If dogs run free, then why not me

The best is always yet to come That’s what they explain to me Just do your thing, you’ll be king If dogs run free....(Dylan).........I was reading the NY Post in early August.... during the transit summer of hell it wasn't easy to get a paper on a daily basis..... some weeks the 7/11 would only have the papers once or twice because I was leaving so early ( usually the 5:03 train )....but on one particular day I was lucky enough to get a post and I think I was destined to read a story about the DEAD DOG BEACH in Puerto Rico.....it was a place that the local inhabitants ( I am reluctant to call these scumbags people) would abandon their dogs.... basically just leave them at the beach to fight for their lives and eventually die of starvation or dehydration....nice people, I hope anyone that Left a dog there is starving and dying right now in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria....but the article was about a NY woman by the name of Christina Beckles...she visited Puerto Rico.....was horrified by the beach, adopted a dog and started a rescue mission called the SATO project...over the next 10 years she rescued 1600 dogs.....at the time of the article she was mobilizing a rescue effort that would bring 200 dogs to the United States in hopes of finding them new forever homes.....a fraction of the number of homeless dogs roaming the beaches there, but a significant impact just the same.... some of the dogs were too old, too injured or too hardoned to rehabilitate, so they tried to get them medical attention or Foster Care in Puerto Rico......her mission was a success...... yesterday I thought about SATO and wondering how they were doing....I was crushed to learn that none of the homeless dogs on SATO beach survived the Hurricane, Every Last one of them killed or drowned in the storm, locals told rescuers that they heard the dogs howling and crying for help....one last insufferable indignity..... I cry for those dogs.....worse yet , when Christina returned to Puerto Rico this week she saw Puerto Ricans that survived the storm abandoning their dogs on the beach..... I will never give a nickel to human aid on that island , but I sure as hell am going to donate to help these helpless pooches....man's best friend....all they want to do is LOVE us....and some men continue to mistreat them.....if I ever win the lottery.... I won't spend lavishly or travel the world.... I will start a shelter for the dogs nobody wants, the sick , the lame, the old.... and I will afford them the chance to live out their days with dignity in a loving environment.................. If dogs run free, then what must be, Must be,..... and that is all....... True love can make a blade of grass, Stand up straight and tall........ In harmony with the cosmic sea, True love needs no company....... It can cure the soul, it can make it whole.............. If dogs run free

False hearted judges,

Dying in the webs that they spin. ( Dylan)..... lurking in the shadows of this contreversy..... taking temperatures and seeing which way the strongest winds blow are the owners...long after this crop of players are arrested for beating their baby Mama's, suffer career ending injuries or show signs of CTE.... There will still be the owners.....long after fans walk away or pass on and are replaced by new eager different fans ( or not) there will still be the Mara's and Rooney's etc etc...... conspicuously quiet at the moment.... content to allow Raj Goodell to issue a "Statement" on their behalf.....a statement they can either embellish upon at a later date to keep their "players" Happy.....or distance themselves from if the fan backlash is too great....these guys aren't billionaires by accident.....they are not stupid..... nobody offered kappernick a tryout because he was viewed as a problem to the bottom line....not worth fan backlash for a QB who may or may not still be able to play......a defensive end still in his prime that may have assaulted multiple women ?? Different story, if he can help us win he deserves a second chance..... until Friday most owners were in agreement that every player should stand for the Anthem.... what changed ?? President Trumped used one word that frightens billionaires..... BOYCOTT....... suddenly their empire of $$ was under assault.... they let Goodell attack back on their behalf.....but when the dust begins to settle, don't be surprised if Raj is the fall guy..if they feel the fan backlash has legs and is significant enough, they will do an about face, wave the flag and Purge the guilty party's......does Mike Tomlin head roll in Pittsburgh ? I think so... probably at the end of the year, maybe sooner....these owners only see one color.... GREEN.....if the Rooney's look deep into the protests and see the shine coming off their armor, they will act quickly to restore their billion dollar image........"it's only a matter of time til night comes stepping in"

Fables of the reconstruction

So yesterday there was much debate about the NFL players protesting our Nation's Anthem... I think the Athletes should have looked Long and hard into the stands the past few years to understand who is buying these tickets and indirectly paying their salaries.... they definitely crossed the line and offended their base....the ramifications will be interesting to see.....on social media I found Steelers fans to be the most outraged by first their teams decision to stay in the locker room....and much worse was coach Mike Tomlin criticising his own player for participating in the Anthem and saluting the flag....#firemiketomlin was trending all day....... one point worth mentioning.....the liberal apologists for the pampered miscreants like to say that the athletes are using this forum to Garner support for their cause..... I say NAY...,.they are seeking attention and could care less about anyone supporting their cause.... mainly because there is no cause....in addition..... athletes have more forums than most when it comes to getting attention, why disrespect the anthem ? Every day of every season there are reporters in the locker room...use those interviews to push your social agenda.....call in to talk radio or preach to your Instagram, Twitter and Facebook followers if in fact it's really about getting your message to the people....take an add out in the Local paper or on a billboard.....you can afford that....or better yet, get involved in your local communities.... show up and sponsor little leagues....spend time at a food bank or visit the hospital...... some players, but I tend to think the ones that do give back to society are also the ones still standing for the Anthem.....as a veteran, I honestly couldn't give a sh*t what some here today, in jail tomorrow miscreant athlete thinks about my flag.....but I also don't want to pay his salary anymore

And I'm proud to be an American

Where at least I know I'm free....... Great song, great sentiment....and it's in the spirit of freedom that I have decided to exercise my right to stop supporting the NFL.... later today I will send an email to my family offering up my NY GIANTS season tickets... I can no longer in clean conscience contribute to these social delinquents...they absolutely, unequivocally have the right to protest, but I too have that right...this issue will probably divide families, friends and eventually stadiums and fan bases...and I'm not going to pay to fund their disrespectful actions towards my national anthem..... would I do this if the GIANTS we're 3-0 instead of 0-3 ? I have to ask that you trust me that I would...... I have endured the lousy stadium, the extortion pre Payment for parking and the deluge of night games, but today I draw the line.... I will take my time and send a letter to Tim Mara echoing the above.....and I won't forget the men who died to give that right to me !

And it's 1,2,3

What are we fighting for ? ... Don't ask me I don't give a dam,... the next stop is Viet Nam.(Country Joe McDonald)......if you have not watched any of the Ken Burns documentary on PBS about the Viet Nam war....you should try to carve out a few hours or days to watch it on demand......Ken does lean left, but he does an incredible job of digging up photos and footage on his stories..... I'm only two episodes in and I'm already surprised by how much I didn't know..... I won't try to summarize or draw conclusions until I have watched Every episode, but the one snippet that really stuck with me so far, was an interview with a Vet fm Oklahoma or Nebraska who joined the Marines at 17 out of High school ...he said something along the lines that as a teenager in 1960 in the Midwest him and his friends Couldn't even fathom that "OUR" Government might lie to it's people.....wow........ hopefully, if nothing else; the Viet Nam experience taught this nation a healthy lesson in cynicism.....I served in the 80's and I can say that me and my shipmates didn't trust our chain of command.... right up to the Commander and Chief President Reagan....we carried out orders, but never drank the cool aid......we drank Every drop of liquor we could get our hands on.....but never cool aid...... anyway the world is supposed to end Friday night, so I think I will place a huge bet on the Mets just to screw my Bookie.....try collecting in the afterlife ol pazzer.

This is my right, a right given by God

To live a Free life , to live in Freedom.( Sir Paul Mcartney).........the funny thing about freedom, it isn't free at all....it's paid for by some ( not all) every fucking day..... sadly putting a post on Facebook or wearing a " never forget" t shirt Doesn't get it done.... hollow displays of Patriotism don't frighten mohammed... they remain convinced that AMERICANS don't have the stomach for a decades, generations or centuries long conflict.....and when I look around me I see signs that they are right...... never mind the fact that 9/11 is reduced to a day for just the family grieving.... Every one else is back to work, going to ballgames and barely acknowledging the anniversary ( save the obligatory never forget posts) .... some friends and family do a great job of keeping the stories alive, they remind us who was killed and why it mattered.....but too few unfortunately.............last September.....3 days after the bomb attack at the Semper Fi Race in Seaside heights.... I took to social media and made an passionate plea for people to not forget this attack , and to make plans for the race the following year..... I sent an email in March and in April I created a team and sent the link to the registration site.....easy peasy..... I followed that up with two email reminders in June and July and another FB post a week before the race.....we had 6 runners......too bad snooky and JWOW weren't making an appearance.....we might have had 12...so on a day when channels 2,4,5,7 & 12 had tv crews on site...and Homeland Security, the FBI, counter terrorism units, State and Local Police and countless Vets and active duty military came to Seaside heights....far too many New Jerseyians and New Yorkers and AMERICANS stayed away.....the race doubled from 700 the prior year to 1500 this year....not bad.....but it could have been and should have been more... I'll try again next year.... Semper Fi Mother Fucker !

Good morning AMERICA how are ya ?

In the time honored tradition that I started last labor day, I once again board a train heading to a wedding....nope ,I'm not criss crossing the nation this time, nor am I bound for the Windy City...... nope....this time it's a short skip into the city and then a connecting ride on the LIRR to Westbury....but the spirit of taking to the rails is alive....the sounds of the Grateful Dead from my headphones permeate the skull and settle my weary nerves....cold beer for the second leg of the journey of course.... Don't you know me, I'm your native Son.

He said Harvey's a funny name

If you ever go to Houston Better walk right Keep your hands in your pockets And your gun-belt tight You'll be asking for trouble If you're lookin' for a fight If you ever go to Houston Boy, you better walk right ( B.Dylan) The media can't seem to figure out how they want to report the story of Hurricane Harvey pounding the 4th largest city in the nation...mixed in with obligatory tales of woe are amusing tidbits of a granny that called chick fil-A for a delivery and instead was rescued by the manager of the store on a jet ski..... hilarious....and the lady who found 2 alligators in her sumberged yard.... jocularity ensued....on the one hand they'd love to blame Trump somehow but aren't sure if they sb criticizing him for not helping the poor blacks...OR to criticize him for helping TEXAS too much ( since he has tremendous support in the state )I've heard both arguments already and the rain hasn't even stopped yet..... there's barely a peep out of the media with regards to Houston NOT telling citizens to evacuate....are they showing common sense restraint ? ( How could you possibly evacuate the 4th largest city in 36 hours....and where would you send 2.5 million people ?)......or Are the media shying away from this issue because the Mayor is black ? Race is at the center of every issue in this country......if the mayor was a good old boy named Bubba he would have already been labeled a racist and accused of placing Dynamite in the levvies.....yes the media is grappling... just wait until someone realizes that the Great Sam Houston was a slave owner..... and the racist bastard killed Mexicans during the war.....my bets on Deblasio to rename Houston Street the Eric Garner Avenue before he leaves office....it's funny, but will be a reality soon.

" yesterday I begged you

Before I Hit the ground, all I leave behind me, is only what I found (Hunter/Garcia)....so as I sat in the Walt Street pub, I was bothered by the incoherent mumblings of the ghosts to the right....so much so that I posted a blog entry at 1:50.....I took the 2:08 Train home and repaired to the yard for more delicious beer with my dog and the Grateful Dead.... unbeknownst to me....my uncle Pat had passed away shortly after noon....so those ghosts may not have been random Walt Street pub spirits, but perhaps some people I know..... I sure hope they weren't surprised to see me Drinking beer and betting horses on a Monday afternoon in a dive bar....it's one of the things I do best.

Bring me my pistol

As i sit in the Walt Street pub , listening to the 15 or 20 HOT TUNA and DEAD songs i played on the jukebox, i am Disturbed by the mumbling of the 4 or 5 folks to my right....as i suck on my 8yh...9th....or 15th beer of the day.... nobody is counting... and nobody is a square.....and it turns out.... there's nobody to my right.... just the voices of the invisible dead....not Jerry....but the ghosts that haunt me....and talk about me and Mumble in the outskirts....i can chase them....i choose not...i live with ghosts and spirits.....i just wish they'd buy a fuckin round.

cristobal colombo

sweater nite 20 is proud to spearhead the campaign to rename Columbus circle in manhattan after Lief Erikson and Saint Brendan the Navigator.....the true discoverers of North America..

sunny side of the street is dark

I am quite the cynic when I choose to be.....but I must admit that yesterday's eclipse was pretty cool....hundreds of people came out of their offices and stood on Washington Blvd ( soon to be renamed crispus attucks avenue) to watch the spectacular air show......very different scene than in 1979 when the Nuns in O.L.A. closed the shades on the classroom windows, fearing the eclipse would blind us and make us go Mad..........well Sister Rita Ann....we can still see....but the eclipse may have tainted our water supply as increasing levels of insanity seem to follow that graduating class in 1979......anyhow, NASA was so impressed by the response of ordinary Americans across the country that the said they will have another eclipse next Monday , for those folks who missed yesterdays.....unfortunately tho....ESPN has purchased the television rights and vowed to move the eclipse to 9:18 P.M. Eastern standard time......well until Buffalo 2024 I'll just see you on the Dark Side of the Moon.

it's allright Ma.......i'm only bleeding

Darkness at the break of noon... Shadows even the silver spoon.... The handmade blade, the child’s balloon... Eclipses both the sun and moon.... To understand you know too soon... There is no sense in trying......(b.Dylan) Monday August 21st 2017......welcome to the eclipse.....thousands of mental patients coast to coast are setting up tents in the Path of the eclipse to see the Moon pass in front of the sun......i'm gonna take a lunch and have a pint in the Lunar Pub in Hoboken and when darkness falls upon the earth in mid afternoon, well......im gonna cut out on my check.....that'll learn em.

"I used to sing on the mountains

Has the ocean lost its way? "....0 (John Bonham).........lots of talk lately about George Orwell and 1984...eery similarities to the current state of this nation.....I quote."every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered... history has stopped".....is this what we want ? Two weeks ago I talked about the "left" and the palatinians not wanting peace because they thrived on hostility and unrest.... they wouldn't know what to do with themselves....the Palastinians are more obsessed with the destruction of Isreal than they are with the well being of their own children.....the left doesn't want equality for blacks, LGBT and the freaks of the day club.... they want to tear down this nation ( literally).....they want to erase our history and rewrite it....they want to expunge the forefathers of this nation...and they are succeeding, not in baby steps, but in leaps and bounds.... they are forcing every AMERICAN to choose a side..... The battle seems more immenent than ever...we are reaching a point of no return....a point where reconciliation is no longer possible....I fear for the future of this country.

Beauvoir

Truth be told, there just ain't a heck of a lot to do in pascagoula Mississippi on a Saturday night or any other day of the week....and so us thirsty young lads would pile into a pickup truck and haul ass to norleans ... time permitting.....but if time didn't provide the luxury of a visit to the big easy, well; we set our sights on Gulfport and Biloxi.....on one such sojourn I found myself stumbling around early one morn with some shipmates.... waiting for the bars to open no doubt...and we came across a gated palatial estate.....a monument.....a tourist attraction.... what pray tell could this be ? It was the post civil war residence of Jefferson Davis....the one and only "President" of the Confederate States.....shock at first.... followed by disbelief..... followed by anger......I myself not being a civil war historian did not realize that Jeff Davis was pardoned and returned to society after a short time being held in a prison for a trial that never came...... I was forced to do some research and was equally surprised to learn that Mr Davis attended West Point....was a lt Colonel in the Army during the American Indian and Mexican American wars...was a Senator and served as Secretary of War... before resigning and accepting the Presidency of the Confederate States and.....what he thought was constitutionally protected...the secession from the Union.....not exactly the Dukes of Hazard clown type that is historically representative of the white males in the South.....so if you are keeping score at home....it was okay for the colonies to declare Independence from The King..... BUT not okay for the South to do the same....oh but that's a longer story..... anyway I wasn't pleased back in 1989....but I now understand why he was honored and why his legacy was preserved....at least until now.....my story has a happy ending...no not a massage....us Squids found a barge that was a combination Casino and a bar....we drank and gambled and forgot all about Beauvoir....the home of Jefferson Davis.

Stuck inside of mobile

With the Memphis blues again.....I know I have shared this story before...either on the blog or in the dogpark with my peeps....but during that dry dock period of 1989 I was splitting time between Pensacola, fl and Pascagoula, ms.....I used to take a greyhound bus on Fridays back to Mississippi.....that bus made a 2 hour stopover at 4:00 in Mobile, alabamy....being the thirsty young pup that I was and still am, I was always on the lookout for a friendly pub to slake my thirst.....none to be found in Mobile....as I went from bar to bar I was greeted by plaques and cardboard signs that stated "Private Club, Members only"......certainly that was a clever plot to keep the descendants of emperor spoonjiah out of da club.....Shirley once they saw I was a good ol boy they would waive the membership requirement, fling open the doors and welcome me in to have a frosty bud and play a few Allman bros and Skynyrd tunes on the jukebox......not to be......seems yankee dogs are on an even lower rung on the ladder than jimmies......after two consecutive Fridays of being turned away, I gave up....began bringing a six of pints and sitting in a local park during the stopover.....it may have saved my life....one Friday while drinking a beer under a shade tree , I picked up the local newspaper and was reading about the trial of a group of white men that HUNG a black man from an Oak Tree in a Park in downtown Mobile.......now in the late 80's they were trying people from the civil rights movement of the 60's....old cases reopened thanks to DNA and new evidence.....Shirley this was one of those cases.......wrong again.....the public hanging took place in 1987.........who knows.....if bubba and company let me in to one of their private clubs and I started storytelling in all my Brooklyn accented glory, I might have found myself next to reggie McKenzie on the next oak tree.........the deep, dark south.......more to come......next up....Biloxi and Gulfport.

memories of the deep , dark south

I am just a quiet unassuming dog with the ability to type.....these tales or tails were overheard by the fire pit in the third person vernacular......in February of 1989 the USS Luce went into dry dock in Pascagoula Mississippi for 6 months.....there is a daily ritual onboard ships that are in port or dry dock that is called sweepers........"sweepers, Sweepers Man your brooms" is the command over the IC....and everyone that is "on duty" that day has to sweep the various compartments they are responsible for and to basically take out the garbage from every trash can and haul everything to the pier dumpsters or the fantail......well the Captain of the LUCE in 1989 was Cdr Lance A. Waters.....LA LAW as he liked to call himself.....well he thought it was be funny and perfectly fitting to play DIXIE over the loudspeakers during SWEEPERS every day.....since we were in the deep south of course.....and one sailor from Brooklyn....a guy who didn't particularly like LA Law, sent an anonymous letter to the Captain posing as an African American sailor and proclaiming to be deeply offended by the playing of DIXIE on many levels...it reminded him of slavery, and was also the rallying cry for the rebels that tried to secede and defeat the US Government....the sailor went on to say that he was next going to contact the NAACP and the Department of Defense........interestingly enough....DIXIE was never played during sweepers again.....this story came back to me while watching the riots in Charlottesville Virginia over the weekend and then again listening to Presidents Trumps remarks......I am NO Nazi.....I don't like the KKK and the KKK hates me and my religion....they also took Joey Ramones baby away.....but I saw fist fights in the street in Virginia.....there were definitely two sides fighting....and yes America...they are both guilty.....neither side had God on their side as Bob Dylan would say.......more on the deep south as I sought out these other stories I have "overheard".........Martians of the future....I am concerned the NSA may be eavesdropping.....we'll talk offline.

There you stood

On the edge of your feather, expecting to Fly (N.Young).... Or on the precipice of disaster as I like to paraphrase....and so here we stand.... the sabre rattling between our dear leader and senyor Un is deafening....volleys of nuclear missiles and the solar eclipse, preacher man says who gets there first is uncertain..... I think of all the money I foolishly contributed to my 401k instead of Drinking premium beeeers....ah well....if this is indeed the end of the world as we know it... it's been fun.... I hope somehow this blog survives to explain to the aliens how we got here....what went right, what went wrong and that the Rangers we're the only NHL team to win 35 straight Stanley Cups..... that's right future martians, we are a hockey dynasty....anyhoo if the world is gonna end soon , I hope it happens before I have to buy Donnie that steak for the Kettletoga contest.....cmon Kim Jong, fire when ready.....but seriously we are spinning dangerously close to an encounter with no good outcomes....all roads lead to varying degrees of disaster....if anyone Thinks we are going to take out north Korea's leadership team, marginalize their weapons and liberate their masses....they are mistaken..... South Korea, Japan and Guam can say goodbye, he will certainly detonate a few nuclear Bombs on the peninsula.....Russia and China may put aside their differences and team up to come at us unified....it won't be pretty....if we attack North Korea we may as well nuke Moscow and bejing simultaneously.a la Michael Corleone...as Dylan says, and with the final shot he won the war after loosing every battle..... anyway lads.....drink up this Friday..... nobody is guaranteed Saturday... not even Glen Campbell.

Branding is Key

I just copy righted the official slogan for sweater Nite 20....."Fire and Fury the World has never known" thanks mister President.

Down in the valley of the shadows

It's just you..... Alabama....and me.(Hunter/Garcia).... although not necessary it's still fun to evoke the deep South when talking about racism....why does it Still exist in 2017 ?.....well yesterday the Trump Administration created a Nationwide panic, no not because North Korea is about to Nuke us; but rather because it seemed to be questioning affirmative action with regards to college admissions..... hmmmmm.....in 2017 we are all "clearly" equal....some more equal than others ( in new Jersey the disproportionate amount of money that goes to education in the black and Hispanic districts is staggering ) but Shirley if a black man can be elected President then there is nothing holding his brothers and sisters back... Shirley we are the land of equal opportunity..so why do we still have racial quotas ? Why are we trying to address discrimination against blacks by implementing discrimination against whites ? That divides the nation and inspires resentment at the least and hatred at it's extreme.....the majority of Americans accept each other and respect everyone's right to exist and pursue happiness..... doesn't mean we have to eat, drink and sleep together to prove we aren't racist.... But why hasn't natural evolution won yet...why are the minorities ( in status, not volume) still minorities ? Why haven't they weaved their way into the everyday fabric of American Life like so many generations of immigrants before them ?.... I will give you a simple answer although in truth we could go on for days......the LEFT needs racism.... without it they have no message...no enemy to blame,no devil to fight... no cause to rally the masses against....it's like the arabs in Palestine..... what the fuck would they do with their lives if they didn't have the Jews to obsess about....they are terrified of peace because they loose their cause......and the liberals are terrified of equality and peace amongst AMERICANS for the same reason....they must continuously bang the drum, stir the pot and divide the nation.....I hope I die before I get old.