I knew last night that I would not be walking today...

when I awoke at 1 a.m. and discovered that I'd fallen asleep watching something on DVD.  I was wide awake, so I watched it again and by the time I could fall back to sleep, it was after 2:30.  Plus, my legs are really stiff and sore today, with muscle cramps in both the upper and lower legs.  Time for a day of rest.  So rather than resting tomorow, I'm resting today and plan to walk tomorrow.  Although if I feel like this tomorrow, it may be a shorter day of "active rest" walking.

I keep getting both of the DVDs from Netflix with items from my non-instant viewing queue on the same day.  Today I'm conducting an experiment.  I will mail only one back.  It should arrive tomorrow and they should send one out the same day, and then the new one will arrive on Tuesday.  The other I will mail tomorrow and hopefully it will arrive there on Tuesday and generate one that will show up here on Wednesday.  I may start a pool on how long it takes before something in the universe interferes and brings me two on the same day again.  I'm wagering it will take less than two weeks.

There's a resident here who has been over at a rehab facility since early June, who still is maintaining his place here.  Can't be cheap and that may be behind something surprising that happened the other day.  He has had a car here since I moved in, and while it was finally moved from visitor parking out front to the normal parking in the back, it had still just sat there for months and months, without moving.  The fact that at least one tire was flat had something to do with it.  It is an older Cadillac, and the owner turned down an offer to sell it, saying he'd paid $50,000 for it new and he wasn't selling it now for $500.  We do all know he won't drive it again, because he is now blind, so why he insists on hanging on to it was a mystery.

But earlier this week, I went out there and it was gone.  I did a little snooping and found that his family had it towed away.  Maybe they're selling it on his behalf, to help pay for having a place here and at a rehab facility, which even with Medicare or Medicaid or whatever, ain't cheap.

Speaking of Medicare and Medicaid, I've decided there is only one answer to the mess that our nation is in.  I am going to form a new political party, to seize control of Congress, and to solve all of these problems.  The Democrats and the Republicans do not have the vision or desire to come up with real resolutions to our nation's problems, they are only interested in winning and keeping office.

So, first we need a party name.  I wanted to go old school, and harken back to the days of Jefferson, Madison and Monroe, and call us the Democratic-Republican party, but there would be no better way to drive people away than to adopt a name that is a combination of the names of the two parties driving more and more to become independents.  Federalist sounds too law-enforcement like.  Whigs sounds like we all need hairpieces (not that some of us might not look better with them).  I thought for a moment about using the National Union party, but memories of the incompetence of Andrew Johnson have negative implications for that name.

So we're going to be the Centrist Party until our first national convention, during which we'll hold a party naming contest.  The person who comes up with the winning name will win the right to make a speech during non-primetime coverage of our convention. 

Our party's platform will be based on conservative fiscal and socially moderate/liberal policies.  We will seek to maintain the social safety nets, but reduce reliance on entitlements.  We will strive to make government more efficient by getting more out of it while we spend less.  An example will be our refusal to accept a rate of fraudulent Medicare claims of 5% of claims processed, which wastes billions of dollars annually.  We will increase income tax enforcement by closer examination of questionable write-offs by corporations, and, individuals who are self-employed.  We will also work to ensure that the underground "cash" economy is taxed.  One strategy we will discuss is a slight tweaking of marginal tax rates, which would lower rates for many who earn less than $250,000 per year, while adding a small, value added tax to the purchase of all goods and services, except rent and food that isn't already prepared.  U.S. citizens who renounce their citizenship will be required to pay the capital gains tax on their wealth on the date of renunciation, based on the potential gain, rather than allowing them to leave with untaxed gains as part of their wealth.

All marriages will become civil unions, but religious ceremonies held in legally recognized faiths will be able to substitute for the required civil ceremony to "seal" a civil union.  We will achieve this goal by amending the Constitution to allow any two adults who are of sound mind to consent, to be able to form a civil union through an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services.  The IRS and Social Security will recognize all civil unions.

Our very first goal will be to amend the Constitution to change the office of President and Vice-President from their current construction, to make them offices one can hold for one term of six years during their lifetime.  One term as President, and one term as Vice-President, and you're done.  This will prevent any future president from having to waste any of their time in office campaigning for reelection.

We will place obstacles in place to attempt to disincentivize corporations from outsourcing jobs to other nations, to protect the jobs and economy of the people of this land.

We will recognize that the decision of the Supreme Court in Citizens United v FEC is a proper interpretation of the First Amendment, but we will push for new laws so that all corporate and private spending on political campaigns through the so-called Super PACs can no longer be done with anonymity.  If Sheldon Adelson is going to spend $100 million on an election cycle, the people will know just where that money was spent.  That should resolve that problem.

Oh, and our party symbol will be the mighty mushroom, with a bold, red line drawn through it diagonally.  Meaning we will be mushrooms no more, we will no longer sit quietly in the dark and allow politicians to feed us bullshit.

Okay, who wants to sign up?

Folks, when it comes to the war on drugs...

in the case of marijuana, we lost and we lost badly.  It wasn't even close.

So it's time to surrender.  Time to stop trying to stop the illegal use of pot and just make it legal.  Stop the cartels, stop the violence and as a result, accomplish two things.

1.  Take the profit motive that's based on it being illegal away.  When you have an illegal substance, people will pay more to get it.  When you legalize it, it's easier to obtain and therefore the forces of supply and demand will drive the price down.

2.  Allow taxation.  We tax the hell out of tobacco, why not do the same to pot?

Farmers could grow pot here, no need to import or smuggle it into the country.  Industry will spring up around the legalized sale.  Tax revenues will rise.  Crime will fall.

Let's win this war.  Let's just surrender.

My legs were very stiff and sore when I headed out the door...

but I still forced myself to walk the entire way to the end of the Mosque.  Almost 40 minutes all told, although I did slow my pace on the way back.  I wanted to peek in more windows of stores, because more people left their lights on.

In fact, one beauty salon didn't just leave the lights on, they also left the security door that covers the regular front door open.  For a moment I was afraid it might be a crime scene that no one had noticed, but I couldn't see anyone inside, and there was nothing out of place from what I could see.  Perhaps I should have tried the door and seen if it was open, but when I hung up my Security Police beret and badge long ago, I hung them up for good.

I also peeked into the shoe store that sells work shoes, but only because they'd apparently left every single light in the place on overnight.  I hope for the sake of whoever closed last night that the owner or manager isn't first to arrive this morning, because they will hear about the electric bill and leaving all the lights on, all night long.

A man was approaching me from behind as I walked, and as he got close and my "haragei" sensed him coming right up on me, I stepped to the side to let him pass.  He apologized for some reason I couldn't fathom and I told him he had nothing to apologize for.  I wasn't scared, just wanted to make sure there was plenty of room for him to pass.  He was on his way to work at the NFL.com building near the Mosque.

Okay, time to re-write history.  I'm going to challenge something ingrained in your memory.  I'm sure that 99% of you are firmly convinced that Dan Quayle did not know how to spell potato when he was in that classroom long ago, and he told that young boy to add an "E" on at the end of the word. 

But, history has completely forgotten and/or ignored the fact that Vice President Quayle merely told the boy to spell the word as it read on the flashcard that the teacher had prepared for the spelling lesson.  The card read "potatoe".  It was the teacher's misspelling, not Quayle's.  His choices were to rely on his memory of the right spelling and overrule the teacher, or do as he'd been asked to do, verify the word from the cue card.  He did as he'd been asked, and has been vilified for it ever since.

I'm a fairly proficient speller, but I often check myself because I don't like making spelling errors.  Were I to have been the one, I'd have known how potato is supposed to be spelled, but I'm not sure I'd have wanted to override and overrule a teacher in their classroom, even if I was 100% they were wrong.  I might have approached the teacher first and said "hey, the card is wrong".  Maybe.  But the media's depiction of the incident in its aftermath made little to no mention of the flash card.

Now let's get to another incident that is again, ingrained in your memories.  President Bush, amazed at the sight of a grocery scanner, something he wasn't aware existed.  At least that was how the media sold it.  But that's not what happened.

President Bush was well aware that scanners existed.  What he was amazed by was the fact that this particular scanner had the ability to read torn and mangled bar codes, and weigh groceries.  That was an amazing achievement, since scanners up to that point could NOT read torn or mangled bar codes.

Again, the media ignored this pertinent fact in its efforts to make the President appear foolish and clueless.  Don't take my word for it, if you believe otherwise.  Visit snopes.com and check for yourself.

I did not listen to Paul Ryan's speech last night.  No need  It was the subject of lots of discussion on message boards and on the news when I got home.  In the end, I really don't care all that much that Congressman Ryan is opposed to abortion in any case.  Not because a woman's right to choose isn't important.  Believe me, it's a critical, crucial issue.  But Vice Presidents have little to nothing to do with this particular issue.

Vice-Presidents exist for three main reasons.  1.  To step in and run the country if the President is killed, or incapacitated.  2.  To preside over the Senate and cast a tie-breaking vote only if required.  3.  To travel abroad and represent the U.S. when the President isn't available. 

A woman's right to choose was established by the Supreme Court of the United States.  There will be no legislation to change that passing through the Senate that requires the tie-breaking vote of a Vice-President anytime in the near future.  So I don't see any opportunity for damage to a woman's right to choose happening no matter who the next Vice-President is.  We should instead focus on the much more important issue that should be framing the abortion debate, which is when does abortion become inappropriate, based on the viability of the fetus outside of the womb.  32 week abortions sure seem like murder to me.  A woman should have the absolute right to choose, but that right should be eliminated at some point prior to birth.

We lost last night's live trivia game by one point.  We got lucky when one of my teammates made an amazing "pull" of an answer in the final round when he identified a spaceship correctly, but even with that one, we came up one short.  I should have been more assertive about my suggested answer to an earlier question, which was the right one, but I was overruled by another teammate who was sure his answer was better than mine.  I'm always hesitant to overrule when I'm not 100% sure of an answer and I was only about 95% sure on that one.  The host changed the format of the game and I like the new format better.  Looking forward to playing that trivia game next week.

Yesterday, a 100 year old man ran over 9 kids and 2 adults near a school (the news says he is 101, but he won't be that age until his birthday next week).  The hue and outcry over someone that age still driving is coming from all sides.  Talk radio hosts are outraged that people who are 100 are still allowed to drive.  The law in CA is that when you hit 70, you can no longer renew your license by mail.  You must go in person and take both the written and the road test.  The question becomes, did this man get sent a license in the mail, as he claimed after the accident, because if that's the case, the system may have broken down.  I don't subscribe to the notion that there's an age at which the privilege of driving should be revoked.  I know 60 year olds who have no business driving, while there are people I know in their mid to late 80s who I would have no objection to their continued driving.  But I would support requiring anyone over 70 to be tested annually, to ensure that their fitness to be behind the wheel didn't deteriorate during the 4 to 6 years between getting a license and having it renewed.

As if teenaged girls haven't enough stress about their body image already, Disney has "skinnified" some of its characters for a holiday marketing program.  Mickey, Minnie, Donald Duck and more are being portrayed as much thinner than their original appearance displayed them.  Put them back to normal, Disney.

Kris Jenner is an idiot.  I know, that's not news.  But this bullshit that her family's reality program now having had a longer run than "I Love Lucy" is a crock.  Let's look at the record.

Season 1 of KUWTK ran from Oct 2007 through Dec 2007.
Season 2 of KUWTK ran from Mar 2008 through May 2008.
Season 3 of KUWTK ran from Mar 2009 through May 2009
Season 4 of KUWTK ran from Nov 2009 through Feb 2010
Season 5 of KUWTK ran from Aug 2010 through Oct 2010
Season 6 of KUWTK ran from June 2011 through Dec 2011
Season 7 of KUWTK ran from May 2012 through Sep 2012

So, in a period that covers only five years, Oct 2007 through Sep 2012, they've squeezed in seven seasons.

I Love Lucy ran for six seasons from October 1951 through May of 1957.  Four months short of running for six full years.

Kris Jenner is full of shit.

I cut my walk short this morning...

because once again my left hamstring was telling me to.  I got in almost the desired 30 minutes, but I'd rather cut it a bit short and let this thing have some rest than listen to it whining loudly.

Speaking of whining, I'm going to do some for a moment.  I've blocked two people on FB within the last 12 hours, because I'm sick of their whining and hypocrisy.  One who called me names and whined because I pointed out their hypocrisy and claimed calling them a hypocrite was name-calling.  Another who I'm just tired of political discourse with because he's so close-minded I'd wager he uses 1/2 inch square scratch pads.  Civil, open and honest discourse is always welcome.  Hypocrisy is not.  Okay, done whining.  Sorry for failing to serve cheese with my whine.

I'd seen IMAX films before last night.  Not many but some.  I'd seen 3-D films before last night.  Not many, but some.  Last night, albeit on a smaller than normal IMAX screen (it was at a screening room, not a great big theater), I saw my first IMAX film in 3-D and I was extremely impressed.  The "glasses" provided were the best I've ever seen, more like goggles and completely covering my own glasses.  The film was a Chinese wuxia film starring Jet Li, who had said that after 2006's "Fearless", he would do no more martial arts epics.  Apparently he changed his mind (he's not alone in making statements like that, back in 2008, Clint Eastwood said he would do no more work in front of the camera in movies, but he's starring in a film due out next month that he apparently did as a favor to its director, his former 2nd unit director) about martial arts films, because "The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate" is definitely a martial arts flick.

Oh, I am remiss, for those who don't know what wuxia means.  From Wikipedia:

Wuxia, literally "martial hero", is a broad genre of Chinese fiction concerning the adventures of martial artists. Although wuxia is traditionally a form of literature, its popularity has caused it to spread to diverse art forms like Chinese opera, manhua (Chinese comics), films, television series, and video games. Wuxia is a component of popular culture for many Chinese-speaking communities worldwide.
The word "wuxia" is a compound word composed of the words wu (武), which means "martial", "military", or "armed" and xia (俠), meaning "honorable", "chivalrous", or "hero". A martial artist who follows the code of Xia is often referred to as a xiake (俠客, lit: "follower of xia", "hiệp khách") or youxia (游俠, "wandering xia", "du hiệp"). In some translated works of wuxia, the martial artist is sometimes termed as a "swordsman" although he may not necessarily wield a sword.
Typically, the heroes in Chinese wuxia fiction do not serve a lord, wield military power or belong to the aristocratic class. They are often from the lower social classes of ancient Chinese society. Wuxia heroes are usually bound by a code of chivalry that requires them to right wrongs, especially when the helpless or the poor are oppressed. The wuxia hero fights for righteousness and seeks to remove an oppressor, redress wrongs, or to bring retribution for past misdeeds. The Chinese xia traditions can be contrasted with martial codes from other countries, such as the Japanese samurai's bushido tradition, the chivalry of medieval European knights and the gunslingers of America's Westerns.

"The Expendables 2" is still in theaters, won the box office battle last weekend, and yet there are already rumors of the next sequel being on the drawing board.  Hollywood will milk a winning film idea like a cow that produces milk four times a day rather than just twice like ordinary cows.

There is a random factor that makes the morning walks interesting.  Whether or not people leave more lights on than normal when they go home at night.  This morning it was the music store.  This was the first time I could see inside and it was very interesting.  I'm not going to run out and buy a keyboard, or a saxophone, one of which I can play a little, the other I'd need to learn completely.  But it was just a bit tempting to consider.  The fact that as a child I played three instruments (violin, clarinet and drums) and that I couldn't play any of them today bothers me.  But then again, there's someone who lives here who tortures, rather than tickles the ivories when he sits down at the piano in the activity room and if I were to attempt that, I'd sound much worse.  So my musical involvement will continue to be limited to listening to music.  Oh, and using my iPhone's Shazam app, to identify songs I don't know.

I'm avoiding watching the coverage of the Republican convention in Tampa.  I can learn everything from reading the news accounts, without having to sit through the speeches and other activities.  I did hear some highlights from Ann Romney's speech last night.  I feel badly for her, suffering from MS and all, but do her horses really provide theraputic relief from her illness?  I guess I shouldn't question that, if she says they do, I guess they do.  But clearly not a cost-effective treatment for all suffering from that ailment.

I thought about Linda Ellerbee this morning as I walked.  Love her book "And So It Goes", which I highly recommend (another tome to pick up at the next run to the used bookstore).  She refers to some TV news reporters and anchors as "twinkies", and she isn't discussing creme filling when she does.  Watching the news coverage of the convention and of the hurricane, I'm reminded that there are real reporters in this world, and then there are twinkies.

Speaking of the hurricane, what fool was making comparisons between Isaac, category 2 or 3 at worst, and Katrina, the first category 5 storm of this century??  I actually dreamt last night of one of my experiences with a hurricane.  Well, with a typhoon, which is the same thing, a tropical cyclone, they just call them hurricanes in one part of the world and typhoons in another.  We were in the barracks on Guam during a hurricane when the eye passed over the island.  Some of the guys went out into the cool, crisp, calm air of the eye and played football on the sopping wet golf course across the street from the barracks.  I had to go out and order them back into the barracks, because when a tropical cyclone's eye passes over, it doesn't go gradually from calm to windy.  It's calm one instant, and then maximum speed winds are blowing the next.  With those winds in excess of 80 knots, it wasn't safe to be outdoors during the eye for more than a minute or two.  I took a lot of flack for that order, but I didn't care.

I wanted to go past a certain spot last night on the way to the screening, but there wasn't time.  I'm worried about getting to and from my classes that start next month and the available parking, if any.  Oh well, there's always tomorrow to put this problem off until. 

I've been meaning to return something to Best Buy for a week now and continue to forget to do it.  Either I don't care, I don't need the $33 or I don't want to stand in that long line at customer service.  I'm going to get it done by next Monday, come hell or high water.  Tomorrow, the etymology of that phrase, because now I'm curious where it comes from.

Will someone please explain...

when Tuesdays became "Taco Tuesdays"?  I hear this all the time and I don't know why Tuesdays are suddenly taco day.  Heck, the dining room is serving tacos for lunch today, which means I'll be picking something else up for lunch unless the alternative choice is palatable.  Now I wish there was a Souplantation close by.  There's one in the Marina, but that shopping center is undergoing major renovations so it might be closed.

Yes, I walked today.  To the far side of the mosque.  That was enough for today.  I was out walking for 35 or 36 minutes, less the two or three that I sat on a bench, re-tying my shoelaces.  Everyone says that you will step on a shoelace and trip yourself, but I'd walked a long way before finally deciding I needed to stop down and tie the darn thing.  Why is it that when one shoelace comes undone, you automatically re-tie the other one, as a "just in case"?

That started me wondering about some of life's absurdities.  Words that have gone from nouns to verbs.  Friend for example.  "Friend me on Facebook" is a common phrase.  And with the advent of friend as a verb, we got unfriend.  Before, the closest I ever came to thinking of someone as an unfriend was in thinking of enemies.  You don't say or think "well, he's not my friend, so he must be my unfriend."  When we started "liking" things as an action, we got "unlike".  I liked my second wife prior to our split.  I didn't "unlike" her when we split.  I just stopped liking her.

Then there are certain professionals and professions.  Drivers drive.  Musicians play.  CEOs sit in offices and run companies.  But doctors, lawyers, accountant and others "practice".  Call me crazy, but if a doctor is going to treat me, I'd prefer if he's beyond the practice stage and actually has his craft down pat.  I watched some ER re-runs on DVD last night and in one, the patient's grandmother was running around like a madwoman before surgery yelling "don't let any residents operate on my grandson".  Practice might make perfect, but I like perfection when it comes to my health, my legal issues or my accounting, which I handle myself.  Then again, when I had a big book of clients who depended on me to do their taxes, did they represent my "practice"?

I got into a car yesterday.  When we arrived at the destination, I got out.  That is not the act of de-carring.  We don't decar, we don't debus (although we do debug computer programs), we don't deship or deboat, but when we get off of an airplane, we do deplane.  Why?  Because some short guy on a TV show most young people have never heard of used to yell "Boss, De Plane, De Plane" before the start of theprogram?  No, because some moron came up with deplane not long after planes started carrying passengers.  Back when flight attendants were all female, called stewardesses and were all under the age of 32.  Mental note:  Look for a copy of "Coffee Tea, or Me" next time I go to the used bookstore.

Okay, on to the topic of cognitive dysfunction and politics.  Now let me preface this by saying I reside in a living laboratory of cognitive dysfunction.  I watch the mental health, memories, and abilities of people fade all around me.  The other day one of the residents asked me if we'd already eaten lunch.  It was 10:30 in the morning and of course we hadn't.  "No, we haven't, it's only 10:30".  "Oh, I can't see the clock from here."  "Uh, you're wearing your watch."  "Oh, I can't see that either, without my glasses."  "Where are your glasses?"  "In my purse."  "So put them on."  "Oh, that's a good idea.  Oh my, it is only 10:30.  Not time for lunch yet."  That particular woman makes notes all day long of everything happening around her, in an effort to stay informed, but the word is that she can't even read her own notes most of the time. 

Paul Ryan and Todd Akin said some stupid stuff.  But they said it simply because they were trying to dance around answering a question that was designed to get them to go on the record with a position on abortion that they know is unpopular.  They hold the view that abortion is never appropriate, even in cases of rape and incest.  They should have just said that.  Instead they danced, and dancing is bad, particularly when there's no music.

Politicians try to dance away from going on the record with things they don't want to say.  In 1987, I tried to get Pat Robertson to admit, on the record, that he hadn't formally announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination to run for President because it would mean complying with the Equal Time Doctrine.  He danced.  He said dumb shit.

But when I tried to get the late Jeanne Kirkpatrick to say something on the record that was a position she didn't want to take, she managed to dance without saying anything that wasn't erudite, cogent and on point. 

On the other hand, Joe Biden apparently doesn't stay on script, and that's his "in vito veritas" moment, and when it happens, it's illustrative that something not totally right upstairs.  You don't not listen to what you say when you say it.  When you hear yourself making a verbal gaffe, like saying "jobs" is a three-letter word, and then when you count the letters, you realize that J-O-B-S is actually four letters and you correct yourself.  He didn't  That says something about his brain function, attention span, or something else that's equally disturbing.

I'll give President Obama a pass on "57 states".  But he went on the Today show and said "we won Michigan", referring to the Michigan primary where he wasn't even on the ballot.  You can't win if you don't run, and the interviewer gave him a pass on this, failing to point out the error.  If you're running for the Presidency, not knowing which primaries you're entered into is not a sign of brilliance, awareness, or even self-awareness.

I don't worry that Obama's faculties are going.  I don't worry that Akin's faculties or Ryan's faculties are going.  The first is dishonest, a promise-breaker and so on, but he's fine otherwise.  Akin and Ryan are dumb for not saying what they mean, or being better prepared for what they need to say to dance around question they don't want to answer, so they don't look as dumb as they are.

But there's something worrysome about Joe Biden.

How do you get to Carnegie Hall...

no, the answer isn't take the so and so subway.  The old adage says "practice, practice, practice."  It's a lesson that the Commissioner of the New York City Police Department would do well to pay attention to.

In case you live underneath a rock (and if you do, maybe you starred in a Geico commercial a couple of years back), there was a shooting near the Empire State Building last week.  A gunman shot and killed a former co-worker, before he himself was killed.  Nine bystanders were wounded and it has come out that they were all shot by NYPD cops who fired at the suspect and missed.

I'm the first to defend the cops in this instance and say it wasn't necessarily their fault.  One of those pretty little ribbons I used to wear on my Air Force uniform was the Small Arms Marksmanship award, signifying expert marksmanship.  Mine has the little bronze star on it, indicating my marksmanship with more than one weapon.  One of them was the Smith and Wesson Model 15 .38 caliber revolver.  We fired it annually, and out of a maximum of 400 points for the 40 rounds we fired, I never shot below 360.  But I know that shooting on a range isn't the same as shooting in a real life situation, when the adrenaline is pumping and lives are at stake.

But, there's something wrong with a system where police officers, those who defend the public, are required to qualify with their weapons only once a year, and there is no mandate to practice.  Marksmanship is a skill.  There are ways to better simulate the conditions in the 'field' than just shooting a simple course of qualification on an indoor range.  Moving targets, targets that show pictures where the shooter has to differentiate between good guys and bad guys, targets where there are multiple persons in close proximity.

Richard Marcinko is a retired Navy officer who was a SEAL and was the founder of Seal Team Six (his book "Rogue Warrior" is a great read).  He commented in that and other books he's written that during his time at Seal Team Six, his budget for ammunition was greater than that of the entire Marine Corps.  Now I don't know if that was true, or just some hyperbole, but it points out the fact that the SEALs of Team Six practiced their shooting daily.  I'm not saying police officers need to be ont he range daily, but there should be a happy medium somewhere between daily and once a year for the sole purpose of being qualified to continue to carry a weapon.

If it means spending more on ammo and training time, once a quarter, or better still, once a month training sessions where cops go to the range and practice doing something that they will hopefully never have to do is a far better solution that sending nine innocent bystanders to the hospital for treatment.

Who represents me?

I have tons of elected representatives.  A President, two Senators, a member of the House, a State Senator, a State Assembly member, city council members, school board members and so on.  But do any of them represent me?

I'm in favor of smaller government.  Not eliminating the social safety net that must be there to provide for those who can't provide for themselves, but not spending tons of money we don't have.  When government employees are able to not use their sick time and vacation time for decades and then apply the unused time off to boost their pensions, whoever is representing us, isn't really representing us.  Not me anyway.

I'm in favor of removing religion from the issue of marriage by making all unions civil unions, and then empowering licensed members of the clergy to fulfill the requirement that a ceremony be performed to make such unions official.  In the eyes of government, "marriage" is nothing more than a legal contract under which a couple is granted certain rights and responsibilities.  If all unions were civil unions, and those who wanted the benefit of clergy could get that in the church/temple/mosque/ashram of their choice, that would represent my beliefs.  That would represent me.

I'm of the mind that a fetus isn't a person until it is clearly viable outside the womb.  I won't argue if someone wants to make that 23 weeks versus 25 weeks or 26 weeks, or whatever.  Draw a line and say "before this point, it's a fetus and after that point, it's an unborn child and abortion is no longer proper".  No one represents my view.  No one represents me on this issue.

I think there's something fundamentally flawed about a system where a corporation the size of GE can not only pay no corporate income tax, but it qualifies for billions of dollars in tax credits, while Warren Buffet's secretary pays a higher percentage of her income in taxes than he does.  Where are those who want to make changes in that system to resolve these inequities?  No one represents me on this topic.

I hate the political apathy that we have in this country.  59% of the registered voters returned Ronald Reagan to the Presidency in 1984, in what was considered a landslide victory.  59% of those who cared enough to take time to register to vote.  What percentage didn't bother registering?  What percentage of the 18 and over population actually voted?  I guess I shouldn't be surprised, that no one represents me.

I thought about writers and writing this morning...

as I walked my usual path.  30+ minutes, close to the record distance and worked up a good sweat.  Also managed to get my heart rate up and be a little short of breath, so I was working harder than usual.

Someone wrote the movie ("Hit and Run") I saw yesterday and I have to wonder what they were thinking.  Kristen Bell is an attractive woman and not a bad actress.  But she's not who I'd choose to portray a character that supposedly designed her own major at Stanford, and received a doctorate in nonviolent conflict resolution.  The problem though isn't so much the casting.  The problem is writing such a hard to believe character from the start.  Not that a woman couldn't be a Ph.D. in that discipline, just the notion that there is such a discipline, and then the woman who earns it would settle for working as a teacher at a small town junior college stretches the limit of believability.

Sometimes it's just casting.  A female nuclear physicist who has a Ph.D. and happens to be named Christmas Jones?  Okay, I can buy that.  I just couldn't buy Denise Richards in the role.  But sometimes it's the writing first and then the casting, and this was one of those cases with Bell. 

By the way, that doesn't make "Hit and Run" a bad movie.  It's actually a fun romp.  And, if you go, look at the wall behind Kristin Chenowith (the dean who is telling the Kristen Bell character she needs to take this fabulous new job she's lined up for her) and notice what's supposed to be her Delta Delta Delta sorority paddle hanging there.  Chenowith is actually an initiated member of Gamma Phi Beta sorority.  Now there's trivia!!

Back in the day, nothing came between Brooke Shields and her Calvin Klein jeans.  At that time there were other big-name denim brands and one of them came up in conversation yesterday and it relates to a writer.  The writer is Joseph Wambaugh, and in one of his novels ("The Delta Star") one of his characters is a big dude and another character is talking about his apperance in his "...Sergio Valente portlies."  Sergio Valente was the brand that came up in conversation yesterday and I was reminded how the notion of there being a 'portly' sizing of designer jeans like that was damn funny.

Kudos to a local business for what I consider great customer service and marketing.  This company had to close early the other day and they had posted a note for customers who showed up during what were supposed to be normal operations hours.  "Sorry, we closed early to attend an employee wedding.  Please, please come back tomorrow and we will pay your sales tax."  Now that's awesome.  They celebrated their employee and if any customer was inconvenienced, they offered a discount of nearly 10% for the inconvenience.  Great business.

Apparently having been involved with Hooters in your past can come back to haunt you.  House of Representatives member Connie Mack IV, who wife is also a House member, and she's the widow of the late Sonny Bono as well; was once a marketing executive for a company whose portfolio included several Hooters locations.  Now his work for Hooters ended over a decade ago, but in a political attack ad, it's okay to call him a "promoter for Hooters" without pointing out how long ago that was.  What's wrong with Hooters anyway, except maybe that their burgers, wings and curly fries are overpriced, because you're paying for the ambience and to be waited on by a pretty girl in tight orange shorts, not the quality or price of the mediocre bar food.  Do they exploit women?  If they do, why are so many women trying to get themselves into those shorts to sling those wings?  The women at Hooters are wearing a lot more clothing than women did on Venice Beach yesterday.

On Venice Beach yesterday, women went topless, while men who support their right to go topless were wearing bikini tops.  Do women have the right to go topless in public?  I think it's more about individual comfort with one's own body.  If you feel you have the body to go to the beach without a shirt, go for it.  If not, wear a shirt.  What others think is unimportant.  Although I must admit, I do feel that there should be a "spandex police" established, because there are some people who torture poor, innocent little spandex by wearing them in sizes too small, stretching the poor little spandex to the point of near-bursting.  That's torture and should be outlawed! 

Hurricane Isaac appear to be following the track of Hurricane Katrina.  But, for whatever reason, Isaac is travelling much faster than Katrina did and that's a good thing.  Yes, it means the storm will get there sooner.  But in the science of hurricanes, when the storm moves forward quickly, it can't linger over the warm ocean water that fuels the intensity of the story.  It's when a hurricane moves very slowly, like Katrina did, that it can fuel up and become a really intense storm.  From the FWIW file, while 2005's Katrina did devastate the New Orleans area, it wasn't the only hurricane of very strong intensity to ravage that part of the Gulf Coast.  Hurricane Camille was a Category 5 hurricane (the strongest category) that made landfall near Biloxi, MS.  259 people were killed and there was a 68 square mile area of total destruction.  Let's hope Isaac doesn't strengthen and that people will be prepared.  There was a story told back in the aftermath of Camille (once a storm's name is used for a storm that causes major damage, the name is retired) about an apartment building and its dwellers in Biloxi.  The building was on U.S. Highway 90, which runs right along the beach and the 32 residents who refused to evacuate decided to throw a big "hurricane party".  They all died.

I've come to a conclusion on how to handle my occasional "Jonesing" for some Chick-Fil-A, which I won't eat because I don't want to support the CEO's agenda.  If I feel the need for it, I postpone the need until the next Sunday.  That way they're closed and I just forget about it.

How would you feel, if you went to see a new doctor, highly recommended by a friend of yours, and the first thing they do when you walk in is weigh you.  No paperwork, no filling of forms, the first thing is a weight check.  And, if you're considered "overweight", it's hit the door and find another doctor.  That's what patients who try to see one doctor are experiencing.  It's legal, but it doesn't strike me as being part of what a physician is supposed to be doing.  What do you think?

The good news is I walked 35 rather than 30 minutes...

this morning.  The bad news is that it took me 35 minutes to walk what it only took 30 to walk yesterday.  Stiffness and poor sleep are to blame.  My legs usually loosen up as I walk, but this morning they started stiff and got stiffer as I walked.  So I walked more slowly than normal, which means I was walking damn slow.

I'd been up since 5, but didn't go out until 6.  I sat at the computer, indulging my delusion that someday I will finish the Great American novel.  Or finish a mediocre California novel.  Or perhaps just finish a novel without regard to its quality.  I keep trying, but usually don't get far beyond the outline and the first few chapters.  When I go back to edit (I don't edit as I write, I just write so the free-flow of ideas isn't interrupted), I'm never happy with what I've written and often just discard the edited material.  But I will keep plugging.

I walked past the Thai Yoga Massage place this morning and learned that it really isn't 1/2 beauty salon and 1/2 massage parlor.  The lights were on.  It is a beauty salon that happens to offer massage on an appointment only basis.  I noticed yet another beauty salon on the walk that I hadn't noticed before, so they may outnumber the nail salons now.  I also saw a funny sign in the window of the refrigerator rental store.  They have a website at www.rentabox.com and you're free to draw whatever humorous references you like from that.  Oh, just an aside, the famous "black box" on-board airplanes isn't really black.  It's bright orange, to make finding it easier.

I came up with an idea for a new reality TV show by combining the best elements of two.  We'll take from Celebrity Rehab and from Dancing with the Stars and voila, Celebrity Dance Rehab.  Celebrities with substance abuse problems will spend 3 to 4 hours daily in ballroom dance training, to prepare for their weekly dance performance with their semi-professional partner, and 3 to 4 hours daily in intensive therapy sessions with a celebrity therapist other than Dr. Drew or Dr. Phil.  Maybe we should combine three shows.  We'll take those two and throw in a weight-loss element and only accept celebrities with substance abuse issues, who have also gained weight since their days of fame and fortune.  Celebrity Biggest Loser Dance Rehab will feature the dancing element and theraputic elements above, and we'll add Jillian Michaels to whip the celebrities back into shape.  Between the dancing, and the workouts in the gym, they'll be in tip top shape and sober, in no time.  Then we'll market the idea to wealthy people who want to lose weight, or kick their substance abuse issues, or both, and sell expensive getaways to our exclusive location in Dana Point. 

Reality TV may be ruining the scripted TV series as time passes, but I think there will always be a market for shows like NCIS, Suits, Royal Pains, Blue Bloods, and so on.  Great writing will always triumph over stark reality, on television.

But then again, reality TV really has penetrated every aspect of society.  "Redneck Island"?  Remember "The Swan", that show that took very unattractive women and through a combination of exercise, diet, mental health therapy, cosmetic dentristy, plastic surgery and life-coaching, turned them into really attractive women.  Well, as long as I'm designing new reality shows, how about "The Drake"?  It's like the Swan, but this show is all about transgendered women who believe they are really men trapped in women's bodies, like Chaz Bono and the Pregnant Man.  These women, beautiful or not, are taken in, given weightlifting and other training to develop their muscles, lots of male hormones, and ultimately, the sex change operation and after they graduate, they take jobs dancing as one of the Chippendale Dancers.  If Prince Harry would be a big hit taking off his clothes, imagine the shock and awe of what were once women, disrobing and revealing their hunky, muscular forms, clad only in speedos.

In the wake of the death of the first man to walk on the moon, I decided to try to verify something I'd been told on the day he made that walk.  I remember it well.  I was 9 years old and my father's employer was having their annual summer picnic at a park in Van Nuys.  Back in the day, televisions were portable and had these funny things called antennae, also known as 'rabbit ears'.  You twisted and turned them and got the best possible picture, without any cables being hooked into any walls or any satellite dishes.  So we were all gathered around when Neil Armstrong left the LEM (Lunar Excursion Module) and uttered those famous words.  And I overheard one adult saying to another, "they picked him over Aldrin to be first because he's a civilian".  It made sense in later years, in 1969 the war in Vietnam was very unpopular and so was the military.  I decided to try to find out if it was true.

Turns out, based on the best information available that it isn't.  Armstrong was senior to Aldrin in the astronaut program and was therefore the mission commander.  The commander's seat in the LEM was the one closest to the hatch to leave the vehicle.  It was almost impossible for them to move around inside in order to change positions so Aldrin could get out before Armstrong.  It turns out that Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon solely because his seat as mission commander was closest to the door.

You may not know who Sheriff Joe is, but he's the Sheriff of Maricopa County in Arizona and he's famous for his wild political positions, particularly regarding immigration.  He was skewered recently by comedian George Lopez in a stand-up routine.  Well, now Sheriff Joe has invited George Lopez to appear at a fundraiser for abused animals, and so far Lopez isn't responding.  Come on George, it's for a good cause and you can tell all the same jokes about Sheriff Joe again.

Oh how I wanted to just roll over this morning and go back to bed...

but I didn't.

As I headed out the door for my morning walk, there was a burning question on my mind.  Just how many songs will the Romney campaign try to use as their music and get shot down by the artist, before they give up on musical themes altogether?  I think the latest is "Footloose".  Great imagery, a movie about a rebellious preacher's daughter who throws her premarital sex adventures in her father's face when he won't listen to her discuss her issues.

There was a light on in a bakery I pass each morning that is always darkened.  There are window shades covering it almost completely, but the shining light poured through the space between the shades and the walls.  I actually stopped for a moment and peeked inside, but could see nothing.

It was a full 30 minutes of walking, but I was a bit slower than usual.  Stiffness, fatigue, lack of motivation, I don't know what it was.  I do know that as I was on the homestretch, I was passed by two women who are clearly "senior" to me, but who passed me like I was standing still.  I felt awful for a moment until I remembered that I'm slow because I spent nearly a year flat on my back in the hospital and I'm still "re-conditioning", something I didn't pursue properly in the first 16 or so months post-hospital.

I also recalled something from the early to mid 1990s, back when I was running a road race almost every weekend.  Some of those races were in the valley, which is a strong indicator of just how much I loved to run.  I hate driving over the hill to the valley, even when it's early in the morning on a Sunday and there is almost no traffic.  But everytime I went to the valley to run a 5K or 10K, I'd see many of the same people.  One in particular.

He was in his 80s and we knew this because he would wear t-shirts that made mention of his age, like "In our 80s running club" or "80+ runners".  Every race I ran in that he was in, I'd push myself early to get ahead of him and as a result, later in that race, I'd be in what runners refer to as "oxygen-debt" and he would pass me and finish first.  That bothered me a lot.

So finally when the next race popped onto the schedule in the valley, I made a vow.  I was going to ignore him, run my own race and plan to run negative splits.  That's a fancy running term which indicates that the runner will run the last miles (or other measured lengths) faster than the early miles.  He went off into the distance at the start, and I just ran my race as I'd planned.  Roughly ten minute mile pace for the first two miles, nine minute pace for the next two miles, and then if I could, 8:30 minute mile pace for the last two miles, with my best two meter run time for the final two hundred meters beyond the six mile mark.

I saw him between the three and four mile markers, and for a moment started to pick up my pace to catch him, but I caught myself and stopped.  I wasn't running against him, I had a plan and I was going to stick to it. 

He popped up again in the fifth mile and by the time I hit the six mile mark, he was behind me and he wasn't going to catch me.  I had enough gas in the tank to run pretty hard that last two hundred meters and I passed several people as I did so.  But there was no thought of victory for beating them to the finish line.  I wasn't running against them.  I was running against myself and I'd won.  I'd executed my plan and hit my goal time.  It was my best 10K time ever.

The real competition isn't with others.  It is internal and it can be won.  So if I see those two women tomorrow, more power to them when they pass me by.  I'm walking my own race and I plan to prevail.

The Missouri race for the U.S. Senate is a lesson in what's wrong with single-issue politics

Many want to see Rep Todd Akin, member of the U.S. House of Representatives lose his race against incumbent U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill solely because of Akin's idiotic statement about "legitimate rape" and that doctors had told him women don't get pregnant when they are raped.

Why is rape, suddenly the most important issue in a race for a U.S. Senate seat, where most of the federal issues about abortion are already settled.  There is little if any chance that the Congress will reverse itself and provide federal funding for abortion.  That ban has been around for a long time, and there is little reason to suspect the factors that created the ban have altered in any way, except perhaps to be even more intense than ever.

There's no hope or reason to believe that a "Freedom of Choice" act will pass the Congress.  Roe v Wade is the law of the land in all 50 states, thanks to the Supreme Court.  That's not going to change either. 

So why is rape such a crucial issue?  The big issues should be the economy, the loss of U.S. jobs through economic change and outsourcing, government spending more than a trillion dollars in each of the past four years than it took in, and the fact that future entitlement spending projections make multi-trillion dollar deficits nearly inevitable.

Instead of looking at the candidates on all the issues, there is a firestorm going on, demanding that Akin lose because he said one thing about one issue.  Hey, Akin is an idiot, and if you want to question his general intellectual fitness to be in office because of this one statement fine.  But then you need to question the general intellectual fitness of Vice-President Joe Biden to be elected to another term as VP, given that he's still convinced we're living in the 20th Century, and that "jobs" is a three-letter word.  Usually I want politicians to be able to count to at least ten before they can earn my vote.  When they can't differentiate between three and four...

I think back to a lesson of history about a U.S. Senate race that was pretty much a single issue rate.  It took place in 1958, before I was born, in West Virginia.  Robert Byrd was then a member of the House, running for the Senate against a Republican incumbent by the name of W. Chapman Revercomb, who was running for his third term.

The key issue was civil rights and Revercomb's support of them.  Byrd, who at one time was a KKK member, opposed civil rights, and that was the reason he won election to the U.S. Senate.  As a result, he was able to take part in the famouse filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, trying to prevent passage of this landmark legislation.  That he later in life repudiated his former racism is worthy of forgiveness, but not complete absolution or erasure from the historical record.

Pretend for a moment you're a Republican, voting in a primary election to choose a candidate for the U.S. Senate.  One of the candidates is a radical right-wing religious zealot, who opposes abortion and same-sex marriage, but is completely in line with your views on reducing the deficit, shrinking government, building the economy and everything else, save those two hot-button issues for you.  Now his opponent is a white supremacist, who is pro-choice, and surprisingly, in favor of same-sex marriage.  But he likes big government, regulating business (he considers it to be "sticking it to the Zionist pigs") and wants to borrow and spend massively on a military build-up.

Who do you vote for?  Of course, you hold your nose firmly and write-in the name of some other Republican on the primary ballot.  Or you just avoid voting altogether.  Or, do you, because the first candidate represents all of your beliefs except abortion and same-sex marriage, do you hold your nose firmly and tightly and recognize that in the Senate, they can't negatively impact those two issues all that greatly to begin with?

Hey, were I in charge, Akin would be out of the race, some other Republican whose views on abortion are clear, well-stated, and possibly similar to Akins, without managing to piss off everyone with a womb from coast to coast, would be McCaskill's opponent.  But I'm not in charge.  I'm just wondering about the wisdom of choosing your elected representative solely on the basis of their position on one issue.  Even when it's an important issue, although their ability to create change on how that issue is handled, is it worth it?

While today is Friday on the calendar, it became Saturday...

on my walking schedule.  I was just too tired to go walking this morning, and since I was that tired and managed to oversleep, I moved tomorrow's day of rest to today.  I'm sure the baker was there working at his bakery even though I didn't walk past.  I'm sure there were three or four people working out in the gym that I normally walk past.  I'm sure I'd have spotted something I'd have not seen in prior walks and hopefully I will see that item tomorrow morning.

So the polls show that were there not a 22nd Amendment in place, Bill Clinton would be the leading candidate to win the election this November.  Of course, he isn't facing the negative campaigns being run by the two major parties, so there isn't anything out there that would be harming his positive approval rating.  The minute someone started running the "I did not have sex with that woman" ads, his numbers would probably drop.

Mitt Romney told Parade magazine that one reason he doesn't want to release any more of his tax returns is that this would include disclosure of just how much money he and his wife give to the Mormon church.  Uh newsflash, Mitt.  We know you tithe.  We know that you may even donate more than the requisite 10%.  That's not a secret.  Not releasing your tax returns for that reason is not only nonsensical, saying that's the reason shows a contempt for the collective intellect of the American people.

There really is an estimate that Republicans will outspend Democrats by a 3 to 1 margin at strip clubs during their party's conventions.  No wonder the strippers are flowing into Tampa to get their g-strings around as many double-sawbucks as they can while the Republicans are in town.  A CNN story about strippers and politicians used the words "g-string" and "heels" three separate times.  Good to know where the author's focus was.  Maybe some personal research into this phenomenon is in order, I haven't been to one of those clubs in ages.  Long ago, a friend used to take me to lunch at Fantasy Island in West L.A., and the biggest surprise was that the food was surprisingly good for a strip club.  Do I need to stop in and check it out again...naw.  The only things that will have changed are the girls, they'll still be mostly young, mostly on a bad path due to drugs and men taking advantage of them, and the audience will just be the same guys, only older and sadder.  My old friend prefers Hooters now, I think that's because he can get away with that and not get into trouble with his "better half".  She wouldn't like it if it was wasting money on lapdances.

"I will fight no more forever" is no longer the motto of only Chief Joseph.  It's also the mantra of Lance Armstrong, who has given up his fight to hang on to his cycling achievements including 7 Tour de France titles.  I've always wondered if he was guilty, and now that he's giving up his fight, I can't help but wonder if he gave up because he knows in his heart he's guilty.  I can understand the notion that he was just tired of fighting...but when you spend so much of your life working to achieve goals like that, I can't imagine ever giving up the fight.  If you lose, at least you fought all the way.

Moviefone tried to piss em off last night.  I want to see one particular movie this weekend and I knew it was opening today.  But Moviefone showed it wasn't playing anywhere in L.A.  Good thing I can count.  The Landmark has 12 theaters and there were only 11 shows listed as playing today at the Landmark.  Of course it helped that yesterday I was a movie there and they announced that "Robot and Frank" would open there today and that there would be a Q&A with the director at the 7:30 showing.  But it was still disheartening to see it not listed on the Moviefone site as showing.  I'm not going to the evening showing, although I'd love to hear the Q&A.  Part of my hatred of paying full price for any film.

Next Tuesday night should be interesting.  No trivia for me that night.  I'm going to a screening of an IMAX/3-D film from China, a sequel to a 1992 wuxia film starring Jet Li.  I'm hoping a friend I invited to attend the screening with me will choose to attend, but I'm going with or without him.  Since he's a major fan of that genre and that actor, I figured he'd enjoy the opportunity.  Plus, it will save me paying admission plus IMAX plus 3-D at a theater, which is worse than full price.

I haven't shaved in two days and I feel it.  I do skip the occasional day, but it's been awhile since I skipped two days.  When I was in the hospital, I was dependent on the CNAs to shave me the one or two times every three weeks they would do it.  When I finally got out, it took awhile to get back into the routine of doing it daily, but eventually I did.  However, even when I was working full-time and part-time, on days I didn't work, I would often let my face 'rest'.

Rodney King's death remains an accidental drowning, but with cocaine, PCP, pot, and a .06 blood-alcohol level, it was an accident clearly of his own making.  Here, let me get drunk, high and then walk around my uncovered pool.  Ooops!

The one thing I hate most about morning walks...

is not stiff legs, which is an almost daily occurrence.  It's oversleeping.  I want to get my walk in so I have at least an hour to rest and cool down before I shower.  Not going to happen today.

I saw a refrigerator store on my route that I'd never noticed before.  I should speak to the owner of that store about his poor signage, since I've been walking by his location for days and hadn't known he was there.  Now I'm not in the market for a refrigerator, I have a small one in my room. 

Thanks to the 15 of you who read yesterday's entry, or other entries from my little blog.  Feel free, when bored, to wander back through the past year's entries.  Perhaps you'll learn why Allie Brandt is one of my heroes, or why I finally couldn't vote for Senator John Kerry in 2004.

This morning my mind turned for some odd reason to an experience that was going on, on this date 35 years past.  I was going through Air Force Basic Military Training.  What you may not know is that I struggled with the process, being "recycled" twice.  Recycled is their label for when they make you repeat portions of the training.  Normally not because you didn't learn what was taught on those days, but because you've breached discipline, or pissed off your instructors.  My first recycle was seven days (there were 30 days of training, weekdays only, federal holidays not counting) for getting into a 'struggle' with another trainee.  The second was four days because my head instructor was an anti-Semite who was pissed off to all get out when I insisted on going to the commanding officer in order to get his decision that I could not attend services on Rosh Hashonah overridden.  I won with the CO, but I lost with the instructor when he failed me on a subsequent locker inspection.

But fortunately for me, the third and final head instructor I was assigned to was a wise, patient guy, and he sat down with me and determined I wasn't a problem child, just someone who had run afoul of the system.  "Help the other guys with the stuff you have already done, keep your nose clean and you'll do fine."  He was right, and in fact, if it had been possible for someone to get "Honor Graduate" when they'd been recycled, I would have earned that honor.  Sadly, it wasn't possible.

The last day of training, there was one and only one evaluation.  Reporting and saluting eval.  You knock on the instructor's office door, once and only once.  You wait to be summoned inside verbally, with the words "come-in" or "enter".  You open the door, close it behind you, march at attention to a position directly facing the instructor who is seated behind his desk, and stand at attention.  You salute, and while holding the salute say "Airman Basic (Last Name) reports as ordered sir."  Then you're quizzed on what they called memory work.  What was the rank and name of the training center commander?  The base commander?  What regulation covers dress and appearance?  What's the name of your squadron commander?  And so on.

Now we had what's known as a "sister flight".  A flight was a unit of 50 trainees, which would end up being between 36 and 42 due to attrition.  I had a good friend in our sister flight, we'd both been recycled to this squadron on the same day.  For some odd reason, the sister flight's lead instructor wasn't available and the major who was our squadron commander was doing the reporting and saluting evals for the sister flight.

My friend went first.  He reported properly.  He saluted properly.  He promptly answered a bunch of memory work questions.  Then the major said (I was told this story by my sobbing friend later that day) "last question, Airman.  Who is your squadron commander?"

Now the answer is sitting right there in front of him.  The answer was his rank, which was on his uniform shirt in the form of a gold oak leaf signifying a major, and the last name, which was on the name tag above his right shirt pocket.  But my friend brain farted.  Completely.  After a few minutes, he said "Sir, I don't know."

This led to the overreaction of overreactions of all time.  The angry major ordered my friend recycled yet again.  To Day 1 of basic training.  He would have to do it all over again. 

Is there a moral to this story?  Perhaps it is found in the aphorisms of former U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin Powell.  They are as follows:

1.  It ain't as bad as you think.  It will look better in the morning.
2.  Get mad, then get over it.
3.  Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.
4.  It can be done!
5.  Be careful whom you choose
6.  Don't let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision
7.  You can't make someone else's decisions.  You shouldn't let someone else make yours.
8.  Check small things! (this is the one my friend blew badly)
9.  Share credit!
10.  Remain calm.  Be kind
11.  Have a vision.  Be demanding
12.  Don't take the counsel of your fears or naysayers.
13.  Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.

Good rules to manage by and live by.  My friend learned some hard lessons over the next 30 days of training.

Larry Elder got it wrong today...

and I'm sure some of you think he gets it wrong almost every day. But today he really blew it when he talked about one topic.  He was talking about the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.  Now this bill has significance, because it represents yet another in the litany of broken promises by President Barrack Obama.  He promised to give the American people five full days to comment on bills that had reached his desk for signature, but signed this after only two days.  But I digress.

Elder was taking issue with the concept of equal pay for equal work, a concept where Lily Ledbetter was the victim of real discrimination but lost her case at the Supreme Court due to a technicality.  She didn't sue soon enough after the discrimination began.  This allowed employers to blatantly discriminate because as long as employees didn't become aware of their victimization through discrimination until more than 180 days have passed.  When the Court rendered their decision, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote that Congress should pass a law that the statute of limitations runs from the discovery of any discrimination.  So the law was passed.

Now the "Sage from South Central" tried to offer a few strawman arguments against this concept.  He pointed out that Howard Stern gets paid a lot more than he, for doing the radio hosting gig.  But their two jobs aren't "equal".  He did the same with comparing the salaries of famous news anchors.  Again, not equal jobs.  Oh they may be the same on the surface, 22 minutes of news, 8 minutes of commercials, with about the same amount of prep time.  But those entertainers and news anchors he was referring to are paid by the audience they deliver, not because there is some disparity in the jobs they do and how they perform at them.

Lily Ledbetter was a supervisor at a tire plant.  A production supervisor.  Other production supervisors did the same exact work as she did, but they were paid $1,000 to $1,500 more per month than she.  That's discrimination. 

Depending on which studies you want to buy into, the pay "gap" between men and women doing the same work is somewhere between 5% and 8%.  Not insignificant, and still a problem.

Larry got it wrong.

Stiff legs greeted me when I awoke this morning...

and there was a strong temptation to just roll over and go back to bed.  But two minutes later I was up, dressed and out the door.

My legs were stiff because I'd been forced to stand for 35 minutes in line at Best Buy yesterday, and because I spent over two hours sitting without moving at a movie screening later in the evening.  But as I walked, the stiffness loosened.  I wanted to walk for just over 30 minutes and I did so.

As I walked, I thought a lot about the name of one of the sushi places on my route.  Shikibu is its name and that happens to be the name of a character that appears in a novel (I may have mentioned this before) about Japan in the time of Kublai Khan.  The name belongs to a baby girl whose mother is from a noble family and she is married to a prince of noble rank, but poor wealth.  It's a good marriage for the families, he has connections to build her family's trade, her family can provide him with the money he needs to maintain a princely lifestyle.

But he mistreats his wife, finally forcing her to move from the capital at Kamakura to a remote palace he owns.  There, she is visited by the warrior monk from her past and they have an affair.  Shikibu is the child of that affair and after she is born with red hair like the monk, the prince smashes the little baby girl to death on a pile of rocks.

This novel's nugget of a plotpoint makes one think of the Missouri Moron, Rep Akin.  Because, like the prince, he likens the abortion of a fetus to a punishment of the child.  But there are several differences.  The baby Shikibu had been born.  There was no question as to whether or not she was "alive" at that moment.  You can argue the ethics of when life begins, but science is clear that a fetus that weighs less than 500 grams cannot survive outside the womb.  And of course there is the fact that Shikibu's mother, Taniko, wasn't raped and wanted her baby.

When men like Akin will volunteer their bodies to host the unwanted fetuses conceived as the result of rape, then they may prattle on about how these "babies" should be saved, and they may feel free to volunteer to save them, one at a time.  Until then, basically they should just shut up.

Now this raises another question.  Does abortion become murder at some point?  At 10 weeks, no.  At 22 weeks, probably not.  24 weeks is a grey area, and much beyond that goes from grey to...well, questionable at best and unjustifiable at worst.  35 weeks, which is an allegation facing two doctors in a Maryland case of late term abortions being labelled as homicides is clearly murder.

I also thought about comparative value this morning.  My running shoes, which I wear daily, ran me about $60.  At the time I wanted to buy two pairs, so I could rest one pair each day, but they only had one pair in my size of the style I wanted.  I plan to pick up another pair in a week or two, now that my old pair I'd been wearing on my hospitalization is finally beyond comfortable wear.  These shoes are a good value, since I wear them for full days, over 180 days per year for more than a year.

I happened to discover that a pair of those CFM pumps in that adult novelty/lingerie/other store window also runs about $60.  They're clearly designed not to be worn in regular daily life, but they obviously serve a useful purpose in the bedroom.  Given the lack of wear they will endure in a lifetime of being worn briefly prior to (and if someone's kinky enough, during) sex, are they a good value?  I'll leave that question to you. 

But I wouldn't pay $200 for a pair of Nike Air Jordans even if it was your money.  Except maybe as an investment in the hope I could sell them for $400 in two or three years.  Otherwise, they do not present good value for the buck.

Celebrity deaths almost always come in threes, and I was wondering who would be next after the deaths of Tony Scott and Phyllis Diller.  I was unaware that on the previous Friday, actor William Windom had died.  A prolific character actor, I knew him best from his guest-starring role on an episode of the original Star Trek series as Commodore Matt Decker.  Decker's ship was attacked by a doomsday machine and all of his crew was killed, and later in the episode he kills himself in an effort to exact revenge.  He was an excellent actor.

Naked photos of a Prince, who isn't a short, very talented musician from Minnesota?  Go figure.

Made it all the way to 7-11 this morning...

a record distance for my morning walks.  So I gave myself a reward.  Oh, there were so many things I wanted to reward myself with.  A Baby Ruth bar would have been awesome.  So would a chocolate brownie.  Heck, even a grape juice would have been great.  Those who may remember from junior and senior year of high school, I had grape drink and a package of Ding Dongs for breakfast almost every morning.  Someone even mentioned my breakfast of choice when they signed my yearbook.  But, I settled for one extra chance at the Mega-Millions lottery.  Only a dollar, and no calories.  Great reward.

Apparently they aren't finished filming along Washington Boulevard.  Two of the vehicles were still there this morning and so was the uniformed security guard.  But no craft service cart, and so no banana to steal.

The display was back in the window of the adult novelty/lingerie/hooker heels/false eyelash store.  And there were indeed novelties, lingerie, CFM heels and false eyelashes in the display this time.  CFM is an acronym I was taught by a Las Vegas showgirl one night as she visited me while I was on the air doing the FM Jock thing.  When you're doing an overnight shift on the radio and there are probably only 7.4 people listening among 500,000 population, visitors are welcome even though they were a violation of studio policy.  Shoot me an email if you can't figure out what CFM means and you need to know.

There was actually a fifth dentist along my morning route, but I hadn't noticed before, because his office has been closed since I started passing it and only now has the renovations uncovered the sign saying DDS on the side of the building.  Wow, more dentists than nail salons.  What is Culver City coming to?

You have to wonder at the marvel of human ego.  Rick Akin opened his mouth and firmly inserted both feet, way down past the gums, to the middle of his throat, with his commentary on "legitimate rape" and the amazing ability of women's bodies to prevent preganancy when raped.  Apparently he wasn't aware of the 30,000 plus women who get pregnant annually due to rape.  Now he can't let go of his ego to withdraw from the race for the U.S. Senate seat in Missouri.  The irony is that if he withdraws, it will foil the plan of his Democratic opponent.  She spent $2 million during the primary campaign to try to position Akin to win, because she felt he was the easiest potential opponent to defeat.  Now, if he will do the right thing for his party, she will face tougher opposition.

Last night was my third consecutive Monday at Finn McCool's on Main Street in Santa Monica to play their live trivia.  I'd won the game playing solo the last two weeks.  This time I managed to get one of my trivia teammates, the one I've been plying the trivia wars with the longest, to join me.  Thanks to his presence, it was a third straight victory.  He knew several answers that I did not get. 

Tonight I am missing my regular Tuesday night trivia, in order to go to a film screening.

For some odd reason, there was an uptick in the number of very attractive women, and among them, well-dressed women at the pub last night.  There was a young lady sitting next to us, whose jeans were so tight I was afraid they might cut off the circulation in her legs, but she seemed fine when she got up to run answers to the host.  At the bar was a woman whose dress was so short I became convinced that it was either just a blouse and she'd forgotten her skirt, or she was really, really proud of the work she's done in shaping her upper thighs.  Either way, it was quite a sight.

Tomorrow morning may be a bit more challenging.  I want to go beyond 7-11, but I can't buy extra lottery as a reward.  Maybe I'll just not cross the street and keep Washington Blvd between me and the temptations inside 7-11.

My legs were very stiff this morning...

but I was too filled with curiousity to not go the full distance this morning.  Turned out it was a good decision.

I hadn't realized that in addition to the 4 nail salons on my morning path, there are also 4 dental offices.  All in separate buildings.  All with vastly different signage, including one who makes it a point of labelling himself as 'the credit dentist'.  So my morning walk path is one where you can fight tooth and nail to look good, after all.

Yesterday I saw lots of industrial cables set on curbs next to the street.  Filming must be coming was my thought and today it has.  The trucks were there, although the trailers where actors 'rest' between scenes had yet to arrive.  There was an off-duty police officer flirting with a female production assistant (you can tell she's a PA by the clipboard, radio and "I'm in charge until someone more important arrives" look on her face).  There was a uniformed security guard protecting the craft services cart from people like me as we walk by on the public sidewalk.  But he wasn't very alert.  I could have easily pilfered a banana if I'd been so inclined.

The trucks had the Warner Brothers logo on them, and one had an ad on the side for the TV show "Bones".  Wonder if that is the show that will be filming something along the street.  It looks like it will take place inside one of the buildings I pass daily, and someone wasn't happy with the exterior appearance.  If the planters outside that building aren't there tomorrow when I pass, I'll know why.

The suicide of Tony Scott has been on my mind since I heard about it last night, just after watching one of his movies.  I'm pondering the possibility that he might have recently been diagnosed as having a terminal illness and decided he didn't want to go out fighting from a hospital bed.  Maybe he didn't want to, but the two to three seconds of falling from nearly 400 feet had to be the longest seconds of his life.  In the days before robo-calls, I remember being told the story of a man who was certain he was the last man on the planet, so he jumped off the Empire State Building (then the tallest building there was).  But as he passed the 14th floor, he heard a phone ring.  Too late.

That's how I feel about suicide.  Once you're dead, or about to die and can't undo what you've done, something that might have changed your mind will be too late.  It's a permanent solution to what might have been a temporary problem.  It's an angry gesture, hurtful to those left behind.  I've seen one suicide up close and don't need to see another in this lifetime.  What kind of man was Tony Scott?  I don't know a lot, but one anecdote will show his dedication to his craft.

When they were filming "Top Gun", filming was worked around normal ship activities.  One day while shooting planes taking off and landing while back-lit by the sun, suddenly the ship's commaning officer changed course.  When Scott asked if they could change the course back, so he could keep on shooting with the sun back-lighting things, he was told it costs $25,000 in fuel and other costs to change course.  Scott reached in his pocket, wrote out a personal check for $25,000 to the Navy and told them to change the course back.

I mentioned there was a new display up in the adult novelty/lingerie/hooker heels shop I pass, yesterday.  Well, there's a newer one this morning.  Nothing in the windows at all.  Not only are the windows bare, the wooden doors that keep anyone from looking past the display to see inside the store are wide open.  So there is not only nothing in the windows, you can see behind the counter where the cash registers are.  On the counter were false eyelashes and vibrator batteries.  Now I'm dying to see what will be in the window or on display through the window tomorrow.

I'm seeing a screening tomorrow night which is a mixed blessing.  I don't really have any desire to see this particular film, and I'm having to miss trivia playing to see it.  But I'm hopeful it will lead to more screenings from this PR firm, so off I go.

Yesterday, while returning home from seeing a movie and having lunch with a friend, I passed by a RV dealership.  Or what used to be a RV dealership.  It sits next to the freeway, and now the lots are empty, the building closed off.  Obviously the economy hasn't been good to the RV industry.  There's a go-cart recreation facility next door to it.  It looked to still be in operation, but who knows?  I pass several vacant auto dealership lots in my travels, and that makes me wonder if we really are in a recovery.  The unemployment figures don't seem to indicate any real recovery.

My legs weren't pleased with this morning's walk...

after two full days of complete rest.  But they managed to carry me to near the furthest point I'd been to on any prior walk.  I was feeling a little fatigue, so I stopped for a moment and decided I'd just walk further tomorrow, rather than obsessing about walking further and further each and every day.

In my mind, I wasn't running somewhere else today.  I was playing in a volleyball match, back in early 1985 about an hour from Seoul at Osan Air Base.  It was the tournament between all of the U.S. Air Force bases in the Republic of Korea, although only four bases actually sent teams.  My small base of 400 USAF men, a base near Pusan that was a little larger, and then the two big air bases, Kunsan and Osan.  So we were overmatched in terms of the numbers our opponents had to select their teams from.

Someone in the Athletics office at Osan also decided to either be funny, or just try to intimidate us.  We were required to submit the names, height and weight of all players on our roster, as they were printing up a program for the tournament.  The players from the two big bases somehow managed to get a foot or more added to their actual heights.  There were at least six people on the Osan roster who were listed as being over seven feet tall.  We found it amusing, not intimidating.

I was one of my team's two setters, but when I was on the front line, that made me a hitter.  I was hitting from the right side, and early in our match with Osan, the blocker that should have been staying with me was cheating in and double-blocking our big middle hitter.  To put a stop to this, our other setter told me to be ready, he was going to set me a few balls.  I crushed the first one for a sideout, and the next for a point.  I know, I know, I'm not that tall, but when I was younger and lighter, I could jump quite high.  Enough to reach above the rim of a basket on a basketball court, and enough to easily spike a volleyball when there was no block present.  When I killed another ball set my way, the blocker stopped cheating in.

We didn't win the match.  But we were competitive, more so than we deserved to be, given how outmatched we were.  Our coach (the other setter) was smart and he took advantage of every ability every one of us had.  Including recognizing that I could force them to cover me, to allow the middle hitter to go one on one.  Teamwork, working at its finest.

There's a beauty salon along my route, and I've noticed that it wasn't open during hours it should have been open in recent days. There's one of those iron gates across its entrance and it hasn't moved.  The lights in the window display are on, so the electricity is still working, and there's a sign saying "Station for Rent" in the window.  I wonder if it has gone out of business, or if the owner is just away on vacation.  Must be hard to go on vacation when you're the sole proprietor of a business.  The married couple I know who own a donut shop in El Segundo have probably not gone away together on a vacation in at least 20 years.

I need to post a correction.  There are actually two buildings between the two foot massage places with the disparate pricing.  A bakery and a dental building that is also home to a financial services firm.  At least I think the dental practice and financial services firm are separate businesses.  Dental service and financial counseling might seem a good mix though.  After all, the dry cleaner I walk by is also an authorized payment center.

Seeing "The Expendables 2" on a nice big screen with great sound was a lot of fun yesterday, but it is worth noting that the theater charges $12 for a bargain matinee (not nearly a bargain) and you have to pay $5 to park at that theater.  Or, you can take Metrorail there, and spend $5 for an all day pass, and walk a few blocks there from the train stop.  Either way, it's not a bargain when there's a theater close by that charges only $7 for a bargain matinee and free parking.

Some are making an issue of the fact Mitt Romney is raising money in "rich" locales this weekend.  Why weren't the people making an issue of this concerned when Barrack Obama was at fundraisers in the backyard of George Clooney's multi-million dollar home, or when Anna Wintour was urging people to not be late to the Obama fundraiser at the multi-million dollar home of Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick?  Seems like being rich is only an issue when Republicans raise money. 

Then again, we have the fuss over Mitt Romney's tax returns.  I think it's time he puts a stop to this and releases pages 1 and 2 of his Form 1040, along with Schedules A and B.  That way, people can see what rate he paid taxes at for the years 2000 through 2009, without having to give up all the other 189 or so pages per return to prevent people for digging for more deductions for horse care that were ultimately disallowed.  Put this to rest and focus on the real issues.  Double digit unemployment in many states, outsourcing of jobs, the economy not really recovering, the hidden housing problem in all the foreclosure properties owned by the government and more.  What rate Mitt Romney paid federal income tax at won't have anything to do with decreasing the budget deficit.  Fleshing out the plans that Obama and Romney are proposing to solve the deficits would do something about that problem.  Pointing out that neither plan has any real solutions in it would be a good start.

I may have mentioned this before, if so, I apologize.  I just took a great big drink of water.  I love drinking water.  When I was in the hospital, with that tube in my throat, my only refreshment for months was small quantities of ice chips that I could melt on my tongue.  I promised myself I would savor my first glass of water and believe me, when I finally got one, I did.  Now I savor and enjoy every single drink of water.

My hamstring is happy that we didn't walk...

this morning.  The rest of me is not.  But I suspect that tomorrow morning, when I resume walking, it will be very grateful.  I intentionally remained in bed for the hour during which I would have been walking and then cooling down.  An hour's extra sleep was wonderful, especially since I stayed up late last night watching something on television.

Speaking of television, one of my pet peeves is going on right now.  A TV network, that frequently shows episodes of an hour-long drama, broadcast several excellent episodes of that show back to back to back last night.  That's all well and good.  Even if you haven't seen them for awhile, they may well be worth watching.  But now they're showing those same episodes, in the same order (more or less) this morning.  Now a few weeks, or few months passing between the airing of a re-run is tolerable.  But less than 14 hours is not.  I hate to say it, but I wouldn't watch "Lawrence of Arabia", my favorite movie of all time, twice in 14 hours.  Not even if it were on the only working channel on the entire spectrum of channels.

It's called balance billing and in California it's illegal for emergency room physician to engage in.  It refers to the practice of seeking payment in full from a patient treated in an emergency room, after insurance has paid what it is willing to pay in a managed-care case.  The reason behind the practice of not allowing this is that when one is in an ER, one has much less control over which doctors are providing treatment.  Well, there's a plastic surgeon from Pasadena who has been so aggressive and abusive in using balance billing to try to collect from her patients, she's being sued by the State of California.  In one case, she sued a patient in small claims court when her bill was $2,750, insurance paid just under $500 and said the patient owed $200.  The doctor lost in small claims court and was awarded just the $200 insurance said was owed.  The doctor then placed a lien on the patient's home to try to collect "post-judgment costs" to which she was entitled.  I hope the Medical Board is successful in revoking her license to practice medicine.  I know a collection agency that she can buy and run, it's much more suited to her mindset than practicing medicine.

The fuss continues over Romney's tax returns and what percentage of income tax he paid for the ten years before 2010 and 2011, for which his returns are available (2011 is an estimate).  More than half of his income in those two years was from long-term capital gains.  Like it or not, Congress lowered the tax rate on long-term capital gains long ago.  It was lowered a little further in more recent years during the Bush era tax cuts.  There is a purpose behind the lowered rate for long-term capital gains.  It encourages investors to leave their investments in place, allowing companies to grow and prosper, rather than constantly seeking new sources of capital if investors were not getting some incentive to letting long-term investments grow.  The rate of taxation on long-term capital gains will increase by 8.8% starting January 1st of next year.

But by all means, let's raise the capital gains tax rate on long-term gains to your highest marginal tax rate.  Then, just to be fair, let's repeal Section 121 of the Internal Revenue Code.  Not familiar with Section 121?  It's the code section that allows a homeowner to avoid paying capital gains tax on $250,000 in gains ($500,000 for a married couple) on the sale of a home in which the couple has owned and occupied for at least two of the five years prior to sale.  Why should home ownership be any different than stock ownership?  It's just another form of capital gain.  You won't mind paying all that tax on this huge gain.  So what if it pushes you into the 35% bracket for one year?  Suddenly taking a new view on how long-term capital gains should be treated?

Once again the power of the Internet, viral news stories and collective outrage prevails.  There was a case where a woman died in a car accident and her own auto insurance company, Progressive Insurance, tried to prove she was at fault, in order to avoid paying out a big claim on her uninsured motorist coverage.  Her brother put the story on-line and the collective outrage boiled over like an unwatched pot of soup on the highest flame.  Now Progressive has settled for an amount far in excess of the limit of the policy to make the case go away.  But the outrage will not be so easily quieted.

The fans of WikiLeaks continue to defend its founder, Julian Assange.  Let's suppose for a moment that he didn't rape those women.  Why would they come forward and lodge complaints if that were the case?  Are they part of a conspiracy to get him extradited to the U.S., to face charges of espionage in the Bradley Manning affair?  What is in it for these women?  Why did they come forward? 

People are calling the presidential campaign the dirtiest in history.  Well, until someone breaks into someone else's campaign offices, tries to plant bugs in offices and so on, it doesn't begin to approach the level of prior campaigns.

From the moment I got out of bed...

I knew that the decision to take a day of rest today was the right one.  My calf muscles were stiff, cramped and aching when I got out of bed.  So was that troubling hamstring.  I wanted to walk.  To get out of this room and into the cool morning air.  To see the stores I look at every morning.  I ended up sitting in my chair and meditating for a little while, taking that walk in my mind.

I waved to the baker as he worked behind the open door/closed security fence.  I waved to the early birds doing their cardio exercise in the small gym I walk by every morning.  I looked quizzically in the window of that adult store, pondering how a vibrator for couples works, why women wear shoes with heels that high when they clearly hinder walking, and really pondering why there is a candy dish with soft, chewy candies in that window.  I wondered why people go into work at the NFL network at 6:30 a.m. on days when football is not in season.

I read a brilliant idea on an internet message board last night.  Someone said they'd written an email to Mitt Romney suggesting that he release just the first couple of pages of his tax returns for 2000 through 2009, to prove he is telling the truth about the rate of income tax he paid during those years is above 13%.  Not releasing the details would prevent people from raising the issue of a deduction he took for his wife's horse.  Everyone knows that in 2010 he did claim a deduction of more than $70,000 for the expenses for that horse.  Few of you know that he only was able to use $50 worth of that deduction, and the rest was disallowed.  It might be usable in a future year, but probably won't be.

Is no one else bothered by the fact that the incumbent Vice-President apparently still lives in the 20th century, and can't count to four?

I'm bothered that neitiher candidate or VP candidate has advocated a serious proposal for resolving the simple problem of government spending.  Government spends more more money than it takes in.  If people or corporations do this, eventually they go broke.  But government has a printing press and can just keep printing money.  I remember the days when I was in the military and I was trained to give financial counseling to other military personnel.  One of my first "customers" was a young airman who told me "I can't be overdrawn, I still have checks left".  His system was to go to the ATM, check his balance, and then write that in the ledger and draw on that amount.  Not all that different from what the federal government does, except in D.C. they know they are spending money they don't have.

Perhaps the 21st century should be labelled the century of broken promises.  We were promised that the Bush era tax cuts would end after ten years.  They didn't.  We were promised that government would keep an eye on the banks, and the economy.  They didn't.  The minute Gramm-Leach-Bliley got the signature of Bill Clinton, I knew the days of ruin were coming, but no one listens to me.  Now we have banks that are "too big to fail", the lessons of the Savings and Loan debacle of the 1980s went unlearned, and yet people want to continue to deregulate the finance industry.  How many times do you have to thrust your hand into the open flame before you learn that doing so hurts, and will ultimately get you a very bad burn?

I watched a Youtube video just before writing this.  It's from the 2008 presidential debates.  In it, then Senator Barrack Obama was telling Tom Brokaw that his mother shouldn't have had to spend her last months in a hospital bed, fighting to get her insurer to pay for her treatment.  It's a touching anecdote.

It's also a baldfaced lie.  Mrs. Obama's health insurer paid all of her health insurance claims.  There was no question of denial of treatment due to pre-existing conditions as the candidate claimed.  The issue involved payment she was fighting for from a disability policy that had nothing to do with who would pay for her cancer treatments.

57 states is an understandable gaffe, in the heat of fatigue and completely forgiveable.  Claiming his uncle was there when Auschwitz was liberated is a gaffe, since it was the Russian Red Army that liberated that camp.  Obama's uncle may have been at Buchenwald when it was freed.  But the lie above is unforgiveable.  To lie about your mother's healthcare to score debate points?

Oh well.  Everytime I ramp myself up about the lies on one side or the other, and don't pretend for one instant that both sides aren't lying like hell; I remind myself of my one profound statement in this life.  The problem with our political system is we are left with the lesser of two evils, which becomes the evil of two lessers.

I think I'll write in Pat Paulsen.