My seven wonders of the world

The new 7 Wonders of the World has been announced and I am heartbroken that none of my choices were picked. If it had been up to me, here are the winners in no speciic order:

Salvation Mountain:

Paradise Gardens:

The Beer Can House:

The Goatman's Trailer:

The Clermont Lounge:

The Fabulous Fox Theater, Atlanta:

Old Engel Stadium, Chattanooga:

Don't look back

While in the middle of a major Google session earlier this past week for work related information, I happened upon a name that stopped me cold in my tracks. A name of an old friend from a decade and a half ago was staring me in the face. After some hemming and hawing on my part I fired off an email and less than 10 minutes later he and I were talking on the phone, laughing it up with a tone of incredulity in our voices. This doesn’t happen often, in my life and probably yours either.

In the middle of this wayback machine trip another name came up, the name of an old flame of mine. The old flame, the one who haunted me for years and whom I had always believed had moved on and probably made a great life for her self, still lives there. What little I was told about her has left me feeling a bit down and conflicted. I moved on, I changed my life for what I know is the better and I think I am a much better man for the changes. That is how life has gone for me over the past 15 years. She, on the other hand, has apparently entered assort of hermetically sealed life. Nothing, it appears, has changed in her life. The same job, the same interests, the same life and no new wrinkles to add color to her life.

I really do not know what to think about this new piece of information. I feel sad for her and a bit guilty for having moved into a different realm of living without her influence. These conflicted emotions have almost overshadowed the possibility of rekindling my old friendship with my old “co-conspirator in crime”, who is still an amazingly fun and interesting person. At some point he is going to break the news to her that he’s been in contact with me, and his delivery was that of absolute boyish glee. I suppose the mystery of whatever became of me has finally been solved, with a happy ending too.

But I now worry about the fallout from this. I’m not concerned about how this will affect my life because I know where I am going. The passage of time and the literal distance of a third of the country separate us, so there are barriers to prevent something stupid from occurring. But I worry about her reaction when she realizes that so much has changed for me and nothing has changed for her. I’m worried that she will not take this well. I just wanted to say hello to an old friend and to be honest, I had assumed more than a decade ago that she had more than likely left for a completely different city. I thought she had probably moved home to Philadelphia. When her name was spoken it was more than a shock, it was an impossibility that had never occurred to me.

We float in and out of each other’s lives and we have a profound effect on each other. I believe in God and the human soul in part because of this effect. Our parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. Our siblings and our friends and lovers all have a hand in the evolving nature of our lives and we play a part in shaping their lives. For good or bad, empathy, love and searching for answers seem to change with each person’s influence but all these people and events interweave with one another to create the tapestry of our lives. We even have these effects on one another online, with no physical presence being a part of the equation.

So I am left in a strange place right now. Remembering this great love, the one who was unequaled at the time and has been unequaled since, with a sense of sadness for what her life has not become. I even feel a sense of anger that no “good man” has stepped up to the plate and taken her someplace that she really deserved to be in her life. I was a mess when I last saw her and was in no shape to take her on the journey that I have taken. I’m dismayed that she didn’t take the trip herself. In short, I am sure that I’m going to have a lot of old memories and some unresolved issues to consider very soon. The cat is about to get out of the bag and it’s been in there for a long time.

Low rumbles on the horizon

I’m trying to stay away from the purely political posts for at least a few days. The recent Libby commutation of sentence still has my blood boiling. I still need to spend some time digesting the CIA “Family Jewels” release and I haven’t even made the time to do that yet. So let’s go off in a different direction today.

Courtesy of Kent Steadman’s website we have some interesting information that has come to light regarding the Roswell incident. For those who have followed the players in the case, the name of Col. Walter Haut will ring a bell. Col. Haut’s “deathbed confession” has been released. He wrote an affidavit before he passed away which explains the things he saw and did surrounding the infamous incident.

The British media are reporting the details of this affidavit in surprising depth. The American media are, as par for the course, ignoring it. It’s quite interesting to read the Col.’s comments and it’s even more interesting to consider whether his affidavit is a real confession, disinfo or a prank.

The timing of this release is extremely curious considering some of the related and non-related events of the past two weeks. We first had the botched automobile-as-a-Molotov-cocktail “attacks” in the UK, followed by the detainment of a number of conspirators that include physicians and this was book ended by a new al-Quaeda video being released; an abnormally long video at that. The American political scene has given us the insulting Libby commutation, a potential physical threat on the life of Presidential hopeful Barrack Obama and a meeting in Kennebunkport between the Bush clan and Vladimir Putin. The UFOlogy field has also had two new stories to follow with the sudden emergence (and quiet follow-up) of the “Drones” photos and sightings which were accompanied by a release of documents purportedly by a former “insider”.

It’s quite obvious that some of these stories are plants and distractions. Which story is the real McCoy is a question up for debate. We are being distracted, intentionally, for a reason. The Libby story surprises me not in the least bit, but it still infuriates me. The hypocrisy of those in power knows no bounds and the overt in your face attitude is stunning. The Obama story, which I first learned of last night, troubles me the most.

I have feared since the VaTech massacre that we will soon be seeing a return to the days of assassins, where the leaders who appeal to the populace and those with a certain charismatic appeal to the masses, will be gunned down. The threats to all of us are lined up like rings, each one a barrier to keep us in line and under control. Assassination of our own leaders in America is a tactic we have not seen in a generation. Enough time has passed and it is of great concern to me.

Which bottle do politicans suck from?

One thing you can never underestimate about politicians is their inflated sense of self and the thin skin which covers that ego. The Speaker of the House here in Georgia has come up with a doozy. In a press conference earlier this week, Speaker of the House Glenn Richardson had this to say about bloggers,

“Those dadgum blog sites. You know what I predict is going
to happen? I predict somebody’s going to sue one of those site domains for
slander, and somebody’s going to get hit with a big suit because there’s no
accountability, and they say and do things about people that are blatantly
false.

“If y’all did, you’d get sued in a New York minute ... Somebody’s going
to sue ‘em and hit ‘em with enough money ... and somebody is going to say, ‘We’d
better be careful with this.’

“We’re brazen now because people will say things ‘cause they know
there’s no accountability. There’s no reason for it. It bugs me a little. I see
‘em do it about people who’re private citizens. I accept my role as a public
official. They can say I’m bad, dumb and ugly, and truth is a
defense."

“I know everybody thinks that’s going to last a while. I don’t believe
it’ll last too much longer.”

Isn’t it funny how our employees, public servants such as politicians, get their panties in a wad over little things like the exercise of free speech by their employers, we the citizens for whom they work for? Bitching and moaning by the unwashed masses at the neighborhood Waffle Hatchi doesn’t bother them in the least but when their constituents put their beliefs online it’s a different story.

Dissent becomes slander, criticism becomes brazen behavior and accountability is only applied to non-politicians in the minds of these egotistical idiots. Grow a thicker skin, Mr. Speaker. If the Speaker want’s some cheese to go with his whine he only needs to follow the rats who fatten themselves under the gold dome downtown.

Political discourse has gone downhill, that is a fact. But it’s the behavior of politicians and their ability to work the lowest common denominator that has brought things to the point they are now. Who are our great leaders in the state of Georgia? Who is the bright boy who clears the fog and bullshit of politics to help lead this state into a brighter future? There isn’t one and we are left with the dimmest bulbs the state can offer. Dear God, if we even had a new George Busbee among us I would be thrilled. If another Sam Nunn came to power I’d be ecstatic. We are stuck with a bunch of mouth breathing parrots who make JB Stoner look like a brilliant and progressive thinker.

All we have are a bunch of spoiled brats running this state, some of whom can’t even come to town without getting a Goddamn DUI arrest on the books. Grow up, Mr. Speaker and do what’s best for the entire state of Georgia, not just what the special interests groups , who donate huge amounts of money to political parties and campaigns, want the elected officials to do for them. Maybe folks will be a bit more civil when critiquing the House when our representatives act like leaders, instead of the glad handing money grubbers we now have. Until then, you politicians are the ones who made this bed so you need to learn to lie in it. Change the sheets or go sleep on the couch if the mattress doesn’t suit your delicate sensitivities.

The sky is falling

After watching the mainstream media’s reporting of the attempted car bombings in the UK this past weekend I can only say that the bloodthirsty little beggars are little more than cheerleaders and idiots, as they have been for quite some time, who also need to look up the actual meaning of the word foiled. I spent all of Saturday morning and some of the early afternoon completely in a news vacuum, away from the TV and out of the house with only CDs to keep me occupied while I was out and about doing Saturday errands. I came home to MSNBC’s coverage and realized quickly what was happening and how deeply they wanted this to be far more serious than it really is. Have these idiot talking heads of the TV news ever heard of the IRA? Do they even know the history of terrorist attacks in London? Of course they have not and do not to answer both questions.

So bad were the early 80’s attacks that even Roger Waters of Pink Floyd was inspired to write, “and maniacs don’t blow holes in bandsmen by remote control.” in the lyrics to a song. If an IRA bomber had screwed up as badly as these idiots did this past week, in making such a lame excuse for a car bomb, I am pretty sure they would kill them just to weed out the idiots from their ranks. And yet the mainstream media are acting as though death is waiting to descend upon America at any moment, as though London is burning and we are spiraling into the sun.

What has happened in London and Glasgow can be clearly seen as nothing more than idiots on parade. Nothing was “foiled” as the press are falling over themselves to say. Foiling an attack would mean that the police or intelligence agencies raided them before they were able to carry out an attack. Catching them after they’ve left two sedan sized Molotov cocktails in London and damaged the passenger drop off at the Glasgow Airport isn’t “foiling” a plot. It’s called catching criminals after they have committed a crime, regular police work in other words.

Can the media talking heads, with their neat suits and neat hair and neat accents keep their little bloodlust fantasies to themselves for 5 minutes these days? I don’t think they can, to be honest. All afternoon long on Saturday I watched them talk about al-Qaeda, potential victims of shrapnel wounds, Osama bin Laden giving his okay, fighting them over there so we don’t have to over here, and the usual clap trap that they can’t prevent themselves from saying when there is very little actual news to report.
Fear not only serves the government, it also serves the media and the sponsors of the networks that cover the news. The true leanings of the talking heads are on display when something like this occurs. They are bloodthirsty little monsters who probably tortured small animals for gratification when they were adolescents. Their “reporting” is more akin to masturbation than professional journalism.