THE TIME EATING MONSTER

Thirty days has September, April, June and November…

Another fucking month slips by.   When I was younger time seemed to drag, but the older I get the faster time seems to move.    So here I am speeding toward the end of time.

Yes, I am sorry, but as my time speeds up to the instance that my reality shrinks into a black hole so goes the universe.  When I am no longer here there is no existence.  You’re all gone.  Everything is gone.  If I can’t perceive it, it doesn’t exist.

Time was invented by man and refined by the railroads.   Before the railroads, clocks were set by solar time: a stick in the ground would determine the shortest shadow as noon.     This meant that clocks in a town fifty miles to your east might be ten minutes later than your clock and clocks in a town fifty miles to your west might read ten minutes earlier.   This made scheduling train arrivals and departures impossible, so the railroad led the charge to standardize time.  

The concept of time was designed to regulated human life.   It has placed us on a programed treadmill.  Time regulates our every action.   It makes us productive; but robs us of serenity.   

And now for me time is no longer a linear path of infinity; but an ever shrinking trail to the end of time. 

DID I RUN and

AM I TIRED?

the Ol’Buzzard

MY GOD - WHO'S CRAPPING IN THE NEXT STALL?

I feel sorry for this boy.   A liberal living in Mississippi.   The things he is saying I can relate to personally.    Potluck suppers that always begin with a prayer.  When you first meet people they want to know what church you attend.  People calling on the phone and wanting to pray with you.  Religion permeating all aspects of life - accompanied by the narrow minded bigotry that religion spawns.    

The total ignorance is suffocating.  

So here’s to The Liberal Redneck.

the Ol'Buzzard

MAINE'S GOVERNOR DOES IT AGAIN

Pepe Le Page

The University of Maine at Farmington has been listed in News Week as one of the best small colleges in the US for over a decade. 


The past president Theodora Kalikow was honored yesterday by having the Student Center named in her honor.   Maine's controversial governor Paul LePage was the invited speaker.

   

A few minutes after the Governor took the stage two student held up signs stating: 'LePage Main's Shame,' and 'On environmental issues Theadora Kalikow - A, Paul LePage - F.'   

The Governor saw the signs and said "I can't do this."  He walked off the stage and on his way past called the students "Idiots."

Paul LePage was twice elected.  Both times a liberal third party candidate split the Democratic vote.  

 This has always been the danger of third parties: they tend to take votes from one side more than the other.   A multi-party system is healthy, but it should be more than three choices.   A third party run usually ends giving victory to the party most opposing its views. 

The thing most disturbing is that in the local e-newspaper all the comments (except mine) were negative toward the students.  Being a college town most residents are liberal, but almost all the political comments and letters to the editor or always by angry conservatives.    

There is a correlation here on the state of the nation.

the Ol'Buzzard

YIN AND YANG

Regardless of who we are, we all see things in black and white, good or bad, right or wrong based on our own experiences and background; when actually everything in this world – every belief and action exist in some shade of grey.

 The Chinese symbol of Yin and Yang shows white and black in equal proportions, but each side should exist in different proportions according to the issue.

We all are guilty of fallacious thinking, that everything we reason, everything we believe is factual and everything opposing our view is false.   A twenty-year-old can tell you in one sentence how to solve all the world’s problems and strife; but, as we age the grey seeps in.  

Like Jurassic Park there are always two scenarios.

Saddam Hussein is a bad guy; lets remove the bad guy and all will be better - equals simplistic thinking.

As a liberal I am against war.  I would like to downsize our military and drastically cut our military budget, transferring our spending to social programs.   Great idea, but….     About one third of our manufacturing base depends directly on military contracts and millions of people's jobs depend on companies depending on military contracts. 

Yin and Yang in different proportions. 

 

Even daylight and dark vary according to the seasons. 

Health care and pharmaceutical companies are leaches that will eventually suck everyone’s blood.   They are companies for profit not for health.   I would like to see Medicare for all and government control of pharmaceutical products.   But this would mean the end of health insurance companies and the socialization of pharmaceuticals.    Again, Yin and Yang in different proportions: millions of people would lose their jobs and their retirements. The eventual outcome might be better, but it would be disastrous in the short term.    Billions of dollars of profits curtailed – I am not sure it can ever be done.    

I have life insurance, most people do: what happens to the security of our love ones when insurance companies go under – like the environment everything in the economy exist in a web, you destroy one link of the web and the whole web can be effected. 

 

Where am I going with this: the Ol’Buzzard is riding the updrafts and passing the time with contemplation while waiting to discover the next piece of carrion…  oops, a dead skunk on the road – let me take a look.

Yum yum

the Ol’Buzzard

SUNDAY MORNING

Sunday morning and people get dressed up and go to church to worship their respective god; they sing and prey and put money in the plate when it is passed around.  They feel self-righteous and  pious as they interact with others of their congregation. 

The rest of the week they swim in their prejudices and bigotry, more concerned about politics, money and station than about the people around them. 

If they were serious they would just look out for other people.  

And realize that we are not special - we are all in it together.

the Ol'Buzzard

A TRIBUTE TO CHARLTON HESTON

"You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold dead hand."

Charlton Heston

The video was blocked by funny or die so click

HERE 

to see it. 

I'm just saying
the Ol'Buzzard

BOOK YOUR CRUISE TODAY

By 1969, Exxon had found and leased the large reserves of crude oil under Alaska’s North Slope.  The problem was how to transport the crude from Alaska to refineries.  Exxon decided on two possible scenarios:  A tanker through the North West Passage to the East Coast refineries, or build a pipeline to a port in southern Alaska and transport by ship to west coast refineries. 

Exxon decided to try the transporting through the Arctic Ocean, as that would not require the difficulty of obtaining a costly right of way and permission for a pipeline across Alaska.

The trip was made with the help and assistance of U.S and Canadian ice breakers.   The Manhattan, a retrofitted oil tanker/icebreaker, left the East Coast and arrived in Prudhoe Bay where it picked up one barrel of oil and then made a return trip to New York.

It was later found that the winter weather would make the trip impossible and the North West Passage oil rout was scrapped.

Back in the early 1970 I was attached to a Navy special projects command.   One of our missions was to provide an airborne platform for scientific measurement of ice thickness in the Arctic Ocean above Canada; again looking for a possible North West Passage.   It had been proven that passage through the Arctic Ocean was possible, but would it be practical to try to maintain an open passageway.?  

Now that is a moot question.   The Arctic Ocean is open thanks to global warming and we are about to see a commercial exploitation of the area.  

In September of this year the Crystal Cruise line is offering a thirty-two day trip through the North West passage.   The cost will run from $28,000 to $46,000 per person.   Soon we can expect other cruise ships and even commercial ships to sail this route.   

This new intrusion of man into the arctic will negatively affect the breeding ground of whales and eventually effect all arctic wildlife in that ecosystem.   These ships burn dirty fuel that will produce carbon emissions that will result in increased melting of arctic ice.  

Again, the avarice of mankind trumps protection of this fragile planet we live on.    At some point mankind will have caused the sixth extinction.    We are proving to be the most destructive life form produced on this planet.

Have a happy Monday

The Ol’Buzzard 

DOG BITCHING

I am not an anti-dog person, but I am an anti-dog person person. 

I have owned dogs.  I have had hunting hounds, basset hounds, one Irish Wolf Hound and two German Shepherds – I love German shepherds.

I understand the love people have for their dogs; but dog owners should understand that no one else is required to love their dog. 

I object to going into a restaurant and seeing someone there with their dog, either in their lap or on the floor under the table.   I do not understand why anyone thinks it is alight to take their dog into a supermarket while shopping for food.   I don’t understand why someone feels they need to put their dog on a leash and walk it downtown where it can piss on the side of buildings or trees and leave dog turds in the flower bed in front of the post office.  

We have a small park in the center of our town, about a quarter of an acre.  There is a gazebo and beautiful shade trees and some nice benches.   It would be a beautiful place to have lunch in the summer, but dog owners use it as a dog potty.     And picking it up in a plastic sandwich bag doesn't make it all right. 

I have a neighbor that has two dogs that bark at me every time I go in or out of my house. 

I don’t own a dog so I should never step in dog turds when I am walking in my own yard.  

I don’t dislike dogs, but I do dislike irresponsible dog owners that inflict their dogs on the public.  

I miss owning a dog, but they are too much maintenance for me at this point of my life – so I share our home with two Maine Coon Cats; but the cats are kept indoors and are not imposed on anyone unless you visit their house.

My wife says that as I get older I get grumpier – mayhaps that is the case.

the Ol’Buzzard

TIME

When you are retired you are supposed to put away your watch and become less regulated by time.  But time is always there.  The world runs on time.

I wonder who invented time – yes invented.   The universe is not concerned about time; it’s just there.   It is humans that have divide up their existence by some unit of before, now and after – and believe the world and the universe are regulated by their standard.

I am sure the white race wants to take credit for time; but I have the feeling it was an Arab concept.   The Arabs were contemplating math, science and technology back when white Europeans were living in grass hovels and stabbing each other with sharp sticks.  

But I don’t doubt it was white people that decided to divide the day into two, twelve arbitrary unites of sixty minutes of sixty seconds; and then patted themselves on the back for their brilliance.   Perhaps twelve was the number of times some king farted between daylight and dark. 

 

An arbitrary base twelve/sixty system doesn’t make any sense.   Base ten is mathematically easier to work with.   Why not ten hours divided by one hundred minutes divided into ten minute unites that could be divided into deci-minutes, centi-minutes, milli-minutes… 

Think of how much easier space and technology calculations would be if a base ten system was used as the arbitrary time standard.  Time could be expressed in decimals; not in hours, minutes, seconds and fractions. 

Just a thought

the Ol’Buzzard

TECHNOLOGY CHALLENGED

I keep getting a pop up on my computer saying Google wants to change something on my hard drive - something to do with http.   

What the fuck is this?  Why can't they just leave things alone when they are working.  And what happens if I say no - do I lose my blog?
the Ol'Buzzard

I LOVE MAYONNAISE

I was raised in the deep south, in a small Mississippi Delta cotton town.  The food I ate was all delicious, but mainly fried or covered with gravy.   I never had spaghetti except out of a can – my grandmother considered it foreign food – something Italians (whoever they were) ate.   Potatoes were a rarity - we ate rice, usually covered with gravy.   What wasn’t covered with gravy we covered with mayonnaise. 

As a kid I ate tomato sandwiches, bologna sandwiches, span sandwiches, lunch meat sandwiches all slathered with mayonnaise.  Anything you could put between two pieces of bread (eggs, pineapple slices, meat, fish, cheese…) you could cover with mayonnaise and make a sandwich. Often I would eat mayonnaise sandwiches: two pieces of wonder bread liberally filled with mayonnaise, and this was one of my favorites.

I still love mayonnaise today.  I would willingly use it as a dip for potato chips and even french-fries.   I could put mayonnaise on everything I eat, but my wife draws a line

All good tasting foods seem to come to the same end in the name of healthy living, so too has mayonnaise – real mayonnaise.   

Back in 05 I had an artery blockage and had to have a stent inserted.   Since then I have been more conscious of fats and cholesterol.   Now I have gone from real mayonnaise to mayonnaise made with canola oil – not the same thing. 

  

However, getting to the point of this post, I have found that adding a dash of Champagne vinegar improves the taste canola oil mayonnaise considerably.

I just finished a fried egg sandwich with mayonnaise for breakfast.  

It is a good day.

the Ol’Buzzard

    

.   

AAayyyyyyyyiiiii I CAN’T STAND IT!!!!!

I am sick of it!   I turn on the TV and it is the same crap: all I have seen for the last four months is Trump, Clinton, Cruz and Bernie. 

 We all know who we intend to vote for by now.  

 

Enough!

Seven more months of this shit.   It is driving me fucking crazy….

Super delegates and the electoral college – our vote doesn’t actually elect the candidates anyway. 

Give me a break

the Ol’Buzzard 

SANDY HOOK PARENTS SUE GUN MANUFACTURERS

Bernie Sanders is in hot water because when asked if he supported the Sandy Hook parent’s suit against gun manufacturers, he said no.

Let’s call this what it is: liberalism gone nuts.  

As far as I am concerned the Sandy Hook slaying of school children rates the same on the insanity scale as the bringing down of the twin towers. 

However, the weapons were legally purchased by the assholes killers’ mother; and thanks to Republican and some Democrat legislatures the weapons and magazines and ammunition are legally available to the public.  There is no way you can hold the manufacturers liable for their misuse.  

If someone uses their car as a murder weapon should you be able to sue the auto maker?   If a wife takes a butcher knife to her husband can the family sue the cutlery maker? 

And how about suicides?   Think of the thousand ways people think to kill themselves – should the manufacturer of the product used, be liable?

This is bat shit crazy liberalism; and anybody outraged at Bernie Sanders for speaking logic and common sense needs to step back and think this out. 

Hurrah for Bernie for speaking the logical truth.   This is the type of person we need to deescalate some of the insanity that drives US national and foreign policy.   

Bernie just took a step up, in my view, of his ability to deal with critical issues without partisan or emotional sway.

Feel the Burn

the Ol’Buzzard

TIME MOVES ON

Throughout my life singers and musicians have died from drug overdose, accident, suicide and natural causes.  Each time I would lament them – listen to some of their music – and move on.  I had other places to go and other things to do.

Yesterday Merle Haggard died and today I view it somewhat different. 

When I liberated myself from Mississippi back in 1959 I never looked back.   I never kept in touch with any of my childhood friends.  About 1980 I lost track of any kin – the only people from my past I have kept in touch with are a cousin, a half-sister and the son of my best friend.  

I talked to my mother just before she died in the 1970’s.   She told me she hated to go to sleep, because everyone she dreamed of was dead - she was the last of her siblings and friends.  

Now, death doesn’t scare me and I sleep fine – when I sleep.   I do not miss knowing that most of the people I grew up with are probably already dead, or like me skirting the grim reaper.  

The only markers I have of my teen age years and young adulthood are the singers and musicians of my time; and those left are dropping away rather quickly.   Yesterday we lost Merle Haggard; probably only a foot note for most people, but road mark for me. 

In my teens I listened to rock and roll, in my early adulthood it was country: Hank Williams, Flat and Scruggs, Johnny Cash, Hank Snow, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Willy Nelson, Patsy Cline….   These are the markers of my lifetime, and there are not many of us left.

The last of my kind and it's all going to pot.
the Ol'Buzzard

SEVEN MINUTES OF ZONE OUT

The Ol'Buzzard

AND THEN ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE

Richard Engle, NBC’s Chief Foreign Correspondent who has covered the Middle East for the past twenty years, has just put out a book titled:

AND THEN ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE,

This is a must read book for anyone wishing to understand the complex issues of the Muslim world that seriously affect the rest of the global community. 

Engle begins with a history of the Middle East and the factors that have led to the religious fanaticism that has co-opted the Muslim faith.  

He accounts a fascinating story of his own immersion into the Arab culture; and reveals his understanding of the political, social and religious beliefs driving the violence of today’s complex and diverse Middle Eastern Muslim societies.

Usually when I am reading at night my mind will start to blank out and I know it is bed time.  I started Engle’s book and had to force myself to lay it down and go to bed at midnight.  

Again; a must read to be intelligently informed on a part of the world that is holding hostage, with a threat of violence, all free thinking people. 

the Ol’Buzzard 

I LOVE EGGS

I could eat eggs every day - I love them.

One day that really sucked  was the day I was told that eggs should be eaten in moderation because they increased cholesterol in the blood leading to artery blockage.

I have been known to wolf down six eggs with bacon and toast for breakfast.

I like boiled eggs, put pealing them is a pain in the ass

I haven't tried this yet, but I will next time I boil eggs.




   

Here is a link to cooking eggs that might interest you:

COOKING EGGS

the Ol'Buzzard

TO MOHAVE RAT

Keep on keeping on
the Ol'Bizzard

BUZZARD BARF

Last night I watched a recorded Nova presentation on math.

  

Sometimes around midnight I went to bed.   After getting my junk adjusted and my pillow just right I lay there waiting for sleep, but could hear my pulse beating in my ear.  I readjusted my head to cut out the sound, but one of the monkey in my mind started counting numbers:

The average heart beats sixty time a minute

60X60: that would be 360 times an hour

and then the Count takes over:

360X24= 8,640 beats a day;

All right I am running at the limit of my brain math, but I have got to answer the question if I am ever going to get to sleep

400X8000=  around 3,200,000 beats a year

( actually 8,640X 365= 3,153,600);

Over the hump of seventy years… round off…

Something around a quarter of billion heart beats in my lifetime – that’s close enough.

   Damn, hearts are really an impressive muscle that we take for granted until they start to wear out.   

Nonstop, a quarter of a billion…

Then I wake up – it’s three-o-clock and I’ve got to pee.

DID I RUN and

AM I TIRED?

the Ol’Buzzard