Pope Loses Mind, Thinks He’s Michael Bloomberg!

Global Warming? Gender Equality? Gun Control in America? Middle East Politics? There is no limit or extent of world issues this new leader will take on and combat. 

And just who are we talking about here?

Why it’s the POPE!

Somehow the Pope has become bored with just one religion; he’s gone and joined a number of new ones.

First is the Global Warming Cult. You are either a Believer or a Denier. There is no middle ground and if you don’t believe then you are going to HELL!

Then there is the recognition of the bunch of militant Arabs on Welfare that currently occupy the Gaza Strip. They are now officially recognized as "The State of Palestine" by the Vatican. Pope Francis believes that the world should believe what he believes.

This is starting to look and sound eerily familiar.

So, has anybody actually SEEN Michael Bloomberg, the former Crazed Mayor of New York City, lately? Has he gotten a supreme make-over and somehow managed the old “Switcher-oo” and so is now living disguised as The Pope? If he has managed to pull off one of the greatest body-switches in the history of the world, then all these crazy actions and announcements make perfect sense. 

The Pope is actually Michael Bloomberg! It's just that simple. 

If not, Pope Francis has sure gone crazy.

And then there is the people who manufacture armaments and weapons, GUNS to be more accurate. They are hypocrites to call themselves Christians now.  This would mean that, since the United States is the world’s largest munitions manufacturer, an industry, by the way, driven by the U.S. Government’s demand for salable arms for export to foreign markets, that almost half the population of the United States shouldn't call themselves Christians now. That is, even if they wanted to.

Someone call Mr. Bloomberg right now, I’ll bet someone will say he’s “out of town and can’t be reached’. But WE know the truth.

Pope Francis and Michael Bloomberg are one and the same.

Ok, I have no concrete proof and I know Bloomberg officially left office Jan 2014 while Francis was already the Pope since the previous March but SOMEHOW Bloomberg did it and here’s why: Since he was no longer the Crazed Mayor of the largest city in the United States, who would listen to his crack-pot rantings now? Who on God’s Green Earth would listen to him if they didn’t HAVE TO listen to him like when he was Mayor? The television stations had to broadcast him and the newspapers had to cover him and all the substantial public workforce that the city of New York employs needed his good will because their jobs depended on it but once he left office, that's all over. Without the title of Mayor, Bloomberg is just another guilty rich person spouting off on things he has no business spouting off on. 

Enter The Church. Love the new Pope or hate the new Pope, you’re stuck with him until he kicks the bucket. He can say just about anything, do anything and everybody has to clap and cheer in public. THIS was too much for Bloomberg to pass up. This was the job he was always meant to have!

Oh come on now, it's not so far fetched as it seems. If you know anything about the public rantings of the former CM of NYC, it's not like Mr. Bloomberg has never imaged what it was like to BE the Pope, right? In many ways he already thought he was.

And like most crazy people, he didn’t wait for it or work for it, he just took it. Perhaps Bloomberg, leaving a body-double in his place in New York, flew to Buenos Aires, had the leader of the Argentine church kidnapped, bought off the Argentine government for short money and eventually rigged the election for Pope by stuffing $100,000,00 bills into offering boxes in all the voting eligible Bishop's church communities. Once ensconced in the Papal role, his body double hands over the reigns of NYC to new mayor and aspiring junior crazy person Bill de Blasio and nobody is the wiser. 

Stranger things have happened. 

So what’s next for our Global Do-Gooder? I’m surprised Francis hasn’t gone after the smokers yet. Yes, let’s get THOSE PEOPLE too. Will the Pope propose a world-wide cigarette tax? How about a “Tobacco isn’t Christian” campaign?

And those people who cross the street while the "Don't Walk" sign is lighted? Yes, those Jay-Walkers must be pointed out and SHAMED! And driving while texting! Oh, and all that trash left up in the Himalayas by all those mountain climbers, get them! And somebody must determine the morality of driving an UBER car!

Damn, the whole world is going to Hell.

Good thing we have Michael Bloomber...ah…I mean, Pope Francis around to help.

Liberal America Rejoices at Black Church Shooting

It didn’t take long at all for the political Left to come out swinging for the fences on “Hate Speech” and “Hate Crime” and how BAD guns are and that they should all be rounded up.

The bodies weren’t even examined before President Obama made his not unexpected pitch yet again for Gun Control legislation. Never mind that he tried this before and failed. The mantra of the Left is "try, try again". 

The first thing most regular tax-paying middle-class American citizens had to have said to themselves when they heard about black people being shot by a white guy at a church, AFTER realizing what a tragic killing of some America’s most dedicated Christian church people this was, was “Oh, here they come again!”.

And here they are.

The airwaves instantly came alive with impassioned victim-hood from the Liberal Victim Nation that President Obama and his Leftist Media Propagandists have repeatedly tried to whip up to flaunt their neediness and how whatever “White America” does, well, it just isn’t enough. From Trevon to Ferguson, the Leftist media has taken a deeper breath to shout from the mountain tops that only can a dis-armed America be a truly safe America and that death is dealt to the black man by the white hand of hate. 

All the usual suspects emerge with a new lust for the limelight. No tragedy will be left unexploited and today is no exception.  Just before jetting off to multiple fund raisers, our Socialist President made an impassioned plea for something he’s been saying he’s wanted to do since inaugurated, get the guns out of the hands of the citizens.

There are even Leftist political operatives advocating for the repeal of the 2^nd Amendment, like that will bring calm to the Nation. The opposite will occur, be sure. Good luck with that one.

One thing I really hate about so called “Conservative Media” outlets is that they do the exact same thing.

I don’t read the fucking New York Times and I don’t watch fucking CNN so the LAST THING I need to have happen is to have the outlets I do frequent to tell me the crap that the NY Times and CNN put out. I DON’T CARE to hear it because I already know what they are going to say. It’s not like it’s going to be enlightening, informative or different, it’s only going to be the same old Party Line. That’s why I don’t read that paper or watch that program.

So why do I need to see that NOT Conservative news show FOX tell me what people like, for instance,  Karl Rove are saying? Who cares what he says? He's a nitwit that gets paid by the work by all these birds-of-a-feather programs. Ditto for a snake oil salesman like Al Sharpton. Why would you quote these yo-yos? To make people jump through YOUR hoop? 

I don’t need “name your conservative radio host _________ to tell me what they print in the New York Times or the L.A. Times. If I wanted to know, I’d be reading it myself.

It’s all just a game to these folks. I point at the Times and YOU call my program in a froth about those God Dammed Liberals. Oh, and while you’re at it, can you support our sponsors?  It’s just a cheap trick to disguise the lack of content and thought they put into their programs. “Oh, let’s just pick up the paper and see what my show will be about tonight? Oh, look what’s in the NY Times, my work is done!” It's like one can't live without the other. So tell me again how different you are?

It’s tiresome.

The Left is tiresome because they keep coming and coming after the people have decided otherwise. The people didn’t want Obama Care but here it is, until it collapses. The people don’t want unending war, the people don’t want subsidies as a substitute for earning a living and they don’t want thousands of illegal aliens in this country either being supported by their tax dollar or looking for a job that they or their kid may be looking for too.

The Right is tiresome because they are mostly indistinguishable from the Left. They want the illegals too and for the tax payer to support them with services so that companies like Tyson Chicken can pay them crap but they community will house them and provide them with healthcare. And these people are supposed to be looking out for us?

And when the Right does get to decide what to do what do we get? More prisons and Anti-Flag Burning legislation. That’s important right? And THEY haven’t met a war they didn’t like either.

Don’t know why I bother.

Anyway.

Go ahead and repeal the 2^nd Amendment. It won’t do any good. None of the anti-gun legislation ever passed has stopped anyone who really wanted to get a gun from getting a gun. If they want to shoot up a church, there isn’t a whole lot anybody can do about it since there is no murder in a gun since it is but a thing. It’s the murder in the heart of man that has to be addressed and the atmosphere propagated by a distrusted government is as much to blame as anything else. 

A gun is just a long knife and they sell knives in every big box retail store as well as fertilizer and propane. Gasoline is on every corner and people are driving around in 2000 lb weapons while looking at their "Smart" phones. Go figure. What is government going to do, issue permits to buy gas?  

Whether you run people over in your car, push them out of a window, blow them up with a home-made bomb or shoot them, they still dead and you still a killer.

No legislation is going to stop that. That’s just a fundraising theme and the Left is going to be cashing quite a few checks over this latest shooting and perhaps the Right will be too.

What do you think they will do with the money?

Pope Francis Prostitutes Himself for Climate Commies

Was he, as an unknown and aspiring priest in Argentina, Jorge Bergoglio, really studying Meteorology instead of Theology back in the Seminary?  And now, as Pope Francis, has he sequestered himself in his humble chambers pouring over climate charts until late in the evening, studying ancient texts and aquiring all the climate data he can from the last century and beyond? Because if he wasn’t, then what the FUCK does The Pope know about Climate Change?

The answer, of course, is NOTHING. The Pope only knows what other people tell him about "Man Made Climate Disruption". He's a seldom heard from priest in South America and now he's an expert on climate AND The Pope.

Oh, but now as the top guy in the Catholic Church he is the Earths biggest champion advocating for big goverment intervention, regulations and MONEY to fight the emergent scourge of the Weather. Having a "Fan Friendly" Pope as an advocate of the Global Socialist Cabal will be seen by many as a boon to convincing the Rubes around the world that Global Warming, I mean, Climate Change is actually a real thing instead of what it is, another global grab for power by a government elite.

It’s all about the Benjamin’s with the Catholic Organization. If a church isn't “pulling it in” what does the organization do? They close it. Sorry, no more services here so move along and find another church to go to that can make some real revenue. After all, we do all sorts of good deeds with it although we don’t have time to go into detail. Thanks for your co-operation.

As a child in the Boston housing projects both the Catholic and Protestant churches sent offering envelops home with every child. Didn't matter how poor you are, you are never too poor to give to the church!

And now the church can debit your bank account monthly. How convenient!

What we don't hear is the Pope pledging Vatican Money for research and to join the "fight" to Save the Planet with their own resources. Heaven forbid!

It seems that the “The People’s Pope” has found a way to fill the Vatican vaults with Al Gore level money, by using his high and lofty status to tout something he knows even less about than the Bible or God: Global Climate Change.

It’s brilliant isn't it? If the Pope calls for the destruction of every countries economy, there will be more poor people than ever. Oh, it's good to be Pope!

Who doesn't think money isn't involved? We've seen others grow rich and fat on the climate change gravy train. Why WOULDN'T the Pope go for it? It isn't like he’s taken a vow of poverty or anything; he’s got a dwindling world empire to bring back to power! There is definitely a marketable quality to Pope Francis that we haven't seen with the other Popes. By leveraging his elevated status since he took "office" a favorable statement by Pope Francis could command big money. He can sell you Catholic Guilt, White Guilt, Wealth Guilt, Pope Francis can sell it all. 

It is apparent that Pope Francis has sold his soul to the Devil of Climate Change and now he's on board the Government Train and preaching to the world, again, that it is Man that is the problem with the world. And isn't Pope Francis also a man? On top of that he has become a Useful Idiot for the power brokers of Climate Politics.

Contrary to popular belief, Popes are not chosen for their brains. They’re chosen for…er…I don’t know , perhaps how they look in a dress, who really knows but judging by the last two Popes, one who liked to spend the money, wear the cape, wear the jewels and the other who pretends not to like spending the money and goes tilting at windmills that don’t even really exist, they aren't the sharpest tools in the ecumenical shed.

Birds of a feather…fly together and so Pope Francis has joined the Global Bullshit Squad for Climate Awareness. And who cares if there isn’t an ounce of truth to any of it. That’s not the point. Its control of the means of production these Climate Communists want.

There’s a lot of money involved and a lot of power at stake and the Pope wants in on it. That money can but a lot of influence and it can certainly buy a lot of people. 

Hell, it bought a Pope. 

Bring Back Unemployment Lines

I was thinking the other day that it is too bad that Unemployment Compensation became automated and that people don’t actually have to come out and be counted publicly anymore.

It used to be a telling tale of how the economy was doing to see people lined up outside the local Unemployment Office in each city and town. In good times it would be just a few people standing or sitting around smoking and drinking coffee and shooting the breeze waiting for the doors to open and in tougher times like as the result of the economic missteps of the Carter Administration, the lines stretched down the block and around the corner. You would drive by and be amazed at the number of people in line. It was the consummate measure of how the president was doing that was hard to miss by the general public whether you were political or not.


By the end of the Carter Administration, unemployment lines were ‘Ponderous” and lead to Jimmy Carters electoral defeat at the hands of Ronald Reagan. People couldn't miss the increase of the lines for unemployment benefits.


After 1981 the administration of Ronald Reagan returned those lines to a normal length first by denying as many claims as it could get away with and then reducing taxes and regulations for businesses so that people were no longer prohibitively expensive to hire. Spurred on by these changes, companies were hiring and people had the incentive to work since the saying was back then: “When did you find work? …When my unemployment ran out!”

Up until the Unemployment System was automated in the mid-1990s, an unemployed person filing for benefits had to apply in person. They also had to come back every week on their appointed day and sign a book and answer questions on whether they looked for work or not. In the state of Massachusetts there was also a form to fill out with the employers you contacted to apply for work. For this it was a requirement that people who wished to sign up for or continue with their benefits had to line up outside the office.

Today approximately 85% of all UI claims are filed remotely.

The Government claim is that every dollar paid in unemployment benefits generates approximately $1.60 in economic activity but that cannot be true. This claim does not take into consideration the “Overhead” involved in doling out the money. A million dollars may enter the Government Machine but what comes out isn’t close to that number ever!

The government employees that run the Unemployment Department also draw a paycheck. Where does this money come from? Taxes, that’s where. The companies pay for unemployment compensation in the form of a tax on their profits. In truth, Unemployment compensation in all but a few states is funded almost entirely by employer payroll taxes. Only three states; Arkansas, New Jersey and Pennsylvania collect taxes from employees under certain conditions.

Of course taxes on companies aren't paid by the companies. These taxes are passed along to the consumer as part of the price they pay for goods.

This is the old “Taxing ourselves into Prosperity” ruse that government likes to trot out there every so often. The last person I recall using it was Nancy Pelosi when she was the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives.

So today we live in a different world. Since our unemployed no longer stand in line, instead applying either over the phone or via the Internet and receiving their benefits directly deposited into their bank accounts, we only know what the percentage of the population is unemployed by what the government tells us. The government now controls those numbers and the government cannot be believed.

So I wish we could bring back those old, heady days of the unemployment line where people stood together, mixed together, exchanged information and telegraphed to the whole country just how good or bad the economy and our president was doing. It was the only truthful reference we could rely on. But it’s been a long time now since then and we the people have little to go on anymore. It’s just all too easy to get the money and the actually numbers are now a mystery.

But I'll bet that if today’s unemployed or rather, the people now drawing unemployment benefits had to stand in line for the money, people would be shocked beyond their imagination at the size of the lines that would form. What do you think they would say then?


But of course, that isn't going to happen.

I Want Out of Social Security

Here, listen, this is what I propose: The Government can keep everything they've taken  out of my paycheck since I started working at 13 years old. Everything. Keep it all. Just let me out of the program so I can put MY MONEY towards MY RETIREMENT. Is that fair. No, it actually isn't since the Federal Government has taken SO MUCH from me over my working lifetime that I will never ever get that back but perhaps there is an opportunity for me to provide for my retirement with the time I have left if the LET ME OUT of the program.

For too long this has all been a Dog & Pony show for the rubes (ie: taxpayers). For the longest time we have known that there is no TRUST FUND set aside for every working American paying into the plan even though the Federal Government insists repeatedly that there is. The money is actually coming directly out of the paychecks of people working today. There is nothing set “aside”. Today's’ Social Security payments are a direct money transfer from money earned by taxpayers TODAY.

If the program is running a deficit that means that taxes will go up for the people working today to pay the people who are no longer working and are living off of Social Security. How well would this sit with Grandma and Grandpa if they know their kids and grand kids are on the hook for their payments?  But that’s what’s happening .

But it’s not only retirement benefits and it wouldn't be so bad if the payments were only limited to retirees. It’s the SSI, the Supplemental Security Income payments that are given to everyone who says they’re hearing voices when their unemployment benefits run out that is really killing the system. Those payments also come out of the Social Security "Trust". This allows people who have never paid a dime into the Social Security “Plan” to collect benefits from it since they are deemed "Disabled". Does the Federal Government actually check whether these people are disabled or not? Nope! What the hell does the Federal Government care, it’s OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY, right? It's their job to give out the money so that's what they do. It’s all fun and games in “Other People’s Money” land. Just give it away since that’s what their job is, giving money away to people that “need” it.

That is, until the well runs dry. They it’s back to the taxpayer to get more. But what if there isn't any more? What if there are more people drawing from the well than are contributing? Then the whole shit-show hits a snag.

Although most of the time I avoid thinking about it but I sometimes imagine all the money I've earned up until this point in my life that the government has taken. I compare that figure to the fact that the Federal Government has run a $18 Trillion dollar debt. Then I imagine what I could have done with that money that they've taken out of my pocket before it even went into my pocket. The things that could have purchased, the lives I could have enriched. My life would have been better off for it too. Much better. But instead it went elsewhere. Perhaps to fund the many wars we have fought since I was born. Or to fund free abortions. Or to line the pockets of some Congressman or even the President. But where ever it went, I know it wasn't put to as good a use as it would have if I had been able to hold onto it. That's a given. 

I didn't volunteer for this. I was born into this Socialist Boondoggle and I want OUT. It was doomed to fail and with the nameless faceless government not caring enough to look twice at the people they’re giving the benefits away, taxpayers like me are left holding the bag and we can’t get out because the government is holding a gun to our heads. We can’t opt out. But I want out. In fact, I never wanted in. Not from the first day I received a paycheck when I was a kid and wondered why there was so much taken out of my first paycheck. I was told it was taxes to help the less fortunate. But I was less fortunate, I was working since I was in the sixth grade. Who could be more deserving than ME of MY MONEY. I didn't understand and I STILL don’t understand.

But that’s what Social Security is all about. YOU are too STUPID to provide for your own retirement so the government will help you provide for it whether you like it or not. YOU are incapable of providing for yourself into the future. The government knows best how to provide for you. You just have to pay it out to THEM and someday, maybe, they will pay it back to YOU.

The day I got my first paycheck was the day I became a Libertarian. I have always been a libertarian.

It just took that first check to realize it.

Is this any way to run a free country?

No, it isn't. 

Boston Rock Clubs of the 1980s: Jack's

Jack’s was right on Mass Ave in Cambridge just before you hit Harvard Square and where it once stood has been occupied by a large office building ever since.

The place was basically a retail store-front that was turned into a music club with the thick high glass windows still in place but blacked out. It was a good sized club for the Boston area but it would be a stretch to say it was big. It was larger than downstairs at the Rat and about the size of TT the Bear's but with a high ceiling that gave you the impression that it was bigger than it was. Not a rough crowd like at the Rat or what would sometimes show up at the Channel. Cambridge was what we called the "Soda & Lime" crowd in reference to Cambridge's reputation for an unusually low level of beer consumption. I don't know how bars even survived in Cambridge but somebody was out drinking because there are a lot of bars in that town.

As a music venue Jack's was laid out pretty well. They had a stage that had room enough for a five-piece band but not much more. Nobody was going to Duck-Walk it at any rate and it was set rather high and located to the right as you walked in the door and the bar was against the opposite wall. A major plus was that Jack's had a decent sounding pa system. Can’t recall if the monitors worked and most likely they did not since although we played there twice and I don’t remember a fucking thing about the shows, I'm going to rely on the premise that if a monitor on a Boston stage outside of the Channel Nightclub had ever worked, it would be such a standout memory in my mind.

Cambridge sported a number of music venues in those days and Jack's had plenty of competition. Johnathan Swifts, TT the Bears, Bunratty’s and the Plough & Stars were all in that neck of the woods and showcasing similar entertainment. Of these clubs, Johnathan Swifts was the better place to see a band. I was only in there once to see Til Tuesday and there was no place to hide on that stage, it was right out into the audience and you could see and hear the performers from anywhere in the room. There was also the Western Front but that was a different animal since they stuck to touring Reggae acts. Neither I nor my friends ever actually went in there because the cover was $20.00 in 1980s money which was $15 to $17 more than any place else we went to in town and hell, I didn't pay half that much to see Jimmy Cliff at the Channel so I'm gonna shell out that kind of money to see who, nobody I ever heard of at the Western Front? Fuck that. I was paying rent on my apt in West Roxbury and rent on our rehearsal spot at the Pixy Theater, I wasn't made of money! I was only insuring my car half the year as it was and I would cringe every time I broke a string on my bass since it was going to cost me $5.00 for a replacement. Makes you wonder why you put yourself through such things. But what, and give up Show Business!

We got into playing Jack’s during its last year or so of existence but it had a reputation of being one of the “in” places to play in Boston since, much like the Rathskeller, had a famed “History” that had come and gone. We ended up playing two of the three shows, all Wednesdays, booked there and would have played the third except that the place suddenly had a fire the Saturday prior to our scheduled show later in that same week.

It is now part of Boston musical history that the band Treat Her Right had all their equipment burned up in that fire since it broke out just after they setup and then did a Telethon on WBCN to raise money to replace it. WBCN was the top radio station in Boston at the time and they played the bands music ALL DAY and had the band members live on the air, winning new fans and getting them signed to a major record label as a result. We were all saying what “Good Luck” they had! But the bottom line was that Treat Her Right WAS a good band and getting all their stuff burned up wouldn't have done them much good if they weren't.

Jack’s was the hardest time we ever had booking a Boston venue in our seven "odd" years stay on the city music scene. It was the twenty question routine we always got with a new place but more intense: "So why should we book YOU GUYS?" “How many people can you bring?” “Are you POSITIVE you can ABSOLUTELY bring that many?”  "Where else do you play?" “You’re not playing anywhere else this month are you?” And this is for a spot on a Wednesday lineup. It took a lot of time for them to decide to book us at all. One particular back and forth with management lead to what later became an oft quoted declarative out-of-the-blue statement that James made at the time: “No, we are NOT going to give you any Cocaine!” 

Not to play a Wednesday at 11:00PM in Cambridge at any rate. It’s not like we were actually expecting to get PAID for this gig in the middle of the week so far out from our regular and gainfully employed fan-base or any other absurd Pie-in-the-Sky notion. Just what on Earth were the other bands being shaken down for?

Jack’s was the home stage for a popular Boston band named New Man that put out a not-so-well engineered album of pop rock at the time. Although they were a bit slick for my liking in those days of my musical infancy and punk mentality, they certainly sounded better than that live and their shows had more energy than the record had captured. I’d seen the band a couple of times; once at Jack’s and another at Scotch & Sounds (where nobody sounded bad) and heard cuts on the radio where it did a slow fade. From what I saw of them they drew a good crowd and played a lively set. Then the bass player cut out to join the Jon Butcher Axis and I think that was it for them.  

Other acts that played Jack’s on a regular basis were the Greg Greenway Band and Asa Brebner. Greg Greenway has had a long professional music career since then and put out a number of records under just his own name as a “solo” act although I guess he always was a solo act and Asa of course was previously with Robin Lane and was always on the scene playing with different names of bands that came after his own name like Asa Brebner and "Idle Hands" and such. What these three groups had in common was more of a well rehearsed and polished guitar based pop sound as compared to a more, let's just use the term "less-refined", energetic and straight ahead rock & roll which was where our band, Cool McCool, fell into as a genre.

James reminded me that Jack's was the place that George Thorogood was a popular performer and also where he was playing when Rounder Records discovered him and he then put them on the American musical map.

But that was in the past and the New Man\Greenway\Brebner model was what Jack’s was looking for and if you didn't fit that genre and still wanted to play there, I guess you had to pay. Once again we found ourselves as a bit of a square peg in the Boston music scene but you can't be all things to all people, nobody else was either. Only the most popular acts could draw well anywhere in town. We all had our home markets, ours was Green Street Station, Chet's and The Channel but the tough part for any band was breaking out and getting a foothold in a new area. The drinking age had gone from 18 to 21 years earlier and the pressure that caused rolled downhill to the bands. So many bands, so few original venues. But ultimately Jack's just gave us the Wednesdays without tribute. 

Our “Sister” band, the group we shared our rehearsal space at the Pixie Theater in Hyde Park with, Those Damned Kids: Scott Harris, Dave Yanolis and John Brelia had gotten into Jack’s first and so we went to their show and knew ahead of time about what management was looking for and what you got in return.

We knew we were never going to move up the ladder at the place but had the chance to book one more show there and took it because word was already out that Jack’s was on its last legs and what the hell, a gig’s a gig, right? The owner of the building, as the story was told, had a new tenant with deep pockets just waiting to get in there and who was willing to pay much more to lease the property than Jack’s could possibly come up with and so, since the lease was going to be up later that summer, Jack’s was doomed, doomed, DOOMED. No, we weren't broken up by this prospect. 

Well it never got that far. The place had an “accidental fire” a month or so before the lease was to expire and the result became Treat Her Right’s well timed and well deserved destiny.

We all joked afterwards that if only Jack’s had burned up four days later that perhaps we would have had a Cool McCool Telethon on WBCN and have signed a recording contract.

I guess we’ll never know. 

New Black Panthers Dumber Than Old Black Panthers

I’m all for an independent Black Nation just as long as they don’t expect me to pay for that too.

This misplaced anger at “America” is unfounded since most working Americans are more concerned with their jobs, families, communities and making ends meet in a volatile economy than about “Keeping the Black Man Down.” It isn't like black people don’t live in our neighborhoods already. It isn't like they don’t own good looking homes, have nice cars and have their kids in public school because they do.

It is not these black folks that anyone in the media and national radical groups care to talk about. This isn't about THEM.

It’s about the urban dwelling black youth which have grown up without fathers and only have mothers who exist on welfare and that have little opportunity and little education. These are the people that matter and it’s true to a certain extent since it is these people who are having a problem adjusting to the prospect of no future. And why wouldn't they?

So they lash out and to help them voice their distress, they have people like Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and this new up and coming "leader" Hashim Nzinga. Mr. Nzinga is purportedly is the head of the NEW Black Panthers group and who can only dream of occupying a position of power like Al and Jesse where he can embezzle all the dough he cares to embezzle, screw around with all sorts of women and just get away with it like those two have always seemed to do.

Now that’s living the dream!

But until then Mr. Nzinga is an angry black man and is looking for a target. The problem is, all he has targeted as the enemy right now is AMERICA. Yes, to Mr. Nzinga “America” is the enemy. This at first glance seems rather broad. The American people are a bit preoccupied right now with their own problems. 

But, to look at the situation more closely, what group would currently be in the best position to help solve these systemic social issues in our large American Urban center?

Hmmm, could it be...Democrat Mayors and their administrations? 

I say that Mr. Hashim Nzinga should narrow down his “Hit List” so to speak and attempt to find the real enemy of the black youth.

Perhaps he should start with who is keeping the Welfare State the way it is. A Welfare State that favors single motherhood over two parent families. A Welfare State that does not question the whereabouts of the father or hold anyone responsible for their actions. That’s not what it’s all about, is it?

Or how about who is keeping inner city children stupid and who are the ones who won’t allow a School Voucher program that would get and WAS getting poor and minority children into better schools. That is, before the Teachers Union killed the measure like they did in Washington, DC of all places that could use it the most.  It's not "America" running that show, it's the political Left, the people who call themselves the Democratic Party who are in control of it. It's THEIR call. 

No, Mr. Angry Black Man, you should go after the real enemy of poor minorities everywhere. The real enemy that robs them of opportunity that stifles ambition and instead of providing an even playing field for business to thrive in minority neighborhoods instead gives them Welfare and subsidized housing under their control. The finger-pointing bureaucrats in charge should look in the mirror. But a press release is much easier to do. 

You know, the New Slavery is so different from the Old Slavery. There’s hardly any heavy lifting at all anymore. Now all that is required is that every now and then you get in a van that takes you to the polling station where you vote for the Democratic Mayor. Then you get to keep your housing and your EBT card and all the money you make any other way you can.

And it's not just Baltimore, MD. The same sorry scenario is playing out in New York City, Philadelphia, PA, Worchester, MA, Burlington, VT, Boston, MA, Los Angeles, CA, San Francisco, CA, Camden, NJ, Hartford, CT, Providence, RI, Washington, DC, Chicago, IL...need I say more?Now what do these cities all have in common? A Democrat Mayor perhaps? Yes, these cities have been waging a War on Poverty for decades and decades yet no matter how much money they tax out of the working folks and spread among the "poor", the situation never seems to get any better does it? Now an intelligent person may draw a conclusion concerning this statistic.

So go ahead Mr. Nzinga, go to war with America if you can find it. I’m all for it. Like Huey P. Newton before you in a different age and time, you can go tilting at windmills and never get anywhere and "his people" will never progress. 

Why? 

Because he doesn't know who to fight. 

Baltimore, MD: A City With No Future

I met a couple once years ago that had traveled to Obscurity, MA where I live. They had previously lived in Baltimore. They had left because of the crime, the poverty and lack of jobs. And this was in the 1980s.

They didn't have two nickels to rub together and she was pregnant and the story they told of their treatment at the hands of Baltimore's Social Services Department and the squalid conditions they had to endure made me vow never to set foot in the place. They finally resorted to packing one suitcase each and heading for the highway. They literally stuck out their thumbs on Interstate RT 95 to get out of town and when the trucker who picked them up and drove them to the Massachusetts line dropped them off, he drove off with the rest of their suitcases, which was what was left of their worldly possessions. It's a story you never forget. 

Baltimore was NEVER a good place to live as far as I could tell. Never wanted to go there and I didn’t even like to drive by it on my way to somewhere else. 

Baltimore represents all that is wrong with the welfare state. Like any of the crappy big cities like Philadelphia, PA, Cleveland, OH, Camden, NJ or Washington, DC, they'll give you what you need to survive but that ain’t living. And in order to get the money to fund these respective welfare states, they tax and regulate away real opportunity. Then they wonder why nobody wants to open a business in Baltimore. The money has to come from somewhere. It’s a Socialist Paradox. They take your opportunity and give you welfare and food stamps because, well, you can't find a job but there are no jobs so you quit looking and just take the short money and lump it. 

There are plenty of stupid people in Baltimore. They have voted for the Social Democrats for decades and nothing ever seems to get better and they can’t figure it out. It must mean that they aren't throwing enough money at the problem. It must mean that GOVERNMENT is not doing enough!

Anyone who stays in Baltimore and thinks it’s going to get any better is a FOOL. It hasn't and it won’t. If you stay there the odds are very good you will never get anywhere in life. You have to get your ass out of Baltimore or you will only ever get what the government gives you. You’re a slave to the State. What’s the difference who your Massa is? You still have a Massa!

No opportunity, no future. The government can’t give you a future. They can’t manufacture a job without taking from others with jobs and putting the burden on THEM to support you. Without self-reliance, you can never be free. You own yourself so now what are you going to do with yourself? You going to go loot a chain drug store? That’s your future? You're just waiting for the bullet. 

And it looks like the local police force are all too happy to help you out with that final exit. Yes, it seems that one of the six policemen or perhaps ALL of the six policemen tried to twist poor Freddie Gray’s head off for being, for the most part, a wise guy. It is not up to the police to decide the Mr. Gray’s fate like that, it’s for the courts and all six of them should be arrested and tried. Only in this fashion will the truth come out.  Will it happen? Most likely no, since we still have an unapologetic unaccountable police force and this is starting to lead to some big problems nationally.

But that has nothing to do with why Baltimore is a DUMP.  A dump made worse by recent lawlessness permitted if not condoned by the Leftist Mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who mistakenly believed that by letting these home-grown Hooligans run rampant in the city streets unchecked that it would somehow lessen the damage in the long run. Did you see all those cop cars burning? With all the technology in those cruisers, they must cost $70,000 apiece. Where is the money to replace them going to come from? Oh, they’ll just raise taxes on businesses and property owners so no worries there.

And people are calling the cops and none are coming. If the mayor let’s this sort of mayhem happen when unrest breaks out, who is going to invest in Baltimore? Like we will see in Ferguson, businesses and people will be on the move…out of town.

And it will be a good move. Life is too short to hang around waiting for change that never comes. Better to walk away and seek opportunities elsewhere. Or they can stay and take the short money and waste their lives on a Baltimore street corner, dealing drugs and “Fightin’ the Power”.

Good luck with that. 

EU Throws Cash Down A Greek Commode

When is Germany and the other major EU countries going to wake up to the fact that they’re never going to get their money back.

Didn't this sort of thing already happen during the post WWI era with U.S. Stock investment in Germany that lead to the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and triggered the first Great Depression? Does this ring a bell with anybody?

As the story goes, the stock investments were supposed to build factories and office buildings in Germany to restore the nation and deliver a return on investment. Like in the old Broken Window theory of economics, Germany needed everything. But little did the investors know that the money instead went to paying France the formidable war reparations it was awarded in the Armistice. 

In this fashion, none of the money that was pouring into Greece is going to where it is supposed to go either.

The smokescreen being thrown up by the latest Greek government is not unlike the smokescreen that was thrown up by the last Greek government. It’s a Dog and Pony Show, just a put-on for the rubes meant to keep the status quo when everyone knows it can’t go on.

Nobody wants to throw in the towel on the EU when its intrinsic flaws were evident from the very beginning. The EU can’t strangle the shit out of another EU country by taxing them back to the Stone Age like our government in theses United States can do and has been doing.  Also if an EU country goes into debt and like Greece, MASSIVE debt, in a currency they can’t print, then there is no economic force, like inflating the currency, that can be pulled without effecting the rest of the EU nations.They’re just stuck with the debt and THAT effects the other EU nations. 

So Germany ends up doing what the U.S. did in the 1980s with its stupid loans to South America: They start lending MORE money to the debtor nations so that they can pay the interest on the U.S. loan debt. But instead of banks laying out case, Germany and France are going to the taxpayer well and that is a BAD HABIT.

At least the U.S. banks did this to buy time to eventually write down and charge off the losses but they still had to take the loss. Drawing out the write off only softened the blow to investors. What is the EU going to do? It doesn’t look like this is their plan.

Hello, EU, Greece has NO INTENTION of paying back the money! 

They are still in some weird War Mentality with Germany where they are trying to justify their non-compliance with their EU monetary responsibilities as an act of defiance for being flattened by Germany in WWII. As if the EU put a gun to the heads of Greek politicians when they signed their ridiculous retirement and pension agreements, giving their massive and massively wasteful Public Sector the right to a job and a right to retire from that job at, what, 55 to 58 years old? And come on, they only SAY they are going to start collecting property taxes, they aren't actually going to DO IT!

And in this case it’s the German taxpayer who really suffers and the working class of France and the people who bust their asses at real jobs who see their tax money being funneled to the unworthy, the unmutable and the unwilling to cooperate with the plan. Is this the result of a long simmering dislike based on the past or is this merely an excuse by a desperate nation that is living the Ant and the Cricket Aesop Fable? It looks like the later but the result will be the same.

So why should the EU throw any more money at Greece? Greece is going to just waste it and laugh. Of course they will only laugh long enough til they realize they aren’t going to get any more.

But that is Nationalism for you. People are very protective of their system. Even if it’s shit, it’s still THEIR shit system and they aren’t going to let France or Germany dictate the terms even if it was they themselves that Screwed the Pooch on their finances. What do they care? The sun and ocean is still warm and the olives are in season. The tourists will still come and at least they’ll make SOMETHING. Hell, they’re not paying any taxes so the overhead is low.

It used to be that the U.S. had a sense of Nationalism and pride like that. Right now there are too many American Citizens who think the U.S. is the problem nation of the world. As a percentage there seems to be fewer people who believe in the old American ideals of self-sufficiency, self-reliance and the advantages of hard work in a Meritocracy. They feel the people who have should give all to those that don’t  regardless of the circumstances and that if you have something, then you must have taken it from someone else and so corrections must be implemented. Any this is how a nation ends up when too many people feel that way. This sort of Wrong Thinking can destroy everything. And here we are.  

But that’s what you get when a nation lets in millions of undocumented and therefore illegal foreign nationals. They walked right in without going through the rigors of a legal naturalized citizen. They did not have to learn about what it means to be an American Citizen. They didn't have to do anything but climb a fence or crawl through a tunnel and they get what the people who struggled to follow the rules get so becoming an American Citizen no longer carries any weight. It’s really not that important to anybody, especially our government. What difference does it make at this point? And those not vested in the process will only choose to ignore it. They already have.

So the experiment that is the EU, much like the experiment that was the CCCP, will yield to the reality of Market Forces and come apart at the seams. Either that they’ll just limp on into the future and collapse later. Hopefully it won’t take 79 years of misery like the Soviet Union.

Perhaps these things just have to run their course. 

Happy Drunken Irish Day!

As a third generation American of Irish decent, am I the only one offended at the concept of St Patrick's Day being promoted and roundly observed as a big drinking day? And is naming a drink an "Irish Car Bomb" even remotely funny?

After a long history of invasions, repressions, starvation and servitude, getting our asses kicked by the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons, the Vikings and the Normans/British, the only thing a modern person of Irish decent can look forward to is skipping a day of work to get plastered on St Paddy's Day and publicly making fools of themselves?

It even has it's own parade.

This is what our ancestors, who often came with only the clothes on their backs and leaving everything they had back in the old country, risked their necks to come to America for?

And once here they endured 10 hour days 6 days a week as fodder for the vast and giant, smokey brickwork mills of the industrial revolution, living crowded together in substandard housing and inhabiting the low end of the social scale until they established themselves in a new world. Nobody handed them anything, it was all earned by the sweat of their brow, the strength of their backs and the desire and resolve in their hearts.

Many died in the famine, many died in the Atlantic crossing and many died in the factories and crowded slums.

All so that in modern times we can perpetuate the image that we're a bunch of drunks.

Good thing their dead, 'cause this would kill 'em!

Just like the Italian's lack of humor when it comes to references to "The Mafia" or the Great American South to those "Duke's of Hazard" style hillbillies, I shudder each year at the prospect of this "Special" day and all the morons that come out for it.

But people can and should do what they want just as long as they only do it to themselves. It's just all done in such poor taste. And what a low class affair to pay $25- $35 to go into a pub you normally walk in free the rest of the year. But that's the way it is with the Irish I suppose, falling into their stereotypes for all to see. From Brendan Behan to Shane McGowan. It's a shame we haven't smartened up.

So drinking til one vomits it is for St. Patrick's Day. On this side of the pond anyway. Don't know how it's done in Ireland but I suppose somebody over there at least knows why they're doing it. For me I just find it insulting that this Irish Amature Night is not much better than Cinco de Mayo in the annals of marketing and manufactured ignorance.

And while we're at it, if the Fighting Irish symbol of Notre Dame University depicted a person of any other color or of any other race, there would be a such a hue and cry that everybody associated with it would have to resign in disgrace. But it's an Irishman, isn't it?

And nobody cares if they offend an Irishman.

I was watching a PBS special on the Civil Rights Movement the other night when the commentator said they "took Martin Luther King Jr. away in a Paddy Wagon.". I thought that statement summed it all up nicely.

So go ahead, drink up Boyos, and stumble down a flight of stairs for "Old Saint Paddy" for all I care. Sing your sad love songs and happy fighting songs while you're all in your cups.

I'll be home on my couch with a blanket pulled up over my head waiting for it all to be over, again.

Let’s Do Away with the TSA

They are supposed to protect us from terrorists but who will protect us from the TSA?

The Transportation Security Administration, the biggest bunch of government backed bullies ever to grace the American continent since the Pinkerton Detective Service clubbed down the Molly McGuires in the late 1870s.  Anyone who questions their authority is harassed, threatened and branded as kooks and malcontents. They are the emblem of wrong thinking and the embodiment of big, evil and wasteful Big Government.

These useless dolts, who that phony conservative George W. Bush not only invented but also unionized, creating a boat-load of federally funded union hacks, live to display their self-important swagger and harass hard working people who’s only crime is to want to get from point A to point B without being humiliated and treated like criminals.

The TSA has not stopped one potential bombing on a plane or one terrorist from boarding one. The “Shoe Bomber” Richard Reid was stopped by fellow passengers as was also Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the “Underwear Bomber”.  In fact all of the latest incidents that we have heard of have been stopped by passengers while already on the plane. There seems to be no statistics on what the TSA has actually accomplished in comparison to the private security they replaced other than pissing off a majority of the flying public and pissing through tons of taxpayer money.

We don’t need the TSA and we certainly can live without the attitude, the threats, the thievery, the bravado and the scandals of this embarrassing knot of toads passing for safety officers telling us all what to do for no discernible reason other than “They can”. After all, you don't want to be bumped from your flight. It'll cost you. So you lump it but that's not because you feel safe. The TSA isn't there to make you feel safe. When you're in line, you're the last on the list of priorities. It's their show now and you're along for the ride.You only have the privilege of paying for it. Consider it a pay off for the military men and women who fought GW Bush's useless wars. They get priority in hiring and there are even signs touting TSA employees who were in the military. As if that makes it all better.

The TSA is a tick on the ass of the American traveling public and it's time for this taxpayer funded Dog and Pony show to end. 

We've heard the unbelievable stories, the protests and the weak justifications. The verdict is in. The TSA should go. We've been felt up enough as a nation and we want a return to dignity and freedom. Neither will return as long as this government gang of bullies are allowed to run our airports.

They cost too much money, they are highly inefficient and above all, they’re ineffectual. For all the money, the delays, the scanners that don’t work and may or may not give off too much radiation, the widespread groping humiliations and the apologies, they haven’t made one bit of difference in the protection of flights and passengers. Like most government services, it’s all just a dog and pony show and the economy is all the weaker for it since that big bloated taxpayer funded budget has gone to naught. This money would be better spent elsewhere.

The sooner the airports rid themselves of these trolls, the better for all.

Let’s hope the airports, aided by the new opt out laws passed by Congress, will declare enough is enough. The TSAs time has come and gone. They were a bad idea and remain a bad idea.

Good riddance. 

Boston Rock of the 1980s: Boston Band Names

How important is having a good band name? It is most important! Most bands agonize over the name and they should too. For a band it’s about something bigger than the sum of its parts, it’s the name you hang out front, it’s what people will remember…or not. A good band name is a sign of imagination, an indication of your collective creativity and…it’s a king-size pain in the ass!

It’s so tough to get band members to agree on a stupid band name. “Jeez, just call it anything.” Oh, but it can’t be just ANYTHING! It’s got to mean SOMETHING, right?

Our first band, Cool McCool, was a trio and yet it took us three months to agree on a name. Tony thought “Second Sight” was a really cool name which James and I thought rightly, of course, was just plain stupid. At one point in our machinations I cracked and blurted out; “We don’t want anything sullen and gloomy like “Nuclear Winter” or anything like that do we?!”  At this James and Tony looked at each other and said “Now THAT would be a good name.”

I don’t know who it was but someone said that, with his dark hair and mustache, James looked just like that cartoon character Cool McCool that was on Saturday morning TV right after George of the Jungle. Whether it was fatigue, the fact we didn’t dismiss it out of hand or that we may actually have liked it, we agreed on it at any rate and were able to move on with our lives, our imaginations and collective creativity exhausted.

Anyway, I didn’t get to see all of these bands but here are some of the Boston Bands whose names I thought were really cool back in the day:

 

Arms Akimbo: Never saw them but they played the Rat a lot as well as other places in town. I remember reading that Amie Mann said she liked them back when she was fronting Til Tuesday. If you don’t know already it’s the term for falling backwards with your arms outstretched. Pretty clever in mho.

 

Band 19: Not to be confused with Forever 19 that had a rehearsal room next to ours at the Pixie Theater in Hyde Park. The story goes that this was the bandleader’s 19^th band that he had put together. That’s enough personnel changes to last a lifetime.

 

Berlin Airlift: Rick Berlin’s band, get it? I guess he could have just called the band “Berlin”. Previously Rick had put together a much talked about act named; Orchestra Luna.

 

Del Fuegos: “Of the Fire” in Spanish. Wonder how they came up with that one? These guys endured some hardships along the way when they were touring the country all crammed into a ford van, had all their shit stolen and a local radio station held a radio-thon to raise some money for them and put their album on the air and the band on the map. We shared the stage with them twice ourselves and I still cover “Don’t Run Wild” solo. Frank Zane has recorded a few children’s music projects that can be found in stores. Liked the name, liked the band.

 

Extreme: Not remarkable in itself except the back story was that this band was first called “The Dream” and then the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) was developing a series about a young band trying (stop me if you’ve heard this one before) to climb their way to the top and this TV band and the series was to be called The Dream. So the story goes that NBC paid The Dream handsomely for their name so they could produce their very very short lived series. The Dream became the “Ex-Dream” or “The Extreme”. Coincidence? Perhaps. A fairy tale? I don’t know.

 

Girl on Top: A trio fronted by a chic guitar player. Played a gig with them in the waning days of Green Street Station.  Good attention grabbing name I think. Got my attention at any rate.

Loners Shoot Presidents: This is a great name for a punk band which they were. Tim Catz, the drummer for this group went on to win the 1991 Rock & Roll Rumble with the band Seka, named for an “exotic dancer” in Boston’s red light district known as the Combat Zone. 

Pajama Slave Dancers: I really enjoyed these guys; they were hardcore and funny at the same time. Songs like “Defreeze Walt Disney”, “Farm Rap” and “Homo Truck Driving Man” are classics. I think they put out three albums in all of which I have two. I was told they were originally from Springfield, MA. The name is a wacky as the band's stage show. You see that name, you pretty much know what you're going to get. Cool.

Plate o’ Shrimp: A ska band most likely out of Brighton since it seems all the ska bands in town emanate from there. This came from a monologue by the character Miller in one of my favorite movies of all time, Repo Man. After Miller’s monologue an ad with the term can also be seen on a wall of a fast food place in the movie.

Rash of Stabbings: This name was fine for these guys for years and years and then all of a sudden somebody somewhere realized they found it offensive. Sort of like the character of Uncle Fester on the Adams Family. One day you hear it and say “Hey, do you know what that name really means?” They had to go as RoS afterwards since nobody would book them. I think it’s a cool name reflective of the kind of rock & roll they played. They didn’t invent the term.

Sleep Chamber: As far as I know, this band only ever played at Chet’s Last Call but they had very cool, very erotic hand drawn black & white posters with women in bondage themes. One band I really wish I could have seen live.

Stop Calling Me Frank: Our friends from Hyde Park. Never got a straight answer as to how they came up with the name. The explanation changed with each telling. Dave Forbes on guitar and Lenny was the frontman. Three chord full speed ahead rock & roll band. Their big hit was “Cyclone Ranger” “My baby treat me like a cyclone ranger, she spin me round and round, she pick me up, she put me down, she spin me round and round”. That’s gold!

Valdez the Sinner: Saw these guys at “Chetstock” and never saw their name on a marque ever again. The one set I ever saw them play was a great one, however. How they came up with this name is a mystery. Nobody was named Valdez. Maybe it was someone they knew? 

Perhaps this will be food for thought for fledgling groups banging their heads against a wall trying to come up with a band name.

Good Luck!