When It rains, It pours…..Aaaaand the DSL Goes out and me and the wife get very annoyed and I want to kick the Computer, the guy who did the wiring in this house and Verizon, not necessarily in that order. I know I shouldn’t get frustrated with things I have no control over, but what else can i do? Maybe want to do the things I do Online less if I know that issues creep up like this every once in a while. That’s one answer, and maybe the best one there is. Wanting always leads to issues, If you are content with what you have, where you are, you don’t have issues like that. But there aren’t too many Humans who can pull that trick off. I can do it sometimes, but not all the time and not always very well. I do what I can.
Politics: Why do I care about politics? Hmm… Long story, but I have time, a keyboard and the will to express myself, so here goes.
I Love America. I love the freedom that America represents, not just to ourselves but to the world around us. The Constitution is a deep and well thought out document that protects the rights of all citizens about as well as a document can. And does it better than any document or political doctrine that has come out since. Nothing there you didn’t know.
I am a third generation American. My Grandmother on my fathers side came over from Ireland about 80 or so years ago. I believe my Polish Grandmother on my mothers side came over some short time prior to that, but for now I wish to speak of my Fathers side of the family. There are members of My family that still have that thick Irish brough, or something resembling it at least, and there are members of the Family who still speak the Irish Gaelic language. Admittedly not many but they are still around. I actually know a wee bit of it Myself. Dia Dhuit! Conas Ta Tu? Go Rah Maigh Agat! and other such statements.
Those two may seem like Unrelated statements but they aren’t. We Irish are a very Politically Motivated people, and for good reason. We were, for hundreds of years, an Oppressed people, and it was only with the dawning of this century , and with a great deal of bloody violence in late 1910′s and early 1920′s that we gained our freedom. I heard stories when I was a kid of Older family members and friends of the family, caught during the troubles and their Kids were forced to watch them be executed, Murdered by the British. Those kids were my uncles, My Fathers oldest siblings. Don’t know how true the stories were, but they definitely had an effect.
Family Members, executed fighting for their freedom. If that won’t give an ever so slightly Political bent, and a subversive one at that, to your thought at some point in your life, you don’t have one. Kinda thing that makes you want to be a freedom fighter yourself. To fight the good fight.
That turned fairly early on into an interest In politics. I got my first taste of it in the Mid 1970′s, at the ripe old age of 9, paying attention to the 1976 presidential race. I listened to both the Republicans and the Democrats, and I placed my heart with Jimmy Carter, and was Pleased as could be when he won. I don’t think It turned out quiet the way I wanted it to tho. The Iran Hostages thing left a sour taste in my mouth. By the time that Happened I was a Little more sophisticated, not much in reality, I was after all still only a kid.
I was never a fan of Reagan, he seemed to me too much the Actor. I liked his splendid little wars tho. They did bring something that was missing to the country, Morale. We needed a boost, and Nothing gave us a boost quite like Blowing up some poor little country. Initially I was dead set against this type of thing, But explosions are fun to watch when you’re high. And I was high.
I was a naive little thing back then, and fell for the Reagan thing. I remember goofing on the John Lennon Song singing “All we are saying, Is Give Ed Meese a Chance” That always got a giggle. I am trying to remember exactly what it was that got me on the Reagan bandwagon besides Explosions and pretty speeches….That what it was! The Commies! I HATED the communists back then. They were the enemies of America! F*ck’em! He hated them and thought they were wrong from The Beginning to end and everywhere in between, and that was Just Fine by me.
The Republican thing died for me, at least on a National level, with Reagan. I have voted for Republicans on the local level, Susan Molinari and Vito (Drunky) Fossella, The Borough President, who is invariably an Italian Republican, who in most ways gets the job done, I guess. Does what he can for the Island, and he’s a Good Enough guy. Molinari for a long time, and when he left, Molinaro. The joke was, when we elected the new guy in, It wasn’t a change of Borough Presidents, It was a change of vowels.
The Democratic voting for me really began in earnest with Mario Cuomo. Mario was the Man. He was the BEST damn Governor this state had had since….Al Smith? Ya, that’s the name. He was always right. He always fought for the Little guy, and he always won. Couldn’t have been a bigger fan. On the Presidential level, for me, the Democrats of the 80′s weren’t really all that much good. Walter Mondale? Uggggh, Besides being from Minnesota, I could not have told you a thing about him. Well…..That and he was the where’s the beef guy. Not gonna build a presidential resume based on that. Dukakis wasn’t much better, The Republicans made Willie Horton Stick to him, even tho it wasn’t him who passed that furlough law. And I remember him looking like mickey mouse while riding a tank in some picture. Beyond that, Not much. It took a Hick from the Sticks to Fix the Democratic Presidential Dilemma. Guy you may have heard of.
Bill Clinton. Great President. Had his eye on the Prize the whole time…except for his problem with women. And That never bothered me. He was the Best Leader this country has seen in my lifetime on an economic level. The Only one who could balance a budget. THE Only one.
Listen, That’s it for me. I’ve rambled on too long and gone a fair bit beyond what I was initially going to write. I’m gonna go hang out with the wife and watch some Alton Brown.
Hang out with the wife? WHAT A NOVEL CONCEPT! Think I’ll do it! YESH!
No Guitar stuff today. I played, a fair bit today, well considering that the last two days I didn’t play at all. 40 minutes is a fairly long time. Dammit, I wanted to play more, but it just didn’t happen. I’ll try to play some tomorrow. T’would be nice. If I get the time to. The landlord is coming over with some guy to look at fixing my bathroom, might not have time to play tomorrow. 
Play a few Notes for me. JAM ON!
Today’s Nuggets: A man sometimes starts up a patriot, only by disseminating discontent, and propagating reports of secret influence, of dangerous counsels, of violated rights, and encroaching usurpation. This practice is no certain note of patriotism. To instigate the populace with rage beyond the provocation, is to suspend publick happiness, if not to destroy it. He is no lover of his country, that unnecessarily disturbs its peace. Few errours and few faults of government, can justify an appeal to the rabble; who ought not to judge of what they cannot understand, and whose opinions are not propagated by reason, but caught by contagion. The fallaciousness of this note of patriotism is particularly apparent, when the clamour continues after the evil is past. Samuel Johnson
There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty. John Adams
