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GIVE ME SOME SPACE

Without the space between the notes there would be no music. Without the spaces between words we would have no meaning. These are good examples of how dead air or filler helps to create beautiful works of art. This is not true in society. Sociologically speaking, we have too much FILLER, dead air, and INERT ingredients in our society. When HALF of the potential tax payers in America pay ZERO taxes...there's a problem with the system. These folks have no SKIN in the GAME. They have nothing to lose by their choices and everything (free stuff) to gain. So the system is like that mythical invention the Perpetual Motion Machine, self oiling, and self perpetuating, and ultimately self-defeating.

The only hope for America in this upcoming election is that the proletariat is so wrapped up in watching American Idol, or the Bachelorette, that they forget to go to the polls. But if they did all vote, they would surely all vote Democrat. Not that I am in love with the Republican party, but get serious out there, if you have a job, had a job, or will ever get a job, why would you want to vote for a party where their platform is free everything for anyone whether you work or not, whether you belong in this country legally or not, and whether you ever contributed anything to our society other than whining for more. I understand that labor union bosses and politicians are in one another's pockets. What I find difficult to fathom is how a hard working man of any color, who puts in 40 hours a week at a construction site can vote to elect a politician who wants him to send part of his paycheck into the IRS so the government can give it to another man who couldn't bother to get out of bed to look for a job. Ever.

Let's say you think of America as a product, a vitamin tablet for example. Notice the ingredients listed on the label. there are active ingredients that make you healthier and are the reason you bought the product. Then there are inactive or INERT ingredients. Leaving the election in the hands of the inert members of our society who contribute nothing to our country is a PILL that's too hard to SWALLOW.

N O T I C E

The ORACLE apologizes to his loyal readership for not publishing over the last week. I tried to make up for it today. The I-O, loyal APPLE computer sycophant, was "dead in the water" when his faithful writing companion, MAC the laptop, crashed. I have an iPhone, an AirPort wireless modem, and just about everything else APPLE makes. I ordered, received, and immediately sent back my iPAD because it seemed to be extraneous and an overlap to my existing technology. So I don't have one of those. Maybe later.

I took my MAC computer to Computer Solutions here on Nantucket. I have bought two printers, lots of ink, and paper, and some other gizmos there over the past month and they are generally nice and competent. They sell APPLE products and I have bought things from them for a fair price considering the island we live on. They have NO IDEA what they are doing when it comes to repairing a MAC laptop, in my opinion. I took it in, left if for a few days, paid $50, and took it home. It still did not work so after trying to save a few files that had not been backed up to disc, thumbdrive, or external hard drive, I FedEx shipped it to my local reseller in Sarasota, Computer Advantage. They called a couple of days later to tell me it may be covered under a recall even though my AppleCare extended warranty has expired. I have patronized them more than once and have been satisfied in the past. I will keep my fingers crossed and hope that I will not have to shell out $$$$ for a new laptop. I am not a spreadsheet guy or a gamer so I don't need all the bells and whistles that come on the new models and cost more. I WILL LET YOU KNOW.

The CISCO KID

One of the great pleasures of living on Nantucket is going out to the CISCO brewery near Bartlett's farm. It is an outdoor venue that I wrote about a while back that reminds me of a biker campground in Daytona Beach but without the bikes. They don't make much there, the hootch manufacturing plant is actually on the mainland. They do apparently make some beer. My favorite is not the Whale's Tale pictured, it is too bitter for me, but the Gray Lady which has a hint of lime juice. This week we were on our way to buy some veggies at the farm and passed CISCO and it was jumpin' with people and there were cars parked all over the road. Apparently this is common over the weekend and they even have a band. What they don't apparently have, as reported by the Inquirer and Mirror (Inky Mirror to locals) newspaper, is environmental consciousness. A front page article appeared this week that indicated that CISCO has violated too many to count environmental laws concerning the disposal of the byproducts of the production of beer and the septic tanks were overflowing.

I guess the young people who follow Al Gore and the Save Our Planet folks either did not read the paper or they just don't care about the environment when it gets in the way of a Keg Party. We are in Massachusetts, the home of John Kerry, the former Ted Kennedy, and Michael Dukakis. You would think that being "green" here would be more important than it would be to Kermit the Frog. I will go out to CISCO again next week to see if there are any tree huggers carrying signs "Save the Whales(tale)"

FAMILY is EVERYTHING

Ah, the immortal words of Don Vito Corleone. As we learned from the Godfather series of movies, there are two kinds of people, family, and everyone else. It reminds me of a story from my youth. I spent a little time on a farm, not the funny-farm as you might think, and was being taken on an introductory tour by a young girl of about 10. She pointed to a cow that she called Daisy. "She is our pet." Then she pointed to other cows who were unnamed and she said these are cows...we get milk from them and sometimes we eat them. Likewise with all of the animals on the farm. Some were named pets, others were food. They looked the same to me. The point being, we separate all living things into those two categories...the ones we care about who can do no wrong because they are family or pets, and everyone else, of they are the Tataglias, someone else's family, and we care because it's good for business.

So, once again, the movies give us our most important lessons. We learn that it's OK to be a whore if you are Julia Roberts and your "John," Edward (not John Edwards) is handsome Richard Gere. That wolves are bad, and pigs are good, and that only an evil person would shoot Bambi's mother (Bambi the deer not the porn star). Whole other civilizations live on other planets and their queen is Natalie Portman. And if you want to do an impression of Marlon Brando being Vito Corleone, speak as if you are trying to clear your throat, but don't.

Well, that brings me back to the subject of family, the people who are within the "Circle of Trust" as deNiro described it in "Meet the Fockers." Once you are inside that circle, you can do no wrong. Or if you do wrong, everyone forgives and forgets because you are "family."

NATURE or NURTURE

The eternal question in education, sociology and science is whether human beings are what they are because they were born that way (Nature) or were trained by their parents or society (Nurture). I believe that the photo to the left answers that eternal question without the expense of a double-blind study or a huge Federal Grant to a major university. It is a picture of a 2 year old whose mother and grandmother, whom we shall refer to as Thelma and Louise, went to the Lily Puliter store on Nantucket and bought these "Legally Blonde"pink sandals.

In the wild, items like this do not exist. Sure, there are flowers in this color, but one would not be inclined to wear them on ones feet. It is only through the magic of the Fashion Industrial Complex that something like this could come into being, and be sold to a gaggle of women shopping at Lily. "Ay, que linda!" or "How, cute!" and pretty soon, Little Miss Muffet has "learned (nurture)" that shoes, particularly with names like Manolo. Lily, Ralph, or Jimmy Choo, are the main reason for getting up in the morning. And the eternal mystery is solved. Once the acorn of style is planted at this early age, the oak tree of con-shoe-merism grows. And "Itsy Bitsy Spider" is shoved out of the way by Isty Betsy Johnson. There, I've saved a bundle of money from the stimulus package so other important scientific studies can be done, like "Why boys pee off the front porch." I'm thinking that's probably nurture too, but I am willing to hear what comes out of the Harvard study.

JIM "CHICKEN LITTLE" CANTORE STRIKES AGAIN

The word "HURRICANE" strikes fear in my heart. No, not because of the actual danger of weather but because the Weather Channel lets Jim Cantore out of his cage and sends him to North Carolina, Florida, or wherever they can take a picture of him standing outside in a windbreaker getting hit in the face with driving rain while holding a microphone. Jim, cousin to Maria Bartiromo the Grim Reaper of CNBC who excitedly reports stock market crashes, has only one job..."scare the living crap out of everyone."

Through the clever use of stock footage from previous hurricanes, tidal waves, and the movie "Armageddon" Jim single handedly causes a rise in plywood futures, batteries, and the sale of Aquafina Water. His "signature move" is to stand at some lonely beach with the wind blowing and waves crashing in the background. The venue is usually an out island in the path of a hurricane. There is an urgency for him to get there and stake out a location before the surfers get into the water and spoil the shot. The other urgency is to get as much 24 hour breaking news in as he can before the hurricane is downgraded. Hurricane Earl started as a category 4 and by the time it reached Nantucket it was a drizzle.

If Jim had been on Nantucket, the only way he could have gotten wet was if someone turned a hose on him. He had more effect on this island than the weather. As a result of "the sky is falling" round-the-clock coverage by the Weather Channel, inhabitants had no other option but to board up their businesses. The above photo was the Ralph Lauren store on Main Street in Downtown Nantucket. The ferry boats were cancelled, there was a run on toilet paper and water at the Stop and Shop, and everywhere you went, the TV was on with Jim standing in the rain. I hope this guy takes plenty of Zicam. I heard a story last night about him placing himself in danger once again and having to re-shoot because some little old lady with a shopping cart walked by.

Among the most famous moments of Hurricane Earl was when Jim was standing in North Carolina and commented that he could smell pine trees and knew that this meant that branches were broken. I heard a rumor that someone had hung a pine scented car freshener on his microphone. I will have to go back to the archive to see if it is visible, and to see if the little old lady that took her life into her own hands by going outside ever got her Polygrip at the Stop and Shop.