SetonnoteS - 2005

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A Silly Gamble     (02/28/05)
Gambling is one of those self-inflicted scourges, like smoking, alcoholism and voting for George Bush, and usually afflicts the poor and ignorant the hardest. Still, we allow companies to grow tobacco and to advertise beer on television, and these plagues actually kill a half-million Americans a year.

Retail-dom Redux     (02/25/05)
The two we’d picked out at the store would have cost $108 with tax. The same bottles were delivered to my door for a total of $42. Of course, you can’t test after shave on-line yet, though computer-scents are probably not far down the road, but my goodness that’s a big savings.

Raped     (02/24/05)
He was released from prison after a group of San Francisco law students with the Innocence Project presented irrefutable DNA evidence to a judge who ruled that the man was not the rapist. The rape victim also recanted her identification of the man as her assailant.

The Un U.N.     (02/23/05)
Maybe U.N. doesn’t stand for United Nations. Maybe it just means "un" as in, not. After decades of supporting the once-venerable institution, I fear my endorsement must be withdrawn.

Justice Belied     (02/22/05)
If you think justice is written in stone, think again.
For instance, you may have heard about the MP who got into trouble for flashing her breasts during a mud-wrestling party an Army camp in Iraq. The party was to celebrate one troop replacing another on the front lines of the war.

Borgata Babes     (02/21/05)
The Borgata casino has succeeded by dressing their employees to advantage and promoting their Borgata Babes; they insist that their new policy is perfectly legal. But public opprobrium aside, why shouldn’t they be allowed to hire sexy looking people to attract business?

Socks It to Me     (02/18/05)
Of course, that might be a very broad brush, since it is one store in one chain in one shopping center on one evening. On the other hand, this is an upscale mall, with a Nordstrom’s at the other end, which suggests that traditional retail may be in for some turmoil.

Extraneousness     (02/17/05)
Who knows where ideas come from? Sometimes the strangest thoughts fill our heads. Unless you’re brain dead. Just think about some of the contents of the dreams that you remember. People and places and things mingle in ways that just don’t make sense. Unless maybe you’re a Jungian on heavy meds.

Black and White and Red     (02/16/05)
It may be that we will always be reading news items of police killing black teens, but each time there is a fresh edge on the story, one that cuts different ways. The latest was of a 13-year-old boy in Los Angeles. He was shot to death after he rammed a police cruiser with a stolen car at four in the morning after a high-speed chase.

Korean Blackmail     (02/15/05)
One supposes that if the populace were unoppressed they would recover in a couple of generations, but the problem is how someone might let their people go. At the moment, a pint-size psychotic is dictating life to the country, and seems content with the direction -- downward -- in which he is bringing them.

Miscellaneous     (02/14/05)
A new study says some of them at least now believe that people can suffer broken hearts due to tragic or shocking events. Well, duh, and doncha gotta wonder whether or not their white coats shouldn’t buckle in the back. But Happy Valentine’s Day anyway, to you and yours.

Hoots in Charge     (02/11/05)
When The New York Times business report came on WQXR, it was noted that the market liked the move a lot; there was a six percent hike in H-P’s stock. Asked the reader, "How’d you like to leave a company and have the stock go up?" Then he laughed. Too bad Congress won’t impeach The Bush Boy for similar mismanagement.

Morality Play     (02/10/05)
Their criminality, abetted by Annan’s stingy sense of discipline, is what gives the American right all the ammunition it needs to discredit the world body, which gives the UN none of the standing it needs to be used to replace the U.S. as the world’s policeman and to put an end to the insanity of war on our dear blue planet.

Gum Gummint     (02/09/05)
Yes, there are some brilliant and wonderful people in government, but they are few and far between. The best and the brightest usually dissipate their whirlwind appetite for progressive change when confronted by the intransigent idiots who dominate and stagnate the bureaucracy.

Hail, Mary     (02/08/05)
The actual sporting contest was almost eclipsed by all the hoohah regarding the half-time show. Shelved long ago were plans for showing Janet Jackson’s other breast, and for most of the past year there has been an incessant palaver about how to vanilla-ize the 2005 game.

Who's to Say?     (02/07/05)
Then there was the recent survey of high school students who think expressing one’s own personal opinion is not necessarily a reasonable exercise. Nor do they think that newspapers -- as if they actually read them -- should be able to say what they want if the government doesn’t like what they would say.

Dangerous Morality     (02/04/05)
We scandalize the Christ Consciousness before an anxious world and make them wrong for calling us on it. We give credence to public deceivers, backing platitudinous piety at the expense of our integrity. We let others do our thinking for us, and turn deaf to objections.

Strange Indeed     (02/03/05)
Said the new goat-owner, "I called animal control. They told me to call the sheriff. The sheriff said call animal control. Then they gave me an emergency number for loose livestock." Nobody answered.

Crippled Asses     (02/02/05)
It says something about our political process when long-lamed liberal Ted Kennedy is one of the more cogent voice among Democrats. He’s bright and articulate and right on some of the more critical issues of our time, like health care, education and Iraq, but he’s hardly a viable standard bearer.

Courting Insanity     (02/01/05)
I wish our court system worked better. It seems more like an entertainment forum, for legal gladiators and high-profile clients. Scott Peterson, Robert Blake and now Whacko Jacko.

Grate Expectations     (01/31/05)
Give her credit, she did acknowledge that there would be difficult days ahead. That was so Americans didn’t have any untoward expectations about our 150,000 soldiers coming home any time soon from a country that despite the turn-out is still at war.

Kid-Cuffin'     (01/28/05)
Society has a right to be protected from dangerous individuals, of whatever age. If the parents don’t supervise their children, then the next, and often last, line of our defense are the schools. After all, we’re talking about people who lack mature consciousness and can’t be left to their own devices.

Bits & Pieces     (01/27/05)
If you’ve been worried about the destructive power of The Bush Boy naming people to the Supreme Court, you can get a jump on terror with the current black-robed nine. They just voted that the police can use drug-sniffing dogs on your basic traffic stop.

No Lead in the Pencil     (01/26/05)
The piper is going to have to be paid. And hopefully in time for an awakening before the 2006 elections. Maybe even dramatically enough to shift at least one chamber of that Twain-marked house of inherent criminals on the hill.

Breaking Dawn     (01/25/05)
I sit in a large soft chair in the living room, looking out into the densening fog; McDuff, a West Highland Terrier, in my lap and Lola, a long-haired chihuahua, sitting on my shoulder. If I wouldn’t disturbed them, it would be a perfect time to put pen to paper but we three are all so comfortable.

Democracy by the Dozens     (01/24/05)
The problem was that
Bush sounded like he was ready to launch a religio-political crusade against any and all who disagreed with him and/or who had oil or something else we want. Ironic, isn’t it, that he terrorized the planet through his dozens of references to democracy and freedom?

It Ain't Ham     (01/21/05)
For the longest time I was basically free of spam. Then I followed an e-offer I mistook for legitimate. Then I got an email from my bank that wasn’t from my bank. Now half my email is spam.

Lying in State     (01/20/05)
She will be our international coquette, less obstreperous than the current whore. Adhering Nazi-like to the policies dictated by Premier Cheney, she will besmirch America’s legacy and our future before the world. We can only hope that some day history will tell the truth.

Jetting It Wrong     (01/19/05)
Airbus unveiled it’s latest passenger jet yesterday, the double-decker A380. The stats on it are kinda staggering. For instance, its wings are almost as wide as a football field is long and it’s tail reaches as a high as a seven-story building. It can carry 555 passengers further on less fuel with less environmental damage than the current widebodies.

Choice and Truth     (01/18/05)
He wasn’t relegating women to second-class citizenship; he was saying that gender-wise predilections should be studied. To say that there aren’t innate differences between the sexes is absurd. To say that we shouldn’t learn more about the differences is heresy.

Tess     (01/17/05)
I met a snake last week. No, not a red-state Bushie but an actual serpent. A six-year old python named Tess. She’s a cutie, about four pounds, what with a coupla mice working their way, albeit involuntarily, through her four-foot length.

Miscellany     (01/14/05)
Another study reports that medical interns who work 24 or more straight hours tend to drive dangerously. Yes...and? The question is why people actually get paid to conduct research. Isn’t it obvious to any idiot that when you work long hours you tend to be drowsy, whether you’re a doctor or dockworker?

Don't Bug Me     (01/13/05)
People need privacy so they can have some peace and quiet so they can reflect. If they didn’t reflect, there’d be little to set them apart from the beasts in the field. People also have a right of privacy as citizens, that is, to be protected from unwarranted intrusions into their personal lives.

Bits & Pieces     (01/12/05)
Television viewers shouldn’t need to be warned that watching might atrophy the brain. Probably too late for most. Like the guy who is suing NBC over "Fear Factor" for showing people eating rats that had been bite-sized in a blender.

Mud in Their Eye     (01/11/05)
The once-mighty CBS News has been failing for more than two decades, delivering pap instead of journalism. If they’d been doing serious news during that time, they wouldn’t have stumbled over a real story.

What's News?     (01/10/05)
Edward R. Murrow said news is that which interests and affects the largest number of people. News is the reporting of history being made as it happens. News is the examination of facts surrounding the critical issues facing the community. The news is a collection of stories that provides a snapshot on the state of civilization.

Pandora's Voice Box     (01/07/05)
However, and it’s a big but, the thought of being trapped next to some twit carrying on serial mindless chats from coast to coast is stultifying. Like, um, you know, no way...it’s bad enough to hear these people on the ground.

Numbers of Note     (01/06/05)
In the midst of the grief, let us humbly observe this Malthusian fact: our Earth is grossly over-populated, with probably five billion more denizens than is ecologically viable, and on average 170,000 die every day. Finally, in truly human terms, this question: why does it take a natural disaster to organize the world to do good?

Trash Floats     (01/05/05)
Apparently a massive media campaign is planned to sell the snake oil. But two-thirds of us don’t think it’s a good idea, nor do the true conservatives in Congress. It’s going to be a tough sell but hey, they sold a war on a stack of lies.

Indifference     (01/04/05)
Said Yashinsky, "Fear not your enemies for they can only kill you; fear not your friends for they can only betray you. Fear only the indifferent who permit killers and betrayers to walk safely on the Earth."

123104     (01/03/05)
Writing the 366th day of 2004 into history, preparing a delicious dinner for one, sipping a glass of champagne. I waited until noon, and with no plans to leave, started a bottle of Piper Sonoma. It won’t make it to midnight, but neither will I.




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