TEA PARTY STUPIDLY TRIES TO DAM THE MONEY RIVER

Republicans are THRILLED to be able to dry up monetary cash flow as if they were damming a river. Every time you see the word sequestration, substitute the deliberate drying up of the money necessary to run the economy, with a special emphasis on hurting justice, schools, hospitals, and disabled vets..

The last time money quickly dried up, frightened people actually voted for these selfish silverbacks. *

Silverbacks learn quickly. If they think the only way they will get votes is to trash the economy, they will gladly trash the economy. After all, someone needs to keep those upstart liberals in check. Can you imagine, those liberals think we should pay people enough so they can actually afford to rent an apartment. %<)

They now believe the only way they can stay in power is to keep people poor and frightened. So expect to have to vote them out of office.

* A silverback is a old male gorilla who pushes everybody around.

ONE PERSON - ONE VOTE - SOMETIMES

Democrats in the House of Representatives got ONE MILLION MORE VOTES than Republicans in the House, according to the Washington Post. This is gerrymandering* on a massive scale.

One of the best ways to stop gerrymandering is to file a lawsuit in federal court.

Right now the US Supreme Court is deliberating whether the anti-gerrymandering laws from the Civil Rights Era should still be enforced. Southern states are telling the Court that they would NEVER draw districts to stop minority votes from affecting the outcome of an election. If you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I can sell you.**

The Democratic Party needs money in order to fight gerrymandering at every level. They need to educate people, elect people, and hire lawyers for lawsuits. Otherwise, we might be stuck with an unfairly elected House of Representatives. If you can afford to give them money, you should.

California finally got redistricting right. I recommend other states look at what California has done.

* Gerrymandering is the art of drawing up districts so that your party can win the district. Each Representative in the House represents a different district. Usually, these districts at least have the same number of voters. I guess Republicans are getting desperate as they rapidly lose market share.

** This is a polite way to say that someone is telling a lie in an attempt to con you into believing something. (I guess people actually did con people into thinking they could buy shares in the Brooklyn Bridge, which is owned by the government.)

LOVE AND CONTROL

Loving and being loved does not give you the right to control another adult. Love should help the other person be the best person possible. It should not make decisions for the loved one, or expect obedience from the loved one.

Too many men think that women are their possessions.

For instance, this idea that you can not date a woman who once dated your friend without that friend's permission is DUMB. THE ONLY person you need permission from is the woman you want to date.

Of course, you should also NOT flirt with another person who is ALREADY in a relationship. But once the relationship ends, each person should be free to have a relationship with ANY other person. Dating someone does not give you endless control over the person you are dating.

It is not romantic to chase after a person who keeps saying, "No". It is stalking.

The culture of "stay away from MY woman" seems romantic. Actually, it is a statement meaning, "I get to control access to an adult person because I am unable to trust the adult person."

Men of my generation were sometimes confused when their women left them. I always understood why the women left. They left because poverty is better than enslavement.

I enjoyed my marriages. I try not to focus on the end of the relationship, but on the good times. Loving and being loved is a wonderful experience. Keep loving fresh by giving rather than taking.

Happy Valentine's Day!

BEN FRANKLIN'S BEST IDEA - POSTAL SERVICE

We need to save the US Postal Service. Too many of the email documents we send are forgeries. We need an inexpensive way to send original documents.

Ben was right. The Postal Service is one of the ways we bind the citizens of our country together. The Postal Service is especially important in small communities.

Postal Service is part of our justice system.The US courts use the Postal Service to reliably send originals and copies of court documents.

Email is a great new method of communication. But it contributed to the real estate fraud that we are all still paying for. It became so easy to email documents that companies forgot about the possibility of forgery. Real estate agents had no trouble falsifying documents because they could use Photo Shop to change documents.

I am seeing increasing numbers of documents that are possible forgeries, but there is no way to tell because we no longer think that seeing the original is important.

I recommend that all originals be signed in blue ink. For some reason, blue ink does not copy well, so that it is easy to spot a copy of a blue signature.

IT IS STUPID TO TREAT THE POSTAL SERVICE AS IF IT WERE A PROFITABLE BUSINESS. Ben was right, the Postal Service is something that the government provides to its citizens.

GAY MARRIAGE CASE IS EVEN WORSE THAN I THOUGHT

The First District has held that a contract of marriage does not modify a pre registration agreement. This could mean that NO contract can modify either a pre registration agreement or a prenuptial agreement, even if it meets the criteria set out in the prenuptial agreement.

It now becomes perfectly logical to argue that NO contract can change a prenuptial contract because a contract of marriage does not modify a pre registration agreement; and, because California law is supposed to be the same for pre registration agreements and prenuptial agreements.

Of course, the decision by the appellate court is based on what I consider to be prejudice against gays. My opinion of the appellate decision will not stop the decision from possibly affecting everything from wills to the purchase of property with a deed stating "community property". All of what we believed was true about prenuptial agreements may now be completely changed. At the very least, family and probate attorneys will become richer as all this is litigated.

It is possible, but not probable, that the California Supreme Court will grant review of the decision by the First District. You can keep posted by the appellate case number A133952, which you can use to follow the Supreme Court review process.