February 20, 2019

I posted my thoughts on riding to a post elsewhere on the board

But figure they belong here.

The riding togs-I had to hang them up too
and here's the thing,while it fills me with regret I will never forget...

A two lane blacktop and the feeling of carving a curve just right. How life was perfect when the sun was hot and I rode into the shadow of tall pines and the temperature drop cooled me. Turning the throttle up until the road stripes blurred. The sorrow the first time a rider friend was killed. How cold and miserable a hard rain can be. The smell and pinging of a cooling engine in the silence of a rest stop. How I loved those I rode with. The pain and joy a simple machine gave to me over 40 years.

A morning comes dark with the air chill and dewy as the sun rises over the lake. I'm riding a Kawasaki and Dave has a 4 cylinder Yamaha. They call these "pocket rockets" for their performance and speed. We mount, I choke the cow down as we fire up and listen as they warm and I glove up. Dave signals OK? and I chop the choke as the motor steadies and signal to go. It's a half mile, mostly uphill to the two lane black top, we turn right. Now down the road we dance as the sunlight dapples and jazzes and jumps between the stands of pine. Beethoven wrote an Ode to Joy and that our motors snarled and spit, even sweeter to our ears. And still the morning rose.

Here is where I'm supposed to tell you something that ties this together, but I can't. It doesn't make sense and never will. It cost and it hurts and it cripples and it kills. It costs and it inconveniences and drives your loved ones crazy. There's a thousand reasons that less than 4 wheels is a loser idea. And there isn't a single sane reason motorcycles exist. Except this-for over 40 years they gave me joy at times. Seldom in the rain and almost never in the snow and only now and then when cloudy or cold. But when it was right, it was the best joy and when wrong was just still joy and I seldom got that on more wheels.

I'm now old and no bike will ever again be mine, I'll miss the older days of stiff-legging a start while tickling primers and chokes but also the dead reliable plug n play of later rides. I'll denigrate today's cappuccino riders just because the modern stuff is so easy and so good. But I know even in midst of pediatricians in chaps and lawyers in faux cuts breathe the souls of two or three kindred souls. The legacy was passed to me by guys who rode harder than me on cruder gear and with less companions, I now pass it on to others it is only fit. Take what it gives you.

February 7, 2019

The Democratic Party needs to send two messages.

1. The Governor of Virginia was chosen by the voters of Virginia. He has been accused of a crime which he denies. Neither the party nor any individual member should make public comments until he is cleared or criminally charged. There should be no calls for resignation prior to a full and fair investigation.

2. Trump has engaged in unfair attacks and distortions against Elizabeth Warren, a possible presidential candidate. Unless he immediately ceases the Democratic Party will engage a PR firm to publicize Trumps history of deliberately lying and claiming Swedish ancestry which the family started after WW2 when his Klansman father wanted to hide their' familiy's German heritage from possible Jewish real estate clients. Since he loves the nickname "Pocahontas" they should work to provide the president with one such as "Sven the Swede" or "Olaf the Orange".

In short we maintain the high ground but without hysterics. If a Democrat is accused of wrongdoing we investigate and if guilty of a crime we throw them out. But the lynching should die here. Imagine a party that tosses away a candidate of Warren's caliber because the president called her names and they lack the balls and decency to stand up for her. Fight clean people but fucking fight!

January 22, 2019

You know those boys go to Catholic School

because the parents think their religion is restricted in public schools and they want their freedom to worship. And I've seen some defend the boys on just having fun and joining in the spirit of the Indian prayer ceremony. Suppose some Jews were sitting Shiva-would it be OK for them to join in wailing in false Hebrew??? How about during the Muslim call to prayer-going barefoot and screaming "Allah Akbar"-that OK too? They were mocking and interfering with someone else's religious exercise and that skirts close to a hate crime. But YMMV...

January 3, 2019

Why are the Romneys successful as politicians?

Mitt's great-grandfather fled to Mexico when US law outlawed polygamy. The family fled back to the US during the Mexican revolution. His father was a spokesman for Rambler and failed to serve in WW2 but later became governor of Michigan and later a candidate for President of the US despite his Mexican birth. Mitt avoided Vietnam with 5 deferments yet became governor of Massachusetts, a candidate for President of the US, and now a US senator.

So how does a family that once renounced citizenship and arrived back here around 1910, and without making a single sacrifice for this country manage to establish a viable political dynasty?

December 4, 2018

Just something I posted on FB...

I understand that King Bush the Deceased will Lie in State in the rotunda, which should give America closure in that it is the last place in the District in which he has provably not lied. If you miss my intent it is to say this-he ran death squads in Central America which put's him in a statistical tie with treason-weasel Nixon, treason weasel Reagan, and draft evader international war criminal George his Son and we are still scoring King Donald the F'in WOW...You should sense a trend which is this-since Kennedy was elected in 1960 the finest thing that could have happened to America would have been the retroactive abortion of those 5 men. That's 68 fucking years while republicans did what that made your personal life better? Now tell me why there should be a republican party in 2020?

November 22, 2018

A trip down memory lane...

My Mom was the best cook! Nah-not really-she was ok and had a few things she cooked well. But she was very much a wife of her times (50's and 60's) and she and her peers had a very limited horizon...(Now I give an example) in the early 60's a local school was putting out a cook book and a cousin who shall remain nameless submitted two recipes that nailed down her reputation as a knowledgeable cook of international cuisines. Both recipes featured a pound of browned hamburger, a cup of minute rice, and a can of Veg-All. Mexican rice also got a dash of hot sauce and Japanese rice got a splash of soy sauce. And sadly my family home did not contain both of those "exotic" spices...Our basic set of spices and condiments were salt and pepper, paprika, gravy master, ketchup, mustard, and relish. Later we added onion and garlic powder.
So here is the question-tell me about your Moms spice rack and recipes and how you cook now.

November 11, 2018

Relevent

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October 30, 2018

Just Saying...

Shortly after noon on August 31,1939 Hitler ordered hostilities against Poland to begin at 4:45 a.m. the next morning. At 8 p.m. on August 31, Nazi S.S. troops wearing Polish uniforms staged a phony invasion of Germany, damaging several minor installations on the German side of the border. They also left behind a handful of dead concentration camp prisoners in Polish uniforms to serve as further evidence of the supposed Polish invasion, which Nazi propagandists publicized as an unforgivable act of aggression.

Jeepers-I hope that caravan doesn't engage in any acts of violence at our border.

October 29, 2018

So Trump has called Andrew Gillum a thief

Funny how the presumption of innocence only applies to Republicans...

October 24, 2018

Immigrant Tales

more than 1.5 million adults and children left to seek refuge in America. Most were desperately poor, and many were suffering from starvation and disease... killed more than 1 million people in five years and generated great bitterness and anger... The immigrants who reach America settle in cities where they live in difficult conditions. But most manage to survive.


or


Between 1845 and 1855 more than 1.5 million adults and children left Ireland to seek refuge in America. Most were desperately poor, and many were suffering from starvation and disease. They left because disease had devastated Ireland’s potato crops, leaving millions without food. The Potato Famine killed more than 1 million people in five years and generated great bitterness and anger at the British for providing too little help to their Irish subjects. The immigrants who reached America settled in Boston, New York, and other cities where they lived in difficult conditions. But most managed to survive, and their descendants have become a vibrant part of American culture.

The second snip is from:http://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-26-2-the-potato-famine-and-irish-immigration-to-america.html