US Taking Back Territory from ISIS

I watched Face the Nation but the second part first, and then skipped around.  Apparently Kurdish forces have joined with us in taking back ground from ISIS, but fourteen different sites were bombed by our side today to protect that dam.  They say in spite of all the danger (Mc Cartney song) this was a good week for the Obama administration.  This rep from Michigan, Mike Rogers was speaking it seems for the Administration this morning.  I actually thought he was a PART of the administration.  Because the US is keeping up the bombing and we are making real inroads against ISIS.  Now we are taking steps to secure that dam near Mosel, because if that should be blown up “It could send a sixty foot high wall of water down on the people below”.   So in a way I was right when I hinted that the best thing the Obama administration could do at this point is keep the war going as long as possible.  Rogers was also asked about Ferguson, MO.   He says he used to be in law enforcement and he was taught about “the gradient of escalation of force” and says in this case ‘”The police seem to have escalated things too prematurely”.   There is an upside to this because despite all the flash of smoke and fury and weapons- - nobody else seems to have died at the hands of the police.  And no doubt a lot of the locals are grateful to the police for bringing back a sense of law and order.  And when it comes to the Mideast theater of battle - - maybe ISIS is rethinking their plans for world dominance or whatever.  Though Rogers said the amount of land area controlled by ISIS is only about the size of Indiana.  I thought it was considerably larger.  But Rogers warns that ISIS represents a greater threat now than Bin Laden did prior to nine – eleven, and that if we were really fair, we should be more paranoid and afraid now, than we were then.   I don’t know.

In “The Week” magazine there was a paragraph on the topic of “Not all right wingers are wing-nuts”.   When I first saw it my natural inclination was to think “Well I knew there some intelligent conservatives out there somewhere - - it’s be nice to hear from one of them”.  However my hopes proved short lived.  Because the guy just went into an all out attack against the character seemingly of all liberals in general.  He said they are frauds because they really aren’t compassionate and understand the way they claim to me.  He further claimed that liberals “were always bragging about having these traits”, which is just wrong.  Liberals ARE this way and you can OBSERVE their conduct as opposed to conservative conduct to observe this.  I remember in history class- - I was bored when they hit the parts about labor unions or reform in the mental illness sector or women’s sufferage.  Like all other kids, I was more “into” the good stuff like kicking the crap out of the Indians or the various wars we’ve fought or economic policies.  But you multiply me times X million pupils out there and you see the problem.  Liberals are the ones who portray things they way they REALLY WERE.  Conservatives won’t do that.  But then the author goes on to say that liberals never look at things from the other side, from their opponents point of view and try to understand THEM.  Again this is such a false statement it’s pathetic.  That’s all we do is try and look at things from the point of view of the right wing.  How many times has President Obama said “If I just go along with them and give them most of what they want without even negotiating- - then they’ll like me and I’ll be popular”.   How does John Boehner justify his “take no prisoners” approach to legislation?  Oppose everything!   These people even ADMIT that “We are like the Talliban insurgency”.   But it’s like this sign I saw on a church marquee titled “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life”.  I looked at that heading and thought “Well, I’m safe for today.  No way any pastor can mess that message up.  It’s right out of the Bible”.  But I was wrong.  It was the usual Bill Halliday ranting away with the usual vitriol against imagined enemies.

It was “Hollywood Bowl” day on Breakfast with the Beatles.  That’s where they held today’s show this morning.  I didn’t know that former DJ and MC Bob Eubanks was the one who bankrolled the project putting up $25,000.   But of course that August 1964 concert was only a half hour.  Why don’t the Beatles be like a normal rock group and play an hour and a half?  I don’t get it.  Eubanks wanted John Lennon NOT to announce “This is the last song” because that way the Beatles could sneak off and be halfway to Burbank before the crowd even knew they had left the arena.  But John had a little backbone and refused saying ‘I can’t do that”.   And in 1965 Eubanks again produced the Beatles and they were “less bubbly” or whatever.  And by the time of the 1966 concert at Dodger Stadium- - Eubanks states that John, George, and Ringo had gotten pretty negative.   Eubanks also made reference to Reb Foster, another DJ of the period, who he partnered with.  He also made passing reference to Dave Hull, the Hullibaluer - - who was on KRLA every afternoon from three to six for years.  Eubanks says the Hull stowed away on a plane the Beatles were on, or something.  KLOS also played these old KHJ concert promos where apparently they were letting concert tickets at the Hollywood Bowl go for just 93 cents, because it was 93 KHJ.  They had quite a number of these adds in 1966 and 1967 for all of the big acts of this period.  It was a real trip to hear them again.  Eubanks was a live studio guest.

There was this guy I don’t know his name- in a wheel chair saying he met Dr Levy once and got a negative impression.  He said he was “loud, rude and arrogant”.   The trouble with this “Creative Aging” thing Dr Levy can’t stop talking about is that it’s an oxy-moronism.  After all Bob Dylan said ‘He who is not busy being born is busy dying” and Creation or the creative process involves new life and birth.  Really they should call “Creative Aging by what it more closely is as “Perry-death”.  You’ve heard of Perry-menopause.  This is several years leading up to menopause and what to expect and how to deal with it.    Personally I’m not one of these people who believe “Death is beautiful”.  I’m all for whatever hormone therapy the doctors can come up with.  We hear that estrogen causes uterine and ovarian cancer,  and that testosterone therapy causes impotency and testicular cancer.  I don’t believe it.  It’s too counter intuitive.  When the gas company says you need to deal with a pilot light always going out by “turning it up” when it comes to male hormones you should likewise “turn it up”.  After all this think of all the things testosterone cures- - low self esteem, low energy, low sex drive- - a loss of muscle tone, and what have you.  Youth is the key to happiness.  People need to embrace life, and the young naturally know how to live it.  It’s something we forget once we reach middle age.

 Back thirty years ago in 1984 even the bad music had more character than most any of the "new" music today has.  Back then you had to go to shopping malls to play video games.  It didn't cost a hundred dollars to get into Disneyland.  The expression 'That and fifty cents will buy you a cup of coffee" actually made sense.  People didn't have their own computers.  Los Angeles had two NFL football teams.  Most people still played vinyl record albums.  Christians actually looked down on churches who were "into" politics.  Every other commercial on TV was not for some new medication for some new invented problem  Computers were specialized devices used for sensible things like accounting. You didn't have this sense of instant obsolecence every few years.  You could still smoke in restaurants.  And back then, perpetual War was not the norm for America.  And the best thing about 1984 was that we were all thirty years younger!  EWN talks about all of these “apps” you can get now, but the thing is- we all need to stop being squinty eyed introverts, tethered to our cell phones and I pads and get about the business of living and doing things with people in the real world.  There was some youth pastor who hit a guy he eventually died from brain damage, but he isn’t being charged.  The pastor’s only reaction is to praise God for “getting through this crisis”.  It’s only too bad that God didn’t get the brain damaged man through his crisis.  There was also one Latino pastor who molested six girls, and he was charged.  I read in Talmud quotes that if a man receives an act of mercy or grace, undeserved, from God, that God will take away from his reward in the afterlife.   Of course our own scripture states that people who “get their reward” here, won’t get it again in the afterlife because they’ve already gotten it.  (Selah)  I got “The Week” magazine from Federico in the office before dinner.  There is a report in there headlined “Not all right wingers are Wing-nuts.  I saw another report reaffirming that Democratic Presidents have better economies than Republicans.  That one was on line.  That was Yahoo news and in their studied “expert” opinion, they concluded that “sheer luck” counted for a consistent 65 year track record since the days of Truman, that democrats are better in all aspects of the US economy.  Now -there was one on how bogus a charge “voter fraud” is.  There have been 34 cases of voter fraud in every single election in the United States combined since the year 2000.   Just think how many collective vote that represents.  I got coffee from Glen just now.  I was really tired and neither of us said that much.  I got instant “espresso” coffee for three cigarettes in his room.

Today's sage saying.  It really hard to control people who have no sense of fear or risk of "losing anything"

DEMENTED AGAIN  Third Edition (almost the same as - )

My Ding-a-ling  (Live Chuck Berry)

Boobs a Lot (Oly Modal Rounders)

In the Mood (Ray Stevens & the Henhouse Five)

Dance This Mess Around (B ‘52’s)

Bounce Your Boobies (Rusty Warren)

The Bouncer At St Peter’s Gate (ELP)

Cheer Leaders on Drugs (Uncle Bonzai)

The Ripper  (Judas Priest)

I Owe A Lot to Iowa Pot (Nepolian XIV)

Kinko, The Clown  (unknown demento artist)

Be Prepared (Tom Lerrer)

Dr Bleishtaff  (First Family Rides Again)

When You Get Drafted (Dead Kennedies)

She’s Got Medals  (David Bowie)

UFO “Platters” montage song (1956)

I Smoke Two Joints  (Reggae group)

Ask Me No Questions (You Will Hear No Lies)

There’s A Hole in the Bucket (Harry Belefante)

Don’t Sit Down On the Plexiglass Toilet  (artist?)

Shrivel Up  (Devo)

Disk Two

Thin End of the Wedge  (Procol Herem)

Tatoo Vampire  (Blue Oyster Cult)

Mercedes Benz   (Janis Joplin)

The Motorcycle Song (Arlo Guthrie Live version)

Waiting for the End of the World (Elvis Costello)

Refrigerator Heaven  (Alice Cooper)

Nazi Punks, Fuck Off!  (Dead Kennedies)

Don't Wanna Be Your Slave (Rolling Stones)

Men, Men, Men - -   (Monty Python)

Pink Pussy Cat (Devo)

It Ain't The Meat; It's The Motion  (Bill Ward?)

My Boomerang Won't Come Back (artist?)

Happy Birthday To You (Weird Al Yankivic)

Disco Toilet (artist?)

Beer Nuts (Kip Adatta?)

The Ox  (The Who)

Problem Child (AC DC)