SPECIAL OFFER FROM THE GUITAR STORE

SPECIAL OFFER FROM THE GUITAR STORE

Some readers may be aware that this cranky old man has been attempting to learn how to play the guitar.  I initially made some progress with an old relatively inexpensive Yamaha. 

I progressed enough to upgrade my instrument to a low end, made in Mexico with fake wood, Martin Guitar.  I love the size, sound and playability of this less expensive (still not cheap) Martin, and vowed to reward myself on the big 7-0, if I continued to practice and improve, with a more expensive, made in the USA, all mahogany with a sitka spruce top, higher end Martin Guitar…The 000-17sm.

I am pretty sure this upgrade will not sound much better with my strumming and picking than my current guitar.  I doubt if I could tell that it plays any easier.  Why do I want it?  Why do old codgers buy a fancy Corvette?  Are they going to get any luckier with women?  No, they just want a fancy sporty car.

That is why I want the fancy Martin.  I don’t expect to get lucky with women…hell, Mrs. Cranky won’t even listen to me play. 

I just want it!

I am going to turn 70 dammit, and this guitar is a hell a lot cheaper than a Corvette.  Still, it ain’t cheap and when the Guitar store sent me a coupon as a valued customer for 15% off any non-sale item in the store I thought maybe I would not wait for my 70^th if I could buy now and save several hundred dollars.

Turns out there are a few exclusions and limitations to the coupon.

Exclusions and limitations for the 15% off single non-sale item offer:

15% off single non-sale item. Not to be used in conjunction with other coupons, promotions or offers. No cash value. Excludes discounted and clearance items, price matches, used gear, tax/shipping charges, scratch and dent, vintage equipment, Gift Cards, String Club and Stick Club memberships and musician services (Pro Coverage, GC Garage & GC Studios). No cash value. Offer valid through date displayed on coupon.

Products from the following manufacturers do not qualify for this offer:
3 Monkeys Amps, 3rd Power Amps, 65amps, A Designs, ADAM Audio, Aguilar, Akai Professional, AKG, Alesis, Allen & Heath, Alto, Altus, Alvarez, American Audio, American DJ, Ampeg, Antelope Audio, Antoine Courtois Paris, Aphex, Apogee, Apple, Armstrong, ART, Arturia, Audio-Technica, Audix, Auralex, Avalon, Avanti, Avid, Axl, Azumi, B&S, B3 Guitars, Bach, Bad Cat, BAM, BeatKangz, Beats By Dre, Bedell, Behringer, Belkin, Benchmark, Benchmark Media Systems, Benedetto Guitars, Besson, Bixonic, Black Cat, Blackheart, Blackstar, Blue, Bogner, Bosch, Bose, Boss, Breedlove, Bricasti, Brio, BSS Audio, Budda, Buffet Crampon, Bugera, Bundy, Carl Martin, Casio, Cerwin-Vega, Chameleon Labs, Chandler Limited, Charvel, Chauvet, Cleartone, Cloud, Conn, Cordoba Music Group, Courtois, Crate, Crown, Cusack, Daking, Dangerous Music, dbx, ddrum, Dean, Death By Audio, Diamond Amplification, Diezel, DigiTech, Dime Amplification, Disney by Washburn, DLS Effects, Drawmer, Dunnett, Drum Workshop, Earthquaker Devices, EBS, Eden, Edirol, Elation, Electro-Harmonix, Electro-Voice, Elysia, Emerson, EMG, Eminence, EMMA Electronic, Empirical Labs, Empress Effects, Engl, Epiphone, ESP, Euphonix, Eventide, EVH, Evil Robot, F. Loree Paris, Fano Guitars, Fargen Amps, Fender, Fender Custom Shop, Fishman, Focal, Focusrite, Fox, Friedman, Fryette, Fuchs, Fulltone, Furman, G7th, Gallien-Krueger, Galway, Gator, Gemeinhardt, Genz Benz, Getzen, Gibson, Gibson Custom, Gibson USA, Giffin Guitars, GNI Pedals, Godlyke, Gold Tone, Golden Age, Golden Age Project, Grace Design, Great Divide, Great River, Gretsch, Gretsch Drums, Gretsch Guitars, Guild, Guyatone, Hagstrom, Hans Hoyer, Hao, Harden Engineering, Harman, Haynes, Hercules, HHB, Hohner, Holton, Ibanez, ISP Technologies, J Puchner, Jackson, JamHub, Jasmine by Takamine, JBL, Jet City Amplification, Jody Jaz, Jupiter, K&M, Kanstul, Kawai, Keeley, Keilwerth, Keith McMillen Instruments, Kemper, King, Koll Guitars, Korg, Kramer, KRK, Kurzweil, Kush Audio, Laney, Langevin, Leblanc, Lexicon, Line 6, LovePedal, LP, LsL Instruments, Ludwig, Luna Guitars, M-Audio, Mackie, Mad Professor, Malekko Heavy Industry, Manley, Mapex, Markbass, Marshall, Martin, Martin-Leblac, Matchless Amps, Maxon, Meinl, Meinl Weston, Millennia, Miraphone, Mixosaurus, Mogami, Mojave Audio, Moog, Morgan, MOTU, Music Man, MusicXPC, N-Tune, Neumann, Neve, Nord, Novation, NS Design, Numark, Olympus, On-Stage Stands, Option 5, Orange Amplifiers, Ortofon, Ovation, P. Mauriat, Pacific Drums & Percussion (PDP), Paiste, Parker Guitars, Pearl, Peavey, Pelonis Sound and Acoustics, Perris, Phonic, Pigtronix, Pioneer, Powell, Prelude by Conn-Selmer, PreSonus, Propellerhead, PRS, Purple Audio, QSC, Quik Lok, Radial Engineering, Rainsong, Randall, Rane, Reunion Blues, Rickenbacker, Rivera, RME, Roc-N-Soc, Rockbag by Warwick, Rockbass by Warwick, Rockcase by Warwick, RockStand by Warwick, Rode Microphones, Roland, Royer, Rupert Neve Designs, Sabian, Sample Logic, Schecter Guitar Research, Scherzer, Schilke, Schreiber, Schroeder, Schroeder Guitars, Selmer, Selmer Paris, Sennheiser, Serato, Shure, SKB, SM Pro Audio, Softube, Soldano, Solid State Logic, Sonare, Sonivox, Soul, Soundcraft, Squier, Stanton, Steinberg, Steinberger, Stephanhouser, Sterling by MusicMan, Summit Audio, Sweet Sound Electronic, Splawn, SWR, T-REX Engineering, Takamine, Tama, Tapco, Tascam, Taylor, TDK, Tech 21, Telefunken, Thermionic Culture, Toadworks, Tobias, Toca, Tone King, Tortuga, Traveler Guitar, Traynor, True Systems, Tube-Tech, Two Rock, Ultimate Support, Universal Audio, Vestax, Violet Audio, Vito, VMI, Voodoo Lab, VOX, W. Nirschl, Waldorf, Wampler, Warwick, Washburn, Weber Speakers, Western Digital, Xotic Effects, Yamaha, Yamaha Band & Orchestra, Yanagisawa, Zildjian, Zoom, ZVex Effects

I didn’t even look; I just assume Martin is part of the list.

I can wait.  (Ok, I looked)

SHOULD WE BOMB SYRIA? - a cranky re-run

SHOULD WE BOMB SYRIA?

A cranky opinion for

CRANKY OPINION SATURDAY

Just a cranky opinion re-run from September 2013.  Doesn't seem like much has changed, including my opinion.  If Russia wants to try and sort stuff out in Syria, have at it.

The following is the opinion of a cranky old man.  Opposing opinions are welcome, wrong but welcome, and please…no name calling.  That means you, you big stupid head!

Well Syria, now you have done it.  You used chemical weapons on your own people and now to teach you a lesson, we have to drop some bombs and some tomahawk missiles on your ass! 

Or do we?

I am clearly not an expert in world diplomacy, and especially not an expert on countries and cultures in the Middle East. 

I do know this; they hate the USA, they have always hated the USA and they will always hate the USA.  Give them money…they hate us.  Give them food…they hate us.  Send them technology…they hate us.

If we bomb Syria, if we help overturn the Assad regime, a new group of people that hate the USA will take over, and a new group of fanatics will murder and torture their own citizens, because they are uncivilized, backward thinking fanatics. 

Everyone in the Middle East? 

No, just the ones that are corrupt and evil and currently capable of rising to power.

Look, we tried to keep communists out of South Viet Nam because our leaders told us if we did not, then all of Asia would fall to the communists like a row of dominos.

Maybe our hearts were in the right place, maybe we thought we were saving the world from communism, but:

We lost 50,000 soldiers with 150,000 wounded.  North Viet Nam lost 1,000,000 lives, many were civilians.  The south suffered 150,000 deaths.  We sprayed Agent Orange to destroy vegetation; it also destroyed as many as 400,000 lives and caused as many as 500,000 birth defects.

The South fell, and yet it did not set off a string of dominoes. I think maybe we screwed up.  I was young, I bought the domino theory.  I was wrong.

Iraq invaded Kuwait, we stepped in and beat Saddam Husain back…then we left.  That was probably the right thing to do. Best as I can tell Kuwait still hates us.

We went into Afghanistan to root out Al Quida and the Taliban to send a message that you cannot invade our country with impunity.  Probably the right thing to do, but then we hung around too long.  We thought we could make things better for the people of Afghanistan.  Probably a mistake.  We are in the process of leaving.  Best I can tell they still hate us.

We went into Iraq again and got rid of a despicable tyrant. We were told they had weapons of mass destruction.   We did not find any…kind of like the domino thing.  I was in favor of this invasion at the time.  I believed the intelligence about those weapons of mass destruction.  I think I was wrong.  Lots of our men were killed.  Lots of our men were wounded.  Best I can tell the people of Iraq still hate us.

We give aid to Egypt every year for the last zillion years. Millions or billions of dollars every year.  That country seems to be a mess.  Best I can tell they still hate us.

Now we are faced with Syria.  The dictator of Syria is killing his own people.  He is evil.  We are told that it is imperative that he be stopped.  We warned him about using chemical weapons and he ignored us, now he must be punished.  Our intelligence tells us that he used these weapons and if we do not make him pay then other countries (Iran) will be embolden.

I don’t know.  Sounds to me like dominos and WMD’s.  I don’t know who to believe any more, but I am tired of losing brave young men with no apparent benefit to anyone.  Evil people just fill evil voids, and best I can tell the rest of the Middle East will still hate us.

I think we should just try doing nothing for once.   Let these evil people kill each other.  The innocents will be killed whether we bomb Assad or not, and if overthrown, chances are the people who overthrow him are still going to hate us.

We have one friend in the Middle East.  The only real Democracy.  The only country in the Middle East without any oil and yet it has the most successful economy in the region. 

Israel!

I say we draw the line at protecting the interests of Israel. Support Israel; best I can tell they still like us.

The preceding was the opinion of a cranky old man and not necessarily that of management…Mrs. Cranky.  

STUPID HEADLINES 100415

STUPID HEADLINES 100415

It is time again for

I think there is an editor out a job

STUPID HEADLINE SUNDAY

This week’s stupid headlines and my stupider, sometimes sophomoric comments.  As in previous weeks, There is no fake headline contest!

__________________________

Michigan motorist sets car, gas pump on fire trying to kill spider with cigarette lighter – Maybe should have just squished it. (Was this you Stephen?)

Florida woman accused of 'riding' on sea turtle – She was in a hurry to get to her procrastinator’s meeting. (I don’t know what that means either)*

College student ‘murdered’ in 1984 found living in Germany – Police now think the murderer’s confession may not have been accurate.  (Can you say coerced?)

The Unusual Interview Question the President Of Overstock Asks Every Job Candidate - "If you were an animal, which animal would you be?"**

Woman becomes grandmother at age 29 – And I thought Dougie Howser was ahead of his time!

Australian women can get abortions via phone call – But only if they got pregnant from a toilet seat.

Tokyo recommends 5 additional sports for 2020 Olympics – Sumo wrestling, Sushi rolling, jujutsu, bowing and dueling with Samurai swords.

Rhonda Rousey Can’t Beat Up a Man – Probably not, unless one gets in the same ring with her, then they would get an ass whipping.

Brazilian Ref Pulls Gun During Match – First offense is a yellow card, second offence is a red card and suspension…you really don’t want a third offence in Brazil.

Matthew McConaughey's brother gets year supply of beer for naming son Miller Lyte – Damn, I wanted to name Spencer “Rolls Royce.”

Hillary Clinton speaks out against Pumpkin Spice Lattes – I always suspected she was an anti-pumpkinite.***

Naked man turns himself into a haybale – “If he only had a brain!”

*That one is for you Pixel
** No, really, that is the question
***And one just for Val

Come back next week for more:

STUPID HEADLINE SUNDAY!!