Missin' Mitt

Remember this guy?! Probably not. He was so stereotypically rich and bland and forgettable I can't blame you if he has already exited your memory. Here's some reminders.

It's Mexican Mitt! Fun fact - Mitt really is a bit Mexican, though of course he could not advertise that fact to his fungal based supporters. This pic was one of the glories of the campaign - Mitt on Telemundo, heavy on the tan spray.

Gosh, we never did get to see those taxes, did we?

Another fun fact! Mitt did not write a concession speech - as it was beyond conception that he would lose! Really, he believed that. His whole staff believed that, apparently. For example, Mitt made no travel plans back from his "victory party", assuming the Secret Service would take care of it for him. But the minute he lost, poof! No more Secret Service, and Mitt had to have Tagg or Track or Tacoma (his son) drive him to one of his homes. Oh, sweet schadenfreude - consider it! He sincerely, absolutely believed he was going to win, even though all the polls and all the evidence said otherwise.

Two days after the election, back in Cali (where he really lives), pumping his own gas. Sweet, sweet schadenfreude.

Romney-Ryan 2012 Campaign summary.

Yay! Free shirts!

Ghetto

Each dot represents 25 people, and each color represents a self identified race from the 2010 census. This is Chicago, and you can see how the main ethnicities are ghettoized. Not specific to Chicago, either, as all American cities and probably most world cities are set up the same way. Here's a few more:

Detroit

LA

Greater NYC.

As long as such ghettoization exists, then so too will racism. But much of it is self chosen, yeah?

Complicated subject!

A Right Turn in Yorba Linda

Briefly, the decline of America began under Nixon, and accelerated because of Nixon's descendents. From here on till today, each new iteration of the Republican Party gets worse. More evil. Nixon was the beginning, for who didn't like Ike?

Nixon had to resign! He was terrible, and yet his martyrdom at the hands of LIBERAL MEDIA has been the rallying cause for generations of "Conservatives" since, with many of the key players involved in all the acts to come. Dick Cheney, for instance. Roger Ailes, for another. However, America of the 1970's still had some sense left in her, and so rejected Ronnie for Jimmie Carter and sweaters and solar panels on the White House.

Yay Jimmy Carter! But alas, for Jimmy, and us all, the monster had been woken, and took power in part because of a total rat bastard deal with the Iranian Mullahs. Hail Saint Ronnie!

Thanks to relentless right wing propaganda, you may remember Ronnie as a kind hearted, awesome President who saved the world from evil. However, the truth was, and is, he was a puppet for far darker forces which effectively ruled in his stead once he began suffering from severe dementia circa 1985. It was this so called Reagan Revolution that loosed the Wing Nut Id on America and the world, and think of the damage this has caused - and will cause in the years to come. Millions of dead Middle Easterners, just for starters. Millions of Americans in prison. Plenty of straight up treason too in the Reagan Administration, ably covered up by:

Bush Senior, and for that he'll be remembered poorly. But alas, in retrospect, compared to the utter loons now dominating the Republican landscape, Bush the Elder was a moderate, sane man who I do believe genuinely wanted to do good by the country and the world. For example, I think he handled the fall of the USSR smoothly - a situation that was extremely dangerous. But being a moderate elite technocrat was also now dangerous in the Republican Party, so Bush Sr lost to Bill Clinton

A fine President in many respects, yet because of his human failings, and the explosion of the First Wingularity, he played defense for most of his two terms, which translated to enacting highly pro-corporate policies, which led directly to the economic collapse of 2008, and now have placed America firmly in the grip of ruthless tycoons who will bleed this country dry for their own betterment. So, mixed bag really with Slick Willie. He was perhaps the funnest President though, by far.

And you know all about W., I hope, by now. And so here we are in 2013, with the fires of mass insanity burning brightly in about 27 - 40% of the population, and we have the best President of my lifetime trying to control them. Good luck Barack, you'll need it!

The coolest President.

Bonus Nixon pic:

Screaming Trees

All things fade in time. You, me, Rome, Earth, the Sun, the Milky Way, the entire Universe, some trillion trillion years from now. Not my fault, nor my picture. Lovely though, is it not? The power of entropy?

An abandoned factory in Japan, nature reclaiming the space. As entropy is nature, all order will be deconstructed, torn down, eaten up, broken into pieces and spread all about. Entropy is the way of things. All our deeds are but acts holding back the tide, so ever briefly.

Our end is inevitable. The only true questions are when and how. Probably asteroid, sometime in the future. But there's so many other options! Nuclear bombs, earthquakes, global warming, solar radiation, magnetic shift, name your apocalypse, and you'll find the likelihood is not insignificant. Ignore the possibility we do at our own peril. Life is fragile, we exist on the surface of a reality of harshness. Prepare yeself, mortal!

Gotta Get 'em All!

I wanted this so badly, but never got it. I got the "Cloud City Carbonite Chamber" set instead - not nearly as exciting, though somewhat macabre. My 3rd grade friend David Epstein had it, and I visited often for this reason. Davey wore a Star of David and looked Jewish and was in fact the first Jewish person I ever met, and the only Jew I would know until college. Where I met many, and to this day most of my best friends are Jewish, and I love them all dearly.

Unfortunately, back then, the only thing I knew about Jewish folk was the Holocaust (WW2) and slurs. Many slurs, which I, to my shame, engaged in as well. I didn't know any better.

I liked Davey a lot and I got introduced to bagels - which were marvels in my family. So ethnic! He also had the Falcon, and I associated this with being rich - IE being Jewish, who were all rich, as everyone said. I had a revelation in college about this memory, since Davey lived in the same California slum I lived in, he could not have been "rich". The slurs had colored my perception, my very memories of a cool time in my life - since I got along smashingly well with the entire Epstein family.  I have learned many lessons about this experience, all of them good, I think.

One of them: don't ever get too comfortable with your perceptions - they can be altered by the culture around you. You must be able to step back and see the bigger picture, the wider world, the reason behind the reality. Only then can you feel somewhat confident you're fair in your assessments. But even then, ever and always on guard.

And with that, I give you ironic Star Wars products:

Hungarian or some such knockoff. Note the calculator used in the photo.

This was really the Jawa's fault - who else ratted out the location of the Skywalker moisture farm? Like Obi-Wan said, it wasn't Luke's fault, and he could have done nothing to stop it, and probably would have been killed as well. And R2 is to thank for this stroke of luck, showing again how all the Star Wars movies are really about R2.

Or a sled. Wells had no idea what he was missing out on.

Celica Grail

In my sojourn across these digital wastelands, in search of "Star Wars Car (go ahead and look it up, and behold the wonders!)", I cam across these references to a "Star Wars Celica". I had to know more, so, of course I did.

 It was 1977. Wondrous times. Star Wars had only been out for a few months, but had already lit a spark in the world. A local Toyota dealership in Southern California thought it would be nifty to pimp out a new Celica with Star Wars flair.

 This is before George Lucas got a complete stranglehold on all merchandising and/or the power to crack down on any who would use his characters without paying him a tithe - this is an important detail for later in the story!

 And a close up on the prize insert:

 But alas! The winner of this one and only (that's right! The pictures above show the only known "Star Wars Celica" ever created) is unknown, and more importantly, the current wherabouts of the car are unknown -- even if it still exists. We might ask her:

 70's style! Ain't it awesome? Anyways, needless to say in this Age of Fetish Collecting, finding and possessing this car has become a "grail quest" for a small, small band of Star Wars nerds out there. There's few good leads, only historical documents to prove such a wonder ever existed at all. But maybe you know where it is? If so, secure it and get thyself to Christies! I bet it's worth millions if in good condition.

That said, my hunch is either: The car was long ago scrapped, by foolish people in the past who had no idea how valuable cheap junk truly was, or, more likely: George Lucas himself has it, hidden away in one of his many underground lairs, and he keeps it hidden, forever, if only to spite any who would dare not license from him.

I'm not looking, mind you, but may the Force be with you if you are!

SEX(Working at the Car Wash)ISM!

Believe you me: I spend a lot of time on the intertubes, searching for stupid pictures, especially of Star Trek/Star Wars. So imagine my surprise when I came upon a treasure trove of awesome Star Wars pics. I give you: The "Make-A-Wish" Star Wars Charity Car Wash!

Yeah yeah, I know it's pathetic and sexist and pathetic. But isn't everything, really? Indeed! And after a hard day of charity car washing....

 And speaking of sexism, yes. We're all unique, beautiful people, with richness and wonder filling all of our hearts souls, each of us valued and important and gosh darn it, we're liked and we belong and..... well. All true, but only a select few can pull off the Slave Leia Metal Bikini look.

 Also, have you seen Carrie Fisher lately?

Falling from Heaven

Can you feel the pain about to happen? Science fact! New techniques are showing how certain areas of the brain "light up" when the person is shown specific types of images. For example, with images of this type (falling, etc), the mind simulates the actual act and little panic lights flash on all over the brain, and this is a measurable and predictable phenomena.

Point being, soon enough, mind reading machines will be here. Get ready - I recommend a mind training technique where you learn to lie to yourself, convincingly.

A monkey on all our backs

We all have a monkey on our back that has served to seriously degrade the entire world over the last 30 years. And that is the so called "War on Drugs". The very concept is ludicrous, and there's mountains of data to show that prohibition does not work, but in fact only serves to enrich criminal organizations, and, as a consequence, police forces.

I have been following politics very closely, as always, but it's too depressing to talk about (TEABAGGIN' INSANITY!), but there is one issue that is of vital importance, and that's Proposition 19 in California, which is a full marijuana legalization bill. If passed, it would be legal to grow your own marijuana, and/or buy it from licensed stores. In California, of course, for now.

You may smoke, you may not, but this is not really about smoking. It's about logic, and personal responsibility, and addressing the insanity that is our current criminal system.

30-40% of all people in jail right now are there because of drug crimes, and that's just the overall prison population. Incarceration rates for minorities are off the charts. Once convicted of a felony in the US, your productive life is basically over, as there are whole swathes of jobs, and rights, that are no longer open to you. In essence, your life can be destroyed because you sold a plant to a willing customer.

Is that worthwhile? Should America - The Land of The Free - have the highest stated percent of people in prison in the Western world, all in the name of a "War" that cannot possibly be won, and in fact is highly corrosive to the foundations of our society? Look at what's become of police forces in the last 30 years - they've become militarized. They can seize all of your assets if you are convicted of a drug crime, leading to the heavy incentive of proactively busting people for no reason other than you need revenue. Think of the foolish young people who's entire lives are ruined because of one indiscretion. On and on.

And it's not just the USA. Because of our 800lb gorilla status, what happens in the US greatly influences other countries. Mexico is being ripped apart right now because of OUR drug war. Columbia is completely militarized, with our assistance. All in the name of stopping willing people from consuming an easily grown plant. Here's a link to a site with pictures from the Drug War in Mexico - beware, though, as some of the photos are very graphic.

The clear solution to any drug problem is to treat it as a medical issue - like with alcohol. And of course to hold people responsible for their actions while under the influence, like with alcohol. 

But we're almost free. IF California votes to legalize, they will have broken the dam in the Drug War. Other states will surely follow, eventually forcing the Feds to address their policies. And while it's just for marijuana, which alone would have a huge impact in reducing the nihilistic destruction of the Drug War, it would no doubt also usher in a change in mindset which would allow for discussions to begin about legalizing other drugs.

If you value freedom, and personal responsibility, it should be incumbent upon you to support this initiative, regardless of your own use or non-use of marijuana. And once it passes, and the doomsayers are proven wrong (again), we can begin addressing real drug abuse issue the only way they can be addressed: As a medical issue handled between a patient and a doctor, not a prisoner and warden. Take it from this monkey if you don't believe me:

All better! Go CA!