Facks News reacts to Obama's handling of the Islamic State?...

Just another sign of corporations having too much power…

So, I was out on my morning jog this morning when I passed by a local concrete foundry pumping out tons of toxic smoke. The smoke was so bad, I had to stop jogging because I was coughing so hard. I was coughing so hard, I nearly threw up!

The smell was pretty bad where I lived, a couple of miles away, too.

Vicky suggested I call the AQMD (the Air Quality Management District) to register a complaint, which I did. What I didn’t expect, though, was the lesson I received in just how powerful corporations are in relation to how much they can pollute.

Here’s what I found out.

In order for the AQMD to even speak with the foundry and ask them to please cut down on their smog, they need to have six different homes on the same block all register complaints within the same hour. Then, they have to remain at their home for an AQMD representative to come to their home and verify the smell. This AQMD could take as much as three hours to get there, by which time the wind could shift and the smell could move on.

Can you imagine how difficult that would be to pull off? Six residents from six different homes all have to call at about the same time. Then, they can’t leave their home. They have to wait there – not go to work – and hope everyone else stays put as well. They have to wait for hours, all in the hopes that the wind doesn’t shift!

And this won’t even get them definite action. The foundry could ignore the request. When I asked the AQMD rep what the requirements were for them to take definite action, such as a fine or a court order or anything, she just shook her head and said, “Well, let’s try to get this first. This is hard enough.”

Meanwhile, the foundry owners sit back and laugh at us little people. They’ve made us powerless.

And the sad truth is, so many of us defend our corporate overlords despite all that. And, in the grand scheme of things, this is nothing.

Consistency...

"Remember the Maine!"... 1890's Spanish/American War
"Remember the Gulf of Tonkin!"... 1960's War in Vietnam
"Remember 9/11!"... 2000's War in Iraq
"Remember... some people who were killed by some scary brown people with weird beliefs..."... Next Week.

The Monday Morning Show for August 25, 2014...

I am a terrorist...

Last Ditch - the trailer...

Cookies: Sluts of the Snack World... a Trailerilla...

Cookies: Sluts of the Snack World presents... a Trailerita...

Cookies: Sluts of the Snack World gets a Trailertini...

Cookies: Sluts of the Snack World... trailerette...

So, you want to be a copywriter...

So, you want to be a technical writer...

Dreaming With Open Eyes - the director's cut!...

Dreaming With Open Eyes, Trailer #1...

Jackemoff Forest returns...

Official Democratic Party Commercial???...

Is Gun Ownership UnAmerican?...

Jackemoff Forest, episode two...

The official Republican Party commercial?

5 Brief Minutes: For Sale...

Write Write Write is Paint Paint Paint... with words...

Let's all go to Jackemoff Forest...

5 Brief Minutes on Signs...

Radio de'Olde returns with The Narrator's Secret...

My Side: Amber Alerts...

Radio de'Olde Episode 69: Pandering...

)

Married Once Before…

For the first time ever, I’m not really sure where to post a blog entry. Does this have to do with my writing and is, therefore, eligible for the Ken La Salle blog?... Yes, but… Does this have to do with Vicky and should, therefore, go on the One Path blog?... Yes, but…

So, with this in mind, welcome to My Side.

Here’s the thing. I’m starting work on my next book, which is a book on the 1970’s. I decided to use this opportunity to clean out my steamer trunk, which I packed full of goodies until sometime around 1990. I thought this trunk would be full of things from my childhood…

Then, I found it was mostly full of stuff from high school, which means I may have to write a book about the 80’s at some point.

I also found it was full of stuff from she who must remain nameless, from my first wedding, from my first marriage. Crap. I thought I’d gotten rid of that stuff years ago.

But no.

And I was faced with a definite quandary.

One thing you may not know about me is that I have picked up the fragments of my life so many times it gets annoying. Hell, most people these days think I fell to the Earth sometime in 2004. After picking up the fragments of my life so many times… I’m kind of tired of it. I’m tired of not having a history, of not knowing people from before 1995 or so, of that lack of continuity that comes from constantly restarting my life.

I was thinking about this when I looked down at all this stuff from my past life, from my past marriage. My wedding album. A photo album from when the girl and I were first together. Random photographs.

I didn’t want to lose all of that again. Hell, I lost it once already.

So, as strange as it might sound, I decided to preserve it. I decided that as I was throwing things away – and, believe me, I threw away a LOT – there would be some photos that remained. Some that wouldn’t be gone forever. There would be some continuity.

Yes, I’m married to Vicky now and I love her very much. But I’m a little tired of denying who I was prior to 2004. I’m tired of playing up my first wife as a fluke, as a tragic mistake.

We loved each other. I have pictures to prove it. Yes, it ended tragically, but that doesn’t mean that’s all it was. There was more to it than that. And I’ve decided to remember that. That’s the least I can do.

Perhaps I’ll post a few of those pictures in the coming days.

Maybe it’s time I go public with some of the history I’ve been so quick to write about but so reticent to share.

History shouldn’t be forgotten. And that doesn’t make me a bad husband to Vicky.

It just makes me honest.

So Dream Something, featuring DV Berkom...

This month's episode of So Dream Something features spy thriller sensation, DV Berkom.
DV speaks about her writing career and managing in the midst of a changing market. I hope you enjoy it. I know I did.

My Side: Advertising...

A look at the 2014 Coca Cola Super Bowl ad - and more about advertising - in this month's My Side...

This month, I spend 5 Brief MInutes discussing ASMR...

As an atheist, I sometimes wonder...

Sometimes it seems that the only thing Christians and Muslims can agree on is how much they hate anyone who won’t pick a side in their hatred of each other…

And now some Bible Stories...

Kids Today...

This month, My Side looks at those damned kids today... and the people who endlessly complain about them...

The Day We Said Goodbye, Trailer #2...

This month, I tell you all about Swearing on the Bible in 5 Brief Minutes...

Ever wonder where all of your plastic goes?...

Radio de'Olde, episode 19.2...

My Side: Health care...

5 Brief Minutes on HEAD...

Just a note on ObamaCare...

So, let's see...

The Repugs got mad at Obama because the Affordable Care Act forced insurance companies to stop selling junk policies.

Then, Obama said insurers could continue to sell junk policies for a year.

And now, the Repugs are mad at him for that.

Clearly, the Repugs don't know the meaning of the word "unreasonable"...

Radio de'Olde Episode -4(3)...

Here, then, is Radio de'Olde, Episode -4(3): "ASMR not. ASMR too."

This, of course, is my way of taking the recent artform of ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response)... and adding absolutely nothing to it.

A little blatant stealing, er, sharing from P&T...

A Lack of Evidence...

5 Brief Minutes about The 10 Commandments...

Atrocity 1897342573.0...

Have you heard the recent atrocity?

Apparently, a boy scout leader destroyed a natural rock monument in Utah that was thousands of years old.

No. Seriously. Here’s a link to the video.

The whole thing went viral with a kind of chorus of “How terrible! What kind of person destroys such natural beauty? What a monster!” Because, certainly nobody else ever does anything like that, right? Nobody else ever destroys natural beauty, right?

Wrong.

We all do.

We’re no better than said scout leader because we all gobble up natural resources in our constant consumeristic dream of more more more!

We allow death on a wide scale for a little oil.

We permit slave labor for a nicer phone.

We enjoy our sweet, fruity drinks that destroy entire ecosystems.

And we drive our cars and enjoy all the conveniences of plastic bags and disposable everything and wonder what kind of person fucks up a rock.

You do.

I do.

We all do.

We’re no better.

So, if you thought that was the case… just stop.

Radio de'Olde returns!...

In Somnia...

October brings another new My Side. This time, we tackle an issue near and dear to my complete inability to sleep...

"Aww" at the ballpark...

My Side returns this month with a look at compassion and sports, two things that probably don't go together in any context but I'll shoehorn them if it maims me!

The end of radio...

It's Radio de'Olde!

The Sound of Obsolescence

What should happen to George Zimmerman?...

Though this is not a scheduled post, I felt this would fit well here.

What should happen to George Zimmerman now that he's gotten away with killing a child?

Here are just a few of my thoughts...
http://borderlessnewsandviews.com/2013/07/what-should-happen-to-george-zimmerman/

Only about a month away!

Launching on my YouTube channel on August 1^st is the return of one of my oldest IPs: MY SIDE. My Side was a column I wrote in high school and college where I would often flex my creative muscles in making an opinion piece that was funny as well as informative... sometimes. At its best, My Side combined surrealism with whatever the hell I wanted to say that week. Now that a few years… okay, a few lifetimes have passed, it’s time for My Side once again. Look for Episode 1: The Sound of Obsolescence, coming in August.

Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel for this and other exclusive web series coming this year!

.... big news...

……………………… hello?

……………………. Sure is quiet around here.

Time to dust off the counters. Check the lightbulbs.

Things are going to get busy around here…

My Side is returning! August 2013!

http://www.youtube.com/user/theKenLaSalle

Bookends

About ten years ago, I made a decision that dramatically altered the course of my life. Had I not left Rosa, today would be very different. I might be with her. I might have a child with her. I might be without her for very different reasons.

I lost Rosa in March of 2000 and three years later I tried to undo what I had done, but that was not possible. I call this “Bookends” because I began this blog shortly after the events of March 2003, as a way of coping with life without Rosa and this seems to be the perfect place to express what I’m feeling ten years after losing her. Those who read this blog have probably – undeniably – noticed my frequency tapering off. It may not always be so but, certainly for now at least, real life seems to possess far more of my time than blogging will allow.

Still, this seemed important to address.

Let me begin by saying that I’ve been incredibly lucky in the last ten years. I’ve enjoyed success. I’ve traveled. I found a lovely woman who I love very much. If not for Vicky, I doubt I’d be the person I am today. Having her in my life helped restore much of what I lost when I lost Rosa and I am grateful for that.

So, on to Rosa…

So many people have expressed the thought over the years that I must have somehow gotten over Rosa, as if it’s all so clear and easily worked out. Let me tell you. It’s messier than that by far. Hardly a day goes by without a thought of Rosa – what she’s doing, how she is, how things might have turned out better. We promised we’d remain friends and, let me tell you, were we wrong!

Finding Vicky did not fill the hole Rosa left. It just helped make life a bit more bearable. The Rosa-shaped hole is still there in my heart; I’ve just become adept at ignoring it. Sometimes, I wish she were in my life but then I consider what that would entail and what complications it would include and I shake my head and wish her well and resign myself to the reality of history. She will always be gone, for better or for worse.

Rosa said my love was like a freight train and Vicky has said that’s fine by her. Vicky appreciates it and that’s a relief after all the times Rosa rejected it. Vicky’s not perfect by any stretch and I don’t want to suggest that, but she loves me and I know it. She’s no Rosa but Rosa’s no Vicky, either. One doesn’t have to be better than the other.

For 15 years, I was lucky enough to have Rosa in my life. I hope I’m lucky enough to get 15 with Vicky, or 16, or 20, or 30… I’ll take as many as I can get.

If this somehow finds its way to Rosa, I would just want her to know that nothing absolves me from the guilt of what I did any more than absolution is yours. We were both horribly wrong and will never regain what we lost. My only hope is that you end up as lucky as I have.

On my first entry, I said that there was much to tell and that would tell it. I hope I’ve done so to your satisfaction. Now, much remains to be lived and I will live it. When I think of it, I’ll try to write now and again.

Releasing the hounds…

I’m sure there are those out there who think corporations are only looking out for your best interests. I’m sure there are those who believe corporations never hurt anyone and do a fine job regulating themselves. I’m sure there’s a person right now who is certain that any reasonable person who tells them otherwise is lying.

That person is insane.

Today, the Supreme Court with a short-sightedness not seen since perhaps Dred Scot let corporate influence in government go completely unfettered. Corporations can now buy whatever candidate they want and buy the votes as well. The depths to which this extends is unfathomable. It began with a case in Santa Clara and today found its most expensive conclusion.

Of course, huge corporations have already done untold damage. Look at health care. Look at Wall Street. Look at the banks that are “too big to fail”. With unfettered access to any politician, that is just the tip of the ice berg.

You’ll hear people say that it’s a case of civil rights, freedom of speech. But you won’t hear them admit what a lie that is. Corporations are not citizens and do not need to employ citizens. As a result of this ruling, our politics are now endangered by foreign interests as well as the evil bastards we grow at home. In that face of unlimited money and power, what can we do?

Well, there is one thing. I’m not saying it’s much – at this point, I don’t know what would be enough – but Alan Grayson has created a petition (at www.savedemocracy.net) to get some basic legislation passed through Congress to put some small regulations in place. You can find that here.

It won’t make things right but it may make things slightly less nightmarish. In the meantime, keep active and educated and we’ll do what we can.

Voodoo Christians…

Something I’ve wanted to mention for a while now has sprung its ugly head once again, this time in the form of Pat Robertson. I’m sure there are those who would still call him “Reverend”, though “Voodoo Priest” is more fitting.

After the horrible devastation in Haiti, Pat Robertson said it happened because Haiti had a deal with the devil. Now, ignoring for a minute the logistics – anyone in his scenario would likely be dead already, the country has changed governments more than once since then, a nation cannot make deals with a fictional character – this is just another indication in a recent turn in a subsection of Christianity I like to call “Voodoo Christianity”.

Another example is the trend of some right-wing preachers “praying” for someone’s death, usually someone they don’t like. Obama, for instance. They basically throw the Bible out with the bath water and start claiming to have special powers or some inside information and it makes me wonder just how stupid those Christians who follow them are. I mean, sure, you believe there’s a man in the sky – one mark against your sanity – but then you throw away all the teachings your religion is based on to follow some lunatic who can’t be described any more generously than “fucking psycho”.

And for those Christians who think they hold no responsibility, I call bullshit. You are responsible for the acts of anyone who calls themselves Christian for this is how your religion is ultimately judged. Do you want to be in the same circle as the voodoo priests, the right wing whackos, and lunatic nut-jobs? Tend your own garden, people. You’ve always had some weeds in there; you don’t need hemlock as well.

A word for non-believers…

This Christmas season, I’d like to remind you that if you shouldn’t be so smug about not believing in Santa Claus if you also believe in God.

After all, what kind of fool would believe in a spooky old man with a long white beard who lives “up there” and always watches us and judges us…? Oh, religious folk.

It’s all make believe, folks. None of it has anything to do with reality. So, face it. If you believe in God, it’s just Santa by another name.

Merry Santanas…

The joy of giving gift… cards…

Used to be you’d sweat over just the right gift to give some…

Okay, maybe it wasn’t. Used to be you’d buy people you didn’t care about gifts you didn’t care about. That said, at least they were gifts. Now, we live in the age of the gift card and, even better, the online gift card. Basically, we give money. If we don’t care, we give money.

Not bad for not caring, actually.

Still, I find it fascinating that this is how we’ve come to define an expression of love and caring for those we, well, love and care about… cash.

You give me $25. I give you $10. But I gave you the $10 with a card and you didn’t even sign your name on the gift card in the “FROM” spot. Is it a wash? Is that how we determine who cares about us?

People back in the 1960’s were bitching about how meaningless Christmas had become. Now, we don’t have to bitch about that… it’s pretty damned obvious.

Dems in ’10… no, not really...

It seems like every day, the Democrats do something else to shoot their chances in 2010 in the foot.

They’ve fucked up health care reform. They’ve fucked up financial reform. They’ve vacated the moral high ground, leaving Gitmo and the black sites and illegal surveillance intact. They still haven’t ended the wars. And, oh yes, they are a bunch of pussies.

When people ask me why I’m not a Democrat, these are just a few of the reasons…

I understand how hard it is to find work, folks, but a public servant's first job should not be preserving their job...

Climate change hasn’t…

I love the new Repugnican meme that says all the science on climate change is a lie… wait a sec… that’s not new. They’ve been saying that all along.

But what they constantly forget is that even if all science was a lie, you couldn’t refute the fact that we’re running out of fossil fuels and need alternatives… wait a sec… if they think all science is a lie, they probably think that math is, too.

Basically, these people are fucking nuts.

Knock yourself out...

There's something insanely lovable about this song... or is it the other way 'round?

If only the poor could quit being so… poor…

American charity. Two words that rank up there with Republican Christian and Military Intelligence. American’s are so charitable they’ve actually forced one church to stop feeding the homeless because it… attracts homeless people!

God forbid.

But there it is, at a church in Phoenix, Americans behaving so charitably they’re forcing a church to stop providing free breakfasts to the homeless. This probably shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. After all, people protest equal right because it violates their “right” to be bigots (cough – Prop 8 – cough). And they scream and carry on when someone tries to provide health care for all, calling that a “death panel”. And, after all, this is the country where the rights of corporations are placed above the individual. I suppose our national motto should be “Fuck off! I’ve got mine!”

She just keeps coming back…

I find myself discomforted by the way Rosa keeps popping into my life. Surprisingly, I think this bothers me a lot more than it does Vicky… and I have no idea why.

Case in point: the quiche pan. When Rosa and I split up in May of 2000, I figured it was assumed we wouldn’t be buying each other anniversary gifts that year. Our wedding anniversary was on May 21st. Sure enough, though, Rosa gave me this quiche pan as a gift. It was obviously an expensive one and, knowing Rosa, it was also obvious that she’d bought it as an excuse to see me and remind me how we were still bound together. She said something about how she’d like to be there when I made my first quiche, as I was the more culinarily gifted of the two of us, and I’m sure I said something like that I’d let her know when I decided to. I didn’t even take it out of the box. I put it away and I tried to forget.

And, as they do, the years passed.

When Vicky and I moved in together, she found the box packed away. I don’t even know if I packed it intentionally but I know I’m far too practical to throw it away. She had to ask where it came from, of course, and I had to tell her. And then, she asked me, “What are you going to do with it?”

Vicky was not too practical to throw it away. It may have given her a little pleasure to do just that. But I said, “No.” After all, I may want to make a quiche one day and then the pan would come in handy…

More years passed.

Before we reached one decade since Rosa gave me the pan, Vicky said “use it or lose it”. I guess she was getting tired of me insisting that I might make a quiche one day, holding onto a pan that had far fewer practical applications than sentimental ones.

The results of my quiche making are over on One Path. The practical results of the pan. As for here, the sentimental ones… I doubt I’m unique. I doubt I’m the only one who feels a crack in their heart every time the past reaches up and taps at it with its cold, silver hammer of regret. I’m sure there are many who can understand how difficult it is to be rid of those haunting memories that hurt you and how it is important at the same time to preserve them.

But it surprises me still how nearly a decade has passed since we decided to split… how it’s been over half a decade since I found Vicky… and things still feel so broken inside of me. And it might sound obtuse but I’m reminded of Europa’s cracked and sundered surface and how so much of that occurred hundreds and thousands of years ago and I think, “That’s life…”

For those who still didn’t think the Repugs were ape-shit crazy…

Senator Al Franken proposed a bill that ends rape clauses in government contracts, contract clauses that prevent women employees from suing when they are gang-raped. To repeat, this would end the practice of taking away a woman employee’s right to sue when they are gang-raped by other employees of a company that has a government contract.

Hmmm… who would be against this? Who would be in favor of gang-rape?

Thirty Republican senators, as it turns out. Of course.

Here’s Jon Stewart explaining it further.

And here’s a lovely web site in honor of those thirty PATRIOTS…

Sell The Vatican, Feed The World!!...

I heart (or maybe it's some other body part) Sarah Silverman...

I hate to sound like I’m agreeing with neo-cons…

But what has Obama done to deserve the Nobel Peace Prize?

What has he done? We’re still fighting two wars. We still have secret prisons. We have yet to prosecute any of the war criminals our nation produced in just the past few years. We still restrict civil liberties. We still employ mercenaries who kill at will without repercussion.

What did he do to deserve this?

Ode to Chevy…

Have you seen the new sit-com, Community? It’s on Thursday nights and I’m really enjoying it. I’m enjoying it, I should say, in spite of Chevy Chase. Yes, Chevy Chase is in it. And he’s dreadful. And I’d like to explain why I think that’s so.

You see, I love Chevy Chase. He was, and probably still is, a terrific talent. But somewhere along his career path something happened, something awful, that turned everything upside down. I see Chevy Chase and I think of Buster Keaton. Not because of his great falls or his terrific timing. I think they both had very similar trajectories.

Like Keaton, I loved Chevy because he was smarter than everyone in the room. Back in his National Lampoon days, he was always a step ahead. On SNL, you knew he was a smarter than the joke. In movies, from Foul Play to Fletch and even to the terribly under-rated Memoirs of an Invisible Man, the thing that made us love him was his quick-wittedness, his inventiveness, his intelligence!

But the Hollywood machine wouldn’t let that last. Like Keaton, they remolded him from quick-wit to stumble-bum and stole what we loved most about him. You could see it beginning all the way back in National Lampoon’s Vacation and has reached its apex as Chevy’s options become more and more limited. Some people love the Vacation films but I watch them and think, “He’s smarter than that!” I recently saw a picture called Funny Money (2006) where he played a character with no charm and no intelligence and I wondered, “What happened to Chevy?” In Community, he plays a typical dolt – you can see the intelligence in the eyes fuming for something smart to do. And they did the same thing to Keaton.

I know he’s better than that. Chevy Chase could still blow all our socks off, if given the opportunity. So Chevy, if you’re reading, I want you to know that there are plenty of us out here who still believe. Because you’re Chevy Chase… we’re not.

Hello, Mr. Washington...

A recent headline read: 75 Percent of Oklahoma High School Students Can't Name the First President of the U.S.

Sometimes, I read things and have a serious reaction... other times, I crack wise... today: BOTH!

Sarcastic Response: Yes, but it's Oklahoma. Why should this come as a surprse to anyone?

Serious Response: Teaching for the test. Strict obedience to the curriculum. Now, we see the results.

Listen, I'm not saying GW (that's Washington, not Bush) isn't on any test or isn't part of any curriculum. What I'm saying is that kids are smart enough to know that they're being fed knowledge the same way they're being fed fast food: for quick processing. What goes in this week is tested on next week and then forgotten. No context is provided about how this applies to their lives because, for the most part, we've ceased to care about their lives. Children are products to serve the machine of industry - we want them to have a good job, stay off the streets, and forget about them. After all, what knowledge do you remember best? Knowledge you cared about! I think if we cared about how they received and processed this knowledge, we'd cease to see results like this.

Oh, and feel sorry for the nerdy other 25%... which is 3 against 1 for all of you educated in Oklahoma...

Crime and Punishment…

The older I get the more I see a scary by-product of age. One by one, I notice my friends turn into bitter, hateful old men and women… especially when it comes to the issue of crime. I hear them talk about draconian measures, death penalties for children, and even with no sense of irony cutting hands off of thieves. I feel like saying “How very Muslim of you” though they probably wouldn’t get it.

It concerns me because I hate to see my generation gobbled up so obediently by the previous one, taught to believe all the falsehoods that they themselves chose to believe. This leaves the hope in the hands of the next generation but it is too often an empty one, as I see them misunderstanding so much as well.

After all, what’s the point of our justice system? Is it to help bring people back to a point of understanding, so that they don’t repeat the same mistakes they once made? Because if that’s the case, death penalties for children and the forcible removing of hands is going the wrong way. On the other hand, take or leave the pun as you will, if the point is to eliminate those who offend us, then we should all form a line and get ready for a bullet to the head.

Laws are not established in order to provide us entertainment, so we can watch our government murder and maim. A more perfect society is not formed when we greet misdeeds with hate. The fact that nobody is perfect too often eludes even the best of us and it is the expectation that everyone should always be at their best that shows our petty, small selves and creates a society that is no more than a reflection of what we make of it.

Another Great Special Comment...

Because I don't have the time to research things as well, I give you Mr. Olbermann...

Lest we forget what the other side of the face looks like...

My favorite headline about tonight's speech: Republicans Heckle Obama for Providing Health Care, but Cheer Bush for Making War.

Indeed.

Getting sick of both faces...

Every time I see some idiot Republican introduced as an “expert on health care reform” on the news, I can hear insurance companies laughing somewhere, writing out a check…

Otherwise known as "My invisible figment of my imagination is better than your invisible figment of your imagination"...

People proselytize out of an insecure suspicion that they're wrong... which, of course, they are...

A thought inspired by Ted Kennedy...

Here was a man whose life was worthwhile. How shamed should the innumerable masses who chase fleeting fame, "reality tv" stars and town hall miscreants, feel in the face of this...

... not that they will, of course....

Amber Rubarth - A Song to Thank The Stars...

One of my favorite new songs by Amber. (Look for her new disk, Good Mystery, on iTunes, CD, et al...)

The Venture Bros. season 4 trailer...

Sweet nerd love...

Town Hall Protesters: Ruining it for everyone…

I’m going to assume you’ve heard all about the right-wingnuts who have been crashing the recent town halls held to help educate people on health care reform and get constructive feedback. They’ve not only been shouting to drown out the discourse but now they’re bringing guns. And corporate America is learning from this strategy and have announced they’ll use it to defeat any hope of finally cleaning up the environment we’ve shit all over.

The one thing this all pivots on, of course, is the town hall format, allowing anyone to come in and attend your event, getting their feedback, letting the common man be heard. What we’ve seen is that corporate America and the Repugs don’t give a shit about the common man and only care enough to manipulate them into a lather. They’re good at this because they have no respect for anything.

The town hall format is relatively new in its present incarnation. While it pre-dates the TV culture (and easily pre-dates the Internet), it wasn’t designed for instant media and this is its weakness. Mind you, Shrub and his ilk never used the format because they were afraid of just what they’ve faked. They were terrified that regular people would have a voice. Now, they’ve constructed these “grass roots” protests, funded by corporations who would rather make billions off the backs of the sick or the poor or just plain anyone.

So, what can be done? Certainly segregating the audience is not a good idea. That’s just what Shrub and his ilk did. No, I think the only thing that can be done is to abandon the town hall all together. Use the Internet for good just as the corporations and the Repugs are using it for ill. Don’t allow the powerful to sabotage everything just because they have power.

Oh, and Dems, grow a fucking spine, why don’t you?

Keith Olbermann comes back to work...

With this special comment.

Basements, Backyards, and Garages...

Vicky and I love Guy Fieri... no matter what life form he takes...

I've got this strange addiction to The Thermals...

I'd even buy their disks... you know, if I had a job...

Best headline of the YEAR...

When TLC (which used to be The Learning Channel) or BIO eventually air the "documentary" titled "What Became of Michael Jackson's Brain"... and you know they will... have you seen the shit they air these days?... well, you'll already know the answer because:

CORONER STILL HAS MICHAEL JACKSON'S BRAIN

.... I think they're serious... either way, I see blockbuster gold!

The Sklar Brothers bring the funny...

In a large bag with twist ties and a zip lock to hold in freshness!

(... what do you want? I can't sleep!...)

Now Obama's using signing statements...

I seem to remember us rejecting the Repugs because their guy did the same thing... and Obama promised a break from those shady practices.

If Obama refuses to stand by his word, I see no reason to support him in the future.

Minister proves Satan is FABULOUS!!!...

Don't drop the lead, as journalists might say.

Turns out this minister has been exorcizing gay people to rid them of their gay demons... No, really.

But that's not the important part of the story.

The important part is that we now know that demons are gay. No wonder the Repugs have been so against gay marriage!!! It all makes sense now! And Satan's snappy dressing - of course!!


.... wait. That also means the best parties are going to be in hell.... God dammit....

John Hodgman gives geek love...

The inner nerd in me is compelled to post this...

Sometimes we find our way…

Completed. Done. Finito Benito. Play number seven has been wrapped up and put to bed.

… well, except for revisions/rewrites/proofings, etc. but that first draft is history, baby!

It started out as a play about my father – well, about losing my father. It’s a play about a mother and son and how they relate when the father he never knew and the husband who could never commit dies and leaves them together. But then, it turned into more than that. Much more.

Because the father couldn’t commit to the mother, it also became a play about loving someone who could never love you back, about longing for that love, spending your whole life missing what you never had and wishing for the impossible. So, though it was far from my original intent, it also became a play about Rosa.

There are still days when I can hear her voice. There are days when I wonder how she is. And I feel horrible about it. Guilt creeps up and smacks me in the head. Because I have someone now who loves me. Her name is Vicky. So, this play deals with that horrible possibility that I could have ended up spending my life striving for something that wasn’t real and I realize that missing her now and then is nothing compared to the mistake I almost made.

And that’s what we do as writers. We take what was and write about what could have been. We take we didn’t happen and write about if it did. We worry away at possibilities and create impossibilities. And we end up with characters we feel very sorry for – we regret the things we do to them, even if they aren’t real, because they have to face the horrible realities of our imaginations.

If I had stayed with Rosa, I would be living a life of ice-cold neglect and empty loneliness. The alternative cost me years of regret that was nearly intolerable but it was still a better price to pay, in the long run. And I got to find Vicky, which made it worthwhile, for the most part.

And I got a new play, too. So, there’s that.

I’m thinking about going into evangelical songwriting…

I’ve decided to give up my atheist lifestyle. Why swim against the mainstream? The Christians have all the political clout and all the power so, hey, why fight it? In fact, I’ve decided to write my praises to God in song. Here are just a few of them…


Suck me Jesus

Suck me Jesus
Suck on my sin
Suck it deep
Again and Again
I like when you suck
It’s like a Win/Win
Suck me Jesus
Suck long and hard on that sin


I’ve been touched by God but not in that way

I’ve been touched by God but not in that way
I’ve been touched by God but not in that way
If God was a man, would that make me gay?
I’ve been touched by God
But I don’t think he meant it that way


The Lamb of God is Great

The Lamb of God is Great
The Lamb of God is Good
I’d fuck the shit out of the Lamb of God
And if you could, you know you would, too.


You think they'd rather I stayed an atheist?

Bill Maher says about Obama...

... what I keep wishing Obama would hear...

Movie like this are why we still need MST3K...

It's just soooooo bad!

Among other things...

If Earth is God’s creation, and everything on Earth is God’s creation, wouldn’t that make pollution blasphemy?

It's "Idiot Religion" Day...

Check out more religious idiocy over on One Path...

In honor of the religious nutjob who killed Dr. Tiller...

You ever notice that most of the same people against abortion also think homosexuality is a sin... which doesn't make much sense because you almost never see homosexuals needing an abortion. Hell, they don't even need birth control!!

This is what it's come to...

A paper in Warren, PA. ran an ad calling for the assassination of President Obama. Now, I'm not Obama's biggest fan right now, considering how he's wussed out on so many things he promised he'd get done (ending the war, closing Gitmo, reeling in the top 1%) and things he was just supposed to get done (prosecuting those who tortured in our names), but last I heard insighting violence against the President and calling for his out and out murder... is a felony, at least. I mean, it's up there with driving under the influence, right? Maybe instead of a DUI, it's an MUI/AUI?

Mind you, the paper apologized, which I suppose to them means something. But I'm wondering when we lost our will to stop those breaking the law here in the US (torturers, bankers, brokers, lobbyists, and - right - those who call for political assassination). We are sure as hell looking to kick butt outside of this country but what about the folks right here?

Why don't we put our house in order, is all I'm saying.

Now on our DVR: Stuff Happens

As an ex-smoker and someone (I'll admit) who did his share of littering, I felt it important to get the word out on this...

Seven legs, Two Spines...

People wonder why I'm such an advocate for buying organic, local, non-corporate meat and produce.

We stuff our livestock full of hormones, interbreed them to absurd levels, feed them garbage (quite literally) and we wonder why things like this happen: a calf born with seven legs and two spines. Things like this are not accidental; they're underreported. And before you dismiss it, saying the animal was put down and not devoured (by humans, at least - here kitty kitty), keep in mind you might have eaten its brother or sister for lunch.

And, yes, I know that buying local, organic meat from small farms is still not enough. I'm working on that.

Not to say I have it all together but…

Why is it that the most fearful people I know, the most worried, the most anxious, are also the most religious people I know. Honestly, you’d think that their God would take care of things – or, at least, that they’d think their God (you know, their made-up, imaginary figment of their imaginations) would take care of things… and stop worrying so much. Damn.

So, after voting in all those Dems...

Here's a reminder of why I'm not a Dem.

Looks like they're so beholden to the banks they keep bailing out they can't even pass a regulation on credit card interest, something the banks injudiciously escalate endlessly.

Way to go, Dems. Keep in mind what happened to the Repugs...

MIssed California...

I was hoping not to get in on this but I couldn't help it.

Donald Trump has reviewed pictures of the scantily clad Miss California and decided he's the arbiter or morality... really... I'm not making this up...

So, to recap, it seems that grown up people who are in love and want to get married is perverse and immoral if they're the same sex... but a old man with a combover can look at half-naked pictures of a 21-year old with the purity of the driven snow...

The Cisco Kid Part 2...

Yes... we were nerds...

The Cisco Kid Part 1...

Murphy and I used to quote this endlessly, long before the days of VCRs (okay, so I'm OLD!) or YouTube...