Henry McCarty, aka William Bonney, aka Billy The Kid is back in the news. It seems his descendents are beseeching Governor Richardson of New Mexico to pardon the little murdering punk. Their basis for this request is that he testified in a trial in return for immunity, never mind that he shot and killed a sheriff and his deputy after that selfless act. Which is fine, he is dead and gone, call off the hounds. It isn't like the situation we have with Bush and Cheney, two criminals who will never need pardons because the Dems are too chicken-foot to prosecute them. The thought of those two swaggerimg asswipes living out their lives as free men sickens me. Billy, despite his rep, killed only four men by himself. The Bush-Cheney gang is responsible for a thousand times that many deaths in just one of their entreprenurial wars.

Anyway, Gov., go ahead and pardon the thieving little cattle-rustler, make his great-grand bastards happy(Oh pardon me!). Jim Morrison got his from Governor Crist of Florida, although to be fair, there are doubts as to whether Jimbo ever even unholstered his pistol. In 2006, the Alabama legislature passed a bill that facilitated the pardoning of Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks for violating segregation laws back in the good ol' days.

President Obama recently issued his first pardons, including one for a guy who cut pennies down to dime-size for use in vending machines. This dastardly schemer was busted in 1962, when dimes were worth, well, a dime, but so were sodas, condoms, and candy bars. The guy was sentenced to a year's probation; I have to wonder if he wanted this off his record because he was tired of being laughed at. He also pardoned several coke dealers, which ticks me off. Barack, don't you know the pusher is a monster, he's not a natural man? How about pardoning EVERY single person busted solely for possesion of weed?

 Here is a list of some others you may want to consider:

Arlo Guthrie                Littering

Bobby Fuller               Fighting the Law (Law 1, Fuller 0)

Bob Marley                 Shot a Sheriff [extenuating circumstance-did not kill the deputy]

Robert Mitchum          Marijuana conviction(1948, served 2 months)

But Mr. President, you should never have pardoned that turkey. That bird had it coming!

I left the camera's battery charger at home, so naturally the sunsets have been phenomenal, the porpoises are doing a water ballet, and the pelicans have been forming the letters of my name with their wings.

So I leafed through my old files, looking for some pics that I have not posted before. The result is a mash-up of old and new shots...

 
The Harvey Canal provides a gateway from the Mississippi River westard to Texas along the Intracoastal Waterway. This was taken from Kody Shipyard, our favorite place to get repairs done.

A container ship this size can carry close to, if not more than a 1000 containers, and every one needs a truck to move it. 

Touching Down

Morrison Springs is on my 'scatter-my-ashes-here' list
 

If this oyster boat has a good night, that front deck will be loaded with sacks
and those tires will be 2/3 submerged, due to the extra weight.

Sleep tight!

I voted for a man who does nothing for me

A draft-dodging patriot who gets doctored for free

My lily-white guy draped in shades of Old Glory

I live a life of ease 'cause he sent my job overseas

My GOP hero, I tell you, he's a heckuva guy

He's all for the Bible and the man in the sky

He'll defend a corporation in the wink of an eye

When a little 'oopsie' causes  Daddy to die

If he thinks a big bad democrat is after your guns

He'll drop his nine-iron, and legislate on the run

Our guns keep us safe, besides which, they're fun

The Second Commandment will never be undone

With a Gop hero on watch at all times

who thinks any taxes are a capital crime

I hope he succeeds in ending Social Security

Because he says it's real bad for the economy

He loves his neighbor dearly, as his Savior said

He has a Bible on the table beside his mistress' bed  

But when he sees a hungry man begging for bread

He turns the other cheek, and says kiss this instead.

That's my GOP hero, he takes principled stands

thinks its a sin for government to lend a helping hand

to any of his many luck-deficient fellow Americans.

Unless a fellow's principal might fill his campaign cans

These pictures were too good not to post, so posted they got.

 Katrina blew the top out of this pine, usually a death sentence. But 5 years on, it is doing fine.

It never occurred to me to record these guys at night on video, but catching them with a digital camera's slow reaction speed was frustrating. I added a Second video, people!

Only one appearance here, about halfway through

The porpoise to riding a bow wave? To have dol-phun!

Hey, step out here for a minute, check out the view.....

Behind us is Jordan Road Wharf, with its frozen storage warehouse.

 It was foggy thursday morning

We dropped off some safety lines on the tow prior to getting underway

 A power sub-station in Eastern New Orleans

The Bulk Terminal suffered a lot of damage due to Katrina, you can see the collapsed gantry to the far right.

The Bulk Terminal is still useful for crew changes

 This will be a floodgate, part of the wall around the entire city of New Orleans. 

We are entering Industrial Lock Eastbound. We will be  locking along with another towboat,
and a catamaran, whose rigging is visible to the right of the m/v Sebring

Clearance on the Claiborne Ave. bridge is 40 feet, so we never need it. The bridge had to open for the sailboat, however.

Ronnie, one of our deckhands, sporting his 'do-rag'

The seas were reportedly rough, so we caught a line and timed our departure so as to cross the passes on an outgoing tide

White pelican in Theodore, taken on Wednesday, otherwise known as crew change day

White Ibis feeding in Meaher State Park

Blue is my friend Hals' new dog. He's a good boy

 
Another shot of that fabulous sunset from two weeks ago

or, Thanksgiving in north Bay County

Over the river and through the wood.

to Grandmother's house we go.

Since grandfather's death while cooking up meth,

Ol' Granny's been feeling quite low

Over the tracks, past trailers and shacks

and into her driveway we'll pull

When she sees its her son she'll put down the gun

And call off her pack of pitbulls

She tells us the news about our all our kin

Cousin Billy 's got two college degrees

while doing life in prison for shooting Aunt Gretchen

way back in the seventies.

And your old Uncle Fred, well, he up and fell daid

the doc said it was his bad diet

but his daughter Kate is three months  or more late

and her beau is black as the night

When it was time for the feed, Granny showed us our seats 

All three of her chairs and a box

The kids can sit in the yard, or eat in the cars,

the two that are sitting on blocks.

She served us no turkey, just venison jerky

and a bucket of Kentucky Fried

and after Thanksgiving crispy is dessert time you see

an apple pie home-nuked on High.

While drinking canned tea where the porch used to be

Granny's new boyfriend drives up

A guy on a Harley, whose  name used to be Farley

tells us to call him Pork Chop.

Pork Chop gives Granny a kiss that makes all of us grimace

And Granny she says with a tear

I know what you're thinkin', well so what if i'm drinkin'?

It's the last time I'll do it this year

So Thanksgiving  is over and through the wood

back to our own house we go

Pop wished we'd left sooner, before Granny 's nooner

What's that, Dad? We wanted to know

In Xanadu did Kublai Khan
 a stately pleasure dome decree
  The zoning board did nix his plan
   It mattered not he'd conquered the land
    to the local bureaucracy
Twice he applied, twice turned down
even when Kublai greased palms downtown
Still his plans for mighty walls and towers
Violated covenants he felt quite restrictive
His garden rejected in the very last hours,
Incense trees being plants invasive.
"What damn good is being the friggin' Khan
Feared by his friends and foes alike
When everything I try to do, I Khan't"?
So he called his generals, who heard his rant
Then said "We're union now, and going on strike."

*Apologies to S. T. Coleridge

Recently found in the basement of what once was a seedy seaport tavern in Maryland, in a file marked 'do not serve til tab paid', were these notes. Authenticity has yet to be determined:

Feb, 1845---Memo to self; notes for poetic idea found in coat pocket. Cannot recall its creation, perhaps too indulgent to the whims of Bacchus that day.I should take a second pass at this one; I need a real scary, dramatic poem to make some sales, show that dandy Longfellow who writes the poetry around here, and get the creditors off my ass, which I sold yesterday to a drover.... 

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

a bunch of dreary old books I had to read, I hate 'em

Suddenly a bird, a raven, appeared, endlessly repeating a word

 ad infinitum verbatim

"Oh, no more, never!" Said I, and killed and cooked and  ate 'im.

The first line resonates, keeping that. what word(s) should the raven, ( an owl instead?) repeat? ... unsure about the latin

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

over a lid of knock-you-on-your-ass killer ganja I had scored.

Suddenly there came loud rapping, Tupac or Biggie, DJ samplin'

some tasty snippet of classic rock or soul they never paid for.

The new neighbors liked to party, and though it  was already four

I knew it would last for hours more......

Another one of my most strange dreams; filled with impossible wonders and ridiculous notions that are portended, such as investing in railroad and steel stocks. I don't even remember writing this bit, must have been a Two-pipeful evening. Still, the meter has promise....This ganja intrigues me...

What was I on the night I penned this?
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

the white stuff that oozes out of my nose pores if I squeeze it just so

a verse about each of our bodies' loathsome secretions...how coarse and lowbrow...it just might get me free drinks from the louts at the taverns, if I make it odious and distasteful enough...

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,

how come they are pronounced differently?

Weary should be 'wee-ry', or weak should be 'wick', I thought

These musty old books don't have the answers, to the junkman with the lot.

I'll box them up tonight so she won't notice; tell her, 'They're lost, Lenore'.

That was stupid,not to mention disjointed and unfocused. I am too tired, perhaps a little more tincture of opium.  ,....Lenore, old books, ...something there, ancient books, forgotten volumes, ....what rhymes with Lenore?  If that damned tapping and rapping on the chamber door would stop, I might come up with something, must be the wind, nothing more...More , Lenore,....lore.... Damn! I've run out of paper......