Emawkc has a post entitled “That old feeling“. He’s feeling old because his sister is going to be a grandmother, making him a Great Uncle.

Now, I don’t have the faintest clue as to Emaws age (if his post about cocks is any indicator, 15 maybe? haha). But I offer this observation about being “old”.

You can’t be old by association, or kinship, unless you are the eldest. You either ARE old, or you are not.

I call myself the grumbling old fart, but by most age standards I’m not really old. However, I am the oldest of all my siblings, so I get points there. I am also a grandfather, twice. Sure, I’m technically a “step-grandfather”, but it still counts. With those I rack up three “One step towards the grave” cards. Then we factor in the heart attack I had a couple years ago… 5 more “close to being cremains” cards.

So to Emaw I offer this sage advice. Embrace the onslaught of being old. Old people get to say whatever the hell they want, and people don’t care that it sounds a bit over the top at times. Of course when the physical aspects of being old crop up, like you having to wear Depends, its a different story entirely. Then you run away from it, like it’s a Sex in the City movie sequel.

Not sure how many of my readers (presumptiuous of me, I know), are football fans, but if you’re not a fan… feel free to close your eyes and just keep hitting refresh until my next post.

This past spring, Green Bay Packers legendary quarterback Brett Favre announced he was retiring from football. After 18 seasons, which included a Super Bowl win against my beloved New England Patriots, Brett wasn’t going to spend the entire warm weather months pondering his future, keeping the Packer fans waiting. Nope. He was done. He sat there in front of the microphone and bawled like a little girl (see pic at right) while explaining that it was time for him to do other things.

Oops.

Not so fast.

Brett has contacted the Green Bay Packers and said he wants to play. Green Bay still owns his contract, and therefore his rights in the NFL. That means GB has three options. Take him back and pay him. Trade him to another team (oh please doG… The JETS!!!). Release him completely to go anywhere he wants to play (again… The JESTS need a QB, so I’d love them to get a 90 yr old retiree the Pats could beat the hell out of).

Well, since blogs are about assholes… or more accurately, opinions… here’s mine.

GO FISHING BRETT. Go play golf, mow the lawn, and enjoy the millions of dollars you’ve made. Pop into a bar in Green Bay every once in a while and enjoy drinks on the house. But don’t play football again. You cried on national television when you announced the end to your career… I don’t want to have to see that again!

A recent study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania on aggression in dogs found that Pit Bulls and Rottweilers aren’t the big, bad MFers of the canine world that most people think they are.

The study asked questions of 6,000 dog owners of differing breeds about their particular dog.

The most aggressive dog breed?

Dachshounds. Followed closely by Chihuahuas.

I can verify the dachshound and chihuahua conclusion through personal experience. My family (when I was a lot younger) has had both breeds as pets. Actually, some of my family still has doxies. A couple years ago Mrs. Old Fart and I took one of our most relaxed and gentle greyhounds with us on a trip to visit the family with doxies. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. One 60 pound greyhound being attacked by probably around 4 or 5 minature dachshounds. Yep, these were mini doxies! We saved the greyhound from doom (LOL), but she was petrified of those doxies the rest of the visit.

Oh, and in case you were wondering… greyhounds ranked as one of the LEAST aggressive breeds.

Way back when… about 20+ years ago, I was just starting out in what was then called Data Processing. Today it’s called Information Technology. Same shit, different name. The suits earn their money changing the names of departments.

Ah, but this is supposed to be about music. Specifically about music on my MP3 player.

In the very first data center I worked in we had a boom box, and each person was allowed to pick the music for one night, on a rotating basis. We had this one guy who liked what I would then call “weird music”.. being the rocker that I was.

I absolutely loved some of this weird music, but non more than Jean-Luc Ponty, the electric violinist.

My favorite Jean-Luc song is his take on Chopins Prelude 20. Very sad song, but full of emotion.

First things first. The image to the right is from AmericasWonderland.com, they have some absolutely amazing shots of Kansas for sale.

Got to thinking about the 4th of July, and what it means. There are so many things it means to Americans.

Some just think of it as a day off from work. Others think of it as a day to cook outdoors and partake of adult beverages. A few don’t even stop to think of it as anything special.

The official name of the holiday celebrated on July fourth of every year in the United States is Independence Day. Unofficially, people think of it as the symbol of the day the United States of America declared its independence from England and the monarchy.

July 4th is all those things to me. Even “just another day”.

But it is also more to me. Its about the reasons we declared our independence. Not just the symbolic act of giving the crown the middle finger, but the underlying sentiment that brought about that figurative gesture.

It started because England imposed laws on people who had almost no say in those laws. They had no chance of changing those laws, no representation to the parliment in London. The Governors of the colonies were appointed by, and ultimately reported to Englands crown. Many of these laws denied the residents of the American colonies certain rights they believed they still had as English citizens.

Of course we know that just declaring our independence on a piece of paper didn’t mean the English crown stopped trying to exert control over what it felt were English subjects.

Americans fought and died for the freedoms expressed in the Bill of Rights… and more importantly they fought for the rights that AREN’T expressed there. You see, the guys who wrote those documents knew that power corrupts, and someday someone would say “its not in the Constitution, so you don’t get it”. Well, they forsaw that. That is why the ninth and tenth amendments are probably two of the most important rights… they don’t specify one.

The 9th amendment says “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people”, meaning the authors of the document didn’t intend for this to be used as the “Be All/End All” of your list of rights.

The 10th amendment says “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”, meaning the authors knew the Federal government would move to usurp power (or rights) not expressly granted to it, but those powers are to be retained by the people at local levels (state), not the national government.

To me, The Fourth is about remembering not only how we physically declared our independence in a document and subsequent war… but more importantly… WHY. To protect our rights. Something many Americans seem all to willing to give away to a federal government bent on destroying what made this country. Individuals. Lots of individuals, yes… but each wanting a government that would leave them to live their lives, so long as they didn’t interfere with their neighbors rights.

As a libertarian I can honestly say that I feel we’ve given up the ship. We’ve allowed the government to take from us what the men in 1776 KNEW IT WOULD WANT TO TAKE.

Have a safe 4th of July. And maybe think about it. Not just today in 2008… but WHY we actually celebrate the day.

I’m not talking about the ones in Cambodia. This particular killing field is a lot closer to home. In a small town not really known for death and destruction, but maybe it should be.

Or at least one particular section of highway should be.

Edwardsville, Kansas… at Interstate 435 and Kansas Highway 32 to be exact.

I drive on I435 past the ramps for K32 a lot. So does Mrs. Old Fart. I’ve never really thought it to be a particularly treacherous stretch of road, but how else can the following be explained.

Between the I435 bridge over the Kansas River, north to Kansas Avenue, there have been at least 5 major accidents in the last 6 months. At least 3 of them involved fatalities. If you go back one year, you can include another fatality from the tractor trailer that went over the bridge at Metropolitan Ave.

The latest accident, last night, killed two (a husband and wife), and sent their two children to the hospital. I was diverted off the interstate last night on my way home from work, and reading the story today has been surreal. How does a vehicle cross the grass median and go into oncoming traffic? It’s a rhetorical question. I know the driver can fall asleep, suffer a sever medical problem, etc… but what I am asking is… why isn’t there a guard rail separating the northbound lanes from the southbound lanes? Something as simple as that would have prevented last nights accident. I’m not sure it would have saved lives because who knows whether the husband would have regained control of the vehicle. But it would have stopped the vehicle from crashing almost head on into a Fed-Ex truck.

Government believes they need to protect us from second hand smoke… but not crossover traffic accidents at 70 mph.

You are far more likely to be killed at I435 & K32 than you are inhaling the smoke in the Red Balloon.

So, stay away from the killing field if you can. The fewer of you folks driving there, the safer I’ll be.