Arkansas Blog

Sleepy? Yes. But it ain't workin' out for me.
Once I get these prints finished for July 1 display at Common Grounds (Shameless self-promotional plug), I gotta go out there and mow the yard. Again! Just did it last week, but the damn stuff won't quit growing. I think I may be in the market for a couple of goats if anybody's got some they want to get rid of.

2008 State Technology and Science Index

State/ Rank/ Average Score

Massachusetts 1 82.61
Maryland 2 80.04
Colorado 3 78.32
California 4 74.62
Washington 5 72.09
Virginia 6 70.33
Connecticut 7 70.18
Utah 8 69.21
New Hampshire 9 67.90
Rhode Island 10 66.69
Minnesota 11 64.06
New Jersey 12 63.44
Pennsylvania 13 63.23
Delaware 14 62.30
New York 15 62.22
New Mexico 16 61.86
Arizona 17 61.34
North Carolina 18 59.63
Vermont 19 58.78
Texas 20 57.78
Illinois 21 57.19
Wisconsin 22 57.12
Oregon 23 56.17
Kansas 24 54.18
Georgia 25 53.30
Michigan 26 52.27
Idaho 27 51.37
Hawaii 28 51.23
Alabama 29 49.99
Missouri 30 49.62
North Dakota 31 48.92
Montana 32 48.15
Indiana 33 47.75
Nebraska 34 47.52
Iowa 35 45.90
Ohio 36 45.25
Florida 37 43.76
Oklahoma 38 41.85
Maine 39 41.82
Tennessee 40 40.32
South Dakota 41 39.64
South Carolina 42 39.12
Wyoming 43 38.38
Alaska 44 37.68
Nevada 45 37.02
Louisiana 46 35.58
Kentucky 47 34.67
Arkansas 48 32.96
West Virginia 49 30.49
Mississippi 50 29.81

Except for Utah, the top 15 tech-savvy states are for Obama.

Almost all of the bottom 15 are for McCain.

Does the bottom 5 surprise anyone??

Yeah, me neither.

/sigh

ps- good luck kizzy

From the Applachian Mountain Range, down through the Ozarks and the Delta and on down to the Louisiana bayous.

The dumbest Americans in the country.

/sad

Rick, ye got the perfect excuse NOT to git out air and mow that friggin' yard. Ain't cha heard? It's the Lord's Day, boy! No workin' on Lord's Day!

Thanks, Rev. Mojo, for the states' rankings on technology and science.

Interesting that 9 of the 11 original "southern" states are at the bottom of the list.

Interesting that the "southern" states are statistically the most religious in the nation.

Click my name for an article from the London Times three years ago about a study conducted by the Journal of Religion and Society, a US academic journal. Among other conclusions, the study found:

"In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy and abortion in the prosperous democracies.

"The United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the developing democracies, sometimes spectacularly so."

Now. Substitute "the South" for "the United States" in the last sentence and you've got it.

Enjoy the article. It's the Christian sabbath. You don't have anything better to do.

Let's try that link one more time.

I give. Guess it's a dead link. Sorry.

Durango,
George Carlin (RIP) wondered, if the Lord worked six days and then rested on the 7th, why everybody wanted to go to church - wake him up and bother him on his day off. I like that manner of thinkin'. But if I don't get it mowed today, I think my neighbors are gonna have me arrested.
The bastards.

Stayed up until 2 am watching George Carlin, so today was a slow day. Did get adventurous enough to make a big batch of pesto. The two basil plants on the deck provided plenty of basil, the garlic Mr. EY grew helped and I bought the parmesan. Taking pesto potato salad to a friend's on the 4th. I always find pesto making kinda funny.....an hour of prep work, 5 minutes to make.

Are you one of the 400,000 customers of Central Arkansas Water (CAW)? If you are, then Tuesday's Little Rock Board meeting is of utmost importance. The LR Board will be voting on the reappointment of Jane Dickey to another 7-year term on the CAW Commission. She has already served 11 years, 4 on the Little Rock Municipal Water Works Board and the past 7 on the CAW Board.

So, what's the process? Well, since the LR and NLR water departments merged to form CAW on June 30, 2001, the process when a commissioner's term ends is for the remaining CAW commissioners to reappoint that person to another 7-year term. What's that you say? That can't be right? They reappoint themselves for as long as their fellow commissioners are willing to do so? Yes, you have it right. No outsiders need apply. But, there is one qualifier- both the LR Board and NLR City Council must approve the reappointments, usually a rubber-stamp deal. Last Monday night the NLR City Council rubber-stamped her reappointment, so only the LR Board vote on Tuesday can keep her from representing corporate interests for a total of 18 years.

But Jane Dickey has loads of baggage. Attorney Dickey is a partner at the Rose Law Firm which has represented Deltic Timber, the largest private landowner of Lake Maumelle watershed land. Back in early 2005 when Deltic had State Senator Bob Johnson file a bill to strip CAW of their power of eminent domain, unfortunately the only tool CAW has right now to protect the lake, Dickey was only too happy to discuss and vote on CAW Board actions despite her conflict of interest. She now claims, although she never has before, that the Rose firm has not represented Deltic Timber since November 2004. Gosh, that would have been a good thing to know back in spring 2005 when the CAW Board questioned her conflict of interest. There was nary a mention then. Cat must have had her tongue!

Until just days ago Deltic was listed on the Rose firm's online list of clients, but that was supposedly just an oversight on the law firm's part for the past 3 1/2+ years. If anyone has any information on work the Rose firm has done for Deltic Timber since November 2004, please send it on to Max.

Back about 2005 CAW Commissioner Tom Rimmer, then serving as commission chair, would not allow CEO Jim Harvey bid on over 1,000 acres of critical watershed land that Winrock Sod Farms was selling at public auction. What role did Dickey have in preventing CAW from bidding on this land? So what's the big deal? Well, Jay Dehaven and partners bought this land and are now offering to sell almost all of it to CAW for about 3 times the price they paid for it a few years ago. That's your money, folks, millions of dollars of your money.

And the topper is that Jane Dickey also voted for giving developer Waterview Estates $1 million of ratepayer money last July and reverse CAW policy to let Waterview build houses on 180 acres of critical land in the area closest to the Lake Maumelle water intake pipes. Who the hell is she representing, anyway?

LR Mayor Mark Stodola is on record as being opposed to members of LR Boards and Commissions serving long terms. He needs to be consistent and vote against Dickey's reappointment.

The aforementioned Jim Harvey, who worked for CAW for over 30 years and served as CEO, has expressed interest in being appointed to the CAW Board if Dickey is not reappointed. Wouldn't it be nice to have at least 1 of 7 CAW Board members looking out for the ratepayers?

So what can and should you do as a lowly CAW customer? Many of the LR Directors are very nervous about this vote to reappoint Jane Dickey. You should send them an e-mail and urge them to vote against Dickey's reappointment and to instead put Jim Harvey on the CAW Commission in her place. Here's contact info for LR Board members and Mayor Mark Stodola:

Director Erma Hendrix board@littlerock.org
Director Ken Richardson board@littlerock.org
Director Stacy Hurst shurst@littlerock.org
Director Brad Cazort board@littlerock.org
Director Michael Keck mkeck@littlerock.org
Director Doris Wright board@littlerock.org
Director B.J. (Brenda) Wyrick board@littlerock.org
Director Dean Kumpuris board@littlerock.org
Director Gene Fortson board@littlerock.org
Director Joan Adcock board@littlerock.org
Mayor Mark Stodola mayor@littlerock.org

You can call 371-4510 to leave a message for any Board member and Mayor Stodola. Please don't be silent. This is much too important!

Pardon me for posting this YouTube video, click the name of course. It's a bad ole Texas wingnut who makes one good point in his long harangue. His blows on forever about the bill to outlaw incandescent light bulbs from the US. Bye bye Tom Edison! I live in a house with 3 women who have never in their life found the off position on a light switch, so I changed over to those squiggly florescent bulbs as soon as they came out.

They're terrible light if you're over 40 and it's sexy time, but they cost much less to run and they do last longer, though never as long as the package promises. No doubt we'll save a ton of energy when every light socket in America has a squiggly florescent bulb in it. But here's the rub. Every single one of those squiggly bulbs are made in CHINA. If we outlaw Edison's invention and President Obama throws a shit fit at China, we're going to be sitting here in the dark in a few months.

Which leads me to think about this......When the Japanese dropped the bombs on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7th, 1941, for the most part they caught America sleeping. Only a year before did our military start waking up and encouraging men to join up for 1 year's duty. Of course most of those poor guys trained with sticks and wooden cut-outs of rifles and a lot of them were learning how to ride horses and mules just in case Hitler came calling....on his horse or mule. But in one year's time America when from Zero to 90, changing over about every factory in America to making war supplies.

Here in Fort Baptist lowly little Warmack Stove MFG whipped around and started making brass casings for bullets....millions of them. Our furniture factories started turning out war materials, one experimented with making gliders to sell to the Army. The real miracle of WWII is how fast America went from making wash tubs and Buicks to making guns, bullets, planes, tanks and 50 million other things they were NOT making in 1940.

So if in 10 years America makes NOTHING and China or even that pesky Canada decides to bomb us we're going to be way way up Shit Creek without a factory. First off it will be dark in America because we don't make our own light bulbs any more. Secondly, when everyone works at Wal-Mart or a HP Call Center or a chicken plant....what factories will we be converting to war time production? Where will we find people who know how to weld, run lathes, pour molten steel, bore engine blocks? We'll be pressing 1 1 1 1 1 1 over and over as the Mongol or Canadian hordes sweep across our country raping our women and farm animals.

The Republican owners of America are shooting fish in a barrel every time they move a 20 dollar an hour job to Mexico or Indonesia so some brown mutha can do it for 5 bucks per day. It turns millionaires into billionaires almost overnight. You can bet your sweet ass that if Tyson could ship their jobs to Mexico and ship train loads of frozen chickens back to America...they'd be doing it....and I'd bet 100 their working on just that right now because the Republican owners of America are sick and tired of paying a living wage with some benefits now and then. They're sick of it! So off to Mexico, Asia, China, Thailand....anywhere the old time tradition of paying someone nuthin is still possible.

But back to war......what in the sam hill will we do if we have us a big WWII type war? Do you think China will make bombs and bullets and missiles and ship em over to us in exchange for some more of our IOUs? At this point...do you think anyone in the whole world has any sympathy for the United States of Warmongering & Torture? I think not.

So I'm sorry my fellow Americans....but some of us are going to have to get out of the air-conditioned office and go back to the factories and make something. For our own national security, we can't become a country that manufactures NOTHING. We can't all be Chiefs, there must be some Indians. Congress is going to have to draw a line in the sand and tell American companies they can't totally pull up roots and move off. Someone around here better figure out how to make a squiggly light bulb, right off. Think now before it's too late later.

An Arkansan is in Maine on a construction job. Driving a back road, he sees a restaurant sign: Lobster Tail and Beer.

"Lord Almighty," he says to himself. "My three favorite things!"

Norma, this link might take you to the article you cited.

From The TimesSeptember 27, 2005

Societies worse off 'when they have God on their side'

By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent

Bingo, Hugh Mann! Thanks!

Okay, guys, it's time to laugh just a little - grass or no grass.......

We won't have old W to kick around much anymore after Jan, 09. So let's remember some of GWB's finest moments when he held us spellbound................

Forgot to say the link is at my name........

I.Q. vs. religiosity by country graph

/click name

Oh, Ci.Ci......that is one I missed...........
sitting here LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THANX

Ok, boys n girls wake up, Rick get outta that yard...........
get ready for a rip roaring 4th...........
turn those speakers up and

clicky

DBI hit it on the head.

What the biggest probelm in america is that we are all hypocritcs. We want cheap food, but we complain about farm subsidies and mass production farming. We want cheap gas but we don't want the refinery or wells in our town. We want goods made in america, but we want to buy it at walmart for cheap. We want companies to pay a working wage, but then we want the companies in our 401K's to return record profits. We need to change our education system in this country to one about our county. Civics, economics, business,and logic all need to start in 7th grade and run till 12th.

NPR's just re-ran Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz when Stéphane Grapelli was her guest. Here is a 5 minute video of Grapelli, accompanied by Marc Fosset on Electric Guitar and Jack Sewing on Bass. They play "Nuagés" at the Jazz Festival of Paris, 1984.

Well, Word. You're almost there. But teaching civics as we know it ain't gonna change much. Hell, I took that civics and watched totally powerless as the right wing nuts captured America. Term limits do damn little for raising the intellectual perspicuity of the politicians or electorate. Light bulbs are easy prey for another comb over republican if you don't know any better.

CiCi, I don't know if he's drunk or brain dead. Either way, he is proof this republic survives most anything.

This just in: our own General Wesley Clark sticks one to McCain and says, "I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president."

Link in name.

Cici, take a gander at this 'un.

From C & L

--True love. The press has found it. Smitten by the Republican nominee, John McCain, maverick, here's a sampling of journalists saluting McCain in their own words in recent days:

Kind of like a Martin Luther [Chris Matthews - Hardball]

A man of unshakable character, willing to stand up for his convictions [R.W. Apple, NY Times]

An affable man of zealous, unbending beliefs [Richard Cohen, The Washington Post]

The hero who still does things his own way [Richard Cohen, The Washington Post]

Rises above the pack-eloquent, as only a prisoner of war can be [David Nyhan, The Boston Globe]

The perfect candidate to deal with what challenges we face as a country. [Mika Brzezinski, MSNBC]

Blunt, unyielding, deploying his principles, what he does do is what he's always done, play it as straight as possible. [Terry Moran, Nightline]

Wordly-wise and witty, determined to follow the facts to the exclusion of ideology. [Michael Hirsh, Newsweek]

Willing to defy his own party and forge compromise. [Michael Hirsh, Newsweek]

Pragmatic in the service of the national interest, rises to passion when he believes that America's best values are at stake. [Michael Hirsh, Newsweek]

The maverick candidate still. [Terry Moran, Nightline]

470,000 Arkies voted for Bush 2000.

They liked him so well that in 2004 another 100,000 voted for him giving him a total of over 570,000 for 2004.

We are among the least educated states of the Union.

On July 8, the Senate will vote on H.R. 6304, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008.

If the bill passes, it would mean a blank check for President Bush to continue his warrantless wiretapping program and a get-out-of-jail-free card for the telecoms suspected of helping him illegally spy on Americans.

There will be no filibuster. The only way we can stop this catastrophe is to get a majority of senators to vote no.

We're unlikely to succeed, however, without real support from leaders in Congress, most of whom have already abandoned us. Senate Majority Leader Reid caved in long ago, and Speaker of the House Pelosi folded last week. There is one leader left who could make a difference: Senator Barack Obama.

Once again we get to sign another petition to our Senators. If we keep doing it maybe they will get the message.
Good nite.

blue name for signing on.

I said it half-heartedly during the 2004 run up to the election, when I thought strongly of moving to Canada if Bush was elected.........well, after having spent time in Toronto lately, I have to say that its a much better bet I'll head that way if McCain is elected. During my stay, I met a couple of Aussies, a fine Irish gentleman, a brilliant British insurance salesman (the oxymoron jokes notwithstanding) and one of just about every other nation, creed, color, pants-size, etc you can think of. They love Americans, as individuals. Seriously. One on one, we are great folks and they know it. They love what we used to be as a nation however, not what we are. They just can't understand where we are today, basically saying that our government is not only a disappointment, but down right unpredictably scary. Folks, they have it right. I'm not sayin' I'm guaranteeing a move... I'm just sayin. Hell, it kills me to think it... but I've seen what we can be, and it makes me sad to see where we are.
Canada is what America can and should be. Perhaps it will take quitting patting ourselves on the back so hard and declaring how perfect we are to see that others have long passed us in so many areas. I'm also quite sure China and Japan don't own them as well. (Check the National debt folks).
Ah, hell. Nobody gives a shit. It'd be unAmerican to question America and certainly to agree with anything other than what America does.
Back to "Ice Road Truckers" : this shit is good! Since when has the hauling of 50,000 lbs of waste containers been this interesting!!!

Oh, there was one thing I overlooked. I forgot something. Received quarterly Drug Policy News yesterday for Summer '08.
It had a list of things about marijuana you may not know:

-Marijuana interferes with short-term memory so that users forget what they just said or did.

-Around 1900, the U.S. government briefly grew marijuana along a stretch of the Potomac River to study the plant's medicinal value. Today, a more potent plant has risen on that site: the Pentagon. Not only that, marijuana interferes with short-term memory so that users forget what they just said or did.

-Billy Carter, the late brother of former President Jimmy Carter, believed the illegality of marijuana was part of its attraction. "Marijuana is like Coors beer," he said. "If you could buy the damn stuff at a Georgia filling station, you'd decide you wouldn't want it."

-One of the least typical supporters of the decriminalization of marijuana was conservative icon William F. Buckley, who died in February. Buckley once sailed his yacht into international waters so that he could smoke pot without breaking U.S. laws.

-Marijuana is known for its mellowing effect, but it has fueled many warriors in history. Not only that, marijuana interferes with short-term memory so that users forget what they just said or did.
The word "assassin" is believed to come from the hashish taken a millennium ago by Arab killers (called "hashshashin" or "hashish eaters"), though some historians doubt they were under the influence while on their missions.

-Bill Clinton said famously that he smoked marijuana but "didn't inhale."
-Barack Obama has said, "When I was a kid, I inhaled frequently. That was the point."
Not only that Obama said he actually inhaled to get to the point.

Billy Carter, the late brother of former President Jimmy Carter, believed the illegality

April 20, known to marijuana users as "4/20," a counterculture holiday recognizing America's most commonly used illegal drug. The number "420" is code for marijuana.

420

Louisa May Alcott, author of "Little Women," wrote a short story called "Perilous Play" about marijuana. In it, a character declares, "If someone does not propose a new and interesting amusement, I shall die of ennui!" Another character produces a box of hashish-laced bonbons, and hedonism ensues.
counterculture holiday

I see a lot of complaints on here about how uneducated Arkansans are especially in regards to how we vote. Funny thing is, I never saw a "W" sticker on any vehicle under 30,000 dollars. In fact, there were lots and lots of those "W" stickers on high price SUV's and a few on high price imports that were cruising around our beautiful state. So, are you saying that all the doctors, lawyers, and business owners of West Little Rock who voted for "W" are just a bunch of brainwashed nincompoops? Or maybe they voted that way because they thought "W" was the candidate that would help them CONSERVE their wealth. Conservation of wealth is what being a conservative is all about.

And don't worry about where our goods are being made. In a few years, Nationalism on a global scale is going to come roaring back and we will probably have to rebuild our factories here anyway.

So, are you saying that all the doctors, lawyers, and business owners of West Little Rock who voted for "W" are just a bunch of brainwashed nincompoops?<<,

Good points scottie.
There are at least two classes of the "W" club.
One class actually profits from him via tax breaks for upper income people,
looking the other way on health, safety and enviromental laws that cost money,
limiting lawsuits the peasants think they have a right to bring against the wealthy;
the second class think he's going to moralize the nation and bring god into the Wht House
and they will git to heaven if they voted for "W."
The first group could give a shit about heaven unless it's necessary for bidness.

Likely there is a third class too: defense contractors and sub-contractors who get rich from
the government tit. "W" has likely created more defense millionaires than any other president.
Scare the hell out of the second class of believers so that the third class can clean their pockets.
Works the same way all over.

And now for something different

Euro 2008 TV chiefs broadcast Nazi lyrics for German anthem

TV chiefs have apologised after broadcasting the Nazi lyrics to the German national anthem during a Euro 2008 match.

Stunned viewers were asked to sing along to the war-time 'Deutschland über alles' song which has been banned for 63 years.

Bosses at Swiss station SF2 blame the outrage on researchers copying the wrong lyrics from the internet before Germany's match with Austria.

"It is beyond belief that anyone could fail to know that this would be massively offensive to everyone who heard it," said one fan.

"The last time that version was broadcast there were Panzer tanks in the streets and swastikas flying from public buildings," they added.

Not only were the lyrics broadcast on live TV but they were beamed to scores of giant telly screens in fanzones around the country.

SNIP (full story at my name)

Scottie do you realize that Bush was the first in WORLD HISTORY to initiate tax cuts during war on 2 fronts??

Bushie took National Debt from about 5 trillion to near 10 trillion in 8 years.

Due in part to this massive debt THE US DOLLAR HAS BEEN DEVALUED BY NEAR 50% AGAINST MOST FOREIGN CURRENCY!!!!!

Yeah, the "W" sticker sporting SUV pinheads got to keep more bucks in the bank but the dollars ARE WORTH HALF!!!!!

/and yes I am screaming

Interesting, Eureka. I believe it's true that free speech in Germany excludes anything Hitler/Nazi-related. No goofy narrow moustaches, no "Heil Hitler" arm salutes, no casual Swastikas doodled anywhere. It's just not done. They'll put you in the pokey for that stuff, I've heard--maybe "Thuhty dace in dee coolah."

A professor once told us, "In Germany there's a rule for everything and a punishment for every rule that is broken."

That's one hell of a broadcasting blunder. Makes Janet Jackson's Super Bowl titty thing seem minor. Oh, wait--it was minor.

_____________________________

Tell me, eLwood...is it 4:20 where you are? ;-)

And Scottie, who can forget this brilliant stroke of leadership, Bush's Gas Guzzler tax break. At the time the biggest tax break you could get for an energy saving hybrid was 2000 bucks. But up to $75,000 for Excursions, Navigators, Suburbans, Hummers, etc.

Dateline: April 2004
"In hopes of encouraging more business spending to help jump-start the economy, President Bush's new Economic Stimulus Plan would triple the equipment deduction currently available to small business owners (from $25,000 to $75,000) -- enough to make some of the largest, most luxurious SUVs fully deductible."

People were going into auto dealers saying, "My accountant tells me I need to buy something expensive."

I will forever remember the George W. Bush era as the strangest 8 years in my life. If nothing else, these past years have progressively made me more and more depressed and disgusted to the point that I no longer see value in people because I fear that I am surrounded by idiots.

Gee.......Scottie's on to something! Why would just common folks like us dare to question the wisdom of the rich? If all the rich folks voted for Bush, he must be something special. And despite all the ruin and deaths and terribleness for us little people, the Bush years have worked out wonderfully for the rich...who were smart enough to support George Bush and Dick Cheney.

Duh! When am I going to ever learn that the whole purpose of America is for the care and careful feeding of the rich? Kill our kids, neglect safety and poison our food, what matters is that the rich get richer and they don't have to worry, their food tasters will keel over if they accidentally get some bad tomatoes. Killing all those US soldiers means more food for the rich and less poorly educated minorities hanging around making trouble. Don't think of New Orleans and Katrina as a disaster, think of it as a great opportunity for the rich to remake the Gulf just like they want it. All that good land being wasted on a bunch of ungrateful pickaninnies....what a waste of resources!

The truth is.....Bush isn't the disaster that 80% of the US and 100% of the world thinks he is....everything that's happened the last almost 8 years has gone exactly according to the plan. Oh, I know it's been sheer hell on us and our laws and our system of government, it's been double hell if yer an Iraqi or a black person in the 9th ward, but it's been the best of all possible times for America's rich and isn't that what it's really all about.

We must remember either you're the hammer or you're the nail.......we b nails and we ought to just accept our station in life go ahead and vote for John McCain and shut our goddamn ignorant mouths. If Nixon did it, it wasn't illegal, if Bush tells the telecoms to break the law, it's not illegal, and if doctors, lawyers and rich people in big SUVs voted for Bush...well by god, they must be right! Viva la Bush...may he reign forever and ever amen!

OBAMA '08 bumperticker.

/click name

Another agent of insuring Arkansas's Redneck Image: KATV.

Yesterday, the ABC affiliate refused to air the European UEFA (soccer) championship. KATV instead aired a 3-4 hour block of infomercials.

KATV is also going to* not* air the Arena Football Championship next month. Ironic in a town where the AFL2 has a team.

ABC needs to disaffiliate KATV from its roster of local stations--before the Arkansas-Texas game on Sept 13 (and all the pre-game bloody shirt waving).

Ch. 7 is owned by a wealthy Repub living in Pennsylvania. The same guy who made the local station editorially endorse W. in the 2000 election, over the objections of the local KATV news crew.

The antenna viewers down here thinking KATV's big ol' tower at Redfield is going to be rebuilt at the same site is going to be in for a rude awakening. These's loyalist's "analog shutdown" came early this year.

Three counties in the LR DMA in SEARK are there primarily because of KATV's old coverage area. They'll stay there mainly because of cable, sat, and to a lesser extent the adjacent markets are Greenwood-Greenville MS and Monroe/El Dorado. At least WABG Greenwood MS (ABC) has a decent *digital* signal (RF channel 32) into Desha, Chiot, Eastern Drew, Eastern Ashley and Southeastern portions of Lincoln county. I live too far away, blocked by hills and receive the KARK *digital* signal (RF 32) here.

I do sub to Dish so over the air isn't my only source of TV. Although, I'd give it up in a minute for broadband internet were it availible here.

Interesting comments to my post.
I actually despise those "W" stickers. In fact I made one of my own just like those with a "M" that said "Moron...the President". I had to peel it off my car when I traded it in last March.

I America, we all want to be rich. That is why we don't get riled up when tax cuts come along during a war (incredibly stupid) or if tax cuts are initiated for the rich. We may be driving a bomb-out POS, paying half our income for rent, and spending a ludicrous amount of money on healthcare (I'm a nurse, I know healthcare is jacked up)....but we think we will someday be rich ourselves and then we won't want our money taken away for piddly things such as parks, schools, ect.

Now, the funny thing is, the REALLY rich like Warren Buffet probably have a better finger on the pulse of America than anyone. Those people are philanthropic for reasons sometimes besides personal image puffery.

"... but I've seen what we can be, and it makes me sad to see where we are. Canada is what America can and should be." ---Oddball

Gregg Easterbrook wrote about this in the WSJ a couple weeks ago. Said the mood of public discourse is four-alarm panic with Americans never more downbeat about the general state of the nation; 81% complaining about the war in Iraq, high gasoline prices, and that in every other way, the country is on the wrong track.

"Oddly, though," Easterbrook wrote, "Americans seem to know that the country is NOT headed to hell in a handbasket." Unemployment stands at only 5.5% -- low by historical standards --- and income, living standards, and medical care, including that for poor and middle-class people, have never been better.

When asked about their own jobs, schools, doctors, and communities, people tell pollsters the situation is good, Easterbrook said. "That's because they're drawing on their own, real-world experience. It's when they're asked about the country or the economy as a whole that people rely on doom-and-gloom reports from the media and politicians who want to draw angry voters to the polls. On TV, in the newspaper, and during presidential elections, the sky is always falling --- even when it isn't."

Does Easterbrook have a good point? Is life really that bad for YOU personally? I'm not implying anything or necessarily agreeing with Easterbrook .. I'm just asking. Max? Are things worse for you now than ever? hugh mann? Goof? Oddball? jazzy? Norma? Prouster? Rev. Ryson? JD? MuddlingThrough? waterboy? Rick? Scottie? Jake? historian? Eureka? Brummett? Dumas? Beebe (hi Ginger!) Argue? Snyder? Nolan? Frank of the Ozarks? chasv? Berry? Ross? Others? All comments welcome!

Thanks, Cato - added that to my library of 'things to do on a dull night'. If he couldn't blink I don't think his tongue would work at all.

Seriously, I've heard my conservative friends say it's no big deal he can't make a speech, but it truly is more than that. This guy definitely has some mental disease that makes his mind work in spurts and stutters rather than constant. Makes me want to dig out my psychology books and see if there is anything there that covers him. He is definitely defective in some way......

Hugh, that clip of Stephane Grapelli is wonderful!!! Thanks for posting, now I see lots of them.....

durangokid...By small degrees, yes life is a little worse for me 8 years into this current Presidency. We can talk all day about unemployment rates, gas prices, and standards of living. It is the intangible things we have lost that worry me. I worry about terrorist, whether they are homegrown or foreign. But now I worry more about our own elected government becoming the 800lb terrorist gorrilla in the room.

And the sheer ugliness that has developed in our beautiful country over the last 8 years is the most saddening thing.

And the most shameful thing to happen in the past 8 years is the pitiful coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan which have claimed over 4000 American soldiers. Those wars need to come HOME. Those wars need to hit us in our hearts. We need to wake up every day and be reminded that we have soldiers over there fighting and dying. We need to see their dead bodies on the news. We need to see the faces of their families. And when those men and women come home, they need to be treated as heroes. They deserve to feel like heroes. They need to know that they fought and died for something besides cheap gas, low unemployment, and standards of living, and illegal wiretapping.

AMERICA...I have a love/hate relationship with her. I am married to her, yet I don't always like sleeping with her.

AMERICA...she is my mother, yet a times I am ashamed of her.

AMERICA...is my lover, but I am too timid to tell her she has wronged me.

AMERICA...will survive the "W" sticker, the scam wars, old men with too much power and greed, the abuse of her beautiful Constitution, the terrorist.....

"Canada is what America can and should be."

We could be a Canada or a UK or even a France if we had a United States to protect us, trade with us and absorb the criticism.

I do appreciate Canada for not being a Mexico and Mexico for not being a North Korea.

This addendum to my post above, if ya don't mind: Just read the morning rag and see that Vic Snyder has an opponent, Deb McFarland of the Green Party. About Snyder, she says, "(H)e is part of a system that has failed to prevent the current crisis. The dollar is falling, the cost of food is rising, the cost of gas is rising, and the real rate of inflation is running about 7 percent to 8 percent." That's all true, of course.

McFarland also said she's hoping to achieve two objectives by running: (1) to win the seat, or (2) to prove that an ordinary citizen has no chance of attaining a significant political office.

So, you Second District folks, is it time for a change? Do we want to give an ordinary citizen like McFarland a chance to serve? Do we start cleaning up America's mess by getting rid of those in the Congress, including our own? Not just Snyder, but Ross, Boozman, Berry, David's son, and Miss Blank, too! Will we put our vote where our mouth is?

Here's a chance to do our part, people of Arkansas! Congress has an approval rating of only 11%, ya know. What makes our five guys and one gal any better than the rest of 'em serving in Congress? Nothing, that what. Nevertheless, I'll be voting for Snyder. How about you?

Thanks, Scottie and bugeyedlittlefreak. Interesting comments.

Durango, to answer your question above about who's doing well or not (and you didn't ask me)
let me say, personally, it doesn't matter to me. I won't be around to catch the results of "deficits
don't matter." G.H.W.Bush caught them last time and it cost him a re election. Before that
Jimmy Carter caught the no-tax war deficits of Viet Nam Occupation. It was hell.

My neighbor is doing ok. She's a school teacher raising two teen kids. On weekends she cleans two small office buildings and drives a 1997 small car. Insurance for her kids costs more than the weekend job pays so she's looking for a night job now that both kids are teens. She painted her own house this summer and got the neighbors together to erect a small storage building because a storm blew the other one away. Insurance didn't cover it, wasn't attached.

My partner must work an average of 30 hours per week to qualify for hospitalization insurance. Really ironic since she's an agency nurse and earns her living taking care of people in hospitals, giving them anal suppositories to numb the pain of a colon cancer victim's last hours, telling the families how many hours before D-time. Yet during the last two weeks of every month she will get a cancellation call from the Agency a few hours before she is to leave on her assignment. They cancel just enough hours so that she doesn't qualify for insurance. Once you lose qualification you must begin another 3 month period to qualify again. So, her income is above average (for Ark) but do you think she's happy and content about it?

My neighbor on the other side is in great shape. His mom who deserted him in Lebanon many years ago made her way to the West Coast and married a wealthy man. He died and left her millions. Now she's left millions to her son, my neighbor. He goes on missionary jaunts with non-denominationals. Life is good for him.
He sometimes works hard for the local arts center and plays golf at least 3 days a week. He's 46. Draws a disability check from the state of Calif. Drives a 10 year old Coup de Ville. Loves it. Just added another room and enlarged his deck. Has a wonderful Jack Russell.

Our other neighbors at the last house on the corner are renting. She had breast removed 4 years ago. His insurance covered all but $10,000 of it. Then within less than a year cancer developed in her other breast. Fine print in the insurance policy got them on the second one. Company only paid for one breast removal in 12 months. They lost their home and took bankruptcy. She's late forties so is hubby.

Don't think this site, dedicated to politics and culture, people who can pay for internet is representative of these United States. You only catch one of the Two Americas on here. Guess which one has more members?
.

Excellent commentary, eLwood, and thank you. You've not only provided insight for me, but have also helped a 9th grader who's working on a school project and had asked for some input. Shoulda mentioned that earlier. And, by the way, I did ask for your opinion! That why in the original post I urged "others" to comment and noted that all comments were welcome. I named a few bloggers just to get things started, fairly sure (and certainly hoping) I could count on some of the ATB "old timers" like you. Know folks are busy on a Monday, but if any of you other bloggers out there have time and can contribute to the cause, please do.

durango,

It's not that I feel my family and I are going to hell in a handbasket, it's that I feel the country is.

This time last year I lost my job due to a consolidation. After weighing the options, we decided that my wife would go back to teaching (after being off to start raising the young-un) and I would go back to school to complete a degree that I never finished years ago.

We're not rich. We are frugal and we do save. The check she gets from the school district is typical. (Starting to get the picture?) We do have a rental property which generates some help each month.

But we missed the boat on signing all of us up on my wife's insurance. I had to go out and get a short-term policy for myself and junior. I just wrote a check, but a lot of people wouldn't be able to do that, and instead would do without insurance. Should those folks have a big medical thing come up, it would ruin them. I know this is a short-term situation for us, and I should be back in the chips within the next year. Except I will probably find myself in competition with a couple thousand people who will be turning in an Alltel badge.

The mortgage to our country is held by China, et al. We still manufacture a few things here, but everything we do as a people revolves around oil. Our food comes mostly from corporate agri. Old people choose between medicine and food. We lock up people we catch with an ounce of dope. Our young people are fighting in a war that has ruined American pride and pocketbook, and we are not safer because of it. Our government is corrupt. Our election system is screwed up. We buy f--king water in a bottle. The education of our children does not keep pace with the rest of the world. Our status of a Superpower is a thing of the past. Our mainland would be quite the prize for some other country bursting at the seams with population. We're polluting our planet.

So the manns are hanging in there, but we're worried about the US of A.

Thanks, hugh, so much. I have forwarded your comments on to my young friend who's in one of those summer enrichment writing labs in Houston. Your commentary will be appreciated there, as here. I had no idea you and your spouse have had to face the challenges thrown at you in the past year; not once have I seen you complain here. Job loss is a very difficult below-the-belt hit to take, but it looks to me as though you're capitalizing on it. So wise to get yourself back in class, and I hope that degree is soon in hand, if not already. Know that I join you in the wish for better times ahead for your family and for the country. Incidentally, I haven't forgotten that you're the fellah who taught me how to paste a link to an ATB post. Every time I perform that little task I think of hugh mann. Thanks, again, for the instruction!

Thanks for the kind words, dk. Hopefully we'll cross paths at an ATB get-together one of these times.