Outside the Perimeter Courtesy of Department of Defense

If there is any correlating theme coming from this past week, would have to lie deep within the meaning of this word: fragments.

Whereas before, the blogging community seemed to be one amorphous blob, with all of its patrons joined together in a fight for survival against the study of the illogical (illogogy)…. it almost seems that with the passing of the Bluewater Wind controversy and the closing of Legislative Hall for another 6 months, that without a common enemy, the blogging world is running all over the place, like a week’s worth of wind-up McDonald’s toys set loose at the same time.

It was different last summer. The evil Stockbridge was the ogre of that time. (Copeland and McDowell surfaced as the insidious ones later in the fall)… During those lazy, hazy days, one could always on a slow day count on someone posting something about Mitt Romney. Others could be counted on to praise Obama, or damn Mike Castle, and many Ron Paul supporters were just beginning to get the wind beneath their wings. Giuliani even had a supporter or two, and one Sussex County person, was anticipating the great Fred Thompson’s march all the way into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue…. Last summer bred some exciting times. It was a great time to be a blogger…..

This week, each blog is on its own agenda. Even one fascinated with blogs as myself sometimes skims and clicks out if nothing jumps out like a fanged dog at me….That never happened last year… Did we overwork ourselves with all of our successful endeavors?

One difference between the two summers, lies in the march of events. Events have increased their frequency this summer. Every day destiny provides us with a fait accompli before we even get a chance to comment upon it.  We will have a presidential campaign soon upon us with two conventions. We will have the Olympics starting on the ominous day of 8/8/8. We are hanging by just a thread from collapsing into the abyss of bank closures, unemployment, with a broke federal government unable to guarantee any other bailout. We will have a good Phillies’ team for once.

But for whatever reason each of us are starbursting, which is management speak for just bouncing around, making a scene, yet accomplishing little in the long term because of a lack of any follow-through…

Everyone is on their own agenda….. If you were new to Delaware’s blog scene and just happened to visit us for the first time this week, you might think Delaware Liberal was misnamed. Although they smatter their posts with some liberal content, most of their time within posts and comments was tied up on the global significance of the Thursday election of Delaware’s hottest blogger. Fortunately Donvitti provides pictorial relief from his blatant lobbying attempt to keep the title coming to himself….. This is worth the visit just to see what some rather famous names look like…..There are also some nice photo’s of some trees…..and portable chairs….. On a serious note, mark your calendars for the Thursday July 31st fundraiser for Tommy….. Voting will be done on site…..

One controversy stirring among Delaware’s elite, is over the use, or misuse of Democratic party funds to fund one candidate over its challenger.

In a detached way it almost seems like we are sifting too hard, forcing out controversies in otherwise everyday occurrences, then fanning the flames, just because we have too little to argue about… (and more like the main stream media than we would like to think)…… to draw attention to ourselves.. We are, after all, human beings too…. But when all is said and done, it still is the party’s money to spend as they see fit. But in judging it’s overall importance, after  looking over each blog’s links,  this giant controversy also covered by our main stream media,  is mentioned in only two blogs, both of which lean towards Markell.  Is it then really such a big deal if it is only being mentioned by just one side?  Just asking…

Now, moving on……..

Delaware Watch jumps around between the national political scene and controversies occurring on the home front. Taking on the fickle Lee turnabout, it appears that the sentiments of the actual Republican Gubernatorial candidate, do not fall in line completely with his handlers. We in a glimpse see that their party’s flagship candidate, who until he was restrained by his programmers, actually had a moment of courage and credibility. With his reversal, we see we are now exposed to just another hologram, a human face put on some shady backroom dealings….He is truly just following his handler’s directions…… On the national front, Delaware Watch covers the real reason McCain reversed himself and went with offshore drilling…. It wasn’t for America’s interests……it was done in the interest of his campaign treasury… With his reversal…. his campaign treasury swelled with oil man’s money. No doubt this was noticed by Christine O’Donnell who thought she could get free money as well……  Continuing…..

Delaware Way has dived down deep into New Castle County Politics. While struggling to protect The Grange’s historical significance from the Scott- aided developers who are just itching to bulldoze that remarkable historical site under….. her commentary is long and full of information…. Truly this is corruption in its highest form. It is the local equivalent of Iraqi oil. We’ll take it because we can, thank you very much….. As one nation under God, we fought against this concept of entitled royalty during our Revolution War. No wonder Clark-Scott want to remove any local traces of that rebellion from Delaware’s future collective memory…. They are establishing themselves as the nouveau caste of elitists…. it’s Capano and the Highway Radisson all over again………

On a side, this controversy reminds me that for one week in late summer of 1777, thirty thousand troops were camped in New Castle County. (To get a visual of that amount, climb to the top of St. Francis Hospital’s parking garage and look out over all of Wilmington. Half of all you see, represents the number of troops, both British and American, being bivouacked here). Even more historic, is the fact that the war could have been settled here in the British’s favor, had the British capitalized on one of Washington’s errors….. They didn’t. Clark-Scott want it covered up…. $$$$$$$ Shall we let them?

Oddly since mentioning Scott and Clark in the same sentence makes one want to throw up, the local blogosphere, perhaps in a subtle tribute to Al Mascitti, has decided to go the route of food critic. DWA’s Dominique recommends juicy hamburgers, and Jason330 issues accolades for a tuna pineapple appetizer…. And for those who salivate at visual images…….

Next, getting to the spirit of political fundraising, we are shown two opposite approaches. Delaware Politics. Net has this article of one union shaking down its members to meet an arbitrary goal. Just when unions finally have an election season going for them, one of their members pulls a stunt like this…. Down With Absolutes has a tongue in cheek posting in similar vein. Apparently to facilitat their solicitation for donations, they need a mechanism that responds to sexual favors (see comments).

Meanwhile our favorite Curmudgeon is standing guard over our rights,… (naturally including our right give and receive sexual favors).(lol) Most particularly important to her, is the right to pursue our own form of happiness. That July 4th right is under attack by two local towns. A giant controversy, covered nowhere else, has its silence broken by Shirley. Apparently they do not have sex in Middletown. or at least certain elements of that city want to pretend that they don’t…. Banishing Waters and dropping Bernhardt seems like much ado over nothing. Surprisingly this has not gotten airplay from anywhere else… But such controversies will forever haunt the human condition. It is what happens when you let stupid people into government….. Personally I’m looking forward to the response to Newark’s singling out motorcycles for their noise abatement enforcement. I’ve never seen a million motorcycles before. I wonder if they could get that many to show? They have the mailing lists, and most bikers I know would drive at least 500 miles to an event like this….

On a side, I wonder how long it would take a million bikes to pass down Newark’s Main Street? Taking the average of 5 feet per bike and going with a tight 4 bike abreast formation with twenty feet separating each row…. To pass by one point, the answer is 79 hours; from noon on a Friday until 7 pm Monday evening. Now that would be an event worth seeing. I don’t think any other locality would dare venture so far as to single out motorcycles in the future, were bikers able to pull something like this off…….

The Colossus is starbursting from the other side… Now a movie critic they cover the The Great Debaters and The Dark Knight.. The latter was more of a Ms. Manners’ commentary on the behavior of those watching with him. (No wonder boot-legs sell well on the black market.) (lol) But to test your brainpower acumen, check out the trivia question included near the bottom of The Dark Knight... I wonder whether sight unseen if you can guess the winner? If you guessed “Mr. Trivia”, Allan Loudell, you are close….. almost.

Starbursting from the other side…. the staff of Colossus has decided to rule the Isle of Lost Causes and scours the media outlets for anything to throw at Obama. Most of them don’t stick….but the theme picture is worth commenting upon. Here is pitch one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, etc…. and a couple of small arms fire, one and two, aimed at Protack. Perhaps I’m nuts, but the only thing missing in this exhaustive anti-Obama coverage, is any substantial argument as to why someone in their right mind would ever want to vote for Obama’s opponent? Darn, after such extensive reading, I forgot his name…….

Third parties often are manned by well meaning dolts. One ducks and dodges them in any public event…..or fails to return their phone calls because of their tendency to focus on one narrow issue that appears to most, to be relatively unimportant. But,…. when a third party is manned by someone of superior intelligence, they offer a view of the other political parties unseen by those confined within…. Browsing through Delaware Libertarian recently, I was pleasantly surprised to find a rather good description of the Democratic Party…..

Using Delaware Liberal as a template, Steve Newton dissects the Democratic Party with a surgeon’s precision. As his discussion evolves it becomes self-evident that perhaps Progressives of all parties need to unite and elect intelligent candidates for a change, instead of the usual ones put up by parties whose sole appeal lies in the fact that they obey orders….. His proposal for an amalgamated Progressive Party made of many parts (smart Dem’s, smart Repub’s, and smart Indi’s), is a thinking man’s proposal for finding a way out of our cardboard maze we have chosen to place ourselves inside. It is proposal worth pursuing…..For both Steve, Shirley, and myself are pulling for one Republican: Tyler Nixon. Common Sense may need a little help in this race.

In my pick for the best post of the week, we have the breakdown of our Medicare System. By breakdown, I mean totally….broken…..down….. Our medicare system is busted and in this post we actually feel a father’s anguish of a daughter caught up in a bureaucracy-gone-wild under the current Republican unfunded mandates….. Read at your own discretion… It made me angry…. Just be prepared to laugh out loud when Copeland, Lee, Castle, and McCain say their administration has trimmed costs by reducing the rolls of those on Medicare. Be prepared to laugh them all the way down below 10%…. The post is truly non- partisan, but I guarantee your anger after reading it….will be partisan…..no matter what party you hail from…..

But be careful of what you say….. not.. Obviously Delaware Libertarian has been compromised by the Fed’s searching for information on face it, this and other local deviants, who they fear more than any blah-blah propagandist. For they have no defense against facts. Facts pertaining to what they have done wrong , facts showing they care not for their constituents, facts that will anger a population so much that their power base will shift to another…. They must find those who prevent their story line from being seriously taken at face value and take them out….

Commendation must be given to the Delaware Libertarian for following the letter of the law, but posting the warning for all to see is genius. I had not yet thought of that form of civil disobedience which is perfectly legal, ( I checked) since it is a blanket warning and is not one expressly tipping off the person that their records are being culled. I encourage all others receiving such notification to follow this defiant act. At this early stage, searching through the records of one blogger (obviously not a threat to this or any other nation, but equally obviously a threat to an already very dead political movement within this nation), may be legal, but is very hard to justify politically. Now is the time to push back, and not wait until after Israel bombs Iran and we go into Emergency Powers……

But running scared is the opposite of what we bloggers do. If you have ever trained as a United States Marine, you know that when you hear enemy fire, you race hell bent towards it… So that is what we are doing…. Causalities are a cost of doing battle with evil… To this poor soul, violating the laws of the Constitution of the United States, is about as close to treason and evil as anyone can get…..

Thanks Steve for finding that solution… Of course if it was done as a “punk”, it worked well enough so that we have acquired a defense against a Department of Homeland Security staffed only by sick Republicans….. if everyone posts a similar notice we can show the world that within our own country, our freedom is under attack…..

Joe M of Merit Bound Alley comes out of his two month sabbatical, no doubt, because of the hostility given to his view posted in Delaware Liberal‘s comment section regarding the pope. He applies scientific principals to the Catholic position, and proves that the church’s stand on this issue, is, if not completely unsound, still rather controversial.

Now on a lighter note… much needed I think after that…… Ok…we had our food critics….we had a movie critic…. and now, (drumroll please) from lower Delaware, we get our automotive critic. Mike Mahaffie has left the hybrid community. “What? No more mileage posts?” Gone is the Prius. Mike’s Musing‘s author has settled on a new Scion as his next best thing…..Being familiar with anime artistry, I laughed at his quote….”The styling is sharp; a colleague described the front view today as like a Japanese anime character. I can see that.” if needing a good game of golf to relax, you can find it here…. But making vehicle changes is not the only change his blog has undergone… the blog itself has received some major housekeeping….

Last but not least, as he prepares for Thursday’s Drinking Liberally accompanied by the sideshow of choosing Delaware’s Hottest Blogger, Tommywonk is getting his writing ready for the big time of national politics in Denver…. His three posts about Obama, naturally are sandwiched between three posts about energy…… Obviously Christine’s illogogy has gotten his dander up a little, as she did mine….. To paraphrase Dusty’s admonition to Bill, the tornado chaser in the 90’s thriller...Twister…. “(She)’s gonna rue the day (she) goes up against “The Extreme.” Better give it up Christine O’Donnel, challenger to Joe Biden’s Senate seat,…. By going against Tommywonk, you are simply competing out of your league………..

So you see…. we are all fragments… our blogosphere has lost its cohesiveness…. A vast pit of randomness is what we have become, disconnected, diverse, looking away from each other and chasing our own rainbows…

Which reminds me to take off my hat and give David Anderson a deep bow of respect for deciding to make a difference by running for office... Watching David’s writing change over the last two years, has been a pleasure. It’s been a while now, since he has started writing from his own heart, instead of his party’s standard talking points. I’m thankful for the insights which his view has provided, some of which have grounded my own views with a deeper truth… I know he ran before. But based solely on his writing, this time in my heart, I believe he is ready to do what is needed for his constituents, and not follow what is asked of by his party’s higher up’s. Thumbs up, David. You represent us all. Make us proud……

So fragments we collectively are.. and you know… as I processed all this information, I realize that being fragmented so is not all that bad, as you too can now see by this rather lengthy, exhaustive post…

Unless, of course, the economy has dealt you a blow. Unless, of course, you are desperately trying to make ends meet with no steady stream of finances. Unless, of course, by this time all you have left is fragments…. and it shows up in your writing style…. because that is how your life………………… is.