pinions of buddy don: is our goose dun cooked?

ye half to wunder whut kinda silly goose wood let sumbidy tell the most obveeus lie to em overn over agin ...



could it be that our geese has dun been cleaned n hung up to dry?



our goose aint cooked yet, right? kin we deefend our constitushun?

pinions of buddy don: a few hat tips to big bloggers

hat tip to eric alterman of altercation fer brangin this verr funny list of quotes to my tenchun.

hat tip to kos fer brangin this frum the booman tribune to my tenchun. whuts fassinatin bout this is how the fack checkin on kaloogians attempts to lie with a pitcher has been done by a blogger usin one of the tools of the internets.

then thays this skeery story bout usin stem cells harvested out of adults frum darksyde, also on kos.

hat tip to tristero of digbys hullabaloo fer notin how ye kin git live recordins of mozarts last three symfonies fer jes ten bucks at itunes. thar magick.

hat tip to kevin drum of politcal animal fer lankin to a shockin story writ bout iraq by sumbidy that lives thar he found on a grate blog i orta start readin everday name of Baghdad Burning.

i am shore thays more, but i gut to go.

mizry of buddy don: progress of sorts

thangs is gittin better with my migraines, even ifn i caint git em to quit altogether. yesterdy evenin, my left eye gut to goin blind. i waited as long as i could to make shore twood be a migraine then tuck my medicayshun. in about three hours or so, twuz all over.

so the bad news is how they keep on a'cummin, but the good news is that they dont last near as long.

tiz a bit o'progress, so i am countin it as a nuther blessin!

songs of buddy don: We Are the Rubberstamplicans

We Are the Rubberstamplicans!

We are the Rubberstamplicans
We Rubber Stamp the laws
We do not think, we do not blink
Mere winning is our cause

We stayed up late one night to pass that medicare fiasco
We did it though it was as fun as drinking pure Tabasco
We know that "government's the problem" so why should we try
To govern well since that would tell the truth to our great lie?

We cut the taxes of the rich, sent soldiers off to war
We built the largest deficit the world had seen before
To those who say we must be madder than the maddest hatter
We simply parrot Cheney saying, "Deficits don't matter!"

For we are the Rubberstamplicans
We Rubber Stamp the laws
We do not think, we do not blink
Mere winning is our cause

If Bush says black is white or dirty air is really clean
We'll Rubber Stamp the notion with our Rubber Stamp Machine
If Bush says building roads and cutting trees make forests healthy
We'll Rubber Stamp the falsehood and thus make our cronies wealthy.

We will not check our president although he breaks the law
For like all Rubberstamplicans, when shocked we stand in awe.
Besides three decades in the past that FISA law was hatched
To be secure we must endure having our freedoms snatched!

For we are the Rubberstamplicans
We Rubber Stamp the laws
We do not think, we do not blink
Mere winning is our cause

quick note of buddy don: still home

i writ that i wood be goin back in to wurk today, but my boss writ me back to say she figgerd i should keep to my plan of goin at lease a week with no migraine, witch i had one on sundy. she also pointed out that i gut to see the ear nose n throat docter, witch we dont know whuther that will mean surgry, but ifn it did, theyd jes as soon i did it all on the same disabilty. so i will have to wait a lil longer befor i git to go back to wurk. i know it sounds odd, but i kin hardly wait!

pinions of buddy don: nayshun of immigrunts wunders whut to do bout immigrunts

todays papers is loded with talk bout whut to do bout bein amurka, witch tiz a cuntry made up of immigrunts n the survivors of the genocidal arrivull of my euro-peon ancessters. the immigrunts thats dun alreddy here, legal or not, is marchin. them pallicticull partis is trine to figger out how to play it sos they git the mos votes. n we seen sumthin that we aint seen since george bush tuck up residence in the white house, ackshull bi-partisunship in the senate bill sponsord by john mccain n ted kennedy.

so happens i gut a lil histry with immigrunts, legal n otherwise. i dont wonta spoil the story of life n pinions of buddy don, hillbilly, so i wont tell the bes stories i know bout thatn yet, but i did wonta note sumthin. thays a cuple of cuples i know verr well n the differnts in how thar bein treated is a real travesty:

• one of ems a strate cuple made up of one amurkin born here n tuthern born elsewhar. thay wuz sum kinda questchun bout legalty of thatn born over thar, but whenever them two gut engaged, all them problems wuz over.
• tutherns a gay cuple, witch they dun been together fer nigh onto five years. taint no doubt possibull whuther thar in luv or good fer one a nuther. so happens that one of ems amurkin born here n tutherns born over thar sumwhars. differnts is, thatn that wudnt born here has dun everthang possibull to keep legal. even so, dont matter nun atall whut he n his partner duz, he caint be legal fer marryin.

n that rite thar is jes plane rong.

whutever this here nayshun of immigrunts n genocide survivers should do bout them latest immigrunts, it orta be done fair, witch that means them thats gay should git the same rites as them thats strate.

period.

plans of buddy don: dental wurk n wurk

i have a big day at the dentist today n a bigger day at wurk tomorrow, goin back fer the furst time in over three weeks. still fitin fer disabilty benefits, but i am confident we should win thatn on a counta havin so much info frum so minny differnt docterin typs.

meanwhile, in our cuntry, we perteck ourself frum dangerus groups such as activists who feed vegetarian meals to the homeless. wood it be ok ifn they wuz feedin em meat? or ifn they wuz feedin folks with homes? of ifn they wuznt activists? are we safer yet?

meanwhile, ye half to wunder how them oil cumpnies kin make it without drowndin in money.

meanwhile, ye gut to wunder why them voters hates amurka n wonts to turn thar backs on that noble war over in iraq!

meanwhile, wuznt it funny the way mr bush gut up in helen thomas' face n tole her no president wonts to go to war ... well, maybe they do jes a lil.

meanwhile, is it civil war over thar in iraq?

or jes sorta lack a civil war?

or are we takin part in it alreddy?

random ten of buddy don: five good days in a row

i dun wint five days with no migraine! ifn i dont git one in the nex three, i will be back at wurk on tuesdy. i kin hardly wait!

so i feel lack celebratin with a pitcher n sum musick.

african cichlid (bidshicka), lookin in the aquarium mirror



now sum musick – the furst ten songs that cum up on my ipod today:

1. Django's Tiger by Django Reinhardt frum Paris and London: 1937-1948, Vol. 2
2. World Without Sound by Rosanne Cash frum Black Cadillac
3. Them Changes by Bobby McFerrin frum Simple Pleasures
4. This Old House by Loretta Lynn frum Van Lear Rose
5. Lovin' All night by Patty Loveless frum On Your Way Home ...
6. Go Walkin Down There by Chris Isaak frum Forever Blue
7. Lake Charles by Lucinda Williams frum Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
8. Stephen's Blues by Django Reinhardt frum Paris and London: 1937-1948, Vol. 2
9. Surf's Up by The Beach Boys frum Surf's Up
10. Ain't That Loving You Baby by Van Morrison frum A Night in San Francisco (1 of 2)

tiz a grate day. i hope everbidys havin em a goodn.

pinions of buddy don: Rubberstamplicans – weak on defense

ye mite coulda seen sum of them Rubberstamplicans runnin around lack saint peter trine to make shore they have thrice denied bein all that close to mr bush befor the cock crows in november, witch everbidy is hopin folks will be woke up by then.

meanwhile, have ye notissd how them Rubberstamplicans is weak on defense?

thar weak on defense of our ports, votin down ever dimcrat effort to increase fundin to make em safer.

thar weak on defense of simple common sense, wastin money on star wars to perteck us agin enemies that wood be committin suicide to attack while lettin them that knows how to attack practiss thar evil craft on the terrst practice field name of iraq.

thar weak on defense agin one of the most obveeus targets of inny woodbe terrst, chemical plants.

fack is, rite down the line thar weak on defense of our cuntry agin the greed of stateless corporayshuns, witch they git treated lack furst class citizens whilst the rest of us aint hardly gut the funds to make a statement in publick (money bein a part of thar concep of 'free' speech).

thar weak on defense of our soljers, sendin em into a war of choice (not necessity) without adequate armor n other equipment they needed.

thar weak on defense of our futchur, morgagin everthang by raizin the deficit by nigh onto $3 trillion of the $9 trillion its swole up to.

thar weak on defense of our borders on a counta they wont all that cheap labor BUT thar also weak on common sense on a counta how they wonta demonize them verr same illegal wurkers thay need to keep wages down, witch this is whut is called a split in the Rubberstamplican party. must be tuff ifn ye caint figger out whut yer spozed to rubberstamp!

thar weak on defense of the middle class, transferrin massive amounts of our nashunull treasure to billionairs that dont need it.

as ye know, a bidy could go on n on n on bout how them Rubberstamplicans are weak on defense of our homeland n the main threats frum terrsts.

but wurst of all, they are weak on defense of the constitushun!

our cuntry aint sum land, aint sum corporayshuns, aint our economy, aint nuthin material atall. tiz our ideals. ifn we wuz in a battelstar galactica ship roamin the universe lookin fer a place to land n live, we wood still be amurka ifn we still had n defended our constitushun. whut we stand fer is a gummint of checks n balantses, a gummint that dont have no unitary execkutive lack the King George III wonted to be.

the Rubberstamplicans are fine with the president brakin the FISA law.

the Rubberstamplicans attack russ feingold fer standin up fer it, acktin lack he is on the side of the terrsts (ye kin see it in that ad agin im, witch i doubt ifn twill be thar long n i caint make a die-reck lank wurk). thang is, them terrsts caint defeat us, caint take away the ideal of amurka.

but them Rubberstamplicans seem hell bent on doin jes that.

the president will decide whut the law is, not the legislatchur (thats so pre-9/11, pre 1978 even ... why, it goes back over 200 years!).

the president will decide how the law is to be interpreted, not the judiciary.

now that mr bush has lost his mojo n has approval ratins in the thirties, them Rubberstamplicans are trine to git the ink offn thar faces (but keep the loot he razes fer em). but its too late fer that: twuz indelible purple ink!

by that i mean, we (the people) aint a'gone let nobidy fergit who them Rubberstamplicans are n whut all they dun Rubberstamped.

[ifn ye wonta make a comment, click on the wurd 'link' below n scroll down.]

pinions of buddy don: lookin fer sum amurkin courage?

are ye lookin fer sum inspirayshun?

fer sum amurkins with courage?

for sumbidy whos brave a nuff to stand up n say they wont take it no more?

i wish twere them dimcrats linin up to support the senates bravest patriot, russ feingold.

in sted tiz a group that call theirself the dixie chicks. (thanks to atrios fer pointin it out.)

pomes of buddy don: The Window Dresser

The Window Dresser

At last the president reveals his plan
For bringing home our soldiers from Iraq –
A plan so simple it needs no straw man
To prop up and knock down with brave attack.

The plan itself should come as no surprise
Since it comes from a man who never fails
To fail at every single thing he tries
Except for claiming he always prevails.

He used the plan when running companies
Into the ground till cronies came along
To fix the mess he made, for if you please,
He's used this little trick his whole life long.

The plan? Do naught but act as window dresser –
The problem will belong to his successor.

paperwurk of buddy don: disabilty denied ... whut a racket!

yesterdy wuz a good day fer migraines since i dint have no simptums, but thay wuz sumthin else. i gut a call from hr at wurk tellin me my applicayshun fer disabilty had been denied on a counta my docters not sendin in the papers they had to send to proove i have been sick.

twuz a bit of bad news that ment me n miz bd wood half to drop everthang we wuz hopin to do n concentrate on gittin the deecishun reversd.

whut makes it so annoyin is we calld them docters who sed they wood send the papers but they wood need me to sign em furst. but whenever i applied for disabilty, i wuz tole i shouldnt git the papers but have them docters fax em in.

twuz as if i couldnt be trusted.

but thays that law name of hipaa (health insurance portability and accountability act), witch accordin to it, them docters caint release nuthin i dont sign fer.

tiz a good racket, no? i am not spozed to see them papers, but i have to sign em ifn i wonta submit em.

so i ast whut wuz i spozed to do at this point. they tole me to git them papers n rite a letter splainin everthang. i wuz tole thays a real good chants the appeal for a re-revue will be approovd.

ifn taint by middle of nex week, i will have been overpaid n half to pay it back. they sed they woodnt make me pay it all at once but wood putt me on a payment skedule that i could live with.

so me n miz bd gut to callin round to git them papers. since we dont have no fax machine, we had to go over to man hattan yesterdy.

lucky fer me twuz a good day. ackshly, twuz lucky fer miz bd on a counta she wooda dun everthang needed to fite this ifn i had been sick, but taint rite.

i gut a cuple more docters with papers to gimme so i will half to visit em today, assumin my health holds.

so far, so good.

since 2000, ever time i have claimd inny medicull eggspents, its been denied till we fought it n gut it approovd with sum insurants cumnys pall gies.

whut a racket!

mizry of buddy don: better but

i started out purty good yesterdy, but not long after i posted, i gut that blind sensayshun in my left eye follerd by the risin pulse of pain till i had to take zomig. spent much of the day in bed after that, but the silver linin in that dark cloud is how i wuz able to recover a lot fastern i have been able to do. by yesterdy evenin, i figgerd i mite could alreddy be better.

i am hopin to git thru this day without nun of that. i am thankfull fer gittin off as easy as i did yesterdy.

pinions of buddy don: quick note on a blog

i aint gut no gas in the tank at the moment but i did have a good nite. so i caint rite much at the moment, but i did wonta reckommend a fantastick blog i been a'readin of late. tiz the gods are bored, run by the merlin of berkeley springs, anne johnson.

i urge ye to read it, but open the door to yer mind befor ye enter. ifn yer botherd by folks not bleevin jes whut ye bleeve, ye orta skip thisn. but ifn ye luv wide rangin, intelligent commentairy on god or the gods or nature or whutever ye mite call it, then this is the place to go. far as i kin tell, she rites sumthin new most everday.

i gut more to say whenever i git inny energy back.

thankee fer all yer kind wurds durin this recent spate of migraine attacks.

note to anne: i ast miz bd whuther we orta git that Nashville Sessions CD by Leftover Salmon. then i red her who plays on it – Del n Ronnie McCoury, Taj Mahal, Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Yo-El Sonnier, Jerry Douglas, Lucinda Williams, and Waylon Jennings. miz bd sed, 'wunder who wood thank we wood be innerested in them?' big smile. tiz a list of sum of our verr faverts. so we gut it. tiz a keeper!

blessins of buddy don: a day of blessins wurthy of recountin

yesterdy wuz a good day at last. dint have no simptums to speak of, witch miz bd had class so i spent the day puttern roun the house n wurkin a lil on the manuscrip till twuz time fer me to ride over to brooklyn fer my ackupunkchur.

as i menchunned yesterdy, i had plans to take sum pitchers of the sunset frum the brooklyn prominodd on a counta how i wood be gittin outta ackupunkchur round 5:15, time a nuff to walk up henry street to remsen street n turn left, witch remsen ded-ends in the prominodd. miz bd wuz a'gone call me whenever she gut dun with her class, witch twuz skeduled to go till 6:30 but ye never know.

twuz a lil chilly but otherwise a fine day with verr few clouds n low humidty. i wuz feelin as good as i been feelin lately of a week since i had jes cum frum bein ackupunkchurrd. i half to say, ye leave feelin wunderful.

innywho, i gut to the prominodd n tuck a few pitchers n then went to find a place to set up the tripod. low n beehold, i had fergut to brang the lil shoe thang ye use to attach yer camera to the tripod. twuz on a nuther piece of camera gear.

i tuck a few more pitchers n deecided to leave a message on miz bds cell fone, but woodnt ye know it? i had dun fergut my cell fone too! i reckun i must still be in that triptan fog whar i fergit thangs!

innywho, heres sum of them pitchers.

furst, here sum pitchers of whut the view looked lack in various years tween 1776 n today, witch ifn ye click em they will git huge n show ye lots of deetail ...

etching of man hattan vue frum the brooklyn prominodd in 1776


etching of how that man hattan vue wuz in 1880


ye probly member how lower man hattan looked frum brooklyn in 2001


here how twuz yesterdy


thays sum other thangs to see frum that prominodd, witch heres ye kin see down it tords the brooklyn bridge


finely, this is a pitcher of the statchoo of liberty, witch liberty used to be sumthin we woodnt never trade fer life, much less fer securty. mayhap ye member it.


innywho, i figgerd i had better git ere i fergit to take my own hed with me so i walked over to the a train n tuck it up to port authorty at 42nd street, witch thats whar ye catch the buses to jersey n uther places.

i wuz in luck: the bus wuz loadin n looked to be near full. i gut out my bus pass n gut on n who do i see with a seat at her side but miz bd!

ye couldnt have no better end to yer day.

fack is, twuz a day of blessins wurthy of recountin. tiz my wish fer everbidy to have a day as good as i dun yesterdy ... everday.

random ten of buddy don: feelin better, so how bout a lil musick?

thanks to all them fine folks that writ me thar reegards. i hope i ever git well or at lease well a nuff that i kin rite a lil more reglar.

innywho, i am feelin much better today than yesterdy n have hopes that i mite feel good all day long. miz bd has a class over in man hattan today that gits out round 6:30. i gut my weekly ackupunkchur in brooklyn at 4 pm, so i hope to git out in time to take a lil walk along the prominodd over thar n take sum pitchers of the settin sun over south man hattan. then mayhap me n miz bd will meet up fer a lil dinner.

meanwhile, heres my random ten fer today (usin whutever cums up on my ipod)

1. Empty Hearts by Alison Krauss frum Forget about It
2. Song for the Asking by Simon and Garfunkel frum Bridge Over Troubled Water
3. Mystic Rhythms by Rush frum Power Windows
4. 200 More Miles by Cowboy Junkies frum The Trinity Sessions
5. A Touch of Your Hand by The Nylons frum Happy Together
6. Flame in My Heart by James King frum Thirty Years of Farming
7. Shape of My Heart by Sting frum Ten Summoner's Tales
8. Girls and Boys by Prince frum sangle vershun of Peach
9. Where Did the Sunshine Go by The Osborne Brothers frum From Rocky Top to Muddy Bottoms
10. We're Gonne Move by Elvis Presley frum The King of Rock 'n' Roll: The Complete 50s Masters

mizry of buddy don: terrbull migraine

caint catch a brake. late yesterdy, went blind in the left eye, then amazin pain on left side of my hed. went to sleep about 7:30 after takin imitrex. woke aroun 3 am, sick as a dog. gut up, drunk sum erbs n finely vomited. sick as yer snakebit dog. miz bd is docterin me.

progress of buddy don: nuther migraine, but ...

yesterdy not long after i had posted my daily entry here, i notissd i wuz gettin a lil blind in my left eye n had a pulsin pain growin on the left side of my hed. in the past, i mite woulda tride to thank twuz sumthin else, not a migraine.

but yesterdy, i tole miz bd whut i wuz a'feelin n tuck a new medicin fer it, a nasal spray vershun of imitrex. it dun purty much the same as zomig wood do, meanin it putt me to sleep. this time, tho, i slept with that cpap thang on my nose n whenever i woke up, i felt much bettern i normally wood after takin zomig n sleepin without no cpap thang.

so i am makin progress, tho tiz depressin that i am still gittin migraines, witch that dashes the hope wuz that gittin the sleep problem solved wood be a magick cure fer all migraines.

on tuther hand, tiz grate that i bounced back as quick as i dun yesterdy.

i shore hope i am on the rite path. seems lack thangs is gettin a lil better.

thankee one n all fer yer kind wurds of cuncern n cumfert. i am countin my blessins n caint count hi a nuff.

pinions of buddy don: couldnt say it no better

i red sumthin yesterdy that eggspresses mos everthang i have been trine to figger out how to say. twuz writ by a feller name of Nicholas Pisano, who hes a navy vet. he writ a letter to altercation, eric altermans blog. ye kind read the articull thar, but ye mite half to look fer it. meanwhile, heres sum of the best thangs he had to say:

Military members are like everyone else, especially a professional military in times like this one, in which national survival is not at stake. I can hear the howls now-but I challenge anyone to tell me how a well-financed terrorist organization of a couple of thousand members can threaten the nation to such an extent that an extraordinary and unprecedented consolidation of power in the executive and the violation of political rights and civil liberties (apart from the lies, corruption and abuse of power that seem to go hand-in-hand with these other actions) are necessary compared to, say, the Cold War where we faced the old Soviet Union with its sophisticated intelligence infrastructure, modern military and nuclear weapons that could (and we did come to the brink) wipe us off the map in a matter of minutes? Or how it compares to World War II where both Japan and Germany-two of the largest economies and military powers in the world at the time-were dedicated to our destruction and waged total war against us?

we used to say: thonly thang we have to fear is fear itself. ut now it seems lack fer the presdint, thonly thang fer him to fear is the cuntrys lack of fear itself. mr pisano has more to say:

One who is given unique authority over others who falls short of what it takes needs to be removed from doing any more harm than he or she may have already caused. You can delegate responsibility to someone to achieve a particular goal but you, as a Commissioned Officer (or a President), cannot escape the judgment of accountability. For example, when you are given the "con" on a U.S. Navy ship, you are accountable for everything that happens during your watch. No special pleading about conditions that may have existed before your assumption of that position will save you from harsh judgment should you run the ship aground, hazard your vessel unnecessarily or collide with another vessel. You voluntarily took the con and are expected to understand all important conditions prior to assuming command. Without accountability power lacks legitimacy and we are left with official lawlessness and despotism. The Master Chief, of all the writers, should know better and is being disingenuous when he shifts blame for 9/11 and other lapses of judgment and offenses committed by this Administration to previous ones. I fault the 9/11 Commission for the same dishonesty. The 9/11 attack, the cooked evidence for the Iraq invasion, the Katrina debacle, the abuse of power in domestic spying involving hundreds of thousands of Americans with no connection to al-Qaeda, the widespread corruption involving billions of dollars in misappropriated funds all occurred on the watch of this President. Some of these involved unforgivable acts of omission and others were acts of commission involving the abuse of power.

please go read the hole thang.

thays a nuther fine bit of thought provokin ritin, but tiz behind the times select wall at the ny times. ifn ye kin git thar, read 25 Key Questions on Iraq writ by David C. Unger. tiz proof that when mr bush attacks hindsite, he is ignorin the fack that much of whut he calls hindsite is ackshly 'i tole ye so.' fack is, mos everthang folks is sayin has gone rong has been thangs they been a'sayin since long befor the war begun. tiz wurth the price of add misshun to be able to read that fine piece.

treetments of buddy don: early pointmint

mornin, all. i gut a verr early docters pointmint this mornin. seems lack i have been a'hauntin em lately.

i mint to menchun how we celebrated miz bds birthdy on saturdy, witch her real birthdy wuz mundy. we had a grate time. corse jack n vaclav joined us. they gut here early. loretta n paddy cum over, witch they gut here a lil late, but dint matter nun. we wuz also deelited that arnold 'golden throated mockinbird' goode n his soul mate biddy could make it as well on a counta how we hadnt seen em in nigh onto three years.

whut a time we had. loretta had give me a slew of ole fambly fotos n i had even more of em, witch i putt em on the ipod n tricked the tv into showin the slideshow of em. twuz a real treet. meanwhile we had a cuple of fresh loaves of bread (rye n dakota), fresh cuts of meats (roast beef, ham, smoked turkey), sum dream tater soup, a cake cooked by vaclav, witch he is a master baker of near all pastries, n more fun than ye could shake a stick at.

arnold 'golden throated mockinbird' goode led us all in a cherokee birthdy dance n then a anniversry dance on a counta how me n miz bd gut marrd on her birthdy.

heres a pitcher of the birthdy cake:



heres miz bd a'blowin out them candles:



in case yer wundern, she wuz able to putt out the fire with jes one big breath!

pinions of buddy don: taint no civil war!

taint no civil war over thar in iraq accordin to our presdint. whenever elizabeth vargas ast im about his plan fer ifn thay wuz to be a civil war, he sed he dint accept the premiss that thay could be a civil war. so i reckun that mint he dint have to make no plan?

so taint no civil war! Forty die in Baghdad car bombings: police:

At least 40 people were killed and 95 wounded in three apparently coordinated car bombs at two markets in Baghdad's Shi'ite district of Sadr City on Sunday, police said.

It was one of the worst days of violence in the capital in recent months.

taint no civil war! After Four Years, Iraq Withdrawal Elusive:

Words like "victory" and "mission accomplished" aren't heard much anymore as the United States enters its fourth year of war in Iraq.

The slogans now are "political process" and handing over "battle space" to Iraq's new army so that the Iraqis themselves can carry the fight to the insurgents and build their promised democracy.

All those plans are now under review in light of another ominous phrase — "civil war" — that has crept into the debate since the wave of sectarian violence set off by a Feb. 22 bombing at a Shiite Muslim mosque in Samarra.

The shift from the upbeat slogans of 2003 represents an acknowledgment by the U.S. command that the war against an insurgency dominated by Iraq's Sunni Arab minority cannot be won by U.S. arms alone.

Instead, the best chance for peace is to encourage the insurgents to lay down their arms and join the political process, while building up an Iraqi force capable of dealing with those who refuse.

But slogans obscure the complexities at play. The rising tensions between Sunnis and Shiites raise the new question of whether building up Iraq's army forces — the supposed solution — might instead set the stage for civil war.

taint no civil war! Sectarian Fighting Changes Face of Conflict for Iraqis:

The shifting focus of Iraq's war does not mean the fight against the insurgency has ended. Bombings attributed to insurgents have held steady. But execution-style shootings of the kind frequently blamed on Shiite militias and police have skyrocketed since mid-2005, claiming more lives monthly now than bombings, according to figures from Baghdad's morgue.

"Sectarian violence now has become the No. 1 problem in Iraq, more than the insurgency. Or on a par" with the insurgency, said Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, the U.N. envoy to Iraq. Gen. John P. Abizaid, the head of U.S. Central Command, said last week that "sectarian violence is a greater concern for us security-wise right now than the insurgency."
Iraq's main means of controlling the factions -- the U.S.-backed government and its new military -- are themselves fractured along sectarian lines. Three months after national elections for what is to be the first full-term government since Hussein's overthrow, Iraq's leaders missed a deadline Sunday for parliament to meet. Bickering over the reappointment of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari, a Shiite, has divided even the Shiite governing coalition.

but taint no civil war! Car Blasts Kill Dozens in Baghdad; At Least 22 Dead in Other Attacks; Leaders Agree to Expedite Unity Talks:

BAGHDAD, March 12 -- A series of powerful explosions ripped through a Shiite Muslim slum in Baghdad on Sunday evening, killing about 50 people and wounding more than 200, as top Iraqi politicians vowed to redouble efforts to form a national unity government and ease a recent surge in sectarian violence.

Official casualty tolls from three car bombings in eastern Baghdad's Sadr City were not available. Capt. Salman al-Nuaimi of the Interior Ministry said that 52 people were killed and 208 wounded in the attacks. He said police found a fourth car that was wired with explosives and defused it.

The Associated Press reported 41 dead and more than 140 injured. Many of the wounded suffered life-threatening injuries, officials said.

Hazim al-Araji, a spokesman for the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose followers maintain a large presence in Sadr City, said on al-Jazeera satellite television that 50 people had been killed and more than 295 injured in the explosions. He also said the blasts appeared to have been coordinated.

The series of attacks was the deadliest since the Feb. 22 bombing of the Shiites' revered Askariya mosque in Samarra, north of Baghdad, unleashed days of sectarian violence between Shiites and Sunni Arabs that left at least 1,000 people dead. Sunni leaders have said many of the deaths resulted from retaliatory attacks on Sunnis by Sadr's Mahdi Army, a well-armed militia that the U.S. military estimates has about 10,000 members.

Sadr's spokesman specifically attributed the violence Sunday to Sunni extremists and the U.S. military's three-year occupation of Iraq, not Sunni Arabs in general.

on the contrairy, everthang has gone purrfeckly accordin to plan! Dash to Baghdad Left Top U.S. Generals Divided:

The paramilitary Fedayeen were numerous, well-armed, dispersed throughout the country, and seemingly determined to fight to the death. But while many officers in the field assessed the Fedayeen as a dogged foe, General Franks and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld saw them as little more than speed bumps on the way to Baghdad. Three years later, Iraq has yet to be subdued. Many of the issues that have haunted the Bush administration about the war — the failure to foresee a potential insurgency and to send sufficient troops to stabilize the country after Saddam Hussein's government was toppled — were foreshadowed early in the conflict. How some of the crucial decisions were made, the behind-the-scenes debate about them and early cautions about a sustained threat have not been previously known.

¶A United States Marines intelligence officer warned after the bloody battle at Nasiriya, the first major fight of the war, that the Fedayeen would continue to mount attacks after the fall of Baghdad since many of the enemy fighters were being bypassed in the race to the capital.

¶In an extraordinary improvisation, Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi exile leader who was a Pentagon favorite, was flown to southern Iraq with hundreds of his fighters as General Franks's command sought to put an "Iraqi face" on the invasion; the plan was set in motion without the knowledge of top administration officials, including Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence.

¶Instead of sending additional troops to impose order after the fall of Baghdad, Mr. Rumsfeld and General Franks canceled the deployment of the First Cavalry Division;
General McKiernan was unhappy with the decision, which was made at a time when ground forces were needed to deal with the chaos in Iraq.

all our volunteers know our forces are doin jes fine! The Home Fires Are Burning Out:

The Army adapted how it fights wars in the 21st century. Now it's time to rethink its expectations of how it treats its volunteers. With each new deployment, the needs of military families evolve because each assignment is different and families may not have had enough time to recover from one deployment before the next one begins. It's not just soldiers who are worn down by repeated deployments — spouses and children are affected too. If we are committed to our troops, then we need to make more of a commitment to their families.

taint no civil war, but ifn twuz, we wood let them iraqis handle it – since when ye thank bout it, ifn twuz a civil war, then them iraqis wood half to fite it! Gen.: Iraq Forces Would Handle Civil War:

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — U.S. troops would hand Iraqi forces the lead role in halting violence if a civil war breaks out in the country, backing up the Iraqis with strict curfews and restrictions on movement, a top general said Sunday.

Brig. Gen. Douglas Raaberg echoed statements made last week by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who told Congress he didn't believe Iraq would descend into all-out civil war but that if it did, the nation's own security forces would be responsible for dealing with the turmoil.

then our troops wood be able to cum home, rite? rong:

The U.S. plan involves sealing the border, a driving ban and strict curfews. American military and intelligence officials also plan to closely monitor celebrations during the upcoming Shiite al-Arbaeen religious festival for evidence of new attacks on symbolic targets that could trigger what Raaberg described as "all-out mayhem."

Such an attack could delay any drawdown of U.S. troops from Iraq planned for this year, Raaberg said.

"It's conditions-based," the Air Force general said of drawdowns. "But all it takes is another incident like Samarra to have us reassess."

Later Sunday, car bombs _ one detonated by a suicide attacker _ and mortar rounds ripped apart two markets in the Shiite Sadr City slum in Baghdad, killing at least 41 people and wounding 140.

so our brave soljers will or wont be able to cum home?

U.S. troops purposely stayed out of sight during more than a week of sectarian fighting that killed more than 500 Iraqis after the shrine bombing. Military leaders said lowering the U.S. profile during the unrest appeared successful in preventing sectarian mobs from turning on U.S. troops and raising anti-American feeling.

However, some analysts warned the U.S. military could face difficult decisions about whether to intervene if its troops were to witness human rights violations or atrocities during Shiite-Sunni violence.

U.N. peacekeepers, for example, were widely criticized in the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia for failing to stop atrocities, most notably the massacre of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995. U.N. commanders complained they often lacked the resources and the authority to intervene because their orders were to maintain neutrality.

Some military analysts also believe some factions in Iraq may deliberately try to draw U.S. troops into any sectarian fighting.

Any Iraqi units sent to control future ethnic clashes will be bolstered by 15 to 16-men American "transition teams," U.S. Special Forces and other troops who currently mentor and train Iraqi soldiers, Raaberg said.

Gen. George Casey, the top commander in Iraq, also could request reinforcements from two brigades of Army and Marine troops stationed in Kuwait, just beyond Iraq's southern border.

see? taint no civil war atall ... jes a lil case of 'all-out mayhem'!

treetments of buddy don: cpap n ackupunkchur

yesterdy a feller cum by the house to deeliver a cpap, witch thats a cuntinuous positiv air preshur deevice. its a lil mask that goes over yer nose. thays a hose cummin out of the lil nose mask, witch it stuffs warm humidifide air into yer nose to keep ye frum havin sleep apnea. tiz a lot of wurk, but i reckun twill be wurth it. i used it last nite n woke feelin verr refreshd.

yesterdy me n miz bd wint to brooklyn to visit element healin n git a ackupunkchur treetment. miz bd had the camera n tuck a cuple of pitchers sos ye kin see them needles. heres three of em:

'acupuncture': furst pitcher is a foot level view. thays a total of eighteen needles in me with two in each calf, one jes above in each ankle, one in each foot, two in each ear, three in my chest, one in the middle of my forehead n one in each hand:


heres them needles in the calf:


heres them needles in the ear:


bleeve me, it looks much more panefull than tiz. ye caint hardly feel it when them needles go in, but ye feel grate once ye get dun with the sesshun. christina morris, the practishuner, gives a fantastick lil massage at the end of the treetment, witch that is wurth the price of add misshun even ifn this procedure dint hep a bidy git well.

hope yer all havin a grate weekend! we are a'gone be celebratin miz bds birthdy later on today, so i will be cookin all day: cuple loaves of bread, sum dream tater soup, mayhap a pie or birthdy cake. i reckun we will have us a grate time!

ifn ye wonta make a comment, jes click on the wurd 'link' below n scroll down.

songs of buddy don: Flap Your Arms!

Flap Your Arms!

I heard em say on TV that this global warming thing
Will soon be too far gone for us to stop.
They said, "We'll all be riding on a plane that's lost its wings.
A plane whose only option is to drop!"

So–
Flap your arms! Flap your arms!
This old plane is going down
Flap your arms like a bird
And if you're lucky you won't drown
Flap your arms! Flap your arms!
And pray it's not too late!
Cause if that ocean gits too deep
We'll all meet our fate.

We're cruising on the great titanic, crossing o'er the sea –
A mammoth mortal iceberg dead ahead –
We have to slow our progress to a tolerable degree,
But the captain says we stay the course instead.

So–
Learn to swim! Learn to swim!
This old ship is going down
Lean to swim like a fish
And if you're lucky you won't drown
Learn to swim! Learn to swim!
And pray it's not too late!
Cause if that ocean gits too deep
We'll all meet our fate.

It's a grave and gathering danger
Can't be tamed by a Texas Ranger
It's gonna hit us just like a hurricane

We piss like the dog in the manger
On the global heat exchanger
We couldn't act any stranger or insane
Oh, it's gonna hit us just like a hurricane!

Global Warming!
(Hurricane!)
Global Warming!
(Hurricane!)
Global Warming!

So–
Flap your arms! Flap your arms!
This old plane is going down
Flap your arms like a bird
And if you're lucky you won't drown
Flap your arms! Flap your arms!
And pray it's not too late!
Cause if that ocean gits too deep
We'll all meet our fate.

Global Warming!
(Hurricane!)
Global Warming!
(Hurricane!)
Global Warming!

pinions of buddy don: daily multiplyer

i wonted to practiss usin that multiplyer i gut frum juan cole n writ about yesterdy. heres one of the top stories of the day gittin the treatment.

Gunmen Abduct 50 in Baghdad; 18 Bodies Found in Minibus:

BAGHDAD, March 8 -- Gunmen wearing what appeared to be the uniforms of Iraqi Interior Ministry commandos stormed a private security company in the capital Wednesday afternoon and kidnapped as many as 50 employees, a ministry official said. In an atmosphere of spiraling lawlessness, other violence killed at least 47 people across the country between Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

In the deadliest incident, the bodies of 18 men, all bound at the wrists and blindfolded, were found piled in an abandoned minibus late Tuesday by a U.S. military patrol in Mansour, a mixed neighborhood of Shiite and Sunni Arabs in western Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement Wednesday.

Baghdad police said that 15 of the victims, including the driver, had been strangled and that three had been shot in the back of the head.

The killings and mass kidnapping were new illustrations of deteriorating security in many parts of Iraq, particularly the capital. Multiple slayings, often of people from the same family or religious sect discovered bound and gagged, have become commonplace.

now lets use the multiplyer to see whut this wood look lack ifn it happend here in amurka. the multiplyer is 11.34, witch thats how minny amurkins thay is fer each iraqi. heres the result, translated to amurkin:

Gunmen Abduct 567 in Washington; 204 Bodies Found in 11 Minibuses:

WASHINGTON, March 8 -- Gunmen wearing what appeared to be the uniforms of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms ("BATF") stormed a private security company in the capital Wednesday afternoon and kidnapped as many as 567 employees, an administration official said. In an atmosphere of spiraling lawlessness, other violence killed at least 533 people across the country between Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

In the deadliest incident, the bodies of 204 men, all bound at the wrists and blindfolded, were found piled in 11 abandoned minibuses late Tuesday by a U.S. military patrol in Manassas, a mixed neighborhood of Protestants and Catholics west of Washington, D.C., the U.S. military said in a statement Wednesday.

DC police said that 170 of the victims, including the driver, had been strangled and that thirty-four had been shot in the back of the head.

The killings and mass kidnapping were new illustrations of deteriorating security in many parts of the U.S., particularly the capital. Multiple slayings, often of people from the same family or religious denomination discovered bound and gagged, have become commonplace.

corse, them numbers mite not be eggzackly correck, ifn ye bleeve whuts writ in this story name of Official Says Shiite Party Suppressed Body Count:

BAGHDAD, March 8 -- Days after the bombing of a Shiite shrine unleashed a wave of retaliatory killings of Sunnis, the leading Shiite party in Iraq's governing coalition directed the Health Ministry to stop tabulating execution-style shootings, according to a ministry official familiar with the recording of deaths.

The official, who spoke on the condition that he not be named because he feared for his safety, said a representative of the Shiite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, ordered that government hospitals and morgues catalogue deaths caused by bombings or clashes with insurgents, but not by execution-style shootings.

A statement this week by the U.N. human rights department in Baghdad appeared to support the account of the Health Ministry official. The agency said it had received information about Baghdad's main morgue -- where victims of fatal shootings are taken -- that indicated "the current acting director is under pressure by the Interior Ministry in order not to reveal such information and to minimize the number of casualties."

The U.N. office said it had not confirmed the information about the morgue and had been unable so far to obtain an accounting of the toll from Iraqi authorities.

pinions of buddy don: use the multiplyer!

thays a grate site name of Informed Comment writ by a feller name of juan cole, who he's a perfesser of histry at the university of michigan. ifn i find my rountuit i plan to putt the lank on my sidebar.

innywho, i gut a lil thang frum him that i caint hep but thank bout now n agin, witch he pointed out how thays moren ten amurkins fer ever iraqi. n that means that ifn ye wonta unnerstan how it mite feel ifn that war wuz takin out amurkins at the same rate tiz takin out iraqis, then y wood half to multiply.

here how twood wurk. furst ye git yer amurkin n iraqi populayshuns here:

• #5 worlwide – United States: 295,734,134 (July 2005 est)
• #46 worlwide – Iraq: 26,074,906 (July 2005 est.)

nex ye git yer multiplyer by dividin the united states populayshun by the iraqi populayshun:

295,734,134/26,074,906 = 11.34

turns out thays 11.34 amurkins fer ever iraqi.

now to make sense of them stories that cum out mos everday bout iraqis gittin killt, ye gut to use yer multiplyer n round up the result since ye caint half a person be half killt. heres sum eggzamples:

At Least 23 Bodies Found Dumped in Baghdad

* 11.34 =

At Least 261 Bodies Found Dumped in Washington

heres one frum tuther day:

Senior Iraqi General Killed in Ambush
At Least 20 Die, 50 Hurt in Renewed Violence

* 11.34 =

12 Senior United States Generals Killed in Ambush
At Least 227 Die, 567 Hurt in Renewed Violence

heres a nuther way ye mite half to doot:

Civilians Bearing Brunt of Iraq Violence

By ROBERT H. REID
The Associated Press
Thursday, March 2, 2006; 9:16 PM

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Insurgency-related violence last year killed more than twice as many Iraqi civilians – 4,024 people – as Iraqi soldiers and police, according to government figures obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

* 11.34 =

Civilians Bearing Brunt of United States Violence

[...]

WASHINGTON, United States -- Insurgency-related violence last year killed more than twice as many American civilians – 456,321 people, nearly half a million – as American soldiers and police, according to government figures obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

i reckun ye gut the idee.

so hows it a'goin accordin to them thats runnin the war?

• Rumsfeld Says Iraq Not In Civil War:

  Rumsfeld, speaking at a Pentagon briefing today, said Iraqi leaders would not allow the country to plunge into civil war.
  
  "[Iraqi leaders] have to be fully aware that if this does not work, they and all of the people who have supported them lose everything, if this turned into a civil war, and they can't want that," Rumsfeld said. "They want just the opposite and they've demonstrated the courage to show that they want just the opposite."
  
  Hundreds [* 11.34 = Thousands] of people were killed in sectarian violence sparked by the February 22 bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra [* 11.34 = a major protestant megachurch in San Diego].

• General [Pace]: Iraq's Not on Verge of Civil War:

  Asked how things are going, Pace said: "I'd say they're going well. I wouldn't put a great big smiley face on it, but I'd say they're going well."

them two needs to start a'usin that multiplyer to check tharself!

ifn ye wonta unnerstand how the news mite feel to ye ifn ye wuz iraqi, use the multiplyer!

pinions of buddy don: thars yer story, josephine!

thays a story in the washington post bout how them publicans has deecdided they aint a'gone investigate whuther the presdint broke the fisa law whenever he orderd warrentless wiretaps. in sted, thar a'gone rite the law all over agin to whar whut mr bush dun is legal. dont know ifn tiz retroacktive of not.

but the real story wuznt writ. no more of that borin equal branches stuff we had to study back in civicks class, thangs lack it bein:

• the duty of the congress to make the laws
• the duty of the presdint to execute em
• the duty of bofem to uphold the constitushun

aint that the classick eggzample of pre-911 thanking?

but, now we have us a new way of makin laws!

1. presdint brakes a law he dont lack to obey
2. congress changes the law so no presdint ever has to obey it

thars yer story, josephine!

blessins of buddy don: diss abilty

heres more evidents how i am livin proof how god continues to bless the undeservin. whenever i went in to wurk on mundy, the big boss cum to visit me n urge me to cunsidder takin sum short term diss abilty. he sed i should have sum time to deal with my health problems without havin to add the stress of wurryin bout wurk. tiz also easier fer folks to plan thar wurk ifn they know in add vants that i wont be thar fer a lil while.

so i tuck im up on it, witch it will make it lots easier to see all the docters i have lined up, to take all the tests, mayhap even to have surgry, should that turn out to be needed. n ifn i have the bad luck to git sick durin this, i wont have to feel so guilty bout not wurkin.

innywho, i am hopin i will be healthy, git my breathin deevice wurkin, n be reecuverd. meanwhile, i mite coule have a lil more time fer postin in here, ritin chapturs, n wurkin on the manuscrip of the furst book of life n pinions of buddy don, hillbilly, witch is a long novel that will half to be broke down into sepert books (kindly remembrance of things past, witch i flatter myself to cumpar whut i am a'ritin to whut ye mite say is the worls gratest novel, but ifn yer a'gone aim at sumthin, why not make it the best sos even ifn ye miss, ye cum close to sumthin grate).

innywho, i jes wonted to let folks know this: not ever place on wall street is hartless, sartinly not the fine place whar i am blessd to be a'wurkin.

pitchers tuck by buddy don: times square

last nite whenever i wuz a'walkin over to that ny sleep institute, i tuck the camra sos i could git a pitcher of me whenever they gut all them wires hooked to my hed, witch i aint a'gone show thatn. but as i wuz walkin thru times square, i tuck a few shots.


times square, march 6, 2006

tests of buddy don: this heres a test

seems lack i caint git wandering hillbilly. whenever i tempt to lode it, i git nuthin, blank screen sayin 'done.' i hope i aint lost it. i kin see them posts in the blogger wurk winder, so ?

speakin of tests, i spent last night hooked to a bundle of wires with a cpap deevice added in. twuz torcher, but once i fell asleep, i felt a hole lot better. the tecknishun tole me i woke up at lease once each hour the furst time, but only woke up whenever i needed to pee with that mask on.

i owe sevrull folks out thar email, witch i promiss to git toot purty soon. thankee one n all fer yer kind wurds!

blessins of buddy don: thanks fer a good day

tiz odd how bein sick changes yer perspecktiv. when ye larn ye gut ye a new diss ease of sum kind, ye mite not wonta bleeve it. ye mite resist the need to redefine yerself as whut ye are becummin. tiz a lot lack them famus five stages of grief that elizabeth kubler-ross writ about.

heres them stages n how i been wurkin with or agin em as i cuntinue to larn i git migraines n could even be named a 'migraneur', witch thats the fancy name medicull folk use to refer to them lack me that gits migraines.

1. denial: tiz a temnptayshun to figger that whut seems to be happenin aint a'happenin atall. so fer the furst few years of havin this problem, we tride to splain it inny way we could without add mittin i mite be one of them migraneurs. we sed it could be sumthin i had et (food poisonin), sumthin i had drunk (did ye have wine last nite? beer? whut?), indigestchun, mayhap even acid reflux, or sumthin i had dun (did ye wurk to hard? too long?).
   
   taint only denial of bein a migraneur that plays a role. inny given day when i am a'fixin to have a migraine, seems lack i am also in denial. i dont add mitt tiz a'happenin. often a nuff i go to wurk n git sent home. whut that means is that i aint takin the migraine medicin as early in the cycle as mayhap i orta be a'doin. on tuther hand, i hate to take medicin that knocks me out when mayhap all i have is a lil indigestchun or sumthin simlar.


2. anger: once ye git past denial, tiz into anger, witch i am here to tell ye i have been so angry that i have thrown thangs n broke thangs n wonted to lay down in the floor n have a temper tantrum while screamin n kickin my laigs as ifn i wuz three years ole.
   
   tiz also easy to git angry at yer fate, astin why did this half to happen to ye? one day ye wake up with a urge to vomit n do it fer fifteen hours n frum then on, lack it or not, yer life is changed, even ifn ye deny it long as ye kin. tiz foolish to git angry at yer fate but i defy innybidy to avoid it.


3. bargainin: nex stage is whar ye start trine to make bargains with yer diss ease, as ifn twuz sumthin that could call off the symtomatick troops whenever it deecided to. ye say ye will start doin rite, quit drankin innythang, quit wurkin so minny hours, quit eatin soup in restrunts or outta cans, go to a nuther docter, extercise more (or atall), ye name it -- ye wood lack a deal whar ye start bein good n the diss ease ye gut goes away.
   
   corse, it dont wurk thataway. fer me tiz part of bein razed as a protestunt, bleevin that ifn yer good n wurk hard, ye git a good life n prosper n such. corse, luckys bettern good, witch that means ye mite be as good as a saint but still git hedaches, ifn yer luck aint all that good.


4. deepresshun: thisn is the wurst part of it fer me. whenever i started havin this reglar lack, i gut to bein so deepressd to whar that almost becum the mane problem. i wood wurry lack crazy bout losin my job, bout bein crippled by the diss ease, bein less of a man or a person. after a while, i gut to whar i dint even wurry bout my job n gut to thankin mayhap twood be better jes not to wake up after fallin asleep durin one of these attacks.


5. acceptunce: as mos everybidy knows or could lackly figger out by now, the last stage is acceptunce. i caint honestly say i have reached this stage yet, not cumpletely. i am still angry n liabull to bein deepressd. mayhap part of me is acceptin, but mos of me aint thar yet. i still wonta say sumthins rong, sumbidy drew the rong fate fer me, taint fair -- i am mad as hell n aint a'gonna take it no more ... ceptn, i am gonna take it whuther i add mitt it or not. thays also a lot of deepresshun over whuts been a'happenin, even ifn i am acceptin sum parts of this fate. i know taint the wurst fate innybidy ever had n i sumtimes even feel deepressd bout the way i carry on about it. but i am at lease to the point of trine to accept it n figger out how kin i live better with it than i been a'doin.

this evenin, i go back over to the new york sleep institute to sleep fer em agin, this time with one of them cpap deevices. i am at lease to the point of acceptin that i mite have to use such a deevice to sleep ... mayhap frum now on. i caint say that fer sartin on a counta i aint never used one of them deevices so i kin only speckulate. but i orta have me a lil better idee this time tomorrow, witch i aint shore whuther or not i will git a chants to blog or not.

thays a nuther stage of this process, seems to me, n that is the stage of hope, even hopeless hope: once ye start feelin a lil better, tiz easy to git hopeful that ye kin beat this thang ferever. mayhap that aint possibull, but i am shore thangs kin git better.

one reason ye git to havin hope is how so minny folks gits to showin ye jes how much they keer fer ye, n whenever ye do that, ye know tiz time to count a few blessins. over this past weekend, fer instunts, miz bd had classes all day each day over in man hattan. but i wuznt alone. her sun jack cum by to visit on saturdy n her daughter loretta n her fiancé paddy tuck me out to a late lunch/early dinner, witch mane thang they wonted to do wuz spend a lil time with me. i also gut a call frum my own yungn down in tennessee.

i wood be remiss ifn i dint say that i have also been touched and encouraged by all the kind wurds sent me by folks lack buck frum tête à tête à tête, deb frum sugarfused, red molly frum blue page special, tennessee jed frum tennessee jed, eric frum straight white guy, anne johnson frum the gods are bored and appalachian greens, margot101, realitybasedbob, n probly otherns that i dun missd (please, fergive the oversite!). tiz a true blessin to have such fine folks send ye thar good wishes. i am deeply thankfull fer all the kindness i been showd durin all this.

with that, my mane wish fer everbidy is that yall have yerself a ver good, healthy, happy day!

good days of buddy don: feelin as fine as a sea gull in the sun

sea gull a'givin me the eye

random ten of buddy don: too lazy to do much else

1. Kaj o roma by Vera Bílá frum Rovava
2. Soon as I Get Paid by Keb' Mo' frum Slow Down
3. Sally Goodin' by Bill Monroe frum The Music of Bill Monroe
4. Waltzing's for Dreamers by Richard Thompson frum Watching the Dark
5. Whaddya? by The Jazz Butcher frum Waiting for the Love Bus
6. Happy Meeting in Glory by Ry Cooder frum Jazz
7. Roll the Bones by Rush frum Roll the Bones
8. Linger by The Cranberries frum Everybody Else is Doing It, So Why Can't We?
9. Everyone's in Love with You by Steve Earle frum Transcendental Blues
10. Happy Ways by Joe Walsh frum The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get

progress of buddy don: sum improovment

i am deelited to report that at this verr instunt, i am not havin a migraine as far as i kin tell. i am a lil superstishus bout sayin it, so could be tiz a moment of calm as the eye of the storm passes over me. but i aint suffern the wurst simptums n thats good.

this has been the longest migraine attack i ever had, jes under 13 days total. not only that, but used to be migraines wuz only a matter of suffern thru horribull nausea, but now i git the wurst hedache pain i ever had n even git to whar i am goin blind in my left eye (all my simptums so far are on the left side, witch the pain yesterdy woke me with the feelin that twood be a blessin to have everthang frum my left eye to my left ear removed frum my bidy). so its gittin wurse.

on tuther hand tiz also gittin better on a counta i have seen so minny differnt kinds of eggspurts on this problem. i went n slept fer the sleep study over in man hattan at the new york sleep institute. turnt out i have a problem sleepin that could even approach life threatenin status ifn i wuz to sleep much on my back. more importunt is how sleep apnea seems to make it harder to brake the migraine cycle. on a counta this problem, i wake up wore out n purty soon notiss i am as sick as ever.

i also seen a new newrologist who tole me that ifn i kin git the sleep apnea under cuntrol, i kin start takin sum medicine (depakote) to pervent them migraines frum cummin back, witch i dont know yet ifn that will wurk, but tiz wurth a try.

as fer gittin the sleep problem solved, i am skeduled to git back over thar to sleep fer em agin, this time a'wearin one of them cpap (continuous positive air pressure) deevices to git it properly calibrated sos i wont have this problem no more, assumin i kin sleep with such a objeck attachd to my nose. i reckun we will know purty soon.

but westurn medicull eggspurts aint thonly ones i have cunsulted. i have also been to ackupunkchursts that practiss tradishunull chinese medicine, witch that has wurked purty well but aint purrfeck.

but i also seen a practishuner of ayurvedick medicine, witch thats a tradishun that cums frum india. i half to say the time i spent with that amazin lady name of indrani maity wuz as amazin a sesshun as ever i had. dont git me rong. seems lack that kinda medicine aint fer dealin with acute situwayshuns. tiz more about larnin how to find out whut is out of balunts in yer life n how to git it back into balunts.

whut amazed me bout the sesshun wuz how indrani looked into my eye n tole me i had breathin problems, mayhap frum birth. asthma? allergies? bofem? she wuz eggzackly rite bout me born with asthma even tho i never sed nuthin bout it (i wuz zomiged out n couldnt hardly say nuthin innyway). she jes looked into my eye n figgerd that out. she also tuck my pulses n tole me the root of my problem wuz in eggspresshun.

she ast me did i have truble eggspressin myself, witch miz bd tole her i wuz abnormally adept at that particular pursuit ceptn ifn i am on zomig. but indrani wudnt innerested in my skill at eggspreshun. that wuznt whut she ment by the problem. insted she splaind how thay wuz sumthin i needed to eggspress that i wuz afraid to let out. then she made a guess bout whut it wuz, a problem with my parnts. she ast me wuz bof my parnts alive? i add mitted daddy had died back in 96. she gut to pokin my emoshunull side with sum sharp fangerd questchuns till i found myself trine not to cry my eyes out.

but she sed twuz jes whut i needed to do, cry my eyes out. twuz remarkabull how quickly she figgerd thangs out about me that tuck sum years of talk therpy to git to in the past. she dun all this in under two hours of investigayshun.

thang is, i knew she wuz rite but dint know how to make myself cry. taint lack i caint cry purty easy, but whenever it cums to thankin bout daddy n minny a thang i aint yet writ even in the 148 chapturs of life n pinions of buddy don, hillbilly, seems lack i caint brang myself to keep on the subjeck till i cry. insted, i try to thank other thoughts.

then 13 days ago i gut into the wurse migraine attack of my life, witch it seemed lack it jes gut wurser n wurser. las nite i deecided to listn to a cd we had paid fer but never listend to, witch tiz black cadillac by rosanne cash. as ye know, tiz a album of songs she writ upon losin her daddy (johnny cash), her mama (vivian liberto, johnnys furst wife) n her step mother (june carter cash).

i had been thankin bout that migraine that woodnt end n whut indrani had tole me, witch i gut the idee that mayhap twuz time to listn to that cd. tiz one of the best writ set of songs i ever herd. she coulda been a'ritin my story. whenever she started sangin that furst song, black cadillac, witch it begins 'It was a black cadillac drove you away,' my tears begun to flow n kep rite on fer a good half hour.

n whenever i finely gut my eyes dried, i felt a hole lot better. no hedache. no nausea. no aura. no other odd feelin. i wuz verr tired n purty soon we went to bed. i dint sleep atall hardly n this mornin i am wore out n still in the fog of zomig, but i dont bleeve i am havin no migraine n hope i wont fer at lease a few days.

whenever i aint so fogged, i hope to rite a lil more bout the differntses in approach by various medicull practishuners, mainly the differnts twixt mainstream western medicine, whar ye tell yer simptums n they rite ye a scrip fer eggspensive pharmasuiticulls, n eastern medicine, whar they wonta know bout mos everthang bout how ye live, speshly whut ye eat, how ye sleep, how hard ye wurk n how yer reglar constitushun is.

mizry of buddy don: sumthin new?

pain? headache pain, lack ye mite wish the left side of yer hed wood jes drop off? yep. woke me up. dint have hedache pain much befor, jes nausea, but now tiz awfull, wurser than nausea ever wuz.

dun tuck zomig. visitin a nuther docter today. hope to have better news soon.

mizry of buddy don: nuther day, nuther migraine

tiz a reglar thang now. lease we have sum hope. we seen us a new newrologist yesterdy name of dr neophytides. he give us sum medicin to keep migraines frum happnin ceptn we -- that is, i caint take it till i git the sleep problem fixt. (i keep sayin 'we' on a counta miz bd has to take me thru all this on a counta i am generly on zomig n half asleep the hole time.)

so tomorrow i see dr rodriguez, the sleep eggspurt thats also a newrologist, witch we are hopin he kin give us the proper treetment to fix the sleep problem. now fer sum zomig n more of the sleep problem.