Dada's Dally

From Russia with Love!

2009-12-29T07:14:00.004-07:00

Last night I had a dream. I dreamed about a note of joint "Thanks!" to the United States. It came from Russia and its private oil giant, Lukoil, and it said:

Russia and our Lukoil consortium, which includes our Norwegian colleagues at Norway's Statoil ASA, wish to express our deepest appreciations to American taxpayers who have sacrificed hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of its soldier's lives to open up Iraqi oil fields to foreign investment.

It is because of these great U.S. sacrifices that we have just been able to complete
a deal with Iraq to develop the crown jewel of the 15 fields offered Tuesday, the 12.88 billion barrel West Qurna Phase 2 field.

Please note the American costs in dollars and lives expended have not been in vain. And for that Russia wishes to thank you!

(Note: Dada wishes to apologize to former president George Bush and his administration for assigning their motivation for the 2003 invasion of Iraq on their secret designs for Iraqi oil. In light of Russia's claim to Iraq's West Qurna oil field, it now appears obvious Bush's real reason for invading Iraq was all of Sadam's dangerous WMDs.)

Buy food or do hard time?

2009-12-26T10:54:00.004-07:00

Leah Bolger of Corvallis, OR, is a tireless activist against our unending wars and other social issues impacting the lives of all Americans. She walks the walk. Sometimes, however, her Facebook comments are seasoned with a sharp hint of welcome sarcasm. It provides readers a chuckle as respite from the seriousness of an issue. Here's her most recent example:

Solution to hunger: Pass a mandate requiring everyone to buy food.

Well, gee, that was so simple, why didn't more of us think of that? When I told Leah I would have to blog her idea over on Dada's, she said, "...I can't take total credit. I actually got the idea from Obama himself, who while campaigning, said that if mandates were the answer, then they could end homelessness by mandating that everyone buy a house."

So, okay, mandating certain actions of citizens as solution to a problem like Obama's homeless suggestion or Leah's hunger problem idea are not really practical. Why then didn't our congress "get it" when solving the health situation that somewhere between 47-60 million uninsured Americans (or is it now over 70 million in this economy, estimates vary) are now enjoying?

Maybe we should give Congress' requirement idea for all to buy health insurance (or face "penalties") a chance to work. Who knows, if it does, maybe we'll end hunger and homelessness next?

Further evidence we live in a multi-layered meaning ladened universe?

2009-12-26T08:56:00.004-07:00

My first glance at the headlines this morning saw me shaking my head in awe. More than just chance, was I witnessing some meaningful synchronicity of two supposedly unrelated, disparate events, to wit:

"Actor Charlie Sheen arrested in Colorado"
"Sheen spreads near disabled tugboat"

Apparently, the tugboat that hit the rocks off the coast of Alaska is spreading a sheen across the water a mile long, while Sheen is allegedly beating up on his girlfriend (? - domestic violence) in mile high country!

Wow, is that so "doo doo do doo" freaking weird? Or, did I just not get enough sleep last night?

And so this is Christmas!

2009-12-25T07:40:00.009-07:00

1963 - Working as a part-time janitor at a Capitol Records subsidiary studio at the time, I was asked to do a "dummy sit in" for George Harrison during a photo session of the Beatles first U.S. album cover, "Meet the Beatles." It was shortly before Christmas and everyone was still reeling with the shock of the assassination of President Kennedy, but I'll never forget when John Lennon turned to me and said, "If everyone demanded peace instead of another HDTV, then there'd be peace." (Okay, so I forgot what he said exactly. There was no such thing as High Definition television then. Maybe I've paraphrased -- so shoot me. But before you do, first have a nice Christmas day. ~from Dada and editor Sam.)

Juarez update in the ribbon wars

2009-12-18T06:25:00.009-07:00

(NOTE: As a result of the killing of a Juarez university professor this week, students there have taken to wearing white ribbons as a show of support in their call for peace in that city's endless drug war . It is Dada's deep concern that with causes expanding exponentially, very, very soon we will run out of colors for ribbons to wear signifying support for any particular cause such as the yellow used to show support of our troops, pink for breast cancer awareness, red ribbons for AIDS, blue - March of Dimes, white for end of drug war violence, pale yellow - spina bifida, etc. etc. If you have a cause, Dada thinks it may be expedient you claim your particular symbolic ribbon color soon -- while supplies last!*)

Yesterday I felt a strange twinge of deja vu. I'm speaking of the rearing memory of that ingenious page from the George W. Bush book of logic perversions (as apparently being successfully continued under his successor) that peace is war, deterioration is progress (or do I have those backwards?), etc.

If you remember, to make his case Bush proclaimed the increased violence in Iraq was evidence of our military's progress against increasingly more desperate acts of resistance there. Victory was at hand if only more U.S. troops were sent to answer the flaring violence with more violence of our own as a response toward the ongoing march to more war, thus lasting peace.

The trigger for my memory was Mexican President Felipe Calderon's optimism displayed this week while speaking on the occasion of his government's operation that ambushed and killed a Mexican drug kingpin. As he would have us believe, the drug war is being won. But in the city of Juarez, just over the border from El Paso, they don't seem to be "getting it."

Last evening a local TV station announced 20 more deaths were recorded in the past 24 hours in Juarez, to include a police officer, a university professor, and a group of children shot point blank when gunmen stormed into a house. That's almost one murder every hour and it sets up the opportunity for Juarez, with still two weeks remaining in 2009, to surpass last year's murders numbering 1,600+ by a whopping 1,000 or more (current murders in that city for 2009 equal 2,503)! It's incredible stats like these that keep the Guinness business (as in the book, Guinness World Records) humming right along.

And so, while Juarez may appear a contradiction to Calderon's drug war victory optimism, maybe the murders of law enforcement officials, educators or other innocent citizens such as children is simply -- as Bush or his successor might put it - "acts of desperation by a shrinking group of soon-to-be-losers."

( *In the Dada NOTE above listing sample causes and their associated ribbon colors, I'd intended to list Purple - for universal peace - but as I was reminded by my editor, Sam-the-dog, unlike humankind's spina bifida, their peace is an abstract concept only imagined, never realized.)

"I've got a Tiger by the tail it's plain to see" ~Buck O.

2009-12-14T16:35:00.008-07:00

This is a beautiful golf course. It requires a lot of water to stay afloat. If you are very, very lucky, you may catch a glimpse of Tiger Woods sometimes playing a round on it.

This is the beautiful 155-foot, par $22 million yacht "Privacy" owned by Tiger Woods. It requires a lot of water to stay afloat. If you are very, very unlucky, you may catch a glimpse of Tiger Woods sometimes playing around on it.

Checking in with Wendy

2009-12-14T06:45:00.011-07:00

Wendy Reyes - photo by Candy Hummel Mayer

I received a Facebook invitation from our friend Wendy Reyes to come out Friday and watch as she prepared a sidewalk chalk 'painting' for the annual celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe the following day). I considered driving over to the La Galeria de la Mision de Senecu in El Paso's lower valley to watch the work in progress, take a few pictures but, uncertain whether she might be there or not, I didn't go. (I wish I had. Little did I know she would have been there, having spent 10 hours Friday on this excellent creation!) Judging from the size of her other sidewalk chalks I have seen, this appears to be her biggest one yet. Way to go Wendy!

(Dada note: Wendy is a full-time college student who manages to involve herself in many activities outside her studies. And while her art output is prodigious during the school year, it's almost staggering to imagine the art that will be unleashed upon the community during her break between semesters. Dada is in total awe of Wendy's creativity and the many ways she manages to manifest it into our local reality for we who are the beneficiaries.)

Going to confession a day early.

2009-12-11T19:51:00.011-07:00

I took a little time last evening to read some old Dada's Dally blogs. Yes, most are bitter and angry (as only the mirror reflection of my reality can manifest them). But I was struck by the lighter, more flippant side exposed in some of those blogs. That's an element, more and more, that's become less and less apparent here. And I don't like that (despite my resolution at the beginning of this year to be "less optimistic .... to be more careful about what and whom I do(n't) love...and certainly...to be less cheerful").

In fact I've discovered, in most recent months, if I start a blog at the end of the day at some particular outrage like the sudden mysterious appearance of an annual insurance benefit limitation in the senate's "No lifetime or annual limits" portion of their health care bill that no one seems able to explain how it got in there or by whose hand, or Obama's hypocrisy-laden Nobel peace prize acceptance speech justifying war while trashing Gandhi or King, the usual histrionic Dada modus operandi rears its ugly head. But if I wait to post that blog until the following morning, with anger tempered after a good night's slumber and in the light of a new day, said blog will most likely fall by the wayside, i.e., go unprinted. Dada's 'Drafts Folder' swells with such angry retorts gone unpublished.

In that respect, I have failed in fulfilling my 2009 resolution. While I've always been gloomy in trying to live down to the premise of this blog, i.e., "Observations from the middle of the largest mass extinction since the dinosaurs, " I can't see where I've been more "less cheerful" this year. But that's nothing I take remorse in despite mankind's increasing race toward his own demise. In fact, the opposite is true.

So what's my point here? I don't know, unless it's a preamble to my 2010 New Year's resolution. While 2009 has failed to live down to the best of my worst expectations, many, many would have to admit it's been a pretty disappointing year. But if it's any consolation, feel not badly, I'm more pessimistic about 2010, particularly in light of the reality unfolding here at the end of the old new year, 2009.

Wandering allowed

2009-12-10T07:11:00.007-07:00

We are on an unavoidable head-on collision course with the future (unless, of course, we can turn things around)! ~Dada

Obama's 'Naked Harem' Afghanistan defense?

The trial of a local El Paso strip club owner charged with establishment prostitution and hiring underage dancers is applying the defense that she spent little time at her Naked Harem club and had no knowledge of prostitution or the ages of dances hired.

This may be a case worthy of study by president Obama. In that he has upped troop levels in Afghanistan for a second time and really isn't all that aware we will soon have 100,000 troops chasing the fewer than 100 Al Qaeda terrorists there, maybe he can absolve himself from responsibility and the tag "Obama's War." After all, Obama's not only spent little time in Afghanistan, he's actually never even been there. Maybe he really has no fucking idea what's going on there?

"Has the jury reached a verdict?"

"Not guilty, your honor!"

In the 'WFT?' category:

Headlines around the world after Tuesday's deadly attack in Iraq tell us Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the string of suicide bombings around Baghdad that killed 127 people and left 448 wounded.

But wait, from Obama's 12/02/09 Afghanistan speech:

Today...we are bringing the Iraq war to a responsible end. We will remove our combat brigades from Iraq by the end of next summer...we have given Iraqis a chance to shape their future, and we are successfully leaving Iraq to its people.

WTF? Maybe Obama should be pulling troops from Afghanistan to redeploy against Al Qaeda in Iraq? But, oh damn, that would only expedite our Afghanistan defeat to the Taliban. Maybe, maybe, oh shit, I don't know. Just seems when you achieve success here and turn to attend a problem there, success rears its ugly head and bites you in the ass.

health care - smealth care - who cares!

2009-12-06T13:16:00.006-07:00

Dada, in a surprise announcement Sunday afternoon, revealed he has changed his mind on health care reform and is now throwing his support behind the tea baggers he so vehemently opposed this past summer on what was the seminal issue for them.

When asked why the sudden change of heart, Dada replied: "When I heard of health insurer giant Aetna, who made a profit in 2009 declare it wasn't enough, that they would do better in 2010, my ears perked up.

"And when they revealed how they would do that, by cutting as many as 650,000 of their insured off of its rolls to attain the kind of profits that sates their shareholders expectations, well, that just blew me away.

"This is an extremely courageous move at this critically sensitive moment in the ongoing health care reform debate. I mean, for Aetna to snub their nose at Washington and stick it to all underinsured, uninsured and Americans about to become uninsured because they are too sick or simply an impediment to bigger Aetna profits, , I stand in awe!

"Having no voices with such brashness in opposition to the current system or, at least, none speaking up loud enough to be heard in Washington despite supposedly being a majority, Aetna has the juevos to propose decreasing the number of clients they insure and increasing premiums on those they choose to keep, and I salute them!

"In effect," Dada continued, "Aetna has the brass to say to everybody, 'Fuck you, what ya gonna do 'bout it?' and I love it. Like those tea baggers standing in defense of free enterprise to include profits off the sick and injured, you don't have to be a majority. You just have to yell down your opposition, stifle the debate and get good coverage in the press! Hell, you don't even have to be a voter, just a big bold profit sucking 'health provider' corporation like Aetna will do nicely.

"And if someone disagrees or stands in awe at such brashness, well, as Aetna migh say, 'Screw 'em!' Now that's the defiant 'spirit of America' you don't see in people much these days!"

Sometimes the gods make better jokes!

2009-12-04T06:19:00.018-07:00

This week I had lots going on inside my head besides wimpy Obama's concession to our warring powers that be. It all started Monday while eating breakfast and digesting the news.

1. I hit a piece of bone in my sausage laced pico de gallo sandwich. Trying to segregate it in my mouth from the bun, egg and cheese it's accompanying, I fail.

2. Giving up, I swallow it. "I really am eating the last of the meat gleaned off of pig's bones!" I say to myself. I vow to eat more faux vegetarian meats.

3. Later that day, I realize the sausage in my breakfast sandwich was vegetarian. "So what the hell did I swallow?" I ask myself. I have no answer.

4. In the evening my tongue brushes against a back tooth. It is sharp. Further investigation reveals I have lost a sizable chunk of that tooth. "But I don't even feel any discomfort!" I exclaimed. That's when I remember that's because this is my "dead" tooth that was killed years ago by a root canal.

5. Next morning I decide to give my dentist first crack my tooth. (No pun intended.) I am given a 9:45 appointment Thursday morning.

6. The next two days I envision my new laptop Christmas computer ending up in my mouth. I plot scenarios to avoid a merry Christmas destroying dream, killed by a hulky dental repair bill.

7. Thursday. The big day is finally here. Influenced by a story in the morning's paper about a ringside sports announcer suing someone for using his trademark phrase, "Are you ready to rumble?!" I decide to make up a joke for my dentist.

8. At his office, I don't use the joke (right away). We talk instead of the stock market (I am so grateful to be one of the contributors to his 900 share stash of GLD, the stock), visions of my vanishing Christmas laptop and, oh yeh, my tooth. I make the case for letting it slide awhile: it's a dead tooth; it's tooth #2 (last one in upper right row just in front of my only remaining, impacted, wisdom tooth that's never ever seen the light of day); and my fading laptop dream, of course. Doc pleads his case to cap the tooth, explaining why. After gathering the scorekeepers cards, the ringside decision results in a draw. We agree to let it slide for awhile. My vision of a laptop is rematerializing!

9. After the dentist smooths my broken tooth with some magic application, it is done. All in a matter of 15 minutes. I am so grateful, I remember my joke I made up just for him and say: "By the way," as he is on his way out of the room, "what's the status of your lawsuit against Sarah Palin?" He inquires, "What lawsuit against Sarah Palin?" "The one you brought against her for stealing your trademark phrase." He asks, "And what's that?" " 'Drill, baby, drill!' " I quip. He laughs. I am pleased.

10. I promised the dental receptionist on Tuesday that I would pay Mrs. Dada's bill after my appointment Thursday. There is no charge today. Thanking her, we exchange holiday wishes. I forget to pay her bill and leave.

11. On the way home because of my quick dental appointment, I decide to do some grocery shopping at my most convenient, least favorite, store -- Wal-Mart. Because it's later than I usually shop and it's the first of the month containing a Christmas, it's very, very crowded.

12: At 10:50 I get in a check-out line. At 11: 14 I turn to the restless line behind me and announce, "This line just got shorter!" That's because I discovered I had left my billfold at home. "If only the dentist had charged me something for this visit or I'd remembered to pay Mrs. Dada's bill I would have known this!" I say under my breath. The endlessly sighing lady with eyeballs rolling up the last 24 minutes behind me expresses her sudden sympathy then smiles, obviously very pleased for the shortened line .

13. For the first time in 8 years I realize we have finally justified being a two car family while waiting with my cart of thawing ice cream and other groceries for Mrs. Dada to arrive with my wallet .

14. With billfold received, Mrs. Dada suggests I return the thawing ice cream to the freezer, get a colder one before returning to a check-out line for another half hour wait. I do.

15. I look at my watch as I'm leaving the store: it's exactly one hour, twenty-three minutes since I got in my first check-out line. Wheeling my groceries to the car in a t-shirt, shorts and falling temperatures amid a steady arctic breeze in direct defiance of the weatherman's promises for the day, I flash a chilly smile toward the gods looking down on me with amusement.

16. I realize a total twenty minute *free* dental appointment was too much to ask for. And my Sarah Palin joke paled next to theirs.

On the positive side, however, images of sugar-plummed laptops still dance in my holiday head.

Welcome to Texas!

2009-12-03T18:37:00.006-07:00

Okay, let me TRY to digest this. Less than two weeks after "Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan cleaned out his apartment, gave leftover frozen broccoli to a neighbor" and went to 'work' at Fort Hood to kill 13 people, Farouk Shami, a Palestinian-American businessman announced his decision to run for governor -- of the state of Texas -- in 2010!

Good God Mr. Shami, why? This is the state of Texas, a part of America, for Christ's sake! (I shall pray for you.)

Waiting for a ride....

2009-12-02T17:04:00.022-07:00

Note: Dada disclaimer - what follows next is what happens when an entire article* is co-opted. (Said article link shown below because my damn html code doesn't seem to be working!) Okay, okay, "plagiarized." There I said it, which is technically correct, yet I feel overly harsh. What follows was written of Russia by a Russian, yet I couldn't help identity most everything he was saying with my own country, the U.S., so I copied and edited for use as a podium for this author's ideology. (Oh, and please note: this is coming to you from a parallel universe close to, but different from, our own.)

America, waiting for a driver to take her in a new direction down a new road less
traveled. But waiting becomes discouraging as no one shows up to drive her there.

While an extreme economic crisis continues to impact America, a certain unnamed Russian economist argues that the United States must democratize to avoid serious social clashes.

This director of the Russian Institute for the Economy in Transition ("Oh shit!" Dada hopes that doesn't give away the real identity of this prominent Russian economist who didn't actually say this -- in your Universe at least) describes two options Washington may take to curb protest: wide-scale repression, or democratization. The former could lead to unrest and even revolution. Yet whether U.S. authorities are willing or capable of doing the latter remains open to heated debate.

Writing on the conditions in the U.S. he reminds, "Unlike some nations that have had too many revolutions, America is relatively inexperienced with the phenomenon of great social upheaval and revolt," as he went on to hint perhaps the U.S. has not had enough revolutions (?).

“What is happening with the U.S. economy is having political consequences. Governing there when the population’s real income is rising and unemployment is below 5% is a pleasant occupation. Under those conditions political repressions and voting manipulations are not needed to maintain power and popularity. But leading a country when the population’s real income is declining and the number of unemployed is increasing rapidly is a difficult occupation.

“In this situation, Washington authorities have two options. First, they can harshen political repressions. As historical experience shows, this is the road to revolution and catastrophe. Sooner or later, the state will not have a single reliable regiment. The second option is to democratize the regime, enact a real separation between the branches of power, and restore the independence of the press, real elections, federalism, and the independence of the judiciary system — everything that allows a society to adapt to the realities of a changing world.

“This road is hard, and you won’t travel its full length in a few months, but many countries have succeeded on this road. Spain after Franco is the most vivid but far from the sole example of this. The election of Obama, based upon the hope for a new direction, left many thinking they were about to embark on that new road to the changes needed. But Americans are now finding their hopes for change ignored and, worse, dashed by Obama's continuation of many of the policies of his predecessor, George Bush.

"I hope your authorities will choose the strategy of adapting to the changed conditions of world development. But with the growing impatience of waiting for someone to show up to drive you there peacefully, I fear the alternative. The two revolutions that our country, Russia, has suffered through in the twentieth century were enough for us, but maybe America needs to have one of their own to more quickly experience the change they so desperately desire.

"But beware, it will not be pleasant!”

* Original article here

Just a thought...

2009-12-01T07:07:00.007-07:00

Photograph: Rupert Frere/AP

Just wondering....

....Seeing as how Obama is to commit to an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, give or take a couple of platoons, and seeing as how the fact has recently been circulated it costs the U.S. $1,000,000 per soldier per year there and that a gallon of gas for our military in Afghanistan is up around $400/gallon,

...I was wondering if, to get more bang for our taxpayer's buck, we might not outsource the military to private security contractors like Xe who pay each trooper, oh, I don't know, only somewhere around $120K-$180K/year. And, maybe we could lower the cost of getting gas to the equipment needed for what's looking to be a lifetime commitment to war there by dotting the Afghanistan landscape with convenience store (with gas pumps, of course) 7-11s and Circle Ks.

"Endless Love"

2009-11-30T21:08:00.004-07:00

As much as I'd like universal, single-payer health care for everyone, a vibrant and affordable educational system for every citizen who wants to avail themselves of it and other amenities the richest nation on Earth should be able to provide, let's face it, under the reality of an American empire in decline, with limited and dwindling resources and national wealth, we just can't afford it. Our representatives are making the difficult decisions we need them to make in our best interests, i.e., screw everyone's health care, education and social well being! We need to squeeze out the remaining value the dollar has left to buy bullets, bombs and ballistics.

Just wondering....

2009-11-29T07:29:00.007-07:00

Taliban ramping up for their welcome of Obama's additional troops to Afghanistan?

Just wondering....

...if there exists somewhere a parallel Universe similar to, but slightly different from, our own? A place where maybe there are connections between events like President Truman's "firing" of General MacArthur's gone-rogue-insubordination in Korea in 1951 and President Eisenhower's acquaintance with U.S. armed forces extremist commanders with his warning about the military-industrial complex to the JFK assassination on the eve of his policy plan announcement to withdraw all U.S. troops from Vietnam by 1965?

This comes to mind on the eve of President Obama's future plans for Afghanistan and the anticipation he will increase, not reduce, U.S. troop levels in a kind of 'throw-him-a-bone' placation of his rogue commander there, Stanley A. McChrystal.

I imagine history in that parallel universe somewhere out there is basically the same as it is here. That's because people there, due to their proximity to us here, are just as dispassionate as we are. With one exception -- over there they are aware of the connections that drastically influence their history like false flags, coups and stolen elections (subtle or not) as a means of influencing their nation's policies. Of course, knowing but being complacent about it, they do nothing to change things. Just like here. (There's probably another universe a little further removed from both of ours where I like to imagine people do!)

There is, however, one other glaring difference between their world and ours. Knowing the why of how things came to be as they are, people there do not suffer speculations of wild-eyed conspiracy theorists as we do here.

But should we ever suffer a twinge of suspicion there is something more here than we know of influencing things to manifest into realities often unpleasant -- keep it to yourself or, better yet, banish the thought! It's better to just wonder.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

2009-11-26T07:32:00.003-07:00

With apologies. I sent my editor Sam on an internet search
for an image of a turkey. This is what he came back with. Sorry.

As we gather with family and friends for another day of Thanksgiving, I experienced a moment of nostalgia as I recalled a memory of a comedian from my youth. A comedian more of my parents generation actually, he would always close his occasional TV specials with his theme song, Thanks for the Memories.

Well, I'm thankful Bob Hope is no longer among us. That's because what triggered his memory was an updated version of his old theme song I stumbled across on a website called "The Nothing Store."

While this newer rendering laments things the way they were, I intend it not as a downer on this very special day. Rather, let us remember all we've enjoyed and taken for granted in the past as we celebrate another Thanksgiving amid cherished ones with a dose of*America's Team*, the Green Bay Packers, and anticipate the ritual carving of another turkey that will ensue.

Spare today any negative nabobism of an America past this version of Thanks for the Memories may suggest. Save it instead for the pre-dawn lines tomorrow outside Wal-Marts, Targets and malls everywhere as we grapple for the remaining scraps of the memories we have to be thankful for.

Thanks for the Memories

Thanks for the memories
Of things I can't forget, debt I now regret,
Our wondrous years in Boomland and Wall Street roulette.
How crazy it was.

And thanks for the memories
Of dawn at Wakiki, McMansions by the sea.
We had a pad in DC, where we partied, spent and lobby'd.
How lovely it was

Many's the time we feasted,
And nary's the time we fasted
Oh well, it was swell while it lasted
And we did have fun
Now it's done

So thanks for the memories
Of how we used to buy, shopping on the fly,
Of barbecue and lobster stew, tax-free dinners on the sly.
How giddy it was.

Yes thanks for the memories
Of Greenspan and Bernanke, reality in the tanky.
I long for another bubble, but was it really worth the trouble?
How foolish I was.

And thanks for the memories,
Every day I wake up, wondering why the crackup,
Then I see, the laugh's on me, it's a sham economy.
How silly it was.

But, thanks for the memories
Of every laugh and thrill. I've been through the mill.
I've lived a lot and learned a lot, you left me broke and still;
I miss you so much.

Thanks for the memories
Of drinking the whole fifth, of books that were a myth,
Tonight the way things look, I need a book by Adam Smith
How brainy he was.

Gone all the fantasies:
That government knows best, the Founders laid to rest.
That the blessings of prosperity do not flow from precious liberty.
How true we now know.

Yes, it's a fallacy
That grown-ups never cry, baby, that's a lie.
We had our bed of roses, but forgot that roses die.
And thank you so much.

Okay, next up -- Emerald Lake in Eastern British Columbia!

2009-11-23T17:59:00.014-07:00

Still digitizing old slides at a leisurely pace - this, one of the lesser known
(un-named?) Canadian Rockies' lakes (because there are more spectacular
photos to be had at lakes like Louise, Morraine, etc.?) Oh, and I've come to
realize: In the Canadian Rockies, one needn't be a photographer to steal
incredible natural photos. One only need a camera loaded with film
(or endless digits)!

I've found digitizing old slides a pleasant distraction from all the wonderful health reform negotiations being bandied around in D.C. Also, in the past week or two, "ideologue" is a term I've heard slung from left and right.In that some of those arrows scored direct hits upon my reality tunnel from centrist democrats believing a baby step is better than a giant leap and from the right attacking centrist democrats and leftist leapers saying any step is too big, I am glad I have bolted from the skirmishes.

So as testament in the faith I have in my government to convince us that any reform as underwritten by the health, insurance and pharma industries is progress (those very industries that will yell and scream reform is an effrontery to free enterprise and the *American Way* despite the $ millions the industry has spent to purchase our government and write the vast majority of the pending legislative versions of a bill that will reap special interests $ billions more, save for a few crumbs tossed Americans to convince us they "care"), I step aside, assailing instead the celluloid of old 35 mm slides.

I realize the danger from being apprehended and charged as a deserter from the cause of health reform should I be caught. But as we continue to attach health care to the work place (until you lose your job, then what?), make it mandatory for uninsured who can't afford to feed their families, let alone set aside dollars for health insurance (thank God California and other states are emptying their prisons in this budget crunch depression -- it should make space for those required to purchase insurance they have no money for), and further erode Roe v. Wade without a courtroom, etc., let us give thanks we have representation in D.C. on the take from $pecial Interest$ insuring our health and economic futures while attacking the small minority aiming their sights a little higher!

In that we're all ideologues when it comes to certain issues we are passionate about, maybe I can interest you in some slides from Emerald Lake in Eastern British Columbia next?

"Something incredible is waiting to be known" (or maybe there is, or are, a God, or gods)?!

2009-11-19T17:03:00.012-07:00

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known" ~ Dr. Carl Sagan (via Barbara Shomaker, who is a friend through Facebook I have never met and otherwise don't even know)

I love synchronicity, coincidence, and chance (like these latter two when they present something significant like the former that leave me scratching my chin in bewilderment over their meaning -- if any).

Much earlier today while shopping I had one of those little moments that left me remarking to my store cashier, "Maybe there is a god!" ( I'm consternated whether to capitalize that or not because I'm not sure if my experience was a sign from "*The God*" or Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and revelry who, if you see, you should remember is always in the company of female nymph followers and goat-men satyrs in a perpetual state of sexual arousal. But I digress.

Let me explain. Having gone shopping around 6:00 a.m. to avoid swine flu exposure from the pig pandemic populous, I found myself in an express lane checkout line with a sleep deprived clerk. We visited as she checked. I pointed out the 40 lb. bag of birdseed in my cart. She acknowledged, but being sleep deprived forgot to scan as we talked about her kids getting both flu vaccinations yesterday. That, and the noxious cloud we had both walked through entering the store as it escaped the truck that was sucking spent cooking oils from the store's fast food chain. (I noticed on my way out the truck's tank-side sign saying it also sucked septic tanks too!)

But there was a problem. Among my purchases was a bottle of cheap Merlot wine the scanner would not recognize. Apparently, in Texas on a weekday morning, you cannot buy such an item before 7:00 a.m. - to protect sleeping citizens from OD'ed winos from the night before.

"What time do you have?" asked the cashier.

"Six fifty-four," I said.

During the course of my checkout she scanned again, then re-rescanned the Merlot, hoping my watch was slow. No such luck.

"Forget the wine!" I told her. "I'll get some next time." (Thanksgiving was still a week away.) I thanked her for trying.

Walking to the parking lot I was thankful the cooking oil and septic sucking truck had moved away from the store's entrance like a vampire shunning sunlight. I was so very glad.

As I loaded my purchases into the car, I remembered the birdseed: Had I been charged for it? Scanning my receipt showed no sign of birdseed. Feeling badly about the 40 lbs. of it I hadn't paid for, I had no option but to return to the store.

In the same checkout line with the same tired clerk, we verified she had forgotten to enter my purchase into the computer. She thanked me for my honesty but then had me questioning it when next she asked, "Do you still want that Merlot?"

Checking my watch, I was pleased to see it was now 7:03.

"Yes!" I responded happily. She obliged.

And then I said, "Maybe there is a God(s)?" as she looked at me with a hint of confusion.

Musing on my way back to the car with paid- for-birdseed and wine I pondered my question, which only prompted me to ask another, "But if so, which one(s)?"

From the smell of spent cooking oil (and septic tank extractions?) that accosted me on the way into the store, I suspected it was Bacchus and his ever present goat men satyrs. But, truthfully, I never saw the nymphs who are always supposed to accompany him too. (Damn!)

It's not often something I read makes me laugh out loud. This did! (And I'm sure it will be all over the internet soon, if it isn't already.)

2009-11-18T08:08:00.004-07:00

HELL EXPLAINED BY

A CHEMISTRY STUDENT

The following is an actual question given on University of Arizona
chemistry mid- term.

The answer by one student was so 'profound' that the professor
shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course,
why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well:

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic
(absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law
(gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some
variant.

One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we
need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate
at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a
soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. There fore, no souls are leaving.
As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different
religions that exist in the world today.

Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their
religion, you will go to Hell.. Since there is more than one of these
religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we
can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as
they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase
exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell
because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and
pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand
proportionately as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls
enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase
until all Hell breaks loose.

2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in
Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes
over.

So which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year
that, 'It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,' and take
into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two
must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already
frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen
over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is
therefore, extinct...... ...leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the
existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept
shouting

'Oh My God.'

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED AN A+.

(Note: After posting this, thinking it possibly too good to be true, I "Snopesed" it to determine if it was: Answer -- It is. Too good to be true, that is. According to Snopes it's been on the internet since at least 1997, with origins dating as far back as the 1920's. Still, it didn't stop me from laughing aloud. But it poses the question, "So where have I been these last 12 years to be encountering this story only now for the first time?)

I been trippin' lately!

2009-11-16T06:38:00.021-07:00

Last week while reading the sales papers in the Sunday Times, I came across a scanner that converts 35mm film to digital images. Having a bunch of old slides and no projector, which I loaned out several years ago that never came back home, I decided to digitize our slides, toss 'em out afterward, and lose the aggravation of our missing slide projector.

As a result, I have been traveling up the coast of California and Oregon in what has been a pleasant trip down Memory Lane for the most part. Some of these slide are over 30 years old and nostalgia really rears its head when we see family who are no longer with us.

As for the scanner and process involved, I am quite pleased. Here's a few of the old slides. These are from a 1978 trip the Dada's took from El Paso to northern Oregon. I felt a little like a salmon swimming upstream to the headwaters of the river of my hatching. Only difference, when we finally arrived at that spot (in Hillsboro, OR), Mrs. Dada and I didn't spawn.

Feeding the squirrels at Point Lobos. (Note to PETA: I now know
I really shouldn't have and will not next time there. I promise!)

I've loved dalmations forever. At the Carmel Mission, we came across this one sunning
amid the passing tourists. I was immediately drawn to him, not just because of his breed
but his religion as well. He may have been baptized Catholic just like me, yet I'm assuming
he never made his first communion. (Same as me!) But the Padre there told me this
dalmation sometimes attended mass on Sunday. Sadly, that's where our similarities ended.

San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts. I am always reminded of an encounter

Mrs. Dada and I had here 7 or 8 years earlier (for which I have no slide, but
do have a photo somewhere). It was an early Sunday morning at the Palace
and it was deserted until we came upon a small child of three or four feeding
ducks. Behind her, dressed in a stately black overcoat and matching fedora,
stood a man we presumed to be her grandfather. Over the years I've come to
believe the name of that young girl was Michela. That's because the man watch-
ing over her at pond's edge was a person I was very familiar with. I had
lived the first year and a half under his reign as mayor of San Francisco.
It was Joseph Alioto. We exchanged greetings and I came away with a bit of
film that developed into a beautiful photo of Michela Alioto-Pier (I think).

After revisiting memories of old Bay Area stomping grounds, I encountered
slides of vineyards, wineries and redwoods before landing in a batch taken in
the little town I lived the first three months of life before moving with family
to Los Angeles. Here then, is a picture of the backside -- the riverside -- of that
part that today bears the name of "Old Town." This is Florence, Oregon,
ca. 1978. While I loved growing up in southern California, I sometimes wonder
how different everything might have been had the family stayed in Oregon.
That's a question likely answered in a parallel universe somewhere, I suppose.

Converting old slides into digital images has been a pleasant diversion from our nation's warring and whoring these past few days. In fact, think I'll begin another trayful now!

Ahhh, memories! (apparently of banks too small to succeed)

2009-11-14T20:00:00.001-07:00

I can't decide which scares me more....

2009-11-10T17:38:00.016-07:00

The post-9/11 world our trumped-up war reactions are trying desperately to materialize as reality....

or, reading the labels on the foods we buy at our local super markets....

Example of a EULA*

So where lies the bigger threat? From without or within? Or both? (Never mind....I just remembered the economy, the defense budget, health care, unemployment, etc. etc.)

[Dada note re "EULA": As a child I had a relative named Eula. Today that name has taken on an entirely different connotation, not as a kindly aunt who might send you a book such as "The Yearling" on your 9th birthday, but as an "End User License Agreement." Now quick, secure your home from any seeds that may grow and propagate if they should come in contact with dirt on your property, lest you receive a visit from the FBI and end up doing twenty-five to life in San Quentin as a result.]

Dada confesses his opinionostomy!

2009-11-05T19:25:00.009-07:00

Polidectomy: A polidectomy is the surgical removal of that part of the brain's prefrontal lobe housing the source of all reactions to political activities outside one's body that may positively or negatively impact the well being of a person.

For those few regular visitors to Dada's Dally, I have a confession to make: I didn't go through with the polidectomy to end all thoughts political within me which I alluded to some months ago. Anyone who has since continued reading Dada's has already surmised that.

But to be totally up front with everyone, I have another confession: On October 22nd, I did undergo a radical opinionostomy, to wit:

Opinionostomy: a surgical procedure used to create an opening for negative opinions on topics such as politics and economics such that they are released from the body before being expressed orally. Opinionostomy refers to the procedure where a portion of the respiratory canal is opened just below the larynx, allowing opinions to be carried out of the body before being verbally expressed.

Before going further, perhaps a bit more explanation is called for here. While it's only been two weeks, each day I become more and more impressed with the results of this procedure -- and pleased! What the surgery did was create a small opening as noted above for all political opinions, positive and negative, to be siphoned off the windpipe before reaching the larynx from which they would normally be expressed aloud.

Instead, a small tube removes such expressions. They end up in a small, expandable, rubber bladder-like bag secured beneath my left arm. I'm pleased to report -- as the healing progresses -- I am becoming less and less expressive on more and more issues that used to rile me daily, sometimes to great extremes. And -- I am still able to go bowling, shoot billiards and hoist an ale with my left arm (so long as I don't allow the bag to overflow)!

Well, that is, until today when, instead of emptying my bag once or twice, I had to suddenly excuse myself seven times when pressure building from the rubber bladder in my armpit became too tight for the shirt I was wearing to contain.

Hopefully today was just an unusual day.

...Thank god for this procedure. While having to excuse myself to relieve the pressure building in the bladder under my left armpit seven times today, I was at least spared the embarrassment of expressing opinions outloud by simply flushing them instead.

I'm not sure why. Maybe it was the news of Wall Streeters getting the H1N1 flu vaccine before people in high risk groups? That and the Fort Hood shootings.

See, before my opinionostomy I probably would have blogged, "What the fuck will it take before people wake up?" But that's an opinion and, thank God, I am now able to simply flush them down the toilet when my bag gets full.

Exposed! Dada seeking alternative ways out.

2009-11-02T15:45:00.014-07:00

From The Telegraph comes this amusing story of a man caught in the act with another man's wife.

"Love cheat Sun Meng has been given the cold shoulder by his community after picture of him
cowering naked on an air conditioner were posted online by a furious husband. Photo: CEN"

"My family is ashamed and none of my own neighbours will talk to me any more," said Sun.

"I know what I did was wrong but I was afraid he would kill me.

"People are even laughing at how I look naked - but I have to point out it was a very cold day," he added." (Probably a reference to the Seinfeld episode where George experienced *shrinkage*.)

***********

(NOTE: Today's blog above is but an exploration of different directions.)

In recent weeks, I've been pondering, sometimes desperately, what to make of this blog. After four and a half years of wailing against prevailing winds I have concluded that the country will likely get what it likely deserves: a complete financial meltdown. Not that that's a good thing, but it may be the only way to arrive at something other than what we are currently "enjoying"; something other that we so desperately need.

The powers we chose a year ago to turn the ship around have simply made a big circle in the sea. Our ship's stewards chosen to save us -- incredibly! -- wear the same faces of those who imperiled us to begin with. And our ship's 180 degree course change has turned into a complete 360, i.e., we're back *on track* -- the same old course, the wrong course. That is unless one is to believe, as announced last week, the recession is over. With one exception -- it just doesn't include *you* (that's all of us) who have suffered most. Sadly, for anyone still in a Depression, the recession's end is a jobless recovery we are told.

Bullying Wall Street has had six months of bullishness. If you were foolish enough to miss it, where the hell were you? Too busy with the distractions of trying to find a new job? Keeping food on your family's table? Saving the roof over your head, or salvaging your old way of life when you could have been making huge gains in the latest Wall Street bubble of irrational exuberance?

And now come stories of the U.S. loosening missile technology exports to the economic controllers of our fateful financial future, the Chinese. Is this just some right wing bullshit to further stir the angst of fearful extremists? Could the ultimate irony be delivered some day by warheads of Chinese missiles killing millions of Americans with our own exported missile technology? I don't know and more and more, I care less and less.

Or how about the news of the Taliban declining a U.S. offer to "permit" the Taliban control of 6 provinces in the south and northeast of Afghanistan, if the Taliban will just allow us ("Oh Please, PLEASE!") to have 8 NATO bases there! Ask yourself, who's negotiating from a position of strength here? The Taliban or the world's last remaining *Superpower*?

All that aside, I enjoyed today's above lapse into an alternative means of escape.