It's Friday again...Muuaaahhahahahaha.

Well alright, perhaps starting the New Year out with such a heavy and somewhat depressing list was not a good thing. For that I do offer my humble apologies and my promise to make this Imfamous Friday Five a bit more humorous and fun.

Now I am aware that my gazillions of readers(5) are far and away smarter than myself , yet I still think I can offer a few tidbits of obscure knowledge, that may even pass as interestingly inane. So with that and without further ado, I humbly present to you this Friday's Infamous Five things you might or might not have known, yet are none the less just out there.

1. The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building. "whoa Dudes, what a HEAVY concept."

2. 23% of all photocopier faults world-wide are caused by people sitting on them and photocopying their butts. "Imagine that."

3. It is physically impossible for you to lick your elbow. "No dudes, really."

4. If Barbie were life size, her measurements would be 39-23-33. She would stand seven feet, two inches tall. " Now that is a whole lot of woman, I dare ya to tell her to go back in the kitchen and get you a sammich."
With that ya'll knew I was gonna bring a little sex into it....oh yes you did.

5. Sex is the safest tranquilizer in the world. IT IS TEN TIMES MORE EFFECTIVE THAN VALIUM. " whoa, dudes and dudettes does that mean being addicted isnt a bad thing?"

Well kids there ya go, its now up to all of you to comment of all of them, or some as you see fit, or to give me five that I might not know, your choise, but have a load of fun with it. Oh and by the way: Almost everyone that reads this will have tried to lick their elbow.

Peace, Love, and Light to all ......TR.

2008-So What Now?

First and most of all I want to hope that all of my millions (5) of readers had the most wonderful and happiest of Holidays. It is my wish that all of you that dont read me start doing so so I have a really good excuse to rant more.....(think they read that?).

I am going to attempt a sort of experiment. To be a copycat of a few dear friends I am going to call it the Infamous Friday Five. Now allow Me to explain...it may be a meme or just a sinple list of things I feel strongly about, or then again it may be five things I like alot. Memes will include tags , and others will be open to any one who thinks I am the finest person on the planets , or the dumbest loser, or anyone else actually. Sound like fun? Cool lets go.

THE INFAMOUS FRIDAY FIVE. Subject: The five things that should have happened in 2007.

#5. Paris Hilton should have faded into oblivion. Reason: Our constitution has been shredded by the government formed to protect it and almost 4,000 troops have been killed, and the biggest news we see is when that bitch is gonna get arrested again.

#4. Alberto Gonzales should have had to endure what He said was not torture. Reason: Maybe (glurb) he would (glug) have seen a few((choke ,gasp!) ideas of what sort(choke,wheezz, gluuuu)of things that torture is(gasp,wheeezz,).

#3. Michael " I am not sure what is torture" Mukaskey for the same idealogy. Reason: No sense in senseless repetition, over, and over and over and over and over and over. ok I am bored now.

#2. The U.S. should have been first on the Global Warming bandwagon. Reason: Because we have always been at the forefront of any new technology and cause of change for the sake of the planet.(at least until the present monarchs reign). Now we rank 25th and 24th in science and math among industrialized countries.

#1. The Bush/Cheney regime should have been brought to task and impeachment for unconstitutional behavior, treason, and high war crimes. Reason: Do I really have to explain this to you ?

O.K. there we go...the first of , I hope, many Infamous Friday Five articles... the rest is all up to you my friends and fellow bloggers.

Peace, Love, and Light to all ...TR

I'm Baaaaccckkkkkkk.....(oh crap, here He goes again)

Yes I took the summer off and didn't write a darned thing..(rips a page from the "Dubya" playbook. "Need to know basis only").....HHmmmm ok ok y'all dont need to know. so in the interest of the Ministry of Inteligence, read( propoganda), I aint tellin' why.


Now on to ......well whatever pops into My pointed lil head. Lets see, ahhh, a student in Florida this year was at a talk by former Presidential coward, err, contender John Kerry. He went up to ask a very poignant question of Him and wound up subdued by SIX, count'em SIX University cops that obviously hadn't been trained well enough on how to take down one lone young person, and tasered him twice because he was resisting. Now I dont know about anyone else but I am pretty wirey and I think if SIX cops pin me down I dont think I am gonna resist to damn much. So I ask why the use of potentially deadly force on a kid that asked a legitimate question of our government...smacks of totalitarianism to Me. Have we all become such a nation of sheep, fat happy and led to the slaughter?


On to more current events, I found the last Democatic debate somewhat lacking in any form or substance, but one thing struck me, when Tim Russert was ending the debates and could have finally pinned down any one of the candidates on any number of real positions, He chose instead to ask ( in his infinate wisdom...read in loss of reality) them what their favorite bible verse was. Now I can only imagine some poor foreign journalist looking on and wondering why this is imortant to how a person is voted into control in this country. The one thing that I sadly missed was the one verse that not one candidate quoted, yet it is probably My favorite and the most important...Mat. 22:21...Render unto Ceasar that which is Ceasar's, and unto God that which is God's. You see Jesus was the best and first proponent of seperation of church and state.


Now I guess I will make myself the most hated pundit on the planet. That will be hard seeing as Mr. Ann Coulter is one of the competitors. I find Myself at odds with the recent decision of the court to award 10.9 million dollars to the Father that lost His son in an illegal, immoral, war, because of Fred Phelps and crew of the WBC. My heart goes out to this man..He was hurt and they made that hurt worse.. that in and of itself is deplorable, but does it cross the line of the first amendment? I am not so sure...I watch the fine line between the person walking and the rope..I watch the rope. Voltaire once said " I do not agree with what you say , but I will defend to the death your right to say it." Now I think anyone that vocalizes such hatred is less than intelligent, because intelligence teaches you to speak when it is right and not to harm others...these supposed people of god, and I use a small g for a reason are blinded by nothing but hatred for anything that defies what they call "right". This opens us up to a miriad of other reasonings... do think on this.

O.k last but probably not least I have a mind to ,(rips a page from the religious right playbook), ever notice how I get my hands easily on those playbooks, I should work for the NFL, fire the opening salvo on the supposed myth of the " War on Christmas". A pre-emptive strike at the ones that think they are "persecuted". Jerry "the big man" Falwell coined the phrase and yet didnt he realize that it was the Roman Catholic Church that proclaimed Dec.25th as the birth of Jesus, just to try to overide the pagan holiday of Yule?
This from the same group of fundies that say the catholics are not even christian? Oh Puleeez! I guess they believe in the old addage that " the enemy of my enemy is my friend.". Idioligical idiocy. Tell you what fundies, you quit having decorated trees and wreaths clebrating the spirits of past Yule, and stop with the holly and don't ever kiss under my mistletoe, and I wont be so demanding of my rights to my own holiday. Till then when you make someone say Merry Christmas to me I will smile and with all the love the holiday gives I will wish them a Blessed Yule to them and theirs. By the way as long as I am at it I want all your Yule Log cakes.

Well hell folks , so much for a fair start again. Please do take care all of you and I hope that you all had a blessed Samhain holiday, and that the lil ones got more candy than they will eat in a year, and if your house got an egg or two.....give out better stuff, unless of course you listen to Hannity who said that all Halloween does is teach kids to be liberals, alwasy knocking on doors and asking for a hand out...(maybe he wont get social security, y'know one of those liberal things)

Peace, love and light to all ....TR

When its all said and done, there is always more said than done.

Welcome everyone to yet another rant of an ambiguously political nature, oh hell who am I kidding, it's very political. O.K. call me a visionary, an elitist, a steaming pile of liberal bovine fecal material, maybe even a tad paranoid, I really could care less, but when I see the greatest mouthpiece for the American way and the best voice for a reason to leave VietNam the Second, give up and go home in very sad and bittersweet defeat, I tend to incorporate all those feelings into one. Here's to Cindy Sheehan, you are a true heroine and American patriot, and we will miss your special type of spirit.

I find it a shame that when one speaks out against both sides for their unimaginable caving in to funding a war that no one wants, gets thrown to the wolves and is summarily whipped into a former shadow of the spirit that made this country great. It seems the worst torture comes from those that you once trusted.

Then to add insult to injury I found out that our Fearless Leader(to be read nervous Prez), just recently signed two directives that the Minister of Propaganda obviously failed to mention to the American public(because we all know the mainstream press would never tell us), those being, National Security Presidential Directive/NSPD-51, and Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD-20. The subject of this being: National Continuity Policy.

These "minor little directives" give the current President, and a "National Continuity Director" all the power to effectively take over the government and the private sector in the case of a national emergency. Anyone scared yet? I am, I have thought this was a plausible scenario for a few years now and most of my friends called me paranoid. Well just cuz your paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you. So what constitutes a Catastrophic Emergency? "(b) "Catastrophic Emergency" means any incident, regardless of location, that results in extaordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severly affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions."

Scared yet? To quote Yoda "You should be", because now I worry more and more about the upcoming elections, perhaps they won't be needed. By the gods and all that is America I hope they will be. What happened America? When did we become a nation of sheep that are more concerned with individualism than with keeping this country the beacon of Freedom and the bastion against lies and tyranny it has always stood to be? Hey America Are You Out There?

Peace, TR

Two Rants for the Price of One...maybe three,

I tried really hard to not let this bug me but as they say, "if at first you don't succeed, don't be a diehard, let it out".

Rant#1

The "War Funding Bill", and I use the term loosely, is yet another fine example of the fact that not only do the people we have elected to bring change failed to do so, but also is a fine example of the fact that the Democrats really don't have a collective spine nor do they have the kahonas it takes to adhere to the will of their constituents. I find it pathetic that the old statement,"those whom do not learned from history are condemned to repeat it" is sadly so very true. I tend to wonder if any of these crusty old congress-people remember VietNam?

Do the majority of Americans want this war? NO! Do the majority of Americans want to see unlimited spending and resource usage to maintain this war? NO! Do The majority of Americans want our elected officials to listen to Us, the people who hired them to honor our wishes? Hell YES we do! Unfortunately, as Josef Stalin once so sadly yet eloquently said, " It's not who votes that counts, It's Who counts the votes". What a terrible thing to think about America.

So in ending this rant all I have to say to the people We hired to do a job for us is that, always remember that "We the People" voted your happy asses in and "We the People " can vote them right back out, so go see a Dr. for a spine transplant and try to grow a sac and do what "We the People" want!

Rant#2

The Immigration Reform Bill, otherwise known as "the Sort of Spanish Inquisition", (pun intended). After writing a multi-hundred page document defining the new intended policy, I think they could have done it alot easier if someone would have taken just one piece of paper and written down the dance moves to the "Hokey-Pokey", I mean they made it a Dog and Pony circus dance routine that staggers the imagination. Now immigrants get to jump through a miriad of hoops and then tap dance around a while just for the chance to become at best a "second class" citizen who then still has few if any rights and still cant get a fair "living wage".

I tend to get very tired of hearing over and over again the old adage,"America for Americans". I call bullshit on this one, because unless you are one hundred percent Native American, then by the gods you are Immigrant Stock whether you like it or not. Mexican immigrants are today being treated just as the Irish immigrants were treated a hundred or so years ago, not to mention the African-Americans until the 1960's, even the Cambodian and Laotian refugees we promised freedom to in the late seventies, and let us never forget what we did to the Japanese-American citizens during WW2 and the "Internment Camps". When if ever will this capitalistic racial bigotry end, if ever,"The answer my friend, is blown in the wind".

Rant#3...ok its not a rant I have to leave with a smile so heres a little joke I read recently.

Butch the Rooster
Farmer John was in the fertilized egg business. He had several hundred laying hens, called "pullets", and ten roosters, whose job it was to fertilize the eggs (for you city folks).

The farmer kept records and any rooster that didnt perform found itself in the stew pot and was replaced. This took up an awful lot of his time, so he bought a set of tiny bells and attached them to his roosters.

Each bell had a differrant tone so John could tell at a distance which rooster was performing. Now he could sit on his porch and fill out an efficiency report simply by listening to the bells. The farmers favorite rooster was old Butch and a very fine speciman he was too.

But on this particular morning John noticed old Butch's bell hadn't rung at all! John went to investigate.

The other roosters were chasing pullets, bells-a-ringin'. The pullets, hearing the roosters coming, would run for cover. But to Farmer John's amazement, old Butch had his bell in his beak, so it couldn't ring. He would sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one.

John was so proud that he entered Butch in the county fair and he became an overnight sensation among the judges. As a result the judges not only awarded old Butch the No Bell Piece Prize, but they awarded him the Pulletsuprise as well.

Clearly old Butch was a politician in the making: Who else but a politician could figure out how to win two of the most highly coveted awards on our planet by being the best at sneaking up on the populace and screwing them when they weren't paying attention.

A Special thanks to the Porcupine Press Publications from up in da U.P.
Well hell I had to try to leave Y'all with a grin...see ya soon, TR

It's Spring! or Yippeeee lets play in dirt...

"Spring is here, yes sprrring is here,
Life is skittles and life is dear,
I think the most wondeful time of the year is the spring,
dont you, course you do...." Tom Lehrer.

O.K. Now that I have truly dated myself, its true I do believe that spring is the best of the seasons. Things grow anew and everything is fresh and vibrant with new life, and the best reason of all is because I revert to being even a bigger child than usual...I go play in the DIRT...woohoo. I think all lil boys have this tendancy, to go out and find the biggest pile of dirt and wallow in it for hours until they becom indistinguishable from the pile they are playing in. Now that is good fun.

Actually I like to think of myself as a somewhat accomplished gardener, though its been whispered among others that I am just a bleeding heart that rescues plants that no one else would think of buying and tries to rehabilitate them. No matter I like playing with dirt and things that grow, hmmph. So before I digress any further into second, or perhaps, third childhoods let get onto my original thought.

Spring is the time I think everyone notices the most because deep down in our pointed little hearts, we all value the realization for a moment that life and nature are what we are made of and what it is that connects us to this precious globe we inhabit. We are its caretakers and we have in many ways failed miserably, including yours truly. Even I at times take resources way to much for granted and I regret that. Now dont think I am getting all preachy on ya'll cuz I'm not, I am just taking a moment to remind everyone to look at the new life growing around you and think of ways to help stem the encroaching tide of global destruction I fear we may be leaving to our grandkids...we can do better than that, I know we can.

On an afterthought as I rush to get back to my dirtpile... I have always said that if you cant say something nice about someone, don't say anything at all, so here goes.
Jerry Falwell is dead.
Thats as nice as it gets.

Later everyone, TR

Does anyone remember?...May 4, 1970

A line from an old Woodie Guthrie song brings to mind a simple question..."How many deaths does it take till we know, that to many people have died?"

How many does it take? How about countless thousands in Darfur, or how about 50,000 plus in VietNam, or maybe its 3,300 and counting in Iraq, oops I forgot the 600,000 Iraq soldiers and mostly civilians, then again maybe its the 33 students killed at Virginia Tech, at the hands of a poor delusional nut, is that enough or should we add more...?

Maybe four more...the four that should count pehaps the loudest. May 4, 1970, a date that should live in infamy, four students, some exercising the right of free speech and some not, died at Kent State University because our own soldiers, Americans themselves, following immoral orders, turned as they were retreating and opened fire on unarmed civilians. At a school! American soldiers , most not more than kids themselves, shooting at unarmed kids. All in the name of politics and "moral outrage". This has been swept away in the gift of forgetfullness, for the vast majority, but to this writer it was a life changing experience. I found myself questioning freedom itself and our inherrant right to express it in our own way. Maybe that is why I taught all my kids to "question authority", which they have done, way to well at times.

I was in the navy at the time, fairly gung ho and all proud till that fateful day, in an instant I changed, I came to the realization that no war is worth such a price and I could not support such an unjust cause. This is just not what ones pride and sense of justice is able to understand, and to this day I still dont. What the hell were we all dieing for, and I mean troops and civilians.

In a day or so I will turn 55 and though its been a long hard road, my deepest feelings have not changed. In these past 37 years many things have changed and unchanged as the case may be, I am still a "hippie" and a "peacenik", but now we find ourselves yet again facing the horrid reality of an immoral, illegal, and lost war. A war with more horrid implications than I care to think on. Not only are our rights being eroded or stolen at will, but the voice against it is weaker it seems and perhaps with good reason, perhaps not enough remember....or maybe to many are just afraid to stand anymore because to many have died. So tomorrow I will don my "remember Kent State" shirt and do just that....remember.

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."...Theodore Roosevelt 1918.

P.S. My apologies to all for being errant in my ranting, due to a death in the family things have been a tad hectic, hopefully I will come up with something to laugh at quite soon.

Hope Beltane was a Blessing to all , TR.