Irregular Blogging

There have been several things I've been wanting to blog about in recent weeks. Topics include the wacko Venezuelan president, the wacko former US President Clinton, weekends with my woman, and weekends with my girls. There have been political hot topics such as how to treat captured enemy combatants, racism and who is allowed to get away with it, and the campaign season. Also, TV season has started into high gear and there are many new shows I've been checking out. I'm going to try to consolidate this post a bit and cover as much as I can.

Wacko Presidents: Even some liberals call the Venezuelan president "nuts". This guy thinks it's ok to come on to our soil and call our president the devil. He thinks his little oil is a cause of concern for the US and that we will bow to his whims if he threatens cutting it off. My reaction is that after the elections, we just shut his country down financially. It's not hard to do and will show him who he should be falling in line with. Dictators rarely can run a country properly and this guy has to go. Our own wacko former president Clinton showed just how off his rocker he is by getting upset and defensive while retorting with lies to a guy who was just asking questions as a journalist. Clinton still thinks that people are out to get him when in fact we just want to hear the truth once out of this guy's mouth. You would think that a guy who was the leader of the free world for 8 years would know better how to respond to a simple Sunday morning interview. Just more proof that he and his family need to be put into private life and work to understand how real people live.

My woman is just fantastic! Yes, I can call her mine and she can call me hers. She's a great cook, homemaker, mother, friend, and just plain awesome. Our last visit consisted of a lazy weekend that was just the ultimate in comfortable and fun. She cooked 3 great meals. We watched a couple of movies. We even took a nap one afternoon! It was just proof that we can really have a great time doing nothing! I loved that weekend and so did she.

My girls are enjoying school and doing great. I'm already in Christmas gift mode, too. They are a joy to spend time with. They both tell me stories about what they and their friends are doing at school. The oldest is hoping to get involved with Volleyball again this year. The youngest missed a cheerleader camp, but is already looking ahead to being involved next year. They are both reading a lot and really excelling in their studies.

Political Events: Senator George Allen is not a racist. Ask anyone who has known him. In over 20 years of service to his fine state, this is the first time anyone has tried to make this claim. It's making his opposition look foolish. Has anyone questioned Senator Byrd to see if he was ever involved in any lynching or cross burning? Has anyone made him out to be a racist for his use of the N-word on Meet The Press a while back? Does it seem weird that Democrats can come out with programs designed to stigmatize race and not be called racist? Why does race matter to anyone after all this time? It's just simple skin color. It doesn't matter.

Enemies of our country have already been defined and our Supreme Court botched up a recent ruling. If you signed on to the Geneva Conventions, you have to abide by them in any conflict with someone else who has signed them. If your enemy has not signed them, such as our enemies in the war on terror, the Geneva Conventions do not apply. The Supreme Court disagrees but they are flatly wrong and this ruling will eventually change by a future Supreme Court. Your enemy, as stated in a previous post, sets the rules of engagement. Our enemy beheads civilians and soldiers on camera. Should we do the same? Not exactly, but they have shown that they want combat with no rules. We should take them out without tying the hands of our soldiers. We should not be afraid of striking first. We should do what it takes to take out the enemy quickly and easily. If we accidentally get someone else in the process, so be it. Quit being afraid of bad press and take this conflict to the terrorists.

It's almost election time for the midterms. There were so many articles about the Democrats taking control of both houses a while back, but that seems to have been grossly inaccurate as the recent findings point to a lot of exaggeration before. There is no way that the Democrats will be in control of either house and it's foolish to think so. The American people are much smarter than that and they know what it takes to make a country great. That formula is freedom for the people. Give us our money back, keep the enemy off our soil, and stay as far out of our lives as possible. This has been the goal of most Republicans and they will maintain control. The economy is rolling right along with low unemployment, falling gas prices, and people are keeping more of their money due to lower taxes. My prediction is that control of the houses stays the same and I hope you keep it that way now and in the future by voting conservative and voting for freedom.

TV Season: Familiar favorites are off and running with Smallville, Supernatural, Ghost Whisperer, Criminal Minds, the 3 CSI shows, Bones, and various sitcoms. New shows have shown promise in Heroes, Justice, and sitcoms like Til Death and The Class. I tried watching Vanished, but couldn't sit through the entire first episode without realizing this show would be vanishing soon, too. I've enjoyed Gene Simmons Family Jewels. Funny stuff without lowering his rock n roll status. Ultimate Fighter The Comeback has been fun to watch as well as the WWE/ECW and TNA wrestling shows. There are others I'm looking forward to like Friday Night Lights and 30 Rock. I hope to have more commentary on some of these shows within the week.

Softball Weeks 4 & 5

The last two weeks of softball have gotten our team back on track with winning, but we still have a ways to go. Week 4 consisted of a one run win in an extra inning against a tough team. We won 9-8. Sometimes it pays to be the home team! That was a tough and fun win. I like tough games like that and I like them better when we are the winner. The second game is one we knew we'd lose and we lost big 27-8. This week was a better story. We won the first game easily against a team we should always win against, but have lost the last several. It was nice to pull that win out. They are a good team, but we have most always been the better team. Great bunch, though. The second game was one we were sure we'd lose, but the game they played first caused a turn of events. The team we had just beaten played these guys between our games. The girl pitching for the team we were about to play took a line drive to the chin. She was rushed to the local hospital by another girl on the team which put them at 3 women. They were sure the two girls would be back in time for the next game against us, but they weren't so they had to forfeit. We played for fun and lost huge, but at least it counted as a win in the standings. That's 3 wins out of the last 4 games, which we can certainly use. Out of 6 teams, we have now moved from 5th to 4th. We have three games next Monday and two more to make up. It would be nice to move up at least one more notch.

I moved from number two batter to the number one spot and the team seemed to do better with that batting order this week. I tend to hit up the middle and with a runner on first, it's possible that I'm off a tad hitting to the shortstop or second baseman. This tends to get a lead runner out and doesn't advance anyone on base. The woman that was hitting first always gets on base with a hit to right field. We figured that switching that up would put me on first and get her to advance me while getting on herself. Instead of potentially one runner on, we get two runners on. It worked quite well last night and I'm sure we will continue that next week. My only other concern is having some strong male players next week. We had one of our best power hitters end his season early with a Monday night commitment, so I'm hoping we can get a player to pick up the slack. We shall see!

Buckcherry In Des Moines, IA

Buckcherry has got to be playing bigger places! These guys put on an awesome show. There are those of us who believe the world needs rock stars and these guys are it!

The openers, The Bangkok Five, were truly happy to be playing on this tour and made comments to such. They were rocking through a set that consisted of most of their new CD they have coming out on Halloween. The singer had a bit of the Iggy Pop thing going on and the rest of the band was like a whirlwind churning out their tunes. Check out their My Space site for more information.

http://www.myspace.com/thebangkokfive

The set list is as follows:
Karmakazi
Diary Of A Teenage Cutter
Dead
Damaged Goods
Tiara (Played for the first time live.)
Chapter 11
Too Much
Spread Eagle
Giana (Played live for the first time.)
Who's Gonna Take Is Alive? (Title of the CD.)

I got to hang with the lead guitarist after the show for a bit and he told me they were going to be on the Cult/New York Dolls tour coming up. That will be a great show to see!

If The Bangkok Five were a whirlwind, Buckcherry were the hurricane! These guys came out and blew the roof off the ValAir! The crowd pressed forward and I have the sore ribs as a result. I was up front against the barricade and there was quite a push that got worse during Crazy B!tch and Lit Up. Josh Todd was constantly moving as you can tell from a few of the slightly blurred pictures. The band was tight and yet the songs sounded loose like all good rock n roll should. I was fortunate enough to meet them after the show and express my gratitude that they have returned and I hope they take over the rock n roll world. There haven't been any true rock stars since Guns N Roses and these guys should be heir to the throne! The set list is as follows:

So Far
Broken Glass
Porno Star
Whiskey
Everything
Sorry
Crazy B!tch (Choruses from Billy Squier's The Stoke and Jimi Hendrix's Fire were used at the end.)
Next 2 You
Ridin'
Lace In The Sun
Dead Again
For The Movies
Slammin'
Lit Up

ENCORE
Crushed

I stood next to a woman who was at her 10th show on this tour and she had flown out from Philly. She was very small so I was a bit worried about her during the show, but there were several girls behind her that had her back as the crush rolled forward. This was her 28th show overall, so she helped me with the set list (I still procured one after the show.) and made me aware of a few things I didn't know about the band. She wasn't even expecting an encore, so it was nice to know that this was a surprise for Des Moines.

I also stood next to a guy who had been to our parties. We had each others back and even had to help move some people backwards to quell the crush and even throw a bunch of people over to security. The security guys were great and kept us taken care of. Some of us got a bottle of water since it was hot up there and they were nice enough to hand me a pick and set lists from both bands. It's good to know there are good people who have your back at shows like this. Too many roughnecks can really be a problem and it seemed that some of the girls were worse than the guys about trying to sneak holes at the barricade.

This show rocks and I hope they hook up with a big tour soon. It would be great to see them on the Motley Crue/Aerosmith tour, which doesn't seem to be making it to Des Moines, but will be in Kansas City. Go see Buckcherry and buy their new CD 15. It rocks from start to finish and I can't wait to hear what these guys have in store in the future!

Rules Of Engagement

I've been seeing pictures of the Taliban at a funeral and heard reports that we could have taken a large group of them out all at once. The reports tend to state that we opted not to take them out due to them being at a funeral in a cemetery. The reports go on to state that we have higher ethical and moral standards in the way we are waging war. My initials are BS, so I know it when I hear it.

Your enemy sets the rules of engagement in any conflict. Being the nice guy doesn't win a war. We can still be the good guy, but we don't always have to be the nice guy. When our enemy is filming the beheading of civilians and killing their own people to try to incite a civil war, they are throwing any rules of war out the window. When your enemy's goal is your destruction at all costs, including strapping bombs to kids and offering rewards to families for doing so, there are no rules in how to engage them.

Our goal is the destruction of our enemy. We must find, capture, and kill our enemy at every available opportunity. This means that if we catch them at a funeral, we take them out. If we catch them on the toilet, we take them out. That is the rule of engagement with this enemy. Anything less only costs us lives.

We may want to be seen around the world as the nice guy, but I'd rather be the good guy and rid the world of terrorism. The old saying is that nice guys finish last. I want to win this war as do most in our country. Peace follows victory. We must secure victory.

9/11 Remembered

On the morning of 9/11/01 I was getting ready for work when LKA came running in my room to tell me something huge was going on and being reported on TV. She said my roommate's girlfriend had the news on and that I should see it. I went to the living room and there was the video of the first WTC building smoking. They were showing as many angles as they could and speculating on what was going on. I went back into my room and tried to hurry in finishing my morning ritual so that I could see more. When I came back out to watch, it was just a couple of minutes later when we saw the second plane hit the second building. I was in shock. I asked out loud if I'd just seen what I thought I saw. We were definitely under attack. I was stunned! I hurried to get to the car and get to work because I knew that we'd have all the TV's at work tuned into this. LKA and I worked at the same place so we had the news on in the car, but didn't get many details. We drove in very little traffic and were horrified at what this could mean. Sure enough, when we got to work all TV's were on detailing the news of what we'd seen. We had hoped that the FDNY and NYPD would be able to save those inside and get the fires put out, but it didn't take long before we saw the smoke billow upward as the first building collapsed and then the second. Nobody spoke. Nobody moved. We weren't open, yet, but all the employees just stood in a stunned silence. Within minutes, our manager was on the phone with our district office trying to figure out what to do that day. We had one employee of Middle Eastern descent who was asked if he wanted to go home for his safety and ours. He was fine with things as he's been an American all his life, but was worried about his family with the speculation of what could happen around our country.

It took some time before we saw an airplane other than a fighter jet in our sky. It took a few days for things to begin to return to normal at work as well.

I've written about heroes before and who mine are. There are everyday people who are heroes, whether it's those who were a part of 9/11 rescues or people who had to deal with the aftermath in some form. They deserve our respect and our support. Thank you to everyone involved in any way, whether grieving family member who has been able to go on and make a difference or soldier who has fought for our freedom or firefighter involved in the rescue or politician doing their best to work against terrorism. You are true heroes that make this country great. Thank you to our allies in this fight against terrorism around the world. You have shown us true friendship and heroism as well. Thank you to the parents of these heroes for providing them with the values they are living by.

We are a free people enjoying our freedom thanks to these heroes.

Journey And Def Leppard In Ames, IA

The Def Leppard/Journey show in Ames was AWESOME! They each played the hits and were really appreciative of the fans. It was great seeing it so close to the stage and I wish I'd have had a zoom on my camera to get better pictures. Both bands are made up of great musicians and songwriters and it seemed as if everyone knew almost every single song played.

Jeff Scott Soto is still singing for Journey on this tour as he replaced Steve Augeri not long into it. I had thought by now that Steve would be healed and back on the road, but he may still be taking care of personal business. Regardless, Jeff is probably the perfect frontman for this tour anyway. Jeff has the rock n roll moves and attitude for Journey to successfully share this stage with Def Leppard. Jeff has a phenomenal voice and none of the past Journey singers were missed by this appreciative crowd. My humble opinion is that Journey may do well to hang on to Jeff as he does bring some life to this band and brings out the rock side. Of course, that could be sharing the stage with Def Leppard, too. One of the friends I went with was just blown away by this version of Journey and the other now needs to get their Greatest Hits CD because he didn't realize how many of these songs belong to Journey.

The set list was mostly the same songs as the St. Louis show, but in a different order.

National Anthem (Neil's Solo)
Stone In Love
Ask The Lonely
Wheel In The Sky
Keep On Runnin'
Edge Of The Blade
Who's Crying Now (Dean on vocals)
Chain Reaction (Apparently Joe Elliot said this was his favorite Journey song and convinced them to do it on this tour.)
Lights (Ended with a progression of Wind Cries Mary by Jimi Hendrix.)
Jon's Keyboard Solo
Open Arms (Dean on vocals)
Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin'
Escape
Dead Or Alive
Faithfully (Dean on vocals)
Don't Stop Believin'
Any Way You Want It

ENCORE
Separate Ways

Def Leppard came out and put on the full show. They had the ramp behind the drum kit, the stage riser with steps leading up to it, and made even better use of the video screen behind the band than Journey did. Journey had more of a psychedelic color thing going on with some video and still shots, but Def Leppard made use of some great graphics from their album artwork over the years. I wish my computer had some of that for a screen saver! The guys looked like they were having a great time and enjoyed bringing their hits and cover tunes to us. The set list is as follows:

Let's Get Rocked
Let It Go
Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)
Bringin' On The Heartbreak
Foolin'
Hysteria
20th Century Boy
Rock On
Rocket
Photograph
Armageddon It
Animal
Rock Of Ages

ENCORE
Love Bites
Pour Some Sugar On Me

As you can see in comparison with the St. Louis show, it's mostly the same set. They put Let It Go and Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop) in place of Make Love Like A Man and Promises as well as substituting 20th Century Boy for No Matter What. It's all in the same order, though, with the same encore. I'm kind of wishing they'd drop Love Bites and do something different there, but it's not my show. It was great to hear some different songs at this show. Def Leppard never disappoints and always puts out the extra effort to give the fans what they crave.

Go see this tour. It's on the third leg and both bands have had nothing but positive reviews and results from this pairing.

Labor Day Weekend

So many things have been going on the last few weeks around here. More relationship leaps and bounds. More events. More of life happening in such great ways.

The relationship just keeps getting better. I met the teenage daughter. She's so full of energy and really has a great head on her shoulders. It was great watching her interact with my kids. They got along famously this last weekend. We took them to a couple of malls and all of the girls had a blast. Shoot, we didn't even buy anything and they just got along and had so much fun. We made pancakes for the kids, grilled out, and the kids made a spaghetti meal. We played Dodgeball, the girls had a pillow fight with a roommate, we did a little sightseeing, and just had the best Labor Day weekend. It was hard to have to leave on Monday for all of us. We can't wait to get together again.

I topped my Labor Day off with a Yankees game in Kansas City. The Yankees scored 10 runs in the 8th inning to win 12-5. How many times will you see that in your lifetime? It was Star Wars night and they were giving away the new DVD set and even had a fireworks display to the Star Wars theme. I love watching my Yankees and it's great to see them win, of course. In the fashion they did it, it was incredible to watch. My bold prediction is that the Yankees are going to be the 2006 World Series Champions. Even bolder? How about a NY Subway Series with the Mets? Ok, maybe those aren't bold predictions the way both teams are playing, but you heard it here first!

I have the Def Leppard/Journey concert coming up tonight so a big review will follow. I hope to have pictures, too!