Category: Do the Right Thing

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Bustin’ Chops, venting gently this time

Bustin’ cops lightly… this time.

Recall our new neighbors? Well, today I had a short lunchtime, cos I spent some of it cutting short a noon meeting of the Stoned Road Druggies (no affirmative proof, but they meet several of the behavioral/environmental criteria for activity surrounding a meth lab *sigh*).

Yeh, twelve vehicles parked on (and nearly on) their property at noon. One left. Loudly. (These guys seem to think that if ya drill out a muffler the vehicle will run soooo much better.) Another backed up to repark. Backed up right on our lawn… as I was watching. I hollered to stop him, and to his credit he did, then pulled on forward and parked it where it’d been before he started backing.

Words ensued. I called the cops. As I was counting vehicles (and TPT*/maybe likely druggies) and relating license tags to the cops over the phone, they began leaving. With more “words” and a few cute threats to “donut” my lawn.

Let ’em come. License tags, bubbas.

Dumbasses.

*TPT=Trailer Park Trash

Continue reading “Bustin’ Chops, venting gently this time”

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Mending Walls: “…holes and gaps, lacks and losses…”

Note” Open Trackbacks to this post Friday, Saturday and Sunday (28-30). Link to this post and track back. More below the post body.

I made allusion (allusion, heck: I linked the thing) to the (musical) Principles of Classicism in “Seven”, earlier this week both here and at The Wide Awakes. Since then, I’ve had a productive email exchange with a commenter at the TWA posting. But first, for those who will not click the link, an excerpt from Principles of Classicism *heh*

One of the primary reasons I am a fan of Classical (and even much classical) music is not just because the music is complex, beautiful and compelling but because it is the expression of a particular ethos which our society sorely lacks.

Aside from technical matters of form, the principles of Classicism as found in Classical Music were

  • balance
  • clarity
  • accessibility
  • expressiveness
  • edification

Although two of these principles are still found in abundance in contemporary music (though not in contemporary “serious” or “academic” music, IMO) it is the lack of the others, especially the last, that has seriously harmful effects upon our society.

The email exchange that led to this post included an excerpt from William Blake’s Laocoön that I think points up several “holes and gaps, lacks and losses” in our society today:

A Poet a Painter a Musician an Architect: the Man Or Woman who is not one of these is not a Christian

Caveat: Blake’s view of Christianity was idiosyncratic. If we take not only the rest of his Laocoön inscriptions but the whole of his body of work into account, what Blake seems to mean when he refers non-ironically to a “Christian” is more in line with his thinking on “true” or “whole, complete, authentic” man (which to Blake in. this sort of context meant simply human, male and female).

Strangely, for Blake, his thought in this and other of his Laocoön inscriptions (viz., “The Unproductive Man is not a Christian, much less the Destroyer” et al) are quite closely aligned with traditional Christian theology as it relates to the imago dei.

Think for a few secs: the traditional Christian view of the imago dei (loosely, the image of God in man) includes the expression of God’s eternally creative nature in mankind. Thus in this model, all human acts of creative nature are indicative of God’s continuing creation… and all destructive or harmful acts are indicative of a marred, damaged, imperfect mankind.

Understanding this fundamental principle as embedded in Western Civilization (and lacking almost entirely in other so-called civilizations–and I use “so-called” in a deliberately challenging tone) leads us to see some of the critical elements that are fading from today’s society, elements we sorely need in abundance to prevail in The War Against the West being waged on many fronts both at home and abroad.

Look, folks, once the fides covenant meme began to fade in our society, many of the other foundation stones supporting our society began to crumble as well. The idea that creation is better than destruction came under assault as soon as good and evil were dismissed as culturally relativistic phenomena. I’ll not continue the litany of woes perpetrated by postmodernism and post-postmodernism and their progeny in the multiculturalists and others. Dig for a few on your own.

Suffice it for this relatively short post to simply point out: absent the values derived from just the Creator/imago dei meme, we have scant chance of turning the tide of barbarism that has resulted in the Academia Nut Fruitcake Bakeries, the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind and the Loony Left Moonbat Brigade steadily chipping away at our society’s foundations.

Continue reading “Mending Walls: “…holes and gaps, lacks and losses…””

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Drive-by post

“Gore to publish book on global warming” (What? Another one? Get with it, Al. The catchphrase for au courant enviro-wackos is “climate change”)

Deadly freeze claims more lives in Eastern Europe (The atypical cold weather in Europe this winter is reported to be featured in Algore’s book’s arhythmia section as proof of global warming… along with…)

“Skating flamingos, swollen elephant ears in frosty German zoos” *brrrr* More of that damnedable global warming at work.

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Social Security: Pricking the Ponzi Scheme Balloon

I try as often as possible to not only actually cruise through my blogroll (usually by hitting high points via RSS feeds, since there are soooo very many worthwhile reads out there), skim through news, google up (or otherwise search out) reads on the internet on topic that strike a momentary fancy and read a few books a week. The books can be fiction or non-fiction (which often means “reality-based fantasy” when reading an academica nut’s view of history or politics), eBook or dead tree, new to me or pulled off a shelf or dug out of a box for a re-read. (Current book-of-the-day: an online html edition of Einstein Defiant: Genius versus Genius in the Quantum Revolution )

And then there’s “real life”… which brings me back to my post’s title that ties in very well with a brief article I recently read in Credenda Agenda (one I’d somehow missed on first reading of the issue it’s in). Here’s a taste. Speaking of the Social Security Administration,

…If any private insurance corporation handled their funds the way the government does, the board of directors would all be in chokey.

Nevertheless (for some mysterious reason), the SSA does keep track of all the payments you have made into the system, and those figures are available. We should consider retirement age as that point when the government has agreed, in a plea bargain, to start making restitution. We should therefore gladly receive the checks, cashing them all, until the amount we paid into the system (plus twenty percent) is fully restored to us. At that point, we should compose a letter thanking them for the restitution, and begin mailing back the checks.

Now, that’s a moral and ethical challenge. One most people will fail to meet. I know it may be hard to turn down “free money” when I reach SS payout age (not that far off: I’ve been getting-and trashing-mailouts from the Gray Mafia, AKA AARP, for years). But once I do and then eventually reach “payback+20%”-or whatever I compute to be a fair (just, equitable) return on the monies I paid in, I will need to have made a tough decision to either return future checks of monies extorted from working taxpayers or become an accomplice in the felonious behavior of the government.

Perhaps a better way would be to fund the entire federal government out of one pot, as the Fair Tax proposal would have us do. That way, when taxes are applied to federal adventurism not authorized by the Constitution (any more, just about 90% of everything outside defense) it would at least have the merit of being “honest theft”.

The Fair Tax Book

The check’s in the mail at Basil’s Blog, NIF and Jo’s Cafe.

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Simple Rice Delight

I’ve not submitted anything to the Carnival of Recipes for a while, so I thought I’d ease back in with a really simple, simply delightful dish.

Growing up, I always knew if Mother made rice for a Sunday Dinner, we could expect one of my favorite desserts. Here’s how I make it today. Note again that I’m back to a “no amounts given” recipe. Vary at Will. (He won’t mind.)

Ingredients/process:

Rice, white or brown, doesn’t matter, as long as it is well-cooked and warm. Put some in a bowl. You choose the amount. Add grated nutmeg, butter or margarine, sugar and milk. Eat.

Simply delightful!

My only real variation is that I no longer use pre-ground nutmeg, if at all possible. Buy the nuts. Grate them with a fine-meshed hand grater. You can use a coffee mill to “grate” the nutmeg, but it’s easier to control amounts and avoid a “burned” flavor if you grate it by hand. Do stir the nutmet/sugar/butter well into the rice (letting the butter melt) before adding milk.

My last bowl of this came from a pot of rice that had been used for dinner, but still had some rice stuck to the bottom and sides. A few minutes’ soak with warm water and the rice–about a cupsworth–was free of the pan, and this tightwad was NOT going to throw it out when a zap in the microwave would turn it into Simple Rice Delight!

heh

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A lil help, here…

What do you say when someone’s obviously not playing with a full deck, a few bricks shy of a load, a beer or two short of a six pack, one member less than a quorum? Let me get the ball rolling, and maybe a few (or both 🙂 of my regular readers can add a couple. Or more.

He’s playing poker with monopoly money…

…rolling dice with marbles…

…?

Come on. Y’all can do better than those. Easily. Without resorting to Google.

🙂

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“O Blessed Holy Caffeine Tree”

On my second third cup now and cruisin’ toward number three four five …uh, six

A little something for those who love the Holy Bean.

Same gif with a midi file here.

 
This post is a clone of this one.  Just bumped to top with minor edits and the addendum below. After an inquiry about recording an mp3 of “O Blessed Holy Caffeine Tree” I’m now posting this “license” for its use:

1.) Sing it anywhere and any time you darn well please, no performance fees in any venue that’s not for pay.  Ask about licensing for paid venues.  *VBG* 🙂
2.) Any recordings you do not sell, same deal, with these additional provisos:
a.) I get a copy.  Post it somewhere and send me the link
b.) You link back to the manuscript at O Blessed Holy Caffeine Tree
c.) Post your comments on the hymn and if possible trackback to me.
d.) You include my copyright info in any posting of a recording
3.) Any numbers of copies you want to make of the printed music, feel free as long as you
a.) do not sell them and
b.) include my copyright info and
c.) let me know you printed copies

I’ve heard this sung a cappella and it’s the way I “hear” it in my head.  If you want to make an instrumental/vocal arrangement, please feel free, but please adhere to the above when you do.