye.

                          

                       Doubles down on mistakes by repeating

                       a bungled message from the previous

                       week:  "fundamentals of the US economy

                       are strong."

Let me get this straight.  We've had to endure 3 freaking years of this Presidential Election only to have it decided in 3 weeks?  Life in the crucible I guess.

No matter how you look at it, this cycle is a conservative's* nightmare: from the candidates to the wisdom of the crowd.  When given the choice, the nation will always take the young, paper tiger over the old, lunatic tiger.

So please stop with the ROBO-calls, both of you.  I've already made my choice of state:  Inebriation.

* Buckley, not Kristol

A Righteous Wind

watching now, watching now...

Snapshot into the Light

everywhere He goes is news

Sock it to Me

Curious.  I guess portraying violence against women is sometimes okay.  Very liberal indeed...