WALKER - MORE THAN ONE REASON TO "GET OUT OF TOWN"

FROM THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL:
Citing personal safety concerns, Gov. Scott Walker has sharply increased the amount the state is paying to protect him and his family, boosting the budget for his security detail by 239% in his term.

Records show taxpayers spent more than $2.23 million in 2013 for the 10 state troopers who protect Walker and his family, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and dignitaries from other states and countries who visit Wisconsin. That was up from $657,457 paid out by Gov. Jim Doyle on security during his last year in office in 2010.

A large part of the increase in spending on security came as a result of Walker's decision to add five members to the Dignitary Protection Unit, the official name of the security team, in the wake of the 2011 protests over Act 10.

The first-term governor sparked protests around the state with his sweeping plan to curtail collective bargaining for most public employees. Both Walker and Kleefisch were the target of death threats during the frenzied debate over the bill.

"Have you been asleep for the past three years?" Walker said during a stop in New Berlin on Tuesday when pressed about his rising security budget.

But that's not been the only factor driving up security costs. Records show that:

· Taxpayers have paid some $978,000 to provide security for Walker's home in Wauwatosa — a figure that continues to rise sharply even though his two sons are in college and the governor has said he's spending more nights at the Executive Residence in Maple Bluff.

· Spending on items designated "other expenses" has increased by 716% in the past five years, with annual $600 clothing allowances for the security team; $975 bulletproof vests and iPads and iPad accessories for all 10 bodyguards; and a safe and car tinting.

· The number of out-of-state trips for which security has accompanied Walker has increased as his national profile rises and he is increasingly seen as a possible 2016 presidential contender. In 2011, he had state-funded security for 29 trips outside Wisconsin, a number that had risen to 47 by 2013.

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Evidently our beloved governor is "running scared" but if you ask him, he would tell you that because he acted to save money for the tax payers of Wisconsin,(a complete ruse) some people hate him.

I am confounded to find that the governor's race is tied at 47% per candidate. Not only is Walker spending our money like a drunken sailor on shore leave, but the signs of corruption are becoming more evident with each passing day.

There are a lot of other reasons why Walker should not be elected for a second term; take for instance, the voter suppression attempts by his administration and his rubber stamp senate and assembly. Under the guise of discovering and preventing voter fraud, this attempt to keep the poor, the aged, and those who do not have a drivers licenses from the polls, legislation was presented.

And I guess for good reason! WISCONSIN REPUBLICANS HAVE FOUND VOTER FRAUD!!!.

Unfortunately for them, they are the guilty party . . . and parties.

Scott Walker supporter, Robert Monroe, a Shorewood, Wisconsin health insurance executive, was charged with 13 felonies relating to his voting a dozen times in five elections between 2011 and 2012, using his own name as well as that of his son and his girlfriend's son.

Even worse, Monroe voted multiple times in the April 2011 Wisconsin Supreme Court race that required a recount.

Then it came to light in the March 6, 2014 issue of the Wisconsin State Journal that Marcie Malszycki, a Repulican legislative aide who worked for Warren Petryk, 93rd Assembly, the man who co-sponsored the voter ID bill, voted improperly for Scott Walker in 2010.

Malszycki pled guilty to election fraud on March 4, 2014, and under a plea agreement, yet another count of election fraud, involving a vote alledgedly cast in the wrong district in 2008 was dismissed.

I wonder how many Wisconsin pick up trucks that proudly display their I STAND WITH SCOTT WALKER bumper stickers do any reading at all and are in the least bit aware of these happenings.

I have even seen SCOTT WALKER FOR PRESIDENT bumper stickers! We live in frightening times,

HEY! RICHARD BRUCE! STFU!

Ever since the emergence of the ISIS in Iraq, and the increasing conflict and further loss of life, there has been one constant voice critical of President Obama's handling of the situation (a situation, by the way) that he was instrument in setting in motion as the "chicken hawk" vice president and "the power behind the throne" during George Dubbya's two terms: Richard Bruce Cheney.

If there is a hell, Cheney shall one day, in my opinion, sit at Lucifer's right hand.

When Cheney published his tome: "In My Times", strangely, there was not a chapter on the Vietnam conflict. As the brilliant writer, John Nichols wrote in Nation Magazine:

Try as readers may, to find the tale of Cheney’s Vietnam service or, to be more precise, his meticulous avoidance of service, they just won’t find that In My Times offers much in the way of revelation about Cheney’s times.

Cheney has always positioned himself as an arch militarist. But when he had a chance to get on the frontlines, he instead chose deferments. A lot of them.

Richard Bruce Cheney was “of age” for service durng the Vietnam conflict. Faced with the chance to engage on the battlefield or the home front, however, he dodged out—not for moral reasons but selfish ones. Pulitzer Prize–winning author David Maraniss, who interviewed Cheney for his book They Marched Into Sunlight, says the vice president just couldn’t be bothered. “I think he’s emblematic of a certain type. He wasn’t against the war, just didn’t want anything to do with it,” explains Maraniss. “He wanted to get on with his life and not let the world get in the way.”

Unfortunately, the world had a tendency to get in the way of young men who, like Cheney, were of draft age when the US troop presence in Vietnam began to rise in the mid-1960s. As a result, there was one sense in which Cheney mirrored the actions, if not the politics, of his fellow students. Dick Cheney was definitely opposed to the draft, at least as far as it affected him. Indeed, unlike George W. Bush, who performed some sort of service—ill-defined and unrecorded as it may have been—in the Texas Air National Guard, Cheney reacted to the prospect of wearing his country’s uniform like a man with a deadly allergy to olive drab. Between 1963 and 1965, Cheney used his student status at Casper College and the University of Wyoming to apply for and receive four 2-S draft deferments. As the war in Vietnam heated up, Cheney fought to defend and expand his deferments. Twenty-two days after Congress approved the Gulf of Tonkin resolution in August 1964, raising the prospect of a rapid expansion of the draft, he “coincidentally”—in the words of a Washington Post profile—married longtime girflriend Lynne Vincent. The advantage was that even if his student deferment was lifted, his married status might carry some weight with his draft board.

But the Vietnamese were not cooperating with Cheney’s schemes. The war kept demanding more and more young American men, and the range of those who were eligible for the draft expanded rapidly. On May 19, 1965, Cheney was reclassified with the most dangerous draft status: 1-A, “available for military service.” Soon afterward, Lyndon Johnson announced that draft call-ups would double, and on October 26, Selective Service constraints on the drafting of childless married men were lifted. Danang was calling. And it didn’t look like Dick had any excuses left.

But there was one way for ambitious young men to avoid serving their country while maintaining their political viability. If Cheney had a child, he’d be reclassified 3-A, removing him from the pool of those likely to be drafted. Cheney needed a kid — quick. And he got one. Precisely nine months and two days after the Selective Service eliminated special protections for childless married men, Cheney was no longer childless. His daughter Elizabeth was born on July 28, 1966. Convenient? Coincidence? That’s not Cheney’s style. Writer Timothy Noah did the math and suggested that the timing of Elizabeth’s arrival “would seem to indicate that the Cheneys, though doubtless planning to have children sometime, were seized with an untamable passion the moment Dick Cheney became vulnerable to the Vietnam draft. And acted on it. Carpe diem! Who says government policy can’t affect human behavior?”

Cheney applied for 3-A status immediately, receiving it on January l9, 1966, when Lynne was still in the first trimester of her pregnancy.

Twenty-three years later, when Cheney appeared before the Senate to plead the case for his confirmation as George Herbert Walker Bush’s defense secretary, he was questioned about his failure to serve. Cheney responded that he “would have obviously been happy to serve had I been called.” In a more truthful moment that same year, Cheney admitted to a reporter, “I had other priorities in the ’60s than military service.” Cheney’s lie to the Senate has never caused much concern, but that “other priorities” line has dogged him. After he selected himself to serve on the 2000 Republican ticket, former Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jesse Brown, a Vietnam veteran disabled by a gunshot wound to his right arm, said, “As a former Marine who was wounded and nearly lost his life, I personally resent that comment. I resent that he had ‘other priorities,’ when 58,000 people died and over 300,000 returned wounded and disabled. In my mind there is no doubt that because he had ‘other priorities’ someone died or was injured in his place.”

That may sound like a harsh assessment, but the fact is that at least a dozen men aged 19 to 47 from Cheney’s adopted hometown of Casper, Wyoming, died in Vietnam during the period when Cheney might have served. Because local draft boards had to fill quotas when a man who was eligible got a deferment, someone else had to fill the slot. The vagaries of draft quotas, military service and the war itself make it impossible to say whether Leroy Robert Cardenas or Walter Elmer Handy or Douglas Tyrone Patrick or any of the other sons of Casper who perished in Southeast Asia might have survived the war years and gone on to explore their “other priorities” if Cheney had responded to his country’s call. But that doesn’t stop some of those who served from asking, “Who died in your place, Dick Cheney?”

When Cheney served as vice president, Vietnam veteran Dennis Mansker raised that question on a website, where he maintained a list of the dead from Casper. Maybe Cheney did have other priorities, Mansker argues, but “so did these guys.”
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No wonder, then, that there are increasing cries for Cheney to shut the fuck up!

JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA, SMART NOT COURAGEOUS (just ask him)

The first time I was keenly aware of Antonin Scalia was when George W. Bush was handed the 2000 election by Scalia and his cronies. Scalia made no apologies to the accusation that his role in the case of Bush v. Gore conferred the election on Bush, telling critics "it was the right thing to do".

He also confounded many Court observers with his recusal record. Scalia, who portends to adhere to the judicial philosophy of "originalism", which holds that the Constitution is to be interpreted in terms of what it meant to those who ratified it over two centuries ago ( in direct conflict with the more commonly held view that the Constitution is as "living document" allowing courts to take into account the views of contemporary society) recused himself from cases that should have interested him, such as the Pledge of Allegiance case of Elk Grove v. Newdow but refused to recuse himself when there was a suspected conflict of interest in the case of Cheney v. US District Court for DC even though he had a close personal relationship with the then-Vice-President Dick Cheney.

From the press:

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia spent part of last week duck hunting together in a private camp in southern Louisiana just three weeks after the court agreed to take up the vice president's appeal in lawsuits over his handling of the administration's energy task force.

While Scalia and Cheney are avid hunters and long time friends, several experts in legal ethics questioned the timing of their trip and it raised doubts about Scalia's ability to judge the case impartially.

In a startling and unconvincing statement, Scalia asserted that the hunting expedition was not in an intimate setting, based on the facts that they did not sleep in the same room or hunt in the same duck blind and that he was not alone with Cheney at any time during the trip, except, perhaps, for instances so brief and unintentional that Scalia could not recall them; walking to and from the boat, perhaps, or going to and from dinner.

Although intimacy may be defined in many ways, a reasonable observer certainly could conclude that the expedition, as described by Scalia himself, was quite intimate. Flying to Louisiana on Cheney's own aircraft in the company of only Cheney and three other guests and spending two days in a highly communal setting with only twelve other men (members of Cheney's staff and security detail) certainly seems intimate to many persons who urged Scalia's recusal (the "originalist") to no avail.

At some point much later, Scalia was pressed to cite a "heroic moment" in his career. Scalia finally sited his refusal to recuse himself from the case involving Dick Cheney's claims of executive privilege for his energy task force. (Scalia, in addition to the duck hunting trip, also attended a private dinner with Cheney and then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Maryland's eastern shore, while the Supreme Court was considering Cheney's appeal.)

"Most of my opinions don't take guts", Scalia told New York'sJennifer Senior. "They take smarts. But not courage. And I was proud of that. I did the right thing and it let me in for a lot of criticism and it was the right thing to do and I was proud of that. So that's the only heroic thing I've done."

Somewhat ironic that this opinion of which he is so proud led to such things as the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the current raping of Wisconsin's silica for use in even more environmental destruction, fracking.

I would imagine as a "good Catholic boy" he can add to his heroic opinions, the recent Hobby Lobby decision.

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My friend and erstwhile "marketeer", Liz Fischer, recently sent this to me:

Here is the history of one of the most controversial pieces of advertising copy ever written... The Pledge of Allegiance.

That's right. Little did we know, but this little thing that we grew up saying daily in school wasn't a noble tome written by our Founding Fathers. Nor is it some holy relic of history. Rather, the pledge got its start as a piece of sales copy.

I kid you not.

The author was a fallen Baptist minister named Francis Bellamy. The year was 1892. And Bellamy had recently lost his preaching job for giving sermons with titles like "Jesus Was A Socialist."

His friends James Upham and Daniel Ford had hired Bellamy to write for their magazine, "Youth Companion." One of the things the magazine did was sell flags.

On the magazine's reputation, Bellamy was able to convince President Harrison to ask for flag flying at every public schoolhouse. Three months letter, Bellamy wrote the Pledge to help promote the idea in the magazine.

It was a smash success.

And as Paul Harvey would say: . . ." And now you know the rest of the story".

THE 'SUCKER PUNCH' STORY I'LL BE TELLING JULY 18

Recently I was contacted by Mike Paulus of Eau Claire's Volume One. He had sought out the advice of Bruce Taylor, UWEC Poet Emeritus, as to whom he could contact to fill out two entries in an upcoming evening of "adult story telling". Here is the e mail:


From: Mike Paulus [mike@volumeone.org]
Sent: Monday, July 07, 2014 2:55 PM
Cc: Thom Fountain; Eric Christenson
Subject: Re: WANTED: Let's Be Honest Storytellers

Hey everybody!

We could really use some help getting 2 more featured storytellers for our Let's Be Honest show on Friday, July 18. The theme is "Sucker Punch: stories of getting duped ... or doing the duping."

If you have a great story for this show or know someone who does, please email me back!

-Mike

Mike Paulus
online editor
--
Volume One Magazine
205 N. Dewey Street
Eau Claire, WI 54703
ph: 715-552-0457
www.VolumeOne.org

Dr. Taylor's reply:

From: Bruce Taylor
Subject: RE: WANTED: Let's Be Honest Storytellers
Date: July 7, 2014 7:46:13 PM CDT
To: Mike Paulus
Cc: August Rubrecht , lheagle@larryhegle.com

Have you tried August and Larry?

Then I received a copy of August Rubrecht's reply:

Bruce, I very much appreciate your recommendation to Mike Paulus. I would love it if Volume One invited me to tell (especially if I could be on the same program as Larry Heagle). Unfortunately, I will be traveling to the Ozarks then for a mini-reunion with siblings, cousins, and one charming old uncle, one of the last two of my mother's siblings.


August Rubrecht, is without a doubt, THE best storyteller I have ever known! After my head returned to normal size, (7 1/8), I contacted Mike and told him I was available.

I will be a part of the show on Friday, July 18. I am going to use this blog today to "polish" up my true story.

It was a long time ago while I was still traveling great distances to do shows. This time around, I had gotten a call to perform comedy at a convention being held at the Arrowwood Resort and Conference Center just outside Alexandria, Minnesota.

I got an unusually early start that morning and while driving, I noticed that my van was due for a 5,000 mile oil change. Since I reached Alexandria with plenty of time to spare, and found a Pennsoil Ten Minute Oil Change business right there on my way into town, I took advantage of my early arrival, pulled in, and checked in at the desk.

I did notice that they were extremely busy, but as I said, I had hours to spare, so I wasn't too worried. After registering my vehicle, I joined several other customers in the waiting lounge, grabbed a magazine, and asked the woman sitting near an empty chair if she would mind if I sat near her. With her permission, I took the seat and began absent-mindedly flipping through People Magazine.

After a bit, I introduced myself to the woman. She, in turn, introduced herself to me and I struck up a conversation with her. (I really do enjoy engaging people, even strangers, in this kind of situation, as it passes time in a way much better than reading People Magazine ever could!

Besides, I thought she might be able to give me some insights into the city of Alexandria that I could incorporate into my performance. When I asked her about Alexandria, she told me that she didn't know much about the town as of yet, as she and her daughter had just recently moved from Blue Earth, Minnesota.

This opened up a whole vista of questions I could ask: How old is your daughter? (20) What is your daughter's name? (Jane) What made you decide to move to Alexandria (job as a registered nurse) Were you able to find housing? (a "fixer upper" house).

She asked where I was from and what I do for a living and I told her I am from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and that I am an ex-middle school teacher that quit teaching. Had I not, I told her, I would have been the one on the roof with a high powered rifle. I told her that I am a comedian/guitar player. Why was I in Alexandria? I am the after dinner entertainment at the Arrowwood Resort and Conference Center, I told her.

She lit up at the words "Arrowwood Resort and Conference Center". She exclaimed that her daughter works there summers as a waitress for convention banquets! And that as a single parent (divorced) she was very proud of her daughter's initiative (in seeking employment for the summer).

I then asked her to give me a physical description of Jane, in case I had a chance to meet her and tell her that I had met her mom. Barbara then really opened up to me, told me all kinds of great details . . . how talented her daughter is at interior design and implementing it . . . that she had just finished tiling the entire bath room and it looked like a professional had done the work . . . that she was schooling at the nearby technical school, pursuing interior design . . . that she missed Blue Earth and her boy friend, Jim.

She would have told me more but her number was called and she left to get her car. As soon as she left, I took out my little note pad that I always carried with me in case of comedic inspiration, and hurriedly scribbled all the facts I could remember so that if I did get a chance to meet Jane, I would be able to speak intelligently about her mother and she would not think I was just some weirdo vagabond trying to hit on her.

I arrived at the Arrowwood, a large and impressive place with a central conference center, surrounded by a golf course and spacious vacation town homes.

When I work a conference, before I even take the guitar out of the van, I first scope out exactly where it is that I will be setting up my sound system, where the nearest entrance to the banquet room is, and who I need to contact and let know my purpose for being there.

This I accomplished, the last step being to enter the actual dining area to see if there was a stage of some sort set up. When I walked in, there were two uniformed young women, busily putting down place settings of plates and silver. Jane's mother had given me a very accurate description of her daughter. I recognized her immediately.

It wasn't until that moment that I came up with a plan.

I approached them and watched as they worked for a moment, my gaze transfixed on Jane. She became aware of my seemingly rude staring and looked up from her work.

"Hi, Jane", I said, and then turned to leave.

"Wait a minute!" she cried out, "how do you know my name?"

"It's right there on your plastic name tag", I said, knowing full well she had no name tag.

She actually looked down at her uniform!

"I'm not wearing a name tag," she said, alarmed.

"Okay, you caught me," I said. "I know your name is Jane because I am psychic. In fact, You are giving off a very strong aura and there is much I can tell you about yourself."

"Like what?" she said.

"Well, for starters, you haven't been living in Alexandria very long. You moved here from . . . Blue Earth, Minnesota, because . . . "

I paused, winced, rubbed my temples.

"because . . . your mother received a better job offer."

"HOW COULD YOU KNOW THAT?"

"Did I not just tell you that I am psychic?

"I don't believe you. . . you are just making lucky guesses. What does my mom do for a living?"

Again, I paused as if waiting for inspiration. "Is your mother's name . . . I am seeing a "B" Ba- Ba- Barbara? .

Her jaw dropped.

"She is a nurse . . . no, not just a nurse . . . a REGISTERED nurse."

"And she is very proud of you because of your talent and gumption." I paused again. "You are studying interior design. you just finished tiling the bath room floor at your house . . . I closed my eyes . . . I can see it. You did a very professional installation."

Now I had her hooked.

"What else can you tell me??"

"You will be going back to technical school this Fall to finish your two year degree in interior design."

She looked at her fellow worker. "Can you believe this?" she asked. Her partner was frozen in place, silverware in hand.

I turned as if to leave, then turned back and said: "You are really missing Jim, aren't you?"

Then I started walking away and from behind me I heard the other waitress: "Hey! Don't leave! Do me!"

"I'm sorry. My brain is really tired. My head hurts. Maybe some other time."

I sure would have liked to have been a fly on the ceiling when she got home and told her mother about the psychic she met at work!

EDITORIALS - DON'T BE FOOLED BY QUESTIONABLE SOURCE AS BEING "EXPERT"

A letter to the editor of this past Sunday, only 63 words long, uses as it’s sole reference Citizens Against Government Waste. That’s one of those very misleading titled organizations like the Koch brothers Americans For Prosperity. I mean, if you take them at their face, just by their titles, you would think to yourself: "Americans for prosperity'? Hey, I'm all for every Americans being prosperous . . bet they are a good group!" "Citizens Against Government Waste?" Well, it's about damn time!" But the truth is both those organizations are about as honestly named as a new housing development calling itself Paradise Prairie. Housing four feet apart ain't no paradise and if it's built on a prairie, well, you can't see the prairie!

CAGW, according to the editorial, scores Senator Ron Johnson at a 100 per cent ranking while Senator Tammy Baldwin was given a 4 per cent rating.

Before you decide that Ron is a “superhero”, (as the author of the editorial did, which almost acted as a laxative to me, because to link Ron Johnson with the word superhero, just about made me shit myself!) you should know that the CAGW has been accused of fronting lobbying efforts of corporations to give them the appearance of “grassroots” support. It has accepted donations from Phillip Morris, the Olin Foundation, The Bradley Foundation, Microsoft, and Exxon-Mobil. Check out how grassroots any of these are!!!

In 2006, The Senate Finance Committee investigating ties between Jack Abrahoff and CAGW stated that CAGW “probably violated their tax-exempt status by laundering payments and then disbursing funds at Mr. Abramoff’s direction; taking payments in exchange for writing newspaper columns or press releases that put Abramoff’s clients in a favorable light; introducing his clients to government officials in exchange for payment, and agreeing to act as a front organization for congressional trips paid for by Abramoff’s clients.”

CAGW also supported a bill that would limit damages resulting from malpractice lawsuits; a bill that consumer watchdog groups opposed heavily.

Sunday’s editorial chose to limit the number of words and quote this right-wing organization as though it is expert and we should unquestionly trust their ratings without knowing their background; a background that includes articles like: “The Veterans Administration is a Socialized Healthcare System”. Ron Johnson, superhero? Ask a veteran.

Yeh, I said it! (had to clean it up for the paper, though.

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Man, we had fun being in the Rock Falls Independence Day parade yesterday! Check out the photos on my Face book home page. Kim and I have marched (well, Kim marched, I drove either the Model A or Jeff's big Pick-em-up truck because Larry's a cripple you know) in parades in Maiden Rock, Mondovi, and now Rock Falls. I know what you are thinking . . Rock Falls, a parade? What a joke! But you'd be wrong . . there were more entries in the parade and more peole along the route than any of the other parades.

Afterwards, Jeff invited everyone out to the ranch for brats, hot dogs, and everybody bought a dish to pass. I brought two rhubarb/custard pies as our offering.

What's really cool is that the number of Dems walking along with Jeff are way more than his opponent has. And every parade that number grows.

If you are an independent or are leaning (D), you really should join us in the next one. Just go to "Jeff Smith for 93rd Assembly" Facebook page and find out what's next.

________________________________________________________

FACEBOOK: LEAVE YOUR POLITICAL OPINIONS AT THE DOOR, THANK YOU

I have decided to start blogging again for a couple of reasons, primarily, because I don't relish conflict at all, and secondly, I feel that I now finally understand that Face book is little more than a virtual cocktail party at which two subjects are absolutely taboo: politics and religion. Unfortunately, with our present theocratical (is that even a word?) "Supreme Corp", that weird concept foisted on us by our founding forefathers, "Separation of Church and State" is down the toilet . . and last, believe it or not, I have actually received the following "threat" on messsaging: "I think letting people know what you are doing is fine, but if you don't stop posting that liberal crap I'm going to have to unfriend you". (Actually this is not a reason at all. I found it really funny that my "friend" thought that this would "shape me up". I wrote back and told him that for his own peace of mind, he'd best "unfriend"me. Then I laughed to myself all afternoon.)

Aside: I am having a hell of a time getting my damn Clear Wire modem to function today! Something wild is going on in the atmosphere I guess.

As I was saying: with the recent Hobby Lobby decision by the Idiot Five (all old men, you will observe) the door has been opened for all the religious crazies to praise Jesus and attack women, gays, lesbians, and probably Muslims and Jews; I guess anybody that "jist don't look right".

Today, the strategists who dreamt up Hobby Lobby's lawsuit aren't resting on their laurels -- they're plotting the next attack.

In the last 24 hours, religious-right leaders have started publicly bragging about plans to use the Supreme Court's decision to legalize anti-gay discrimination. In fact, "religious freedom" legislation to that effect has already been introduced in state legislatures across the country.

Right now, most judges, politicians, and journalists take the right's claims to speak for Christians at face value. Yesterday Supreme Court decision actually said that "no one has disputed the sincerity of Hobby Lobby's religious beliefs"!

But in reality, there are virtually no Christians who won't use birth control or refuse to do business with gays and lesbians, and when I say Christians, I mean real Christians, those who actually believe in the tenets of Jesus Christ's "Love they neighbor as thy self" and accept and respect every human, no matter if they be catholic, protestant, methodist, baptist, seventh day adventist, jew, hindu, muslim and yes, even athiests like Bill Maher; all manner of ethnic groups . . you don't have to be white to be right.

And of course, this isn't just about birth control -- it's about not letting conservative extremists get away with claiming to speak for the entire Christian faith. But with the Supreme Court opening the door to massive amounts of discrimination in the name of Christianity, we now have two fronts on which to fight: separation of church and state and the fact that corporations are not people.

Journalist Ryan Grim put forth an interesting premise today:

The owners of a chain of stores called Hobby Lobby don't like Obamacare. In particular, they really don't like the part that requires insurance companies to cover contraceptives. Normally, people who don't like a law petition the government to change that law. That's how a nation of laws works.

But these men are Christians. The Supreme Court ruled Monday that Christian business owners are special. Their deeply held religious belief that some particular form of contraception is immoral carries more weight than the force of law, five conservative Christian justices ruled. The court -- in a fairly bald admission that its ruling is incoherent -- added that no general amnesty from other laws should be assumed to be the result of its ruling and that its reasoning was strictly limited to women's contraception. Such a limitation raises legitimate questions about the rather perverted and obsessive minds of the five men who made the ruling, but it also carries little legal weight. Precedent is precedent, whether the precedent-setters say so or not.

As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wondered aloud in her dissent, "Would the exemption ... extend to employers with religiously grounded objections to blood transfusions (Jehovah's Witnesses); antidepressants (Scientologists); medications derived from pigs, including anesthesia, intravenous fluids, and pills coated with gelatin (certain Muslims, Jews, and Hindus)?

As long as we're doing a la carte law-abiding, Grim writes, here are a few additional ones that could become optional to certain people with deeply held beliefs.

NUDITY LAWS
Entire colonies of people are dedicated to the belief that being compelled to wear clothes is wrong. Others don't believe they should be compelled to make love only indoors. Don't wanna see naked people on your Saturday stroll? Hey, freedom isn't free.

TAXES
Most religions profess a deep affinity for peace (while drenching history in blood in the name of religion, but whatever). Why should religious pacifists be compelled to pay taxes that subsidize war? Why should Randians, believers in Atlas Shrugged, the bible for dorm-room free-market evangelists, be forced to support the evil that is government?

LSD
There isn't much more religious of an experience than talking directly with God. Hell, Huston Smith included a section on acid in his definitive book The World's Religions. While we're at it, all drug laws rub up against religious practice. Sorry officer, this is our church.

GROWING HEMP
If you've ever talked to a hemp evangelist, you know belief in the crop borders on the religious.

STONING
The Bible is packed with tales of impure women meeting a just end under a pile of stones. Today, in certain countries, they're known as honor killings. Will the court make an exception to murder for the deeply religious?

GENITAL MUTILATION
Female circumcision -- more commonly and accurately known as genital mutilation -- is central to the practice of some religions, according to some people who have strong beliefs. What is a democracy to tell people otherwise? In fact, the same could go for domestic violence, polygamy and whatever else.

PASTEURIZED MILK
For some Amish folk, following a strict religious interpretation of "Do unto others what you would have others do unto you" means selling raw, unpasteurized milk, a practice banned under U.S. law for its potential to carry dangerous bacteria such as salmonella, E. coli and listeria.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
To hell with the Violence Against Women Act, when the Quran authorizes you to strike a disobedient wife, as illustrated in Chapter 4, Verse 34. And we don't have to limit the freedom to Muslim men. As Deuteronomy 25:11-12 testifies, "If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity."

One thing is certain. The world has gone mad. And our Supreme Corp is making certain that the good old U.S. of A. is going with the rest of it.

DEALING WITH TODAY'S ENTITLED GENERATION

I have been an active buyer/seller on eBay since 2005. In all that time, all my business exchanges have been, surprisingly, amicable and satisfying.

That's over.

About two weeks ago, I sold the second of two guitars that I had purchased since Christmas. This guitar is a 000 size solid wood spruce top, Indian rosewood back and sides, manufactured in China (as it seems most goods are these days).

It didn't sell during the first month's posting and had just been re-posted when I began getting e mails from a gentleman in Australia who wanted to know if I would make an exception to my "no sales outside of the continental United States" rule.

I told him that I would as he was willing to pay all of the shipping costs that it would entail. He, of course, wanted to know what the shipping costs would be, so I packed the guitar for shipment, took it to the post office and got the exact cost.

When I got back to my office, I found an e mail from eBay congratulating me on the sale of the guitar. At first I thought it was from my Australian contact, but looking at the statement, I found that it had been bought by a Nick from Manhattan Beach, California.

I had to email the bad news to my Australian contact and then do the necessary shipping labels. Wanting to maintain my very good feedback on eBay, (100 per cent satisfaction from my customers of the past)I shipped through Fed Ex that same day as they have a late afternoon pick up that makes a difference in delivery time.

I shipped the guitar and was told that it would be delivered by friday. I immediately contacted the buyer, gave him the tracking number and estimated day of delivery.

I then checked the shipping progress daily and to my surprise it was delivered on thursday! What follows are the emails between the buyer and myself:

Hey! Congrats Nick. It looks like you will have the guitar in your hands by tonight. I know you will really like her. Hope to hear some kind words. Sent in some good feedback on you as a buyer.

Larry

On Jun 12, 2014, at 11:48 PM, Nicholas wrote:

larry,

did you or your tech bore out the A string bridge pin? b/c the A-bridge pin is wrapped in tape at the bottom to make it fit? Really?

Thanks,

Nicholas

On Jun 13, 2014, at 7:06 AM, Larry Heagle wrote:

Nick: I am very sorry . . . I forgot that. Gordy Bischoff (my tech) pointed that defect out to me while installing the pick guard. He DID NOT do any boring. That is the way the guitar was manufactured. It would make absolutely no sense for a qualified Martin repairman to "bore out the A string bridge pin."

Larry

On Jun 13, 2014, at 9:54 AM, Nicholas wrote:

I feel like a manufacturing defect is something that you don't forget to mention when selling.

Sent from my iPhone

On Fri, Jun 13, 2014 at 8:26 AM, Larry Heagle wrote:
Nick: Again, I apologize for not remembering that defect. I assure you that this was not intentional. Please check my record as a seller on ebay and you will see that I have an impeccable record. If you are unhappy because of this, I will gladly make an exception, take the guitar back and resell it, being certain to mention this defect. I already have a buyer who missed getting it because you bought it. Lee lives in South Australia and was willing to pay any and all shipping costs. I had taken the packed guitar in, gotten the estimate on shipping, and was about to e mail him when I found your sold email.

Again, if you feel this is a manufacturing defect so horrendous, please feel free to ship the guitar back to me. I want my customers to be satisfied. I appreciate the fact that finding the taped pin was an obvious disappointment. However, I feel that if you do wish to return it, shipping costs are your responsibility as I already shipped it to you at my expense..

It just occurred to me that perhaps the reason the pin is loose fitting is not because the hole was rebored but that they used a different size pin. Here's another alternative. If you would like to replace that pin with one that matches the others but fits snugly, do so and send me the bill for the pin.

Let me know what you want to do.

Larry

On Fri, Jun 13, 2014 at 9:04 AM, nicholas wrote:
Would you be willing to replace the bridge pins?

http://www.stewmac.com/Hardware_and_Parts/Endpins_and_Bridge_Pins/Bone_Bridge_Pins.html

Slotted, black dot $28.40?

Thanks,

Nick

On Jun 13, 2014, at 8:34 PM, nicholas cesnik wrote:

Larry? thoughts? bridge pins?

Thanks,

Nicholas

On Jun 13, 2014, at 11:23 PM, Larry Heagle wrote:

NIck: I have been on the road all day - it is now after 1 AM and I am finally back home. I think I already told you that I am willing to replace the faulty bridge pin. This would remedy the problem. I think it takes some pretty big balls to want me to replace the entire set with the most expensive set of pins you could find. You are obviously an opportunist. So here's the deal. First you post some really complimentary feedback on my behalf. If and when I see it posted on line, I will send you the $28.40 for your high end pins. Then, my friend, I am done with you.

Larry

On Jun 14, 2014, at 10:59 AM, Nicholas wrote:

That my friend is what I don't need. I said would you not please do this or I will not leave good feedback. It's not about the $28. I couldn't care less about buying bridge pins. I'm upset about the fact that I feel duped. Sure I love the guitar and it sounds great bit at the end of the day you advertised it as in great conditions without any manufacturing defects. I feel that you are the opportunist.

Sent from my iPhone

Nick: I don't know what else I can do to convince you that I am an honest seller. Did you look at my feed back? Does it make me look like I am an opportunist? I am really sorry that you feel duped. I will tell you again . . . the bridge pin being a loose fit was such a minor defect to me that I forgot about it. I would swear an oath on that in court! I HONESTLY FORGOT! I certainly would NEVER purposely mislead a buyer. Again, check my record.

I apologize for losing my temper with you this early morning. I had been driving, doing a show, and driving all day and was really really tired. How can we reasonably settle this? Here is what I think. I will write a check for $28.40 for the pins that you want and mail it to :

Nick ******
**** Walnut Avenue
Manhattan Beach, California 90266

If you want it sent to a different address, please let me know.

I can see that it would be much easier to replace the entire set than to try to find just one pin with which to replace it. To me, The most important aspect of this is that I don't want you to associate unpleasant memories with your guitar. I am a guitarist (of sorts) and have been since I was 13 years old. I know that your guitar is more than an inanimate piece of wood to you. It is a part of you and if you are like me, a favorite guitar goes with you wherever you go.

Unless I hear differently, I will put the check in the mail yet today.

Larry

Larry -

Don't sweat it. We all get worked up from time to time, you probably just need a lite more time on the 6 string ;-). I am aware of your feed back and I provided you with a like-kind review as well. Like I said, I just wanted to ask and see your response. No need to send the check. I do love the guitar and unfortunately needed to have this discussion out before I could be okay with everything. Be well and keep on playing.

Nick

________________________________________

I forwarded all these emails to my brother, Father John Heagle just to hear his reaction. Here's what he had to say about the whole matter:

Larry,

Well, first the more important: Happy Father's Day to you!

And, yes, your 'good friend', Nick, is an embodiment of the entitled male connoisseur in the good ol' US of A, who is always quick to criticize, taken up wholly with his own needs, and damn proud of it besides. It also mirrors the political chaos and stalemate that this country is now in. It's all about competing, winning, demolishing, demeaning, and de-evolving. And as you correctly point out, we have bizarre parallels for all this in the Holy Roman Catholic Church. Tea Party Catholics? This is ironic at best and absurd at worst. This group of weirdos have little or nothing in common with the original Tea Party, and they are even less grounded in the authentic Catholic tradition of social justice. In reality they are much more devoted to Ayn Rand than to the historical Jesus.

It's many of the same group who now want to fight another war in Iraq. More shock and awe. Just what the world needs most.

I remember when we used to tell Mother Alice that she shouldn't watch more than an hour of national and international news a day, because she internalized it all too much and then ruminated about it all night. I'm beginning to think that I'd better take that advice seriously myself.

So, you go bust your rear end in volunteer performing in Faribault, and come home to snarky emails.

Are we having fun yet!?

brother john

Every day I am thankful to have a big brother who is so intelligent and articulate! And to have a wife like Kim, who helped calm me by saying: "Look at all the years you have been selling on eBsy and never had any trouble with buyers at all."

So . . . to all of you out there in eBay sales land, realize from time to time that you may be stepping in doodoo once in a while.