Music to remember, a weekend to forget

Someone once said that he writes to figure out what he actually thinks about certain subjects. My friend Randal tagged me with a meme that asked what the most significant albums were in my life. So going through the dark cluttered rooms in my mind I actually had to think about what artists and their works that influenced how I look at things. This meme was very fun but if asked again to do this my list might be very different. Especially after this past weekend which contained massive amounts of suckage.

Several funny things happened on the way to writing this meme which I thought I would have done Saturday night. First, I had to deal with a real batshit crazy coworker all day Friday whose self aggrandizing and egotistical delusions are only surpassed by his talent to implant knives in the backs of others. Second, I picked up Miss Wiggles at daycare who promptly notified me that she had a note from the principle saying I should speak with her about hitting little boys over the head with heavy books. Third, Battlestar Galactica has only four new episodes left and I didn’t want to take any chance I might miss a scene in which Tricia Helfer might get naked. Sadly she didn't shed any clothes and because I had to work early the next morning I called it quits for the night.

Saturday night I had to deal with the five teenagers that my son invited over for a “sleep over”. This more accurately was an all night X-box party complete with a pizza dude ringing the door bell at 12:30am. Making matters worse after coughing up both the money for the pizza and the tip for the driver the little shits had the pizza upstairs and gone before I got a slice. Retreating to the kitchen to write on the laptop was out since my wife wanted to do something really strange and talk. Now if she had wanted to talk about page 151 in “Kinky Sexual Positions for Dummy’s” as we got all sweaty that would have been okay, but I have no interest whatsoever in Oscar fashions. Enough with the whining here are the fifteen most significant albums in my life. The significance of these works might be hard to discern at times so use hefty amounts of nuance.

· Blue Hawaii by Elvis Presley- Way, way, way back in the dark past of my elementary schools days I had a teacher named Mrs. Spears who was the first older woman I had the hots for. She was my second grade science teacher and she and her husband were the first people I knew of that took a trip to Hawaii that didn’t involve Uncle Sam. She was gone for about two weeks and when she returned she brought back tons of souvenirs, pictures, and stories of the people she had met. She set up the mood by playing the Blue Hawaii album and to this day when I hear those songs I think of her.

· Sentimentally Yours by Patsy Cline- Around that same time back before many of us were dominated by 500 channel satellite television with 200 channels showing reruns. In addition to video games whose only purpose is to let middleclass white boys spray virtual bullets in some urban hood they would never enter, people enjoyed simpler things. I remember my grandparents sitting underneath their open air garage during a thunderstorm listening to this album. The sound of the rain, thunder, and Patsy Cline somehow meshed naturally and along with drinking a glass of my grandmother’s ice tea while all the sounds of nature played everything seemed right with the world.

· John Denver’s Greatest Hits by John Denver- I’ve never been impressed with flashy performers. John’s simple down home style and, for me, his love of what he did made all of his songs a great comfort.

· Moondance by Van Morrison- After a summer numerous army field training exercises and being unable to get leave to come home because of the possibility of being ”volunteered’ for another I was surprisingly offered leave late one September. Since I had told my family I didn’t think I would make it home that summer they all went ahead and made other plans. Like a dummy after getting a great deal on airfare I flew home without calling anyone and promptly realized everyone was on vacation and long gone. Through sheer luck I did get a hold of one of my uncles, who was less than an hour away from leaving for a cruise, who let me stay at his beach house but I was alone. While walking a very deserted beach I met a college girl staying at a nearby beach house herself who I found out was taking a semester break from classes to “clear her head.” A few days later after getting to know each other she and I made love to the music from that album. Enough said on this one.

· Seven Wishes by Night Ranger- As much as my high school comrades were listening to the likes of Kiss, Twisted Sister, and the Beastie Boys I never got any deeper into the long hair stuff than Night Ranger. I’ve always been a little to philosophical for my own good and listening to those songs while looking at the stars would always get me wondering about the nature of the universe and the lint coming from my belly button.

· Greatest Hits by Don Williams- Okay I admit it, I like country music but most of the crap produced these days under the heading of country music is anything but. Much of country music is just pop music seeking refuge from the grunge, hip hop, and other elements that are too wild for my taste. Yes, I’m a hopeless dinosaur who even now is turning more and more to easy listening stations when I can’t find NPR. Don’s easy style and strong ballads will always be some of my favorites. His songs told stories of real people and how they went through life.

· My Girl by The Temptations- This album symbolizes the beach and the old freedoms that are now long forgotten. One time kids could build a fire on the beach and gather around it listening to good music, cook over the flames, and sleep under the stars. This was before the massive invasion of yuppies and the hysteria of property owners who get uptight seeing the local riff raff hang around spoiling what they see as their expensive seaside view. In all fairness it was also before kids got too crazy leaving mounds of trash on the beach the next morning and making too much noise during the night.

· Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude by Jimmy Buffett- Did you really think that with a blog like “Carolina Parrothead” Buffett wouldn’t be in here somewhere? Moreover, why is this significant? Well, when all sorts of crap is being flung in my direction this album has the power to transport me to some far off tropical island away from the insanity.

· Beach House on the Moon by Jimmy Buffett- This is an excellent album but one song: “Permanent Reminder of a Temporary Feeling” will have me rolling on the floor laughing for reasons I just don’t feel like explaining right now. In addition, the song “I Don't Know and I Don't Care” allows me to say screw it for a few minutes.

· Banana Wind by Jimmy Buffett- The great appeal of Jimmy’s music to me, beside its ability to soothe my mental health, is how it largely tells the rest of the world to go screw itself and all its rat race self indulgence.

· Barometer Soup by Jimmy Buffett- Just because I really really like it.

· Lawyers in Love by Jackson Browne-As if my stories, the more factual ones, can’t get any stranger this one might be jumping the shark. It was about noon on a Saturday in the parking lot of Horry-Georgetown Technical College and a girl I only slightly knew did something I will never understand. Everyone, including myself, had just finished a Saturday class and this girl was walking with several of her friends. She was laughing and joking with her little group when out of the blue she started singing “Lawyers in Love”, stripped off her shirt and bra and did two laps around the parking lot. Her friends looked surprised to the point that I have some doubts whether they knew what the hell was going on with her. After she finished she put her shirt back on, got in her car, and drove away with the same song blasting out the speakers.

· Hotel California by the Eagles-Come on, any American that doesn’t list one of the Eagles’ albums in something like is this is obviously a commie bastard and needs to be shot like the dog they are.

· Desperado by the Eagles-It goes double for this one. Moreover, I’m running out of albums I give a damn about.

· Stars Wars Soundtrack by John Williams-Yes, before all the episode crap and long before that abomination Jar-Jar Binks I also dreamed of having a lightsabre. Moreover, I dreamed about bumping uglies with Princess Leia.

Cherish those fish sticks

Back in the 80's I caught an interview Larry King had with Ted Danson, who despite his best intentions hurt the environmental movement by declaring with a near fanatical look that the oceans would be dead in ten years. Danson brought up the killing of sharks, pollution, mega-sized factory ships overfishing, and other very real issues. I can't tell you how many times I have heard some conservative nut bring up that interview saying that its been way over ten years and the oceans are still there. Never the less. despite the snickers and the good old boys and girls slapping each other on the back reassuring each other all this is crazy liberal crap a very real problem does exist:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama could protect ocean wildlife and save jobs in commercial fisheries by ending widespread overfishing, environmental and economic leaders and scientists reported on Thursday.

About 70 percent of the world's fisheries are over-exploited or have already crashed, the report said. If this long-term trend continues, scientists have predicted that all current salt-water fish and seafood species will collapse by 2048.


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Trying to explain some of this stuff to someone whose greatest literary possessions are the complete "Left Behind" series or the collected works of Bill O'Reilly or Ann Coulter is simply hopeless. Hell, they see grocery store freezers stocked full of processed fish sticks and figure this is another example of liberal Chicken Littles wanting to tax something new. But as the befuddled conservative masses contemplate the unfairness of having to deal with the new president who can walk and chew gum at the same time the entire world edges ever closer to the abyss Ted Danson talked about. Cheer's Y'all.

Why is overfishing a problem
In the first chapter we discussed already that globally fishing fleets are at least two to three times as large as needed to take present day catches of fish and other marine species. To explain why overfishing is a problem we first have to get an idea on the scale of the problem. This is best done by looking at some figures published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. 1 The FAO scientists publish a two yearly report (SOFIA) on the state of the world's fisheries and aquaculture. 2 The report is generally rather conservative regarding the acknowledging of problems but does show the main issues. In general it can be stated that the SOFIA report is a number of years behind time of the real situation.

• 52% of fish stocks are fully exploited
• 20% are moderately exploited
• 17% are overexploited
• 7% are depleted
• 1% is recovering from depletion

The above shows that over 25% of all the world's fish stocks are either overexploited or depleted. Another 52% is fully exploited, these are in imminent danger of overexploitation (maximum sustainable production level) and collapse. Thus a total of almost 80% of the world's fisheries are fully- to over-exploited, depleted, or in a state of collapse. Worldwide about 90% of the stocks of large predatory fish stocks are already gone. In the real world all this comes down to two serious problems.

• We are losing species as well as entire ecosystems. As a result the overall ecological unity of our oceans are under stress and at risk of collapse.
• We are in risk of losing a valuable food source many depend upon for social, economical or dietary reasons.

The single best example of the ecological and economical dangers of overfishing is found in Newfoundland, Canada. In 1992 the once thriving cod fishing industry came to a sudden and full stop when at the start of the fishing season no cod appeared. Overfishing allowed by decades of fisheries mismanagement was the main cause for this disaster that resulted in almost 40.000 people losing their livelihood and an ecosystem in complete state of decay. Now, fifteen years after the collapse, many fishermen are still waiting for the cod to return and communities still haven't recovered from the sudden removal of the regions single most important economical driver. The only people thriving in this region are the ones fishing for crab, a species once considered a nuisance by the Newfoundland fishermen.

My biggest fear is that we humans will continue this game of just increasing our efforts to make up for a ever declining global catch until at some point we go over a cliff Danson talked about and WE crash.

In the long run I'm not worried about the oceans because they will recover. It may take many many years but the biosphere will evolve and endure, its just we won't be here.

But I expect Mother Earth will cull another way us long before that happens.

Saturday Night with Jimmy Buffett and one Crazy SOB

As usual my wild Saturday night will consist of multiple beers, chips with salsa, and a movie. Given the austerity measures we have going on here at the house to pay off some bills I will be digging into the DVD vault for any viewing pleasure beyond the free stuff on You Porn.

I must admit the news has not been the best lately with all sorts of serious shit being flung. Big bankers both scared that their precious banks will go under and that the government will nationalize them are acting like spoiled brats. Yet another financial wizard, Allen Stanford, has been charged doing "curious ritualized thievery" to again borrower a term. Jobs are dissolving at an ever increasing pace with Republicans suddenly worried over the deficit wanting again to help their rich friends and whine about the little guys and gals getting any help. As far as they are concerned we can afford billions for imperial adventures to secure oil for billionaires but can't afford health care for poor kids. Iraq is on a low simmer with none of the internal issues settled and Afghanistan is a wreck.

With all this I feeling the urge to pull out the tequila, get blitzed, and spend the night listening to Jimmy. Especially after hearing this crazy bastard Allen Keyes, and I really thought no one could be worse than Limbaugh and Coulter.





The election of Barrack Obama as president has really shaken the Republican crazy tree dropping all sorts of nuts. A certain degree of craziness is to be expected whenever politics are involved but this delusion that President Obama is not an American citizen goes beyond the pale. My worry is that the crazy crap being spouted by Keyes might insight others whose grip on reality is even less secure. The fact is that despite their worries that Obama might pull a Tom Delay and fix the census changing representational numbers in Congress to favor Democrats that genie is already out the bottle. The Republicans have screwed the pooch with Hispanic-Americans over immigration and the racists policies at the bedrock of the Repubilcan base will never allow many more than a few nuts like Keyes and tokens like Steele to vote GOP. The people that came out to elect Obama will not go away and in fact will only grow in the coming years. So I guess in the end there is a lot to drink about.

Must taste like chicken

Cruising around the National Geographic web site and found a small article about this bird, called a Worcester's buttonquail, thought extinct but it took time from his busy schedule to posed for this picture before it had to rush off for a lunch date...as the lunch. I don't know but if I was some scientist going walkabout around the Philippines and recognized what could possibly be the last specimen of a species in a poultry market I would quickly buy the bird before it was swimming around with pieces of carrots, noddles, and celery.

Then on the other hand:
"However, the buttonquail is from a "notoriously cryptic and unobtrusive family of birds," according to the nonprofit Birdlife International, so the species may survive undetected in other regions."

If that's the case then this particular individual wasn't exactly on the deep end of the Darwinian gene pool by getting caught. Sucks to be him.

Sort of freaky

Also found this on the National Geographic website in their video section. The person who posted it username is "rinku98u" and lists his/her hometown as Tehran. Not making any sort of statement here other that its just a freaky video. The "craft" do appear to have some size to them in relation to the trees they come from behind and for the life of me I don't see any signs of it being faked are altered. What puzzles me is that these aliens are obviously lost since UFO sightings mainly come from the people named Billy Bob and Norma Jean in the American South. Yeah, I'm bored and don't have any decent story ideas.

Twittering Turd Blossom with a gun

Raw Story notes that even “under Congressional subpoena,” Karl Rove is finding “a little time for rest and relaxation,” going on a hunting trip in South Texas where he “fired off a few updates on Twitter.” One user joked that it was good Cheney wasn’t along for the ride, although Rove actually said that he wished he had been:

@tomatcc: “ALL CLEAR!” Dick’s in Wyoming. 8:45 AM yesterday

@KarlRove: You’re correct—unfortunately Cheney’s not here. But, I look forward to my next hunt with him. #TCOT #SGP 9:54 AM yesterday

Fox News’s Chris Wallace and the Weekly Standard’s Fred Barnes accompanied Rove, who also posted a “Twitpic” of Barnes with shotgun in one hand and dead bird in the other. Rove said Barnes hit “two out of a covey.”

I guess Cheney's back was still hurting from lifting those boxes last month when he couldn't stand during President Obama's inauguration. But on second thought if Cheney could easily shoot a "friend" in the face what would he do with this crowd?

Excuse me if I get all preachy but there is another issue here for me. I fully realize that not everyone is cut out for the military. As much as the recruiting advertisements might like to suggest at times that serving is a great job, it is not. Serving in the military is a very difficult lifestyle that stresses the strongest of individuals and can easily destroy the best marriages.

But I find it bizarre as Hell when non-serving chickenhawks, both in the public eye and private life, go around carrying weapons acting like the mighty hunter, Rambos expecting doomsday with an AR-15 in the closet, or as armchair generals who after hours of watching the Military Channel while munching on pork rinds figure they could have any war wrapped up in days . It has been my experience that at best these people offer only stale platitudes to those men and women who for some reason actually signed their name and raised their right hand to defend this country.

As for the rich and powerful, college deferments or in the past a convenient rearrangement of National Guard waiting lists allowed them to sit out the wars they now so eagerly rushed others off to fight in. As for the Rambos sitting at home with an assault weapon nearby and the armchair generals who just can't understand why some have misgivings about torture I've heard many an excuse as to why they ain't out chasing down bin Laden themselves. Except for the odd individual with a legitimate reason for not joining all the others are a laugh riot.