odd bits

I don't have one of those mindless desk jobs that afford me tons of time between things to do for blog babbling
ad infinitum.
So when my world gets "interesting", which it often does, my attention re-directs towards whatever new project, situation, madness or mayhem is calling my name. And even though I was a master at multi-taking back when I lived up north and was really working for a living (seems like 100 years ago) multi-tasking just doesn't fit in with my laid back
island lifestyle.
So now, it's one thing at a time but, as a result, time spent on other things means time away from Key West the Blog.

All the same, I am forever jotting down notes and shooting pictures that may or may not be blog-able for when the time for blogging comes back around to the top of the
"things to do" list.
Like it has today. . .

teabaggers, pachyderms
& jackasses

So, we've just lived through two weeks in the "habitat for insanity". (rhymes with Sean Hannity)
Two weeks you ask?
Sure, one week of our local fantasy festivities followed by a second week of national election mayhem. Of the two, this year I must admit, I enjoyed the latter week more. For me, this year's political circus of teabaggers, pachyderms, and jackasses was much more amusing than Capt. Morgan and his ship's compliment of painted titties.

The bad ads and rudderless debates, finger pointing and name calling, fear mongering in the face of reason and every male candidate looking dumb as a post when his female opponent threw the most over-used phrase of the season at him; "man up!" Frankly, I was a little disappointed that none of those guys had the imagination to shoot back a sarcastic, "yes dear".

graphic by art winstanley

It was fun. . .
Bigot Teabaggers, bumbling Republicans and clueless Democrats with no cojónes.
An obtuse Angle in Nevada and a witch in Delaware, the 5 o'clock shadow and Queenie Loudmouth from Alaska and a weeper with an orange tan for Speaker of the House.
What else could you ask for?

It was amusing as hell but now it's over and at the end of the day, it really doesn't matter which functionaries fill the seats in those hollow halls, (yep, I said it that way on purpose) because nothin's gonna change.
The long term course for America was charted long ago by the men behind the curtain and all the morally bankrupt bureaucrats, newly elected or not, are handsomely payed to play along.
It's nothing but theatre.

wax paper

Living life should be easy. An effortless going with the flow. Grass grows, flowers bloom and critters are born and die as easily as breathing. Only humanity complicates the process.

In my life, when I come across things that won't go easily for me, I steer clear. (why deal with stress, right?) Examples of things that won't go easily for me are water skiing, playing the oboe, understanding legal-eze or accounting, can openers and, saran wrap. (you know that cling-ie roll of plastic crap used to cover leftovers and such; tear a sheet off and gravity, static electricity or the slightest breeze from a ceiling fan folds it back on itself in a hermetically sealed ball of frustration)
So, to keep life simple and easy (like it's supposed to be), I've always used wax paper. It's easier to use in the kitchen and does double duty as a pallet liner when I'm painting.


I've known about wax paper since I was a kid and like most things in this life, knowing about stuff is learned by example. Maybe, as a kid, you watched how your mom or granny set up their kitchens; me, I watched my Aunt Lu.
The pots go here, the pans go there and, always always, among the knives, cleavers, spoons, ladles and love, was CutRite wax paper. She'd wrap leftovers with it, use it to roll out pie crust and cookie dough or fold a sliver of it over a comb to make a kind of kazoo. In all these years, whether I've been married or single, I've never, ever had a kitchen without wax paper.

My Aunt Lu died last week, she was 86. She lived her life with an unconditional love for everyone. Quiet and un-presuming, she touched the hearts of every soul she met along the way.
I know she touched mine.
Wax paper is just one of the many of touchstones I'll have for the rest of my days to recognize her ever present ease, warmth and welcome, lessons and love in my life.

april fools

I've spent the last few days reading "Forward the Foundation", Isaac Asimov's final installment in his 4 book "Foundation" series.
These 4 novels, "Foundation", "Foundation & Empire", "Second Foundation" and "Forward the Foundation" tell a tale of the final 500 years of decline and disintegration of an Empire.
At first the symptoms of deterioration are subtle; unmanageably large, top heavy government driven by greed for power and wealth, a widening chasm between social classes and infrastructure breakdown. Then they get more obvious; perennial wars, assassinations, corporate and military government takeover, economic collapse, violent rioting and finally, outright anarchy.
Sounds familiar, don't you think?
. . .And oddly prophetic when you know that the first two of these marvelous books were written in the early 1950s.


Happening through the cemetery last week, I took an extra minute at the USS Maine Memorial there, where many of the 266 crewmen who were killed in that ship's explosion are laid to rest.

I'll spare you the historical chapter and verse and the conspiratorial back story but the reality is, the United States government used the sinking of the Maine as a "pretext for war" against Spain.

Because public support is critical to the process of initiating and waging war, the home population (we the people) are subjected to deceitful stratagems to get us whipped into a patriotic frenzy.
The most compelling "pretext for war", of course, is an apparently unprovoked enemy attack. The trouble is though, the attacks are, more often than not, fabricated - either incited or deliberately allowed to occur. Then they're exploited in the media to arouse widespread public sympathy for the victims, demonize the attackers (a.k.a. evil-doers) and encourage mass support for military “retaliation.”

It's like the bully in the schoolyard who wants the little guy's lunch and knows he can kick his ass to get it. But the bully teases and taunts the little kid until maybe, the little guy throws the first punch. War planners know that it doesn't really matter who throws the first punch. As long as it looks like an unprovoked cheap shot, the bully has license to respond with force.

In February, 1898 the bully in the schoolyard used the sinking of the Maine as a "pretext for war". Since then, he's gotten really good at pecking a pointless fight.
Here are a few more examples. . .
May, 1915 - Lusitania
December, 1941 - Pearl Harbor
August, 1964 - Gulf of Tonkin
September, 2001 - World Trade Center


Last weekend, I heard what I thought was the one of the dumbest things I've heard in a long time. "Harry Reid is a traitor", decried one of those manly-man TeaParty types to a TV news interviewer. "Why do do say that?" asked the man with the microphone. "Because," replied the TeaParty type, "because. . . because he. . . because he hates America, that's why!"
. . .Say what??
But then this morning, came the nasal pinched voice of an overweight bleached blonde (Victoria Jackson) who topped that. "The President is a Communist! Glenn Beck taught me well and "progressive" is the new word for Communist!" Sweet leaping Jesus!!
It seems to me that these "Tea Party" types have an arsenal of harsh words and stones to throw, pitchforks and torches to storm the castle with, but not enough wit between them to realize that their formerly well intentioned movement has been co-opted by the rudderless radical Republican right.


The sorry truth is, that beyond the political theater, there is no ideological difference between Republicans and Democrats. They're all after the same thing. . .
Appeal to the lowest common denominator of American people, confuse them with high-minded hollow rhetoric, fuel their fears to the point of anger and then sit back and watch them get at each others throats until it's time to send in the armed authority to arrest and incarcerate.
The Patriot Act makes it legal and the FEMA camps are good to go.
Will we stand up for whatever is left of the Republic or roll over for the rhetoric like a populace of April fools?