Super-ness

My Team!

This has been a particularly difficult presidential cycle for conservatives like myself who of necessity participate in Republican politics. Given the deepest, most talented field of candidates the party has ever fielded in a primary, a plurality of the voters so far (including many non-Republicans who are allowed to vote in open primaries) have opted for a lifelong progressive Democrat who couldn't be doing more to help elect black-eyed skank Hillary Clinton if he tried (and I'm still not convinced that isn't his real agenda anyway).

At this point, the best hope of getting a conservative candidate to represent the party is a contested convention, which would almost certainly see delegates abandon asshat Donald Trump in droves after the first ballot. If that should unfold, Texas Senator Ted Cruz has a strong chance of prevailing, and it is clear that he intends to fight hard in the days ahead.

Yesterday, Cruz made my day by selecting California business executive and former candidate Carly Fiorina to be his running mate should he win the nomination.

Carly and Ted at the announcement yesterday in Indianapolis

Since I have been a Fiorina fan from the outset (I contributed to her campaign multiple times, and caucused for her in February), I couldn't be more pleased. At the very least, I can wholeheartedly support this ticket without a hint of shame or embarrassment. That matters a lot to me...

"Plus, she wears red a lot..."

Yes, she does, but that's just a side benefit...

Super

Today is National Superhero Day. When I was a kid I was really into that sort of thing, naturally. My parents encouraged my brothers and I to be avid readers, and of course that included comic books. Not all of the comics we liked were superhero comics, but many were. And we liked both Marvel and DC titles.

In the DC Comics pantheon, my personal favorite was Green Lantern...

...and, like many skinny, geeky kids
I was very fond of Marvel's superstar Spider-Man. 'Nuff said!













Of course, we should never forget who the real superheroes are in this world...

Marines landing at Inchon, Korea in 1950

Enough, Already

Simply the best

Like any other sentient mammal,
I much preferred the taste of Hydrox cookies to Oreos as a kid.
It was never a close call.

No one was happier than I was to see a revival of the Hydrox cookie, but now it appears that the owner
of the brand has decided to make a political statement with the iconic treat. Ridiculous.



Just let me eat my cookies in peace, asshole. The urge to make absolutely everything in this world political should be vigorously resisted.

"'Sentient,' really? Seems like a stretch..."

I have my moments...

Pass, Thanks

From the incisive pen of Michael Ramirez, whose editorial cartoons you should read often, as I do.

Until Next Time...

In the development of my personal musical preferences, not many years can top 1969 for releases that played a significant role. Spanning the second semester of my sophomore year of high school through the first semester of my junior year, that time period included Cream's final studio album Goodbye, Free's debut album Tons of Sobs, The Who's ground-breaking "rock opera" Tommy, Crosby, Stills, & Nash's eponymous debut, Jethro Tull's Stand Up, The Band's eponymous debut, The Beatles' legendary Abbey Road, Willy and the Poor Boys by Creedence Clearwater Revival, and The Rolling Stones' epic Let It Bleed.

And that's just scratching the surface, believe me. Songs from those albums still get regular play in my iTunes playlists, and to a great extent my fondness for blues and blues-rock in particular was born that year.

With so much happening musically, it would have been easy for me to overlook new artists who weren't getting a lot of radio airplay, but because my social life was basically non-existent at that time I invested a lot of energy in my music collection. That's how
I happened across a group I'd never heard of before, Chicago Transit Authority.

 On April 28, 1969 the band released its eponymous first album, Chicago Transit Authority, a double album. I bought it because it had a special introductory price, and seemed like a good value. I turned out to be absolutely right about that.

At first, the pop/rock audience wasn't sure what to make of this music. The band didn't sound like anyone else at the time, certainly not like any of the acts that were topping the charts that year. I was hooked immediately, but had a tough time convincing many of my friends to take them seriously.

The album had a rather unusual commercial history, remaining on the Billboard 200 Albums chart for more than three years after its release, yet never reaching the No. 1 spot on that chart (it peaked at No. 17). It also never produced any hit singles, although both "Beginnings" and "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" made the Top 10 eventually, in the wake of the band's wildly successful second album.

Today's send-off is the 2002 remastered version of "Beginnings." I still get goosebumps from Lee Loughnane's trumpet solo near the end. Enjoy...