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                          __ _ / _|_ __ ___
                 _____   / _` | |_| '_ ` _ \   _____
                |_____| | (_| |  _| | | | | | |_____|
                         \__,_|_| |_| |_| |_|
                         Another Foggy Moment

      These are the continuing adventures of a typical resident
      of the self-proclaimed center of the Pugetopolis universe -
      Seattle. Most are true stories but some are made of whole-
      cloth. I ain't the Mayor, the Governor or a Big Shot. Just
      another Working Stiff with a Bad Attitude.

         ------------------------------------------------
         WARNING: This is not a Child-Proof Neighborhood.
         If you're a kid - scram!, beat it! you little
         punk before your Old Lady catches you and calls
         the cops. They'll throw you in the Big House in
         Walla Walla and won't let you out until you're
         89 years old. There. Don't say I didn't warn you.
         -------------------------------------------------

                               - 164 -

 Mid-September 2002...The neighborhood rings with the chants of sorority
 girls luring new members into their houses. The Husky Marching Band will
 soon resume their Friday-Nights-Before-Saturday-Home-Games party runs as
 they serenade the Frats and Sororities. The rowing shells cut through a
 fine foggy mist hanging over the Ship Canal waters early in the morning.
 Soon the salmon from the Class of 1997 will be returning to the spawning
 pool on campus. It is the time of Moon Cakes in Chinese bakery shops to
 help celebrate the Luminar's birthday. President Yellowbelly's dirty
 little Iraqi war seems a million miles away in another universe far, far
 away.
 
 Primary elections on Tuesday. Our starving political Joboise will be
 lining up for a place at the feed trough. Like they say in Chicago,
 where even the dead vote with regularity: vote once, vote often.

 BACKWOODS KING-CO JUSTICE...

 Amazing the bullshit that passes for justice in this Hicktown. The King
 County Corner's Inquest continued its astounding perfect record this 
 week. Never in the entire history of that institution has a cop ever been 
 found unjustified in a killing. EVER! That's a statistical impossibility.
 Such a thing is forbidden by the laws of nature. The King County Coroner's
 Office truely belongs in the Guiness Book of World Records. An even 
 bigger mystery is why Uncle Sammy allows such a clearly dysfunctional
 legal institution to exist as part of our system of jurisprudence? It
 belongs in the backroom of a bar, not in our hallowed halls of Justice.

 KingCo Prosecutor Norm "The White Avenger" Maling picked himself up a few
 more KKK Frequent Lynching points from the whitewashing of the murder of
 a black man committed by a KingCo Deputy. Deputy Quick Draw, out of uniform
 and off-duty but armed, aggressively approached his victim. and shot him
 point blank without ever once identifying himself. He had no cause beyond
 vague suspicion. His victim unfortunately warned the threatening Deputy
 that he had a weapon while demanding to know what in the hell he wanted.
 That became the justification - the threatening Deputy suddenly felt
 threatened himself. Almost makes fucking sense don't it?

 No comment from our favorite Michael Jackson impersonator in the King Co
 Exec chair. He knows when to keep his mouth shut. He didn't get where he
 is sassing White Folks. He, afterall, wrote the goofy rules for this
 sham and is ultimately responsible for how inquests are carried out.
 This is his baby. BTW - Prior legal experience? Nada.

 One has to wonder what it feels like to be a black man in Seattle knowing
 any cop who feels so inclined can just up and shoot you dead in front of
 tons of witnesses and never be held to account for his actions. Such a
 state of affairs seems grossly un-American. Since when are cops
 authorized to carry out summary executions on a whim? Better for a citzen
 to be tried by 12 than carried by 6. Shoot first, ask questions afterwards. 
 It worked for the Deputy, why not us? But he ain't going to have as easy
 a time of it in civil court. Unlike KingCo Coroner's Office, they got
 standards. He'll likely get his clock financially cleaned. Our News Nazis
 don't cover civil court - too complicated and confusing for them.

 NOT ONE OF OUR FINER MOMENTS...

 9/11 quietly came and went. Despite the considerable official effort to
 generate a great public outpouring of weeping and wailing, it was pretty
 much a non-event. Most Americans did not morn. At work we tried to get
 KING-FM's special Mozart Requium. But it didn't happen. Thanks to their
 wimpy signal and all the bitty-boxes we had going, we just got a faint
 whisper. I put on Bruce Spingsteen's old "Born in the U.S.A." live album.
 Between the failure to communicate and Bruce's anti-war hymns from days
 gone by, it seems like a proper metaphor for the day. Besides, "Darlington 
 County" must be the only rock song that actually mentions the World Trade 
 Center. "Hey little girl. I own one of the World Trade Centers. For a
 kiss and a smile I'd give it all to you."

 My feelings about 9/11 are very ambiguous. Yes, it was a tragedy. Duh!
 But in the general scheme of things, it didn't amount to much: two
 ugly, poorly-built, poorly-designed office towers leveled more by our
 own greed and corruption than the terrorists efforts. We have often
 killed many innocent civilians in our various military escapades. We
 slaughtered off over a million Vietnamese to save them from Communism.
 And I'm sure there isn't a day of their Eternal Rest goes by that they
 don't thank us for our compassionate concern for their fate. Ditto for
 the million or so Japanese civilians in Tokyo that General Doolittle
 valliantly incinerated and the many thousands of German civilians fried 
 in our fire bombing of Dresden, all in WW-II times. Add in our nuking of
 Hiroshima and Nagasaki, neither of which had any military significance.
 These obscenities were done not to accomplish military objectives but 
 to simply terrorize civilian populations. So it's not like we hold any
 high moral ground. We're indistinguishable from the terrorists who hit 
 us on 9/11. We're just too phony and chickenshit to admit it. As usual, 
 we ain't fooling anybody but ourselves. Our psycho-hillbilly insanity,
 so long a source of amusement to the world, has started to worry them.
 It's taken on a vaguely Nazi stink lately.
 
 I kept running into people all day who felt that they were supposed to
 say something significant but just couldn't think of anything. It clearly 
 bothered them. There was an implied expectation that the significance of
 the event would turn us all into inspired poets that day. The worst were
 the idiots who rejurgitated whatever BS they heard on TV and pretended
 they thought of it themselves. I didn't run into anyone who actually
 tried to act depressed and sombre. The only conspicuous patriot I saw
 all day was a guy on a bike with flag t-shirt and a big flag waving
 behind him as he rode. He didn't look depressed about anything. Hell,
 it was a beautiful day just as it was on 9/11/01 - the sun was out, the
 sky was clear and it was cozy warm. I passed by the memorial display set
 up in the fountain basin at Seattle (off)Center. The crowds were very
 light but the News Nazis were out there milking it for all they were
 worth. 9/11 is money in the bank for those Boyz. It sells Eyeballs.
 Eyeballs = $$$$$$$

 Fact is, not everybody was memorializing on 9/11. Many people both in
 America and outside its borders were Whooping it up. Celebrating the day
 Uncle Sammy got knee-dropped in the balls. The day he got a little of his
 own medicine. Frankly anyone who celebrated the event was as sick as the
 pathetic jerks who glorified it. It was not one of our's or humanity's
 finer moments.

 ROYALTY ON ICE...

 Her Majesty Freeloading Liz, the old Billionaire biddy from Limmeyland, 
 will be up in Vancouver, BC the first week of October. On October 6th 
 she will be in attendance at the Canuks v. San Jose game and will even 
 be dropping the puck at the opening faceoff! I assume they'll sterilize
 it first to remove any lingering commoner bacteria.  She don't actually
 give a hoot about hockey. This is just part of her Grand Strategy to
 appear comfortable amongst commoners. As usual, she'll be bringing her
 Royal Biffy (a portable outhouse) and water jugs. For Heavens sake
 whatever you do, always stick out your Pinky when drinking tea and DON'T
 TOUCH HER. She hates it when common people press her flesh. Her Common
 Touch is merely a turn of phrase. I wonder if her retarded husband
 Phillip the Royal Concubine is along for the ride? He's always good for
 a few bigotted remarks about the local Wogs.

 CONTRA CABAL UPDATE...

 Mr. Trummel, fresh off his recent unanimous decision in the State 
 Supreme Court forcing the State Appeals Court to hear his previously 
 rejected appeals, has added a new essay to his website:

                    Cruel & Unusual Punishment
 
 Our News Nazis have supremely Goofed on Mr. Trummel with one of their
 classic smear campaigns. Their deliberate lies and obfuscations about
 the details of his case in support of their Hooterville Yacht Club
 buddies were bad enough in themselves. We know our News Nazis are not 
 reliable sources of information but the world doesn't know that.
 Mistaking them for reputable journals of record, they picked up on 
 the disinformation and spread it all over hell's half acre. In his new 
 essay, Mr. Trummel sets the record straight. 

 My impression is that operations like Inferior Court function a lot 
 like Old Boys Clubs. Everybody is very cozy. You don't even get nominated
 for membership unless they know ahead of time you're willing to Play
 Ball. It's called getting endorsed. Even a bureaucratic flunky with 
 lousy qualifications can get endorsed if he knows how to kiss ass.
 For a $120,000/year Inferior Court judge's paycheck, puckering comes
 easy for someone like former Family Court babysitter Judge Jimmy the
 Token Twinkie. Once he has his foot in the door, he is rubbing shoulders
 with many guys who can vastly enhance his career potential. If he plays 
 his cards right, he can skip many steps on the Ladder of Success. From
 Catholic Bishops to Corporate Gnomes, Old Boys Clubs all work the same
 way - dirty old men jerking around ambitious young men.

 It just so happens that a director at Council House, Mr. Trummel's 
 former home and the Geezer Joint screaming for his head, happens to 
 be married to one of the Inferior Court Good Old Boys. Is that a crazy
 co-incidence or what? One of Judge Jimmy's new buddies. A senior member
 of that bench who would have much to offer him if Jimmy were willing to 
 do him a 'favor'. Such a thing would be highly illegal and no judge in
 his right mind would think of risking it. But a crazy and ambitious one 
 might. Besides, in a small town like Hooterville, who's to know? Judge
 Jimmy takes all the risks; Mr. Trummel takes all the grief; our News
 Nazis bury all the details; the taxpayers cover all the bills and Judge
 Big Shot just sits back and smiles at it all. No wonder they want to
 deport Mr. Trummel. The sooner he's outta here the safer their little
 racket will be. All this international attention must have them a little 
 nervous. They didn't anticipate that.
 
 I can't wait for a book on this deal. Too bad Alec Guiness kicked 
 the bucket. He would have made an excellent Mr. Trummel for the 
 movie. Judge Jimmy, Judge Wartnik and the director of Council House
 could be the Three Stooges. Call it "The Stooges Do Inferior Court".
 Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.
 
 ISLAMIC GOLD DINAR...

 How fortuous. Just as we're grabbing and stealing any assets we can
 label as Islamic and ergo Terrorist, the Muslims are well into the
 reintroduction of their ancient gold dinar. Malaysia is leading the
 parade, making it coin of their realm and strongly encouraging other
 Islamic nations to do the same. Unlike our western paper money with
 little more than the vacumn of space behind it, their gold dinar is
 backed with real gold. They have been buying up gold like crazy in an
 effort to boost their reserves. Many of them see it as the key to
 Muslim economic independence from Western economies. We just gave 
 their effort a major boost and the incentive to get their Loot as
 far from our greedy, grasping claws as they can get it. And given
 Yeller's Luser Economy, America is increasingly becoming a bad
 investment anyways.

 GOOGLE: Islamic Gold Dinar

 THE GIL & GREG SHOW... 

 Over my smoke break I watched this cop across the street. He sits in
 the garage entrance to a car dealership all day reading a porn mag or
 something. Every once in a while a car comes down the ramp and he runs
 out into the street to stop the traffic. Then he resumes his seat and
 his 'reading'. That's all he does all day long. Amazing eh. Why not
 just deputize one of the sales-people and let them do it. It would be
 a damn sight cheaper that supporting that useless bum in uniform. 

 It brought to mind the Media Event of the Week...

 It was hard to tell which one was the Dummy and which one was the
 ventriloquist this week when Mayor Greg and our Pollock Police Chief
 appeared together. Superfically it was to announce a reorganization of
 the Coppe Shoppe but really it was to show that Mayor Greg had control
 of his inherited Chief. Gil keeps contradicting and challenging nearly
 everything coming out of City Hall like he figures he runs the place
 now. Greg was pretending to publically yank on his chain. But if you
 looked real close you could see that it was Chief Gil who had his hand 
 up Greg's ass, not the other way around. He's calling the shots. Mayor
 Greg ain't calling anything. He wouldn't know how. 

 NB - Have you noticed? Our cops are doing their best to sabotage the
 Taser guns. Either their too stupid to know how to properly use them
 or they are deliberately misusing them. When that kind of juice is
 hard-wired into a muscle, that muscle goes spastic. It's like sticking
 your finger in an electrical socket. No matter how cranked on adrenaline
 you might be, it'll knock you on your ass. Funny how Tasers seem to work
 everywhere but in Seattle. Fact is our donut-munching freeloaders find
 guns more emotionally satisfying than Tasers. I wonder when they're 
 going to stage another Polish Firing Squad routine? Maybe they'll be 
 luckier this time. I'd pay to watch that.

 THESE NERVOUS TIMES...

 That Boeing engineers vote says it all: the contract sucks but they
 can't afford to go out on strike. They're screwed no matter what they
 do. This confusing interlude will give them time to retrain as line 
 cooks.

 Everybody is a bit uneasy these days. With house prices shooting up like
 4th of July rockets while incomes decrease and foreclosures are running 
 at record levels, all the babble about whether or not it is a housing 
 bubble seems a bit moot.  Fannie Mae is sucking up every risky mortgage
 the banks can throw at her. Banks that are themselves eating tons of bad
 loans from the corporate crooks who recently checked out of the market. 
 But then they live in a Magic World. Whenever money goes out the door in
 the form of loans or whatever, the Treasury simply replaces it. No need
 to sell off assets or bring in replacement money in the form of new
 accounts. Sweet deal huh? While all this is going on, Mr. Greenspan's
 Magic Money Machine keeps spewing out billions and billions of additional
 national debt every week. Debt sold off as T-Notes to stock market refugees 
 in search of a safe haven. Once interest rates begin inching back up,
 they'll take a second gut punch. Thanks suckers!
 
 They tried taxing us to death and quickly learned we wouldn't stand 
 for it. So now they just magicallly print new money hoping the whole 
 thing doesn't explode in their faces before they have a chance to 
 retire to Costa Rica and the Cayman Islands on their fat government
 pensions. The government numbers say employment is holding steady. 
 Yeah sure. What they don't tell us is that all those jobs created 
 were government jobs, not real jobs. Jobs that will have to be paid 
 for out of tax revenues. About the only guy hiring these days is the 
 Repo Man. He made over $105.3 TRILLION Bucks in repo trades just in 
 the first half of this year. We're like a nation of Welfare Queens 
 buying tons of stuff on credit, enjoying it until the Repo Man comes 
 and takes it away. The upside is: that's all that's holding the 
 economy together right now. We'd be in deep recession otherwise. Try 
 not to think about the trillions in pension contributions Congress 
 allowed our corporations to defer. A lot of well-earned pensions ain't 
 gonna be there when people retire. My, won't they be surprised!

 Move over Japan. Company is coming from America.

                                *

 I noticed the old Hooterville Hillbilly out on College Parkway scrapping
 posters off power poles early Tuesday morning. A little on the senile
 side, he missed a few. No matter. New posters were popping up faster
 than he could take them down. Some ugly old Skank joined the ranks of
 the grandad's Poster Nazis. She was scrapping away on Sunday morning
 giving Pops a break. Lusers are so entertaining. 

.........................................................................

     This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible.
     This was terrible with raisins in it.

                        - Dorthy Parker -

.........................................................................

                         THE BEES KNEES

 I think me and Hank the Crank, America's most dangerous gardener, are
 going into the bee business. His little green buddies are suffering for
 lack of good pollination and he figures Mason bees would do the trick.
 There's no up-keep to them like there is for honey bees. You just plunk
 them down and let them do their thing. In a 'sink or swim' world, they're
 good swimmers. There ain't no honey in it but they help the plants grow.

 Years ago I always had an observation hive in one of my windows. They
 are a single-frame 'hive' with glass on one side so you can watch the
 little buggers do their thing. Bees are fascinating little critters.
 Without the benefit of managers and policy papers, every one of them
 acts constantly with great initative and purpose. Being the kind of
 guy who loves work - I can sit and watch it all day long - I find
 this very entertaining. Their job descriptions must include about 50
 or 60 different tasks that they are expected to perform when the need
 arises. Aside from the forgers who go out everyday to russle up some
 pollen, you got guards who keep out enemies and no end of utility guys
 who make comb caps or stand at the entrance flapping their little 
 wings to create some ventilation. Their cleverness and ingenuity is
 a wonder to behold. And they do it with nothing but that scrawny 
 excuse for a brain. Makes you wonder what our excuse is. Most amazing
 of all, nearly every little bugger you can see in there is a girl bee.
 A bee hive is truely a Woman's World. As every guy knows, human girls
 sting too. They just hypnotize you first.

 Honey bees need attention. When you're sitting on a pile of honey,
 everybody wants some. A fact we Americans are particularly sensitive 
 to. They got wasps, moths, fungii and no end of other pests constantly 
 trying to swipe their Poontang. Sometimes they got too many Queens 
 vying for turf and workers, other times they ain't got any. Often at 
 the peak of summer the court of the strongest Queen grows to such a 
 size that they swarm off to form their own hive somewhere else - like 
 your neighbor's eaves. If you're paying attention, you will have
 another hive ready for them so you can reap the interest on your 
 entomological investment. An organic 2-fer-1 deal. 
 
 While you can't get much honey off an observation hive, you can get
 a little. You put a half frame on top of the main frame for this
 purpose. When they fill it up, you sneak the top off and snatch it.
 Before they know what hit them, their honey's gone and they got to
 start all over again. You replace it with a new empty half frame of
 course. They waste little time filling it back up though it does
 take a while.

 Wintering over is a reasonable possibility here in Western Washington
 where the weather is mild enough. In colder climates they usually
 lose their bees in the winter and have to buy new bees in the spring.
 While their activity level drops considerably, they don't hibernate.
 You got to help them along by feeding them. A jug of sugar-water 
 usually does the trick.

 To get into the commercial end of the Bee Biz you gotta get a Bee
 Licence off the government and get Bee insurance. I wonder if there
 are lawyers who specialize in Bee Law? Bet there is.

 Neither one of us knows much about Mason bees. But there's a lady
 nearby who's been using them for pollination for a couple years.
 We will go in search of wisdom from The Master soon bringing along
 suitable enticements. She's the same lady who used to keep a caged
 bunny in her front yard. Sadly, one of the neighbors kidnapped it.
 She don't do that no more. It's hard to keep anything nice in the
 city. There are too many jerks around itching for a chance to trash
 anything that looks worthwhile. Just for the helluvit.

 GOOGLE: Observation Bee Hives
 GOOGLE: Mason Bees
.........................................................................

 "Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave
 little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only
 different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants
 and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness
 positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by 
 restraining our vices. The one encourage intercourse, the other creates
 distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher."

                           - Thomas Paine -
                        American Revolutionary
                            "Common Sense"
.........................................................................

                          'OL YELLER'S TWAT
                   (aka The War Against Terrorism)

 Yeller's Electoral Invasion of Iraq claimed it's first political victim
 this week. The Germans are in the midst of an election campaign. The
 incumbent Chancellor, pseduo-socialist Gerdie Schroeder, looked like a
 sure loser up until he started dissing Yeller's Invasion while his
 opponent guardedly defended Yeller. Now Gerdie's ahead in the polls for
 the first time and heading for the wire as the predicted winner. Thanks
 Yeller! 

 It really does amaze me that people seem to imagine President Yellowbelly
 actually gives a damn what Congress, the American people, the U.N. or 
 world opinion has to say about his impending electoral invasion of Iraq.
 He's going to invade. It's as simple as that. He's never had any other
 intention but to invade. And nobody is going to stop him. He is Supreme
 Ruler now, not some piddly Presidente. He calls the shots. He can and
 will wage war regardless of what anybody thinks. Supreme Rulers don't
 need no steenkin Congressional declaration.

 His present deferment to the U.N. is little more than a scam. He's still
 got lots of time before the November elections and, with a little luck,
 he'll make a 2-fer-1 deal out of it: Iraq and the U.N. He'll do his best
 to sabotage their effort then start screaming his head off in a couple
 weeks about being tired of waiting. Like the U.N. has nothing better to
 do with its time and effort than drop everything to kiss Yeller fat ass.
 Then having proven that they are ineffective at dealing with 'terrorist
 nations ', he'll have a ready excuse for skipping that step when he goes
 after Iran, Syria, Lybia, Ireland, Indonesia, whatever. The Supreme
 Leader bows to no one. It's his way or the highway. Amerkia ueber alles
 y'all!

 It's like trying to convince Hitler not to invade Czechoslovakia. He was
 officially on a revenge trip too as you may recall. 

                                     *

 What do you do when your country has been taken over by unelected thugs
 who disassemble your system of laws, imprison dissenters without even the
 most primitive of human rights, openly torture prisioners of war and
 carry out their agenda in secret? While many small Banana Republics have
 had such a thing happen to their country, the only western industrialized
 nation to experience it was Germany in the 1930's. Aside from the
 arguably less significant Spanish dictatorship of Generalisimo Franco in
 Spain and the Greek generals junta in the 60's, no other major western
 nation has gone through the experience we are presently enduring. The
 Soviet dictatorship was almost a special case since Russia was only
 marginally European and still largely an agrarian, not industrialized,
 economy at the beginning of its run.

 The people of Spain and Greece openly rebelled against their thugs. But
 the people of the politically more sophisticated and larger Germany and
 Soviet Union didn't. 

 There always seems to be a tendancy to blame the population of the thugs.
 It's their fault that the bastards are allowed to rule. We're about to 
 use that as an excuse for the wholesale slaughter of thousands of Iraqi
 men, women and children. In fact, the massive State security and
 intelligence apparatus in both Germany and the Soviet Union very
 effectively culled out any dissenters. It either shipped them off to
 secret camps or outrightly murdered them. So what if many of those
 imprisioned or killed were completely innocent? It's better to be safe
 than sorry. The only people allowed to pursue a more or less normal
 existence, were the properly intimidated and passive. If you weren't 
 a Good German, you were a dead German.

 Still, no system is perfect. Germany had its Weisse Rose, Poland had its
 Warsaw Jewish Ghetto Uprising, Russia had its Underground and France had
 it's legendary Resistence. All were officially branded as unpatriotic
 traitors. Good Citizens got Brownie Points for betraying them but most
 people just didn't want to get involved. Many of their cadres were
 summarily executed without even the ruse of a Kangeroo Secret Court. Yet,
 today, all are considered heroic while their tormentors will always be
 historically remembered a the scum of the earth. True, these resistance
 movements did not bring down their respective regimes. Hitler was
 destroyed by Red Army Marshall Zukov. And the Soviet System simply died
 of natural rot and bureaucratic stupidity.
  
 Will there be an active resistance in America too? Of course there will!
 There are many patriots who would never mistake America for those buck-
 sucking political whores in DC. America is us, not them. There are plenty
 of people in America who are motivated and capable of kicking Sammy's ass. 
 And there is now enough of a Black Economy to allow people to live and
 function completely outside of The System. Hell, a third of the people
 working in L.A. are off the books.

 From the right-wing, religious-nut Militias with their ready access to
 our military arsenals to the Tree-Hugger animal-rights people with their
 dazzling ability to infiltrate and penetrate even the most sophisticated
 of security systems - Sammy's got lots of nephews who are fully capable
 sabotaging his military and armament facilities. But don't be waiting for
 news of their exploits. Our News Nazis will keep them out of sight and
 out of mind. Like they did with that 1993 Militia attack on a northern
 Michigan National Guard training camp that left a few dead Guardsmen
 with bullet-holes in them. The Milita people who did this got away free
 and clear. Never got caught. It took two years before a report about the
 incident finally surfaced in the distant San Francisco Chronicle. 

 Sammy can invent all the Secret Courts and Death Camps he likes. But it 
 don't mean squat unless he catches you. He ain't too good at that. The
 Walkers made a multi-generation family business out of selling our crypto
 secrets to the Rooskies right under the nose of Naval Intelligence. The
 Weather Underground of the 60's successfully evaded the FBI for nearly
 30 years. They even broke into a federal prison to rescue Tim Leary and
 whisked him out of the country afterwards. The Unibomber mailed off
 deadly bombs for over two DECADES without the FBI ever catching him. The 
 recent anthrax killer has easily evaded detection despite a huge FBI
 effort. Osama bin Laden and the Taliban's Mullah Umar still haven't been
 caught. Warlord Aidid in Somalia not only evaded a concerted effort to
 capture and try him, he ran a daily radio program while doing so. On and
 on it goes. Sammy's fat, stupid and arrogant. A few prudent, common-sense
 precautions and he's easy to avoid. Besides, you can always buy a few
 high-up FBI agents to give you a warning. They're for sale - cheap.

........................................................................

 To call war the soil of courage and virtue is like calling debauchery
 the soil of love.

                          George Santayana

........................................................................

                        -  MONDO VATICANO -

 Knock it off! Stop with the begging already. Cardinal Martini, formerly
 of Milano, absolutely refuses to become the next Pope. It's final. It
 will do you no good to whine and cry. His mind is made up.

 For about the fifth time in the past year, Cardinal Martini, has once
 again put out the word that he is not available for the Papacy. Like
 anyone in their right mind would even think of imposing such a burden
 on the Church. I've never even heard any rumors that he was under
 serious consideration for the job. Supposedly this phony-baloney excuse
 for a Vatican 'liberal' has retired to the Holy Land to pray. I guess
 with all the bombing and shooting it's a little hard to concentrate so
 he's cranking out press releases until it quiets down. Or maybe he's
 just a little jealous that his nemesis, Cardinal "Ratso" Ratzinger the
 head of the Holy Inquisition and reigning Vatican butt-kicker, didn't
 retire as expected. Ratso did smirkingly mock Martini when the later
 issued his retirement announcement, stating that he too would like to
 find a quiet place to pray and retire. Guess he couldn't find one.

                                 +

 Mel Gibson, American-born Aussie-raised star of the silver screen, is 
 a Catholic. He even had a chapel built into his California home at
 which he has Mass said in Latin every Sunday. Better yet - his only
 daughter has decided to become a nun. But like a growing number
 of Catholics, Mel draws a distinction between the institutional Church
 embodied in the Vatican and the living Church embodied in the People of
 God. He's a-gin the former and for the latter. The Pope and Curia are
 irrelevant to his Catholicism. Which explains why such a high-profile
 Catholic never gets any invites to drop by the old Pollock's luxury 
 apartment complex in Vatican City for some pirogyies and vodka eh.

                                  +

 British Monsignor John Barry is very concerned about what is going on
 at the Ministry of Defense Porton Down facility. Concerned enough that
 he has asked the police to investigate allegations that the elderly
 and ill are being used by the British government in secret germ warfare
 experiments. PD has a history of such goings on. It ain't far fetched
 conspiracy-nut stuff. From the 50's right up to the 90's, members of
 Britain's Armed Forces were involuntary human experimentation subjects 
 for the testing of a wide variety of often deadly gases as well as drugs
 like LSD. The MoD lied to them to get their participation. Over 400
 official complaints have been filed by former service members over the
 matter. PD denies it all. Except the part about their experiments on
 leukemia patients. They invoked the Hutchinson Cancer Center Protocol
 for that one: what the hell, they're as good as dead anyways. I guess 
 you could say the same about the old and infirm eh. Go get the evil
 bastards Fr. John! 

                                 +

 Fr. Mauro Simpson (77) and Fr. Montalvo (58) are cooling their heels
 in the U.S. Navy brig at Vieques Island in Puerto Rico. They joined 
 nine others who were grabbed by the Squids for tresspassing in protest 
 of continued Navy practice bombing on the island. Both priests are
 from Sweet Name of Jesus parish on the main island of Puerto Rico.
 What a K00L name for a chuch eh.
 
                                 +

 Bill Gaede of Fresno, California knows what to do when a bunch of
 superstitious Mexican religious-nuts started claiming they saw a
 vision of the Blessed Virgin in one of his trees. Screaming, "You
 Catholics! Here's your virgin!", he whipped out his chain-saw and
 cut the miracle tree down. This left the Mexicans with nothing but
 a tree stump to worship. Sigh. The Fresno Virgin Chainsaw Massacre.
 What this stupid Mexican superstitious BS has to do with Catholicism
 is beyond me. I thought Mexican men were supposed to be big tough 
 hombres. Instead they turn out to be a bunch of gutless wimps who 
 let old women lead them around by the nose. No cojunes at all.

                                +

 I thought it was too good to be true. The U.S. Conference of Bishops
 and Pedophile Hiders recently told American Catholics to back-off
 and leave Jews alone - they're already saved. Roma with its long
 history of torturing and persecuting Jews wasn't about to let the
 U.S. bishops spoil their fun. Cardinal "Ratso" Ratzinger, the Chief
 Executioner at the Vatican's Holy Inquistion piped up with his 2-cents
 worth this week. He says Catholics shouldn't strong-arm Jews into
 conversion to Catholicism but it's still okay to trick them into
 it. He then goose-stepped back into his rubber room in the basement
 of the Sistine Chapel.

                                  +

 Three months after the U.S. bishops meeting in Dallas formed a new
 protocol for dealing with pervert priests, the Vatican is still
 too busy jerking-off to decide whether it's legit or not. They've
 been hemming and hawing over it for ages. And the old Pollock is
 still sleeping off his recent tours. It's a bit of a moot point.
 The bishops are free to ignore the US Conference's recommendations
 anyways. The Vatican will never make up its mind. So just go ahead
 and implement the damn thing. Ultimately it all depends on the moral
 integrity of the bishops. As we've seen, very few of the lying
 bastards have any.

                                  +

 Voice of the Faithful, a Church reform group that grew out of the 
 current pervert priest scandal, is running into a bit of rough water.
 Predictably enough, the clergy are aghast at such interference by
 the laity. We're supposed to keep our mouths shut and pay the bills.
 That's our role. We don't own our churches; we don't choose our
 bishops; we don't get to choose our priests; we aren't even allowed
 to see the Books and find out what financial shenanigans the bishop
 is up to. 

 I like VOF. I think they are a healthy sign. But given the present
 corrupt and moraly abject state of the institutional Church, groups
 seeking reform often seem to get swallowed up by the immensity of
 it all. The Vatican is a filthy, stinking mess. Where in the hell
 do you start? So they try to do too much. They lack specific focus 
 and therefore degenerate into do-nothing debating societies.

 I would like to see VOF take it one step at a time. Focus on the
 financial state of the American Church first. Employing the threat
 of an economic boycott of uncooperative bishops, much needed reform
 of diocesean finances could be effected - annual audits, periodic
 release of a balance sheet, etc. It's our money, not the bishop's.
 That bum don't work for a living and he doesn't pay taxes. We do.
 We got a right to know where it's all going. Particularily with the
 sorts of abuses we've been treated to lately: bishops buying race
 horses as an investment, others paying off former lovers under the
 table, secret settlements of clergy abuse claims, etc. 

 Democratizing the Church and other doctrinal vagarities should 
 not be a priority. We can talk about stuff like that later.

----------------------------------------------------
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 on you baby. He'll teriyaki your sorry butt and turn
 it into Lutefisk.
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