Have The Scales Tipped Too Far?

Just under 12% of the American public believe that Barry O is not or may not be an American citizen and this group is split almost evenly on the is not/may not be question. Most people who believe this way are self identified Republicans, with a whopping 58% total of them in the is not/may not be, combined camps. Most of these Republicans are White Southerners, who no longer fit into the young adult demographic. Check out all the numbers for yourself, at Politico.

This shows how deeply the Republicans are scrapping the bottom of the barrel of eligible voters and how narrow their band of support really is, Nationally.

I'm a big proponent of the two party system. I was kind of thinking that the Republicans would reform their Party, seeking a broader base with appeal to a larger spectrum of the native intelligence and educational level bell curves. I guess I was wrong.

There are some real problems with leaving the Democrats to be the controlling force in American politics. Some checks and balances are seriously needed. We need serious, intelligent, rational voices on both sides of the political spectrum. That's the way our system works best. I hope things work out to be better than they look.

What Kind Of Computer Do You Want?

Steve Ballmer, who runs Microsoft, now that Bill Gates is retired, is saying again, that the success of Apple is a fluke.

I'm a virtual computer illiterate. I have used both PCs and Apples. I find the Apple experience much easier, more productive and satisfying. My home computer is the most primitive model G5 desktop, with a small, single processor and a very limited amount of RAM. I use it for email, to pay my bills, surfing the Internet and building my little blog. I think I am a typical home user. I wouldn't consider using a PC, even if I got one for free.

A lot of gamers say PCs are much better. They like to build their own machines and put in a lot of processing power and fancy video cards. I think for them, PCs are better. I know that for movie editing, Apples are considered superior. The Corporate community mostly uses PCs and that's the biggest market and probably the most price sensitive. Apple used to do real well selling to public schools and institutions of higher learning but that is no longer the case. The scientific community seems to be split on the question of Apple versus PCs.

I'm not planning on buying a more powerful computer any time soon. I just don't need one and the old one I have, seems like it might keep working flawlessly forever. If I do buy another computer, I would almost certainly get an Apple.

What kind of computer do you use. Why? Are you going to buy a more powerful machine soon? Why? Does anyone have an Apple clone? I'd really like to hear about how those are working out.

A Beer On The Patio

I see in the paper this morning that the President's little beer party went off as planned. The Vice President got to attend. I guess they didn't want the White Redneck to feel like he was outnumbered by the scary Niggers and go off on them again.

Looks like everything went OK. Nobody got cuffed and taken Downtown. Another small victory for Civil Rights in America. Hooray.

Angels and Demons

A couple of months ago, the media buzz from the Vatican reached a fever pitch, concerning the new Ron Howard movie "Angels and Demons". An earlier movie, "The Da Vinci Code", was perceived by Church leaders as prejudicial toward Catholicism. No filming was allowed at the Vatican for the new movie. Some consideration was given to banning Catholics from viewing the movie.

"Angels and Demons" came to my local cheapo second run theater complex a couple weeks ago, so I went to see it yesterday. It wasn't such a great movie. The Church needn't have worried. They came off really sympathetically. Past atrocities of the Church were portrayed as aberrations. The current cinematic pot boiling crisis was written off as the work of a lone, low level villain with mental problems. The only Church figure to get slandered is Georg Gansweinn. Nobody really cares about that. Poor Georgy.

It's an OK way to spend a hot summer afternoon, if admission is only a few dollars, the air conditioning works and they're selling dollar hot dogs.

A Teaching Moment?

I have worked with a lot of cops. Some are deranged psychos but not that many. Quite a few are sadistic bullies but not most. Most are just guys that like the paycheck, pension and retirement and couldn't get through the screening process for the fire department. At night, in high crime areas and crowd situations usually two officers are assigned together, otherwise officers spend a lot of time working alone. There are unwritten rules in police work. If a person is uncooperative or provocative toward a police officer, they get arrested, cuffed and back up is called. If they resist, they get beat down. If they aggressively retaliate or show a weapon of any sort, they get shot dead.

Police are a lot more controlled in their behavior than they were twenty or thirty years ago. They are nowhere near as quick to go for the club or gun. I'm kind of a smart ass but most people, even cops, can tell I'm not violent. Even so, when I was young, I got slapped around by the cops once in awhile. They never did much permanent damage. I never hit back. I'm not stupid. I wasn't particularly offended when it was over. I never carried a grudge nor did the police. Hasn't happened for a long time. I used to get assigned to shore patrol quite a bit when I was in the Navy, so I have had a taste for what it's like on the other side of the badge. I don't sympathize with what the police do, as much as understand where they are coming from. I am at a loss as to how the situation can be changed much. It is what it is. The way it always has been.

My city is a very safe place to live. You can walk out on your own at 3 AM, meander through dark streets, parks, alleyways and beaches in perfect safety. There is no violent crime to speak of here. There aren't many burglaries. There is a downtown area that is a regional center for nightlife, probably thirty or forty liquor licenses in a two block area. Young people of many different types come there to carouse, day and night, from far and wide. Every once in a while there is a brawl or a rape but fewer than you would expect. There are eight or nine continuous miles of the best public beach in the world, with parking and restrooms for literally hundreds of thousands on busy Summer weekend days. There is plenty of drug activity but it's nonviolent and out of sight, just like the police want. There are enclaves of illegals as densely populated as anything you'll find outside of Calcutta, within a block of million dollar homes. The price we pay for our idyllic coexistence is the kind of police protection we choose to hire. Our police are killers. I'm not looking to move out of town.

When you look at the Gates/Crowley confrontation in Cambridge, Massachusetts last week, you can see that it falls outside the lines of the usual police/civilian interaction. It's clear that Crowley very quickly determined that Gates was who he said he was and had committed no crime but something kept him from making a rapid departure. It's also clear that Gates treated the officer in a manner very different from how most upper income, higher status, suburban dwellers, normally treat police officers. In a situation like this Crowley could expect to be responded to with polite condescension, bored impatience or even contemptuous superiority. He could ignore those responses and continue on with professional courtesy. He didn't get any of those responses from Gates.

I'm not Gates or Crowley or very much like either one of them. I don't have Dr Phil like psychological omniscience into the motivations of either of them, in the situation they found themselves in last week. I do think that Dr Gates felt he should be protected from what he felt was police harassment, by the position he had achieved in life. When this turned out to not be the case, I think he reacted with bluster and outrage rather than the fear and apprehension that most of us would fall back on when an interaction with the police starts to deteriorate. Gates' behavior spurred Sargent Crowley to react to a perceived threat that needed to be subdued. I don't think his reaction was a conscious decision at all, simply a reflexive reaction to all of the training and experience he ever had as a policeman. The police don't spend a lot of time in intellectual analysis when confronted by a possible threat. If a square hole opens up in front of them, they insert a square peg as quickly as possible and that's what happened last week, between Professor Gates and Sargent Crowley.

Do I think Race played a part? Of course I do. Ethnic minorities, especially Blacks, always get closer observation by the police but Gates, of all the Black men, in all the World Knows this. I don't think he could help himself in the way he reacted, any more than Crowley could. In the end, things went way beyond what they should have. Sometimes that happens. At least nobody died. Nobody is going to prison. Nobody's going to lose their job or pension. I think these are better outcomes than may have happened, not so long ago.

The real villain in this story are the political and media flacks who have used it to fan the flames of incipient racial hatreds that lie smoldering, never far below the surface of our society. There is no opportunity for a teaching moment here, just another incident that hardens both sides against the other and sets us back on a course we don't need to be taking, anymore.

As far as the two men meeting with President Obama for a beer and to talk the situation over. It may not accomplish anything. Probably won't. On the other hand, it probably couldn't hurt. Maybe it will only serve to put a better face on a bad situation. That's worth something. All by itself.

Science or Religion. You Decide. Either. Neither. Both.

I gotta send out a message to the "Creationist" community. The "Scientific" community does not deny the existence of god. They do not claim to know anything for sure. Humanity still knows very little about it's environment and our place in it. What we think we know is always changing as we learn more and will continue to change daily, probably forever. Many, maybe even most things that the "Scientific" community once thought to be true, have turned out not to be and were replaced by new, revised or expanded things that were then thought to be true.

What is true, is that applied science has given us a level of technology that makes much of the way we now live possible and allows us to interact with our environment in ways that were not previously possible. By continuing to apply the scientific method to the phenomena we experience within our perceived environment, we will be able to continue to improve and expand our technology to the benefit of human kind. I hope this is true.

Nobody forces those who deny the benefits of applied science to take advantage of newly available knowledge or technology or even to recognize its existence. Those that believe religion should be the primary source of knowledge and revealed truth are free to follow that path. It could be the correct path that mankind should follow. I don't believe it. Most people don't believe it but it is every one's right to choose.

Secular education in contemporary society teaches the scientific method. It incorporates knowledge that reflects current understanding of our environment and the technology that this knowledge makes possible. Secular education makes the disclaimer that all such knowledge is subject to change and revision but is closest to the truth as we know it, today.

Currently, parents who choose are allowed to send their children to religious schools or to home school them. Some State and local authorities are trying to force students undergoing non standard education to include curriculum that parents find objectionable. I think this is wrong. Even if I think students may be crippled by not learning certain things, their education, at least up until the point of personal autonomy, should be guided by their parents wishes.

Science, if the insights provided by it are valid, has nothing to fear from religion and religion, if it is true, can have nothing to fear from science. Problems arise when those that pursue the scientific method try to suppress religious knowledge or vice versa. This happens. On both sides. It should stop. There is no reason religion and science should engage in conflict, even if they disagree. Civil law is decided by governmental authority and all are bound by it. Our Constitution, in the United States, calls for the protection of all minority rights. I hope it stays that way.

Choose Life, Choose Private Health Care, Choose Amoral, Money Grubbing, Lubavitcher Gangsters

The FBI rounded up a shitload of criminal kidney traffickers, related money launderers and high public officials that colluded to cover up their crimes, in New Jersey last week. The bottom line is that for many years, perhaps even decades, the poorest, most helpless people from some of the poorest nations in the World, have been brought into this country, under false identities, to have kidneys ripped out of their bodies and sold for whatever the market will bear, often hundreds of thousands of dollars, to the affluent. These poor souls didn't even know what was going to happen to them. If they were lucky, they were returned to whatever hellhole they came from, with a festering, pus filled, flank wound and a few shekels in their pocket. If not, their families never heard from them again. Maybe they could guess what happened to their loved ones, from the stories of other friends, neighbors and relatives also taken, that did return. Whole towns and villages were targeted and every potentially profitable kidney harvested, for cold, hard cash. The perpetrators reaped millions, perhaps hundreds of millions, in filthy profits.

Where are the voices of outrage among the leaders of the morally upright, "Culture of Life"? Why doesn't that "Fester the Molester" Pope Ratzo and his drooling, boy raping redhats, weigh in on this? Where are the condemnations from Senators Leiberman, Feinstein and the rest of the traitorous, bullet headed, neocon, Israeli lobby in Congress? Shouldn't the "Tiller Killer", glossolalian, snake handling, gun toting, anti abortion community be up in arms, about this assault on the lives of the poor and helpless?

I guess none of them have had time to form an opinion. The forces of the culture of life are a big tent coalition. Nobody wants to step on anybody else's toes. Gotta keep an eye on the common good, 'ya know.

The Cutting Edge of Social Conservative Logic

Republican flacks are quick to point out that the election of Barry O to the Presidency proves racism no longer exists in America, while at the same time writing screeds about the reverse racist, Commie, mud man, illegal alien, Kenyan born, chain smoking, election stealing, spear chucker, whose wife looks like a gorilla, spends millions in tax payer dollars on foreign travel and shopping sprees and delights in making monkey noises to amuse her two filthy, street whore daughters.

If they think that will work out for them, more power to them. It's still a free country. So far.

Why Abstinence Is Different From Abstinence Only

That many recently post pubescent Americans choose to not engage in sexual relations, gay, straight or whatever, until they feel mature enough to really decide what kind of importance they place on sex and how sexuality impacts their lives, is I think, a good thing. It should be encouraged. I don't think anybody should have a problem with it. I don't think anybody does.

It is likely that many chaste young people will feel pressure from either members of more sexually active peer groups in general or individual lustful suitors in particular, to engage in a greater level of sexual activity than they are comfortable with. This is unavoidable. These young people should not be put into a position of being coerced in any way into sexual activity. They should be free to join organized or informal support groups that eschew precocious sexuality, whether they are church, lodge, or other service organization affiliates. It should not be illegal for them to meet at public venues. They should not be forced to accept into their memberships, would be dog in the mangers, whose sexuality they consider deviant or in opposition to the proposition that chastity is a worthy goal. It should be recognized that there may be different support groups available to young people, whose ideas about what constitutes chastity, the motivations for it or the definition of acceptable sexual orientation, differ in the extreme. That's the way it should be.

To deny those who have attained puberty and for whatever reason, find that they are engaging in sexual acts, the right to knowledge about and access to, the most up to date and effective forms of both contraception and prophylaxis against STDs, is not an option. Parental permission has no place in this equation. Parents usually have until their child is twelve or thirteen and sometimes longer, to impart whatever it is they feel about this subject and influence the child's decision. That amount of time has to be enough. After that, it's not the parents who are fucking in the baseball dugout at the high school or engaging in oral sex in the back seat of a car. It's their child. The child has a right to know about the risks involved and how they can be mitigated. It's conceivable that a child could find him or herself trapped in a situation where sex is not even consensual, with an abusive family member or in a religious subculture where children are "married". The alternative to a situation like this, foster care, institutionalization and prosecution of parents, may seem untenable to the youth involved. They may feel they need to put up with the situation until they reach their majority and may freely leave. Covert contraceptive measures should be readily available through any contact with the medical or educational system in the outside World that the child may be exposed to and strictly confidential.

In a diverse society, where tolerance for the rights of all is observed, the question of abstinence should not be a major problem.

Religious fundamentalists are often too stupid, insular or caught up in belief systems which allow minimal personal cognitive activity, to respect the rights of others. Unfortunately in too many places, they control many local societal institutions. They do great damage and lack of insight and intellect prevents them from seeing it.

Why Universal Health Care Will Pass

Republicans say that Universal Health Care will cost too much. It's true. Nobody cares. They didn't care that the recent wars were too expensive and totally uncalled for. They didn't care when trillions of dollars in foolish corporate welfare, that only resulted in massive layoffs, were authorized. Republicans say that Universal Health Care will overload and disrupt the existing system. Also true. Nobody gives a shit.

People want health care as an entitlement. They will get it. Government health care will usher in many good things for the black dirt ignorant, and proud of it, Republican base, best exemplified by the illiterate, faux fundamentalist supporters of Sarah Palin. Universal Health Care is going to mean free, plentiful prescription narcotics for all. Benzodiazapines, opiates, mood elevators, stimulants, you name it. There is nothing ignorant wing nuts like better than a good, legally sanctioned, high. If they can get enough scrips, the excess can be sold at a tidy profit to supplement the family income. Another obvious benefit, will be the dramatic increase in Social Security disability claims. If government doctors certify disabilities, the social welfare system will expedite the claim and the working days of the snaggletoothed values voter, seeking a free government paycheck, will be over. It's too good of a deal to pass up.

Universal Health Care will sail through Congress.

How Much Of A Lesson Do You Want To Learn?

There's a little private two year college, just across the California border by Death Valley, in Nevada, at the old Deep Springs Ranch. They take 8-11 students each year. The students do all the ranch and maintenance work. They have a few dairy cows and a vegetable garden, as well. They bring in a couple of teachers for a few months at a time and the kids get general education courses. The experience and maturity that the students gain at Deep Springs is considered really special. Admissions officers from all the most prestigious undergraduate institutions in America fight over Deep Springs graduates and offer them full ride scholarships. Are these kids really so special? I know kids worked like dogs the first 18-20 years of their lives on ranches. They went to school as well and did fine. Nobody ever begged them to accept a scholarship to Harvard.

I've known guys that join the military after high school. A lot of them end up doing things at a very young age that require a lot of judgement, responsibility and maturity. They can save money toward college while they're in and the government kicks in some. I guess there is a new GI Bill that has pretty good benefits. The truth is though, most colleges don't seek out or encourage veterans to apply to or attend. They don't consider them prime prospects. Why is that?

I knew a couple guys that robbed liquor stores and gas stations. Can't imagine why they did it except maybe the thrill. There's no money in it. You can do better selling a little weed to friends. Both guys got shot by the cops. One died, the other got one of the lobes of his lungs shot off, then spent the next decade in prison. Prison is one of the greatest character building experiences you can ever have. You never get a day off or even a break. You learn to cope with a changing and varied range of stressors. You'd think that anybody that makes it through a decade in prison without turning into a psycho, would be in great demand. It's not true. Ex convict felons have very limited opportunities waiting for them when they get out. Most colleges won't even consider them.

I guess that the worth of life experience is a relative thing, that really exists mostly in the eye of the beholder.

Banana Republic

The US overthrows legitimate, democratically elected foreign governments. They do it all the time. They have been doing it for a long time. I think the Mexican War was the first but I could be wrong. A lot of times we overthrow a government and really fuck the country up for a long time and not to the benefit of ourselves, or anyone else. Mossedeq in Iran and Allende in Chile come to mind. We really fucked them up bad. Letting the Somozas run Nicaragua for most of the last century wasn't too bright, either. That came back and bit us on the butt. Sorry, Chesty, it wasn't your fault. You were just following orders.

We don't always need to be directly involved. We taught the Honduran military all about how to enact a coup. Why would we be surprised when they did it? Banana Republic coups always have the support of the Military officer corps, the wealthy elite and the Catholic hierarchy. In almost every Hispanic country these three groups pull their members from the same small group of interrelated families and share the same interests and income sources. Because the distribution of wealth in these countries is so narrow, governments which the majority has legitimate input into, almost always favor some sort of redistribution of wealth. When they threaten to begin to effect this redistribution, that's when the coup takes place. Dirty Commies.

The new government in Honduras claims they are not a traditional Banana Republic coup. But there they are. The rich, the military and the Catholic Church, all holding hands and ruffled up like guilty young lovers, the morning after. The US denies any involvement. They don't really teach that stuff at the School Of the Americas.

Walks like a duck. Quacks like a duck. It's not that hard to figure out. Everybody knows a duck when they see one. You want to pretend it's not a duck, fine. You don't need to justify it to the victims of past coups. In Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Panama, Columbia, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, China, the Philippines, Thailand, Burma, and scores of others, including literally every nation in sub Saharan Africa, multiple times. There have been hundreds of millions of victims in these countries, when civil war was fomented by American instigation, over the last hundred years. The victims don't care. They're all dead. Pretend it never happened. Give a little money to the Christian Children's fund. Adopt a little, brown orphan. You'll feel better.

You know what? Why don't we just give it a rest. Stay home. Mind our own business. There will probably be plenty of war without us.

He Was No Edward R Murrow

I don't want to run down Walter Cronkite. He was good at what he did. He wrote his own copy. He was good at taking all of the news of the day and sewing it up into a seamless half hour summary every night, reading it off with his mellifluous voice, in a stately cadence, never missing a beat or mispronouncing a tongue twister. He had a gravitas that made him able to both interview the major players on the World scene and gain the trust of his viewers. He wasn't liberal or conservative. He didn't rock the boat. He never lost his cool. He had a good run. He came up on his own. He was at the top of his game for thirty years and knew when to get out. He spent nearly thirty years in a comfortable retirement on Martha's Vineyard. I'm sure his grand children and great grand children will remember him fondly.

We had a local guy in LA, Clete Roberts, who came out of a similar background as a war correspondent in WWII and was every bit as good on camera. I think Clete was more daring in the field and insightful on feature stuff than Cronkite. They got rid of Clete in the late Sixties, when they brought in the young pretty boys and girls. Mostly vacuous assholes that would dominate TV news from then on. LA was the jumping off point for Tom Brokaw and Connie Chung. Connie was smart, pretty, vivacious and a total flake. Brokaw was and is a clueless retard. The fact that he became a respected television institution tells you all you need to know about the evolution of TV news in America. Some old guys still got big time local news work in LA. They were all Right Wingers. George Putnam. Jerry Dunphy. Hal Fishman. Assholes, all of them. The good guys ended up doing radio traffic reports and local color.

Compared to what came after them, all those old National network news guys were good. Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley, Harry Reasoner and the host of correspondents that backed them up, getting the stories. We won't see their like again. Now we have Glen Beck.

And that's the way it is, Saturday, July 18, 2009.

National Health?

I have no real preference about how the great health care debate should come out nor would I make a prediction. It is hard to accept that the cost of subsidized health care for all is sustainable. On the other hand, the money GW Bush threw away on stupid wars and complete crap makes health care an attractive alternative, as long as we're going to throw obscene amounts of money away.

The wing nuts don't believe that Barry O can get enough support to pass a National health insurance program. I'm not so sure. He can count on the support of big swatches of Democratic urban America, no matter what he does, he's their boy. Mid Western and Western Blue Dog politicians might not want to pass a National Health Care bill. Watch out though. Large segments of the West, Mid West and South, even those places where Social Conservatives hold sway, contain large populations of White, marginally educated, working class voters, slightly too affluent for Medicaid, whose families survive with little in the way of a financial safety net and are chronically without health insurance. Catholic voters across America may dsagree on the right to abortion and contraception, most may not agree with the Pope on these issues but they can all agree with the Pope on the idea of socialized medicine. He loves it. This may be an issue all Catholics can vote together on. Many people, who may even be Social Conservatives and heretofore antagonistic to the Obama Presidency, might be very interested in supporting National health care.

If a National health plan gets passed, Obama will become very popular with the people whom it benefits and those people cut across party, racial and religious boundaries. Those people might start voting for him. It's not going to matter if he's a big black, illegal alien, Islamic terrorist, Commie Quisling from Kenya, if his wife looks like a gorilla and likes to amuse his little daughters by making monkey noises, if his 11 year old daughter is a street whore or anything else Republican flacks can make up and spread around in public. I think Barry understands that. I think the Republicans do too. National health care could be the key to the 2010 and 2012 elections. Another thing to remember, even if Barry puts everything on the line for health care and fails to get it, he loses nothing and may gain a lot. Nobody ever held it against Bill and Hilary when they failed to enact a National health care program, early in Bill's first term. A lot of people, especially white people of modest means and limited expectations, in the South and Mid West, were grateful to them for trying and supported Bill because of it, for a second term. Hilary benefited from having been a champion of National Health later in her Senate career and nearly successful run for the Presidential nomination.

Is Ruthie Ginsberg the next Hitler?

One of the things that the wing nuts are foaming off at the mouth about this week, is a statement from Ruthie Ginsberg that she thought Roe vs Wade would lead to government subsidies of abortion and in essence lead to genocidal population control among disadvantaged minorities. They are all hot to paint this frail old Jewess as a bloodthirsty, racist proponent of eugenics.

Roe v. Wade was adjudicated almost four decades ago. Ruthie was a young woman and not remotely involved. She was simply making an observation of how the situation seemed to her at the time, as an academic observer, given the people involved in the process. This was during the administration of Richard Nixon. The Congress was, I believe controlled by the Democrats but both parties were represented by older, affluent, white, protestant men. The Supreme Court was dominated and led by Republican appointees and very conservative Dixiecrats.

I don't personally believe this but a lot of people thought at the time, that given the reactionary, male dominated philosophy of government, genocide of minority groups, especially troublesome urban blacks, was exactly what was planned.

It really hasn't turned out that way. It's the white demographic that is shrinking. Blacks are holding their own and we are all being deluged by wave after wave of contemporary immigrants, mostly Hispanics, from Catholic countries where population growth is unfettered by any sort of family planning or birth control and the Catholic Church actively cheer leads poor populations that double every 12 years, in the absence of the safety valve of Northern migration. Different people have different ideas about how we should deal with Hispanic immigration. Nobody disagrees over why it's happening. The countries where they come from no longer have the resources to support them and in fact, depend on the meager individual remittances sent home to those that remain to buoy up sinking economies.

Poor Ruthie is no genocidal, racist eugenicist. Just a poor old Jew with incipient senile dementia and a tumorous pancreas. Give an old girl a break. She is Scalia's closest companion on the court, ease up on her for that reason, hysterical, dimwitted wing nuts, if for no other.

Th-Th-Th-That's All, Folks!

For all I know, Sonia Sotomayor may be a racist. She may not belong on the Supreme Court. If Republicans are serious about it, they should get somebody besides Jeff Sessions to convince me of it. He's like Elmer Fudd, trying to convince Daffy Duck that Porky Pig is willwee that Siwey Wabbit.

It is funny though. You have to admit that. Are those ears on the side of his head or hand grips?

Sonia's Hearings

You gotta love Senator Charles Grassley. He was questioning Sonia, reading from notes prepared for him beforehand. He could barely read the questions intelligibly. He had no comprehension of the answers given him. His follow up questions were either unrelated or had already been answered.

The guy is an absolute moron. They call that type of person a "social conservative" now.

Catholic Birth Control. What Birth Control?

You read a lot of articles about Catholic sanctioned natural family planning. They are all pretty much bullshit. Here is an article about Catholic birth control written by an honest orthodox Catholic. It's true. It's funny. It's refreshing. Orthodox Catholics should just be what they are and go about their business. Nothing wrong with a light heart. Why are they always such bullying, lying, weasels.

I'm guessing her job as SG will be to mobilize support for a comprehensive health care program. This is something the Bishops are obligated to support. It's also something that conservative Catholics dislike. They are anti tax, anti immigrant and anti socialism. Will they fall in line for the Pope? I doubt it. The Pope has no real power because he wields no weapons of any consequence.

Surgeon General

Barry O picked his Surgeon General. It's a pretty high profile position. More symbolic and public relations, I think, than a seat of real power.

Catholic, woman, hero in Alabama after Katrina, devoted her life to helping the poor. I think it's interesting that the nuns in the area know her well, whereas the priests do not. Do you think she'll turn out to be a big "Culture of Life" warrior and campaigner against abortion, artificial birth control and women's reproductive rights?

The Church has already pushed her into several high positions. They have given her many accolades and honors. It will look really chickenshit if they smear her now. On the other hand, there is nobody more chickenshit than the brotherhood of American Catholic bishops.

Desi Sissy Tizzy

India has decriminalized homosexuality. I have not been to India. I know Indians. Hindu, Sikh and Muslim. It seems real progressive based on my conception of the country. Homosexuality is still pretty hot button with most of the population. What do I know?

This is an interesting article. The nations leading TV Yogi disagrees with decriminalization of homosexuality. He says application of yoga techniques can cure an individual of the desire to have aberrant sex. This is similar to what Christian teachers proclaim. That a correct understanding of and relationship with their God, can remove the desire for non age appropriate, opposite sex partners not already in a committed sexual relationship with somebody else.

Here is some advice for those seeking to be cured of non standard sexual preferences. Most of the Christian teachers, Muslim Imams, Buddhist monks or Yogi masters showing you how to not be a homo anymore, aren't any more heterosexual than you are. None of them have a clue how to help themselves, much less you. Save a lot of time, effort and money. Find somebody that likes to do what you like to do. It's sad a lot of people never find love. It's not rocket science. If Boy Scouts had a merit badge for it, you could get through it in an afternoon.

Mud Man Meets Red Shoes

The Kenyan Impostor Boy met briefly today with God's Doddering Rottweiler. The young Black President assured the elderly Nazi Pontiff that he will do everything in his power to decrease the number of abortions in the United States.

This is a recipe for dissatisfaction on every body's part. Even if the US abortion rate is cut in half, it will still be about the same as current levels in Western Europe, numbers that the Pope says God Tells him are way too high. The fact that Mud Man Barry wants to decrease the numbers by emphasizing sex education and the use of artificial birth control methods isn't going to ring the Pope's bell either.

They exchanged gifts. Barry gave the Pope a rag that had been wrapped around some dead Mackerel Snapper for a couple of generations and the Pope gave Barry a booklet on sexual abstinence and how when a woman spreads her legs, she should "open herself to life". Pretty much says it all. What we have here, is a failure to communicate.

How Much Would You Pay For Them?

I have been thinking of setting up a short term business buying State of California IOUs. How much of a discount should I take on them? I'm thinking 50% is too much. People won't give them up for half price. How about 80% of face value? I don't think people will mind that and one way or another, I think California will find a way to redeem them within a year.

Watermelons

Summertime is cheap watermelons. When I was a kid they would sell them for a penny or two a pound. There was a fruit stand on the old Brea Canyon Road, between Fullerton and Pomona, before they subdivided the Diamond Bar Ranch and filled it full of houses. That was some twisty road. Beautiful drive. After dark, the smell of the mustard, sage and oak, when you had the car window rolled down was unbelievable. There was a big sign above the fruit stand, depicting a Black child, with a gap toothed grin, holding a big quarter of watermelon, about to dig in. It's not there anymore. They would cut into a watermelon you picked out with a corer and let you taste it. If it wasn't to your liking, they just threw it away. Used to blow my mind when they did that.

There are some Mexican taco trucks around town that give away free ice cold watermelon juice in the Summer, if you buy food. Watermelon juice is the best and most refreshing juice in the World, in my opinion. The tacos are cheap too, since they don't have to pay any rent. You have to know where they park though. They have to be careful because the cops roust them or sic the Health Department on them. They break every food prep law on the books, plus the local fast food stands don't like the competition.

I buy watermelon in the Summer but I have to eat it all pretty quick. It really takes up a lot of space in the refrigerator and my wife won't eat it. It only gets down to about 20 cents a pound but that's still pretty cheap. It's in my price range. If you eat a lot of watermelon at one time, you will have to urinate a lot for the next few hours. If you're an old man with a big prostate, you better not be planning to go anywhere or do anything else. Bummer.

Balmy Weather

We had a really mild Winter this year followed by a equally mild Summer, kind of like a long Fall followed by a long Spring. Now, they say that because of El Nino conditions in the Pacific, we should have another warm Winter. Lay it on me Baby, I'm ready.

Abortion Mill

I lived in Garden Grove, California, with my family, while I was growing up, between 1959 and 1969. In a better area of town than we lived in but not far, lived a doctor and his family. I knew his kids. We went to the same church. We went to the same schools. We saw each other at social events. He was the team doctor for my high school's PE department. He gave me a few sports physicals.

This doctor had his own little clinic and convalescent facility downtown, close but not too close to the town hospital. We drove by it all the time. I never thought anything about it. My parents said he did therapeutic D&Cs. I had no idea what that was. When I got older, in the school yard and streets, along with the facts of life, I learned that this doctor could "get rid of babies", from pregnant women. A lot of kids talked about their mothers or sisters or aunts, getting just that done at his clinic. The reason was always that "she needed to have it done".

This doctor ran his clinic for twenty years. It was perfectly legal. He decided it needed to be done, for whatever reason and provided the service. If you had insurance, it was usually covered. If you didn't, it wasn't terribly expensive. He wasn't unreasonable. If your credit was good, he would work out payments. I don't think he turned away too many people. He didn't do pregnancy tests. That would have been unethical. You just had to tell him that you had skipped a couple of periods and he decided you needed a therapeutic D&C. No law broken there. He couldn't advertise. Word of mouth had to do. Some poor naive girls, with nobody to advise them, had babies they didn't want. Some girls had babies even knowing they could have an abortion. It was a harder thing to endure, then, than now.

What's interesting is the gossip didn't start, the tongues didn't click until after a single girl started to show. Nobody ever gossiped about, criticized or thought less of a woman or girl who went down to this doctor's clinic and had a D&C. It was considered to be a legitimate medical procedure even though everybody knew what was up. The criticism was about choosing to bear an unwanted or illegitimate baby, not getting pregnant. Another gossipy criticism you would often hear, was when a married women whose children had already reached a certain age, got pregnant again. All the ladies would ask each other why didn't she do something about that. It's not fair to her husband or the other children, they would say. People are funny, no?

Most towns of any size had an establishment like the one run by this doctor. I'm sure it was a good thing. I think most women that had illicit abortions performed by untrained individuals, running the risk of dangerous complications, at least in my area, in those days, were trying to hide it from all their friends and family and felt if they went the clinic, others would know. That's probably true.

I guess the point of this is that abortions have always been taking place. In every society in the World. Nothing is going to stop it or even decrease its frequency. The whole anti choice movement is predicated that abortion can be stopped by force. What's interesting is, even the anti choicers never blame women for wanting or getting abortions. None of them want any criminal penalties for women, just the abortionists. Once abortion is criminalized, the rate of other therapeutic intra uterine procedures will simply increase mysteriously. Ah, a rose, by any other name. Abortion will still be legal, easy to obtain, medically justified and covered by insurance, just like always. Those that don't have insurance can get theirs on easy credit terms. Doctors that do abortions will still go to church and live in nice neighborhoods. People don't change and neither does the way they live their lives. It's a given.

These anti choice people aren't too bright. Mostly Republicans. Most of them are pretty religious. Don't really do too much thinking on their own. It figures.

Lowlife Swabby

I was into the third and final year of an active duty hitch in the NAV. The antipathy between me and my Chief and Division officer had reached it's peak. I pretty much ignored everything they said. Normally, a situation like that could be fixed and not in my favor. Since I was the only at sea QMOW besides the Chief, they couldn't get rid of me and the XO didn't want to replace me and let me off the boat, for fear it would precipitate a rush of no load slackers in my wake, they were stuck. Normally, in the yard, I would muster with the crew at 0700. I would putter around until about 1100, then catch the duty pickup to Chesty's, MINSY's Marine club. Every weekday, they had naked ladies dancing from 11 to 3. If it was not long after payday and the tips were good, the ladies would stay even longer. It was better than any strip club I've ever been to. The atmosphere was relaxed and the beer 25 cents a glass and a buck a pitcher.

They couldn't do anything about this because a lot of guys from our crew were always there at lunch time, just not all the time, every day, like me. I'd always be back on the boat in time to muster off. Usually then I'd go back to our barracks and find some guys to drink with for the rest of the night or if I was willing to spend some money, catch a ride to the Horse and Cow.

I was in my mid twenties, healthy and pretty resilient but needless to say, some mornings, at muster, I felt pretty rocky. One morning, in particular, I was totally incoherent and in fact, barely even conscious. I made it through muster but that's all. After that, I went down to the deepest, darkest reaches of forward berthing and crawled onto the fart sack of the most inaccessible rack I could find and passed out. About three hours later, my Chief woke me up. Bad mistake, on my part. Mornings, on submarines, everybody works or pretends to work. You need to be able to account for your time. You need to respond if the call is put out, requesting your presence.

I got written up for AWOL, which can be a serious infraction of the UCMJ. You can request a Court Martial, for any offense, or the command can decide to Court Martial you. Neither is a good thing, ever, even if you're innocent of the charge, which I certainly was not. If you can get off with a Captain's Mast, go for it, every time. Normally, you don't get put up for AWOL, while still on the boat and only missing for a few hours but the Chief and Navigator were adamant and the XO eventually went along.

Even at a Captain's Mast, they can still do very bad things to you. If the infraction is minor and the behavior that you exhibited to warrant the offense idiosyncratic you can expect some leniency. In this case neither of these things was true. It was not the first time I had been to mast with this Captain, also not a good situation. Being a competent and dutiful at sea QMOW, I had about as good a relationship with the deck officers and Captain as an E-4 can have, it could even be described as friendly but there are limits to the forbearance of even sympathetic superiors.

In the end, I got off easy. 60 days confinement to the ship. No reduction in rank. No forfeiture of pay. Not bad, considering we were going to sea the next day, for a month. This really jacked the jaws of Chiefy and NAV.

We made a little covert run down to the South Seas. Nice change. Had a great time, as always. When we got back, I could see I was going to get watched like a hawk for the rest of my confinement, to the end of finding more charges to put me up on. There are ways for diligent superiors to do this and I was a bad boy, it wouldn't be hard.

The day after we got back to MINSY and moored, I went to the COB and volunteered for a month of mess cooking. We had always got along. He thanked me and said that was exactly what he was looking for. Wink, wink. Mess cooking in port isn't easy and still long hours but nothing like the grueling regime of it at sea. Off I went. What the COB says, within his domain of responsibility, pretty much goes. The time went by quick.

When my last thirty days of confinement were up, with two months pay in my pocket, I was ready. It's generally not a good idea to confess to something in the Navy, in order to try and benefit yourself. They have ways of dealing with that. There was a guy once that went to the XO and told him he was a homo in order to get a discharge. The XO questioned the veracity of his claim. He told this guy to go down to Crew's Mess and let the Chief Mess Specialist butt fuck him and the Chief could then notify him, officially, whether or not he was really a homo. Everybody knew the Chief Cook was gay. He had his dick tattooed with red stripes like a candy cane. Guy never did get a discharge, or even off the ship but the story got around and it wasn't a good thing for him. He took a lot of "Hey, how 'bout a blow job", ribbing.

So, I went to the XO and told him I thought I might be an alcoholic. I volunteered to go to the Alcohol Dry Dock program at Alameda NAS, 20 miles or so South. This was an entry level portal into the Navy's alcohol abuse program. They held you there for thirty days and evaluated whether or not you were an alcoholic and not just a typical drunken swabby and either sent you back to your command or onto one of the more extensive treatment centers, which almost always culminated in an early discharge. What could the poor guy do. He didn't like it but he called them up, booked me a spot and cut me orders.

Alcohol Dry Dock was great. Me and the Chief that ran it, a reformed rummy, became great friends. They gave us a dose of atabuse every day, so that we couldn't drink. For about six hours every day, we sat around in a group and told sea stories about how much we drank, the crazy things we did while inebriated and pretended we were sorry about it and wanted to stop. A couple of evenings a week they put us in a van and took us around to various AA meetings, never ones with regular citizens, ones where only lowlifes and indigents frequented. It was fun and nice to get off base.

As my stay in Alcoholic Dry Dock came to a close, I had an official conference with the Chief in charge. He said I was indeed an alcoholic and between the two of us, he said he doubted I'd ever quit drinking. He recommended in his report to my command that I be immediately transferred to the Medical rehab program at Long Beach, then to the Psych rehab program at San Diego. The Long Beach program would be up to 2 months and San Diego Up to 6 months. Since my enlistment would end before I finished, I would probably walk with an Honorable and not even a General discharge. He was ready to send me on the next day and everything I owned was in my sea bag, with me. I was ready to go.

He called my XO to give him the word. The XO was neither pleased nor acquiescent. I was back with the Seawolf next day, cured of my drinking problem. We went back to sea a couple days later. I loved being at sea. Some people are born to be sailors.

I don't want anybody to think that I blame the Navy for my problems while I was in. The Navy is great. I'm a knucklehead with a bad attitude. Going along to get along was never my strong point. I always pushed hard at the limits of what you could get away with and the limits broke often. I never learned a lesson from it. I always got every chance available. I could have stayed out of trouble. The idea never even occurred to me. After being on the boat less than a year, they let me take the 2nd class test, way early. I didn't study and did poorly. With a little effort I could have made first before finishing even my little 3 year hitch. If I had re-upped I could have made Chief pretty early and coasted from there on, a lot of guys in the program did that and they weren't rocket scientists or even that squared away. It's all on me.

Just an old man rambling.

Nancy Wants The CIA On A Leash. Laugh Of The Week.

There is a lot of controversy about the CIA right now about whether or not they tell anybody outside the agency what they are doing. Obviously some people are in the loop. The question is who.

When FDR set the organization up as the OSS at the start of WWII, he chose William Donovan to head it up. Bill was a WWI war hero, a very smart guy, and highly unorthodox in his general outlook. He built an organization that was very secretive and to a large extent, self supporting, as far as covert ops went. In countries that we needed information about what was going on and where perhaps we wanted to manipulate political outcomes, he found that the best people to work with were the local criminal elements. They were men of action, who already had access to valuable sources of information and used to working in a covert manner. Obviously the profit motive is the correct way to motivate these kinds of people. The CIA, from the very beginning actively engaged in very lucrative criminal activities, all over the World. A lot of smuggling. Drug production. Arms deals. counterfeiting. Whatever worked in the situation they found themselves in.

Since the CIA made a lot of profit and was able to keep these funds off shore, they didn't have to ask for money from anybody for everything they did. There was no accountability. They didn't have to tell anybody.

They also weren't particularly concerned about working for whatever partisan party was currently in power. As time went by they pretty much worked for whatever they thought was best for the national interest.

This is just the way the CIA is. It's never going to change, even if the agency is removed as a part of the American government. It wouldn't destroy the organization, it would go along pretty much as always, as a criminal and political enterprise. I don't think the US government is going to do that. Better a vicious dog protecting your yard than outside your gate. Woof!

Who's Buying All The Guns?

It says here that people are buying a lot of guns. I haven't bought a gun in decades. A lot of people have fully automatic weapons and small rocket launchers. I've always found the best ones at reasonable prices can be purchased or bartered for from Marines. They always have a lot. Sales of these aren't even going to show up in official figures.

I know a lot of people with guns. Some own guns because they are sportsmen. Some for home defense. Some believe a breakdown in civil authority is coming and armed militias will be necessary. They all have all the guns they want. They bought them years ago. A lot of the more serious ones reload their own ammunition and have serious quantities on hand. I know organized crime uses a lot of weapons, of all varieties, but I don't know much about that.

I don't know anyone who has been buying guns recently. They have become very expensive and nothing really new in the area of technology is available right now. People used to show me their new weapons when they got them. That hasn't happened in a long time. Maybe I'm just getting old and moving out of the current gun buying demographic.

Who do you know that's buying guns? What are they buying? What kind of people are they? What are they buying guns for? Just curious.

SCOTUS Hearings Coming UP

Sonia Sotomayor recently recieved the ABAs highest rating concerning her qualification to serve on SCOTUS. I'm not that big a fan of Sonia's but only because I don't think she'll be healthy enough, long enough, to put in 30 or 40 years. Bush's emphasis on youth and partisanship, rather than experiance and wisdom makes this a priority. The Right haven't wasted any time labeling her a campus radical, reverse racist, bull dyke. Hey, sticks and stones, baby. If ya can't take the heat, retire to Wasilla. I don't think she'll have much trouble and you never know, she might live to be a hundred. Stranger things have happened.

Abortion is sure to be a hot topic issue. Nobody has any real knowledge of where she stands on this issue. Given her background, the Right isn't having any trouble conjecturing the probable.

Here is a little video clip from the last Senate SCOTUS confirmation hearing. It's Samuel "I'm a teary eyed, bed wetting, Mama's boy" Alito, as he backpedals and snivels his way through the question of where he stands on abortion. What a gutless maroon. If this is the standard of truthfulness Sonia will be held to; Why, it's no standard at all. Guffaw!

Don't worry. The clip's short. Most of it is Arlen Specter, bloviating. Sammy doesn't really have much to say.

Get Your Children Baptized, Even If You Don't Believe It's The Right Thing To Do

What do you think about this? I remember when I became an atheist. I was probably three years old. It was high Summer in the Central Valley California town where we lived. Parents with very young children likely to squirm and squall were required to take them up in the balcony of the sanctuary during the service. It was probably over a hundred and twenty up there, even at nine in the morning. I was short of breath and sweating profusely. There were two big horn loudspeakers on the back wall and the noise was rock concert intensity. I knew no God would want me up there. Ergo, no God. I never changed my mind.

Didn't matter. I went to church and Sunday school every week until I graduated from High School. I was baptized and went through confirmation classes. I attended church youth group activities faithfully. No choice involved. My parents thought it would be a good thing. I don't blame my parents. It's the way they were raised and what they were taught.

That parents in Argentina have enough independence and judgement to let their children make up their own minds about whether or not to be religious or to be baptized, shows caring and intelligence. Good for them.

This Bishop is an ignorant blowhard. He should be nailed into a sauna for a couple of hours with the a Black Sabbath album cranked up to 11 piped in.

Burn In Hell

In the last half century that I have been watching American politics and government there have been a lot of bad men, who have done evil things. None were any worse than Robert McNamara, probably not even as bad.

He lived to be 93, active, healthy, rich as any Eastern potentate. There is no justice in this World. Millions suffered for years or died young, for no reason, because of him. He probably wasn't as bad as Hitler or Stalin. Small comfort.

Fuck you, Bob.

Do Catholics Want To Convert Jews?

Have you seen articles like this? I've known Jews that convert but usually not to Catholicism. Some join cults like Subud, which actually let you stay Jewish. Sometimes they become some kind of chanting, mystic Yogis. I've even known some Jews that become Pentecostal Protestants. I have known some Jewish guys who convert to Catholicism because they're having a lot of sex with a Catholic girl. I can see where that's kind of a religious experience but I don't think it's really an organized thing on the part of the Catholic Church. C'mon, conversion by the old pork sword is not as oppressive as conversion by a regular sword. It's not so permanent either. Plus. all of the Jews I've ever seen convert to anything else were secular Jews. None of them had any real religious affiliation and few if any real established beliefs about the nature of Deity.

In the real World, Catholics just aren't interested in converting Jews, religious or otherwise and it never happens. If they really worked at it, it would take a lot of time and effort on the part of the ever dwindling number of priests they have available. They still wouldn't get many souls and the ones they did get would likely turn out to be disruptive within the Catholic community. Too smart. Too many inappropriate questions. No humility. They'd get the sheeple on the kneeling rails all riled up. Can't have that.

The Catholic Church denies that they want to convert Jews. I believe them. Why would they? Doesn't make any sense. It seems to be the Jews that keep wanting to bring this topic up. It seems cruel, not that I mind at all and a wasted effort.

I am never concerned that Catholics want to convert me. Never even had one try. Maybe I should be offended that they don't consider me worthy. Nah, it's OK with me. My beef with Catholics and all other fundamentalist, scriptural literalist Christians, is that they want to break down the barriers between Church and State and impose their anachronistic moral codes, as civil law, on those of us actually living happily in the 21st century. I think the Jews should drop this obsession that Catholics are trying to convert them and join me in bashing all fundamentalist religion as subversive assholes and a threat to civil liberty.

Is This Legal?

California is going to issue IOUs instead of spending money because they don't have any more money. Isn't this the same thing as printing their own money?

Isn't this a violation of Federal law?

I wonder. Could I print my own money? Would you accept it? If so, email me with a list of anything you might have for sale.

God Bless Peter King

I've never had much good to say about Peter King. Usually, the Congressman from Nassau County can be counted on to come out in support of even the cruelest and most repressive conservative causes and anachronistic Catholic social agendas. He's a mean man. Prejudiced, provincial and not burdened with even a pretense of intelligence or intellect.

As far as I can tell, he is the only politician to come out in the national media with the painful truth about Michael Jackson and the treatment of his death by the fawning media establishment. The rest of them are all cowards. Afraid to criticize an American cultural icon, no matter how repulsive. Afraid to alienate potential voters who grew up moon walking to Thriller.

Thank you Peter, for saying what must be said.

Network TV Is Dying

Do you watch any of the big three networks much anymore? I don't. Cable does national news much better and you can get your fix any time you want. The local independent stations do local news much better. Prime time dramas on TNT, FX, AMC and other cable outlets are kicking the networks ass. For those with pay channels, a virtual non stop lineup of award winning series are available. I get four sports channels. My favorite program is the several hours of horse racing, live, from all over the World on Sunday afternoons.

Mostly, what you find on network primetime is a never ending procession of increasingly lame reality shows and derivative dramas of the Ghost Whisperer variety. Soon, Jay Leno will begin hosting a late night talk show that isn't on late night. They will get late night talk show numbers, if they're lucky. What's really happening is that they are abandoning the last hour of prime time programming five nights a week.

CBS, NBC and ABC are dead men walking. Bloated, expensive businesses with decreasing viewership and decreasing ad revenues. Just a few years ago, these were coveted jewels in the crown of global corporate empires. They are fast becoming cement strait jackets.

Detroit iron. Daily newspapers. Glossy magazines. Recorded music. All dinosaurs. All down on their knees bellowing in rage and pain as they die.

What's next? A lot of things. I would bet book publishing, big hotel chains, cruise lines and resorts, mid price restaurant franchises, airlines, regional banks, recreational boat and yacht builders, union supermarket chains. The list goes on and on.

I Wonder Where They Will Go?

There are a lot of Americans who fall into the category of small government, fiscal conservatives. A lot of them aren't demonstratively religious by exclamation or fixated on the preservation of so called "traditional values". A lot of them don't give a shit about controlling women's reproductive choices. They could care less about how or who other people fuck.They figure these are personal matters. They have come to see the endless unilateral wars of foreign aggression that have characterized the last decade as huge wastes of money, life and national prestige. These people have watched American productivity spiral down the toilet and see that mostly, others don't understand or care that it is happening. They are worried about both. More worried about this than whether or not our largely stagnant and unproductive society is populated with people whose presence in it, is legal or illegal.

Small government, fiscal conservatives no longer identify with the Republican party in America. They differ from the base. They are intelligent. Independent thinkers. Self sufficient. The Republicans have degenerated into a rabble of defectives. Religious zealots. Peeping toms. Skulking tattletales and busybodies. Cannibalistic troglodytes, who whip themselves into a frenzy with their own splinter issue and then kill and eat their own. Anybody with half a brain knows that these demented miscreants will never control government waste or corruption.

It doesn't surprise me that real conservatives won't join with the Democrats, who believe more spending is the answer to all problems. They will never go back to the Republicans. They've been there and it's a horror show.

I wonder where they will go? Maybe some other country. Wouldn't surprise me. This one's pretty fucked up.

Me, I don't have to go anyplace else. I live in California. In a year or two, it will be someplace else. Tubular man!

We Never Called It A War, We Never Gave Them That Respect

The War Against the Filipinos only lasted a couple of years. The Filipinos that had guns usually didn't have any ammunition. Mostly they fought us with knives, spears and stones. We declared it over on July 4th, 1902. Nice touch. We continued to slaughter anyone who showed any resistance to American rule, summarily, for another decade.

20% of the entire population died. Men, women and children. After that, they were all pretty friendly. At least on the main streets. In the daytime.

Nice place to kick back. Have a beer. Get laid. American servicemen, stationed there, referred to the local girls, devout Catholics, as LBFMs. Little Brown Fucking Machines. They treated them accordingly. They always paid them for their services, almost nothing. Classy.

Yeah, He's The One

The American Film Institute has been giving out yearly Life Achievement Awards since 1973, starting with Director John Ford. Initially I was usually impressed by their selections. As the decades rolled by I was less so and often thought that while their selections were worthy, many superior potential honorees were ignored. Women have always gotten short shrift. In the last several years I have felt more and more this way.

This year, the honoree is going to be Michael Douglas. This guy did his best work in a supporting role on a TV drama 30 years ago. Since then, his material and the portrayals therein have rarely failed to be derivative and banal. Kathleen Turner was the real draw in those Romancing the Stone movies and they were a second tier Spielberg rip off. In "Wall Street", he was upstaged by Charlie Sheen. It's hard to imagine that's even possible, considering Charlie's narcotic intake at the time. Douglas' selection is a disgrace. Money must surely have changed hands.

Mel Brooks was probably booked up, not available. Jane Fonda, too political, no doubt. Sly Stallone would have actually been a better choice. Wonder who's on deck for next year? Hasselhof? Andrew Stevens? I personally am hoping for Sally Fields. I really, really like her.

Hive Head Hikes Into History

After less than a year on the National political stage, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is resigning her position. WTF!

I'm sorry to see her go. She has been the most entertaining and transfixing American politician since the emergence of pro wrestler and ex Navy SEAL Jesse Ventura, Governor of Minnesota. I can't imagine that she still harbors aspirations to high office, with just two and a half years experience as governor, most of it spent involved in unrelated efforts.

Perhaps she will concentrate on authorship of an inspirational book and seek employment on the prayer breakfast circuit or get her own daily cable show on the Fox News Network. That would certainly pay more than her present position and she is not a wealthy woman, yet.

Is it possible that Michael Jackson has written a codicil to his will, designating her as custodian of his finances and guardian of his children?

Even if she just wants to spend more time with her children, smoking methamphetamine and whoring, out on the tundra, who could blame her?

Let's all say a prayer for Sarah and Eskimo Todd, as they continue on, with their little family, in a seemingly aimless, aberrant and intermittent life's journey, much like that of the Alaskan midnight Sun, to which their lives are so irreversibly linked.

Bush was too Friendly with the Arabs and the Jews.

This guy was our ambassador to the UN under Pres. GW Bush. They talk about Barry O being a commie, mudman traitor. This guy is a genocidal, Israeli militarist.

Somebody please give me one coherent reason why US National interest should favor the continued presence of a Jewish State in the Middle East.

I got nothing against Israel but nothing for them either. They are not good partners. Their values are not our values. Their objectives are not our objectives. They have never been our friends and are chronic human rights violators. Friendship with them impedes trade and good relations with every other country in the area.

Israel should be on their own. Bolton and his militarist Neocon, Jewish buddies should go there to live and fight for the cause. What they are doing here is disruptive and often involves espionage and treason.

Oldest Actor

I gotta be honest with ya. I thought Karl Malden died years ago. Apparently not. He died today. Producers and directors live longer than actors. Mack Sennett and Billy Wilder both lived and worked past a hundred.

At ninety-seven, Karl was probably the oldest major league movie actor alive. Who's the oldest now?

Mickey Rooney has been around the longest but he was a child star and won't even be ninety until next year. There must be someone older than him around.

Maybe Eli Wallach. I heard he died a couple times but I think that's wrong. If he's alive he's ninety-three.

Art Linkletter was in a couple of movies. Is he really an actor? He's ninety-seven. As old as Karl Malden was.

Kirk Douglas is nominally alive. He's ninety-three.

If Kevin McCarthy is still alive he's ninety-four.

Women live longer than men. You'd think there would be a shitload of old leading ladies around. Not true. The oldest one I could find was Olivia De Havilland. She's only ninety-three.

Il Popo Ratzo Throws Brazilian Arch Bishop Under The Bus

Though loved for his antics by anti choice fanatics, World wide, he has become a figure of derision in his home country of Brazil. This is the guy that excommunicated the mother of the little nine year old girl, pregnant with twins by her pedophile stepfather. Brazil has the most Catholics of any country in the World and they all hate this guy. The Pope today accepted the resignation of Brazilian Arch Bishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho.

Pope backs off. Feeds his brother to the angry crowd. Typical cowardly Popish behavior. Also clueless, dorkish, too little and too late to do any good. Pro Lifer shitcanned, anal raper Bernard Law remains safely sheltered in the Vatican. Catholicism marches on.

Mark Sanford

I normally wouldn't comment on something like this except to rag the Wingnuts about the feet of clay, that their leadership often exhibit. Everybody is talking about this though, and I wonder if I'm the only one that is seeing the obvious.

Everybody seems to think that Mark Sanford's problems stem from an adulterous relationship with an Argentinian woman. I don't think so. This guy is a big time drug user. Could be cocaine. Could be opiates. Could even be psychedelics. He did not get this way overnight. It's been going on for a long time. When you watch him on TV, he's not even in the same room with the reporters he's talking to. All you need to do, is look at the reaction of his wife, friends and staff to his recent behavior. There is no shock, outrage or even surprise. They are calm and under control. They're used to this kind of craziness on a regular basis. The wife seems relieved that it's finally out in the open. This guy shouldn't be operating heavy machinery.

He's going to have to spend some time in a rubber room, followed by an extended period in a nice quiet place with well tended gardens and high fences.

I wish Mark good luck. He's probably a great guy. Probably very smart. I've known a lot of people in his situation. If he makes it out the other end, he may become an extraordinary person and an inspiration to others that suffer as he did. Aint that what they always say?