random thoughts

two recent immigration stories from the tucson region.

first is about a tucson police officer stopping a van and after brief struggle with an occupant of the van, an illegal immigrant, the officer shot and killed him.
the second is about a mother and son on a camping trip in the middle of nowhere whne the mother loses control of her vehicle causing it to fall into a ravine. the mother is injured and trapped while her son crawls free and goes for help. he is found by an illegall immigrant who returns with him to the crash. the mother dies of her injuries while the 9 year old boy is taken care of by the illegal. the next morning they are able to find help and the illegal is turned over to border patrol and deported.

did any of you hear of either of these stories?

in my local paper the police officer story was on the front page of the regional section while the immigrant as hero story was buried next to the obituaries. this is of course in the paper that everyone considers to be the local liberal rag.

my last thought is that the illegal that sat with the kid overnight should be given, if not outright citizenship, the right to stay and work in our country. we want that sort of person here.

Where were you? (Scott's written excuse for not blogging)

This might just bore the shit out of most of you, how ever the below list is a portion of a much larger document I created in an attempt to reign in and organize a very large meal served at our home on Thanksgiving. The original document also covered the entire weeks worth of meals and events surrounding the last weeks holiday, during which time we were blessed with multiple house guests from three separate states in our home. I recapped the menu, as a just in case I decide to do this foolish sort of shit again.

Hors d'oeuvres

Cut fresh veggies and dip: Good, half the plate eaten.

Everything Nuts: Excellent!!!! Burned first attempt but wow they were really good!

Almond, Cashew, Cranberry mix: Forgot to serve.

Cheese and Crackers: Cheese selection needed to be wider, we served Cheddar, Swiss, Parmesan, and Smoked Cheddar. A Baked Brie would have been great along with more Spreadable Cheese.

Smoked Salmon: One slice of quality fish was the perfect quantity!

Crab Salad wraps: Well liked well received, made 5 times to much.

Dinner

Salad- served buffet style (build your own): No one touched it, likely due to the fact that dinner and Hors d'oeuvres were served only about 40 minutes apart.

Fresh Tangerines: Looked great, bought to many.

Fish (Grilled) Talapia: Two large pieces were perfect, Prepared on the grill yum.

Turkey: 17.5 pound bird for 16 people just a little too much, maybe 15 would have been perfect.

Corn Bread: Excellent! Pre-Mix from Trader Joes.

Mashed Potato's: Perfect Potatoes from Mom's garden.

Sweet Potato's: Good, however it looked weird and few ate them, made a double batch and was twice to much. This dish did however become more tasty as left-overs. Next time make two days prior to meal.

Rolls: Average, store bought pre-maid none left over.

Wild Rice Salad: Very Good, Batch was twice the size it should have been.

Standard stuffing: Had very little left over!!! Seems we had a lot of stuffing lovers at our dinner table.

Grandma Hill's Famous Stuffing: Gone!!!!! Big favorite!!!

Corn (from Mom’s Farm): Yum!

Carrots (from Mom’s Farm): Did not show up.

Swiss Chard casserole (from Mom’s Farm): Only a few of us ate it :(

Cranberry Sauce: !!!!!! Holy shit these were really good!!!!!! Berries soaked in lots of sugar and brandy. YUM!

Hot Cider: Finished most of it!!! Trader Joes Spiced Cider.

Wine (Harbor Red): Gone!!!!! Big favorite!!!

Wine (white?): Gone!!!!! Big favorite!!!

Vanilla Ice cream: Did well!

Pumpkin Pie: Gone!!!!! Big favorite!!! Nothing special, From Jewel Bake shop.

Apple Pie: never happened.

Strawberry Rhubarb: Half of one pie eaten, Grand Travers Pie Company.

Black Berry Pie: One quarter eaten, Grand Travers Pie Company.

Pumpkin Spice Cake: Two slices eaten… by me Pre-Mix From Trader Joes.

Banana Bread: Four slices eaten Pre-Mix From Trader Joes.

Cookies: Gone!!!!! Big favorite!!! Could have bought twice as much. Frosted Sugar Cookies (jewel), and Chocolate Chip Cookies from Josephs.

Turtle Pumpkin Pie (from Mom’s Farm): miss-fire died in transit.

For the Kids

Mac and Cheese: Never happened Colin Ate a box worth of wheat thins before dinner and more sweets after than any of our 17 other guests for desert.

Pass the Rightguard please.......

Worldwide, 1.43 showers are taken every day for every 10 people.

And also.....

Q. Why is air a lot like sex?

A. Because it's no big deal unless you're not getting any.

me scared

---Ive been deeply addicted to terrible street drugs, but this, of all things makes me very nervous.

I have to have surgery this Fri AM on my hurnea. Being put under freaks me out. The surgery should take less than like 30 mins. and Ill be home by like 1 PM.

I get terribly nervous when I think of myself being put under to do the procedure. I know, I know, Ive heard it a million times, they start your IV with a small amount of something that makes you not give a shit about anything youre so stoned and then once you are in check with the anesthesiologist, he sets you up and tells you to count from 100 down and by time you get to 98, youre gone!

Any of you guys ever had surgery? What was it like?

Im nervous as fuck.---

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tEy_500pdQE

---New song from my boys Social D. called "Bakersfield". I believe it is about Mike's hatred for that town and a tribute to the great country star Buck Owens which is kick ass. Rumors are flying everywhere that they have their latest album in the can and it should be out early in 08. If it sounds anything close to this song here, its gonna be there best work to date. This song is simply awesome. Ness gets better and better everytime he picks up a guitar and it pisses me off that he gets little recognition for it. I think IMHO he is one of the great American story tellers, not along the likes of Johnny Cash or Bob Dylan or anyone like that, but the greatest story teller to come out of the 1st wave of the punk rock scene so long ago. He has so much talent its not even funny.

Damn I fucking love these guys.---

Gimmie a break!

LONDON, England (CNN) -- UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Tuesday that officials were working to secure the early release of a British teacher who faces being whipped in Sudan after she allowed her class to name a teddy bear "Mohammed."

Gillian Gibbons, 54, was arrested Sunday after she asked her class of seven-year-olds to come up with a name for the toy as part of a school project, her head teacher told CNN.

Robert Boulos, the head of Unity High School in the capital Khartoum, said naming the teddy bear was "a totally innocent mistake" and that Gibbons had never intended to cause offense.

He said Gibbons had asked the children to pick their favorite name for the new class mascot, which she was using to aid lessons about animals and their habitats.

Classmates took turns taking the teddy bear home with them, accompanied by a diary with the bear's name written in the front of it, Boulos said.

"All this is a very sensitive area. I asked her (Gibbons) why she had done it and she said she didn't chose the name, the children did," Boulos told CNN.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Tuesday he was "very sorry" about Gibbons' arrest and that the British embassy in Khartoum was "giving all appropriate consular assistance to her."

He said all efforts were being taken to ensure her early release and that government officials were in touch with the teacher's family in the northern British city of Liverpool.

The school teacher has been accused of blasphemy and is being held by police in Khartoum, Kirsty Saunders, British Foreign Office spokeswoman told CNN.

Although there is no ban in the Koran on images of Allah or the Prophet Mohammed, likenesses are considered highly offensive by Muslims.

Parents of students at the school informed the authorities and Gibbons was taken into custody Sunday, Saunders said.

So far Gibbons has yet to be charged with any offense, however, under Sudanese law, insulting Islam is punishable with 40 lashes, a jail term of up to six months or a fine, she said.

However, a Sudanese official told CNN that if police decided that Gibbons had acted in good faith, she would most likely be spared punishment.

"If the intentions are good, definitely she will be absolved and will be cautioned not to repeat this thing again," Mutrif Siddig, Sudan's under secretary for foreign affairs, said.

---When are people just gonna wake up and realize that Islam is a violent and non-tolerant form of Religion? I supposed once the kids got home they got beatings too because they agreed with this bear bring named Mohammed? If insulting Christianity was punishable by these same standards, people would be getting lashes on a daily basis with no remorse.---

We Americans live in a nation where the medical-care system is second to none in the world, unless you count maybe 25 or 30 little scuzzball countries like Scotland that we could vaporize in seconds if we felt like it.

Dave Barry
US columnist & humorist (1947 - )

OK, Mr. Cosby rant part II

---I just cleaned it up a bit to make it look better, but thats all---

"They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk:
Why you ain't,
Where you is,
What he drive,
Where he stay,
Where he work,
Who you be... And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk.

And then I heard the father talk.

Everybody knows it's important to speak English

except these knuckleheads. You can't be a doctor

with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth. In fact you will never get any kind of job making a decent living. People marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an education, and now we've got these knuckleheads walking around. The lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal.


These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids. $500 sneakers for what ? ?

And they won't spend $200 for Hooked on Phonics.

I am talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit.

Where were you when he was 2 ? ?

Where were you when he was 12 ? ?

Where were you when he was 18 and how come you didn't know that he had a pistol ? ?

And where is the father ? ? Or who is his father ?

People putting their clothes on backward:
Isn't that a sign of something gone wrong?

People with their hats on backward, pants down around the crack, isn't that a sign of something ?

Or are you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up ?

Isn't it a sign of something when she has her dress all the way up and got all type of needles [piercing] going through her body?


What part of Africa did this come from??

We are not Africans. Those people are not Africans; they don't know a thing about Africa .

With names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed and all of that crap, and all of them are in jail.

Brown or black versus the Board of Education is no longer the white person's problem.

We have got to take the neighborhood back. People used to be ashamed. Today a woman has eight children with eight different 'husbands' -- or men or whatever you call them now.

We have millionaire football players who cannot read. We have million-dollar basketball players who can't write two paragraphs We, as black folks have to do a better job. Someone working at Wal-Mart with seven kids, you are hurting us.

We have to start holding each other to a higher standard. We cannot blame the white people any longer."

Dr. William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr., Ed.D.

Um.

---setting aside my usual tid bits here, this blog is getting cob webs. Its been almost 2 weeks or close to that since anyone besides myself or Steve has posted something. I know I,know life gets in the way but you guys used to check in, even if your lives were super crazy, I miss you guys damnit!!!!!---

gobble, gobble

--I wanted to take a few mins. to wish you guys a Happy Thanksgiving.

Anyone got any b.s. family events planned? God I always hated those. My b.s. plan is to go out to dinner with my Mom on Turkey Day, theres no point in having her in and out of the kitchen all damn day to prepare a huge holiday feast for just 2 people. Also, with her only being a widow for a couple weeks, has taken its toll on her. She needs rest. Shes not even gonna put up a tree for Christmas this year Our holiday season will be really grim this year with Den not being here.

We also need to move asap because we cant really afford the place we are in now since he passed away, so we are getting ready to tackle that too.


I will leave you guys with a kinda happy little story. We have a 3ft. white Christmas tree that was Den's. He would decorate it every year with his Daffy Duck ornaments (He LOVED DAFFY). And thankfully he got time to decorate it before he went in to the hospital for the last time, so right now we have that little tiny tree, fully decorated w/ Daffy in all his glory, sitting on a book shelf in our living room and its lit up...for him---

Alright fine, we'll go this route

---GREATEST punk rock cover song of all time?

My vote goes to Social D's. Ring Of Fire. Simply Amazing. They did the man in black way proud with that one. If you've ever been to a live SxDx show and been pushed up against the stage during this one to hear Ness yell out "Let it burn Mother fucker" you know what I mean and if you haven't, well, you may have missed out on a lifetime experience.---

random thoughts

hello everybody, just wanted to say i made it back from scotland. i've been back for awhile i just got caught up i life after i got back so i haven't been able to do more than look at the blog for a while. the trip was incredible and the class we took was cool and we have begun to see minor benefits from it. i got to see a real castle and roslyn chapel, very cool. the people were great and the food delicious. haggis is very good. anyway sorry to hear of tipster's loss and glad that everyone else seems to be doing well. i added my three favorites to the music list so you can go check that. as soon as i get damien to load our pictures on to a cd i will transfer them to this computer and share them. take care and talk to you soon.

no drivers licenses, yay!!!!

NEW YORK (CNN) -- New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer will withdraw a controversial plan that would have allowed undocumented immigrants to obtain driver's licenses, a spokeswoman told CNN Tuesday night.

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's plan for driver's licenses for illegal immigrants came under heavy criticism.

Spitzer plans to withdraw the proposal on Wednesday, spokeswoman Jennifer Givner told CNN.

The governor is in Washington, D.C., for a meeting with New York's congressional delegation on the issue, she said.

Spitzer's plan drew national attention and stirred opposition from critics, some of whom expressed concern over possible voter fraud.

"I believe this is just a fundamental issue of right and wrong," said Rep. Tom Latham, an Iowa Republican who opposes Spitzer's plan. "And to give people official recognition when they come in and break the law in their first act in this country is simply wrong."

Seventy-six percent of Americans oppose giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, according to poll conducted in October for CNN by the Opinion Research Corp.

---Finally, someone with some fucking brains.---

My Thanks.

---I wanted to take the time and send a special thank you out to PJB and Mike Martin for making it to my Dad's wake. I also understand Scott made a valiant effort at trying to make it there and I wanna say thank you to him also.


Thanks brothers.


More later......---

---OK, now that I am more settled back in I have some more time. This weekend was very, very difficult for me, but sometimes, it can be that way. Again, thanks to the brothers who made it there and to those who tried. The rest of the time was reassuring about how I truly am the black sheep in the family, all the way down to the ink to the kind of music I enjoy, it felt kinda good, non conformity rules. I love my family that still gives 2 shits about my Mother and I, but the rest of them can go fly.......

I didnt get to do much or see much else because we were too busy making funeral arrangements, so that kinda blew.

All I will leave you with is that tomorrow is not promised to any of us and I know we all get busy with daily bullshit (even though none of your lives are bullshit) but we should ALL really try to stay in touch more if even by here at the blog.

I love you all because you are all my brothers---

Den's Service

---He passed away this morning just before 2 AM. He went peacefully, no problems, no pain and no suffering. The wake is to be held this coming Sunday tentatively from 4 PM until 9 PM at 8300 W. Lawrence Ave. Norridge IL. 60706, the name of the Funeral Home is Cumberland Chapels.

The Funeral will be the following Monday morning at the Cumberland Chapel. The Obituary will be in one of the papers this weekend, just not sure which one. The number to the Funeral home is 708-456-8300.

If you guys wanna get a hold of me directly, you can get me at 515-745-9308, thats my personal cell number, I have it on and with me at all times.

I hope to be able to hook up with at least a couple of you while Im there for a few hours someway, sometime. I should be in town until the 14th or 15th, so we'd have time if you cant make it to his service. I REALLY hope to see you guys. I more than likely WILL NOT have internet access while I am in town this time so this will more than likely be my last post until next week sometime....call me.-

Dennis B. Enders

---I rarely addressed Den as my "Step" Dad, because he was more than that rotten piece of filth my real dad ever was. It was discovered that sometime last night, he had a stroke and a massive brain bleed. He cant eat, open his eyes, or even tell you he loves you anymore, he cant speak. I went to the hospital today to say goodbye. It could be days or maybe a week, but all in all, my Dad has died.

Im saddened beyond expressible words. All the male counter parts that has given two shits about me and my life are now gone.

His wake/funeral will be held in the Chicago area. I will update you all as to when I will be in town, Imgonna need some getaway time.

thanks guys---

---Small UPDATE guys. It was confirmed he had a stroke and a blood clot was thrown to his brain. He is still "here" so to speak, but all he does is sleep, his body knows nothing else now. Per my moms request (she has power of attorney) he has been removed from his oxygen and they stopped giving him his meds. yesterday, so it all up to time now. As soon as I know final plans I will let you guys know.---

my Step Dad

Well, for those that care, my step dad has been in the hospital again since Friday afternoon. It has been determined that he has developed a new form of dementia called "Sundowners Dementia". Im not sure what that is as of yet. His fever was almost 104 yesterday but its down to 98 today which is great news. I also dont know when they will release him.

All in all, things here have been very tense. They also want to enlist him in some kind of physical therapy, for what I dont know either. I didnt go to see him today, I will be going tomorrow.

This man means a hell of a lot to me. He was there for me through all of my bullshit years and then some. He put up with me through the drugs, the stealing and all the lies. Next to my Grandfather, this man has BEEN my father figure for my life. He has been a part of my life since I was 13. If something bad happens to him, Im not sure what my Mom and I will do.

---UPDATE....Monday AM.....I just returned from the hospital and now my dad is in a total catatonic state. He sleeps and sleeps and sleeps...he doesnt know his own name and all he can do is mumble some phrases that no one understands. Things DONT look good at all. No foods no liquids, nothing, he just sleeps and mumbles. I dont know what to do.---

Un F-ing beleivable

thanks to my good buddy Big Jonny over at drunkcyclist .com for this truly disturbing link.
this is just whacked.
I like a nice tattoo as much as the next guy,
I'm not a huge fan of all of the crazy peircings some of the kids are getting,
but adding body parts? come on dudes, that's .......

Ex-Manager for Ramones Beaten to Death

Nov. 1, 2007, 7:08 AM EST

The Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Linda Stein, a pioneer in New York's punk music scene who later became known as a real estate "broker to the stars," was beaten to death inside her Manhattan apartment, the medical examiner ruled.

Stein's daughter found her body Tuesday night face down in the living room of the Upper East Side apartment, where she lived alone. There were no signs of a break-in or robbery, and police said they had no motive or suspects.

An autopsy found that Stein, 62, died from blows to the head and neck, medical examiner spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said Wednesday.

Stein was the ex-wife of Seymour Stein, former president of Sire Records, which was the launching pad for the Ramones, Talking Heads and Madonna.

A former schoolteacher, she and Danny Fields co-managed the Ramones during the band's heyday. She is credited with bringing the Ramones to England for their infamous July 4, 1976, concert that helped spark the young British punk scene.

Whos your top 3 of all time?

---Last night I got in a rather heated argument with a certain friend of mine over who he thought were the greatest punk bands of all time were. Im not talking second generation shit either, Im talking roots, way back in the day from say 1976 to 1980.

Heres my top 3 in NO special order

The Clash
The Ramones
and of course the mighty Social D.

Bands like that changed the way we look at music today.