PENNYWISE IS BACK!

A remake of Stephen King’s IT is due out this September.  

If you are a follower of King, as I am, this is a must see movie.

Remakes are rarely as good as the original; but I will hold my opinion until after the release.   

One thing we know, King is at his best when his subjects are kids.   He has always been able to realistically step back into childhood and touch a scary  place that we all remember.  

Very rarely are movies as good as the books; but Stand By Me and It were well done, and I have high hopes for this new release.   It will be ruined if script moves away from the story and the young actors to spectacular computer animation.

We all have to admit; clowns are scary as hell.

the Ol'Buzzard

CHEECH AND CHONG

The original stoners.   

 A classic of my generation.   

the Ol'Buzzard

THE OL'BUZZARD ATTENDS CHURCH

Last Thursday night I went to church. 

 Actually I was there to attend an art venue: a concert by the Irish Descendants.   I had not been in a church for a number of decades and I was surprised how it affected me.   A large stained glass representation of a tall, sandy hair Jesus stared down at me from over the alter.  I felt absolutely disgusted as everything in the church screamed of hypocrisy.  

The tendency of our race to portray the image of Jesus and the disciples in conformance with our cultural norms was clearly on display, when anthropology states the Galilean Semites men of that era were dark skinned, dark hair with average height around five feet and weight about 110 pounds.

The ostentatious display of décor - ornate architecture, carpeting, engraved pews, six stained glass windows, rich alter trimmings – stood in the face of the poster asking the congregation for used coats for underprivileged school children.

All in all it seemed surreal as the Irish Descendants sang about a sailor getting laid by a hooker and having his clothes stolen.

the Ol’Buzzard

  

LIBERAL REDNECK ON THE MUSLIM BAND

the Ol'Buzzard

THE IRISH DESCENDANTS

 Tomorrow night The Irish Descendants from Newfoundland are performing at a local arts venue and we have tickets.   This is the second time we will have seen them.  

Turn up the volume and enjoy:


















The only thing missing will be Newfy Screech,

but in it's place a little John Jameson when I get home.
the Ol'Buzzard

CHUCK BERRY

I remember my mother in her late seventies telling me she hated to go to sleep because everyone she dreamed of was dead.   I blew it off as old people talk.   

I don't dream about people; but of all the music I grew up with almost everyone is dead.   1950's and 1960's Rock and Roll - mostly gone, or if they are still around they are fucking old.  

And now Chuck Berry.   To me, he and Jerry Lee were the original rockers.  








"It's only Rock and Roll
Everyone dies
Go with the flow
And try to have a good time"

       ( Cledus Purcell from James Lee Burke's Robicheaux series)

the Ol'Buzzard

HODGEPODGE OF UNRELATED THOUGHTS

Mid March, moving toward Equinox and I have rambling thoughts of nothing much.   

So here are some March pictures with comments.

Have dug out from what hopefully what will be the last major snowstorm of this winter.

Still have snow stacked half way up the back window - the results of a metal roof.   


Spring time is an ideal time to buy a snow blower.  I bought this one from Sears sixteen years ago.  The price was $750 but it was the beginning of spring and I offered the manager $500 - or he could be stuck with it over the summer.     He took the $500.

I have had to replace belts twice and the friction disk once; but I can't complain as this little seven horse has moved tons of snow over the years.   

However if you are in the market I suggest you look for a snow blower with a round snow shoot.  This rectangle shoot tends to clog up in wet snow

It is not easy typing a post with a cat in your lap; but my lap seems to be where she likes to settle when I am on the computer.   This is the baby girl - two years old.

Her aunt (six years old) takes over my wife's computer chair when it is vacant.   You can see we have two hairy cat and so regular brushing is a must.

We have been cat people since 1992 when we got our first Maine Coon while in Alaska.  

Combing and brushing our cats in the winter has always been a problem since any comb or brush we bought seemed to create static electricity and and caused shocks - the cats always resisted combing during the winter.   Catch me comb me!

Two years ago when we adopted our girls ( our Ragdoll cat had died at 18 years old)  combing again became a problem in the winter. 

At the grocery store we happened to buy this unlikely looking brush.  The brush is made of a soft rubber type material with wire tines with little rubber tips.  The handle evidently acts as an insulation and doesn't build up  a charge - so the cats don't get shocked.   As soon as we pick up one of these brushes the cats drop down and wait for a combing - the look forward to it.   

Cat approved - my cats recommend it.  

My wife is in the bathroom doing her shower and make-up while I wait and wait and wait.... but it is always worth it.    The woman is fantastic - I don't know how I ended up with her. 

We are going shopping and will have a lunch out.  The temps are in the low twenties with a twenty mph wind, but this is Maine and we are use to the weather.   

I have just been notified that she is ready and I am not - so it's time to go.

the Ol'Buzzard

  

FOR LEEANNA

Your Walking Dead fix for Thursday morning.







You're welcome
the Ol'Buzzard

SEEING WINTER OUT THE DOOR

We got sixteen inches of snow in the last Nor-Easter and  yesterday and I spent over two hours snow blowing and shoveling. 

 It should be the last hurrah as far as large snow falls go this year.  

No real complaints.  

I guess my hero Red Green says it best.

 Contemplating Spring

the Ol'Buzzard

I'm just saying
the Ol'Buzzard

RESISTANCE PUBLISHING

The people with the loudest voices are the ones that get attention.

It is important that liberals become louder - in your face - calling out Trump and the Republican legislatures, by constantly confronting their hidden agendas and misrepresentations.  

Following is a copy of a letter-to-the-editor that I sent out today to the local online newspaper.   Feel free to copy all or any part and join me in Resistance Publishing.  

I am constantly amazed how the Republican Party has been able to dupe the average working man by touting God, guns, gays and a black President, while sliding through their real agenda of cutting social programs and channeling money to the wealthiest people and large businesses. 

Since Reagan and his ‘trickle down economics’ the Republican’s mantra has been tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts.   Tax cuts, of course, disproportionately benefit the wealthy.   Trickle Down Economics told us that if the rich got richer we would all be better off – that has worked really well, hasn’t it?

 The thing that is most alarming is the Republicans, for forty years, have been trying to do away with Social Security and Medicare.   They call it ‘privatizing Medicare and privatizing Social Security; which simply means they do away with it and you are on your on to buy insurance to pay for your own medical emergencies and retirement – and if you can’t afford it, you are out of luck.

 When Republicans tout ‘the Free Market, they are talking about you enrolling with unregulated insurance companies whose bottom line is paying out as little as possible in order to make maximum profit for their investors and CEO’s.    Another bait and switch as Republican politicians look into the camera and tell you that the ‘free market’ will offer you more choices, give you better coverage and at a lower cost.  

Can you really be that gullible?

Trump Care, the new Affordable Care Act replacement, proposed by the Republicans will kick millions of people off insurance and cut benefits for the elderly while giving huge tax windfalls to the mega-wealthy.   This should not be a surprise if you have been paying attention, as this has been the goal of the Republican Party for decades.

the Ol'Buzzard

BUZZARD IN A FUNK

I haven’t been on the computer for a few days.   I guess you would say I am in kind-of-a-funk.   It just seems that every time I think about writing a post I ask myself: what is the use.  

It feels like I have gone to sleep and found myself in a crazy psychedelic dream were the country is being run by Krusty the Clown, with Moe, Larry and Curly as his brain trust.

I was afraid it would get to this point where I would become so saturated with outlandishly bizarre Trump news that I would no longer care to stay informed.  

There are so many serious issues to deal with, from climate change to poverty to health care; and at present, the one that should scare the hell out of us is North Korea’s Kim Jong-um with nuclear weapons developing an ICBM that can reach the United States, and Donald Trump with the code to our nuclear arsenal.    

You don’t have to look very close to see that these two people are extremely similar. 

I feel like that crazy man standing on a soap box on the street corner shouting and waving his sign that The End is Near.

I am almost thankful that we have a nor-easter coming into Maine Tuesday into Wednesday with snow accumulations predicted between twelve and twenty inches.  

This should ground me back to reality.

the Ol'Buzzard

     

THE INFALLIBILITY OF GOD - PLUS: WOMEN, CARS AND INSURANCE COMPANIES

Anyone who has read more than one or two of my blogs probably knows that I don’t believe in a god or angles or devils or tinker bell - even if all the children clap.

I have, all my life, been surrounded by Christians that want to proselytize and legislate their religious beliefs.  

I do not argue with these people because their belief is stronger than logic.

But when asked why I don’t believe, I usually sight: women.

Christians claim a God of all power, all knowing and all seeing; an infallible designer of the earth, the stars, the galaxies and the solar system. 

And yet, any man who has ever accompanied his wife to a gynecologist office realizes that women’s plumbing systems have a real design problem.   They seem to have the same road dependability as a Yugo automobile.

Women are plagued with painful periods, irregular periods, prenatal, postnatal, uterine cancer, breast cancer, menopause, leaks, discharges, prolapses, rashes, dryness, urinary tract infections, pain, sensitivity, and an infinite number of things that I will probably never understand.

If an automobile company put out a product that broke down that often their engineers and design teams would be fired and the company would probably go bankrupt.   

Don’t get me wrong.  I love women’s nether parts and all the bells and whistles and accompaniments that go along to make The Total Woman. But, my point is, that if there were actually a pluperfect, infallible God – designer of the universe –  It seems He would have been able to do a better job for women. 

The Yugo automobile that sold in the 1980’s was totally undependable.  The engines were known to explode, electrical systems regularly shorted out and parts would fall off for no reason.  Many insurances companies refused to insure Yugos.

RESISTANCE PUBLISHING MARCH 7

Attached is a letter to the editor that I posted today to our local on-line newspaper.

It is important that we continually air items of Donald Trump's unfitness to be President.   To sit silently only reinforces  his supporters.  

Feel free to use the entire post or any part in your own resistance publishing.

the Ol'Buzzard

Donald Trump put on his big boy trousers, appeared in front of Congress and read a prepared speech off a teleprompter without veering off into some conspiracy theory.  Republicans thought it was marvelous.

Then on Saturday Trump tweeted: ‘Terrible! Just found out Obama had me wire tapped in Trump Tower just before victory.’

White House staff are now running around trying to claim that the President is privy to information no one else has.   The FBI and other national security groups absolutely deny the allegation.

So, where does ‘The President’ get his information from?

On Thursday night the far right conspiracy theorist Mark Levin claimed on his pod cast that President Obama may have used surveillance techniques to gather information on Donald Trump during the election.

This was picked up by Alex Jones on his radio show. 

Alex Jones is a right-wing conspiracy nut that has claimed that the Sandy Hook Elementary school massacre didn’t happen, but was a government TV production staged as an argument against gun control.     Alex has also claimed that the Oklahoma City bombing and the 9-11 attack were orchestrated by the U.S. government, and that the U.S. moon landing was a fake.

Then on Friday Breitbart News carried the conspiracy. 

 Breitbart News is a platform for the alt-right white supremacist organization formally run by Steve Bannon – Trump’s chief strategist.    Among other things Breitbart News has claimed that President Obama was a Muslim born in Kenya, and that Hillary Clinton was involved in running a child sex ring operating in the back of a pizza shop in Washington D.C. 

Then on Saturday morning it was wake up and tweet time for the President of the United States; accusing a former President of committing a felony by illegally taping his phones at Trump Tower.

Trump has been known to skip formal government intelligence briefings; I think we know where the President of the United States gets his information.

TIME FOR A COKE

the Ol'Buzzard

NOT AFRAID OF BURNING IN HELL

And if there were a hell 
it would be my choice

Who  would want to spend eternity 
in the company of fundamentalist Christians?

the Ol'Buzzard