Time Machine week 34

It's today, September 21, 1970, and a much busier Monday than the one we had last week.  Two days before, we were reading about the death of Jimi Hendrix.  But today is much better.  For one, Vida Blue of the Oakland A's (a team that would become my favorite in just 2 years) threw a no-hitter against the Twins.  He walked one and struck out 9, and Bert Campaneris hit a 3-run homer off Jim Perry (Gaylord's brother) in a 6-0 win.  Not a baseball fan?  Well, that night, Monday Night Football debuted!  The Browns beat the Jets 31-21, overcoming the 2 TDs scored by the wonderfully-named Emerson Boozer by picking Joe Namath 3 times- the third was a contest-ending 25 yard pick-6 by Billy Andrews.  I even have something for you liberals- the first modern Op-Ed page was printed in the NY Times today.  And here's something I'll bet you didn't know- Op-Ed does NOT mean "opinion-editorial";  It refers to the section's physical location, OPPOSITE the editorial page.  You have my permission to stop reading and play "stump the significant other" with that one, if you come right back.

And this?  This is another excursion on the Time Machine bus.  Today we feature:  The BeeGee that burned down Johnny Cash's house; the Saturday Night Live star who graphically designed a rock'n'roll album cover; why Bing Crosby shot his first movie roll in handcuffs; a six degrees that is more like six one-degrees; and a cameo by The Gong Show!  (Hopefully, that will not prove to be prophetic.)  Climb aboard and let's rock!

Okay, who's singing Feelings first?

Today we have one of those rare occasions when the highest debut in the hot 100 is in the top 40!  While you mull that over, also among our 11 debuts this week are: at 60, Crosby Stills Nash and Young's Our House; at 92, Bobby Bloom's Montego Bay.  Here's another "stump the significant other" for you:  despite being a one-hit-wonder singing-wise, Bloom was a co-writer on that international piece of immortal classic music, Tommy James and the Shondell's Mony Mony!  Finally I want to mention the song that comes in at 98 this week.  You may not know it because it didn't get far- Poco with You Better Think Twice.  Now some of you remember that Poco had the 1978 hits Crazy Love and Heart Of The Night.  But these boys had been toiling around for a long time.  At the point that this song was recorded, they were still basically the remnants of Buffalo Springfield, with Richie Furay, Jim Messina and Timothy B. Schmitt in the roster (Schmitt having just replaced Randy Meisner, who went to the Eagles).  But by the time they became known, a lot had changed.  Furay had left to join JD Souther (You're Only Lonely) and Chris Hillman (the Byrds) in the Suther-Hillman-Furay Band; Messina had left to do a solo career (but got sidetracked into being Kenny Loggins' partner), and Peter Cetera of Chicago had recommended one Paul Cotton to take his place.  And when Schmitt decided to pick up where Meisner left off once again and joined the Eagles, the band went on hiatus, and Cotton and original member Rusty Young set off as a duo.  But the record company would only take the completed album if it was marketed as a Poco album.  Thus, the other remaining original, drummer George Grantham, was out of the band without either quitting or being fired.  The album cover was done by a young graphic artist and up-and-coming comedian named Phil Hartman, later of SNL back when it was still funny occasionally.  That album was called Legend, because Poco, with its collection of stars was indeed a legend- even though the highest single they ever charted before this lp only made it to #50 (Keep On Tryin' in '75, and Indian Summer two years later).

Phil Hartman's finest hour- except for that Telly Savalas spoof.

 

Which brings us to the birthday song section.  Turning thirty this week are Billy Joel's Pressure and Chicago's Love Me Tomorrow.  Chicago also has a 35th birthday this week with Baby What A Big Surprise, as well as Kiss' Love Gun, Judy Collins' Send In The Clowns, the Carpenters' cover of Calling Occupants, one of my favorites- Pablo Cruise's A Place In The Sun... and one more.  In fact, when I was still doing the Volume One TM (which started in 1975), this was the date that I was considering wrapping up Time Machine all together, because it was the debut date of the song that changed music forever- How Deep Is Your Love by the BeeGees, the first cut from Saturday Night Fever.  But then the Cashbox site went down, I re-booted, and the rest is history.

Turning 40 this week are Mott The Hoople's All The Young Dudes and Seals and Crofts' classic Summer Breeze.  Turning 45 are the Doors' People Are Strange (and Jim would know), and another all time favorite- Strawberry Alarm Clock's Incense And Peppermints.  Turning 55 are Bobby Helms and My Special Angel and the Everly Bros with Wake Up Little Susie.  Blow out the candles...

The big dropper this week is the Assembled Multitude's Overture From Tommy, falling a whopping 47 to #80; the big climber is Sweet Baby James Taylor's Fire And Rain, up 25 to #64.

And that brings us to another rock'n'roll casualty in our where are they now segment, as sitting this week at #50 is Johnny Cash with Sunday Morning Coming Down.  In addition to being a country superstar, Johnny hit the top 50 on the pop charts 15 times, with tunes like I Walk The Line (#17), Ring Of Fire (17), Folsom Prison Blues (32), A Boy Named Sue (2), One Piece At A Time (29) and Daddy Sang Bass (42).  One of his old tunes that I loved in my youth and heard a million times growing up, I was surprised to find was never released- San Quentin.  He also wrote over a thousand songs, including I Walk The Line, Folsom Prison Blues, and Tennessee Flat-Top Box, which daughter Roseanne took to #1 on the country charts.  His last big success was the cover of Nine Inch Nails' Hurt, which despite only hitting #56 (and #33 on the modern rock chart), was named 2003 song of the year by the CMA.  It was filmed in a former home of his that had been converted into a museum, but had since closed and fallen into disrepair.  After his death, Barry Gibb and his wife Linda had bought it with an eye to renovation.  Unfortunately, their hired workers failed to read the section about flammability on the linseed oil they were using to strip it down, and burned the place down.  This was memorialized in Roseanne's song Burn It All Down on her powerful album Black Cadillac.

Eight songs hit the top 40 this week.  Up three to #40 is Donovan with Riki Tiki Tavi.  The Moments climb 11 to #38 with If I Didn't Care.  Climbing 16 to #37 is the haunting Linda Ronstadt song Long Long Time.  22 spots up to #36 is Canadian (yes, Canadian) singer/songwriter R. Dean Taylor with Indiana Wants Me.  Taylor, who was actually a Motown act who had co-written songs for the Supremes like Love Child and Living In Shame, composed this one after watching the movie Bonnie And Clyde.  Jumping 9 notches to 35 is the New Seekers with Look What They've Done To My Song, Ma.  Up 8 to #34 is the Grand Funk Railroad classic Closer To Home.  Simon and Garfunkel crack the top 40 one last time before the split with El Condor Pasa moving up 13 to #33.  And our high debut, the high debut on the whole chart- have you got your guesses in yet? -are the Jackson Five with I'll Be There, making their Hot 100 debut at #28.

Today I bring you part two of the Bing Crosby salute.  Now Bing had gotten a start of sorts with a vocal group called the Musicaladers (?).  They broke up a couple years later (1923), but Bing and fellow member Al Riker (not Roker, Riker!!!) formed a duo.  They were noticed by a member of Paul Whiteman's band, and Whiteman signed them onto his touring entourage.  They returned the favor by introducing Paul to Al's sister Mildred Bailey, who not only would sing with Whiteman, but on her own would collect 10 top tens, including 1938's So Help Me.

Now, Paul and Bing didn't exactly get along despite his popularity, because of Bing's drinking.  Not to mention Whiteman's fans weren't exactly enchanted with the duo of Crosby and Riker.  Whiteman's solution to both problems was to throw another lush into the mix.  That lush was one Harry Barris- future uncle to The Gong Show's Chuck Barris.  He and Al both played piano and all three sang, and soon the newly christened "Rhythm Boys" were all the rage.  Not so much with Paul, though;  He was filming a musical about him and the band called King Of Jazz, and not only were there high expectations on the film, but the Rhythm Boys were to be getting their first national face time, and Bing was to get a solo.

But Paul thought a good morale boost for the boys would be to buy them all brand new Fords to tool around LA with.  But putting a drunk in a car is never wisdom, and soon Bing had crashed his right in front of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.  Incarcerated during filming, Whiteman pulled strings to allow Bing- in handcuffs- to do his bits in the movie.  But the solo was scrapped, and after the movie was in the can, Whiteman fired the lot of them.  More Bing next week.

Shoulda bought me a boat... a lot less things to hit... oh, the flaming wreck behind me... had nothing to do with it... Bu Bu Bu Bu.....

2 songs enter the top ten this week, two fall out.  Spill The Wine spills from 7 to 17, and Hi-De-Ho hits the ol' sweet roll from 9 to 21.

Aretha Franklin and the Dixie Flyers nudge up a notch to 10 with Don't Play That Song.  No worries there, I don't care for Aretha.

Neil Diamond leap 9 big notches to #9 with Cracklin' Rosie.

Mungo Jerry slips from 4 to 8 with In The Summertime.

Dawn moves up 3 to #7 with Candida.

Chicago holds at 6 with 25 Or 6 To 4.

Bobbby Bobby Bobby Bobby Sherman moves from 8 to 5 with Julie Julie Julie Do Ya Love Me?

CCR moves up a notch to #4 with Lookin' Out My Back Door.

And that brings us to an attempt at a six degrees for this week.

Edwin Starr falls to 3 after two weeks on top with War.  I tried several different ways to do this.  I started with the fact that the Temptations had done this first, a much milder version on the lp Psychedelic Shack.  Demands were made by fans and DJs to release it, but the Temps, or at least their management, were afraid of what such an inflammatory song would do to their image.  Thus it got pawned of on a "third string singer" in the Motown stable named Edwin Starr.  And that's where the Temps line petered out.

So then I saw in one Wiki article that the Undisputed Truth were the backup vocalists on Starr's version.  However, another source said it was another house group, and I never found any proof to the first story.  Two lines now shot.  So I thought, let's look at what else Starr did.  Well, he had had one prior hit- 25 Miles, which I know and love, but found very little info about.  So I looked the other way, and on the pop charts he was shot after his follow up Stop The War Now.  He didn't want to do this song- he figured doing a carbon-copy would type-cast him and ruin his career.  But far be it from anyone to tell Berry Gordy he was wrong, and Starr proved right.  However, he did do some cameos with a couple of strange British acts later on.  One of them was a two-girl rap group called the Cookie Crew (presumably because one of the ladies had been a chef for the Ministry Of Defense).  Another was a dance music outfit called the Three Amigos, who broke up when one of the members thought that making money the old-fashioned way (selling cocaine to London gangs) was preferable to music, and had to take a 7-year break in the penitentiary to think about it.

Diana Ross comes one step closer to the peak with Ain't No Mountain High Enough edging up to #2.

And that means our new top dog this week is.....

Clarence Carter with Patches!!!

Okay, that's it for another week, a much better effort than last IMHO.  Tune in next time when I get even better!

A busy morning

Well, today has shaped up as a busy day, relatively speaking.  Had an interview today for a job picking orders in a -20° freezer.  Pluses:  decent money, no OT whether you wanted it or not, small operation.  Minuses: 45 minute drive, never done order picking, -20° freezer.  Hopeful, but not very because I think distance, inexperience, and glasses that steam over upon leaving the freezer will weigh against me.  I think he's also looking for someone who'll help yard the trucks round, and I am skeptical about the wisdom of that one.

No more home, and I get another call from a staffing place that's just starting out.  Lady said she's looking at me for a place that works first shift, 4 10-hr days.  Just like the old job.  So I said, "I have to ask..."  but it wasn't the old job.  However, she's friends with the entire front office from the old job, and has the low-down on me.  Still, she did call, so they must not of told her EVERYTHING...

Heard on the way home that our beloved President has finally admitted that Libya was an al-Qaeda attack.  ALSO found out that the ambassador, despite expressing fear for his life, had no security detail- his "detail" consisted of CIA agents trying to mole back the weapons Obama GAVE to al-Qaeda to get rid of Qaddafi.  Also found out that the attack leader MAY have been a Gitmo detainee who we released to Libya ("on conditions that he stay in jail") and Qadaffi released ("to get in good with al-Qaeda").  Not only is this yet more evidence of the lesson we SHOULD have learned 75 years ago (appeasement NEVER works), but also gives us a good insight on WHY Obama didn't want to come clean in the first place.  And yet all everyone wants to talk about is Romney's "47%" BS.  So yeah, let's bash Romney for telling the truth and give the President another free ride on a lie.

And speaking of the 47% thing, how many of you know that on said tape, Romney goes on to describe a convo he had with the former head of Goldman-Sachs, who informed him that right now the Fed is buying 3/4 of our national debt.  And how does the Fed pay for that debt?  By printing more money, which leads us to the lesson we should have learned 85 years ago (if you print money with nothing to back it, eventually you will be paying $10,000 for a loaf of bread). Oh, say the Ron Paul-ites, then we should go back to the gold standard.  Except according to my financial advisor, there is so much of Berneke's funny money out there that, if you put us back on the standard, the price of gold would IMMEDIATELY go up at LEAST tenfold to cover it all.  So yeah, by all means, let's make piddling cuts in spending combined with raising taxes on all those awful rich people, and Berneke will cover the rest.

And you wonder why I get so radical about getting that idiot out of the White House, and why I wish all the bozos who voted for Pelosi and Reid would gather at some big convention and suffer a mass abduction by aliens.

OH NO!  We don't want him either!

The rest of the way home, I had to shake my head in amazement at the weird crap that goes on in my city.  Let me start by expaining that Sandy Thompson was a local "weather specialist" who got the golden toe last fall because they wanted someone who could be called a "chief meteorologist"  (i.e. has an actual degree).  She was extremely popular because she was a very nice lady and gave away lots of cheap red umbrellas.  Brings us to today, almost a year after she gracefully stepped down.  I'm cming up through the southeast side (Tee hee, Bob) and spotted a yard sign that said, "Bring back Sandy Thompson".  Moments later, I saw a house that had several inflated winter characters, snowmen and the like, on and around their porch, with a sign off to the side reading, "Hear come the judge" (their spelling, not mine).  Just ahead and back over to the right was a sign that said, "Sandy Thompson could stop the drought!"  with "bring her back" in smaller letters on the bottom right corner.  Two blocks down, a replica of that sign stood in another yard.

Yes, I made it stop raining... and wait'll you see the winter you're gonna get!

But, I'm about out of time and my firstborn is here telling us how bad his life is, so see you all later!

Yeah, well, it's Wednesday

And as such, I don't have a lot of game to bring.  Topping the news is what Mitt Romney had to say about Obama's support base being basically the chronically out of work.  Rather than go into a whole big deal about this, here's a picture to illustrate my feelings on the topic:

Moving on to more productive conversations, I thought I would note that I have been on Twitter.  Mainly just to get inside sports scoops fifteen minutes before everyone else, and mouthing off to various celebrities that ignore me anyway (BTW Johnathan Vilma, I'm still waiting to here how many of those nine signed affidavits saying you were a saint as a Saint still count after you take out family members and players in the same hot water as you.). But I thought I might take an idea from my friend and dissapointed hockey nut Jewels and mention a few of my blogs stating my political position on my Twitter feed.  Results?  Went from 9 followers two weeks ago to 4 this week.  Two of them were sites that were basically roaming avdertisements, maybe three, and the others were people I didn't know anyway, but isn;t it nifty how people aren't so "friendly" once they get to know you.

Yesterday I got the latest card from The Great Postcard Campaign.  I am puzzled as to who sent it, though, because it's signed "Rx" which tells me nada, and the only clue I have is that she says, "I'm not sure how long it'll take to get to you from N.I."  Now, the only N.I. I have on the address list is "Northern Ireland" but I've already got one from that person.  Add to that it had a big sticker overe the top of all the good stuff that basically said, "Hey, this person didn't put enough postage on it for air mail, so God only knows when you'll get it".  And coming from a place that apparently doesn't put the date on their postmarks, I have know idea how long it's been.  So, who ever it's from, thank you, and if anyone wants to claim it, let me know!

And since I've nothing better to do, let's see what's in the ol' spam box.  Our first contestant is a repeat offender from last time.  Remember I told you about the one that offered 2-3 hours a day, $2,300 a month + 8% commision to start, yada yada?  This time I see WHY I got it.  You see, being that I am currently looking for work (and thus counted as unemployed by Obama), I've been trying various job sites, one of them being the less-than-helpful Beyond.com.  And what do I see smack in the middle of this?
"...Due to close cooperation with Beyond.com..."

Ah.  Okay.  Now I begin to understand why I never use any of the "tips" that Beyond.com sends me.  I might point out to the sender, whether he be "legitimate" or scam, most people should be smart enough to suspect a "business" letter wherein the only way the sender is referenced- at both beginning and end- is "Mr. Kroff".  Also, if you want to tell me that your company is

"... a global leader in the field of IT, Legal and Accounting outsourcing with more than a few decades of success behind us and a promising future ahead, our company remains at the top of the industry, and is poised to push the bar even higher..."  it might well be smart to GIVE THE COMPANY'S NAME.  Just sayin'.

Next up is the standard (and far more professionally done) version of the "the FBI is working with the Federal Government of Nigeria" scam.  I found it interesting for this paragraph cribbed from the middle of the note:

"The U.S Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control, in agreement with the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria have observed that the high rate of scam and money laundry activities cases perpetrated, has force untold extortion of valuables, people have been asked to pay outrageous amount of money by these impostors. During the verification exercise, you are among 301 innocent victims short-listed to receive their compensation. Therefore, for your own interest and benefit, you are warned to stop further communication or dealing you have with anybody/Banks regarding the claim of your funds."
Good thinking to put the bit about the 301 victim list in there.  However, since you told me not to talk to anyone about my funds (this time seven and a half million), I'm afraid I'll have to erase this letter.  Buh-bye!

Finally, I got this one with the following header:

I AM AYESHA GADDAFI, THE DAUGHTER OF THE LATE LIBYAN LEADER COL. MUAMMAR GADHAFI, I HAVE A VERY CONFIDENTIAL ISSUE TO DISCUSS WITH YOU WHICH I CANNOT DISCLOSE NOW, PLS GET BACK TO ME IF YOU ARE INTERESTED FOR MORE INFO

Something that looks like this came from Qaddafi's loins?

And apparently she wasn't kidding about not disclosing now, because after "To: Recipients", there was nothing but a big blank page.  And actually, I didn't know anything past "DISCLOSE NOW" was even there until I started copying it to paste here.  Not to scammers: at least put something in the letter itself.  Even if it's the picture I used above ( and that would probably catch more idiots than anything they would write).

Well, that's it for now.  Hope you enjoyed!

Sports Tuesday

The second week of the NHFFFL season is in the books- and since I'm the only official, we aren't having replacement problems!  All but two of the games this week were intra-owner games.  the two inter-owner games involved Laurie and KC.

In one of those, the Sunset Rangers stayed unbeaten and pulled into #1 in the rankings, pulling away on 2 Willis McGahee TDs to top the Angels 45-31.  The two Dwayne Bowe "let 'em score we're 30 points ahead" scores got the Rangers into that position, but the Angels made a game of it with Monday night TDs from Demaryous Thomas and Roddy White.

The other inter-owner matchupd saw Matt Prater's three extra points be the difference in the Clock BBQs 35-33 edging of the Elks. New acquisition CJ Spillers' two TDs led the winners, but were more than balanced by Steve Gostkowski's 14 points.  But, as with the Pats, it was the one he missed that decided the game.

The KCAs got bounced from the top spot with a 49-41 loss to the Aguas.  The KCAs led 40-18 going into Sunday night, but the Aguas rallied with 2 Vernon Davis TDs, 13 from K Jason Hanson, and Matt Ryan's 6 against the Broncos.  The rookie duo of RGIII and Doug Martin once again led the KCAs with 24 points between them.

In the other all-Chris game, the B2s picked up 23 Thursday night, and rallied behind Ben Rothlesburger and Mike Wallace Sunday afternoon, to mash the Ducks 47-36. Mason Crosby and his teammates on the Green Bay D collected the 23 on Thursday.

The all-Laurie matchup had the Greenwoods rally from an early deficit to handle the winless Beagles 32-23.  David Akers put up nine Sunday night to seal the deal.

The all KC matchup was the reeealy big shue this week.  Buzz racked up 24 points from his three RBs, and Seattle's D and K Steven Haushicka (or something like that) combined for 18 more- and they lost!  Porkchop got 27 from their running back corps, another 21 from the receivers, topped off with 15 from K Lawrence Tynes, and won 69-51.



So if you went by my betting system, three teams covered (Rangers, B2s, and Porkchops) and three teams straight lost (KCAs, Elks, and Beagles).  This week, you have Aguas by 6 over the Beagles; KCAs by six over the Angels; the Rangers by 12 over the 'Woods; 'Chops by 7 over the Clock BBQs; Ducks by 2 over Buzz in the somebody's-gotta-win game; and B2s by 4 over the Elks.


In the KHL, things have slowed down for New Lokomotiv (but it's still the only hockey in town!)  Friday we were broadsided by Torpedo 6-3. After Maxim Trunyov tied the game at 1-1 after one period, Torpedo tallied three times in a seven minute span of the second to go up 4-1.  In the next five minutes Niklas Hagman scored his 2nd and Alexei Kalyuzhny, a vet who spent the last few years with Jaromir Jagr in Omsk, cut it back to 4-3, but Torpedo got goals late in the last two periods to cause the final margin.

Sunday we had our home opener in front of a SRO crowd of 9,000, but could not solve Atlant goalie Stanislav Galimov, and dropped a 2-1 decision.  Daniil Apal'kov got his 3rd goal in the first period, but Atlant beat our net minder Vitaly Kolesnik 2 of their 9 third period shots on goal.

So now, Loko has 2 wins, a shootout win, and 2 losses, dropping them to a three way tie for 8th in the conference in points, with twin Dinamos Minsk and Riga.  League newbe Lev Praha (Prague) is on top with 4 wins, a shootout win, and a loss for 14 points, 6 more than Lokomotiv.  Next up for us is Spartak, who has three wins a shootout loss, and 2 losses for a third place tie at ten points.

In the meantime, the list is growing larger of locked-out NHLers coming to the KHL.  At present, here is the list:  Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin and Ottawa's Sergei Gonchar have joined Mettalurg Magnitogorsk; New Jersey's Ilya Kovalchuk will be joining SKA St. Petersburg; Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk is going to Ak Bars Kazan; Edmonton's #1 draft pick Nail Yakupov returns to his home team of Neftekhimik; Alexei Ponikarovski of Winnepeg and the Flyers' Ruslan Fedotenko are going to Donbass; Nik Antropov, who last played for Atlanta, has signed up with Barys Astana; Kaspars Dougavins of Ottawa is going home to Dinamo Riga; and other players have signed in the Czech league with Jagr and Tomas Plekanic of the Canadiens going to the club Jagr owns in Kladno, and the Flyers' Pavel Kubina going to Vitkovice.

Others I just found include Jiri Hudler of Calgary going to first-place Lev and Toronto's Nikolai Kulemin joing Malkin and Gonchar in Magnitogorsk.  This means that the rumours of Sidney Crosby joining Malkin at Metallurg are dead, since their is a three-player limit and Kulemin makes three.  A rumour that is still active is that the big money owners of CSKA (Red Army Moscow) will be getting Alex Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, and Flyer goalie Ilya Bryzgalov. A group of players are also headed for Swiss National League A, with brand new Ranger Rick Nash heading for Davos along with San Jose captain Joe Thornton, and Logan Coture headed for Geneva.  Other less founded rumours have players joining up with old teams in their homelands, Including Frolunda in Sweden, Kalpo in Finland and Jokerit also in Finland.

 

The innocence of islam and the guilt of Obama.

All right, time for me to weigh in on this damn movie and the literal and figurative firestorm surrounding it.  First of all, I cannot blame any Muslim for being offended by it.  It was intended that way, and apparently crafted that way on the sly so that even the actors had no idea what they were going to be in.  On the other hand, I was offended by The Last Temptation Of Christ.  I was offended by the jerkwad years ago who put a crucifix in a cup of urine and called it art.  And I was offended by the billboards that the atheists put up around convention time.  It seems odd, but nobody rushed to apologize to me.  Nobody rushed to excuse the majority of atheists and various other Christianity haters, who are gentle and kind souls, and do not represent the ones who do such heinous things.

And despite that, I didn't hold up a sign at any protest rally.  I didn't burn the flag of Egypt, or throw rocks at the FFRC offices. I didn't kill anyone who had nothing to do with those actions.  And before you on Facebook decide to give me the litany of the horrible things that Christians have done, go read a book on how the Muslims back then filled the ranks of the Janizzaries.

Okay, so we are all agreed on that the movie was horrible and the producer is a class- A nutjob.  Now let's move on to the reaction.  This damn thing has been out since June- math majors, that means it was four months before this so-called "spontaneous" reaction.  And the producer ran ads in the "Arab World Newspaper" a month before that.  We have a well-coordinated attack with military weapons, pictures of the "compound" (a private house in a terrorist zone) being taken by the "guards" within HOURS of the attack, and a safe house being compromised.  And what does our President say?

"We have no intelligence to indicate that this was anything but a spontaneous attack."  Emphasis on the first four words, apparently.

The Israelis have told everyone they had fed us info on a possible attack for a month.  The Libyan president calls the theory of it being a spontaneous attack "preposterous".  Suddenly embassies around the world have "spontaneous" outbreaks of violence about a movie they knew about for 5 fricking months.

And it happened on 9/11.  What a coincidence.

So, if we are to believe the President, who had the UN ambassador hitting the Sunday news shows beating the drum for "spontanaity" all day yesterday, how is it that you square his "lack of intelligence" with the body of intelligence that was out there?

According to Breitbart.com, you can look at the President's activity logs and find out it had been six days since he had attended the "president's daily security briefing."  Nor did he attend the one on 9/12.  Let me ask you:
- what do you think of a President who cannot find the time to attend his daily security briefing for a week?
- especially given that he had intelligence of possible attacks coming in?
- especially given it was the week before 9/11?
- and still goes and misses the next day, because he was campaigning?
- How is it we have to apologize for a film that we ALL agree was hateful, and a US ambassador has to die, when we had nothing to do with it?
- How is it that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton can say, “How could this happen in a country we helped liberate, in a city we helped save from destruction?” when she knows that the entire area is crawling with the same groups that perpetuated 9/11 in the first place?

Frankly, I do not believe that even a President as "inexperienced," and "over his head" as Obama is this stupid.  I'm not saying, like some do, that he is running a secret campaign to discredit the US of A.  But he definately either had a "good reason" for leaving a US ambassador in enemy territory with virtually no protection at the absolute worst time, and thus avoided security briefings to make it appear he was surprised; or he was caught in the mother of all pants-downs, and is pushing the we-were-surprised theory to cover over absolute incompetance with partial, "acceptable" incompetance.

The purpose of this article is not to get you to hate Muslims.  Nor is it to bash Obama for an idiot.  What it is for is to get you to use your gray matter and say to yourself, "Is this the level of responsibility, intelligence, honesty, loyalty, and patriotism that I REALLY want in a president?"

Deer- and more deer!

Hey! It wasn't all about deer! What about me?

And me! I was there, too!

Oh, please.  You guys don't sit still long enough to be stars!

Here, watch the videos and decide for yourself who the stars are!
 

Johnny Appleseed Festival for out-of-towners

Since I've mentioned the JAF here a couple of times, I thought it would be considerate of me to show out-of-towners what it's like.  Fortunately, it's about a slow half-hour's walk from my door to the park.  Unfortunately, Laurie was under the weather this morning and opted out.  But this is the one place on earth I can be both comfortable in a crowd and entertained on my own.

First up is the military camp along the river.

A Confederate tent with Confederate money.

Lots of re-enactors at JAF.  Here's Robert E. Lee.

Cannons.  We'll get back to this.

Yup, a real live Gatling gun.

Continentals to your right...

...a union patrol to your left.

This dude was a magician/comedian.  Here he is magically proving to a man in the audience that his $20 bill was real by incinerating it.

After several false attempts, the bill is "found" inside a lemon he sliced in two.  I could have taken twenty pics here.

Music is all over the place, with travelling groups, three stages, and the medicine show.

A song about Skeeters at the Pioneer Stage.

One of Chris' must dos- hang out with the bagpipe band.

The festival is kinda divided in threes.  This first area has the hand crafting demonstrations.  Weavers, potters, blacksmiths, and this coppersmith.

Examples of the coppersmith's art.  So shiny I wasn't sure how good the pic would turn out.

Popular with kids are the alpacas. 

Moms like all the things these people make with alpaca wool.

The man himself- Johnny Appleseed.

The #1 place to be at JAF- BUFFALO BURGERS!!! And turkey legs darn near as big as your arm.

The second area has the crafty stuff and antiques.  No big winners for me today, but always fun to check the tents of antiques out.

The stage in the second area.  One of the best acts over here is this chorus of violin playing kids, with littler ones clogging on the stage below.

Buffalo Burgers and Turkey dogs!!!!!

Re- entering the first area, I smelled that smell that told me maple candy was at hand.  Another Chris must-stop.

Celtic music at the folk stage.  I do love to listen to the harpsichord...

Apple-mashing for cider.

There's a patch of woods separating the first two areas.  Here the local wildlife wait patiently for their turn.

Johnny is a fabulous storyteller, and does a couple shows a day.

The third area is the Indian camp.  Not near as neat as it was when I was younger, but still some neat things to come across.

One of the two fife and drum corps that wander the park.

This is the other.  This was moments after they shot off a musket.  Fifteen people in the assembled crowd dropped over dead.

This little guy wanted to shoot me.  I told him I'd shoot back.

He liked the idea so much, he had me do it twice.

Cannon demonstration.  Ready, Fire!  (Um, Chris, it's called a "slow wick".  When they say fire, count three.

One, two, three...BOOOOM!!!

I decided to go home by way of the woods.  And for 2:30 in the afternoon, that also was surprisingly entertaining.

Just because I thought it was a neat shot.

A butterfly, just because the first one I tried, some doof who wasn't looking almost stepped on it, and the second one met up with its significant other just before I could snap, danced a jig over my head, and flew away.

This dude with the nut in his mouth was so funny.  He came bounding out the ravine trail and stood there.

Took a pic, said, "Thank you." He turned around, posed, turned to look at me, and bounded back down the trail.

Just as I came up to dead tree road, I heard something going bump in the day.  Sure enough, the fawns were out and about.

Every two steps you heard a crash or a rustle, and there would be a squirrel laying on fat.

Ground hog way up the road.  I was clicking these when Laurie texted to find out if I was still alive.  She hadn't heard from me since I sent her buffalo burger pictures.

'Munks were all over the place, too, but behind every tree and around every corner...

...there was a squirrel.

There you have it.  Now you know what it's like to spend a day at JAF, and I am reminded what it's like to take a walk without being attached to a scent-driven outboard motor.