A ship on the Seven Seas ...

Back in the day, when I was a kid, a trip to the beach meant my father making some amazing boats out of things that would wash up onto shore ... Styrofoam cooler pieces, fishing line, random sticks or wood ... anything he could get his hands on.
One year, he actually made a pretty decent boat out of an empty can of Cheez Whiz, sticks, and string. Seriously.
Over the weekend, I made my first attempt at creating a boat from a small piece of wood, some sticks, rope, and a plastic lunch bag.
One of my children named the boat "Saily." And yes, Saily did actually sail! The rocks are "passengers."
The first time out, a big wave from the high tide coming in at Salisbury Beach crashed it over. I then grabbed the boat, fixed the plastic sail, and launched it again, only this time, a bit deeper into the ocean.
However, my kids didn't want it to sail away, so after a bit of time, I went back out into the ocean and got it out. Not bad for a first try. :-)
There are more photos after on the other page.

The August Blue Moon ...

Yup, pretty amazing ... this was taken at NHTI the other night.

Last night's moon ...

Pretty bright ...

The Killing Moon, live ...

The other night, my dad and I played five songs at the open mic night at The Draft. Here's one of the songs, "The Killing Moon," by Echo & the Bunnymen.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qtv-XvtsOn8

I'll post some more songs later. :-)

Godzilla 2014 ... coming soon ...

Can't wait.  Very cool ...

Sigh ... Eyes Without a Face

I miss these days ...

Gettysburg ...

I finally got to go check out the memorial. It was an amazing experience.

Here's a short video clip of the Soldiers' Monument and some pictures.

Two views of the Gettysburg Address ... the address itself and criticism of the words and the event ... and we think today's media is bad? 

Above is a picture of the Cyclorama display, an amazing, massive one piece painting that is hung up in a rotunda. The painting depicts one of the battles from the artist's perspective. This photo doesn't do it justice, since it is only one small section of the painting and model display at the bottom, where I was standing. The painting was done in France based on what the artist saw during the battle. Pictures and slides were also taken and used to recreate the scene. The painting was sent to the United States in the 1880s and was restored a number of years ago. The museum has added light accents, sound, and narrative to the presentation to put you into the actual battle. No flash photos - understandable - or video  (bummer dude) were allowed. It's like nothing else you'll ever see. 

The New Hampshire stone at the Soldiers' Monument. A view from the top of Cemetery Hill, one of the skirmishes from the northeast side of town. It was also the scene of the first Confederate win of the three-day battle.

OK, so you think the 2000 election was bad? This is the Electoral College map of the 1860 election with four candidates facing off. Two of the candidates were pro-slavery; one was neutral. Lincoln and the Republicans didn't want slavery expanded to the other territories (the beige area between California and the other states). Lincoln received less than 40 percent of the popular vote but won 59 percent of the Electoral College vote and the election. Had there been no Electoral College and had the pro-slave political side of the aisle not split their vote with two candidates, Lincoln would have lost the election and we probably would not have the nation we have today. While many people believe the Electoral College is undemocratic, the Founders, quite brilliantly, put the mechanism in to keep mob rule from controlling the presidency and keeping the country from becoming a monarchy. It still serves its purpose today, despite what some people may think. 

The view from Little Round Top, a strategic point of the town that was almost lost by the Union forces, quite by accident. One of the generals, disobeying orders, believed he should be posted down on the ground to the right of the picture even though he was told to be up where the rocks are. A Union scout was sent up to the rocks to check on things, saw that there were no troops there while Confederate soldiers were off in the distance on the left of the picture, heading to the top. Troops were quickly assembled to hold the hill a few minutes before Confederates arrived. Historians believe that this was one of the key moments of the three days. Had the Confederates controlled the hill, they would have been able to bombard Union troops on the right and traveled south into town, taking control a small chunk Pennsylvania while winning the psychological war Lee was trying to fight against the Union states.

This picture is a bit blurry because I took it from the bus but the children are reenacting Pickett's Charge, the last and bloodiest battles of the three days. Over to the right, off the picture, is where Little Round Top is located; the center of the picture, just to the right of where all those houses are, is where Lee made his last - and unsuccessful - run at the Union forces. The Union cannons had stopped firing because the entire field was covering in smoke. Lee believed - like every other battle before this one - that the Union forces were retreating. In actuality, Meade and his forces were playing possum, waiting for the Confederates to charge, getting close enough to bombard them with more cannon fire.

Cool chart in USA Today

While I am completely immersed in local, online news, one thing I still think is cool about print is a chart like this.

Heartbreak Beat ... those were the days

Linger on, your pale blue eyes ...

One of my favorite Lou Reed/Velvets songs. A nice version here with Pete Townsend. Lyrics are on the second page: 

Taste the Floor returns ...

So, it's been a while.
In fact, almost 10 years. But I'm back spinning tunes on the radio.
The details can be seen at the Taste the Floor music show website.

Art auction

After nearly 30 years of not using them, I picked up a set of paintbrushes and put together this painting for the Intown Concord auction/general meeting coming up on March 14. If you don't recognize it, it's Penacook Lake, as seen from the peak of Jerry Hill at Marjory Swope Park.
The night I finished it - with other "celebrity" painters - I didn't think it came out that good. However, after looking at it for a bit, I realized that, considering, it's not bad at all.
My high school art teacher - the late Judy Marz - would be pretty proud, I think.

You too can Dead Yourself

If you watch "The Walking Dead," you'll want to check this out ... Yes, you too can become a walker with the click of a button and a bit of shifting around of the mouse.
Well worth it, I think. Me as a zombie. LOL

The 45% tax rate and $205B in giveaways

Sometimes, it takes a WSJ editorial to walk you through something and the indie press nosing around in order to understand how good or bad legislation is.

This morning's editorial states that the highest tax rate on those making $450,000 a year will be in the 45 percent range, higher than most people think. That's because of the ObamaCare surcharge kicking in as well as other things. Also, 80 percent of deductions and exemptions are ending for millionaires, according to the editorial, due to the phaseout of Personal Exemption Phaseout and the Limitation on Itemized Deductions (PEP/PEASE). 

So while not truly completely "making millionaires and billionaires pay a little more," there is a bit of good news here about making them pay a little more, if that is what your focus is. The fact remains that the deficit and debt are such massive problems, everyone is going to need to pay more while cutting all federal spending drastically. 

The problem though then becomes that, like I wrote before, the cuts haven't materialized, and the giveaways added to the deal are unfathomable and unconscionable 

Matt Stoller over at informationclearinghouse.com has an overview of some of the billions in giveaways that have been extended by the fiscal cliff agreement. These are some of the same things that Democrats have historically wanted to end but would blame the GOP for standing in the way. Corporate welfare, you know. These are some of the tax changes we all have to support in order to truly fix the revenue problems. It's truly "paying your fair share." Why should you or I pay more while Disney and Goldman Sachs get away with paying less? Now, again, both parties are truly to blame, when you look at the fine print. 

The joke that was the fiscal cliff vote

Washington didn't "fix" anything: They made things worse.

The fiscal cliff/sequestration deal that was approved on Jan. 1, added more deficits and debt to the federal budget that anyone could have imagined while raising taxes and allowing other tax breaks to expire. And again, both political parties are to blame for this disaster. 

This entire mess was supposed to be about reducing deficits and eventually, debt, not adding to it. The deal raised taxes on those making more than $450,000, so the president got part of what he wanted and the GOP was able to protect households on the upper level - folks who make more than most of us but in a lot of cases are not millionaires. 

At the same time, the president and Senate Democrats loaded the thing up with more spending including changes to the AMT, business tax breaks for rum producers and Hollywood, unemployment benefits, and other giveaways. The CBO reports that the votes just taken add $3.9 trillion in deficits to the $9+ trillion expected during the next decade, for a grand total of more than $13 trillion in deficits by 2023, approximately. 

Since the debt will soon be at $17 trillion, the federal government will be at $30 trillion in debt in just 10 years, assuming nothing is done to offset those debt levels. This amounts to about $100,000 in federal government debt for everyone man, woman, and child who is a citizen living in the United States right now. These numbers don't include entitlement and pension obligations that are expected to be in the $90 trillion range very soon. 

And let's be clear - none of these actions will create any new jobs because, as I've written before a number of times, the long-term job problems aren't about more federal government spending, more education spending, or anything else. The federal government is spending more than ever before, in actual dollars. The long-term unemployment problem is about globalization, free trade, and to a lesser extent, technological advances that have increased worker productivity. It's not about "making millionaires and billionaires pay a little more" - it's about you needing to make $30K a year to get by while people in China and India will do the same job for $1K a year in corporate costs. 

Well, the Democrats got what they wanted and most of the GOP went along with it. You'll see, it won't work ... and things are going to get worse.  

The future

In two months, all parties are expected to sit down and start ironing out potential spending cuts. And the entire nasty nonsense-go-round will start again, keeping everyone in perpetual campaign mode. 

The Democrats say they have $1 trillion in cuts over 10 years on the table but that is a drop in the bucket when staring at now $13 trillion in deficits and $30 trillion in debt. At the same time, the GOP wants spending cuts but aims a lot of them at the elderly and the poor. The "spending cuts" proposed by Democrats aren't cuts at all; they are reductions in the level of potential increases, meaning it's mostly word play; the GOP won't touch their blessed military spending even though Japan and NATO have no known enemies and we can no longer afford to be the police of the world. 

Yes, the drawdown of the wars is in the savings everyone is projecting and that's real, but it's not enough. Everyone needs a true education about what is going on, especially when staring at the pension and entitlement obligation and the size and scope of the federal government while considering that there are layers of local, regional, and state governments doing much of the same work. 

So here's the big question for the future: What happens when people sit down and realize that taxes have been raised on the rich, the wars have been drawn down, and there's still a massive hole and people are still out of work? That will be interesting to see.