Take it, my children, and do with it what you like!

For what it's worth:

I have a friend who is a big-time, and I mean big-time, player in the Chicago Business World.

This friend knows all of the polititians in Illinois, Governor, Senators, Congressmen, Mayor Daley, etc etc...He also knows many national political figures as well.

My friend is also apolitical. He is neither Democrat or Republican. He is only interested in his business and will work with polititians of either party. Power, not politics, matters to him.

Where am I going, you ask?

Obviously, in one of our recent discussions, Barak Obama came up. My friend has spent a lot of time with Sen. Obama. Dinners, biz meeteings, events, etc.

His assesement of Barak?

"He is, without a doubt, the emptiest suit I have ever met in my life. A complete nothing wrapped in a pretty, calculated package."

Just throwin' it out there...

Greatest Song ever

I go back-and-forth on this almost daily, if not, weekly. As of now, the Greatest Song Ever Recorded is "One Bourbon...One Scotch...And One Beer," by George Thoroughgood and the Deleware Destroyers.

Tomorrow it will probably be "Nobody's Fault but Mine," by Led Zeppelin, or "My Woman From Tokyo," by Deep Purple. But for today, it's all about Lonesome George.

Katrina, Virgina Tech, & Government.

One of the things that has struck me following the horrific murders at Virgina Tech is the same thing that struck me following the horrific hurricane that struck the Gulf Coast two years ago.

The common theme?

The sad instinct to look to government for answers to imponderable questions.

Fact: Katrina was a hurricane. A big hurricane. A scary hurricane. No government on earth could have prevented it, let alone the mighty US government. New Orleans was going to flood...it's below sea-level for christ-sake. People were going to die.

Fact: The sick, twisted murderer at Virgina Tech was going to kill people and he was not going to be stopped by government. To look for government to stop him, and others like him, is idiotic. We live in a free society. You cannot stop someone who wants to kill people. Va Tech even had tight gun laws.

Sadly, it seems, we have become too reliant on the Nanny State to take care of us. In reflecting on these tragic events, we look for answers from our leaders. We want to know why they didn't stop a hurricane or stop a diseased loner from wreaking havoc on poor, innocent people.

The fact is, in life bad things happen. Bad people kill. Bad storms damage.

Perhaps, in a strange way, these events will help teach us the lesson of self-reliance and the self-responsibility of living in a free society.

Sometimes, the answer is that there is no answer.

Welcome to Ruck and Maul!

Statement of Principles:
(Hat tip to Orson Welles)

I, Kemper Hoyt, promise to opine, pontificate, and present my points of view with utter candor and brutal honesty. Sentiment, bias, and spin do not and will not apply. What matters most at "Ruck and Maul" is truth.

Now let's get this be-atch started.