Shots Across The Bow

Volunteer Tailgate Party

OK folks, here we go for another whirlwind tour around the far flung Rocky Top Brigade, where the opinions fly fast and furious. We're pretty lucky here in the RTB, we have some of the most passionate writers in the blogosphere, covering the political and social spectrum. As Bubba noted, according to the News Sentinel, we have 6 of the top 200 blogs in existence right here in good old Rocky Top.

I am not one of them.

But here, without further ceremony, is some of the best from our best. By the way, I've done something different this time. I sent out a call for submissions, and those who sent them in are listed here first. Then I went out and grabbed something from everybody in the brigade. So for the first time, in one location, you can get the full RTB experience.

Maalox or Rolaids may be a good idea right now....

We start with a newer addition to the RTB, Barry Bozeman of Rushlibaughtomy.com, who shares a puzzling personal experience that happened on September 10, 2001.

Two hours passed before I heard from him again. This was his story:
“The airplane was towed to a remote area of San Jose Airport and the passengers were debarked to busses.” He said, “ We were taken to a large hanger and each passenger was asked for identification.” Several of the male passengers were escorted from the room and the remainder of the passengers were bussed back to the main terminal. The baggage was returned and those passengers were told to return to the airport on 9-11 for a morning flight. Bill then said that he would call in the morning when he knew his new ETA.

Perhaps some of the RTB's more far flung members could look into this. I haven't been able to find anything on the web about it.

Next up is the original Barry, of Inn of the Last Home. He shares two posts. The first is on cynicism and how it affects our point of view:

Like so many other pundits, he believes any headline in which Gore or Clinton is mentioned or quoted is a blatant, calculated bid for political relevency. It doesn't really matter what the story says, as long as any former political adversary reemerges into the public eye, it must be solely politically motivated.

Barry's second submission is his commentary on the existence of bigotry against conservatives and whether it is inherent in liberalism, or a symptom of man's natural cussedness:

It's not a Democrat thing - it has nothing to do with the ideals of the "Left-Leaning intelligensia". It's not a Republican thing - it has nothing to do with the ideals of the "Knee-jerk right-wingers with low IQ's". It's a nasty stain of human nature that a lot of people - Republican, Democrat, black, white, male, female, gay, straight, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Pagan - have thankfully come to recognize. Unfortunately, there's not enough yet, and we haven't progressed quite enough as a society or as a species to look beyond political differences.

Next up we have Deb, one of the Belles of the RTB, who shares a hair raising (poofing?) experience at the hands of her daughter:

As she begins to snip here and there, she keeps telling Becca to watch how she's holding the scissors. How she's pulling the hair back and not toward my face. Then it's hands-on for Becca. Practice, practice, practice! Here a snip, there a snip, everywhere a snip snip. Ohhh....then she pulls out the "special" scissors. The $600 pair of scissors. The ones for "special" cuts. I have a lump in my throat. She warns Becca to be veddy veddy careful with them. They're S-H-A-R-P. I'm nauseous.

It's over. I'm shagged. Shagged like I've never been shagged before. Not only am I shaggy, I'm poofed. Evidently, that's Becca's speciality. Poofing. Heaven help me.

Let's not tell deb what 'shagged' means in British slang...

Next is Rex Mundi of Damn Art Diary, always good for something completely different, who gives us a short review about a film based on the life of Ed Gein. Who is Ed Gein, you ask? I'll let Rex fill you in:

Yet decades ago in Winsconsin, the real 'Leatherface' was busy with his hobbies. Gein began his experiments in home decor with stolen corpses, but eventually turned to murder. It will never be known just how many people Gein actually killed. When his crimes were discovered, the remains of nearly 20 people were found in his decaying farmhouse. They had become upholstery, lampshades, furniture, and even a 'woman' costume Gein liked to wear while dancing around the property.

Sliding in just under the wire is Bill Hobbs from Hobbs Online AM, who gives us an in-depth examination of the Guardian and the Wolfowitz flap yeaterday:

Contrary to the Guardian's spin, Wolfowitz wasn't talking about the motive for war with Iraq. He was talking about why the U.S. thought using economic pressure would work with respect to North Korea and not with regard to Iraq. Some say there's not much difference - that, in effect, Wolfowitz was admitting that we went to war against Iraq because of oil.

But that's an oversimplification. Sure, Iraq's oil made economic pressure less likely to work, perhaps making the war option more likely. That's not anywhere close to the same as saying we went to war to get Iraq's oil. Heck, lots of pro-war folks including me argued that oil WAS a reason for war, but in a different way than the anti-war crowd theorized. Oil made Saddam wealthy enough to A) build or buy WMDs and B) provide them to terrorists if he so chose.

And that does it for the submissions, although SayUncle and Guy Montag both challenged me to pick something from their sites. Everything else you read here will be my selections from each and every member of the Rocky Top Brigade.

First up is Peggy from A Moveable Beast. Her photography is interesting, creating abstract images using unusual framing of horses. Here she posts about an unusual website:

You can go here to play 20 Questions, and see if it guesses that you are thinking of "life" and "death." It gets a little mad at you, which is sort of cute, in a computer.

Next is Fletch from A Smoky Mountain Journal, who reminds us why it's great to live in East Tennessee:

Webcam shots like this provide for me a very brief suspension of thought and a slight taking of the breath, before reality sets in that I'm stuck in a skyscraper in downtown Atlanta and sullenness returns.

Next we have the AlphaPatriot, who writes out of Memphis TN. In this post, he discusses the proposed Family Time Flexibility Act which has unions in an uproar.

Let's work through this scenario. Say the worker makes $20/hr. Using UAW logic, the worker works four hours overtime and gets $120. Said worker takes four hours off next week, for which the worker gets nothing. Under the new guidelines, the worker works four hours overtime but doesn't get paid anything. The next week the worker gets six hours of comp time (time and a half, remember?) and gets paid regular pay, netting $120. Seems to me that the worker is ahead two hours with the family.

Next is Bjorn of bjorn again and KnoxPatch.com, who blogs about who talks the talk, and who walks the walk:

For all the left's celebration of Billary, it sure is funny when people actually acknowledge Bush does a better job of getting things done. Richard Gere was criticized for criticizing Billary for doing nothing to battle Aids ("I'm sorry, Sen. [Hillary] Clinton, but your husband did nothing about AIDS for eight years," Gere said.). And in this most recent incident, Bob Geldof and Lord Alli cautiously voiced their approval of Bush's handling of problems in Africa:

Next we have the editor at blogwash, a freshly minted lawyer from Memphis just starting out in a Nashville law firm. He tells us what it's like being in a major law firm:

Of course, at this early stage of my legal career, even the most mundane assignments are fresh and new and bring with them their own excitement, largely because it is the first time I have really felt like an attorney. The people are great. I haven't met anyone unwilling to take the time to speak with me or answer my frequent questions. It seems like a great place to work and hone the art of lawyering. I couldn't ask for more. And with all the free food we get, I'm gonna weigh 300 pounds by the time I have to get a crane to lift me back to Memphis.

Next is Paul at the Bully Pulpit, who compares Clinton and Bush and their actions in Iraq (no links, read "Wag the Dog"):

Former President Bill Clinton in the Q&A session of the University of Arkansas discussion (see link below) said that with regard to the recent Iraq war that he could not criticize the President for claiming WMD were in Iraq when they may not have been. Apparently he was also told by his intelligence agencies that there were WMD and that he couldn't simply dismiss the briefings based on his own gut reactions (paraphrasing).

Not to disagree with President Clinton but not only could you have gone with your gut reaction, you have a responsibility to use the brain god gave you.

Next up is Busy Mom, a nurse blogging from a Major Medical Center, who shares her thoughts while sitting in traffic:

Since the newspaper mysteriously quit coming, I have nothing to do in traffic anymore, so I watch the other people in the herd. Some of the more intresting people you see over and over on the interstate:

Salesman Guy drives an American sedan and has a tie hanging from the rearview mirror while he talks on his cell phone,

Skinny guy with a caterpillar mustache and tiny little girlfriend are always driving a Camaro from some outlying county, always going real fast. I guess they just "got out of bed" and she's late. He has a full day to put in with his buddies, some beer and a Nintendo.

College student driving a Jetta with a ski-rack on top going, er, coming home from a late night/morning out

Hard working, big haired young lady putting on her makeup in the rearview mirror, has to stop every so often to change the gears on the monster truck

Somewhere, someone's writing about me and my kind on the Interstate, don't wanna know how they classify me

Next is Jane Finch, who blogs from Canada but claims Tennessee roots. She writes about getting her driver's license updated:

So...I went to get my picture taken and renew my license. I now have three pieces of paper: this years license, next years license, and yet another pictureless piece of paper that says it's Official Photo ID.

A pictureless photo ID...what a concept!

Next up is manish, who blogs out of San Francisco (RTB is more a state of mind than a physical state), and writes about legalization of marijuana in Canada(which might explain the whole photoless photo ID thing):

It appears as though Canada won't be completely caving in to U.S. pressure on it's marijuana laws. The Chretien government has introduced legislation that will de-criminalize possession of marijuana under 15 grams. The government will also get tougher on growers and drug dealers and spend more money on education. Those caught with less than 15 grams of marijuana will have to pay a fine and won't get a criminal record. The government stressed that this is not legalization. Marijuana is still illegal to own, smoke, grow or sell. However, this is definitely a step towards more progressive laws.

Next on our tour of Rocky Top Blogdom is big daddy of davidson county, who like Barry, takes Bill Hobbes to task for his take on Al Gore (blogspot links are not working. Go here and search for "Chick-fil-a"):

I've gotten in my first blogosphere "tiff"...with none other than fellow Nashvillian Bill Hobbs. After nailing me for having "less traffic than a Chick fil-A on a Sunday," he again calls one of my favorite bloggers, Jeanne D'Arc an idiot for her post in which she lays the responsibilty of the looting of Iraqi nuclear sites on the Bush Administration. I think she's right, because it was the Bush Administration (starring Rummy, Wolfie, and Cheney), who invaded that country, and had the responsibility of protecting those sites...especially if they were so worried about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, since that's why they went there in the first place. That's the point Jeanne is trying to make, and the one that Dear Mister Hobbs is ignoring.

Justin over at Elephant Rants shares some info he dug up on Howard Dean, the next democratic stealth candidate who would be President.

Hmm...I seem to have commented on someones blog about how a candidate will say just about anything to get elected...yet a couple of sycophants insisted that Dean ran one hell of a state as governor...yeah, whatever...

Here is even more on Deans wonderful "firm" record on the environment in Vermont...

Fatass Politics has a long post with history on Saddam Hussein, and his hold over Iraq.

While the media and the pundits spin various stories lamenting chaos in Iraq I've been watching a much more important story develop. I've been watching a nation of people that have been brutally repressed learn to be free. People that have never been able to express a political or religious opinion without fear of incarceration and torture now find that they can demonstrate in the streets. As the world watches a country shake off the chains of oppression the criticism directed at the means in which Iraq found itself to be free of a dictator is often unwarranted.

Frank Cagle's latest column discusses how the UT foundation operates in secret, bypassing Tennessee's Sunshine laws.

Responding to questions about secret financial transactions by the University of Tennessee Foundation, director Eli Fly told a Nashville television station, "Our board are honorable men."

In other words, just trust us to do the right thing.

Isaac over at Growth Spurts teaches us about pond cows:

If I said I caught a 27 pond cow this week, would you be able to guess what it is? No it isn't a whale, shark, or wooly mamoth (I knew I read you mind). When I refer to a pond cow, I am refering to the common snapping turtle. It was a tough capture and very dangerous.

Guy Montag takes Bill Buckley to task for making an unwarranted assumption:

Wow! I finally get to correct Mr. Buckley on something! Well, I take no pride in this (giddyness does not count as pride does it?), he is and will always be a much better writer than me and the correction is pretty trite, but here goes:

Instapundit shares an email from a reader on the ground in Iraq:

The mountains here are bare and devoid of trees. They used be forested. Covered with trees. There used to be so many trees in Irbil that you couldn't see around corners. Now it looks like Kansas or really more like parts of Montana.

The reason is that Saddam cut down all of the trees in Kurdistan in 1988. He bulldozed 4000 of the 5000 villages in Kurdistan and the Kurds ran to the mountains for safety, so he cut down all of the trees on these mountains and killed all of the game, so that the Kurds would have no wood for fires and no food to eat.

Troy from Jaded journal takes us along on a visit to the carp festival including a side trip to an old asylum:

The hospital is immense and imposing, many of the windows are broken behind their bars, and the interior is dark and depressing. At least it seemed that way peeking through the windows, for we could not get inside, although we did learn that public tours are available certain times of the year. We walked and talked, trying to imagine what life must have been like for the inmates/patients who lived there so many decades ago, and the conditions that must have had to endure in the previous century when mental illness was not understood.

JaNell shares a little thought on Scorpios, and their relationship to Geminis. As a Gemini myself, I might have to look into it. I was married to a Taurus for 11 years.

The only real reason for this entry is that I'm a Gemini, and like most Geminis I have a special love/hate relationship with Scorpios...

Since most of my friends are either Gemini, or Scorpio, and pretty much everyone including the Scorpios agree that Scorps are Evil, which they are, while many people who are not Geminis accuse us of being Evil, which we aren't, this seemed a good time to quote Scorpio friends on being a Scorpio for a totally meaningless but hopefully amusing post.

Marc at Lay Line has a long post on gun rights in England:

You’ve felt this haven’t you. You’ve said something to a friend about the toys he had, to your friends about what they wanted to do. You’ve said it to yourself (and I’m only talking about big things here) about what you wanted to buy, modify, carry, or do. None of it immoral but merely prohibited by the state. The state controls you and not in things that are right or wrong but in things that are prohibited (bad for the state) or allowed (good for the state). And by bad or good for the state I don’t mean bad or good for society, I mean bad or good for the state, bad or good for the state growing, bad or good for the state concentrating ever more power in itself

Kevin at Lean Left examines the effects of the Bush tax cut on the middle class:

Keep in mind, though, that the top end benefit greatly from living in America. Bush doesn't want them to pay for those privileges - but he doesn't mind making the middle class pick up the difference. Bush is reducing the requirement that citizens who earn their income form something other than labor - i.e. working at a job everyday - pay for the benefits they receive. Considering how much those people benefit from having a strong, stable country, that seems a lot like freeloading.

Les Jones takes us along as he slays Blount County's dragon:

The drive took us through Highway 129, including the infamous stretch known as the Dragon's Run, which I mentioned in the Townsend traveller's guide. In 11 miles the road convulses through 318 sick turns that attract driving enthusiasts, and especially sport bikes. We got to see some great motorcycle riding, and a stream of Honda SR2000s that were touring the mountains. If you're prone to carsickness, take Dramamine. One of our intrepid travellers puked at around turn number 210.

Katie Granju's latest essay is available here, and she reminds us that pregnant teens already have a tough road. We do't need to make it any tougher by stigmatizing them:

I, on the other hand, found it a nice way to honor the accomplishments of this high school's student-parents. As anyone who has attended school of any kind while a parent will tell you, parenting as a student is damned hard work. I know because I had my first baby while in college and my second baby while in grad school. Juggling baby, bills, and books was mind-numbingly difficult, even with significant family help. So I feel confident in suggesting that the young women who are mothers and students at that high school are pulling off something far more challenging—and certainly more important—than the girls on the cheerleading squad.

Mark Longmire continues to baffle and bemuse. Just follow the link. Excerpting isn't practical.

Next up is Mike Reed, the Man About Murfreesboro. I was going to post something from Mike's page until I found his son Max's page. I think you'll all agree who the real writer in this family is...check it out:

I get picked up a lot. When people pick me up, I like to pull off their glasses. I also like to pull on their necklaces and earrings. If I can get to it, I also like to grab big handfuls of chest hair.

Papa especially likes that.

Next on our hit parade is Mind Warp, written by Butchmule, brother of Rex and Troy. He tells us about his troubles with vampires:

I was at work today and killed at least 8 of them I found crawling on me from outside. I met Sugarbear at the bank to deposit a check and found another one on my arm.

Danielle at Missives Anonymous shares the thoughts that pass through her mind throughout the day. Here's a brief sample (Blogspot links not working):

Gerber...
I think that I have outgrown college food. It's weird. I tried to eat pasta from a box tonight, and it just didn't taste good anymore. I guess once you know how to make real fettuccini, the "fake stuff" doesn't cut it.

We're rounding third and headed for home now in our trip around the bases of the Rocky Top Brigade. Next stop is Newton's Kumquat, blogging from Nashville, who shares his recent trip to New England:

The next morning, I departed Maine and drove about 5.5 hours to get to Albany, where I met up with a bunch of my northern friends. Everyone had gone to Albany for the weekend for a party to celebrate Aaron's graduation from medical school. So I joined up with them just in time to play trivial pursuit, gorge on party leftovers, look at Italy slides, and stay up late playing cards and, err, taking care of the surplus alcohol problem.

Donald Sensing of One Hand Clapping (A former Army artillary officer, now a Methodist minister who uses a zen koan for the title of his blog. Talk about wide ranging interests!) examines in detail the major obstacle facing the Middle East peace process:

What Bush said this morning is that the US government will oppose anything that threatens the existence of Israel as a Jewish state. Ergo, what the Palestinians must accept is that their devotion to "the right of return" must be abandoned if there is ever to be peace.

Israelis believe with good reason that the right of return would be the death knell for the existence of Israel as a Jewish state and homeland.

Andrew, from Pathetic Earthlings talks about Sheldon Lee's objections to TNN's upcoming name change:

Spike Lee apparently believes that TNN's rebirth as "Spike TV" is a violation of his trademark and that, as he must maintain (if I recall my trademark law) -- that its use will, among other things, be likely confused and caused a dilution in the value in his own name.

Mark from pineappletown provides a link in this post to a man who claims that Jesus was gay. Part of his case is based on Jesus's astrological chart, which is a neat trick since nobody knows what day Christ was born....

JESUS was gay and so were at least three of his 12 disciples, according to a Melbourne academic.

Dr Rollan McCleary, a University of Queensland PhD graduate who now lives in Melbourne, will today be awarded his doctorate for a thesis on gay spirituality.
Dr McCleary said Jesus's astrological chart, clues in the scriptures to which the churches had been blind and accurate biblical translations had all played a part in his conclusions.

Brian Arner at Resonance has an entry which raises the disturbing possibility that Eric Rudolph had help Scroll down to "Too Close to Home" blogger. sigh.)while hiding in the North Carolina woods for years:

It's difficult to understand the logic of a Rudolph sympathizer. Even if you're able to put aside any moral qualms about his (alleged) abortion clinic bombings on the rationale that murder is justified to stop abortion, the fact remains that he (allegedly) left a fourty-pound pipe bomb in a crowd at Olympic Park in 1996. Shouldn't that be repugnant to almost everyone?

Say Uncle write s about tactics people use to grow their blog, a process he refers to as blogoticking:

We bloggers like our traffic. I do, which is strange because I don’t get much. At SayUncle, I’ve gotten just over 20K hits since August of 2002. 8K of those were in two days from an Instalanche. Of course, it’s mostly my own fault as I suck at blogoticking. I don’t pay for ads. I don’t troll (if I post a link in someone’s comments section it is because I feel it adds to the discussion). I’ve only emailed a few bloggers with links to my site and that was because I thought they’d be interested in what I sent them. Of course, a gratuitous link in response would be nice but I didn’t expect it.

SKBubba, rapidly rising to join the ranks of the heavyweight bloggers, posted about true liberalism

Today, I am ashamed to call myself a liberal.

You see, I sit here in safety and comfort, taking cheap shots at conservative Republican politicians and their mind numbingly stupid and insane policies. I go vote against them, I gripe about paying them taxes for sweetheart corporate deals and pork barrel spending, and I make an occasional campaign contribution to their opposition.

But I am fairly moderate on a lot of issues, and try to be a conciliatory nice guy who doesn't want to offend anyone. I ignore a lot of things said to and about me, and about liberals and progressive ideas and the Democratic Party in general, which I write off as misguided ideology, selfishness, or just plain ignorance.

I am the reason Democrats have lost the White House, Congress and the Supreme Court to a vicious mob of thugs and criminals.

And following a precedent set by Bill Clinton, I'm declaring Mrs. Bubba to be co-blogger-in -chief, and posting her piece as well:

I am a liberal and work in a very conservative industry. Luckily I love what I do for a living so I work hard and try to avoid political and religious confrontation (in the work place).

I have chosen to be a liberal although my choice does have to do with upbringing. I was raised to never say the n-word. I was raised to accept all religions (this was certainly a good thing being there was a very small minority of Catholics in a bastion of Baptists). I was raised to read and think so that I could better understand the world around me. I was raised to be a Democrat. Two of my brothers, raised the same way, have chosen to be conservatives, vote Republican. One of my brothers has chosen to be a religious fundamentalist, non-Catholic, even though we went to church every Sunday for the first 18 years of our lives.

And now our final entry, Xyon's rambles, who catches us up on the events of the last few days:

My Aunt Jeanne and Uncle Mike were in from Oregon and they were telling us about a "White Trash Party" that they were involved with in Portland. Instead of me rehashing the story, I will let you read her own words as they sent an email a couple of weeks ago. This from my Aunt Jeanne:

Hey Guys.

Well, we went to a party last night that will be in our dreams, or should I say our nightmares for a very long time. Our "White Trash Party". We're in this gourmet club and we decided to just do something a bit outrageous this time. We all dressed for the occasion and brought dishes that would be appropriate for the theme. I took garlic/cheese grits, a mess of greens, a pot of pinto beans, cornbread, and a soda cracker cake frosted with cool whip and topped with canned pineapple, marchino cherries and pecans. Others brought deep fried dill pickles, country fried steak and gravy, pork rinds, Velveeta cheese dip, mashed potatoes, vienna sausages, and Spam. The outfits were just amazing. Dad [Uncle Mike – Xyon] wore an Elvis wig, flip flops, orange parachute pants, a T-shirt with "Jesus Is My Homeboy" written on it with Tabasco stains down the front.

Well, that wraps up this edition of the Volunteer Tailgate Party. I'm sure you found something that made you smile, made you think, made you mad, or even better, made you want to sit down and write back. That's what this is all about after all, having opinions, and putting them out there. Every blogger is looking for feedback; otherwise he'd keep his opinions to himself, so write a comment, send an e-mail, or join the party and start your own blog. Let SKB know about it and you too could wind up inducted into the RTB and be a part of the next Volunteer Tailgate Party.

Posted by Rich at June 5, 2003 12:44 AM | TrackBack