Biography
Mike Farrell is kind of confused. A 1973 graduate of the College of the Holy Cross with a BA in Philosophy, he had successfully dodged the draft during Vietnam, despite his lottery number of 29. Logically, after failing at being a bum for a year after college, he then enlisted in the Army. His theory was to hang out for two years, go to Germany, date blondes, drink lots of beer, improve his wretched German and come home to use the GI Bill for Graduate School. Didn’t quite work out that way; he did go to Germany and stayed five years first tour; married a red-headed American GI who worked in S2; did drink lots of beer and developed some acuity with pidgin Deutsch. Mike re-enlisted and then wandered through a great 23 years as a soldier. A lot of it sucked, of course; but, he avoided ending his adolescence until the end of the 23 years…since then, he’s been in a fight to regain that feeling of camaraderie, purpose and trust.
Mike chose to stay a career NCO. There were a couple of dozen reasons, but they’re best summed up by the fact that he really didn’t like officers. He still doesn’t, sheepishly at times admitting that “Some of my best friends are officers. Some of my best friends are gay. Some of my best friends are gay officers. I’m not gay and I’m not an officer – I like it better that way.” He got his initial First Sergeant assignment in his 14th year and basically stayed a First Sergeant until he retired, as a First Sergeant. If he hadn’t retired, the day after the retirement would have been the day he pinned on CSM stripes but, as he says, “Some of my best friends are Sergeant Majors; some of my best friends are hookers. I’m not a Sergeant Major and I’m not a hooker and that works fine for me.”
Since retiring, Mike’s worked in Labor Relations, HR and General Management for government, tribes, nonprofits and for profits including Defense Contractors. He’s found that his “not being a hooker” approach hasn’t necessarily worked to his career advantage. He’s picked up a bunch of irrelevant graduate degrees, that basically were there to teach you how to be a Hobbit.
Hobbits are small, insignificant fearful types who scurry around getting in the way and accomplishing nothing of any great merit. He believes that the movies would have been infinitely better had the bad guys killed off all the Hobbits in the first part of the first movie, and then spent the rest of it avenging the little twits. Mike really hates Hobbits He’s a Senior Professional in Human Resources and a Six Sigma Black Belt. He plays guitar, reads, broods and drives too fast in fast cars – currently, a Mustang GT – channeling Hunter S. Thompson, patrolling “on the edge of the desert, just outside of Barstow.”
An avowed Left-Libertarian-Anarchist, Mike admits that everything is probably going to hell, but thinks that it’s the duty of people of honor to work to stop it from going there too quick. Since he regards all veterans as his extended family, he expects that they’ll do the same. A religious guy, Mike believes that God is a not very bright, self—entered and hormonal teenage girl obsessed with the Jonas Brothers and whether or not her Daisy Duke jeans make her ass look fat. They do, but he’s not going to be the one to tell her the truth. God can’t handle the truth.
While he might write about anything, he’s really interested in business, economics and how to keep people from being screwed by machines, be they corporate, government, or societal. He's also interested in guitars...
A couple of Navy fliers told me how much they hated TOP GUN, largely because the portrayals were so true. McCain was probably a lot like Maverick; Stockdale like Ice.
May 23rd, 2012 | Posted in Corruption,Politics | Read More »
If government can not protect its commerce, care and educate its people, provide for the common defense, provide for the common defense thus securing the blessings of liberty for itself and its people then it has no purpose. Why do we need it?
May 16th, 2012 | Posted in Government,Politics | Read More »
Charles asked me if it was fun when we finished. I laughed and said it was more fun after it was over than while I was doing it. Ain’t that the truth?
May 13th, 2012 | Posted in Living,Of Interest | Read More »
I don’t care about gay marriage. I’m not that concerned about using predator drones, Gitmo as we sweep up the ashes of the Bush administration, and so on. I want the state to work. Jobs,food, schools, infrastructure…
May 9th, 2012 | Posted in Government | Read More »
We probably should reflect that on Easter morning, the Apostles, those first Bishops led by Simon Peter, the first Pope, were hiding or trying to get out of Jerusalem as quickly as possible.
April 29th, 2012 | Posted in Religion | Read More »
West also babbled that Barrack Obama is afraid to debate him. Really? Loudmouthed first termer thinks that the President of the United States should get on a stage in South Florida and debate him?
April 12th, 2012 | Posted in Corruption,Legislation,Politics | Read More »
The Coyote of the east came where the people were and asked Old Man where he came from.
April 2nd, 2012 | Posted in Government | Read More »
This is what the bastards have wrought. We are back in Emmett Till territory or worse – we’re back to the burning of convents/mosques and we’re less civilized and tolerant than Ulster or South Africa.
March 18th, 2012 | Posted in Civil Liberties and Freedom,Corruption | Read More »
Now, China has the potential to explode at any time. It’s fairly obvious to anyone with a basic knowledge of Marxist thought that the victory of the Communist Party in 1948 preceded the rise of the industrial proletariat.
March 7th, 2012 | Posted in Corruption,Foreign Relations,Politics | Read More »
I think Dylan has read a lot of Wittgenstein. Much of his work reads as does some of Wittgenstein at his most human. A lot of both of their work is about revelation — of reality, of language, of the gap between them, of self.
February 25th, 2012 | Posted in Of Interest | Read More »
I was wandering through various interweb sites this morning and discovered a number of things at places I don’t always visit. Probably the best way to be exposed to new thought and new thinking is to just go out and look.
February 12th, 2012 | Posted in Of Interest | Read More »
When you’re working in a group, it’s hard to know what you truly think. We’re such social animals that we instinctively mimic others’ opinions, often without realizing we’re doing it.
February 4th, 2012 | Posted in Politics | Read More »
It’s really kind of simple — in normal circumstances not including defeating totalitarianism or preserving the union — government will occur best when it’s plus or minus 20-40% from the middle. The pendulum will swing, and the wider the variation from the national consensus the crazier will be the correction.
January 22nd, 2012 | Posted in Living | Read More »
Let the market take it’s course? But, what will Karl Rove and Grover Norquist wash down with their bottles of virgin blood and Dr Pepper as they plot the destruction of the social welfare net and the ability of the poor to afford toilet paper while the Koch Bros industies destroy the environment making it impossible to obtain leaves, corn cobs and so on for use in lieu of…)
January 11th, 2012 | Posted in Civil Liberties and Freedom,Politics | Read More »
Not that there aren’t some great Christmas songs. A lot of them are in Latin or German, and reflect emotions other than “oh boy, oh boy, this is gonna be great!”
December 22nd, 2011 | Posted in Arts & Entertainment | Read More »
Motherfuckers…American values were defeated in Iraq, and American interests were crushed in Iraq. They were crushed when the first bombs fell in Bagdad; they were defeated when the first tanks rolled across the Kuwaiti border.
December 15th, 2011 | Posted in Corruption,Foreign Relations,Government,Politics | Read More »
If we had the capability to collect intelligence and didn’t then we’d have been wrong.
I’d rather they played this newest iteration of the great game with drones and technology than with human beings. Got enough problems on that front already.
December 10th, 2011 | Posted in Living | Read More »
So, most of the drop is due not to the imaginary job creators of Republcian lore, l legend and myth, but due to people giving up after months of trying, running out of unemployment benefits and falling off the grid and under the bus.
December 2nd, 2011 | Posted in Economics & Markets,Economy,Jobs & Careers | Read More »
If bitchslapping the bankers appeals to folks in Kansas or Oregon, it appeals more to the non-elite working folks who get up in the morning and take the train into Boston to work in banks or shipping companies or universities not as wealthy plutocrats but as clerks, guards, analysts, janitors, school teachers, cops, firemen and college instructors and staff.
November 29th, 2011 | Posted in Government,Politics | Read More »
If I were an educated Roman in 320AD as opposed to an educated American in 2011CE, I would regard Christianity as a totalitarian and anti-social force. Well, Bachmann is right there — she’s actually had an epiphany and wants to share it with the world. Mao Tse Tung is really Jesus.
November 13th, 2011 | Posted in Politics | Read More »
Well, it’s interesting. We face the prospect of more of the same, or the insane, or a pizza salesman. The Irish get a poet.
October 29th, 2011 | Posted in Arts & Entertainment,Causes,Living,Peace | Read More »
Increasing democracy is generally a good thing…if people are ready for it. Libya, probably not so much…West Virginia, we can take the risk.
October 22nd, 2011 | Posted in Editors Picks,Politics | Read More »
Seriously, we need to spend time practicing to be this good. There is an art, a craft, a honed skill to political commentary and invective, and these awful people deserve the best of that art.
October 17th, 2011 | Posted in Humor | Read More »
There are serious Republicans. They just aren’t running for their party’s nomination. They’re largely standing on the sidelines, looking aghast. Or, endorsing Romney as the least of all evils.
October 13th, 2011 | Posted in Politics | Read More »
I’m not sure that any of them are left except in the careerist types who went to work for Republican causes like some folks went to work for General Motors, but the rational Republican who rode the Tea Party/Bush/Cheney clown car as a career choice has got to be having second thoughts.
October 9th, 2011 | Posted in Politics | Read More »
What is it? It’s all of this. When will it be done? When it is done. What will it look like? Like all of this in layers. Why is this here? it’s in the regulations. In France, it would have to be here, but we’re not in France so it has to be there.
October 5th, 2011 | Posted in Arts & Entertainment | Read More »
You can decide who is actually speaking what they think based on some sort of objective reality as opposed to fantasy, greed or calculation by how quizzical and bemused their expression and the calmer their response.
September 29th, 2011 | Posted in Corruption,Editors Picks | Read More »
I get emails. I get comments. At times that the Tin Hat Brigade of both left and right wing nuts and assorted loonies are out to amuse me.
September 20th, 2011 | Posted in Humor,Living,Of Interest | Read More »
Normally, I hate moral victories. But this is a weird day and a weird week and a weird time. I’m still struggling to make enough sense out of what I think about current affairs let alone recent history to write intelligibly. But, Ireland, ranked 6 in the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, beat the US today 22-10. However, the Green are probably wondering a little bit…
September 11th, 2011 | Posted in Of Interest | Read More »
Obama? What the hell is that all about? When he figures it out, call me…I am curious. Hamlet was a lousy general; he may have been the smartest dude in Elsinore, but how exactly did that go for him? Not so well, as I recall…
September 4th, 2011 | Posted in Editors Picks,Politics | Read More »
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