Hammer Mill Days

One-two-three, one-two-three, JUMP-two-three, one-two-three... Good, good - you've got it! Now try it again, from the top. And a-one-two-three... Greetings from the abandoned Cheney Hammer Mill, a combination squat house, launch pad, recording studio, interstellar refugee center, and - now - dance studio! You heard me right. Sure, sure - no one in Big Green can dance his way out of a paper bag; this much is true. But needs dictate actions in this corner of the universe as well as in yours, and damn it, we need money to get this tour off the ground. So..... dance lessons. Administered by Marvin (my personal robot assistant), as it happens. Oh, sure, laugh. You may laugh, but actually... he's not as bad a dancer as you might imagine. In fact, he's far worse than that. To observe that he is mechanical is less than surprising, I suppose. Actually, he's kind of mechanical even for a robot. (He doesn't do that robot dance any justice.) Fortunately, we live in an area wh...

President Obama delivered his second address to the nation this past Tuesday, this time on the subject of the "end of combat operations" in Iraq. Here - unsolicited by anyone - are my comments: Turn the page. President Obama said it was time to "turn the page" on the War in Iraq. Um... not so fast, Mr. President. I know you are obsessed with looking ahead rather than behind, but if everyone took that attitude (say, local law enforcement), no one would be held accountable for anything. This war was caused by people in our own country - people in positions of authority. Your administration has neglected to even examine the record of those responsible for this disaster. This has emboldened them to the point where they regularly flaunt their guilt in public, secure in the knowledge that they will never pay a price for what they did. Good intentions? At one point, the president said this: This afternoon, I spoke to former President George W. Bush. It's well known t...