I have to add another note on the NRA now that Mr. LaPierre made his speech. A personal note to Wayne LaPierre, CEO and Executive Vice President of the NRA—Mr. LaPierre, you are a clown, a shill, a stooge for the gun and munitions manufacturers in this country, and a pathetic example of a man who would sell his soul, and the lives of young children for profit and power. Your time is over. Your words remind me of those of the Tobacco executives that wanted us to believe cigarettes didn't cause cancer, or the White Supremacists and Politicians that wanted us to believe Afro-Americans did not deserve equality prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, or German citizens who did not want to believe Hitler meant to exterminate the Jews in WWII. Your words are anathema to any caring, intelligent adult who values the lives of school children, teachers and everyday people everywhere. And proposing more weapons on our streets and in our schools as the answer makes you just one more dangerous cowboy with no brains and no morals. The boys back at all the gun manufacturers must be sitting back throwing a few cold beers down and toasting you with the thought that "we gonna' sell a bunch'a guns now so everbody can feel safe!" You are a whore of the worst variety, and it is time we extricate you from our Political system. You are just one more rich bastard who will say and do anything to protect his little fiefdom and pile of money. Good people everywhere need to band together, call their legislators, and see to it that you and the NRA do not decide our public policy.

Guns, Murder and Madness

Somebody posted a moronic statement on Facebook yesterday referring to Timothy McVeigh, and that because he killed 168 people without a gun, "Murderers will murder with or without a gun." This came from somewhere called "Let's Make Fun of Liberals." I found this disgusting and abhorent. This logic is the same as saying that because hundreds of people drowned in a terrible accident on a ferry that sank, we should not co...

nsider having speed limits on our highways because "accidents will happen with or without a car." It is a specious argument that evades the senseless conditions that allowed the terrible events that led to these tragic deaths. The mental health of young boys with no support, coupled with lax gun laws that allow the sale of semi-automatic assault rifles with 100 round magazines and a mother who failed to ensure the guns were not available to her son. I am sickened by anyone that can argue in favor of these assault guns and large magazines when these massacres continue to plague us, and have now taken the lives of 20 children and the 7 adults trying to save them. The vast majority of Police forces Nationwide favor banning these assault weapons and their mega-magazines because they are first on the scene to deal with the carnage. If you hunt or want protection, handguns and single shot rifles are NOT in contention. The first ammedment provides for free speech, but we wisely do not allow people to yell fire in crowded public places for fear of the terrible consequences. The same is true of our second ammendment rights to bear arms. Keep your registered and legal handguns and hunting rifles, and let's ban the kind of gun that allows someone to kill 27 people in under five minutes, shooting some of them over ten times. NOTHING about the second ammendment sought to allow these types of weapons. And then let's have a discussion about locking guns in the home. And let's research the possibility of providing senors in the handles or triggers that can be keyed ONLY to the person that passed the waiting period and background check so only they can release the safety and fire the weapon. And then let's have a discussion about how we deal with a generation of violent video game burn-outs who are mentally and socially damaged to the point that this kind of grisly and sickening event can happen. And I hope I never see anyone post something about this tragic event that comes from something called "Let's Make Fun of Liberals" again. I don't find anything about any of this "fun." And if calling someone who wants to find a way to minimize or end the slaughter of little children a liberal, then fucking count me in, and be assured I will stand against the NRA and their "profit over children's lives" agenda. The America I believe in is better than this. And using the same old "liberal vs conservative" gun bullshit argument in the wake of this massacre of children just makes me want to puke. I refuse to take the same old gun rights bullshit from people too invested in firepower to see the death and carnage it creates.

Let's Talk Taxes

Seems to me, we need an overhaul of our tax code and strategy, not just a bump for the millionaire rate. Taxes, are just like the kitty in a poker game. Or they should be. You wanna play, you gotta pay. And it makes no difference what pile or lack thereof you are sitting on, you pay the kitty to participate in the possibility of winning.
Fair and simple taxation should be the order of the day. Certainly a progressive tax, in which the rate creeps up based on your overall earnings is the appropropriate method with the wide disparity of income levels we have in our cash rich country.

But I also agree that all, or nearly all should have a level they pay so no one can claim we simply let people off the hook. It seems to me that only those at the extreme low point on the income curve would escape paying anything. In my mind, this is somewhere between $5K and $10K annually. You, or your economist can pick the specific income point, beloe which you pay no taxes.

From there, we have a large number of hard working citizens, part timers, seniors, and unskilled labor that sits below $20K annually, but who can all pay something. It would seem an easy plan to come up with a flat pay scheme that would limit the pain, but ensure they pay into our collective American dream. Fix their tax at $200, or create a small scale, $8K, 12K, 15K 20K levels with $100, $200, $350, $500 flat payments. We should ensure they all pay something, but that it is fair and does not punish them as the low earners. Again, this would seem to be an easy task.

Over $20K annually, I think this becomes very easy. But first, we must fix the deduction merry-go-round and investment/capital gains fantasy. Two scenarios: 1) you are a bus driver in a major metropolitan area, working 48 hours per week, and barely breaking $50K annually. Your tax rate is 25%. 2) you are an investment banker who makes $250K salary plus commission and bonus income. As you have the ability to do so, you generally have $500K invested in the stock market, and you realize relatively large capital gains on this money each year. Your base tax rate is 34%, but you only pay 15% on your investment and capital gains income. The current rich guy/investor/congressman viewpoint is that if we don't give the investment banker a break on his investments, he and his other wealthy buddies won't invest and our economy will shrink. If this logic is correct, the bus driver wouldn't waste his time working his ass off only to make $50K a year, and our transportation system will come to a halt. Neither is true.

First, tell me where else will the banker find the kind of returns on his money that the stock market or other investment opportunites offer him? Putting it in his savings account at the bank? Buying baseball cards? No. if you look at the kind of money that can be made with large investment ability, even if his capital gains tax rate went up, it would still be the smart thing to invest it. And for those who want to shriek and wail that the money he used for his investment has already been taxed, how can we think of taxing it again at the same rate? Wow. Income from rich guy job, taxed at 34%, portion of income spent on stocks, which bring profit (income) from investment which is NEW INCOME, and should be taxed. Please, can we just for the moment deal in reality, and not a parallel universe where those with means make up new definitions for stuff we thought we knew about?

Now, what we are talking about is what is the goal of our tax system? Is it to provide a place for the fairly rich to get richer? Is it a big card game like Wall Street where those that play the game properly can make gazillion's of dollars because they had bazillions to start with? Is it an engine that can be aimed at varying industries or other endeavors to make them work better and oil the wheels of progress and profit to make things work better? No. No, and no.

Our tax system is a tangible payment that we as Americans make to ensure national security, a working infrastructure, court system, and political administration to run the workings of our government and ensure order. Once we started diddling the deductions, sheltering the income and providing tax dodges that were oh so legal, but maybe a little shady, we handed over our economy to the wealthy, powerful and politically connected. Do you really believe anyone making under $30K a year had a lot of pull with getting our current plethora of deductions and tax incentives implemented to cover his corporate jet? We must demand an end to this greedy profit grab which has severely damaged the middle class. And how do we do that, you ask?

I'll tell you how. We eliminate, that's right, eliminate — "that starts with T and that rhymes with P and that spells trouble," ALL DEDUCTONS save the mortgage on your primary home, and charitable deductions. And we put limits on those. Again, I hear the shrieking and gnashing of teeth that this will stall business development and profits and make us communist and the world will end and....bullshit! This will return the tax code to what it should be—a direct method of funding our government, shared by all but the lowest income individuals.

Now here is the good news — I refer you back to my comments, "I think this becomes very easy." Over $20K in income, without all the loopholes and tax havens and corporate Cayman Island Investment Schemes, we can now make three simple tax rate categories, and lower the overall percentage rate for each from what we pay now. If it were up to me, I would only lower it a little to bring the broadest amount of income, aimed at increasing it say, 20-25% over what it is now from these levels. So, again, get your own economist to work these percentages for you, but mine would be 15%, for income of $20K to $250K, 20% for $250K to $1M, and 25% over $1 Million. And remember, this would include all investment and capital gains income because it is, after all, income!

Now run along, get your friendly local economist, and work the numbers. This plan could work, and you could file your taxes on a post card at year end. And, it would have the lovely effect of raising tax revenues while lowering the percentages paid. Right now, we have these falsely inflated percentages, but if you are rich, your actual percentage is much lower than your tax bracket because you have all kinds of delicious ways of sheltering income. You know, so it will trickle down to us peons. What a load of shit. The American system of Capitalism is built on people having the freedom to build a business out of nothing, and with their hands and minds making it profiatble. We have for too long given in to the investment banker and wall street financier that what we really need is to float a few IPO's, grab some investment income, borrow some venture capital, sheiled oursleves from taxes, and watch our portfolio grow even if we have a mediocre product and lousy service. Greed is killing us, and if you wonder where that great American manufacturing engine went, it went up in smoke from the fire that companies like Bain Capitol built under American companies to squeeze profit from them as they disappeared. Our tax code rewards this kind of behavior, and it has to stop. We must learn again to compete on excellance, and conduct business with integrity.

In my mind, this is what Mr. Obama should be promoting; instead of leaving himself open to right-wing criticism that he is "re-distributing" wealth and stifling new business and jobs by raising taxes on the job makers. My plan doesn’t re-distribute" wealth, it cleans and simplifies the tax code for us all. How long have we heard about Romney's complaint from Republicans that "47% of Americans don't pay any tax?" Well let's fix that. Let's ensure that with the exception of under $5K in income, all Americans pay their fair share, and this includes those over $1 Million without sheltering them from the full tax that the rest of us are burdened with.

Isn't it better if we all pay, and all our tax brackets come down, the code is simplified, and we raise more income to fix our economy, our infrastructure, Medicare, Social Security and the deficit?

Now, lest you think I am naive, it will take the people of this great country, big and small, rich and poor, well known and obscure, to give this plan a chance of seeing the light of day. What I would like are concrete ideas of how to achieve this. Leave me a post and offer your thoughts.

Let the Mystery monkey go Free!

The monkey says it all. I have previously referred to the fact that none of us, myself included, are very far removed from our Simian roots. I recognize this fact every time I see one of those commercials where the guy is surrounded by chimps in a business office and they take nothing seriously. Or if I watch one of those "Trunk Monkey" videos on Youtube which leave me in tears from laughing so hard. But of course, that proves without doubt that I am laughing so hard because I identify with the monkeys, not the actors in the video. just recognizing this frees me to embrace the animal in me, and of course makes me want a banana or to go pee in the corner.

Now when I compare these revelations to the recent Political storm we just barely lived through, I feel much more like crying than laughing. It is all to clear that all of our so called "civilized" machinations are simply the same sentiments as those apes in "2001: A Space Odyssey" when they find the ability to pick up clubs and sticks and beat the other tribe silly, thereby winning the day.

Now don't misunderstand—I would have been happy to mimic this activity in the heat of the electorate battle and club people like Rush Limbaugh, Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney, Michelle bachman and Anne Coulter. It is just that on reflection I see clearly that our system is no better than a bunch of mountain gorillas going at it to establish the pecking order. Once the dust settles, we pretty much revert to the "every mammal to them selves" stance for four more years and hope somebody takes care of the details while we go back to scrounging food, liquor, tail and a new iPhone. You know, seeking more monkey sex.

And yes, for those of you who have weathered my high and mighty diatribes on facebook, where I stylistically and with great literary poise eviscerate my Republican counterparts, and generally flip a finger at all opinions I deem narrow minded and moronic, I am certainly a fundamental part of the problem, and enjoy fresh fruit and maniacal laughing as much as the next ape. But in my defense, I also tried very hard to make logical, studied arguments that I had researched so I could back my opinions up with real facts and figures so I could attain Alpha male status in the facebook tribal order. Well, at least in my local tribe.

But now, the battle has been won, and my choice was victorius. I can now hope and pray for peace and prosperity to return, so that I can once again afford to subscribe to Modern Drummer Magazine, and buy new shoes whenever I want. And as I now turn to pushing the powers to be to revamp our tax system so it is able to be understood by mere mortals, built to favor none and be affordable to all, I can't help but offer up a little chuckle, completely out of character for a wild mountain ape who would be beating his chest and shrieking loudly, that America has come to a point in it's demographics that allowed it to re-elect a Black man–a Harvard graduated, family guy soft talking kind of Black man with a distinctly suspicious middle name to the highest office in the land when the white country club types can't even figure out how he got there in the first place! I feel certain that the day after voting day in 2008 there was a hue and cry from gated communities and golf courses everywhere that sounded very close to..."Are you fucking kidding me?" And now, these same people believed in their narrow little white, upper and way-the-fuck upper ruling class homes across the land that the Mittster could not possibly lose to this guy that the Donald claimed was not an American citizen, did not actually graduate from Harvard and was intent on converting us all to the Socialistic Muslim wing of the Communist Atheist party. So yesterday, there once again rose a chorus of sound that might have been..."You have got ot be kidding me! Get my broker on the phone, NOW!" Ain't democracy grand? Now I am off to scratch my nuts in public, and spit fruit seeds on the sidewalk while cackling like Cheetah as I sneak through the night to find the place where they are keeping the hillsborough County Mystery monkey caged and free him to the Central Florida jungle once again!

I am Thankful to be a Fishhead

Thanksgiving week is upon us once again, and at first glance, it appears the only thing to give thanks for is having a full day off with family to cook a real meal, watch football and generally loll around.
But there is much more I am thankful for...
I am thankful for finally electing someone as President who will tell the truth and work to better us all.
And I am thankful that I still have a job, even if I am not making enough money to pay all my bills in one month. Which of course makes me thankful for retirement accounts, and extra stuff I can sell to people who do make enough money to pay their bills, though I will miss that guitar.
And I am thankful that I have three other guitars to comfort me in these lean times, because they make me money, they look very cool in the living room, and they make me feel rich beyond belief.
And I am thankful that my brother is having us over to his house, and that he is doing all the cooking, so my kitchen won't be all screwed up for weeks afterward. And yes, I don't clean up real often, so I am also thankful that I could give a shit if you think that is slothfull.
And I am thankful that in fact my brother is buying a turkey that is fully prepared and cooked because he is an absolutely dreadful chef, so the meal will be good, and my kitchen will still be clean.
And I am thankful that I have some of the most talented and seriously twisted friends to play music with in no less than 4 different groups over the holidays which means I can actually buy some Christmas presents and get paid to party and jam and eat free food and drink free liquor and make really loud but bitching noise with three guitars, a drumset with my new Swiss Paiste cymbals, and of course my treasured congas. So to those of you who thought being in the band in high school was nerdy, go fuck yourself.
And I am thankful that I am a Fishhead. And not just any Fishhead, but one of the founding members of the "Joe Willy, Neckbone and the Fishheads" Fishhead! It means I am certified by the Guild of Working Blues Musicians to sing about dirty stuff, marital discord, drunken and disorderly behavior and jailtime in front of anyone I want, get paid for it, and do it over a microphone at loud volume so they cannot miss the nasty words I am singing.
And I am thankful that lately, the only time I have been in a courthouse was for jury duty.
And I am thankful that my dog Dizzy is absolutley ecstatic if I just come through the front door, regardless of what time or day it is, or what mood I am in. In fact, if I am drunk, he is even happier and thinks it is really funny and we must be paying a new game if I start knocking stuff over. Of course this game can turn really bad if he gets spooked by something I do and he bolts out the front door as it is ususlly late at night and very dark and he is pitch black and intent on being as far aaway from the house as he can be in a New York minute.
And I am thankful that I work for a Ford dealership and not a GM dealer so that there is some chance I will still have a job after the first of the year.
And I am thankful that Sarah Palin has continued to prove just how crazy funny she is by pardoning a turkey and then giving an interview while two of the freed turkey's friends and probable family members are butchered and exsanguinated by being crammed in large funnels covered in the blood of all those who preceeded them directly behind Sarah while she discussed how lucky she was to be there. Makes you wonder if she even wastes her time cooking the turkey dinner on Thanksgiving, or just rips the live bird apart with her bare hands and eats the entrails and heart while still warm and pulsing before she heads out on the tundra to beat some baby seals and have monkey sex with a grizzly bear. What a girl!
And I am thankful that the Swedes are such good engineers so that my two 1993 Volvo's with over 400K miles between them both run and I can flip the bird to anybody who has to make a car payment.
And I am thankful that I live in a country that allows me to write this drivel without immediately being run in for any number of trumped up charges only to have my head cut off like one of Sara's turkeys.
And I am supremely thankful that I am not conflicted with traditional religious values that would make me crazy with guilt and rancor and a phantasmagorical belief that something happens after I am gone, because I absolutely hate to leave a party and I would be very pissed to die expecting some nirvana only to find a complete void. Especially if I had been getting up and getting dressed to be social and nice at church on Sunday mornings with people I found to be shallow and hypocritical when I could have been sleeping in and watching Meet the Press before football.
So, thanks to my friends, thanks to most of my family, and thanks to me.

The Blue Willy Trio...smokin!

This week, a new chapter in the saga of the Joe Willy Band as we do an unplugged Blues thang with just three of us at the local Pub. A little Vino, a little blues and always a tab to pay.

We will call ourselves "The Blue Willy Trio."

We are looking forward to cutting it up a little free and unplanned. We are using our lead guitar player, the lead singer and his harmonicas, and me on congas, guitar and vocals. As always, we will pull out of our ass whatever you will remain seated and listen to. If you attempt to leave, we will grovel and spin like good jesters and charlatans seeking your approval and tips. Yes, we are whores.

But Whores with a heart of gold. Whores who can play more than mere sexual acts of wonder and desire. We are Blues musicians.

Years ago, I played almost exclusively Rock and Roll. I thought Blues guys were too dark and down for me. But I remember the wise words of an old friend who was an awesome guitar player and unapolegetic whoredog who taught me much about life as a musician—"I ain't playing to make money, I'm playing to get laid." And get laid he did. And he played the raunchiest Blues I had ever heard, even though we were a Rock band. He had my full attention.

So for the last 15 years or so, I have grown into a Blues man who plays some Rock and Roll. And it's all good. I have learned to love and embrace our national treasure in the down home idiom of the Delta players and their big city counterparts.

So come on down some night to Tanner's Pub in the little hamlet of Wiener Haven, and hang out with the boys on stage playing a little Statesboro Blues, or Louisiana Blues, or Sweet Home Chicago. We'll get ya going, and the Blues will set ya free! But bring cash, and don't approach the band too closely, they are dangerous mens!

And with that, here's some words I wrote in a previous post that seems appropriate:

The Night Rag
The tequila is cold, & the bar will be smoking',
the women so hot, they're red, raw & choking.
Don't mess with the band, 'cause they kick & they bite,
Their sound is thick and it's sweet, and they're on for the night.
I'm ready for whatever, bring it all, bring it now—
the bands got no name, and the night sings through them now—

Drink me, eat me, dance & play on me son,
Don't stop till I'm gone, don't ease up on the fun.
Nothings covered, no one's safe, we're all scared of the night,
feel the heat, make it steam, lose yourself it's alright.
I'm running, I'm gunning, jump this miracle feat.
watch it slip, watch me fight, It's my time on this beat—
time goes out like a light—when it’s lost, it’s not cheap.
Can’t go quietly, or go soft, back into that night.

A good friend of mine recently wrote about her feelings regarding race. How we got here, where we were, and where we may go. She was very personal about her personal journey through southern bigotry and our journey along the white and black path to equality.
Through this journey, she spoke of her guilt just by being white, and how we all filter the world in our own way that makes reality as we know it. i tried to assure her that that guilt was not hers, but an "oily film we all wear."
But her words made many connections for me, and instigated deep philosophical thoughts (okay, only in comparison to say, Monday Night Football which I also have been thinking about as I get ready to leave work this fine Monday evening) about filters and reality and the mind.
It occurred to me that mostly we feel that what we see is the filter we use on the world, but I think that is wrong, or at least naive and overly simplistic. I think our entire body, and the world all around us—our hands and feet and limbs and hair and eyes and ears and skin and dirt and air and people and everything combine to absorb the entire realm of existence and universe that we are aware of, as if we are an infinitesimally small sponge deep in the middle of an infinite ocean. All that we take is delivered to our personal filter, the mind.
In this mind, the filtering occurs which defines and identifies our world to each of us uniquely. In this way, reality is only the synapses and electrical activity in our mind. Our mind is just the final stage of the filter which creates our reality. So as each galaxy is made up of millions of individual stars and their associated wave structures, energy and gravity, so are the millions of synapses in each brain.
This makes me think that it isn't what is "out" there that is important or real, it is what ONLY happens as a brief chemical and electrical event deep inside us that is real. All else is handed to us by what has come before our newest thoughts.
Now if this seems inconsequential or silly, I submit it is only because your internal reality is not as real as mine, or you are Sarah Palin. but seriously folks... The thought that we are effecting change does not seem as real to me as the thought that we are only "witnessing" what our collective nerve impulses have already absorbed and processed. Our entire existence and the construct we know as the universe could easily be a mass fabrication of minds processing incorrect initil data that us brought us to the wrong current conclusions.
And this is where I found this thought process so interesting. True revelation may only come when the universe we have created actually hands us new data that we have not had, that does not fit theoretically or physically with what we think we know. Walla! We are all really just nodes in an energy field in a storm in the void. Or, we are frog like creatures with magical abilities, pink skin and outrageous musical talent that do nothing but play Beatles music through the millennium.
Needless to say, this is a long walk from the state of race relations in this country. And I promise, I have not been drinking or imbibing anything that set me into an Alice in Wonderland stupor. I'm just saying!
So here's to hoping change can come from within and without, just like Mighty Quinn the Eskimo. Now if you expect me to parse the meaning(s) of an early Bob Dylan song, forget it. These mysteries will remain until the end of days!