Nov.
25 Thanksgiving
Day. Did you know Ben Franklin suggested the turkey as the National Bird?
Instead, we got that scavenger garbage eating Eagle and turned it into
a symbol of strength and pride. Hmmmm. I wonder if Franklin had his way,
would we be eating stuffed eagle on Thanksgiving? I'm sure it tastes like
chicken. Franklin stopped by the RFB offices, looking for a job. We turned
him down.
The short bus makes its first road trip today down to the Orange Groves
of Central Florida, where much of the staff here will enjoy a traditional
feast with extended family and friends. It's good to set aside a day to
remember where it all comes from. Lincoln had a good idea when he dreamed
up a Thanksgiving Day. Basically, that's what Join
The Rezistance is all
about.
Nov.
23 No
entry yesterday as we all took time out to ponder the significance of
the 41st Anniversary of the Most Monumental Event in Human History. Not
really.
Just busy shuffling the RFB Fleet. Getting rid of one sedan and replacing
it with a short bus. Since we're all a little "challenged" at
RFB, a short bus seemed in order. It's not a tour bus yet, but it will
definitely
make road trips easier.
But back to the whole JFK issue...would we even
remember the
man had not some
fool
Cuban
symp
decided
to make a
name
for
himself?
Historians tend to agree that the JFK Presidency was a wash. Save his
whole Cuban Missile Crisis For So Many Days in October Standoff against
Kruschev,
his 3 years in office were pretty uneventful. But anyway, we need heroes
here
in the
Home
of
the Brave.
So
we make them.
But the last election could be a lesson to all would be Democratic nominees:
When
you
seek
to make
yourself in the image of a man who was more carefully orchestrated myth
than he was substance, the people will see through your theatre and roundly
reject you at the polls. They don't necessarily like or agree with Bush,
they
just see him as a "real" guy, whereas Mr. Kerry appeared to
be more of a manufactured guy.
Nov.
20 Been
in Dallas with the Music Division, putting some touches on the tunes
that will appear on the first RFB release. Got some gems already, I believe.
The kids in the Music Division need the expert advice of a guy like me.
They're rookie punks. Check
out what we did here.
I wish we had a tour bus, because commercial flying is a completely
harrowing experience for this man. If it isn't the surly workers at
American
Airlines, it's their idiotic ability to "oversell" a flight,
leaving people standing at the gate wondering how to get home. "Let's
see, we have room for 200 passengers, so let's sell 250 tickets." Idiots.
And
if that isn't enough
to make the experience completely un-fun, there's also something very
scary about being propelled across the sky in a pressurized metal tube
at 600
MPH. It simply feels wrong for this huge man-made bird to make a slow
and low bank turn over a city. Like an overweight and clumsy woman
on roller
skates headed
downhill. Drunk. You just know she's cheating nature and headed for
a fall. I'm not sure this is what the Wright
Bros had in mind.
So anyway, home now and looking at all the work that needs doing. Think
I'll need a ton of coffee to get moving.
Nov.
11 So
it's Veterans Day. Too bad so many veterans are sitting in the desert.
It's funny how the politicians who are the quickest on the trigger
in terms of going to war are usually those who never saw combat. A President
would do well to surround himself with guys like Colin Powell, who regard
war as the very last and worst resort. (But, they'd also need to LISTEN
to them.) Did Cheney, Wolfowitz
or Rumsfeld see combat? Did Bush? Had they,
like Powell, seen firsthand the horrors of war, we may not even be in
Iraq right now. Oh, well - we're there now. Not much to do but fight our
way out of it.
Arafat is dead. Did you know this guy shared a Nobel Peace Prize a few
years ago? Wow. Seeing who succeeds him will be the world's next big focus.
Some Hamas rep, maybe? Won't that be nice? I read about some Jewish Gaza
settlers who say they will fight even the Israeli Army in resistance to
being ousted from their "homeland." These guys are hardcore Zionist patriots.
Man, that little country is one giant powderkeg. Home. That's all anyone
wants. Palestinians, Jews, Kurds and every other "freedom fighter" around
the globe. Just trying to find a home.
Nov.
10 K
has been reading a book about George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis. Since
she knows I'm not much of a reader, she'll often read me little snippets
she finds interesting. Up until last night, all she'd shared made me dislike
old Wooden
Teeth. He sounded pompous, arrogant, elitist and the last guy
you'd want at a party. All the lore and legend stripped away, he was really
a calculating businessman trying to make a buck. (Before his picture was
on the buck.) But she read something last night that was telling. As the
United States sought to elect their first President, there was no such
thing as campaigning for the office. In fact, a man who acted like he wanted
the office was automatically assumed UNFIT for the Presidency and
simply taken to be a
self-serving and dishonest character unworthy of public service. One colleague
of GW's suggested he was a candidate for President, and Washington promptly
told him in polite 18th Century terms to "Have a nice tall glass of
Shut the Hell up, NOW!" To even say the word "candidate" was
considered ugly.
Wonder what Washington would make of two guys going head to head for two
years, blasting each other, lying about each other, dressing up in combat
or hunting gear, promising the moon to everyone under the sun, trotting
their wives, children and pets out to meet the press, crisscrossing the
country up to the last minute, BEGGING for votes. We've come a long way,
haven't we?
So I decided George
Washington was still a legendary man of dignified stature and
the embodiment of American Grace, despite Ellis' revelations of his many
shortcomings. Might have to break with tradition and crack open a book
now.
Nov.
9 The
Arafat Death Watch continues. Fallujah under siege. Settlers pulling out
of Gaza. And the Miami Dolphins' head coach resigns. Truly, these
are signs of the end times. As for the Dolphins, I've never been a
fan of the team or their former coach. Or the city for that matter. Any
grief
they
encounter is
always good news. I'm especially loving their dismal season. Good to see
the mighty fall once in a while. Isn't that why America loves reality TV?
We
love to see people in humiliation.
RFB's Music Division has
a bass lined up in Dallas for next week. Then some funky guitar gets laid
on top of that and then some hardcore blues vocals. It's
Comatose Llama's first release and they should
have a decent
product
ready for duplication about Christmas time.
Oh, I'm sorry - didn't mean to
offend you - I meant "Winter Break."
Our portion of Florida is cold and rainy right now. About time to fertilize
the St. Augustine around the complex. Cold is relative, by the way. We find
an overnight
low of 50 pretty bone chilling. Yeah, we know - that's not cold to you. Hahahaha.
That's not our problem, It's yours. Act all rugged and pretend you're somehow
tougher than we are because you get to freeze. Keep
suffering
and
telling
us
how
much
you
like 4 Seasons. Uh huh. Man was made for the tropics. Plain and simple. Anyone
who says otherwise is lying. Oh, and did I mention? STAY OUT OF FLORIDA!
Thank you. That is all.
Nov.
4 So
Bush it will
be. So be it. No doubt the opposition will be watching his every move,
sharpening their knives for a bloody coup if need be. Kerry
talked of working together, as did the President, but I've heard scary
talk already from the vanquished left. Cheney uttered the word "mandate" in
his victory speech. Bush said "the American people have spoken." Yes
- and fully one half spoke against him. At least this time it was a
legitimate election and not one handed to him by Scalia. But we aren't
bitter at
RFB. We took no official position and withheld endorsement of any candidate.
We support the Republic 100%. We just have big problems with the Empire.
We
will get behind the President.
Finally, someone (Kerry) said what we at RFB have been saying for years. "God Bless America" is
a prayer. It's not a demand, a slogan or a tag line. Now, if
only we treated it like a prayer.
I can't get ahead of the evil dog we took into HQ a few months back.
El Perro del Diablo
is causing me more work than ever. An employee's child left a huge
sack of Halloween candy in one of the offices, which Hell Hound found,
ate,
and rid himself
of
in large, juicy quantities all over the building. I'm not sure who
to blame, but maybe HR can pull that employee aside and rub their nose
in
the mess
left behind. "NO! NO! BAD Employee!"
Representatives of the Music Division are headed to Dallas the week of
the 15th to lay down more tracks. Guitar and vocals this time. I'm going
with them, if they know what's good for them.
Nov.
3 They're
still counting, but it appears to be just for safety's sake. No one has
officially announced anything, but it doesn't look like W will be
calling any moving companies soon. What a wild ride and what a divided
country. How will he govern in his second term? With characteristic swagger,
no doubt.
I keep hearing that Bush is God's man. Isn't
that dangerous ground? Just
because he won doesn't make him "God's man." It just means God saw fit
to take our country a little further down the road of pride. When Jesus
said
to
Pilate,
"You
would
have
no authority over Me at all if it hadn't
been given you from above," was he calling Pilate God's man? Wake up, American
Church.
That stupid dog who is making work so hard for me around the plant (he
has torn another hole in the foyer wall) has taken to digging up the pineapple
fields. Here
he is getting busted. He's charming, not-too-bright, self-assured
and destructive...and all of this while being innocent of malicious
intentions. Hmmmm...reminds me of someone.
Nov.
2 Voted.
Don't ask me for whom. There was no space provided for a write-in, so I
didn't get to vote for Powell, who is the only man in my opinion qualified
to occupy the Oval Office. I was forced into the lesser of two evils. By
the way, there's a curtain on the booth, you know. That means your vote
is private. Keep it to yourself. Will be interesting to watch this horserace
tonight on TV. I suspect not much is getting done in corporate America
today. Polling place was packed. Lots and lots of old folks intermixed
with youngsters. Feels very special to vote. Makes you glad to be an American.
Felt like a real patriot. Should have worn a powdered wig or one of those
tri-cornered hats.
Nov.
1 Month
is very young yet, as is this day. Chargers and Chiefs continue to roll.
Kerry and Bush continue to crisscross the country, leaving no stone unturned
as they seek to root out, capture or kill every last holdout voter in this
election.
