Mr Mahatma--who is a Mr in real life--lives in the valleys of Southern California with his wife, a herd of Dears, and an impressive collection of books. Pnorny!
He is reachable at:
littlemrmahatma@yahoo.com

All writings are copyrighted 2003-2008 and trademarked: Little Mr. Mahatma

tBlog Mirror

Some fun links:
Little Miss Attila - polar opposite and origin of LMM.

Critical Sites:
Dr. Forbush Thinks
Slashdot
Games Slashdot
UserFriendly
James Randi
Snopes
Home of the Underdogs
The Sun Online

For those generous in spirit, heart, and wallet:

I think I've figured out why I dislike Bush so much. It's not just that he's a shifty-eyed, smirking, weasel-faced lier or that's he's trying to be something he's not (namely an elected President), it's that he's missing a true sidekick. Bush needs someone in the spotlight with him to enhance his image but not be the star. Someone who makes Bush look more like the Cowboy George hero image he's trying to project. Face it, Dick Cheney just doesn't cut it as his sidekick and cohort in arms. Cheney is too much like Sidney Greenstreet, a quiet threat sitting in the shadows of a smoky Moroccan cafe, while pondering his next move. Bush deserves better.

And so I've taken it upon myself to prepare the following list of candidates. The winner to be appointed as official sidekick to Cowboy George.

Now many of you will complain that many of these candidates are dead or fictitious. Yes, that is so, and that makes them even more appropriate for the job. They mirror the intellect and position of Cowboy George. And so without ado...

Walter Brennan - The limp, the shoulders, the look, the legend. The problem with Walter as the sidekick is that he could easily overshadow the main star. But a better rummy sidekick could not be found.

"Are we gonna invade, George, huh? Are we?"

"Now, Dingo, have you been hitting the sauce again? Nipping at my private stash?"

"Jus' a little t'get me through the mornin'. You know how it is..."

"Yes, I know. And, yes, Dingo we're going to invade!"

"Great! That calls fer a celebration, don't it? Jus' a little...?"

"Sure, Dingo, go ahead...that Dingo...!"

Slim Pickens - A true cowboy's sidekick. Slim would add a certain credence to Cowboy George as a real cowboy. Plus Slim's ability to ride herd on a nuclear warhead is unmatched by the other candidates.

Porky Pig - His credits as a sidekick to Hopalong Daffy are impecc..impecc..sterling. More importantly he's the only sidekick candidate with worse speaking abilities than Cowboy George. By comparison Cowboy George will sound like a Shakespearean actor.

"We will...display...to the world...the justice...that Hussein...denied...to so...many people."

"You tell them, Pres..Pres..Pres..you tell them Cowboy George!"

Mongo - He'll work for beans. Mongo's proclivity for gas mirrors Cowboy George's proclivity for oil. However Mongo's intellect may prove threatening to Cowboy George.

And still many more worthy candidates: "Gabby" Hayes, Pat Buttram, "Smiley" Burnette, "Pappy" Lynn to name a few. Feel free to submit your own choices.

Whomever gets the coveted position of sidekick to Cowboy George will find an acting challenge and a new world open to conquest. Yee-haw!

Well, like most predictions, my prediction that Hussein and/or bin Laden would be captured in July or August proved wrong. I had figured that capturing one of them around July or August would provide a late boost for Bush in his quest to become a real elected President. Instead Hussein's recent capture provides so much more.

It takes the wind out of Howard Dean's sail. Too much newsprint was devoted to Dean. Now it'll focus back on Bush. And it will focus on Bush and not on the illegalities of our invasion of Iraq, not on the illegalities of the post-war no-bid contracts, and certainly not on the destruction of our environment and economy. Back to how heroic our troops are and were in a war so...unnecessary. C, mon, if it were a necessary war against terrorism why aren't we invading Saudi Arabia? Oh yeah, money. Iraq was relatively easy pickin's compared to going against Saudi Arabia.

Instead it's back to the wartime - Rah! Rah! Aren't we a great country - Love it or leave it! - If you don't support the "President" you must be a terrorist! - mentality that people of intelligence find so repulsive. Back to looking at Bush trying desperately not to look smug, while strutting around as if he'd caught Hussein himself. Back to listening to the warmongers, mostly Republican, crow about how this is all a good thing. That we got rid of an evil person, all the while there are plenty more evil people running countries that we don't seem to be doing much about. Many of these countries don't have oil either. Draw your own conclusion.

In any case, as Hussein faces some sort of trial, consider these questions:

If Hussein proved such a dangerous threat to the U.S. and perhaps the world shouldn't he go on trial at an International Court? We went into Iraq because of, according to the U.S. Government, Hussein posed as a real threat with his "Weapons of Mass Destruction". In that case, put him on trial for such. Or does "lack of evidence" mean something?

The U.S. Government talks about justice for Hussein. Are we going to try him according to our judicial system or the one in Iraq? If we allow the Iraqis to try him, will we stand by as they pretty much take one look at him, say "Guilty!", and take him out to the football field to be shot in public? Or will we demand a long trial before a more private shooting? Will we do justice by the Iraqis or what's best for the U.S Governments image?

Will we now move the 125,000 troops to Afghanistan so that we can really search for bin Laden? After all, there is stronger evidence that bin Laden did something directly against the U.S. people, so he should get the greater focus - right? Or will we stay in Iraq to protect the oil, I mean, continue the fight against terrorism? Maybe we could bring the troops back here so they can search for the killer of Nicole Simpson...

Bush for Blair

Can we please swap Bush for Tony Blair? They're both fairly reprehensible as far as politicians go but, at least, I don't mind listening to Blair. He speaks English eloquently. Bush strangles English brutally. I'm tired of Bush and his 3-word sentences, no word over 2 syllables. And his - pause - reading of - pause - speeches at - pause - a pace appropriate - pause - for a Kindergartener. I expect Bush to read with his finger pointing to each word while a cabinet member stand behind him to help with some of the more difficult pronunciations.

That's why we get such great sayings like:

"Go get them!" or "We got him!" coming out of the Bush administration. Because he's such a simple person they assume the rest of the country is as well.

Next election, any candidate lacking grey matter betwixt the ears gets knocked off the ballot automatically. That leaves....ummmm....

Handle This!

I like Ebay, perhaps a little too much. I like the convenience and the excitement of getting a great deal on something. I hate getting outbid in the final 20 seconds of an auction but I've done that to other people and fair is fair.

One thing really irks me beyond all reasonable measure and that is those sellers who charge a little (or a lot) too much for shipping and then ship as cheaply as possible, pocketing the difference. I've had that happen to me twice. Both times I sent emails to the sellers asking about the shipping - I mean, hell, if I pay enough for something to be shipped Priority then the expectation is that the item will be shipped Priority - and both times I got replies that the costs were to cover handling. What the hell? How can you ship an item and not handle it? What excessive handling is involved with putting a book or game in a (free from the Post Office) Priority box and mailing it? Hell, you can order FREE priority mail boxes online and get them delivered to your house or business.

"Handling" is nothing more than a ripoff.

Arguably I should have contacted the seller during the auction to find out exactly how the item will be shipped so some blame does go to me. But a ripoff is still a ripoff.

SUV Warning

I drive a Suburban - yep, a big old, gas guzzling, urban tank. But I can justify it - I have a large family. But the point of this rant is actually a warning to all the drivers of small zippy and/or nice, expensive automobiles.

When you see a nice car length gap in front of an SUV or urban tank like my 'Burb curb your need to zoom in and take it. Unlike your BMW, Lexus, or Mercedes, my Suburban can't stop on a dime. If you cut in front of me and hit the brakes, you will be a smear on my front bumper. That gap in front of me is my braking space. I need the room. You take that space at your own risk.

Oh yeah, that toggle on the left hand side of your steering wheel is called a turn signal. You use to signal your intention when switching lanes. Considering how expensive a BMW, Mercedes, and Lexus car can get I'd assume that they include working turn signals. Use them.

Lastly, the far LEFT lane usually has drivers who go a bit ABOVE the speed limit. If you must drive well below the speed limit, do so in the other lanes. I promise we will "Ooooh!" and "Aaaah!" at whatever you are driving.

A Sexual Jesus

After I finished reading Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code I got into a consipiracy mood and started snooping online for all things Leonardo Da Vinci. Eventually I cam across:

Leonardo and Mary which led me to

Magdalene and the Fourth Gospel

After reading Mr. Jusino's essay I got to thinking about Jesus and sexuality. Simply: Did Jesus have sex?

Why wouldn't he? If Jesus was Jewish and a Rabbi he certainly would have been married and likely pursuing a family. Families are central and sacred to Judaism. In addition, he may have had "divine" intercourse at the Temple.

Consider Mary Magdalene, the favored and beloved disciple. She is a constant companion. Why couldn't she be a lover of Jesus without having to be a prostitute?

Was Jesus bisexual? Hearing that Peter was jealous of Jesus loving Mary more sounds like a lovers spat.

Gay Jesus?

That Jesus had sex is probable - he *was* human. He ate, he slept, he lived, he died. He prayed, he taught, he contemplated. He fornicated, he pissed, he shitted - blunt but truthful. Amazing how someone human can be recreated into something they were likely not.

As the year quickly races to a close here are some enjoyments that I indulged in in my limited free time:

Flogging Molly - "Drunken Lullabies" Flogging Molly rocks! Sure, some bands had some great songs in the past year but this is one of those rare CDs where every single song is memorable.

Flogging Molly - "Swagger" This is their first CD and while not as polished as "Drunken Lullabies" it is still recommended.

Perez-Reverts - "The Fencing Master", Perez-Reverts - "The Club Dumas",
Perez-Reverts - "The Seville Communion" - These three books are what I consider the best works by a great, enjoyable author. Highly recommended!

John Steinbeck - "The Grapes of Wrath" - My favorite book by my favorite author. I re-read this again and again picked up something new. Forget Faulkner and Hemingway. Steinbeck is The Master.

Dan Brown - "The Da Vinci Code" - Sure, it was predictable as to who done it but still an enjoyable read.

Dan Brown - "Angels & Demons" - The first books of his that I read. Good read and in some ways better than "The Da Vinci Code".

Rowling - "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5)" - Like most everyone else on this freaking planet I read it. And I enjoyed. My kids enjoyed it. So when's book 6 coming out?

There lots more but my memory is quickly fading. I didn't touch on all the favorite DVDs and didn't bother with computer games. Besides, pick up a good book, curl up in a corner with good light, and lose yourself.

Subtle irony I think. Way back when in Elementary School, this time of year we'd be rehearsing for the Christmas Pageant. Yes, back then it was blatantly called the Christmas Pageant and this was at a public school on the West Coast. But in 6th grade things changed and to appease the Jewish kids the Christmas Pageant included a token Chanukah song. Being Jewish I wasn't appeased. Of course, I didn't care for the Pageant at all.

Move forward through time and now we have "Holiday Pageants" or "Winter Pageants". And so in the name of political correctness we've moved back to generic celebrations of the seasonal holidays. Back to the essentially pagan origins. I love it and am appeased.

Cuban Cigars

A close friend of mine took a mini-mini-vacation down to Tijuana. Coming back into the States he was caught by the Border Police. He was trying to bring in cuban cigars and passing through the metal detectors the aluminum holders set off the alarms. Did they give him a full body cavity search? Did they beat him with canes on the soles of his feet?

No, they let him back in the States with the cigars. After all, Gov. Arnie smokes cuban cigars...

And speaking of Cuba, it's time we made it a protectorate. They need our money. We need their cigars. How the hell can we be blasted for Imperialism when we can't even annex a crud little island right off our shores. Bush needs to get his priorities straight. 'Free' Cuba now!

More On Bush

Sounds like "Moron Bush", doesn't it? I'm predicting here and now that around August either Hussein or bin Laden (or both) will be caught by U.S. Forces. I chose that time frame because it's close to election time but not too close nor too far. It's just about right for Bush to milk the event and come off looking like some sort of hero.

So why didn't he visit the troops in Afghanistan?

Sure feels that way. So many plans and not enough time to fulfill any of them. There's major housework with major expenses, minor housework with minor expenses, and work in general. So many creative projects yet to be started - like collecting, recording, and editing the stories I make up for my kids. So many projects not yet finished. And in the mix is this blog.

I'm still not sold on blogging. I write just to vent which means that when I blog there is an issue. My blogging, therefore, is argumentative and confrontationial. Whether it makes for interesting reading depends in part on my skill as an author and whether my writing approaches some state of lucidity.

But as I drove to work the other day I got to "figurin'" that many folks blog nearly daily on just plain old events. Does that make for interesting reading? It doesn't for me.

Monday: Woke up. Kicked the dog. Stumbled into the bathroom. Peed in the sink. Shaved. Took shower. Ate breakfast AND read the paper. Yelled at kids. Took kids to school. Went to work. Woke up from work. Picked up kids. Greeted wife. Ate dinner. Watched TV. Fell asleep.

Tuesday-Friday: same as Monday.

This type of blogging is boring. And right along with it are those blogs that mention nothing more than reading (and linking) to other people's blogs. Blog sex. Big whoop. Mutual hit masturbation. Snooze. How is this different than having a plain old web site with a bunch of links?

Is there such a thing a blog purity, like a gonzo-style blog where you record not what you are doing every moment but how you interpret what's happening to you? Can there be something more to blogging than the pressure to maintain the damn thing? Is there a true underlying purpose beyond that what we claim? I blog usually when I must rant but is there more to it?

While I think about all this, I'll copy Little Miss Attila's desperation tactics for hits/money: Paris Hilton, sex, camels, amateur videos, Bush, Iraq, Hard Place, Linux, XP, Oscars, pnorny. If you donate to my Paypal account I *MAY* post naughty pictures. Donate frequently and graciously.

Silly me. I should do a little research before posting. My wonderful idea about open-source electronic voting is old hat. A quick search on sourceforge came up with quite a few projects including Free Project with program source at Free.

We owe it to ourselves to support such a project.

Check out Black Box Voting

Simple solution to the problem. Let's produce an open source voting software. One that includes mechanisms for accountability and reliability (e.g. receipts). One that can be offered to counties, to the Nation FOR FREE. One that the source code can be examined by anyone without cost or fear of violating some proprietary protocol.

Let's take the counting of votes away from the corporations whose goals may be more than monetary. Let's bring the counting of votes to the people.

That, my friends, is true Democracy and Freedom.

It's been a while since my last update. No excuses; just lazy. zBlogger's down so I'll have to remember to copy this crap later.

In any case, I meant to post the following last week:

There's A Bear

I'm not too keen of blog/linking, that which I've recently accused a friend of succumbing to in too extreme a fashion. However a recent post of hers contains a link to Glenn Reynolds which I actually followed and felt that a response was necessary.

Follows the links, read the posts, and then come back.

By any chance does that brand of paranoia from Bush sound familiar? There's a threat out there and they MAY get us, so we better get them first. "There's a bear in the woods..." It's that whole paranoid bullshit from the Reagan Cold War era. But instead of Marshal Ronnie vs. the big, bad Commies, we have Crusader George vs. the big, bad terrorists. We have Bush using Terrorism as an excuse for his militarism, trashing of our economy, destruction of our privacy, and all the other things that for mere mortals would result in a long walk down a dark hallway to the Big House, complete with harmonica in the background.

Just shows that paranoia sure isn't pretty.

No Spam

It's nice of our Government to be going after those evil, annoying spammers. Hey, once the spammers are curtailed, how about going after marketers who send all those throwaways in the mail. That garbage is annoying and may cause physical debilitation when lifting a large pile to throw away.

But why stop there. Let's get rid of those annoying billboards. No one LIKES them. They're as unwanted as spam. And, and, and TV ads as well - get rid of them.

All the annoying Marketing that is the backbone of our consumer corporations have to go!

It's like alcohol and marijuana. They're both drugs and potentially dangerous. Why outlaw one and not the other? Why go after spam and not unwanted ads in general?

Wonder what would happen if the spammers started making political donations...

Hot Winds A-Blowin'

In sunny So Cal this time of year we usually get hot winds called Santa Anas blowing in from the deserts towards the Pacific. These hot winds make people crazy. Temperatures shoot up to the 90s and 100s, and the wind just keeps blowing. It's the worst time of year for fires which is what we're having right now. Already over 100,000 acres and numerous homes have been charred around So Cal.

And though my house is in minor danger from a nearby fire my thoughts about all this keep returning to "What a simple act of terrorism this could be."

I'm not saying that these fires were a terrorist act but, instead, it could have been a simple act of terrorism and there is no way to protect any one from it. Billions of dollars for Homeland Security and fancy, privacy-invasive databases that amount to nothing. Airports with screening procedures worthy of Nazi Germany, with dubious effectiveness. Some one tell me how our Government will ensure our security when a truly destructive terrorist act could involve nothing more than a calendar and a pack of matches, with the calendar being optional.

No paper trail. No training required. Nothing. All a terrorist would have to do is wait for the Santa Anas to come steam rolling in around late September, and then play firebug. With the hot winds a-blowin' a true Firestorm obviously can quickly become a reality. The Fire Departments end up playing only defense and praying for rain.

Or how can Homeland prevent a terrorist from doing a McVeigh on the L.A. freeways? Load up a car with fertilizer and knock out an interchange like the 405 and 101, or the 405 and the 10. Get a bunch of those wackos and you can cripple L.A. by taking out enough interchanges. Planning and costs - minimal.

Or the electrical grid. Take the aforementioned fertilizer cars and go after the power stations.

And that's just L.A.. Fertilizer cars could knock out the bridges in the Bay Area, take out tunnels/bridges in New York. How about a series of small private planes loaded with fertilizer?

Point being that terrorism can be a simple, cheap and highly destructive economically and psychologically. So how is Homeland going to protect us?

So some poor schlub tries to catch a baseball and denies a Cubby from making an out. The Cubs then go on to lose the game and later the series.

And this poor schlub gets all the blame and is now getting terrible harrassment from just about everyone in Chicago.

Hey Buddy - simple solution. Publish a letter in the papers. Get on the local radio. Get on local TV. Get your butt out there and loudly proclaim for all the Cubby Fans to hear:

"Leave me the hell alone or I will curse the Cubs to never, EVER win another World Series!"

Throw in da Bears while you're at it.

The Supreme Court will look at the "Under God" controversy, that perhaps those words in our Pledge of Allegiance are some sort of religious affirmation.

I'm hoping that the Supreme Court finds the cajones to say that indeed those words do violate the Constitution and that the worsd should be removed from the Pledge and our money.

Some people feel that, heck, it's only two words and you don't have to say them. You don't even have to recite the pledge. Well then, to be fair, let's add "Under Satan" to the Pledge. It's only two words. You don't have to say them.

Some people feel that removing the words will remove religion from our our lives. Ridiculous. What it will do is remove religion from the Government. If the Middle East hasn't taught you anything it should. Religion and Politics are an extrmemely dangerous mix.

Some people feel that our country is a Christian country and that the words are appropriate. Like I just said above - Religion and Politics are a bad mix. Our Founding Fathers may have been mostly Christian but they understood and explicitly created a separation between Church and State.

"President" Bush and his Crusade. The Middle East and the screams for Jihad. Any real difference.

Besides, asking a kid to recite the Pledge of Allegiance always smacked me of sheer propaganda. Even when I was a kid in Elementary School it sounded fishy. What's going to happen if you don't recite the Pledge, will someone kick you out of the country? If you do recite will someone give you a gun and trot you off to war? Oh yeah, Ashcroft, Rumsfeld, Bush, Cheney...it's a reality. It's a bitch of a reality.

I got into blogging as a reaction to the postings of a close friend. Her rantings were an enjoyable read and since I usually disagreed with her viewpoints I'd find myself gnashing the remnants of my teeth and aching for some way to reply.

Recently at an end-of-summer party at my humble domain I mentioned to her that she'd sold out. That she didn't write so much as just post links and become a link whore. By her own admission she's out for page hits.

She posted that incident on her blog this past week and then proceded to blast me for having a Paypal link on my blog, meaning that I'm not out for hits but for money. She thinks I sold out for the green.

(How can we politely say hypocrite.) She then writes that she plans to put monetary links on her blog as well. So she's selling out for hits and the green. But it's OK for her, not OK for me. I can't figure out that one. She did get in a good jibe about my lack of readership. Thing is, I write more for catharsis. If someone stumbles on this site and enjoys the writing - great. If not, fine too.

Sadly, she completely misunderstood my original comment. By calling her a link whore, I meant (and thought I said so) that her bloggings had become unreadable because all they had were links. No original content. No rantings. No venom. Just - "Lookee! Lookee! See what site I've linked to or has linked to me." The problem is that it's boring. Most everyone else does that. Too many blogs are nothing but links. Great for upping the hit counts but boring reading. It's blog masturbation without the orgasm.

Any who. Little Miss Attila, your country needs you. In one of your very early posts, you stated that you had definitive proof that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction. Please forward this intel to our Government immediately because - shucks - they still can't find any after all this time and billions of dollars. You might get a reward!

If/when the U.S finally admits that there are no WMD will you be apologizing about the illegal invasian of Iraq? For anything? (I've noticed that gun-toting, right-wing Republicans don't apologize much when they do something outright wrong, illegal, or immoral. They'd rather posture and place the blame somewhere else. Something about Might and Right.)

P.S. LMM - I considered hiring you to clean the Zoo over here but (1) I wouldn't do that to you or 2) you'd take one look, get that "You're shitting me!" look, and quote me a price I couldn't afford without a 2nd mortgage. Heck, the necessary cleaning supplies would break me. Oh well, I'll clean when the kids move out.

So the FTC may have overstepped its authority in creating the National "Do-Not-Call" database against telemarketers. Surprise, surprise. That it would fail was a no-brainer and one reason why I didn't add my name.

C'mon, another government database. This is the government that is owned by big business as witnessed by the actions of our resident "President". Do you honestly believe that this "Do-Not-Call" database would not in some way be abused?

With the reverse, perverted logic running through the upper echelons anyone on the list is a terrorist because it's an individual attempt to increase privacy. So give the database to the NSA. Or worse.

The FTC overstepped it's power and now has this massive database that it can't shove down the telemarketers throats. What to do with it?

Why not sell it? It's the American Way. And the best customer to sell it to would be telemarketers. Seriously. I can easily picture our government selling the information to the telemarketers saying "Now, now. These are the people whom do NOT want to be called. We can't force you to leave them alone. We can only tell you to Leave Them Alone."

And the telemarketers would reply with a massive grin "Sure, sure. Here's your money. We'll leave them alone. And you'll leave us alone."

Keep your phone handy near the dining table.

"Hi, this is American Telemarketers Association. We're calling you to verify that you signed up on the Do-No-Call list. Is this a good time? Great. We respect your privacy and for a nomimal yearly fee we will ensure that your name doesn't get released outside of our organization. Of course, we may share your information with our members..."

So with Condaleeza and Rummy saying that - golly gee - there's no ties between 9/11 and Hussein, Bush has jumped on the bandwagon. Don't expect any sort of apology though. What they've cleverly done is produced some poll that says 70% of Americans believe there was a link between 9/11 and Hussein. It's our fault, you see.

Ignore the fact that Bush kept on harping that Hussein had links to Al Qaeda, later changed to links to terrorism, as a justification for invading Iraq. Watch now as they try a reverse spin, something like:

"We acted according to the wishes of the American people for a free Iraq and to remove a source of terrorism. Many Americans believed that Hussein had links to Al Qaeda, a belief our intelligence has shown incorrect."

And for $190 BILLION still no Hussein or bin Laden. For that much we could've entirely leveled Afghanistan and Iraq and built a freakin' MidEast Disneyland.

Governor Davis has some breathing room thanks to an Appeal Court postponing the California recall. Republicans and anti-Davis people are whining that this helps Davis.

But does it?

If the conspiracy theorists are right this will help Republicans - big time.

If California is forced to go electronic then give California to Arnold or McClintlock. Paranoid, conspiracy types say (and with good reason) that the companies that sell the electronic machines (Diebold, for example) are run by outwardly Pro-Rebulican supporters AND that voting by electronic means is very open to manipulation. No accountability which is just the way the Republicans like it.

So the postponement MAY help Davis but if California has to go fully electronic look for a surprise Republican win. Heck, if the U.S. goes entirely electronic look to see the major and many minor states having Republican Governors with just enough Democrats to look good but, in reality, be ineffective.

OH MY GAWD!!!

Ben and J Lo have broken up!!! My world has ended. I mean, I just LIVE to follow those two and they were SO PERFECT together. What will I do? How can my life continue?

J Lo is the perfect female - beautiful, talented, rich. All women should be like her, really! She's like every guys dream, certainly mine. She's perfect for Ben.

And with the perfect woman is the perfect man - Ben. Big Ben! Everything about him displays the ultimate achievement of all that is a man. Every male should constantly strive to be like Ben. He's perfect for J Lo.

And the two of them together, heaven on earth. Everlasting salvation and rapture in our time. With those two married our world would have been perfect.

But now, despair, hopelessness, confusion. What will we do?

Rumsfeld is again pushing the position that if you're critical of or against Bush's policies then you are helping the terrorists cause.

This is outright bullshit.This is against what America is about - Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Thought, Freedom to call our "President" an idiot if we feel it is warranted.

Rumsfeld has proven himself an Anti-American. If anything his words and actions are helping the terrorists by giving them a reason to fear America and to unite against us. His attempts to coerce and scare Americans into supporting Bush demonstrates the very bullying mentality that the terrorists are against.

As Americans it is our right to vote for and judge the efficacy of whomever is in office. If we feel that our leaders are wrong we can say so. It is perfectly American to be against terrorism and still think the person occupying the Presidency is in impostor.

Go away Rumsfeld. We wish you out to the cornfield.

And no end in sight. Thanks Bush for making damn sure that your friends increase their wealth at the expense of taxpayers.

(Maybe I should make a contribution to Bush's re-election fund. Become a bosom buddy of his.

Nah. Too much self-esteem.

Where's a recall when you need one?)

As we approach 2 years after 9/11, no bin Laden, no Hussein, no Weapons of Mass Destruction, no proof of a threat to the U.S. by Iraq what-so-ever. Instead, we're saddled with restoring the economies of Afghanistan and Iraq which counts a minor victory for the terrorists. They wanted to disrupt our system and they have.

How about we set fire to the oilfields and get the hell out of Iraq and Afghanistan.Those tribes want to kill each other - let them.

Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code

Finished it. Loved it. Yet another fun mystery revolving around secret societies, symbolism, history, and weirdness. Nice that neither The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, The Illuminati, nor Hiram Abiff were mentioned. The plot became a tad predictable as to the real bad guy and where the big finale would take place but still an enjoyable read. Much more enjoyable than Tom Clancy's latest. Ugh, now I'm not looking forward to reading Ludlum's last. I still have conspiracy on the brain. Where's the picture of The Last Supper?

Scooby Doo

I may have to stop my kids from watching this cartoon. Goodness, it's a covert attempt to turn them all into potheads! Scooby Doobie Do - get it? Which would explain why Shaggy (the old hippie) and Scooby always have the munchies. But it doesn't explain why I have this deja vu feeling that this topic has been before. The colors....

September 19th. What? You don't know about "Talk Like A Pirate" Day? Get yer bloated, barnacle ridden carcass over to:

Talk Like A Pirate

In particular worm yer way o'er to "Ask Capt Slappy". Tell 'im Greybeard The Flatulent sent ye.

The Teeth Of The Tiger

I finished Clancy's latest last night in a 2 day, 400-page blitz of reading. Before that I plowed through Maugham's Of Human Bondage which I liked though I wanted to throttle the main character a few times. At least, he got the young babe in the end (no pun intended, I think) - I had uncertainty about his heterosexuality but then again it's Maugham.

Back to Clancy. His last book Red Rabbit was boring, plodding, and for me unfinishable. This new book showed a return to his "normal" style - action but with lots of techie stuff. He could've added more in details on how people are tracked through their computers but that's my personal whim.

The book ends abruptly. The last 20 pages or so seem like a rush, like Clancy was trying to meet some sort of publishing deadline.

Clancy has written longer books. What I fear is that instead of writing a complete solid story in 600 pages, Clancy is chopping this plot into two books of 400 pages each. Instead of buying a single $39 book, we're facing the purchase of 2 $29 books. Nice profit there. Then the next plot can be split up between 3 books.

I hope this isn't the beginning of a trend.

In the meantime I'll just lose myself in Dan Brown's latest The Da Vinci Code with a Robert Ludlum waiting in the batters circle. Don't worry. It's just a phase I go through - thrillers this month. Classics the next.

Digital Rights Management

You thought Microsoft was a slimy, monopolistic, law-breaking company. You ain't seen nothing yet. Buy your stock now.

File sharing, as you know, can be a good thing or a bad thing with the argument boiling down to privacy / piracy versus profit. The RIAA and music companies are crying over lost profits due to mp3 sharing. Movie companies grind their teeth when copies of their films get swapped within hours of a premiere. And the swappers say their privacy is being invaded by these companies and, oh, music and movies cost too much.

But - problem solved - it's Microsoft to the rescue with their new Digital Rights Management. Now each user can specify who can read a file. Piracy problem solved! Profit problem solved! Privacy maintained!

Except...(you could see this coming, right?)

Let's say I create a file in Office 2005 with DRM. No other (non-Microsoft) program will be able to read this. Wow, such security! That means if you want to share a file with a Linux OpenOffice user you'll either have to convert the file to a simpler non-DRM format or they'll have to convert to Microsoft. Such convenience! Such a good use of business time.

Microsoft could release versions of their apps for Linux but that'd be admitting that Linux is a real OS. No, much better to force everyone to abide by Microsoft's "standards". Force businesses to "upgrade" from Linux to Microsoft.

Or this scenario: you have a business with 5000 computers, all running Office 2002. Some of them upgrade to Office DRM. The folks running 2002 can't read the DRM files. "Gosh!" says Microsoft, "You have to upgrade your 2002 users to DRM and have we got a licensing deal for you..."

DRM will be yet another way for Microsoft to inflict costly upgrades on people and companies, not a one-time upgrade but continual. Microsoft is a rich company. They want to stay rich. They need continual sources of income. What better way than to release new versions of their products that will be neither forward nor backwards compatible.

Mind you, I'm not cheesed over Microsoft being a monopoly. Not at all. The pinnacle of success for a business is to be a monopoly. I deplore Microsoft's method of becoming a monopoly and my disgust with them started way back in the DOS days. Yes, that's how long Microsoft has been manipulating things.

I remember when Microsoft and DR-DOS both came out with upgrades. The computer magazines consistently rated DR-DOS better, with nicer utilities. With Microsoft everything was half-baked. The new memory manager worked fair. It left an opening filled by Quarterdeck's memory manager. Anyway. Consensus was that DR-DOS was better than MS-DOS.

Yet DR-DOS failed and MS-DOS sold gazillions. Why? Because Microsoft had a scam where every PC would come preloaded with MS-DOS - even if you didn't want that OS, Microsoft still got a cut.

Money wasn't cheap back then. You spend $1,200 on a new PC, you'd think twice about spending another $40 for DR-DOS when MS-DOS worked OK. And, of course, Microsoft programs written for MS-DOS may not run under DR-DOS. And vice versa. Excel might run fine in MS-DOS but Lotus might have problems.

And hence the birth of a monopoly. You control the OS, you control the software that can run under it.

Tell me if this sounds familiar? Microsoft would release an app - it'd be garbage. But, after borrowing ideas from competitors and a bit of creative marketing, by version 3 Microsoft would own the niche.

Or to knock out a competitor they release either a free clone, buy the company, or incorporate the clone into the OS and claim it's necessary. Bye-bye Netscape. Toodles Quicktime and RealPlayer. Tschuss Fox Software. Adios AOL Messenger. Sayonara Autocad. (Whoops, Autocad still owns their market...for now.)

Time to stop before I *really* start frothing. With DRM on its way to your desktop, now's a good time to buy Microsoft (MSFT). Be a part of the monopoly.

(But you may want to use Linux and OpenOffice to get your real work done.)

And, once again, when you talk about religion with "true" believers it's best to leave logic at the door and make your drink a double.

Our Founding Fathers may have Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, or even Satanists - it doesn't matter!! When they wrote our Constitution and other vital documents they purposely and explicitly constructed a separation between Church and State. At no point do they say America will be a Judeo-Christian country.

This point is inarguable. If the Fathers favored a religion, you'd have seen it written up. Since we have Freedom of Religion in this country let's have a statue of Ganesha or of Satan - certainly Judge Moore can't have a problem with that.

With that in mind, what exactly is meant by "Freedom of Religion" - is it a requirement to believe in a religion, any religion? If so, does it have to be an organized religion?

Certainly if Freedom of Religion is a requirement to support a religion, then it's not a freedom. It's societal pressure. It's what our Founding Fathers sought to avoid.

Let's focus on that maligned concept: Freedom.

I contend that there are two types of Freedom: Societal and Spiritual. To demonstrate the difference consider this scenario: You are alone on the planet. Just you - no one else. You'd have complete Societal Freedom. You could do whatever you want without fear of the police or anyone calling you to task for your actions. You could leave the toilet seat up, burn down the neighbors house, or go into a movie theater and yell "Fire!" You could travel anywhere, read anything, eat anything, watch anything. Your actions are your own without consequences from any authority.

Maybe. You might not have Spiritual Freedom, that though you could burn down the neighbor's house (there is no more neighbor), somehow it isn't the right thing to do. Similarly, come a Sunday, you could skip going to church but somehow it wouldn't be right. Or on Friday you could skip lighting Shabbat candles. Or you could skip fasting during Ramadan. Or, or, or...

(Would you stop praying? Would you pray in an empty temple? Would you fast?)

For an Atheist spiritual freedom and societal freedom are deeply linked. The Morality of the Atheist focuses solely on his relation to other people. In our scenario removing the societal pressure grants complete societal and spiritual freedom!

In our scenario if we add in one person as a neighbor consider how that would affect you. You wouldn't have complete freedom. Your behavior could result in conflicts. And how would you feel if your kindly neighbor started telling you how to think, started questioning your beliefs.Your societal freedom is immediately impacted. If your spiritual freedom is affected, you'd likely get angry or upset. If you don't like your neighbor looking at you askew because of your religious beliefs how would you feel if your government did the same?

Freedom of Religion, I believe, is not intended to be a requirement to believe in a religion. That would be overstepping Societal Freedom and infringing on Spiritual Freedom. Our Government ideally does not do this. This type of infringement is what we fought against (in part) when we warred in Afghanistan. This is why our Founding Fathers called for a separation of Church and State, to separate Societal Freedom from Spiritual Freedom.

By necessity Freedom of Religion MUST include Freedom from Religion. If I belong to a mainstream Roman Catholic Church and that's acceptable to the notion of Freedom of Religion, then belonging to a branch of that Church must also be acceptable. If belonging to a branch or a sect is acceptable then certainly it must be acceptable if that sect consists of myself and at least one other person. If that's acceptable, why can it not be acceptable that the sect or branch consists of only myself? Can an organized religion consist of a single person? Arguably yes if you're focussing on Spiritual Freedom. Arguably no if there's a societal requirement i.e. you must have more than one person involved. If Freedom of Religion includes Freedom from Religion the question of the religion being organized becomes moot. More importantly it restores Spiritual Freedom to the individual.

Certainly if I'm free to believe in any religion, I'm also free to not believe in any religion. Our great country may have been founded by Judeo-Christian believers but they recognized that their or anyone else's personal religious beliefs do not belong in Government.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

ABC showed this film on Sunday night, a 2-hour film. My family watched it - the kids liked it despite the commercials. My wife and I both thought that few scenes were chopped out. Monday while in Walmart we bought the DVD for $9. It's a 2.5 hour film!! We were shocked when we watched it. ABC chopped out at least 40% of the film, including the great song P.O.S.H. - those bastards!

My wife and I started talking about CCBB and it's relation to other films. Bear with me.

Ian Fleming wrote the book as well, of course, the James Bond series. "Cubby" Broccoli directed Jamed Bond and CCBB. Gert Frobe (Auric Goldfinger) and Desmond Llewellyn (Q) are both in CCBB. During the hovercraft scene in CCBB I expected the James Bond theme to kick in.

The Sherman Brothers did the music for CCBB and Mary Poppins. Dick Van Dyke was in CCBB and Mary Poppins. Sally Ann Howes looked like Julie Andrews and tried to sound like her with her voice of loving consternation in CCBB - OK, not a good connection.

Roald Dahl wrote the CCBB screenplay and the Willy Wonka series. Candy and a candy factory are important in both films. Both films have a candyman of sorts. Both films have families missing either a father or mother, and include a singing and "dancing" grandfather. Both films end with views from a flying vehicle.

Julie Andrews' husband Blake Edwards made the classic comedy "The Great Race" which in part has scenes in Castle Neuschwanstein as does CCBB. In the Great Race the castle is located in Pottsdorf! Both films have car races as important plot elements. Both films involve castle rescues.

Any more connections?

Of course one thing really bothered me in CCBB. In the beginning when Chitty is wrecked and when you see the kids playing in her, the car's front end is collapsed. Yet, when the car is delivered to Potts it's intact. Plus that didn't look like Desmond Llewellyn delivering the car. OK, enough nit picks. Time to get on with life.

Look at the following written in 1930:

Taxation of Church

In particular read the points mentioned in the Complete Program Against Clericalism. Written 70 years ago and those points are still a valid complaint. Our government refuses to enforce the precepts on which it is was founded! So much for the separation of church and state - move that statue right back into the courthouse. Moore wasn't less after all.

I can see that the combination of a religious and ignorant population combined with a Supreme Court that lacks true backbone in supporting our constitution topped off with a government corrupted by business demostrates that our country as instituted by the Founding Fathers was a nice vision but will never become reality.

Finally the 10 Commandments statue has been removed from that Alabama courthouse. And the right-wing Christian element is, for lack of a better phrase, up in arms. Their response is precisely why the statue had to go. No matter how much the preachers scream and cry on the courthouse steps, despite the presence of Bush acting as President, America is not a Christian nation.

The arguments to keep the statue in place were narrow and infantile:

"America was founded by Christians" - If the Founding Fathers wanted a Christian Nation they'd of explicitly stated such and would *NEVER* have included a Constitutional clause separating church and state. Our Founding Fathers were seeking to escape religious oppression. They knew of the totalitarian dangers when you mix religion and politics. Take a look at Afghanistan before we removed the Taliban. That is what happens when there's a dominant extremist religion in charge. You think for a moment that if the Christian Fundamentalists took over and increased prayer in school, had religious statues in the courts, and who knows what else, that the non-Christians in America would feel safe much less welcome? You think Islamic terrorists are somehow worse than the Christian Extremists who blow up abortion clinics? How long would it be before Concentration Camps and forced religious conversions re-appear?

"I don't believe that God would be happy.." (with the removal of the statue). I don't remember the exact quote but whomever said it should be hit upside the head with a 2x4. Who is this person who claims to know God so intimately? This is your opinion - meathead - and certainly no reason to keep the statue! Here's one from me - "God is ecstatic with the removal of the statue!" Prove me wrong.

"Our system of Law is based on a belief in God." Fine, which God? The Christian God, the Jewish God, the Hindu Pantheon? Even if our system of Law is based on such a belief - I'd like to see the justifications for such a statement - it doesn't mean that our government supports one religion over the rest.

We need to restore the wall separating Church and State. We need to remove "Under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance. We need to remove "In God We Trust" from our money. These two insertions were fairly recent additions and are divisive and offensive.

We have Freedom of Religion in America. That also includes Freedom FROM Religion. Our Government should focus on running the country, not on religious matters. Unfortunately, as the well organized Christian Fundamentalists increase their influence we'll see more conflicts and violence. I thought Jesus was about loving thy neighbor and turning the other cheek.

Governor's Ball/Monsters Ball


As the California Recall inches closer I still have ambivalent feelings towards the process. Yes, I can understand and appreciate that the process is a right granted to us voters - that if the Governor is a totally incompetent boob then the Governor should be ousted. However, this still feels like the Republicans are pulling the strings for their own benefit. Worse, this could set a precendent favoring rich folks. If they don't like the Governor and have a few million lying around, start a recall campaign. That way you don't necessarily need a majority to win. Better still, you get an idiots array of candidates to fragment the left votes. (Sure is plenty of people willing to pony up $3,500 to run.) One of the Republican's strengths is they generally work well together. Simon was the only serious threat to Ahnold and he bowed out.


(If incompetence and self-serving interests are enough to generate a recall, why don't we recall Bush? Best left unanswered for now).


But the recall will go through and for the record I will vote to not recall Davis. We knew he was a slimy piece of work when we elected him. Look at the alternative - we could have had Bill Simon. God, that thought gives me serious anal pucker. In any case, Davis was the lesser of two evils and he was handed a loaded deck what with Enron.


The $60 million for the recall could've been better spent.


So "No" for the recall. I'll still cast a vote for a replacement, but which person?


Cruz Bustamante seems the likely choice. However, one thing really bugs me about him. He's Lieutenant Governor. He should have been advising the Governor from day 1, giving sage advice. Yet we're still in this mess. If Bustamante had a better way of doing things why didn't he speak out? Didn't he discuss the issues with Davis? If he has such good solutions that he can run for Governor why didn't he do his job and present those solutions to the Governor to begin with - we'd be better off, right? EIther one mess of a lack of communication between the two and/or Davis didn't give a flying about advice and/or Bustamante sniffed the wind and decided to hold back his advice. No vote for him.


Angelyne, Gary Coleman, or Gallagher? Not a chance. The three of them should hitch up for a reality TV show about running for Governor - could be amusing and certainly no more vacuous than the other reality shows. Throw in Mary Carey for T-and A and you could have something. Hey, I know, do a remake of Ironsides with Larry Flynt as Raymond Burr...


Ahnold. No freaking way. Celebrity status aside he offers *NOTHING* of substance. He has high powered advisors but then whose interests will he serve? Gosh, this sounds REAL familiar. A leader with little political experience relying on his advisors for policy and direction. Gimme a minute. Oh yeah, Bush. Great. Just what we need. "No" to Ahnold. And looking through todays paper shows Ahnold is courting celebrities to his cause. Admittedly Ahnold is more representative of our times - bread and circuses - but still do we need another politician who can't think for himself?


Arianna Huffington. I confess - reading her columns gives me a guilty pleasure but would I vote for her? No, because simply I don't trust her. I don't trust her relationship with her wealthy ex- and motives therein. I don't trust her jumping the Republican ship to take the moral high ground in search of political power. It's easy enough to criticize, more difficult to step in and run things (which is why you won't see me on the ballot - yet). Sorry Arianna, stick to writing and being a political thorn.


Peter Ueberroth. I was surprised to see his name in the list of candidates. He entered quietly and will likely leave the same way. He could've been a contender if this were a normal election. I think of him in a Riordan mold - businessman with tight connections but then I wonder whose interests he works for. He won't get my vote.


Honestly, I don't like any of the candidates. Worse, no matter which one wins I'll be facing higher taxes and a doubtful reduction of bureaucratic idiocy. How long before California seeks salvation through invasians of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona? Lebensraum!

Kids and Cartoons

Raising kids can be rewarding. Watching classic cartoons like Bugs Bunny (and the other great Warner Brothers charatcers), Rocky and Bullwinkle, Scooby-Doo, and others and seeing the kids enjoy them as much as I did the first time around. But you can't raise kids in the past and there is some good stuff on Saturday mornings. I'm partial to X-Men, Jackie Chan, Recess, and - *ahem* - Lizzie Maguire, and my kids will watch those. But there are two shows that they *HAVE* to watch.


One is Pokemon. No problem - it's a decent show with some subtle moments. Brock is a hormone case. Ash is clueless. Misty is growing a hot streak for Brock. Jessie, well, Jessie is da bomb! Oh yes, and Pikachu is painfully cute. I don't mind watching this show with the kids. I root for Team Rocket and my kids look at me funny but then they think Dad's a bit off anyways. We have some of the Pokemon videos and I'll even play the card game with them. I just have to remind myself not to think of Nikki Cox as Jessie. Nikki Cox...Jessie...Nikki Cox...Jessie...


The other show that they have to watch is Yu-Gi-Oh. This one gets me and I can sum it in one word - posturing. Watching two characters duel their cards on TV, I think, is supposed to be like two samurai dueling. The idea being that the samurai go out state their name and heritage, show some respect towards each other, and then duel to the death. On Yu-Gi-Oh it's like watching tow teenage boys do everything but whip out their dicks for size comparison. Come to think of it that's what they should do on the show - it'd sure shorten the duels:

Yu-Gi-Oh - "I may be small but my voice is deep and my dick is big."

Joey - "I concede!"

A typical duel usually follows this script. One duelist plays a monster - it's big, it's bad, it's powerful. The second duelist plays a bigger monster. Back and forth for a while until you get the traps kicking in.

Duelist One: "I knew you would play that Blue Eyes, Green Tail, Purple Ass Dragon and that's why I set this trap..."

Duelist Two: "Nooooooo...."

Duelist One: "That's right. Gorgon Mirror causes your dragon's offense and defense to reverse..."

Duelist Two: "Hah! I knew you'd pull something lame like that and I set *this* trap card..."

Duelist One: "Noooooo...."

Duelist Two: "You're going down. Hammer of Everlasting Strength crushes your mirror thus reverting my dragon's power to normal..."

Duelist One: "Got you! You fell right into my double-secret trap which works on alternate Tuesdays...:

Duelist Two: (shaking in fear) "It's an alternate Tuesday..."

Duelist One: "That's right and that's why you're going down. My Yellow Viagra Tequila Shooter guarantees that my dick will not only be bigger than yours but will stay up longer. You're life points are 0."

Duelist Two: (with shame) "I have a small dick."

And why the hell does Yu-Gi-Oh's voice change when he's talking versus thinking?

Looks like ZBlogger isn't dead. Heck, looks like I'll be maintaining 2 sites - just in case.

It looks like ZBlogger is somewhat dead. Now I'm back here. I liked the ZBlogger interface and speed. OTOH, with Google buying Blogger maybe I'll get more readers.


In any case, if you have the urge to read the ZBlogger postings here they are:

AFTER LIFE

A games newsgroup had awhile back a discussion of how theistic religions do a poor job of "proving" their deities exist or that even the deities care enough to interfere. Someone commented that the proof is irrelevent - that life is a test to determine whether one is worthy enough for an afterlife.

Bull.

Hell, heaven, afterlife...what does is matter. If there were ANY type of after life that based itself on your current life your best bet would be die as an innocent. Nothing more innocent than a baby or an unborn fetus.

Which means abortion is not bad.

If an afterlife depends on you living out a normal life and somehow making 'correct' choices - you will fail the test because life is full of "lose-lose" choices. That *IS* life - easy choices, hard choices.

If an afterlife does NOT depend on your behavior in this current life then this life is not a test.

Even simpler - why bother with life if it becomes a test for another life? Will the afterlife be a test for another life?
Will it ever end? Why is our population growing if all we're doing is reliving lives?

If the afterlife is so damn great why doesn't everyone up and kill themselves?

The answer is...

There is no afterlife.

*THIS* is it for life.

And from that we know that life is so very precious.

We know that from our reactions to holding a newborn and from recoiling from death. We crave life. We don't want death - we want eternal life. Science pursues extending life. Religion seeks clean, moral deaths.

TV THEMES

Informal poll to see if anyone actually comes here.

Email me with your votes for the 5 best TV/cartoon show themes in two categories: with words and without words.

Here are my votes:

With words:

Laverne and Shirley

Courtship of Eddies Father

Superchicken

Addams Fmaily

Gilligans Island

Without words:

Mission Impossible

Hawaii 5-0

Hogans Heroes

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Here come the Brides

07/30/2003

MY SENTIMENTS EXACTLY

Randi on Denying Religion

Sure, religion provides a forum for community but so does a bowling league. When's the last time you saw a bowling league set an abortion clinic on fire or blow up a temple (or anything other than a BBQ)?

Sure, some religions promote charities but there are many charities without religious dogma attached.

Sure, America was founded by non-atheists but they recognized how quickly combining religion and politics can end up in disaster, hence the separation between church and state.

Organized Religions are a lot like corporations. They are means to to an end, ideally a monopoly of a product line, service sector, behavior of a group of people. And like corporations, religious groups are NOT entities. They can not exist without people. Point being that within these groups you have the well-off leaders/CEOs and the not-so-well-off sheep/workers.

I have to stop now. It's get too depressing thinking about how this all ties together - organized religions, politics, corporations - and how your average joe/josephine is essentially born into a life of servitude. Passover never happened!

RELIGIOUS FUN!

Landover Baptist

and it's ironic twin

Objective: Christian Ministries

Maybe I'm not the only one who sees organized religions as more of a threat than organized crime to damn near everything. Certainly organized religion is more pervasive, influential, and financially successful. So crime doesn't pay but being a religious fanatic just might.

ON THE OTHER HAND

Weird thoughts lately. With over 6 billion people on this planet and growing, will we run out of original ideas? My line of thought has been if that everyone copyrighted everything they did, eventually we'd run out of originality. Of course, this won't happen. It takes too long and too much money to correctly copyright something here and abroad.

But the thought of a basic unit of originality. No one is going copyright "the" or "the boy" but someone may have a fit over "the boy stood on the burning deck". Or, more obvious, look at advertising and branding. Companies have massive shits (and lawsuits) if someone uses their word or phrase.

"Share the moment..", "the joy of...","Reach out.." - common phrases are in danger of becoming lost to the marketeers and lawyers. How long before we have to watch what we say and pay when we do say it?

"Joe! How are you?"

"Not well. Problems at home with the kids. I can't communicate with them."

"Joe, I've told you before you have to think young (tm)."

"True (tm)!"

"You can't be so rigid with them. Go with it (tm). It's a beautiful thing (tm) you have with your children."

"True (tm)!"

"You need to communicate with them. Talk, they'll listen (tm). Smile (tm)."

"You're right!"

"Is it in you (tm)?"

You get the idea and all the while you're talking imagine a little corporate monkey standing there with his hand out. Every trademark, copyright, or brand infringement you pay out.

It's one way to kill freedom of speech.

07/29/2003

OCT 7 - A VOTE FOR STUPIDITY

On October 7 in California we get to hold a recall election. Our Governer Gray Davis faces the boot and deservedly so. He is a very visible figure of all that is wrong with politics - a person beholden to himself and his cronies, who is unqualified and incapable of leadership, who says all the things that sound just right but mean nothing. In other words, he is a modern politician much in the pattern of President Bush (except without Big Daddy in the background).

The scary part is that Davis truly was the lesser of two evils. Davis ran against Bill Simon who, amazingly enough, is and was an even more odious character. I desperately wanted to vote third party but I felt that if I didn't vote for Davis then Simon would win and that was terrifying. So another vote for Davis and he won.

And now the recall. This recall isn't about doing the right thing and ousting Davis. Instead it's a Republican test of power. This test will cost us California taxpayers upwards of $30 million dollars, money we don't have. But the Republicans don't care. This is a new tactic and if it works we will see more of it. The Republican have, unfortunately for the U.S., gotten wise to their power and influence. Lose an election? Big deal - mount a recall no matter what the cost and get in one of ours. Or at the very least embroil the winner in scandal and lawsuits.

And the Democrats give in. They see the power and influence and they want some too. But they won't fight for it. No, they'll line up like sheep and see if the Republicans will throw some scraps their way. Consider Bush and Iraq. Congress lined up all neat and pretty and let Bush invade. Now with the media and the public forum questioning Bush's motives and evidence for the invasion, now we hear bleatings from the Democrats. It's safe for them to speak.

The Democrats have no backbone, no cajones. The Republicans seek only the throne. Third parties - I wish but forget it. We're a one party system now. Short of a major revolution we won't see change. So say goodbye all true Americans. Your liberties and freedom are quickly becoming only cherished memories.

Now back to work. You have to make your quota of bricks without straw.

07/25/2003

SING "HEIL!" TO THE REPUBLICANS

It gets so infuriating! The calls for impeachment for Bush are slowly gaining momentum. At least one Democratic nominee is "exploring" the possibility, meaing if his poll numbers look better supporting that issue then he'll support it. And right there is a problem of our political system: no backbone for the right thing.

Clinton lied about his little dalliance and the Republicans focused on little else. Bush lied about the justifications for war and the Democrats are waiting for the poll numbers to come in. They should be hammering this issue until election day. They should force Bush to accept responsibility for his actions at the very least. And certainnly the impeachment process should be started. Bush has proven himself a great provider to his friends but a horrible President. His concept of morality and ethics is completely self-serving and skewed.

Sure, knocking Hussein out of power may have been the right thing. If Bush had said something like "We're going into Iraq to knock out Hussein and take the oil." that would have pissed people off but at least it's truthful. Instead we got this baloney about Weapons of Mass Destruction, support for Al Qaeda, and trolling for uranium - all reasons proven outright wrong.

But, as I've said previously, Bush and likely the Republicans don't really care about truth. In todays Los Angeles Times (Mon 7/21) there was a nice front page article about how the Republicans are on the verge of becoming a political majority. On the verge? Heck, they are past that point. Many of the Democrats, Lieberman for example, are closet Republicans. The corporate stink is everywhere in Washington. Halliburton et al should just add Washington D.C. to their lists of offices. The Republicans have won. Greed has won. The United States of America is no longer. It's now:

The United States of America, Inc.

In Wisconsin the Republicans are threatening Democrats from airing a commercial questioning Bush's Iraq motivations. So much for free speech if the Repubs successfully block the airing. But, hold on folks, there's going to be plenty more where that came from! The Repubs have the money and they are not afraid to use it.

Which brings me to my final thought: If Jesus were alive today, which political party would he join? I doubt it would be the Republicans.

07/21/2003

SUMMERTIME BLUES

The Summertime Blues have hit. Between the daily grind of work, taking care of house and kids, and an oppressive heat, summer reinforces the feeling of being trapped in a rut. It wasn't that long ago that summer meant a freedom - no school - but bicycling with friends along the beach, a drive somewhere just because, an all-night game session, or making horrible films.

Now there's too much to do, not enough energy to do it, and just too damn hot. It makes reading the news less tolerable, hence my heightened venom towards our janus-faced government. In Santa Monica an elderly motorist drove through a crowded street market, killing and injuring many. I should be in shock; I used to live in Santa Monica and still have many friends and relatives there, but after hearing the news I felt like "OK, next crisis." Freaking 102 degrees out. I'm tired from work. Kids are behaving like the Mongol Horde on amphetamines.

I've been to Wednesday market in Santa Monica. It's small but very nice, smack in the middle of the pedestrian mall and only two blocks from the cliffs overlooking the Pacific. That was one of my stomping grounds. Before the mall became euro-trendy, the whole area was quiet - literally. No major chain stores, except for J.C. Penney at one end, Sears at the other, and Newberry's right in the middle. Then came years of nothing: empty fronts, bums, elderly, and not quite so safe. Boom! A rebuilding, new stores, and the mall took off. It became a mini-Venice with weird entertainment, hordes of visitors, and Santa Monica (the City) turned into a Hollywood enclave ("Hello Ahnold!")

But now with the accident the image will be tarnished. The open-air market will have a fear, a bad memory hanging over it. People will look and point - There! That's where it happened. And Santa Monica - my Santa Monica - will have blood stains that just won't come off.

It's still hot out but tolerable - swim time. The kids are quiet for now. I can breathe but yet all I feel are the Summertime Blues.

TOO MUCH

After awhile it becomes too much. The commercialism which translates into Bullshitting for Bucks. Ads in the paper, on radio, on tv - with the truth ever so cleverly hidden or outright avoided. Waffle words abound. This treatment MAY get rid of your condition. Our rates ARE AMONG the lowest. Your satisfaction guaranteed or your money back (some restrictions apply).

Caveat Emptor. Let the buyer beware. You gotta be sharp, keep on your toes at all times. They're out to screw you over, separate you from your dollars. Keep your hands on your wallet. Get it in writing.

That's the life lessons for Americans and likely most of the world. Businesses will do anything to achieve their profit. As consumers we have a simple option. We can opt not to buy a product. But - darn the advertising - maybe car will get my zoomzoom zooming, maybe that shampoo will give me multiple orgasms, maybe, maybe, maybe all of my problems can be fixed through this cereal or that yogurt...

And now I feel like our government is playing the same game. "What we say is not what you'll get." You almost expect Bush to be wearing a shirt advertising for Bechtel, or Cheney displaying the Halliburton logo on his duds. Our boys sold enough lies about Iraq to the world to make their quote many times over. They'll be getting a fat bonus in their paychecks come the winter holidays. "Sure, there's Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. We'll find them when we're damn good and ready!" "Uranium?!? Hussein was thinking about buying uranium...and that's bad!"

The problem is that we can't opt out. We can't withhold our tax dollars. We don't have a choice. We pay our taxes and the government spends it any way they want. It'd be nice to vote on where the tax dollars go. Do we need another aircraft carrier when that money could salvage darn near all the school districts in the country? Our military budget could shrink considerably if we cultivated and worked with ally nations instead of cheesing everyone off. "Bush, it's called Diplomacy."

(*sigh*)

Perhaps our government should come with a disclaimer: "Contents liable to shift."

07/17/2003

$5 BILLION SERVED

I caught an interview with Rumsfeld yesterday on TV. Would someone please get him his martini or whiskey sour. God, what a scary person and that's before he opens his mouth. Anyway. He was being questioned about Iraq (what else?) and one of the questions was about the cost. He replied that he wasn't sure but Iraq was running about $4 billion dollars per day and Afghanistan a little under a billion per day.

$5 billion dollars per day.

And bin Laden and Hussein are still alive.

$5 billion dollars per day.

And our government isn't quite sure if that's the right amount. Could be less (doubtful). Could be more. Likely it's more - a lot more.

Where's the money going to? Assume the invasion startup costs aren't included in that figure and that the $5 billion is daily costs. Assume we're talking about 100,000 troops which is way to high a number. That's still $50,000 per troop PER DAY.

So where's the money going to?

How about those open-ended contracts with Halliburton, Bechtel, et al.? Who's paying them. We are. ANd when will those contracts end? No one knows - they're open-ended.

Open-ended contracts plus $5 billion dollars per day expenditures. Some CEOs are mighty, MIGHTY happy right now.

07/10/2003

MONEY TALKS, BUSH WALKS

As Corporate America and the Republicans finalize the takeover of Government America we can only shudder at the future. How quickly will we become a one party nation? Let's face it, the Republicans by being cushy with Corporate America control the money. Control the money, you control the Government. Is it no surprise that the rich get richer and the poor poorer? Is it no surprise that the "trickle down" economy isn't trickling down but laterally? We pay our taxes and the money goes for such nice things as open-ended contracts with Halliburton. Not education - no, no, no. The populace must be kept ignorant and dependent on TV for information (because Corporate America runs the media). An ignorant population means the Armed Forces become an attractive solution for young 'uns. Strong military and strong businesses means U.S. Number 1 - Yay!!!
"Might Makes Right" - anybody still believe this not the Washington mindset?

Uranium-Thy Name Is Mud

And yet another untruth from the Bush Crowd. The news that Iraq was seeking uranium from an African nation was a forgery. But, according to Bush, it's irrelevent because Hussein still posed a threat to the world, and hence our invasion still stands as justified.

ALL of the justifications for the invasion of Iraq - ALL OF THEM - have been shown to be fabrications. No Weapons of Mass Destruction. No Uranium. Nothing. And without them Iraq posed no threat to the U.S. (much less the world). We knew it then, protested, and were labelled unpatriotic. Patriotism in the U.S. therefore means blindly following the leader without questioning motives.

Many people are wondering whether Bush knew that the data justifying his invasion was erroneous. Of course he did. But it was in his best interests - not ours - to invade. He had everything to gain and absolutely nothing to lose. Really. Iraq has been very good for Bush's business partners. The invasion helped our economy as do most war economies in the U.S. Iraq upped his popularity.

So Bush cheesed off a few allies. We got to demonstrate our military strength and that will keep them in line. Heck, if the military threat doesn't shut up France, Germany, and Russia the business angle certainly will. They had some nice Iraqi oil contracts lined up. Guess who owns them now? Pucker up Allies!

So Bush lied. Big deal. At most it will cost him the 2004 election and it will give the Republicans four years to screw over the Democrats. And, if you notice, Bush is trying to subtly change his former positions: Hussein wasn't a threat to the U.S. he was a threat to the World. Hussein didn't have Weapons of Mass Destruction, he had the potential of producing such weapons. Hussein didn't support Al Qaeda, he supported terrorism. Bush doesn't lie, he tells truths based on erroneous data.

The wordplay is simple crisis management except there's no real crisis. Bush isn't worried about what he's doing. He doesn't give a flying. His business partners have lucrative contracts. His election campaign fund probably has more money than all the Democrats combined. He has Daddy to guide him. He gets to give orders like a big person. What does it matter that our President is an incompetent, lying, corrupt boob.

Here in California the Republicans are trying to recall Governor Davis. Since we're on a wave of accountability and righteousness how about a national push to impeach Bush?

07/09/2003