It's been a while

Some day maybe I'll get better in my blogging habits. Since my last post, I've gotten a year older, my chronic back problem is doing its usual thing(the air pressure has been bobbing up and down like a yo-yo this winter), my shoulder has gone from bad to worse (had to get an MRI, and I may need surgery), I've had a wisdom tooth yanked out, had to attend the funeral of an old friend, and I've had to replace a monitor. Hope the rest of the year doesn't continue in this trend.

*************************************************

I assume everyone has looked over the "stimulus" package; the only thing that monstrosity is stimulating is the national debt. From everything I've seen, only about 5-12% of it actually will have any effect on the economy, the rest is just the usual bloated pork that politicians line up to devour.

"The budget is a mythical bean bag. Congress votes mythical beans into it, and then tries to reach in and pull real beans out."
-Will Rogers

I think too many politicians have lost sight of what the beans are supposed to represent.

*************************************************

What's with so many of the appointees for positions turning out to be tax evaders? Maybe what we should do is start requiring anyone who wants to hold a public office to submit to an audit from the IRS. At least that way they'll have to wait until after they're elected to show their criminal side.

"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office."
-Aesop

Seems like the best way to set a person on the road to crime is to elect them to a public office.

************************************************

Google Latitude lets you track friends, employees

Am I the only one who thinks this is a spooky idea that could get badly misused?

************************************************

This may seem like a dark group of songs to those who are familiar with them. Goes with my mood these last couple of weeks, I guess.

"Let Me Be" by The Turtles
"In My Time of Sorrow" by Marianne Faithfull
"Sympathy for the Devil" by The Rolling Stones
"Lost in a Lost World" by The Moody Blues
"Sometimes It's a Bitch" by Stevie Nicks
"Strange Days" by The Doors
"Mechanical World" by Spirit
"I've Been Down for So Long (It Looks Like up to Me)" by Nancy Sinatra
"To Beat the Devil" by Kris Kristofferson
"Baker Street" by Gerry Rafferty



Here's the first song in the list, with the lyrics:




Please don't mistake me or try to make me
The shadow of anybody else
I ain't the him or her you think I am
I'm just trying hard to be myself
Oh, society's goal is to be part of the whole
That may sound good to you, not to me

Let me be, let me be
To think like I want to
Let me be, let me be
That's all I ask of you
I am what I am and that's all I ever can be

Don't try to plan me or understand me
I can't stand to be understood
I could never give in to or ever live up to
Being like you think I should
I've got some inner need which I'm tryin' to heed
I can't take hand-me-down destiny

Let me be, let me be,
To think like I want to
Let me be, let me be
That's all I ask of you
I am what I am and that's all I ever can be

Don't try to change me or rearrange me
To satisfy the selfishness of you
I'm not a piece of clay to mold to your moves each day
And I'm not a pawn to be told how to move
I'm sorry I'm not the fool you thought would play by your rules
But to-each-his-own philosophy

Let me be, let me be,
To think like I want to
Let me be, let me be
That's all I ask of you
I am what I am and that's all I ever can be

I said that's all I ever can be
I said that's all I ever can be
I said that's all I ever can be