7/27/2009:   So some buddies of mine and I tried to go to Lake Eleanor and to a little panning for gold. Since we knew we'd be in the wilderness, potentially with bears, mountain lions, and nutjobs, we decided to take firearms with us. (I'm for gun control, but not for eliminating guns entirely, and I don't buy the "slippery slope" argument.)

There were a few things wrong with our plan that we didn't realize. One was, there's no good way to get to the spot just above Lake Eleanor that we'd picked to pan. And I mean *no* good way up there. It's boulder hopping in one direction, and on the other side it's a steep climb to a trail that just ends in a sheer drop on the other side. No way at all.

Next, Lake Eleanor is in, as it turns out, Yosemited National Park. And for those of you that don't know -- and we didn't -- you can't legally take anything out of the park. Not fish, not a single leaf, and not gold. Nothing. And lastly, and here's the kicker, there are no firearms allowed in the park. None. Not for hunting, not for self-defense; none. Another thing we also didn't know and which would bite us in the butt.

The only people we ran into in the park were three adults with three very small children. They rowed to the same spot where we were at the bottom of the falls on the east side of the lake. I helped them drag their canoe up onto the rocks. And when it was clear they were trying to get a one-year old to nap in the canoe, I offered my inflatable raft to them so they could let the baby nap there instead. We were friendly enough, but apparently all they really noticed was my buddy's 22 rifle. My .38 was unloaded in my pack at the time, and my other buddy's handgun was in a fanny pack (he's a sheriff's deputy with a license to carry anywhere in the U.S., so having the gun in a fanny pack wasn't a violation of the law).

After a *very* long day filled with frustrations, long hikes, and mosquitos the size of humming birds, we were almost out of the park when confronted with park ranger behind a tree directly in front of us with his service revolver out and ready telling us to freeze. Two minutes later, we're sitting on the ground with our hands on our knees (when we weren't swatting mosquitos), our firearms now in Ranger Doug Stringfellow's possession, and having tickets written as it's explained to us that someone notified the rangers that there were men with guns in the park.

Anyway, we weren't there to hunt, and we aren't dangerous felons, and honestly we had no idea about the gun rule. But that doesn't matter. We'll each get a notice to appear at the Yosemite court, pay our $250 fine, and plead our case to the magistrate. I can only hope that our court dates don't occur during my wife's birthday cruise. When the ranger explained that signing my ticket wasn't an admission of guilt, I remarked that clearly I was guilty -- I did have a firearm in the park -- but I'm hoping that the magistrate will be lenient given my clean record and my admitted ignorance. One can hope, y'know?

(heavy sigh...)

I wonder if the people with the small children that I tried to help out believe in karma? Jerks... One last note about them: they left that baby alone and crying in the raft while they went boulder hopping, while us armed and dangerous men were roaming the inclines just opposite them. Too bad there isn't a "bad parent" rule in the park...

7/27/2009:   So I'm checking out the old movie, "Tron," because there's a sequel to it coming out in 2010 that looks like it's going to be *really* good, and I just happened across an easter egg in it. At 1:12:26, Tron, Flynn, and Uri are flying a solar sail simulation across a landscape. As the float past various features, they pass a huge Mickey Mouse logo. No lie. I think that's the first easter egg I've ever discovered on my own. I'm surprised I never saw it before. I'm not the first, of course. I did a quick search and found that it's a known easter egg. Oh well...

7/22/2009:   There are so many sour grape Republicans that are convinced that Obama is not a U.S. citizen that it's just ridiculous. Major TV outlets are beyond the point of discussion and are simply ridiculing them. I, on the other hand, see a huge benefit to this.

The people that believe the conspiracy theory on Obama's birthplace are the same people that buy "fight them over there so we don't have to fight them here", that Iraq was connected to 9/11, that Saddam hid his WMDs in Syria, that the economy is Clinton and Obama's fault but not Bush's, that are against women's rights, think the 2nd Amendment went beyond arming militias, that being gay is a choice and gay marriage destroys the institution of marriage for everyone.

In other words, the people that benefit from this idiocy is the GOP, and they are largely populated, as a result, with complete dolts. They have worked very hard to attract people that are easily glamoured, easily fired up with emotional if factual impoverished sound bites. They have earned the votes of the morons in this country and now they reap the benefits. This used to be a great strategy, but nowadays even morons have a public voice, and the GOP leadership, at least those with enough sense to hand sanitizer handy after shaking hands with their constituency in case stupidity is contagious find themselves trying to explain or diffuse the weird crap that flows from their lunatic fringe fans.

The result is a GOP constituency that looks like freaks every time they get carried on a public medium and a GOP leadership looking on in horror as their party gets colored as the party of morons.

7/21/2009:   If you own an LG DLP TV, 52" to 56", and the bulb burns out, do NOT buy replacement bulbs from Best Buy, LG, Philips, or anyone else. Go to eBay. Trust me on this one. I beat the best price I found by $40 per bulb. On Best Buy's website, the bulbs, model number TS-CL110UAA, are over $230 a piece as of this writing. On eBay, I got two of them for $99 a piece. I paid less total, and I figured if just one didn't work upon arrival, I'm still ahead. Well, they showed up today, I popped one in, and I was back to viewing crystal clear HD TV.

I win.

7/19/2009:   I think it's completely obvious that we need to extend the single payer healthcare programs we already have (military healthcare, Congressional healthcare, Medicare) to the rest of the population. Decent healthcare is not a privilege; it's a right. I don't support the concept of an "entitlement" program when that label is used correctly, but you have to ask your self when some far-right corporatist whackjob uses the term if it's just code for stuff they don't want the government to pay for.

But don't take my word for it. I paid a visit to a YouTube channel I hadn't been to in a while, "The Frank Factor", and discovered he'd hit on my favorite current topic, healthcare.

(Warning: Frank uses a profanity freely. He's got a dirty mouth, but he speaks the truth, and righteous indignation is rarely delivered in soft, sweet tones.)

You go, boy...

7/19/2009:   Credit agencies, from mortgage houses down to credit card companies, are freaking out.

President Obama is pushing the creation of a Consumer Financial Products Agency whose charter would be to set new rules to simplify contracts, eliminate fine print, and get rid of the tricks and traps that led so many people to unwittingly sign up for mortgages they couldn't afford. And the credit industry is fighting it like a sweaty, rabid, cornered mongoose on crack. They have admittedly made stopping the creation of this new agency their "number one priority."

The case they're making? That any changes in the industry would have devastating effects on the economy. You know, because letting the financial institutions run rampant and unregulated didn't completely DESTROY the economy in the last four years...

A lobbyist for the financial industry was quoted as saying that such an agency would be so powerful, it would freeze the credit market. Because, if the financial agencies can't continue to rape uninformed and untrained consumers, their profit margins will disappear and they'll have to actually stop extending credit to people that can't afford it.

No, really. I'm serious. Okay, I'm paraphrasing, but that's what it boils down to. Okay, look, here's the quote: The agency "basically has no restrictions on what they can do in the area of consumer protection... If credit goes up and costs more, some people that are eligible for credit today will not be eligible in the future." There. Was I lying?

This is huge. The financial industry, with billions in its war chest to fight this agency, has admitted outright that its business model relies on suckers. They wouldn't nearly as darn rich as they are if it weren't for their ability to take advantage of less finance-savvy consumers.

Imagine if drug dealers had a lobby? "This new Consumer Recreational Pharmaceutical Products Agency, in the process of simplifying disclosures and eliminating fine print on our product warnings, basically has no restrictions on what they can do in the area of consumer protection... If drugs cost more, some people who could buy crack today will not be eligible in the future." Would that float for even two seconds? No!

This industry must be slapped back. Regulation is the pruning that a healthy capitalistic economy must have in order to not choke itself. The financial industry enjoyed a good run, but they've choked out their consumers and devastated the economy while the GOP collected lobby money to stand back and do nothing.

Now is the time for change.

7/18/2009:   Moments ago, I made the terribly mistake of visiting a "conservative" website. It collects stories, no matter how factually bereft, ugly, and even outright racist they may be, from all over the web and putting them in one place. And so many of them contain the same lies repeated over and over and over.

GOP TOOLS, LISTEN UP. Let me help you with some of the lies you're being fed over and over.

Obama has a birth certificate, and he is in fact a legal U.S. citizen. So yeah, he is qualified to be President. Sorry. I know it irks you to no end to have a black man in the White House, but the majority actually voted him in, something that will always be in question with George W. Bush, and he was allowed to stay and screw this country straight into the ground.

George Bush jacked up the economy; not Clinton, not Obama. The Obama-haters scream incessantly about Obama saddling our descendants with huge amounts of debt. Where were those people when Bush needed funding for the war in Iraq? It's well known at this point that Bush and Cheney instructed the CIA to construct a case, however flimsy and made-up, for war against Iraq. We shouldn't have been there at all. Every penny that we've thrown away on that war was stolen on George Bush's behalf, and our descendants will be paying the debt for decades. If he hadn't done that, our economy would be in such sad shape. Bush ignored the disasters that occurred here, let the infrastructure crumble, allowed the economy to spiral out of control. Where were the cries of foul then? If Bush was still in power, they would be silent still, and the rest of us would still be screaming about the economy he's ruined. Before Obama was saddled with this burden, I wrote about Republican Rage, Bozo the President, McCain's inability to grasp economic and government fundamentals, Bush's sense of Financial Pain, about people being Bitter About The Economy, about Rock Dwellers With Internet Access being deluded about the economy, about how our Lame (Duck) President Bush didn't get it that trickle-down economics is not designed to, and is incapable of, creating sustained growth, etc., etc. This is not a new issue, but to hear these whack jobs tell it, Obama is to be blamed for the wrack and ruin we find ourselves in economically.

Single-payer healthcare works. The medical industry is in full propoganda mode at this point, spewing stories as fast as it can that propogate two fundamental lies; that America has the best healthcare system in the world; and that a single payer system results in a broken system.

America does not, in fact, have the best healthcare system in the world, unless you're referring to the healthcare the military and Congress enjoy, and those are both single payer systems. We have the best healthcare procedures and medicines available, but only for those that can afford it.

Single payer may mean that the illusion of competition is dispelled, but that's all it is anyway, an illusion. Insurance is not a payer system, it's a gambling system, and one in which you can get a 21 and the house can refuse to pay you for it. You don't shop your biggest bills, the emergencies, before picking a hospital. You get the plan you can afford, if you can afford one, and end up at the closest hospital, regardless of your plan, when you get hit by a bus. Insurance plans have the option of limiting you to a certain amount of healthcare, can refuse to take you if you have a pre-existing condition, and can drop you if you develop a problem that takes beyond a certain level of care. That's the way it is with every health plan... well, except for the one's enjoyed by Congress and the military. Saying there's competition in healthcare is like saying there's competition between casinos. There are bigger casinos, brighter ones, newer ones, closer ones, but once you're inside their doors, it's just gambling. Maybe you get slightly better odds at the tables, or better odds on the slots, but it's the same game everywhere.

And single payer works beautifully for just about every European country that has it. No, it didn't work very well in the Soviet Union, but the Soviet Union's entire government didn't work, so where's the surprise there? People in Europe walk into a hospital, get top-notch care, walk out with whatever meds their doctors say they need, and never pay a dime in co-pay or deductible. As it is, I have a co-pay that keeps doubling, and when I take my kids in, the doctor wants to try "wait and see" and homeopathic solutions first. This is Kaiser I'm talking about, one of the biggest and best HMOs out there. There is no actual competition among healthcare providers; when was the last time you worked for a company that offered you more than one or two options for your health plan? It's almost always a choice between Kaiser and some PPO plan that forces you to use a certain set of doctors and pay exhorbitant deductibles.

Healthcare bills are the number one reason for brankruptcies in this country. Our procedures and drugs may be number one, but our healthcare system is an embarrassment.

Obama's healthcare plan is not "hugely exorbitant and grossly ineffective". Contrary to what the insurance industry will get Hannity, Limbaugh, and O'Reilly to say, there are two plans right now floating through Congress, and Obama is still working the debate to get a best-of-breed proposal. Just be patient, people. The man is doing his job the best he can.

Obama is not violating the Constitution. I keep reading this, with no attribution or proof. I think the Bushies heard this so much, what with Bush violating the 1st, 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 12th, and 14th Amendments over and over, that they just naturally yell it back now that a Democrat is in power. Sort of a, "I know you are but what am I?!" kind of retort. Bush, on the other hand, violated the Consitution and broke the law so egregiously that his impeachment should have been not only on the table, but a foregone conclusion once Democrats broke the stranglehold that the Republicans had on the government. But I digress...

Capitalism won't die if the rich and corporations have to pay an equal percentage into the system. One right wing tool waxed poetic about entitlement, her examples referencing healthcare, infrastructure, and education as though these were "rewards" that people used to work for but now they just expected. "Entitlement" is a neo-con code word for people getting things they don't deserve because they haven't worked hard enough, when in fact the same people who can't afford to pay for their kids college education or can't afford decent healthcare may have very well worked their fingers to the bone at the only jobs they could get. Working hard has nothing to do with it. And the neo-con tool making this argument is an actress that has enjoyed moderate success in her field, doesn't work every day or even every week or month, but has enough money to pay for her healthcare and could send her kids to the finest colleges. So stop taking the word of people that got a lucky break and start thinking about how hard *you* work. Capitalism is alive and reasonably functional, thank you, and Obama is doing absolutely nothing to kill capitalism in this country.

And that's all the time I have right now for this. Some people are thinkers, some are followers, and some are parrots. It's the parrots that are the most annoying. Try not to be parrots, people.

There were never any WMDs in Iraq.
No links to Al Qaeda.
No ties to 9/11.
Bush, Cheney, and Condie lied to you.
You ignored the facts.
You re-elected a liar and a murderer by proxy.
But now it's time to show your support for the troops.

I'm going to leave this up for a while yet. These traitors have not been held accountable for their crimes, and I want to make sure they never quite leave the public eye. Bush and Cheney deserve to be in jail, but even if that justice is never meted out, our nation deserves to have the crimes publicly recognized and measures taken to ensure that such a presidency can never happen again.

7/12/2009:   Is it just me, or is the GOP continuing it's pre-election meltdown at an accelerating pace?

You've got John Ensign who quit after it came to light that he'd cheated on his wife with their friend's wife, and employed her son in some made-up position during the affair.

You've got Mark Sanford internationally exposed after his umpteenth affair, this time with some floozy in South America, and only after the entire nation got caught up in the mystery of where he was, the lies his staff was telling to cover his tracks, his Lt. Governor trying miserably to explain what was going on, and then once he was caught, his steamy emails being aired on national television. What a prick.

And now Sarah Palin, the leftover, poorly vetted, cute-skirt solution to McCain's desparate attempt to salvage his failing campaign, trying to distance herself from corruption allegations by quitting mid-term.

All three had been "up and coming stars of the GOP". All three had at one time or another been considered for presidential runs (in the case of Palin, to the sound of muffled guffaws). And now all three are ruined. Well, okay, Palin was never going to be taken seriously, but you get the idea.

7/10/2009:   Sarah Palin is too ditzy and poorly spoken to make it on the national stage, and now, thanks to a steady stream of accusations of corruption, she's worn out and stepping down as governor of Alaska.

And she's trying to spin it as a good thing for Alaska.

Yeah, right. She's a quitter. She's weak. She's not a leader. She was a cute skirt that a cynical and desperate McCain picked to give his ticket a lift during the presidential campaign, but she's not a lot more. She has continued to try to maintain a presence in national media, and has only succeeded in making her self look like an idiot. And now she's just going limp and walking away.

Funny sideline: The GOP keeps trying to compare Palin quitting her job with Democrats quitting their elected positions, all while failing to mention that in every example they give, the Democrats quit to take higher appointments, usually in the federal government at the request of the President. Palin, on the other hand, seems to have simply jumped ship, as if to avoid some kind of major catastrophe. Or, as her son-in-law-by-pregnancy-only suggested, to more easily maximize the monetary benefits of her lingering celebrity.

I predict there's something more to this than meets the eye, but who really cares? I think it just proves that the GOP is falling apart faster than a Michael Steele political stance.

7/10/2009:   I won't get too far into this -- Michael Jackson's death is getting WAY too much attention as it is -- but am I the only one to notice that MJ's father has managed to use every interview he's had since his son's death to mention that he's starting a new record label?

What the heck?

No tears, no emotion, just cold business. Weird, dude....

7/10/2009:   What an ass.

He's had several affairs, ending with one that was so publicly exposed that he had to finally admit to it. And being Republican, he of course apologized, claimed weakness, and tried to spin it. Preferring his power and money to anything else, he made it sound like he was going to try really hard to fall back in love with his wife...

And his wife, preferring his power and paycheck, said she'd let him try.

This only a couple of weeks after John Ensign admitted to an affair, but only after it was obvious that a news outlet was going to expose him. And yeah, true to formula, Ensign apologized and claimed he and his wife were going to try to work it out. And she, according to GOP formula, supported him, even though his mistress and her husband used to be friends of theirs, and he'd hired his mistress' son for the duration of their affair, putting a prostitution spin on the whole ugly mess.

The GOP seems to be melting down. By 2012, the only Republicans that haven't had to leave office will be those too old to have a sexual affair or too young to have run for office before.

7/10/2009:   My son, James, turned 16 recently.

The following people voted against the Constitution, against the Fourth Amendment, against your rights, freedoms, liberties, and protections. A version of the FISA reform bill that grants retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that broke the law at the president's behest and gives the president the ability to grant immunity without oversight or further authorization, has passed the United States House of Representatives on Friday, June 20th, 2008. These are the people that voted for that measure. Included among them are Democrats that have betrayed their constituencies, including my own Jerry McNerney. Let us not forget these traitors at election time.