Innocent Bystander One

2003-01-25T19:48:00.000-06:00

January 25, 2003 -- 6:14 P.M. Beulah Eileen Sheppard Finley born November 11, 1917 in Marion, Illinois died at Northside Nursing Home, Murfreesboro, Tn.
Tears. Her pain is ended. Commended to the Almighty in the Name Of Jesus Christ.

2003-01-09T17:01:00.000-06:00

What the fuck is error 503!

2003-01-09T17:00:00.000-06:00

I want to know which comes first, the headline about the price of gas "spiking" or the actual price of gas spiking? Americans have to be the most gulible people in the world.

2002-12-30T19:18:00.000-06:00

An Islamicist gunman killed three American medical personnel who had been healing in Yemen for about twenty years. He knew them, and knew they were about to leave Yemen. He killed them anyway because," I thought it would bring me closer to God". It is more difficult for me, on a daily basis, to reconcile the Asian concept of "God" with my perception of "The Perfect" being. As the madness multiplies, understanding and compassion deminish. I think all english speaking Muslims (followers of Muhammad) should try ,with FERVENT earnest, to inform their "brethren" that killing people because they are Christians is not only against the Koran, but is foolhearty in the extreme. The Asian population is elbow to elbow and probably has a difficult time understanding "prairies", ( they're deserts over there). They probably think they are the most populous religion on earth. They are not. If this fanatical "jihad" continues, they may become nothing more than an embarrassing footnote about extreme ignorance, and it's results. It is in America's capability to incapacitate fanatic, and aberrant factions,however unwillingly, so freedom for the commonwealth, eastern or western, shall be uninfringed.

2002-12-11T17:43:00.000-06:00

How, by any strech of the imagination, can a SCUD missle be considered Defensive? These people lie as bad in arabic as they do in english. If Our government is going to take our guns away, then they should take away everyone else's....they could..you know.

2002-12-11T17:18:00.000-06:00

how dumb is this? The spanish navy tag an unmarked freighter loaded with scud missles bound for who knows where. American expertise is called in and all of a sudden Yemen claims they (the missles) are bought and paid for, and the damn thing's released to go to Yemen. How many tankers have been sabotaged there? How many American vessels of the fleet have been bombed there? Who's running this asylum anyway?
Burn me twice, shame on me.The mere thought that "high" governmental officials think we have "strong" allies anywhere in the mideast is scary. The entire eastern hemisphere is still cursing Columbus for starting this "penal" colony, this refuge for religious oddballs and political lunatics. If God had meant for mankind to be free "he" would have endowed them with certain inalienable rights, among these the right to learn from previous STUPID mistakes.

2002-12-06T17:42:00.000-06:00

I never thought George Herbert Bush was an idiot, in fact I admired the way he jumped in and participated in the quagmire of government. I find it difficult however to forgive him the spawn he has gat upon the world. George W. Bush is proof positive that money can't buy everything, and in most cases does not, and cannot improve the genetic intellectual quotient. The kid's a MORON in spite of all the money and training. He's no smarter than any of the Saudi princes, and may indeed be the cause of many more casualties. I am an American through and through, a veteran , war era-vietnam and would never do anything I consider detrimental to my country. I have, however, serious reservations about the highest echelons of our plutocracy, and their lack of concern for the welfare of the "averavge" american. It is becoming apparent that the only persons concerned about the daily citizen is the other guy who loaned him twenty bucks so he could buy some milk and bread until next friday.

2002-11-06T22:42:00.000-06:00

How many of you yuppies were "conscripted" (drafted) against your will? How many of you "genXers" lost friends and relatives in a war that none of your present leaders were forced to fight in? Get your heads out of your asses these people are gonna do it again!

2002-09-29T19:47:00.000-05:00

[9/28/2002 9:45:52 PM | Bob Finley]
The "dumbing" of America was sad, but the global idiocy that is becoming prevelant is unquestionably the most catastrophic turn of events in this century....(or the last eighty years).
[edit]

2002-09-28T21:45:00.000-05:00

The "dumbing" of America was sad, but the global idiocy that is becoming prevelant is unquestionably the most catastrophic turn of events in this century....(or the last eighty years).

2002-09-26T20:58:00.000-05:00

blogger sucks

2002-09-26T20:57:00.000-05:00

It's been a while and I've been watching the war blogs closely. They're preaching to the saved, and ignoring the approaching economic collapse. These writers are so tunnel-visioned it is an affront to scholarship altogether. Good minds abound, fettered by slavish peergroup
namecalling. So sad.

2002-09-17T19:23:00.000-05:00

I hope I'm wrong, but I just saw a news article about the French government putting one of their more famous novelists on trial for saying the muslim religion was stupid. The world has gone mad with cantagious stupidity.
My perception is that the global crowding, and the slack economies make the obvious necessity for a controlled "all out war" inevitable. May the richer man win. Excuse me, the richer man always wins.

2002-09-11T19:41:00.000-05:00

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

2002-09-10T21:10:00.000-05:00

Hate and guilt often go hand in hand. The guilt I can deal with; the hate is "loathesome to me" . How could any detestable group like al Quada make me hate an entire religion? Islam has become anathema to me. The ignorance, the filth, the very stupidity of it, defiles everything semitic. They are an embarrassment to the earth, and mankind. Woe unto them and all that follow them!

2002-09-05T22:29:00.000-05:00

My ancestors have been born in America for almost three hundred years, but I am not considered "native" American. More specifically,ancestors with the same surname; quite a few with the same first name, in fact. We were, I imagine, on the lam when we got here and one step ahead of thundering poverty. The concept of "human" ownership is anathema to all we are taught. Good deeds are what other people do, "the right thing" is expected, nay required in my family ...how/why would you do otherwise?
Not puritans, not Libertines, just people getting by in the way they'd been taught; asking mostly to be left alone. Not antisocial, not social climbers, not interested in fame for it's own sake, but rather introverted with respect to acclaim. Important people make bigger mistakes. Comfortable people don't force decisions that aren't necessary, or wanted.

2002-08-20T20:25:00.000-05:00

This is wonderful. "Angry Saudis are taking billions of dollars out of U.S."
That is possibly the most ludicrous headline I've read in my life. ....
Calm Saudis have been taking billlions out of the U.S. on a regular basis. My personal opinion is that we should make them even more angry and quit buying their oil all together. It's not like we can't live without it. We impory abut 5% of our oil from them, and that's only a token gesture. LET THEM EAT OIL without the vivegar or the salad. That the US suports any royal house is anathema. The whole concept of "royalty" is so mundane as to be laughable in the 21st century.

2002-08-17T18:32:00.000-05:00

I just caught a blurb off "Google News" that hundreds of black Americans (?) rallied in Washington for reparations for their ancestor's involuntary enslavement (millions of acres), and they want it now. Well, they should probably talk to the UK, since they and the African "kings" were the biggest slave traders since Pharaoh. None, I repeat, NONE of my ancestors owned slaves. The chances were much better that they were slaves themselves, since they were Scots and in bad sted with England.
The uncalled for and undeserved problems incumbant on intelligent, honorable and dilligent black Americans is further aggravated by this extended welfare bandwagon that can only bring about more division in these less United States.

2002-08-08T21:29:00.000-05:00

I've been watching the news (not just blogs, they might be biased) and thick sliced or thin, the physics of carbon-based life forms is pretty much a mathamatical axiom that won't be transmuted by human egos or passions. Regardless of "big-time" media, small town rumor, old fashioned common sense or the ethereal Hubble scenarios, matter and energy are still a constant (until further notice), by the best rules we've been able to recognize. The "Politicos" can blame and accuse all they want, the religious escapists will continue to transfer their doubts, and the plutocrats will place their bids for the last gasp of air. All that not withstanding, we are too crowded. No one's to blame perse`, but no one's willing to be the first to make concessions. All cultures can, apparently, rationalize 'till the cows come home, but the last one standing has the dubious "honor" of claiming victory before a "god" that might not be the one that "chose" them.
Establishing territorial imperatives based on anything but tribal realities is ludicrous and untenable. Conflict for it's own sake , however , must be contained by all noncombatants who, after all, have everthing to lose. There's a lot going on in the rest of the world and the middle east isn't the only place with oil and vinegar. With a weary sigh, and a teary eye we should say goodbye to all semitic strife (arabs are semitic also).

2002-08-04T20:46:00.000-05:00

TWIMC
In case anyone's paying attention, all the media coverage in the world isn't going to change the fact that the Islamicists are becoming a threat to the entire world. If I were Bhuddist I would wonder at their destruction of two of the worlds greatest artistic feats. If I were an architect, I would wonder about the destruction of two magnificent "market places". In America, we're not as close to the disease as people in Europe, but disease it is. Histrionics won't change a thing. Germany deified Hitler in much the same fashion that Islam worships Osama.
Personally, I'm not much of a "hawk", but my opinion is that the "rabble" is quickly getting away from the powers that be in the middle east, and the "beast" is starting to turn on the whole lot of them. If they cannot deal with an unruly house, then we have no business interfering unless their fracas overflows. ......Ask NYC about the overflow!!!!

2002-08-04T20:14:00.000-05:00

It's becoming clearer by the day that the "east", for mystical reasons only they can comprehend, are trying to put the onus of world peace on the United States. While they blame and accuse us for everything bad that ever happened in the eastern hemisphere, they tell the rest of the world that America is not doing enough to bring about world peace. Their wars started long before America was part of the world, and any attempt we,(the west) make to amelieorate the problems will only be met with more accusations of exploitation of their ignorant masses by "slick " American corporate types. If the stupid jerks in charge over there can't figure out that the only folks slippin' them the green weenie are their own "royal families", then they most surely need to take themselves out of the gene pool. Their "religion" is nothing more then an excuse to murder their neighbors, and a rationalization for an incredible level of individual immaturity and insecurity, They are as alien to me as I am incomprehensible to them. They think I am an enemy; I think they are a danger. I used to not think of them at all, except as characters from an old book. I have grown.... they, apparently, still think of themselves as dashing, desert heros, preserving the golden age of the Moors. Sad in all cases, but I cried when "Ole Yellar" was put down too. "If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off..."

2002-08-01T22:12:00.000-05:00

If it looks like a thief and it talks like a thief
It could be a lawyer, or worse.
It could be someone without Tort or a Brief
Who separates you from your purse.

Did you hide all your gold in a 401k?
Did you hope for a big time return ?
Could it be that the money you hoped would ,one day,
Save your life, become ashes unurned?

I really don't know what it's like to be rich,
but I know how it feels to be cheated,
by a smooth talking son of a son of a bitch
who's sins will all soon be repeated.

The sins of the father shall be on the son,
while the sins of the son fall on everyone.

2002-07-30T19:51:00.000-05:00

TWIMC
I watch the media daily and I can't say I've learned anything. It's the same old story, the fight for love and glory. The salient points must be made sooner or later. IT'S CROWDED HERE! Blame can be placed on any and all who differ, but it won't make any difference. Anyone who's paying attention realizes that the neighbors who used to be down the road are now next door. Today's competition for "room" to breathe will become a struggle for air to breathe. I, personally, am considering buying "fresh water futures", the market will open soon in one form or another.
I've come across a lot of really bright folks on the blobe (glib for globe), but by and large most of them are trying justify their own preconceived perceptions of right and wrong---black and white---plus and minus---either...or. So far all the brilliance is smothered be the bombast. If we all suffocate/dehydrate/starve, will having been "right" matter?
Bob in the hills

2002-07-22T19:14:00.000-05:00

Well, the weekend worrier is back , and I can't say everything looks hunky dorie. Global family planning just lost 34 million because of some rather juvenile pouting by the "am"bushers. Fans, he's gonna have to get better fast, daddy's not going to be able to help him out of any world wide phuqueup, and all those loyal, kneejerk gops are gonna drop him faster than they would a mad snake. It's going to take a major cataclysmic dynamic to save the republican house. Burn me twice, shame on me! All those accomplices in Florida can stay in the hell they've made for themselves. I still think the voters in southern Fla. should wonder about their part in Twin Towers disaster. After all, his father did initiate a military action against an Arab government that was keeping oil away from his former business partner's supertankers. Could there be a connection? Go figure.

2002-07-19T20:03:00.000-05:00

Just checkin' out who's using how much. Could it be the eastern hemisphere is passing it's survival failsafe? No one I know is interested in getting Euroanything. Old and in the way (well, that's me too) comes to mind. I'm afraid the PC generation is gonna flush us without compunction. We haven't given them much cause not to, and greed is not a legacy anyone should be proud of.
A word of advice however,let the "fundamentalists" kill themselves off, it shouldn't take long and everyone will be so much the better for it.

2002-07-19T19:02:00.000-05:00

It's a Friday in July
and I have to wonder why
all those people fall and die
cause their rulers laugh and lie.

Could it be the things we're taught
are the traps where'in we're caught,
and the deeds we've done are naught
in spite of everything we thought?

It could be that I'm all wrong,
maybe have been all along,
though I have a dream and song
of a place that's lost and gone.

Could it be it's truth we've lost,
maintaining youth at any cost?

2002-07-10T21:00:00.000-05:00

I'm watching desparate western media unknowingly assist really backward theocratic "martyrs" in their quest for global recognition. I don't live anywhere near any of those assholes, and I resent the media that makes them think I care whether they live or die. If they can't get along with each other, then they're not welcome at my house. ....
Given the incredible "black hole" that is our perception of their existance, the muslim world is dangerously close to cultural and religious suicide. The Philistines come to mind as the last culture that forced the issue,...not right or wrong, just live or die.

2002-07-09T21:24:00.000-05:00

It's been a while, and I've had a chance to visit more of the bloggerhood. Geez, what a headache. No wonder Mainstreet Media tries to ignore the Net Gazette, they probably didn't know that many people could write that well let alone comprehend the subtle nuance involved in international relations. The Bloggosphere appears to be that eternal state of preparing for "comps"/taking your orals/prepping for boards. The education never ends, but at least it's not publish or perish. All the headliners are fractious and five star, the wit goes on and on, and I'm still puzzled and confused by the term "politically correct". Which is it? Political or correct, I'm not sure it can be both. Politically correct, that's what the Warren commision did to all evidence to the contrary. They politically corrected it. That was in a different century, and is probably small potatos when one considers what looms on todays horizons. Fear not, it won't help or make any difference.

2002-06-29T21:40:00.000-05:00

I'm back,
After backbreaking hours in the middle Tennessee sun, I've decided that the trades are not a place for a schooled pl----er. A man much smarter than me (not too difficult) told me that education and schooling are two different things entirely. I'm still not sure why words are paid so well and works are so poorly paid. Not UTI(united trades incorporated), but STGLU (small town guys like us). People who's weekly check looks like a month's union dues in Chicago Regardless, the burgeoning wealth of the ridiculously rich, may soon come to the notice of the "why can't you fix my kid's arm, this is an emergency room / I don't care what it costs, give my mother the medicine!" blue collar, red neck, NRA, enough is enough Viet Vet. A very wide, still unaligned spectrum of ,"off line folks", may be extremely annoyed when they are finally informed that their leaders had their best interests at heart, and "we know what's best for you, trust us we've been to graduate school". Instant communications have put the worlds leaders so far out of touch with their constituants that they look absurd everytime they try to relate or deny.
I personally have it made. I can't see a house from my house, and I have legal weapons to insure my privacy,(it's really just a state of mind; the constabulary will prevail, but it's not them I'm worried about. It's just a country state of mind.) Anyway, my friends in the city--your choice--tell me I live like royaty without the papparazzi. Be that as it may, I still recognize a serious problem when it smites me.
Robber barons and train robbers were both admired for their boldness and their daring and at about the same time on the history line. J.P. Morgan...Jesse James, both were thieves involved with trains. Our form of government has allowed their tales to be promulgated and mythologized to the point that deeds, good or bad , are irrelevant, only their impact on society matters. I doubt seriously that the current batch of mega-crooks will have the same histrionic luxury. "Let them eat cake", will have an empty sound indeed. "Corporate terrorist" may become an appellation akin to Al Queda. A horrible label but not uncalled for.
I ramble, but my point is..."it's not bad to be rich, it's bad to be blatently, overbearingly, rudely , obscenely wealthy". If your so rich, how come you're not discrete?

2002-06-26T18:14:00.000-05:00

Okay, we've gone from the ridiculous to the absurd. The Ninth District Appeals court is equating the word "god", with religion, that's just plain silly. While mankind is more than willing to to lay the blame on "God", apparently "God" is, by any other name, willing to let man, i.e. mankind, do unto fellow man, all manner of horrendous acts. I think it is an exercsize in futility to separate "church and state". Chicken or egg quickly evolves to church or state. More`s, beliefs, hopes and wishes. There are mindless "allahzombies" killing people everywhere they can, so they (and their families) can go to allah "poste haste". I think it might be in the interest of mankind overall if their trip were hastened even more. I know large sums of money would be forthcoming if these "martyrs" would come forward, sign in, and kill themselves (in the name of ALLAH) and intelligently fulfill their obligation to Yasser and the state.
Historically speaking, I've not discovered a society, or culture yet that thrived under the rule of a "royal family"; not in techniculture anyway. This is, after all the 21st century and asian culture is ...NOT HERE YET. The romance of eastern religions is the stuff of Hollywood,not cause for policy decisions. Treat them as children, that's how they treat each other. It is my opinion that the Monroe Doctrine was way ahead of it's time. The less we have to do with their family feuds the better. We've got our own problems here and don't need to get sucked into their debt pattern.

2002-06-22T00:22:00.000-05:00

As I watch the blogs, I'm dismayed by the gall of the Islamists. I'm even more amazed that "swarthy/_____skinned/dark haired Mediteranian
types" are indignant about western responses to the murder of three thousand (more or less) American citizens working in their marketplace. Prior to 91101, if I knew of a plot by WASPish, radical malcontents to kill innocent muslims because of their aberrant religious practices, I would have squeeled on all of them. If there is to be one standard for all, then let there be ONE STANDARD, and a pox on all the liars and hypocrites. Woe upon the house of those who deceive the unlearned, and calamity where they dwell. They won't be forgotten or forgiven, and their "sins" will indeed be visited on generations to come, though they have no guilt or guile.

2002-06-21T19:32:00.000-05:00

Okay'
I just caught the "Drudge" polls, and it's pretty clear the American public is gonna respond just like mass media wants them to. Everyone familiar with polling philosophy understands that the questions predicate the results. These guys have no more class than telemarketers, and substantially more impact.
"Do you still beat your wife?" has no correct answer. Denials are irrelevant after the headlines are pressed. MAYOR DENIES BEATING WIFE. Where can ya go from there? That's not the real problem the average middle class "slob" faces on a day to day basis, but thousands of non-polled folks are walkin' around wondering how they could be so far off the mark... "Dammit'all John I'm 180 degrees out of right, it's sooo humiliating."
Possibly , the most important poles are for clotheslines and global axises...they're cleaner and safer. Personally, I prefer to poll not, or pole vault. Your opinion is no more important then mine, and vice versa. When all is said and done, "sic transit gloria mundi", and all that other Latin stuff. Can't we all just get along? Naive? Obviously, but ultimately commonfolk want to be left alone. Government (as an institution) is proscribed from leaving well enough alone, it is after all a self-fulfilling prophesy, and in spite of protestations to the contrary, individual considerations are nonexistant until a private citizen is financed to the Supreme Court. If you don't believe that then legitimize affirmative action, and reconcile it with our (U.S.A.) constitution.
Ramblings notwithstanding, I'm still searching for Tralfamidor, and Kilgore Trout. Vonnegut was/is a (dare I say it) prophet unwilling, un recognized with undeniable insights and an uncomfortable gift for truth.
Later...from the hills

2002-06-20T23:38:00.000-05:00

I just read a blog about "assassinating every family member of a known bomber". An interesting prospect that might have immediate results, and is based on ancient principles...Hamarabi's Code comes to mind, "an eye for an eye....etc"
I personally would be less inclined to kill someone else's little sister if I knew they would kill my little "sis" as a result. Furthermore,
, I'm not really sure I can do anything in the "Name of God" since I don't really have power of attorney. While we're on a first name basis, he doesn't tell me everything, and I don't ask. The visuals are good enough for me.
The desparity incumbent with Islamists defines psychotic as we know it in America.

2002-06-05T21:07:00.000-05:00

Everyone said it would come to this, foisting the unthinkable on the unwilling, unwitting and indifferent for no particular reason other than proving I type very slowly. Some of my friends, who don't even have "power", do have some good ideas about their world however, and if they find out I'm telling anyone there'll be no end to the banal drival they will lay on me . So... let's be discreet. thankyouverymuch.