The End - I Mean It! Really! No Foolin' Around!

I am no longer posting here. I have not set up new digs as yet, but will, hopefully, in the near future. For anyone interested, check back here from time to time as I will provide a link whenever that happens.

I will keep this old barge afloat for the forseeable future as I want to save some of my posts for posterior, or uh, well, you know what I mean.

At some point though, I will pull the plug and presumably "Rupture" will disappear into the ether of cyberspace. For most, this will be no great loss, I'm sure.

In the mean time, feel free to browse, even comment should you have the urge. I'd love it. I think I put together a few good posts over the last couple of years, and at least in some instances, there arose a good bit of spirited discussion/argumentation. Hey, what better way to spend a glorious spring or summer day than sitting in a darkened room hunched over a computer keyboard reading from the rantings of some unknown godless fat guy from the midwest?

In some ways, I feel like I'm announcing a GOB (going out of business) sale for a cheap furniture store. Whatever.

Terry S.

(Photo - Ravensbruck)

End Game

In a couple of weeks or so, I am going to pull the plug on this old site and put it out of its misery. It has more than run its course, and I really don't have anything much to say. It's all been said.

I doubt that my efforts have changed any minds or even been particularly informative. I went through a period like this several months ago, but found some things that got me going again. That doesn't seem to be happening this time around. I got nothin'.

I may pop up again in another blog incarnation, but I will have to find a compelling purpose to do so. A few readers have been kind in making comments, and I have enjoyed some spirited discussions and debates over the last two and a half years or so. But, it all just seems for naught at this juncture.

So, I am saying bye, bye for now. I only wish I had been somebody, so I could make a come back. Ah well.

TLS

Barack Obama: Rock Star!!!

I witnessed something fairly phenomenal earlier this evening. My wife Jo and I drove downtown to attend an Obama rally, the last prior to Tuesday's primary election. We hemmed and hawed about whether to stop someplace for dinner on the way, but decided to drive by the venue - the American Legion Mall - to see how things looked. This was at around 6PM. The gates were not to open until 7:30. Already there were several thousand people lining up and otherwise milling about in Veterans Memorial Park immediately south of the Mall. We decided to skip dinner and park as near as possible to get into the mix. Walking back to the Mall, we did manage to snare a couple of hot dogs and cans of soda on the way.

There were two separate lines. The line nearest to us as we entered the park and by far the shortest was only for people holding red tickets. Alas, we had no red tickets and could not ascertain just how or where those fortunate few got them. The other, longer line was for all forlorn unticketed souls - the "great unwashed," as it were. So, after snarfing down our drinks and dogs, we started wending our way as directed toward the end of the unticketed line. We never found it. It snaked south out of the park, across Michigan Street and down Pennsylvania Avenue, eventually, we later discovered, reaching Washington Street over seven blocks away. For a time we thought about sitting on a concrete wall at the World War Memorial a little south of the Mall just to listen, rather than test our mettle waiting on line. However, the weather threatened and my ripped-up knee complained - actually screamed at me - to quit this craziness. We left. (I know — fair weather fans.)

Later, we watched a webcast of Obama's speech in the comfort of our humble digs. The speech he gave offered little that was new. It was essentially his stump speech. That wasn't the phenomenon. It was that line.

A few days ago, Obama filled the Indiana University Assembly Hall in Bloomington with around twelve to fifteen thousand people. An earlier rally at the same facility for Clinton garnered her only about thirty-five hundred admirers. I figured that it could be a little crazy at this rally, but I didn't anticipate what we found.

The American Legion Mall is just an open, level, grassy expanse in the middle of downtown Indy that can accommodate something in the area of twenty-five thousand people. Before Obama hit the stage the Mall filled up and many were ultimately turned away. There were, I would estimate, another three or four thousand people settled in the areas surrounding the Mall. I should add that Stevie Wonder played prior to Obama's entrance which may have enticed some to make the effort to attend the rally. But that's nothing unusual. I understand that McCain has the surviving members of Lawrence Welk's "Champagne Music Makers" perform a little "get down" music prior to his rallies.

Seriously though, this rally was a "happening." I would be very surprised if either Clinton or McCain could muster a crowd even remotely as large as that Obama managed tonight. Whether the results from either Indiana or North Carolina prove to be definitive is, as I write, unknown. But, if the crowd that came in support of Barack Obama this evening translates proportionally into votes, Clinton, McCain, and all those in their respective camps had better get ready to duck. Obama just might be the next shot heard round the world - or at least around the country.

Barack Obama is a rock star!

TLS

FLASH!!!

Recent word out of Kinshasha, The Congo claims that area sorcerers have been stealing penises! Yes, penises!!! (I hate when that happens.)

Hard liners in the local constabulary have arrested a number of the suspected thieves charging them with malicious dis-member-ment. As a result it now appears that the market has gone soft.

Remember though. Don't leave home without it!

And now, back to our regular programming.

TLS