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:

And right off the bat we made our first and second mistakes. By waiting too long we couldn't avail ourselves of the full power of the AAA travel agents. Lesson learned: give yourself plenty of planning time.

Second mistake was booking through the Disneyland site. We saved some money by not staying at any of the Disney hotels proper but after we hit the confirm button on our reservation, we then spent the time to price our room and tickets separately. We found that we could have saved $300 if not more by booking our hotel room through the hotel web site (or AAA) and buying the Disney passes through Costco. Stupid us.

Recently I finished a book about Disneyland and all the hidden stuff therein. One of the points it made was that the difference between the Disney Era compared to the Eisner Era is that Disney was concerned about the guests having a good time. Eisner's focus was on the guests leaving with empty pockets.

I can see how true that is today. I grew up with Disneyland during the time of the A-E tickets and when they first brought out the passes. You could do Disneyland in a day - no problem - and go on all the favorite rides. But not any more. By expanding the park and adding California Adventure you have to spend at least two days, if not more, to do things right. I fear that for my kids Disneyland won't have that special homey feel that I remember. Instead it'll be just another amusement park. Run! Get in line and wait for 40 minutes. Do the ride. RUN!

Of course, to make the experience more efficient we could pay for special passes but that's my point. The Disney magic comes with a steep price and for Joe Ordinary like myself, I don't want to pay it. Nor, I think, is that what Disney intended when he built the place. I know my kids won't be growing up with Disneyland the way I did.

Bush: Leaving Iraq now would be disaster

By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent 

WASHINGTON -President Bush said Monday the Iraq war is "straining the 
psyche of our country" but leaving now would be a disaster. 

Yes, to leave Iraq now would be a distaster. But to stay would be a bigger disaster. Bush doesn't get that but, then again, his friends are making sure those blinders are tight and snug.

For the U.S. I'd nominate and insist that George W. go as our valiant leader and Christian-Warrior supreme. Go Georgy! Lead your neo-cons down the path of righteousness to victory over the heathen scum. Kill! Maim! Slay!

(Push the button, Max!)

On a lighter, more cerebral note I recommend "Germinal" by Emile Zola. This books was written about 60 years before Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" but the topics are similar, namely fairness for workers. It was a great book but apparently it's one in a series of twenty. I don't know if I can handle 6,000 more pages but it's sure tempting considering the quality of writing. But, first, I want to finish the collected stories of Kafka. All I can say about Kafka is that he's so Kafka.

What irks me is that there is so much emphasis by Bush on terrorism that greater threats to us are overlooked: pollution, crime, car accidents, gun accidents, smoking, and so on. Terrorism, frankly, doesn't register as a concern. It doesn't affect me but could. On the other hand, the new airline rules do have a more immediate effect. The covert eavesdropping by our Government does pose more of intrusion into our lives than terrorism.

In short, we have more to fear from our own Government than terrorists. That ain't right; that ain't America.

Bush sees terrorism war 'for years to come'

MCLEAN, United States (AFP) -
President George W. Bush pointed to last week's alleged plot in Britain to bomb 
US-bound airliners as evidence that the US-led war on terrorism will last "for 
years to come."

"America is safer than it has been, but it is not yet safe," Bush said after 
meeting with senior national security aides and touring the US National Counter-
Terrorism Center (NCTC) just outside of Washington.

Bush, flanked by homeland security adviser Fran Townsend, director for 
national intelligence John Negroponte, and CIA chief Michael Hayden, thanked 
the NCTC staff, pointing to their "good work" with British counterparts in 
thwarting the alleged airline bomb plot last week.

"The work going on here really is indicative of the challenge we face, not only 
this week, but this year and the years to come," in the global war on terrorism 
sparked by the September 11, 2001 attacks, said Bush.

The president, suffering in the polls because of sky-high gas prices and the 
unpopular war in Iraq, was on the second day of a week-long push on national 
security and the economy, two critical issues in the November 7 vote.

Historically, Bush's Republicans have enjoyed an edge over Democrats on 
national security, but a few recent polls have called that into question and the 
opposition party seems eager to make the most of the issue.

The campaign-style push comes one month before the fifth anniversary of the 
September 11 terrorist strikes and one week after the news of the alleged 
conspiracy in London to bomb US-bound airliners with liquid explosives.

"The enemy has got an advantage when it comes to attacking our homeland. 
They've got to be right one time, and we've got to be right 100 percent of the 
time to protect the American people," said the president.

"I'm proud to report that there's a lot of good folks that are working hard to see 
to it that we're right 100 percent of the time," added Bush.

Regarding the Mideast Ceasefire...that Hezbollah, Iran, and Syria are claiming a victory is not unexpected. But for Bush to declare Israel the victor is downright stupid. How is that diplomatic? How will that help keep a peace? Instead the U.S. should have stated a more neutral position claiming that neither side won because simply neither side did win. The body bags tell that story. Bush should be muzzled.

About the blurb above and point number two...so the U.S. has two wars without end: drugs and terrorism. How convenient then that the onerous laws passed in support of such wars are essentially permanent. All the laws allowing searches based on mere suspicion, wiretaps, etc. are set up for the third "War without End", namely the "War against Indecency". We've seen the opening broad sides with the reprisals for Janet Jackson's wardrobe "malfunction". We have the V-chip appearing in TV's, ratings on everything. Next up will be the final push to control our information for decency's sake. It won't be called censorship, it'll be called decency filtering or some such buzz phrase. It'll be for our safety.

And that's the third point. The Bush cabal wants you to think that safety must be gained at the sake of freedom, or phrased differently, it's freedom vs. safety. But the two aren't opposites. The opposite of freedom is imprisonment and as they take away more of our liberties, we must therefore become more imprisoned. Are we more safe? Let's put it this way, how many of you would voluntarily go to a Federal prison to be more safe? None of you, I bet, because our prisons are incredibly dangerous. To be safe doesn't mean you have to give up freedoms. It does mean you have to be smart, responsible, alert, and respectful. But thiese are the Bush years so those qualities don't apply.

Bruin football starts in a month but no one will notice because USC football starts at the same time. What new Trojan scandals will we see this year? My knives are sharpened.

Two paragraphs without mentioning Bush. That's a new personal best. But it's too depressing. Last year I thought Bush couldn't get any worse or act more incompetent. Boy, was I wrong. I think this guy is hellbent on getting Armageddon going - seriously! That's what the Religious Right wants - a Master War in the Mid-East so that Judgement Day occurs and Bush gets to ride a white stallion at the side of Jesus, or some lunatic fantasy like that.

It's all bloodshed - more stupid, unnecessary, religious-based bloodshed. It's to the point where they fight because they don't know any other way to live. Democracy isn't the answer in that case. They need a touch of humanity. Notice I haven't specified which side this would apply to - both could use the touch.

And the recent British interruption of a major potential act of terrorism... Why, if the bad guys have been caught are they subjecting the rest of us to these onerous rules and regulations? They didn't have the rules when they caught the bad guys, why impose them now? It doesn't make sense. I guess Bush and Blair want to show they're on top of things, maybe get their approval ratings out of the toilet.

The best way to show terrorists the beauty of Freedom and Democracy is to have unfettered Freedom and Democracy. Anything else shows the terrorists have won and are arguably on the side of the current ruling Regime. Or, put in plain English, Bush needs and wants terrorists. With them, he can justify passing and/or breaking any law. The proof is in our existence.

One more time: Impeach Bush!

They're not. Either the civil war that's occuring is going to get worse and take a lot of our soldiers in the process, or the country may split apart, fight amongst themsleves and still take a lot of our soldiers in the process. Iraq stinks and we need to get out.

We shouldn't have invaded in the first place. Doing so gave Iran the breathing room to spread their wings (and armaments) and now look. The Mid-East isn't in any better shape and the World isn't any safer. But what can you expect when you have a semi-literate, (possibly recovering) alcoholic, no-nothing, malleable puppet for a leader as we do.

At least, Lieberman got his neo-conservative ass whooped. Democrat! He's as Democratic as Falwell.

So what did he do? Did he flip me off? No, I bet he didn't even know that what he did was an act of provocation.

What he did was, simply, throw his used, lit cigarette butt out his car window, where it landed on the ground and started gently rolling with the wind. The cigarette was still lit and letting off a thin wisp of smoke.

Here's why his little act cheesed me off: