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In
with the Old... (12/29/00)
The black funk railway pulled into my station last week and doesnt
seem ready to leave any time soon. Christmas 2000 was the unhappiest I
have ever known, and my mood slid downhill from there. Yesterday I tried
to write myself out of it, ticklin the ivories, hoping to generate
some sort of positive alternatives on the screen before me. Alas. This
morning, Linda asked if Id been successful. I allowed as how I hadnt.
Bits
& Pieces (12/28/00)
The local fishwrap that would pretend in vain to be a
newspaper had bottomed out again. Why, you might ask, if I complain so
incessantly about this birdcage liner do I read it? And the answer, to
be blunt, is that Linda checks the obituaries to see if any of her
deadbeat clients has checked out. The other day, above an old story
about the right to sell Nazi memorabilia on the Internet, they carried
the following headline: Yahoo! fights for Reich to sell.
Zero
Tolerance, Times Seven (12/27/00)
Our system of putting people to death would be ridiculous on its
face if it werent so tragically mired in failure. Not only do we kill
the wrong people, but it takes more than ten years of appeals at a cost
of over a million dollars to get the job done, right or wrong. How
ironic, when the crime for which they should lose their lives was likely
committed in a matter of minutes for a handful of change.
Happy
Boxing Day (12/26/00)
In the United States, it is frequently the day that the megastores
announce whether or not they made their Christmas sales projections, or
if they got their ears boxed, as apparently happened this year. Seems as
though despite a full weekend of shopping on the day before Christmas
which should normally augur well that folks didnt and the
tills clanged less enthusiastically than the prayerful retailers would
have liked.
Behind
the Headlines (12/25/00)
Ya gotta think Fox or MSNBC or one of those other clutzy networks
was the dominant news outlet back some two thousand years ago when this
whole Christmas thing started, considering how much they left out. And
it was only after a diligent if remarkably boring researcher screened
all of the old tapes that some of the unreported if interesting facts
about the story actually came to light.
Don't
Get This (12/22/00)
Now we are alone together, and knocking on deaths door, asking
for asylum. I would just like to note that until I was struck down in
the prime of life, I thought I was doing quite well, getting exercise
and sleep in appropriate measure, drinking lots of orange juice, and
humbly feeling somewhat holier than the rest. I dont like going out
much in public, especially in crowds of hoi polloi; Im not confident
that They are taking care of themselves properly. Plus they all insist
on breathing.
Winners
& Losers (12/21/00)
I was on AOL and it said there was a poll about the Supreme Court
vote. I clicked in and then where it asked if I thought the Supremes did
themselves ill, I clicked yes. But rather than registering my vote, I
got a screen that said my computer wasnt accepting cookies. And, it
said, it wouldnt accept my vote unless I accepted its cookie. Kinda
sums it up, doesnt it?
Freezing
in the Dark (12/20/00)
The larger questions which generally are not asked during times
of actual crisis are why wasnt this problem foretold to people
who would have to do something about it, and who is pocketing the tens
of billions of dollars in ridiculous and somehow-unpredicted skyrockets?
Or as Deep Throat told the Watergate sleuths, "Follow the
money." At the end of the Gray-ing rainbow, youll find people
who could have prevented the problem, people who were also major
political campaign contributors, sitting atop a fetid mountain of greed.
Reflections
of the Garden Isle (12/19/00)
The greatest treasure of our trip was Naui, who ran the Shirt Shack.
She is one of those wingless-type angels who show up every now and then
on your path -- if youre being particularly good. An extraordinary
being who radiates such joy and purpose as to take your breath away,
Naui is from the "mysterious" island, and she produced the
leis made from the special shells. Being the only people in the shop,
the three of us walked and talked through the aisles and across the
racks of clothes, connecting in an unusually strong, warm, and rich
fashion.
Bits
& Pieces
(12/18/00)
The people who make things out of plastic continue their
proselytizing on the radio about how indispensable plastic is and its
used in everything and where would we be without it. As if people really
needed to hear it. I mean, you dont find a lot of people saying they
wont buy anything because its made of or wrapped in plastic. They
wouldnt be buying anything at all since plastic is ubiquitous. So why
spend the money on the announcements?
Schlock
for the Flock
(12/15/00)
Of course, theres a temptation to buy this over-priced trash as a
joke, but you really shouldnt encourage them. You dont want to
hurt their feelings, or interrupt them as they separate the mindless
from their money. Kinda like the home shopping networks, which priced
their omnium-gatherum so high that they were forced to announce every
now and then something to the effect that no one with a double-digit IQ
would pay this much. Which is only a step above sending money to
televangelists. The fleecing of the flock, as it were.
Supreme
Disappointment (12/14/00)
The eminent Constitutional scholar Ron Rotunda notes that right
outside the nations capital, in Alexandria County, Virginia, they
have a voting system that actually works, coming up with the same count
every time. Its a little more expensive, but it prevents mistakes
like voting for two candidates. One wonders if the reason we dont
spend enough to make the process idiot-proof is because those in charge
want to filter out that segment of the population that screws up their
ballots. One wag says its pretty obvious to him that Democrats are
dumber and thus have more of their ballots tossed. Isnt that what
Gore was effectively saying happened in Florida?
[Transcript
Released] (12/13/00)
"Hi, this is Sandra OConnor. Im here with Justice
Kennedy, and we were wondering if you have a minute to talk?"
"Most certainly," Sri Naim said
humbly. "I guess I dont have to ask whats on your
minds."
Five
from the Orphans' Closet
(12/12/00)
The lawyer for The Wooden One was traipsing through the Florida
court system and was no doubt a very tired boy when the photographer
caught him with his mouth agape in extremis. The picture made
front pages and newcasts all across the country, and probably dropped
Gores support numbers by five points. And it called to mind the
on-point observation by Rebecca West a number of years ago, when the
British writer said, "There is no wider gulf in the universe than
yawns between those on the hither and thither side of vital
experience."
Sloppy
But Sound (12/11/00)
The issue boils down to this: if all of the ballots are properly
counted that is, if the intentions of the voters of the
machine-rejected ballots are fairly assessed then we should wind up
with accurate results. Where the local election officials are in dispute
over a particular ballot, they can hand it along to a judge. There are
not that many in dispute to make the task impossible, but there are more
than enough to raise vital questions about a process that functionally
excludes tens of thousands of ballots cast on site.
Proper
Homage (12/8/00)
The Navy knew of the vulnerability of Pearl, but chose to ignore it.
Years earlier, one of their own staged a mock attack against the ships
in the harbor and the planes on the field. It also took place early on a
Sunday morning. Of course, the officer who created the demonstration
suffered injury to his career, and we lost 2400 men, five battleships,
and 200 planes when the Japanese did attack.
Winter
Blossoms (12/7/00)
December descends on the northern end of the Sacramento Valley in
its own way on its own time. This year, there are still many trees full
of brightly-colored leaves, while others have lost all of their foliage
to the winds and rain. But you know that the first fingers of winter
have already taken hold in the chill air and the retreating sunshine.
While there are still some days when its comfortable to ply the daily
constitutional in shirt sleeves, the shirt is flannel.
The
Math Myth (12/6/00)
Finally in the nature of numbers, there was the story of a woman in
Florida claiming that the stress of the erstwhile vote count had sent
her to the emergency room not once but twice. Considering that there was
less than nothing null, zero, nada, zip that this woman could
have done about the situation, ya gotta think that one trip to the
hospital should have been enough.
Family
Values (12/5/00)
Compassionate non-conservatives otherwise known as do-gooders
devote most of their waking hours to providing for the hungry,
homeless, ailing, looney, and otherwise needy. Meanwhile, people who dont
get their share accuse everyone else of being racist, sexist, ageist, or
otherwise discriminatory. And those with slim hopes counsel us to be
more tolerant? Tolerant? How remarkably condescending!
Scraps
(12/4/00)
I would probably also be breathless if I watched "Titans",
a prime-time paean to erectile flaccidity. Promoted as "power,
passion and dysfunction", this shows gotta have all the
take-away value of cotton candy in a hurricane. Its all about sex-n-violence,
only some of it is so absurd that you cant take it seriously. Of
course, the questions arises, limply, what can you take seriously on
television, and the answer has to be very little.
Courting
Disaster (12/3/00)
Wouldnt it have been grand to hear a wise voice declare that the
fundamental right to vote will always surpass any issue of how that
ballot is cast? How extraordinary it would have been for one of the
black-robed nine to speak to the need of the American people to come
together, instead of be further pulled apart? Someone to observe that
neither candidate had shown himself worthy of being president and that
the American people were essentially split on which might do less
damage.
Stone
Soup (12/1/00)
I infer that the younger years were not a complete failure, though
miscues that result in total public humiliation are, at any age, better
left forgotten. The unmitigated disasters of later years stay with me,
in case my humility quotient ever drops too low, though as the years
pass, they tend not to poke so deeply into the semi-flated ego.
Items
(11/30/00)
Now on the one hand you might feel like saying, Toss him in the
pokey and lose the key. But when you think about it, what difference
does it make to the rest of us that he is taking these drugs, in the
privacy of his own room, other than it is against the law, and its a
waste of some considerable acting talent, as well as of a human being?
Hunker
in the Bunker (11/29/00)
Its hard to say whose visage would be more difficult to take for
four years. The pasty pedantry of Gore would have done wonders for the
bulimic community. While the smarmy smirking Bush should close the knees
of every mothers daughter. No wonder neither of them was a clear
winner. Few of those who cast ballots did so for their candidate, but
mostly in opposition to the opposition.
It's
Not about Hate (11/28/00)
My sister Jennifer wonders that I hate Bill Clinton. I dont. I
dont hate anyone. There are some fellow human beings like Billy Jeff
who have squandered enormous opportunity; people like Slick Willie who
have trashed a trust; unformed youth like the Boy from Hope who for his
own mixed up reasons has played The Great Wastrel through decades of
power. I dont hate him; I rue the loss of what might have been.
The
Madding Crowd (11/27/00)
Perhaps for the act of kindness on my part, the universe showed its
glory by placing me behind only one other person at Manhattan Bagel,
where Id gone to secure a freezerly supply of sesame bagels for my
darling wife. And, are you ready for this, the woman who was in front of
me asked me to go to the head of the line, so to speak, because she was
still deciding. I graciously accepted, and minutes later found myself on
the road home. In light traffic.
Life
as a Metaphor (11/24/00)
One of the ironies of exploring the metaphors of life is that most
become clear without effort. In fact, the more one demands clarity, the
more difficult it often is to see the truth. Its kinda like being
able to see better out of the corner of your eye at night. The other
alternative is to wait for the meaning to make itself apparent, usually
with in a bolt out of the blue. Say goodnight, brain.
Why's
and Who-For's (11/23/00)
Happy Thanksgiving
I believe that there is a larger reality that oversees our lives. When
we are on the path, we encounter very few bumps. When we are headed in a
wrong direction, we run into obstacles that tend to move us back to
where we are supposed to go. A plane might be delayed, a phone call
missed, or we might get ill and not be able to make a meeting. There are
also those occasions when we are ready to move to another level and we
get positive input, often from a guide.
Bits
& Pieces (11/22/00)
CNN, which surely must stand CrapNotNews, insists on reading on the air
viewer comments posted on their websites. Usually theres one from
each of the Gore and Bush camps their version of balance but
their selections seem to require neither intellect or even facts. Worse,
they are hyping a poll which informs us that 40% of the Bush supporters
wont accept Al Gore if hes anointed our next president. Right, and
what are they gonna do? Join the Montana mutant militia?
Book
'em, Dummo (11/21/00)
I was brought up in a large house which center of activity other
than the kitchen was the library. It was where my mother wrote and
my father read and the children were tolerated if they were quiet, which
wasnt much fun for the children, but it was a big house so we could
find entertainment elsewhere. And it wasnt in front of the television
set, which we had at sufferance for major world events, and not for
numbing the cranium.
Crayfish
Conspiracy (11/20/00)
The truth is that the networks were not in conspiracy, except that they
are mostly cut from the same capitalist cloth. They wanted to be first.
They got some misreported numbers which they, ergo, interpreted
incorrectly, and bang-zoom, Lil Al was gonna be prexy-next. The greater
concern that The Gumbo Brain was never likely to grok and wouldnt
want to if he could is that the people who control the network
newscasts arent concerned with such trivialities of choosing who will
be in the White House; it doesnt matter to them. They are in charge
at a higher level.
Off
the Clock (11/17/00)
Vacations are about much more than taking a break from work, or not
having to go to the office. For us, they are an opportunity to explore
other parts of the planet see new vistas, learn about different
cultures, enjoy new tastes, smells and sounds. And to have the time to
discover new places inside.
Media
Culpa (11/15/00)
The reason why we are in this muddle and thats truly all this is
is that the news media have failed to do their job. For more than
twenty years, they have spoon-fed us sizzle when we needed steak, and
their reporting and our listening have badly corrupted the system. The
now-seasoned practices of the networks and their lessers have delivered
to us the deplorable choice of Bush-Lite versus The Wooden One. Wouldnt
it be nice if we could throw them all out and start over with
intelligent leaders and quality journalists?
Amazing
Gr-r-race (11/13/00)
It says a lot about how our nation got into this mess that Warren
Christopher and James Baker are shilling for the two candidates; they
have dominated U.S. policy for decades, which explains why so many of
our decisions have been counter-productive and destructive. Now they are
diddling the election, representing The Wooden One and Bush-Lite, two
lightweights who cant stand on their own.
In
Memory of the Fallen and Useful Heroes (11/11/00)
"Its good news week, someone dropped a bomb somewhere
contaminating atmosphere, and blackening the sky." Remember that
wonderfully upbeat song from the Sixties. Probably not the kind of thang
to be thinking about on Veterans Day. After all, this is when we
remember our fallen heroes, those who gave their lives -- their last
full measure of devotion, Lincoln called it in the name of their
country. Curious thing is happening. As we continue to plow through new
decades of what becomes history, the number of our number who have
actually fought in a war is rapidly dwindling.
Pyrrhus
in Palm Beach (11/9-10/00)
The Boy from Hope is getting evicted on January 20th, and the
question on a lot of minds is whos going to replace him. The answer
should be obvious, but lets take the matter through its paces. First
of all, making the presumption that final electoral election result will
be decided in Florida an iffy but not unreasonable presumption as of
Thursday evening then the question is, what is going to be the final
count.
In
Our Dreams (11/8/00)
George Bush and Al Gore walk out onto the stage and stand together
before the podium. They take turns reading the following statement: We
stand before you today, humbled by our failure to convince you of the
soundness of our individual candidacies our visions and our
characters. Clearly, with such division over where America should be
headed, we -- your chosen candidates -- must now work to better meet the
needs of our constituency, the people of the United State of America.
They're
Talking to Me? (11/7/00)
People selling broadcast time talk about viewership in the thousands and
millions, but they mostly are counting eyes or ears and dividing by two.
The quality of the attention especially to the commercials has
got to be viewed at best in a slanty-eyed fashion. For example, who
doesnt wait for a commercial to go to the kitchen for a new beer or
the john to get rid of the old one.
Hold
Yer Nose and Vote (11/6/00)
I had approached the presidential race thinking that Gore would be way
ahead here in California, and that I could vote for Nader, whose
politics are more aligned with mine than are any of the other
candidates. Not that I like Nader; his public persona is unnecessarily
anti-social. Hes a policy wonk who apparently lacks any real
personality, at least one that is conducive to good politicking, and,
should he be successful, management. For after all, thats what the
presidency is about isnt it? The chief executive of the free world.
Bits
& Pieces (11/3/00)
Someone has figured out a way to capitalize on PMS. The trick was to
call it something else, but treat it with essentially the same
ingredients. The new name is PMDD, which stands for pre-menstrual
dysphoric disorder. If you look up dysphoric, youll find it defined
in my dictionary as "An emotional state characterized by anxiety,
depression, and restlessness." Bang-zoom, we have a winner.
Countdown
to Oops (11/2/00)
We have a choice between a wussy, emasculated intellectual and a folksy,
low-brow distillate. Yes, the Supreme Court nominees the next guy will
make are important, and if you want clean air to breath, youre likely
to be better off with Gores "enhancements" than Bush-Lites
stumbledom. Can you really vote for a man whos inevitable response is
that while he is admittedly clueless hisself, he will surely be
surrounded by some of his fathers top advisers. Its a grand idea
to have a kitchen cabinet, but we should elect someone who at least
knows how to cook.
More
Time to Read (11/1/00)
Plunked down in front of a computer screen for most of the day reading
and writing, I look forward to something else at the end of the day.
Regrettably, theres next to nothing on the idiot box, so I often wind
up either back here ticklin the ivories, or watching something
unworthy of my attentions. But over the past coupla months, Ive read
some of the latest work of my three favorite authors. Kurt Vonneguts
"Timequake", Robert A. Johnsons "Balancing Heaven and
Earth", and Robertson Davies "Happy Alchemy".
The
Method in the Madness - II (10/31/00)
Theresa made some prescient comments about the ballot measure and the
people of her county. She clearly enjoyed living in Susanville, and was
delighted that evening to watch her community learning about an
important next step in self-determination of their future. An
interesting place, where half the population are incarcerated felons.
And yet, it still attracts a lot of clear-thinking, progressives souls
who understand that its always a good thing to take a close look at
change.
The
Method in the Madness (10/30/00)
The next day found me in Susanville, a two-hour drive east and south of
Mount Lassen. Situated in the California high desert on the Nevada
border about an hour north of Reno, the city of 17,500 is ranch and
range land, mostly known for its two prisons, whose inmates comprise
half the population. The economy is better than it was all boats
rise on the tide but it was hard-scrabble for a lot of people, and
not easy for most. The Dyer Mountain Project would be great for this
area, infusing badly-needed dollars that could build and supply schools,
repave roads, and create hundreds of jobs, including many career-track
opportunities.
It's
Still the Economy, Stupid (10/27/00)
Theres a school of thought that what most decides elections
especially for President is financial affairs -- from the national
debt to the wallet in my pocket. The latter being the most important, of
course, but even when we arent doing great, we know were probably
better off than if the economy was headed south. One of the big
questions on a lotta folks minds is what happens when the
unprecedented expansion meets the precedented decline.
The
Affair of International Politics (10/26/00)
Whats in it for Clinton to put out the word that hes available to
step in? As comedian Richard Jeni described squabbles such as is the
Middle East -- or Yugoslavia, Northern Ireland, Ethiopia, Kashmir... --
its that theyre "basically killing each other to see who's
got the better imaginary friend." And if hes right, there is no
end in sight to the killing short of the arrival of Buddha brandishing
weapons of mass destruction.
Bits
& Pieces (10/25/00)
In lawyerese, the 43-year-old woman claimed not only physical injury,
but "highly unpleasant mental reactions including fright, horror,
disappointment, chagrin, worry, disgrace, embarrassment, indignity,
ridicule, grief, shame, humiliation, anger, and outrage." The
county prosecutor said it was "unlikely" that he would
investigate, adding, "thats not the silliest thing Ive heard
this year, but its definitely in the top 10."
Two
Weeks and Counting (10/24/00)
Whats more interesting than the
prexy run is the possibility that one or both houses of Congress could
shift from the elephant to the donkey column. And of course, there are
the local ballot measures, which mean much more to people than who lives
in the White House and controls the House and Senate. In California, we
have a half-dozen statewide propositions that range from campaign
spending limits to school vouchers to what we do with first-time drug
offenders. Most of it is pure horse-hockey, written one way and
presented another; all the result of the failure of the legislature and
the governor to get anything done properly.
Deported
from Childhood (10/23/00)
Its in the fall that my mind will travel back now 35 years to that
gray Sunday afternoon when my parents drove me up to Exeter. I was
enrolled as a beginning sophomore at the nations finest prep school.
Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, and Phillips Andover,
thirty miles to the south in Andover, Massachusetts, were founded by the
Phillips brothers back in the late eighteenth century. And for hundreds
of years now they have been turning out the finest-educated boys in
America. Girls, too; Exeter went co-ed shortly after I left, though it
wasnt cause-and-effect.
Flying
Thang (10/20/00)
This flying thang is a significant part of my life. It was one thing
to take on such a large learning project just shy of fifty years old,
but it was bigger than that. There was the matter of climbing into the
sky on the bet that a 160-horsepower engine in a twenty-year old plane
would carry me safely on my journey wherever. A lot of people don't
consider that a safe or even sane wager. Indeed, an associate whom
we refer to as General Grant, is forever repeating a line from my
"From the Ground Up" radio series "...you can't pull over
to the side of the road at 5,000 feet." Love the kid.
Phoning
Miz Daisy (10/19/00)
The drums are beating ever louder for a ban on
the use of hand-held phones while driving. Deluged with myriad
complaints about people driving badly while talking into their hands,
political bandwagon standers at the state and local level are pushing
legislation which would dare to say no to the tens of millions of people
who arent about to allow such legislation to pass. Given their
druthers and a modicum of political wherewithal sharing the hall with
the promoters of the ban.
Showing
Petty Coats (10/18/00)
While its true that celebrity requires some concessions from
privacy, the fact is that there are some people who choose to live their
lives in public. They are the fodder of the paparazzi and the media
gossips, and the amount of air time or ink they earn can determine the
direction and height of their careers. Over the past twenty years, as
the sizzle has over-eaten the steak, we have also witnessed the public
rise of people who are little more than the product of a publicity
machine; Rula Lenska, for example, or the Spice Girls.
The
AIDS
Scamdal (10/17/00)
In a little noticed article published recently, medical researchers
have discovered that certain people with AIDS who stop taking their
medicine didnt die. Now this is a curious thing, considering that for
most of the past 17 years, AIDS was said to be an implacable death
sentence. Oprah, the fount of all that is earthly, announced in the late
Eighties that it was predicted that one in five people would die of
AIDS. Didnt quite turn out that way.
Alive
and Better (10/16/00)
Way back when I was in college, some thirty years ago, it was a
tumultuous time. The Vietnam war was reaching its peak, the Dark Side had
taken over the White House in the person of Richard Milhouse Nixon, women
were proving they were equal by burning brassieres, and coloreds, I mean,
Negroes, I mean, blacks were proving they were equal by celebrating their
differences.
Columbus'
Search (10/13/00)
Columbus Day came and went amidst some demonstrations by people who
are angry at the Italian navigator more than five centuries later. Mostly
its the Indians who complain that he treated their forebears badly.
Seems like quite a grudge to hold, considering how long ago this happened,
and how slaughtering and enslaving people seemed to be de rigueur in those
good old globe-sailing days. I really think its time to stop carping
about ole Chris, and just be moderately grateful that he stumbled across
our hemisphere.
The
Greater Lacking (10/12/00)
If the problem is as deeply ingrained in Gore that he cant overcome
it, well, oops. I mean, maybe he generates the posture out of fear -- it
does have a slightly hysterical flavor about it -- which would maybe be a
bit more understandable, but hardly exculpatory. Its not the kind of
comportment one would present deliberately during intense negotiations.
And in a larger sense, if Gore is not able to modify this behavior, what
does that say about his ability to govern?
Bits
& Pieces (10/11/00)
Someone who could have truly used some hep the other days was Rick
Ankiel of the St. Louis Cardinals who threw himself into the record book
with five wild pitches in a single inning. It was the worst such crime in
110 years, which is so long ago that the big time was called the Players
League and there was a team from Buffalo. The Cardinals still managed to
win the game.
The
Circles Games (10/10/00)
PS: NBC scored again in the negative column by first refusing to
carry the first presidential debate. The public opprobrium induced the
peacock to then offer both the debate and a baseball game to its
affiliates. Well, folks, the debates, cleaned up in the ratings, and NBC
came in behind the trashy WB network. Another reason not to buy anything
made by General Electric.
You
Weren't Joking? (10/9/00)
More typical is the Department of Agriculture, which is asking
Congress for a supplemental appropriations of $100,000,000. What for,
you ask? Why to see if they can track down some $5,000,000,000 that has
been looted from the department. Everyone who thinks the extra
appropriation would even pay for itself, just give us a call to Titanic
Cruise Lines.
Serbia
Changes Hands (10/6/00)
Our own much-heralded American Revolution had the support of only
20% of the colonists. They had quite a burden to carry, not only against
the British, but to brave the doubters and the nay-sayers among their
neighbors. Many lost their belongings, their families, and their lives.
The opposition in Yugoslavia has suffered atrocities of their own;
opposition was little tolerated under Milosovic. And many Serbs with too
little power watched the horror their country caused in their name,
by their own soldiers in the slaughter of innocent people in Bosnia,
Croatia, and Kosovo.
What
Was that Smell? Duh Bait (10/5/00)
They rarely answered Lehrers questions, and he failed to push
them. Instead, they recited what their handlers had massaged into them,
and it looked it. At one point, Gore started a sentence, then restarted
himself, and shifted into a pre-recorded mode. Bush was clearly
stretched to his limits, unable to both remember his lines AND maintain
a leader-like expression. It didnt help that the microphones were
wrong for the event, picking up extraneous sounds that detracted from
the presentation.
Four-Square
(10/4/00)
Restricting the flow of federal monies for crime control and other
endeavors supported by Washington, they can pretty much twist the arms
of the state. It is the fear of the feds that has most doctors with
their panties in a bunch. If they had the courage of their convictions
if they remembered Hippocrates over hypocrisy they would be
treating their patients properly, and marijuana would be administered
for a wide range of physical and emotional conditions that are not as
well managed by alternatives.
Avoiding
the Truth (10/3/00)
This issue rears anew its ugly head from a report on a survey of
those who would call them journalists. Probably scribes and
regurgitators would be more accurate. Or perhaps shills. A third of
those reportorial quacks admitted that they avoided stories that would
negatively affect their corporate owners. That is, they skipped stories
that might lower the value of their companys stock, or lower
advertising revenues.
No
Will, No Way (10/2/00)
The Los Angeles public schools were supposed to get rid of social
promotion. They announced a plan to do so, but then scaled it back to a
few grades, then two. Now, in a decision made last spring that was never
made public, they have decided that even two would be too ambitious.
They are going to start with one grade, and theyre going to raise
their promotion standards down the road. Instead of holding back 90,000
students, they will only hold back about 6,000, and even that number is
expected to slip.
Error
Message (9/29/00)
For instance, broadcasters could clear a few hours on the Sunday
before the election, and again the night before, to provide time for a
statement by the candidates and their answers to several appropriate
questions from the local anchor. That way, the candidate could make his
case, and the questions could illuminate areas of reasonable doubt.
Maybe the NFL should agree to schedule no games that weekend to nudge
the broadcasters toward their obligation.
Mah
Dawg Can Purr (9/28/00)
Buster was eleven on my fiftieth birthday, which in dog years means
hell be about 77. So hes getting on in years, and it is easier to
contemplate my own demise than his so I dont. And he certainly isnt
anywhere near the end of his string. In fact, that old saw about how you
cant teach old dogs new tricks...pshaw. Buster is still learning. I
just taught him to offer me his paw when I say the word to him. Okay, he
does so a bit reluctantly. Maybe he even raises his eyebrows, or lowers
them, in his canine expression of patience, but he gives me his paw
willingly.
Nader
at Any Speed (9/27/00)
Though I've mostly always voted Democratic, and I'm working for the
election of a Republican to the U.S. Senate, I'm pretty well decided
that I will vote for Ralph Nader for president. The condition is if Gore
is locked in a tight race with Bush for California's electoral votes, I
will vote for Gore. But if Gore remains well ahead, or things flip and
Bush-Lite is so far out in front of The Wooden One that my vote won't
prevent his victory, Ill vote for Nader.
Raison
d'Etre (9/26/00)
Bright green grass is pushing its way up through the colorless
stalks of what bloomed last spring. The two-and-a-half inches of rain we
had on the first is having its effect, albeit somewhat prematurely,
according to the calendar. Or so we might opine, when we forget about
the timelessness of the system in which we find ourselves. Nature is an
amazing mother.
Going
for the Gulled (9/25/00)
Our society is far too oversold on the narrow gauge of winning and
losing, mostly as a result of television, which also seeds us with the
belief that life is transient. If you dont like the way things are
going, change channels or tune in next week. Thats probably a fair
call for most of the viewers and inevitably, the athletes, but its
going to take more than that to rid the world of people like those who
wielded absolute power on Biography.
Bits
& Pieces (9/22/00)
If you havent gotten over the Ellen-Ann separation, youre
gonna be devastated by the news that Melissa and Cyndy are disengaging.
Oh, yes, they surely still love each other, and that sort of thing, but
the living arrangement is changing. The girls have two children, and
will certainly continue to have their best interests at heart. The
father of the two children we call him a daddy-donor is David
Crosby of all people. Now as much as I like his music, wasnt he known
to have significant problems with drugs and alcohol; so much so that he
was on the edge with liver damage. Which raises the question of what
criteria would you use in determining a test tube dad for your young uns?
In
the Nough (9/21/00)
For each of us, the knowledge we require is different. But if you
need direction, consider the dictum of Russian anarchist Prince Alexei
Kropotkin who offered, "What kind of world do you want to live and
work in? What do you need to know to build this world? Demand that your
teachers teach you that."
Bush
Bumbling (9/20/00)
Theres gotta be some kind of conspiracy against George Junior, at
least hes gotta think so. The poor fellow cant get a break
anywhere. Every new strategy meets with a new defeat. I dont blame
him for casting his net ever wider, what with the election looking like
its running ever faster away from him. Polls show him falling
double-digits behind The Wooden One in places like Michigan and
Pennsylvania. Colorado, normally a Republican state, is moving into the
Dem column, and Florida, where Brother Jeb is governor, is also climbing
aboard the donkey.
Curious
and Curiouser (9/19/00)
Another curiosity is that so many Americans decide to invest a
coupla of years or their whole lives to helping poor people in foreign
lands. Not to disparage the needs of the foreign impoverished they
comprise a whole Third World of their own, after but what is the
necessity for travel if you want to help those less fortunate? Why do
these angels of goodness not find work in the South Bronx or South
Central Los Angeles?
New
Wheels (9/18/00)
When I sold cars, SUVs were not yet de rigueur, but even then, 95%
of the people who bought four-wheel drive vehicles never used more than
two wheels. Maybe they saw pictures of themselves rock-climbing in the
Tetons or fording rivers in the Amazon, but the shots were never
developed. Today, with Lincoln and Mercedes tantalizing the over-funded
under-mentalized with their own versions of Silly-Urban-Vanity models,
ya gotta wonder if anyone out there is buying a car or truck for
other than transportation.
My
Pal Robert (9/15/00)
I dont have the
slightest indication that an all-powerful god would hoist Christianity
as his exclusive banner. What about all of those Muslims, Hindus,
Buddhists, Jews, and flower children? I would think that a really
world-class deity would follow the religion on the bumpersticker that
reminds the truly conscious that god is big enough for all religions.
That he would love all gods chilluns, even if they didnt all
believe in him.
The
Shame of Injustice (9/14/00)
Surprise, surprise -- nothing ever materialized, and for a while now
have come a spate of stories about the governments case unraveling.
On Sunday, it was reported that the government had agreed to release Lee
the next day if he would plead guilty to a single count of downloading
secret files in an unsecured area of Los Alamos. An unsecured area in
Los Alamos? Are they kidding? The place leaks like an upside down sieve.
Madness
at the Edge of Town (9/13/00)
Thousands of really stupid people are out a ton of money. They were
invited to send $100 bills wrapped in foil to people theyd never met
in hopes of garnering a windfall. They fell for the wind. The scam was
allegedly organized by a man named Hood, if you can believe it, and
netted in the neighborhood of $20 million. Theres something Darwinian
about fleecing the brain dead.
Morality
and Government (9/12/00)
Unless it comes to telling women they dont have a choice. Or figuring
out some way to prevent people of the same sex from enjoying each other
in the privacy of their own homes. They would also urge the school board
toss out trash like "Huckleberry Finn" and any other books
that might stimulate a child to think for hisself. Its that
stimulation part thats most dangerous, you know.
The
Journey (9/11/00)
Oh what a journey. Fifty circuits round the sun, spinning a thousand
miles every day, and then all of that flying and driving and walking.
Using grossly wild generalizations and a sputtering calculator, I figure
Ive logged 14-1/2 billion miles so far. My goodness, how far, Ive
come, while so often feeling stuck. And how far there is to go.
Sometimes I wonder about the future; what it is, when it will come.
Ink-Stained
Wretches (9/8/00)
"Newspapering used to be an art," Yo observed recently.
"Yes, you covered the news, but you also got a chance to write
thoughtfully, to create images in peoples minds, images that readers
would carry with them to the next issue. Today, in our drive-thru
culture," he says, "most local newspapers are just fast food,
and not very nutritious."
Politics
Be Local
(9/7/00)
Most people dont pay attention to let alone care about what
happens in Washington, even. They dont think it matters. That they
pay attention. Otherwise they might care. But they think that government
is controlled by special interests, and who could argue with them.
Caring without the possibility of effecting change is pointless.
Going
Postal
(9/6/00)
Point two, why bother with a study. Anyone paying attention would see
how the national attention catches on any obvious snag and holds on,
very briefly, before finding another ride. We love violence, especially
slaughter of innocents, probably because it imbues us with a sense of
well-being that we werent among them. The capricious nature of
lunatics with guns is that when its your time, youre there; even
when it doesnt make sense.
Rain,
Rain Don't Go Away (9/5/00)
The flowers all perked up with the promise of cooler temperatures and
the impending winter allocation of two-and-a-half feet of rain. But this
fluke El Nino, La Nina, Da Ninny doesnt put the locals off
their guard. Still two more months of fire season, and temperatures are
forecast to climb back another forty degrees by weeks end. We can
always use more rain.
Items
(9/4/00)
If Philadelphia wont work, there are alternatives. Scientists have
discovered new planets circling HD83443. Thats in the Vela
constellation, which is out past Texas about 141 light years. Now in
case your junior high astronomy week is only a foggy memory, in human
terms that means it would take the Concorde flying at Mach One over
111,000,000 years to get there, or roughly a hundred times longer than
man has walked the Earth. No word on Clintonian ambassadorships for the
new planets.
So
It Goes
(9/1/00)
There must be a purpose to the 15 billion years of evolution that has us
sharing the only planet in the universe known to have life. I mean, what
a coincidence, and secondly, what are we to do with this fact. Have you
figured out why you're here? What is your role? Do you feel a sense of
participation, of obligation, of importance?
Individual
Family Lives (8/31/00)
For some reason, I knew when Linda handed to me the phone, that this was
what my father was calling about. It was a medical condition that was
likely not fatal. So when he finished talking, I didnt seem
adequately concerned, I fear. The fact was that I wasnt. Concerned,
that is. I didnt know as much about the disease as did my father or
sister or brother-in-law, but I knew enough to know that I didnt have
to worry.
Government
Pruning (8/30/00)
Its bad enough that we get things wrong and it costs billions of
dollars, and sometimes peoples lives, but to make obvious mistakes in
the face of the most urgent of warnings borders on demonic. Like the
federal forestry officials who against every reason possible lit a fire
that burned up a billion of our tax dollars, and destroyed or disrupted
thousands of lives. What ever happened to the notion of public service
as in service?
Bits
& Pieces (8/29/00)
Give credit where its due. Pat Buchanan backed another winner.
Consider this first sentence in a recent news article: Ezola Foster, Pat
Buchanan's running mate on the Reform Party ticket, collected workers'
compensation payments for nearly a year for a mental disorder she now
says she did not have. Clearly, Fosters past is checkered past, and
perhaps she was chosen because she makes Buchanan look good, no easy
task.
Survive
vs. Thrive (8/28/00)
Ostensibly, the program was to be about surviving on a deserted jungle
island. But quickly it turned out that the primary tool was deceit, with
manipulation and stupidity close behind. And the program celebrated it.
Call me picky, but I would like to see shows that wallow in the sordid
aspects of human nature fail. Instead, tens of millions of people tuned
in.
Had
by Sex (8/25/00)
Another problem with the term is that its not really accurately
descriptive. I mean, do you have sex, or does sex have you? And not just
in the sense of your mother having you; another good illustration of a
verb lacking full meaning. I meant how a body is taken over by the
feelings; that up to and through the moment of ecstasy, there is little
going on between the ears, thinking-wise.
Not
Even Talking the Talk (8/24/00)
A real leader would put away some of the issues that weve been
arguing about ceaselessly and which arguments keep us from stepping up
to new and larger issues that are lurking ominously ahead. For instance,
the problems of over-population, nuclear waste disposal, and a
flood-tide of ill-equipped children.
Fair-Sharing
the Costs (8/23/00)
Lets say that everyone who receives health and/or life insurance has
to pay extra if they are going to cost more, either in health care,
early retirement, and early death benefits paid. Its only fair. Just
look around at your co-workers. The smokers, the couch potatoes, the
heavy drinkers, the just plain heavy they all need to take better
care of themselves, because you the healthy, vibrant, fit ones
are paying out of your own pockets the higher costs of the slovenly.
And
the Point? (8/22/00)
Theyre gonna start playing movie
previews on ATM screens at certain banks. Now you know that brainstorm
must have had some logic behind it, though it was probably kinda flimsy.
My guess is that some bank was paying some marketing VP much too much
money and he had to justify his existence. Cause I mean really, who
in the right minds enough said would spend time at an ATM for
any reason other than to do their banking business and leave quickly.
Since ATM machines, even in nice neighborhoods, attract people who are
looking for people with cash. And even if it was a nice big screen, dont
most people have better things to do with their lives than watch movie
clips outside their bank.
Early
Money Is on Gore (8/21/00)
Gore didnt seem to know how to work
with the audience response. He would insist on finishing a sentence,
even when the place had already erupted in applause. It looked and
sounded odd, as though he or the audience were missing cues. He
should have stopped, and waited until the applause began to die before
either continuing the sentence or going on to the next. He didnt seem
to know where to break, his words or his thoughts.
Catching
On (8/18/00)
It has been something of a marvel to me
in recent years that my physical coordination has gotten significantly
better. This change was first noticed in my early forties, about the
time that the rest of my physical plant seemed to edge toward the other
side of the ledger. In particular I would notice that if I dropped
something with my right hand, I had a chance of catching it with my
left. If my foot caught a root, I wasnt likely to go sprawling, or
even to lose my balance.
Environmental
Roulette (8/17/00)
To read this nonsensical obfuscation in
the paper -- often spewed by experts -- or to listen to the mindless
bombast on the radio, one would think there will never be consequences
to our consuming and burning and dumping. Hey, yo-yo, do the math. The
atmosphere is finite. So are the oceans. At some point, we shift the
balance. At some point, we destroy their capacities to filter out our
trash and toxins. And were talking about the air were supposed to
breath and the water we need to drink and grow crops.
Men
with Power Tools (8/16/00)
Ya gotta wonder why a 49-year-old man
wouldnt have the sense -- if he has to make sparks -- then to soak
the ground around him and not start fires. Linda says because they put
his name in the paper, it means that the authorities are going to go
after this man for some of the expense of this accident that didnt
need to happen. Only one home was destroyed and no one seriously
injured, but it could have been a disaster. The winds were unusually
calm, but still the flames jumped several roads. And committing
firefighting equipment and personnel to avoidable fires is especially
risky this time of year.
Bits
& Pieces (8/15/00)
The National Academy of Sciences says
there are over a hundred sites where nuclear materials were processed,
which havent been made safe enough for unrestricted use for lack of
money, technical skill or the political will to do the job. They call
these irretrievable areas National Sacrifice Zones. Somehow that doesnt
seem enough.
Hypocritic
Conventions (8/14/00)
Loretta decided to throw a bash, a
fundraiser to benefit Hispanic politicians for all who wanted to invest
tons of money in them. Great idea. And hold it at the Playboy mansion.
Bad idea. At least according to party officials. They didnt want to
be associated with the Playboy image. Uh-huh, like it was enough that
Bill Clinton was going to be at the convention. They told Sanchez to
move her party.
Choosing
Your Crowd (8/11/00)
Regrettably, we have too long been
inculcated with a predilection to rely on our physical senses. The fact
is that if we used our intuition, we would make better choices on who
should be in our circles or not and every time. Intuition, the sixth
sense, is an energy field that sparks awareness in advance of deliberate
attention. Intuition is pure, fact-based. Unfortunately, intuition can
be, and often is, deliberately mis-interpreted by wishful thinking or
fearfulness.
It's
Not about Killing (8/10/00)
Most who scream against choice, while
wrapped in weepy piety over the killing, are usually also people who
support capital punishment. And the vast majority of them are also
remarkably uptight about human sexuality. Truth be told, if they didnt
believe that the need for most abortions was created by rampant sex,
they would be much less concerned. The proof is in the fact that most
abortion protestors also oppose teaching human sexuality in the schools.
And you can bet dollars to diaphragms that theyre not going to
discuss this kind of thing in their home.
The
Crest Crust (8/9/00)
So why, pray tell, do the Cadillac
radio ads feature comments about cornering ability on mountain roads?
Why do they trumpet a super-powerful Northstar 600Mghz engine, which
even if it is any good is never gonna be used safely? Why would one
commercial suggest that Cadillac owners crank up their radio and drive
around the neighborhood showing off their car? The folks driving
Cadillacs dont drive that way. People who drive that way dont
drive Cadillacs.
Jewish
Spotlights (8/8/00)
Theres a certain degree of irony in
the pairing of two headlines yesterday morning. The Wooden One has
picked Joseph Lieberman to run with him, and an ultra-conservative rabbi
claims the victims of the Holocaust were all sinners. Last week at the
GOP convention it was Hispanics, and now well have a session with the
Jews. But as usual, unfortunately, there will be lots of smoke and heat,
but very little light.
Items
(8/7/00)
Linda is disconsolate that the Taco
Bell Chihuahua has been relieved of his icon duties. Not that she ever
goes to the place, but she must see enough television to have developed
an appreciation for the Mexi-mation character. I told her I suspected
that the reason the dog had been dumped was because too many people were
making an association in their minds between the Chihuahua and the food.
As in, where do you suppose they found this greasy brown stuff?
Bits
& Pieces (8/4/00)
The only reason why there are so many
cable and satellite channels is because the distributors can find
sponsors for the programming. You can find gun and sporting goods
manufacturers to subsidize outdoors shows, and food processors to put
their names next to cooking shows, but where ya gonna find someone who
could cash in on the Shakespeare channel? Coming, Bacon for the soul not
the griddle.
Keystone
Spies (8/3/00)
It turns out the wife of Wen Ho Lee,
arrested ages ago and charged with providing Los Alamos secrets to the
Chinese was providing information to the CIA. Miz Lee was a secretary at
the nuclear lab at the time. It would probably take years to unknot all
the years of secrecy and lies; who knew what, when, and whod they
tell. Who cares? Poor Wen Ho should be let out of jail, since he
probably was guilty of little more than contributing to the confusion.
Unless, of course, they can tie in their colleagues in failure who
started the fire. Hey, maybe the fire was a cover-up.
No,
You're Not Weird (8/2/00)
No further word about the young man,
but the woman faces up to four years in prison. As for her education,
the college, citing privacy policy, wont say whether the woman was
disciplined, only that she is not currently enrolled. Now call me too
fast on the pointing finger, but doesnt anyone else think that maybe
were gettin a tad loosy-goosy about how students are required to
behave at public institutions? Let alone that some obvious lunatic is
out in the community after stabbing someone for no apparent reason,
other than the confrontation with an ugly if obvious truth.
Lack
of Conventional Wisdom (8/1/00)
The truth is that the conventions make
lousy programming. Thats because the Democratic and Republican party
hierarchies are a bunch of incompetently self-aggrandizing pimps who are
more concerned with their image in the mirror than what the rest of us
see. Which means that their conventions have all of the aesthetics of
narcissistic donkeys and elephants. Maybe thats how the dinosaurs got
extinct.
Word-a-Day
(7/31/00)
In my email every day I find a
new word from word-a-day, with pronunciation and definition. Over the
past six months Ive plucked a few words from the emails and stuck em
in a file. Today, when I saw what I had collected, I realized Ah-hah
I should write a piece on the new vocabulary of American politics.
The words are costive, kakistocracy, nosocomial, Cimmerian,
rhadamanthine, bibliolater, and cerulean. They were all new to me, which
embarrassingly reveals my limited vocabulary, and if you stick with me,
you will not have to suffer my shame.
Shhhhh
(7/28/00)
I go on to proselytize about family
values like honesty, grace, dignity, humility, compassion, wit,
intellect, and quality. But Ive probably gone to far. How bout
just some basic respect for other people? And we could start by lowering
the general level of the conversation. Because we are in danger of
drowning out the good stuff with the merely mundane and otherwise
irrelevant, because the latter is louder.
Another
Duck in the Row (7/27/00)
For years it was my dream to make
enough money to live on the coast near Mendocino. This town of about a
thousand is pretty far away from almost everywhere, if not by actual
miles then by the twisting roads it takes to drive there. Which was fine
with me, being something of an anti-social sort of fellow who loves the
Pacific Ocean. But in the back of my mind was that I could always learn
how to fly; they have a considerable air strip a few miles outside of
town.
Another
Airless Election Wallow? (7/26/00)
The real problem with the Cheney choice
is that he represents the antithesis of fresh thinking that has been
awol from the Bush campaign. Einstein said in 1946, with the discovery
of the atom bomb the antithesis of life that everything had
change except for our way of thinking. Apparently, the experts believe
that we should only see candidates who keep their brains in a small box,
play the same tunes, and suck the same toes.
Lord
of the Fleas (7/25/00)
Shall we all hold hands and pretend
that the "Lord of the Flies" is not about to be coronated the
standard bearer of the Reform Party? Doonesbury cartoonist Garry
Trudeau has taken off the gloves and is all but calling Pat Buchanan and
his supporters Nazis. That might be generous of him. The former Nixon
speechwriter and perennial candidate of self-promotion, together with
his odious sister Bay, are sinking their egotistical fangs into the
demented carrion of what was once Ross Perot.
Bits
& Pieces (7/24/00)
I happened to catch a coupla minutes of
Ricki Lake while in a motel last week. She was on television. She had a
white couple a black woman and another white guy on the set. The couple
had been married twenty years, and from the look of things, it hadnt
all been a walk in the park. The black woman said she wanted to have sex
with the husband on a regular basis but that was the extent of what she
was looking for in a relationship. The wife didnt think that would
work.
Bush
at the Plate (7/21/00)
Bush needs virtually every Republican
voter if he is to have a serious chance of winning in November. That aint
likely to happen, since Republicans are essentially divided into two
camps those who still have their marbles, and those who view Pat
Buchanan with respect. The line between the two is heavily drawn along
the abortion issue; those who believe a woman has a right to choose, and
those who call the other side murderers, just for having the view.
Clueless
in Redding (7/20/00)
Watching the local news by satellite
from New York and Los Angeles, one understands why the smaller market
efforts are so bad. Listening to the network radio newscasts from ABC
and CNN, provides an equally dismaying example. Cheap, tawdry, prurient,
and irrelevant. No wonder people havent a clue about whats going
on in the world. Even if you watched, or listened to or read every
available organ, youd still have to search to find real news.
Been
Down So Long It Looks Like Down To Me (7/19/00)
I'm in a quandary; perhaps a defining
point in my life. It comes, as these moments do, when I have just taken
a breath. I have reached some sort of plateau. Life seems to be working.
And then crash. Most recently, it was a shift in my professional
situation. What was high-flying suddenly hit some turbulence, and the
new direction is not yet clear. I felt like the roadrunner character who
had been run so fast he ran over the edge of the cliff. And then he
looked down into the abyss.
[I looked through previously written but
unpublished SetonnoteS and discovered a plethora that were in danger of
being dated. Here are eight of them.]
Crime
and Punishment (7/19b/00)
Speaking of crime and punishment, a
local woman has had her bail reduced from a million dollars to a half.
She allegedly and I use that word caustically, since a whole slew of
people saw her do it shot her daughter-in-law twice. At a wake. The
day after the woman married her son. Apparently, and obviously, unhappy
about the nuptials, mama fired two bullets at close range into her head.
The new daughter-in-law apparently didnt come up to her standards,
having had more than one skirmish herself with the law.
Hand
in Hand (7/19c/00)
Maybe to you who have found the perfect
partner this might not seem like a big deal, but lemme tell ya folks, its
not always you find someone who is so downright supportive in your
endeavors. Linda has been that way since we met. She actually believes
that I am an intelligent person with good ideas and that theyre worth
pursuing. This is not a blind endorsement. Linda knows me very well. She
understands my thinking and asks the right questions. She recognizes the
strengths as well as the weak spots, but she sees the latter as
challenges to overcome as opposed to excuses to withhold her support.
Wriiiiiipp (7/19d/00)
Wrriiiiiipp...The Nature Conservancy
wants my money, and theyre asking for it with some free return
address labels that feature a depiction of a brand-new black-crowned
night heron chick "with a face so ugly only her mother could think
shes adorable." Ugly it is, and why they would think I would
want to put ugly on my envelopes is beyond me. I understand protecting
wildlife, but next time, please accentuate the positive.
Get
Us Together (7/19e/00)
While all this noise in Dade County was
capturing the headlines, the Supreme Court was making some real news.
They said Nebraska shouldnt ban third trimester abortions, and they
said that states could, in fact, limit anti-choice protestors in their
exuberance at medical facilities. Thats two for the good guys. The
Supremes also said that the Boy Scouts could refuse to allow openly
homosexual men to be scout leaders. There are and will be plenty of
homosexual scout masters, but perhaps this ruling will induce fewer to
discuss their private lives.
Rite-ous
Anger (7/19f/00)
I dont like that kind of raw anger,
even acted, which is why I dont watch much television. I am concerned
that people who expose themselves to that kind of violence become numb
to it. Thats probably what enables borderline psychotics to step over
the line and start shooting people. With all of the murders and beatings
that people see on television and in video games, its not hard to
imagine them becoming inured to some shades of reality.
For
Appearance's Sake (7/19g/00)
One encouraging note is that the
process of gaining this awareness has not been as tormentful as the last
time. There was no plummeting into fury or wrenching anguish. Because I
at least found the right woman in Linda, and I have created a patch of
blue in the sky that can never be taken away. We sowed it up there
together. And part of that union has been an expanding awareness that we
are on the right track.
Nuclear
Nihilism (7/19h/00)
Im not used to agreeing with Bush,
simply because hes such a policy twit on almost every issue, but here
hes right, and Gore is dangerously, obscenely wrong. I mean, Bush
said he wanted to keep enough nukes to protect our sacred shores, so its
not like were putting our nation at risk. And consider that for
decades we kept adding needlessly to the pile of warheads to
ridiculously vast levels of overkill; all the extra nukes would do, it
was said, is bounce the rubble.
A
Wealth of Taxes (7/19i/00)
Im all for being able to earn as
much money as you could want and spending it without too many
restrictions. But I wonder about ridiculously wealthy people leaving
everything to the children. If there is no restriction on how much can
be left, doesnt it threaten to create a society with a top tier of
dynastic idiocy. Like the inbreeding of royal families, we will have a
sky-box culture of wealth without purpose or value. Just imagine our
society dominated by thousands of Donald Trumps, Ted Kennedys, and
Roxanne Pulitzers.
Shame
on US (7/18/00)
We as a nation suffer this egregious
opprobrium because of the actions of our leaders. Clinton at the top as
the decision maker, and his foreign policy hatchet, Madeleine Albright.
Albright who has failed in every mission, then as Ambassador to the
United Nations and subsequently and today as Secretary of State, is
giving Henry Kissinger competition as one of our all-time killers.
Watching
versus Creating (7/17/00)
I take the optimistic track that most
people are using their cable to get on line rather than watching the
idiot fare on television, which gets worse by the moment. Like the
myriad competing cardboard quarter-forms. One commercial starts.
"Everybodys collecting coins. Collecting coins. Everybodys
collecting coins." You can tell the level of viewer theyre
trying to reach with such hypnotic prose. And were talking about a
piece of cardboard with prices ranging from $4.99 to $19.95 for just the
basic models.
"Hit-to-Kill"
(7/14/00)
Its abundantly clear that the only
people who will ever benefit from Star Wars are Boeing and Raytheon, and
their subcontractors. Their scam artists have stroked the appropriate
missile heads in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill, and now the money is
just pouring in. Some $30-$60 billion has been allocated so far
for this pie in the sky plan that doesnt make sense to anyone. Well,
except to the folks who get the filthy lucre coming and going.
Pope-A-Dope
(with all due respect) (7/13/00)
I think the Vatican was totally out of
line, however, for working all week long to get it canceled; bravo to
the Rome authorities for preserving the separation of church and state,
to the extent that it is over there. If the Catholic church remembered
its spiritual roots, it would embrace all chilluns. Its overt
hostility towards homosexuals may find inference in their bible, but it
is antithetical to the true Christ consciousness of loving even the
sinners.
Poor
Bryant Dumbel
(7/12/00)
The American Family Association, which
is another one of those financial spittoons for people who need to pay
others to worry for them, was seeking an apology from Dumbel for
profaning their idiot. At first, Knight and his tarnished armor wanted
him fired, but backed off of that request. I mean, imagine youre the
AFA taking to CBS to court; in effect youre taunting them to prove
that youre an idiot.
No
More War
(7/11/00)
Now check me out on this one...The
Northern Ireland Protestants are having their violent ways with the
troops there because they were told they would not be allowed to march
through a Catholic section. The question is, if they had been allowed to
march through and the Catholics hadnt responded badly like getting
into fights, what then would the Protestants have demanded? I mean, isnt
this gig something to the effect of, How far can we rub your noses in
it? And who says when enough is enough, if enough isnt enough right
now?
Amy
Is Free
(7/10/00)
Amy had been jailed under the Draconian
drug-hysteria laws passed by the politically-cowed Congresses in the
Eighties. Her husband had been arrested for trying to sell a drug called
Ecstacy which he had manufactured before it had been made illegal. Amy
transferred funds from one account to another for his bail. The
government went after her, charging her thus with conspiracy. Her
husband got four years, but thanks to an over-zealous prosecution, an
inept defense, and plenty of lying in between, Amy was sentenced to 24
years.
Message
Problems
(7/7/00)
Now being a weekend iconoclast, I tend
to like maverick theories, but I cant imagine any of these yahoos
having enough imagination to let it run wild. Were talking about a
fossil discovered in 1969 that was left in a desk drawer for years. So I
gotta ask, not who cares, but why should a normal person. Im all for
knowledge, but folks it doesnt make a whits worth of difference in
todays world. And when you consider what could be done with the
billions squandered on looking at fossilized lizards, the mindlessness
of their work in a society that needs real solutions to contemporary
problems hurts.
Poverty
of Consciousness
(7/6/00)
The management was white. Most of the
better jobs were given first to whites and secondly to Indians. Blacks
were third on the list and the Mexicans were last. The management, as
described in the article, were brutal in an almost Dickensian way, and
none of the workers -- regardless of race, seemed to be treated as human
beings. Still, they were paid eight to twelve dollars an hour, which is
a lot of money for the area, though the work was terrible and hard. Few
reading this would have lasted an hour on the assembly lines.
Independence
& Community
(7/5/00)
In his classic work, de Tocqueville
said, "Nothing struck me more forcibly than the general equality of
conditions....All classes meet continually and no haughtiness at all
results from the differences in social position. Everyone shakes
hands." But with incredible perspicacity, he also observed that
while the American passion for equality "tends to elevate the
humble to the rank of the great...there exists also in the human heart a
depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower
the powerful to their own level, and reduces men to prefer equality in
slavery to inequality with freedom."
The
Hearts of the Matter
(Independence
Day 2000)
A funny thing happened in the middle of
the last hearts game...but I get ahead of myself. I have been playing
hearts the card game, with real cards for forty years. No, Im
not addicted; I learned to play on rainy days at the beach. And its a
fun if not terribly challenging game; not like bridge or poker,
certainly. When it came out on the computer, I found an old companion.
Not a constant kind, but one to check in with, to get away for a moment
from the grind, to think about nothing. Indeed, hearts is kinda like
television youre only really half-watching; its mind candy.
The
Congressional Grind
(7/3/2000)
They say two things you dont
want to see manufactured are sausage and legislation. Thursday night,
and into the wee Washington hours, I watched our House of
Representatives enact legislation that would allow doctors to bargain
with those who sign their paycheck HMOs and the insurance industry.
Probably the most significant health care legislation in more than
thirty years, the measure is a major step toward wresting control of the
nations health from the hands of corporate beancounters.
Fit
to a T
(6/30/2000)
It astounds me how easily people
buy into imagery. Consider how many cops wear mirror sunglasses over
expressionless faces parsed by a mustache. But Im thinking of the GP
the general public and how quickly and easily they are induced
to swallow bait and hook, line and reel, to buy this or that to make
them look like their idea of something suave and debonair, pronounced
swayve and duh-BONE-r.
The
Right to Be Fat
(6/29/2000)
I dont deny anyone the right
to be fat. Some of my dearest friends are in the red zone on their
scales. But I think its mindlessly outrageous to suggest that they
are fine. They are not. It is unhealthy to carry lots of extra-weight.
It kills over 300,000 Americans every year. Someone said about another
minority, I dont think they should be denied the rights we all have,
but dont ask me to call them normal.
It's
a Crime
(6/28/2000)
All sorts of jumping up and down
about the DEA trying to track computerists who visited sites about
marijuana. The DEAs outreach program left "cookies", or
markers, on peoples computers. Actually, in the DEAs case, they
probably left brownies, ho, ho ho. But it does sound a lot like Big
Brother, doesnt it? A lot of people are up in arms about this
invasion of privacy. If they only knew...?
Hill-Bill-ary
(6/27/2000)
Its funny to think of it but
Hillarys ole man is the one who gets into all of the trouble, and shes
the one who walks behind and cleans up after the donkey. In a
celebration of humility, when they first got to Washington, Billy Jeff
appointed the Foist Lady in charge of medical industry reform; she blew
it big time, letting her ego dictate a disastrous protocol. Then down
the road when her husband was accused of philandering, Hillary shrilled
about a "right wing conspiracy" when she certainly knew
better.
Leap
of Faith
(6/26/2000)
Ive been dealing with a
paradox regarding my path in life. Nothing big, of course; just looking
at the twists and turns. And thinking that when I get to wherever Im
going after this life, if I wind up meeting a fellow with a long white
beard who appears to be in charge, Im gonna suggest that he might
figure out a better way to run things down (?) here.
Capital
Idea
(6/23/2000)
I say lock em up in a small
cell, alone, provide basic sustenance, no entertainment or visitors. At
least until you get their attention. Then they might be given the option
of being used for medical experiments or to clean up toxic waste sites.
People who act in a depraved way against others shouldnt get a short
cut from their guilt, whether they feel it or not; they should be around
to suffer at least the knowledge of the suffering that they have caused.
Fertility
Rights
(6/22/2000)
The other evening after work, as
Buster and I ambled up the fire trail that zig-zags up the hill to our
house, I realized that soon they would come to spray away all the
vegetation on the path so that it was a safe exit, should we ever need
to escape a firestorm. Its easy to forget how dry this will all
become, tinder for lightning, in just a few months. But right now, the
bright green carpet of grass and startling palette of hues flush the
fears from my mind. The glory of it all is empirical proof to me of a
larger reality.
Items
in the News
(6/21/2000)
A deputy sheriff a coupla
counties to the south is in a whole heap o trouble. Seems this fellow
had sexual relations with a 17-year-old girl who was riding in his
patrol car as part of a school sponsored ride-along program. That makes
it statutory rape, regardless of consent. The problems dont stop
there; the girl was the daughter of another officer. Where do they dream
up this stuff?
The
Evil of Two Lessers
(6/20/2000)
So lets say that the economy
continues to zoom along at least until November, which is what the
prevailing wisdom suggests, then there is basically only one question
asked and answered that will mean anything in the voting booth. And
ironically, it was Ronald Reagans challenge to voters in 84, when
he asked them, Are you not better off today than you were a year ago.
Which is a good question in our society, especially if the predictable
answer is yes, because we have short memories and shorter attention
spans.
Various
Miscellany (6/19/2000)
Tell me again how come they dont
have to pay taxes, for the roads that lead up to their churches, and for
the fire and police protection that they get. Personally, I think that
truly spiritual people can worship to their minds content, by
themselves or with others, but the site doesnt have to be tax-exempt.
Churches are little more than duty-swaddled god-bothering boxes and they
dont deserve any special dispensation.
Getting
Away with Murder
(6/16/2000)
Mark Twain is said to have said
that If you want to see the dregs of society, go down to the local jail
and watch the changing of the guard. Of course there are good jailors,
and the exceptions know themselves. But there is a large culture of
people in this profession who are drawn to it for the wrong reasons. And
then they steep and stew in a climate of hatred, fear, brutality,
violence and deceit; and some of it rubs off. In both directions.
When
Virtue Is the Patient
(6/15/2000)
Speaking of wasted money, how
bout all those hundreds of billions of dollars that are squandered on
military research. Indeed, 40% of all research in this country is done
for the Five-Sided Funny Farm and its pals in paranoia propagation. Oh
sure, there are some actually beneficial products that come out of
trying to build better killing devices, but imagine all that might be
accomplished if our initial goal was something peaceful. Solar cells,
solid waste disposal solutions, nuclear detoxification....
Lost
Alamos (6/14/2000) **
Flag Day **
**
Flag Day **
Good riddance to that seemingly endless
supply of federal dole-suckers. Send the dolts and malingers back to the
real world where they have to compete on the basis of merit. Let us
instead hire intelligent people who appreciate their chance to make
government work, and who are willing to hold their jobs on the basis of
superior performance. What a concept.
Observations
on the Maddening Crowd
(6/13/2000)
The monks in Sri Lanka better reread
their mission statement. The Buddhist clergy, long influential in
politics in what was once Ceylon and peaceful, have urged the government
to forget negotiating with the Tamil Tiger rebels, and recommend instead
that the revolt be crushed with military force.
Week
Connections (6/12/2000)
Unfortunately, it was Common Cause that
didnt get it quite right. The money was actually given to Grays
inaugural committee, which required different reporting. Grays people
filled out the right forms, but the Indians hadnt. Grays
mouthpiece went ballistic, ripping Common Cause up one side and down the
other. As well they deserved for getting it wrong. But the bottom line
is the bottom line; the Indians gave money to Gray, and hes taking
very good care of them in return.
Miasma
by the Bay (6/9/2000)
Ole Jer proposed that Oakland be the
site for the state's first college preparatory charter school run by the
military; it would have students in uniform, at reveille every morning,
and provide a framework of discipline and learning that has been
disastrously absent for a large segment of the Oakland population for
decades. Browns proposal made a lot of sense, and even common sense
would recognize that almost anything in the current mire was worth a
try.
Ever
the Twain You Shall Meet
(6/8/2000)
Every time I hear of a school board
banning Mark Twain because he used the word nigger in Huck Finn,
I bemoan the stupidity of those who forced the virtual book burning, and
the great loss for the children, many of whom will probably never learn
the greatness of the mind of the man who was arguably Americas
greatest and most important writer. Yes, read Huck Finn to your
children. Who
Knows What Happened to TWA 800?
(6/7/2000)
From the initial interviews of
witnesses, there seems to be reason to believe that there was, in fact,
a missile that brought the plane down. Why would someone do such a
thing? It would be easier and more hopeful to think that it was an
accident. If the missile had been fired as part of a military exercise,
could such an act be covered up, and if so for how long? Could it have
been some yahoo militia type who got a hold of a Stinger, was playing
around with it, and pushed the wrong button?
All
the News that's Fit to Pimp (6/6/2000)
It's too bad that the Times has
gone to seed. Again. The country could certainly use a news source we
could trust. Indeed a news source that could set high standards again.
They would have to rise above the easy route of he said-she said
"ping-pong" coverage and bring about a return of true
journalism, the kind that moves a society forward.
Items
in the News (6/5/2000)
When I was growing up, one of the
popular professions was law enforcement. Myriad young boys, and some
girls, wanted to follow Joe Friday into the LAPD or Lou Erskine into the
FBI. Not anymore. Whether it be corruption or brutality scandals or too
much television -- not to mention the ugliness and frustration of the
work -- the number of applicants is declining rapidly. Seven years ago
in Chicago, there were 25,000 applicants taking the entrance exam. This
year, there were 1,500. We need new heroes.
North
Valley Mercury
(6/2/2000)
This is the land of scorpions and
rattlesnakes, where man was not meant to live without air-conditioning
and at least one very good reason. For example, traffic or relative lack
thereof, the concomitant slower pace than youd find in a place like
Sacramento or the Bay Area, and the natural beauty of the mountains and
the lakes. On a clear day, Mount Lassens volcanic cone and Mount
Shastas welcoming if imperious facade, along with the Trinities to
the west, declare certain boundaries to all but the intrepid.
Life
in Hand (6/1/2000)
His humor, gently self-deprecating,
ranged across the familiar targets of his peers, from acne to school to
dreams. He implied that he had some of his own dreams, but never let on
what they might be. He would laugh at lot, squinting narrowly over
chubby cheeks and bouncing jowls, and few of his friends even wondered
-- let alone asked him -- what he wanted to be when he grew up. None
probably thought of him in the long term.
Say
Again, Please (5/31/2000)
The problem is that I sometimes dont
find a steady enough surface on which to posterize or the road demands
my attention or the momentum of a hillside is pulling me against my own
inclination. Later, to my great frustration, I will come upon what I
know were worthy thoughts but which have been camouflaged to no purpose
in a doctors scrawl. That is, I cant read my own writing.
In
Memory of the Fallen Useful and Heroes (5/30/2000)
My father is at the end of his
mid-Seventies; he was in the Second World War, the last good war. I was
born five years after the war ended. A student at Harvard, my father
enlisted and was sent to Europe as a cryptographer. He and a bunch of
other eggheads were given the job of monitoring and interpreting German
radio traffic. They were useful but not heroic. Once when the fighting
got particularly close, their captain told them, Men, if the enemy gets
too close, Im going to have to kill you. His men took turns staying
awake in case the enemy got too close and theyd have to shoot the
captain.
Disabled
by Words (5/29/2000)
The county fair decided that they were
no longer going to have a special day for special people. That is, their
program of providing everything free for the developmentally- disabled
of the community was going to change. Instead of just letting them all
in for free on one day, the fair would instead distribute 900 passes to
the social services agencies to hand out to the needy. The banner
headline across the top of page one announced that the disabled had been
"dumped". The article below it filled in the story, but not
all that many people up here bother reading beyond the headlines; it
would interfere with their opinions.
Fish
and Go Fishing
(5/26/2000)
Personally, I wouldnt put my dog at
risk like that. If hes not good enough to ride up front, maybe he
shouldnt come. And no, Im not talking about driving short
distances relatively slowly on your own property. Mostly what you do on
your own property should be your own business, so long as you dont
disturb the neighbors, foul the environment, or otherwise put others at
risk. But such authority requires responsibility, and Im afraid that
a lotta folks who are excessively vocal about their rights short-change
the responsibility end of their stick.
Bits
& Pieces (5/25/2000)
Has anyone seen one of the new gold
dollars? I havent. I heard that there was a shortage and you could
only get them at Wal-Mart, and if thats the choice Ill wait. What
confounds me is the ad on television the other night from the U.S. Mint
telling people about the new coins. Driving up demand is a grand idea,
but supplying that demand is even better.
Abuse
of Justice
(5/24/2000)
Clint Eastwood is being sued by a woman
who says she couldnt find a handicapped-access restroom at his
Mission Ranch. Clint bought Mission Ranch for more than it was worth to
protect the surrounding wetlands. Then he put a chunk of money into
renovating it. He also added the appropriate handicapped access even
before the law required it.
So
Don't Make Mistakes
(5/23/2000)
Consider the firefighters who put their
lives on the line. The nearly five hundred families burned out. The
lives of so many people changed so dramatically, mostly for the worse,
forever. Because a bunch of people at the federal agency had the
authority to play arsonist fire ranger. It is the obstinate stupidity,
the exercise of arbitrary power against common sense, and the fact that
they are our employees that makes this such a socially venal act.
New
York Deserves Better (5/22/2000)
Rudy could have taken Hillary in a New
York Minute had he just behaved himself and kept his mouth shut. Hes
done a good job, in most eyes, of making it a livable city again. For
liberals, thats a euphemism for clearing the streets of beggars and
petty criminals. Which is not a bad thing, especially if protection of
the downtrodden pushed the boundaries of decency past common sense.
Which is why a lot of decent folks thought he was doing a good job.
P.W.T.T. (5/19/2000)
We live out in the wilds, about 12
miles from the city of Redding. For the first coupla miles of our road,
the houses are large and sitting on tended-to property. But as you drive
out further, the homes are trailers, and the yards are littered with
metal hulks that have rusted beyond recognizable shape. Our house sits
at the end of a half-mile packed dirt road; it is the only house on the
road. There are three other developed sites, each with one or more
trailers. Most are more or less permanently situated, with stairs,
porches, and neat skirting. Our neighbors yard is always immaculate.
Such
Is Life (5/18/2000)
The energy that measured the final
heart beat was the life force of the person who used to be alive. It was
the same energy that kept his heart beating all of his life, until just
now. The energy that pumped blood through his veins, kept his lungs
breathing, provided feeling in his fingers, smelled and tasted, heard
and saw things. When he stubbed his toe, the pain he felt was an energy
signal. The life force that left the patient had maintained and operated
the physical plant of the human being from beginning to end.
Mosquitos
(5/17/2000)
Up here in Redding, where rattlesnakes
and scorpions should be enough to keep people at bay, we have some very
nasty insects. They make little or no noise, are hard to nail if you do
notice them before they bite, and they leave unpleasant results, either
in stings or itches. The mosquitos are particularly noisome. Depending
on when come the rains, they can arrive in a swarm thick enough to
invite automatic weapons fire.
The
Teachers' Pay-Off
(5/16/2000)
Education is probably the
critical issue, and we need to shift massive amounts of public funds to
educate our sorely-disregarded children. Whether you might argue about
their need for education to compete in the global economy, or simply
feel that the opening of a mind is the greatest purpose of a human
being, education is the key. The money is there, its just that we
squander unconscionable federal monies on the military, and at the state
level, we are building prisons with sociopathic zeal.
Bits
& Pieces (5/15/2000)
Speaking of leaking, three Burger King employees in New York State have lost their jobs because they were urinating on the food they were preparing. And spitting on it. And adding such extras as Easy Off oven cleaner. And for months. Not to worry, nobody was killed, or even injured. Indeed, not a single customer apparently complained. I guess they wanted to have it their way instead of yours.
A
New Set of Wheels (5/12/2000)
I sold cars for a while. Twice,
actually, for a few months each time. Though I was very successful at
it, I hated it. I realized that the only way to make money was if the
customer was either stupid or lazy, and then I had to take advantage of
him. I didnt have the temperament to rip people off, even if it was
legal. Indeed in the car business, its almost expected. After my
first experience, I wrote a book called "Right Car, Right
Price", which AutoWeek reviewed as "the right
stuff".
Real
Pearls (5/11/2000)
I think that people like to have
information. They like to be thought of as smart, usually, or at least
in the know with their peer group. Moving up the consciousness ladder,
you find people who prize knowledge for its own sake. These are the
folks who have broken out of the pack, but it isnt without cost. As
de Tocqueville noted about Americans, "there exists also in the
human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to
attempt to lower the powerful to their own level, and reduces men to
prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom."
Reality
Papered Over (5/10/2000)
Of course, sometimes theres nothing
the editor can do about a story, even if hes read it. The
participants have just left themselves dangling from their own-built
petard. And theres plenty of that going on around let me tell you.
Maybe you would say its proportionally the same, its just that weve
got more people making the headlines with their homespun idiocy. But I
dont think so. I think theres proportionally more idiocy, and youd
have to be an idiot not to agree with me.
Boobs
Like Barbie (5/9/2000)
Surely there are enough competent
managers out there who could be hired with less risk to the company. And
maybe even last longer and perform better. Or maybe there are just too
many companies, too many lousy boards, and two few talented managers.
And were going into a tailspin that will eventually result in a
restructuring of the global economy.
Cuatro
de Mayo (5/8/2000)
Its not about being old that I feel
the difference in our years, but about what happened in those earlier
years that is not part of their awareness. Im gonna be fifty in
September, and they are colleagues in their mid-thirties. They were
talking about Cinco de Mayo on May 4th, and I asked them if
they knew what happened thirty years earlier. Blank look. Kent State.
The eyes narrowed as they recognized the sounds, but they didnt know
what happened there or the historical context that so defined the
generation previous to them.
Bits
& Pieces (5/5/2000)
In other punishments, Playboy magazine
has reprimanded the chief editor of its Romanian edition. I didnt
even know they had multiple editions, let alone one for Romania. So youre
thinking maybe articles like "Girls of the Coal Mines"? Uh,
uh. They featured an essay called "How to Beat Your Wife Without
Leaving Traces." It implied that good beatings could lead to great
sex. Oh, well then....
An
Invitation to Participate
(5/4/2000)
I believe that we are alive and in our
bodies for a purpose greater than consuming and polluting. I dont
believe that the person who dies with the fewest toys wins any medals
because of it, but I do believe that the life force that created each of
us is so extra- ordinary that it could be working without purpose. That
each of us must have a reason for being here beyond eating, watching
television and later mouldering in the grave.
Steak
at Stake (5/3/2000)
When I see the bumpersticker "I
Brake for Animals" I think maybe the owner is a little
over-zealous. I mean, who doesnt break for animals? And does he
suppose that he is distinguishing himself from people who deliberately
dont brake for animals, or who deliberately try to run them over? Run
em down, I say. No, thats a joke.
Reputation
for Integrity (5/2/2000)
I never asked Ron to give me an inside
scoop. He was a man with such an impeccable aura of integrity that it
would shame me to even ask. More importantly, anyway, Ron served to
provide perspective for me, and through me for our coverage, of what the
laws meant and how various testimony fit into the overall scheme of
things. It was not only not a transgression, but it helped elucidate the
public on matters of national interest.
Warning
to Sensitive Ears
(5/1/2000)
Then I woke up in the middle of the
night and I thought of a better motto: Arrive Safely in Comfort On-Time.
I faxed the line over, and not hearing anything, presumed it was fine.
But then the sales guy called. His boss, the JPR marketing director, was
not sure, he said, that the new phrase worked for them. Apparently he
thought that "Arrive" was a call to action. I didnt say it,
but I did think, No, you putz, its a harmless intransitive verb.
Star
Wars -- Not the Movie
(4/28/2000)
The Pentagon is particularly upset
because the Congress refuses to close military bases the military says
they dont need. Now when you hear the military asking for base
closures, you know that we really, really dont need these places.
They are not cost-efficient. They are draining funds from other, more worthy
projects. But, squalls the Representative of the People of the would-be
afflicted district, Were talkin jobs, peoples lives, the future of
our future. And afflictees band together and block all of the base
closures to protect their own.
We'll
Call Her Eleanor
(4/27/2000)
She was probably in her early fifties
when I knew her, though I was not very good at guessing that sort of
thing. She was attractive, and I told her so in a letter that she told
me she kept in her safe. It wasnt a mash note, but a letter of
respect and appreciation for both her beauty and her extraordinary
presence. She could have knocked weaker-kneed men off their feet, if she
had wanted to, although that wasnt in her nature.
Homo
Erectus Set (4/26/2000)
I wonder if anyone on a religious
mission would take time to indulge in a little distraction. I mean, I
know that theyve got to have god in, of, and by their life in every
moment, but wouldnt it be nice to just kick back and watch an old
movie on television. For instance, Abbot and Costello were on the other
night, in the background as I caught up on the newspapers. It was one of
their later films that while still smooth was a bit boilerplate. Still,
there was a good line from the villain who said, "I had a fight
with my conscience...and won." At least he had a dialectic going.
Guns
and Mutter (4/25/2000)
Though their display of guns inside the
house seemed mighty excessive, again, I was in fact relieved that the
Feds were able to carry out the mission successfully. I had been
concerned that certain parts of our country were no longer under federal
jurisdiction. And while it is unfortunate that the people holding the
boy wouldnt obey the legal authorities let alone do the right
thing and send his boy back to his father at least the Feds were
able to go in and do the job.
Redding's
Road (4/24/2000)
Many of our older citizens are just
fine, thank you, though they are watching their money carefully, which
explains why there are myriad cheap restaurants. Tons of salt and
grease. I guess ya gotta envy people who have stopped worrying about
nutrition. But sometimes you want someplace special, and that doesnt
mean taking the wifes Buick through the same ole drive-thru.
Bits
& Pieces (4/21/2000)
Give the ax to The Wooden One. Al Gore
has just opened his mouth, and is choking on his foot again. Ole Al says
that if he were president, people wouldnt be allowed to bring
handguns into churches. Now see, I didnt realize that was such a
problem. I mean, people who shoot people in church, sure aint gonna
get dissuaded by such a law.
The
American Pedant
(4/20/2000)
Actually, when you boil off the credits
and station breaks, it was closer to nine hours; it just seemed longer.
Because its tough to sum up a coupla centuries of leadership for
better or worse in nine hours without cutting some corners. The
production team a family of historians named Kunhardt decided to
encapsulate 41 presidencies thematically, rather than linearly. They
lumped the leaders into ten different categories that seemed rather
arbitrary, and irrelevant.
Scraps
to Clutter (4/19/2000)
I go to Wal-Mart for my plinking ammo;
550 rounds for $8.97. The gun department is on the far side of the
store, which means that I have to make my way through a considerable
field of fellow Wal-Martians. Its not a pretty picture. By the time I
got to the counter the last time, I decided to buy four instead of my
usual two boxes of bullets. The decision was confirmed when a woman with
a flock of young uns asked the ammo maven, where she might find water
balloons.
More
People Get Their News...Without Journalism (4/18/2000)
A recent flap at the White House
illuminates how far ABC News has fallen. ABC News was taping movie star
Leonardo DiCaprio walking through the White House, chatting with
President Clinton about matters environmental for an Earth Day show.
Well, it seems Clinton gave Leonardo a full-fledged 15-minute interview
on the subject, and ABC Newsers were outraged.
Econ
101
(4/17/2000)
They call economics the dismal science,
but thats probably because those who studied and taught it didnt
seem like interesting people. Economists tend to live with numbers at
the expense of human interaction, or at least thats often the
perception. Which is curious, because I think it was in Bulfinchs
Mythology that I read that the Greeks thought of mathematics as the most
romantic of languages.
Stonehenge (4/14/2000)
Stonehenge is a literally breath-taking
experience. One is humbled into silence by the achievement and whatever
impelled them to do what they did. You can feel it today. There is such
power and presence in the formation of this geologic opera you begin to
imagine that maybe these stones cruised in from Wales on a whisper of
intention. Or maybe it was aliens.
Summer
Rain (4/13/2000)
A light summer sprinkle is falling on
the canvas awning that shades the deck outside my home-office. There had
been some spitting earlier in the evening, but you could still watch a
haughty four-day moon and a passel of stars over to the west, playing
tag with the clouds. Now the whole canvas is dark, as an unforecast
front sidles through and the separate raindrops become a patter.
Bits
& Pieces (4/12/2000)
A recent news report said that doctors
had determined that riding roller coasters created brain damage. They
had to study this? I kinda thought it was obvious. By the physical
experience and the people who seemed to like it. Youre flying around
at high speeds with a group of people who enjoy terror, screaming, and
vomiting. Why wouldnt think they find a lot of brain damage?
Desperate
Game (4/11/2000)
Thats a lot of money to spend and
get such poor returns, especially since the show never had a chance to
fly. When you put the pieces together on the basis of consultants and
focus groups -- instead of formatting an intelligent, engaging program
using intelligent and engaging people -- then you wind up with Barbie-esque
fluff, scraping the bottom of the ratings cellar.
Flight
to Fancy (4/10/2000)
Linda is in the air for a vacation in
Holland and Belgium. She and another attorney- friend are headed over to
visit tulip land. The friend lives across The Bay from San Francisco
airport, out of which they departed for Europe this morning, so I flew
Linda down last night to Hayward Executive Airport, near to where the
friend lives. My co-pilot was a new friend, who was also a client of
Lindas. Bud flew for the commercial airlines for over thirty years,
and before that was a pilot for the Navy and landed on aircraft
carriers.
Gud
Spellur (4/7/2000)
On a more cosmic level, I find these
spelling bees to be just a tad off-line with what they ask the children
to spell. Let me say that I always loved spelling bees, but I also was
familiar with the words. Even if I didnt exactly know what they
meant, or how to spell them. Nowadays, at least in the competitions I
read about, the children are spelling or not words that Ive
never heard of, never seen in print, and havent a clue what they
mean.
Pride
Cometh Before the Faint
(4/6/2000)
It was an ugly thing, but somebody had
to do it. Mr.Cat had found some shade and ignored me. Buster tried to
ignore me, but being a dog he just wasnt very good at it. Linda was
off erranding, so that left it to me. And finally, enough was enough.
Fans were on, windows were open, and the sun was heading down toward the
western ridge, belatedly, this first day of daylight savings. But it was
still too hot to sit at my desk, so I turned on the air conditioner.
More
Loose Change (4/5/2000)
In another example of how the lunatics
have taken over the asylum, I'm waiting for someone to explain to me why
my mouthwash has a child-proof top. We're not talkin' vanilla extract
which teens would swill for its alcohol content, usually suffering a
hangover and never getting high. Who needs to be protected from
excessive cinnamon breath?
Pride
in Right (4/4/2000)
Local officials in the Miami area say
that they won't supply law enforcement to back federal authorities if
Elian is sent back to Cuba, and warn of a bloodbath if the feds attempt
it. My visceral reaction is to wonder if we have any napalm left, but
I'm afraid that would sound a bit harsh. I don't know what the feds are
thinking, but how could they not enforce a federal judges order? They
didn't with George Wallace standing in the schoolhouse door. Do we back
off at the threat of trouble?
The Mind of Work and Play (4/3/2000)
I had forgotten what it was like to
work from eight to five, five days a week. I haven't had a job where I
had to be in an office every day all day for almost a decade. This is
not to say that I don't enjoy working or that I lack the discipline to
sit at my desk writing; I love it, feeling ideas alight on my
consciousness and then joining the creative process with some deliberate
notions. 'Tis the marriage of the conscious and the non-conscious, and
probably the very thing that makes us human, and worthy to be the site
of such activity.
Lowest Commmon Denominator
(3/31/2000)
Advertising is a curious game,
especially since there are such high and low ends to it. From the
Neiman-Marcus catalogue, for example, in the upper tier to the spray-on
hair products in the lower. It used to be that television was mostly for
the low-end products, because thats where the masses were and they
couldnt afford much and you had to sell a lot of whatevers to make
the production let alone the advertising worthwhile.
Love the Sinner, Scratch the Itch (3/30/2000)
I think that deep down, Hillary and
Bill, G-Dubya and John McCuckoo, are probably very respectable souls.
Probably before theyre fully awake and have put on their personas.
And yes, were all gods chilluns and that makes us all perfect. Its
when we pick up our scripts, as it were, and start behaving badly when
the difficulties arrive.
Okay, Some Solutions
(3/29/2000)
Some who have commentary space or time
to fill on a regular basis can get lazy and pluck out a stinking fish
and mash it around for a bit. Carp, carp, carp. Its fine to
illuminate whats wrong, but there is also an obligation to suggest
how to do something right. Or at least point out alternative directions.
And perhaps I am owning up to a feeling of my own guilt at being more
focused on problems than solutions. Nah. But as perhaps something of a
change of pace, Id like to devote the rest of this time to some
possible solutions. Heres a handful...
Into the Wind (3/28/2000)
Susan and I had met almost twenty years
ago. We quickly discovered that our relationship was going to be
conducted standing up and sitting down. Years later, we shared a house
together, comfortable in our platonic-ness. We had ups and downs in our
friendship, but we never stopped caring for each other. I hadnt seen
her in two years.
Too Many People (3/27/2000)
My mother was a bright, thoughtful
person, who viewed over-population as the critical issue. She
also bore five children, although she insists that four of them were
unplanned. No, I was the first child, first mistake, and only boy.
Knowing my sisters, Id say my mother was right, even about her other
mistakes. She was also right about the population problem.
Gimme a (n Easter) Break (3/24/2000)
At the time of the call, the school was
on winter break, and the students didnt get off again until Easter
Break. Oops. Im not supposed to say that. In fact, they dont say
the word Easter. Its a religious word, and in some kind of
contract negotiations with the teachers and the classified positions
unions a while back, the word Easter was struck out.
Bits & Pieces (3/23/2000)
Speaking of the back of the herd and
not enough wolves, the chief United Nations guy in Kosovo says, says
reconciliation between Serbs and Albanians in the divided province is
"absolutely impossible". Okay, now what? Ship half to Lebanon
and half to Belfast? There was a wry observation back in 1968 when the
Soviet Union had sent tanks into Prague that in Czechoslovakia there
were the optimists and the pessimists. The optimists thought that they
would all be transported to Siberia. The pessimists thought theyd
have to walk.
Androcles (3/22/2000)
A sociable fellow at playtime,
Androcles brought home a fairly large rabbit which managed to squeeze
his way under a couch in the living room to hide out. Until I realized
that Androcles was staring too long at the couch, at which point I
raised the couch, rescued the rabbit, earning Androcles gentle scorn.
Another time, I arrived on scene too late. What looked like a an
eviscerated feather pillow at the bottom of the stairs turned out to
have been a homing pigeon, apparently inadequate trained.
Spring Be Sprung (3/21/2000)
Ya gotta think that spring is gods
idea of reparations. Not that winter is so bad everywhere every year,
but spring is so glorious, except, maybe, in places like Mozambique this
year. Spring is a metaphor for life and rebirth. Spring means its
time to scrape away the cocoon of dead leaves and old ideas, to compost
errors and apologies, and to award your garden and your character a new
start.
The Godhood Within
(3/20/2000)
The problem is that I dont believe
anyone should be my personal savior except me. I think we are all on
this Earth to save ourselves. Not as in bailing out or forgiving, but in
actualizing. I believe we have an obligation to live our lives in a
healthy and purposeful way, and in so doing, we create our own
salvation. We redeem ourselves.
Parking Angel
(3/17/2000)
Shes older, probably
mid-sixties. Her appearance is careworn, but without a sense of loss.
Her mottled grey hair is pulled back, with more than a few wisps
escaping control. She has something of the unrepentant appearance of an
aged hippie. This is a woman is not ordinary.
Wretched Flashlight
(3/16/2000)
The local fishwrap that
masquerades as a newspaper exists only because it is the only game in
town. Not just as the principal news source in the typical vacuum of one
paper and weak broadcasting, but as the primary local advertising
vehicle. Though some papers take advantage of the situation and produce
a quality journalistic effect, the Record Searchlight otherwise
referred to as the Wretched Flashlight, and worse fails badly as an
informational beacon.
Gas Out
(3/15/2000)
Lets also not forget that
gasoline prices are incredibly low still, when you factor in inflation.
The fact is that we are getting an incredible deal. After all, were
talking about a limited commodity. But the petroleum industry has
figured out a way of delivering it to us at the same cost or lower for
thirty years ago. They simply sell more of it. And folks, that balloon
is gonna burst, and sooner than later.
Connect the Dots
(3/14/2000)
One of the Fox networks is
trumpeting a new film critic. Hes gonna assemble a panel of experts
and they will tell it like it is. The illustrious host assures us that
he will not be in anyones pocket. Says the cultured one, "And if
it sucks, Ill tell you." With such a gift for gab, you know your
gonna be getting the truth, straight from the horses...the horses....
The Bradley Effort
(3/13/2000)
What Bradley needed to do from
the outset was to challenge the nations Democrats to take back their
party from Clinton. And to entice thinking Republicans who have been
disenfranchised from their elephants by the lunatic right. He needed to
offer the vision of a new alignment of interests. Not the traditional
Democratic party image of a labor-Catholic-liberals coalition. That hasnt
been the case in more than twenty years, though most of the party
hierarchy has been in denial about it. Hey, they wanna keep their jobs.
Rainy Day Children
(3/10/2000)
The children stood in the
pouring rain without shelter or proper clothing, waiting for the school
bus. More than a dozen dotted along a couple miles of rural Bear
Mountain Road. They didnt get suddenly trapped. They were caught in a
downpour that had been drenching the area for hours. They had been sent
out this way. They were clearly soaked to the skin. What kind of
children would be so ill-equipped that in their teens they couldnt
dress themselves properly?
War Today, Gone Tomorrow
(3/9/2000)
War seems to be popping up a lot
lately. As in John McCain the war hero. Or Darva Conger the would-be
millionaires briefest-of-brides who claimed to be a Gulf War veteran.
Or the campaign to build a World War Two memorial in Washington. And in
all of that talk of things war, there seems no one taking note of the
fact that war is waning.
Scraggles (3/8/2000)
Old Scraggles did manage to get
himself more together by the time it was time to move, and I carried him
in my car in a box along with three other boxes of our three young
female cats. The car got a tad noisy at times, but curiously, it was
only when I directed my attention at them in their four boxes that they
ever started talking.
Ballot of Reckoning
(3/7/2000)
If the people making the rules
are those who profit by them, the game is over. When this happens in
business, you wind up with a monopoly, and some people get richer at the
expense of others. But when it is the very operating political structure
of the government of, by and, for the people, then the stakes are
considerably higher.
The Lowdown on a March Sunday
(3/6/2000)
Last week was my first at
wo-wo-work in a long time. Got there in the morning and didnt get
home until afternoon. Mostly setting up my office space, kicking the
computer like a dead cat until our MIS guy decided it wasnt the
software or the RAM but probably the motherboard and the new machine
arrives tomorrow. Yippee.
Bits & Pieces
(3/3/2000)
Then there are the cosmetic
surgery ads in the newspaper showing the before and after. That part I
can understand. I mean, if youre gonna blow a few thousand bucks, you
should be able to tell which is which, right? Sorta like why do they
have to put up signs directing people to the psyche fair?
March 7th (3/2/2000)
We have a legislature those
mostly just draws a paycheck, the electorate here votes directly on
propositions, and a lot of em. So on March 7th, as the
rest of the country watches to see whom we choose for presidential nods,
we residents of The Golden State have a bunch of truly important issues
to decide, including opportunities to fund this and that, grant special
favors to Indians and parents, and be gratuitously mean to homosexuals.
Apple$ and Orange$
(3/1/2000)
The Internet is turning the
whole pricing game on its ear. National on-line retailers are popping up
like crocuses in spring, and are able to undercut local outlets because
(1) they dont have to pay the cost of operating a storefront theyre
essentially just warehouse shippers and (2) they dont have to
charge sales tax.
Elephant Graveyard
(2/29/2000)
With the shift in the past week,
and the apparent repudiation of Bush by all but the dinosaurs, Im
coming to believe that McCain could actually win the nomination. Of
course, the shoot-from-the-lip former POW could easily submarine his own
chances with the wrong remarks.
Margin of Error
(2/28/2000)
In the shooting of Amadou Diallo,
there are some distressing facts which supported the charges, though
not, eventually, to the jurys satisfaction. The jury, which included
four blacks, found the cops not guilty of all charges, including
reckless endangerment. This, despite the fact that the four men fired 41
shots at Diallo, killing him instantly.
Bits & Pieces
(2/25/2000)
Whats in a name? I passed up
the opportunity to get off the freeway for a bite the other day. Maybe
because it was morning, and I wasnt hungry, or maybe because the sign
said "The Feed Bag" and it kept me goin down the highway.
The Faux Hero
(2/24/2000)
It happens, you know, that
people without a full compliment of marbles still somehow manage to
float to the top. In business, they sometimes call it a new management
style. In science and the arts, they call it genius. In politics, it can
just get very bizarre, like Ross Perot and Admiral Stockdale. In the
White House, it would be a disaster.
Election Reform
(2/23/2000)
Not only have crooks taken over
the system both in writing and cashing those political checks
but the greater casualty is that the public has lost faith in how we
create our government. No wonder, considering the bozo parades that
march through the capitals and the headlines.
Naked Emperors
(2/22/2000)
And finally theres the case
of John Rocker the 25-year-old pitcher for the Atlanta Braves who was
suspended for a month with pay because he said some outrageous
things about homosexuals, immigrants, and New Yorkers. Hey, dont
suspend him, educate him. We say hes wrong so teach him right, and
then send him out to preach the truth. If hes not too stupid to
learn, he could make a difference.
What Girls Are For
(2/21/2000)
Which means that you will find
the most important learning and the greatest delight by staying present,
and not getting a handle on it or her. It's like arriving in a new
place, where you don't know the customs or the language. Present
yourself at your finest -- that is, the most truthful. And ignore into
silence the little voice in the back of your head the old and
younger you -- that would offer commentary on what was happening.
Bits & Pieces
(2/18/2000)
Sometimes I think weve got
the wrong people at the front of the herd. People like Bush-lite and
Clinton-dark should not be leading. They should be at the back. They are
the ones who should fall to the wolves. And yes we need better wolves.
Poor Man's Network
(2/17/2000)
Being a start-up and on a tight
budget, CNN built its news operation with back-benchers, and they have
never recovered. Though they became successful as a business, they never
raised themselves as a news organization. To wit they depend on people
like Wolf Blitzer, Jeanne Meserve, and Candy Crowley. This is not to say
that the ABC-CBS-NBC people are much better; they arent, much,
anymore.
Once Is Enough
(2/16/2000)
The sheriffs office is now
making noises that they are actually protecting the boy from the
clutches of his mother. Bravo to the sheriffs office for their
purported rationale. Uh-uh to their methods. Surely our society even
in Tennessee -- has advanced to a point where children dont have to
stab people to protect their mothers and sheriffs dont have to arrest
them to protect them from their mothers.
A New Birth of Freedom
(2/15/2000)
Thats the way we do it in
national politics -- we cheer the underdog until he wins and we see him
for who he is. When the general public stops suckling at McCains
sincerity and takes a good look at this guy, and his past, they may well
discover that theyve just discovered how theyve been snookered
again, albeit by a different wolf in different wool.
Happy V.D.
(2/14/2000)
We
dont labour at love the way we used to, rather, we too often use it
as a lever and as a cudgel. We use love as excuse for everything, good
and bad. We can risk family, job, and reputation in the name of love.
Over and over again. And until recently in Texas, you used to be able to
shoot your wife, if you found her in the arms of someone she loved.
Only Time Will Tell
(2/11/2000)
We have been inundated by a wave
of anti-intellectualism that once was scorned and now is celebrated. You
can see it on television, programs like "The Drew Carey Show",
where stupidity and cowardice are the foundation and whining
manipulation is the currency. Remember when we used to welcome new
ideas. Now we shun them.
Those Crazy Californians
(2/10/2000)
When you consider what has come
out of SillyCon Valley over the past thirty years -- much of it
designed, produced, and marketed by some of the craziest people you
could imagine -- then ya gotta reassess what you mean by crazy.
It is indeed a fine line between genius and
insanity, and a lot of people slip back and forth.
Three Gals and a Preacher
(2/9/2000)
The Chaplain of the House of
Representatives is paid $133,000 a year and has taken more foreign
junkets than the pope. At least hes in touch with his constituents, I
mean, congregation.
The Lone Ranger
(2/8/2000)
I outgrew The Lone Ranger. And
Superman, too, which had a similar spirit of "truth, justice, and
the American way". I discovered the real world where things werent
so black and white, where criminals did not bow out gracefully, where
not everyone was saved. And looking back on that transition a
deflowering, if you will I can better appreciate what Clayton Moore
believed.
Loose Links
(2/7/2000)
Military Minion William Cohen is trying
to sell the concept of our anti-missile program to our allies. He says
he wants to avert nuclear blackmail. Shame, not only would we be turning
the demilitarization clock back to 1972 when we signed the ABM treaty,
but we do not now and we never will have a technology that can create a
true safety shield against any and all would-be terrorists.
Education Is More Than a Political Issue
(2/4/2000)
When you think about how California has
been such a pioneer -- from social advancement like pollution control
and smoking restrictions to the technology of computers and the Internet
-- its kinda ironic in a very ugly way that with all of our cutting
edge pushing of envelopes, we have allowed the state public school
system flush itself down the toilet.
The Emptior Caveat
(2/3/2000)
I wonder how far we are obligated to go
to protect people from their own ignorance and stupidity -- by stupidity
being willful ignorance -- and more problematically, their grab for an
illusory brass ring. I wonder at the endless stream of elderly poor who
pour their life savings into the black hole of faux confidence, and wind
up on the local news, on their way to the welfare rolls.
Groundhog Day
(2/2/2000)
In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, so the
story goes, Phil the groundhog will emerge from his burrow on Groundhog
Day to check the weather. If its cloudy, Phil will get spring started
early. But if the sun is out, his shadow will frighten him back into his
burrow for six more weeks of winter. I dont know about sun or clouds,
but someone should keep Phil away from the newspapers or spring will
never come.
Super, You Betcha, Uh-huh
(2/1/2000)
I told Linda I wanted to turn on the
television to watch the commercials playing during the SuperBowl. She
said I could watch the game itself if I wanted. I knew it was pointless
to argue. Sorta like what you say to the guys who said they bought Playboy
for the articles. Uh-huh. Only in my case it was true.
Weather or Not
(1/31/2000)
Now of course we can forgive the
weather service. We always do. We ridicule Them, hurl vituperation at
Them, but we always forgive Them. Its a strange relationship we have
with Them. Them with a capital T. Theyre almost of a stature with God
with a capital G.
Cowardice & Heroics
(1/28/2000)
If Bill Bradley wants to win, hes
got to earn the vote of the people who have been turned off to politics.
People who used to vote but who stopped. And the way to reach these
people is to show that hes different. He needs to show a sharp wit,
an unabating sense of justice, and an emotional drive to lead us to a
healthy and productive future.
Bucket of Scraps
(1/27/2000)
A great thinker also off the field,
Adams said that he wanted his son to be a great soldier, his grandson to
be a great lawyer, and his great-grandson to be an artist. Bang-zoom.
Imagine having the opportunity to vote for a man with a mind like that.
In Det
(1/26/2000)
Now I dont argue that some people
can get themselves into financial difficulties, and I speak from
experience, but when you borrow against your next paycheck, its gets
really ugly, really fast. And those most likely to succumb to the
temptation are those with the fewest assets, including intelligence.
The Likelihood of What-If (1/25/2000)
It is the function of the conscious
mind to adjust the squelch, so that when you are listening, youre not
inundated with just a lot of noise. That means letting the imagination
flow freely at appropriate times, but knowing when and how to encourage
it to go in a particular direction.
Bits and Pieces
(1/24/2000)
"Nothing in the world can
take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common
than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is
almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated
derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent." Who
said that?
Dog the Wag
(1/21/2000)
I am astounded by the low
quality of retail sales these days. No wonder so many people are
shopping on line. You get more information, when you want it, and dont
have to suffer the indignities of watching a multiple-piercing victim
chew gum.
California
Gleamin'
(1/20/2000)
Weve been worried about a
drought here in the Northern Sacramento Valley because rainfall was
well-below normal. But in the last week or so, weve had several
inches of rain and its delicious to be out during that sunlit window,
to see and smell nature in her early explosion.
Bar the Stars and Bars
(1/19/2000)
If we have to keep fighting the
Civil War, well never move forward. We need to worry less about the
past and focus more on the future. But first we have to right our ship
of state. We must remember our heritage through imagery that doesnt
tear at the very heart of our whole nation.
Inner Self & Ego
(1/18/2000)
I believe that the smaller the
ego, the less interference there is between my true self and the rest of
the world. I liken it to the difference between diving in one of those
big clunky suits with the helmet and the hoses, or wearing a wetsuit.
Obviously one is more protected in the clunky suit, but much more
flexible and adaptable in the thin rubber suit.
Below the Fold
(1/17/2000)
The Pentagon is beefing up our
anti-terrorism defenses by adding rapid response teams to the National
Guard in 16 states. According to one official, "They live it, they
breathe it, they think it and they train it seven days a week, 52 weeks
a year." Oooooo, those nasty terrorists better just watch out now.
If U Cn Rd This
(1/14/2000)
The state of California has yet
another industry that will produce nothing but irritation. By passing
some pet legislation, our fearless legislators now require certain of
our citizenry to waste thousand of hours and millions of dollars in an
afternoon of tedium.
Bits & Pieces
(1/13/2000)
Californians were hit up for
almost $200-million last year for charities. But less than 44% of the
amount raised actual went to the causes for which they were solicited.
The bulk of the money went to the people who did the raising.
Libre America
(1/12/2000)
The judges decision, and
short may it live, is just the latest example of the breakdown of the
American social contract. Miami is now more Cuban than American, just as
parts of other American cities have been ceded to groups with whom
authorities simply dont want to mess. As it were.
What Did They Say?
(1/11/2000)
There are too many people out
there these days with publicists. Its semi-benign when some
tinseltown heart-throb becomes a parent and a publicist tells the press,
but too often these days, corporate executives and political figures
hide behind these "flaks".
License To Learn
(1/10/2000)
Leaving Sunday was a little more
complicated. The clouds and fog appeared, disappeared, and appeared
again. At departure time, it was well below even instrument flight
minimums. But in an hour, the sun burned off much of the problem. I
checked by phone to make sure that the rest of the route was
weather-safe and we took off.
Libre Cuba
(1/7/2000)
If an American child were held
by another country in a similar case, he would have been back
in a matter of hours or they would have gotten a visit from our Marines.
Art & Craft
(1/6/2000)
Here we were at lunch, me and
the two head honchos of Ascot Aviation, for whom Id been creating a
marketing program, along with the fellow who owned a chunk of Ascot
through his holding company. About ten minutes into our lunch, the
investor turned to the other guys and said, I want Tony to work for me.
Criticism From The Inside
(1/5/2000)
This is not to say that
criticism doesnt have some value. Nothing is perfect, after all. Was
it Rodin who said that in every work of art there is a flaw? And if we
didnt have critics, there wouldnt be enough room in the gutter for
the addicts?
Evil Is Not Live Backwards
(1/4/2000)
Im all for freedom of
religion, but in Afghanistan, it is psychosis. And the responsibility
for this country pioneering new depths of darkness lies squarely on the
foreign policy mavens of the Soviet Union and the United States.
Limits On Sympathy
(
1/3/2000)
We waste huge sums trying to level the
playing field for a very few, to provide access everywhere for everyone,
and we shouldnt. We pay exorbitant amounts
on a few, and then shortchange the many -- also with sharp minds and
healthy character -- who just need a little help to get started.
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