Blogs by Kalikiano Kalei
The past was once someone's present...
7/22/2014 4:42:09 PM
A few thoughts on historical reenactment and the human tendency to be unsatisfied with the present realities of an imperfect world, choosing instead to dwell in the past (so to speak). The present is always beset with difficulties, so it is a natural thing to fantasize about other eras, other lives and historical events (that have passed), but we often forget that the 'past' was once someone's 'present'...
Out of Space, Out of Time: Out of Ourselves
Once upon a time I regarded the various popular manifestations we see about us in America of ‘Historical Reenacting’ (AKA: Living History) as little more than a mildly aberrant expression of arrested puerile play-acting, since it struck me as bemusing, but also a bit unsettling, that erstwhile fully grown & mature (an assumption, merely for the sake of my argument) adults would enthusiastically affect the roles, mannerisms and behavior of individuals from another period or era.
At about the same time, I was myself avidly studying ethnicity and social culture of other societies, civilisations and national entities with more than casual enthusiasm. This was particularly true of Asian and Pacific Islander civilisations, areas wherein I was most drawn to the earliest and/or ancient or classical presentations of those cultures. It also flies in the face of the fact that I had found for some time medieval historical reenactment (such as was pioneered originally by the Society for Creative Anachronism, back in the late 50s) not just amusing, but grossly interesting as well.
In the event, however, I eventually found myself confronting the implicit contradictions not long ago and putting aside the sort of sneering disdain that I so often find myself preferentially affecting, forcing myself to take another hard look at the whole matter of historically reinterpreting history through play-acting the lives and interactions of other individuals from different eras and historical epochs. This process was aided, I’ve no doubt, by my having been drawn into a form of ‘historical reenactment’ that focuses on World War Two German Wehrmacht engagements (in this case specifically that of the German Reichsmarshall Hermann Goering’s branch of the Wehrmacht [‘armed forces’], the Luftwaffe).
It’s really quite easy to explain that particular attraction, fortunately, since I’ve been a life-long aviation person, having grown up near Edwards AFB in my youth during the 50s, and also have strong German (Bavarian) ethnic roots (on Mother’s side of the family), but another motive has been a dawning understanding of how radically censored Germany and its people have been, ever since the rise and fall of Hitler’s Third Reich…owing to the worst depredations of that regime directed towards exterminating the Jews. I gradually came to understand that that lingering, potent and amorphous enmity towards Germany (and all things German) stems directly from the political left (read: the many national permutations of Marxist-Leninism doctrine) on the one hand, aided and abetted by radical Judaism and the contemporary forces of Zionist political philosophy on the other. In other words, it is convenient to the aims & objectives of world Judaism and Zionists (and world-wide Communist sentiment) as an overall common theme to use Hitlerism as a convenient stigma to forever levy an unforgiving burden of guilt at all German ‘kultur’ and civilization, in perpetuity, as a direct consequence of the NSDAP’s genocidal persecution of Jews in the 30s and 40s.
In my own Luftwaffe historical reenactment involvement, I resolutely hew to the agreed understandings of my reenactment group (LARA, or Luftwaffe Aircrew Reenactors Association, a national [USA] entity with smaller outlying affiliates in other nations) that specifically disassociate the group from the political dogma of the Third Reich. That is, LARA is solely interested in recreating the experiential, functional nature of what it was like to be a member of the German Air Forces, engaged against the far superior Allied Powers in the 1930s and 40s. [LARA is not sympathetic to the various neo-Nazi groups that have sprung up after the war, nor to the so-called ‘skinhead’ radicals who DO strongly embrace the violent & virulent racist sentiments of Hitler’s Third Reich.]
Of course, the fact that LARA is an aviation group, first and foremost, is also significant here, as requisite backstory, in that most members are licensed pilots (both civilian and ex-military), who own and operate Luftwaffe warbirds and full-scale replica warbirds (fighter aircraft and other types flown by the German Air Force during WW2). Given that so many, many of those aircraft were destroyed or disposed of at the end of the war, it is a testament to LARA that it strives to preserve the masterful technological expression of German aviation science & technology from that era. Given the extreme cost required to do so, the aviation history community at large owes LARA a debt of some magnitude for helping keep that part of the immensely important history of Second World War aviation alive today.
If the above paragraphs seem highly tangential, please understand that these facts must be cited so as to refute the instant bias that those imbued with Zionist/Jewish and Communistic sentiments seek to levy on such activity. In truth, thanks largely to America’s alive and well political correctness social milieu, the tendency is to immediately lump all references to ANYTHING associated with wartime Germany together under the header of ‘Jewish defamation’ and anti-Jew activity and condemn them without further ado.
In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth, but in PC America (as we all know), the minute anyone or any group begins to discuss a topic associated with 30s/40s Germany, charges of Jewish genocidal sentiment take front & center, effectively silencing most who do not wish to be seen or felt to be prejudicial towards the Jewish people.
Fortunately for the sake of balanced public discussion and the historical accurate record, there are a few of us who are willing to brave that virulent storm of blindly vehement criticism and deal with a subject that far too many people immediately dismiss as a form of morbid ‘Nazism’.
Having so said, I should also add that in today’s highly reactive, knee-jerk American society, true intellectual reflection and analytical discussion has taken a back-seat to low-level emotion-mongering and mindless, incendiary innuendo anyway. In PC American society, as in the American justice system, FACTS and accurate, balanced understandings have similarly yielded pride of place to little more than an accusatory, highly emotional outcry.
That is, the mere fact that something vitriolic or controversial has been uttered is perceived by the vast majority of unthinking people as circumstantial bona fides evidence of its veracity. Thanks to today’s sensationalistic ‘infotainment media’, an accusation is as good as or better than a proven and incontestable fact; this is as true in popular culture as it is in legal matters. ‘Innocent’ until proven guilty’ has become perversely twisted into ‘Guilt by accusation’, a poisonous dynamic that has largely destroyed any possibility that reason and logic will prevail over hatefulness and imbalanced emotionalism…no matter what the venue or under what set of circumstances may obtain. For all that, we might as well be in France, where you are guilty until proven innocent under ancient Napoleonic Law.
Leaving the above explanations and rationalisations for a moment, it is interesting to briefly consider what it is that prompts so many people to involve themselves in activity focused on the reinterpretation of past events and history. Scholarly critics of contemporary historical reenactment quickly point out that such efforts are invariably inaccurate and not only not false interpretations of what has occurred in the past, but that by their very interpretative nature, they endanger any chance that actual history will be preserved untainted by elements of personal bias and sentiment. Such efforts are in fact strongly criticized by these same academics as being mere ‘historical reinterpretation’, not as ‘historical preservation’, and not, I might add, without substantial justification, since in so many cases despite careful study of existing histories, individually constructed interpretations of past history (in the ‘historical reenactment’ milieu) rely on purely subjective, highly personal confections of ‘…what it must have been like’, etc., etc.
While that is, in my opinion, largely true, it simultaneously begs a separate question: Why do so many people seek to escape (through ‘historical reenactment’) to another time, lifestyle, social norm or civilization? Are they unhappy with the present world, rotten to the core in so many ways as it gives evidence of being? Is the desire to ‘be someone else’ a psychological clue to some greater psychosocial mystery that is broadly based? What is it about ‘play acting’ that exerts such widespread appeal for so many in today’s American society? Is this tendency really an unconscious, inarticulate protest that the modern American consumer capitalism is grossly unsatisfying, spiritually vapid and ‘devoid’ of redemptive meaning?
It should be pointed out at this point that within the broad area of contemporary ‘historical reenactment’ (I shall refer to this as ‘HR’ from here on, for brevity) the majority of individuals embracing this form of recreational activity are almost uniformly of white, Anglo-Saxon ethnicity. Only in a few specific subsets of HR does one find a few members of a racial group other than Caucasian; examples are found to a modest extent in HR concerned with the American Revolution and also in the American Civil War (since Negros figured significantly in both of those wars), but when one comes to more modern HR eras such as WW2, they drop away dramatically. After all, WW2, like WW1, was a European war, involving socio-political/economic conflicts between predominantly Caucasian European peoples. The relatively insignificant numbers of non-European people (excluding the Japanese and Chinese, who fought with and against the Axis, respectively), such as French Colonial troops are noteworthy, but only tangentially (as enslaved subjects).
Although there are a few individuals of Japanese (and perhaps Chinese) ethnicity who are involved in modern HR activity, the primary HR enthusiasts tend to be British, American and to some lesser extent, of French and Italian origin. The two largest groups of reenactors are to be found in Anglo (British), American and German national contingents. Interestingly, in the last group, there seems to be perceivable attraction to the SS element of the Third Reich and I myself have noticed that an appreciable number who portray the various SS branches of the German Wehrmacht in HR tend to glorify or tacitly embrace the underlying NSDAP doctrines that that far more sinister Third Reich faction exemplified. In other words, one sometimes wonders if the stringent eschewing of political NSDAP doctrine groups such as LARA adhere to somehow falls appreciably away in HR groups that portray the Nazi SS.
Certainly, it is an irrefutable historical fact that the SS coordinated and carried out the massive, systemic genocidal persecutions of the Jews in the Second World War (under Heinrich Himmler, Rheinhard Heydrich, Adolf Eichmann and so many others in the highest levels of that organisation). Further, there is much that is undeniably sinister about the entire SS organization of the NSDAP, with its striking symbolisms and mythic Aryan Superiority precepts, such that perhaps it would draw those who are less inclined to reflect intelligently on the higher precepts and considerations of HR activity focused on the SS, and who in fact may be overtly inclined to those radical doctrinaire views themselves.
Adult play-acting fantasies in their many, many forms do, regardless of our best effort to deny any such thing, reflect and reveal certain nuances of the human psyche and certainly provide substantive clues to the nature of such participants in many palpable ways. Consider the near-pathological obsession among many more youthful members of American society today with comic book ‘super heroes’ and more recent ‘Animae’ forms of fantastical play-acting (not to mention so-called ‘Cos-play’). To be sure, sexual fantasies involving elaborate costuming and affectations in both gay and non-gay communities (S&M, et al) have certainly been around for many, many decades, stretching back so far as a hundred or more years. In almost every connection, it is virtually impossible to totally dissociate the psyche of a person from the affectations portrayed therein. I would not hesitate to extrapolate that dynamic into more seemingly innocuous forms of this adult play-acting (such as HR activity) activity and find no reason to feel that it does not translate smoothly in associate mechanisms.
If one admits all the foregoing evidence into a larger, far broader set of considerations, it becomes rather easy to understand that human nature, being the highly complex bio-psychogenetic entity that it is, constitutes a pervasively permissive, figurative stage upon which it is possible to apply some cogent analysis and attempt a rational understanding of what it is exactly about adult play-acting (of which modern HR is a notable part) that manifests itself in so many notable ways.
By way of my own example, in my own efforts to gain greater comprehensive understanding of the events and circumstances of the Second World War, both the events that led up to it, the events of the war-time period, as well as the direct consequences that obtained thereafter, I found myself responding in what I know is a highly characteristic personal mannerism: I read profoundly. This led to building up a library on virtually everything that had any bearing on the causes and consequences of that war, not a small nor inexpensive undertaking by any means, I can assure you.
The focus of this inquiry, hopefully for the purpose of better enabling me to portray a wartime German Luftwaffe character (hypothetical or actual), began with a concentrated study of Adolf Hitler himself, since it was he (and the so-called ‘Fuhrer prizip’, or ‘Fuhrer principle’) about which all NSDAP political philosophy revolved. It was only after the better part of an extensive reading campaign (of nearly 200 individual, different books) that I began to feel I was coming to some understanding of Hitler’s complexly nuanced character and the personalized Nazi political philosophy that he shaped.
What I found was not, perhaps, as startling as so many might anticipate, for in the end my conclusions are that Adolf Hitler was not explainable either as some infinitely evil, human incarnation of the Dark Forces of Satan or a mentally imbalanced lunatic that so many religiously inclined people tend to believe. He was not the agent of Hell, nor was he insane, or even the most brutal, violent figure in modern history (Stalin has that honor). Rather, he was a singularly unique human being who had the personal resources and personality dynamics to skillfully exploit very specific, extreme socio-economic conditions arising from the events of the First World War to achieve his prominent place as supreme dictator of the German People.
Hitler was certainly unique in being what he was, with a personality and makeup that more nearly favored the actor and artisan than the highly intellectual formulator of political doctrine or the raving megalomaniac. His rhetorical talents were both singular and inarguable, but sublimated within the basic human matrix of a sensitive, modestly gifted artist and dreamer, rather than linked to the criminally violent mind of a Ghengiz Khan; accordingly, those personal assets enabled him to capture the imagination of a nation of people themselves traditionally given to mythical superstitions and spirituality closer to that of the primitive Norsemen than to conventional Judeo-Christian religiosity. That Hitler was charismatic to an extreme (aided by a deliberate and intently cultivated effort to use those powers most effectively through carefully studied and contrived theatrical techniques) is a further factor of relevance. Had Hitler (possessed of definite, if not fully perfected artistic skills) succeeded in achieving acceptance into the formal higher Viennese curriculum of art studies, it is not impossible to imagine that save for a fluke of fate, history would have been remarkably different.
Be that as it all may be, one has to always, always bear in mind that we all, all of us, are human and neither more nor less ‘evil’ that any other one of us. Human beings have the capability to achieve the highest acts of brilliantly enlightened empathy, side-by-side with the concurrent capacity to engage in the most unthinkable atrocities. This unpredictable ambivalence we are all subject to is likely a manifestation of basic genetic science, an area that we are only barely scratching the surface of today, but suffice it to say that Hitler was no more ‘evil’ than another contemporary butcher (the Communist leader Joseph Stalin, who actually killed or was responsible for the deaths of at least 10 times as many deaths as Hitler has been credited with; the fact that Stalin was one of the victors of the war helped assure that that particular unfortunate fact would remain conveniently swept under the historical rug).
Then too, Hitler left the details of his genocidal intent to deal with the Jews to others (the SS, under Himmler, Heydrich, et al), a convenient collateral aspect of his policy of playing all of his powerful followers against each other…the so-called ‘working towards Hitler’ mechanism that characterizes the functional governmental bureaucracy of his regime…so as to protect his central, supreme authority from powerful schemers who desired to either share or wrest away his absolute power.
My reading project only then (after all of this research on Hitler) began to encompass the functional details and histories of the German Luftwaffe, but only after an almost equally comprehensive research into the Luftwaffe’s Chief, Reichsmarshall Herman Goering.
Stereotypically portrayed today by many as a vain, egotistical, pompous and somewhat ridiculous figure who suffered from substance addiction (Morphine), Goering was certainly all of those things to one degree or another…but underneath the posturing and exhibitionistic affect, Goering was actually a rather remarkably astute man. Assessed (by the Nuremberg Trials interrogators) to possess an IQ of roughly 138, Goering was a shrewd manager, manipulator and accomplished organizer, among other things. His highly colorful and extremely personable personality enabled him to gain the admiration and love of a great many of the German people (a status that remained strong, even after the Luftwaffe began to lose the air war to the Allies and succumb to Air-Vice Marshal Harris’ terror bombing of civilian cities). Goering’s part in formulating the form and function of the early Third Reich (late 30s) was also invaluable to the process of rearming Germany and expanding its economic growth…something most know little about today.
Strongly opposed to many of Hitler’s more ill-advised plans (most notably to the invasion of the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarosa), he nevertheless held Hitler in the highest regard to the very end and repeatedly failed to strongly voice his dissent at critical moments. Following his surrender to the Allies and during the subsequent show-trails in which he and the top figures of the Third Reich were famously prosecuted for erstwhile war crimes, Goering time and time again demonstrated his remarkable talent for affability, while remaining keenly incisive and brilliantly adroit (as numerous biographies have proven) in his rebuttal to the claims of the Allied lawyers. Goering, who remained heroically unafraid of certain death to the very end, ended up literally running the prosecution into the ground, putting on a rather amazing display of intelligent thought and fearless analysis of facts & circumstances. He uttered many notable statements (all of which have survived and which are well worth researching) about the ‘justness’ of the trials and summed the entire farce that Nuremberg is today regarded as in a single, memorable observation: “The victor will always be the judge, and the vanquished the accused.”
What the above demonstrates is the fact that Hitler and Goering, and all others in that regime as well, were in the end merely human beings who made policies and decisions like any other person would under the exceptional circumstances following the events of the early 1900s in Austria-Hungary; those who feel differently I can say with some confidence have never acquainted themselves fully with the biographies and historical accounts of the other key players in that conflict (FDR, Churchill, Stalin, etc.), who committed many egregious acts themselves. The fact that millions of innocent souls died as a consequence of Hitler’s regime is one of the chief tragedies of that era, but because Stalin survived the war as a victor, rather than as the disingenuously monstrous oppressor of his people that he actually was, the world today universally condemns Hitler’s failed Third Reich and conveniently overlooks the far greater and more heinous atrocities committed by Joseph Stalin in the persecution of his war against Germany. That’s simply the way history ends up, as Goering pointedly remarked. QED.
When the war ended in total disaster for Germany, the new Germany that arose from the ashes of the old, failed Reich, included a strong element of left-wing Socialistic sentiment (read: Communist inspired fellow-travelers and/or affiliates). As that new Germany took form, world-wide condemnation of the atrocities (committed by the SS against the Jews) by pro-Communists, substantially augmented by a near-equal condemnation of the regime by pro-Jewish sympathisers (and Zionists) resulted in today’s lingering and unforgiving condemnation of all things German. Today, the only universally politically correct attitude towards Germany parroted by most is comprised of parts of all of that broadly amorphous disapprobation, but has such profound support that no rational discussion, colloquy and/or analysis of the actual facts & events of that period are now possible, without the usual massive reactive cries of ‘racism’, genocide, and implicit accusative aspersions of pervasive, perpetual guilt against Germany and the Germans. It is against that highly emotional backdrop that individuals such as myself, who consider ourselves historians unafraid of examining things critically (and free of PC sentiment), dare to engage in such concerns as reenacting history that is viewed as doctrinally taboo.
At the events that my LARA group participates in (air shows, aviation history gatherings, fly-ins, and military historical reenactment activities) we try to deftly side-step that taint by refusing to discuss political philosophy, inclusive of stating clearly and succinctly that we are no supporters of or sympathetic to NSDAP political doctrine whatsoever. Regardless, there have been occasional moments when events looked a bit uncertain, most notably at an event in Nevada a few years ago when an attractive young mother of three, who was wearing a Star of David on a neck-chain, walked up, looked at our uniforms, and asked us about who we were and what our intentions were. To her immense credit and despite her clear affiliation with the Jewish faith, she patiently listened as we explained our desire to reenact Luftwaffe aircrew history only, exclusive of any political overtones. She left us with a satisfied look and appeared to fully understand our position. I quickly found myself reflecting that it was a pity more people aren’t as willing to weigh the evidence on face value and make balanced, rational assessments, instead of yielding to highly emotional bias and reactive partisan sentiment. Of course this individual was a woman and not a man who had walked up to inquire, which is fortunate too, since women appear as a whole far more capable of achieving empathetic regard than men, with the inherently aggressive tendencies to challenge, manifest by the male of the species.
Still, and despite all the foregoing reflections, there are many unanswered questions that remain whenever one considers the matter of modern ‘historical reenactment’ in an informal setting such as this (a blog) and this pretends to be nothing more than a series of linked thoughts comprised on a Monday afternoon. Fortunately, this subject has become increasingly the topic of a number of scholarly inquiries, although that’s not always or entirely a great thing, given the contextual constraints and categorical proscriptions that routinely affect academics in their research (and the consequent derivation of conclusions there from), and shall doubtless receive a lot more attention in future.
Furthermore, despite the fact that, in contrast to my former natural antipathy and perhaps even mild hostility towards ‘reenactors’, I am now engaged in exactly that same thing I have often been (and still remain, surprisingly) somewhat critical of. I still find myself viewing the occasional reenactment of Civil War events with modest disapprobation, wondering deep down inside to what extent the political nuances of race relations play in such public poses, but so too with reenactments involving units of the German SS. It gives rise to a sense of occasional disquiet when I realize that the next real-life Hitler (or Joseph Stalin) may even be out there in that field, wearing apparel from some other time or era, stewing in the throes of myriad mental perturbations that any one of us may be subject to, under the right circumstances of time & events.
Having witnessed 68+ years of human history on my own, I know all too well that when it comes to human behavior, and despite the best efforts of professionals in the field of psychology and human behavioral dynamics, the entire human race is a rather unpredictable force (a figurative powder keg with a lit fuse?) that contradicts the best intents and aims of nature right across the Darwinian board.
Accordingly, I’m quite content in dealing with politically unpopular subjects (such as the modern history of German militarism’s earlier decades) and I don’t shy away from the unpleasant fact that humanity predates upon humanity…that we are indeed our own worst enemy…and that any one of us is fully capable of crossing over that thin razor’s edge that separates imaginative fantasy from hard, brutal reality any time and any place.
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[Note: As an anecdotal postscript, I find that as my age increases, I am becoming even more cynical and jaded than I thought I could ever be. So much so, that mindfulness of the fact that hardly anyone actually cares a whit about what someone else thinks (such as thoughts or opinions that are expressed in a blog) is a bit depressing to contemplate. To that end, I find myself less and less motivated to write these reflections down and share them, since ideas, opinions and thoughts (like the above) are really lost on most of today’s attenuated-attention-span ‘smartphone’ set. I was writing an internet journal LONG before the popularized concept of ‘blogs for everyman’ became a reality…back in a time when people regarded reflective thoughtfulness in print as something unique and worth reading. Today, now that everyone and his pet duck has been encouraged to put his thoughts to paper (figuratively, of course, in an internet ‘blog’), the quality standards for same have fallen through the floor.
Much the same conditions exist in the public school system today, wherein in our compulsive haste to boost marginal students’ self-esteem, academic standards have fallen to the lowest common denominator level, and wherein everyone gets a prize merely for participating (well, WHOOPY-DO!); is it any wonder therefore that literacy has become virtually non-existent today.
Mumph, mumph, mumph. By the way, back in grad student days my popular nickname was EEYORE, a handle I have finally come to appreciate and embrace!]
Be well and as we say in Hawaii: Malama Pono! (‘Always do right’)
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• Thanksgiving blessings... - Thursday, November 24, 2016
• Remembrance of Loves Past: 'Legs LaRue' - Monday, September 12, 2016
• Oktoberfest & Trachten: Ein Prosit! - Thursday, August 18, 2016
• Terrorism in Germany: Deutschland Erwacht! - Wednesday, July 27, 2016
• This is the way the world ends.... - Thursday, July 14, 2016
• 240 years of American Freedom...REALLY?! - Sunday, July 3, 2016
• The Sad Absurdity of War, Revisited - Saturday, January 23, 2016
• The Myth of German Villainy - Tuesday, December 15, 2015
• Islam's 2016 World-wide Offensive - Saturday, December 5, 2015
• Europe in the Fall (and Jihaddic tourists) - Sunday, November 22, 2015
• Peter Pan was a gay Zionist Nazi surf god! - Monday, October 12, 2015
• 'Diversity' or 'Unity'? America in the Balance - Monday, September 14, 2015
• The Pitfalls of Multi-culturalism Considered - Monday, September 7, 2015
• Passages: Vestiges of a youth departed... - Saturday, August 29, 2015
• Memories of the future: The big lie of racial violence in America - Friday, August 14, 2015
• Trump: Assassination of Free Speech in America - Friday, July 24, 2015
• An American Social Anthropologist Laureate? - Tuesday, May 26, 2015
• Springtime for Hitler (and other Liberals) - Thursday, May 21, 2015
• Durkheim was an optimist! - Friday, April 24, 2015
• "It's not death I'm afraid of, it's dying..." - Wednesday, August 20, 2014
• A Tale of Two Loves (both unrequited) - Wednesday, July 30, 2014
• The past was once someone's present... - Tuesday, July 22, 2014
• Sorry, today's weather is not CAFB... - Monday, September 23, 2013
• My God can beat up your god! - Wednesday, August 28, 2013
• Pearls Before Swine...Jesus hates you? - Thursday, August 15, 2013
• A clear and present danger... - Friday, August 2, 2013
• The Rugged Road to Realityville - Thursday, July 25, 2013
• Never trust a fart (a cautionary tale for youth) - Thursday, June 27, 2013
• A Man of One Book? - Friday, February 15, 2013
• Painting the roses red... - Thursday, December 27, 2012
• Waiting for the elevator... - Friday, December 14, 2012
• Fifty Shades of Crimson... - Tuesday, November 13, 2012
• 'Lawn Order' in the Land of Oz - Tuesday, March 13, 2012
• With Lawrence in Arabia and Me at the Motor-V - Monday, February 27, 2012
• Two-Wheeling in a Four-Wheeling World... - Thursday, February 16, 2012
• That Big Sucking Sound on New Year's Eve - Wednesday, December 28, 2011
• The Vintner of our Incontinence...Solstice 2011 - Tuesday, December 20, 2011
• Hawaiian Dogs and Cats: 'Ilio and Popoki - Wednesday, November 16, 2011
• In the beginning there were the Boozefighters... - Wednesday, October 12, 2011
• Flagging Enthusiasms (Andy Rooney-like Thoughts) - Thursday, October 6, 2011
• A Victim of Gravity: Grave Undertakings - Friday, September 30, 2011
• Do not go gentle into that good night... - Thursday, September 1, 2011
• Conscionable Social Anarchy for Politically Correct Luddites - Friday, July 22, 2011
• Vulgarity as a top-selling US export - Sunday, June 5, 2011
• An American Narcissus - Monday, April 18, 2011
• AAA: The Automobile Addicts of America - Tuesday, March 22, 2011
• Smiling Faces or Rhesus Sardonicus? - Wednesday, March 16, 2011
• The breast things in life... - Thursday, February 24, 2011
• Screwing the pooch... - Tuesday, February 22, 2011
• Rolling Stoned (and other gene-pool culling activities) - Friday, February 11, 2011
• Meltdown in the Middle East: A startling thought - Monday, February 7, 2011
• Bullshit Nation - Wednesday, December 22, 2010
• Winter Solstice...a short sidereal salvo - Tuesday, December 14, 2010
• Autumnal Thoughts at Equinox - Sunday, October 10, 2010
• Turning and Burning with Huli-Huli Chicken... - Sunday, August 8, 2010
• Afghanistan: A PROZAC moment?...NOT! - Wednesday, July 28, 2010
• Women Hold Up Half the Sky (and just a bit more) - Sunday, September 27, 2009
• Triathletes Rock, Baby!... - Sunday, September 6, 2009
• Everything you know is WRONG! - Friday, August 28, 2009
• Die Letzte Nacht in Munchen - Tuesday, July 21, 2009
• The wreck of the USS America... - Wednesday, May 27, 2009
• What a drag...er...DRUG! - Monday, April 13, 2009
• A Slow Blog to Shibboleth - Saturday, March 21, 2009
• Casting pearl-studded silk purses at pigs... - Tuesday, February 24, 2009
• The Ever-Widening Pyramidicity Paradigm - Sunday, February 22, 2009
• Rider's Block...those are the breaks...er, brakes! - Thursday, November 27, 2008
• As Easy as a Bridge... - Sunday, November 23, 2008
• Yelping joyfully into that deep forever night..... - Sunday, November 2, 2008
• Death as a cure for all problems.... - Sunday, October 26, 2008
• A Fart in the Arse of the Universe - Sunday, August 3, 2008
• Field Notes: Observations on 'Homo Sapiens' - Friday, July 25, 2008
• An Unnatural Disaster - Friday, May 16, 2008
• Life in the 'OTHER Walden Pond'... - Friday, April 18, 2008
• Redman's Revenge! - Wednesday, March 19, 2008
• The Stupid Factor - Monday, March 17, 2008
• Sermon for Today: Shallow Depths! - Sunday, March 16, 2008
• The Howdy-Doodit Show - Friday, March 14, 2008
• Jesus Loves Kinky Friedman - Thursday, March 13, 2008
• In Arm's Way... - Wednesday, March 12, 2008
• Passing the Torch - Thursday, March 6, 2008
• Imagine - Friday, February 29, 2008
• Scratch the Man, Find the Child. - Thursday, February 28, 2008
• The 'Governator' in Sun Valley - Wednesday, February 27, 2008
• Tales of Manpower and Horsepower - Friday, February 15, 2008
• Getting High - Wednesday, February 13, 2008
• Da Arda Gud Riting - Tuesday, February 5, 2008
• The Grand Panjandrum Speaks - Thursday, January 31, 2008
• Notes From the Bunker - Wednesday, January 30, 2008
• I Piss on You From a Great Height! - Tuesday, January 29, 2008
• An Ocean Ran Through it - Saturday, January 26, 2008
• Why are we hated so much? - Tuesday, January 22, 2008
• A Dark and Stormy Night - Monday, January 21, 2008
• Just Some Idiot Pounding on a Drum - Sunday, January 20, 2008
• Not Celine's Children... - Friday, January 18, 2008
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