PRISON TIME FOR BLOGGING? Huh? What?
You, too, could GO TO JAIL (do not collect $200) if you annoy someone with your blog!

It looks like longtime gasbag Senator Arlen Specter has managed to get a "rider" he authored, which was attached to a bigger bill approved. That "rider" says you can't "annoy" someone anonymously online, or you could risk a fine and jail time. So you're safer if you annoy someone and give your NAME? Ok, I'll put this to the test: Because this bill was signed into law by Prezzident Bushed, BUSH, YOU ARE AN IDIOT, AND SPECTER, YOU'RE A MORON! And all of you congressmen who VOTED for this bill, you're a bunch of SLEAZY JERKS! You don't like what I said? COME AND GET ME, HERE I AM!!! According to an editorial in today's paper, anonymity tends to foster frank discussion of issues, such as THE PRESIDENT is a PUPPET, and the IRAQ WAR is just plain old WRONG! Of course, there are many who don't think that at all, but do we now have to be more careful of what we post because BIG BROTHER can obtain our "computer numbers"?

The crazy thing about this is, that a person cannot be annoyed online without actually GOING online. It's kinda like going to the rough side of town and complaining because you got beaten up, mugged, and left for dead. In short, if you don't wanna run the risk of getting annoyed online, STAY OFF THE WEB! Actually, though, most of us know how to police ourselves without things getting out of hand. There are those who say that the Bush Administration wants total control over everything, a la 1984, and I'm hearing that all the time. So, all of those people who have SAID "that" run the risk of suspicion as well. A certain German Leader had "total control" during World War II; is our country moving in that direction? What is the motivation behind this Internet Law? Who benefits? Does this law grant permission for the "powers that be" to put anyone who blogs under surveillance? First, it was with phones...now computers? And, ain't it nice to know your tax dollars are being spent on these laws which threaten our rights?

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The Mariners made a heckuva good move today dept.: Invaluable utility-man Willie Bloomquist was signed today to a 2-year deal. He's a pretty good hitter, he can steal bases and play almost any position. Let's hope he gets a lot of playing time this year. He hit .261 last year; think of how much he could better that if he played every day. Go Willie!

Every good move is followed by a bad move dept.: Continuing with the Mariners, the most inconsistent pitcher of them all, Gil Meche, is holding out for a big PAY RAISE. Meche has a fluid delivery, and he can throw hard. But, he can be wild at times; he's never shown any real consistency, and he got hit HARD last year. Do the "M's" really want him? Negotiations are proceeding as I write this. Meanwhile, the M's LET GO pitcher Ryan Franklin, who pitched his heart out and never got any run support for all his trouble. I hope Ryan gets the "Cy Young" award; I don't care WHO he's playing for. Go Ryan!

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Okay, I know I've bored you to tears, so here's a photo dept.: Brrrr. It's Winter. What can I say? One thing about Winter I've noticed, though, is that "color" pictures of winter don't look all that much different from "black and white" pictures. Snow is "white" no matter what, and a pine tree in a snow-covered field is "dark green", not that far away from "black". These are the things that torment my mind sometimes. Anyway, how about winter 50 years ago in the CDA area?

This view was taken east of Coeur d'Alene, on what was then Hiway 10, when there were no trees lining the lake! That's Tubbs Hill, at upper left. If you went out to this very spot today, you'd be standing near the Centennial Trail. It must've been a cold winter; the Lake looks frozen over, and it's gotta be sub-zero for quite a while for the lake to freeze. I believe this photo was taken about a mile east of where the Beach-House restaurant sits now.

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Is there any 'reality' in realty? dept.: An article in today's paper says that housing prices around the area rose 30% last year. Something about scarce inventories and bidding wars. Well, not so much now, but earlier in the year when the weather was better, I kept getting mailings from area Real Estaters, something along the lines of "We sold a home in your neighborhood for BEAUCOUPS BUCKS; call us and let us show YOU what we can do for YOU!!!" Down here in the "older" neighborhood I live in, CDA looks like the same ol' town to me. Is it really that DESIRABLE here? Or, perhaps it's that all of the big-city dwellers are trying to get out of their own personal "Hells", looking for Nirvana and/or Utopia up here.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't associate "Utopia" with snow, ice and pipes bursting. Maybe I should put myself in a position to do the old switcheroo: I could arrange, to TRADE my house here in Coeur d'Alene, for someone else's house of a similar size in Southern California, where it's warmer. Somehow, I don't think I'd get many takers. But then again, my $50,000 house might actually be a $150,000 house somewhere else. So if it were a swap based on monetary value, I'd move out of my crackerbox-of-a-house into someone else's STORAGE UNIT in Southern California. Maybe I should just stay put. I honestly don't know!

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Just for the Record dept.: I was record-buying at Mt. Olympus records up on North 4th Street, near the Donut Shop, and I came across a strange-looking record made in Germany; funny thing about foreign-pressings; the album jackets are always really flimsy. I'd never heard of the group, I'd never heard any of their music, and what was really strange, each side had ONE song that ran for about 16 minutes. You could say this band likes to jam, jam, JAM. Lots of extended instrumental soloing (yeah, a few vocal parts too). What surprised me, is that I thot, "wow, these German guys sing English really well." Well, to prove you can find anything, ANYTHING, on the internet, I googled the band, and the album title, and voila, I found this picture:

The group is called "Sweet Smoke", and the title of the album is "Just A Poke". Why they gave it that title, I'll never know. On side one's 16-minute song, they go semi-symphonic, with slow and fast portions interspersing themselves throughout the song. On side two's 16-minute song, they start out in a medium-tempo heavy funk groove and hold that the entire way. If you've ever heard the Dutch Band "Focus" (they of "Hocus Pocus" fame), this group reminds me of that group. The record was made in Germany. On the internet, I found that the band consisted of five AMERICAN musicians who moved to Europe and got really popular over there. This album came out in 1975. Shows ya how much different the music scene was over there! While everyone over here was heading down to the disco in the mid-70's, European music fans were sitting still, appreciating the instrumental complexities of a band playing music that needed to be paid attention to. Music like this "sneaks up" on you; it sinks way inside your mind. If you let it.

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Well, before I close this post, I wonder if I should set up some kind of "blogger defense" fund in case I get thrown in the slammer because I annoyed someone. Actually, I plead "insanity"; after all, I wasn't "in my right mind" when I typed this post!