"Quo Vadis?"

On my "Igoogle" page this morning there was a quote attributed to Muhammed Ali to the effect that if you are 50 and view life the same way as when you were 20, you have wasted 30 years.

When I was 20, big issues were ending the Vietnam war, considered by many as unnecessary and unjust; protecting the environment and reducing waste; and making politics more representative and less about special interests.

Now, 40 years later, 10 more than in Ali's nugget of wisdom, the big issues are ending a war that is both unnecessary and unjust; protecting the planet from global warming; making politics more transparent and representative; and we can add, restoring America's moral leadership in the world.

So is what we have a generation that has learned nothing and wasted 30 or 40 years????

Bail---in or out????

How about them Somali Pirates?????????? 12 ships in 7 days from an area of the ocean patrolled by the US Navy, Her Royal Majesty's Navy, the EU, the Emirates, and Kingdoms of the Gulf!!!! YeeHAW!!!!!!!!!!! The Pirate Dogs hope they get to keep their loot and that they use it to improve the standard of living in the Horn of Africa, one of the poorest and most badly governed places in the entire world.
I need to correct the last post---There were a couple of inconsistencies in the sources. Apparently the ship was taken in the Gulf of Aden and is now anchored in the Indian Ocean some 450 miles from Mombasa, Kenya. Capt. 'Roid apologizes for the misinformation.
Now that the Somalis have bailed out their ships, how about the bail-out in DC of the BIG 3? I thought this was a capitalistic nation, not a welfare state. If I ran my business with as little forethought and lack of planning as that exhibited by the CEOs of the Detroit mega corporations, I'd deserve to be fired or run into bankruptcy. Now I fully appreciate that we cannot allow the auto industry to go the way of the airlines. There's always places to go and someone to take the risk and fly there. No sane person would buy any major asset from a company in Chapter 11. Cars last years and anyone purchasing one wants to make sure he can keep his investment on the road. But a free ride out of their hole is the last thing we should support as taxpayers or citizens.
I believe that successful people should get the fruits of their hard work. And executives who can't formulate a decent forward-looking business plan should go back to the business correspondence school they came from for a refresher course.
Memo to our representatives----
NO BAILOUT!!! No LOANS to the auto Industry without STRINGS!! WE THE PEOPLE need to see how OUR money will be used to sustain the industry and IMPROVE the performance of its products----MORE MPG, MORE environmentally friendly, NO MORE loans or taxpayer dollars after this ONE time.
After all, if a bunch of Somali pirates can outperform the navies of the allegedly advanced economies, our congress, senate, and captains of capitalism should be able to give us some bang for our buck in a car that gets 50-plus MPG, is safe and fun to drive.
Let's get our people in WaWa DC this message!!!!!

Syndromes

Syndromes seem to be in the forefront around here this week. The Pirate Dogs' look-out has SDS, the Captain has SDS, and even I was SDS. And they're all different syndromes!!!!!!!!

Weets is part chihuahua so she is very noisy and aggressive---Small Dog Syndrome.
'Roid has the foulest breath in the western world, the result of a peculiar and disgusting habit I won't go into here--Stinky Dog Syndrome.
And this blogger was fairly radical in his younger years, even joining Students for a Democratic Society in college.
So why all the "syndrome-icity" this particular week??
How's your 401-k? How's your trust in the sitting government to get us on the right track? If you have any syndromes, now's the time to give them free reign. Loosen that halter and give them their head.



I think I've decided on the elections. Paris Hilton for Prez, Tina Fey for VP. (Although Gina Gershon does a good job as well.) Paris makes sense on the environment and the pool-side shots could be inspiring as well as profitable for the government. Sales of her exploits would dwarf the tax cuts of either main-stream candidate and could result in a surplus. Tina does a better Palin than Sarahcuda. Only problem is after she gets elected, where would she get her material? No worry though, the current VP candidate has just regurgitated the same lines since she was nominated. Is there really that big a difference between 6 weeks and 4 (or 8) years??
Hey, after this week we need to exhibit a sense of humor more than ever.

In a more serious vein, I'm currently reading Nixonland by Rick Perlstein. The sub-title pretty much summarizes the premise--"The rise of a president and the fracturing of America." I'm only about a quarter of the way through the 800-plus pages but the parallels from the 1968 campaign to today's are striking and, for me, terrifying. I have watched film of the current Republican rallies where either of the candidates whipped up the crowd to the point of denouncing the Democratic nominee as an Arab, a terrorist, or, even worse, calling for his head. First off, pandering to racism and fear is Nixonian. That's a large part of how he won. The "Silent Majority", "law and order", the menace of racial warfare. Have we learned nothing in 40 years? Watching McPalin is remembering Tricky Dick and Spiro. I've long felt that the Baby Boomers squandered their potential with their pursuit of riches pre-empting the idealism of the counter-culture. Now we pay for it with the Republican attacks that, let's face it, are racist without saying that word. I've seen comments on other blogs where people wrote about their fathers saying "Good, they shot another Kennedy" about RFK's assassination in 1968. I can remember comments about how "that uppity nigger" Martin Luther King got what was coming to him, also in 1968. I get the same feelings of foreboding listening to some of the McPalin supporters today. And I try to remember that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" but still there's this thing in he back of my mind..............a motorcade in Dallas, Nov 22 1963....

See http://zeesgowest.blogspot.com/ post for October 11 for a powerful video. We can take back this country. We can undo what Nixon spawned and W has promulgated.

WE ARE THE ANSWER!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Captain's Latest Plan

What a week!!!! Financial melt downs, bail outs, campaign peccadilloes, yuck!!! But the Pirate Dogs have a new plan for us------ Monday we were watching The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC. Usually the crew pays attention when dogs appear on screen but that insipid Purina One commercial with that overly compliant and obviously dim-witted Retriever-type dog makes them ignore the tv. But the story that followed the ad, that's another story. Captain Roid perked right up as Rachel related Google's plan to green itself up by moving some, if not all, of its computer centers to barges in the ocean. The reasons she cited for this action were reduced costs (hence more profit) in real estate taxes and upkeep and using water to cool the computers which should enhance the company's greening up image. But what drew the attention of the Captain was one of the possible downsides of the plan. Ms. Maddow talked about weather disasters such as hurricanes being a hazard to the barges. She also mentioned pirates as a potential hazard. The Captain then proceeded to the Nargle and came up with her plan---taking over Google!!

Imagine----you or your child searches for information on computer chips. Normally you would find a picture like this:But instead, since the Pirate dogs now control "The Google", you get their interpretation of your search parameters---Chip Turks (otherwise known as rawhide flips), of which they have a treasure chest full:

Going to the doctor, or searching a site like WebMD for information on your skeletal malfunctions normally would lead to something like this--
But our crew of buccaneers has taken over and their image is of their favorite treat: BONE-turks:
Finally, your fourth grader needs to do research for a civics paper, the topic is agriculture, and she googles wheat. When the servers were land based, she'd probably have gotten an image like this:

But after the takeover the monitor displays a portrait of Crow's Nest Weetzie!!!!!

So good luck to Google and all its users if they go ahead with their offshore plan. And happy (belated) talk-like-a-pirate day from Capt. Roid, First-mate Leny, and Crow's Nest Weetzie!!!

"ARRRGH!"

Equal Time

First, a word about comments. I moderate the comments on this blog. I try to be fair and reasonable and I hope that readers who honor this blog with comments do so in the spirit of the blog--open discussion, expanding the mind, and a little fun. So I don't allow comments from "Anonymous" to appear. I've had a couple from this moniker and they were personal attacks like you're an eastern liberal and why don't you move back there. I welcome and encourage comments on any post but please keep them in the spirit of the blog. Even if you don't agree with something that appears, present your arguments. I pledge to try to be fair and as impartial as I can be when moderating comments. And the Pirate Dogs promise too.....

About the Republican convention--I found I was glad I had a mute button. Sarah Palin was impressive in front of the microphones. But I got sort of bored by the rest of the speakers. From Mitt complaining about "liberal Washington"(!!!!?!!!?!!) to Rudy's almost-imitation of a hockey mom (pitbull, no lipstick) to the endless paeans to John McCain's bravery and maverick credentials--my father was a hero in WWII and he was not qualified to run for president. There was so much about patriotism, strength under the duress of torture, and maverick tendencies that I almost thought they weren't going to nominate McCain but had switched to Mel Gibson, who played all those roles (lead character in The Patriot, tortured in Braveheart, and the inimitable "the name is Brett" Maverick). Then I remembered he was born in Australia, so they must have been talking about McCain.

I have always respected John McCain, his service in the Navy and the Senate. I think I even wrote in his name on my ballot in 2000. But he wasn't a ship captain or exec, he was a fighter pilot. This plays well with his maverick identity but not his leadership as an officer. That experience was negligible in that he didn't have command responsibilities like Ike or JFK. His votes over the last year against the environment, against the prohibition of torture, against the new GI Bill, and for the misguided efforts in Iraq have eroded this respect and, for me, raised doubts about the very independence he so promotes. As for Sarahcuda, I hope I soon hear what she thinks rather than the same canned sound bites from the convention she has so far uttered at every whistle stop. And I don't think it's sexist to want answers to her feelings on God and government, or the internet rumor that her son only joined the army because the other option was jail on a vandalism charge. It's out there and should be addressed. After all, it's as least as relevant as Obama's having attended madrassas. "Sauce for the goose, Saavik." (Leonard "Spock" Nimoy to Kirstie "Lt Saavik" Alley in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)

Raise the Fuel Taxes

Gas prices continue to go up---over $4.08 a gallon as I write this. And the monthly payments on pickups and SUVs keep decreasing---no interest for 60 months, $6,000 rebates, "employee pricing".......Anybody else out there think this is a disconnect? And note the small print on these adds---none of the "deals" apply to hybrids!!!! The fuel efficient varieties are full boat, baby!!!!
Our government says we can alleviate gas prices by drilling in places like the Arctic Wildlife Refuge. But the current administration doesn't exactly deserve kudos or respect in terms of their record on the environment or climate change. Let's face it, the "senior administrators" are ex-oil men. The candidates recommend gas tax holidays or windfall taxes on big oil.
How about something that might work? Let's eliminate the taxes on diesel. This will give truckers a break and help stabilize the costs of food and other goods that depend on trucking to get to America's consumers. We can increase the gas tax on regular fuel to offset this revenue loss and also to subsidize the cost of truly fuel efficient and alternative fuel technologies.
Check out the Honda website http://automobiles.honda.com/fcx-clarity/frequently-asked-questions/. That fuel cell car in the tv ads is available in a few counties in Southern California at a lease cost of $600.00 a month. That's more than the lease on a Hummer, a Mercedes S class, or a Cadillac STS!!!! We should be begging to lease the fuel cell car all over the country and getting the infrastructure built to support fuel cell technology. But the vast majority of Americans can't afford that kind of lease price. One would think GM, Ford, or Chrysler could build a fuel cell car that might fit an average family's budget if some of the development costs were subsidized.
According to Jonathan Rauch's article in the July/August Atlantic(http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/general-motors), the Chevy Volt will sell for "maybe north of $35,000." But an F-150 Ford or a Chevy Silverado at 10mpg can be had for about $20,000!! If we really are serious about conserving fossil fuels and getting their prices back in line, we need the Volt to sell for the same price as a Malibu.
So let's bite the short-term bullet and pay an inceased gas tax which can be used by car companies to develop alternative fuel vehicles without passing the high development costs on to consumers and keeping the sticker prices of these vehicles in line with what the average family can afford. The other benefit of this would be to help make American companies competitive and hopefully increase job opportunities in the automotive sector, which has been among the hardest hit in the economy. Or maybe America isn't as good as our competitors in this segment of the global economy?