COLLECTIVE MADNESS
“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
I'll be back in the morning.
ReplyDeleteSweet dreams, hoss.
ReplyDeleteLooks like an open bar, everbody!
Think I'll have a double Bushmills and a strawberry soda back. Just to get warmed up.
I can't stop laughing.
ReplyDeleteI have NO IDEA what happened back there. None. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Squat.
The Mad Tea Party.
ReplyDeleteHow hard Is it to change the name of a blog?
Maybe a fishing trip would be just the thing.
ReplyDeleteHey there, Stella!
ReplyDelete...you get a line and i'll get a pole we'll go down to the crawdad hole honey, sugar baby mine.
Good to see you back.
ReplyDelete.
You can all go fuck off. And stay fuck off.
ReplyDeleteBut I'd note in passing, Idaho won the Hunmanitarian Bowl by a single point, I think it was 43-42.
Fuck ass Linear can go check on it for you.
Great game. The Kentuckies came on down and scored with 40 seconds to go, putting them one touchdown ahead, but our Idaho men, some of whom live in bob's apartments, well tenanted, lively, true, scored with 4 seconds left, and, shoved a two point conversion up their ass, like I'd like to do to Linear.
Right there on the blue field, we won.
As a gesture of appreciation, I'll raise their rent next year, cause I know they'll be there, and they've earned it.
Stella B., why don't you and Linear move in together somewhere out in the country, like by a lake or something.
ReplyDeleteY'all can bugger one another.
Doc Watson...
ReplyDeleteCrawdad Hole.
Bob, Bob, Bob...
ReplyDeleteI'm not her type, and anyhow...
...we'd never burden the thread with our inane chit chat.
Would we, Stella?
.
Hey, Bob.
ReplyDeleteIf Stella and I was to come up to Idaho for some fishin', could we use your condo?
.
Stella B. Starlight seems to be a fucking lawyer.
ReplyDeleteLet's hang her, get the night off right.
Then we'll string up Linear.
Yeah, sure, you can use it.
ReplyDeleteFor awhile.
I just want a damage deposit.
No rent though, it yours.
I'm open minded man, take people off the streets.
Am I to take that as a no?
ReplyDeleteSeems kinda unneighborly.
Just sayin'
.
Oh, well...
ReplyDeleteThank you, Bob.
Sorry I jumped the gun there.
.
No prob with the damage receipt.
ReplyDeleteWe'll bring our own linens and towels.
Gut the fish before we come in the house...
You know the drill.
.
In the early dark hours of October 23, 1985, just days before 'Frets Magazine' named him the best finger-picking guitarist of the year in folk, blues, or country music, Eddy Merle Watson rolled his farm tractor on a steep hillside near his home, ending the life of one of the world's great musicians in a tragedy worthy of the blues ballads he loved...
ReplyDeleteDoc and Merle Watson.
RIP, Merle.
.
Whoa,
ReplyDeleteThat's some kinda pickin', there.
Pour a glass of sippin' whiskey, set back and listen...
ReplyDeleteDoc and Merle with Michael Coleman
.
That second tune, Settin' on Top of the World, was done by Delaney and Bonnie on one of my all time favorite albums back in the '70s, Delaney and Bonnie and Friends, Motel Shot.
ReplyDeleteCan't find it anywhere on youtube.
.
Chinese Manufacturing Rises Most in 5 Yrs
ReplyDeleteSeems like they're back to 10% + Growth.
To my Melody, clear eyed, and bright, the light of my very life--
ReplyDeleteLike A Rock
Sorry, Rufus.
ReplyDeleteSippin' whiskey and good pickin' music...
I just cain't handle no Chinese ekonomiks...
...at the moment.
.
A man
ReplyDeleteMust learn to
Move like the wind
They are all gone now
The old ones I loved so well
A man must move like the wind
Where are they now
Those ones I loved so well
They are gone
Yet I get up and move
That's what a man must do
The Hindu word for world
I have read
Translates as
It moves, it moves
That's the meaning of it
In Hindu
Yet, they also know
A center remains
bob said...
ReplyDeleteA man
Must learn to
Move like the wind
They are all gone now
The old ones I loved so well
A man must move like the wind
Where are they now
Those ones I loved so well
They are gone
Yet I get up and move
That's what a man must do
The Hindu word for world
I have read
Translates as
It moves, it moves
That's the meaning of it
In Hindu
Yet, they also know
A center remains
Of the moving wind
There, that's better
What if we've been put on a watch list?
ReplyDeleteI don't want to be in the first cohort to be sentenced to Barry's Rubber Rooms.
"Kill 'em and eat 'em.
ReplyDeleteIts them or us!" read the sign
on the stables road.
...................
Two daughters, one bear,
shared a ledge on Half Dome trail.
Mel got her pack back.
.....................
Family Haiku by linearthinker
...remember 5--7--5
.
Don't worry, Doug. If they've got Us on a "watch" list they'll be too busy laughing to cause us any trouble.
ReplyDeleteOne more:
ReplyDeleteImitation is
easily the sincerest
form of flattery.
.
YOu worry too damn much, doug.
ReplyDelete.
A Message from your buddy, Pat, Rufus!
ReplyDeleteA Decade of Self-Delusion
About the first decade of what was to be the Second American Century, the pessimists have been proven right.
According to the International Monetary Fund, the United States began the century producing 32 percent of the world's gross domestic product. We ended the decade producing 24 percent. No nation in modern history, save for the late Soviet Union, has seen so precipitous a decline in relative power in a single decade.
The United States began the century with a budget surplus. We ended with a deficit of 10 percent of gross domestic product, which will be repeated in 2010. Where the economy was at full employment in 2000, 10 percent of the labor force is out of work today and another 7 percent is underemployed or has given up looking for a job.
Between one-fourth and one-third of all U.S. manufacturing jobs have disappeared in 10 years, the fruits of a free-trade ideology that has proven anything but free for this country. Our future is being outsourced -- to China.
While the median income of American families was stagnant, the national debt doubled.
The dollar lost half its value against the euro. Once the most self-sufficient republic in history, which produced 96 percent of all it consumed, the U.S.A. is almost as dependent on foreign nations today for manufactured goods, and the loans to pay for them, as we were in the early years of the republic.
What the British were to us then, China is today.
You can take it, one way or the other, just as you please, by moving some words around, in the last gasp there.
ReplyDeleteAs for me, I think I'd like to meet my grandfather there.
But, I ain't sure.
linear found nothing abnormal, all systems go.
ReplyDeleteSomeone else thot lithium was in order.
I just thot the abbearance Czar's attention might be caught.
I know what it is.
ReplyDeleteYou don't have any whiskey in the house, do you doug?
Must be Sonia's influence.
...abbearance...
ReplyDeletec'mon now. is that a word?
.
Whiskey won't help you out.
ReplyDeleteI've learned that teaching.
Goodnight, LInear, I'm angry no longer.
"March 7, 1650
ReplyDeleteCouncil of State, Day's Proceedings.
I. Mr. Frost to take Mr. Dugard's subscription to the engagement,
and his recognizance for his future good abbearance according to
the sense of a paper sent by him to the Council."
The Mad Tea Party (formerly Elephant Bar) Sitcom
ReplyDeleteCasting Director's Report
Deuce revealed. Full frontal nudity.
.
Good night, Bob.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year to ya.
.
Blogger Deuce said...
ReplyDeleteI'll be back in the morning.
Trish was heard to mutter, ...Oh fuck, Deuce...
never.ever.leave.those.guys.alone.in.the.bar.
.
Buchanan is a buffoon.
ReplyDeleteThe Euro began trading at $1.19 to the Dollar. It's now at $1.46.
And, this statement:
Once the most self-sufficient republic in history, which produced 96 percent of all it consumed,
He didn't mention that that was one of the primary causes of the War Between the States. The Northern-dominated Congress passed trade laws that forced the Southern States to buy equipment/machinery from the North at a much higher price than they could get from Europe, and force them to Sell their agricultural products to the Yankees at a Lower price than they could get abroad.
As for "manufacturing:" We will continue to automate/roboticize. That's the only way to stay ahead of the pack.
Oh, and he didn't mention that "production," itself, has, with the exception of the last year, continued to rise.
He's just a blowhard, nazi asshole.
That should have been $1.19 to the Eurodollar. $1.46 to the Eurodollar.
ReplyDeleteBuchanan is a buffoon.
ReplyDelete...
He's just a blowhard, nazi asshole.
...
Amen, brother!
Meanwhile, in my headphones...
...let me hear ye son...
...[Merle's riff]
...Well the ol' Mississippi,
she's a deep and wide,
and the gal that I love,
Lord she's on the other side...
...and now she's gone,
and I don't worry,
cause I'm settin' on top o' the world...
.
Ohhhh, lordy!
ReplyDeleteI'm in for a headache in the mornin'.
That fresh bottle of Bushmills...half gone. No buttermilk.
Good reason to sleep in til noon, I guess.
.
A man must move like the wind
ReplyDeleteis dammed good, Linear.
Go there now, and do better.
Tom Paxton. last thing on my mind
ReplyDelete..from the source.
Ian and Sylvia did it well, also. Y'all probably heard it first by Peter, Paul and Mary.
.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBuchanan, Nazi.
ReplyDeletePeter, Paul, Marry,
Commies, all.
Stepped out front for a smoke...saw the paper shrouded in its little plastic bag layin' in the snow.
ReplyDeleteTiptoed off the walk to pick it up...did a header into the damn snow...
Time to hit the hay.
Night, Bob...et al.
.
You too, doug.
ReplyDelete:-)
ReplyDeleteNite linear!
You'll have to explain this "snow" phenomenon, sometime.
"Thus sang the uncouth Swain to th'Okes and rills,
ReplyDeleteWhile the still morn went out with Sandals gray,
He touch'd the tender stops of various Quills,
With eager thought warbling his Dorick lay:
And now the Sun had stretch'd out all the hills,
And now was dropt into the Western bay;
At last he rose, and twitch'd his Mantle blew:
To morrow to fresh Woods, and Pastures new"
Love is like an itching in my heart
ReplyDeletePeru's mountain people face fight for survival in a bitter winter
ReplyDeleteClimate change is bringing freezing temperatures to poor villages where families have long existed on the margins of survival!!!
Now some must choose whether to save the animals that give them a living, or their children
—
If it is hot and dry, and crops die next year,
the cause will be…
You guessed it:
Climate Change!
Should have told you earlier, hope sale is still on @ RadioShack:
ReplyDeleteI got a Logitech Wireless Keyboard and Mouse for 14 bucks.
Bought two.
Favorite feature:
Smallest, lightest keyboard I've had.
...always suffered small keyboard envy with Mac owners.
Carey Bell
ReplyDelete"When I get drunk"
also:
ReplyDelete1. Hoochie Coochie
2. Smokin' Dynamite
3. Second Hand Man
4. Crosscut Saw
5. Leaving in the Morning
6. I'm Your 44
7. Going Back to Louisiana
8. Everybody Wants to Win
9. I'm Ready
10. Nineteen Years Old
11. You're Gonna Get Lucky
12. Sail On
1. Short Dress Woman
ReplyDeleteU2 & B.B. King: When Love Comes To Town
ReplyDeleteUmmm, Doug...
ReplyDeleteYou're not going to like this...
There's been a new post up for the last couple hours.
Don't have mother Teresita to tell me.
ReplyDeleteYou MoFos don't either!
Okay, PMS is over.
ReplyDelete