Three more days

until i get off the merry-go-round

ready to quit.

Fuck It

two tramadol, a trazadone, and two klonopin with a beer. i feel like shit. and tomorrow is friday. 

My New Year's Eve Meal

+

+

+ 

makes me a happy man. 

Wadi Stones

I have two stones that I found on separate occasions in a wadi in Iraq in 2004. That was the year that killing and mayhem in Iraq markedly increased with roadside IEDs and VBIEDs. It was a horrible but unremarkable escalation of violence against occupiers, tribes and sects. On one, a large three-sided stone, I wrote, "Simplify" On the other, smaller stone, more akin to a stone you'd use to skip across a stream or lake surface, I wrote on one side, "Love Life." On the other side I wrote, "Dream." They have been on my toilet tank cover since I returned. They are the first objects I see every morning when i wake and the last things I see every night before bed. Ten years later, those words from a younger and wiser war-fighter me, written on wadi rocks with a black Sharpie, continue to inform my life. And for what it's worth, those wadie stones inform the lives of my employees; they just don't know it.

The Beck Setlist from ACL (with video links)

Beck and his band put on an amazing show. Here are the youtube/vevo versions of his setlist.

Devil's Haircut
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aa3rBVb3v4g

Black Tambourine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEXaEYpifhg

Think I'm in Love / I Feel Love
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THZ1P5AM6Dc

Soul of a Man
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYaaAI6ENc0

One Foot in the Grave
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rx-rFMXJvIM

Blue Moon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YFuu512Fjo

Sissyneck / Billie Jean
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCM-wMZUj1I

Hell Yes
http://www.vevo.com/watch/beck/Hell-Yes/USUV70501566

Girl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkCg-3nxT8E

Timebomb
no official version is available
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWtZ1TqMq4g

Loser
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgSPaXgAdzE

E-Pro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIrG6xBW5Wk

Sexx Laws
http://www.vevo.com/watch/beck/Sexx-Laws/USIV29900039

Debra 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuvR9d73OlI

Where It's At
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPfmNxKLDG4

Escape videos

Simply Red - Holding Back The Years

 A flock of seagulls

Head over Heals

How Novel. A Theater full of Angry White People

watching Glenn Beck and fawning over Michelle Malkin.

@michellemalkin Sold out, energetic crowd! Just like our favorite leader, Mrs Heidi Huber :) She has taught us well! pic.twitter.com/T6RpU2sfFp
— Crazy House Reviews (@CrazyHousePR) July 23, 2014

My Fucking Tribe

...because, white people from South Carolina.

. #WhatTreySaid - a few words from Rep. Trey Gowdy. Leftists, what say you? pic.twitter.com/OTaVcjQBGy
— Less Gov. More Fun. (@LessGovMoreFun) July 6, 2014

These Motherfuckers Continue to Run on Family Values

fun house mirrors. just like the democrats of old...

GOP candidate for #LAsen reveals 17-year-old daughter is pregnant out of wedlock: http://t.co/EXLQl1Xv7k
— POLITICO (@politico) July 4, 2014

Senate candidate Bill Cassidy discloses that his teenage daughter is pregnant

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/07/bill_cassidy_senate_campaign_r.html

The Shit that is Iraq

my professional journey in iraq via tweets of mine and others.

!!! Why we stuck with Maliki — and lost Iraq via @washingtonpost http://t.co/E5s9u06uEe
— YGBSM (@YGBSM) July 4, 2014

Iraqi colonel: 'Anarchy is what America has granted Iraq' http://t.co/he1RSYrBPy
— BI MIL/DEF (@BI_Defense) July 2, 2014

POTUS: "American forces will not be returning to combat." Except for those 300 troops (and any others) we're sending. It's combat for them.
— Paul (PJ) Rieckhoff (@PaulRieckhoff) June 19, 2014

hubris and chutzpah "Donald Rumsfeld on Iraq" via @Marketplace and @kairyssdal http://t.co/FgZXINomkG
— YGBSM (@YGBSM) June 15, 2014

In case anybody deletes this tweet: pic.twitter.com/wqWHEykgax
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) June 14, 2014

iraq: 3,528 US combat deaths. 4,489 total US deaths. 32,021 US wounded. https://t.co/B2XIleHd4o
— YGBSM (@YGBSM) June 13, 2014

My fellow Iraq War veterans are missing a crucial point about the sacrifices they made http://t.co/p1qVaejZv0
— BI MIL/DEF (@BI_Defense) June 13, 2014

.@reihan your analysis is flawed. as a boots on the ground trainer in '04, we all saw this coming. sects/tribes trumped nation. ALWAYS.
— YGBSM (@YGBSM) June 13, 2014

.@ron_fournier it's a bullshit piece. i trained NIA '04 KMTB. sunni/shia/kurd factionalism was rampant. everyone knew it couldn't be solved.
— YGBSM (@YGBSM) June 13, 2014

"It ain't easy, son."

from january...

What's right: No Death Star, with righteous reasons.

What's wrong: The 113th congress.

What's left: Gun sales through the roof. Ammo sales through the roof. 100,000 new NRA members. A (mostly) southern, aging, Django-fearing, white christian freak show known as the GOP.

Life in the Shadows

If you are fortunate to ride public transit home from downtown after midnight because you don't want to drive drunk, you may have this fleeting observation:

This is true. RT @mcampbellSD: Soberly watching the world function at 1:30am is FASCINATING.
— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) May 11, 2014

The ride home is revealing. Of course you have the

Christians across the globe are being slaughtered

shabby tribalism lives in the United States of America too. So wrapped around the axle of religion, she can't see her own religious bias.

Christians across the globe are being slaughtered RT @akrontaterman: dont care i dont watch secular news lies period #FromtheWatchman
— lisa jennings (@agoodeye) June 26, 2014

This is a Basic Science Fail

this is not a quote from a philosopher. this is a quote from an average american. this same guy rails against everything, check his time line.

When we look up at night and see the stars, are we looking at the past or the future!? I think the future.
— William J. Journey (@Alaskanbushman) June 13, 2014

James Woods is a Constitutional Expert

"Obama doesn't even share a 'nodding acquaintance' with the Constitution." @RealJamesWoods #tcot #tlot #tgdn #lnyhbt pic.twitter.com/58QzLiTNLK
— Michael A Nöthem (@mikandynothem) June 20, 2014

as is @mikandynothem

Failed Leadership

@ByronYork

is a senior conspiracy theorist correspondent  of the right wing. To wit,

The admin has tried to fog up question of whether US troops were hurt searching for Bergdahl. This makes it harder. http://t.co/5Nqg9dLEtQ
— Byron York (@ByronYork) June 18, 2014

Keep up the good work of wasting your time on empty armadillo holes.

This is what you get

when you divorce yourself from reality:

Dick Cheney on Obama & Iraq: "Rarely has a US president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many." http://t.co/kXcGecKoWu
— Jim Roberts (@nycjim) June 18, 2014

sometimes it's easier to be myself. sometimes I find it better to be somebody else.

Dave Matthews Band - So Much To Say

It's All Fun and Games

even while all your shit is hoovered...

omg RT @CIA: pic.twitter.com/za2I6My5Sn
— Jeb Lund (@Mobute) June 7, 2014

https://twitter.com/deanjnorris/status/475004300028956672