Gas Prices

This is a good article explaining why environmentalists should be capitalists...or why there are many better things to call yourself other than a Republican or a Democrat.

South Thailand

My friend Will is a burgeoning journalist and photographer based in Bangkok. Whenever I think of myself as a well-travelled dude, Will enlightens me with a story or two from the people he meets. Here's a short one from his recent excursion to south Thailand where a Muslim insurgency (against the Thai authority) is producing state-dependent widows and fatherless children.

It's a bit like the wild west down here. It's a culture of guns, fear and suspicion and some of the stories I've been hearing are just insane. Yesterday a woman named Suphanee was telling me about when her husband (a policeman) was killed. She was riding on a motorbike with him and their son (4 years old) and two teenagers from their village rode up next to them and opened fire with a pistol. Her husband was killed, she was shot in the arm, and a bullet grazed her son's forehead leaving a deep groove (he's fine, though). Anyway, so her husband was killed, but then a few weeks later when she was recovering at her home the village headman came around to her house with some thugs to finish her off because she had been able to identify the suspects and they were arrested. The village headman in each village is supposed to be a good guy, but this asshole is apparently on the insurgents' side. Anyway, Suphanee's brother was with her at the time so when this guy came to the door with his thugs the brother just fucking opened fire on them. So, now she's in hiding until the trial.

By the way, he's not writing in journalism mode there. Here is a story he wrote for the BBC on a village specifically for the widows and it highlights more of what he means by comparing south Thailand to the 'wild west'.

He takes excellent pictures too. When I get a chance I may post a few.

Black Shoes

My hip New York friend Carol compares me to a pair of black shoes. She says it's because you can take a pair of black shoes anywhere. It's a nice compliment when I think about it since I've always strived to be adaptable. Of course not being so often becomes my biggest worry. Dare I liken this feeling to something I heard in a Tim O'Brien song? No, I don't want to look like a hick now, do I?

Wrought Iron Railing

Welcome to my fourth posting! This posting will now send out a request to the entire web (the world-wide one) soliciting advice on how to install a wrought iron railing to a stone or brick post, say, on one's front porch. What options are available to me? Must I pour the concrete step first and then install the railing...or the other way around?

This will eventually become my little home improvement project once me and the wife are able to close on our house. A trip to Home Depot could be quicker I understand, but my gut and the owner of the Dallas Mavericks tells me that this blog thing is the future of getting advice and learning new things. Don't let me down, technology! I await the influx of responses.

City Boy

Fountain Square in Bowling Green looks so lonely when it's nighttime. Capital Theatre should have its lights on, and Spencer's and Miki's should sprawl out to the street with patrons. Instead, the lack of people gravitating to the center is louder than the fountain. How is it that teems of my neighbors clog the entrance to Walmart or god-awful Red Lobster, but State and Main stay so clear? Will no one come not even for the romance of a small town square at night?

Homemade Cannon

Here's a story, most likely completely true, that I overheard at lunch today. I live in Kentucky, which is why I say this is most likely believable:

"So ol' Willy, he'd make all sorts of things. Guns, rockets. He once made a cannon...homemade I tell ya. This was some time ago so I didn't think much of it but he was really crazy! One time he went and...well, he'd make most of his trouble outside, but one time he wheeled that cannon right into the family room! Parents weren't home but his grandma was. She was pretty drunk in her wheelchair...them boys running her in circles on her wheelchair and she's all 'whoooo' and hollerin' and Willy went and shot a hole in the ceiling with that cannon of his. Jessie was there too just stompin' round, pushing grannie round in her wheelchair wearing nothing but his underwear and a pair of boots. They was always like that. And Grandma and them. But he ain' changed a bit you know? It sounds just like him don't it?"

Quotes won't be verbatim, but I don't think that matters a whole lot. Kentuckians aren't sticklers on accuracy anyway.

Mantis

Who ever convinced me that Mac would be cooler than Windows? I think it was a commercial. Anyway, I'm posting this as a trial to a.) see if my Mac will do what I think most other computers would do or b.) see if between now and my next post if I actually have anything worth writing on the internet. Until then, a picture of a mantis from our garden.