Not Quite . . .

. . . a shutdown . . .

. . . but history CAN teach a lesson . . .


(from Thomas Jefferson;  The Art of Power by Jon Meacham)
". . . the beginning of wisdom, Jefferson thought, might lie in a meeting of the principals out of the public eye. Se he convened a dinner. Jefferson believed things could be worked out, he said, for :men of sound heads and honest views needed nothing more than explanation and mutual understanding to enable them to unite in some measures which might enable us to get along. . . No deal meant disaster. It was clear, Jefferson wrote, "that if everyone retains inflexibly his present opinion, there will be no bill passed at all for funding the public debts, and ... without funding there is an end of the government . . ."

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If You . . .

. . . Didn't see it coming?
. . . Then you're blind

It was right before your eyes
For such a very long, long time
But instead of truth and right
You chose ambition and your climb

Do you fear things that could happen
To your plan if truth be told?
You should fear, the more, disaster imminent
As this thing goes uncontrolled

You dismissed and rationalized, to date,
Devastation undertaken
Acting like a schoolboy
Whose team victory's been shaken

Now the world has seen the impotence
Clearly present, still ignored,
Of one we've place in charge of all
Who has given us our reward

So what to do now?
Clearly this situation we must improve,
If we are to remain a noble state
This aberration must be removed

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Lesson . . .

. . . number 274 . . .



. . . in being Presidential . . .


Do NOT being your address in the vicinity, and allegedly as support to victims, of a horrendous natural disaster by saying,

“What a crowd, what a turnout”

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Obscure. . .

. . . history. . .

(from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/05/0501_river5.html)
On April 27, 1865, the steamboat Sultana, some seven miles north of Memphis, Tennessee, carrying 2,300 just-released Union prisoners of war, plus crew and civilian passengers, exploded and sank. Some 1,700 people died.

It was the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history, more costly than even the April 14, 1912 sinking of the Titanic, when 1,517 people were lost. But because the Sultana went down when it did, the disaster was not well covered in the newspapers or magazines, and was soon forgotten. It is scarcely remembered today.

April 1865 was a busy month; On April 9, at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, General Robert E. Lee surrendered. Five days later President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. On April 26 his assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was caught and killed. That same day General Joseph Johnson surrendered the last large Confederate army. Shortly thereafter Union troops captured Confederate President Jefferson Davis. The Civil War was over. Northern newspapers rejoiced.

News of a terrible steamboat tragedy was relegated to the newspaper's back pages. In a nation desensitized to death, 1,700 more did not seem such an enormous tragedy that it does today.

The accident happened at 2 a.m., when three of the steamship's four boilers exploded. The reason the death toll was almost exactly equal to the number of Union troops killed at the battle of Shiloh (1,758) was gross government incompetence. The Sultana was legally registered to carry 376 people. She had six times more than that on board, due to the bribery of army officers and the extreme desire of the former POWs to get home.

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Sick. . .

. . . and tired. . .

. . . of Obama bashing, well, simply because he is Obama.  I’m not sure if it’s a subjective thing like, his face, his ears, his smirk or maybe even, (yes Virginia, I’m afraid it’s true) his color.   I’m just sick and tired of it.  I don’t want to hear about his birth certificate (if that’s a REAL issue which his haters were able to uncover but the election officials were not before the election to his first term, then the haters should be pursuing the election officials), his salary cut, his dogs or even, although they are beautiful, his kids.

Let me be clear.  I am not an Obama fan.  But none of the reasons above have anything to do with why I am not an Obama fan.  The reasons below however, do. . .

    •    20,000 Airstrikes (First Term) Cause Death and Destruction From Iraq to Somalia.
    •    Signed the NDAA into law - making it legal to assassinate Americans w/o charge or trial.
    •    Escalated the CIA drone war in Pakistan.
    •    Maintained a presence in Iraq even after "ending" the war.
    •    Sharply escalated the war in Afghanistan.
    •    Secretly deployed US special forces to 75 countries.
    •    Sold $30 billion of weapons to the dictatorship in Saudi Arabia.
    •    Opened up deepwater oil drilling, even after the BP disaster.
    •    Did a TV commercial promoting "clean coal".
    •    Signed the Patriot Act extension into law.
    •    Continued Bush's rendition program.
    •    Signed the Monsanto Protection Act into law.

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Bad . . .

 . . . dream . . .

. . . The fortified stone shelter was thought to be strong enough to withstand the trauma that would result from the earth's departing its axis.  It was however, difficult to enter and not large enough to accommodate everyone.  He sat on one of the bus-stop benches, brought into the First National Bank Building to seat the throngs, between his youngest son and his best friend, staring blankly at the obviously futile efforts toward protecting building's inhabitants including the blocking of all windows and doors with concrete.  Catching a last glimpse of the the cloudy grey sky as the concrete wall was sliding into place, his son asked compassionately if he thought Mom had safely reached the shelter and was there a plan to re-unite when the disaster passed.  He tried, however unconvincingly, to comfort his youngest in the affirmative but harbored greater uncertainty than even he wanted to admit. . .

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Ever wish. . .

. . . you could go back in time?

I have, although not quite THAT far back.  Just far enough to get a 're-do' and prevent the disaster that has now been wrought.  Well, if not quite a disaster, at least one bad night.

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Snowball's chance in . . .

 . . . Gehenna!!

If you ever had a feeling that you might possibly vote for Mr. Gingrich, read his latest quote below.  Surely, you would not want to have a President with a memory as bad as that.

Gingrich has been unrelenting in criticizing Barack Obama’s foreign policies.  At his campaign event in Spokane, Gingrich called him “the greatest national security disaster that we've had in my lifetime."


(Remember the previous President Newt???)

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I have never been. . .

. . . good at any sport. PERIOD.

Expanding upon that, nor have I ever been any good at anything remotely competitive. For some reason competition always brings out the worst in me. I'm not sure if it involves some type of pressure, subconscious or otherwise or if in truth, I am just plain lousy at EVERYTHING. And this unique distinction of being the world's worst everything translates to cards. [and pool, bowling, tiddlywinks, jacks, old maid, hopscotch, marbles, you name it) or any type of card game, if I apply myself enough to learn it, is always a total disaster for me. And in addition, I shuffle and deal cards like I'm from Mars. Wait a minute, I'll bet even beings from Mars are better at cards (and competition) than me!

This accounts for my reluctance to enter songwriting competitions. Although in this area, I do feel that I possess some semblance of talent, if you will. And since all of my compositions are my 'children', I love them and I view them for what they are with all their warts but with their good qualities shining through.





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Jokes about disasters. . .

. . . don't really move move me. But they are inevitable.

Gilbert Gottfried was fired from his job as the Aflac duck because he made some insensitive jokes (Tweets) regarding the recent disasters in Japan. Like. . . What do the Japanese have in common with Howard Stern? They're both RADIO ACTIVE. (one is enough. . . no, MORE than enough. . . you get the point.)

But after some thought, I concluded that yes, they were tasteless in that the disaster is too fresh and too horrible to begin joking about. But deep down, I know that it was only a matter of time before there would be jokes circulating by email (initially, then by other more archaic means) just as there were about the demise of Princess Diana and the crash of John Kennedy Jr's plane. (and even 911 - "The FBI has just identified the man who trained the hijackers: Dale Earnhardt."

BAD. But necessary. . . and human.

Look, I'm no judge of taste, morals, class or humor. But I do know that we all make mistakes. (Hell, I've lost count of mine!)
And we all like to laugh.

Gilbert deleted his tasteless Tweets. Maybe we shouldn't be so hard on him. It certainly doesn't mean we don't CARE any less or that we won't HELP as best we can to assist or try to help relieve the pain the victims of the tragedies in Japan. Why, I'll bet even Gilbert himself would like to help. At least I'd like to think so.

hear my music at www.rayjozwiak.com