Boyd Drive Follies

Teleprompter Jesus to speak at Notre Dame, Bishop upset (link here)

noreply@blogger.com (Good Ol' Boy) — Mon, 18 May 2009 04:59:00 +0000

I couldn’t agree with the bishop more.
If a religious sect represents itself as being the one true organ for the dissemination of God’s truth, then adherents to that faith should reasonably be expected to adhere to those tenets of God’s Word. The public proclamation of following that faith, and the public attendance of services would be an affirmation, if any was needed, of that expectation.
If one is to align oneself with a particular religious sect, that in this case has been around since, so to speak, day 1, then one should be somewhat pliant and seek to conform oneself to the tenets of that sect, one would suppose.
If it is agreed that abortion is the taking of life from a human, no matter the stage or progression of that life in or out of the womb, it can also be agreed that that is a violation of the Commandments.
If the hierarchy has spoken of its disdain of government support or sanction of a policy such as abortion, and that message has been faithfully broadcast from the pulpit to the congregations in an election year, then a thinking person should be cognizant of the ramifications of publicly speaking at cross purposes to the message.
If one were to regardless speak or write in a public forum of one’s support, whether in a passive or direct manner, of those who are in favor of abortion, then that person is rejecting not just God’s word, but would seem to be putting themselves at odds with the law as well. The basic rights and guarantees put forth by the founders of our country as being God given- that of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness- would certainly be in jeopardy for the life being terminated. All rights, responsibilities, opportunities, etc. flow from that one.
When we are urged to retain “perspective” in the matter of the President of the United States addressing Notre Dame, does Ms. Kerian think the “singular lens” of abortion is not a sufficiently weighty criteria to judge the appropriateness of the offer by? If the President does not judge human life still in the womb to be worth protecting, what assurance are the rest of us to take that our lives may not also someday be judged not worth consideration?
Speaking to the origin of this controversy, the invitation by the head of Notre Dame to the president to speak, it also would seem to send very conflicting messages to those in and outside of the Catholic faith as far as what real order exists and what degree of thought is given to these kinds of actions. If down through the years the Catholic church’s concern for the downtrodden and afflicted in society has caused the formation of allegiances with certain political philosophies, then perhaps it is time to re-examine those ties.
In this current climate of moral decay, entire generations now have been raised without many of the built-in restraints of only a few years ago. Not many years back even those raised completely away from any church were instilled with some concepts of right and wrong (natural law as the Bible calls it) just by virtue of being exposed to society at large, most of who were God-fearing and law-abiding. The corrosive effects of the sexual revolution, and the general relaxation of society’s taboos have in many parts of our country removed even this little restraint. Attempts by well-meaning politicians on both sides of the aisle since then have seemed to only make things worse, laws and the application of money never being able to take the place of what was once common sense. If church congregants and by extension, churches, have bought into many of these social engineering schemes- and many have- they must now work to extricate themselves.

HOPE AND CHANGE OMMMMM HOPE AND CHANGE OMMMM

noreply@blogger.com (Good Ol' Boy) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 13:05:00 +0000

In a recent speech to a group of left-coast liberals, Obama said the following:

"But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there's not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
Um, now these are in some communities, you know. I think what you'll find is, is that people of every background -- there are gonna be a mix of people, you can go in the toughest neighborhoods, you know working-class lunch-pail folks, you'll find Obama enthusiasts. And you can go into places where you think I'd be very strong and people will just be skeptical. The important thing is that you show up and you're doing what you're doing"

Didn't that last sentence sound positively... Clintonesque? Or maybe all liberals just sound the same to me?
Anyway, why Obama felt the need to try to characterize US to THEM thusly is beyond me. He seems to have been trying to tell them that while he certainly isn't one of us, he understands what motivates rural and small town people's voting patterns. And he of course doesn't.
To paint us all as disgruntled hayseeds with feelings of abandonment by the government is to flatter himself and all the big government types he identifies with. We don't get up in the morning and with our first cup of coffee set about grumbling to ourselves about how we missed life's lottery, and how the government has abandoned us. Me personally? I could give a rat 's patoot if government knows I exist. While I have grave concerns about the bloated government we have, I hardly make that the focus of my day. Good people didn’t sit and bemoan the fact that the economy where I grew up went in the toilet (thank you, farm programs, Byron Dorgan, et al). People moved, went to school to learn a new trade, did whatever it took to keep moving in life. To paint us with the same broad brush strokes as those unfortunate losers standing in front of the burned-down post office in Compton, waiting for their welfare checks, is to categorize us as something we are not.
While he is certainly entitled to his opinion, I must say I don’t know what in his background would qualify him to give an accurate portrayal of rural people’s lives and feelings to a group of Left coast liberals. Looking at his life history on Wikipedia, I don’t see where he ever lived anywhere that had good deer hunting. Indonesia, Hawaii, Chicago, New York City- none of these are terribly rural.
The fact that a lot of us ARE cynical towards government gives him heartburn- we don’t seem to want to TRUST him when he says he can fix it all, if we just believe in him. Hope and Change Hope and Change Hope and Change is the mantra that will get it done. In a pig’s eye, I say.

Origins of genius?

noreply@blogger.com (Good Ol' Boy) — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 14:53:00 +0000

Thoughts while staring into a campfire-
What did it take to be a genius in caveman days? What represented an IQ of 100 or 100plus twenty thousand years ago?
If there was little common knowledge beyond killing bison and building fire, what made an exceptionally bright Cro-Magnon stand out? Or Homo Sapiens for that matter? A straighter spear shaft with better balance? What if like genius stereotypes of today they had knowledge but no practical skills? Oogmar Einstein would have to communicate his theories of spear flight to Boog Villa who would then whittle out something. Oh yeah, can you see that happening with no spoken language- just grunts and gestures? And just how did metal smelting ever get off the ground? The first crucibles made of wood probably caught fire. ''O darn. Now me have start over. Wonder why me no get pass this point every time me try? Me get discouraged, go drink juice from smelly grapes in pile over there. That work pretty good last time I try it. Ho Ho!"
Its a wonder "survival of the fittest" as a concept ever got any traction. Given mans tendency to say screw it, let's get drunk, its hard to believe we got past discovering fermentation.
Anyway where was I? Oh yeah. Genius. Has the mind's ability to reason and learn grown over the years? Its so easy to be smart today. There is so much accumulated knowledge today that we have access to and actually absorb in a kind of intellectual osmosis as we age and grow. We aren't aware of much of it. Granted there's a lot that is a part of the modern mans life that would have no relevance outside of our modern life.
But if half our kids are writing computer code in high school, what if we took those same kids and transplanted them back just 300 years ago? Could we have skipped steam locomotive and gone straight to electric ones? Would they have done any better than Ben Franklin for example?
Artistic genius would have had an easier time of it. I know that's maybe not what my daughter would guess, but its most likely true. So an aspiring Van Gogh could pick up a carboned end of a charred stick and get right to representational depictions of the last hunt. Sure it took a few tries, and maybe a while to figure out that Ochre is good for more than face painting before a raid on the neighboring tribe. You know, the more I think of it, maybe art was in some respect the awakening of genius? Easier than the dynamics of what makes a good spear head material, thats for sure.

Dorreen, We Are Not All Killers

noreply@blogger.com (Good Ol' Boy) — Sun, 06 May 2007 15:26:00 +0000

Dorreen Dorreen Dorreen.
Dear heart, why do you belabor yourself so with thoughts of gun laws? In your latest screed in the Herald (May 3rd) we are scolded for our gun laws having a low rating by the Open Society Institute, that being funded by the far left Soros Foundation. Why on earth should we care what George Soros or his foundation think of us? Keep this up and soon we won’t care what you think of us. As it stands now, I care deeply what you think, and so I take the time to scold you back. Pay attention.
Would it not be more useful to ask how do we stack up in murders, assaults with a gun, school shootings, whatever, per one hundred thousand, some way to measure the actual -what-? quality of life or something, rather than how we are behind the curve on impinging upon our citizen’s rights?
I’ll grant you, there may be things that need to be done in other, lawless, environments, but why should we Nord Akotans bother ourselves with that? We as a group of people seem to be able to keep our poop in a group sufficiently that we don’t have a lot of drive-by shootings or cold blooded murders. Why go looking for solutions to problems we don’t have? When I go into the Open Society website, I see that the states that rank highest in their eyes are those bastions of safety containing cities such as Boston, Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. Blue states, all. In light of this, I am quite happy to live in a state that ranks a minus 5.
It has been an observation of mine down through the years that, when those in a society exhibit a lot of common sense, fewer laws are required to define acceptable behaviour. As our modern society has descended into liberal- driven chaos, however, we seem to have had to pass laws to make up for that deficiency. That our plethora of laws have fallen woefully short of accomplishing that task should be testimony to the usefulness of passing more.
You state in your article that your own siblings have guns. They seem to be stable enough that they don’t pose a problem- why project onto them or the rest of us qualities you fear some others may exhibit? Perhaps the bluer states have degenerated to the point where people have insufficient inhibitions to bad behaviour to exist side by side with one another. Voting blue would be my first indication of this, but I digress. In any case, you are asking us to burden ourselves with unconstitutional laws of questionable efficacy and I have to ask why? As is pointed out repeatedly to liberals- it is already against the law to kill someone or to shoot at them in other than self- defense. Since a criminal is by definition someone who already scoffs at the law, what effect other than burdening the law abiding do additional laws have?

Increase your wealth- buy a house in GF

noreply@blogger.com (Good Ol' Boy) — Sat, 05 May 2007 01:36:00 +0000

To my faithful reader- sorry I haven't been posting for a while. I've been up to my ears in supporting the capitalist agenda at work (and loving every minute of it), and thus have been preoccupied. Get over it. Anyway, what I wanted to comment on today:

I was pleasantly surprised to see I grew richer in assets over the last year- I got a notice from the taxing authority that my humble abode here on shady Boyd Drive grew in value AGAIN this year- to the tune of $7000. This on top of some $12000 last year. I did not realize real estate was such a lucrative enterprise here in Lesser Grand Forks. Here I am living in this shanty, doing nary a thing save bare maintenance, and the value is skyrocketing! Only in America, huh? Well, the city did fill that little pothole there where the road bends- I suppose that had something to do with a higher valuation. And maybe my house is more valuable because there is an as-yet-unrevealed plan to make Simplot quit stinking up the place. Hope truly springs eternal, doesn't it?

I'm open to suggestions as to why I was granted such a phenomenal return on my investment in this little house of mine. Until someone shows me different, I'll just be content to think someone really likes me at the Courthouse. How's that?

Okay, one more time..

noreply@blogger.com (Good Ol' Boy) — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 04:14:00 +0000

Okay, we'll try it again. I took the word verification off my comments section. I knew it was a pain in the butt, but I got spammed something terrible one time, and I was looking to avoid that if I could.
Anyways, it should make commenting a little easier for the people that care to make comments. Both of you.

Sticks and Stones...

noreply@blogger.com (Good Ol' Boy) — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 02:19:00 +0000

Well, I've listened and I've read and I've pondered. This whole deal about Ann Coulter calling John Edwards a faggot has EVERYBODY'S undies in a bundie- Left, Right, everybody is tripping over one another to denounce her, distance themselves from her, and call her down. For what? Calling some lawyer a bad name? Get over it, everybody.
First thing, why is it the gays can call each other "faggot" and straight people can't? That's a BS double standard, just like blacks calling each other the "N" word. I'd spell it, but I don't have time to argue with all the PC crowd about it again. Why do we have a show called "Queer eye"? Isn't that derogatory, too? Oh wait, some queers are making money doing it, so we'll let that one go by this time. R-r-r-right... You're victims when it suits you, but the rest of the world isn't supposed to be in on the joke. This is hypocrisy at its worst.
Second thing, why does a big tough guy who thinks he can be President of this country need defending from the words of some skinny little girl? If he's such a momma's boy that he needs our help, why on earth should we let him lead the country?
I'll grant you that Ann Coulter is over the top at times, but that is her schtick, and people pay her money to do it, buy her books, hear her speeches all the time. You're telling me the collective frontal lobotomies at Air America haven't said things about our President and others on the right? And people don't even want to pay to hear them, judging by how that enterprise is going.
I suggest you all take a deep breath, left and right, and repeat after me-"It's just entertainment, Eddie Murphy has said worse. It's just entertainment, Al Franken IS worse. It's just entertainment, Rosie O'Donnell WAS worse"
Sometimes I think some of my fellow travelers on the Right fail to see what they are doing in cases like this. They complain of how the media gives kooks and radicals a free forum to broadcast their nonsense to the world, then turn around and in a case like this, churn up more chatter about someone they purport to now deplore.
Well, enough of that. I gotta find some ice for a drink....

UPDATE: I corrected Ms. O'Donnell's last name spelling, as per my daughter's gracious indication in the comments. Thank you Lucy. I shall try to be more observant in the future.

Bogus science? You tell me

noreply@blogger.com (Good Ol' Boy) — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 12:11:00 +0000

I came across this on Yahoo!-

"Abigail W. Leonard, in a special to LiveScience writes:

Deep below the ocean's surface, blue whales are singing, and for the first time, scientists think they know why. Researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography recorded the sounds and say they offer new insight into the behavior of the passenger jet-sized animals...
Using tags suctioned to the whales' bodies, researchers tracked the whales and found that as they feed, they send out calls to let each other know where they are, each group employing a different sound.....
A related study, also by Scripps researchers, found that there are distinct "dialects" of whale-speak in different regions of the ocean. The finding could have implications for preservation efforts. "

I read all the way to the bottom, but I didn't see anything about Southern whales telling funnier jokes. Or any efforts by Hillary Clinton to "reach out" to different groups of whales by speaking to them in a poor rendition of their dialect. So maybe the story is bogus, huh? We blog, you decide.

International Incident Avoided

noreply@blogger.com (Good Ol' Boy) — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 03:34:00 +0000

THIS from Fox News:

ZURICH, Switzerland — What began as a routine training exercise almost ended in an embarrassing diplomatic incident after a company of Swiss soldiers got lost at night and marched into neighboring Liechtenstein.
According to Swiss daily Blick, the 170 infantry soldiers from the neutral country wandered more than a mile across an unmarked border into the tiny principality early Thursday before realizing their mistake and turning back.

This all reminded me of a time thirty some years ago when a small force of Pembina County rednecks invaded Canada by mistake. I and some friends were out driving around one warm summer eve in Pembina County, enjoying a few cans of spoiled grain juice, when it was perceived that we were being pursued by the local 5-0. I say perceived because we were in a state of mostly cognitive dissonance at that early hour, and probably confused an ambulance with a police cruiser. But being convinced we were far more important, and therefore worthy of pursuit, than we really were, we decided to evade capture by taking a quick exit from the paved road. The fact that we were kicking up a dirt cloud on those back roads escaped us at the time. At sun-down on the flat, treeless bottom land west of Pembina we were on, our trail had to be discernible from several miles, at least. Oh well.
As we made our way along, zig-zagging north and west along township roads, we found ourselves on a very high, very rough road headed west, the lights of a small town to the west beckoning us. We understood these lights to be Neche, a small town on the US-Canada border, where we could blend in and avoid the long arm of the law. We were the Dukes of Hazzard, before there were any Dukes of Hazzard. In a red Oldsmobile with two white doors....
When we finally came to this small town, we did not see any landmarks that we recognized, so we decided to simply take the paved road we came upon, and turned south. Imagine our surprise when we came across the border crossing sign at the station of Gretna, Manitoba! One small porch light was on in the now-closed-for-business tiny M.P. station there, and a series of orange traffic cones across the road, in the south-bound lane only. Sort of Homeland Security on the honor system, if you will.
We were at once struck by the absurdity of our situation. A bunch of under-age drinkers, here we were inadvertently smuggling inferior US beer into Canada, now having to figure out how to smuggle it BACK into the U.S. We could not see who or what may have been awaiting us at the U.S. station just down the hiway. After doing our best to lighten the load of smuggled goods, we finally were imbued with enough grain alcohol fortitude to go forth with the dash across the border. Two of my fellow revelers took the now lightened cooler and walked it across the border, away from any street lights glare, and I drove back across, professionally avoiding the cones in the way, thus avoiding any chance of our contraband being taken by any Federales that may have been lurking. A quarter mile later, drunks and drink were re-united, and what could have been an ugly border skirmish was avoided.
A short time later, we all decided against service in the diplomatic corps, there being no more we could do for our country than what we had just done. I whole heartedly sympathize with the Swiss, as it is embarassing to say the least that one has strayed from the arms of his Motherland, whether armed with folding pocketknives or Pabst Blue Ribbon beer.

Welcome to another blogger

noreply@blogger.com (Good Ol' Boy) — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 22:16:00 +0000

I was just made aware of yet another blogger in the Grand Cities Blogosphere, a gentleman who goes by the moniker "Gustave". http://www.areavoices.com/gustave/ is where he can be found under the title "EGF Opinion Maker".
Welcome to you, sir, and rest assured I shall list your blog along with the others. I happen to know he enjoys an occasional debate, so let the fun begin!

NORD AKOTA NICE NOT ENOUGH?

noreply@blogger.com (Good Ol' Boy) — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 21:44:00 +0000

If all goes according to plan, we will soon have a local chapter of the NAACP, according to the Grand Forks Herald (02/10/2007) "Pastors to start NAACP chapter". It's needed, Nord Akota Nice not being sufficient according to the pastors interviewed. Well.
I suppose there's no good way for me to refute that need, not being a person of color myself in this PC world. But let me posit this one question anyway: Why?
We're told in the article that Rev Henry Passmore believes "If you watch the treatment of people in the area, it's not what it should be”, refering to I guess, how we treat...... who? Blacks, possibly Native Americans? Maybe just each other?
Is there any room in this debate for the possibility that maybe we as humans just aren't nice to each other sometimes- regardless of skin color? I would think Christian pastors would be most acquainted with this proposition- man's inhumanity to man reaching clear back to Cain and Abel, who were obviously the same skin color. Maybe I'm missing something here...?
Anybody got an opinion? Anecdote?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! HOPE YOU CAN AFFORD IT!

noreply@blogger.com (Good Ol' Boy) — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 20:41:00 +0000

Well, I got shoveled and snowblowed out, spread a little ice-melt, so I'm ready for the New Year.

I guess we'll have to see what it brings- I hope you all personally experience a good and prosperous year in 2007. I do have my concerns for our nation however, what with a horde of radical Democrats coming in to power and all, but hey, can they make any bigger mess of things than the Republicans did?

Well, yes and no. We know from past experience they certainly can, and the past profligate spending of our Compassionate-Conservative-in-Chief gives little reason for hope in checking their action. With Budget Hawk Conrad keeping an eye on our checking account, any sign of deficit spending will be met with- what? Budget cuts? Not bloody likely. It's not in the liberal's DNA. You selfish workers will simply have to give more of your ill-gotten gains to the cause of budget balancing. So unless the remnant of Republicans in Congress can garner some discipline in their ranks and stick together on a few key fiscal principles, it's not looking so good on this front.

How about the Mideast thingie-ma-bob? Maybe that will work out okay? Eh, same thing there- no matter what the Equivocater-In-Chief may want to do, He most likely will be met with resistance from those who seek to make political gains, future results be damned. Again, this will most likely be a bi-partisan botch-job, with a majority unable to muster the cajones to stand up to the rest of the America-hating world and do what is right, rather than what is popular. Nukes all around! For everybody! Bummer again.

Well, at least the fishing's been trending up. Looks to be a good winter for it. Oh wait- global warming, thinning ice caps....... Well, looks like I need a drink- see ya later.

Keep smilin'!

A letter from the front..

noreply@blogger.com (Good Ol' Boy) — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 13:38:00 +0000

"Dear Mom and Dad,
Merry Christmas!
Hope everything is well and fine back home. I'm doing okay here in France, all things considered. The weather has been kind of crappy, but I understand General Patton will have that fixed for us here real soon. The snow isn't as pretty when you're marching through it day after day. And I used to think fog was kind of neat, but now it's keeping our airplanes from flying over the Krauts.
But you know what does look good? When those new diesel tanks start up in the morning! They kind of rumble and shake, and the snow falls off the sides like when the bull back home gets up after a snowfall. Then they smoke and go Rrrr...rrrr...rrrr until they warm up. They say the diesel doesn't explode so easy from a spark or a shell hit, you see, so they're safer. The tank crews are happier, and if the tank crews are happy, us foot soldiers are happy.
My buddy Alvarez is on one of them, says they're powered by TWO of those new GMC diesels- they call them Screamin' Jimmies! And boy, when they put the pedal down, they do scream! Too bad the Germans can't hear that, it'd put the fear in them!
They say the German tanks are better, but we have more of them and that's fine by me. When this war is over they won't have any left. And if they ever do build any, I bet they'll have Screamin' Jimmies in them- no more Mercedes and whatnot running around, no sirree.
Boy, listen to me- I sound like some big shot industrialist- I'm Walter P. Chrysler! But if I had my way, that's how I'd do it. America can outdo those other countries any way you look at it!
Well, we gotta march again, so I better say goodbye. Tell the kids I send my love. I'll be home next Christmas, me and General Patton, together."
Your son,

AN AMAZING WOMAN

noreply@blogger.com (Good Ol' Boy) — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 04:54:00 +0000

Last week we bid goodbye to an amazing woman who was dear to all our hearts. She was finally granted the peace and rest she had earned years before, and had waited patiently for. When she had all her children gathered to her one last time, she bid this world farewell, and we her. Reunited now with her Lord, and her husband of fifty years, peace and joy are hers.
Of all the memories I have of her, the ones that always come first are those of being on the farm. This little woman could work right alongside any man on the farm, rain or sun, whether it was shoveling grain from trucks, tossing alfalfa bales, milking cows, or whatever. She did those things for years alongside her man, on a half section of land in Park Township. Rosie the Riveter had nothing on my Mom, let me tell you.
Wearing jeans and galoshes, she could do chores in the morning, be a farmwife all day, and milk cows again at night. And still have the energy to whack you a good ‘un if you got out of line. As was said of many of her generation, she was made of better stuff than any of us ever will be.
She was born into near abject poverty, and was raised by a foster family when her mother couldn’t take care of all the kids her wandering dad left behind. This probably explains her affinity for orphans and strays all her life, be they human or animal.
We weren’t allowed to have pets inside, save for those times when our entry washroom to the old farmhouse teemed with sickly lambs, boxes of baby chicks, new-born puppies, rabbits, or what-have-you. Most of the time, these special cases were nurtured back to health and returned to the outdoors. I’m sure it was sufficient to consider us kids running around like animals to be the house pets.
I could go on forever about a life of eighty three years, and never do her justice. Suffice it to say we will all miss her, who gave us life each in our turn.
Goodbye Mom. I love you.

Let capitalism ring!

noreply@blogger.com (Good Ol' Boy) — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 21:07:00 +0000

Red and I went shopping for a Christmas tree at Lowe's the other day- as we walked in the store, it made this old capitalist's heart sing. There was Christmas stuff- ALL. OVER. THE. PLACE.. And trees up the wicky wacky woo. Beautiful trees, not all smooshed up, either. You could see what you were getting! After you pick yours out, THEN they smoosh it up so you can transport it. And you know what? I didn't see one there that said "Made in China"on it! Brought it home, and it was beautiful!
I am not a Christmas person- not like Red is. But I was overcome with the whole capitalist/ Christmas deal, and ended up buying lights to decorate the house, and even went back and got more. And a pole thingie to string the lights up safely on the eave trough. It was great.
Today the Good Ol' Boy & Co. are going to make an all-too-infrequent trip to Columbia Mall to Christmas shop. See you there! More news later on this fast-breaking event!

Good Bye and Good Riddance

noreply@blogger.com (Good Ol' Boy) — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 18:56:00 +0000

I wrote this a while back- when it first came out in the news that Saddam was writing poetry in his jail cell, and I shared it with a few people, then forgot about it. News today of Saddam being sentenced to death brought it bubbling to the murky surface of my conscience once again:

Found in a jail cell, somewhere in Iraq:

I think that I shall never see
A despotic ruler quite like me
On oil and blood I was drunk
But now I'm sitting on this bunk

O sons of Babylon I confess
Mesopotamia's now a mess
I had the Westerners by the balls
Never happy, I wanted it all

They really liked me 'way back when
"A regional balance to Iran"'
Til Kissinger began to muse
"It's too bad they both can't lose"

To refuse help, would take a fool
How else was I going to rule?
Those pesky Kurds, they had to go
Swamp Arabs, Shi'ites, gas them, no?

In Allah now I must believe
Bush says this world I soon must leave
Truth has won, justice is served
I guess I'll get what I deserve

I dream sometimes of Hell, so hot
And always after is the thought..
Truth is some lessons I have learned
"Don't f**k with America, you'll get burned"

copyright-2006 by The Boyd Drive Follies

NATIONAL CLICHE DAY!

noreply@blogger.com (Good Ol' Boy) — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 01:36:00 +0000

No, this isn't another diatribe about the Democrats- holster that sidearm, for Pete's sake! In a moment of weakness, I composed a drinking game this morning to commemorate this national day of banality:

It’s National Cliché Day!
Here’s a cool office drinking game I made up- as you read this aloud, everyone takes a drink when they recognize a cliché. I hope you have as much fun reading it as I did making it up. And don’t drive after playing!

Good morning

I hope everyone is firing on all cylinders this early in the morning. As we move forward, it is important for us all to recognize that the ball is in your court now. We need to recognize that we all need to be on the bus with the changes going on in the business world. While there has been a large amount of turmoil around us, we need to see the big picture. This means getting our arms around the problems facing us while yet thinking outside the box. A hands on approach is not enough to knock the ball out of the park anymore.

Recent changes in personnel in the company, while painful, have been necessary to wipe the slate clean and allow us as a company to do more than pick the low hanging fruit. We have to run lean and mean, as survival of the fittest is imperative. It has been necessary for a few members to take one for the team, but please remember, all’s well that ends well, and hope springs eternal, even for those long in the tooth or cannot see a light at the end of the tunnel. We did not want to kill one and scare the rest, as has been bandied about, either.

To this end, management has been circling at thirty thousand feet, not swimming with the sharks, as has been rumored. The strategic moves we have recently made will grow the company by using a new paradigm. The synergy of our two companies’ core competences will help us shut out the competition. This was not a shotgun wedding of our two companies, or a wet dream, as some may have characterized it.

We need employee buy-in to make this work, and to refer to it as drinking the Kool-Aid is not helpful. A boy howdy attitude will take you far in this new venture. Remember, there is no “I” in team. You play for the name on the front of your jersey, not the one on the back.
So please take this time to reflect on your part in all this. And if you are still employed here at Five O’clock, congratulations!

(Any resemblance to any company, real or virtual is unintentional, no employees were harmed in the writing of this, offer not valid in Minnesota and Illinois)

There it is! If you can still walk after this, you must be from Pembina County! Tell me how many cliches YOU found..

Too Much or Too Little?

noreply@blogger.com (Good Ol' Boy) — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 15:02:00 +0000

As election nears, the political ads are becoming near-unbearable. I only half-listen, preferring to get my information other places- a trait that separates me from most of the electorate, it seems. But I have noticed two ads that I feel I have to comment on.
The first is an ad criticizing Rep. Tom Brusegaard for the sin of not attending 19 of 22 interim legislative committee meetings. Rep. Brusegaard defends this by saying that the meetings accomplish little other than costing money, a sentiment I would tend to agree with, having sat through more than a couple meetings in my life.
The other ad is, again, a Democratic (not that there's anything WRONG with that) challenger who is saying that Rep. Ken Svedjan has spent TOO much money on legislative junkets, fact- finding missions, and so on. Rep Svedjan in turn defends his actions by saying they have benefited those he represents by the increase in networking and contacts he has made, nation-wide.
I may have my doubts about that, but let's set that aside for now, to ask this question of the Nord Akota Democratic party: Which way do you want it? Too much travel and participation, or not enough? Do you guys talk among yourselves when cooking up those ads?
Discuss among yourselves.
Any similar dissonance noted in the Republican ads? Tell us here.

It's beginning to look a lot like.....blleecchh.

noreply@blogger.com (Good Ol' Boy) — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 16:21:00 +0000

Is there anything that can drag the Good Ol' Boy's normally sunny, cheerful countenance down like a snowfall? Not much, let me tell ya. As winter wraps its icy fingers around my heart and squeezes the joy out like so much lemon juice, darkness wraps itself around me like a wet carpet. Seasonal Affective Disorder is real, I'm here to say.
Driving around ice-slickened streets in four wheel drive the last two days, seeing a slushy icy cityscape is just a total bummer. This is not the beautiful white blanket of Christmas-card scenes, oh no. This stuff made our beautiful Boyd Drive look like winter had been here and was leaving already. Oh if that were only true, huh?

Speaking of weather, I found another GF blog- someone calling herself the Weather Gal has a blog, called "Tales From the Sunflake City" you should all visit and say hello to. I have linked to her blog at the right. No way to tell if she is regaling in this weather or not- ask her when you go to her blog. And remember, mind your manners! The weather is not her fault.

Also newly linked is the Lone Prairie Blog, from a Julie R. Neidlinger. She is blogging from the prairie setting of Hampden, ND, and is always entertaining. I will refrain from comparisons of Hampden to my native Pembina county. To the outsider the two settings would differ little, but Hampden is, you see, "Up on the hill" and that makes a difference, weatherwise, cropswise, and I'm convinced, peoplewise. Not better or worse, just different. So say hello to her, too.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go find my sun lamp....

Public Safety Comes in a Building?

noreply@blogger.com (Good Ol' Boy) — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 12:08:00 +0000

And now in a handy $5.8 million reusable box! Just add water and serve!
So the City Council has approved looking into designs for a new building to be built in the Industrial Park? This building will purportedly serve several purposes- Store mosquito chemicals, have a firing range, have an emergency responder training center, house a fire station, provide a police outpost to ward off hostile and abusive Indian attacks- OK, I made that one up- and who knows what else...? A crib for the X-Men to hang out at?
"Public Safety" can be used to justify a lot of things that are of questionable efficacy. I would urge council members to go back to the drawing board on this. Is there enough what- crime-? in the industrial park to warrant a police station? Isn't there a fire station straight up on Demers, just a ways from the Industrial Park?
How much mosquito spray do we have to stockpile for Pete's sake? What do aerial spray contractors do with their sprays?
The concept of a training facility that would draw responders from around the area, and generate revenue? Doesn't that sound a lot like "housing federal prisoners to offset the cost of a jail"? I guess I'm not willing to give anyone the benefit of the doubt when it comes to this kind of thing. It was nice of the Feds to give us a robot and a new SWAT truck, etc. , but now we see the cost of storing and maintaining this all come to light.
*Sigh* A curmudgeon's work is never done.

UPDATE: Search no more! There is a 30,000 sq ft building west on Gateway that could be had for quite a bit under a million, nicely insulated, partition it out as you need, and there it is! Even the City council couldn't manage to spend more than 1.5 milion on it, I bet..

A CONSERVATIVE YAHOO?

noreply@blogger.com (Good Ol' Boy) — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 04:04:00 +0000

Greetings go out to another new blogger in the GGF area.
"Conservative Yahoo" has a blog now. You can find him at http://2mdh.blogspot.com/ Has had for a few weeks, apparently- just too shy to mention it, I guess. He's been a faithful commentator to other blogs for some time now, must have finally realized all the fun he was missing out on. Sshhh! Don't tell him about the hate mail part- let him find out on his own.
Anyway, welcome to the blogosphere ! Enjoy!

Son of... STUCK IN STUPID

noreply@blogger.com (Good Ol' Boy) — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 01:57:00 +0000

Or, Beneath the Valley of Stuck In Stupid, or Stuck In Stupid Eats Detroit....

Call this post what you want, I'm writing because of something Tu Uyen Tran had on his "City Beat" blog:

"Eliot said utilities are already regulated so that's not much of an argument. He suggested that sometimes businesses are so stupid they need the government to tell them what to do, the example being the management teams at Ford and GM who wouldn't be in the mess they're in now if they'd been forced to make more efficient automobiles."

When recounting councilman Eliot Glassheim's comments Monday night on the 20/20 initiative, he related this illustration, albeit not verbatim, of the councilman's philosophy of what government is good for. Or at, I guess. Mr Glassheim seems to be in favor of the initiative to mandate "renewable energy", and believes that same guiding principle would be applicable elsewhere in the business world. I'm not going to touch renewable energy here, however. My heartburn today is caused by his view of what ails the American auto industry. He believes that had the government intervened however many years ago, and FORCED the American automakers to build tiny fuel efficient cars, they would not find themselves in the dire straits they are in now.
I laugh.
In making so preposterous a proclamation, Mr. Glassheim is in effect saying we consumers who chose to buy and drive large SUVs and pick-ups are wrong to want or need more interior room, more safety, more visibility, more traction, more MORE. Or... maybe we're....stupid.
In Eliot's world, merely forcing the automakers to build cars no one at that time cared to buy would have saved them from- what? The crushing costs of unionized labor's wage and pension demands? Sky-high health care costs? Mandated employer contributions (taxes) ? Short-sighted policies that emphasize shareholder returns vs. long-term growth? What?
We can argue all day (and sometimes I do) about what is killing GM or Ford. But what surely DIDN'T was building what Americans wanted to buy. What good are a thousand acres of Chevy Cavaliers or Ford Aspires sitting unsold? Even when a smaller vehicle is sold, profit per unit is lower because of certain fixed costs per unit. A larger, more expensive vehicle is going to naturally have more profit per unit both in absolute terms and in percentages.
When I read of things like this being said, I cannot help but think that this betrays a certain...arrogance on the part of those who would dictate to others what vehicles we should choose. That this is the way a businessman/ councilman thinks is disturbing indeed.

By the way, I AM glad you're getting better, Eliot. We would miss you if you were gone, and we will always need a few liberals to kick around.......

61,000 POUND NASCAR TRUCKS

noreply@blogger.com (Good Ol' Boy) — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 17:27:00 +0000

Er, I mean, beet season is here. Get the women and children off the streets! Every year, we put civilians into overloaded beet trucks, change their sleep patterns, and then tell everyone else to be careful of mud on the road. What's wrong with this scenario?
Most of these drivers spend 50 weeks of the year driving cars and pickups that don't weigh a tenth of what these trucks do, and then have to learn the dynamics of stopping a loaded juggernaut of a truck. And if they're lucky enough to be driving a farm truck licensed in North Dakota, there are no annual safety inspections required- nope, none. Whatever bald or recapped tires you want, no problem! Brakes shot? Still no problem. But hey, look at that $3000 paint job, and we have the farm name on the door!
And in the name of excitement, run those trucks down south Washington, onto DeMers, and through downtown! Boy, that'll piss off those city folk! The kids at Sacred Heart can pick the beets off the road along the curve in front. Watch for traffic kids!
I know the response: Beets bring umpty buctillion dollars into our communities, yada yada yada. I tell you what- that don't mean a thing to the families of those people killed or maimed in an accident involving one of these things.
Here endeth the sermon for today. In the name of American Crystal, Ag subsidies, and the Family farms. Go forth and vote for the Democrats who perpetuate this insanity. Amen.

UPDATE: Some have taken exception to my views, citing everything from me being a subscriber to the NIMBY principle, to being a city slicker, to a *gasp* liberal! That last one hurt, let me tell ya.
Look, folks, its all about safety- we have established a uniform set of laws that govern the operation and behaviour of professional freight haulers in this country, based on science and practical experience. Those laws govern the condition of the equipment, safe loading practices, the hours of operation, the qualifications, background, physical condition, and knowledge of the operators, and probably a few other things I'm forgetting.
Why, in the name of misty-eyed nostalgia, are those engaged in raising one of the most lucrative of all crops, exempt from all this? Are the laws of physics suspended for the month of October so this particular crop can be harvested? Why aren't potato farmers clamboring to dig all night? I'm sure the argument could be made that their "window of opportunity" to harvest is narrow also, maybe more so.
I await your answers.

GEEZERVILLE HERE I COME

noreply@blogger.com (Good Ol' Boy) — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 02:01:00 +0000

As my latest birthday fades in the rearview mirror, I reflect on the absurd little conversations that happen when working with a younger generation.
One day, I recited along perfectly with the opening lines of the Guns N Roses song, "Civil War"- the part spoken by the Warden from the movie "Cool Hand Luke". One of the young guys was amazed to find those lines were from a movie. And who was Paul Newman? We never got to the fifty eggs part.
Then I mentioned one day a tribute song by the Drive By Truckers- "Steve McQueen" So we had to have a history lesson about him. And the chase scene from "Bullit" And how hot Faye Dunaway and Ali McGraw were. Back in the day.
Oh well. I never understood much of what passed for the pop culture of my parents' generation, either, I guess. Although, I have always liked the Andrews Sisters and Red Foley's music....
*Sigh* Where's my Mason jar? I need a drink.

STUCK IN STUPID GEAR

noreply@blogger.com (Good Ol' Boy) — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 14:07:00 +0000

This has got to be the dumbest thing I've seen lately, and that's counting Olberman's rant about Bush the other day :

"California is suing the auto industry over tailpipe emissions, marking the first time a state has sought monetary damages for the impact of global warming by vehicles, The Associated Press said. Attorney General Bill Lockyer last Wednesday sued the six largest U.S. and Japanese automakers, claiming they have caused millions of dollars in damage by creating greenhouse gases, AP said.
Lockyer is suing on the theory that greenhouse gases are a "public nuisance" under both California and federal law, an argument similar to one being pursued in a case before the 2nd U.S. District Court of Appeals in New York, AP said. Vehicles are the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions in California, AP said.
The lawsuit names Chrysler Motors Corp., General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., Toyota Motor North America Inc., American Honda Motor Co. and Nissan North America Inc., AP said."
- Light & Medium Truck report

The idea of a government entity suing a manufacturer for selling a legal product that consumers want is nothing new, though. Witness the Big Tobacco settlement of a few years ago, of which our own Heidi Heitkamp was a proud participant. Global warming is just the new grievance du jour. This stretches credulity to the breaking point, however. I hope for the sake of all society that some judge swats down the idiot lawyers that cooked this one up, in both New York and California. I won't hold my breath, though.
This brings to mind a situation of a few years back. Various police departments around the country sued Ford Motor Company over some defect in the Crown Victoria car- and then complained when Ford wouldn't sell them any more units the following year!
In a state like California- that is responsible for the phenomena of car culture as much as or more than Detroit and totally dependent on the automobile, what possible good can come of this? Should a lawsuit be won by the state, the most hopeful outcome might be simply a dramatic increase in the price of cars sold in California. the worst outcome would be a huge cutback in the number of cars sold there. And since California cars in many cases have different emission equipment than 49 state cars, consumers will not be able to simply buy their cars out of state.
Morons. Simply morons.