Las Vegas: Question Of Existence & Importance

Today a package containig the deadly poison ricin was found at the Las Vegas Extended Stay America Hotel. The discovery is being treated as a possible act of terrorism by the local authorities and the F.B.I.

Las Vegas is an unreal creation. Springing up in the middle of a desert, it sucks water from contiguous states to sustain its population including the flushing of toilets for the mostly losers that visit. The mighty Colorado River once emptied into the Sea Of Cortez and created an unbelievably rich estuary as a byproduct. It sustained fish, wildlife and water fowl. But Las Vegas has contributed to the river becoming only being a trickle of its former self at the largely dried up estuary.

Here's a question? If Las Vegas disappeared for any reason including a terrorist act would the U.S. and the environment be better off ? Personally I would not defend Las Vegas from any threat to its existence.

San Francisco Supervisors O K $ 1,000,000 Wheelchair Ramp

S.F.'s Board of Supervisors thinks that $ 1,000,000 is a reasonable and a appropriate price for a ramp to be built in their chambers. The ramp is only 10 feet long and is being constructed to enable disabled supervisors access to the elevated President of Supervisors podium.

Why so much money? What about our Department Of Public Works personnel? Surely these overpaid city employees could construct a ramp. The DPW people could still mostly lean on their tools or set in their trucks while the designated worker for that week could still call "Quitin' time" when lunch was ready. And they would still be cheaper.

As for "enabling disabled supervisors ", don't they have too much "enabling" power already? This ramp is the latest example. This ramp is yet another symbolic gesture against discrimination in public or private life. This slanted ramp is the equalizer. It's a contradiction in terms besides being too expensive.

Discrimination should be fostered. Critical thinking should be encouraged. How else will we ALL learn to live within a budget and capabilities?

Animal Mistreatment: Humans At Their Worst

Is there anyone worse than a person that mistreats animals? I think not. Only a systematic or businesslike mistreatment takes the atrocity to a new worse level. The recently uncovered graphic photos of animal abuse at Chino,Ca. Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. documents this worse level of animal abuse.

The films of "downer" cattle who are writhing in pain are lifted up by plant workers to meet what is a de facto merciful end to the animals prolonged suffering. The final end happens quickly but the transportation of stressed hurting animals must be an interminable experience. The plant owners share the blame for accepting these poor creatures with the farmers who know they are sending sick cattle to market.

And so for a few dollars, peaceful animals must endure excruciating pain and a violent death so many people who probably shouldn't have been born might have a meal that contributes to their overweight status. Whatever virus or event eventually catches up with the human species and wipes out many, at least 60-80% won't be missed.

Who Or What Wins In Iraq ?

Now add to the woes of Iraq a Turkish invasion in the north. That makes the compass of this country totally saturated with the grief and the misery of war. Are there any winners? Nature demands that something profits from anothers deficit. Maybe the winner is nature. With less people other species will do better.

United Nations & Mini-Nation Building

Kosovo's United Nation's assisted declaration of independence from Serbia breaks new ground for the premier nation building body on the planet. It's now entered a mini-nation phase. Serbia is about the size of South Carolina. Kosovo would be about the size of 2 large counties in South Carolina. This proves that all bureaucracies engage in mission creep to keep relevant and indespensible no matter the grief and the costs.

What's next? How about the U.N. entering the mini-micro phase? For instance, how about large ethnic districts in metropolitan areas like Chinatowns across America forming federations of extra-governmental bodies that overide national governments with U.N. charters? Hey the ACLU would back them up.

McCain, Clinton & Edward VIII: It's About Who You Are And Who You Slept With

Edward VIII had an affair with Mrs. Simpson. He abdicated his throne. Some think it was romantic. One fact is certain. People still talk about this episode in Britains history of monarchs.

Senator John McCain has been accused of having an affair with a "lobbyist" . McCain is being verbally stoned in the press. Bill Clinton had an affair with an over-sexed, star-struck intern. He was impeached. Question. If McCain's And Clinton's paramours were somewhat cultured and refined would the public reaction have been mitigated? If McCain or Clinton were really in love would that have tempered opinion?

Maybe its because we think so little of McCain and Clinton to begin with that these illicit affairs are just more evidence of the lack of admiration and credibility these two gents deserve. We know particularly that Bill Clinton has and would screw anything that would stand still. Even if that meant that Bill would have to bite Juanita's lip!

Pollution And The Book Of Genesis

The Bibles Book of Genesis, Chapter I, Verse 27-28, " And God created man to his own image, to the image of God he created him. Male and female he created them. And God blessed them saying increase and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and rule over the fishes of the sea and the fowls of the air and all creatures that move upon the earth".

Indeed. And man did do these things. But so effectively was mans zeal that 80% of ocean fish stocks have disappeared. Certain U.S. domestic bird populations have plummeted a similar 80%. And creatures that move upon the earth have lost their habitat, have been killed off for fun , have been run over in haste, have been poisoned by mercury from mans fossil fuel addiction, ad nauseum.

Genesis, Chapter I, verse 31, further states, " And God saw all the things that he had made and they were very good". Oh really. How about Three Gorges Dam becoming the worlds largest cesspool? How about the slaughter of dolphins and whales in Japan? How about pollution being created by the hand of God?

Personally I want peace with nature and I want the other creatures to have peace also. It wasn't only people of the Book that followed Gods counseling and polluted the earth but they did make pollution part of their religion. People of the Book should read other books.

G.H.W. Bush & John McCain: Line Bred Belligerents

Yesterday W's father G.H.W. Bush was in Houston, Texas. He was endorsing Senator John McCain for the presidency. GHWB wore a blue tie with a motif of little aircraft carriers. Stylish? Both came from line bred military families. McCain's father and grandfather were naval admirals. Bush's family tree include a war profiteering angle going back to the early 20th century. This included Samuel Prescott Bush and George Herbert Walker. They even helped Hitler's Germany rearm. There is a lot of money to be made in anyones war.


Both Bush Sr. and McCain were shot down and lived to fight the same wars over again. Isn't that a kind of Valhalla? McCain was part of the losing team in Viet Nam. But yet he wants still more wars of occupation but this time in the Middle East. Bush Sr. fought the enemy that his family helped to arm and then he went into Iraq which was largely armed by the U.S. including Bush family business interests. But to their credit, both ate their own cooking. Both showed up and suited up for their respective war duties. But neither learned from their heroic experiences. Both want to continue the ways of war. Hey guys, only fight for something that is legitimately self defense don't look for something to fight.

Joe Lieberman Endorses/Gropes John McCain

Whining Zionist Senator Joe Lieberman, who is shameless over his Israel-first policies is John McCain's new best friend. Lieberman's endorsement of McCain and the many photo- ops of them together amounts to a quasi-groping of the fragile McCain by the greedy Lieberman. I guess that McCain needs heat from any source. No doubt that Joe wants the second spot on the ticket. How long it would it take for McCain to pass away from "natural causes" if the two were elected?

Bush & Africa's Heart Of Darkness

Our chimp in chief is visiting his paleo-roots in Africa. One of his stops is in Rwanda. This is close to where Joseph Conrad wrote his novella "Heart Of Darkness". Francis Coppola based his motion picture " Apocalypse Now" on that work. The essence of the book is captured in the phrase by the character Kurtz, he posits a "choice of nightmares". The "choice" was for man " to commit himself to the savagery of the human condition or to the lie and veneer of civilized restraint". Hello Africa, meet the great white father George Bush!

Bush's African tour is to take some bows for the U.S.'s $19 billion it has spent over the past 5 years in combatting AIDS and malaria. Bush and Congress plan to spend another $30 billion over the next 5 years. One facet of AIDS prevention that the Evangelical Bush insists on that Africans follow is sexual abstinence. Can you imagine telling the Africans to abstain from sex? Firstly the words "sexual abstinence" don't exist in their lexicon. So will counselors draw pictures? Maybe this is a hurdle that Bush will enforce with expensive U.S. Piece-Keepers ?

Bush is a one-eyed jack. What he shows ostensibly in AIDS/malaria mitigation shadows his other plans for Africa . It's called AFRICOM. This will be yet another U.S. colonial adventure notwithstanding the wretched experience of Iraq and the historical failure of colonials in African history. By the way, just look at all the dead bodies in Somalia if you want a trailer on the AFRICOM movie. The U.S. through the C.I.A supports the Ethiopians with air power and weapons while they kill in the Horn of Africa.

I think Bush more represents the savagery of the human condition with a suit as a veneer. Bush-meat anyone?

How Can Bush Help McCain ?

"Baghdad ( Reuters) The U.S. military said on Sunday [February 17, 2008] it had evidence Iranian-backed Shiite militias in Iraq were increasingly using secret weapons to attack U.S. and Iraqi forces."

This includes rogue elements of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi Army. Al-Sadr has voluntarily abided by a ceasefire for the past 6 months. Why? Probably bribed. But now that the "surge has worked" largely because of paying/bribing Sunni militias $10 per day to stop fighting their usefulness may have been fully realized.

But the new goal of the Bush Administration is to get McCain elected. So how best can Bush help? Bush is a unique super delegate. He can change the political calculus with a simple command from his postion as commander in chief. Suppose Bush provoked al-Sadr by attacking his forces? Would a reignition of Baghdad fighting help or hurt McCain? I'll bet that there is at least a 2 out of 3 chance that Bush will do something to reheat Baghdad .This would pull together again the republican base and would take some of the democratic momentum away no matter what Obama or Clinton say.

Holocaust Politics Update: Yet Another Angle

When one has lemons then the sale of lemonade follows. When one has dead bodies then the sale of guilt follows.

And so partly- Jewish President Nicolas Sarkozy of France has instructed his education minister to add yet more Holocaust education to fifth graders curriculum. France's schools already include extensive Holocaust studies , films, field trips to museums and concentration camps and the ubiquitous plaques placed on school walIs marking where children were taken away. It's also a crime requiring prison time to deny the Holocaust. It's not a crime to deny that Jesus was the son of god. I wonder if they had to delete anything in the curriculum to make room for this ? Sarkozy wants every fifth grader to learn the life story of one of the 11,000 French children that were killed by the Nazis in the Holocaust. He said," Every French child should be entrusted with the memory of a French child-victim of the Holocaust".

Does this morbid exercise lead to a kind of necrophilia or to a vetting of would-be saints?This is not good for young children. Holocaust mania has obviously produced too many Holocaust worshippers. One of them is the President of France. It reminds of Brer Rabbit's plea to Brer Bear in Disney's 1946 classic " Song Of The South". Brer Rabbit pleaded , " Please don't throw me in the briar patch". And so Brer Bear goes and throws the rabbit into the briar patch. And Brer Rabbit gleefully responds, " I was born and raised in a briar patch".

And some calculatingly perpetuate the horrors of the Holocaust for political advantage.What's next?

U.S. Apology To American Indians & Iraq War

Born-again U.S. Senator Sam Brownback from Kansas said yesterday, " For too much of our history, federal tribal relations have been marked by broken treaties, mistreatment and dishonorable treaties". He could have been talking about the Iraq War. But he wasn't .He was talking about a Senate bill on Indian affairs that includes an apology to native Americans.

Brownback still supports the war in Iraq inspite of the facts that show Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 attack , the absence of WMD and the expose of the bogus intelligence that led to the invasion. So what's Brownback's apology and other the Senator's words worth? He and some others have no true sorrow or empathy for people who are unjustly treated.

Clinton's Plan For Future : How About A Dark-Humor Sitcom ?

It looks like Team HillBilly's political carreer has seen it's best days. What can these two colossal frauds do to stay in the public eye, avoid one on one contact with each other, get over paid, say what people want to hear and keep married to avoid divorce attorney fees?

How about pushing one of the networks to do a dark-humor sitcom loosely based on the Clinton's political life that follows them into retirement?It could be called The Clitsons. It's centered around Graspy who keeps/steals anything she can and her husband Bump. Bump got his nickname and de facto compass from the bump in his pants that he followed out the door each morning on his way to "work".

Graspy and Bump could have friends. One of Bump's friends could be named James Coupe de Ville. James likes to go to cock fights. Bump goes with him so he can meet the usherettes. Bump always comes home from Coupe de Ville adventures with stains on his trousers. Sometimes the stains are only the sausage and eggs that fell into his lap while trying to neck with an usherette while she was looking the other way and the food was just handed to him. He couldn't make a choice what he wanted more.

Maybe the first episode has Bump being dropped off at his home. He then begins to relieve himself on the lawn but he triggers motion-sensitive lights which illuminate his activity as if it's noon time instead of 2 a.m.. Bump thinks the lights are the flashes of the Papparazzi and turns slowly to give all a clear picture. After the lights go off, Bump strips his stained pants and collapses on the lawn sound asleep. At daybreak, Bump is awakened by the slam of his homes front door. He notices somebody . He asks," What were you doing with my wife?". The woman answers, " We were trading commodities". Bump comments, " That's what you call it?"

To be continued......

Mayor Newsom & Public Housing: How About A Near-Zoo For Near-Monkeys ?

Never let it be said that our hardheaded- Irishman, Mayor Newsom ever stopped trying. Sure he acts like he never learns but that doesn't stop him from repeating and extending mistakes with gusto. How about yesterday's latest example. He piled 50 S.F. department heads ( all earn over six figures per year) into a Muni bus for a day trip to the blighted Sunnydale Housing Project.

The Mayor was circulating his new idea for Sunnydale and other S.F. housing among the best ,brightest and most overpaid department heads. Gav's new idea wants to " ..treat public housing more like supportive housing for people struggling with homelessness , drug addiction and other problems". He wants on-site counselors, job training services, medical facilities and anything else any of the department heads can think of to add on.

Could this idea also describe a near-zoo-like facility for near-monkey-like residents? By definition, expanding the size and cost of bureaucracies will not solve the problem. Gav's condescension shows his soft bigoted attitude towards public housing residents. If he really wants to help those people then he will have to demand something in return from them so a work ethic and some sort of personal discipline is established. For starters, how about just keeping the place clean? And if they don't then kick them out for being a public health risk and move someone in who will keep the projects tidy.

Anyone For Afghanistan?

Poor Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, on Sunday he remarked in Munich, Germany about the NATO alliance, " We must not -we cannot-become a two-tiered alliance of those who are willing to fight and those who are not." He was speaking about the blowback of NATO allies to commit more troops and expand the mission to what may be an eternal war in Afghanistan.

Well, fight for what? Fight for how long? Who are we fighting? Afghanies or Taliban or al-qaeda don't wear uniforms and even so we can't tell when NATO drops bombs from fast moving jets . So the enevitable civilian casualties bear the bulk of the deaths and displacement. It's the more sane contingent of the NATO alliance that balks from further devestation of a country that didn't have much to begin with but now suffers with even less while they are getting blown up at the same time.

There was a rhetorical question asked by the antiwar activists in the 1960s. They asked," Suppose someone gave a war and nobody came?"

Madonna & Celebrity Friends Have Glitzy African Charity Fundraiser

Madonna raised $5.5 million for her "African Charity" the other night at Gucci's new Fifth Avenue Store. A partial list included Jennifer Lopez and husband Marc Anthony, Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise, Gweneth Paltrow, Alicia Keyes, Kimora Lee Simmons,Rosie O Donnell , Alex Rodriguez, etc.

Where were the wealthy African-Americans? Don't they want to share a tiny fraction of their wealth with miserable Africans? I guess not, to paraphrase Flip Wilson's character Geraldine Jones, " I don't do windows or fundraisers."

Israel: Zionists In Wonderland

Today the Wall Street Journal had an editorial " The Israeli Lesson". It championed Israel's murderous enforcement of the 60 year occupation of historic Palestine. It listed Israel's "successful antiterrorist efforts" and scoffed at the worlds alternative discription/opinion of Israeli actions. These efforts included, " the construction of its ostensibly 'illegal' security fence [wall], its equally 'illegal' targeted assasinations of key terrorist leaders, its 'disproportional' attacks on terrorists enclaves [ refugee camps] in Jenim and elsewhere and other activities that saved innocent lives [ Israeli occupiers] but which much of the international community deplored".

In spite of the similarities to Nazi war crimes , the editor ended his piece by saying " Israel proved that terrorists can be defeated- a lesson that applies equally to Iraq". Only a zionist could see beauty in the crimes against humanity that the 20th century phenomenon Israel delivers on a daily basis to collectively punished Palestinians.

Well if the zionist approach to non-zionists is so valid and successful , why then are there only 13,000,000 left?

How About A Smaller, A La Carte Government ?

An a la carte menu offers and prices items individually. It's the essence of a personal choice eating experience.

Yesterday the president proposed a $ 3.1 trillion federal budget to congress. It was not modeled on an a la carte exercise. It was more a giant enchilada that all could eat a part. Sure a lot of politicians wrung their hands about it's size , but that was mostly for show. Secretly they relished the sustaining meal because it's their ticket to hoped- for incumbancy.The pols need to take care of their own whether through earmarks, federal contracts for contributing lobbyists or financial tidbits for family related enterprises. Because as long as the whole congress and the executive participate in the take or leave it approach to governments funding then they can't be starved out individually. I. E. when stealing get a majority of congress so you can do it legally.

Voters should require their reps in congress to vote on government programs individually-a la carte- so as to cut down on the giant enchilada experience. It's reached the vomit point.

Senator John McCain & The Return To The Reagan Years

If I've heard it once I've heard Senator McCain say it a hundred times about wanting to return to the Reagan era of leadership. Sorry Mac all we have is the present.

But if you really want to reference the past, then why go back only to Reagan? He never put anything on paper worth comparing to the writings and plannings of the founding fathers and in particular Thomas Jefferson. It's called the Constitution.

Hey McCain there is nothing written about preemptive war ,unending occupation of foreign countries or amnesty for illegal immigrants in those documents.