Matt Welch on Dusty Baker’s little foofaraw, and a plea to the effect of “can we just look at this stuff with some scientific objectivity?” I’m with him on the plea cuz I loves me some baseball, but I don’t hold much hope that we shall indeed just look at the data. Too many agendas, too many oxen to be gored. Maybe I’m wrong…if so, well, eff me, then.

Found it at Matt Welch…

Mike called this a Dog Bites Dog story, but it’s really a case study for Overlawyered.com. And probably one for any libertarian that wants something to hold up as a shining example of petty bureaucratic over-persecution. My favorite line? From the damn dogcatcher:

For several days, the police and Animal Control kept checking the perimeter of the house. “You’re going to be seeing me around,” the animal control officer told Rogers.

All that needs is a “…and then the phone went dead.” at the end to make it perfect.

This is what happens in cities. Everywhere you turn, it’s lawyers, lawyers, lawyers. There is no mystery why I want to live in unincorporated Rainbow, TX.

Steven Den Beste has an hilarious* post up about a recent UN report on private gun ownership. Of course, without question, the USA is leading the way. Some of SDB’s observations:

The UN speaks!

America is now estimated to have between 238 million and 276 million firearms, compared with some 250 million legally owned guns, or 84 for every 100 people recorded in a July 2001 survey.

“By any measure the United States is the most armed country in the world,” it said. “With roughly 83 to 96 guns per 100 people, the United States is approaching a statistical level of one gun per person.”

We’re within striking distance of parity, fellow Americans! Let’s get with it; we need to break 1:1.
…
Like so many of them, provisions of the treaty directly violated the US Constitution, in this case the Second Amendment. Like every other case, the European response to that objection was “So what?” And like the other cases the US declined to ratify the treaty, and like the other cases we have been castigated for not being multilateral and internationalist.
…
Especially when you have to try to explain why it is that the most heavily armed nation in the world is also the richest, most powerful and the one where “human development” is greatest and civil liberties of the citizens are least in peril.
…
So we actually get our own colored bubble on page 61 (first in the report!), which specifically talks about American gun ownership. (You gotta love the color!)

OK, enough. I feel bad stealing the man’s words. I hardly ever link to USS Clueless any more because I reckon anyone reading me is reading him first. But this one strikes me.

Why? Because I’m such a strong believer in the right to keep and bear arms. I don’t think it’s any more important than anything else in the Bill of Rights, but I also don’t think it’s any less important. RKBA has been a part of my life for my whole life, and not surprisingly, I didn’t think a thing about it for a large part of my existence. As I grew older, I realized that there are well-funded organizations in our country that want to take that right away from me. That bugs me a lot, that such an important part of our country’s founding principles mean so little to so many. It’s all done in the name of safety, of course, and who can argue with that? Well, I won’t bother arguing, because their premises are false to begin with. I won’t give them the weight they have to have from me to even get started. I should, just to hold up my end of the American bargain, but it’s such a pointless point anymore, at least to me.

Sometimes, life is livable, after all. I found, on my doorstep today, the Hard Texas Funk CD I ordered a month and a half ago from Amazon. I’d forgotten all about ordering it, back in the flush times. Being an import and all, I guess they had to wait for one of those Mayflower schooners to make it’s way across the Atlantic. It is absolutely everything I was hoping for…all pimped-out wah-wah guitars, sweet B2 organs, chunky beats…takes me back…

The reason I love this music so damn much is simple. I grew up with it. My dad had a grocery store down on Swiss & Hall St. (another story for another day), a block from Baylor Hospital. Sharing a parking lot was one of my grand-dad’s hamburger stands, run by my uncle. In that hamburger stand was a juke-box, and that juke-box was stocked to generate revenue, not provide background music for my uncle the hayseed. So, Swiss & Hall and the surrounding area being predominantly African-American, the jukebox was crammed with great funk and soul and R&B, and it was always playing, too.

Since I was free labor to every member of the family, I was constantly down at Swiss & Hall. I was either bagging groceries, racking bottles, stocking shelves or sweeping up at the store. When I ran out of stuff to do there, I’d go sweep and mop up over at the stand to earn a buck or a burger. And the jukebox was always playing. Even if for some strange reason I wasn’t working, we’d get tired of playing baseball or basketball or swimming at the park, and go sit in the AC at the stand. The jukebox was always playing. This sh*t was ingrained in me, starting at the age of eight and running for the next 6 years. Even over at the store, my dad (a blues fan) always played KKDA* in the background, but being a grocery store and all, he never turned it up too loud. Didn’t want to scare the little old ladies who came in to do their marketing.

Oh, and the Mayflower brought more than just my copy of the CD. Amazon has three more in stock. Fat Guy Recommended!

* Looks like KKDA is no longer Soul 73, but K104-AM. I’m not surprised I missed that change, since all I listen to is The Ticket or CDs anymore. I suppose I ought to flip over and see if they’ve still got the great Bobby Patterson running the morning show.

Man, this advice really stings coming from the land that imprisons farmers for shooting burglars.

The law enforcement operation in Iraq could disintegrate unless US forces stop “kicking ass” and take a more conciliatory attitude towards civilians, senior UK police advisers have told their government.

I love the Brits, but I’m not terribly enamored with their war-zone policing philosophies. Obviously, we will have to stop kicking ass at some point, but let’s make it after we get a tee-tiny bit more control. I’d say this is another case where the Arab culture is most likely to respect force. But what do I know? Eff me.

Tropical Storm Claudette Heads to Mexico

That sounds like the title of a 60’s-style beach movie.

The Other Side of Country :

Jack Sparks: The Twin Cities’ only alt-country hillbilly rant blog

Pretty much the last place you expect to find a good alt-country blog, and this I know. One of my millions of jobs involved regular trips to the TCs, and damned if I ever found any good live music in that town (Mpls, I’m talkin’ here…StP was just a teeny bit too far to drink & drive.) I was single then, too, and the good Lord knows I tried every night I was there. I was shocked that the Replacements had seemed to suck every bit of hayseed out of there.

As to Jack Sparks, well, he thinks a lot like me, and I wish I could write like him. I won’t ruin the experience by pulling something out and holding it up…wait, yes, I will:

20. Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain, Willie Nelson
Fuck you!! You’re doing it all wrong!! Let me sing it the way it should be sung!! Are you listening to the goddamned song? This is one guy singing about a daydream!! You sonsabitches don’t know shit!! I’m not going to say every major record executive in Nashville is an idiot, but they all said that this album wouldn’t sell. They all thought it wasn’t commercial enough. You’d think they would have learned their lessons. It’s amazing how stupid people are. Willie’s recording of this chestnut was dead on. There’s a lot of Sinatra in Willie’s delivery of any song, but there’s also a lot of Willie in what’s being done around the song: that old guitar, Bobby’s minimalist piano playing, Mickey’s cracker barrel harp fills and solos, etc. Probably my favorite Willie song. (The Red-Headed Stranger)

There ya go…that’s way down in the blog, so I’m not ruining much for you. Kevin, you’re gonna like this one.

Found it at LAYNE…

SURFING UPDATE: Hell, man — small world, fershur. Jack’s got Al Kunz of Rockzillaworld all over his regular-gig website. Why do I get the feeling The Wife is gonna whap me one upside the head and say “I told you about him six months ago.”?

KEN LAYNE: the Analog Bootlegs CD

The Bearded Smoking Bard is now the Bearded, Singing, Smoking Bard. Now all we need is an appearance at one of my crappy festivals, and his career will be over skyrocketing.

I’m behind on this because he told everyone he was going on vacation until August.

Will Duquette is slowly learning one of the prime dangers of Amazon.

Man, but Amazon.com is dangerous. I’ve bought books there, occasionally, but I hadn’t previously looked at compact discs there. (…) I decided to check Amazon.
Oh, dear.
…
This is going to be expensive.

It’s that One-Click that gets me every time.

That damn Spleenville woman, the acknowledged World Champeen of Site Re-Dos, is now talking PHP and dynamic content and other interweb stuff. Which made me think — does anyone give a damn about category archives? Are they the least bit useful to anybody? I never click them, but that’s because I’m a horrible writer & a bad blogger, and I’d rather not see that stuff again.

And as a blog reader, I can’t remember the last time I clicked a category on someone else’s site.

Kevin has a nice rant going about the music bidness.

Back in April, there was some discussion on blogs about digital pitch correction technology and the music industry, after producer R.S. Field decided to add a disclaimer to the Allison Moorer CD he produced (released way back in 2002) to the effect that no such manipulation was done.

Good, I thought at the time! Real honest music has a chance if musicians with integrity actually maintain some control over their product.

He proceeds to obliterate some geek named Edward Driscoll who thinks techno-geeky peecee tools are a Good Thing for musicians.

I could easily blockquote the whole thing…it’s that good. So go read it. I agree whole-heartedly with every line he wrote. Here’s to more honest musicians and producers…there is an audience for the Real Good Stuff, even if it is a smallish one. But we’re loyal!

How cool is this? I just found out that there’s still a drive-in movie in operation just up the road from The Tiny Bidness. $15 a carload.