Hammer Mill Days

I know what you're all saying out there. You're saying, "Where's my socks?" and "The paper's late again this morning. Stupid paper carrier!" and "You'll eat it and like it!" Stuff like that. Am I right? Well, right or wrong, I like to think that you've been wondering about a couple of things with regard to the band Big Green, denizens of the abandoned Cheney Hammer Mill and the alien intelligence behind this skimpy little blog. One is, well, when the hell are we going to release another album? I mean, it's been nearly 18 months since we put out Cowboy Scat: Songs in the Key of Rick . What the hell are we playing at, anyway? Or maybe you're uttering that same thought in Swahili. It could be anything! Then there's the performance question. I know, I know ... we've been extremely remiss in this area. Big Green hasn't performed in front of a terrestrial audience in uncounted thousands of years. Sure, we've p...

The president gave a speech this week about what labels to use in the prosecution of our now 14 year old war on terror. Apparently prompted by the usual bating about his supposed flaccidness in attacking radical Muslims, Obama attempted to frame the discussion in a way similar to though a bit more nuanced than George W. Bush – we’re fighting terrorists who seek the legitimacy of a major religion while violating its central tenets. We need the cooperation of Muslims, not their enmity. They’re not religious leaders; they’re terrorists. Okay, that’s all good. But as the president lists all of the horrors Islamic extremists have unleashed onto the world, there’s one question that begs to be asked: is ISIS responsible for more death than we are? How many Muslims have we dispatched over the last 15 years? Sure, ISIS is a bunch of crackheads, thugs, and killers. But they are bush league next to us. As all of these war-fevered pundits and Congresspeople run around fulminating over the “death...