Bluegrass, Malabar, Politics

Went to Malabar Farm (home of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, novelist, screenwriter, and conservationist Louis Bromfield). It's also where Bogart and Bacall were married in a small ceremony on May 21, 1945.

Then we went to the Friday sessions of the 20th annual Mohican Bluegrass Festival. Our favorite banjo player, Robert Montgomery (entertaining videos on YouTube), was performing with David Davis and the Warrior River Boys.

David Davis & the Warrior River Boys

Northwest Territory

Nora Jane Struthers

David Davis & the Warrior River Boys

Fortunately, not too much gospel this time, which brings me to one of my pet peeves, the vehement insistence by some that a banjo and fiddle accompaniment makes a gospel song bluegrass, I beg to differ! That's just an excuse for those "good ol' boys" to wear their religion out on their sleeves, try to proselytize and get y'all down to their next prayer meetin'... Far as I'm concerned, gospels need to be saved for the church and prayer meetin's, 'cause it aint bluegrass, which for the most part comes from the Celtic roots in Appalachia, from jigs, reels, and clogging music that (mainly) the Irish immigrants brought to the mountains with them during and after the great Potato Famine. Yes, I know there have been a lot of other influences since then, but gospels? Come on, really? Gospels are bluegrass? Give me a break! Let me direct your attention to the link on the right side of this page to the "Freedom From Religion Foundation." Let's keep religion in the churches and out of politics and out of the class rooms, not to mention bluegrass concerts...;-)~

Speaking of politics...

No, I don't expect the politicians to fix anything, other than their own vested interests... Until we as a society demand good wages for good American jobs (manufacturing and service), and are willing to also pay the higher prices that those good paying jobs will demand, we are all part of the problem. And certainly there's little political will to fix the problem in the current (or for that matter, any) Congress filled with professional politicians.

The current state in this country is actually one of de facto slavery. But Slavery was always a boon to the landed, the merchant class, and later, the industrialists. Doesn't matter what name that feudalism took, or which part of the world fostered it, serfdom, imperialism, capitalism, communism, socialism. From King Tut and his ancestors to the Roman empire, to King David, to the Christian Popes, to Genghis Khan, to King John and the British empire, to ... Jefferson Davis, all the way down to John Boehner, slavery has always been the cheapest way to produce goods and services. Unfortunately, to actually pay free men/women a living wage dampens our overlords profits to the point of psychological depression for them. Better that we, the slaves/poor/middle class, die of disease, famine, and exposure... reduce the population and give those who need the least more of everything, since none of us deserves anything but their leavings. But they just don't seem to get it, that when their gluttonous dreams are realized, there won't be enough dupes left to purchase those slavery produced goods and services... Oh well...

Final pit stop...

And be on thy guard against the good and the just! They would fain crucify those who devise their own virtue - they hate the lonesome ones.--Friedrich Nietzsche 

Distrust everyone in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!--Friedrich Nietzsche

A Stroll in Wayne National Forest

We went for a short stroll in Wayne National Forest today. The day was overcast and the temperature was in the upper 60s.

Watched the President's speech tonight. Was hoping for really bold FDR style proposals to get the economy moving... but alas, just got the same ol', same ol'... nothing bold or anywhere near large enough to accomplish anything significant, or to feel optimistic about. And there's nothing to convince me that, even as tepid as these proposals are that the ultra conservatives who sense political advantage from uncompromising opposition will do anything other than they have since the President was elected. Not exactly a promising outlook for the next year or so... Hope I'm missing something, but I'll need convincing.

And as far as this lie I've been hearing recently by ultra conservatives, that SS is a Ponzi scheme, and broken beyond repair, that the next generation of retirees and those thereafter won't receive their benefits is outrageous. And as Lenin said, “A lie told often enough becomes the truth.” Don't believe it for a second. The fix is easy, but it means that those with everything already will also have to pay their fair share. They try to act like victims, but it's the poor and middle class that are the victims. What the privileged have, they've stolen from the rest of us. It's time for them to get what's coming to them... and I don't mean more tax breaks, or golden parachutes or bonuses for defrauding the elderly, poor, and middle class of their homes, retirement savings, and investments...

America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week.--Evan Esar 

The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.--Albert Einstein 

The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on.--Joseph Heller

Listening to trains and rain...

I'm hearing rain on my roof and train whistles in the deep dark, out to the north-east by the river's edge. It's early in the morning now, but I'm not sleepy yet... so I'll write a little. The weather/climate related disasters, along with the man made ones of the last few months are matching my dark mood, in sympathy with soaking rain and distant train whistles this night.

From Google Images -- Justice... NOT!

The news lately isn't encouraging either, with the criminals who are robbing the poor and middle classes blind given even more incentives to continue their criminal behavior, even though that behavior caused the economic collapse from which we are all (except for those very criminals) still suffering. They produce nothing, only schemes to steal the money and property of unsuspecting dupes, who invest in their scams (and those dupes include pension funds, unions, cities, states, and individuals), or just use that money and property to make even more ill gotten gains, plus destroy our planet's echo system. It's all a big rigged lottery game, where the crooks (house) always win. Not only have those criminals NOT been prosecuted or punished in any way, they've been handed unprecedented salaries and bonuses, while producing NOTHING! All the while their cronies and stooges in congress and state governments cut salaries and benefits for the working class, along with the jobs and services needed to address the natural and man-made disasters this country currently faces. And what of "justice?" Why it serves the ones that have most everything already, bought and payed for!... And worst of all, there's no real outcry, no outrage from the victims, the dupes. They just shut their mouths, hope it won't get any worse for them, not wanting to rock the boat... well me thinks it's time to rock that boat, and any time I see a clear way to do that, consider it done... I'm tired of life being easy for the richest, most conniving among us...;-)~

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty. --Benjamin Franklin

Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.--Benjamin Franklin

He that lives upon hope will die fasting.--Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac, preface, 1758