Obama and medical pot

When President Obama sent the justice department attorneys after the medical marijuana distributors in California and Oregon, many of his supporters were shocked. Some folks went to him and said medical pot was a good thing, and the states were cool with it, so there's no reason for the feds to get involved.

Obama told them that there were abuses, pot crossing state lines, people getting it who were not really in need. "But," the pot advocates pointed out, "These folks are going to buy it anyway. If they can't get legal pot, they'll get it illegally on the street."  Obama dismissed that as absurd.

After those folks left, some representatives from the Mexican drug cartels, waiting in the next room, came in. They said, "El Presidente, you handled that muy perfecto. Keep up the pressure on those damn amateurs, those fools with the licenses.  We are your supporters, and we don't have to show you no stinking licenses. Remember, there's 300 million in campaign contributions riding on you getting rid of our competition."

Obama smiled and assured them that he would uphold the letter of the federal law, that being his constitutional duty, and, "by the way, as you leave, drop off a check with my secretary."

The Prehistory of Santa Cruz, a parabull

Once upon a time there was a tribe of true believers. They maintained that all people were exactly equal and should always be treated as such, be they young or old, rich or poor, wise or foolish, good or bad. Only people who believed other than this could be judged and thus shunned.

This tribe was also a very insecure group. They all felt lonely and isolated, constantly fearing that no one else shared their views or their feelings. One by one they realized that if they showed their positions and feelings publicly, others would see and gravitate to them, thus reinforcing them and making them feel valued and loved.

So they elected to print their philosophies of life on signs, with no more than ten words, as most were semi literate at best. Then they would pick up their signs and walk around the village square and congregate with others with similar signs. From this a now well known question was born, "What's your sign."

Soon people realized that if they had many signs, each proclaiming a different facet of their belief system, they could interact with everyone in the community and thus be accepted and loved. Soon, carrying signs became the entire purpose of the community.

Sacred /site! Oh really?

If you turn up soil anywhere, except perhaps Antarctica, you'll probably find some human remains. We've been spreading ourselves all over the planet for something in excess of 100,000 years (6,000 if you're a fundamentalist).  In essence, the whole world is living people above, cemetery below. After all, we don't bury folks up in trees.

Some local building project has been interrupted because of some Native American bones, approximately 6,000 year old bones. Some archeologist determined they were Ohlone, and thus contacted the remaining members of that tribe. The spokeswoman said these are her ancestors and can't be disturbed. I think of ancestors as going back perhaps ten generations. Beyond that we find ourselves in the deep end of the gene pool and have no idea who is related, or rather that everyone is related.

Naturally, these modern Ohlone folks had no idea there were ancestors buried there and wouldn't have, had not the builders dug them up. It seems a stretch, but then we've treated the Native Americans so badly that we know bend over backward to be respectful.

At the same time some Native Amcricans in Riverside Country are protesting another project. It seems that's the site of what they believe is where the world was created. Now, perhaps their preliterate ancestors believed that, but I'm sure the folks now protesting don't. I think we're all on the same page regarding cosmic creation (fundamentalists, please excuse me). 

The telling thing is that these folks in Riverside County built a big casino complex near this sacred site, but again, that benefits them, so maybe "sacred site" is a relative term.

While I think that there are at least as many bad developments as there are good, I think this sacred site argument is just shy of silly. However, if the rest of the world doesn't agree with me, there's a spot on Signal Hill in Long Beach that I'm going to designate as a sacred site. It's where I lost my virginity.

BART cuts cell phone service

A group calling themselves Anonymous hacked into the BART computer system because BART blocked cell phone service underground for a time. This ostensibly had to do with free speech. Free speech means you have the right to stand up and say what you want, even print it and hand it out. However, there's another "free" in free speech. The newspapers are not obliged to print your rant, unless you elect to pay for space. The same applies to radio and TV. 

Cell phone service is just that, a service, provided by businesses. If BART provides it in their tunnel system, it's a service, just as a glass of water at a restaurant, or a bench at a bus stop. BART is under no obligation to provide anything other than safe and reliable  transportation from point A to point B. The rest is a perk for riders. They could offer glasses of wine and movies if they choose, perhaps even circus acts, but these would not suddenly become a right.

These anarchist groups seem to want it both ways: no rules and regulations, but all services real or imagined, free of charge.

new retirement plan

The debate about social security, Medicare and pension programs keeps heating up, and I'm concerned that, at this rate, my so called golden years might end up being brass plate.

What assurance do I have that when I'm put out to pasture, there will be some grass on said pasture?  Well, the days of sitting back and believing that the government will take care of me are over. I've got to be proactive.

I've found a simple solution. I'll simple legally change my name. My new first name will be Goldman, and my last will be Sachs.  Whenever times get tough, I'll just call the White house and say, "I'm Goldman Sachs, and I'm a bit short this month. How about sending my a couple of million to tide me over?"  Naturally, I'll promise to pay them back some day when the economy is all rosy again.

The weird world of Goldman Sachs

William Cohan, a former Wall Street insider, was on the May 24 Diane Rehm Show, talking about the history and culture of Goldman Sachs. How the firm came to dominate global markets, influence the federal government and play a controversial role in the mortgage meltdown. He explained some financial stuff, which I totally didn't understand.

Goldman Sachs, among other financial firms, dealt in those weird mortgage things that everyone in the business knew were bad news, and which lead to the financial collapse. That was the first thing I didn't understand. The best image I could envision was throwing all these mortgage papers in a financial meat grinder, grinding them up together and then making something like mortgage hamburger patties out of it. But, with all that mixing, who decided where people sent their house payments? And for the people who invested in these things, what exactly did they purchase?

Another thing Goldman Sachs did was after telling their investors what good investments these things were, they put their own money in some kind of bet that these would fail and that the investors who trusted their advice would lose a fortune. Apparently, they were right, and they made billions while their investors lost. That brings up a couple more questions that boggle my mind.

How in the world do you invest money in something in such a way that if it loses money, you make a profit. If I loan the neighbor's kid fifty bucks to help start up his lemonade stand, I make money if he is successful. If he goes out of business, I lose my fifty. So, the more they lose, the more I make, doesn't make a bit of sense to me, but then I'm an idiot when it comes to finance.

Apparently, these big investors aren't much better. They invested in very risky weird mortgage thingies, while Goldman Sachs was betting they'd lose, and then when they did lose, they kept on investing with Goldman Sachs. That kind of makes people who keep buying lottery tickets look a bit less clueless.

Normally I wouldn't trust Goldman Sachs any further than I could throw their corporate headquarters, but in the interest of getting a story, I went to them with my life savings, $213.49, and asked them to invest it for me. Well, they wouldn't even give me the time of day, literally. After telling me they weren't interested, I said I had a plane to catch and wanted to know the time. They wouldn't tell me.

my advice to the President

In addition to my many other invisible talents, I've decided to become a presidential advisor. That decision came to me after Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's response to president Obama's suggestion that Israel return to its pre-1967 borders. "Mr. President, what would you know about giving back land and returning to previous borders?" 

Naturally, Obama was stuck for an answer, and that's where I stepped in. My suggestion was, "Yo, Pres, let's keep it real. Put your money where your mouth is."  Since he still had a confused look on his face, I explained further. "If we want them to go back to pre-1967 borders, we need to do likewise. Let's go back to our pre-1845 borders." 

He still wasn't totally getting it, giving me that lawyer look of his. So I continued. "We can give Texas and California back to Mexico. Tell them, sorry and just move away, taking all our US goodies with us."

Obama was shocked. "We can't just give up land we've settled, worked and made our homes."  At that point, I resigned as advisor, but not before making a final suggestion. "I hear you, Mr. Pres, but Ben, waiting in the next room, needs to hear that too."

Save the elderly, cut off SS and Medicare

Newspaper columnists, including Robert Samuelson of The Washington Post, have been blasting Social Security and Medicare, wanting to either reform, reduce or eliminate these programs. At first that bothered me, as I realized that people have worked their entire lives with these programs in place, money being taking from their pay and the promise that they will have an income and medical care when they get old and retire. For many, this was the retirement plan.

On second thought, trying to see the other point of view, I realized that these programs were the worst things we can do to our elderly. Let me explain.

People are physically and mentally active until they reach a magic age and retire. Then they have nothing forcing them to get up in the morning, nothing pressing on their minds from morning to night. As a result, these folks get soft and lazy, knowing there will be a check each month. They play bingo, lawn bowl, watch TV, take up quilting, feed pigeons in the park, activities that do nothing to keep them sharp and healthy.

Knowing that they are paying for and will receive Medicare, they are not motivated to stay healthy, figuring the government will pay to get them well when they fall ill. As a result, they abandon healthy living, stop exercising, start eating junk food and probably drink too much.

If we eliminate, not gradually, but suddenly, all support programs for the elderly, they will be forced to continue working, thus keeping them mentally sharp. Without health coverage, they will rededicate themselves to staving off the infirmaries of age, pushing themselves to eat flavorless healthy food and putting hours in on the treadmill.

Think of an 85 year old, faced with competition from 25 year old college graduates. Survival will depend on not only staying current, but keeping ahead of developments. Between working long hours, studying new technology, putting in hours of exercise and cooking all that natural food, these folks won't have time to get bored, lazy, sick or senile.

Save money on public safety

Like most guys, as a kid I was fascinated by the wild west. I used to read about the Earps, Doc Holiday, Billy the Kid and all those colorful gunmen, and the era when justice was dealt at the business end of a gun. Those memories surfaced as I read about the State and our cities' problems paying for the police and their increasingly costly pensions.

Since cities are either laying off cops or trying to get them to take a cut in pay, work more years or take a smaller pension, it's clear that the future of public safety is in doubt. So, why not fire all the city police, county sheriffs and highway patrol and opt for the wild west model?

California can encourage every citizen to buy a gun, and for those who can't afford one, perhaps provide one of the ones formerly used by the police. Each person would carry said weapon in a holster, clearly visible. If someone tries to break into your home, simply shoot them. Someone accosts you on the street, blast off a few rounds. Same with people who cut you off in traffic. Someone in a bar looks at you like they want to start something, you draw your weapon. And ladies, any guy who looks at you like he's even thinking of grabbing you, shoot him in the crotch.

Sure, as some of you politically correct people will point out, a few innocent people will get killed by over zealous citizens. But, remember that even with our complex and expensive criminal justice system, innocent people get convicted every day. What's a bit of collateral damage in the big picture of public safety?

end of the world

Looks like it’s the end of the world sometime Saturday the 21^st.  It’s a prophecy thing, and you know those always come true. Most of us missed this obscure passage in the bible, even I, who to avoid taking a job stayed on at the university to study ancient biblical languages. Most of us thought this passage translated from Aramaic as some instructions about the annual spring counting of sheep and goats. However, Aramaic was primarily a spoken language, and if read aloud in a deep, southern drawl, it becomes obvious that the world is to end on May 21, 2011.

Another piece of evidence that clinches it was the speech Jesus made about some listening to him would live to see the end of the world. Well, there’s a guy in Israel who just celebrated his 2038^th birthday and who was there that day. His doctors say he’s in bad shape and only has days to live. So, I think we can take this prophecy to the bank, not that banks are going to matter much longer.

With only two days left for the world, how should we spend this precious time? I can’t speak for you, but I plan to deplete my wine cellar and have sex as often as possible.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn arrested

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the IMF, the most powerful boys' financial fraternity on the planet, gets himself arrested for sexually molesting a chambermaid. OMG, how shocking. I mean, what normal man would do a thing like that, particularly an aging power broker used to getting his own way? Seriously, folks, can you name one other powerful man who has put it all at risk to jump the bones of some stressed out, overworked young woman. After all, these guys are paragons, people we trust to buy and sell whole counties and enrich or ruin millions of people.

This incident so unraveled my male self-esteem that I had to know the truth of it, so I bribed a guard and slipped into his cell. At first he wasn't talking, but after I slipped him a bottle of pernod, he opened up. "Look, I may be one of the most important, most powerful, smartest, best dressed, most well connected guys who ever lived, but, just between you and I, deep inside, I'm just Joe six pack.

California solves educational crisis

Been gone on a long adventure, but I'm back to amuse and annoy you. 

With California's financial situation growing worse, there is talk of cutting the school year by perhaps 20 days.  As everyone in the world who can read a newspaper knows, our students are falling further and further behind students in other developed countries. With 20 less school days, we'll be lucky if our kids can read pulp novels and do simple arithmetic and are educated well enough to work in a fast food restaurant.

Our elected leaders, the folks who got us to this point, have a solution. They will contract with emerging nations to send our thirteen year olds into indentured servitude for a period of five years. The State will get a couple thousand per student from the host country, while the student will get basic room and board for on the job training.   

When our kids return at 18, they will have marketable skills, such as mud brick making, sweet potato cultivation or goat herding. As an added plus, California will finally return to the golden age of the simple agrarian life, with blissfully uneducated people toiling in the warm California sun.

Shark fin soup and cultural tradition

According to a recent news piece, legislation has been proposed to end the taking of sharks' fins for shark fin soup, a Chinese delicacy. A cruel and wasteful practice, fin removal takes only the fin, and the wounded shark is sent off to die.

Naturally, the Chinese community is divided on this issue, but what stuck me was one comment defending the practice: That it is part of their cultural tradition.  This, to me, is the weakest argument of all, far weaker than a simple, "we like the taste of the soup."

Most cultures have long traditions, often going back to periods of ignorance or even savagery. Do we really mean to preserve all those old traditions? 

At the time of this story, another cultural tradition was being held, Cinco de Mayo. While probably half the celebrants don't even know the meaning of the day, many likely confusing it with Mexican Independence Day, the celebration is relatively harmless. People drink copious amounts of beer, play loud music and often dress in outfits they'd never wear the rest of the year. If you live within blocks of the music, the celebration can be annoying, but, unlike the shark fins, there doesn't seem to be any real damage.

Three hundred years ago my culture had a tradition of burning witches at the stake. I don't think anyone seriously would advocate continuing that tradition in possibly a national witch burning day. Cultures are supposed to evolve and improve. We don't bleed patients with fevers, we don't still keep slaves and we don't sacrifice virgins to stone idols. Cultural tradition is a specious argument and is often merely a front for ignorance and superstition.

Secury Communities program under attack locally

It was interesting to read that there is local opposition to the Secure Communities program. It's a contentious and messy issue, so sometimes it's easier to clarify an issue if it's reduced from a national perspective to that of an individual.

Let's say someone looks out her window and sees a family camping on her front lawn. She is likely to do one of two things. She can evict them, the kindest alternative, or she can have them arrested, the more harsh alternative. Should she do neither, other people would see the campers and set up camp, until the entire property becomes covered with trespassers.

In this analogy, undocumented (illegal) aliens can be deported, which is like being evicted. It isn't cruel, as these people go back to their prior homes, where they have roots and speak the language. The harsh alternative is throwing them in prison for being here illegally. Since, unless they are felons, they will be deported, it doesn't seem such a bad policy.

A third alternative would be for our hypothetical homeowner to allow the people to continue camping and let others do the same. Soon, the yard would be packed with campers, making it necessary for the owner to install sanitary facilities, clean water, and mitigate disputes between increasingly densely packed campers. Then there is the issue of buying insurance in case someone is hurt on the property. It rapidly becomes unmanageable.

That alternative, one advocated by people who are thinking with their hearts, rather than the organ that evolved for that purpose, would be to throw the gates open and welcome anyone who wishes to cross our boarders. That would mean not only throwing out our immigration policies, but abandoning the concepts of citizenship and national boarders, a radical social experiment few would have the stomach for, and one that would not find favor in most other countries.

Unlike electrons, we can't exist in that fuzzy area between wave and particle. We either have a policy with mechanisms in place for immigration, or we don't. Secure Communities may not be a perfect plan, but it is a plan, and any objections to it should be attached to a sensible way to amend it.

Rewarding screw up kids

You reward your kid if he or she does something well, right?  I mean, the kid brings home a great report card, and you purchase some gizmo on his or her wish list. Perhaps if the kids graduates with straight As and gets into a major university, a good used car is in order. So far, makes sense I hope.

So, why does a kid, perhaps as young as 11 or 12, one who does no home work, gets mostly Ds and Fs, is always getting in trouble with the school and probably doesn't help around the house get rewarded with a $300 i phone/ i pod or some such?  What message are parents sending?  Being a total screw up is good, makes the old man proud? 

Then, naturally, having something fancy to play with all day reduces what little motivation the kids still has. It comes down to, "I can't multiply 4 times 5, but I've got 300 apps.

The sad thing is that the school principal is legally forbidden to slap the shit out of the dumb ass parent.

The end of the world, again!

Planet X, 2012 (Mayan calendar) and strange, spooky thing that will cause the end of the world (as we know it). If you are bored, gullible, obsessed with the "end time" and get your kicks out of being in fear for your life, you're in luck.  YowRadio.com is apparently your one stop shopping location for all this mumbo jumbo.

A friend send me the link to this, telling me how I should check it out. I really think he believes all that, but then the sky is not the same color in his world as it is in mine.

There are a few things I find fascinating about stuff like this. One is that if something is really obscure or the product of some ancient writing or ritual, it is taken as more valid than everything modern science can offer up. Another thing is that there are always experts who write or go on the radio to promote this stuff. Often they have some quasi legitimate credentials. The most amazing thing is that if it has to do with the end of the world, people just love to believe. All the times the world was supposed to end would fill a book, and it fact it did. I read such a book, but it's gotten away from me, likely taken up by aliens in space ships or loaned to an absent minded friend.

Prison for the elderly

There are always alternative ways to solve any problem. Since there are folks in congress who want to slash or perhaps eliminate Medicare and Social Security, the elderly, unhealthy and soon to be both are concerned about their futures. Will they be left with no income or health care?

Of course not. They simply need to think outside the box and ask themselves, "Where can I get a roof over my head, three squares a day and total medical for free?"  The simple answer is prison.

So, when congress finally drives the last nail into the coffin of programs for seniors, each of these elderly and probably not terribly healthy people should spend their last government check on a small hand gun. No need to even invest in bullets, as none will be needed. Then they need to tie handkerchiefs around their faces, mostly to make it look authentic. Then walk into a bank, produce the gun and demand the money.

Now, the average senior doesn't move all that fast so before they can get a block down the street, the police will all over them. Gun and cash in hand, the old folks will just have to confess. After a short trial, an armed robbery conviction should net somewhere around 15 years, so if one is 75, that's pretty much security for life.

Naturally, the prison system isn't going to take a frail senior citizen and subject him or her to hard labor. More likely, incarceration will involve a comfortable cell, passable meals and medical care on demand. All in all, not a bad retirement plan.

shutting down the governement

Budget talks are down to the wire, and the parties can't agree, so perhaps the government will shut down. Well, it won't completely shut down, as much as the Tea Party would like that. Essential services will be maintained, and you can find a list of those in your daily paper. Also, possible cuts being negotiated will not include essential items like keeping soldiers in Afghanistan through a second decade, along with some in Iraq. 

Well, it's nice to see our elected officials are serious.

How disappointed am I in the two major parties?

I'm so past partisan politics and the Democrats and Republicans, so I'm wondering who I'll vote for in 2012. The Democrats will put up Obama, and assuming the Republicans put up the best person they have, and then some third party puts up Charles Manson. So, who do I vote for?  Damn, Manson isn't looking all that bad any more.

Olympics in stupidity

Well, the games are on for the gold medal in stupidity. On the eastern front, a group in Afghanistan attacked a UN office to protest a Qur’an burning by a church group in Florida. The fact that the people they attacked and killed weren't from Florida or even the US didn't matter. Disrespect the religion or the holy book, and they attack something or someone.

Not to be outdone, some of our states are protesting and even passing laws against the replacement of outmoded incandescent light bulbs, mostly 'cause the gov'mint ain't got no right to tell us what to do. So, while electricity becomes more expensive, and incandescent bulbs use the majority of this costly energy on throwing off heat, rather than light, these states are going to protect their right to waste more money on inefficiency. I guess there's a problem with updating 130 year old technology. I wonder if those people objecting to the new bulbs are also going to throw away their tractors and hook the wife up to the plow.

Earliest writing translated

A French scientist, after two decades of work, has managed to translate some 30,000 year old markings on a cave wall, likely the earliest example of written communication. This short passage, roughly translates to: "This new discovery, fire, should be banned from human society. This technology is so dangerous that it threatens to wipe out all human life. And for what, just to make our food warm?"

So there you have it, human nature.

call it gulch or creek, but respect the power of nature.

A local town, Capitola, experienced flooding when a six foot in diameter pipe burst under the pressure of water from recent rains. The city, state or someone once upon a time decided to cram a creek into a pipe, showing an arrogance that almost always comes back to bite people in the ass. Little creeks usually trickle, but water is dynamic, and sometime little creeks become, for a short time, raging rivers. This particular creek is called a gulch, further compounding our arrogance.

Yeah, sure, call it a gulch, shove it through a pipe and forget about it. Well, not quite.

Radiation Monitoring

Big news! There are some gaps in our radiation monitoring system, some sites closed down for maintenance and the like. So, this is now a big deal, with the EPA and elected officials in a panic.
OK, some radiation manages to drift over the US. What are we going to do about it? Perhaps there's a big fall out shelter in some mountain in Colorado we can all run to. New flash, there's nothing much you can do about radiation, whether you know about it or not. I mean, there's no spray that will keep it off you.
However, panicking about possible undetected radiation is easier than fixing our economy, our failing schools, our crumbling infrastructure, our massive unemployment and our addiction to empire building on credit.
Excuse me while I yawn about the monitoring system.

Sacred ground, nonsense!

Another piece about some project on hold because of tribal sacred burial grounds. Seems that every tribe, ethnic group and religion has a catalog of holy or sacred places. Sometimes I wonder if there are any places outside of Antarctica that aren't sacred.

A good example is Jerusalem, a very old city that is holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims. I've always wondered why, for what reasons is it holy?  Is it just because these people have been fighting over it for centuries?

In my opinion, there is no such thing as holy land. Land is land, and people use it to live on, to work on, to grow crops on or even to leave alone because its ecological, aesthetic or natural resource value requires us to do so. When some tribe talks about ancient burial grounds, I have to think that these buried bones are likely as distantly related to the tribes as Oog, the caveman who painted on cave walls in France 40,000 years ago is to me.  

I suspect consecrated ground is derived from constipated minds.

Each day the newspaper is stuffed with ad inserts, which I guess is OK, because my subscription doesn't cover the paper's costs. However, one retailer, which shall remain nameless has a flyer that advertises a sale, and there is always a mid week sale and a weekend sale, so their stuff is on sale 4 out of 7 days. So since there are more sale days than not, what is the regular price?  Logically the regular price is the 4 day price, and the other three days they are having a... what do you call it when they raise prices on special days?

redevelopment agencies

Local redevelopments agencies in California are up in arms over Gov. Brown's plan to eliminate them. As a result, they are locking up as many redevelopment funds as possible before the axe falls.

Oh, my, what would life be like without redevelopment agencies?  I guess we'd all have to drive a full mile before getting to the latest strip mall with all the usual suspect chain stores. Wouldn't that be terrible?

So. Daktoa abortion law

South Dakota passed a law making women wait and get counseling before getting an abortion. With the world population climbing toward 7 billion, women should get cash rewards for having abortions.

It ain't personal

Exciting world!  earthquakes, floods, drought, hunger, disease, radioactivity. Some of us would feel better if there were a reason, perhaps some god or gods sitting in judgment of what your neighbor did last Saturday night, judging and bring down tornados throughout your state as a sign of disapproval.

We might blame ourselves for being environmentally insensitive, thinking that the earth is now striking back, putting us in our places.

The reality is that none of it is personal. We live on a little rock, with a dynamic core and atmosphere. Stuff just happens, and we just happen to get in the way. Think about when you accidently step on a line of ants.

All about "me."

Apparently, to many people, it's all about "me."  A serious disaster in Japan, along with a partial meltdown of a reactor becomes a reason of protest and panic thousands of miles away, on California's central coast.

Suddenly, fear of nukes has been ramped up to new levels, and people are running around thinking the radiation in the sky is falling, falling particularly on them. These are the usual suspects, the ones who push the panic button over everything. To these folks, the ubiquitous "They" are always doing something that will cause the undoing of the good people milling around in the streets.

I suspect that these are the same folks who will drive their cars across town to protest against air pollution. 

Obama stands up, we think, to Ghadafi

Obama has issued an ultimatum to Ghadafi, telling him to stand down his troupes or else.

My question is, "Or else or what?" Despite the rumors I've heard about our President going in for a spine transplant, I can't help wondering what he plans to do if Ghadafi thumbs his nose at us.

So, because everything from choice of soft drinks to running the country is now put to a public poll, I have one for all of you.

If Ghadafi doesn't heed the warning, Obama will do...

A. Pass a series of resolutions

B. Give a very long speech to the American public

C. Send a few hundred soldiers to Afghanistan

D. Write a check to some Wall Street bankers

grab an opportunity where you can

An email from our assemblyman, Luis Alejo contained the following line: "On Monday, March 14th, my colleagues and I joined to adjourn in memory of the victims of this on-going disaster." Calif is in a financial crisis, and the two major clown parties can't agree on a budget. However, they can all agree on one thing, use a disaster on the other side of the globe as an excuse to take the day off. 
Gotta love this creative thinking.

Good ol' American priorities.

All over the world, people are dealing with heavy problems. Japan has the earthquake disaster, followed by nuke meltdown. All over the middle east, people are fighting in the streets against dictators. There are civil wars in Africa and the world economy is on the verge of collapse.

Here in American, the feds raided a medical pot place in Montana. It's nice to know that at least America has it's priorities straight.

a nation of 12 year olds

Let me see, we spend billions occupying Iraq and Afghanistan for year (eventually decades), but we can't send a few planes to fly over Libya to keep a dictator from bombing his countrymen. We can lay off public employees who do vital jobs, but we can't ask multibillionaires for an extra couple thousand to pay for services we all use.

We can spend hundreds of hours debating things endlessly in our legislative halls, but we can't spend ten minutes passing the most mundane budgetary law. We can cause mass panic with trumped up accounts of tsunamis, but we can't educate our people about what to do in a real disaster. We, as a nation, can bullshit endlessly, but we can't take a moment to think about what we're saying.

We've become a nation of 12 year olds.

Sudden panic over nuclear power

The unfortunate partial melt down of Nuclear reactors in Japan has provoked the expected knee-jerk reactions back here. The people in Washington who get paid to talk are all chatty about rethinking our nuclear plans. Now, I'm sure some senators will get up and vote against any new nuclear plants.

No energy source is without risk, from coal to oil to nukes. Short of covering every square inch of the US with wind farms, wind isn't going to supply our needs, and solar isn't ready to pick up all the slack, if it will ever be.

The issue isn't black or white. It's not build nuclear power plants everywhere or nowhere. It's a matter of thinking about where you build them. Earthquake fault lines, in low coastal areas prone to tsunamis, at the foot of active volcanoes are among the least desirable places for them. Cautious planning and construction, along with continuing research into storage of spent radioactive material, will make nuclear power safe enough for us to use.

What the hell; we can always just turn off all the lights.

Natural disasters

Often people search for either meaning or some pattern in natural disasters, often attributing them to human action or some divine punishment.

The relationship between disasters and humans come in three varieties. There are the ones we are responsible for. If we channel a river and then build in the flood plain, when there's a good rain and the river comes up, we cause our ill-conceived building to flood.

There are disasters that are a hybrid of human and nature. Pumping CO2 into the atmosphere causes climate change, which, through a chain of activity, can make hurricanes, natural occurrences, more intense, thus causing more damage.

Then there are disasters that have nothing whatsoever to do with humans, such as the huge earthquake that hit Japan. In those cases, the earth does what it does, and it has nothing to do with us. We aren't all that important.  

Panic in Watsonville

I've always wanted to go to Norway and see the migration of the lemmings, where then swarm to the edge of the bluffs and often plunge into the sea. I haven't made it yet, but I saw the next best thing. The recent earthquake in Japan caused a tsunami warning, actually more of an advisory along our coast. People who lived along the three sea level neighborhoods were advised to go to higher ground to avoid possible problems from a projected 2-3 foot tsunami.

It did come, and the ocean retreated and than washed in again and up the beach. It didn't inundate the beachfront streets. However, in Watsonville, over three miles from the beach, a beach which is backed by 30 foot sand dunes, thousands of people crowded the streets, stopping traffic for miles, in a effort to get up the hill. Some went as far as Hollister, almost 30 miles inland. At most of the schools perhaps 10 percent of the students showed up. I can only guess about the businesses that tried to open without their employees.

I doubt that a herd of sheep would have acted this way.  

wilful ignorance

I call it willful ignorance, and it's much like what happens to the frog in hot water, but you can't blame an animal with an IQ of under 7. You can, however, blame humans, most of which have an IQ well over 7.

The frog in question will, if dropped in boiling water, immediately leap out. The same frog placed in cool water that is gradually warmed to boiling, will simply sit there, unaware of its impending doom.

As the various problems in our society become crises, the public just sits in that national tub of warming water, ignoring the signs around them. Crises, what crises?  A short list would include foreign policy, domestic politics, the economy, education, outmoded religious notions, the environment and public discourse. And that was the very short list.

Anyone who has been forced to confront even a smattering of history can see that a society that follows unsustainable social policies ends up on the trash heap of history. Quite likely, as in our society, most people were totally taken by surprise when everything suddenly came down around their ears.

People believe, without thinking about it, that we can continue to pollute our water and still have water to drink, that we can starve education and still have a creative, dynamic work force, that we can neglect our infrastructure and still have active trade, that we can cling to antiquated religious notions and still not descend into barbarism, that we can continue to trust one or the other major political parties to fix things, when neither have had a workable solution in years, that we can continue to make war when there is no money to pay for it or that we can continue to spend without going broke.

Unfortunately, most people don't want to hear this. When someone tries to break through the insulation of willful ignorance, they put their fingers in their ears and shout, "Lalalalala." 

This attitude probably wouldn't bother me as much if I were not in the same leaky boat with these folks.

Discovery, end of a era

The space shuttle Discovery is about to wrap up its final flight, and soon the whole program will be history. I know that we can debate the scientific benefits of the program vs the costs, but I think there's a bigger issue, something symbolic.

Our manned space program was a symbol of a time of pride, a time when we all looked up to the stars and dreamed big dreams about big changes. Now, we are reduced to looking down at the ground and dreaming of finding small change.

Some things don't necessarily go together

We tend to love to lump things together and treat them as all the same stuff. It's so much easier than taking each thing on our list and thinking about it separately. It's human nature, I guess.

One case in point emerged in the conflict in Wisconsin, over public workers rights to collective bargaining and other union issues. Seems all the public employees are protesting, the teachers among them. Some teachers were talking about an attack on collective bargaining and tenure, as if these were like items, fit to reside in the same bag. They are not.

Collective bargaining is an organized way for employees to negotiate wages, working conditions and benefits. Management and labor can sit down and engage in give and take until they work out an arrangement that both sides can live with. Neither side has absolute power, so neither side gets totally screwed.

Tenure is a different animal, and not every job has something like it. Someone who starts his or her third year as a contracted teacher suddenly has a job essentially for life, whether he or she continues doing it properly or not. That's a right no one should have, teacher or janitor.

Naturally, firing anyone should involve due process, where perhaps a panel drawn from workers and management can hear the case and decide the merits. In the case of teachers, a school board member and perhaps a parent should be involved. In any case, a good teacher should be retained, a bad one fired. And that has nothing to do with the pay or benefit package, which apply to those who are worth to receive them, not to anyone who managed to hang in there until the magic day.

Last word on fallen actor, Sheen

I inadvertently started a debate when I commented on all the hype about the activities of a TV actor, Charlie Sheen, whose program, I would guess, was probably mediocre. I was told yesterday that he'd been fired by whoever way paying him, station, sponsor, whatever. That should be the end of it, but I'm afraid it's only the beginning.

At some point he will likely go into some rehab program for whatever addiction issues prompted his firing. After that, he'll have someone ghost write a book about his experiences, which will be picked up and discussed endlessly by celebrity voyeurs, which will serve to distract them from the serious issues of the day. This attention will reanimate his career, make him a big star and prove, at least in America, that vacuous still rules.

Can't stop the guns?

New article: US can't stop the flow of guns to Mexico. Weak-kneed reporter. Our government can but won't stop the flow. Remember people can walk in and buy many crates of automatic weapons, pretty much as easily as you buy a case of beer. And they need these guns because... going hunting?  Need to protect against burglars?  No, between the corruption in Mexico and our unwillingness to regulate sales of assault weapons, let the carnage begin.

Sociial Retard needs help

Since I'm a social retard, I seem to be concerned about the economy, education, the environment when I hear I'm supposed to care passionately about the carrying on of that marginal actor, Charlie Sheen. Someone help me adopt the proper level of concern.

American kids living in poverty.

On 60 mins tonight, 25 percent of American kids living in poverty. At the same time the weasels who conned us into sending them to Washington, rather than put the crooks who caused our economic problems in jail, have given them billions to reward them for their corruption. But what happened to the rest of the money that could restore the economy? Oh, yeah, the weasels sent it to Iraq and Afghanistan.