YOUR CORRESPONDENT, AMONG OTHERS RESIDENT HERE IN THE MIDWESTERN STATES, are rather frustrated about the persistence of cool weather and snowfall well into mid-April as I write this.

Witness where some snow as was discerned on grassy surfaces @ sunrise this morning here in the Minnwissippi is now melting as I put these comments down in the virtual canvas of the blogosphere. (In contrast, Duluth saw blizzard conditions galore, including some wicked whitecaps in Duluth Harbour lapping close to the Aerial Lift Bridge in its down position.)

Luckily, though, milder weather should make its return by Monday or thereabouts. Let's just hope things dry out seriously enough to get the lawn, garden and farm work started within measurable distance, even more so in the spring wheat regions of the Red River Valley as are likely to get so waterlogged, farmers are likely to see frustration and delays in getting the crop planted against a short time frame for growing. (Or so Motherdear, originally from that general area, tells me.)

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YOUR CORRESPONDENT, FOR ONE, IS INCLINED TO CONCUR WITH THE REMARKS OF DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL WANNABE SEN. BARAK OBAMA as have drawn considerable fire from her Democratic rival, Hillary Rodham-Clinton, and their GOP candidate-presumptive rival, John McCain (a/k/a The Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang), suggesting that both established political parties have lost contact with the working classes and their needs.

As in creating various distractionary non-issues such as gun control and gay marriage to trick voters away from paying attention to their best interests in favour of misguided articles of faith using "feel-good" notions like "national unity" and "patriot love" as can be distilled down to simple, easily-understood bumper-sticker slogans.

Which, come to think of it, may have oh-so-subtle Producerist undertones throughout.

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AND SPEAKING OF THE TERRIBLE-TEMPERED MR. BANG, what with anecdotal evidence emerging of his potential for lapsing into Billingsgate without provocation or warning:

May I suggest that the public pay especially close que vive to McCain's campaign appearences for the likelihood of his suddenly going into "Macaca Moments"--as in:

• unprovoked, spontaneous use of one or more of the Seven Dirty Words or their variants;
• sudden mood changes or swings; and
• other misadventures characterised by erratic moods.

The which can easily be put onto YouTube and the like for all to see--and for which to further "swiftboat" The Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang of Indecision 2008.

Which he deserves, come to think of it.

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PERHAPS IT MIGHT ALSO BE A GOOD TIME TO REMIND ALL OF YOU TO RMAIN ESPECIALLY WATCHFUL of attempts by the weird and unwholesome element to harrass or intimidate intending voters, especially in low-income, rural and National Minority communities as are prime targets of "caging" campaigns questioning the validity and celerity of voter-identity cards ... or campaigns warning the targeted against voting because of possible criminal action.

Voter intimidation and interfering with voter-registry campaigns are considered penal offences, with hate-crimes enhancements likely under certain circumstances.

If you hear of any such in your community, remember to freecall the Voter Protection Project of People For the American Way anytime on:

1-866-OUR-VOTE

And while you're @ it, contact law-enforcement agencies as well.

Even if you hear rumours or whispers of vote-supression campaigns afoot, be alert and vigilant. The weird and unwholesome will love to stop @ nothing to keep voter turnout down, and claim that such is necessary "for G-d and Country," or so the official patsy would go.

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SPOT THE COMMON THREAD HERE:

• Refugees from flooding-related disasters and recent notoriously destructive hurricanes living in caravans supplied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) pending availability of replacement permanent housing.
• Social workers with the Australian Government's Aboriginal Intervention Programme in the Northern Territory whose makeshift offices are converted freight containers.

Give up?

It's complaints of cancer aggravated by the use of formaldehyde in insulating material in the former and as wood-liner preservative in the latter.

Which have doubtless generated complaints about illness among such thus afflicted to the circumstances, and the relevant authorities taking a lax attitude of response, translating no doubt into frustration, bedlam and confusion as has raised whispers of legal action.

And considering where many of those resident in FEMA's caravans tend to be from the Lower Classes, Your Correspondent, for one, has to wonder if FEMA is (un)consciously (un)aware of the presence of formaldehyde in caravan insulation--perhaps looking for cheap and cheerful ways, aided and abetted by the forces of Neo-Conservatism ranking among the best and most loyal of droogs in His Fraudulency's Great Within, to kill off the poor, undereducated and easily-influenced short of "resettling" them in Occupied Iraq.

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THAT RATHER WHINY-SOUNDING SINGSONG MEME OF "RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION! RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION!!" against the so-called "Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" seems to only get more pathetic as new reports surface of Indecent Sexual Liberties with Minors @ the FLDS' ancestral compound (so to speak) on the Arizona-Utah border on top of such @ the Texas compound leading to the removal of some 420 girls from same after just one phone call to a sexual-abuse hotline in hushed tones.

In fact, the Colorado City compound saw a rather infamous raid in 1953 as exposed the world to the fact that polygamy--officially disavowed of by the mainstream Latter-Day Saints congregation since 1890--is still making its presence known.

And is being justified by a rather warped interpretation of Holy Writ.

And, come to think of it, is bringing to light a rather darkly interesting side of the FLDS as sounds like something out of radio drama shows like Inner Sanctum Mysteries, Escape or Suspense: The world of the "lost boys" of the FLDS, essentially chattel culled from the FLDS community and expected to go into what their faith taught them was an "evil and dangerous" world on their own to protect what amounts to the breeding rights of older husbands.

Numbering some 400, the vast majority thereof are essentially "dumped" upon Utah's Dixie to fend for themselves.

CNN has some insight into the phenomenon:

Gary Engels, an investigator for the state of Arizona, has seen many "lost boy" cases. The reasons for leaving are many. Sometimes, it's because parents are too strict. Other times, it's for minor reasons.

"They leave because they have been caught talking to a girl or if they have been caught out at one of these beer parties or just not obeying the rules," Engels says.

He adds, "How a father or a mother can suddenly take a child and kick them out and never speak with them again, that's just unbelievable."

[***]

About a half dozen "lost boys" filed suit against Jeffs and the FLDS, saying they were thrown out of the FLDS community to allow older men to have more wives. The suit was partially settled earlier this year, with an agreement for a $250,000 fund to be created for housing assistance, education help and other aid to boys who leave the FLDS.

Jeffs' trial is unrelated to that suit.

Franky, who was not part of the lawsuit, left the sect three years ago--just weeks after his father got kicked out of the sect. He decided to leave because he didn't want to suffer the same fate as his dad, growing up in the FLDS and then having his family "pulled away."

Franky left behind three mothers and about three dozen siblings. Two of his sisters are married to Jeffs. He's not allowed to contact any of his family and nervously agreed to speak with CNN. Members of the FLDS have been banned from speaking with outsiders.

"[Jeffs] would be very angry that I am talking to you," Franky says.

Quite simply, he says they're not supposed to talk "to you outside people."

Learning to cope is another thing altogether. When the boys leave their structured religion-filled lives in the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, they find themselves totally unprepared for society. Most have no money, no real education and nowhere to live.

Dozens of "lost boys" gather in homes like Robbie Holm's to blow off steam and drink.

"They're going to do what they feel is good to them," says Holm. "Drinking alcohol and drugs are one of those things they want to do."

Franky says he soaked up pot, ecstasy and cocaine to "cope with the outside world and deal with where and what it is."

"I couldn't have done it without the drugs," he says.

But it came with a price: He went to jail for drug possession.

"It's almost a natural consequence for them to get involved to some extent or another with alcohol or drugs," says Greg Hoole, a Salt Lake City-based attorney who represented the "lost boys" in the civil suit.

One group is trying to help the boys and young men adapt. St. George, Utah, just down the road from the FLDS headquarters, has become an epicenter for the lost boys. Next month, a home will become refuge for 10 "lost boys."

Franky and others who have left the sect have volunteered their time to paint, tile, and clean up the house and call it simply "the house off bluff."

Michelle Benward, a psychologist and activist for the lost boys, sees it as much more.

"It's really a transitional home. It's an opportunity for them to have a place to stay, food to eat, and a time to sort of adjust," she says. "We like to think of it as a bridge between the two communities."

As for Franky, he remains perplexed about the man he once knew as "prophet." He still admires Jeffs in some ways and comments that "he enlightened my view of how to perceive things."

"He figured out how to distill people's hearts into loving one another unconditionally."

Sometimes, he still longs for his old life. "I miss the society of it. Somebody that cares. Somebody that you know that you can go home and have a good plate of food, home-grown cooking sat in front of you."

That cozy home cooking may soon get replaced with a heap of gossip. Jeffs' trial is expected to put the highly secretive organization's beliefs and practices of faith, power, isolation and sex front and center.

"It will be very quiet out here all through the trial. I am sure they will be fasting and praying for his release," says Engels. "Most of them believe that God's going to step forward and free him anyway and punish us 'bad-doers.' "

Engels believes there will be celebration among the flock if Jeffs is freed. If he's convicted, Engels predicts, the FLDS will "go more underground and they will continue to scatter out into the world."

CONSERVATIVE TALKBACK RADIO PROPAGANDIST RUSH LIMBAUGH, A/K/A "THE OXYCONTIN COW," has been known on a number of occasions to use the term "testicle lockbox" with reference to Hillary Rodham-Clinton (as witness these specimens from monitoring by Media Matters for America, if you want proof).

But then again, that very term could be used in a crude context, as in the female naughty bits (especially among such trying to come up with a more polite euphemism than an obviously cruder term as is too indecent to repeat here).

Hence: Isn't it about time that "testicle lockbox" be considered indecent or otherwise in poor taste, especially with its misogynistic implications?

see more crazy cat pics

WHILE UNITED STATES SAVINGS BONDS HAVE TRADITIONALLY BEEN SEEN AS A SAFE "WIDOWS-AND-ORPHANS" TYPE OF INVESTMENT, you have to wonder how much longer it will be before the Treasury winds up going into default on Savings Bonds vis-a-vis repayment of principal and interest.

Likewise with other debt securities as are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States Government as to repayment of principal and interest, including debt securities issued by United States Government agencies.

This considering the "low taxes=jobs=social stability" mindset of His Fraudulency's Great Within, complicated all the more by the misadventures otherwise known as ur-RAHOWA Against International Terrorism worsening the National Debt.

And speaking of said National Debt, you can actually make a donation towards reducing same. (Which Your Correspondent plans to do with part of his proceeds from online shopping generated off this blog--but it takes your online shopping to make it real.

(Unless, of course, any of you can show cause why reduction of the National Debt is not a Good Cause Worth Donating To. And please, spare me your pathetic bromides about keeping the National Debt all the higher "for political reasons," among other lame excuses!)

IN REPLY TO RIGHT-WING DUTCH POLITICO GEERD ENDERS' MISADVENTURE INTO ISLAMOPHOBIA IN VIDEO FORM, under name and stylee of Fitna, Saudi blogger Raed al-Saeed (blogging under the nom d'Internet of "falsafat") has produced a reply on YouTube demonstrating that Fundamentalist Christians are equally guilty of using faith to sow discord and hate.

Which Islamophobes of all nations, especially here in the "morally superior" United States claiming their Islamophobia is motivated by the defence of as much Christian Honour and Integrity as what Bill "No-Spin Zone" O'Reilly calls "the white Christian male power structure," ought to watch (@ least until YouTube kowtows to complaints from the Elmer Gantry element claiming "inapproriate content" or "hatemongering"):

And, come to think of it, this video as well, which uses Discovery Channel-type nature documentaries to reinforce the point that even the Christian Bible excuses violence and mayhem as much as these hatemongers' invoking the Qur'an out of context:

Also submitted for your consideration--actual evidence of so-called "Christian Love" in its perverted form:

Well, "Christian" creeps--what have ye to say now?

FOR STARTERS, YOUR CORRESPONDENT JUST HAS TO WONDER IF SUCH SPECIMENS OF THE GREATER CONSERVATIVE PROPAGANDA MASHEEN as pander to the same crowd who shops Wally World, for the most part--poor, undereducated, vulnerable and easily-influenced--as make so much about the presumed loss of American machismo to the emerging acceptance of homosexuals and homosexuality are probably closet admirers of one Dr. John R. Brinkley of goat-gland implant notoriety back in the 1920's and 1930's.

Especially because of Doc Brinkley's supposed belief in Toggenburg goat-gland implants being what those afflicted with Lost Manhood--so long as they had $750 cash, payable in advance--needed to once again become Manly Men. That, and the likes of radio stations KFKB (when he had his clinic in Milford, Kansas) and XER (later becoming XERA) in Ciudad Acuna, Mexico (opposite Del Rio, Texas, where Doc moved his surgery after Kansas officials revoked his medical licence for Quackery and Addiction to Liquor) to promote his treatments.

Come to think of it: How do we know Rush Limbaugh isn't really a "closet john" (as in having occasional trysts with prostitutes, yet trying all the more to avoid attracting unwelcome suspicions)?

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ZAHAL--THE HEBREW ACRONYM FOR THE ISRAELI DEFENCE FORCES--HAVE ISSUED AN EDICT banning all its active-duty and reserve members from having a presence on the online social-networking site Facebook, citing potential risks for revealing sensitive information as may benefit the enemy; rumour hath it that Lebanese- and Palestinian-based militants have monitored social-network pages of Zahal members for fresh terrorist-attack targets as seem to be an almost-constant occurence across Israel.

But then again, Your Correspondent understands where white-supremacist and racist elements have their own social-networking presence online, bound by a dangerously warped and violent agenda as includes what amounts to obligatory hagiographic idolisation of Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa alongside appeals to "defending the purity and integrity of our One Master Race," among other "causes."

IMHO, the only race as matters is the human race. "It's a small world, after all...."

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AND SPEAKING OF SOCIAL NETWORKING ONLINE, Your Correspondent is still looking into the launch of a site in this vein as would be of interest to:

• residents of the Wisconsin Dells/Lake Delton district, especially such with a direct involvement in the tourism industry there;
• current and past employees of touristic-related businesses in the Waterpark Capital; and
• longtime devotees of the Dells region long before it became the Waterpark Capital.

Those interested can enquire here by e-mail. I hope to get things ready in time for the traditional Memorial Day Long Weekend start of season.

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ANOTHER REASON WHY WALLY WORLD IS UNDESERVING OF YOUR PATRONAGE: Flagler Productions, a Kansas City-based video production company long under contract to Wally World to produce corporate videos--or so they thought--has released an archive of Wally World's Most Embarrassing Moments spanning nearly 30 years.

Embarrassing Moments as include scenes of high-level executives of a company officially built on the defence of working-class family values wearing drag and otherwise acting in a campy manner that would make the Carry On series look like The 700 Club by comparison.

Not to mention one Embarrassing Moment showing employees joking to themselves and otherwise performing Tasteless Routines about exploding plastic gas cans, uncovered in research for a lawsuit involving the sale of defective gas cans as led to severe burns on a 12-year-old boy.

As CNBC covered the release:

No wonder you can't trust Wally World for your shopping needs without feeling twinges of guilt or angst.

YOUR CORRESPONDENT HAD JUST NOW ATTEMPTED TO ADD THIS WEBLOG TO THE "BIG BANG WORLD RECORD" TAG, but for some reason or another, the list wound up cut off and incomplete.

I suppose it must be because of certain technical limitations on BlogDrive's part on blog length; hence, my abandoning the attempt.

But then again, it's rainy and windy outside here in the Minnwissippi as I speak.

Other than that--your support of this blog would be appreciated.

And my apologies for having to abandon "Big Bang" in the end.

DURING CHINA'S INFAMOUS "CULTURAL REVOLUTION" (1966-1976), untold millions of teenagers and young adults were forcibly removed from the cities and sent wholesale to rural areas to "learn from the peasants!" (to use an official slogan of the period as would end with Mao Zedong's death in the fall of 1976)--in other words, "revolutionary instruction" with little or no practical purpose replacing "decadent bougeoise" classroom instruction.

Could the Pseudoreligiopolitical Right have similar designs on forcibly resettling "poor white trash" deemed "chronic and habitual welfare cases" from major cities into rural areas, excusing the whole as being "social betterment" and "moral reeducation" towards Industry, Self-Reliance, Personal Responsibility, Thrift and a Wholesome and Simple Home Life?