Men Blogs (29,435)

I'm not sure why the Ricky Nelson song Travelin' Man popped into my head. For me, Sunday morning usually means 4 hours at the model aircraft field but we had rain, so I responded to a few customer emails, made some sketches for a client and did some errands.
The rain eased up in the afternoon and radar showed no immediate storms, so I took a quick trip to the flying field.
Since I was the only one there, I was able to get 9 flights that totaled more than an hour flight time... typically, when 8 to 10 guys show up on a Sunday, I only get 1 flight per hour.
Maybe I should rethink and fly in the afternoons. No lines, no waiting.

Back to the song... I can't get it out of my head right now, so I did a little research.
Throughout musical history, there were songwriters and artists who performed their songs. Why? Lots of reasons. some songwriters were older, perhaps their looks weren't marketable, so they would have a young handsome semi-talented performer who would become famous and both the songwriter and performer would get rich!

Travelin' Man was the perfect example. Written by singer-songwriter and record producer Jerry fuller who wrote the song with soul singer Sam Cooke in mind. As fate would have it, Cooke's manager wasn't impressed with the song and the demo passed into the hands of Ricky Nelson who recorded the song. Released in April 1961, it was on the 45 with Hello Mary Lou. Both songs were considered to be on the "A" side as many had an A and a B, this was a double A. Nelson was a success with Travelin' Man reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Short song with simple lyrics, it was about a world traveler who had a girlfriend in every port he visited. 2:24 in length. Probably like his women, he got in and got out!



Song credit: Jerry Fuller
I'm a travelin' man, I've made a lot of stops
All over the world
And in every part I own the heart
Of at least one lovely girl

I've a pretty señorita waiting for me
Down in old Mexico
If you're ever in Alaska stop and see
My cute little Eskimo

Oh, my sweet fräulein down in Berlin town
Makes my heart start to yearn
And my China doll down in old Hong Kong
Waits for my return

Pretty Polynesian baby over the sea
I remember the night
When we walked in the sands of the Waikiki
And I held you oh so tight

Oh, my sweet fräulein down in Berlin town
Makes my heart start to yearn
And my China doll down in old Hong Kong
Waits for my return

Pretty Polynesian baby over the sea
I remember the night
When we walked in the sands of the Waikiki
And I held you oh so tight

Oh, I'm a travelin' man
Yes, I'm a travelin' man
Yes, I'm a travelin' man
Oh, I'm a travelin' man

For the guitar geeks... the backup band wasn't actually playing the song and the guy with the Fender Telecaster smiled, but he didn't know the solo.

Miranda Devine
House Republicans issued a scathing report Wednesday exposing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s key role in the catastrophic security and intelligence failures that left the US Capitol vulnerable to a violent attack on January 6, 2021.

Days after Pelosi’s Jan. 6 select committee recommended insurrection charges against former president Donald Trump over the Capitol riot, Republicans have hit back with a counter-investigation apportioning blame for the internal security breakdown on Jan. 6 to Pelosi and a dysfunctional Capitol Police intelligence division.

“Leadership and law enforcement failures within the U.S. Capitol left the complex vulnerable on January 6, 2021,” says the report, which is based on a trove of texts and email messages, and testimony from Capitol Police leaders and rank-and-file officers.

House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving, who answered to Pelosi as one of three voting members of the Capitol Police Board, “succumbed to political pressures from the Office of Speaker Pelosi and House Democrat leadership,” was “compromised by politics and did not adequately prepare for violence at the Capitol.”

Pelosi and her staff “coordinated closely” with Irving on security plans for the Joint Session of Congress on Jan. 6, but Republicans were deliberately left out of “important discussions related to security.”

And, in an apparent attempt to hide from Republicans the fact that they were being excluded from discussions, Irving asked a senior Democratic staffer to “act surprised” when he sent “key information about plans for the Joint Session on Jan. 6, 2021, to him and his Republican counterpart.”

The staffer replied sardonically: “I’m startled!”

The report also claims that “staff within the House Sergeant at Arms office emailed Paul Irving that January 6th was Pelosi’s fault,” although it provides no evidence for the assertion.

When Irving was forced to resign after the riot, an email from an unnamed staffer in his office criticized Pelosi’s “knee-jerk reaction to yesterday’s unprecedented event” and described his resignation as “spectacularly unjust, unfair, and unwarranted. This is not your fault. Or [Capitol Police chief Steven] Sund’s fault.”

The Republicans responsible for the withering report — Jim Banks (R-IN), Jim Jordan (R-OH), Rodney Davis (R-IL), Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) and Troy Nehls (R-TX) — are the five congressmen originally nominated to sit on the Jan. 6 committee, until Pelosi vetoed Banks and Jordan. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy pulled the rest of his nominees in protest. Pelosi then installed two Never Trump Republican outcasts, Liz Cheney, and Adam Kinzinger.

Given Pelosi’s assiduous grooming of Cheney, no doubt it suited both their interests to focus the final Jan.6 committee report on Trump — and not on Pelosi’s culpability.

But now the Republicans Pelosi rejected have skewered her in their rival report, dredging up some of what she tried to hide, despite complaining of obstruction from the personnel she controls.
The report insinuates that the Speaker left the Capitol Police without backup on Jan. 6 because “widespread concern from Democratic leadership over ‘optics’ in the aftermath of the Summer 2020 ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests prevented early deployment of the National Guard.”

A day or two ago Hilary was a hurricane and weakened to a tropical storm as it crossed Baja and Southern California. Now the winds are less than 50 miles per hour but moving North at 23 miles per hour.
Heavy rains are expected and a flood watch in effect from Southern California, Nevada and Arizona, including parts of Oregon and Idaho.

Hilary is the first storm of its kind to hit the region since Nora in 1997.

Over the years, I've seen videos of waves pounding the shoreline where beach erosion and houses on stilts often collapse into the water. I'm sure this will happen again.

Nature Moods
***
- Vol. IX
( - )
Foreword.

"Nature blessing mankind
filling the earth with Water,
from tiniest springs
tinkling among rocks and ferns,
till the marvellous waterfalls
enchanting the eyes
of the watchers,
as much as the narrow shores
where the tides come and go,
inviting the seagulls to squeak
across horizons uniting the ocean
within the abode of dusk
mirroring colors,
- as above, so below; -
Only the Recklessness of men
drive to insanity a whole world
making use of envy and greed,
aside desires to conquer and rule,
unspeakable crimes,
abominations, deviances,
in which nations have to pay
the holiness of Water!.."


[ … ]


2023+ © Th3Mirr0r
Nature Moods - Vol. IX

There is a growing body of legal opinion that between his involvement and non-actiions, in the January 6 attempted coup and his statements about throwing out the US Constitution if elected President again (which is itself a tacit admission he recognizes he was not elected President in 2020) that Trump violated the provisions of Amendment 14, Section 3 of the US Constitution. Although it has been over 199 years since this clause was used to remove an elected Federal official from office or prevent their seeking one, it is still a very real part of the highest law in the United States.

The wording is:
"Section 3 Disqualification from Holding Office

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability."

Several Federal judges and State election officials are maintaining this precludes Donald Trump from ever again being placed on a ballot for office.

Nature Moods
***
- Vol. VIII
( - )
Foreword.

"Nature gives
plenty lands
to whole mankind,
The unelected, self-selected,
deviant rulers, deceive nations
in order to bind them all
to an ancient edict, -
a System of Slavery and Trade.
Thus, people bargain with tyrants,
following Blind Servitude.
Nature has Abundance,
people, bewildering redundance;"


[ … ]


2023+ © Th3Mirr0r
Nature Moods - Vol. VIII

Today at 15h15. UK time.

In Cardiff.



My prediction: Dragons: 28 Springboks: 46

Thoughts?

Nature Moods
***
- Vol. VII
( - )
Foreword.

"From the intelligence of men,
famous academies rising
for the study of nature,
in order to rule and govern; -
Yet, nature is wisest,
for it hides and covers
the lawlessness of mankind; -
The cemetery is the highest,
it governs above all
the inventions of men - "


[ … ]


2023+ © Th3Mirr0r
Nature Moods - Vol. VII

Rumors are beginning to spread (fueled by some new laws in Russia coupled with some announcements from Moscow) of a new mass mobilization of Russian men to occur in September. The new draft will include men up to age 65 and could possibly impact as many as one million Russian men..
We can view it as proof of Russia's desperation and inability of their army to hold the lines in Ukraine with their present strength. It is not clear how such a sweeping round up of males in Russia will effect production in Russia's factories.
The new changes and announcements indicate that the call up orders may arrive by paper OR by electronic media OR both. Announcements by Moscow indicate that when a name is chosen for activation Border Police will be among the first notified and then other legal agencies involved. When that is done then the notifications will be sent out. I
n short if you are Russian you may already have been secretly drafted, but won't know of it until you show up at a border crossing trying to leave the country, or get pulled over for a traffic stop, or go to a bank to get a loan, etc. At that time you will be told you have been called up and turned over to the military. Or maybe you will be one of the lucky ones who first learns of it by email, which is better than a couple of guys in uniform knocking at your door to give you a piece of paper to read as they drag you away.
It is such fun being Russian these days.