The Old Bull

An old bull and a young bull were standing on a hill looking down on a lherd of a baker's dozen of the most comely cows you ever saw.

Says the young bull, "Oh, boy, oh boy!! I'm gonna run down this hill and have me a cow. Oh boy, oh boy!!"

Replies the old bull, "Son, I'm gonna walk down this hill and have me the whole herd."*

*Sanitized for the Family Hour.

From Bill Cosby

This in from a dear friend. I have heard and/or read parts of this .ittle gem before, but never the whole thing. It is called "Way To Go Bill". The author is Bill Cosby. Many don't know it, but 'Coz' has an earned Doctorate from U. Mass where I once met him many years ago. He is as great a man as is his public persona. Perhaps, greater.



'They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk:

Dick Morris On:
Billary and Hillary
Playing Us Off Against Their Alter Ego(s)

The free-trade deal with Colombia? She’s the good cop, opposing the deal to preserve the rights of unions here and abroad. But he’s the bad cop, taking $800,000 in speaking fees from groups supporting the legislation and huddling with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to advise him on his choice of lobbyists.

Bill and Hill, Good Cop, Bad Cop. Playing the game pretending to be opposed to….that’s what this column by Dick Morris is all about.

You can find it here:BILL & HILL’S GAME: GOOD COP, BAD COP ON TRADE I found it in my inbox.

Ciao

FROM THE BOORTZ BLAST
The Deer Hunter
(Too Funny To Pass Up)

LOWER BOULEVARD NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH
GREAT MEETING

We went longer than usual and talked more than usual but learned much more than usual.

The catalyst for the evening was Sheriff's Deputy Defoe who kept the meeting moving forward and thoroughly informative. Much of the discussion centered on gangs and gang activity. Tell you the truth I learned more in an hour about gang activity than I knew from decades of past experience. This guy is sharp. He is being invited back to do a full-blown presentation in a month or so.

Have you heard about EMAIL UPDATE? This is a great program developed by the Bibb County Sheriff's office Crime Prevention Section. It enables, through emails, a fantastic amount of information to be transmitted about illegal or possible illegal activities. If interested send your NAME, HOME or BUSINESS ADDRESS, and PHONE to: gmeadows@co.bibb.ga.us

Congrats to Mikki Causey our newly 'elected' president. And sincere thanks to Merry Bacon for a job well done. Merry and Deb are the founding mothers of our little group. We would be nowhere were it not for their hard work and determination.

Caio for now

E X P E L L E D

On Saturday next, in the company of a very conservative Baptist preacher and his family, I am going to a viewing of the new Ben Stein movie, EXPELLED.

The premise of this flick is that religious, creationist professors and students are punished in the realm of higher academe for beliefs that run contrary to the more acceptable 'scientific' concepts of evolution and, by extension, it is claimed, atheism.

This will be fun. Both the movie and the discussions before and after.

Hang on for a review of the movie once the lower forty is fully furrowed and, just possibly, a few personal comments thrown in to boot.

Reminder:
Lower Boulevard Neighborhood Watch Tonight

Please do not forget our Lower Boulevard Neighborhood Watch meeting this evening.

7:00 sharp at Mikki's place, 873. That's where we had that great Christmas party in December.

We have been promised by President Merry a sheriff's deputy as guest speaker. Should be a pretty good show.

We have lots to share. Please come and bring the kids. Our youngsters are proving to be an important part of our strength.

If you can, bring some goodies to share. Those brownies with the M&M's would be nice.

See you there.

I THOUGHT I THAW A PUDDYCAT

In the waining hours of a beautiful, spring afternoon I took a brief break from the physical torture of weeding, spading, and hoeing and sat inside with a glass of (unsweetened) ice tea. It was the first time I had a moment’s respite during this busy day.

And in walked a neighbor’s kid. Pretty good youngster, getting close to Those all-important Pimple Years when thoughts of teen sex and the sweet thrill of driving take precedence over everything in his universe.

“Don, Don,” said young twerp, “Let’s go see the kittens.”

Said young person is a true animal lover whose parents deny him a cat but dote on one of those ratty little dogs that yip all day and love to sink their file-sharpened little fangs into your ankle. A neighbor’s two cats had just produced two small litters.

So across the street we trekked and found in one nursery box three two week old kittens and four four week-olds in another.

New born kittens are so damned ugly that they are cute. Two of the latter batch were dark gray, roughly the same color as my four-year-old Jihad. As I was contemplating a lawsuit against the vet who deprived my cat of his ability to reproduce his or anybody’s kind, a still, small, pre-adolescent voive burst into my reverie. “Don, Don,” (I don’t let local kids call me Mr. much to the consternation of their sometimes anal parents) “I picked out two kittens for you….you know, to replace the one that got killed two weeks ago.”

Kid's having trouble with math in middle school.

Joy. Two more mouths to feed, soon. Tiny mouths grow into ravenous creatures within months. By the time yours truly could react, the kiddo had made a deal with the puss’s owner, sealed it with a solemn handshake, named the two kittens, and presented with the fact of a done deal. Screwed.

They are cute…one gray, one black probably going to look like the cartoon Sylvester of decades back.

Broke the news to my three guys and one gal this evening. They took it in stride.

My cats don't always believe me.

HERE COMES THE POPE
With A Message We All Need To Hear

Here comes Papa…the Pope. Head of the Roman Catholic Church. Probably the most important leader within the world-wide Christian panoply, despite what venal Televangelists might claim.

He seems to be just what the RC Church and the Western World needs right now, foir he has a deep and scholarly sense of history and a clear view of the increasing Muslimification of Western Europe and much of the world beyond.

The U.S. media will focus on the problems caused by pedophilic priests in this country, and I don’t want to state anything to lessen the importance of that long on-going miscarriage of both justice and faith. But in the sum total of global difficulties facing the Church, our parochial problems are certainly not at the top of the list.

For centuries the Roman Church was the bulwark that protected the fragile thing known as Western Civilization from the onslaughts of the barbarian, including followers of the desert Prophet. So it remains today. The Pope’s visit is obviously intended at least in part to shore up our awareness of the radical Muslim agenda and to help us find the inner strength as a nation not to give in to their often violent demands.

Benedict XVI is doing the same for Europe, Africa, and Christian Asia. His message deserves a hearing in all quarters of the world.

Gardening 101

It’s planting season and for the next few days this aging, would-be farmer will be spading, raking, and even a little hoeing. All this o create a space that will see the cats and me through a nearly vegetarian summer..

Green things growing are limited to tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers….that’s all. No zucchini, lettuce, potatoes, or peas…just cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes. Trio…triad…triangle…three. Tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers.

The daunting task at hand will keep me outside and away from my desk top probably through the weekend. So there is not likely to be much action here in b’logsville.

Of course I will do what I can, but priority must be given to cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes.

QUOTE OF THE DAY
04/15/2008

Uttered this morning by RON FRAZIER, during the wee early hours of the WMAC Morning Show:

"I want politicians to take care of making the government run properly and I'll take care of myself."

It Couldn't Happen To A Nicer Guy
Newton Collier

It is wonderful to see Newton Collier getting the attention, respect, and honor long due him.

Newton is true legend in music circles. This Macon native first played on the stage of the Apollo Theatre in New York as a gawky fifteen-year-old and went on from there to play with the original Otis Redding band and later joined Sam and Dave for something like fourteen years as a road musician.. He was a trumpet and trombone double threat whose prowess can be heard on countless records and videos.

On the twenty-sixth of this month he will be the honoree at the Barnsville Festival just down the road. This morning he was a major subject, the person of interest, on local talk radio 940 AM WMAC with Shane McBryde and Ron Frazier.

On a personal note, Newton Collier is a close friend of mine. He was here in my living room last night retelling the tale of his weekend encounter with the dynamic duo of talk radio land.

Back in 1994 when my Son and I opened the late and still lamented CELLAR on lower Cherry Street, we decided early on to include as much live music as possible and sent out the word to local musicians to come on down and negotiate. Our specialty was Saturday night Jazz and the joint jumped to some awesome tunes created by guys from near and far away.

One regular customer was a fellow some will remember, a djock for Q106 who ran their afternoon show. His name was Jim Franklin. In his spare time, Jim played a mean jazz horn and sometimes sat in with the guys on the stage.

A few months after opening night, a quiet, pleasant chap began showing up at the bar. He always ordered G&J, Gin and Juice. He didn’t say much at first. The talalk at the bar in those days was often about music, and we were treated night after night to musicians’ tooting their own horns as it were. These guys like most artists are inclined to be a bit egocentric and never at a loss for words.

It took six months of prodding and asking questions by Franklin and myself to draw out our modest, unassuming customer who, we discovered over time, knew so much about the music business, more it appears in retrospect than all the other musicians and wannabes who ever graced the long bar taken all together. That quiet fellow was Newton of course, who would never have volunteered in that glorious company of cutthroats and thieves the depth of his knowledge and the vast expanse of his background and understanding. He is a musician’s musician, the real deal if there ever was one, a living example of all that was once great about the Macon Music Scene.

So Newton is being honored this month. If you run into him be sure to buy him a drink and make sure it’s G&J, Gin and Juice. The juice should be grapefruit, but the gin must be bottom shelf, something akin to kerosene or turpentine….that’s what he got used to on the road and this Soul Man has never looked back.

GEORGIA CONSUMER WATCH
and
CURRENT CONSUMER-FRIENDLY LEGISLATION

Please click more to access the latest email from GEORGIA WATCH, a consumer organization that keeps a close watch on the state's lawmakers as they wend their tortured way through forty days and forty nights of legislative chicanery ("First, Do No Harm!!')

We get these updates regularly from Allie Wall a consumer advocate, head of Georgia Watch, and a true friend of the average Georgia consumer. We heard her frequently back when Jami and Kenny ran the 940 Morning Show. Shane and Ron might well consider making her a regular guest once again. (That's a scheduling hint, guys).

She discusses several bills that made it through the House and Senate which affect many of us. For instance, assuming that the Governor will sign them: We have a much more effective way to freeze (at virtually no cost) our credit files when we might be victims of identity theft. Further consumer protection is included in changes in the 'Lemon Law', giving us more rights when we discover the perfect car we bought last year is just a piece of Detroit junk.

There is more. So click MORE and see for yourself. More...

A POEM
by
VIC JONES

This just in from Vic Jones who, when tired of writing brilliant prose, amuses us all with pretty damn good poetry. Thanks, Vic.

MIKE ADAMS
Is This Genocide?

A recent decision by the University of St. Thomas (UST) to deny a voice to a black pro-life speaker – one unafraid to voice concerns over the black genocide – could also be characterized as institutional racism. It doesn’t matter whether the “Catholic” university intended to suppress speech opposing a practice that is disproportionately killing blacks. If an institution in any way perpetuates a practice that adversely affects any minority then it is racist. University leftists made up the rule, and now they have to play by it.

According to Professor Adams 512 out of every 1000 pregnancies among Black women end in abortion. The figure is much lower in the general population. With Blacks being but 14% of the total, fully 37% of all abortions in the land are performed on African American women.

Sounds like a kind of legal genocide, maybe? Adams certainly thinks so.

The good professor is outraged that Star Parker, a black, pro-life speaker was not allowed a gig at the University of Saint Thomas, a Catholic institution of higher education if any such exists still in modern America. A certain Vice President of Student Affairs, Jane Canney, made the unilateral decision because she felt uncomfortable with a pro-life speaker. Ms Canney earlier had no trouble bringing Al Franken to speak at her school.

It’s an interesting piece. I do not like the way Adams seems to dwell on the Catholicism of said university, because the issue seems to be a problem within the institution, not the larger Church. Perhaps, like many ultra conservative protestants he does not recognize that Catholics are not truly ‘Christian’ according to their own narrow (and often bigoted) interpretation of the term. But he brings focus to the larger problem of the disproportionate number of abortions among Black citizens. Are we, indeed, seeing a subtle form of racial genocide taking place under our very noses?

You can read the piece here: Catholic University Helps Deny Genocide

It was found in this morning’s Town Hall newsletter.

WARTS AND ALL

I have no idea who wrote this article. It was sent in this morning by our Friend Riverside Red and is signed by a guy who calls himself ‘Senator Bob’. It is one of the most incisive political statements I have seen in recent weeks.

Senator Bob looks a very close look at the three surviving, major party candidates for president and decides that he will vote for Senator McCain ‘warts and all’. There are three brief examples from the essay that should whet your appetite for more:

(1) BARACK OBAMA: ‘Now YOU look me in the eye and ask me to believe that you never heard such language in all the years you attended there (your church). This is like me telling you that I attended dozens of Klan rallies and never once heard the "N" word. Yep. And Bill Clinton "did not inhale".’

(2) HILLARY CLINTON: ‘This disaster you refer to as "Universal Health Care". Where have you been the last 30 years ? Did you not see that socialism is a failure wherever it has been tried ? Did you not notice that the Soviet Union has collapsed since it gave no reward to those who worked the hardest for the fruits of their own labors to pay for those who will not ??’

(3) JOHN MCCAIN: ‘On the domestic front, poor John did try and reach across the aisle to the opposition in a desperate effort to compromise and to get the Congress to do something. You may not agree with his efforts, but at least he TRIED. For all his efforts, all he got handed to him was his head in a basket. The liberals are pissed at him and the conservatives are pissed at him. Just my kinda guy.

The entire thing is reproduced on the backside of this entry…simply click on MORE (below) to access it. More...

Doug Giles On
They're Rioting In Public Schools

We’ve got a stack of untamed teens who can’t do arithmetic doing the math and figuring out that they can bank street credit for their constant disruptions and violent attacks upon students and teachers with the penalty for their crimes being (maybe) a milquetoast slap on their tattooed wrist. Maybe. And the perks for their misbehaving? Well, they radically trump the mild and tame thump the delinquent gets on their never-utilized head.

Here’s a great little article on home schooling by Doug Giles, he who writes about traditional values and morality, albeit from his perspective as a pastor. Mr. Giles began home schooling his own children a few years back and finds the difference between that approach and the chaos within so many of our public schools, where the inmates run the asylum, staggering.

The subject is fascinating to this senior citizen who spent more than half his life in a classroom and who even now teaches reading to a home schooled pre-teen. When home schooling is done right, and by ‘right’ I mean by a determined parent who has a clear understanding of what he or she is doing in the role of ‘teacher’ and the guts and dedication to carry out day after day this all-important, self-assigned burden, it is amazingly effective.

Equally, there are disasters within the home schooling community, but not, instinct and personal experience tell me, nearly as many (on a percentage basis) as inside a public school system which lies broken and shattered beyond repair.

No amount of money will fix our public schools, especially those in urban communities. This includes my home base in middle Georgia. To pretend that the system can be ‘fixed’ somehow is the cruelest hoax politicians and educators have ever perpetrated on the American people.

Giles’ column is a good, all-too-brief read on a chilly Sunday morning. It was found in the Town Hall newsletter. You may access it directly at Don’t Send Your Kids To Publik Skule If You Love Them

Amen

Lower Boulevard Neighborhood Watch
Upcoming Meeting

Got the following email from our President, Merrie Bacon: