Hammer Mill Days

Where do you plug this thing in again? Hmmm. That looks like a 220 outlet. Are you sure I won't blow my amp sky high? Okay, then I'll take your word for it. Now .... what's that funny smell? Oh, hi, dear readers. As you can see, I've decided to discontinue my internal exile to the shed in the courtyard of the Cheney Hammer Mill and return to our basement studio where all kinds of trouble are made. Hey, the summer's over, right? Time to stop wasting time on pointless pursuits and get back down to the serious business that has been the bedrock of Big Green since our founding: more pointless pursuits. Like songwriting and recording. And doing funny voices. Honking on kazoos. That sort of thing. Do I need to paint a picture? Good ... because I DON'T KNOW HOW. So things are happening. The leaves are turning red and yellow, for one thing. For another, we launched a new web site. Looks a hell of a lot like the old one, only with a new home page (see www.big-green....

John McCain was held as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for more than five years. That's a long stretch in a third world prison, particularly when it's in a country that's been under sustained withering attack from a superpower for longer than that. He was abused, and that was reprehensible - prisoners should not be maltreated or deliberately deprived of proper care, nutrition, etc. I am against mistreatment and torture regardless of who is being subjected to it, and McCain was far from the worst; just a cog in a genocidal war machine that he eventually came close to seeing as inappropriately applied in that conflict. And late in life, he admitted that the Iraq war had been a "mistake" and expressed regret for his part in bringing it about. Those are the two best things I can say about the late senior senator from Arizona. The fact is, he spent his entire political career pressing for war every time the opportunity arose; it was central to his brand. He simp...