Too Many Westerns

With our current climate today it appears that the two parties that dominate our political landscape have morphed into two opposing factions....

one group - The Democrats - well they want to build things.  They want to share things, they believe in a collectivist approach, namely the understanding is that we're all dependent upon each others and expertise varies, i.e. just because you're an electrician doesn't mean that your good with budgets and vice versa.  Yes, we'd like for the lights to work and figure out a way to meet our financial obligations and still have something left over at the end of the week.  You look out for me and I'll look out for you.  Democrats build towns.....

Republicans, well as it replies to our government, they'd just as soon not have one.  Laws, well laws are well and good for the weak, but they're strong, they apparently feel that as long as you have a gun on your hip and the freedom to move about, that's all anyone should need.  The other thing is that they feel strangely compelled to tell everyone who's built a town that they should give up their lifestyle and adopt theirs.  Never conceding that towns serve much if any purpose without taking into account that someone has to make the clothes, manufacture the guns and make the ammo and the gear for their horses that allow them to enjoy their lifestyle.

These guys have totally bought into that dystopic world view that they don't need much of anybody and
they can make it just fine without you townsfolks and just as soon that you recognize their superiority tyvm.

Too much Hollywood (which they say that they despise, strangely enough even though it's the source of just as much of the propaganda as the Dems receive on their end) and apparently we all have to continue to suffer for it until they wake up from this delusional POV and have to walk out into the harsh light of day and recognize that their saddles are cracked and the reins worn and thin and that the guns need to be oiled and cleaned and they don't have a kit.  They harken back for a simpler time yet without the understanding that the past was really full of hard work, long days and even a simple misstep or stroke of bad luck could leave you stranded and alone in the desert slowly dying.

I wish that they could still love their lifestyle but also allow mine the right to peacefully coexist within theirs.

guilty pleasure playoffs

Sweet Sixteen of Guilty Food Pleasures:

1) First chip of newly opened bag of Ruffles into chilled Green Onion Dip

vs

16) Spicy Pork Rinds

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2) Chilled Chocolate Milk

vs.

15) german chocolate cake

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3) gooey pile of pizza toppings that have sled off the edge of a newly lifted slice

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14) Slightly softened Captain Crunch Cereal in bowl of skim milk

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4) melted cheese

vs.

13) toasted tunafish and jalapeno sandwhich

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5) peppered beef jerky

vs.

12) loaded baked potato w/chili

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6) French's Beef Stranoff mix w/ground beef and egg noodles

vs.

11) warmed Slim Jim opened while driving

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7) bacon wrapped water chestnuts

vs.

10) McEwan's Scotch 80, pint glass

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8) french toast w/butter pecan syrup

vs.

9) Chicken piccatta w/long grained wild rice

network programming

Dear Programming honchos.....

what in the hell are you doing?

You want to know why so many of you suck so badly and wonder why you can't keep your viewers?  It's diversity or in this case the realization that damn near every network is just like every other network...Can you tell the difference between USA and FX?  Maybe MTV and Cartoon Network?

It's called niche programming for a reason.... there is still such a thing as brand loyalty y'know?   If what I want is to lose myself in some escapist fare, I'd like to be able to dive into an episode of Star Trek, Babylon 5 or Quantum Leap.  I can't do that with Scare Tactics....or Ghost Hunters.... cripes open up a network for the thrillseekers if there's demand for dumb ass shit that goes bump in the night and monster movie of the week.  If I want to catch some anime or share the latest animated idiocy with my teenager I can't because Cartoon Network is full of dreck.

Can someone out there please stop making every  network indistinguishable from any other one?

Wingnut dictionary

Just have to keep a running tally of what concepts and interpretations that separate my conservative brethren from my own dirty filthy hippidom self......

What we say>  What they mean aka Wingnutese
_________________________________________________________________________

Foreign Policy >  Kill brown people.
Domestic policy >  Deport brown people.
Freedom  >  means they have it, you don’t
Free speech  >  listen to what they say and anyone who disagrees should STFU or gets shouted down
Pro Life  >  for fetuses, ovulation til birth, everyone else, you're on your own
Freedom of Religion >  Free to tell you why your religion makes you a heathen who will burn in hell.
GOMLAYMI  >  get off my lawn, after you mow it

top 10 anime openings

Every Otaku has theirs and I'm no different and after watching about two decades worth of anime, I'm just as qualified (which is to say everyone is who can be bothered to have an opinion) as anyone else to have a list of favorites.

I'll try and do my best at embedding some links to the music but sometimes, me and embedding don't get along so much.....Artists given credit when I have the information to share.....

from the bottom up:

#10) Inuyasha - Season 1 - It has that uplifting feel to it that makes you feel as if you're about to embark on a grand adventure and as such, gets you in the mood for what is to follow.

Change The World/V6
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzsPUtioKsM

#9) Azumanga Daioh - Let's face it, this theme music is an ear worm that can stay with you for days and give you problems pronouncing the word Cake for weeks at a time.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huWKSYUX5Fs

#8) FLCL - Perhaps this is too low, I dunno, I just know that I have to have this on the list somewhere and here's as good a placeholder as any at the moment.

Ride on Shooting Star/ The Pillows
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ3_oKFfZek&feature=fvwrel

#7) Love Hina - My first and still favorite Harem comedy and this manic opening just continues to make me smile and never gets old as far as I'm concerned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oeot1dDqms&feature=related

#6) His and Her Circumstances/Kare Kano

Much like the entry at #1, it's not just the opening sone, but all of the other incidentals and closing music that forced me to go out and buy a series soundtrack... that doesn't happen with every series.  The voice is so painfully beautiful that I tear up every time I hear it and I guess that just makes me waaaay too sentimental.  Definately a ymmv selection I suppose.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfdLH9cQmZM

#5) Sakamichi no Apollon - more incredible music from Ms. Kanno

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HloKLU1SRJQ

#4) Mysterious Girlfriend X - Again, this one is more for the entire show rather than simply the opening itself, because the music is incredible throughout with setting mood and conveying unspoken emotion.  The Dream sequence segments themselves are inspiring.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCFuyfKmr4A

#3) Beck aka Mongolian Chop Squad - dunno how this is left off of so many folks lists, but considering this anime is just as much about music as it is about self discovery, I have a hard time wondering how this isn't on EVERY list.

Hit in America/Beat Crusaders
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ot0IpmdOMI

#2) Bleach - Season 10 - Dig the song, stay for the anime

Scandal/ Shoujo S
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkstqVWTUf4

#1) Cowboy BeBop -  - C'Mon, you knew it was coming... the cultural rarity to include multiple genre's and still allow the music to aid in the story telling effortlessly, seamlessly.  Scary when you dare to try and separate the work from the music and you realize that to do so would be a disservice to both.

Tank/The Seat Belts
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2rVnRwW0h8







Honorable mention:

Kimi No Todoke - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AzEFia1UEY&feature=related
Lovely Complex - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXeHfjpt7WE
Ghost in the Shell - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiiFtS22yyM
Gunslinger Girl - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NSvaT6h52s
Higurashi No naku Koro Ni - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKV195eXg7I&feature=related
Durarara - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O9hRcIAza0&feature=related

As you can tell, I'm kind of all over the map here, but hell, I just go with what I like and what has made an impression with me, as always, your mileage may vary.....

Guns

I have always had a healthy respect for guns.  Coupled with a healthy fear of bullets.  Amplified by the fact that there appear to be a whole bunch of folks that are more attached to their guns than they are to their families or even to their right to vote.  I don't have a problem if you like to hunt, if you like to challenge your skills with hitting targets with a pistol.  Heck, I don't care if you carry one on your person, as long as you register the weapon appropriately (your local laws may differ) and you learn how to use it and store it appropriately. 

Damn, I'm a real killjoy aren't I?

What I do have a problem with is that the firepower available is way in excess of the threats that they are supposed to counter.  Really... you need that 30 shot clip? Is that elk going to return fire? Perhaps if you have the need to be that destructive you need to find a new career in demolition. Think about this... that rush you feel firing off a full clip or dropping 30 or forty dollars on ammunition that you fired off on the range or in the wilderness is on the backs of people dying at movie theaters, meeting their Congresswoman, going to class or just doing their jobs.  I hope that thrill you feel is worth those lives traded to ensure that you can have it.

Let me repeat... I don't have a problem if you own a gun, I don't have a problem with folks that hunt and enjoy shooting for recreation

Not sure why you need to have a clip that holds 30 rounds, not sure anyone does and as long as you folks continue to think your rights are threatened unless you have access to them, then maybe next time it'll finally be someone you do care about that may be the focus of the next news cycle of the mass shooting du juor.

Things that I like

This is a small compendium of things that trip my trigger.  I am ambivalent about posting them because I don't want to jinx anything.  Believe me that I am not laboring under any illusion that what I post here may ever be read by anyone else, but if nothing else, the exercise allows me to give flower to my thoughts (I hope my old English teacher Mr Booker would be happy with that line).

Courtesy - I know that perhaps its outdated and can also be used as a facade for real feelings, even as a cruel stiletto wielded in hands more deft than my own.  Still, genuine courtesy doesn't cost us much and can give you a sudden smile and completely change your outlook during a day where the grind has left you with an emotional fine gunpowdery substance waiting for spark and tinder.

Old Cartoons - I'm a sucker for the old animation and the classic sense of humor that allows Wile E. Coyote to suddenly open a small umbrella while awaiting the imminent arrival of a crushing boulder.  I also have to give special props to the old Jay ward studios for efforts like Rocky and Bullwinkle and George of the Jungle for allowing us to enjoy those shows with our parents, sure we all didn't laugh at the same time, but those times spent together in laughter are memories that I will always cherish.

Romance anime/manga - If there is one aspect about me that I'm loathe to truly talk about its that I am a sucker for romance.  Yes, I have a secret stash of anime shows that I adore (and yes, I have a couple of harem anime floating around just to ensure to my friends that I am still a manly man) So cheers to the authors, artists and producers of such fine stories as Kare Kano, Gosick, AnoHana and Toradora. 

RomComs - see the entry above, and yes, Notting Hill is in heavy rotation.

Tom Hanks - Thank you for loving the sixties and the values I had as a child and honoring them and treasuring them as I do.  His passion for Music, Space and treating people as people pretty much dictate that I drag my fat patootie to the movies whenever he does something new.

Melted Cheese - granted, it can't improve every food (and I have tried) but god bless the soul that found out that this was the perfect complement to the tortilla chip.

The fresh scent of a newly mowed lawn

The laugh of a sexually satisfied woman

The initial touch of a kitten's paw on your face (sans claws, tyvm)

The sense of accomplishment in my son's eyes when he achieves a goal

The Dave Clark Five and The Lovin Spoonful

learning something new