Cliffs Riffs - Stuph n Nonsense

Ianspirational - he is that. I was fooling around on Rhapsody and uncovered a gem of an album that I used to listen to alla time: "Short Back n Sides" by the one and only Ian Hunter. Been listening to it all over again along with some of his work with Mott The Hoople. Little did I know that he is still at it - in fact he JUST released a new album last month, and the Young Dude is now 70! The new album is "Man Overboard" - if you liked Ian back when we were all a little younger....then you will probably enjoy the new one. A couple of my faves from the new one are "Babylon Blues" and "Great Escape". Way to go Ian. The picture below was taken in 2007 at a festival in England. Looking good.

Random thoughts to ponder about the war(s) in Iraq/Afghanistan/Pakistan: 4,359 miltary people have died in Iraq and over 31,000 have been wounded. The number of civilian deaths range from 87,000 to over 100,000. Cost of the war since 2001: 929 billion and climbing. ( http://www.costofwar.com/ ) Blackwater (now Xe) corporation has made over one trillion dollars since 2004 in Iraq. Charges the gubment $900 a day for mercenaries - pays them $350 a day (example taken from mercenaries hired after Hurrican Katrina - maybe they pay them more overseas). A corporal with 3 years service in the Army makes 19,980 a year. Blackwater/Xe charges that much in 22.2 days for a mercenary. A Blackwater/Xe mercenary makes that much for working approximately 57 days. I met a lady in our store who made thousands of dollars a week to drive a truck in Iraq. I have read stories where families of our troops need to collect food stamps to eat. Eric Prince and Blackwater/Xe are making millions and millions. Our tr...