saturday's song

grey days and grey times
country falling apart
millions jobless, homeless
daggers through the heart
of america

smiley people on tv
selling things
that no one needs
in their home
but thank god
they cured
restless leg syndrome

land of opportunity
they come from wide and far
working hard, got a job
living in their car
opportunity wasn't lost
it was stolen

all that money wasn't lost
on stocks and bonds
don't you see
it was stolen
from you and me

somebody has got it

and they ain't giving it back

jack


preachers speaking of a god
that they don't believe in
money changers in the temple
exchanging souls
for dollars

happy saturday to you too

maverick is home

maverick came home this afternoon but he is pretty heavily medicated so he is rather doped up and not interested in anything other than a drink of water and nice soft bed. annie d. dog is quite upset that she has to be separated from him and sits and howls. sad but irritating. hard to explain things to a dog; she feels as though she is, in some way or another, being punished but she knows not why. i understand but wish she would lighten up on the music.

but what cha gonna do?

looks like rhonda got out of her previous company just in time, she heard from a past fellow co-worker that they are laying off a lot of people while rhonda's little company is thriving. another example of god working in mysterious ways.

speaking of which; may i recommend highly the book LAMB: THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO BIFF by christopher moore. REALLY GOOD. reminds me somewhat of tom robbins, who is, far and away, my favorite author. if you have never read JITTERBUG PERFUME do yourself a favor and do so. tremendous book. robbins best known book was EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES but it is, in my opinion, not anywhere close to several others of his creations. FIERCE INVALIDS HOME FROM WARM CLIMATES is my second favorite of his. read jitterbug and you will be hooked, he is able to pull off funny and deep at the same time.

on the subject of books, i finally got around to watching the HBO version of JOHN ADAMS and though it was good, it fails to live up to the book. tv, being such, puts too much emphasis on drama of the personal sort and not enough on history. this is our history and one of our all time great men....read the book.

reading seems to be something that vast numbers of people don't do. or they read just fluff without ever taxing their mind or their imagination. i can not imagine what it would be like not to read and to read constantly. from childhood and even through prison i have read thousands of books and some of them i have read multiple times. moby dick is so much better the second time through; as is cicero, plato, emmerson, twain, jung, (i have read everything this man ever wrote and that is enough to fill a small library) and numerous others but you get the point. and it is never too late to start reading. keep your mind engaged and your life will be fuller.

oh well, nothing to say but needed something to do while watching over sick dog.

rock and roll

peace to us all

a very long night

last night was one of the longest nights that rhonda and i have gone through: our two dogs, maverick (the great dane) and annie d. dog (the mutt) sleep in the pool room and last night when i went out to close the door for them and give them their evening treats, i noticed that maverick was obviously not feeling well. nose was dry and he was extremely lethargic. rhonda and i immediately took him to an emergency animal clinic and it was a good thing that we did: his stomach had torn loose and had twisted in his body and he was going into shock. we had him operated on then and there and i was at that clinic until almost 4 this morning. the doctor said that the operation had gone exceptionally well and he thought maverick was going to make it. we had him transported to his regular vet clinic at 7:30 this morning and at 2 this afternoon, our vet said that he was doing "wonderfully well."

when we found out about his stomach tearing last night, it really hit me hard because i had lost my first great dane to this horrible event. it strikes mostly large breeds and the great dane in particular. the stomach literally turns over in his body. fucking horrible. they have to open him completely up, take out his spleen, turn the stomach around and attach it to the walls of the body. it can go either way and if not caught in time it leads to an extremely painful death for the dog. anyway, when the doctor told us what was going on, i broke down in tears and, my brothers and sisters, i really thought i was going to have a heart attack right there on the spot. i almost died of grief. for real. i do love that dog.

maverick is one of the most magnificent beasts you will ever see. his grand dad was a national champion as was one of his aunts. when you see maverick, you see what a great dane should look like. he is 35 inches at the shoulder and weighs aprox. 160-170 lbs. (you try getting a dane on a scale...i used to weigh zeus by putting him in my car and then weighing the car with him and without him. lol) the danes are loyal, intelligent, powerful, protective, playful animals that were bred to be a personal protection dog from bandits and the european wild boar. the ewb weighs in at about 4-500 pounds and the great dane can grab that animal by the neck and lift it off the ground and then snap it's neck. that is a powerful dog, jack. only the big bull mastiff is more powerful.

anyway, just spoke to the vet and she said that maverick is doing quite well and in fact, wants to PLAY, can you fucking believe that? he comes home tomorrow.

i don't pray a lot but saint francis of assisi got some calls last night.

peace to us all and may maverick be with us for years to come.

MAKE THE BANKS COME UP WITH CONTRACT

TOO COOL! i thought i might be right when i wrote about making the banks come up with the actual contract. (SEE POST, SOMETHING FROM THE PAST....from just a couple of posts ago...)

from this mornings l.v. paper: (and a.p. story by mitch stacy) "kathy lovelace lost her job and was about to lose her house, too. but then she made a seemingly simple request of the bank: show me the original mortgage paperwork.

"and just like that, the foreclosure proceedings came to a standstill."

the story goes on to say that thousands are using this to stall foreclosure while they try to get their financial houses back in order.

SO, IF YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO IS FACING THIS HORRIBLE FATE POINT THIS STORY AND TACTIC OUT TO THEM...IT COULD BUY THEM ENOUGH TIME TO WORK THINGS OUT.

on to something else....


maybe muzzammil "mo" hassan was just mad at his wife for not giving him head.


and something else....

i want to make it perfectly clear: roland burris did not raise any money for me. (that prick!)

and something else....

back on just chit and chat; the weather here has finally let up and we are back to bright sunshine and warmer temps. i have very low tolerance for cold which is one of the reasons i like vegas, though it can be cold for about 30 days out of the year, the rest of the time it ranges from warm to FUCKING HOT which is fine with me.

gotta go, i hear a poker table calling.

mumble mumble

one of my very best attributes at poker is my incredible patience; i can sit there and throw away cards for hours and not get tempted. none of this, "well, i can't get good cards so let me play this 6-7 off suit here in the cut-off"...or something equally as stupid.

today at mandalay bay, i had no cards, no pairs, no fucking nothing and have blinded out some 70 dollars when this hand happens: i am on the small blind with 7 callers and i look down and there is the jack-4 of diamonds so i put in the other dollar, let's take a peek. the flp comes Jc, 7c, 4c. i have flopped two pair but, of course, there is a possible flush already out there. I bet ten dollars and am called in two places. pot now contains 46 dollars. the turn card is the 4s, giving me a full house. COOL. now to get the max out of the hand so i check. next player checks and the other bets 20 dollars, i raise to 40 dollars and the other player folds and the bettor calls. the last card is the 8c, i bet twenty dollars and the other guy goes ALL IN. cool. i put in all my chips and he shows me the STRAIGHT FLUSH. fuck.

and that is why most people can't play no limit, the swings are brutal and can leave you talking to yourself.

mumble mumble grumble grumble toil and trouble.

peace to us all.

rainy days

cold and wet here in sin city, bedraggled and drenched whores under the awnings looking for a dry fuck somewhere. streets are flooded washing away the city grime and all the used needles.

we have more illegal pain pills here in vegas than in any other city according to something i read a month or so ago. we are a lortab kind of town. a lot of pain here, might as well stay medicated.

poker rooms are full though so money is still flowing into ye old bankroll. so let it rain, let it rain and don't let me die in the winter.

hopefully spring is just around the corner and i can get back in the pool and do some laps. we are going to put the diving board back up this year but it will probably be more for show than for my use, i surely would hurt myself, just not as cordinated as i used to be.

in the "our father", the word for father should have been translated as "source" taking the personality out of it. the word "heaven" could be translated as "expanding everywhere." so then it becomes "our (my) source which are everywhere"
big difference.

may parnell rot in hell

i have been asked many times why i up and left the corporate world, the world of "business", the world of profit and the world the three piece suit. the world where you are judged by how much money you make or what private country club you belong to or the car you drive and the place you live. that world. well, let me present as evidence of why, mr. stewart parnell, president of peanut corporation of america.

if you missed this story this morning, mr. parnell when presented with evidence that his plant was selling peanut butter that was contaminated with salmonella tried to a. get another company to run tests, b. pressured regulators to allow him to ship the product anyway and c. went ahead and shipped contaminated product with homemade certificate that falsely attested to the purity of the product. though people were dying from his product, mr. parnell complained about the money he was losing.

read the story. google it up. it is the story of capitalistic america. money rules and the people be damned. wall street and banks with their unmittagated gall and arrogance, the car companies who refused to see the writing on the wall and then when the house came tumbling down blamed it on the unions. jesusfuckingchrist. can't recall that peanut butter because it will cost us money. jesusfuckingchrist.

(they even sent the peanut butter to nursing homes...there is a special place in hell for mr. parnell.)

also today's paper was this little jewel of a story: in wilkes-barre pa., juvinelle court judges were sending kids to private owned prisons in exchange for bribes. many of these kids were up on extremely minor offenses and even the prosecutors and police said that there was no reason for them to be incarcerated. the two judges got over a million dollars each in bribes. money rules and the people be damned.

i may have written this before but i told one of the talk show hosts that i met more honest people in prison than i did in corporate boardrooms. here is a list of the companies that either i worked for or was a high paid consultant to: i.t.t., itt life, itt financial services, beneficial life, aig, mcmillan publishing, grolier, british printing and c & s. each and every one of those companies lied in their sales presentations and in their advertizing. my crime was that i knew they were lies and i trained the sales forces and advertizing sections how to tell the lies. one day, i just couldn't do it anymore. i got honest and it has cost me millions. but honesty gave me peace of mind and ability to look at myself in the mirror. (and i was never as low as mr. parnell.)

anyway, peace to us all. rock and roll.

something from the past that may help today

let me tell you a story from days gone bye that may have some bearing on what is going on in the housing market and maybe a way for people to keep from being thrown out of their houses.....

i started a company in the 70's which, because of its nature, required that i and my managers presented a "successful" front. i found a luxury car leasing company that was getting ready to go under and i bought 6 cars from them, two panteras, two lincoln mark IV's and two lincoln town cars. i made a very small down payment and took delivery. when the first monthly payments came due i refused to make them because the company had indeed gone under and the "banks" owned the paper on the cars. problem was (for them) no one knew just which bank owned the paper on which car since there were multiple banks involved and they had, as in today's housing market, "bundled" them and sold and resold the paper. i would tell the person calling about my notes that i was glad to make the payments but i had to know that whoever was collecting the money actually had the title to which ever car. since they could not come up with the proper documentation i made no payments for a year. (as a side note, by the time they had figured it out, my company had gone broke so i just gave the cars back....all except one pantera which had caught on fire while driving across the lake ponchetrain bridge)

i think, but do not know, that the same tactic could be used by homeowners who are being evicted. does the bank actually have the physical title to the home? i don't think they can produce a clear ownership of title because these mortgages were sold and resold and then resold again. someone ought to look into this because if i am right, hundreds of thousands of folks could keep the wolves from the door while they get their ducks in a line. (lot of wildlife in that sentence)

if any of you do look into this please let me know what you found out.

on to the stimulus plan, i find the republicans hypocritcal to the nth degree by screaming fiscal responsiblity and fighting tooth and nail to keep the plan from going forward. this after years of fiscal diaster as bush and company fought wars without raising taxes (first time in our history) and running up huge debts. now that the piper has to be paid, the republicans are screaming like banshees. (more wildlife)

the plan is far from perfect and, in my opinion, does not do enough NOW to putting people to work. fdr had dozens, if not hundreds, of programs going and almost all of which put huge numbers of people to work and today those projects are still viable and are being used by millions. i think that obama has to face the fact that the republicans are not willing to go bipartisan and he will have to just run over them. by taking his plan to the people and pointing out what the repubs are doing then the people will put enough pressure on to get things going.

one of the things the country has to realize is that we all are to blame. citizens spent money like crazy running up huge debts on credit cards and home equity loans. the government under bush had no restraint whatsoever. when we went to war the citizens were not asked to sacrifice in any way and in fact were told to "go shopping" as our duty in the war effort. what a crock. businesses and citizens saved nothing for the rainy day nor did the state, local and national government. what a crock. we, as a country, acted like immature teenagers buying all the gadgets and status symbols we could put on our visa cards. (i must say that rhonda and i did not fall into that trap nor did we refinance our home, matter of fact, we made such a large downpayment that our house note is less than 900 per month and that includes taxes and insurance so we should always be able to keep roof over our head...but you never know.)

one final comment...i think they should have left in the BUY AMERICAN part of the plan. i am not buying the argument that if we only spend money with american manufactures then we could cause a trade war. that sounds like the international corporations just covering their asses. but what do i know?

mrs. hicks and letterman

over the past week or so, many people have contacted me about the letterman show with bill hicks' mother where they talked about when bill's routine was cut. let me tell you my take on this:

bill called me right after he did that set which was about 6 in the evening east coast time. he was really excited about it and said that it was, far and away, the best set he had ever done on tv. i might add here that bill was hardly ever excited about anything he did on tv or in clubs for that fact...he took his talent, not for granted, but knowingly. he knew he was good. he didn't brag or boast. this time, however, he was truly excited. (it is very hard to do really good sets on tv..the time is too short, audiences are much different, pressure is immense. best you can usually hope for is a good set with no mistakes. now, cable shows, with no censorship and longer time are an entirely different thing.....)

then, later that same night he called back after the set had been cut. he was livid. my vocabulary fails me here, livid, upset, pissed, mad as hell, etc.

here is what i remember him saying...it was NOT david but the censors who cut the piece. now, david is saying that it was he who made the final decision. i think that david is taking the blame but it was not really him. i do know that bill wrote a very long letter to a writer at newsday that evening. that letter, which is surely somewhere, will tell the full story. i am going to try to track it down.

i haven't seen the show with mrs. hicks but will take a look later today.