Bush Pardon?

Despite crimes committed and damage done to the American people, President Bush is not a traitor. He is not guilty of treason. To treat him as such would be unfair. He is a scoundrel. What he has done is the equivalent of petty crime on a grand scale.

He should be tried for his crimes. He should be exposed for what he is to the American people. After conviction, he should be placed in a cage on the National mall, displayed for a week. People could come by, jeer and catcall. They could pelt him with rotten fruits and vegetables. Finally he should be tarred, feathered and run around town on a rail, then dumped in a stinking tidal flat of the Potomac at low tide, followed by fireworks and liquor for all. He then should be transported to the farthest reaches of the Republic, Guam perhaps, to live out his life in exile, alone and friendless.

The question arises. Can Bush pardon himself before leaving office? Will he pardon himself for specific crimes or can he absolve himself for everything he might have done, up to this point in his life? Would such a pardon hold up if the American people were determined to take appropriate action against him?

I think he'll probably be allowed to go home to Texas and drink himself to death. His parents can take care of him. I hope they live for many years yet.

Cheap Computing.

I'm not usually that astute about anything in particular. A lot of the time I make decisions that turn out to be less than optimal. I look on the bright side. I'm better than most people at dealing with disappointment. Sometimes I do the right thing, often unwittingly or by mistake. I am always pleasantly surprised. I buy a lot of stuff used. It doesn't always work out that well. I've had pretty good luck with computers.

I was reading an article about how the cost of a good usable computer has stayed the same over the last 25 years. That didn't surprise me. Most electronics have gotten cheaper over the last several decades. I remember in the Sixties, when a huge console stereo phonograph/radio/television was considered to be nearly on a par with the purchase of a new car. For the same money today you can still get a full range of state of the art, home entertainment hardware. What surprised me in this article about computers was the price they claimed a good computer cost. It was $2500 to $3000. For new stuff, that probably is true, it might even be more.

Don't ever buy new computers unless you are affluent enough not to care about money. Don't buy a laptop as your main computer. For most users, the best buy is an "obsolete" tower, at least one or two generations old. Towers are easily expandable and for old ones this can be done cheaply. Buy an old tower that is already maxed out and you're even better off. Often these machines have capabilities equal to or greater than current low and mid range models, even when several years old.

I like Apple computers and I am not a "power" user. I can currently purchase an end generation G4 tower with dual 1 GHz processors, a cd/dvd burner, a couple of internal hard drives and lots of RAM, that sold new in late 2002 for upwards of $15,000 dollars , for no more than $150. A lot of times they will throw in a display for free. This machine will do everything and more than most people need right now and for at least a few years to come. They used to edit feature films on machines like these. You aren't going to have any trouble balancing your checkbook, surfing the net, writing the great American novel or downloading all the porn you want with it.

If you travel, chances are you will use a laptop for little more than Email and a little word processing. You might also go on the net to check on hotel reservations or whether your flight is on time. You don't need a new Mac Book Pro for that. An old G3 clamshell will do just fine. Another benefit of an ancient laptop for travel is that even the most Neanderthal baggage handler will disdain to steal it. One less worry while traveling. You can pick these up all day for $50 or even less. So, for $200 dollars you have all your computing needs covered. Find a cheap printer someplace and you're in business.

Apple has a new OS in the works, that will only work for the new generation of multi core, Intel chip computers. It won't be out for at least eight or nine more months. It will take another year or so after that for all the software to be upgraded to take advantage of it. After that, if you really are a power user, you might feel you need a Mac Pro tower. I might even feel I need one. By that time, Apple should be well into the 3rd generation of Intel machines and maybe into the 4th. The 1st generation should be down to at least $500 or so. I'll probably wait a while longer. $200 is my target. The truth is that computers are beginning to significantly outperform the needs of most users.

The biggest single factor that will probably force me to buy another computer is website inflation. People building websites tend to expand them to the limits of the capacity of their own machine to load and display. As they get more capable machines, the websites become more complex and difficult to access. This is especially true of porn sites. Other than simply the prestige of having the fastest processor and biggest hard drive on the block, this is the main reason men want new computers.

This Guy

Everything you need to know about the current trends of fundamentalist, Pentacostal Christianity in America, you can learn by reading about This Guy.

Was Tailgunner Joe McCarthy the Founding Father of Our Country?

The founding fathers proclaimed a national motto, E Pluribus Unum. From many, one. The fundo zealot loves to proclaim the Christian heritage of the nation by pointing to In God We Trust, stamped on every coin and printed on every bill. They exalt the linking of God and the nation in the pledge of allegiance, recited by every school child, every day.

The heritage of neither comes from the founding fathers. It was during the Civil War, in the first term of Abraham Lincoln that the Secretary of the Treasury first directed that In God We Trust be stamped on the penny. He was convinced to do this by his protestant minister. The motto was used intermittently on a few other coins for the next century. It wasn't until the hysterics of the Red Scare in 1955, that In God We Trust was required to be inscribed on all money.

The Pledge of Allegiance was written by a Protestant minister in 1892. At that time it was a generic patriotic utterance with no reference to either the United States of America, or God. It was a couple of decades before the United States of America was Specifically added. The pledge itself, while commonly recited from the 1920s on, was not officially sanctioned by the government until the patriotic fervor of World War II, in 1942. The reference to God in the pledge was, like the In God We Trust Motto on Money, not added until the height of the Red Scare, in 1955.

The founding fathers, while they had nothing against religion, were leery of it, having seen how much war, suffering, death and division it had caused in other societies. They were by no means all devoted Christians themselves. Indeed, the greatest among them, Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton and many others could well be classified as secular humanists, by today's Rightist agitators. There is no heritage of Christian nationhood that was passed down from them and they would be sorely disappointed to think that anyone in the future would claim it to be so.

The strict separation of Church and State is one of the most important building blocks of any free society. That we have largely subverted this principle tells us about the extent of the freedom that we currently enjoy.

Take Back the Freedoms that were once Ours. The Church has Its Prescribed Place and Must Be Returned to It.

It's What's for Dinner.

Have you seen the menu for the White House G 20 dinner tonite? Nothing elaborate. Four courses, a choice of two entrees. Applewood smoked quail. You don't see that on the menu every day. Sounds really yummy. And four different wines. A nice champagne with the dessert plate. I'm sure Whore-Hay doesn't want to embarrass us by not offering a sophisticated and delicious repast to our friends from around the World.

I simmered up some sweet and sour cabbage with bacon ends and pieces for the weekend. I baked a big pan of cornbread. Buttermilk and hot black coffee both go good with this. You really can't get any better than that.

What are you having?

Barack Has It Made

Barack Obama's Presidency can't lose. It's pretty much of a cinch that Bush's Fed Chairman and Treasury Secretary aren't going to turn things around in the next sixty days. So Bush is going to own this depression. Just like Herbert Hoover owned the one that dominated the 1930s, even though he was President during very little of it. It's not going to hurt Barack at all that Bush was a total asshole as President, with the lowest popularity ratings since Andrew Johnson.

If things continue to get worse or stay bad, Barack doesn't have to make them better. He just has to convince the people that are suffering, that he is on their side. If he doesn't do much for them, he just has to say he's doing all he can. There are so many in need and not enough to go round. People will see the truth in that. They will need somebody to believe in. The worse conditions get. The higher the levels of poverty and unemployment. The better for Barack. He can pass all the regressive tax measures he wants, they aren't going to hurt people that don't have any money anyway. If those who are prosperous are treated unfairly, so what? They are prosperous and can afford to pay. There aren't going to be enough of them to turn Barack out of office. Fuck'em.

If things do get better, then Barack is the savior of the country and a second term is assured.

Republicans think they will make gains during the next election cycle, because they have lost the last two. I think that is not very likely. If they treat Barack with cooperation and respect, they validate him and more people will vote Democratic. If they continue to vilify him, they will be seen as the dogs in the manger that they are and people will still vote Democratic as an anti Republican response.

Michael Hayden is a Lying Little Shitbag

Michael Hayden is an Iran Contra criminal. He should have done hard time then and his little worm brother Robert Gates with him. He was a liar then. He is a liar now. These are attributes he shares with most of the highest officials of the Bush administration. He says that al Qaeda is still the single biggest threat to American security. He has not a single fact to back that up. He says that bin Laden is isolated from the day to day workings of al Qaeda and living somewhere on the Pakistani/Afghan border, expending great efforts on his own security. No facts. He says that large numbers of seasoned al Qaeda fighters who fought in Iraq have spread out over the Middle East and East Africa and any terrorist attack on the US will bear their fingerprints. Totally made up.

Osama is more than likely living in one of his families many compounds, in the Gulf States, surrounded by friends and family. I say this because if I was him, that's what I'd do. There is no evidence that he is still in the field or that al Qaeda is still active. There is no evidence that we have ever fought al Qaeda in Afghanistan since the very earliest days of the invasion or in Iraq ever. In Afghanistan we fight the Taliban. In Iraq we fought Sunni Insurgents, a faction of which we named "al Qaeda in Iraq". We never killed a single fighter in Iraq who was a documented follower of Osama bin Laden. We killed a lot of other people though. A lot of them were old people, women and children. More, we just maimed or left homeless and destitute.

I'm not saying there never was an al Qaeda or that they don't pose a threat. I'm saying that after seven years of war on terror, trillions of dollars spent and millions dead and displaced, we don't have a fuckin' clue and Michael Hayden is a lying little shitbag. It's a shame that we haven't accomplished one damn thing we set out to do in seven years of sore conflict. It's a bigger shame we still don't know what it is, that we set out to do. That we don't even know anything about who we're trying to war against, is criminal. That we let this scaly little crap weasel lie to us, is a testament to our own monumental stupidity. We should all just pin little signs on our backs that say "Bomb Me".

You think what I've written isn't true? Enlighten me. Please.

Barnyard Bush Hosts A Sausagefest

Being President is a lot like surfing. You don't have any control over the wave or any assurance that the wave you catch will be a good one. All you can do is try and stay balanced and in the curl, then go as far as you can without wiping out. The best surfers don't do tricks, no cutbacks, bounce or air. They slouch on the nose, Gandelfing on forever. Eisenhower was like that. So was Reagan. Clinton too.

You never want to be concerned that a President doesn't seem to be doing much or that nothing much is happening during their term. That just means they're in the curl and moving along just fine.

Bush would not have been a good surfer. No balance. Show off. Cuts across another guys nose and then claims it wasn't his fault. He decreased taxes and raised expenditures, both way too much. He let corporate profits get out of hand but kept wages low. He encouraged workers with shrinking buying power to borrow their way to affluence. He started not one but two wars and let them both get out of hand and nothing to show but unpaid bills and a lot of dead bodies for either one. He created a huge and unwieldy Department of Homeland Security with no ability to improve on what we already had and great potential for waste, corruption and abuse of the American people. All the while, he strutted around like he knew what he was doing, scoffing at those who were his betters, which in his case was practically everybody. Guys like that spoil the beach for everyone, then go home to Glendale.

Bushie is having the G 20 finance ministers into the White House, to solve the World's financial problems. That'll probably work.

What a fuckin' jerk. It's not any kind of derangement syndrome. Just disgust. He should have stayed in the Valley. On the Slip n Slide. In his parent's backyard. Where his Mama could watch over him.

Spotlight on---INDIA---Is that Thugee Thing Still Going On?

India is about a third the size of the United States. It has almost as many people as China. Over a billion. It may soon have more. While China has done much to control population growth, India has not. India's economy has been growing at an impressive 5-6% a year but this is deceiving. The GDP is still only around a trillion dollars a year, a little more than Mexico or South Korea. They have a healthy trade surplus but this is only because most people there are too poor to buy much of anything, much less anything imported.

While they have a wide range of developing industry, it's production does not do much more than keep up with the demands of a growing population. India has the largest motion picture industry in the World. Have you ever seen an Indian movie? They boast one of the larger steel and automotive industrial productions in the World. The steel is of poor quality, oxidizing quickly, even in a dry climate, which India does not have and the automotive output consists largely of small displacement motor scooters of a quality and technology similar to that seen in Southern Europe, immediately after the devastation wrought by World War II. Licensure of industrial production is strictly controlled by government and only a select class can participate. Imported goods that compete with those of domestic provenance are not allowed. This does not foster the development of a beneficial system of competition. Indian manufactured goods do not sell competitively in World markets. I was recently the owner of a late model, state of the art Indian motor scooter. If someone offered me another for free and $2000 a year with which to maintain it, I would turn them down flat and I love motor scooters of exactly the type they produce. Recently the Japanese have been making reciprocal agreements with Indian manufacturers, providing capital and technological assistance. This may help the situation but maybe not. Indian industrialists do not have a good record of profit sharing with foreign partners. The Japanese may soon be gone, as others before them are.

Agriculture depends largely on small, non mechanized family holdings that function at not much greater than subsistence level. Irrigation is primitive and locally sourced. Aquifers in India are rapidly depleting due to over exploitation. Potable water is a major problem in all areas of India, urban and rural. India claims to be agriculturally self sufficient. It is doubtful that this is true. There have been food riots in recent years. The government has been forced to buy large quantities of cereal grains on the international market, in stiff competition with other populous, non food self sufficient nations. This situation is not likely to get better soon. A billion people eat a lot. They are largely vegetarian. It is a wise choice on their part.

India claims a modern educational system and English as the language of education, due to a history of English colonialism and several competing languages of their own, divided into hundreds of distinct local dialects. They claim a literacy rate approaching 70%. This is generous but even if true, leaves 350 million or so with no literacy skills what so ever. Another 350 million Indians have only the most basic skills. That would leave about 400 million with the kind of literacy that would be considered barely adequate in the Western World, perhaps reading at a forth grade level and able to fill out simple repetitive forms reliably. Only a small percentage of those would be suitable for simple clerical work and an even smaller number have real technical training. Those lucky enough to receive technical educations leave India in very large numbers, who can blame them. Those who actually are chosen to receive educations in the West, never return, ever. Many telecom companies have utilized Indian workers, because of the extreme low cost and the prevalence of English language skills. It has not worked out well for them. Most of them are wrapping things up and leaving.

India is a country that business and economic experts tell us is poised to weather the World economic downturn and continue it's economic expansion. I wouldn't hold my breath. It is a hellhole of poverty, disease and starvation in the grip of a religion ridiculously superstitious, even by the standards of six toed, cross eyed, American Pentecostal, snake handling, tongue talkers. Its current population levels are unsustainable and they are in the midst of an uncontrollable population explosion. If by some fluke they did become marginally more affluent as a society, they would choose to expend those resources immediately, on a nuclear conflagration with Pakistan.

It may not be the economic engine to help pull the World into the twenty first century.

Red Rover Come Over

The AIG bailout got expanded this week by at least 40 billion or so. A couple more big banks went bust last Friday. GM and Ford are both going to get at least 50 billion and it won't save either one, only delay their demise. They will get more before that happens. The government is now formulating a plan whereby it will backstop banks if they decrease the amount owed on individual mortgages commensurate with the mortgaged properties current market value. We know that the FDIC will soon need hundreds of billions to keep funding insurance deposits as banks fail. The banks remaining extant will continue to need huge infusions of liquidity as stocks and bonds sell off. The government will continue to need to buy huge blocks of bad debt from financial institutions that hold it. The States are starting to go bankrupt as revenues dwindle and expenses rise. They do not have the privilege of issuing debt and printing money ad infinitum. They are going to demand bailouts, just like financial institutions that are already receiving them. California, where I live, could go trillions in debt, over the next few years. All the other States are in the same boat and most of them, unlike California, already receive more revenue from the Federal government than they contribute.

In the meantime, as the economy worsens and unemployment rises, Federal tax revenues will shrink, whether taxes are raised or not. People eligible for social safety net entitlement benefits are going to be increasing dramatically, as well as additional job creation and economic stimulus programs. Public works programs may build up the infrastructure in the long term and benefit the economy for generations to come but the dollar cost will be huge now. The military continues to run up huge bills the government can't pay. It is likely that the government will even increase military manning levels, as a way to address rising unemployment.

The current national debt is 11 trillion. It will be 22 trillion in less than 2 years, maybe a lot less. It will likely be in the 50 trillion dollar range by the end of President Obama's first term. I have no reason to believe that the economy will be better in 4 years. It likely will be worse, with much worse yet to get. The current level of debt, 11 trillion, at today's dollar valuation is not serviceable by our government, even in an expanding economy and the kind of moderate inflation we have been experiencing over the last 50 years.

How long will foreign entities continue to buy and hold American debt? They have problems of their own. Big problems. The Chinese people are used to eating. They are going to continue to want to do so. If their government wants to stay in power, it will make sure it feeds them. The Europeans have their own financial institutions to bail out and a fragile European union to maintain. The Indians and Africans are a long way away and don't have much leverage against us but they are going to be unhappy as hell. The Arabs have as much of our money as they are ever likely to need. South Americans feel they have been working for the Yankee dollar long enough. I don't see a market for 40 trillion or so in American debt, internationally, over the next several years, do you?

Some interesting things are likely to happen soon.

A Girl Who Smelled Like Sex

Years ago I took a semester long class at the local junior college, Tuesday and Thursday mornings, 8 to 9:30. There was a woman in the class, about 10 years younger than me, early to middle thirties. We were the only two that ever asked any questions. She was smart. Pretty soon we were sitting together in the back of the room every day, keeping up a whispered conversation. If one of us didn't get something the other one did and could get the point across. Better than taking notes. If you understand, things fall into place and stay there.

One thing about this girl was a little disconcerting. She always smelled like sex. Not sex awhile ago. Not sex before a recent shower. Juice dipping down her thigh right now sex. Oh well, you live in the real World, you get to deal with real things.

We got to be friends. Like people do in college classes. One day, on break, I bought her coffee and gave her a cigarette and asked her about it. I tried to be off hand. I didn't want her to think I was trying to fuck her. She didn't seem that embarrassed.

She worked nights,like me. She didn't drive. Never had. She needed the class. There was no way that she could make it from work to the class, on the bus, in time. Her brother always picked her up at work on Tuesdays and Thursdays and drove her. He always fucked her in the parking lot, before she got out of the car. He always did it, whenever he drove her anywhere. He had for as long as she could remember. He was always good about driving her wherever she needed to go. He knew she wouldn't abuse the privilege.

It wasn't a big secret. Everyone in her family knew. Even the brother's wife. It was just the way things were. She said if she got married, it would probably stop. If she got married, she would have to quit work. And taking college classes. She was a girl with plans.

The subjugation of women is a relative thing, isn't it?

Pro Birth Is Not Pro Life

Listen closely to what the Pro life movement says, read carefully what they write. What they really are is Pro Birth. They have no concern about the health, function or cognition of either the mother or the child. They don't care about the circumstances of conception. They don't care who raises the child or how. They only care that every pregnancy comes to fruition.

Other than sexual abstinence, they do not condone any form of birth control. Heterosexual vaginal intercourse is the only sexual act they recognize as not aberrant. If you have a lot of heterosexual vaginal intercourse, you have a lot of children. That is their mantra. It is a recipe for disaster. It is not a philosophy likely to be practiced, even by its advocates. The advocacy of Pro Life principles ensures that those adopting it lie, cheat and continually deny reality, to others and to themselves. Pro Life is Pro Lie.

The Pro Life movement allows for no common ground. It allows for no common sense. Increased knowledge or scientific insight is unwelcome among them. It has as its basis, the subjugation of all women and children. There is no shame in engaging with them in dialogue. To attempt to do so repeatedly in the face of repeated rebuff, is a fool's game. We will, as a society, come to a recognition of fetal rights. We will do so, necessarily, without the Pro Life movement. They are not up to the task. They have not the spirituality, the humanity or the intellect for the task.

Fuck'em.

Help Me Pave The Road To Hell

It is a commonly held belief in this country that we are on the road to hell and that the people who are leading us there are the Chardonnay sipping, hot tub bathing, wife swapping (if they even bother to get married), God denying, evolution believing, homosexual tolerating, over educated, socialist, secular humanist, abortion mongers.

This is a crock of shit. Countries dominated by secular humanist thought have less crime in general and much less violent crime. People live longer in these countries and are happier doing it. They are healthier and have better health care. They enjoy higher standards of living. They have fewer poor. They do not engage in war. They commit suicide less. Women in these countries enjoy real equality and consensual sex is more than just an empty phrase. Abortion in these countries, while legal, is rare and decreasing. In fact, most of the problems modern, secular societies do have, stem directly from those members of society who cling to religious observance.

Show me a country where inequality is rampant, where hunger is common place, where genocidal war flourishes, where famine and disease are epidemic, where atheists are running things.

I'll Never Forget

Wherever you go, whatever you do, you meet all kinds and you take people the way you find them. I served with guys that always took the time to help a shipmate along and some that wouldn't kick you to the side if you were being trampled on. I know guys that never came out a nickel ahead for serving and some who jockeyed disabilities they had long before their service, into lifelong pensions and medical care. I know guys who were motivated to serve by a deep love of country and denizens who wore the uniform 'cause nobody else would let them in the door. I knew guys whose worth was incalculable and those whose presence was a terrible liability. For some, military service is the defining experience of their lives, for good or ill. Others are untouched by it. Some serve during times of great need, some do not.

On Veterans day, some places there are parades and tributes. Some places it's just another work day. Some see great value in the service of veterans and some do not. I have my own feelings on the subject. They're mine, nobody elses. You have yours. Good luck with them.

I don't have any more to contribute on the subject. It's not a question of appropriateness. I just don't care to. It's never really mattered to me whether there are parades and tributes or whether I'm scheduled to pull a double shift on Veteran's Day. I'll never forget. Not one damn thing. Step softly.

Are You Getting Dead Peoples Checks?

An old lady in Illinois was found to be living with the bodies of three siblings in her house. One of them had probably been dead for 25 years. They took her off to the the funny farm for observation.

There's nothing crazy about it. A lot of people do something very similar. Old people living together count on every penny of pension and Social Security money to make ends meet. When someone dies, they don't want to make cuts to already tight budgets. They just don't notify anyone of the death and the checks keep coming, usually by direct deposit, into a joint account. If you're careful and aren't shy about signing the name of the deceased, you can keep it up forever.

My wife had an uncle who did this. He and his life companion lived together in a small lake cabin. As far as I know, he didn't keep Bud's body around. I think Bud was terminal and receiving hospice visits. If this is the case, the coroner does not have to be notified of the death. If you go to a cut rate crematorium, they don't keep very complete records or send proper notification to the Feds. In any case, Hughey kept getting Bud's pension and SS checks until he also died. He needed the money. This was long ago. There was no domestic partnership at that time. They were together for at least 35 years. Nobody in the family is really sure. He just started showing up at some of the smaller family gatherings, introduced as Hugh's best friend and eventually became a fixture. Just two old batchelors.

How well fixed will you be if your spouse died or your spouse if you died? If you move to a vacation cabin with a privy and keep a large bag of quick lime handy, you may have more options than you know.

Ice Cream

I like ice cream. Some people are allergic to dairy and can't eat it but they would if they could. My favorites are regular old vanilla and chocolate, the kind you can buy at the market really cheap in 5 quart plastic buckets. My wife likes to save the buckets, so I don't buy those too much.

I'm OK with pretty much any flavor of ice cream. American ice cream is whipped up with a lot of air in it. European ice cream is more dense. Bring'em on. Some flavors I prefer over others. I rarely choose to eat peppermint or pistachio if I have a choice of others but if that's what is available I'm in for it. Sometimes, ethnic stores and restaurants will have foreign flavored ice cream, licorice, green tea and rosewater come to mind. They are worth a try. I went to a place once where all they had was burian flavored ice cream, a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Makes you wish politicians and religious leaders were more like ice cream, instead of raw corn whisky and chewing tobacco.

The Pro Life Cause Re-Examined.

I change my mind all the time about little things. Everybody does. The big things are another matter altogether. Opinions on big picture issues are formed by experiences and observations made over a lifetime and at some point I become so polarized that I disregard evidence that might cause me to modify my opinion and accept only those inputs that reinforce it. I think this is not a phenomenon exclusive to me. I think most people do it. I think I have tried, more than most, to construct my beliefs myself, rather than to simply adopt those of my family, culture and peers.

I think it is time for people of a liberal persuasion to take another look at the pro life movement. The core of my beliefs on this subject were forged when I was a child and adolescent. Those were different times in America. The things that I saw happening to women forced to endure a pregnancy and raise a child outside of culturally sanctioned conditions, who had to change the course of their lives at a young age to fit within cultural norms necessary to raise a child or risk their own death to avoid it, perhaps no longer exist, in this country.

The reason I took so long to reevaluate my position on pro life issues was because of the pro life movement itself. No other major political or social advocacy movement is so filled with ignorant, hate filled, violence prone, cretins. They offer no real plans for how to deal with the addition to American society of millions of children, born to mothers, many without financial or psychological resources to raise them. These forces continue to couple an insistence on sexual abstinence along with a pro life agenda. They seek to return to the culture of punitive condemnation and ostracism that made life for women before legalized abortion, so intolerable. Always in the pro life movement there is the drumbeat of the most repressive, superstitious, intolerant and evangelical sectors of organized religion. Finally, the unbending insistence that women must be coerced into continuing a pregnancy by law enforcement agencies, the judicial system and ultimately, criminal penalty, make the current pro life movement impossible for me to support.

In the end one indisputable fact remains. Every one of us, not at deaths door already or enduring horrible debility, pain and suffering, is pro our own life, no matter what. The desire to continue our own lives is the most overriding of all. Those unborn, while they may have advocates, cannot advocate for themselves. They are the most vulnerable of all of us and deserve the most consideration. This has nothing to do with religion or morality. Those who make it so do disservice to those they seek to protect.

I could never join the current pro life movement. Those who lead the movement and are most active within it are the same hate mongering, reactionary, religious zealots who caused the problems associated with illegitimacy in the first place. The very term illegitimacy says all you need to know about them. The tactics of the pro life movement are hate rhetoric, violence and even murder rather than dialogue, programs of support and acceptance for pregnant women and increased indoctrination, education and availability of all types of birth control. There are certain to be many among the pro life movement who understand its fundamental flaws but support it anyway. Those people must be co opted into a new movement that can be embraced by larger numbers. The movement must move from John Brown to Abraham Lincoln, hopefully avoiding a civil war, this time.

The pro life cause is a valid one but it must change to achieve its goals. As it exists today it is nothing more than polarizing thuggery that gets us nowhere and helps no one.

Subway Tokin' through the Big Dig

I was never a Hippie. We preferred the term Freak but people tend to lump a lot of the denizens of the Sixties together. I never smoked that much marijuana. Two reasons. One, it's not a very challenging or exhilarating drug. Two, smoking it was a very social experience. It became mainstream so quickly that I always ended up smoking it with some people that didn't meet my highly developed standards of deviance. I know a lot of people that continue to smoke it, after forty years and it seems to be a perennial favorite with the young folks. A mild, gateway drug is important to those of us interested in keeping the pipeline for hard core hallucinogenics, wide open and flowing.

One of the lesser publicized gains of the late election was the passage of a marijuana decriminalization plebiscite in Massachusetts. From now on possession of marijuana in amounts of one ounce or less will get you a $100 maximum fine and a non criminal "ticket" from the police.

I guess the Mormon, Catholic and Snake Handler churches don't mind the evil weed. Right On, Brother Bro'. One step at a time will take us on down the Yellow Brick Road of Life.

From the Horses Mouth

I usually buy cheap Halloween candy about this time. The day after Halloween, leftover candy usually can be had at the local supermarkets and drug stores at half price. About a week later it goes down some more. I was at my local supermarket yesterday and noticed that there was very little cheap candy to be had.

I struck up a conversation with a young employee, grabbing a smoke outside the store entrance. Very interesting. He said nobody bought candy this year. Most of it never even got uncrated but just sat stacked in the store room, blocking passage. This week, they loaded it all on trucks and sent it back. So, no cheap candy. I asked what they would do with all that candy, because it was packaged in Halloween themed wrappings. He said not this year. Most of the candy was in regular wrapping. The candy companies knew it might not sell. They can cut production for a while and hopefully run inventories down during the holiday season. I said he must be glad to have gotten all that candy out of the back room. He said no, now it was filled with Thanksgiving stuff and it wasn't selling and this week the Christmas stuff was starting to come in. The kid said sales were down across the board this year and he didn't think the Christmas stuff was going to sell any better than the Halloween or Thanksgiving items.

This is at a store in a very affluent area of coastal SoCal. It's probably worse a lot of other places. One of the last things people cut back on is food.

Vanity, Thy Name Is Lance

The anti Gay marriage amendment to the California State Constitution seems to be on the way to passing. C'est la vie. California already has some of the strongest protections against discrimination on the basis of sexual preference in the World. Domestic partnership is available to any two people, on any basis and carries the same benefits of marriage. It's pretty hard to sell gay marriage on the basis that it's an anti discrimination measure. Half of Californians, almost none of whom are gay, voted to allow gay marriage anyway. Whether gay marriage is specifically denied by the Constitution or not, I'm sure this issue will soon be revisited. Huge amounts of money were funneled into this effort by the Mormon church, Catholic church and James (don't pull me out of the closet) Dobson. I hope it was worth it to them. You'd think there would be starving children in Haiti that could have used the 80 million more.

I've never been to a Gay wedding. I'd probably go if invited. I don't see that happening any time soon. I have one friend that would like to get Gay married. He's in his early 50s now. He's HIV+. He won't drink domestic sparkling wine and has been known to spend his food stamp money on Stilton Cheese and black truffles. In the twenty plus years I've known him, he hasn't had a steady job or a steady boyfriend. You never know. It could happen.

I think religious intolerance toward Gays is partly their own fault. Gays are religious in surprising numbers and to a surprising extent. They go to and are active within the church. They may be out in every other aspect of their lives but not in church. I don't get it. They should get right in the church's face. It's not like the church can get along without them. Who would play the organ or sing in the choir? Who would arrange the flowers for the weekly alter piece and embroider the alter clothes? Who would come to the yearly church clean up day? They tithe generously. If they withheld services and contributions, the church would soon be begging to marry them, not putting up money to ban Gay marriage.