Shambles and all,

Please, try to keep in mind that 1/3 of the folks out there are against everything all the time. Sometimes more & sometimes less. That's how we get positive and negative results from elections.(Two sides of the same coin---that old paradox again). It's why we have a two party system where the entrance of a third party into the mix puts is like tossing a screwdriver into the gear box. It also assures us of very vocal majorities and very vocal minorities---as well as media. Boy, it sure is a noisy landscape. That also means the process leads to compromise that often a bunch of the people think is bogus. I never could've withstood what Bill Clinton has gone through recently. That said, I never could've stood what Richard Nixon went through either. (That does not mean I condone any of it!)

I too am out o' here for political talk of any kind from now on. The infamous c....m thread was instigated by me to point out the error of going in the direction of the BS threads. I was starting something I was sure would be taken as tongue-in-cheek. Ironically, that seemed to almost be the beginning of the decline until we now seem to be at the point where the mule (me at least) has seen the elephant. After I joined into the verbal frays, (if ya can't beat 'em, join 'em) my pronouncements on the sanctity of trad music must've caused some good people much distress. For that I am truly sorry. If my humor was sometimes overboard (blurted out 'cause it was funny to me) try to realize it was intended to just be a funny break from the norm---a way to insert comic RELIEF. I used to do it in my shows to defuse the negative effects of several people meeting their demise in most of my best songs---the ones I really wanted/needed to show people. But in cyberspace, things just don't seem to make it from the transporter pad to the surface without being mutated in meaning. Things that are stated as simple known facts by the writer are---probably 1/3 of the time---viewed as strident challenges and value judgments by the readers of this forum. It took way too long for me to realize the truth of this.

I plan to stick to what I know best---trad folksongs of the USA and lyrics to songs I want people to know about.

Art