Dr. Phil loaned me a book the other day, the title of which is Leanings: The Best of Peter Egan from Cycle World Magazine. Dr. Phil is a motorcyclist, I am not; at one point in my life, after returning from Vietnam, I bought a Honda 350 motorcycle which I thought I would ride to and from various places in the great southwestern desert where I had been stationed to finish out my four-year stint in the military. I was a sap and bought a bike that was probably broken before I tried to take it on more than a short ride or two around the base. After that, I sold the bike when one of the patients on my ward, a fellow who had his lower leg amputated, told me he lost his leg as a result of a motorcycle accident on the freeway in Phoenix, Arizona.
Goodbye bike. I guess I have always been a conservative; losing a leg seemed like a high price to pay for cruising on the back of a motorcycle. I rode with my friend and fellow Vietnam vet Perez, but never got up solo again. In the spring of occasional years, I get the urge, which I usually stifle quickly; I nearly destroyed my right leg falling off of a nearly stationary mountain bike six years ago, so riding a motorcycle would likely result in, at least, disfigurement or at worst, a fiery death.

But the point of this is that the book is eminently readable and it is a light-hearted distraction from the more serious events that have come down the pike here. MLB has been hospitalized for a rip-roaring case of pneumonia, so I have been spending lots of time motoring home, to see to Max the Wonder Dog, and then motoring back to the hospital, to provide some cheap entertainment and diversion for MLB, who is flat on her back, IV's flowing, oxygen in nose, and discomfort a given for the near term. All of the other stuff I usually read and write about has, for the most part, been relegated to the nether regions of my tiny brain.

And I spoke with a friend who is having stem-cell transplants at a fancy big-time hospital in another part of the country, Dr. Phil's wife is home with some evil respiratory crud, so my mind is reeling with medical terminology, thoughts of suffering of others, and my mood has descended, briefly I hope, to the level of half-funk. So, before the funk gets any deeper or funkier, I'm going to stop and get back to humorous and light and sweet stories of motorcycles and adventures I'll never take. More later, when the mood lightens and my sunny bride brings her smile and her heart home--Max and I miss her.

AJ

TO LIVE IN FREEDOM'S LIGHT IS THE RIGHT OF MANKIND.

After seeing this morning's news reports about the devastation and loss of life from yesterday's tornado activity, I thought to myself, "Maybe I'll write a facetious blog post about how the Bush/Cheney administration caused the tornados." But, I had to go to work and then other things intervened when I returned home, so I never got around to the idea.

I was, however, just reminded of it when I read that the Tall Gas-Bag Bloviating Senator from Massachusetts today actually said, sort of, in his typical rambling, nonsensical way, that global warming was responsible for the deadly tornados. So far as I know, there is no evidence to support this idea, but that wouldn't prevent Senator Kerry from saying it, now would it? I am amazed that he didn't blame the current administration for the devastation, but I suppose there's still time for that in the next couple of days.

AJ

TO LIVE IN FREEDOM'S LIGHT IS THE RIGHT OF MANKIND (no exceptions this time.)

As I noted in yesterday's post, we spent some time standing in various lines at our local polling place, waiting to cast our vote in the primary. As I noted, the crowd was amiable--and geriatric--and well-behaved. There was no weeping or wailing that I could discern, but apparently at another polling place nearby our placid mountain burg, there was some weeping and wailing. The local daily newspaper, sometimes good for a laugh with a dufus-headline missing an important word, had a story about the lines at all nearby polling places. And there was a quote, from a man who claimed to be a Vietnam veteran--the quote was, "I'm a Vietnam vet and I can't believe I risked my life for this kind of crap." The "kind of crap" this poor man risked his life for was standing in line for AN HOUR to vote.

Three things. One, this kind of "thinking" gives Vietnam veterans a bad name; couldn't the local paper have found a Vietnam veteran who felt privileged to spend a little time exercising his or her franchise? Apparently not. Two, one of the things people (well, thoughtful people, at least) recognize is that when they put on the uniform of the armed forces of the United States, they are fighting for exactly the "kind of crap" this guy found so difficult to tolerate--the right to vote for someone to represent his political party in an election to select a national leader. Damned few people in the modern world, and damned fewer in the not-too-distant past, have been granted that right and privilege. Those of us who served in the military at any time, in Vietnam or not, helped to secure that right for ourselves and, as far as the Vietnamese were concerned, well, we tried, unsuccessfully, to secure that right for them. Three: An hour is a big deal? See my note at the end of yesterday's post about being glad for the absence of threats of physical harm in order to vote--standing in line for an hour is a damned small price to pay.

So, while reading about the weeping and wailing of some "Vietnam vet," and his lament about waiting an hour to vote, it was me doing the gnashing of teeth. I'm still steamed. . . .

AJ

TO LIVE IN FREEDOM'S LIGHT IS THE RIGHT OF MANKIND (except for the dipstick referred to, above).

Today was primary day for lots of people around the nation, MLB and myself included. So, after my regular shift at the slaughterhouse, I made the drive back home, picked up MLB, and we trundled over to our local polling place inside a nice gymnasium adjacent to a church that obviously exalts physical as well as spiritual health.

We live in an area with plenty of geezers, which makes driving around here at turns interesting, infuriating, and dangerous; today's trip to the polls reminded me of how aged our little mountain community is. There were more walkers, canes, limps, wheezers, stumblers, gropers, hearing aids, liver spots, and portable oxygen tanks in the polling place than I have ever seen, anywhere, anytime. The youngest person in the room was a woman standing in line behind me; she must have been about 40 and she was clearly the only representative from that particular demographic group in a roomful of doddering buzzards. We all stood in various lines for, I heard, upwards of two hours, waiting to make a selection that took all of about 12 seconds, but I didn't hear a single complaint, nor did anyone audibly moan about being "disenfranchised" by having to wait a bit in line before casting the ballot. Frankly, the whole process was anti-climax and a little disappointing; I wanted to show off, as the Iraqis did in their elections, a purple-stained finger, but all I got was one of those "I Voted" stickers that won't stick to anything. One of the election volunteers, a geezer herself, wearing red Converse high-top sneakers, repeatedly announced that things would be better, more organized she meant, in November, but aside from some standing around and some shuffling from line to line, it was pretty damned painless.

And no one was worried about being blown up or gunned down just for showing up to vote. Wonderful. And that reminds me--TO LIVE IN FREEDOM'S LIGHT IS THE RIGHT OF MANKIND.

AJ

ABC News, Fox News, Bloomberg News, and other sources, reported recently that two women with Down Syndrome were used as homicide bombers in Iraq the other day. If these reports are true (and remember, just because it's widely reported, doesn't mean it's true) the Islamofascists have indeed sunk to a new low. Dr. Phil and I were discussing this and I mentioned that the new brand of fascists have apparently chosen to rid themselves both of infidels and opponents through this sort of tactic, and like the Nazis they emulate, they have apparently decided to eliminate the disabled amongst themselves, too, in the process. Unlike the Nazis, who only tortured and murdered the disabled, the infirm, the mentally ill, homosexuals, gypsies, Jews and other "vermin" from their midst (their word--vermin--not mine) the new Nazis of the Middle East now will use their disabled to commit unwitting acts of murder against innocents. I cannot think of a word that describes the incomprehensible evil that would permit people to think up and carry out this kind of act--if you can think of the appropriate term, please let me know.

AJ

TO LIVE IN FREEDOM'S LIGHT IS THE RIGHT OF MANKIND.

P.S.: See this site for more edifying materials from the Religion of Peace: http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=IA41908