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Aug 18 2007 - "The function of socialism is to raise suffering to a higher level"..
Norman Mailer

31 August 2007

Heard this on the radio today (I paraphrase), "175 million Chinese are learning English. This is great news because it means they're not intent on taking over the US of A. If they were planning to take us over, they would be learning Spanish instead." compliments of the DJ on WDJO 1160 AM in Cincinnati at 8:15 AM August 31, 2007.

It's funny how Americans have to obey the law, but 'visitors' (and illegals by the way) don't. Big business rules! I'm not a big fan of the Teamsters, but I'm afraid they're right on this one.
Source: 2007 WorldNetDaily.com   August 31, 2007
"A test program being launched by the Bush Administration to allow what could be thousands of Mexican trucks and their drivers unrestricted access to U.S. highways will be a "disaster," according to the chief of the Teamsters."

18 August 2007

Four years for an essay? That'll teach you to criticize the government!
Source: BREITBART.com   August 17, 2007
"A Chinese rights activist has been sentenced to four years in jail for subversion after posting politically sensitive essays on the Internet, his lawyer said Friday."

12 August 2007

But we can do it in our country?!
Source: Associated Press (reported on KESQ TV)   August 10, 2007
"LOS ANGELES (AP) - Nine Guatemalans have been indicted for their roles in an alleged sex trafficking ring in Los Angeles that lured young women to the United States with promises of good jobs, then forced them into prostitution...." Five of the 'women' were minors.

11 August 2007

Buyer beware!!
Source: TheMoneyTimes   August 11, 2007
"It seems product recalls in the US have now become almost synonymous with Chinese goods. Product recalls are associated with poor product quality or defective parts. The steadily increasing number of Chinese products being recalled is painting a bad picture of quality control in China. The latest to join the recalled list is Chinese tires..."

10 August 2007

What about illegal immigration?
Source: CNews WorldWatch   August 10, 2007
"NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - A suspect in the murder of three college students pleaded not guilty Friday as prosecutors tried to explain why the illegal immigrant from Peru was granted bail earlier this year on assault and child rape charges..."

10 July 2007

I went on a recent trip with the guys, Dan & Pete, out to the Black Hills of South Dakota. It's my second time out there,.. it won't be my last. We took a 22-foot RV camper with our motorcycles dragging behind on a trailer. The camper had three double beds, so there was plenty of room. It sure was a comfortable way to get there; not like last time when I rode the entire distance there & back on the bike (1,250 miles each way). We rode through Spearfish Canyon a few times, visited Mt. Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Monument, & Custer State Park. We visited the towns of Deadwood, Sturgis, Lead, Spearfish, Keystone, Custer and Hulett (WY). This time I went when the annual rally was not going on, which means there weren't 500,000 other bikes on road. The only purpose of the trip was to completely decouple from work, hang with some good blokes, and to ride on some of the best roads in the world. Notice the bullet holes in the "Welcome to Wyoming" sign? Click on the picture for a full-size version. To see more pictures, follow the link to more pictures.

14 April 2007

Most Americanized Chinese food is disappointing; most of their eateries are dives having questionable hygienic practices. There are so many Chinese restaurants around, competition being what it is, they must overcome the lack of atmosphere, taste and quality with quantity, hence the proliferation of buffets. Buffets are the bottom rung of the dining experience ladder. There is however, a Chinese restaurant near work that does an OK job for a quick and cheap lunch, and it isn't a buffet,.. so I go there now and then. True to Chinese restaurant form, this restaurant gives out a fortune cookie with the bill. Opening a fortune cookie is usually a disappointment, it's usually done with little expectation of reward, especially after filling the belly with rice and the glutenaceous sauce gluing together twice-cooked pork and vegetables. One would hope for a kernel of wisdom from Confucius or the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, but no, the fortune usually says something trite like, "Smile, and smiles will be your reward". Well, such a saying does little to uplift. I was surprised the other day when I chose that one special cookie from the three available on the bill tray. The fortune advised me, "Never smell the inside of a hat". Well, I received this message just in time. We all have little compulsions we keep in check by social norms. Had I not read these sage words of wisdom, I might have sought out the nearest hat rack, looked around to check that no one was watching, just to satisfy that dark desire to sniff the interior of some madam's millinery. But one must ask, why such odd advice? Is it practical advice based on the fact that most hats really do smell awful on the inside? Or is there some mystical allegorical meaning to these words? I think it's more simple actually, it's probably an attempt by the fortune cookie industry to make these little wisps of paper more surprising and interesting. If that's it, then I'll perk up just a little every time I crack open a fortune cookie and hope for something inexplicable.

13 March 2007

I had the chance to visit the Joshua Tree National Park (120 miles east of Los Angeles) about 6 weeks ago and am finally getting around to getting the pics posted here. The northwest entrance to the park takes you into the 'high ground' part of the park. All of the linked pictures were taken in this quadrant of the park. The altitude is high enough to support the rich vegetation seen in the linked pictures. I ended up driving through the park to the south entrance (40-50 miles). Halfway along, the elevation drops to the desert floor where the vegetation is more sparse.

29 December 2006

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit La Gran Canaria (meaning big dog), Spain, for the first time. As places to go for work, it beats having to be in a slaughterhouse in Texas in August. It was nearly perfect weather, averaging 70 degrees (see the thermometer at the right; 22C=72F. It was overcast half the time and sunny the other half. Half the beaches were wide and sandy, the other half were steep and rocky. The islands were volcanically formed millions of years ago as and still retain those features almost everywhere on the island. There are many good places to go for information on the Canaries, so I will provide two links here: GranCanaria.com, and Wikipedia.

There are seven islands in the Canaries, the one I visited is La Gran Canaria. Tenerife and La Gran Canaria are major vacation destinations there. Many Brits and Germans find their way to the Canaries. La Gran Canaria is nearly round and is about 28 miles across in all directions. The highest point is Pozo de las Nieves (well of the snows) at 6395 feet.

From the USA, it's a long trip getting there. I flew to Frankfurt, had a 5 hour layover, then flew to Las Palmas. Air-time was 14 hours, door-to-door time was 22 hours. A quick airfare check gives a roundtrip fare from the USA at under $700 per person if you look for discounts. Hotels near or on the beach run between $120 and $300 per night. Hotels get booked well in advance, so if you want to go, plan ahead. A few rooms have internet access and costs extra (approximately $12 per night). There are many affordable internet cafes if all you need to do is email and a little surfing. Fresh seafood is in abundance and it is common to eat under umbrellas on the sidewalk. Tapas of course are always a good bet anywhere in Spain. The exchange rate between US dollars and euros is not favorable, so expect to pay a little more than you would in the US. A great dinner for two with drinks runs about $70, but you can definitely get by much cheaper if you're on a budget.

I took a day off on a Saturday and took a drive halfway around the northern edge of the island and then cut back to Las Palmas through the interior. The interior route was so curvy and narrow, that we had to honk the horn at nearly every curve to alert any oncoming traffic we were approaching.

A page of pictures if you're interested Pictures .

23 September 2006

We just returned from almost a week in northern Wisconsin where we rented a cabin near Eagle River. We took the motorbike along in the back of the pick-up truck, but because of the weather we only rode it about 45 miles while we were up there. We did go for a couple of nice country rides and just relaxed. Here a few pics from the trip.

16 July 2006

I picked up the first season of a 60s TV show called "The Time Tunnel". I can't remember having seen it as a kid, I was pretty young and maybe it wasn't something the parents let us watch, or maybe it was on later in the evening. It was really entertaining in a nostalgia sort of way. There are numerous fan sites, all you have to do is run a search on it and you'll find them. I've captured 40 screen shots and some audio of one of the episodes if interested (link below). Every episode (52 minutes viewing time per episode) had the duo, Tony & Doug, jumping to another point in time. The funny thing is they always managed to coincidentally land right in the middle of some historic time and place. Link to The Time Tunnel .

The Opening Voice-over (hear the audio - 22 seconds):
"Two American scientists are lost in the swirling maze of past and future ages, during the first experiments on America's greatest and most secret project, the Time Tunnel. Tony Newman and Doug Phillips now tumble helplessly toward a new fantastic adventure, somewhere along the infinite corridors of time."

2 July 2006

I had the opportunity to visit southern California a couple of weeks ago. I went with my son; we take a trip together every couple of years or so, just to hang out. We spent 2 nights in LA, a night in the desert in Calexico (so we could visit Mexicali). Then we finished up with two nights in San Diego and visited Tijuana while we were there.

The pretext for the trip was to see a play in LA, "The Black Rider", a collaboration between Robert Wilson, Tom Waits, and William S. Burroughs. My son's a big fan of Waits, who wrote the music for the play; I picked up tickets last November for a show on June 8th. Wilson directed and designed it, and Burroughs' (famous beat poet) was the librettist, bringing it all together (his voice was 'patched in' as well). What a trio, what a unique collaboration! It's based on a German folk tale (Der Freischutz); the folk tale was popularized when it was made into an opera by Carl Maria von Weber in 1821. From the opening scene, it was obvious German existentialism with the red and black theme colors, the white pancake make-up, the staccato body movements, and so on. The theme was Faustian whereby the protagonist sells his soul to the devil in return for an immediate benefit. We both immensely enjoyed the 2-1/2 hour play (incl intermission). The main line was that the Wilhelm sold his soul to the devil in order to have magic bullets with which he could be an expert hunter, thus winning a bride whose father wanted a good hunter for a son-in-law. A couple of the bullets were reserved to hit what the devil chose to hit. In the end, Wilhelm shot his bride. In real life, Burroghs shot his wife, Robin Hood style attempting to shoot a shot glass off her head; this happened in Mexico; a little parallel here? The play also equates drug-taking with making a pact with the devil; eventually you have to pay the piper. Burroughs took all manner of drugs such as heroin, cocaine and psychedelics. And one little footnote,.. Jack Nicholson was sitting four seats away to my right. He enjoyed it quite a bit too; at the end, he sprang to his feet, clapped, whistled and cheered at his satisfaction with the show. We didn't approach him, respecting his privacy.

In case you want to see play details,...
Program Cover
Credits, 1st page
Credits, 2nd page

Calexico, California was a drag. We walked into Mexicali, Mexico. Catch the syllable transposition between the two aforementioned city names? Clever. There was absolutely nothing there for us turistas. San Diego was good. We stayed near Mission Beach,.. very nice place. We visited Tijuana on the Sunday morning that Mexico beat Iran at soccer in the World Cup. We were having lunch on a second floor veranda overlooking the street; when the final score of 3-1 was served, the streets were filled with cars and flags celebrating the Mexico win. We had a good time.

19 May 2006

I feature here a man that goes by the name of Gil-Scott Heron. He is what some might call a black radical; a Malcom X with a good voice. Mr. Heron hails from New York City. He's foremost a poet reflecting on the exclusion of blacks in American society by design of established practice. Thanks to Bill Cosby and television, much of that has changed. Even though race is not as polarized as it once was, Gil-Scott Heron is still worth listening to, because he was relevant then and still somewhat today.

The first track I offer is a poem called, "Jose Campos Torres". The reason I chose this poem is because it refers to a Latino's plight as rapped by the featured artist. I don't know the inside details of this poem, other than what can be gleaned from the recording. This musical suggestion is provided because of the exigent immigration issue. You can hear light pops here and there because the vinyl I recorded it from isn't perfect.

The second soundclip is the first piece I had ever heard by Gil-Scott Heron. It was in 1969 or 1970 when I heard it. FM radio just started broadcasting. A DJ probably had some vinyl slipped to him under the door and he played it. I haven't heard it repeated on radio since. For this nearly country boy, it was a revelation. Listen to "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. The recording puts us white folks on alert that the revolution will not be broadcast in prime-time..

Gil-Scott Heron is a New Yorker these days; he was born in Chicago, then was raised to thirteen by his grandmother in Jackson Tennessee. If you like this stuff, buy his music. I have some of his vinyl and I love to listen to it. He wrote a couple of books at a very early age, one of them being somewhat rare.

12 May 2006

I had the good fortune to visit Budapest, Hungary for the first time recently. I enjoyed it more than most trips, as I was there to train people and not to work for a long stretch on my own. I was also able to take a 2-1/2 hour bus tour of the city. The picture at left shows a statue called, "Marx & Engels", ever heard of them? It can be seen in Budapest's Statue Park (park sign shown below). The word "szobor" in Magyar (the language of Hungary) means statue in English. The statues in Statue Park are relics from days gone by. Dozens of Soviet-era statues once adorned the streets of Budapest, but were later moved to an outside museum (probably a good idea as they would have been destroyed if left in public) after the liberation of Hungary. In an historic convening of the Communist Party in Budapest from October 16-20, 1989, the Party transformed itself into the Socialist Party and dozens of constitutional reforms were implemented, many were a copy of the western democratic model. After all, it was called the "democracy package", and included freedom of the press, of association, and of assembly. Trade unions were allowed. Budapest is unique in this regard, as statues from the despised Soviet era were not destroyed, they were taken from public spaces and put into the outdoor museum, all because of the sensibility exhibited in those 5 days of the last Communist Party convention. It's truly a one-of-a-kind exhibit. For more information and pictures, visit Budapest's Statue Park website. There's a dropdown-box on the website to choose the English version of the website.

Budapest has architectural examples spanning centuries, as it wasn't destroyed by bombing during WW2. What I noticed was the preponderance of sculpture integrated into building columns and panels. So a highly recommended place to visit, a city that straddles the river Danube.

8 April 2006

The sticker pictured at the left is designed to be used in urinals. It can be found in the public toilets of Belgian schools, youth clubs, and pubs. When Johan Vande Lanotte, Belgium's Vice Prime Minister, uses his toilet at work, he finds the urinals in the offices of his ministry decorated with this sticker. The urinal message was designed by Laurent Winnock, president of the Young Socialists, the youth branch of Vande Lanotte's Socialist party. Winnock created the design while on the payroll. And they laughed at us for calling "french fries" to "freedom fries". This was taken from an article written by Dr. Paul Belien, author of, A Throne in Brussels on the "Belgianisation" of Europe (Imprint Academic, May 2005). The article may be found at A Belgian Novelty

6 April 2006

The Senate is near a 'compromise' on an immigration bill. Their's is a three-tiered approach.
Tier 1: Illegal aliens that have been here more than 5 years, babe you're cool if you just pay the fine and you meet "other" criteria.
Tier 2: Illegals that have been here more than two but less than five years, you get the work visa; you better behave.
Tier 3: Illegals with less than two years - you're gone baby.
Sounds like a new "documentation" industry is about to be born!

I like the compromise talk: So says Senator Arlen Specter, "While it admittedly is not perfect, the choice we have to make is whether it is better than no bill, and the choice is decisive". Which means they've cobbled something together at the 11th hour because US citizens overwhelmingly want something done, NOW. They want to show us they care (about their jobs, that is). Just how is someone who uses multiple identities going to prove they've been here for 5 years? I know, we'll have to flexible, and trusting. Thousands will be rubber-stamped through the process of verification in the name of compassion. The whole thing is a farce.

If you've read this far I'm sure you take me for a nationalist, jingoist, chauvinist, fanatic, fascist, nativist, or xenophobe. Not true,... I speak Spanish. I appreciate the Latin culture. I like their family and religious values. Most work hard and aspire as we do. My obection is that the rate of illegal immigration (3 million per year) outpaces the ability of the illegals to assimilate. What do we get when that happens? We get a clash of cultures and language. We get enclaves and communities isolated and alienated from the populace at large.

Three possible solutions (in order of liklihood of ever happening; actually, none of them will ever happen):