TEACHING GOD TO SING

Pete will be up in heaven, teaching the angels to sing, "Where Have All The Flowers Gone."

Most of his song, "Turn, Turn, Turn" came directly from the Bible.

All of the songs that he wrote and sang, taught us something important. The songs were easy to sing and remember.

All lawyers should read the transcript of his brilliant testimony in front of the House Un American Activities Committee. He defied Congress so well that his 10 contempt of Congress convictions were overturned on appeal. He had the courage to show us all how easily fear can cause a lack of civil rights.

Let's honor Pete and drop all charges against Snowden. He did us all a real favor. And we need to know how and what he has done. So drop the charges if he agrees to 40 hours of questioning, with his attorney present. After what was done to Manning, Snowden has a right to be paranoid.

Pete will be missed by the entire world.

Please join me in the chorus to 'WE SHALL OVERCOME SOMEDAY.".

GARBAGE WARS

My new OCD roommate has decided that the kitchen garbage should be stored outside the kitchen door. She has ignored my warnings of attracting rats, raccoons, skunks, etc. At every opportunity, she leaves the kitchen door open, just because I warned her to keep it closed because of the critters.

Now she has yelled at me, standing six inches in front of my face, holding a wooden garden tool in the 'my sword is drawn and ready, but I am not yet in full attack' position. She also told me that I was NOT disabled. I probably should not have replied, "Thank you for telling me, Doctor." Sarcasm is wasted on bullies.

Now, the only person living in the house that I trust is being evicted, because she reported all of the times that she was harassed by the people living in my house.

IMHO, these people are not Americans. IMHO, they may be foreign spies. Bush's "brilliant" idea of contracting out security clearances has resulting in the INCORRECT GRANTING OF OVER 600,000 SECURITY CLEARANCES.

BRAVE OLYMPIANS

People who jump off snowy mountains do not scare easily. But I am wondering if Russia is not trying to psych out the friends and relatives of the athletes.

Terror is with us always. IF WE STAY HOME IN FEAR, THEN THE TERRORISTS WIN BY DEFAULT.

Two years ago, I watched as the news raised fears over the Olympics in Britain. The stories sound the same as the stories about safety in Russia. The Boston Marathon taught the US that all sports events can be dangerous. But as my Mother says, "You can be killed crossing the street."

If you are frightened you should stay home. Paranoid people can really spoil a good party.

CHANEL'S GIFT TO WOMEN

CHANEL HAS GIVEN ALL WOMEN THE GIFT OF FREEDOM FROM HIGH HEELS! Every single model in Chanel's Paris fashion show was wearing Chanel designed sneakers. Even the ball gowns had silver and beaded sneakers.

This means that, from now on, every woman can wear sneakers and be in current fashion. Chanel is noted for its timeless fashions. A Chanel suit is ALWAYS IN FASHION, whether it was made in 1960 or in 2014.

Therefore, SNEAKERS ARE NOW IN FASHION. And like Chanel suits, Chanel sneakers, or copies thereof, will always be in fashion to be worn with ANY outfit.

I have spent my life figuring out how to wear comfortable clothes to work and to court. Once something like designer blue jeans are fashionable for wearing for business, they are also acceptable in court. (At least no judge ever challenged ME for wearing designer jeans to court.)

YOU NEED TO PRINT OUT PHOTOS OF THE CHANEL FASHION SHOW. It is important to have the photos to show HR and the iconoclasts who insist that a woman can not be dressed up unless she is wearing high heels.

TO KEEP UP WITH MEN, YOU HAVE TO BE ABLE TO WALK AS FAR AS THEY CAN WALK. Thanks to Chanel, many women will be able to OUTRUN men. :)

LEGAL GRASS AND THE SUPER BOWL

It is statistically improbable that both teams going to the Super Bowl are from the only two states to legalize marijuana. Perhaps it is the relaxed and happy home town crowds cheering on the Seahawks and Broncos.

I remember how I felt when California made possession of small amounts of marijuana a misdemeanor rather than a felony. I was not the only person who felt released from a bubble of fear.

If you are one of the few that still believe the lies told about marijuana, it is time for you to realize that you were manipulated by the media into believing a lie. There is research that shows most people believe a lie if you repeat the lie often enough.

I track which of the old lies are currently in favor. The current favorite lie about marijuana is that "it is a gateway drug." Actually, beer is statistically more likely to be the first substance tried by a teenager, making beer "a gateway drug." Although, in my experience, people who sell black market marijuana, often sell other substances.

Now we have to get serious about the effects of marijuana on driving. Current drug tests for marijuana almost always use the metabolite test, which shows if someone has used marijuana during the last month. It is akin to using a liver function test to see if you are currently drunk.

A test for whether someone is currently "high" on marijuana is to test for THC in the blood.

Making the test actually reveal if someone is currently "high", would allow people to use marijuana for health purposes, and still allow the employer to require that the person come to work sober.

But look what joy and relief about NOT getting arrested can do the the SPIRIT of a community.

RAINLESS CALIFORNIA

Too many Californians wish for sunny weather for their special planned event. What if the fantasy books are right, and we get what we wish for? Some more of us need to start wishing for rain.

We are into our second year of drought. I know most of you do not care about farmers, BUT WE ALL CARE ABOUT SALMON. Large numbers of us have worked for YEARS to get wild salmon back into our streams and rivers. If the streams dry out, we could lose all that we have accomplished in reintroducing salmon.

PLEASE BE CAREFUL. I think it is OK for most of us to just wish for rain. But the books I read indicate that weather magic is very tricky and can be overdone. Doing a spell to get rain, could perhaps cause flooding. So if you are into Wicca or its relatives, you need to be careful about thinking about bringing rain.

Seriously, thinking of salmon reminds me of the movie, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. I guess I know too many engineers. When I saw that movie I wondered why the Yemen was such a desert on either side of such a huge river.

But speaking of rain, it is actually fun to go places in the rain if you can manage to stay dry. My best memories of Disneyland are in the rain. The crowds thin and the lights are reflected in the rain and puddles. I enjoy this so much, I am not even going to share how I keep dry.

DEFENDING OUR DATA

We need a PUBLIC DEFENDERS office to PROTECT OUR DATA. A court does not work well unless there is experienced, vigorous, well researched argument for both sides. We already have a special court where the government subpoenas information. We just need to make that court work.

Even expert corporate attorneys can be outmatched by government attorneys. Corporate attorneys do not have the necessary background in criminal law and privacy law. If EVERY CASE was assigned a PUBLIC DATA DEFENDER, then even the small companies would have protection from government pressure.

Then we will need to set up an INTERNAL AFFAIRS office inside the NSA. Police officers are FIRED for accessing the police data base without proper investigative cause. NSA employees who casually give protected data to DEA agents, should also be fired. It may be necessary to protect the phone number data by putting it in a separate branch where data goes in, but data does NOT come out without the special court's order.

Emotions are running high over these issues. You should be aware that the NSA must go to a LOT of effort to listen to cell phone conversations. Mostly, the NSA just stores phone metadata. Metadata does NOT include the actual conversation. It is access to this metadata which should be defended by the PUBLIC DATA DEFENDER.

In order to reassure people, the first PUBLIC DATA DEFENDER should be a well respected civil rights attorney.

POWER AND/OR RESPECT

Bullies gain power by being bullies. Students gain power by learning. Mechanics gain power by fixing things. But bullies can only gain power by being bullies, because they DO NOT LISTEN.

In order to become competent and respected in ANY profession, it is necessary to LISTEN AND LEARN. There is a REASON that I spend most of my time talking to people who question whether I am correct. NONE of us can be perfect all of the time. A LIFETIME OF LEARNING is the way that good people gain power and respect.

But bullies seem to be taking over parts of the world, even in the US, where they prefer to manipulate future shocked voters who are appalled that equal rights means exactly that. If all people are treated with respect, then who is left for the bullies to bully?

I define a bully as anyone who wants to force me to do or not do something that I want to do, when the something that I want to do does not cause damage to another human. Examples are people who want to force me to stop smoking my 3 to 5 cigarettes a day, people who want to stop women's access to birth control, people who want to force gays to pretend to be not gay or face being imprisoned and/or beat up.

The way to stop bullies is to refuse to help the bullies, If you are forced to help the bullies, then do your best to undermine the bully's plan.

But, in the vain hope that bullies can learn, I ALWAYS explain to the bully exactly WHY what s/he is doing is wrong. This does two things, the bully gets a chance to learn and it gets the bully out of my life as bullies tend to punish people by "shunning" them.

BTW, for some reason all of my taped tv shows are now deleted and someone dumped some stinky perfume in my room. This is doubly mysterious as it happened when I had locked my room while taking a bath. I also have the master tv control box in my room. Any written conclusion could be slander. Or is it libel? Dyslexia is such a %*&#@.

I AM ALLERGIC TO PERFUME

Every time I smell strong perfume I know the perfumed person is so arrogant and self centered that s/he does NOT care if s/he sickens other people.

Perfume allergy is fairly common. But whenever I tell this to the highly perfumed, they react as if I have unforgivingly insulted them. They NEVER recognize that they are harming me. This is because they have been told over and over not to do this, and they truly do not care if they harm others.

The perfume addicts have a new method. They buy heavily perfumed bath products so they can still stink up the place for everyone else.

By now, all intelligent people KNOW that perfumes in any form can harm people with asthma. Maybe the FDA should start forbidding perfume in detergent, deodorant and bath products.

BTW, perfumers can give you lessons on how perfume should be subtle and only smelled by a lover.

Trust me, your perfume stink is NOT subtle.

CONTROLLING THE NSA

We, the US people, have at least SOME control over the NSA. We, the US people, have ALMOST NO control over a third party entity, such as an international phone company.

Giving phone data to a third party would be like the police hiring private detectives, because the private dicks could search without a warrant. YOU HAVE SOME CONTROL OVER THE US GOVERNMENT. YOU HAVE ALMOST NO CONTROL OVER AN INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION.

We should not be surprised at the suggestion that the phone data be stored by a third party. We contract out spy work that the CIA is not allowed to do. We contract out checking security clearances, as the stupidest cost saving move ever.

IMHO, contracting out spy work means that we are never, ever, certain that the intel we get has any relationship to reality.

IMHO, contracting out security clearances is the best way to ensure that we have LOTS OF unfriendly SPIES in our most sensitive positions.

IMHO, giving out phone data to a third party means that we have NO CONTROL over how our data is used. After all, have you EVER felt that you had ANY control over your cell phone company.

Sent from my ipad at Starbucks as both my Internet connections are mysteriously (?) down.