Trini, Travis, and my little dove, Paloma!!
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
I'm NOT taking the bus!!!
Hey All,
In a few days I’ll be taking off to water-logged New Hampshire to visit my Grand Daughter, Daughter-in-Law, and Son!! Paloma, Trini, & Travis. It will be my first visit with Paloma who will be fourteen weeks ancient when I arrive.
I plan to take her fishing, if she’s up to it.
Then I’m off to New York City on Sunday – to be put up by my good friend, a singer/song-writer himself, my former student (he learned me everything I know), and a worthy member of the audacious and courageous body of souls who can “make it there” in NYC, Mr. Ron Hester!! ( http://www.ronhester.com/ )
Monday night I’m the “Special Guest” at the Halloween “Ukulele Cabaret” (http://www.ukulelecabaret.com/) sponsored by my pals, Jason & Ted, of Sonic Uke (http://www.sonicuke.com/), and which – this month – will be held at “Barbes” in Brooklyn (http://www.barbesbrooklyn.com/) – 9:00 p.m.
Tuesday night at 9:00 I’ll be appearing on my pals’ TV Show, “Midnight Ukulele Disco” (they present many archived uke performances for your enjoyment– a lot of them mine – at http://www.ukuleledisco.com/ ).
You can tune in on your computer by simply calling up www.ukuleledico.com/live (check it out a little ahead of time in case you need to download some free software to make it work – e-mail me if you need help [ukulele_man@yahoo.com] )
Well, if you aren’t close to NYC, I’ll see you on TV Tuesday!!!
If you ARE in the NYC area, I’ll see you Monday at Barbes too!!(http://www.barbesbrooklyn.com/
376 9th St. (corner of 6th Ave.) Park Slope, Brooklyn 718.965.9177) 9:00 P.M. – here’s a map:
http://maps.yahoo.com/maps_result?addr=376+Ninth+Street&csz=Brooklyn%2C+NY&country=us&new=1&name=&qty=
- Uke Man
In a few days I’ll be taking off to water-logged New Hampshire to visit my Grand Daughter, Daughter-in-Law, and Son!! Paloma, Trini, & Travis. It will be my first visit with Paloma who will be fourteen weeks ancient when I arrive.
I plan to take her fishing, if she’s up to it.
Then I’m off to New York City on Sunday – to be put up by my good friend, a singer/song-writer himself, my former student (he learned me everything I know), and a worthy member of the audacious and courageous body of souls who can “make it there” in NYC, Mr. Ron Hester!! ( http://www.ronhester.com/ )
Monday night I’m the “Special Guest” at the Halloween “Ukulele Cabaret” (http://www.ukulelecabaret.com/) sponsored by my pals, Jason & Ted, of Sonic Uke (http://www.sonicuke.com/), and which – this month – will be held at “Barbes” in Brooklyn (http://www.barbesbrooklyn.com/) – 9:00 p.m.
Tuesday night at 9:00 I’ll be appearing on my pals’ TV Show, “Midnight Ukulele Disco” (they present many archived uke performances for your enjoyment– a lot of them mine – at http://www.ukuleledisco.com/ ).
You can tune in on your computer by simply calling up www.ukuleledico.com/live (check it out a little ahead of time in case you need to download some free software to make it work – e-mail me if you need help [ukulele_man@yahoo.com] )
Well, if you aren’t close to NYC, I’ll see you on TV Tuesday!!!
If you ARE in the NYC area, I’ll see you Monday at Barbes too!!(http://www.barbesbrooklyn.com/
376 9th St. (corner of 6th Ave.) Park Slope, Brooklyn 718.965.9177) 9:00 P.M. – here’s a map:
http://maps.yahoo.com/maps_result?addr=376+Ninth+Street&csz=Brooklyn%2C+NY&country=us&new=1&name=&qty=
- Uke Man
Monday, October 24, 2005
Democracy in Traction !!
Hey Folks!
Did you know that you can go to jail for not telling the truth to an agent of the Federal Government? Even when you are not under oath! And there’s a big fine too!! This is one of the possible faux pas that Kkkarl Rove may be charges with.
Apparently, though, there is no penalty for lying to CITIZENS of the federal government.
Have you heard the ads for and against Issues 2, 3, 4, and 5? They go something like this:
“The Politicians are trying to screw you! So, VOTE NO!!!! on Issues 2, 3, 4, & 5 !!!”
And
“The Politicians are trying to screw you! So, VOTE YES!!!! on Issues 2, 3, 4, & 5 !!!”
Someone has to be lying!!!! But they won’t be going to jail, and they won’t be paying any fines. Bullshitting the people is just their way of defending the constitution.
Take to the streets Nov. 2nd !! Resist !! Drive them out!!
- Uke Man
Did you know that you can go to jail for not telling the truth to an agent of the Federal Government? Even when you are not under oath! And there’s a big fine too!! This is one of the possible faux pas that Kkkarl Rove may be charges with.
Apparently, though, there is no penalty for lying to CITIZENS of the federal government.
Have you heard the ads for and against Issues 2, 3, 4, and 5? They go something like this:
“The Politicians are trying to screw you! So, VOTE NO!!!! on Issues 2, 3, 4, & 5 !!!”
And
“The Politicians are trying to screw you! So, VOTE YES!!!! on Issues 2, 3, 4, & 5 !!!”
Someone has to be lying!!!! But they won’t be going to jail, and they won’t be paying any fines. Bullshitting the people is just their way of defending the constitution.
Take to the streets Nov. 2nd !! Resist !! Drive them out!!
- Uke Man
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Cardinal Crescezio Sepe says, "No! We are NOT wild and sexy guys!! No! For sure! What is this ...'sex'?"
Yeah, these guys know about sex! - Uh-huh, yep . . .
Well, the Bishops have reaffirmed celibacy for priests (and some other things too)! See excerpts far below.
Yep.
“Hey you guys in black, No hanky-panky!! Just say "no!" No sex with women! No sex with men! No sex with girls! No sex with boys! No sex with animals! No sex alone! NO SEX!!!”
The bishops call this hormonal denial the "inestimable gift of ecclesiastical celibacy." Gift to whom?
Oh yeah, I can tell you that if I had ONLY been blessed with a lifetime free of orgasms, THAT would have been better than my first bike, my first car, my trip to Europe, a free steak dinner, and my band playing in Manhattan – all rolled up together!! Yes sir!! What a gift!!
It’s just stupid, political inertia. Celibacy wasn’t demanded by any authority for almost 400 years after Jesus’ life, and today it is supported on the dubious and unsubstantiated claim that Jesus never had sex of any kind (hence all the hierarchy’s noise about “The DaVinci Code”). They also drag my old buddy, Paul of Tarsus, into the justification – but fail to mention that some scholars believe Paul to have been a self-hating homosexual.
Now this whole nonsense isn’t considered infallible by the church, but enough withered old theologians and deranged sex-o-phobiacs feel they would lose face if they did something sensible, that they feel compelled – as they say – to show “massive unanimity” in their massive idiocy. Otherwise their idiocy will be found out.
Galileo was persecuted because, using his eyes, he saw that the moons of Jupiter orbited that planet. The official policy of the Church at the time was that THAT was impossible (based firmly on the knowledge banks of withered old theologians and infallible popes [who themselves had been elevated by DEMOCRATIC means {god didn’t get a vote} from the ranks of the withered old theologians themselves – those wise men “lucky” enough to wear red beanies and, therefore, be allowed to vote] ).
So Galileo was denounced and denigrated – not just during his lifetime, mind you; but for five hundred years!! Only recently did the snail-minded / we-don’t-want-to-lose-face crowd admit their mistake!!
I guess Galileo can go to heaven – Now!!!
If there are any descendents of the telescope guy out there, get a lawyer! I think you’ve got a pretty good case for false-arrest and defamation!!! Don’t believe that stuff about the Church being broke because of paying out big bucks on pedophile cases! They can always mortgage St. Peter’s Basilica. Have you SEEN that place?
Moreover, if they think men can go indefinitely without sex and stay sane, and if they believe that divorced men and women can move in with each other and live indefinitely in "loyal and trustworthy friendship" without “consummating it,” and if they think each bishop can cherry-pick which politicians to beat up on at the communion rail (based on "concrete local situations"), they NEED to be brought to their senses!!!!
- Uke Man
Some excerpts from Yahoo news:
Bishops Reaffirm Celibacy for Priests
By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer
While acknowledging the acute shortage of priests in the Roman Catholic Church, bishops from around the world reaffirmed the church's stance on celibacy for priests Saturday in a set of 50 recommendations they agreed to submit to Pope Benedict XVI.
The proposals, meant for the pope to consider in a future document on the Eucharist, also dealt with whether Communion should be denied to Catholic politicians who support laws that contradict church teaching, such as the right to abortion, as well as the plight of Catholics who divorce and remarry without getting an annulment.
The estimated 250 bishops who gathered for the three-week Synod of Bishops voted behind closed doors on the recommendations, which disappointed some church reform groups by hewing closely to church teaching.
. . . the final recommendation reaffirmed the "inestimable gift of ecclesiastical celibacy" and said the idea of ordaining "viri probati" [married men] was a "path not to follow," according to the list of the propositions released by the Vatican.
The proposition also called for Catholics to pray for new priests.
"They opened the issue, talked solutions, then ran as fast as they could in the other directions," said Sister Christine Schenk, of the reform groups FutureChurch and Call to Action.
Among their other recommendations, the bishops said Catholic politicians should realize their "grave social responsibility" and not support laws that contrast with church teaching.
But no blanket recommendation was made on whether the politicians should be denied Communion, with a final proposal saying local bishops "should exercise the virtues of firmness and prudence taking into account concrete local situations."
The issue gained attention during the 2004 presidential campaign when St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke said he would deny the Eucharist to Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, a Catholic who supports abortion rights.
Another major issue of the synod was how to deal with Catholics who divorce and remarry without getting an annulment. Church teaching says such Catholics cannot receive Communion because their situation "objectively contrasts with God's law."
The bishops reaffirmed church policy but called for these people to make "every possible effort" to have their previous marriages annulled. If the marriages cannot be declared invalid, the couple should celebrate their new marriage as a "loyal and trustworthy friendship" — meaning they shouldn't consummate it.
Yep.
“Hey you guys in black, No hanky-panky!! Just say "no!" No sex with women! No sex with men! No sex with girls! No sex with boys! No sex with animals! No sex alone! NO SEX!!!”
The bishops call this hormonal denial the "inestimable gift of ecclesiastical celibacy." Gift to whom?
Oh yeah, I can tell you that if I had ONLY been blessed with a lifetime free of orgasms, THAT would have been better than my first bike, my first car, my trip to Europe, a free steak dinner, and my band playing in Manhattan – all rolled up together!! Yes sir!! What a gift!!
It’s just stupid, political inertia. Celibacy wasn’t demanded by any authority for almost 400 years after Jesus’ life, and today it is supported on the dubious and unsubstantiated claim that Jesus never had sex of any kind (hence all the hierarchy’s noise about “The DaVinci Code”). They also drag my old buddy, Paul of Tarsus, into the justification – but fail to mention that some scholars believe Paul to have been a self-hating homosexual.
Now this whole nonsense isn’t considered infallible by the church, but enough withered old theologians and deranged sex-o-phobiacs feel they would lose face if they did something sensible, that they feel compelled – as they say – to show “massive unanimity” in their massive idiocy. Otherwise their idiocy will be found out.
Galileo was persecuted because, using his eyes, he saw that the moons of Jupiter orbited that planet. The official policy of the Church at the time was that THAT was impossible (based firmly on the knowledge banks of withered old theologians and infallible popes [who themselves had been elevated by DEMOCRATIC means {god didn’t get a vote} from the ranks of the withered old theologians themselves – those wise men “lucky” enough to wear red beanies and, therefore, be allowed to vote] ).
So Galileo was denounced and denigrated – not just during his lifetime, mind you; but for five hundred years!! Only recently did the snail-minded / we-don’t-want-to-lose-face crowd admit their mistake!!
I guess Galileo can go to heaven – Now!!!
If there are any descendents of the telescope guy out there, get a lawyer! I think you’ve got a pretty good case for false-arrest and defamation!!! Don’t believe that stuff about the Church being broke because of paying out big bucks on pedophile cases! They can always mortgage St. Peter’s Basilica. Have you SEEN that place?
Moreover, if they think men can go indefinitely without sex and stay sane, and if they believe that divorced men and women can move in with each other and live indefinitely in "loyal and trustworthy friendship" without “consummating it,” and if they think each bishop can cherry-pick which politicians to beat up on at the communion rail (based on "concrete local situations"), they NEED to be brought to their senses!!!!
- Uke Man
Some excerpts from Yahoo news:
Bishops Reaffirm Celibacy for Priests
By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer
While acknowledging the acute shortage of priests in the Roman Catholic Church, bishops from around the world reaffirmed the church's stance on celibacy for priests Saturday in a set of 50 recommendations they agreed to submit to Pope Benedict XVI.
The proposals, meant for the pope to consider in a future document on the Eucharist, also dealt with whether Communion should be denied to Catholic politicians who support laws that contradict church teaching, such as the right to abortion, as well as the plight of Catholics who divorce and remarry without getting an annulment.
The estimated 250 bishops who gathered for the three-week Synod of Bishops voted behind closed doors on the recommendations, which disappointed some church reform groups by hewing closely to church teaching.
. . . the final recommendation reaffirmed the "inestimable gift of ecclesiastical celibacy" and said the idea of ordaining "viri probati" [married men] was a "path not to follow," according to the list of the propositions released by the Vatican.
The proposition also called for Catholics to pray for new priests.
"They opened the issue, talked solutions, then ran as fast as they could in the other directions," said Sister Christine Schenk, of the reform groups FutureChurch and Call to Action.
Among their other recommendations, the bishops said Catholic politicians should realize their "grave social responsibility" and not support laws that contrast with church teaching.
But no blanket recommendation was made on whether the politicians should be denied Communion, with a final proposal saying local bishops "should exercise the virtues of firmness and prudence taking into account concrete local situations."
The issue gained attention during the 2004 presidential campaign when St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke said he would deny the Eucharist to Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, a Catholic who supports abortion rights.
Another major issue of the synod was how to deal with Catholics who divorce and remarry without getting an annulment. Church teaching says such Catholics cannot receive Communion because their situation "objectively contrasts with God's law."
The bishops reaffirmed church policy but called for these people to make "every possible effort" to have their previous marriages annulled. If the marriages cannot be declared invalid, the couple should celebrate their new marriage as a "loyal and trustworthy friendship" — meaning they shouldn't consummate it.
Saturday, October 22, 2005
"George, you know, has always been a moron, but getting to live a while in the White House is working out very well for him!"
Death Watch at the White House !!!!
(Thanks to George B. of NION !)
Capitol Hill Blue: Death Watch at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7560.shtml
By DOUG THOMPSON Oct 21, 2005, 08:12
For all practical purposes, governing the nation has stopped at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as aides deal with an increasingly despondent President, mounting scandals and defecting dissidents from the Ship of State.
White House insiders say George W. Bush’s mood swings have increased to the point where meetings with the President must be cancelled, schedules shifted and plans changed to keep a bitter, distracted leader from the public eye.
“He’s like a zombie some days, walking around in a trance,” says one aide who, for obvious reasons, asks not to be identified. “Other times he launches into angry outbursts, cussing out anybody who gets near him.”
Aides say gallows humor has descended on the White House, where the West Wing is now referred to as “death row” and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, along with Vice Presidential Chief of Staff Scooter Libby, are known as “dead men walking,” a reference to the last walk death row inmates take to the execution chamber.
With indictments expected against Libby or Rove or both any day now from the Valerie Plame scandal, the White House mood has a “Final Days” aura (“Final Days” was the title of Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward’s book about the last days of the Nixon administration). Although no one expects President Bush to be impeached or resign, Internet blogs buzzed this week with talk of a possible resignation by Vice President Dick Cheney.
“That’s bullshit,” says one longtime Republican consultant. “They’ll have to carry Dick Cheney out of here on a stretcher.” But Rove and Libby will be gone if they are indicted and some wonder if the President, whose ability to govern is already limited by despair and detraction, can function without Rove, often referred to as “Bush’s brain.”
“Rove’s role is diminished already,” says one White House aide. “He still meets with The President daily but all this has taken its toll. He looks terrible.”
So does White House Chief of Staff Andy Card, who has served longer in the job than anyone in modern times. Card works 16 and 17-hour days and, in the words of one Republican member of Congress, looks “completely burned out.”
But holding the White House together behind what has been one of the better Presidential propaganda machines is proving next to impossible as the American public and even members of Bush’s own party desert him over the war in Iraq, the nomination of White House counsel Harriett Miers to the Supreme Court, the Hurricane Katrina debacle, rising gas prices and the Valerie Plame scandal.
“The façade is gone and we are now seeing the Bush White House in all its incompetent glory,” says retired political science professor George Harleigh. “They’ve ignored reality for too long.”
With Congress distracted by growing scandals swirling around former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Washington has become a daily killing field for anyone involved in the GOP leadership.
This week, Former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s right-hand man unloaded on the Bush Administration during a speech to the New American Foundation, saying American foreign policy had been hijacked by “a Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal” that has destroyed this country’s credibility with its allies.
“I’m not sure the State Department even exists anymore,” Col. Larry Wilkerson, Powell’s chief of staff, told the audience of journalists and scholars. “It, like so many others things, have been destroyed by George W. Bush’s ‘cowboyism.’”
Wilkerson dismisses the Administration’s attempts to improve America’s image abroad.
“You can’t sell shit,” he said.
Wilkerson isn’t the only high-profile Republican operative bailing on Bush. Bruce Bartlett, who served as a Senior Policy Advisor in Bush’s father’s administration, is about to release a book: Imposter: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Destroyed the Reagan Legacy. Bartlett lost his job at the National Center for Policy Analysis, a conservative Texas think tank, when word of his book project leaked out.
Republicans, the last to finally acknowledge the lies and duplicity of the Bush White House, no longer trust the Administration. When current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice testified before Congress this week and claimed “significant progress” in Iraq, Republican Senator Lincoln Chaffee of Rhode Island fired back: “Well, we all wish that were true, but we can't kid ourselves, either.”
But Wilkerson, a veteran with 31 years in the Marines and a former director of the Marine War College, sums up what, sadly, will be the legacy of George W. Bush:
“If there is a nuclear terrorist attack or a major pandemic you are going to see the ineptitude of this government in a way that'll take you back to the Declaration of Independence.”
© Copyright 2005 by Capitol Hill Blue
Who is Doug Thompson? See: http://www.capitolhillblue.com/dtbio.asp
Capitol Hill Blue: Death Watch at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7560.shtml
By DOUG THOMPSON Oct 21, 2005, 08:12
For all practical purposes, governing the nation has stopped at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as aides deal with an increasingly despondent President, mounting scandals and defecting dissidents from the Ship of State.
White House insiders say George W. Bush’s mood swings have increased to the point where meetings with the President must be cancelled, schedules shifted and plans changed to keep a bitter, distracted leader from the public eye.
“He’s like a zombie some days, walking around in a trance,” says one aide who, for obvious reasons, asks not to be identified. “Other times he launches into angry outbursts, cussing out anybody who gets near him.”
Aides say gallows humor has descended on the White House, where the West Wing is now referred to as “death row” and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, along with Vice Presidential Chief of Staff Scooter Libby, are known as “dead men walking,” a reference to the last walk death row inmates take to the execution chamber.
With indictments expected against Libby or Rove or both any day now from the Valerie Plame scandal, the White House mood has a “Final Days” aura (“Final Days” was the title of Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward’s book about the last days of the Nixon administration). Although no one expects President Bush to be impeached or resign, Internet blogs buzzed this week with talk of a possible resignation by Vice President Dick Cheney.
“That’s bullshit,” says one longtime Republican consultant. “They’ll have to carry Dick Cheney out of here on a stretcher.” But Rove and Libby will be gone if they are indicted and some wonder if the President, whose ability to govern is already limited by despair and detraction, can function without Rove, often referred to as “Bush’s brain.”
“Rove’s role is diminished already,” says one White House aide. “He still meets with The President daily but all this has taken its toll. He looks terrible.”
So does White House Chief of Staff Andy Card, who has served longer in the job than anyone in modern times. Card works 16 and 17-hour days and, in the words of one Republican member of Congress, looks “completely burned out.”
But holding the White House together behind what has been one of the better Presidential propaganda machines is proving next to impossible as the American public and even members of Bush’s own party desert him over the war in Iraq, the nomination of White House counsel Harriett Miers to the Supreme Court, the Hurricane Katrina debacle, rising gas prices and the Valerie Plame scandal.
“The façade is gone and we are now seeing the Bush White House in all its incompetent glory,” says retired political science professor George Harleigh. “They’ve ignored reality for too long.”
With Congress distracted by growing scandals swirling around former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Washington has become a daily killing field for anyone involved in the GOP leadership.
This week, Former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s right-hand man unloaded on the Bush Administration during a speech to the New American Foundation, saying American foreign policy had been hijacked by “a Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal” that has destroyed this country’s credibility with its allies.
“I’m not sure the State Department even exists anymore,” Col. Larry Wilkerson, Powell’s chief of staff, told the audience of journalists and scholars. “It, like so many others things, have been destroyed by George W. Bush’s ‘cowboyism.’”
Wilkerson dismisses the Administration’s attempts to improve America’s image abroad.
“You can’t sell shit,” he said.
Wilkerson isn’t the only high-profile Republican operative bailing on Bush. Bruce Bartlett, who served as a Senior Policy Advisor in Bush’s father’s administration, is about to release a book: Imposter: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Destroyed the Reagan Legacy. Bartlett lost his job at the National Center for Policy Analysis, a conservative Texas think tank, when word of his book project leaked out.
Republicans, the last to finally acknowledge the lies and duplicity of the Bush White House, no longer trust the Administration. When current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice testified before Congress this week and claimed “significant progress” in Iraq, Republican Senator Lincoln Chaffee of Rhode Island fired back: “Well, we all wish that were true, but we can't kid ourselves, either.”
But Wilkerson, a veteran with 31 years in the Marines and a former director of the Marine War College, sums up what, sadly, will be the legacy of George W. Bush:
“If there is a nuclear terrorist attack or a major pandemic you are going to see the ineptitude of this government in a way that'll take you back to the Declaration of Independence.”
© Copyright 2005 by Capitol Hill Blue
Who is Doug Thompson? See: http://www.capitolhillblue.com/dtbio.asp
nothing IS real !!!
Let me take you down,
‘cause I’m going to . . .
W. C. Fields!
nothing IS real
and nothing IS
to get hung about!
Godfrey Daniel forever!
. . .
Living IS easy with eyes closed
Understanding all you’re told.
It’s really hard to be SOMEONE
But it all works out
. . . or maybe
We just mold.
Let me take you down,
‘cause I’m going to . . .
W. C. Fields!
nothing IS real
and nothing IS
to get hung about!
Godfrey Daniel forever!
No one, I think, is in our tree.
They all sell high
and they buy low.
That is, we can’t (you know) join in,
But that’s all right.
That is, I think we’ve all been had.
Let me take you down,
‘cause I’m going to . . .
W. C. Fields!
nothing IS real
and nothing IS
to get hung about!
Godfrey Daniel forever!
Always, no sometimes, think it’s me,
But you know I know that it’s a dream.
I think I know I know I know
But that’s all wrong.
I hope that you will disagree!
Let me take you down,
‘cause I’m going to . . .
W. C. Fields!
nothing IS real
and nothing IS
to get hung about!
Godfrey Daniel forever!
Godfrey Daniel
. . . FOREVER!
Da da da da da da da!
- Uke Man
‘cause I’m going to . . .
W. C. Fields!
nothing IS real
and nothing IS
to get hung about!
Godfrey Daniel forever!
. . .
Living IS easy with eyes closed
Understanding all you’re told.
It’s really hard to be SOMEONE
But it all works out
. . . or maybe
We just mold.
Let me take you down,
‘cause I’m going to . . .
W. C. Fields!
nothing IS real
and nothing IS
to get hung about!
Godfrey Daniel forever!
No one, I think, is in our tree.
They all sell high
and they buy low.
That is, we can’t (you know) join in,
But that’s all right.
That is, I think we’ve all been had.
Let me take you down,
‘cause I’m going to . . .
W. C. Fields!
nothing IS real
and nothing IS
to get hung about!
Godfrey Daniel forever!
Always, no sometimes, think it’s me,
But you know I know that it’s a dream.
I think I know I know I know
But that’s all wrong.
I hope that you will disagree!
Let me take you down,
‘cause I’m going to . . .
W. C. Fields!
nothing IS real
and nothing IS
to get hung about!
Godfrey Daniel forever!
Godfrey Daniel
. . . FOREVER!
Da da da da da da da!
- Uke Man
Friday, October 21, 2005
How 'Bout a Little Fire, Scarecrows!!??!!??
To quote the Wicked Witch of the West, “What a wicked, wicked world!” And, yes, it’s melting!!
God put Dubya in office; faith said he’d save us; now we’re melting!! What does that say about God, faith, and us? What a joke!!!
Things that are being done, proposed, and said today are more outrageous than anything I’ve experienced in sixty years of life on this planet.
The Republicans are putting it out and the Democrats stand there, eyes glazed and sucking their thumbs. They are at a loss as to how they can CONVINCINGLY pretend to support the people while selling them down the river; so, they stand there grinning stupidly like sun-struck trolls.
Usually they feign impotence while pretending feebly to “soften” the blow; but the evil now being aimed at us is so awful that the notion of “softening” is too lame to even suggest it. Hence, the D’s just mark time and put THEIR faith in scandal, in calling the kettle “black” – thus sidestepping the people’s real issues.
What a wicked world!!
Take to the streets Nov. 2nd - before a house falls on all of us!
- Uke Man
God put Dubya in office; faith said he’d save us; now we’re melting!! What does that say about God, faith, and us? What a joke!!!
Things that are being done, proposed, and said today are more outrageous than anything I’ve experienced in sixty years of life on this planet.
The Republicans are putting it out and the Democrats stand there, eyes glazed and sucking their thumbs. They are at a loss as to how they can CONVINCINGLY pretend to support the people while selling them down the river; so, they stand there grinning stupidly like sun-struck trolls.
Usually they feign impotence while pretending feebly to “soften” the blow; but the evil now being aimed at us is so awful that the notion of “softening” is too lame to even suggest it. Hence, the D’s just mark time and put THEIR faith in scandal, in calling the kettle “black” – thus sidestepping the people’s real issues.
What a wicked world!!
Take to the streets Nov. 2nd - before a house falls on all of us!
- Uke Man
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Pumpkin Show Saturday
Hey Folks!!
Don't Forget!!!
We’ll be playing Pumpkin Show Saturday afternoon - plenty of time on both sides of the show for pumpkin goodies, displays, rides, corn-dogs, elephant ears, grilled tenderloins, etc., etc., etc. !!!!
2:00 – 3:00 p.m. - Main Street Stage
(just across the tracks from the giant grain silos)
Check out the video from last year’s visit to “Shifty’s” during Pumpkin Show:
http://www.ukuleledisco.com/shifty
- Uke Man
Don't Forget!!!
We’ll be playing Pumpkin Show Saturday afternoon - plenty of time on both sides of the show for pumpkin goodies, displays, rides, corn-dogs, elephant ears, grilled tenderloins, etc., etc., etc. !!!!
2:00 – 3:00 p.m. - Main Street Stage
(just across the tracks from the giant grain silos)
Check out the video from last year’s visit to “Shifty’s” during Pumpkin Show:
http://www.ukuleledisco.com/shifty
- Uke Man
Yeah, Sweatshops! That's the ticket
Dear Mr. Kristof,
OK, let's see.
If Africans are to get ahead, they need sweatshops. Yeah, that's the ticket.
The more sweatshops in struggling countries, the more businesses will move their operations from here to undeveloped countries to make more money for their owners by paying sweatshop wages to the inhabitants, which - in turn - will continue to lower the standard of living for workers here, until we get to the point where someone at the Times can suggest sweatshops with no paid vacations as the salvation of our own impoverished inhabitants.
It's just business, I guess. Yep, business - as you point out - won't go someplace where they can't have total control over the lives of their workers. I mean, that's why they are leaving this country, and if Africans won't make abuse of their people by foreign corporations as easy and complete as it is in "wiser" undeveloped countries - well, they are just hurting themselves.
Race you to the bottom!!
- Uke Man
Africa adds to its misery with inane labor laws
Thursday, October 20, 2005
NICHOLAS D . KRISTOF
In Niger and other African countries like it, children end up being killed not only by malaria and measles, but also by an insistence on the six-week paid vacation.
This land of mud huts and malnourished babies is the very leastdeveloped country on the planet, but local regulations stipulate that companies must give all employees six weeks and two days of paid vacation a year. Not surprisingly, there are almost no employers in Niger.
So if we in the West want to help children in countries like Niger, we should send vaccines and mosquito nets, but we also must push these countries to open themselves up for business. Right now, many African countries are, in effect, killing their own citizens by making it staggeringly difficult for entrepreneurs to open shop.
The World Bank has published a fascinating ranking of how easy it is to do business in 155 countries of the world. New Zealand ranks first, followed by Singapore and the United States. No African country is in the top 20.
But of the 20 countries in the world where it is most difficult to do business, 17 are African, according to the study, "Doing Business in 2006." Niger ranks 150 th, followed by Sudan, Chad, Central African Republic, Burkina Faso and, the very worst place to try to do business, Congo.
Take a simple construction project: building a warehouse for books. In Niger, obtaining the necessary licenses would involve 27 procedures over half a year. And in either Nigeria or Zimbabwe, the licenses would take nearly a year and a half to obtain.
In Niger, for example, when people get money, perhaps sent to them from a relative abroad, they often use it to buy a motorcycle or a stereo system, because it is so onerous to invest in a legal business. Or to avoid hassles, they open an unlicensed business, perhaps a bed-andbreakfast, instead of a hotel.
The minimum wage is set at $35 a month in Niger, higher than the local market level. Employees are allowed to work no more than nine hours a day, weekend work is basically prohibited and women are not allowed to work evenings at all. Layoffs are usually not allowed.
Perhaps those rules, typically inherited from European countries during colonial days, sound as if they protect workers. But the upshot is that companies don’t come to Niger and don’t hire anyone they don’t want on the payroll forever. So almost all people toil in the informal labor sector where there are no protections whatsoever.
In a village 600 miles east of the capital, Niamey, for example, I met a woman named Aisha whose 2-yearold daughter had just died of malaria, partly because she couldn’t afford to take the child to the doctor. Aisha is five months pregnant, although she is so malnourished you can barely tell she’s pregnant at all.
Her husband has traveled to a nearby country to look for work, and so she survives by scrounging the countryside for firewood and then hiking three hours each way to the town of Zinder to sell bundles of wood on the street. It’s hard work, seven days a week, and it earns her the equivalent of 40 to 50 cents for a very long day.
Aisha and the other villagers would be far better off if Nike started a sweatshop here paying the peasants 10 cents an hour to make shoes. But Nike wouldn’t do that, because there would be howls of outrage from American campuses at the exploitative wages and because Niger’s labor laws are so uninviting.
Another casualty of overregulation in poor countries is trade. Farmers in sub-Saharan Africa use less than one-twentieth as much fertilizer as those in the West, partly because import duties and red tape can make fertilizer eight times as expensive here as in Europe.
In Zinder, Niger, Tchiaka Issoufou, the owner of a small shop, explained that he made regular trips to Nigeria by truck to buy radios and electronic gear to fill his store. The customs officials make him pay a tax of several thousand dollars per truckload, arbitrarily applied — plus he has to pay off the police at roadblocks and avoid the bandits with machine guns who steal vehicles.
So let’s give more aid to indigent countries. Let’s forgive some of their debts. But let’s also get them to rip up their red tape, and to help their people by welcoming businesses — including sweatshops — and by taking away those six weeks of paid vacation.
Nicholas D. Kristof writes for The New York Times.
nicholas@nytimes.com
OK, let's see.
If Africans are to get ahead, they need sweatshops. Yeah, that's the ticket.
The more sweatshops in struggling countries, the more businesses will move their operations from here to undeveloped countries to make more money for their owners by paying sweatshop wages to the inhabitants, which - in turn - will continue to lower the standard of living for workers here, until we get to the point where someone at the Times can suggest sweatshops with no paid vacations as the salvation of our own impoverished inhabitants.
It's just business, I guess. Yep, business - as you point out - won't go someplace where they can't have total control over the lives of their workers. I mean, that's why they are leaving this country, and if Africans won't make abuse of their people by foreign corporations as easy and complete as it is in "wiser" undeveloped countries - well, they are just hurting themselves.
Race you to the bottom!!
- Uke Man
Africa adds to its misery with inane labor laws
Thursday, October 20, 2005
NICHOLAS D . KRISTOF
In Niger and other African countries like it, children end up being killed not only by malaria and measles, but also by an insistence on the six-week paid vacation.
This land of mud huts and malnourished babies is the very leastdeveloped country on the planet, but local regulations stipulate that companies must give all employees six weeks and two days of paid vacation a year. Not surprisingly, there are almost no employers in Niger.
So if we in the West want to help children in countries like Niger, we should send vaccines and mosquito nets, but we also must push these countries to open themselves up for business. Right now, many African countries are, in effect, killing their own citizens by making it staggeringly difficult for entrepreneurs to open shop.
The World Bank has published a fascinating ranking of how easy it is to do business in 155 countries of the world. New Zealand ranks first, followed by Singapore and the United States. No African country is in the top 20.
But of the 20 countries in the world where it is most difficult to do business, 17 are African, according to the study, "Doing Business in 2006." Niger ranks 150 th, followed by Sudan, Chad, Central African Republic, Burkina Faso and, the very worst place to try to do business, Congo.
Take a simple construction project: building a warehouse for books. In Niger, obtaining the necessary licenses would involve 27 procedures over half a year. And in either Nigeria or Zimbabwe, the licenses would take nearly a year and a half to obtain.
In Niger, for example, when people get money, perhaps sent to them from a relative abroad, they often use it to buy a motorcycle or a stereo system, because it is so onerous to invest in a legal business. Or to avoid hassles, they open an unlicensed business, perhaps a bed-andbreakfast, instead of a hotel.
The minimum wage is set at $35 a month in Niger, higher than the local market level. Employees are allowed to work no more than nine hours a day, weekend work is basically prohibited and women are not allowed to work evenings at all. Layoffs are usually not allowed.
Perhaps those rules, typically inherited from European countries during colonial days, sound as if they protect workers. But the upshot is that companies don’t come to Niger and don’t hire anyone they don’t want on the payroll forever. So almost all people toil in the informal labor sector where there are no protections whatsoever.
In a village 600 miles east of the capital, Niamey, for example, I met a woman named Aisha whose 2-yearold daughter had just died of malaria, partly because she couldn’t afford to take the child to the doctor. Aisha is five months pregnant, although she is so malnourished you can barely tell she’s pregnant at all.
Her husband has traveled to a nearby country to look for work, and so she survives by scrounging the countryside for firewood and then hiking three hours each way to the town of Zinder to sell bundles of wood on the street. It’s hard work, seven days a week, and it earns her the equivalent of 40 to 50 cents for a very long day.
Aisha and the other villagers would be far better off if Nike started a sweatshop here paying the peasants 10 cents an hour to make shoes. But Nike wouldn’t do that, because there would be howls of outrage from American campuses at the exploitative wages and because Niger’s labor laws are so uninviting.
Another casualty of overregulation in poor countries is trade. Farmers in sub-Saharan Africa use less than one-twentieth as much fertilizer as those in the West, partly because import duties and red tape can make fertilizer eight times as expensive here as in Europe.
In Zinder, Niger, Tchiaka Issoufou, the owner of a small shop, explained that he made regular trips to Nigeria by truck to buy radios and electronic gear to fill his store. The customs officials make him pay a tax of several thousand dollars per truckload, arbitrarily applied — plus he has to pay off the police at roadblocks and avoid the bandits with machine guns who steal vehicles.
So let’s give more aid to indigent countries. Let’s forgive some of their debts. But let’s also get them to rip up their red tape, and to help their people by welcoming businesses — including sweatshops — and by taking away those six weeks of paid vacation.
Nicholas D. Kristof writes for The New York Times.
nicholas@nytimes.com
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
As I said, “Where are the Democrats?”
In bed with the Republicans!!
Wake up, People!! There is NO EXCUSE for ANYBODY to support this crap!! It should be PERFECTLY CLEAR who is being served by our so-called “REPRESENTATIVES” - Democrats as well as Republicans!
It sure as hell isn’t US!!!
R's & D's concentrate on getting elected, but if they get elected and act like this, what good is that for the people?
The World Can’t Wait!! Drive these liars – R’s & D’s out!!
* * * * *
From “People for the American Way”
As we wrote to you three weeks ago, the Bush administration and its congressional allies moved quickly to take advantage of hurricane Katrina to enact a national voucher program under the guise of providing educational relief for displaced children. Now, shockingly, some Democrats and moderate Republicans are rumored to be considering caving in on a "compromise" that uses an elaborate bureaucracy to hide the fact that it funnels public dollars into private schools.
If voucher advocates were truly interested in educating displaced children, they could have supported the bipartisan education relief bill introduced in Congress in early September. Instead, they chose to fight that legislation in order to advance an old objective of the right wing -- to divert public funds into private schools.
Under the proposed scheme, the federal Department of Education would channel our tax dollars through a series of state and local agencies before transferring these funds to private schools through a vehicle they're calling student "accounts." Vouchers by another name remain the same: bad for our children's public education.
This plan has no meaningful provision to hold private schools accountable for their use of public money. Not only is there no way to require that these schools maintain educational standards, there is also nothing to prevent them from using our tax dollars to engage in discriminatory hiring practices. Such a plan threatens religious liberty by allowing for federal funding of religious education. And it would require taxpayers to pick up the tab for wealthy families who can afford private school tuition and choose not to send their children to public schools.
In bed with the Republicans!!
Wake up, People!! There is NO EXCUSE for ANYBODY to support this crap!! It should be PERFECTLY CLEAR who is being served by our so-called “REPRESENTATIVES” - Democrats as well as Republicans!
It sure as hell isn’t US!!!
R's & D's concentrate on getting elected, but if they get elected and act like this, what good is that for the people?
The World Can’t Wait!! Drive these liars – R’s & D’s out!!
* * * * *
From “People for the American Way”
As we wrote to you three weeks ago, the Bush administration and its congressional allies moved quickly to take advantage of hurricane Katrina to enact a national voucher program under the guise of providing educational relief for displaced children. Now, shockingly, some Democrats and moderate Republicans are rumored to be considering caving in on a "compromise" that uses an elaborate bureaucracy to hide the fact that it funnels public dollars into private schools.
If voucher advocates were truly interested in educating displaced children, they could have supported the bipartisan education relief bill introduced in Congress in early September. Instead, they chose to fight that legislation in order to advance an old objective of the right wing -- to divert public funds into private schools.
Under the proposed scheme, the federal Department of Education would channel our tax dollars through a series of state and local agencies before transferring these funds to private schools through a vehicle they're calling student "accounts." Vouchers by another name remain the same: bad for our children's public education.
This plan has no meaningful provision to hold private schools accountable for their use of public money. Not only is there no way to require that these schools maintain educational standards, there is also nothing to prevent them from using our tax dollars to engage in discriminatory hiring practices. Such a plan threatens religious liberty by allowing for federal funding of religious education. And it would require taxpayers to pick up the tab for wealthy families who can afford private school tuition and choose not to send their children to public schools.
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
We're Playin' at the Pumpkin Show!!!
Hey Folks!! We’re playin’ at
the PUMPKIN SHOW!!! (did I just say that?????)
Saturday, October 22
2:00 to 3:00 P.M. - On the Main (street) Stage
Get the whole Pumpkin Show lowdown at:
http://www.pumpkinshow.com/
My New York friend, Jason Tagg of Sonic Uke (www.sonicuke.com) & Midnight Ukulele Disco (www.ukuleledisco.com) fame had hoped to be here but is overwhelmed with a full schedule.
To see a bit of fun Jason and I had on last year’s Pumpkin Show Ferris Wheel, click:
http://www.ukuleledisco.com/ferris?PHPSESSID=6f5ac6b17d30ea6b021aae0b647d082e
See You Saturday!!
- Uke Man
the PUMPKIN SHOW!!! (did I just say that?????)
Saturday, October 22
2:00 to 3:00 P.M. - On the Main (street) Stage
Get the whole Pumpkin Show lowdown at:
http://www.pumpkinshow.com/
My New York friend, Jason Tagg of Sonic Uke (www.sonicuke.com) & Midnight Ukulele Disco (www.ukuleledisco.com) fame had hoped to be here but is overwhelmed with a full schedule.
To see a bit of fun Jason and I had on last year’s Pumpkin Show Ferris Wheel, click:
http://www.ukuleledisco.com/ferris?PHPSESSID=6f5ac6b17d30ea6b021aae0b647d082e
See You Saturday!!
- Uke Man
Monday, October 17, 2005
"When I Write a Song"
When I write a song
I make a baby.
Blind coitus
Plants a seed
And nothing can stop gestation.
This and that
And this and that
Go on for months,
But baby grows, and stretches,
Grows, and kicks
Then sucks her stubby thumb
Awhile.
In time, squash-faced and squalling,
And beautiful to me,
She’s here
Not completely formed
But in time,
And dressed in tuneful clothes,
What a joy – she is.
So sweet
With her wide eyes
And chubby cheeks
Want to see her picture?
I make a baby.
Blind coitus
Plants a seed
And nothing can stop gestation.
This and that
And this and that
Go on for months,
But baby grows, and stretches,
Grows, and kicks
Then sucks her stubby thumb
Awhile.
In time, squash-faced and squalling,
And beautiful to me,
She’s here
Not completely formed
But in time,
And dressed in tuneful clothes,
What a joy – she is.
So sweet
With her wide eyes
And chubby cheeks
Want to see her picture?
Where are the Democrats? In bed with the Republicans!
Hey Folks!
This is nothing new!! Been going on for years!
The present ("two party") system is designed to maintain those at the top, and WE exist to support that maintenance!!
Whenever our ruling betters have seen a way to better themselves by squeezing their beloved, shirt-tail, American relatives (us), they've jumped at the chance; AND the Democrats have sucked their thumbs or even cheered!!
Nov. 2 - Denounce the R's & D's - they are ALL part of the "Bush Regime" when it comes to how the people are exploited!!
- Uke Man
October 17, 2005
Op-Ed Columnist
The Big Squeeze
By PAUL KRUGMAN
In 1999 Delphi, the parts division of General Motors, was spun off as an independent company. Now Delphi has filed for bankruptcy. Its chief executive, Robert S. Miller, wants the company's workers to accept drastic wage cuts, from an average hourly wage rate of about $27 to as little as $10 an hour.
There are a lot of questions about how Delphi and the auto industry in general reached this point. Why were large severance packages given to Delphi executives even as the company demanded wage cuts? Why, when General Motors was profitable, did it pay big dividends but fail to put in enough money to secure its workers' pensions?
But Delphi's bankruptcy is a much bigger deal than your ordinary case of corporate failure and bad, self-dealing management. If Delphi slashes wages and defaults on its pension obligations, the rest of the auto industry may well be tempted - or forced - to do the same. And that will mark the end of the era in which ordinary working Americans could be part of the middle class.
There was a time when the American economy offered lots of good jobs - jobs that didn't make workers rich but did give them middle-class incomes. The best of these good jobs were at America's great manufacturing companies, especially in the auto industry.
But it has been a generation since most American workers could count on sharing in the nation's economic growth. America is a much richer country than it was 30 years ago, but since the early 1970's the hourly wage of the typical worker has barely kept up with inflation.
The contrast between rising national wealth and stagnant wages has become even more extreme lately. In 2004, which was touted both by the Bush administration and by Wall Street as a year in which the economy boomed, the median real income of full-time, year-round male workers fell more than 2 percent.
Now the last vestiges of the era of plentiful good jobs are rapidly disappearing. Almost everywhere you look, corporations are squeezing wages and benefits, saying that they have no choice in the face of global competition. And with the Delphi bankruptcy, the big squeeze has reached the auto industry itself.
So what are we going to do about it?
During the 1990's optimists argued that better education and worker training could restore the economy's ability to create good jobs. Mr. Miller of Delphi picked up that argument as part of his public relations campaign for wage cuts: "The world pays knowledge workers far more than it pays manual, industrial workers," he said. "And that's what's sweeping over here."
But that's a very 1999 sort of answer. During the technology bubble, it was easy to believe that "knowledge workers" were guaranteed good jobs. But when the bubble burst, they turned out to be as vulnerable to downsizing and layoffs as assembly-line workers. And many of the high-paid jobs that vanished when the technology bubble burst have never come back, partly because they have been outsourced to India and other rising economies.
Today, some of us like to stress the depressing effect of the dysfunctional American health care system on wages. A large part of the problem facing the auto industry and other employers that still provide good jobs is the cost of providing health insurance, both to their current employees and to retired workers.
If we had a Canadian-style system - which is enthusiastically supported by the Canadian subsidiaries of U.S. auto companies - the big squeeze might be averted, at least for a while. One more reason to be angry with auto executives is that they never threw their support behind national health care in this country, even though such a system is clearly in their companies' interest.
What if neither education nor health care reform is enough to end the wage squeeze? That's the possibility that makes free-trade liberals like me very nervous, because at that point protectionism enters the picture. When corporate executives say that they have to cut wages to meet foreign competition, workers have every right to ask why we don't cut the foreign competition instead.
I hope we don't have to go there. But denial is not an option. America's working middle class has been eroding for a generation, and it may be about to wash away completely. Something must be done.
This is nothing new!! Been going on for years!
The present ("two party") system is designed to maintain those at the top, and WE exist to support that maintenance!!
Whenever our ruling betters have seen a way to better themselves by squeezing their beloved, shirt-tail, American relatives (us), they've jumped at the chance; AND the Democrats have sucked their thumbs or even cheered!!
Nov. 2 - Denounce the R's & D's - they are ALL part of the "Bush Regime" when it comes to how the people are exploited!!
- Uke Man
October 17, 2005
Op-Ed Columnist
The Big Squeeze
By PAUL KRUGMAN
In 1999 Delphi, the parts division of General Motors, was spun off as an independent company. Now Delphi has filed for bankruptcy. Its chief executive, Robert S. Miller, wants the company's workers to accept drastic wage cuts, from an average hourly wage rate of about $27 to as little as $10 an hour.
There are a lot of questions about how Delphi and the auto industry in general reached this point. Why were large severance packages given to Delphi executives even as the company demanded wage cuts? Why, when General Motors was profitable, did it pay big dividends but fail to put in enough money to secure its workers' pensions?
But Delphi's bankruptcy is a much bigger deal than your ordinary case of corporate failure and bad, self-dealing management. If Delphi slashes wages and defaults on its pension obligations, the rest of the auto industry may well be tempted - or forced - to do the same. And that will mark the end of the era in which ordinary working Americans could be part of the middle class.
There was a time when the American economy offered lots of good jobs - jobs that didn't make workers rich but did give them middle-class incomes. The best of these good jobs were at America's great manufacturing companies, especially in the auto industry.
But it has been a generation since most American workers could count on sharing in the nation's economic growth. America is a much richer country than it was 30 years ago, but since the early 1970's the hourly wage of the typical worker has barely kept up with inflation.
The contrast between rising national wealth and stagnant wages has become even more extreme lately. In 2004, which was touted both by the Bush administration and by Wall Street as a year in which the economy boomed, the median real income of full-time, year-round male workers fell more than 2 percent.
Now the last vestiges of the era of plentiful good jobs are rapidly disappearing. Almost everywhere you look, corporations are squeezing wages and benefits, saying that they have no choice in the face of global competition. And with the Delphi bankruptcy, the big squeeze has reached the auto industry itself.
So what are we going to do about it?
During the 1990's optimists argued that better education and worker training could restore the economy's ability to create good jobs. Mr. Miller of Delphi picked up that argument as part of his public relations campaign for wage cuts: "The world pays knowledge workers far more than it pays manual, industrial workers," he said. "And that's what's sweeping over here."
But that's a very 1999 sort of answer. During the technology bubble, it was easy to believe that "knowledge workers" were guaranteed good jobs. But when the bubble burst, they turned out to be as vulnerable to downsizing and layoffs as assembly-line workers. And many of the high-paid jobs that vanished when the technology bubble burst have never come back, partly because they have been outsourced to India and other rising economies.
Today, some of us like to stress the depressing effect of the dysfunctional American health care system on wages. A large part of the problem facing the auto industry and other employers that still provide good jobs is the cost of providing health insurance, both to their current employees and to retired workers.
If we had a Canadian-style system - which is enthusiastically supported by the Canadian subsidiaries of U.S. auto companies - the big squeeze might be averted, at least for a while. One more reason to be angry with auto executives is that they never threw their support behind national health care in this country, even though such a system is clearly in their companies' interest.
What if neither education nor health care reform is enough to end the wage squeeze? That's the possibility that makes free-trade liberals like me very nervous, because at that point protectionism enters the picture. When corporate executives say that they have to cut wages to meet foreign competition, workers have every right to ask why we don't cut the foreign competition instead.
I hope we don't have to go there. But denial is not an option. America's working middle class has been eroding for a generation, and it may be about to wash away completely. Something must be done.
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Poem - by Uke Man
a son of the Greatest generation
..a father of the Alphabet
....a John the Baptist of the Big Boom
........living under the gilded “W”
............Watching . . .
................ . . . & Wishing:
....................I wish I may,
........................I wish I might
............................find a chunk
................................of . . .
....................................Kryptonite
Superman has died,
and he is not the same.
Clark Kent is dead
and Bizarro clark
stands there in his stead.
Lois is a trollop
Perry works for Fox
and Jimmy fancies signing up
to come home in a box.
And the Super one, born again,
according to god’s plan,
cannot speak the language –
says, “Hi, I’m Stuporman.”
Yes, he’s still a man of steel,
but a smirking super fool
who would destroy the world itself
to fit it to his rule.
....................I wish I may,
........................I wish I might
............................find a chunk
...............................of . . .
..........................................Kryptonite
..a father of the Alphabet
....a John the Baptist of the Big Boom
........living under the gilded “W”
............Watching . . .
................ . . . & Wishing:
....................I wish I may,
........................I wish I might
............................find a chunk
................................of . . .
....................................Kryptonite
Superman has died,
and he is not the same.
Clark Kent is dead
and Bizarro clark
stands there in his stead.
Lois is a trollop
Perry works for Fox
and Jimmy fancies signing up
to come home in a box.
And the Super one, born again,
according to god’s plan,
cannot speak the language –
says, “Hi, I’m Stuporman.”
Yes, he’s still a man of steel,
but a smirking super fool
who would destroy the world itself
to fit it to his rule.
....................I wish I may,
........................I wish I might
............................find a chunk
...............................of . . .
..........................................Kryptonite
I Told Ya !!
Hey!!!
I warned everybody!! I said,
“You’ve GOT to BE THERE!!
And if you were at the show Friday night, you know I was right to do so.
Everyone who missed it missed a RARE evening!!
Now, sadly, I forgot my camera; so all I can share are photos from the night before when Bob Starker and I greeted Pete Cassani’s arrival in Kolumbus!! Those few shots will have to do, but they are a pale shadow of Saturday’s excitement!!!!
The Uke Man was ON! With his political rant!! (if I do say so myself! – but the crowd is what gave me that idea). Nov. 2nd / the World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime was on the front burner, and I hit on my notion that:
We can all come together, wherever we may stand politically, to use the “new” notion of RESISTANCE - in ways appropriate for each of us – to REALLY put fear into the “business-as-usual crowd” and begin to turn things around.
The Uke Man stood in – ½ rant / ½ song – until “the boys” arrived, and handed it over to Rock’n’Roll!!
Bob Starker, Pete English, Ty Barnes, and Pete Cassani tore down the house!!
Victorians’ Midnight Café had NEVER seen such a show!! I’m NOT KIDDING!!! It was a KICK-ASS show – and the majority of Cassani’s songs are political!! Check out his website for samples ( http://www.thepeasants.net/ ).
My friend George, of Columbus NION was there with materials and a few advanced copies of our group’s new Nov.2nd stickers (a big hit), and he said a few words too – along with Rosie from Detroit a dedicated young lady on the road (with her like-minded friends) for a better world .
I want to thank all the NION folks, and the fans, and the friends, and the people who wandered in off the street!! You made MY evening!
Nov. 2 – Resist!!
- Uke Man
p.s. Pete may be returning to Cowtown in January.
I warned everybody!! I said,
“You’ve GOT to BE THERE!!
And if you were at the show Friday night, you know I was right to do so.
Everyone who missed it missed a RARE evening!!
Now, sadly, I forgot my camera; so all I can share are photos from the night before when Bob Starker and I greeted Pete Cassani’s arrival in Kolumbus!! Those few shots will have to do, but they are a pale shadow of Saturday’s excitement!!!!
The Uke Man was ON! With his political rant!! (if I do say so myself! – but the crowd is what gave me that idea). Nov. 2nd / the World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime was on the front burner, and I hit on my notion that:
We can all come together, wherever we may stand politically, to use the “new” notion of RESISTANCE - in ways appropriate for each of us – to REALLY put fear into the “business-as-usual crowd” and begin to turn things around.
The Uke Man stood in – ½ rant / ½ song – until “the boys” arrived, and handed it over to Rock’n’Roll!!
Bob Starker, Pete English, Ty Barnes, and Pete Cassani tore down the house!!
Victorians’ Midnight Café had NEVER seen such a show!! I’m NOT KIDDING!!! It was a KICK-ASS show – and the majority of Cassani’s songs are political!! Check out his website for samples ( http://www.thepeasants.net/ ).
My friend George, of Columbus NION was there with materials and a few advanced copies of our group’s new Nov.2nd stickers (a big hit), and he said a few words too – along with Rosie from Detroit a dedicated young lady on the road (with her like-minded friends) for a better world .
I want to thank all the NION folks, and the fans, and the friends, and the people who wandered in off the street!! You made MY evening!
Nov. 2 – Resist!!
- Uke Man
p.s. Pete may be returning to Cowtown in January.
Friday, October 14, 2005
the Show is @ Victorians' Midnight Cafe
Hey!! Uke Man is old!!!
The Show is at:
.... Victorians' Midnight Cafe
on 5th Ave. just east of Neil
(thanks to the commenter for waking the old dude!)
The Show is at:
.... Victorians' Midnight Cafe
on 5th Ave. just east of Neil
(thanks to the commenter for waking the old dude!)
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Music in the Cafe & Revolution in the Air
OK, you upright citizens of the world!!
Time for “Music in the Cafes and Revolution in the air”!!
You’ve GOT to experience Pete Cassani!! An AWESOME guitar player and singer/song-writer. His tour is underway and heading our way. If all goes well on the turnpike, you can get a preview Thursday night at the Victorians’ Midnight Café open stage (8:00). I’ll play a bit and - if the cricks don’t rise – Pete will arrive in time and play some licks as well.
Come Friday night for sure – 7:30-12:00 -
and hear:
The Stops
Whoa Nellie
Uke Man & his Prodigal Sons
And!!!
Pete Cassani / The Peasants !!!
This is a free show (we’ll pass a hat for Pete to keep him on the road)
And is dedicated to Driving Out the Bush Regime!
Dedicated to RESISTING the illegitimate actions of an oppressive government!
Organized by the players in conjunction with
Not In Our Name - Columbus
Time for “Music in the Cafes and Revolution in the air”!!
You’ve GOT to experience Pete Cassani!! An AWESOME guitar player and singer/song-writer. His tour is underway and heading our way. If all goes well on the turnpike, you can get a preview Thursday night at the Victorians’ Midnight Café open stage (8:00). I’ll play a bit and - if the cricks don’t rise – Pete will arrive in time and play some licks as well.
Come Friday night for sure – 7:30-12:00 -
and hear:
The Stops
Whoa Nellie
Uke Man & his Prodigal Sons
And!!!
Pete Cassani / The Peasants !!!
This is a free show (we’ll pass a hat for Pete to keep him on the road)
And is dedicated to Driving Out the Bush Regime!
Dedicated to RESISTING the illegitimate actions of an oppressive government!
Join us !!!
- Uke Man
Organized by the players in conjunction with
Not In Our Name - Columbus
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
RESIST !!!!
Hey Folks, put on your thinking caps!
Today on NPR I heard John Roberts argue that an employer’s right to fire anyone for any reason was stronger than the First Amendment.
An assistant DA, as required by law, provided the defense with new, exculpatory evidence. He was fired. He sued and has won his whistle-blower case at every level. Now he’s before Roberts & Co.
That ANYONE would argue that a representative of the “Justice” system has the right to fire an employee for FOLLOWING the LAW, is outrageous. That the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court should make such an argument is mind-blowing and clearly shows where this country is headed.
Later I heard that the Terminator was attacking “special interests” in California: teachers and nurses unions. I heard that Arnold, the candidate, had promised not to take donations from “special interests,” and that since the election he has been funded by business interests at a higher level than any previous governor. He must not consider business interests to be “special.”
Arnold says he has to bust the unions to “help the people.” That he can get by with even making that argument, says a lot about where this country is headed.
I also heard that many Republican operatives were extremely despondent over the appointment of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court – one warrior even cried. She may be a backward, right-wing fundamentalist – she may fit the Republican voter profile, but she’s NOT a vampire. She may serve a large part of the agenda – where it fits with her backward understanding of god, country, and what is appropriate behavior for women, gays, and minorities – but she doesn’t LUST after the total destruction of every advance made by the people since the New Deal.
She won’t put a stop to the agenda; she’ll just slow it down a bit; and that “impediment” is enough to make grown Republicans weep. That should provide a clue as to where this country is headed.
On Yahoo news I read about Alan Greedspan: “ ‘ The impressive performance of the U.S. economy over the past couple of decades, despite shocks that in the past would have produced marked economic contractions, offers the clearest evidence of the benefits of increased market flexibility,’ Greedspan said in remarks to the National Italian American Foundation.”
If it isn’t already clear to you what “increased market flexibility” means, Greedspan eventually makes it clear: “flexibility” means the ability and readiness to dump jobs and shaft workers – which Greedspan says is good for the “welfare of the American worker.”
This is the same guy who insists that having Grandma work until she’s seventy is superior to having the wealthy contribute to the payroll tax in the same way the rest of us do.
This should give us a picture of where our “leaders” would like to take us.
I don’t know how others feel about it, but I find all of this – and a whole lot more – beyond “outrageous.” It makes me crazy. I can’t believe such shit can be put out there and be treated as blandly as a new recipe in the Food section!!!
This is so extremely contrary to everything we’ve been indoctrinated to believe that it boggles the mind. The Republicans are truly fucking vampires! But, then, WHERE are the Democrats?
This stuff is so horrid, but we hear nothing from the Democrats. Why? There are way more of us in the bottom 80% than in the top 20%; and there are more than enough serious, pressing issues that any Democrat who wanted to address those issues could be elected. But we hear nothing from the Democrats. Why?
Because NEITHER party serves us. One party PRETENDS to serve us and the other party PRETENDS to serve the others; but neither serve either. They game us for the benefit of the ginks on top.
Resist! Repudiate them all as illegitimate representatives of the people and let them know that we will drive them out. It starts on Nov.2.
- Uke Man
Today on NPR I heard John Roberts argue that an employer’s right to fire anyone for any reason was stronger than the First Amendment.
An assistant DA, as required by law, provided the defense with new, exculpatory evidence. He was fired. He sued and has won his whistle-blower case at every level. Now he’s before Roberts & Co.
That ANYONE would argue that a representative of the “Justice” system has the right to fire an employee for FOLLOWING the LAW, is outrageous. That the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court should make such an argument is mind-blowing and clearly shows where this country is headed.
Later I heard that the Terminator was attacking “special interests” in California: teachers and nurses unions. I heard that Arnold, the candidate, had promised not to take donations from “special interests,” and that since the election he has been funded by business interests at a higher level than any previous governor. He must not consider business interests to be “special.”
Arnold says he has to bust the unions to “help the people.” That he can get by with even making that argument, says a lot about where this country is headed.
I also heard that many Republican operatives were extremely despondent over the appointment of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court – one warrior even cried. She may be a backward, right-wing fundamentalist – she may fit the Republican voter profile, but she’s NOT a vampire. She may serve a large part of the agenda – where it fits with her backward understanding of god, country, and what is appropriate behavior for women, gays, and minorities – but she doesn’t LUST after the total destruction of every advance made by the people since the New Deal.
She won’t put a stop to the agenda; she’ll just slow it down a bit; and that “impediment” is enough to make grown Republicans weep. That should provide a clue as to where this country is headed.
On Yahoo news I read about Alan Greedspan: “ ‘ The impressive performance of the U.S. economy over the past couple of decades, despite shocks that in the past would have produced marked economic contractions, offers the clearest evidence of the benefits of increased market flexibility,’ Greedspan said in remarks to the National Italian American Foundation.”
If it isn’t already clear to you what “increased market flexibility” means, Greedspan eventually makes it clear: “flexibility” means the ability and readiness to dump jobs and shaft workers – which Greedspan says is good for the “welfare of the American worker.”
This is the same guy who insists that having Grandma work until she’s seventy is superior to having the wealthy contribute to the payroll tax in the same way the rest of us do.
This should give us a picture of where our “leaders” would like to take us.
I don’t know how others feel about it, but I find all of this – and a whole lot more – beyond “outrageous.” It makes me crazy. I can’t believe such shit can be put out there and be treated as blandly as a new recipe in the Food section!!!
This is so extremely contrary to everything we’ve been indoctrinated to believe that it boggles the mind. The Republicans are truly fucking vampires! But, then, WHERE are the Democrats?
This stuff is so horrid, but we hear nothing from the Democrats. Why? There are way more of us in the bottom 80% than in the top 20%; and there are more than enough serious, pressing issues that any Democrat who wanted to address those issues could be elected. But we hear nothing from the Democrats. Why?
Because NEITHER party serves us. One party PRETENDS to serve us and the other party PRETENDS to serve the others; but neither serve either. They game us for the benefit of the ginks on top.
Resist! Repudiate them all as illegitimate representatives of the people and let them know that we will drive them out. It starts on Nov.2.
- Uke Man
Designer Loco
From the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Posted on Mon, Oct. 10, 2005
Intelligent design's big ambitions Advocates want much more than textbooks.
By Paul Nussbaum Inquirer Staff Writer
The advocates of "intelligent design," spotlighted in the current courtroom battle over the teaching of evolution in Dover, Pa., have much larger goals than biology textbooks.They hope to discredit Darwin's theory as part of a bigger push to restore faith to a more central role in American life. "Design theory promises to reverse the stifling dominance of the materialist worldview, and to replace it with a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions," says a strategy document written in 1999 by the Seattle think tank at the forefront of the movement.The authors said they seek "nothing less than theoverthrow of materialism and its cultural legacies." . . .
* * *
The dipsticks currently wielding their outrage against evolution and “materialism” are the best argument against "INTELLIGENT design." They would do better trying to live by the tenants of their Faith than by showing their stupidity attacking science.
Even if one makes a leap to: "All this complexity we see and all the – as yet – unanswered questions we have DEMONSTRATES that there must have been a designer (god)"; even if we accept THAT, there is no way anyone can point to a CHRISTIAN designer - the "designer" could be a gay, immortal Hippopotamus flower arranger or the Great Pumpkin, Thor, or Jombi in the box (mecca-lecca-hi) – Jesus and his Dad are just two deities – out of thousands - proposed by superstitious people since Cro-Magnon man started dancing.
Beyond that, even if their arguments did demonstrate a “designer,” there is no way to demonstrate that he or she is still around.
That these jerks even get a hearing makes a sad statement as to the intelligence of the American people (designed or otherwise).
- Uke Man
Posted on Mon, Oct. 10, 2005
Intelligent design's big ambitions Advocates want much more than textbooks.
By Paul Nussbaum Inquirer Staff Writer
The advocates of "intelligent design," spotlighted in the current courtroom battle over the teaching of evolution in Dover, Pa., have much larger goals than biology textbooks.They hope to discredit Darwin's theory as part of a bigger push to restore faith to a more central role in American life. "Design theory promises to reverse the stifling dominance of the materialist worldview, and to replace it with a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions," says a strategy document written in 1999 by the Seattle think tank at the forefront of the movement.The authors said they seek "nothing less than theoverthrow of materialism and its cultural legacies." . . .
* * *
The dipsticks currently wielding their outrage against evolution and “materialism” are the best argument against "INTELLIGENT design." They would do better trying to live by the tenants of their Faith than by showing their stupidity attacking science.
Even if one makes a leap to: "All this complexity we see and all the – as yet – unanswered questions we have DEMONSTRATES that there must have been a designer (god)"; even if we accept THAT, there is no way anyone can point to a CHRISTIAN designer - the "designer" could be a gay, immortal Hippopotamus flower arranger or the Great Pumpkin, Thor, or Jombi in the box (mecca-lecca-hi) – Jesus and his Dad are just two deities – out of thousands - proposed by superstitious people since Cro-Magnon man started dancing.
Beyond that, even if their arguments did demonstrate a “designer,” there is no way to demonstrate that he or she is still around.
That these jerks even get a hearing makes a sad statement as to the intelligence of the American people (designed or otherwise).
- Uke Man
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
when god decided to invent / everything he took one / breath bigger than a circustent / and everything began // when man determined to destroy . . .
e. e. cummings
himself he picked the was / of shall and finding only why / smashed it into because
You know,
I’ve always differentiated among minerals, plants, animals, and people on the basis of consciousness. I’ve always said that what set mankind off from everything else was his self-awareness - his realization of time and of his own mortality.
I’ve always believed that rocks simply existed; that vegetables lived or died according to the vagaries of their mindless biology and the environment into which they were cast; that animals had more options, but were different from us in that they were still, for the most part - if not entirely, as some have suggested but not yet established – unconsciously ignorant of their situation, both in respect to what they are required to do to survive and in respect to their own mortality.
I’ve always believed that human beings were apart – but not because as some say, “Man stands upright, like god.” Even as a child .I found that absurd.
Likewise, the idea that because he took six days to work up to making us we were, therefore, his special pet never seemed very sensible either. And the assertion that we are “made in his image” always seemed both self-serving and not very flattering to god.
No, I thought we were supreme among “creation” because – as a result of self-awareness – we were able to THINK. We were able to look at ourselves and THINK about what we saw. We were able to ADJUST. Unlike rocks and plants and animals, WE were able to move outside the pre-ordained biological imperatives, to improve ourselves and improve our situation. WE were able to overcome the limitations of the “lesser” beings, able to reason, able to use the scientific method to learn and to improve both the world and ourselves.
I’m not so sure any more.
At sixty I’m beginning to suspect that although we have the equipment and ability to think, our vegetable programming, our animal needs, and our socially-influenced emotions short circuit our ability to actually do so. Yes, we are able to SEE what we should do; we are simply unable or unwilling to DO it.
In a way I feel foolish for having taken so long to realize this. It should have been clear all along. But then - there are so few people paying attention that my embarrassment will most likely go unnoticed.
- Uke Man
I’ve always differentiated among minerals, plants, animals, and people on the basis of consciousness. I’ve always said that what set mankind off from everything else was his self-awareness - his realization of time and of his own mortality.
I’ve always believed that rocks simply existed; that vegetables lived or died according to the vagaries of their mindless biology and the environment into which they were cast; that animals had more options, but were different from us in that they were still, for the most part - if not entirely, as some have suggested but not yet established – unconsciously ignorant of their situation, both in respect to what they are required to do to survive and in respect to their own mortality.
I’ve always believed that human beings were apart – but not because as some say, “Man stands upright, like god.” Even as a child .I found that absurd.
Likewise, the idea that because he took six days to work up to making us we were, therefore, his special pet never seemed very sensible either. And the assertion that we are “made in his image” always seemed both self-serving and not very flattering to god.
No, I thought we were supreme among “creation” because – as a result of self-awareness – we were able to THINK. We were able to look at ourselves and THINK about what we saw. We were able to ADJUST. Unlike rocks and plants and animals, WE were able to move outside the pre-ordained biological imperatives, to improve ourselves and improve our situation. WE were able to overcome the limitations of the “lesser” beings, able to reason, able to use the scientific method to learn and to improve both the world and ourselves.
I’m not so sure any more.
At sixty I’m beginning to suspect that although we have the equipment and ability to think, our vegetable programming, our animal needs, and our socially-influenced emotions short circuit our ability to actually do so. Yes, we are able to SEE what we should do; we are simply unable or unwilling to DO it.
In a way I feel foolish for having taken so long to realize this. It should have been clear all along. But then - there are so few people paying attention that my embarrassment will most likely go unnoticed.
- Uke Man
Monday, October 10, 2005
Random Sex Thoughts
Hey Folks,
I thought I’d share a few random thoughts that have been running through the old Uke Man’s fevered brain of late:
If male suicide bombers go straight to heaven and get the attention of a dozen-or-so virgins; do female suicide bombers get virgins too? And are they kicked out of heaven if they try to have any fun with them?
If instead of virgins, they get twelve studs, what would they want with twelve studs? And won’t most of those studmuffins be terribly horny most of the time?
* * *
I heard that Dokkktor Dobson recently claimed gay marriages would open the door to men “marrying their donkey.” Well, that paints a picture.
I guess a man could marry a mule too, but that couple would be childless. If you want children, marry a donkey or plan to adopt – the pounds are overflowing.
I guess Rikkk inSanitarium of PA similarly claimed that gay marriage would open the door to men marrying their dogs instead of their donkeys. It makes sense; the dog is “man’s best friend.” But I guess it depends on whether you want your wife to be your best friend, or a reliable beast of burden.
I really think the fear Dobson and others express is unnecessary. Even those few among us who are really into bestiality should be smart enough to know that they can “milk that cow without buyin’ it,” so to speak.
And what could they possibly gain by getting hitched to Lassie or Trigger?
True, you wouldn’t have to take them out to dinner, and they’d have a hard time defending themselves in divorce court; but I’ll bet the insurance at work won’t pick up your vet bills!
* * *
Finally, I saw a bumper sticker one night coming home late from a gig. It said, “Choose Life; your Mother did!”
Well, being for Choice, I was stunned. That seemed like a very good argument; and I was puzzled. But before the next traffic light I realized that the logic of the slogan was faulty.
If you think it’s logical to say, “Choose Life; your mother did,” what do you have to say about, “Screw your mother, your father did”?
- Uke Man
I thought I’d share a few random thoughts that have been running through the old Uke Man’s fevered brain of late:
If male suicide bombers go straight to heaven and get the attention of a dozen-or-so virgins; do female suicide bombers get virgins too? And are they kicked out of heaven if they try to have any fun with them?
If instead of virgins, they get twelve studs, what would they want with twelve studs? And won’t most of those studmuffins be terribly horny most of the time?
* * *
I heard that Dokkktor Dobson recently claimed gay marriages would open the door to men “marrying their donkey.” Well, that paints a picture.
I guess a man could marry a mule too, but that couple would be childless. If you want children, marry a donkey or plan to adopt – the pounds are overflowing.
I guess Rikkk inSanitarium of PA similarly claimed that gay marriage would open the door to men marrying their dogs instead of their donkeys. It makes sense; the dog is “man’s best friend.” But I guess it depends on whether you want your wife to be your best friend, or a reliable beast of burden.
I really think the fear Dobson and others express is unnecessary. Even those few among us who are really into bestiality should be smart enough to know that they can “milk that cow without buyin’ it,” so to speak.
And what could they possibly gain by getting hitched to Lassie or Trigger?
True, you wouldn’t have to take them out to dinner, and they’d have a hard time defending themselves in divorce court; but I’ll bet the insurance at work won’t pick up your vet bills!
* * *
Finally, I saw a bumper sticker one night coming home late from a gig. It said, “Choose Life; your Mother did!”
Well, being for Choice, I was stunned. That seemed like a very good argument; and I was puzzled. But before the next traffic light I realized that the logic of the slogan was faulty.
If you think it’s logical to say, “Choose Life; your mother did,” what do you have to say about, “Screw your mother, your father did”?
- Uke Man
Sunday, October 09, 2005
Saturday, October 08, 2005
Surprisingly; God, Jesus, the Apostles, and the Bible agree that PAINTINGS by gay artists ARE allowed in the Church (they deny, however, that either God or Adam were ever gay - even experimentally in their youth).
Breaking News: God changes His mind? Press Secretary says He was taken out of context!
Hey there!
If you listened to “Fresh Air” Wednesday, you heard what I heard. One gay priest spoke as to how the church shouldn’t ban gays from becoming priests; and one stiff-necked priest (with the air and dead-certain delivery of a young Libertarian on daddy’s bottomless expense account) spoke for God, Jesus, the Apostles, the Bible, and the Pope (modestly claiming no authority for himself).
Unfortunately the archived show is unavailable (I checked). If you missed the show, we’re both stuck with my memory (unless you want to shell out some bucks for a transcript – which IS available).
Anyway, the point is: Terry Gross asks Mr. Cocksure Priest (the one with the stiff …. neck) what right HE has to keep gays from becoming priests, and he sets off with the “Oh, I’m sooooo glad you asked that” set-up for: “I have NO right. It’s God and Jesus and the Apostles and the Pope and the Bible that say gay people – celibate or not – are BANNED from becoming priests”. The Church and the Pope (and he the humble messenger) are simply doing God’s will, Jesus’ will, the Apostles’ will, the Bible’s will.
Asked by Gross what he would say to a long-celibate gay man who wished to become a priest, he responded that he’d tell him, ”Well, that’s really good, and I hope I can maintain my own [heterosexual] celibacy as well as you have, but God, Jesus, blah, blah, and blah clearly prohibit YOU from becoming a priest.
That was on Wednesday.
In Saturday’s paper it is reported that God, Jesus, the Apostles, the Pope, and the Bible ALL changed their minds.
NOW, gays who have been celibate for three years (poor dears) CAN be priests!!
Damn!! It makes a fellah wonder!! Nowadays these things can change so much in just a matter of days!!
God must be keeping His eye on the sparrow a little bit better than He used to. It took him five hundred years to admit He’d fucked up on Galileo’s case.
- Uke Man
If you listened to “Fresh Air” Wednesday, you heard what I heard. One gay priest spoke as to how the church shouldn’t ban gays from becoming priests; and one stiff-necked priest (with the air and dead-certain delivery of a young Libertarian on daddy’s bottomless expense account) spoke for God, Jesus, the Apostles, the Bible, and the Pope (modestly claiming no authority for himself).
Unfortunately the archived show is unavailable (I checked). If you missed the show, we’re both stuck with my memory (unless you want to shell out some bucks for a transcript – which IS available).
Anyway, the point is: Terry Gross asks Mr. Cocksure Priest (the one with the stiff …. neck) what right HE has to keep gays from becoming priests, and he sets off with the “Oh, I’m sooooo glad you asked that” set-up for: “I have NO right. It’s God and Jesus and the Apostles and the Pope and the Bible that say gay people – celibate or not – are BANNED from becoming priests”. The Church and the Pope (and he the humble messenger) are simply doing God’s will, Jesus’ will, the Apostles’ will, the Bible’s will.
Asked by Gross what he would say to a long-celibate gay man who wished to become a priest, he responded that he’d tell him, ”Well, that’s really good, and I hope I can maintain my own [heterosexual] celibacy as well as you have, but God, Jesus, blah, blah, and blah clearly prohibit YOU from becoming a priest.
That was on Wednesday.
In Saturday’s paper it is reported that God, Jesus, the Apostles, the Pope, and the Bible ALL changed their minds.
NOW, gays who have been celibate for three years (poor dears) CAN be priests!!
Damn!! It makes a fellah wonder!! Nowadays these things can change so much in just a matter of days!!
God must be keeping His eye on the sparrow a little bit better than He used to. It took him five hundred years to admit He’d fucked up on Galileo’s case.
- Uke Man
Friday, October 07, 2005
Harriet Miers - Supreme Court Condom - er . . . Conundrum
What a joke!!
Harriet Miers is “unqualified” for the “high” court!! So say the right-wingers.
If one studies and considers such bullshit, one can survey some truth.
Why are conservative vampires against Miers? (I’m against her because she’s a stiff-necked religious zealot and against choice, but why are THEY against her?)
They say she is unqualified – never been a judge! But a lot of Supremes had never been judges.
That doesn’t work; so they say she hasn’t been a governor, etc. – not enough experience. Well, what kind of experience are they talking about?
The fact is, anybody who has an IQ slightly higher than G.W.Bush’s is qualified to be a Supreme. So what’s the burr under the fascist saddle?
It’s not that Miers isn’t religious; she is. It’s not that she’s not a fundamentalist; she is. It’s not that she isn’t biased by her moronic religiosity against gays and atheists; she most likely is. It’s not that she isn’t against abortion; she definitely is. So what’s the problem?
The rabid Neo-beasts are unhappy, they say, because she isn’t an “intellect” or a “scholar” and she isn’t an ideologue. So, what’s wrong with that? She’s biased in ALL the preferred ways, isn’t she? What the hell do they want?
Well, if one realizes that the Supreme Court doesn’t really interpret the constitution, it makes more sense. The court should, according to the zealots, declare that the constitution means whatever the zealots want it to mean. The trick, and why they need “intellects,” is not to INTERPRET, but to JUSTIFY – after the fact – whatever shit they come up with.
Miers is likely to often interpret the constitution – through her crabbed perspective – in ways the fascist would applaud, but she’s not reliable. She’s truly a benighted fundamentalist who will act reliably upon her fundamental beliefs, but not necessarily on unrelated fascist beliefs. The impact of that pales in comparison to what a dedicated and intellectual fascist could accomplish. Miers might destroy many rights she finds offensive to God, but the Neo-Coneheads want a justice who will destroy everything that Grover Norquist finds offensive – as far as they are concerned, God can go fuck Himself!! He’s outside the beltway.
- Uke Man
Harriet Miers is “unqualified” for the “high” court!! So say the right-wingers.
If one studies and considers such bullshit, one can survey some truth.
Why are conservative vampires against Miers? (I’m against her because she’s a stiff-necked religious zealot and against choice, but why are THEY against her?)
They say she is unqualified – never been a judge! But a lot of Supremes had never been judges.
That doesn’t work; so they say she hasn’t been a governor, etc. – not enough experience. Well, what kind of experience are they talking about?
The fact is, anybody who has an IQ slightly higher than G.W.Bush’s is qualified to be a Supreme. So what’s the burr under the fascist saddle?
It’s not that Miers isn’t religious; she is. It’s not that she’s not a fundamentalist; she is. It’s not that she isn’t biased by her moronic religiosity against gays and atheists; she most likely is. It’s not that she isn’t against abortion; she definitely is. So what’s the problem?
The rabid Neo-beasts are unhappy, they say, because she isn’t an “intellect” or a “scholar” and she isn’t an ideologue. So, what’s wrong with that? She’s biased in ALL the preferred ways, isn’t she? What the hell do they want?
Well, if one realizes that the Supreme Court doesn’t really interpret the constitution, it makes more sense. The court should, according to the zealots, declare that the constitution means whatever the zealots want it to mean. The trick, and why they need “intellects,” is not to INTERPRET, but to JUSTIFY – after the fact – whatever shit they come up with.
Miers is likely to often interpret the constitution – through her crabbed perspective – in ways the fascist would applaud, but she’s not reliable. She’s truly a benighted fundamentalist who will act reliably upon her fundamental beliefs, but not necessarily on unrelated fascist beliefs. The impact of that pales in comparison to what a dedicated and intellectual fascist could accomplish. Miers might destroy many rights she finds offensive to God, but the Neo-Coneheads want a justice who will destroy everything that Grover Norquist finds offensive – as far as they are concerned, God can go fuck Himself!! He’s outside the beltway.
- Uke Man
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
THIS ACTUALLY APPEARED IN "THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH"! HOTT DAMN!!! Good on you, MIKE HARDIN!!!
This blew me away!! Someone saying what I would say, and in the pages of the "Dispatch"!!!
Watch!
The fucking morons will be sending condemnations of his "unacceptable" "political" comments to the "Letters" page!
Take to the streets - Nov. 2nd !!
- Uke Man
COMMENTARY
Bennett’s racist talk of genocide shameful
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
MIKE HARDEN
For the sake of getting to the sad heart of the matter on the comments of William J. Bennett, host of the show Morning in America, could we put aside the issue of party and political bent and talk about the man?
Last week, Bennett said to a national radio audience: "If you wanted to reduce crime, you could — if that were your sole purpose — you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down."
It makes no difference whether the speaker is Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative. To insinuate those labels into the discussion muddies the water with cheap distraction and partisanship.
Anyone who would openly ponder racial genocide should be ashamed to draw breath in the presence of the balance of humankind. That such a person should be a national arbiter of rectitude — as opposed to a candidate for grand cyclops of the Ku Klux Klan — is staggering.
Bennett, through self-promotion, managed to elevate himself to the status of czar of public morality, a sort of true north on the compass of virtue.
He has commanded $50,000 a speech to bloviate on personal responsibility and conscience. His books, including The Book of Virtues, have been best sellers. In his view, avarice apparently is one of the lesser deadly sins.
It is time for the American public to speak to Bennett in the only clear language he understands. After all, inasmuch as his comment was racist and malignantly sociopathic, it was also classist.
The world of this nation’s William J. Bennetts is a world of gentlemen’s clubs and gentlemen’s agreements, of country clubs and covenants. In such insular comfort, there is sometimes a disconnect with how the other half lives.
The only way to shake William Bennett to his eyeteeth is to hit him in the wallet. Don’t buy his books. Don’t book his lectures. Don’t give him a soapbox in venues supported by taxpayer money.
On Sunday, Bennett postponed an engagement to speak tonight at the University of Cincinnati, explaining, "The current controversy that has arisen around comments I made on my radio show, based on a willful distortion of what I said, will take away from the serious discussion I want to engage in with the students and community at the University of Cincinnati."
First, it ought be noted that distortion could not possibly have made his comment more noxious than it already was.
That he cannot see that suggests that he moves in a cosmos that views issues of race, poverty, intolerance and crime as nagging little nuisances that ought to be addressed only if they threaten the chronic narcotic satisfaction with the status quo demonstrated by some of those of privilege.
The patrician Betsy Bloomingdale was once asked what she was doing to help with the nation’s energy crisis. She responded that she had directed her domestics not to use the self-cleaning feature on the kitchen ranges during hours of peak power consumption.
Someone at the country club needs to throw an avuncular arm over Bennett’s shoulder and remind him that it is often — and disproportionately — the blacks, along with the poor of all races, who fight the wars that elitists begin.
In the meantime, Bennett needs to burn a little midnight oil with that other "book of virtues," the one he didn’t write, the one that can be found in the top drawers of bedside stands in even the ritziest of hotels.
Mike Harden is a Dispatch Metro columnist. He can be reached at 614-461-5215 or by e-mail.
mharden@dispatch.com
Watch!
The fucking morons will be sending condemnations of his "unacceptable" "political" comments to the "Letters" page!
Take to the streets - Nov. 2nd !!
- Uke Man
COMMENTARY
Bennett’s racist talk of genocide shameful
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
MIKE HARDEN
For the sake of getting to the sad heart of the matter on the comments of William J. Bennett, host of the show Morning in America, could we put aside the issue of party and political bent and talk about the man?
Last week, Bennett said to a national radio audience: "If you wanted to reduce crime, you could — if that were your sole purpose — you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down."
It makes no difference whether the speaker is Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative. To insinuate those labels into the discussion muddies the water with cheap distraction and partisanship.
Anyone who would openly ponder racial genocide should be ashamed to draw breath in the presence of the balance of humankind. That such a person should be a national arbiter of rectitude — as opposed to a candidate for grand cyclops of the Ku Klux Klan — is staggering.
Bennett, through self-promotion, managed to elevate himself to the status of czar of public morality, a sort of true north on the compass of virtue.
He has commanded $50,000 a speech to bloviate on personal responsibility and conscience. His books, including The Book of Virtues, have been best sellers. In his view, avarice apparently is one of the lesser deadly sins.
It is time for the American public to speak to Bennett in the only clear language he understands. After all, inasmuch as his comment was racist and malignantly sociopathic, it was also classist.
The world of this nation’s William J. Bennetts is a world of gentlemen’s clubs and gentlemen’s agreements, of country clubs and covenants. In such insular comfort, there is sometimes a disconnect with how the other half lives.
The only way to shake William Bennett to his eyeteeth is to hit him in the wallet. Don’t buy his books. Don’t book his lectures. Don’t give him a soapbox in venues supported by taxpayer money.
On Sunday, Bennett postponed an engagement to speak tonight at the University of Cincinnati, explaining, "The current controversy that has arisen around comments I made on my radio show, based on a willful distortion of what I said, will take away from the serious discussion I want to engage in with the students and community at the University of Cincinnati."
First, it ought be noted that distortion could not possibly have made his comment more noxious than it already was.
That he cannot see that suggests that he moves in a cosmos that views issues of race, poverty, intolerance and crime as nagging little nuisances that ought to be addressed only if they threaten the chronic narcotic satisfaction with the status quo demonstrated by some of those of privilege.
The patrician Betsy Bloomingdale was once asked what she was doing to help with the nation’s energy crisis. She responded that she had directed her domestics not to use the self-cleaning feature on the kitchen ranges during hours of peak power consumption.
Someone at the country club needs to throw an avuncular arm over Bennett’s shoulder and remind him that it is often — and disproportionately — the blacks, along with the poor of all races, who fight the wars that elitists begin.
In the meantime, Bennett needs to burn a little midnight oil with that other "book of virtues," the one he didn’t write, the one that can be found in the top drawers of bedside stands in even the ritziest of hotels.
Mike Harden is a Dispatch Metro columnist. He can be reached at 614-461-5215 or by e-mail.
mharden@dispatch.com
A New Song - The Lyrics
I'll be heading back to New York City soon to play a few songs at my friend Jason Tagg's "Ukulele Cabaret" on Halloween night. Anticipating that, I thought I ought to come up with something ghoulish for the occasion.
Well, the Uke Man being the Uke Man, I was doomed in my original effort to come up with a "Monster Mash" kind of number. Politics reared it's ugly head - and I do mean "ugly."
Sorry, but what else could I do. In the end, we have an anthem for driving out the Bush regime - and, Folks, the World really CAN'T wait!
Go to the streets on Nov. 2!!
- Uke Man
.....An Anthem for November 2nd.....
There’s a Monster in the Whitehouse.
There’s a Monster in DC
There’s a Monster in the Whitehouse.
With his eye on you and me.
............And he’s never known a pain
............And he’s always had his way
............And he always will
............Until we stand up some day.
His thugs are in the Statehouse
And in the Courthouse too,
And his Trolls are in our cities
Watching what we do.
............And they all bow down to Mammon
............And worship gold and green
............While greasing up the levers
............Of their grizzly death machine.
There’s a Monster in the Whitehouse.
There’s a Monster in DC
There’s a Monster in the Whitehouse.
Who tells us we are free.
............But he was never called a faggot –
............Never called a dirty Jew, and
............He never heard Louis Armstrong
............Singin’ “Black & Blue.”
............He’s never known a pain
............And he’s always had his way
............And he always will
............Unless we stand up some day.
SOLO
There’s a ghoul inside the presses
And a third eye in the flag
And the lady of the harbor
Is a bent and twisted hag.
There’s a vampire in the blood-bank
And a zombie on TV
And a vulture on the light pole
Making plans for you and me
There’s a gargoyle in the bedroom
Elmer Gantry’s in the schools
And the monster in the Whitehouse
Just smirks and struts and drools
............And he’s never known a pain
............And he’s always had his way
............And he always will
............Unless we stand up someday.
Oh . . .
So let’s all get up/stand up together now
Let’s all get up/stand up together now
Let’s all get up/stand up together now
Let’s all get up/stand up together now
And make the monster pay!
Well, the Uke Man being the Uke Man, I was doomed in my original effort to come up with a "Monster Mash" kind of number. Politics reared it's ugly head - and I do mean "ugly."
Sorry, but what else could I do. In the end, we have an anthem for driving out the Bush regime - and, Folks, the World really CAN'T wait!
Go to the streets on Nov. 2!!
- Uke Man
.....An Anthem for November 2nd.....
There’s a Monster in the Whitehouse.
There’s a Monster in DC
There’s a Monster in the Whitehouse.
With his eye on you and me.
............And he’s never known a pain
............And he’s always had his way
............And he always will
............Until we stand up some day.
His thugs are in the Statehouse
And in the Courthouse too,
And his Trolls are in our cities
Watching what we do.
............And they all bow down to Mammon
............And worship gold and green
............While greasing up the levers
............Of their grizzly death machine.
There’s a Monster in the Whitehouse.
There’s a Monster in DC
There’s a Monster in the Whitehouse.
Who tells us we are free.
............But he was never called a faggot –
............Never called a dirty Jew, and
............He never heard Louis Armstrong
............Singin’ “Black & Blue.”
............He’s never known a pain
............And he’s always had his way
............And he always will
............Unless we stand up some day.
SOLO
There’s a ghoul inside the presses
And a third eye in the flag
And the lady of the harbor
Is a bent and twisted hag.
There’s a vampire in the blood-bank
And a zombie on TV
And a vulture on the light pole
Making plans for you and me
There’s a gargoyle in the bedroom
Elmer Gantry’s in the schools
And the monster in the Whitehouse
Just smirks and struts and drools
............And he’s never known a pain
............And he’s always had his way
............And he always will
............Unless we stand up someday.
Oh . . .
So let’s all get up/stand up together now
Let’s all get up/stand up together now
Let’s all get up/stand up together now
Let’s all get up/stand up together now
And make the monster pay!
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Pre-Nov. 2 Organizing Concert --- Pete Cassani & Four Bands
Hey Folks,
It’s time to think. If we don’t “getup/stand up” for our rights, we soon won’t have any. There’s a monster in the Whitehouse (I've got a song in the works with this very title), and he must be driven out!!
Maybe you’ve heard the ads on Air America. Check out the websites: http://www.worldcantwait.org/ and http://www.notinourname.net/ .
On November 2nd, every one of us who cares about the future of humanity needs to lend his or her voice, body, and energy to the effort of driving out this despicable nest of monstrous beasts.
How we might do that here in central Ohio is not clear at the moment, but its necessity is VERY clear, and folks are working on it. My understanding is that folks in the Cleveland and OU areas are ahead of us in this regard, but we WILL and MUST catch up. I’ll post more as it develops.
In the meantime, some of us radical musicians are working with the local NION group and with my friend, Pete Cassani of “the Peasants" ( http://www.thepeasants.net/ ) who will soon be on tour out of Boston with his awesome guitar and his more-awesome political dedication - to bring a pre-Nov.2 organizing show to Columbus.
We’ll be at Victorians’ Midnight Café on Friday, Oct. 14 with FOUR BANDS:
Bob Starker’s band “Whoa Nellie”
David Rine’s punk-ska band “The Stops”
My band, “Ukulele Man & his Prodigal Sons”
AND HEADLINING !!!!
Pete Cassani’s “The Peasants.”
You won’t hear a guitar like this every day, and it won’t be played by anyone more committed to peace and justice.
No cover, but we WILL pass a hat to help keep Pete on the road. We’ll all have CD’s too – Pete has some very nice shirts as well.
Check out the websites and mark your calendars!
- Uke Man
It’s time to think. If we don’t “getup/stand up” for our rights, we soon won’t have any. There’s a monster in the Whitehouse (I've got a song in the works with this very title), and he must be driven out!!
Maybe you’ve heard the ads on Air America. Check out the websites: http://www.worldcantwait.org/ and http://www.notinourname.net/ .
On November 2nd, every one of us who cares about the future of humanity needs to lend his or her voice, body, and energy to the effort of driving out this despicable nest of monstrous beasts.
How we might do that here in central Ohio is not clear at the moment, but its necessity is VERY clear, and folks are working on it. My understanding is that folks in the Cleveland and OU areas are ahead of us in this regard, but we WILL and MUST catch up. I’ll post more as it develops.
In the meantime, some of us radical musicians are working with the local NION group and with my friend, Pete Cassani of “the Peasants" ( http://www.thepeasants.net/ ) who will soon be on tour out of Boston with his awesome guitar and his more-awesome political dedication - to bring a pre-Nov.2 organizing show to Columbus.
We’ll be at Victorians’ Midnight Café on Friday, Oct. 14 with FOUR BANDS:
Bob Starker’s band “Whoa Nellie”
David Rine’s punk-ska band “The Stops”
My band, “Ukulele Man & his Prodigal Sons”
AND HEADLINING !!!!
Pete Cassani’s “The Peasants.”
You won’t hear a guitar like this every day, and it won’t be played by anyone more committed to peace and justice.
No cover, but we WILL pass a hat to help keep Pete on the road. We’ll all have CD’s too – Pete has some very nice shirts as well.
Check out the websites and mark your calendars!
- Uke Man
Monday, October 03, 2005
A Letter to Trudy Rubin
Trudy Rubin writes for “The Philadelphia Inquirer” and is regularly reprinted in “The Columbus Dispatch” where her column on China appeared October 3, 2005.
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/columnists/trudy_rubin/12777731.htm
The column presented a dilemma I’d noticed in other people’s commentary some time ago.
- Uke Man
Dear Ms. Rubin,
I enjoy your columns. Thank you. Your recent trip to China and your subsequent comments are appreciated. I write only to suggest something for your consideration.
Although China is still run by a party known as the “Communist” party, it is no longer “communist.” This causes columnists difficulty since when they accurately use the name of a party, they may be misleading their readers since the “communists” are no longer communists, but devoted capitalists.
The growing disparity of wealth you report between the Chinese elite and the masses is indicative of capitalism, as are the economic practices that have led to the boom you observed first hand. Most striking to me in this regard is Deng Xiaoping’s comment “To get rich is glorious” – not quite “To each according to his need; from each according to his ability.”
If China does become a troublesome competitor for the USA, this competition might be cheered on by a “Communist” Party, but it will be capitalist competition and the “communists” cheering will be capitalists as well.
Ironically, America’s best hope against being eclipsed by a capitalist Chinese juggernaut might be a truly communistic revolution in China, spurred on by the massive oppression of workers and farmers there.
Yours - Tom Harker, Ukulele Man
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/columnists/trudy_rubin/12777731.htm
The column presented a dilemma I’d noticed in other people’s commentary some time ago.
- Uke Man
Dear Ms. Rubin,
I enjoy your columns. Thank you. Your recent trip to China and your subsequent comments are appreciated. I write only to suggest something for your consideration.
Although China is still run by a party known as the “Communist” party, it is no longer “communist.” This causes columnists difficulty since when they accurately use the name of a party, they may be misleading their readers since the “communists” are no longer communists, but devoted capitalists.
The growing disparity of wealth you report between the Chinese elite and the masses is indicative of capitalism, as are the economic practices that have led to the boom you observed first hand. Most striking to me in this regard is Deng Xiaoping’s comment “To get rich is glorious” – not quite “To each according to his need; from each according to his ability.”
If China does become a troublesome competitor for the USA, this competition might be cheered on by a “Communist” Party, but it will be capitalist competition and the “communists” cheering will be capitalists as well.
Ironically, America’s best hope against being eclipsed by a capitalist Chinese juggernaut might be a truly communistic revolution in China, spurred on by the massive oppression of workers and farmers there.
Yours - Tom Harker, Ukulele Man
Sunday, October 02, 2005
Get to Know Pete Cassani of the Peasants
Hey Everybody!
I’d like for you to meet and get to know Pete Cassani. He’s the friendly guy who not only put us up at his house in Boston, but let us share his show at Harvard Square that memorable Saturday night of our tour.
You can check out his site on your own and hear some of his music at http://www.thepeasants.net/ , but until then, here are some excerpts from the “News” section of his site.I think you’ll be able to see why he and I hit it off politically.
I’ll be putting more here about Pete later. We’ll be sharing the Victorians’ Midnight Café Stage Friday, October 14, along with Whoa Nellie and maybe another band – all with the purpose of Driving out the Bush Regime!! Stay tuned.
- Uke Man
From Pete Cassani’s “The Peasants” site:
29 September, 2005
Homeless Squared in the USA!!! Tommy, our manager, lived in a tent under a bridge the past few summers. He's a Vietnam Veteran who's had some problems with alcohol and the law but his heart is gold and he works harder than any of us!!!
Anyway, about a week ago I got a call from Tommy. Some gov't goon squad from the City of Cambridge had gone down under the bridge and wiped him out, sort of like a hurricane. They took everything he had and threw it away. Coleman Stove, clothes, cooler, bed, light, everything... gone. Apparently you are not allowed to be a homeless veteran living under a bridge in the United States. Never mind Hurricane Katrina! And this in the People's Republic of Cambridge!
I thought about it and realized if Tommy were allowed to get away with this, pretty soon everyone would be living rent or mortgage free under bridges. Then what?!! Nobody would feel like paying for a mortgage. Then where would we be?! I'll tell you. We'd be no better than the American Indians who had no respect for land ownership. That's right. Redskins. The lot of us. Banks wouldn't get their pound of flesh. Landlords would have to pay their own mortgages. People would be free to set up camp wherever they wanted. It would be uncontrollable. We wouldn't be able to collect taxes. We couldn't pay for illegal invasions of oil rich countries. We certainly wouldn't be able to control the rest of the world!! Obviously Tommy had to go. He's on the couch.
If you live in Boston you may start to see Love Your Enemy posters for the Record Release party at The Middle East October 7th. Looks incredible thanks to Catherine Carter, Amanda Stark and Zanne de Janvier. Will be at Upstairs with The Ike Reilly Assassination, Suspect Device and The Glows. We go on at 10 pm and Ernie is playing drums. Come down and bring money to buy CDs!!
Almost finished booking my annual solo tour. This one will just go to the Midwest, the Mid Atlantic, a bit of the South and back up to New England. Many open mikes. A few good shows. One at The Elbo Room in Chicago. Repeat business @ Seattle's in Wooster, OH. Going to Columbus. Will play with Bobby Blasto Gutbucket Starker (fr Peasants) and Tom the Ukelele Man. Also stopping by Rock Island, IL to see my friends Chris and Elizabeth and the cutest little girl in the world, Shivon. I think that's how you spell it. I should know. I'm her goddamn Godfather! Poor kid.
25 September, 2005
Cool weather coming down fast here in New England. Took a seven piece Ukelele band out to Harvard Square with me last night. In from Columbus, OH. Bobby 'Blasto Gutbucket' Starker, one of the founding members of The Peasants, is playing Saxophone for Ukelele Man. They sounded like a New Orleans Dixie/Ragtime Band w/the Sax, Trombone, Trumpet, Harmonica, Ukelele, bass, guitar and drums. Even broke out the Ear Flute. Quite a circus.
Sure was great to play with Bobby again. We did all the classics. Black Coffee, Planet Earth, Good Thing Once. Like riding a bicycle. Love to just play guitar while somebody else does the singing!! Especially if it's Bob. He's a bad motherfucker. Sounds like a very pissed of Johnny Cash and god knows what else!! Ukelele man was great too. Strangest band to hit the pit all year, according to one of the Cambridge Arts Council monitors. Despite the cold, people were out. We tag teamed. Worked out pretty good.
I’d like for you to meet and get to know Pete Cassani. He’s the friendly guy who not only put us up at his house in Boston, but let us share his show at Harvard Square that memorable Saturday night of our tour.
You can check out his site on your own and hear some of his music at http://www.thepeasants.net/ , but until then, here are some excerpts from the “News” section of his site.I think you’ll be able to see why he and I hit it off politically.
I’ll be putting more here about Pete later. We’ll be sharing the Victorians’ Midnight Café Stage Friday, October 14, along with Whoa Nellie and maybe another band – all with the purpose of Driving out the Bush Regime!! Stay tuned.
- Uke Man
From Pete Cassani’s “The Peasants” site:
29 September, 2005
Homeless Squared in the USA!!! Tommy, our manager, lived in a tent under a bridge the past few summers. He's a Vietnam Veteran who's had some problems with alcohol and the law but his heart is gold and he works harder than any of us!!!
Anyway, about a week ago I got a call from Tommy. Some gov't goon squad from the City of Cambridge had gone down under the bridge and wiped him out, sort of like a hurricane. They took everything he had and threw it away. Coleman Stove, clothes, cooler, bed, light, everything... gone. Apparently you are not allowed to be a homeless veteran living under a bridge in the United States. Never mind Hurricane Katrina! And this in the People's Republic of Cambridge!
I thought about it and realized if Tommy were allowed to get away with this, pretty soon everyone would be living rent or mortgage free under bridges. Then what?!! Nobody would feel like paying for a mortgage. Then where would we be?! I'll tell you. We'd be no better than the American Indians who had no respect for land ownership. That's right. Redskins. The lot of us. Banks wouldn't get their pound of flesh. Landlords would have to pay their own mortgages. People would be free to set up camp wherever they wanted. It would be uncontrollable. We wouldn't be able to collect taxes. We couldn't pay for illegal invasions of oil rich countries. We certainly wouldn't be able to control the rest of the world!! Obviously Tommy had to go. He's on the couch.
If you live in Boston you may start to see Love Your Enemy posters for the Record Release party at The Middle East October 7th. Looks incredible thanks to Catherine Carter, Amanda Stark and Zanne de Janvier. Will be at Upstairs with The Ike Reilly Assassination, Suspect Device and The Glows. We go on at 10 pm and Ernie is playing drums. Come down and bring money to buy CDs!!
Almost finished booking my annual solo tour. This one will just go to the Midwest, the Mid Atlantic, a bit of the South and back up to New England. Many open mikes. A few good shows. One at The Elbo Room in Chicago. Repeat business @ Seattle's in Wooster, OH. Going to Columbus. Will play with Bobby Blasto Gutbucket Starker (fr Peasants) and Tom the Ukelele Man. Also stopping by Rock Island, IL to see my friends Chris and Elizabeth and the cutest little girl in the world, Shivon. I think that's how you spell it. I should know. I'm her goddamn Godfather! Poor kid.
25 September, 2005
Cool weather coming down fast here in New England. Took a seven piece Ukelele band out to Harvard Square with me last night. In from Columbus, OH. Bobby 'Blasto Gutbucket' Starker, one of the founding members of The Peasants, is playing Saxophone for Ukelele Man. They sounded like a New Orleans Dixie/Ragtime Band w/the Sax, Trombone, Trumpet, Harmonica, Ukelele, bass, guitar and drums. Even broke out the Ear Flute. Quite a circus.
Sure was great to play with Bobby again. We did all the classics. Black Coffee, Planet Earth, Good Thing Once. Like riding a bicycle. Love to just play guitar while somebody else does the singing!! Especially if it's Bob. He's a bad motherfucker. Sounds like a very pissed of Johnny Cash and god knows what else!! Ukelele man was great too. Strangest band to hit the pit all year, according to one of the Cambridge Arts Council monitors. Despite the cold, people were out. We tag teamed. Worked out pretty good.
About Me
- Name: Tom Harker
- Location: Circleville, Ohio, US
Music and Politics, Politics and Music!!! * * * Everything is political. We’re admonished, “Never discuss religion or politics.” Follow that advice, and we’ll have to quit talking altogether. * * * Well, the Uke Man speaks! * * * Keep track here of my musical shenanigans, my political ruminations, and - from time to time - some other interesting eruptions.
Previous Posts
- "Things are lookin' good !!"
- The Chicken are coming home to roost !!
- The Gateway to Crime !!
- Ice Cream and Coffee can be Dangerous !!
- Bush's Pet (scape) Goat ???
- How Smart Are We ??
- Consumed
- A short (hopefully interesting) discussion
- Hi, atus!!
- So rested he by the Tumtum tree and stood a while ...
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