HAPPY 2016

May the new year bring peace and prosperity to us ALL!

If you have not yet seen Star Wars, you should go see it.

If you need a good book, try One Good Dragon Deserves Another and/or Dectective Strongoaks and the Case of the Dead Elf.

2016 should be the year that charity and inclusiveness wins out over selfishness and exclusiveness.

We all need to stop concentrating on our differences and start working together to make our Earth the model planet for the universe.

THE SOLSTICE BIRTH

Last night, as Druids celebrated at Stonehenge, a mother looked for a safe place to have her baby.

She left the cold ocean and went to the place that cares for her kind. In a sheltered spot, she gave birth in safety.

We all got to watch, as the baby otter was licked into fuzzyness by her mom. All the tourists took photos of Monterrey Bay Aquarium's tidal pool and the new not so endangered baby otter.

Mankind almost killed off all of the otters. Not for their fur, but because the otters eat the same seafood we do. Have you noticed that humans do not share very well?

But the sea otters are back. China is saving the panda. Africa is trying to save the elephants, the rhinos and the lions.

This year. as you are contemplating your charitable giving, please consider giving to people that BUY THE LAND/WATER for the endangered species to live on. We can not save wild creatures unless they have a place to live.

Oceans are shared spaces. Do not be so greedy that you allow the ocean to be over fished or polluted.

The planet you save is the only planet we have.

INDUCED FEAR & CAREFUL LIES

Your drug czars NEED to keep their jobs. Therefore, they NEED to have you frightened about at least one drug. Currently, you are supposed to fear heroin. Once you learn the lies regarding heroin, they will have lies prepared about another drug.

These selfish drug regulators would rather your children DIE from heroin overdose than to give your children drug treatment.

(Actually, they may be more interested in the $4 billion in confiscated homes and cars that they use to pay for their guns, masks, and overtime.)

These guys really think in advance. In order to have a heroin problem, they needed to have everyone who has chronic pain so desperate for relief that they would buy heroin. They did this last year by making effective pain medication almost impossible to prescribe and purchase.

If you had my pain level on a regular basis, you too would be crying for some relief. Instead of a prescription, I get a lecture on addiction. It is a kind of torture. "Yes, you are in constant pain," they say. "But we don't want to become addicted, do we?"

Now 'opiate deaths' have increased. Some of these deaths are due to the acetaminophen that comes in the only pain med that doctors can easily prescribe. The liver deaths from acetaminophen are carefully thrown into the heroin deaths in order make the deaths look more statistically important.

NONE of the current EVIL drugs are worse for a person and/or for society than ALCOHOL.

Unless it is scientifically provable that it is worse than alcohol, then it should be legal.

PLEASE ALLOW DOCTORS TO PRESCRIBE PAIN MEDICATIONS FOR PEOPLE IN CHRONIC PAIN.

THE GOBLIN MARKET

Many fantasy science fiction books have a goblin market, a dangerous place where you can buy dangerous things.

Most of these books warn that children are not safe in the goblin market.

For me, the Goblin Market is a metaphor for going to a place where all cultures interact while buying and selling the goods only they make.

I am lucky in the SF Bay Area. The used goods places sell the folk art that come from the most remote areas of the world. Modern cities are full of plastic and rayon. If you want dolls made in the old ways, you need to go to the places where the old ways are still remembered. It is nice that modern society does not value folk art. That way I can afford to collect it.

I also like the goblin market as a lesson in being polite to EVERYONE. You never know who is a Yoda and who is a thief. Some sellers tell the truth in a way designed to obfuscate. Some people always lie. Insulting someone in a coffee shop can get you killed.

Parts of the internet have turned into a goblin market. The internet was deliberately designed to be impossible to control. Because the decision was made that allowing people to read the truth about science research was more important than anything else.

Now we all have to learn to tell the truth from a plausible lie. Or tell the truth from a partially true statement.

For instance, last night Trump said he was a Republican and would stay a Republican through the nominating process. He failed to state that he would support the Republican candidate, no matter who that candidate turned out to be.

THE DEATH OF THE HUMAN RACE

IMHO, the human race is WAY more likely to die from a global pandemic, than from climate change. Humans are dumping raw sewage into every waterway on earth. The resulting mess will kill our rivers, our lakes, our oceans, and us.

Humans have been dealing with climate change since humans first walked out of Africa.

But the increasing amounts of festering sewage can be a huge test tube making nasty germs. Plus, I kind of like eating fish. Some fish die in the equivalent of raw sewage.

In order to have running water and flush toilets, you have to have RELIABLE POWER. Right now, the only way to get reliable power is from fossil fuels and nuclear power. (I am constantly angry at the wind power fanatics who do not care how many birds they kill.)

You all seem to think that electricity is magic, and that poor people exist for you to experiment with alternatives forms of energy.

Keeping our poor living in and on garbage, makes friends of the poor very angry. Generally, the poor are too downtrodden to protest their appalling living conditions.

But people who CARE, who should have been social workers or lawyers, get angry about how their country is making no progress towards getting clean drinking water and flush toilets. Sometimes this anger comes out in the form of killing the nearest soft target.

Each situation is different. Sometimes it is better to burn coal (which burns dirty) than to burn dung (which makes WAY more nasty smoke than coal). Sometimes nuclear power is the answer as long as you are not so stupid as to store the used fuel ON SITE.

Look at the US power grid. Look at the European power grid. Figure out what fuel is best for the environment under the ACTUAL CIRCUMSTANCES. Then design and build the POWER GRID.

THE LIVES YOU SAVE COULD BE YOUR GRANDCHILDREN!

TRUMP AND THE CLINTONS

My currently favorite election conspiracy theory is that Donald Trump is secretly working to get Hilary Clinton elected.

IMHO, it works like this:

     By playing on the Republican "blame the innocent" voters, Trump controls the vote for about 30% of the Republican Party base.

     It is unlikely that Trump can increase this percentage, because even Republicans are deeply troubled by the fantasy tax proposals and the racist seeming blame placed on Mexicans and Muslims. (We could call them the M&Ms, or the new Irish, or our latest whipping boys.)

     When you vote in a primary, you vote for a delegate to the political party's convention, where the candidate is formally nominated for President of the USA, and the nominee chooses a vice president, who is then also formally nominated for Vice President of the USA.

     Your delegate has only promised to vote for your candidate ON THE FIRST BALLOT. If NO ONE gets enough votes in the primaries to win on the first ballot at the convention, then ANYONE can be nominated for president if they just get enough votes on the convention floor.

     It looks unlikely that the billionaires paying the way for the various Republican candidates will agree on a person. So the convention may fail to nominate a person on the first ballot. They can then nominate the "safe" candidate, like another stupid Bush brother.

    I think it is extremely unlikely that Trump will be the Republican nominee for President. This leaves him free to run as a third party candidate. I know he signed a pledge not to run as a third party person, but we all know that he does not honor his contracts if he can find a legal way out.

     Trump has insulted women, Browns, Blacks, Muslims, Mexicans. All of these people will go out of their way to vote against Trump. But Trump will take votes from the Republican candidate, making the election easier for Hilary Clinton.

     According to the conspiracy theory, Clinton and Trump came up with this strategy and are implementing it together. I think this is bunk, but such FUN bunk.

BTW, the Republicans are on track to bring us another "shut the government down" Christmas. Without a long term highway bill, our roads and bridges will continue to fall down. Without a long term funding bill, the VA can not plan and build new hospitals.

Meanwhile the Republican candidates cry crocodile tears over the broken bridges and the broken veterans. Unfortunately tears do not build bridges and hospitals.

USING YOUR FEAR

Terrorists win when any of us react in fear. You are WAY more likely to get killed crossing the street than killed by a terrorist.

When you react in fear, you are giving the terrorist exactly what they wanted.

When you react in anger, then you are easily led into stupidity.

It is HARD to formulate a rational response to such acts of insane barbarity.

Perhaps it is sanity that is the key. Sane people are aware that each of us are different and are valuable in our own way.

Insane people sometimes believe that they can be valuable only when they bring death to themselves and others.

It is no more fair to blame Islam for the insanity of its members than it is to blame Christians for the insanity of shooting up Planned Parenthood.

By blaming the innocent, we keep people isolated. Keeping people isolated leads to quiet desperation that may lead to insanity.

SMILE AT YOUR NEIGHBOR TODAY!

CAUSING CHAOS

For many years now, I have thought that Putin has an unstated policy of causing chaos in countries with oil. In this way, he tries to keep the price of oil high.

With today's price of oil, Putin is really desperate.* So he needs the Middle East to explode into chaos.

IMHO, Putin ordered that a western airline be blown up, so that the West would overreact, under the principle that violence begets violence.

Putin does not trust ISIS. So Putin relied on his old KGB buddies, who should have been able to easily blow up a plane.

Unfortunately for this plan, Egypt had good security in its airports. Worse, the British airlines had even better security on access to their planes.

My guess is that Putin said, "I do not want to hear excuses, I want a plane flying out of Egypt TO BLOW UP!"

Unfortunately, the only plane where there was access, was a Russian charter plane. This was because the charter company may have covered part of its costs by smuggling drugs.

It should be noted that Daesh** could not have blown up that plane. The explosion took place in the luggage area and produced shrapnel, which that bomb in the Daesh photo could not have done.

Now Putin is bombing areas of Syria, which are NOT controlled by Isis. Putin cries crocadile tears for his "friend" Assad. IMHO, Putin does not care if Assad is beheaded in a public square, as long as the price of oil goes back up.

* I think it is possible that Russia's monetary reserve does not actually exist. Putin keeps in power by allowing his cohorts to steal billions from his government. If oil does not cover this expense, where else does Putin get money?

** It is a BAD IDEA to invoke the name of ISIS while on Egyptian soil. %<)

WELCOMING REFUGES

America has been welcoming refugees since there was a land bridge from Asia.

Tomorrow, even our decadent cats celebrate by eating turkey.

We celebrate with our family and friends, forgiving them of the sins of the past in favor of harmony and fabulous food.

I wish the entire world could be tolerant of differences.

Perhaps one country could set us a good example. For instance, Ukraine could restore electricity to Crimea. Civilized people do not freeze babies and the sick just because they were overwhelmed by an aggressor.

I have planned a Thanksgiving full of souvlaki, sushi, shrimp, and Star Wars.

Enjoy the joy of giving thanks!

WHY THEY HATE US!

They are angry that their women refuse to marry them unless they use force.

Deeply religious young men hate us because they have been raised to be domestic tyrants.

Many of these men will not even LISTEN while women talk. It is really amazing to give out expensive legal advice to a man who can not put aside his prejudice against women to even LISTEN to the advice.

Men who are raised to expect obedience from women are discovering that women will NOT marry them. A heterosexual man who discovers that he will never have a wife and family can become depressed and/or extremely violent.

This is not just a problem for the fundamentalist Muslims. It is a problem for American young men who have shot up campuses and theaters.

I think that Paris was the target because we all love Paris. I think that Assad WANTS us to stop accepting refuges, because many of the refuges were going to be FORCED to fight for Assad.

The only way to stop these self destructive young men is to STOP TEACHING THEM THAT WOMEN ARE INFERIOR TO MEN!

NO ONE IS INFERIOR TO ANYBODY ELSE! That is what equality really means. If we are serious about fighting terror, we have to TREAT EVERYONE WITH RESPECT and give HELP where help is needed.

UPSET CON ARTISTS

The fraudulent and predictor loan industry is UPSET over the CFPB*, because the federal government will not allow them to CON POOR PEOPLE OUT OF THEIR MONEY.

One of the hidden secrets of the Bush financial crises is that all the people who lost homes, also lost the down payments on their homes. These down payments were often 20% of the inflated prices of these homes.

People who want to buy food or shoes for their children, often get payroll loans by writing post dated checks. Then, if the loan is not repaid, they are put in jail for writing a fraudulent check.

Fraudsters can ruin A+ credit by stealing your card information from companies too greedy to pay for proper internet security.

The CFPB is trying to stop these lucrative practices. The semi-legal thieves are UPSET and making ads which imply that no one will ever get a loan ever again.

I know that many of us are unable to control our spending impulses. Now that I can use my bank account as a credit card, I no longer have a credit card. It is my way of protecting myself from myself. (I also keep very little money in my separate debit bank account, as it is stupid to risk the money that you need to pay your rent.)

After watching the Bush financial crises, I believe strongly that the predator loan companies need federal oversight. Those of us who get our credit information stolen are even happier to have federal help to catch the bad guys.

* Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

FOOTBALL POWER

No one cared when a graduate student in the Midwest went on a hunger strike against a college president tolerant of racism.

But when the FOOTBALL team said it was NOT GOING TO PLAY unless the college president RESIGNED, the college president resigned.

Yes, there are some social things that you can do without bothering to vote. But, in the end, the politicians are interested in keeping their jobs. And the only way we can all FIRE them, is to VOTE*.

You all have a year to think about this. Are you pleased that your nephew has gotten health insurance? Did the extension of unemployment benefits help you out when your back was to the wall? Are you enjoying your first taste of marijuana edibles?

All this, and more, will go away if you all do not bother to vote.

As an example, the Republicans are crying crocodile tears over the lack of medical care for our veterans. The reasons the vets do not have proper care is that the REPUBLICANS REFUSED to fund the VA. Then they blamed Obama for the resulting mess.

* Voting also helps with the negotiations that are the lifeblood of politics. If you know that people care enough about an issue to VOTE OUT the person who stands against you, then you have a much stronger negotiating position.

US VOTING TOMORROW

VOTE! Off year elections is when the conservatives try to pass their draconian laws, because only they vote in non-presidential years.*

It is especially important to vote in San Francisco. Using the power of the internet to turn homes into hotels adversely impacts residents of popular tourist cities. As demonstrated by the former Castro Halloween street party, too many people can destroy the fun.

As we found during the mortgage crises, the internet can quickly turn a small social problem into a HUGE PROBLEM.

NOTHING YOU DO FOR YOUR CITY AND COUNTRY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN VOTING!

I actually have a friend running for office later this month. Antipas J. Konou is running for Council from the Jeirok area of the Majuro Electoral District of the Marshall Islands. I wish him luck!

* In California, you can check with your county registrar to see if there is an election in your area. The League of Women Voters also keeps track of elections. I believe that all citizens have a duty to vote. No candidate is going to personally please everyone. I vote for the least bad. Otherwise, the truly bad can end up telling me what to do.

BET YOUR HOUSE

In California, scientists predict that the rains will start in January 2016, and that there may be a LOT of RAIN, causing flooding and mud slides. It is recommended that you get FLOOD INSURANCE NOW.

The Mercury News said flood insurance for your home will cost between $140 and $1000, depending on your location. There is a 30 day waiting period before the flood insurance goes into effect.

Flood insurance also covers mud slides and sewage backup due to floods. (Check the policy though.)

I think that California is going to have a tough time getting flood help from the federal government.

If, come the flood, the private flood insurance does NOT pay for your damages, we can use the anger to teach manners to insurance companies.

The Republican "business knows best" propaganda got California to pass a proposition that insurance companies did NOT have to negotiate "in good faith*".

We need to pass a new proposition that insurance companies MUST NEGOTIATE IN GOOD FAITH.

* "Good faith" means that an insurance company must take into consideration your valid claim instead of their businesses need to not pay you.

MY 69th BIRTHDAY

My request for my 69th birthday is that every building inspector in the US get trained in the building code as it relates to disabled people.

To get you started let me tell you that:

Speed bumps need to have a space where wheelchairs can go through without having to go over the bump. The bumps can NOT be so high that they cause my wheelchair to bounce on its lift when I drive over them.

At least in California, a wheelchair is supposed to be able to travel anywhere people walk. So parking lots need accessible exits that are NOT the in/out ticket booth.

If you have a hidden ramp, you need to have a sign telling people where the ramp is located.

You can only use a single wheelchair ramp (rather than two ramps going each direction) at an intersection if the intersection is NOT busy. An intersection near Disneyland is a BUSY intersection.

You can not throw a party in a public place and put up barriers that stop wheelchair access to major routes. If you block a route, you MUST put up a sign explaining where wheelchair are now supposed to go.

ANYTIME you do a major upgrade ($150,000+), you MUST make everything totally UP TO CODE for the DISABLED.

It is worrisome that our city and county governments are sometimes the worst offenders when it comes to wheelchair access. It is sad that building inspectors are allowing the grossest violations of the building code as regards wheelchairs.

BREAKING THE CODE

People say that Obama is not a Christian, because they do NOT want to AGREE with Obama on ANYTHING.

When people say that Obama is not born in the US, what they actually mean is that they are unable to see a legal truth if it comes up to them wrapped in the robes of Moses.*

When people say let's build a wall, what they actually mean is that they did not see the Berlin Wall and that they are too uneducated to estimate the enormous costs of building and maintaining the ineffective edifice.

When people say that life begins at conception, what they actually mean is that men have a right to control women's bodies.

When people say that Hillary Clinton lies, what they actually mean is that, "Bush lied, therefore Hillary lies."

Now we are going to have a national drama over those heavily edited Planned Parenthood videos. From its beginnings, Planned Parenthood has done nothing but provide safe, necessary health care to females.

Now honestly, did you think Congress was going to do what we all need which is TO PASS A LONG TERM TRANSPORTATION BILL? No, that would be work. No one gets on TV for actually doing their job.

* It is possible that this statement is also a recognition code for white and male supremacists.

DOUBLE TROUBLE

A kid in Texas gets arrested for bringing a home made digital clock to school. I knew a teenager who built a working computer in a cardboard box. He called it "The Homeless Computer" and carried it in his backpack.

It never occurred to me to advise him that he could be arrested for carrying his cardboard computer to school. Of course, he was blond, so I was less worried about him being arrested.

Like all prejudicial actors, the school and the local cops are saying, "He did not cooperate, all he would tell us was that it was a CLOCK." (Of course, it WAS a clock.) It is surprisingly easy to justify your prejudices by finding some law or rule that the victim violated.

People are correct when they say that prejudice is disappearing in the US. If you have only ONE reason that people can be prejudiced, then things are pretty OK.

But if you are Brown, a nerd and a Muslim, then you can be totally misjudged.

If you are disabled and fat, then people feel free to ignore or harass you.

If you are Brown, a married gay, and a deported felon, the appellate court will twist the law to rule against you.

The Texas kid will be OK. He will get to go to Google, Facebook and the White House. A NASA tour is in his future.

But all those kids with double and triple trouble, those we have to help.

A good start is to laugh at our silly fear of circuit boards and APOLOGIZE to the person who was misjudged due to prejudice.

RANCHING RULES

If you open it, SHUT IT and make sure it is shut.

If you turn it on, TURN IT OFF.

If you use a tool, CLEAN IT AND PUT IT BACK where you got it from.

Do NOT leave ANYTHING where it can injure a human or an animal.

If you have an animal, you have to feed, water and clean up after it.

Keep your voice down, I am not in the barn.

It is amazing how useful these rules are.

MAXIMIZING PROFITS CAN BE DANGEROUS

Sometimes maximizing current profits causes your company to have no future.

An easy example of this is making shoddy products. You make a neato* thingie** that looks like it works well, but does not actually work at all. Initially, you sell LOTS of neato thingies. But no one ever buys a second thingie. Eventually, you go out of business.

Another example is when a company does not appear to care about its customers and/or suppliers. As soon as alternatives become available, customers and suppliers go somewhere else.

Sometimes, maximizing profits can put the entire world at risk. One person, in charge of the home mortgage security insurance division at AIG, put the entire world wide economy at risk, when he continued to OK insurance on mortgage loans securities WAY past what AIG could cover if lots of people decided to not pay their expensive mortgages. (Which predictably happened when house prices went down instead of up.)

Our current tax and accounting rules ENCOURAGE THIS KIND OF RISKY BEHAVIOR, as corporations are judged almost entirely on their quarterly earnings.

We can fix this by instituting a short term capitol gain tax of at least 40%. Then we could slowly lower this tax yearly until there is no capitol gains tax after 20 years. This would encourage long term thinking.

We could also modify the accounting rule that requires expensing stock options at the time the options are granted. We could allow a company to NOT expense stock options if:
     1. The option vests within one year.
     2. The options are evenly distributed within the company based on RANK rather than salary.

This will eliminate the bullying behavior that is meted out to young people in order that their manager can give himself all the stock options.

We should NOT allow upper management to get any more than 20% of the stock options granted. Stock options are a fabulous way to get the workers to work together to make the company the best that it can be. Then EVERYBODY makes more money.

Those companies who encourage people to work long hours in order to prove their "street cred"*** are destroying the lives of young people, who need to learn that work is only one aspect of life. Even work you LOVE, is not worth giving up time with family and hobbies.

WE CAN, AND SHOULD, FIX THIS NOW!

* Neato, is slang for something that appears to be something that you would want to own, because it is unusual.

** Thingie, is slang for an object that you do not want to bother to describe or name correctly.

*** Street cred is short for street credit. It usually means that you are respected as a member of your profession in that you can actually solve real problems or do respected art.

MAKE THE AUTHORS PAY!

Amazon has decided that it does not want to pay sales tax on books. They intend to take all taxes out of the amount that they pay AUTHORS.

All Amazon does in publishing my book* is to provide an ebook format and put the book on their website. They do NOT edit, market, or do anything that an old time publishing firm used to do. For that they already take way over 50% of my profits.

Now, they are refusing to add taxes to the price of my book. They suggest that I raise the price of my book, in order to cover a multitude of international taxes.

This is what happens when you force people to work long unpaid hours. All internal decisions get made with only one thing in mind. MAXIMIZE PROFITS. Because how else to you get people to volunteer to work late at Amazon rather than play with their kids? You hold out a carrot of "you could get seriously rich."

This is the model that old time American law firms use. They get 20 new lawyers to work 80 hour weeks with the promise that a one of them will become a rich partner of the firm. Then they make life MISERABLE for anyone with the temerity to have children or a hobby.

Those people who are harassed, quit, leaving the healthy and selfish to become partners. And we wonder how people like Trump have no problems hiring legal bullies to keep the peasants in line.

When this model is used in techie companies, the company becomes obsessed with profits, to the point that they try to fire people who use their health insurance.

I liked Amazon because they have large, white on black type for their ebooks. Now I worry that Amazon is willing to sacrifice the authors who made them into the company they are today.

* "Pawns of Power" by Pamela Smith.

WHEELCHAIR COSTUMING

When I go to the Renaissance Faire and CosPlay conventions, I try to decorate my wheelchair. As I age, it gets more important that my wheelchair goes through doorways than that I have a neato dragon on my wheelchair.

The easiest design for a wheelchair costume is a tube which serves as a flagpole. But finding the correct fabric for the flag is always a problem.

So I have "invested" in a Kickstarter campaign for a fabric company that allows artists to design fabrics. It is called Little Dipper.

One of the artist involved made me fabric signs for my office. She printed a dragon, my name, and Celtic patterns on fabric like paper. Then she sewed the paper so that a dowel could be run through the paper. This resulted in a miniature banner. Very cool. Too bad it is packed because even faded by the sun, they were the best signs that I ever had.

When I am feeling down, I always feel better if I complete a creative project. Right now I want to try to dye bone dragon buttons, which I put on my shirts. Bone is renewable, washable, dyeable, and easy to carve. It makes an excellent substitute for ivory.

HAVE A GIGGLE

Go on to youtube and listen to the song, "I DIDN'T COME FROM YOUR RIB, YOU CAME FROM MY VAGINA."

Perhaps if we LAUGH at Republicans candidates, they will finally learn.

Trump is being very helpful in showing how outrageous Republican policy has become.

THE POT OF GOLD ON ALUM ROCK ROAD

BART will eventually make Alum Rock Road into a lucrative transportation corridor. This will help out the Mexican Cultural Center.

Of course, this means that the small businesses on Alum Rock Rd will be able to sell their land for BIG BUCKS. Because these owners are Black & Brown, you can expect real estate agents to try to con them out of their land.

Not content with small scams, our local incompetent transportation agency may have devised a grand plan.

First the agency piously said that the area needed a new, modern bus system. Everyone enthusiastically agreed. Then the agency let the contract to a company that shockingly UNDERBID.

After there were torn up streets everywhere, the construction company found a unmapped gas pipeline. For safely sake, all work stopped and will probably not start until after rainy season is over.

I can probably even tell you where the evil planners want a shopping center. METRO magazine says there is a pocket of businesses that is surrounded by construction barriers.

There is no way to get the streets fixed before rainy season. It would be nice if emergency tarmac was put down. At least, signs should be provided by the city, advertising the small businesses and stating they are still open for business.

These kinds of scams are really difficult to prove. But if you have some proof in writing, consider being a whistle blower under the federal False Claim Act. You can get a percentage of the amount the government collects.

DO NOT become a whistle blower without an attorney's help. I would choose an attorney who is new in the area. I would NOT choose an attorney who attended a male supremacist high school. It seems to be easy to convince a male supremacist to become a racist.

If you are one of the small businesses being hurt, I would call my US Senator, my US representative and the California governor.

SOMEONE HAS TO STOP THIS SCAM!

VINDICTIVE INVESTIGATIONS

Republicans are TERRIBLY upset about Hillary's emails, which were NOT spread all over Wikileaks, like the emails held by the State Department.

The Inspector General of the security services is UPSET over people sending satellite images (always classified) to Hillary without marking them as secret.

However, the Inspector General of the security services was so STUPID that he allowed spys' personal information to be held by the Office of Personnel Management.

Now the Office of Personnel Management has been hacked, by a fairly simple method of stealing a badge belonging to an employee. We still do not know who did the hacking and where the data on every governmental employee went.

Now SOMEONE has the information on friends of our spies, the better to blackmail them with.

Now SOMEONE has the fingerprints of our spies, the better to positively identify them.

SECURITY COSTS MONEY! Someone has to make the data secure, and then train the employees to keep the data secure. There has to be enough extra money spent so that employees can spend time on thinking about security, rather than just desperately trying to keep the spies paid.

Are we spending lots of money trying to fix the problems with the Office of Personnel Management?

No, but we are spending LOTS of money trying to find ANYTHING that will embarrass the Clintons.

The Republicans seem to be much more interested in holding on to power than keeping their country safe.

CHINA CURRENCY WINS

By devaluing its currency, China makes its exports less expensive.

By devaluing its currency, China triggers Republican fears about currency manipulation. This impacts the possible Asian free trade agreement. China does not want the US to have a free trade agreement that includes the rest of Asia, but not China.

By devaluing its currency, China brings its currency closer to its actual value. China would like to have its currency be respected and used like other countries use the dollar. NO ONE will use China's currency instead of the dollar unless China's currency is stable and is freely traded on the currency market.

China sets the value of its currency by edict, which means no wise investor can trust that the Chinese government will not unilaterally change the value of its currency to benefit China.

So China takes a risk devaluing its currency. But clearly the benefits outweigh the risk, especially if China's devaluation can derail the Asian free trade agreement.

During the Greek crises, pundits discussed how Greece might have been better off with its own currency. This is because the market would have devalued Greece's currency, making Greek exports cheaper in the global market.

Eventually, China will have to allow its currency to be traded like other currencies. Until that day comes, it is unwise to rely on Chinese currency in the same way people rely on the dollar.

AIR CONDITIONING MATH*

Women are cold in summer offices because women wear summer clothes in the summer. MEN are REQUIRED to wear a suit, tie, and heavy shoes. Since men do not want people to see them sweat, the office air conditioning is turned up to the comfort of men.

Women actually need to reflect on whether wearing summer clothes detracts from their ability to project power.

A really good way to help slow the warming up of the globe is to have offices be less cool. (In order to get an office cool, the air conditioner puts out hot air onto the street.)

But socially, if the only way men can get respect is to dress in a suit and tie, then they will dress in a suit and tie.

We need to rethink how we treat men who wear comfortable clothing. We should respect the men who dress correctly for the weather.

THE FATE OF THE WORLD MAY REST ON MEN GIVING UP THE SUIT AND TIE.

*Several news agencies have stated that the math regarding air conditioning is set to a man's standard and that it why women are cold in summer offices.

RADIATION AND WATER

Both water and radiation are everywhere on Earth. Water and radiation are both lethal in large quantities.

Death by radiation is a relatively new phenomena. Death by water is older than the story of Noah.

Just because we have a new fear does not mean that we have to overreact to radiation. It is actually easier to measure radiation in the air, than it is to measure water vapor in the air.

Radiation leaves a long term trail. When a man in London was murdered by radiation, it was easy to confirm the hotel room used by the murderer.

The biggest fear everyone had regarding Iran, was that they would make, buy or somehow acquire a thermonuclear device (atom bomb).

In the new treaty, Iran has agreed to NEVER make, buy or somehow acquire an atom bomb. They have agreed to permanent inspections so we can all be reassured. They have done this because their religion says that atom bombs are immoral.

Our news should be saying, "Wow! I think atom bombs are immoral also. Good show, guys!" Instead our news is SAYING NOTHING. Most of you do not even know that Iran has agreed to NOT HAVE AN ATOM BOMB.

I was frightened over the possibility of Iran having an atom bomb.

I am even more frightened about the possibility that OUR PRESS IS NO LONGER FREE!

IT WILL NEVER BE SAFE

It will never be safe for a woman to go into a hotel room with a strange man.* It is even more unsafe to take a drink or a pill from a stranger. Just because you know a person's TV character, does not mean you know the actor.

If Bill Cosby had been a rock star, we would all be yawning over the stories of drugs and hotel rooms. For me Bill will always be a cool spy, as I do not watch sitcoms.

If you are so stupid as to go into a stranger's hotel room and take a strange drug, then you need to report the result RIGHT AWAY. Modern drugs leave the system really quickly.

I understand how upset people get when their heroes are not perfect. My hero is Thomas Jefferson, who wrote those famous words about all men being created equal. Did you know that he had an affair with a female slave? The affair started when the slave was 16, and continued though 6 kids. For me, the worst of it was that he did not even free his children when he died.

What kind of man believes in freedom, but allows his own children to live in slavery?

Jefferson is still my hero, because of the words that he wrote. But I never forget that, for Jefferson, the words that he wrote did not include me.

I do NOT like trial by internet. It is clear that Bill Cosby, along with thousands of other actors, athletes and rock stars, took advantage of his popularity to have sex with young women. I find that reprehensible.

Too many men think that women are put on this earth to provide pleasure and babies to men. But the subtext of all of the complaining about Bill Cosby is that women should be safe when they go into hotel rooms with strange men.

The law has a rule of implied consent. If a woman goes into a man's hotel room, she should still be able to say NO to sex. But the law may be unable to punish the man unless there is clear evidence of lack of consent.

LISTEN TO COSBY'S WOMEN. The momentary pleasure of intimacy with a famous person may not last when you discover that the famous person does not see YOU as a person.

* Hotel employees must also be careful. They should let people know when they intend to go to a room with a person inside the room.

RUINING A LEGACY

One of the most important things that President Eisenhower did was our wonderful interstate highway system. Tea Party Republicans have been allowing this legacy to slowly deteriorate.

No long term planing can be done, because the funding is only for six months at a time.

Now the idiots are planning on funding the highway system for the next three years, BY SELLING OUR OIL RESERVE. They could not have chosen a worse time to sell oil.

In any event, three years is not really enough lead time to make major highway improvements.

One of the first highways to be built, Interstate Highway 10, has a bridge out, causing day long delays, which will get better but will last for months. About 40% of all shipping from Asia goes down this highway.

Quick movement of goods is one of the ways that the US is different from Africa. It allows us all to enjoy the world wide bounty of food, electronics, shoes, clothes, at the lowest possible prices.

As the country grows, so the highway and railroad systems have to grow. This has ALWAYS been one of the responsibilities of the federal government.

Worse, these selfish, short sighted Simpletons are allowing the railroad and highways to fall apart. We have had train derailments blamed on anyone but the true fact that the railroads have NOT been brought up to 21st century standards.

Roads wash out because no one has the money to pay for a soil engineer. Bridges fall down, and everyone just shrugs.

THIS IS OUR COUNTRY. It deserves the best transportation systems that money can buy.

BECOMING RICH

A white man, with blond hair and a charming smile, can usually be successful. Add in a rich father and a private school education, and Trump was well on his way to wealth.

Trump has found a totally legal way to promise the moon and then have a federal judge rewrite most of his contracts.

Trump businesses have declared bankruptcy FOUR times. They were Chapter 11 bankruptcies, where an overextended business can eliminate many of the expensive things that the business had agreed to do.

The federal judge can rewrite leases, agree to not pay pensions, cancel entertainment contracts, pay suppliers much less than they are owed, and totally not pay lawsuit judgments.

Many people seem to find Trump's frat boy humor to be amusing. I guess he is useful in saying, in public, the jokes that old frat boys tell in the NY old frat boy clubs.

Senator McCain needs no defending. Knowing his story, most of us could not imagine having the courage to do what McCain did when he flew into enemy gunfire, and then withstood five years of hellish captivity.

In my fevered imagination, I think Trump, et al, are going after Mexicans, because they want to keep marijuana illegal, so they can continue to have tax free profits. Associating marijuana with Mexico has always worked in the past.

Some people are having real difficulty because the past is gone, and the future belongs to everyone.

POOR NONPLANET PLUTO

Clear photos of Pluto are starting to come into NASA. I am enjoying NASA explaining that "ice" only means "lots of frozen stuff". To a scientist, ice is not limited to water.

My physics teacher was very exited about Pluto. He went on and on about how the math of orbits proved the existence of Pluto before Pluto was found in 1930.

And, of course, Pluto is the name of Mickey's dog.

So Pluto was always my favorite planet.

Until it was demoted to an asteroid or something horrible like that. How DARE those scientists take away MY FAVORITE PLANET?

I must not have been the only person upset about the demotion of Pluto. Because now Pluto has been promoted to being a "dwarf planet".

Best of all, the exploring camera that is photographing Pluto, may have 20 more years of life.

We are a very lonely planet, floating in the vast universe.

When we finally leave the solar systems, we will salute Pluto as we go by.

PROPAGANDA AND POLITICS

It is propaganda that forgiving the Greek debt will hurt European banks. It is propaganda that the Greek crisis is the fault of the Greeks.

The European banks have already forgiven the Greek debt. That is what banks mean when they "write off" a debt.

Forbes says that the Greek crises started because Greece grew faster than Germany; and, that the Euro treaty inadvertently punishes those who buy goods from the more developed countries.

So why all this anti-Greek propaganda?

I have a horrible conspiracy theory that German - Russian criminals wanted to cause a market crisis so that they could "steal" money from the middle class. Causing a market panic always makes the rich richer and the middle class poorer.

It was easy to manipulate Merkel into agreeing to PUNISH Greece. Under stress, we all tend to return to the values of our childhoods. Merkel grew up in East Germany, one of the most repressive dictatorships in history.

Political lies meant to manipulate are called PROPAGANDA. The East Germans were masters of propaganda.

The biggest lie of all was the concept of GREXIT. The Germans are TOTALLY IGNORING the fact that they CAN NOT FORCE Greece to leave the EURO.

If the EU forgave 50% of the Greek debt, then ALL of Europe would benefit.

Right now, Europe is in a holding pattern, waiting to see what happens to Greece. If you completely solve the Greek crisis by forgiving debt, then ALL OF EUROPE can start making decisions for a BRIGHT NEW FUTURE.

GREEK CRISES WARNING!

Small investors MUST NOT buy or sell stocks or bonds until everyone agrees the Greek crises is over. I define small as anyone with less than one million dollars US invested in the stock or bond market.

When powerful politicians are deliberately stupid, they could be planning on stealing from the middle class AGAIN.

So let the idiots lose their own money for a change.

EUROPE NEEDS TO FIX GREECE

The Euro is humanity's future. Rather than criticize the imperfect Euro, it would be really helpful if Alan Greenspan would get off his butt and help readjust the Euro.

I believe that Greece has a systemic problem with unreliable governmental information. Telling people to fix such a complex problem is useless. Providing mentors to show people how to fix such a problem is effective.

So you need a EURO CARE CORP. Send in teams of two Europeans, one retired expert and one young graduate. Pay them poorly, and require that they live among the Greek people. (Sort of like how the US legal aid worked, back when it was funded.) Get a NATO general with field experience to set up the logistics.

Then form a GREEK DATA CORP. Hire the unemployed Greek young people at minimum wage to do the necessary scanning and data entry.

Start with the tax offices, the courts, and the property records. I would consider putting guards on the financial data that needs to be entered. Messy records allows fudging the data. Good records will discover these financial shenanigans.

Europe must also grant Greece what the allies granted Germany after World War II. Forgive 50% of the Greek debt.

This should fix both the short term and long term problems in Greece.

BTW, the Greeks should REFUSE to resign from the EURO. If there is going to be a Europe it needs to be a Europe which believes, "All for one, and one for all."

China needs to realize that if they continue to listen to Russian propaganda and sell stocks, they can wipe out all they have gained, and they will have done it to themselves.

GREECE AND THE EU

It is important to remember that the European Union is by TREATY. Said treaty does not allow for a member to be thrown out without that member's agreement.

Greece needs a Marshall Plan. After WWII, we did not punish Germany, but instead the Marshall Plan helped Germany recover from the devastating war. We decided that BLAME was not the issue, the issue was to prevent another war.

Germany rode high on the economic boom brought by the European Union. I do not know why Germany has decided that they can only have the upside of the EU. The downside of the EU is that sometimes a member country may be in trouble.

Instead of offering Greece effective help, Germany offered Greece BLAME. Be more German, was their advice.

AUSTERITY DOES NOT WORK. AUSTERITY MAKES AN ECONOMY CONTRACT, thereby making certain that the contracting economy can not pay back any loans.

Germany led the EU in insisting upon a policy which was doomed to failure from the start. Now Germany has a chance to lead the EU into a compassionate policy which will help Greece to fix itself.

Germans are not stupid people. I believe that Germany can lead the new Marshall Plan to help out the poorer countries.

The results will be a stronger, richer European Union.

GREECE -- VOTE NO

I have already explained why.

(It is against my religion to work on a holiday!)

This year liberty tastes extra sweet!

HELP WITH YOUR PAIN

The FDA will not allow doctors to prescribe effective pain medication. So I am going to give you my recipe for poppy seed tea. I have found it to help with pain.

     Put enough bulk poppy seeds into a coffee grinder to cover the blades of the grinder.

     Grind the seeds. It helps to tilt the grinder. Put the ground up seeds (some will still look whole) into the toe of a clean nylon stocking. Get all the air out, but leave room for expansion. Tie a knot in the stocking. (Cheap knee high nylons work well for this. You are NOT going to want to reuse the stocking.)

     Put the ground seed filled stocking into a two quart pan, which is half full of water. Boil gently for one hour.

     You can drink it as is or filter it. The scum is also very effective, and can be dried, and then does not need refrigeration.

     The tea MUST be refrigerated.

     BE CAREFUL. You can always drink more, but you can never drink less.

The federal government has found that there is no opium in poppy seeds. But any effective pain medication can depress the breathing, which is NOT good for your health.

As Dr. House says, oxygen is important to continued life.

Those prosecutors, who have either drunk the prohibition cool-aid or are taking bribes, may try to prosecute you for this tea. Anything to keep the illegal, tax free profits flowing.

Please go to the website for LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition). They can explain why drug prohibition has to end, because it is spreading corruption into law enforcement, banks, judges. Just like alcohol prohibition did.

If you can NOT prove that it is worse than alcohol, then it should BE LEGAL.

BLAME THE VICTIM

The NEWs (Northern European wealthy) spent a LOT of money playing in the sun during the boom times. The resulting increase in Greek property values led the Greeks into believing that they had the income to pay back loans they needed to fix problems like sewage in their ancient cities.

Then the NEWs totally stopped spending money in Greece when the recession hit.

It is totally unfair to blame the Greeks for these actions by the NEWs. In fact, I bet Greece was ADVISED by the NEWs to borrow the money.

I also worry about the unconscious racism in that slap to the face of the new Greek Prime Minister. I know of no culture on Earth where that kind of friendly slap to the face is an act of friendship. Such slaps are usually delivered by a powerful man to a teenager who shows promise. It is akin to patting me on the head while I am in my wheelchair.

No one talks about how the NEWs deliberately sneer at the Mediterraneans due to their skin tone.

I worry that thin, beautiful women in power have not yet learned how NOT to defer to men. Beautiful people get used to the power of beauty, which prevents them from learning independence.

Austerity does NOT work. Let me explain with a very simplistic example.

In your household, when you spend a Euro, that Euro is gone. In your village, if Gerta get a one Euro pension, she spends it to buy a loaf of bread from Hans. Hans spends the dollar to buy a bottle of wine from Pierre. Pierre spends the dollar to buy a book from Hassan. Hassan spends the Euro to pay his rent to Elizabeth.

Economists estimate that each dollar spent in your village increases to five dollars as it goes through the economy.

But if Gerta does not get her one Euro pension, Hans, Pierre, Hassan, and Elizabeth all have one Euro less to spend.

The only economists who think austerity works have been proven to have made methodological mistakes in both data and formula. One could almost say that they deliberately LIED.

Europe should help Greece.

WORLD WIDE RACISM

It did not take the shooting of nine Black Christians to teach me about world wide racism.

The way I judge world wide racism is by the number of people who carefully do NOT get tanned, because they know that the darker their skin, the worse they are treated.*

Personally, I think the problem is that racists are wanna be control freaks. They want to control every aspect of the lives of women, of minorities, of people who believe other than they do. If you are not one of THEM, then you are supposed to be subservient to THEM.

I spend a lot of time dreaming that someone else will fill out the nasty legal forms, which ignores the fact that trained legal secretaries make more money than disabled attorneys. Sigh.

As the truly nasty have an increasingly hard time finding people willing to work for them, they look for ways to FORCE people to HAVE to work for them.

People from Africa were made into slaves using reprehensibly cruel methods. I LOVED the book GONE WITH THE WIND, but I always knew that it was a totally romantic view of that world.

I honestly do not understand why people would want to have skin that gets burned by the sun after 10 minutes on a beach.

I honestly do not understand why anyone thinks that the surface of a person is a good way to judge valor, intelligence, loyalty, or any of the other things that make a valued friend.

*This is a health risk. If you are using sun screen to stay "white", then you need to take vitamin D.

BEING RUDE

I am not certain who was more rude. Was it the woman standing in the doorway blocking a wheelchair from leaving or the disabled woman who said "Move" in a loud voice?

Was it rude for a Greenpeace beggar to stand in front of handicap parking even after being asked to move? Or was it rude for the handicapped person to get angry when the beggar did not move?

Was it rude for the waitress to disobey her boss by turning up the sound of the TV? Or was it rude for the disabled person to yell rather than walk over to the waitress who was ignoring her?

When every step is painful, it is often impossible to control irritation at what is a small problem for the able bodied and a LARGE problem for the disabled.

For the disabled, there is also the difficulty of controlling the anger portion of the grieving for the loss of mobility. I used to have difficulty controlling my tears when I saw an older man and woman holding hands while walking down the street. Such a simple act of love which was no longer possible for me.

I prefer to concentrate on what I CAN DO, not on what I CAN NOT DO. But I am not a perfect person. Sometimes even I have a bad day.

I actually have more problems in the week that I am going to court. Attorneys get used to being treated with respect. Attorneys are expected to be effective advocates in a court room. But the normal attorney attitude just upsets people who expect the disabled person to be grateful that society allows them to live.

I have the humble person bit down pat. If you are a humble disabled person, people are GLAD to help.

But if you are a powerful advocate in a wheelchair, everyone thinks you are rude.

LIFE IS SO NOT FAIR!

ADVERBIAL SEXISM

Until we have irascible old women, and spunky old men, we will never have equality between the sexes. When we have pretty men and handsome women, and it just means they are attractive, then we know we are equal.

When heterosexual men are plucky and petulant, then we may have equality.

As per usual, the Magna Carta, in its original reiterations, was only intended to apply to rich, white, aristocrats. (Barons were the equivalent of today's Dukes.) The main issue was that Robin Hood's Prince John became Bad King John. Bad King John started declaring Barons to be outlaws, and stealing* their land, because they were outlaws.

The original Magna Carta was denied, re-signed by John's son, and rewritten over the years. But it was the first time in recorded history that a document said that even the king needed to obey the law.

However, there is NOTHING in the US Constitution which declares that women are equal to men. That is why we wanted the Equal Rights Amendment. We were told that it was unnecessary, as the current law would protect us.

As we watch our equal right to control our own bodies be eroded again and again, we know that, once again, the Republicans LIED TO ALL OF US.

HAPPY 800 YEAR BIRTHDAY TO THE MAGNA CARTA!

* Bad King John called it "seizing" land. Now it is called "asset forfeiture".

THE US REVOLUTION

Sam Adams started the US revolution when he was not granted the rights of a free Englishman. Since the thirteenth century, the Magna Carta prevented the king from seizing property without due process of law.

The English stole Sam's beer, and drank it. No judge, no hearing on "it is the product of a crime." Sam was joined by the wealthy when the English governor started moving his people into already built mansions. The people already living in these mansions resented losing their homes.

SUPER IDIOT, Bush, decided to go back to the old ways. I was SHOCKED when the US Supreme Court found that it was OK to seize property without even a probable cause hearing. Of course, very few rich people lost their property. But what fun it became to steal from the poor.

The theft defined as property seizure is the entire source of funds for some police officers. DA offices are using it as an excuse to get around the rule against using public funds to run political campaigns. For all I know, the idiot, vindictive US Attorney for San Francisco is using this tainted money to keep harassing Oakland medical marijuana clinics.

The solution is simple. The reasons that the constitution is fairly silent about the powers of the President, is because EVERYONE knew about the powers of a king. (A mistake, as the Constitution needed to be amended with the Bill of Rights.)

Our President can issue kingly decrees called executive orders. They must be obeyed unless changed by Congress or found to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

But with our incredibly stupid war on drugs, attorneys have been quietly working for over thirty years to tie all defined drug crimes into the federal drug schedules. The US Attorney General has the legal, Congress approved, right to move ANY DRUG from ANY SCHEDULE.

The US Attorney General is the servant of the President. That is what the words, "I serve at the pleasure of the President" means. If a servant can do something, then the master can also do that something. (You are welcome to read these British or old US common law rulings.)

So President Obama can just say, "If it can be scientifically proven by peer reviewed science, that the substance is worse than alcohol, for the drug user, then it will be put back on the federal schedules. Otherwise everything is off the schedules until it can be proven that it is worse that alcohol."

WE WILL ALL BE VERY GRATEFUL. It would be our emancipation proclamation, freeing the disabled into BEING ABLE TO DO ALL THAT WE CAN DO.

HARMING THE DISABLED

The most devastating way of harming the disabled is to suddenly remove help upon which the disabled person has come to depend.

The FDA did this by promulgating new rules which effectively prevent doctors from being able to prescribe the most effective pain medications. I wonder if they were bribed by Tylenol, which is the biggest cause of liver damage in the US.

San Jose did this by allowing friendly neighborhood medical marijuana clinics, then sending notices to close within 30 days. Chuck Reed seems willing to damage both the disabled and government workers in order to pretend to be a powerful politician. It is probably unfair to call Liccardo his errand boy.

By underfunding the handicap taxi services, governments make disabled people wait in vain for an on time ride to the doctors.

All of this is in the name of "those people are just complainers and addicts, they are not really ill."

Yes, it is true that some people enjoy the fantasy of being ill. But for the truly disabled, even getting out of bed can be a monumental task.

CALIFORNIA WATER WARS

I blame Downton Abbey. Pretending to be an estate in England takes A LOT OF WATER.

The rest of us are conserving the best we can. But the large estates, and the large estate wannabes*, are crazily committed to preserving their water sucking ways.

Honestly, we live in California, which is semi-arid. To pretend to live in rainy England is a waste of water.

However, if you have large trees and hedges, those are worth saving. You are rich, so you can always buy sod grass. Usually, everyone over-waters. They sell devices which tell you how much water is in the soil. For trees and hedges, you need DEEP WATER. By watering every day, you damage the trees and hedges by leaching minerals from the soil and encouraging the roots to be shallow.

I personally find a meadow of native plants to be WAY MORE COOL than boring green grass.

* Slang for "want to be", meaning those who pretend to be rich.

FREEDOM OF RELIGION

Freedom of religion also means freedom FROM religion. The US constitution forbids allowing governments to do or not do something because a religion demands it.

This means that, we as a people, believe that each citizen is responsible for his/her own moral choices. My religion told me to do it, is not an excuse acceptable in US courts.

This is so ingrained in our laws and philosophy that we forget much of the world still allows religion to make ALL moral choices.

Historically, all this started when Martin Luther nailed a statement, that the church had become immoral, on to the door of a church in Germany. This morphed into many Protestant religions who believed that THEY could read the word of God for themselves.

When these many churches came to North America, they each set up little towns who punished non-believers who were just traveling through. These punishments were so irritating, that just about everyone was in agreement that the other person's religion should not become the law of the land.

Of course in the beginning, this freedom of and from religion was only granted to white, rich Christians.

But the US is the first country founded on the principle that what is illegal is not governed by religion. Each citizen is free to believe what they wish. All of us vote to make the laws that we must obey. And the court system hopefully prevents the majority from taking unfair advantage of the minorities.

(This also means that all of you who spin fantasies of the US adopting Sharia law do not have the remotest idea about the true value of the US Constitution.)

THE THIN BLUE LINE

There is NO EXCUSE for killing a police office. There is NO EXCUSE for keeping marijuana illegal.

We have required our police officers to enforce a law that lawyers and presidents disobey with glee.

We are keeping the stupid drug laws KNOWING that marijuana almost certainly cures cancer and relieves epilepsy symptoms.

And of course, people take out their frustrations on the police officers tasked with enforcing this increasingly stupid law.

If you think a police office is unprofessional, then you COMPLAIN EVERY TIME. Eventually, the number of complaints causes the officer to be investigated. If you are unhappy with the investigation, then it is trivially easy to take over a local government. All you actually have to do is VOTE IN EVERY ELECTION. There are usually plenty of local activists who will run for office if they think they have a chance.

OUR DRUG LAWS ARE PUTTING OFFICERS AT RISK. We ask them to enforce a law that most of us will not obey. Officers are not stupid. They know that arresting lawyers and presidential candidates will just end in grief for everyone involved. So IF they HAVE to show a statistical pattern of arresting for drugs, they will arrest the people who quietly go to prison. Such people are usually brown or black.

Of course, if a bent officer wants to control a judge or politician, then the easiest way is to arrest a child or grandchild for possession of an illegal substance.

ANY DRUG THAT IS LESS HARMFUL THAN ALCOHOL SHOULD BE LEGAL.

Did you know that the FDA can order researchers and doctors to BE SILENT about the merits of marijuana?

GET TOUGH ON THE DISABLED

"Our rules are more important than your disability. We will teach you to obey by towing away your wheelchair van. You must be lying about the 350 pound wheelchair that could come tumbling out the back door on the freeway." -- Thoughts (?) of Landlord, security guard, and tow company.

I am so sorry that my request for a reasonable accommodation was denied in such a way as to endanger the driving public. But I do not understand people who would tow a wheelchair vehicle when the owner was 20 feet away. The vehicle was NOT blocking traffic or access. 

I tried to let everyone know that the heavy wheelchair was not properly tied down. Experience has taught me that it is much safer to use a flat bed truck when towing a wheelchair vehicle with rear access. But punishment would not wait for a safer towing vehicle.

Safety of the public, and common courtesy, are not present when men decide that this is their territory and they WILL be in control. This is much like the judge who told a defendant to crawl up the stairs to his courtroom. (There is a funny House episode with House abandoning a wheelchair during a parking place spat.)

This is exactly the kind of over enforcement that is caused by the broken window police policy. It starts out trying to keep driveways clear, then soon people are arrested for waiting in the driveway for a disabled friend.

For me, it is not so much that my van was towed. It is that I am now much less mobile. You have made my world smaller. Why?

I also feel really hurt and sad. What kind of people harass the disabled?

CRIMINAL ACTS

The Baltimore riots are CRIMINAL ACTS. I believed that the War on Some Drugs has BECOME A CRIMINAL ACT.

When we imprison young people for small amounts of drugs, we IMPRISON PARENTS OF SMALL CHILDREN.

Some strains of marijuana can stop epileptic seizures. Some strains of marijuana can SHRINK CANCER CELLS with NO damage to the surrounding tissue. Some strains of marijuana can help with post traumatic stress.

How can ANY ETHICAL PERSON keep marijuana on any federal schedule? The evidence that marijuana is AN AMAZING MEDICINE is acknowledged by every medical professional that has been involved in marijuana medical research.

PRESIDENT OBAMA CAN STOP THIS INSANITY TOMORROW. The DEA and the Attorney General can remove marijuana from the federal schedules. THIS MEANS THAT THE PRESIDENT HAS THE AUTHORITY TO TAKE MARIJUANA OFF THE FEDERAL SCHEDULES.

STOP RIOTING and start calling the White House, the DEA, the US Attorney General, and congresspersons. You young people have the ability to SHUT DOWN ALL GOVERNMENT PHONES UNTIL MARIJUANA IS OFF ALL THE FEDERAL SCHEDULES.

THEN DO NOT FORGET TO VOTE! Power to the people comes from the people VOTING in EVERY ELECTION.

DO NOT GO TO NEPAL

Nepal can not feed its own people, which means they can not feed you. If you are needed in Nepal, you have already been ASKED to go.

There was an Nepalese earthquake organizational meeting just a few weeks ago. Let the professional work their SLOW magic. When the country is ready for visitors, Nepal will let you know.

When you are giving money, please give to the organizations who already know Nepal, and are doing a good job in Nepal.

Nepal, IT IS REALLY IMPORTANT TO ANSWER WHEN YOU ARE ASKED WHAT YOU WANT. Most Western groups will ask the community what they want. If you do not participate in the process, you can end up with the most stupid help. Ask Haiti.

UNIONS AND FREE TRADE

I believe that unions are the only way to get the 1% to pay people a decent wage.

I believe that trade protections just allow industry to become more and more INEFFICIENT. Sometimes these inefficient industries disappear almost overnight, which is really HARD on the workers.

I also believe that US industry should find some method of getting their employees stock ownership. If an employee feels that her work will make the entire company, and herself, RICHER, then the employee will be much more mindful about her work.

Stock options will not work for lower level employees who can not afford to buy the stock. Gifts of stock may not work because a gift from an employer is taxable income.

SOMEONE OUT THERE HAS THE SOLUTION. We should all work towards encouraging companies to turn employees into stockholders.

President Obama's free trade agreements are going to be good for the world economy, and good for the US economy.

H-1B VISA vs WOMEN

If the tech industry is desperate for employees, they can hire US WOMEN. These male chauvinists prefer to hire foreign MEN, making the tech work places more and more hostile to women.

Worse, there is wide spread FRAUD in the H-1B visa program, with many of the "employers" requiring kick backs. Often the H-1B visa holders are little more than slaves to a "body shop".

Perhaps this program could be replaced with a paid internship program, run by major universities, so that foreign students could get ONE YEAR experiencing how US businesses work. Then they should go home and help fix their own country.

The US was founded upon the principle of, "Give me your tired and your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

Let the people who do NOT have a chance in their own country come here and have a chance at a better life.

We have plenty of highly educated young people living here who would be glad for a tech job.

DOCTORS WHO BULLY THE DISABLED

It is an animal instinct to treat the disabled as prey.  What is surprising is how many doctors and landlords can not control their animal instincts.

I have been parking next to my office at the edge of the wide driveway ever since I got my bunion.*

Two out of four chiropractors have complained that it is just too difficult for them to drive around my wheelchair van. (I am so thankful that I can walk small distances.) UPS trucks, fire trucks, and moving vans all have no difficulty driving past my van into the parking lot.

These healthy professionals must be constantly complaining to the landlord, whose security guard said, "You have to obey the law," meaning, "You have to obey the landlord."

Obviously, JUST REQUESTING SIMPLE KINDNESS IS HAVING NO EFFECT. I hate to have to threaten people with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the CA Unruh civil rights act. CA allows me to sue for $4000 every time I am even embarrassed by someone due to my disability.

These people believe that they are strong and I am weak, so they can bully me, because I am disabled.

I prefer a peaceful existence,** but I am beginning to think I could make a good living just filing suit against landlords.

I do not know what to do about the doctors who have fun bullying the disabled by making them live in pain. They say they want to protect me from addiction, when the truth is that they get their jollies by making the disabled beg and cry for even a little pain relief.***
________________

* A permanently dislocated big toe, which makes every step painful. I can not even wear shoes. Getting in and out of my wheelchair is also really painful.

** I generally save my aggression to help out people who are being bullied by other attorneys or by scam artists.

*** ObamaCare allows you to chose your own doctor. This means that, in theory, you can FIRE any doctor that has drunk the DEA coolaid regarding opiate addiction. The truth is that opiate addiction has remained at 1.5% of the population for over 100 years. It does not matter if the opiates are handed out like candy or if opiates are illegal, the addiction rates remain the same.

DEA's DIRTY TRICK

If the US Congress puts MARIJUANA on Schedule II, PATIENTS WILL HAVE TO GET A NEW PRESCRIPTION every MONTH.

Medical researchers have asked that marijuana be taken off of ALL four US drug schedules. This is because the DEA MAKES marijuana RESEARCH ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE. Plus the extremely promising marijuana CURES for CANCER and for epilepsy will require that the researcher work with the farmer to find the most effective marijuana medication.

The DEA has instituted NEW RULES for Schedule II drugs. Their excuse is the 18,000 opiate prescription drug deaths per year. Just about all opiate drugs are now on Schedule II. The only one left on Schedule III is codeine.

What they do not tell you is that most of the opiate deaths come from the ACETAMINOPHEN in CODEINE, which causes LIVER DAMAGE AND DEATH if a patient in great pain takes too many pills.

Drug companies have formulated new pain medication that cuts down on, or leaves out, the acetaminophen. These drugs are on Schedule II.

Since September 2014, patients with debilitating, progressive, intractable pain are required to see their doctors EVERY MONTH, to get a ONE MONTH SUPPLY of Schedule II drugs. They can not fax, email, or phone in the prescription.

I honestly believe that this is a planned attempt to keep people in abject pain, to destroy Obamacare by forcing the disabled and dying to see a doctor WAY MORE THAN MEDICALLY NECESSARY, and to STOP MEDICAL MARIJUANA.

IMHO, this is part of a concerted attempt to KEEP THE TAX FREE DRUG MONEY flowing.

THANKS TO ELLEN, ET AL*

She showed us that Silicon Valley is deliberately ignoring women's voices. Let me tell you some of the mistakes LARGE companies have made because they do NOT listen to women.

Adobe's professional printing program will not allow artistic fonts. This is because men usually do not deal with the printer. I had to print my cards on my office printer, because I do not like corporate fonts.

Windows will not allow you to globally turn off auto formatting. For me, presentation is an important part of my document. Good thing there is still WordPerfect, which has a better thesaurus anyway.

Microsoft dropped its best product, which was a dictionary that pronounced the words for you. It was an excellent learning tool.

My favorite websites do NOT require me to remember a password in order to buy things. Yet somehow they still are not hacked. Male techies seem to think that all security problems can be solved by a more complex password. This is not a good option for those of us who can not even remember a phone number for sixty seconds.

IT IS GOOD BUSINESS TO INCLUDE WOMEN IN THE DISCUSSION.

* Ellen Pao lost her case against her old venture capital firm. Her firm is one of the one most welcoming to women, but she showed us that the welcome mat did not go as far as to let her into the boy's club.

It should be noted that the teacher in the famous monkey trial got convicted of teaching evolution. Sometimes a lost trial can do more to change things than winning a trial.

POWER OF PROPAGANDA

Richard, III, of England, was buried today with honors. British textbooks still call Richard a murderer. All written historical records show that Richard was a good king, passing laws protecting civil rights.

To please a Tudor Queen Elizabeth, Shakespeare wrote an amazing play about an evil King Richard, III.  NONE of the play's accusations against Richard can be proven, and many have been shown to be total lies.

FOR OVER 500 YEARS, HISTORY HAS BEEN IGNORED, WHILE FICTION IS ACCEPTED AS TRUTH.

Now we are spending BILLIONS of dollars trying to eradicate an herb that has never been proven to kill a single person. To please the followers of Nancy Reagan, we are IGNORING AMAZING EVIDENCE OF MARIJUANA CURING CANCER. This is like saying, "LET THEM DIE!"

We need those billions of dollars to investigate the origins of the disturbing plane crashes. It looks like someone has been hypnotizing pilots. Or maybe it is electronic hacking, along with poisoned coffee.

Putin may have a policy of funding rebellion in oil rich countries in order to keep the price of oil high.

SO WHERE DO WE SPEND OUR MONEY?

ORIGIN OF THE GLASS SLIPPER

People talked about drinking champagne out of a glass slipper. (I know that all you wine aficionados are rolling on the floor with laughter.)*

It did not take long for the drunk and stupid to demand a shoe shaped drinking glass. No reputable hostess would accommodate this crass request.

So the "ladies of the evening"**, ordered shoe shaped nick nacks*** in order that the young, drunk and stupid could take a drink from a slipper shaped like a shoe.

AND A LEGEND WAS BORN!

* A glass slipper is pretty much what we all use to drink champagne. It is a type of glass with a wide bowl so you get full advantage of the bubbles.

** Prostitutes. The expensive kind with fancy clothes and fancy houses of ill repute.

*** The little decorations you put on shelves and tables.

A SPECIAL SPRING*

Today we have the first day of Spring, along with a total solar eclipse. Few people could see the Eclipse, so the Northern night skies have been covered in sheets of perfect colors in Firebird patterns.

All this beautiful phenomena adds to the human celebration of Spring.

We should all do some Spring cleaning, have some parties, and then try to agree on a mutually beneficial path into the future.

Now is the time to make compromises that lead to Peace and Prosperity.

* The Southern Hemisphere is starting Autumn. Good luck should spread with the winds. :)

APPALLING SILENCE FROM US NEWS

Sunday, the Chinese Premier stated that his government supported the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. There were NO headlines in the New York Times, nor in the Washington Post.

US news has largely IGNORED the increasing proof that marijuana may cure cancer. US news is willing to let people die in order to hide this amazing research.

WHY?

IMHO, the silence regarding China and Ukraine comes from the enormous power of the former Republican PR firms who are being paid by Putin. Shouldn't these guys have to register as lobbyists?

IMHO, the silence regarding the health benefits of marijuana comes from the enormous advertising power of the alcohol industry. As marijuana grows in popularity, the sales of alcohol are decreasing. (I will remind the liquor industry of what happened to the tobacco industry when they were caught manipulating news.)

Now Putin is so desperate that he keeps threatening thermonuclear war, forgetting that, in his greed, he did not fund his nuclear program well enough for it to be safe. It is SO EMBARRASSING if a nuclear device goes up in flames, rather than flies to a target.

Which reminds me. Why was it OK to rebuild Nagasaki and Hiroshima, but it is unsafe to move back to the area around that power plant?

BETRAYING YOUNG PRINCESSES

In the new Cinderella movie, a live girl is made to look like a cartoon girl.

The tiny waist is achieved by squishing a live girl until she can barely breathe. The six inch heels on the glass slippers are so dangerous with that dress, that I bet they hired a stunt woman to run down the stairs.

For a lifetime, many girls will want to look like Cinderella. The horrible shoes will ruin their feet, making them into crippled little old ladies.

The dieting to be thin will cause their teeth and hair to fall out.

The only way to stop this is to refuse to participate.

Stay home and watch Ever After, a Cinderella to be admired.

PROTECTING AMBASSADORS

Mankind could not have built cities if early man killed any stray male who wandered into the family cave.

In the beginning, travelers were protected under a "guest privilege". The visitor would be wined, dined, and gossip from far away lands would be the topic of all conversation, sometimes for years.

Eventually, these travelers became representatives of governments. Their embassies became places protected by both governments. A leader who killed ambassadors was treated as a totally uncivilized person who needed to be eradicated.

History has taught us that we all gain much more when we work together.

When people trash embassies and kill ambassadors, they are telling us all that they are too uncivilized to be part of the modern world.

Sometimes people are mislead into doing evil. They think their needs of the moment are more important than the ancient rules of civilization. When that has happened, they need to acknowledge their mistake. But there is ALWAYS a price to be paid for violating the ancient rules.

EVERYONE SHOULD ALWAYS BE GIVEN A SECOND CHANCE.

WHAT SPOCK TAUGHT ME

Spock taught me that when everyone was being emotional, logic could often solve the problem. A raised eyebrow and a blank look can convey the lack of logic in emotional reactions.

Currently, Russia is being emotional.

Cool logic tells us that a Putin opponent was shot in the back under the walls of the Kremlin, in the moonlit shadow of the domes of the cathedrals. It took security 11 minutes to show up. There is almost no video of the murder, which took place in one of the most secure places in Russia. Who has the power to make that happen?

Putin has betrayed Ukraine. Ukraine gave its nuclear weapons to Russia. Putin backed a total idiot to rule Ukraine, then backed and financed a fake revolution in an attempt to steal land from Ukraine.

Putin is betraying Russia. Putin can not admit that Ukraine will fight him to the last Ukrainian breath. Putin can not admit that he can not rule Ukraine without the agreement of the Ukrainians.

Now Putin is encouraging Russia to spend all of its savings on a doomed attempt to pretend that the totally valid Western sanctions are not going to harm Russia. It is easy to pretend you know how to run a country when oil is over $100 a barrel.

I did not enjoy the seven years of recession caused by the interruption in the flow of money in the Western world.

Russia is not going to enjoy the more than seven years of recession caused by the sanctions imposed by the West.

You can blame the West for the sanctions, just like Putin is blaming the opposition for killing their own leader. I guess Putin thinks that Russians are such idiots that they will believe anything.

HOMELAND SECURITY

Republicans and I agree on one thing. We both dislike Homeland Security.

So let's save money by dissolving Homeland Security. We go back to the old ways, where the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, and the Immigration and Naturalization Departments are separate agencies.

Federal agencies should have one main goal. It is difficult to be all things to all people.

If Congress wants to control immigration decisions, it is a lot easier to do with just one agency involved.

The Secret Service needs to concentrate on protecting our President, et al. If the Secret Service is a step child of Homeland Security, our President, et al, are less secure as evidenced by the recent news.

The Coast Guard needs to concentrate on protecting our coastlines, and keeping idiots from drowning. These tasks are difficult enough, without the Coast Guards' money being reallocated to the Secret Service and to ICE.

Sometimes ideas look good on the drawing board, but do not work in real life. Grownups admit their mistakes and try to fix the ensuing problems.

LET'S DISSOLVE HOMELAND SECURITY!

PEACE OFFERING

Let's make Ukraine neutral territory, with its neutrality guaranteed IN ADVANCE by the United Nations.

We need to protect ALL of Ukraine's sovereignty, because Ukraine gave up its atomic bombs in exchange for ALL of Ukraine's borders being acknowledged by Russia, et al. Therefore, Ukraine's borders INCLUDE CRIMEA.

The UN should supervise ALL of the Ukrainian elections, so that there is no possibility of other countries interfering with the internal politics of the Ukraine. Any federalization of Ukraine will be done using elections supervised by the United Nations.

All of the gas and oil pipelines and power lines running through the Ukraine will be considered to be neutral and available for use by any country with electricity, gas, or oil to sell to Europe.

Russia owes some reparations to Ukraine. It seems like building the mythical bridge to the Crimea is an excellent win-win reparation.

This way, the UN will be pre-authorized to protect the Ukraine, so the only way to stop the UN from immediately stopping any cross border raids is to ask the security council NOT to act as a result of a particular event.

Without a need for a military, Ukraine can use all of its resources to clean up the mess caused by the mythical Russians.

There is no reason that this solution can not also work for Syria. It that case, reparations will be in the form of a German engineered four lane Autobahn from Damascus to Baghdad, with rest stops for every historical site. Eventually, this road could go all the way to Persia.

A road would be good, as this might be the last time that anyone can tour the middle East while it still has bazaars in the grand old fashion.

PLEASE BUY MY BOOK

PAWNS OF POWER by Pamela Smith went on sale yesterday on Amazon. It is a young adult fantasy novel, with swords, of course. It is a fun read.

If you want literature, read Ashenden or To Kill A Mockinbird. %<)

A KOCHS* CONSPIRACY?

IMHO, the Kochs* have infiltrated the progressive movement. They give money to those who "drank the coolaid"** so that the progressives are undermined by taking indefensible positions. The plan is to make us all look crazy so we will be ignored.

My favorite insanity from the Kochs is that cow farts are causing global warning. I would be LOLing, but cow farts are smelly methane, which is one of the cleanest burning fuels we have. The Kochs are trying to convince people that methane is a bad thing. Maybe they own coal plants.

My least favorite insanity is that wind turbines will not kill our large endangered birds, like eagles, condors, albatross, and swans. You do not have to worry about that, say the Kochs, as we can always put up nets to protect the birds. THEN THEY BUILD THEM WITHOUT NETS TO PROTECT THE BIRDS.

The animal rights Kochs protect feral animals. Unfortunately, we have to kill feral animals or we will not have any wild animals left.

All of this global warning propaganda is an attempt to be in a position to say, "Oh, we cannot put health clinics in Africa, because the fuel we have to burn will add to global warming."

THIS STUFF IS REALLY COMPLICATED. Which is why being an environmentalist is a specialty.

* Kochs - A generic term for someone who spends boatloads of money in an attempt to return the world to the nineteenth century.

** This is a reference to a group that drank poison upon request of their leader.

INSTITUTIONAL EVIL

At the San Francisco airport, disabled people are told that a wheelchair will be brought to them. THEN THE WHEELCHAIR NEVER ARRIVES.

This insures that disabled people get to walk too far and maybe miss their plane.

Airlines tell passengers that there is a ramp into the airplane, deliberately failing to tell the passengers that the ramp is NOT FLAT but put there instead of stairs. This cuts the price airlines pay to the airport. THE STUNNING INDIFFERENCE to the needs of the disabled is compounded as they make the disabled walk to the back of the plane.

It is increasingly clear that bullies who learn that they can not discriminate against minorities, find that they have fun discriminating against the disabled.

LIKE POLICE BULLYING, THIS HAS TO BE STOPPED AT THE LOCAL LEVEL.

Uber can probably teach SF how to get wheelchairs to the disabled. (BTW, if Uber drivers think they are making $20 an hour, they need to realize that their car is wearing down, and Uber is not going to replace their car.)

PLEASE DO NOT ALLOW THE DISABLED TO BE BULLIED BY THE PEOPLE WHO ENJOY BULLYING.

We all have to protect people who can not protect themselves.

THE BULL* AND THE BEAR**

Supply and demand are at the heart of capitalism. When there is a small supply of coffee and a huge demand for coffee, then the price of coffee goes UP. It is called a bull market for coffee.

The huge price for coffee inspire LOTS of people to grow coffee. When the supply of coffee becomes huge, then the price of coffee goes down. In this way, capitalism insures that everyone who can pay for coffee, gets coffee.

Right now the price of oil has fallen. THIS IS GOOD NEWS FOR THE WORLD! A low price for oil is is the equivalent of giving extra money to the people who have to buy oil products. So if you drive a car, heat your home, or own a factory, YOU HAVE JUST BEEN GIVEN EXTRA MONEY.

All indications are that the price of oil is not going back to over $100 a barrel. Oil could stay between $45 and $50 a barrel for several years.

However, the price of oil COULD GO DOWN TO $20 A BARREL if countries like Venezuela panic and start undercutting prices in order to attempt to keep oil revenues stable.

THIS IS THE FUN PART OF CAPITALISM. All us poor people get extra spending money and the rich people moan about their investments in oil.

* A BULL MARKET is slang for a market that is going up.
** A BEAR MARKET is slang for a market that is going down. (It does look like the capitalism bear is beating up the Russian bear. Figuratively, of course.)

PREJUDICE V SCIENCE

Marijuana prejudice may kill a baby in Australia. The reaction of cancer doctors to the amazing research regarding marijuana and cancer shows two things:
   1. Propaganda is winning over science.
   2. EVEN CANCER DOCTORS ARE AFRAID OF THE NASTY GAMES PLAYED BY SELF RIGHTEOUS ANTI DRUG LORDLINGS.

It is beyond clear that MARIJUANA is an EXTREMELY EFFECTIVE MEDICINE.

How many more cancer patients have to die? How many more epileptics have to suffer?

When did admitting a mistake become politically impossible?

HOW MANY BABIES HAVE TO DIE?

If prejudice against an effective medicine is so strong that we will let a baby die, then how bad do you think it is for all of us people who face almost daily acts of prejudice?

I HATE MY TV

Ross* is no longer on TV, so I hate my TV and am not watching even my favorite programs.

Rationally, I know this is VERY silly. But I am a HUGE FAN of Ross. The only other person I felt this way about was Spock. I also know that there is NO WAY I could be affecting the increase in TV viewers.

I really like talking back to a live broadcast. It makes me feel like a participant, and releases my inner snotty girl.

But the whole TV and Ross thing is almost certainly displacement. I am upset about my bunion and the possibility that my already restricted movement will become even more restricted. So instead of dealing with my grief about the increase in my disability, I obsess about Ross not being on TV. And I blame the wrong people for Ross disappearing.

Unfortunately, none of this brilliant insight helps with the reality of my feelings.

At least I am taping my TV shows so that when I am done with my funk, I will have them available to watch.

I remember going to meet Spock in person when he was selling his ineffective, "I am not Spock," book. I took my young daughter along so that Spock would be certain to speak with me. I find that it is fun being a fan. I especially enjoyed being in the audience of Ross' show.

We all have trouble dealing with loss. But if you find that you are blaming the wrong people for your loss, you might want to get professional help.

Me? I am rereading JK.

*Ross Mathews

JE SUIS CHARLIE

HUG A MUSLIM TODAY! The crazy masked gunmen in Paris insulted Islam by believing that Islam was too weak to survive satire.

Even Iran condemned the shootings. This shooting is not the fault of Islam, just like the killers of abortion doctors was not the fault of Christianity.

I believe that Islam and the West are coming to an understanding. Unfortunately, when things start to calm down, the crazy people who actually LIKE killing people often try to keep the cultural war going.

It is important for us all to realize that EVERY religion has crazy violent people. If you know a crazy, violent person, please inform your local authorities.

If your country is so weak that it cannot survive constructive criticism, then you have a problem that is greater than insults from cartoonists. Almost always the problem is an inability to recognize reality and a refusal to compromise.

We are all passengers on the spinning, lonely, planet Earth. I strongly believe that the nonviolent will inherit the Earth.