For a free email
subscription to SetonnoteS, click the image below.

©1999-2005 
SetonnoteS  

Bye-Bye Oh Four   (12/31/04)
New Year’s Eve is such an arbitrary moment. Like most holidays. It’s not like we’re at a low, mid or high point in the sun’s cycle. But we make resolutions, most of which will never be kept, and we drink champagne and we watch revelers carousing in Times Square and elsewhere.

The Last Week     (12/30/04)
Now the latest from that wonderful week between Christmas and New Year’s when fathers chop up their families with the electric carving knife they got under the tree; nope, not this year. But there is a lot of news, which most people will miss because they’re so busy with the business of the holidays... specifically, re-gifting.

Liberal and Smart     (12/29/04)
But they went overboard, and in their zeal, squandered public support and jeopardized much of what they had accomplished. Their problem was that they lacked the self-discipline and awareness to mitigate progress with the natural intransigence of the less conscious.

Mayhem     (12/28/04)
Methinks we need a political mayhem law, one which punishes in draconian fashion those elected, appointed, and hired government types who act against the public interest.

Bits & Pieces     (12/27/04)
No, it’s not an emergency; the people who call are just remarkably dense. By the way, the number of calls to the CHP’s Bay Area dispatch center over the past twenty years has risen from nine thousand annually to eight million. Remember when silence was golden?

Meaning to Christmas     (12/24/04)
I’d like to feel good about Christmas, but circumstances don’t seem to warrant it. Maybe when we restore the Christ Consciousness it will be time again. But in the meantime, a heartfelt Merry Christmas to all.

Sing from the Hearts     (12/23/04)
I remember liking from a young age many songs whose sounds I would cheerfully mouth but whose precise, and sometimes general, meaning was never an issue. One favorite was a Thanksgiving song which talked about chastening. I didn’t know what that meant.

Bits & Pieces     (12/22/04)
The bill was $255. But because I didn’t have medical insurance -- just hospitalization -- when I resubmitted the bill at their behest, it was only $143. Apparently that’s not uncommon, but it is nuts.

Oh, Canada     (12/21/04)
The week after the November elections, the number of Americans inquiring about becoming Canadians went through the roof. For a lotta folks, it had to have been intriguing to discover that our neighbor to the north isn’t just colder; they’re kinda smart.

Tradition     (12/20/04)
The sun didn’t go anywhere, it was the Earth’s orbit that turned back in the other direction. Which is a better way of putting it since if you stand really far back, like at the edge of the universe, there ain’t really no north or south. Probably not even an up and down.

Values-Schmalues     (12/17/04)
The implication that Bush voters have higher moral values is an obscenity in itself. People who voted for the incumbent -- whose record of evasion and invasion was probably the worst in our history -- don’t have a clue about morality. They voted on the basis of ignorance, greed, and fear.

Limits to Privilege     (12/16/04)
Being a journalist has some privileges when it comes to keeping secrets. At least it did. But a couple of cases in the news are underscoring the complexities that can arise when privilege is claimed and the government objects.

Vote for Voting     (12/15/04)
The U.S., along with the rest of the civilized world, supported Yuschenko, who is viewed as a liberal. We apparently poured $65 million into getting him elected. Russia opposed him. Now relations with Putin’s government have soured.

Don't Shoot 'Em But...     (12/14/04)
I used to toss out the phrase "Shoot ‘em" when I’d encounter people acting badly. Usually theirs wasn’t a heinous offense in the general scheme of things; not like invading foreign countries or torturing prisoners.

The Rummy Deal     (12/13/04)
Why didn’t the military provide the properly-plated vehicles from the get-go? Why did it take this question -- a public challenge to their chief -- to get the Pentagon off the armorless dime? And who really thinks the military is going to keep up appearances after the story leaves the front pages?

Strained Mercy     (12/10/04)
Very disappointed doesn’t seem very reasonable. Surely if a governor who has signed plenty of death warrants sees a reason to allow for a re-examination of the evidence, it should be incumbent upon the prosecutor to say, By all means.

"The Scream"     (12/09/04)
There was a story about The New Republic’s lead editorial decrying Dean’s bid to head the Democratic National Committee, saying America thinks of him as "an unhinged screamer, arrogant Northeasterner and anti-war activist." Hmmm, Dean might be just what the DNC needs.

Odds & Ends     (12/08/04)
Dylan: "It's a feeling you have that you know something about yourself that nobody else does....It's kind of a thing you kind of have to keep to your own self, because it's a fragile feeling. And if you put it out there, somebody will kill it."

Evolution and Spirit     (12/07/04)
There is impeccable science behind evolution, but there are also some significant holes in Darwin’s story. However, the Biblical story, while entertaining, is all holes. There is no science behind it.

Anchors Away     (12/06/04)
Had their focus been on journalism instead of their pompous self-importance, they might have raised enough questions about why our public schools were being flushed into academic incompetence and prevented the virtual collapse of the world’s once-greatest education system.

Bits & Pieces     (12/03/04)
The "Fountain" is simply and only an ordinary white porcelain urinal, and the experts decided it was more significant than, among other choices, Andy Warhol's screen prints of Marilyn Monroe and Picasso’s "Guernica."

Letter from New York     (12/02/04)
Circulating on the Internet is a letter from a New Yorker directed at the people of the red states. She speaks bitterly of the stupidity of the people who voted Bush in for the next four years, decrying their unconscionable endorsement of his obscene Iraq war and tragic domestic politics.

This Democracy Thang     (12/01/04)
This democracy thang has some wrinkles in it, at least as far as it’s being practiced. Let’s acknowledge right off the bat, as Churchill observed, that it is a terrible form of government, albeit the best we have. The essential problems lie in its principle components -- the people -- those who vote and those who count the votes.


The Obscenity of War     (11/30/04)
People in uniform think they have special authority because they put their lives on the line. They think they know more because they are the ones who do the fighting. They think that civilians know less, are worth less, and don’t have a right to question them.

The Left Out     (11/29/04)
In fact there are a whole lot of otherwise-intelligent people who, inundated with innuendo and falsehood, day after day, week after week, year after year, without hearing the facts in context, now believe very important things that aren’t true.

Turkey Trot     (11/26/04)
The children seem to be having a great time, running ahead and back, waiting for their parents to catch up. I used to think that their noisy enthusiasm made it hard to hear the deeper voice from within. This Thanksgiving I realized that it’s the same voice.

Thanks a Bunch     (11/25/04)
Over the river and through the woods, but not to grandmother’s house I go. Don’t have one. Not gonna have a turkey, either. But I’ll drive over the Navarro River and through the magnificent redwoods, singing along with Arlo Guthrie’s "Alice’s Restaurant" on the CD player.

The Foundation for Peace     (11/24/04)
Courtesy is the foundation for peace. Granted, there are those who aren’t interested in peace. Psychotic religious types and right-wing nutzis among that crowd, but most healthy hearts and minds truly yearn for peace.

Obscenity     (11/23/04)
The Federal Communications Commission is rankled over ABC’s opening video for MondayNightFootball last week. Described as "steamy" the intro shows a naked actress -- from the back, above the waist -- jumping into the arms of a football player.

The Gaia Principle     (11/22/04)
It ain’t so popular in our take-control world but from time immemorial a theory has intruded itself that says the Earth is a living entity. It’s called the Gaia Principle -- Gaia being from the Greek meaning Earth -- and it sees our dear Blue Planet as a self-contained ecosystem.

Ding-A-Lings     (11/19/04)
There may be more corrupt people than those managing the cellphone business but they would have to be in the Bush Administration. The fone folks spend huge sums on advertising, signing up sheep in droves using full page newspaper ads and an incessant babble on television and radio.

Fries with That?     (11/18/04)
If you are ever of the mind to think that religion should live without restraints, uh, you’re wrong. Let’s start with how the wing-nuts are cheerleading Armageddon. They are taking delight in the notion that most of us will soon be pitched in a lake of fire. That’s not a very Christian thought, is it?

Honor the Veterans     (11/17/04)
It used to be called Armistice Day. An end to the slaughter that was World War One was declared at the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month. It was the war to end all wars, though of course not for long.

Circular Firing Squad     (11/16/04)
A principal reason why the Dems lost, again, was because they are incessantly divided. Their over-broad multi-culturalism, over-the-top inclusiveness has meant a vanilla-ization of anything resembling a platform of principles.

Why Are We Here?     (11/15/04)
You have to think that the world, with all its economic and military alliances bristling with death, might do a better job of unseating virulent despots and of ending and preventing wars. Of course, you have to want the world to be a better place. You can’t install and prop up psychopaths the way the US did, for example, with Saddam.

The Old Man and the See     (11/12/04)
There are still some people out there with the resources -- financial and intellectual -- to be who aren’t yet on-line. Like my father, who’s pushing 81, and probably thinks the learning curve is too great for the time he might have left. Or else it’s just his patent intransigence refined over eight decades.

The Need for Laws     (11/11/04)
We must remind each other of our hopes and aspirations for a healthy and productive society so that when opportunities arise to share higher aspirations -- when the need appears to defend good against evil -- we don’t have to dig into our consciousness to come up with a response.

Bits & Pieces     (11/10/04)
Authorities are trying to figure out why an F-16 fighter pilot strafed a New Jersey school with 20mm cannon fire in the middle of the night last week. Two dozen rounds were fired, eight penetrating a classroom, no one was hurt. There was a target area several miles away.

The Bush Mandate     (11/09/04)
Last week, when some special people were in considerable pain, I put out to them that they shouldn’t feel so sick. There was a reason to look at the same facts from an alternative perspective I said, and no, not be happy, but at least see a good reason not to be so blue.

Neener, Neener, Neener     (11/08/04)
I was disappointed to receive an email from him the day after the election which read in huge letters: "Neener! Neener! Neener! Need I say More. The people have spoken!" No, I don’t think you need to say more, old friend. Your version of the Christ Consciousness and mine aren’t found in the same libraries of the soul.

The Serpents Tale     (11/05/04)
Okay, we’ll go back to the rattler theory which needed just a touch of modification because there were no rattles. A little thing like that shouldn’t hold back the intrepid raconteur, however; clearly, the critter had been caught, tail high, by the blade of a lawn mower, recently passed.

Lots to Do     (11/04/04)
There are some folks out there kinda unhappy with the results of the voting on Tuesday. There’s gonna be a whole lot more folks a whole lot more unhappy when the results of the voting are seen up close and personal down the road just a bit.

I Tremble for My Country     (11/03/04)
I had actually thought that the mass of new registrations and the push by the progressive organizations would mean something good at the polls. That the larger turnout would be of people hungry to get America back on track. That the heart of country was sound.

A Vote that Counts     (11/02/04)
It’s crazy in our communications-saturated society that our citizens shouldn’t have to cast their ballot in a timely and informed manner.

The Cost of Free Speech     (11/01/04)
Almost thirty years ago, a liberal Supreme Court ruled that money in politics was protected by free speech. Corrupting the very notion of what is free speech, they dangerously undermined our democratic process. As a result of that decision, political investment in candidates became the norm.


Slipping the Surly Bonds of Earth     (10/29/04)
Gaining the skills to launch a ton of steel and me into the air, to soar above the birds and clouds, and bring the aircraft back down to earth gently, usually, at seventy miles an hour...I have not known greater excitement or satisfaction.

War of People     (10/28/04)
It’s a mark of the communications revolution that while significantly fewer people are dying in the IraqAttaq than did in previous wars, but the impact is significantly greater. The media now make the killings somehow more personal in a maudlin sort of way, humanizing statistics into a poignant sense of loss.

Take Back America     (10/27/04)
We’ve added $1.7 trillion to the national debt under this Administration, which works out to roughly $14,000 the average taxpayer owes, on which he’s paying interest. We have lost the trust of most of the planet; nations which were our allies for decades now view us as not only odious but dangerous. We used to have the finest education and health care systems and now we rank behind most other developed nations.

Every Vote Counts     (10/26/04)
My aunt lives in Florida and she was planning to vote for Bush-Lite, thinking he was better for Israel. But last week she told me that she’s changed her mind. She doesn’t like the idea that Bush believes God is speaking through him -- she doesn’t like the messianic arrogance -- and so will vote for Kerry.

Incurious George     (10/25/04)
Of all the complaints against The Bush Boy -- there are a lot of them and most of them are justified -- the most significant perhaps deals not with a particularly policy crime, but a flaw in the man’s character. It’s the fact that he lacks curiosity. He doesn’t even seem interested in the work of being President of the United States.

The Old Man     (10/22/04)
There’s a vast difference between the ways he and I were raised. For any complaints I might have, spoken or not, recognized or not, I know I had it better. And that makes him feel better...which makes me feel better, and still glad I didn’t have children.

Vacation in Books     (10/21/04)
Last week I trekked East for a business meeting and some time with my father. Being that I was trapped with a coupla hunnert strangers in an aluminum cylinder for many hours, that the meeting was only forty minutes, and my father and I can only take so much time together, I wound up with the time to devour a stack of books.

The Lone Star Iconoclast     (10/20/04)
What the Iconoclast did was a credit to the profession. It’s unfortunate that more papers, including some of the big ones -- and especially the broadcast media -- don’t hold themselves to the same high standards. If they told the facts as the Iconoclast did, their wouldn’t be a race.

Sick to Death     (10/19/04)
It’s up to HHS to make sure that people get their shots and that there are shots to get. They failed miserably on the flu vaccines, apparently covering up prior knowledge that there would be a shortage. It’s a pattern with this administration.

The Name of Death     (10/18/04)
The 3,000 people who died in the terrorist attacks got on planes or went to work in normal fashion and were brutally murdered, but they weren’t heroes, as they were subsequently portrayed, they were victims.

Osama on the Rocks     (10/15/04)
The head of marketing and development for Al Qaeda thought now would be a good time to pile on the CIA, which for the past three years has been saying the tapes delivered to Al Jazeera were probably Osama. Wrongo.

The UnChristian President     (10/14/04)
The healthy believer contributes his own mind and heart, participating in the creation of today and tomorrow, for his sake, his children’s and posterity. It is this cosmic dance that gives purpose to his life; a worthy god would demand no less.

The Boys of Fall     (10/13/04)
It’s hard to tell by the way they play, but looking at the faces, it doesn’t seem likely the two teams could field both an I and a Q. I think if they were ever to add a base or changed the route around the diamond, half the players would wash out.

Networks of Shame     (10/12/04)
The familiar rap is that they are whores for the huge corporations that have a financial stake in preserving the status quo. Perhaps, or it may just be that they are overpaid, egotistical, intellectual cowards.

Thoughtless Intelligence     (10/11/04)
Despite even conservative Republican Senators denouncing the CIA, all we hear is a lotta talk but we don’t see anyone taking any real action, on either side of the aisle.

Bits & Pieces     (10/08/04)
Unrepentant is an artist who created a mural for the outside of the Livermore, California, library in which she misspelled eleven of 175 names, including those of Einstein, Shakespeare, Van Gogh and Michelangelo.

Vice President Bush     (10/07/04)
A lotta folks probably don’t remember five years ago the gee-willickers tone of George Bush’s announcement that he’d decided to go with Dick Cheney to be his vice president. Cheney had been in charge of his vice presidential selection committee and couldn’t find anyone. It was a ridiculous charade albeit well-designed.

The Siren Fog     (10/06/04)
When the fog settles in like that, the ceiling drops to a hundred feet, if that, and horizontal visibility is maybe a quarter-mile. The fog doesn’t reach very high, probably less than five-thousand feet, and it’s only in pockets. I can hear the occasional small plane flying above and around the heavy grey clouds.

Anchors Away     (10/05/04)
Did you see those hoity-toity anchormen? Anchors indeed as they have brought television news to such lows. They confabbed over the weekend in a show of support for the dirt in the memo-maligned CBS eye.

President on Stage     (10/04/04)
This debate, watched by more than 60 million, may be viewed as the turning point in the campaign. John Kerry showed America, on both an intellectual and visceral level, that he is presidential in stature and character, much more so than the man with whom he shared the stage.

Useful Scholarship     (10/01/04)
Jackson is an interesting figure in our culture to be sure but I wonder with all that is going on in our world today if he is worth a conference. Apparently the guy who organized it thinks so. Jackson, he said, "in many ways is the black male crossover artist of the 20th century."


Not Just Poor     (09/30/04)
Here where the streets are paved in gold, more Americans are walking in the gutter. Despite our wealth and the power of our national economy, more of our fellow citizens are slipping into poverty, especially children and blacks.

Questions for Debate     (09/29/04)
Finally, sir, have you come up with anything yet that you might have done or not over the past for years that you now regret?

Baring Breast and Soul     (09/28/04)
Topping the hypocrisy were the absurd theatrics of the FCC, which first took eight months to study the matter and then leveled the meaningless half-million dollar fine. For goodness sakes, the last thirty-second commercials that found slots during that Superbowl cost advertisers more than $2,000,000 apiece.

Television Mind     (09/27/04)
They call this entertainment as they bathe themselves in the stupidity, the deceit and the aspirations of low-life characters and then embody these destructively low standards. Of course they would vote for Bush over Kerry.

Bits & Pieces     (09/24/04)
The folks in Wisconsin have got to be chafing at the bovine bit a bit. Known forever as cheeseheads, they are projected to lose the crown as the nation’s leading cheese producer to the "Got Milk?" folks in California.

Always a Next Time?     (09/23/04)
With only six weeks before the election, a number of very bright, politically-astute friends are increasingly upset about the Kerry campaign, and with good reason. They question not only the tactics of the candidate but the candidate himself -- his character and ability.

The CBS Mess     (09/22/04)
Had CBS been practicing journalism for the past two decades, they probably wouldn’t have been snookered. But the fact is that the substance of their information was dead on, and CBS still lacks the substance to bring that point home.

An Undecided Voter     (09/21/04)
Many people were, and even Pat Buchanan, who was the recipient of thousands of errant voters, acknowledged the situation. One speculates that if the authorities had offered a normal ballot that Gore would have carried Palm Beach County by a margin large enough to deprive Bush of his stolen election.

Don't Hate Bush     (09/20/04)
Hatred would be a fatal distraction. We need to win by going deeper, being smarter and by convoking the best of our people to overwhelm the worst.

Wood Anniversary     (09/17/04)
Last month marked five years of SetonnoteS. Since starting my weekdaily columns, I’ve written, posted and emailed over 1300 commentaries on a wide variety of topics, sourced by a seemingly-limitless pool of impulses, thoughts and moods.

Bits & Pieces     (09/16/04)
Charging the pictorial was pornography, the group claimed the store was responsible, even though the employees self-selected, were shot on their own time, and none was from Farmingdale.

Don't Fox with Me     (09/15/04)
The anger is mindless, fomented by their remarkably, dangerously narrow thinking coaxed further into ugly darkness by the Rovian propaganda machine, abetted by the media wing-nuts who have given up all pretense of truth.

Perfidious Prevaricator     (09/14/04)
If people haven’t grok’d how dangerous this man is by now, Jesus, Mary and Joseph wouldn’t likely convince them either. However, if you perchance run across someone who seems wavering, you might toss a couple of thoughts in their direction. Carefully, so you don’t overtax them.

From Grief to Purpose     (09/13/04)
We took a wrong turn after the terrorist attacks. We failed to ask what provoked them. We blindly followed a depraved president and ovine legislators. It is understandable, of course, but it was not the right course.

Flying Pig Farm     (09/10/04)
Of course, it wouldn’t have to be an actual flood. A nice plague would probably do the trick and judging from reports about the so-called bird flu infecting pigs in China, we may already have witnessed the beginning of the end.

Character as Prologue     (09/09/04)
Character is prologue. The record of the Bush administration on every issue -- Iraq, education, the economy, health care, the environment, global relations -- is an unmitigated disaster. America owes itself and the world a decent president in the White House.

A New Civil War     (09/08/04)
She wrote, "aren't you glad that the good ole US of A rescued the jews. Isn't Saddam just as disgusting as Hitler was??? I also feel that our invasion of Iraq sent a very STRONG message to all the world we aren't going to just sit back."

Political Prostitution     (09/07/04)
It’s not because they are Republican that these whores are performing for their pimp. It’s because they lack character, like all too many whom we’ve elected to lead us, from both parties.

Bolero     (09/06/04)
What was compelling beyond the music, performance and production was what a wonderful model this show would be for children. Here was a huge orchestra, an assembly of individuals, all dressed in white over black. Serious, dignified, focused, talented; most stoic, at least two in a pre-writhing condition.

The Bush Coronation     (09/03/04)
Waiting to watch The Bush Boy address the Republican faithful was akin to facing ttraffic school. Attending eight hours of the latter was actually like earning $100 a hour, because my car insurance wouldn’t go up, but facing the coronation was rancid anticipation.

Head Wounds     (09/02/04)
Kerry was right; he still is. The veterans, out of guilt or ignorance, are wrong. Vietnam was a travesty. Iraq is a travesty. And any vets so stupid and venal as to support Bush forget the principles for which they allegedly fought.

Did They Know?     (09/01/04)
While I think more people were involved in the John Kennedy assassination than just Lee Harvey Oswald, I’m not generally a conspiracy theorist. Which is why I’ve not mentioned the talk about the Bushies knowing that the Nine-Eleven terrorist attacks were coming and didn’t do anything about them. Until now.


Fat...So?     (08/31/04)
One reason for the poor job by the Ag experts is that more than half their number have ties to industries that get rich making us fat. For example, they don’t see anything wrong with our sugar consumption. Sugar, said a spokes-deceiver for the sugar industry, is in all sorts of healthy foods.

Wuss-Ass Donkeys     (08/30/04)
If you just started paying attention to American politics the last few years, you couldn’t be faulted for thinking that Democrats means castrati. The incredible lack of cohones the donkey party has shown since the Republicans took control has been worse than disgraceful, it’s hurt our country badly.

Loving the Cockpit     (08/27/04)
With due apologies to my favorite ex-wife, the most important thing I ever did in my life was learning to fly. I got my private pilot’s license when I was 49 and picked up my instrument rating 20 months later. That, according to the FAA, means that I can fly blind, that is, in and through clouds.

Felonious DNA     (08/26/04)
I don’t have a problem with everyone’s DNA being on file, if it would clear up crimes and identify bodies. I also think a national ID card would be a practical idea. It wouldn’t impinge on the innocent and would help to get the guilty off the streets.

Keeping Score     (08/25/04)
The super-rich -- also greedy and murderous -- among Venezuela’s big landowners forced a recall of Chavez and got considerable help from their nefarious allies to the north. But the people saw through the subterfuge and came out in enormous numbers to keep their president in office.

Vote the Man     (08/24/04)
It is really a mythic struggle. Do we pick the street-smart macho bully or the mushy palavering egghead? Four years ago we chose right, barely, but they stole the election. And this time the stakes are even more dire.

Bits & Pieces     (08/23/04)
From political shame to religion...not a big step. Especially for the Catholic church. In New Jersey, an eight-year-old girl has been denied communion because she can’t eat the wafers. She has an acute allergy to wheat and they won’t let her substitute a rice wafer.

Trailer Park Weather     (08/20/04)
When you think about it, the death toll from Charley -- said to be 22 -- is hard on those who died and their survivors, but compared to the number of people who are regularly killed by hurricanes in places like Bangladesh -- those numbers climb into the thousands, quickly -- you have to think we’re doing something right.

Institutionalized Relationships     (08/19/04)
I’ve long been mixed on the idea of homosexual marriages. Not because I don’t think anyone and everyone should be allowed to engage in whatever sort of non-injurious relationship they like, but because I don’t think the state should be involved in the process.

Muddled Man     (08/18/04)
The governor of New Jersey announced last week that he will step down this fall because he’d been having an affair. There’s more to the story, of course. He’s in his second marriage, and the affair was with another man.

Huff 'n Puffin'     (08/17/04)
One of my favorite Peanuts cartoons featured Linus asking Charlie Brown if he didn’t ever get the urge to jump up and run around and kick a ball. Charlie Brown says yes, he got such a feeling. And what did you do? asked Linus. I lay down and waited for the feeling to go away.

Dear Mr. God...     (08/16/04)
Dear Mr. God, I hear that you take requests, at least under advisement, and that you look most favorably upon those that are appeals for justice. I have a short list of requests that I think are worthy of the highest attention, since by acceding to them, you could significantly advance social consciousness on our Dear Planet Earth.

Bits & Pieces     (08/13/04)
The prosecution in the Scott Peterson case has been taking it in the chops like a punching bag. Their case may not have fallen completely apart for lack of evidence and breath-catching mishandling, but according to courtroom wags, it’s hanging by a thread.

Loon Politics     (08/12/04)
So they pitched Keyes, who doesn’t even live in Illinois, and he said he’d think about it for a few days, which he did, and somehow convinced himself that he would get something out of this quixotic venture. What it is is not clear. He’s gonna have his clock cleaned by Barack Obama, the skyrocketing Democrat who’s got a good chance to be the first black in the White House.

People in the News     (08/11/04)
Former Vietnam POW Republican Senator John McCain was knocked out of the 2000 presidential race by scurrilous commercials run by the Bush campaign. This spring, he was mentioned as a possible Democratic vice-presidential candidate. Then he showed up with The Bush Boy on the campaign trail.

October Surprise     (08/10/04)
It’s called the October surprise. When one of the campaigns running for the White House suddenly pops a big event just before election day, designed to secure the vote. The Reagan folks coffin-nailed Jimmy Carter by convincing the Iranians not to release the American hostages until the inauguration.

Bits & Pieces     (08/09/04)
Political sensitivities were indeliberately trod upon in London by a still-born a advertising campaign in the Underground. Authorities put up posters featuring a man surrounded by salami, strings of sausages and Parma hams, above the words "Please don't eat smelly food."

Making Enemies Abroad     (08/06/04)
We have done so by propping up dictatorships, selling weapons to murderous regimes and sabotaging the efforts of indigenous people to gain their freedom and to organize democracies. We have jack-booted our way across Asia, Africa and South America, leaving a shameful trail of abuse and repression.

Hot Air Balloons     (08/05/04)
It wasn’t really a meeting of minds, as it used to be; it was a coronation. It was tightly controlled by the party and the Kerry campaign and it was all but ignored by the mainstream media. Therein, the American public wasn’t well served.

In Other News     (08/04/04)
First they said, Oh wow, they knocked it down a hundred billion dollars. No one bit. Then they said, Oh, um, it’s gonna be around $425 billion, then $445 billion...the largest in history, by a lot.

Bits & Pieces     (08/03/04)
Finally, on the lighter side, passing a local library I saw a listing on their message board that read T-U-E-D-S at 7:30 CAN AMERICA STILL COMPETE. It’s gonna be tough to compete if librarians can’t abbreviate Tuesday.

Gulled     (08/02/04)
No one likes to be shat upon, figuratively or literally. It happened to me more than once, and I’m not talking figuratively. Once, way back when in the 8^th or 9^th grade, I was walking between school buildings and splat; I’d been pigeoned.


A Clear Choice     (07/30/04)
John Kerry delivered a fine speech. He probably picked up a good chunk of the undecideds and solidified a big part of his Democratic base. The polls will probably give him a bounce of a few points.

Cash-Corrupted Congress     (07/29/04)
Money isn’t bad in itself but for two long now bad people have used it to corrupt our government, and jeopardize our future. If we don’t act quickly, we will lose our cherished democratic republic.

The Manichaean Candidate     (07/28/04)
Okay, but if people can not escape their conscience, and the essential human qualities of decency and morality do speak to even the worst people when they sleep, I pondered what might play in Bush-Lite’s brain when the waking part was on the sidelines. Try this out.

A Parallel Universe     (07/27/04)
In case you weren’t in Dublin for the 17th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation, and missed the presentation by Stephen Hawking, here’s your chance to catch up. Yeah, right. First, will all you who actually read "A Brief History of Time" stand up and all of you who understood it...yeah right.

Hostage to Terror     (07/26/04)
Our individualistic notions have shredded any real sense of national community. Many of us don’t know our neighbors. And that has made us increasingly vulnerable to attacks from within our midst, from both basic criminals and international terrorists.

The Hole Truth     (07/23/04)
It’s tough to stay informed these days, but we’ve seen, particularly over the past three years, what happens when we don’t.

Real Politick     (07/22/04)
If I had the ear of the Democratic candidate for president, I’d suggest to him that he eschew the traditional advice of preaching to the moderates and instead he should campaign on the basis of what’s right...what will get our nation back on track. And I’m not talking generalities.

Intelligence Security Hogwash     (07/21/04)
We’re spending tens of billions of dollars a year on a security farce. I mean, Do you feel safer than you did four years ago?

Bits & Pieces     (07/20/04)
The EPA claimed they are making great progress cleaning up North America’s largest estuary, but unfortunately they were wrong. They were using a computer model based on, um, optimistic premises. Actual testing of the water showed that they had "significantly overstated" their achievements.

Come On, John     (07/19/04)
I have followed Kerry since his Vietnam Vets Against the War days and written about him as a real White House hopeful since 1981. His run for the presidency, however, has left me with a half-grimace.

Slut TV     (07/16/04)
These shows must attract at least a minimal audience, otherwise they wouldn’t be on the air; they are also remarkably inexpensive to produce. The willingness of the people to participate in the first place suggests that they are had for next to nothing; maybe dinner and a copy of the tape.

Darkness in Sunshine     (07/15/04)
Statistics are interesting props which fall into two basic categories; those that mean or might mean something and those that are totally meaningless. This latter group is where most statistics should be shelved.

Bits & Pieces     (07/14/04)
Trump, a Republican who has considered running for president, said he would have caught Osama bin Laden long ago. Said The Donald, "Tell me, how is it possible that we can't find a guy who's 6-foot-6 and supposedly needs a dialysis machine?"

"Distinctly Native American Criminal Class"     (07/13/04)
Congress is spending more than they are taxing us by hundreds of billions of dollars, dangerously leveraging our future. We can no longer put up with this malfeasance. The decisions made on Capitol Hill will tax our children to their knees. If we don’t act now, they may never rise to their potential.

Lay, Kenny, Lay    (07/12/04)
Considering all the hardship he put people through -- the savings lost, the businesses destroyed, the lives ruined -- prison seems almost too good for Lay, for the just-convicted Rigas at Adelphia, and the rest of the corporate sleazes. That said, I don’t think the bracelets were necessary.

Nursing Mushrooms    (07/09/04)
Do you know about nursing mushrooms? They grow up around a certain kind of orchid and actually nourish the infant plant to maturity. At which point the teen-age orchid pushes the mushrooms away. Now that sounds like a natural pattern, doesn’t it?

Ugly American Redux    (07/08/04)
As long as Bush and the other neoliths acting in the name of the United States continue to carve out a role for us as the world’s policeman, we will continue to be the world’s target. We have so much to straighten out here at home anyway, we don’t need to traipse around the world looking ugly to others.

Odds-'n-Ends    (07/07/04)
"The Tsunami," as Takeru Kobayashi is called, set another hot-dog eating record. Beating his own 2002 record consumption by two, the 5-foot-7, 132-pound 26-year-old from Nagano, Japan downed 53-1/2 hotdogs in 12 minutes at the annual Nathan’s event on Coney Island.

Educate to Peace    (07/06/04)
It underscores the difference in philosophy between the militaristic neo-cons and Kerry, who saw the travesty of military malfeasance from the front lines. And consider, too, that the military is used when reason fails. Also, the military uses the under-educated to do the fighting and dying on the ground.

Unspackled Innocence    (07/02/04)
I’m more than willing to sacrifice the whole sordid lot, not only the Bushes and their minions -- along with Clinton for his grandiose negligence -- but also the vast majority who have suckled at the Congressional teat over the past thirty years. I’ll gladly throw in, too, the people who voted them into office for the wrong reasons.

It Ain't News    (07/01/04)
Even if he were right about the liberal media -- which if you don’t know it is a lie on its face and virtually every study on the subject says it’s not true -- then it would still be his job to tell the truth instead of trying to compensate.


Service    (06/30/04)
Looking up the word service in my Bookshelf dictionary I found thirteen different definitions for the noun, and four each for the verb and adjective forms. The meanings ranged from military branches to copulation with a female, if that’s a range. The derivation of the word service is from the Latin meaning slavery.

Cheney, Dick    (06/29/04)
Cheney ducked around the rule -- he does that so often -- saying that the Senate wasn’t formally in session; just posturing for cameras. And it wouldn’t have mattered. As the Vice President told his network the next day, he didn’t feel sorry for the incident. Quoth he on Fox, our second in command, "I expressed myself rather forcefully, felt better after I had done it."

An Important Film    (06/28/04)
Anyone who sees Fahrenheit 9/11 and votes for Bush should have their head or heart examined. It’s not the film itself but the facts -- not the opinions or ideas represented but the very basic facts -- that make support of this president and his policies a slander on the very notion of intellect and decency.

Slick Willie Reducks    (06/26/04)
The 957-page tomb which put a ten million dollar advance in his pocket, was reportedly not easily written, at least not from the publisher’s point of view. It is said that Clinton was late in delivery, and judging from some of the comments about the work, it sounds like something of a petulant memories dump.

Texas Blood Lust    (06/25/04)
Should be a slam-dunk, right? Sigh, except that the attorney general’s office is opposing the commutation petition. Said a spokesman, "we do not believe error existed during the original trial proceedings." He didn’t explain what it would take for the AG to consider a trial a travesty.

Middle East Report    (06/24/04)
On Capitol Hill, Dr. Strangelove was insisting Iraq is not a Vietnam-type quagmire. "We're not stuck," Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz testified before the House Armed Services Committee. But he admitted that he had no idea when U.S. troops might come home from Iraq.

Strange Bush-Fellows    (06/23/04)
How will all of this play in the presidential campaign? Bush’s supporters will have something to cling to, even cheer, but for sentient beings, it all just hurries us along the worry path, fondling the prayer beads, nursing the growing hope that we will have a more truthful man in the White House on January 21^st.

Every Day Crooks    (06/22/04)
There have been times when I have not acted with impeccability though my failures were never against individuals or small operations; more like stretching insurance coverage. So perhaps this is some form of karmic payback. The cost in dollars isn’t a fraction of the toll it took on me in worry and anger.

Unburdened by Facts    (06/21/04)
It just keeps getting worse, with the new charges against Rumsfeld that he hid Iraqi prisoners from the Red Cross for Tenet and further allegations that the United States is maintaining dozens of secret prisons. Iraq is not going to go away. The Bushies are. Would that they could go together.

Inerrantism    (06/18/04)
Do Bush and his handlers believe that we are actually headed for Armageddon? Do they think they are supposed to engineer their way to heaven and ours to hell? If that’s true and they’re right, it’s time to pack the summer clothes.

"No Credible Evidence"    (06/17/04)
So in that context, it’s rather astounding that the commission is reporting that there is "no credible evidence" of any connection between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda. This while Dick Cheney has been saying as recently as this week that there was a connection.

Bits & Pieces    (06/16/04)
"As Americans of faith, we express our deep sorrow at abuses committed in Iraqi prisons. We stand in solidarity with all those in Iraq and everywhere who demand justice and human dignity. We condemn the sinful and systemic abuses committed in our name, and pledge to work to right these wrongs."

Leaders Recognized    (06/15/04)
They were mostly activists -- at least thoughtful people -- who glowed with an elevated level of consciousness and purpose. Many wore non-designer fashions; purple was in profusion. Just the kind of people who give nightmares to Cheney and Ashcroft. That wasn’t their purpose although they wouldn’t have objected to the result.

Secure, Oh Yeah    (06/14/04)
As far as homeland security is concerned, the new department is little more than a military-lite version, a bureaucratic boondoggle, a misnomer, a waste of $35 billion a year...unless you manufacture duct tape or like getting felt up in long lines at airports.

Bits & Pieces    (06/11/04)
Pew Research reports that Republicans have lost considerable confidence in the news media since the current occupant landed in the White House. They distrust the news much more than Democrats. And it’s not just the so-called liberal media.

Hearse-Tails    (06/10/04)
It’s probably just palaver to speculate about the effect of Reagan’s death on the election, as so many other factors will play much more significant roles. But this point should be made: much of politics is visceral.

Makes Ya Sick    (06/09/04)
For people with good insurance coverage, the political back-‘n-forth on health care is of marginal interest. For the policy makers who have excellent coverage, it’s simply a political football, which gets tossed around to get votes. For people who have no coverage, health care is a dire issue.

Reagan Really    (06/08/04)
Whatever his motivation, even if he was affected by Alzheimer’s years before it was so announced, the fact is that he presided over a significant diminution of America’s greatness, the costs for which will be charged to generations to come.

World Gone Mad-er    (06/07/04)
A burly man with such unkempt hair and beard he makes post rat-hole Saddam look coiffed, Cos got over his cheese period about two years ago, he says, after he had sprayed five tons of pepper jack over a vacant house in Wyoming.

The Family Veep    (06/04/04)
Oh, Dick, wake up and smell the manure. You’re facing a revolt by conservatives in Congress over your Medicare over-billing. Their worried that your arrogance is going to cost them control...of both houses.

Growing Up Secure    (06/03/04)
It wasn’t that he always had good news, or got the diagnosis right, but there was a certain comfort level generated simply by who he was and what his patients thought he knew. That sense of security is probably worth years of a healthy life, regardless of what it’s based on, if the feeling is there.

Pokey Time    (06/02/04)
We have 715 per 100,000 residents in the pokey, compared to 114 in Australia, 116 in Canada, 95 in France and 96 in Germany. Most of our incarcerees are disproportionately of darker shades. Men outnumber women 13-to-one; in fact, one in every 75 U.S. males is behind bars.

Bits & Pieces    (06/01/04)
Time magazine reports that The Bush Boy has the gun which Saddam Hussein had with him, unloaded, when he was captured. It is displayed, along with other memorabilia, in a small study off the Oval Office. As the magazine noted, it’s the same room where Slick Willie displayed his, um, iron to Monica Lewinsky.


Immemorial Day    (05/31/04)
So that leaves the question, who or what will stop the terrorists this time? Not our keystone fops. They’re too busy holding press conferences and futzing with the color chip charts. They’re not in the trenches where the alligators play.

Cosby's Courage    (05/28/04)
Perhaps it shouldn’t have come as such a surprise that at the commemoration ceremonies Cosby dropped a bombshell. It was a bombshell because he told the truth when most people didn’t want to hear it. He started by contrasting the civil rights giants of early times with today's generation.

Bush Mish Mash    (05/27/04)
For three years they have layed down for him, enabling his destruction of much that thinking people value, like the environment, education, the economy and peace. But at last the networks stood up and said This ain’t news so we’re not obligated to put you on the air.

Fireworks on The Bay    (05/26/04)
Over the past few years, whether due to aging or rebalancing or what, I have been able to go out on The Bay with Peter without getting sick. I still don’t spend any time in the cabin, but my voyages with him on deck are a true delight.

Growing Sense of Dread    (05/25/04)
For a while it was that you had to read between the headlines to get a sense of the big picture. Now that picture is has crept into the headlines, and it’s not very pretty. But at least when it is in front of people in large type, fewer will be able to ignore the facts and perhaps we will begin to deal with the tragedy that threatens to engulf us.

Bits & Pieces    (05/24/04)
Several California lawmakers of the Hispanic persuasion along with a bunch of activists took offense, claiming that the ads somehow negatively stereotyped women of the Latin American persuasion. Said one negativist, "As a Latina, I'm tired of being portrayed as sort of a hot-to-trot woman."

The Cross Wind    (05/21/04)
Landing, with the wind blowing you sideways, you use the ailerons and the rudder to keep the aircraft headed toward the runway instead of the hangars. It’s a marvelous dance, one of the most challenging of aviation.

Systemic Failure    (05/20/04)
Like the FBI, the CIA, the NSC, the DIA and all the other federal alphabet bureaucracies, the New York City officials will shuffle papers, reassign minions and issue press releases touting their efforts, but they won’t accomplish a damn thing.

Wackee Whirl    (05/19/04)
In case you didn’t know it, the world has gone mad. And I’m not just talking about American foreign policy, if there actually is one, but everyday life which is showing signs of breaking away from any normal sense of reality.

Rights of the Born    (05/18/04)
Our society is far more concerned with rights over responsibilities. Especially when it comes to child-rearing. Until we reset our standards to be about the rights of the children and the responsibilities of the parents, we can’t consider ourselves civilized.

Pilot Found    (05/17/04)
The French recently discovered his plane over the coast of Marseilles. If the name doesn’t jog your memory right away, perhaps you will remember St.-Exupéry as the author, and illustrator, of Le Petit Prince, or more likely, The Little Prince.

The Great Escape    (05/14/04)
I escaped Redding almost seven months before my due date. I didn’t move here just for the better weather. Or even the access to the Pacific and The Bay. Or to reconnect with old friends. Or for the more progressive politics. Or the greater professional opportunities. Or the food.

Lost Is America    (05/13/04)
If George W. Bush is not only corrupt and incompetent but also a kookie fundamentalist who thinks Armageddon is the right direction, he probably also thinks he doesn’t need to pack for a long trip. For three years, he’s been pushing us -- ever more quickly, it seems -- toward the abyss.

News that Spews    (05/12/04)
That’s the nature of the television beast. Count the eyeballs, bill the advertisers. For the networks, the news is little different from a sitcom. Indeed, it is the intermingling of entertainment and news that has so vanilla-ized reporting today.

Bits & Pieces    (05/11/04)
Hooked, at least for the moment, on the Kabbalah, the mystical form of Judaism, which was introduced to her by her kissing cousin, Madonna, Britney wound up, by mistake, getting gibberish inked into her neck instead. What she also didn’t realize apparently that tattoos are a no-no in Jewish religion.

Stain of Shame    (05/10/04)
Excuse me, but we’re talking about adults here. Surely, in their upbringing at home, in their basic schooling -- on television, for chrissakes! -- they should have learned that torture is not a good thing; that it is not right, that it is not what Americans do.

Political Swiss Cheese    (05/08/04)
The Swiss cheese that is the White House explanation of the Iraqi prisoner abuse story has more holes than cheese. They are lying, stumbling over their lies, and having ever increasing difficulties staying within shouting distance of plausibility.

Headz Up    (05/07/04)
The Multicultural Intellectual Mudwrestling Championships from the Hague and The Cialis-Levitra-Viagra Finals hosted by Donald Trump and Paris Hilton will both debut next month. The additions come in the face of new ratings which could not find anyone at all watching PBS after MacNeil-Lehrer.

Yes and Yes    (05/06/04)
Even if someone has 95% of the puzzle, in order to be whole, he must get the other 5%. Surely most of the people who disagree with us can lay claim to only a few percent. But we still need them, albeit grudgingly, for that little bit to complete the picture.

Straightjacket    (05/05/04)
If you don’t realize that our world just got considerably more unstable, you haven’t been paying attention. The torture of Iraqis by Americans has caused a furor which Seymour Hersh suggests might be an historic turning point, similar to what the revelation of the atrocities at My Lai did for our Vietnam policy.

Kids    (05/04/04)
Whether it is an issue of interest, time or money, the bottom line is the mess we have today...a second generation of children who haven’t learned what only thoughtful, loving parents can impart.

Wake Up or Die    (05/03/04)
They could then band together in true patriotic fashion, revolt against the tragic deception and demand to be sent home. Because honest patriotism means supporting your country and its principles, not a corrupt regime such as the one they followed to Iraq.

The Death Roll    (05/01/04)
Nightline on Friday night was to feature Ted Koppel reading the names of the more than 700 American military personnel who have died in Iraq. The program caused a stir among some people, including some television station owners affiliated with ABC.

A Toast to Giving    (04/30/04)
On my way back through this lovely scene, a bicyclist, in normal human clothes, approached. There was enough room for her to get by, but I stepped further off the path to assure her more space. "Is everyone in California more considerate?"

Bronx Bombers Bomb    (04/29/04)
For eons, I was a Yankees fan, back in the old days when the sport still seemed a sport. Oh sure, it wasn’t all applehood and motherpie, but it wasn’t the world of salary caps, deferred payments and perks up the ying-yang that it is today.

Spiritual Voice    (04/28/04)
I had a chat with a good friend the other day about a new direction I thought my writing should take. I had received criticism from a coupla folks that my tone was maybe too harsh. I don’t want to be even regular harsh. Illuminating, informing and occasionally eviscerating but not harshly so.

Killing Cop Killers    (04/27/04)
Truth be told, it does seem that there are more killings that don’t make sense. Probably one reason is that there are more people so there are more crazy people and there will inevitably be more such incidents of this nature.

Bits & Pieces    (04/26/04)
The apparent train collision disaster in North Korea underscores the grotesque failure of the world community to practice smart politics. For a half-century, our leaders, individually and collectively, have failed to nudge their way into the loon-ocracy that has encapsulated an entire nation in an impoverished, polluted bubble.

The Primitive Right    (04/23/04)
Looking at political leaders like Bush, Blair and Clinton and the corporate sleazes who corrupted Tyco, WorldCom and Enron, we see a pattern. These are all young men who never grew up; they are boyishly immature, unformed and irresponsible. They lack the character that maturing brings that provides an ethical compass.

A Loaf of Bread    (04/22/04)
I was sitting in a local restaurant the other evening, waiting for my best pal Pete to wend his way back from The City to join me for a collegial repast. The establishment was loosely built around the pressing of olives, and so has a high ceiling and in the back are large stone presses. I didn’t see any extra-virgins around, but the olives they served were delicious.

Plausibility Test    (04/21/04)
Perhaps it is that I have a skeptic’s mind, but two thoughts have come to it over the past two days that I wish never passed the plausibility test. That’s the test that rejects most conspiracy theories but which after three years of the Cheney administration does not find them as impossible to believe as they might have seemed in earlier years.

The Casualty Truth    (04/20/04)
They said that the White House estimates of the number of troops that would be needed, the time it would take to get the job done, and what was that job were at odds with the military view. Of course, when they were told to get in line, they did so immediately. Partly because that’s their job, and partly because they were handed hundreds of billions of mighty persuasive extra dollars.

The War's Still Not Over    (04/19/04)
It’s not much easier to be right about Vietnam now than then. Few who supported the war then have changed their minds; they still endorse the sinful, murderous policies of Johnson and Nixon administrations. Fewer still acknowledge that many of our problems today are the result of their active complicity or silence.

Bits & Pieces    (04/16/04)
Study number two is from SETI, the folks searching for extra-terrestrial intelligence. They’re probably looking for it elsewhere because there ain’t none here. Anyway, they’ve announced that they’ve calculated -- again those pesky computers -- that we will have an encounter with aliens in 22 years. And people get paid for this.

I Didn't Do It    (04/15/04)
He could have swept Clarke off the table and jacked up his poll numbers by twenty points if only he’d expressed personal sorrow over his role as commander in chief to protect and defend the United States. His refusal speaks volumes about his leadership and about his character.

Rose-Smelling 101    (04/14/04)
I think we learn the important things in life when we put ourselves in life’s way. I’m not suggesting folks simply walk away from their desks and stroll through the fields or local parks. First, because not all the answers are there, and second, there are mortgages to pay. But if it comes down to a choice between cubicle and camellias, well, it would help to have a rich wife.

Better Than Self-Abuse    (04/13/04)
My pal Yo, whose name has surfaced on occasion in these pages, dropped me a rather poignant note the other day. After some nudging on my part, he agreed that I might share with you the substance of it, provided I never provided more clues as to his real identity, as he didn’t want to get in trouble with either his employer, the authorities, or worse, his soon-to-be-ex-wife’s divorce attorneys.

Irony    (04/12/04)
The Bush Administration didn’t realize that once we toppled Saddam, the various factions he’d kept in check -- the Shiite and Sunni Muslims and the Kurds -- would go after each other, serving their hatred for each other with a vigor you wouldn’t find in Northern Ireland, Kosovo, or Sri Lanka.

Bits & Pieces    (04/09/04)
A hugely expensive advertising campaign ran over young Hillary with claims that the Canadian system, which might be our model, was a disaster. Turns out these were all lies -- surprise, surprise -- and in fact our neighbors to the north live longer and healthier than we do.

Unsupporting Terrorism    (04/08/04)
While our "instinct" may be to stomp the miscreants into insolvent dust, the truth is that the only solution to our terrorist crisis lies not in eradicating the perpetrators -- we can’t anyway -- but in dissuading them to an alternative course.

Miscellany    (04/07/04)
We got an Iraqi judge to put out an arrest warrant for murder for this spiritual (cough-cough) leader who allegedly had a rival killed last year and is said to be responsible for much of the organized anti-American violence in Falluja. Does it really make sense to capture this guy? Wouldn’t he make just too tempting hostage bait?

Over-Dosed    (04/06/04)
The Osbournes aren’t the only pharmaceutical family in the news. Does anyone remember the joke about the police calling Whitney and saying, "Houston, we have a problem." (Okay I didn't say it was a side-splitter; I was just using it as a transition.)

Overzealous Prosecution    (04/05/04)
The worst of the worst are those who try to persuade a jury that a psychopath isn’t crazy and should be executed. It’s usually an incredible travesty of justice, and an obscene waste of taxpayer funds. When it’s obvious that someone is dangerously cuckoo, they should lock ‘em up in a mental institution and not waste our time, money or emotions on a public trial.

The Daily Dang    (04/02/04)
I raise the issue because I’ve become a fan of The Daily Show lately, and anchor Jon Stewart is regularly bleeped for using words that would take the odor out of crap. He doesn’t do so gratuitously, but rather the same way many in my varied circles use such words, that is, with a degree of circumspection.

Bush-Rice Flip-Flop    (04/01/04)
Talk about flip-flopping, which is what the Bushies have been charging John Kerry with doing, now the White House has decided that it will be all right for Condoleeza Rice to testify before the Nine-Eleven Commission. This after stonewalling on a faux legality of the separation of powers.

Cheering up Father    (03/31/04)
Growing up I did a lot of things that he told me to, but the similarities in our views of Washington and the world, and most social issues as well, were born of separate minds digesting the facts. If anything, he was more radical than I, at least for a while back in the Sixties.

Lion in the Valley    (03/30/04)
I was walking down the road and ran into three young women walking back toward the entrance. They warned me that there had been a mountain lion sighting. How big was it? They didn’t know. They’d just heard about it from people on the path and had turned back out of concern that they might be on its menu.

Political Flesh    (03/29/04)
The New York Times recently printed excerpts of letters home from American soldiers who were subsequently killed in Iraq. When I saw the headline offering on the editorial page, I immediately shied away from it. I knew how wrenching they would be to read; I thought I did.

Decapitalize    (03/26/04)
It is said that a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client, but apparently not in this case. Judging from the response of the justices as reported in the newswires, Newdow handled his presentation and the subsequent questioning with charm and aplomb. Good for him.

Musings    (03/25/04)
Important health information has been removed from public view, in addition to the plague of funding cuts for programs that would make lives much better for actual and would-be mothers and their offspring. And this isn’t about saving lives.

Or Move to Higher Ground    (03/24/04)
It would be better if they did realize the errors of their ways, soon, and at least stop their lethal practices, but at the moment that’s a pipedream. The underlying problem is that the majority of the American people are naive or stupid or in denial and won’t rid us of this lethal bipartisan scourge.

Bits & Pieces    (03/23/04)
One of the ex-Trumpettes is crying racism. The ex-TV "star" claims she was called the n-word and worse by other cast members of the NBC trash-com. Meanwhile, the nadir of class, Trump is trying to trademark his "You're fired" line. Would it were delivered into a mirror.

Medi-Fraud    (03/22/04)
Now it turns out the real HHS numbers show that the actual cost would be considerably over the $400 billion limit; more like $550 billion. HHS insists that the House leadership knew of the real numbers, but its Secretary has promised to investigate, at least into the charges that the actuary’s job was threatened.

Bits & Pieces    (03/19/04)
Southern California Edison received tens of millions of dollars in special service awards based on glowing customer satisfaction surveys. A good report card for any utility in this age of over-priced energy should have raised questions from the get-go. Now it turns out that the surveys were wired.

Bush Be Gone    (03/18/04)
The question is, why does anyone still support Bush? With all the information out there, the constant stream of mutilated bodies, I suggest that those who still back the president have a dangerously myopic view that is antithetical to a healthy future for our nation.

Against the Law    (03/17/04)
When government acts against reason, in the face of the obvious, they don’t have a right to hide behind the law. When they do so, they undermine the very credibility of the law’s purpose.

Bits & Pieces    (03/16/04)
A Fresno city councilman was arrested for drunk driving on election night. His blood-alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit. A cup in his car contained what appeared to be wine. His wife claimed it was actually fruit juice that had fermented.

Madrid    (03/15/04)
Some of the photographs coming out of Madrid are particularly poignant. A hand painted red with a ribbon symbol on the palm. Crowds holding myriad signs calling for "Paz." A man bereft over the coffin of his wife. Somehow and soon we need to channel the power of mind and emotion of humankind into peace.

Warming Weather    (03/12/04)
The highest point in Florida is 345 feet, so if it rains for forty days and forty nights, Noah would do better to build his ark somewhere else. Meanwhile, we should chain Limbaugh to a local jetty, one that sits only a coupla feet above the normal high tide. He could gurgle his propaganda from there, right up until the last.

Uninfused Fears    (03/11/04)
Pish-tosh, you say, and yet, while I would have scoffed myself for the first three decades of my life, I must confess to being a member of that observant group that sees a feedback loop in the circumstances of our every day lives. The fact is that the more observant I am, the more quickly and clearly I see a response to how I am living my life.

Bits & Pieces    (03/10/04)
Reality TV Mexico-Style has put some higher-ups in a low-down light. Some home movies have aired on Mexican television which show some pols with their hands in the till. One is allegedly negotiating a bribe, another stuffing money into his pockets and a third spending oodles in Vegas casinos.

Nukistan    (03/09/04)
When we read that the U.S. and Pakistan are working on a new plan to root out Taliban and Al Qaeda from the outlands, ya gotta know (1) it’s stretching Musharref’s grasp on power ever thinner, and (2) it’s not likely to reap any significant results.

Bits & Pieces    (03/08/04)
Having trouble getting along with others at the Spring Haven Retirement Community in Winter Haven, Florida was 62-year-old Lee Thoss. His picking through the lettuce at the salad bar irked 86-year-old William Hocker, standing behind him in the line. Carping and name-calling turned into hissing and fitting.

Fly Marin    (03/05/04)
As we climbed over the embarrassingly-verdant hills toward 4,000 feet, we enjoyed a new perspective of the geographical relationships we’d only witnessed by car. It’s one thing to traverse the windy two-lane roads to the coast, and quite another to see the freeway below on the right and the ocean not so far away on the left.

Democracy Off Schedule    (03/04/04)
California has just had its primary election, on the first Tuesday in March, and a number of races in which no one got a majority will be settled in a run-off in the general election in November. That’s eight months away, which seems like an inordinately long stretch between pre-selection and the real thing.

Miscellany    (03/03/04)
If you’re looking for Lost, well, it’s lies 40 miles west of Aberdeen in the Cairngorm mountains of northeast Scotland, near the village of Bellabeg where the Water of Nochty feeds into the River Don.

Bits & Pieces    (03/02/04)
A Saudi biomedical engineer, who spent three weeks in jail after U.S. Customs in Boston discovered sparklers in his luggage, has been acquitted of all charges related to the arrest. The man said he didn’t know how the fireworks got into his backpack, or even what they were.

Absent But on Time    (03/01/04)
We the people, in order to form a more perfect union, should vote on the same one election day, not weeks before, and with the same information as everyone else. With the ballot playing field thus leveled, we can then work on imbuing the voters with a patriotic need to make intelligent choices.

The Governator    (02/27/04)
Along comes the Governator making pronouncements such as he thinks the Constitution should be rewritten so that people not born in the United States can be president. When I heard this I thought of Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright, in addition to Mr. Schwarzenegger, and couldn’t think of three better reasons why he was wrong.

Boy Behaving Badly    (02/26/04)
Something else happened, too. In addition to the assortment of strange-looking partners lined up outside the city hall were myriad stories of people who had been living together, in some cases for decades, who appeared both sane and very happy. Married people, many of them, can remember that unique happiness, and have trouble denying it to others.

Bits & Pieces    (02/25/04)
The people in charge of airline security have mucked up again. The TSA says they’ve investigated and found that a half-dozen of their people improperly solicited private passenger information from JetBlue. Shame on the airline for complying, and more shame that nothing will happen to those involved.

Knuckledraggers    (02/24/04)
The Democrats are bland in comparison to some of their Republican counterparts, whose politics are so far beyond the far right they probably meet the leftist crackpots coming the other way. Like James Carville coupling with Mary Matalin, but without the restraint and dignity.

Re-Fallen Hero    (02/23/04)
Nader’s ego was bigger than his vision, and his spoiler campaign put The Bush Boy in the White House. Somehow he didn’t grok how awful Bush-Lite was and how important it was to defeat him. After the fall, Nader and the dwindling number of his supporters went into denial about his sin, despite the many accusing and unforgiving fingers.

Packin' Heat    (02/20/04)
During the years that I carried a gun, I wondered about the possible cosmic reasons for doing so. Mainly, would I ever need to use it, either by simply taking it out and showing it or by actually shooting it? Would I be frightened? Would my hands shake? Would a gun help me control a situation? Would I hit my target?

Economoops    (02/19/04)
It read Roses are red, Violets are Blue, I’m schizophrenic, So am I. I remembered it yet again when I saw the headline: "Bush Backs Off Forecast of 2.6M New Jobs." The first sentence explained that President Bush had distanced himself from a White House report issued just last week that predicted the country would add that many jobs this year.

February in Eden    (02/18/04)
It may look like a single event on the radar -- there’s only one day of cloudiness forecast, the rest is rain, all the way until March -- but underneath the overcast, the vistas change from short views with an indistinct line of grey sentinels marking the trees on the middle ridge to precipitation-free long shots under a raised canopy over the far ridge.

Kerry-Edwards?    (02/17/04)
I didn’t watch the candidates too strenuously until last month, and even then I kept them at a distance. But what a change there’s been in Kerry’s comportment, at least the few times I’ve watched him in the debates. As I knew from the first time I saw him in 1971, as a Vietnam Vet Against the War, this man has substance.

Bits & Pieces    (02/16/04)
Many people were ecstatic in the moment, though there is some question about where their marriages will be considered legally valid, since marriage in The Golden State is supposed to be a two-gender affair.

Items    (02/14/04)
There’s the story of the University of Georgia student who got hissef into trouble with authorities for mis-messing with wildlife. Seems the fellow chucked a traffic cone a raccoon, to scare it off he says, but he hit it, and the animal went into convulsions. So he shot it dead with a friend’s pellet gun. The defense explanation is that the raccoon was exhibiting signs of maybe rabies.

Elephant Phears    (02/13/04)
Ole Karl Rove must be ready for a change of linen. One of his volunteer point men announced that he had been pointing in the wrong direction. Bill O’Reilly, one of those yeah-right liberal media carpers, unloaded a huge slab of pseudo-humble dung pie on the White House lawn. Reilly supported the IraqAttaq and had promised to eat his words if the U.S. didn’t find WMDs all over the place.

Nuz    (02/12/04)
A federal judge told the NFL to stuff its age eligibility rule because it violated anti-trust laws. Judge Shira Scheindlin decided, "While ordinarily, the best offense is a good defense, none of these defenses hold the line. Because the NFL cannot prevail on any of these defenses, the rule must be sacked."

American Skeet    (02/11/04)
To figure out why we did this, you have to ask who has benefitted, and though I never liked the popular notion that it was all about oil, I’ve gotta say that I’m thinking it was mostly about profiteering. I mean, maybe there was a geo-political cloak, but consider that Cheney’s Halliburton has been caught over-charging U.S. taxpayers on two different programs by tens of millions of dollars.

See...No Tree    (02/10/04)
Tree work is one of the most dangerous professions, at least according to those who keep score by the numbers of deaths and injuries that various work produces. Not only is there the problem of climbing to considerable heights but limb removal is about as predictable as political prognostication.

Bits & Pieces    (02/09/04)
A California state senate candidate who had supported do-not-call legislation, hired a firm to make telephone calls for her. The pre-recorded automated type, the most annoying kind ‘cause you have no one to yell at; 13,000 of them. The firm is based on the East Coast, and apparently put the program in the hands of some idiot who doesn’t grok the time zone thang.

Bits o' Tid    (02/08/04)
There are so many quickies in this world that we often digest them without tasting them. I’m referring to the verbal variety. And being that I live alone and inundate myself with constant flood of media, mostly the newswires and email with a smattering of television, I inevitably stumble across lines that have me tittering or even guffawing, and wanting to share.

Sunday Rainy Sunday    (02/07/04)
Sundays used to be quiet because everyone was in church. Today it’s the religion of football that keeps cars off the streets. This high holy day the roads were empty, but for other brave souls who just had to get out, and for the lucky or resigned who are leashed to a four-footed friend who has to do his business.

Do You Feel Safer?    (02/06/04)
Perhaps worse for the Republicans, especially if Kerry is the candidate and the Democrats play the issue properly, is the foreign thing. Not Iraq, specifically, or the waronterrorism, but consider the issue put this way: Do you feel the world is safer than it was four years ago? Do you feel safer today?

Observations    (02/05/04)
Al Sharpton, who prefers to be called reverend, was called miscreant by the Federal Elections Commission and fined five grand for failing to file as a candidate and subsequently file financial reports in a timely manner. Sharpton claimed innocence, averring that he has never formally announced his campaign.

Intelligence in Vain    (02/04/04)
How do you deal with the military and their families and friends -- particularly those related to or who knew the thousands of Americans killed and wounded in Iraq -- who don’t want to hear that this venture was an obscenely tragic mistake based on patently false intelligence?

Bursting Bush Bubble    (02/02/04)
David Kay, the Bushie in charge of the WMD search in Iraq, says the intelligence was messed up. He called the intelligence failure "Most disturbing," which seems inadequate to cover the $300 billion IraqAttaq that costs tens of thousands of lives, ruined our reputation around the world, and all but crippled our economy.

Slipping the Knot    (01/30/04)
I was saddened by the mess. I knew that she was working hard and with the added work of buying groceries, cooking meals, making the bed, washing the linens, taking care of the cats...well, there wasn’t going to be many resources left for taking care of the outside. I had wanted my departure to be noticed but not to this extent.

Thank You, Dr. Dean    (01/29/04)
What also speaks for itself about Dean is that he dragged his reluctant wife into the game at the last moment, announced after Iowa that he was remaking himself, and then the day after New Hampshire replaced his campaign manager. I wish him well, but we need someone else.

Bits & Pieces    (01/28/04)
After all, to be conservative is to be fiscally conservative, and the CBO is now projecting deficits totaling $2.4 trillion with a "t" over the next decade. While it may be an excuse to cut social programs, which they like to do, they don’t like a president who so outta-whacks the budget.

Go, Girls    (01/27/04)
Now don’t go off thinking I’m off my bean. I mean talking in the sense of connecting. Like you get into a new car and it either feels good or it doesn’t. Or you’re house-hunting and it’s either right for you or it isn’t. Or for than matter, when you meet someone, you either click or you don’t.

Dig the Ditch    (01/26/04)
The lower, flatter trail along the valley floor is completely ignored, so when it rains, many people have the choice of climbing a long steep hill, if they can, or sloshing through the mud. Many of those who walk through Tennessee Valley are older people and parents with strollers; they should be able to walk on dry ground.

The Game    (01/23/04)
Not only was the frenetic disrobing and air-pounding well over the edge, but when he went on and on with the list of primary states...that looked like an over-the-top cranial dump. It was certainly a lot more than energizing his young campaigners.

Slash-'n-Spurn    (01/22/04)
We all know that I shouldn’t be allowed to watch television, or else to be asleep when I do, so that I don’t feel a need to comment on the vast wasteland. That was the description more than thirty years ago; now it’s vaster, and the quality of the majority of the programming has declined to semi-pornographic.

Bits & Pieces    (01/21/04)
Potential jurors in the Martha Stewart case were being vetted by first having to fill out a questionnaire about any connection they might have had with the doyen of home entertaining and any others involved. The questionnaire ran 35 pages, always a clue that the lawyers are out of control.

Campaign Corn    (01/20/04)
People who do the campaign thing should have their heads examined. Actually, our whole political process is mostly kinda nuts, and mostly anyone who would be a candidate, especially for higher office, has gotta be a little off his nut. Just look at the pictures from the Iowa campaign.

Pointless Slaughter    (01/19/04)
One wonders who the survivors of American soldiers hate; probably the killers of their sons and daughters, and maybe all of Iraq and the whole Middle East. There are now over 500 families, groups of friends and colleagues and neighbors, communities, in the United States who have suffered the loss of a person in an American military uniform in the past ten months in Iraq.

Ignorance and Sloth    (01/16/04)
Even some thoughtful Republicans are voicing concern that the unchecked Republican juggernaut is not a good thing. Indeed, anyone who truly cares about our country realizes that unmitigated capitalism is a prescription for disaster.

Bits & Pieces    (01/15/04)
The ACLU has gone to court in support of Rush Limbaugh trying to cover his tracks. Investigators in The Sunshine State want to see The Addict Mouth’s medical records, seeking evidence of doctor-shopping for sources of oxycontin.

Put Earth First    (01/14/04)
What would we do there except spend all out time unloading essential supplies shipped from tens of millions of miles away? And, hello, we can’t even be sure of landing a probe -- the last several have not survived the trip -- so who in their right mind imagines that we can set up a delivery system that would work? Remember the Columbia?

Miscellaneous    (01/13/04)
Pointing his tar-brush at one of the larger groups on the planet, a BBC talk show host said in his newspaper column that few Arab countries "make much contribution to the welfare of the rest of the world." He went on to call Arabs "suicide bombers, limb amputators, women repressors."

Modesto Mire    (01/12/04)
Headlined "Trial moved; survey flawed?" the story says that the Peterson murders trial, in which the defense was just granted a change in venue, has taken yet another bizarre turn. It seems the defense based their argument, and the judge his decision, in part at least on a survey conducted by university students, and that survey was based on falsified data.

Loose Cannon    (01/09/04)
The real reason why this could happen is that we lost sight of what it means to lead, an issue that has foundered in our confusion of what it means to be a man I today’s world. Regrettably, disastrously, this miasma came about in the 2000 election when Americans were faced with a choice between a wussy pseudo-intellectual vacillating fop and a squinty-eyed wrapped-in-the-flag roughneck.

Box of Idiots    (01/08/04)
I resort to the idiot box sometimes when I’ve been wordsmything for endless hours, but usually I park my eyeballs on something like MASH reruns or HGTV programs on landscaping or redecorating. But sometimes I’ll attack the choices with remote in hand, and wind up with a disparagable sampling that will result in a disgusted push of the off button.

Questions    (01/07/04)
He had worked at a string of different hospitals, been fired for incompetence and other malfeasance, but then hired by other hospitals. Why is it that the hospitals don’t do a better job of checking?

Star Power    (01/06/04)
It gets worse. Irwin’s wife apparently encouraged her 5-year-old daughter to splash around next to a croc pen to entice the animals to move closer, saying, "Now flail around and look helpless, that's the girl, good girl. That's my girl...the other white meat."

Gary, Indiana    (01/05/04)
Gary is just over the Indiana border southeast of Chicago. It’s population is listed as 102,736 which is significant in that it puts the city into the 100,000-plus category, where it rises to first place among American cities of such size, ignominiously, as the murder capital of the United States.

California Stormin'    (01/02/04)
I checked the radar image every so often, wondering if the lightening skies were just teasing or truly represented a break in the precipitation, enough for me to be encouraged to perambulate to see what the winds might have loosened from the trees. Nah, just teasing. Time for another cup of joe.

Bits & Pieces    (01/01/04)
Finally, speaking of justice, Monica Lewinsky was denied more than a million bucks in legal fees that she had to spend representing herself during the Starr investigation of the Clinton scandal. Said the court, The Plump Beret would have had to defend herself against perjury charges anyway.

For earlier SetonnoteS commentaries....

For information about SetonnoteS....