Dave Easterly’s Bravo Sierra Blog

My Favorite Republican Does It Again!

I make no secret of the fact that I’m pretty darned pissed at the current incarnation of the Republican party since it has been hijacked by the NeoCons, but for the life of me I can’t help but LOVE Ron Paul, a Republican member of the House of Representatives from Texas. A speech Rep. Paul made in the House this week (“Why Are Americans So Angry?“) was one of the most effective summations of the current state or our Country, the economy, the evolution of the Military-Industrial Complex into the Military-Industrial-Media-Government Complex, the Orwellian need for a persistent “threat” to sustain a perpetual state of war, and much more. Read the entire speech here! It’s absolutely remarkable.

There are too many great quotes to have a favorite, but here’s one of the best:

It seems bizarre that it’s so unthinkable to change course if the current policy is failing. Our leaders are like a physician who makes a wrong diagnosis and prescribes the wrong medicine, but because of his ego can’t tell the patient he made a mistake. Instead he hopes the patient will get better on his own. But instead of improving, the patient gets worse from the medication wrongly prescribed. This would be abhorrent behavior in medicine, but tragically it is commonplace in politics.

I’m telling you… America needs MORE Representatives and Senators (not to mention a President!) like Ron Paul. I believe Ron Paul is the _ONLY_ person on Earth that could get me to vote for the Republican ticket in 2008. (Are you listening, NeoCons? Your time is quickly running out!)

Heart Concert, new band, and more!

Lots going on yet again…  On Sunday the 25th Carrie and I went to see Heart in concert in Jackpot, NV.  Talk about an ass-kicking show!  Those girls are about the same age as my mom (Hi, Mom!  Love ya!), and let me tell you something… they rocked as hard as if not harder than they did in the seventies!  Nancy absolutely WAILED on “Barracuda” playing a semi-hollow body Gibson.  It looked like an ES-335 or a Vegas High Roller, but it had a tremolo bar.  Not only did she totally rip it on “Barracuda” but when she and their lead guitarist (Craig someone, if I remember right) both broke out the Les Pauls, I KNEW something was about to happen…And it sure did!  They belted out not one but TWO Zeppelin tunes – “Black Dog” and “Misty Mountain Hop.”  The also played two MORE covers – Tom Petty’s “You Wreck Me” and The Who’s “Love Reign O’er Me” with Nancy singing the Petty number and Ann totally putting Roger Daltrey to SHAME on “Reign.”  These lovely ladies have been doing this for over 30 years and I guess they’re at the point where they’re bazillionaires and don’t really _have_ to tour so I suppose they just play what the WANT to play since they don’t _have_ to play anything.  It totally changed my perspective on playing covers which brings me to my NEXT big event…

 I’m the drummer in a new band!  I’m now a member of the funk/rock band (don’t make too much fun of the name until you’ve heard us – We’ll rock your FACE off!) LoveCrymes!  I’m playing my vintage 1970s Ludwig kit for this adventure, and having a total BLAST working with them to revamp the drum parts to make the funk more “greasy and funkalicious.”  The band had a CD entitled “Rebirth” made (before I joined them) with their old drummer, Ibe, and he did a good job for them on all their songs but our styles are very different so we’re reworking the parts to accomodate a greater “funk flavor” and a little less straight rock feel.  Our second CD which will feature me behind the skins and doing who knows what else will be called “Dysfunkshunal.”  Don’t quote me on that spelling, but it’s close. Anyway, we hit the studio in late September and should have the CD ready to go either in time for Christmas or early in January depending on how things go.  We’re having a great time, and we’ve got several gigs lined up to go including the Idaho State Fair.

Work is pretty much the same old, same old.  One cool thing is that I got to roll up a custom firewall/NAT for our network at the local College campus.  That was pretty fun.  Found out a few interesting things in the process, like that our managed switch was open to telnet for the entire 4+ years it’s been deployed.  That, needless to say, is fixed along with a BUNCH of other security problems.  Yeah, I know I’m a stud.   

I’m not saying we should kill ALL the laywers… Just 95% of them.

This came up in my fortune (/usr/games/fortune) today. It really made me smile.

In "King Henry VI, Part II," Shakespeare has Dick Butcher suggest to
his fellow anti-establishment rabble-rousers, "The first thing we do, let's
kill all the lawyers."  That action may be extreme but a similar sentiment
was expressed by Thomas K. Connellan, president of The Management Group, Inc.
Speaking to business executives in Chicago and quoted in Automotive News,
Connellan attributed a measure of America's falling productivity to an excess
of attorneys and accountants, and a dearth of production experts.  Lawyers
and accountants "do not make the economic pie any bigger; they only figure
out how the pie gets divided.  Neither profession provides any added value
to product."
According to Connellan, the highly productive Japanese society has
10 lawyers and 30 accountants per 100,000 population.  The U.S. has 200
lawyers and 700 accountants.  This suggests that "the U.S. proportion of
pie-bakers and pie-dividers is way out of whack."  Could Dick Butcher have
been an efficiency expert?

-- Motor Trend, May 1983

Lots O’ Stuff Goin’ On…

Well, for those that care more than one microgivashit, my facial paralysis (Bell’s Palsy) is all better. My face is back to 100% normal. I’ll leave that to the reader to determine if that’s a good or bad thing.

Second, can I just say that I LOVE the EFF? The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the Underground Railroad of digital freedom. Check this out: http://www.eff.org/corrupt/

Call, write, fax, and email your Congressmen and Representatives and DEMAND they stop letting big business BUY legislation that harms consumers and only protects their outdated business models. They need to adapt to the changing marketplace, not stifle innovation and trample on customers’ rights. Vote with your wallets when you buy goods and services and if your representatives aren’t actually representing YOUR interests but rather those of the corporations that keep shoving handfuls of money into the corrupt politicians’ pockets then vote them out at the polls, too.

On a personal note, Carrie and I bought a house. Not just any house, but a BEAUTIFUL house that we love. And only days after closing on it, we get hit by a nasty wind storm that devastated several of the trees that were a big part of the appeal of the property. Our apricot tree was literally split in the middle, and two of our pear trees lost major branches. One of the pear tree branches even broke part of our fence it was so big. Guess what I’ll be doing after work for a week or two?