Friday, August 31, 2012

The Republican convention

First, I am better off now than I was 4 years ago.
Second, Clint is not a comedian and he should know that "a man needs to know his limitations."
Third, if Republicans actually believe in individualism, then why do the believe Romney can solve their economic problems?
If you are waiting for the government, if you are waiting for either Romney or Obama to fix your problems, you aren't much of an individual.  

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Pete Klein, Publishing

Pete Klein, Publishing

Profile of Pete Klein, author of vampire novels and guide to the outdoors of Hamilton County, NY, Adirondacks.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

I knew Susan Anspach


What follows is something I wrote about Susan Anspach on an IMDb message board a year or two back. I'm posting here now because someone respond to my post and suggested I should write about the 60's and 70's.
Maybe I should.
I think it was the summer of 67 when I met Susan. 
It was an odd meeting but easily remembered. 
A friend of mine from high school was studying to be a priest up in Rhinebeck. 
He called me and asked if I would like to join with him and some of his seminarian friends for a picnic at the beach at the Rockaways. 
When I arrived, I saw this really great looking girl wearing a Bikini. Her name was Susan Anspach,the sister of one of the seminarians. 
At the time, if I recall everything correctly, she was working as an actress in Shakespear in the Park and would be leaving the city in a few days for a screen test out in Hollywood. 
We were getting along pretty good, enough that I dared to suggest we get together when she came back from Hollywood. She gave me her phone number and I said I would call in a couple of weeks. 
I never did call because before I was scheduled to call, I met and fell in love with the girl I married. 
I hope all has gone well for Susan over the years. I really did think she looked stunning in her Bikini. 
One of these days I should really write about my life. To give just a brief idea of some of the interesting situations I have found myself in: 
I once had a conversation with Otto Preminger in his NY office. I talked my way out of having my throat slit open. It took about ten minutes to convince the guy it would be a bad idea to do that. I was friends with Tom Clay, the number one DJ in Detroit during the 60's and through him met some people in the record business out in Hollywood, including a man who claimed to be the manager for the Everly Brothers. If he wasn't their manager, he at least had some kind of connection to them because he had a key to visit their office where I saw their gold records on the wall. 
I could go on but I just wanted to post here to remember Susan and tell her I never forgot her.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Guns don't kill people


Guns don't kill people. Of course not. Neither do bombs, knives, baseball bats or poison. It's people who kill people. Who can argue with that?
Well, let me try a bit.
While it is true that inanimate objects by themselves are not likely to become animate and go around killing people all by themselves, it should be obvious that if they didn't exist, it would be a lot more difficult for people to kill people. Gosh, if these inanimate objects didn't exist, someone who wanted to kill someone would need to get phisical and kill them with their bare hands. You know, get up close and personal, and maybe risk getting killed by them with their bare hands.
There was a time when I belonged to the NRA. That was when I viewed the NRA as an organization that supports hunting. I dropped my membership when the NRA began campaigning for the death penalty because I didn't see any connection between hunting and the state sponsorhip of killing people. Over the years, it seems to me that the NRA isn't so much about supporting hunters as it is about being a lobbyist for the manufactures of guns and ammo. Make money. Sell as many guns and rounds of ammo as possible to as many people as possible, and wash your hands of any blood spilled.  
You see, if you are a hunter, you have an obligation to learn how to shoot straight and hit your target with one bullet. That being the case, there is absolutely no reason for you to need an automatic or semi-automatic to hit the target. If you need more than one bullet, you should give up hunting because you are incompetent. In addition, if you need many bullets to kill what you are hunting, all those bullets are making a mess of what could have been a good meal or trophy. Get my point?
If the politicians weren't so afraid of the NRA, acting as though the NRA were going to come after them and spray them with bullets, they would ban all automatics and semi-automatics. But no. We have cowards for politicians.
I repeat. No hunter or target shooter has any reason to own an automatic or semi-automatic. The only purpose of those killing instruments is to indiscrimanently kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible. They make sense on the battlefield. They make no sense in society.