Geez Rick...After starting this thread I now see the relationship between you and your brothers Reg, Reg, and Reg. If you believed that this sucker was gonna' "scoot on down the list" you are the dumbest ass in two countries. Gladly, I know you aren't (however I think you may be making a mistake offering those '48 Hudson Mudflaps for a lefty Fender acoustic)!!! This has already gotten the 'catters going and it should. I'm with Mick in figuring you're sitting back and getting a good laugh over this. A great topic my friend.

I cannot divorce my love of folk and my political interests...just not possible. Most of us came to folk music at an early age when questioning authority and bits of rebellion are simply part of the teen years of any generation. The fact that so many of us are 50ish and came of age in turbulent times explains why Mudcat threads are a mix of both music and politics. I don't see that mix as being out of proportion. Folk music has always been a part of any movement for change and progress. Perhaps the difference here at the 'Cat is the number of "left-wing pinkos" who are not 20, but 50, which doesn't exactly reflect the "normal" trend to become conservative as we get older. What's the old saying about being liberal when you're young, but anyone NOT conservative as they age is a fool. To hell with that!!! I'm most prone to describe myself as an aging 60's radical...if I have a conservative lean at all it is only in the scope of what I can accomplish, not why I should.

Folk music has been a part of me and a part of change in areas that have so much a part of my life. I was successful in the corporate world, yet always uncomfortable. The day I looked in the mirror and asked myself, "What the hell happened to ME," the discomfort began to ease. My increased playing and building eased the transition back to the person I was. Prior to that my music had been relaxing but not much else since becoming Eddie Exec.......Once again it is now motivational and therapeutic. I want my kids to remember the Old Man as someone who held true to the beliefs he had, yet was always willing to challenge those beliefs and listen to others point of view; as a person who stood up for the rights of everyone to hold their beliefs;and as a fighter for what he believed to be the truth. They'll probably also remember that Dad always had a song or two that went along with it.

As to humor, well.......I often have Good Humor, had one last night as a matter of fact. The local "Shoot and Scoot" is now carrying the brand so I had a plain one, just chocolate coated and.......Sorry, wrong humor. Music is tied to that too, always has been. In "Peter and the Wolf" the trombone has the best lines, but the bassoon part is far funnier. Alright look, if my often obscure, bizarre, raunchy, and sarcastic sense of humor offends you...just skip my posts. WOW!!! What a great sentence and what a polite way of saying -- Bugger Off! But humor has also protected me from the rage of daily existence in a world rife with inhumanity and cruelty. For the umpteenth time (and I'm sorry) I quote George Gordon (Lord Byron):

"If I laugh at any mortal thing,'tis that I may not weep."

My Best to All---except to Rick for starting this thread and Mick for being a left wing pinko. As soon as I get off the Net I'm calling the John Birch Society (cute song too..in the DT I think)

catspaw