Well…just finished up the work that I had to do today…it took longer than I expected….but, were back to the Hammond B-3 count and just saw two more groups that use the B-3..Umphree’s McGee and The String Cheese Incident were on AXS tv doing concerts today and both had a B-3 on stage….so let’s add two more groups and keep the count going….can’t remember if I put Buddy Guy in the count yet but if I haven’t, he needs to go in, too….
Category Archives: Misc
Starbucks declares war on Christmas…
Well…I kinda figured you were tired of me writing about ole Ben Carson so I thought I’d go another direction today….if you haven’t heard, Starbucks has declared war on Christmas….at least according to some of the really crazy religionists on the right…and, how are they doing that you may ask? They have taken aim at Christmas by taking the snowflakes and reindeer off of their cups! I tell you it’s a travesty…Christmas will be ruined now that you can only get plain red cups for your coffee in the morning! Yeah, that sounds pretty ridiculous, huh? But, there are a bunch of nuts on the right who have taken this seriously to the point that a rant video by one of these nuts had gotten over 10 million hits…and write-ups in many of the mainstream newspapers followed…and not even tongue in cheek like my rant here…I wonder if we are going to have to endure this crap for the next two months when someone somewhere doesn’t celebrate Christmas to the satisfaction of these crazies…I know it will give me something to ridicule but I mean, really? Don’t these folks have anything better to do? I’ll bet Starbucks is shaking with the threat of a boycott…okay, I even laughed at that one….geez…
Volkswagen is a cheater..
Well…in this age of computer run cars, I guess this had to happen….the other day, it was discovered that Volkswagen used the computer software that runs their engines to cheat the EPA tests in their diesel cars sold in the US. The software was so sophisticated that it could tell when the engine was being tested and put in the pollution control protocol when, all the rest of the time, the engine would run basically without pollution controls, spewing from 10 to 40 TIMES the pollution that it was certified for. It was also revealed that there are almost a million cars with this software that are polluting our air…and the funny thing is the CEO of the company doesn’t know anything about it…okay, that was sarcasm…I just wonder why they would want to do this..better mileage? Okay, I am having a hard time working up outrage when this crap happens all the time…corporations are not people…but who are the people behind this? Nope…no outrage…damn…I wonder if my outrage meter is broken? Geez…
Mish mash….
Well…I have been running a little low on topics lately since I think I am becoming immune or inurred to the craziness on the right…I think that may be from feeling kind of calm lately and not talking politics anymore with anyone…so, this one will be a mish mash of thoughts that are running in and out of my head lately…it was a good match last night with the US women’s team beating the number 1 team, Germany, 2-0 and getting to the world cup final this weekend…it should be a good match tonight with Japan and England playing for the other spot…will probably watch some of that one, too….I am kind of amazed at how fast the secretary of state is with license plate renewals…sent mine in last Thursday and they got here yesterday…even have them on the car already so there will be no crap from the cops….the rides have been getting better but I think the back wheel is going to need to be replaced…noticed some cracking in the inner wheel, the non-structural part, when I had it apart the other day…would rather just buy a new bike since the wheel is over 50 bucks to replace….just need 1300 more miles to get to 25K and then I think I’ll retire this one and buy a new one if it makes it….okay, that’s enough I think…more politics tomorrow if someone does something really stupid…
A little music stuff…
Well…didn’t get to putting the clothes away but I did read something that I find to be really funny…during old Donald’s announcement yesterday, one of the reporters mentioned that he came on stage to “Rockin in the Free World” by Neil Young….and that was too funny because I knew what was coming next…and, sure enough, Neil Young sends a ‘cease and desist” letter to the idiot Trump who thinks (like most repubs) that he can take what he wants without paying for it….and the kicker of the thing is that Neil is a supporter of Bernie Sanders as I am…
One last thing that I have been thinking about lately that has me confused…what the hell does a DJ do that would make them famous? They play other peoples music in an order that is different than anyone else? I think that is called a playlist and I have made a bunch of those in my day….just don’t understand why that would make you famous…I know I’m not….weird…
Tim McGraw is a good guy….
Well…as you know, quite a bit of the time I rant about the bad things that are happening in this country and across the world and that gets to be hard on my psyche at times…but then, a story comes along that brightens my day and makes me smile a little. One of those I just read was about the country artist Tim McGraw who is doing something to help our returning veterans that is just so frickin cool I had to write about it. During this summer’s tour, Tim is going to give away 108 houses, mortgage free to our returning veterans…yeah, 108 houses to help these veterans and their families get back to normal lives after serving you and I…now I think it’s a little odd that McGraw is an outspoken Democrat in an industry that is mostly quite right wing and I won’t make the connection that being a Dem is part of why he cares…doesn’t matter…it’s the act that counts..and it’s a big one….Thanks, Tim…..
RIP B.B. King….
Well…there is sadness for the music world today and for me personally…B.B. King died last night at the age of 89. Throughout his 75 year career, he influenced many of the rockers that I listen to from the Beatles, to Eric Clapton, Joe Walsh, and many others and once I heard his “The Thrill is gone” I was hooked on the blues. The world will be different without him in it….RIP B.B….and thanks….
Here’s the thing…
Well…have had this one percolating away in my head for the past couple of weeks once I read a screed by one of the “Christians” on the right that was an attack on we atheists and our values…saying that you can’t be a good person or have values that contribute to society without religion. I’ve got news for all of these supposed “Christians”…we do okay without religion and here’s why…we do have values of our own, values that include treating everyone as we would like to be treated and trying everyday to be a better person than the day before…and, here’s the key…we do that because it’s the right thing to do and WE decided that it is…it wasn’t decided in response to some threat from an imaginary super being that lives in the sky…it wasn’t decided to get any “reward” in an imaginary afterlife…it wasn’t decided to avoid the punishment of an imaginary hell that religious people are afraid of. We of the rational persuasion look at the world for the reality that it is and know the only hope for a better one is for us to do something about it…not to waste our time wishing and praying that things will magically be different. We also know that this is the one and only life and the only reward there is is to do the best we can to live a good one….and that’s what most of we atheists do….and we won’t be denigrated by those that believe in fantasy and magic…go live your lives in your fantasy world but leave us alone to live in the real one….
Free range children…
Well…have been following a little story out of Maryland that has me shaking my head every time I think about it…in case you haven’t heard, there are some parents there that are trying to allow their children to be children and walk around their neighborhood by themselves….the latest incident happened when these parents let their kids, 10 and 6, walk by themselves to a park that is near their house….and that’s where the nightmare started…some idiot called 911 (for kids playing in a park?) and the cops came and took the kids away…and the normal crap started to happen…CPS got involved and the normal playing that I did when I was a kid became criminalized for these two…and the cops didn’t even call the parents for almost 3 hours…freaking them right out…and now the parents are in the system for allowing their kids to be kids. I have had enough of the normal activities that we all did as kids being criminalized…if this kind of nonsense would have happened when I was a kid…my parents would have been in jail for letting me play in my neighborhood and allowing me to cross the street by myself when I was 4. this crap has got to stop…parents need to be allowed to be parents…and kids need to be allowed to be kids and go outside by themselves to play…I let mine do that unsupervised and they all survived it…geez…
Finally, a cop is held responsible…
Well…another day, another cop murder here in the US, but this time, he is going to be held responsible. On the 4th of April, an SC cop pulled over a motorist (black, of course) on the trumped up “fact” that he had a taillight out…that’s kind of funny when it was a new car and in the daylight….and the normal scuffle happened, according to the cop, and then the driver ran away and the cop shot him 8 times in the back. And, the cop said all of the normal things from the cop playbook…he attacked me, he tried to get my gun and I shot him during a struggle…only a tiny, little problem with that…none of it was true. A passerby who just happened to have a camera on him (who doesn’t these days?) captured the entire encounter including the cop planting his taser next to the dead man’s body. Now, I have ranted here about how the cops are out of control…maybe it’s not a rant, maybe it’s really true. In this case, finally, the cop has been fired, charged with murder and is sitting in the can awaiting arraignment…but, what about the rest of them….after all of the press about the outrageous behavior of cops, you would think that they would learn that this violence is not acceptable and there are increasing chances that they will get caught…but, what to do they do? They just keep on abusing citizens every day…I just have to conclude that cops are not too bright or have gotten away with it so long that they feel invincible to accountability…..let’s hope the tide is changing…geez…