I made a deal with myself this morning...

I walked a few extra blocks, even with aching, stiff legs, in order to get a V-8 juice.  I wanted one, and I made a sacrifice to get it.  Boy did it taste wonderful.

I've been buying my own V-8 to drink at breakfast, because this place doesn't provide it.  However, yesterday the chef and I were talking (I was complaining for the 92nd time about being given a drinking glass that had supposedly been through the dishwasher, but arrived at my table with a lipstick stain on it) and he said he had V-8, but he keeps it hidden.  I should just ask the server for some.  But since he's not here this morning, I can't do that because he's not here to tell the server where he hid it.  Not the most efficient system in the world.  I'll be picking up some more V-8 when I go to the market later today.

Going to Rite-aid to buy some overpriced (but chilled) V-8 meant crossing the street.  I pushed the button and waited for the "walk" signal to change to walk.  Meanwhile, some random guy pulling a suitcase behind him walked right past me and jaywalked across the street.  Of course there was no traffic.  What would you have done?  If you start to cross when it says don't walk and a car turns the corner, that driver is forced to stop for you when they have the green light.  The person behind the wheel may not be paying close enough attention to their surroundings.  They might be on a cell phone, eating an Egg McMuffin with the other hand and who knows what else.  No gender offense intended, but if it's a weekday morning, a woman may be applying her make-up in the rear view mirror.  Okay, okay, this is Southern California, there may be men who apply their eyeliner in the rear view mirror.  Me, I'll wait for the signal.

I saw a movie yesterday.  "The Manzanar Fishing Club" tells the story of the Japanese-Americans who were interned at Manzanar (the first of the concentration camps we referred to as "relocation centers") and how they strove to maintain a sense of freedom by risking death to sneak out of the barbed wire encircled camp and go fishing for trout in the area's streams and lakes.  It's an inspiring tale about one of the darkest stains on our nation's traditions of liberty and freedom.

It's playing in only one theater in all of the country and the auditorium was packed.   Almost entirely with elderly Japanese, and when the credits rolled and there was a list of all those who snuck out and fished provided, they were commenting on "hey, I knew that guy" a lot.  I hadn't heard the words Rafu Shimpo in ages but immediately remembered it's the local bilingual English/Japanese newspaper.

When I was a kid, we had a Japanese exchange student living with us for awhile.  Her name was Yuki, and she tried and failed to teach me to speak Japanese.  I remember a few phrases, but they're more from having read certain books as an adult then from her attempts to teach. 

Later in the day I ran into an old friend I hadn't seen for awhile, and we were discussing the movie and she happened to mention that her grandparents had been in the camps.  She'll definitely be going to see this movie.  I need to write a review of it later today and I look forward to the challenge of not telling the entire story in the review.

So I've found a few recruits for the currently named Wild Turkey Party.  Yeah, I need to change the name.  We can't name ourselves after a brand of liquor if we want to be taken seriously.  I'm back to the Centrist Party until we come up with a better name.  Today I'm going to propose a couple of planks for the party platform.

Welfare reform.  We're going to make an announcement that welfare will be limited to two children.  To ensure no one who has more than two children at present is penalized, we will grandfather in all current recipients, and the limit will go into effect one year from the date the law is passed.  After that year, any welfare family that already has two or more children will get no additional cash benefits for additional children that are born.  Welfare parents will only become eligible for additional benefits for additional children when all but one current child have turned 18.  The idea that more kids = bigger checks needs to stop.

Currently welfare pays for childcare performed by family members.  I think that's an incentive for fraud to occur.  I was told by more than one welfare recipient that they put in for the childcare benefit and split the money with the person they named as their provider.  I don't have a solution for this, but it's a problem that requires study.

Illegal immigration.  We're going to do one, final, amnesty.  It will provide a path to citizenship for every single illegal immigrant in this nation who is not guilty of committing a crime for which the maximum punishment is more than two years in prison.  The path may be longer for those who are guilty of crimes other than illegal immigration, but wouldn't result in that long a jail sentence.  At the same time, we're going to seal the border once and for all, and we will then enforce immigration law to the letter.  Students here on student visas whose schooling is at an end will be required to depart the country within ten days of the end of their schooling.  Tourists who enter on a tourist visa who do not leave the country within three days of the expiration of their visa will be deported forthwith.  Employers who do not ensure new employees have the legal right to work in the U.S. will be subjected to heavy fines and repeat offenders will be subject to imprisonment.  We will be like all other nations in the world, and enforce our immigration laws.  But, unlike other nations, we will continue to consider applications for asylum, when warranted.  Real victims of persecution will find the door open.  But the time to close the borders and stop the exploitation of illegal immigrants through the cash work economy has come.

Today is the last day of the week.  My goal at the start of the week was that of the 21 meals I'd eat this week, I'd take in fried food at only two of them.  I missed by one (assuming I'm perfect today, which I intend to be).  Next week will be harder, since I tend to indulge a bit around my birthday.  But the following week, I intend to make that goal.