"YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN"

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POW * MIA :
"You Are Not Forgotten"
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AN ENORMOUS CRIME :
The Definitive Account Of American POWs
Abandoned In Southeast Asia
By Bill Hendon and Elizabeth Stewart
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In honor of all those whom Uncle Sam
deliberately left behind.
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~ "Lonesome Dogg" McD-Fens

YE OLDE COMMENT POLICY: All comments, pro and con, are welcome. However, ad hominem attacks and disrespectful epithets will not be tolerated (read: "posted"). After all, this isn’t Amazon.com, so I don’t have to put up with that kind of bovine excrement.
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IT WAS A RAINY NIGHT IN NINETEEN EIGHTY-EIGHT

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[From the STMcC archive; September 4, 2004]

*This review is now dedicated to my buddy Arlee Bird – a cat who knows his Jazz*
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IT WAS A RAINY NIGHT IN NINETEEN EIGHTY-EIGHT . . . and back East, the Los Angeles underDOdGers were performing miracles - publicly humiliating the cocky New York Mets. I was working the night watch in the City Of Angels. Angels my patoot! I was parked on a dark side street watching the rain pelt my windshield and listening to that cat blow his alto. It gave great meaning to the rain. His notes bruised my heart like a set of brass knuckles to the jaw! "That was RICHIE COLE with 'IF EVER I WOULD LEAVE YOU' from his latest release, SIGNATURE," the whiskey-voiced disc jockey told me over the thunder clap.

I immediately turned the engine over and spun a U-turn. Fishtailing on the slick street, I nearly flattened a drenched and darting tomcat. I could see in his eyes that we were both searching for the same thing: redemption. Or just a warm place to spend this cold night. I negotiated the sedan through the neon light-splashed concrete jungle boulevards.

There was an empty parking space right in front of the record shop. They must have expected me. I pulled my fedora down and the collar on my trench coat up as I approached the clerk. "John Doe," I said. He reached under the counter and came up with a battered black briefcase. "I know, Mr. Doe. Now blow!" he said, pushing the briefcase at me. The rain had let up and I sped home.

Making sure that I had not been followed, I climbed the dilapidated staircase to my dark, shabby apartment. I poured a tumbler of amber tonic, and lit a cigarette before removing the compact disc from the briefcase. I pushed 'Track Seven - Repeat' and sat back. With the beginning of the piano intro, lightning flashed and the rain resumed right on cue. The cool cat, Cole, hit that cascading note in the very same moment that the bourbon hit my bloodstream.

There was nothing left to do now but wait. The dame was late. As usual. But I knew she would be here soon enough. We'd see a REAL storm then!

And that's the true story of how I came by Richie Cole's album ‘SIGNATURE’. Give or take a cigarette and a tomcat or two.

In the liner notes of this underrated little gem, our host tells us that "This album was composed and arranged in every airport bar from San Francisco to Juneau to New York to Helsinki to Kajanni to Copenhagen to Los Angeles to Auckland to Brisbane to Darwin to Gove to Perth to Melbourne to Sydney to Papeete and back..."

Right away you know this is going to be good because nothing bad ever came out of an airport bar (except a few hangovers maybe, but those were deserved).

This collection is for those who like their Jazz with pizazz! The highlights for me are SUNDAY IN NEW YORK with its snappy guitar and piano solos by Vic Juris and Tee Carson; the Pacific sea breeze-inflected, steel drum-laced TRADE WINDS (which could just as easily have been titled SUNDAY ON VENICE BEACH); and the nearly equally breezy RAINBOW LADY.

The real head-turner, however, is the emotionally heartwrenching and melodically gorgeous IF EVER I WOULD LEAVE YOU. It remains one of my very favorite instrumentals, and I defy you to find a more sublime soundtrack for a rain-soaked evening. That's what sold me on it! (And yes, I really did buy ‘SIGNATURE’ within 10 minutes of hearing IF EVER I WOULD LEAVE YOU played on my car radio!)

The odd man out is the two and a half minute AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL. I've never figured out why this piece was tacked on as a coda. My suspicion has always been that Mr. Cole's final flight was delayed and he was forced to wait just one scotch and soda too long at the airport bar. Oh well, no harm done. It was nothing that three Excedrin wouldn't cure.

~ Stephen T. McCarthy

YE OLDE COMMENT POLICY: All comments, pro and con, are welcome. However, ad hominem attacks and disrespectful epithets will not be tolerated (read: "posted"). After all, this isn’t Amazon.com, so I don’t have to put up with that kind of bovine excrement.
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COMPARATIVE STUPIDITY: AIRHEADZONANS VS. CHICAGO CUBS FANS

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While exiting our house many weeks ago, my brother Nappy and I walked to the cars parked in our driveway when I noticed the sign in the yard of our neighbor across the street:
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I pointed it out to my Brother and said, “I don’t know yet what Proposition 100 is, but I can guarantee you that after studying it, I will be going to the polls to vote NO on it”.

Here’s the deal: Having lived in this house since 2002, I’ve noticed that every time that particular neighbor places a political sign in his yard, it’s always endorsing the opposite of my view. My neighbor is a Liberal, you see, and I’m a Constitutionalist, which by definition is a “conservative”. For all practical purposes, I really don’t need to study the issues in order to ensure that I’m remaining true to my political viewpoint; I can just look to see how the Liberal across the street from me is voting and vote 180 degrees the other way.

On May 18th, we citizens of Airheadzona will go to the polls and approve or disapprove of Prop. 100. Here is what is at stake:

PROPOSITION 100

A “yes” vote shall have the effect of temporarily adding one cent per dollar to the transaction privilege (sales) and use tax for three years for the purpose of funding primary and secondary education, health and human services and public safety.

A “no” vote shall have the effect of keeping the transaction privilege (sales) and use taxes at their current rates.

As is the case with most taxes, we’re being promised that it’s “temporary” and it’s “for the children”. Yeah, uh-huh, sure. Heard that one before, Buster!

Unfortunately, despite the “No” votes from Nappy and Yours Truly, this Proposition will pass because of the general stupidity of Airheadzonans in Airheadzona where the state motto is: "Give me your dimwits, your dimbulbs, your mental defective airheads yearning to master the art of simultaneously watching TV and chewing gum.”

In looking through the Ballot Proposition Guide, I found where Steve Voeller, President of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club, stated the “No” argument succinctly and well:

No on Proposition 100.
Are taxes in Arizona too low?
That’s the question to ask before you cast your vote on Prop. 100, which raises Arizona’s sales tax rate by 17.8 percent. Arizona’s budget problem is due to excessive spending, not because taxes are too low.

In fact, when combined with local sales taxes, Arizona’s average statewide sales tax rate is already the 9th highest in the country. If Prop. 100 passes, we will have the 3rd highest combined rate in the country behind only Tennessee and California (according to the Tax Foundation). Raising taxes in recession just destroys jobs, over 14,000 according to a study by the Goldwater Institute. We need tax policies that help create jobs not destroy them.

When the economy was thriving just a few years ago, Arizona’s budget exploded. After double-digit increases in revenues, politicians responded with double-digit increases in spending. Now that the economy has tanked and government is essentially broke, politicians want to tax us more to bail them out. Does this make sense?

We need to use this historic budget crisis to make cuts in spending, not raise taxes. We need to restructure government. Make it leaner, smaller, and more efficient. This won’t happen with a tax increase.
Please vote No on Proposition 100.

But like I said, the Airheadzonans will vote themselves a tax increase on May 18th like the good little Marxist doggies they’ve been conditioned to be.

Will Arizona education suffer if we don’t pay more? How could it? We already put more taxpayer money into education than previous generations did and you can see the results by clicking on the link I will provide at the bottom of this Blog Bit. [See below: Airheadzona: It’s A State Of Stupidity (or, Iz U Smarter’n A Arizona High Skool Student?)] Is another penny per dollar tax gonna fix the bloody, dumbed-down education mess here in Arizona? Pshaw!

Oh, but it’s not just “for the children”; it's for “public safety”, too?

The Friday before last, I was driving along Grand Avenue when I came upon about 40 joggers running to raise money for some cause. I couldn’t read their T-shirts but they probably said something like “Run For The Cure Of Erectile Dysfunction” or something like that. Heck, maybe it was even for cancer research and they hoped that the $2,500 they were raising will turn out to be the final straw that breaks the cancer’s back.

But whatever it was for, the group evidently required the services of about five Phoenix motorcycle cops to escort them safely through the public streets.

Yeah, that’s what I’m paying my taxes for, so a gang of motorcycle cops can ride alongside a bunch of running teenagers in a street paid for by the taxes of Phoenix motorists. Why couldn’t the kids have just run around Camelback Mountain or a Phoenix park a few times, rather than occupying a lane of traffic on a busy thoroughfare in the middle of the day? Well, the answer is probably that had they run around Camelback Mountain or in a park instead of on Grand Avenue then the motorcycle cops wouldn’t have been earning taxpayer-provided wages to ride around slowly on their shiny bikes with their pretty lights flashing. (I’ll betcha those cops were even making inflated overtime wages for this very important public service [cough!-cough!] that they provided.)

Hell, No! No more money for cops and their toys! I’m fed up with it!

Of course, I’m not implying that all of this nation’s dimwits, dimbulbs, and mental defective airheads are confined to Arizona. Oh, no! . . .

This comes from the April 30th edition of 'The Airheadzona Repugnant' newspaper:

CHICAGO -- A boisterous group of roughly 50 people gathered outside Wrigley Field Thursday afternoon to protest Arizona’s new immigration law and call for a boycott of Arizona businesses, including the Diamondbacks, who are in town for a four-game series with the Chicago Cubs.

Chanting and yelling into megaphones just below Wrigley’s historic marquee, protesters were saying, “Boycott Arizona”, “Reform not racism”, and “Shame on Arizona”.
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Among the signs on display was one comparing Arizona to Nazi Germany, and another with a hooded Ku KLux Klansman replacing the star in Arizona’s state flag.

Chicago resident Paul D’Amata said he was there to go to the game but decided he couldn’t support the Diamondbacks in good conscience, instead ripping up his ticket in front of a large cadre of reporters.

I have to two comments to make in reply to this:

#1. Yo! Paul D’Amata, have you ever heard the expression, “Just to spite the cheating circus, I bought two tickets but wouldn’t go in!”? That’s you, buddy. Oooh, you got ‘em REAL GOOD! It must have really burned them up that you gave them your money but then refused to occupy the seat you paid for. Way to go, Cubs fan! That’s outsmarting them.

#2. As for the rest of you Chicago protesters: the next time the Arizona Diamondbacks come to town, take those megaphones and stick ‘em up your Cubbyholes!

~ Stephen T. McCarthy

LINK:
AIRHEADZONA: IT'S A STATE OF STUPIDITY (or, Iz U Smarter'n A Arizona High Skool Student?)

YE OLDE COMMENT POLICY: All comments, pro and con, are welcome. However, ad hominem attacks and disrespectful epithets will not be tolerated (read: "posted"). After all, this isn’t Amazon.com, so I don’t have to put up with that kind of bovine excrement.
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AMERICAN PATRIOT, MARTYR, AND FAITHFUL SERVANT

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SENATOR JOSEPH R. McCARTHY
"American Patriot And Martyr"
November 14, 1908 -- May 2, 1957

Today, we are engaged in a final, all-out battle between communistic atheism and Christianity.
~ Senator Joseph McCarthy

Whenever I ask those who object to my methods to name the objectionable methods, again I hear parroted back to me the Communist Daily Worker stock phrase, irresponsible charges and smearing innocent people. But as often as I have asked for the name of a single innocent person who has been smeared or irresponsibly charged, nothing but silence answers.
~ Senator Joseph McCarthy
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I have never seen such a shocking exhibition of distorted reporting and reportorial untruth, as I witnessed throughout the coverage of the Army-McCarthy hearings. It was a journalistic lynching party, spurred on by powerful and frightened groups, who were in for the kill. The objective was to discredit a man whom they feared as much as death itself. … And the same was true of the members of the Congress, particularly the members of the United States Senate, who were stampeded into passing judgment on him.

Never, in 35 years of reporting, have I seen such an organized lynching as was given to the junior Senator from Wisconsin, and I have no hesitancy in sitting here at this microphone and saying so, forever and forever.
~ Fulton Lewis, Jr.
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Who was Joe McCarthy? He led the Fight for America. He lost. Which means that you and I lost.

The great commandments of Communism are: Thou shalt hate God, and thy neighbor as thyself.

You can imagine the approaches that must have been made to McCarthy. How many times do you suppose he was taken up on the mountain top and shown the kingdoms of the earth and promised them in return for just letting up on Communism? They probably wouldn’t have wasted much time threatening him, but they would have promised him anything. No deal. … Joe McCarthy never sold out.

Many if not all of those who destroyed McCarthy KNEW that he was a good man. Indeed, that was the reason why he was destroyed –- he was too fearless to be intimidated, too innocent to be corrupted, too charismatically gifted to be ignored.

The restoration of McCarthy … is a necessary part of the restoration of America, for if we have not the national character to repent of the injustice we did him, nor … the intelligence to see that he was right, then it seems unlikely that we can or ought to survive.
~ Medford Evans
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The deceased was a good man, and I have come here to bear this witness. I knew him, not too well, but well enough to testify. And about the hound dogs that kept snapping at him until he fell prostrate, I know everything there is to know. So here I am to deposit testimony, for a certain tomorrow of trial on an epoch of insane guile, an epoch in which Joe McCarthy was tarred and feathered by genteel Ivy Leaguers, by gracious ladies of Women Voters Clubs, and by noble princes of the press.

Joe McCarthy became the center of the century’s most scandalous fracas because he had the strength and the defects of organic innocence. When his day of destiny came, he looked around, innocently, saw the gargoyles of antichrist staring and sneering at him from everywhere, and innocently he reached out to crush them. …

There he came, from the heartland of America, a tenacious and quite ordinary politician; and in a sudden and lasting moment of recognition, he saw the central truth of his age; that his country, his faith, his civilization was at war with communism, war pure and simple. “This war will not end except by either victory or death for this civilization,” he said again and again. And it was this hot urgency which distinguished him from all jovial practitioners of the political trade. It is this hot sense of urgency which he, for a short moment of truth, forced upon his country. But… the country grew tired of the truth and of the man who kept shouting it, redundantly and, at the end, hoarsely. The country went to sleep again. And the man lay down and died.
~ William S. Schlamm

“Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”
~ Anonymous Woman
[writing in the McCarthy visitor’s book at Gawlor’s Funeral Home]

~ Stephen T. McCarthy

YE OLDE COMMENT POLICY: All comments, pro and con, are welcome. However, ad hominem attacks and disrespectful epithets will not be tolerated (read: "posted"). After all, this isn’t Amazon.com, so I don’t have to put up with that kind of bovine excrement.
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