Last night, I took myself over to the Albert Music Hall to do a bit of pickin’ and singin’. I find that sitting around with a handful of people who like to play for fun is a great way to escape the frustration and anger I feel when I read the news every day. Anyway, at the end of the night, as I was packing up my Beloved Gibson (see also, here) to leave, I couldn’t help buy notice the guitar the fellow next to me was packing up. I saw that the guitar’s headstock boasted an elaborately carved horse’s head. I asked him what kind of guitar that was, and he said that it was a “Blueberry.” He then showed me the intricate carvings of horses on the sides, top and back of the instrument. Amazing. I had never seen anything like that, and I had never heard of Blueberry guitars.

When I arrived home, I found the website for Blueberry Guitars. Turns out that each one is hand-made and carved by artists in Bali. No two are alike, and it takes forty days to make one. Check out a representative example here. They sure are beautiful to look at, but I would like to play one to see if they play and sound as beautiful as they look. Maybe the next time I’m at the Albert Hall, I’ll ask if that fellow will give me a test drive.

Conservative women hit back. Yes!

via Primordial Slack

Wonder what it would be like?

Wonder no more, because Californians are already living it.

Vote in November as if the country depends on it. Because it does.

A few people advised me that e-mails sent to Jim@parkwayreststop.com were being returned “undelivered.” I verified this to be the case, and, once again, got the problem immediately fixed by Craig, who has, for years, graciously undertaken the task of keeping this blog up and running.

Thank you, Craig, and my apologies to those who may have had e-mails bounced back.

Out of the closet and into the light.

1. No one ever started a business for the purpose of “creating jobs.” People start businesses for the purposes of making more money from the business than it costs to run the business, otherwise known as making a profit. Jobs are by-product of a successful business. The jobs so-created exist solely to maintain or improve the business’s success. It’s really that simple.

2. It is instructive to remember that the federal government was created by the states, not the other way around. When the states created the federal government, having recently fought a war to be free from the tyranny of a distant centralized government, they specifically limited the powers of the newly-created federal government to those set forth in the Constitution. To make the limitation of those powers crystal clear, the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution. What the heck has happened?

3. I believe that watching daytime TV will rot your brain.

4. It is rumored that someone shopped at Costco and spent less than one-hundred dollars. Who is this person?

5. I believe it has become impossible to go for an entire day without reading or hearing the words “Muslim” and “outrage” in the same sentence. I’m outraged by that.

That is all.

So, five American soldiers will be officially reprimanded and possibly lose rank because of the accidental burning of the Korans. The reprimand will remain in their service records, and the loss of rank will mean a loss of pay and possibly other privileges, all in the name of appeasing the Seventh Century Savages and their “Religion of Peace.”

The One is letting this happen. He sickens me.

Why would anyone enlist in the military while it is under the control of this asshole?

Andrew Breitbart Dies at 43, leaving a wife and four children, and the left is brimming with civility.

I was in Atlantic City making yet another deposit.

I shoulda stayed home.

I can’t remember when a news story has aggravated me as much as the shitstorm in Afghanistan over the burning of copies of the Koran. You’ll note that I did not include the seemingly important word “inadvertent” to the describe the burning of the books. I’m sure it was inadvertent, but you know what? I really don’t give a shit whether it was inadvertent or not. American taxpayers bought those books, and I’ll be damned if I know why. You think anyone held captive in an Islamic country is given a Bible, courtesy of the state?

I’ve had Muslims and their goddamned “outrage” over this and that right up to my eyeballs. These illiterate pigs go nuts over the burning of Korans, and the President of the United States sends a groveling apology to Hamid Karzai. Well, that worked out real well. After the apology issued, two American officers were shot in the back of the head.

And now, (at least according to the Afghan National Website), NATO has agreed to publicly try “those responsible” for burning the Korans. So, that means that some GI who had the misfortune of pulling the garbage burning detail will stand trial because some Korans were in the trash? If The One permits such a travesty, he should immediately be impeached. I pity the military men and women who have to serve under this pathetic excuse for the Commander-in-Chief.

And yes, we should get the hell out of Afghanistan right now, and I mean right now. No phased withdrawal. I mean right goddamned now – and leave nothing useful behind. Further, not one dime of aid should find its way to that shithole.

Let them wallow in the seventh century.