MOM'S ADVICE -- IGNORE AT YOUR PERIL

My mother always told me, "Do not do anything that you do not want to see on the front page of the newspaper."

Mom could, but would not, tell you that I REALLY IGNORED her advice. However, I decided early on that I did not like the "living in a fishbowl" aspect of politics.

Now we have "NannyGate". Meg Whitman "did not know" that her nanny, housekeeper, errand runner, was illegal. Whitman says that the nanny gave her the correct documents showing that she was legal. Of course, the regular letters from the Social Security Administration regarding the fake social security number should have been A CLUE.

It is always fun to catch someone in a "do as I say, not as I do" situation.

I think that it is just one more indication that Whitman is an amateur when California really needs a pro.

I know you all have fun insulting politicians. But who would YOU bet on, the golf amateur or the golf pro?

HONEST COPS NEED MONEY TO FIGHT PROHIBITION

More and more law enforcement officers believe that prohibition of drugs does not work any better than prohibition of alcohol. (In case you did not listen in history class, you could watch the new HBO series on alcohol prohibition in Atlantic City.)

LEAP stands for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. This organization is providing law enforcement speakers to counter the misinformation given out by those in law enforcement who want the drug monies to keep flowing.

They need money to do this.

Please log on to www.LEAP.cc or google LEAP and give what you can afford. If you have had an illegal smoke in the last month, you can afford at least $10.00.

NOW WE KNOW WHY ENGINEERING WAGES ARE LOW

Now we know that there was a PROVABLE CONSPIRACY among Silicon Valley companies to NOT HIRE EACH OTHERS' ENGINEERS. The only thing the government anti-trust people can actually prove, is that there was an agreement not to 'cold call' each others' workers.

My guess is that the agreement went even further, to where the companies did not attempt to hire an engineer unless that engineer actually applied for a job at the other company. My guess is that this was a deliberate attempt to hold down engineering wages, and that it worked very well. (The low engineering wages were blamed on immigrants because immigrants make such good fall guys.)

I notice that engineers are also no longer getting stock options. This has been blamed on a new accounting rule, but I notice that this rule does not prevent CEOs and other upper management from getting HUGH stock options.

All this also explains why the 'next new thing' has been so derivative. People tend to keep their super creative ideas to themselves if all they get in return is "slam, bam, thank you, ma'am." (This old expression was used to indicate a successful seduction followed by an immediate desertion.)

The free market does not work if greedy, selfish, powerful people use their money and power to manipulate the markets. Over and over, we are being taught that regulation is necessary in order to keep things fair for the rest of us.

I think, if allowed, the Democrats can fix this mess. Certainly the CEOs are not afraid of Republican anti-trust regulators.

If the Democrats can, or won't, fix this mess, I have a few ideas of my own. But I would like to see the Democrats control both the house and the senate so they have the best chance to fix what has gone wrong with our country. My other idea will take a very long time. So send a small amount of money to the Democrats now, and let them try to quickly fix this mess.

BTW, the above saying is why a lot of women of my generation HATE being called "Ma'am". I have always thought everyone should be "Sir". It is really silly to have everyone remember, every moment, what sex someone is, rather than the job someone does.

I would MUCH rather be "Sir Pam" than "Lady Pam", or even worse, "Dame Pam".

TAXING THE RICH AND THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT

I do not understand why Christian conservatives are against taxing the rich.

Isn't there something about rich men, camels and the eye of a needle?

I AM SO SPOILED

I am totally upset and discombobulated because my remote control for my DVR does not work. It turns out that it will not use the kind of batteries that I normally buy. This is because the remote was badly designed. It was probably the least expensive remote and was chosen by my provider in order to help their bottom line.

I realize I am being rabidly unreasonable because MY TOY IS NOT WORKING.

I tell myself that millions of people are currently homeless and starving due to floods in Pakistan, China and Africa. I tell myself that the people in Haiti have only tents for houses. I tell myself that most of the world's population does not have TVs, let alone DVRs.

It does not help. I WANT MY TOY TO WORK RIGHT NOW.

Sometimes even the best of us turn into 2 year old children.

RETELLING LIES

I guess Meg Whitman believes she will not win unless she keeps retelling something that has been proven to be a lie. It has been proven that taxes went down the last time Jerry Brown was governor of California.

People who lie to get elected, will also lie to get their favorites' legislation passed. Legislation based on lies is almost always bad legislation.

Prohibition advocates have been retelling lies for a long time. Whenever anyone tells you that marijuana damages your health, you need to ask them for proof in the form of scientific research, published in a respected medical journal.

Unless you want the people who lie to get what they want to win, you need to send at least a small contribution to the people who try to tell the truth. Those who say, "This ad was reviewed and approved by the candidate" are at least trying to tell the truth.

DEATH BY INFRASTRUCTURE

Infrastructure is such a boring topic, until something actually does fail.

"My life was changed in an instant," mourned a woman who lost her family and her home when a gas main exploded.

Infrastructure is the word used to describe those things necessary for modern life, which we tend to take for granted. Infrastructure is roads, bridges, electric transmission lines, gas lines, levies; the things that have been around our entire lives and have always worked.

But NOTHING LASTS FOREVER.

We need to replace many of the things our grandparents installed and/or built. Bridges are falling down, gas lines are exploding and levies are failing because we are NOT REPLACING our aging infrastructure.

PG&E asks for a rate increase to pay for upgrading aging gas lines and we fuss about our utility bills.

Government asks for a tax increase to pay for upgrading aging bridges and levies and we fuss about socialism.

Please do not let it be my family next time.

TEMPLE OF APSHAI

In 1986, our consulting company upgraded their computers, and I inherited an original IBM PC. I installed a computer game for the kids, called Temple of Apshai. Unfortunately, neither the kids nor I were fast enough with a keyboard to stay alive for more than 30 seconds.

With the help of a science fiction fantasy book, I created a character for the game that had the top physical characteristics in every aspect, as well as the highest rated armor and weapons. The game allowed you to type in these attributes from a character you were playing in the board game Dungeons and Dragons. (Yes, I cheated. Shame on me.)

Soon the children were having a grand time playing the game. They could walk away from the computer and their character would still be alive when they got back, surrounded by bad guys, but alive.

The three of us played computer games together a lot after that. Loom, all the King's Quests, the Guy Threepwood pirate games, Seventh Guest, Gabriel Knight, we played them all.

But I am unable to move the mouse, or game controller, quickly enough to kill a bad guy. I also do not like killing things for fun. As the games moved into shooting games, I quit playing. Soon I could no longer play even the adventure games as there would always be an element of quick movement before one could win.

Now games are not selling. I think it is because people got bored with shooting things.

Fads are funny things. As they start, soon everybody seems to be doing the same 'thing'. Suddenly, no one is doing the 'thing'.

My advice to game people? Re-release some of the old adventure games in a format that is easy for the computer illiterate to play. If that works, design some new adventure games.

REGISTER TO VOTE

Contented people usually do not bother to vote. Then the contented people are surprised when everything changes after the election.

People who blame others for their difficulties ALWAYS vote.

This year, especially, it is important for everyone to register to vote and to vote. If you have moved, you need to re-register.

Registration deadlines vary from state to state, but you should have at least 30 days before the November elections to register. To find out how to register in your area, google the League of Women Voters and enter your zip code.

This year it is especially important to vote. In California, we actually have a chance to stop the violence and corruption caused by the state prohibition of marijuana.

PLEASE REGISTER TO VOTE.

MARIJUANA VERSUS ALCOHOL

SOCIAL INTERACTION

Both marijuana and alcohol make social interaction easier in that they both lower inhibitions so people may make incorrect choices. However, marijuana generally makes people friendly and giggly. Alcohol often makes people aggressive and confrontational, which sometimes results in violence.

DRIVING

Driving is STUPID if you have recently used either alcohol or marijuana, and is against the law. However, alcohol makes people aggressive. People who drive on alcohol often speed without realizing they are speeding. Accidents get much worse if someone is speeding. People who drive on marijuana generally drive very carefully and slowly, which makes them "road boulders".

WORK ETHIC

Both alcohol and grass can affect people's work, especially overuse of either substance.

LENGTH OF EFFECT

Both alcohol and marijuana will affect a person for about two or three hours after last use. If you eat marijuana on an empty stomach, the effects may last for four hours.

ADDICTION

Alcohol is physically addictive, in that you can get very ill if you habitually drink a lot of alcohol and suddenly stop drinking. The alcohol addict can get conflusive seizures and delirium tremens (DTs), which can result in death. Marijuana is not physically addictive. You may miss the effects of marijuana, but stopping marijuana use will not result in physical symptoms.

CALORIES

Alcohol is fattening, and causes a desire to eat salty, fattening food. Marijuana has no calories, but may cause "the munchies", which is a desire to eat snack food.

PHYSICAL EFFECTS

Alcohol kills brain cells, and damages the liver. So far, I have not found any scientific evidence which found adverse physical effects from using marijuana. And believe me, the US government has spent A LOT of money unsuccessfully trying to find that grass damages the body.

Alcohol causes a person to feel lousy the next day. This is called a "hangover". Marijuana does not.

Alcohol used on the skin kills germs. Alcohol used in the hair kills lice (but is flammable, so be careful). Marijuana may have beneficial effects on arthritis, glaucoma, nausea, pain, depression, and sleeplessness.

HOMEMADE

Both alcohol and marijuana can be produced at home. Both are difficult to produce as a quality product.

ENFORCEMENT OF LAWS

Alcohol is taxed and sales are controlled. It is difficult for children to purchase alcohol. Marijuana is underground. No taxes are paid on sales. Marijuana is relatively easy for children to purchase as the sellers hide their activities.

ONE THIRD of the people in jail and prison in California are in for marijuana related offenses at a cost of $65,000 a year per prisoner. Nationally, the percentage of people in prison and jails for marijuana is over 40%.

Our prisons in California are so overcrowded that the federal court has ordered California to release prisoners. DO WE REALLY WANT TO SPEND CALIFORNIA TAX DOLLARS ON PUTTING PEOPLE IN JAIL OR PRISON FOR USE OR POSSESSION OR GROWING OF MARIJUANA? Frankly, I think incarcerating people for marijuana use, possession and/or growing is a criminal waste of our tax dollars.

WHY THE US CAN NOT PREVENT A BURNING OF THE KORAN

A small man from a small church in the US State of Florida is planning on burning a paperback copy of the Koran, which he likely purchased at his local bookstore.

His actions are protected by the freedom of speech and freedom of religion clauses of the US Constitution.

Freedom of speech and freedom of religion can sometimes be very hard to accept.

The US Constitution protects all speech and also protects all actions that are meant to make a political point (such as burning the flag, burning draft cards, and burning bras). The US Constitution protects all religions, even religions that believe some people are aliens from another galaxy.

We in the US believe that a country's course of action can only be correctly determined if everyone has the right to say what they think and to vote as they please.

Now, a small man from a small church is getting his 15 minutes of fame by insulting Islam by burning a paperback copy of the Koran. (Andy Warhol, the pop artist, once famously said that everyone gets 15 minutes of fame. Now we use "15 minutes of fame" to describe a person who so wants to be famous that the person will do anything to become famous even for a little while.)

If anyone anywhere protests the actions of this small man from a small church, the small man will get an hour of fame, and lots of people who want to be famous may do what he did.

If you want to stop the small man from a small church from insulting Islam, you should hire an expensive excellent attorney and sue the small man from the small church. You may not win your lawsuit, but you will certainly cost the small man and the small church a lot of money in legal fees.

LABOR DAY -- ARE UNIONS EVIL?

Many people seem to believe that unions are evil.

Lately, I hear people use the word 'union' as if they were saying a bad word.

Did you know that many Assistant District Attorneys belong to a union? You do know that police officers and firefighters belong to unions? Yet everyone seems to believe that prosecutors, police officers and firefighters are good people. So why do they belong to a union?

In jobs where a mistake is costly, it is easy for management to fire a designated patsy. (Pasty is slang for an innocent person who takes the blame.) Unions provide protection from unproven allegations against its members.

Because police officers and firefighters are paid with your taxes, those who want to pay less tax often try to pay the police and fire persons less money. If these people are in a union, they can negotiate from a position of strength.

Before unions, we had child labor and workers being killed without compensation. There was little or no workplace safety. Many families had to have their children work or they could not afford to feed the children.

Corporations are always trying to save money on wages. They especially want to save money on the people who do blue collar jobs. (Blue collar jobs are jobs where the people work with their hands, such as plumbing, cleaning, construction. White collar jobs are jobs where people can wear a white shirt to work because the white shirt will not get dirty.)

Sometimes I think that corporations want to encourage illegal immigration in order to keep the labor costs down.

I am not saying that all unions are perfect. But without unions, workers would have no voice at all in how they are paid or what kind of working conditions they have.

TEMPEST IN A TEAPARTY

The Teaparty seems to believe that the freedom of religion guaranteed by the First Amendment to the US Constitution does not apply to Muslims.

Guess what? It is FREEDOM OF RELIGION not FREEDOM OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION.

Anyway, the proposed Muslim community center is two blocks from Ground Zero. This is not two blocks in the small town where I grew up, it is two blocks in New York City, where two blocks can be worlds apart.

I am sorry that too many people seem to be stuck in the anger and blame stages of grief. You need to give up anger and blame so you can move on to acceptance. The anger will hurt you. The blame will hurt innocents.

Using the real grief of people to make political gain is propaganda of the worst sort. Propaganda is ALWAYS the partial truth which is really a lie. It is designed to trigger the rage we all feel when we are helpless against the forces of the universe.

Please look for the real truth behind the propaganda lies. If a political ad makes you too angry to think, that is when you really need to think. If you discover a political ad is propaganda, look carefully at all other ads by the same people.

Please remember that people usually use propaganda when facts and reason would lead one to the conclusion that what is being proposed is something that is good for them and bad for the rest of us.

OBAMA UTUBE 'BIRTH' VIDEO

I checked out the video where President Obama is supposed to confess to being born in Kenya. Honestly, YOU PEOPLE CAN NOT EVEN TELL A JOKE FROM THE TRUTH. The truth is that the video was originally a joke because most people thought that the idea that a person born in Hawaii was not a US citizen to be very funny.

Now someone has taken the joke video and posted it as the truth.

Added to this untrue video is the theory that even if President Obama was born in Hawaii, he was born in Hawaii before it became a state. Two minutes of research found that Hawaii became a state in 1959 and President Obama was born in 1961, which means that he was even conceived in a US state.

Are you so prejudiced against someone with a Kenyan father that you will believe anything?

Actually, all this started with a New York Times article pointing out that Senator McCain was born in Panama, and therefore may not be eligible to be President. Now that was actually an interesting legal argument.

There is are websites for urban rumors, just google urban rumors. There is also a political rumor website www.politifact.com.

JOKES ARE NOT THE TRUTH. Unfortunately, the truth seems to be that some people will believe anything other than the truth.