Friday, July 31, 2009

OBAMA CARE MYTHS

"Don't overestimate the decency of the human race." H.L.Mencken

aloha again, let's bust a few myths shall we?

ObamaCare WILL NOT...
1.pay reparations for slavery.
2.'exterminate the white race '(sic)
3.heal right wing radio-TV hatemongering blowhards
4.euthanize your granny
5.perform abortions on illegal aliens aboard UFOs
6.heal racism(sexism & class issues) in the US
7.remove Congress from the deep pockets of the Health Insurance Industry & Big Pharma
8.humanize the GOP,Dick Cheney,Sarah Palin or mindless racist 'birthers'
9.make politicians faithful to their wives & maybe voters
10.infect the US with the dread Socialism whiile 'ending American heathcare as we know it' ( i wish)
11. end Obama's tendency to prematurely compromise...SIGH.
12.heal KALIpornia's maggot ridden misgovernment
13.make me stop blogging!

in other news,
http://www.opensecrets.org/ as in Watergate FOLLOW THE MONEY! the tainted Supreme Court has declared corporate money to be the equivalent of Free Speech! which equals the Best Governemnt MONEY CAN BUY....

screw it, i'm eating a coconut macaroon and going back to bed.
aloha Mahayana

namaste y'all
semper gimpy
mega

Monday, July 27, 2009

PROBLEM SOLVED?

"We're not retreating.We are advancing in another direction." Gen.Oliver P.Smith,Korean War commander...

aloha again.
will attempt to be coherent, all my tests came back clean but the combination of fentanyl and versed (sp? ) anesthetics has somehow triggered a Massive Hayfever reaction this week.ever try to sleep in a C PAP mask full of snot??? don't.

PAGANI,
you sound depressed. which is probably why i agree with your last comment 110%.SIGH.am also a big fan of Star Trek and expanding the knowledge horizon.wormfood uber alles?

UPPITY
okay, i cannot resist adding my two cents about the Prof.Gates brouhahaha.as a Black Man, YOU DO NOT MOUTH OFF TO THE POLICE,EVER!!!! you don't tease attack dogs either.
i have been arrested twice, once in LA for wearing a denim outfit similar to a liquour store robber across town and once in Neveda for hitchhiking with a white girl ( this was the 70s).each time i was unfailingly polite and offered no hassle or threat to the officers who might decide to kill or brutalize me. c'mon people, this is the US of A with a history of Civil War, Reconstruction (sic),lynchings and the KKK.cops are by nature,conservative black & white (no pun) legalistic thinkers.they wade in sh*t daily and are often short tempered.BE COOL OR ELSE... college academic or not, RACISM LIVES!

PROBLEM SOLVED?
by now you know my opinion on healthcare issues. i was all set to rant again about the fact the Federal Reserve gave 13 TRILLION to various unnamed banks last year,with no strings attached, and yet $1.75 Trillion OVER A DECADE is too much for universal healthcare.SIGH.
while sniffling and sneezing i had an idea, maybe my brain has shaken loose.the Pentagon wastes billions every year, they can't keep track of all the money flowing thru that spigot.in Swtizerland every man is in the Reserves,get my drift? ALL AMERICAN CITIZENS WOULD BE NATIONAL ARMY FOR LIFE! socialized medicine like the VA or Single Payer? we put men on the moon but we can't provide national care???

GOT HUMOR?
just an aside, RON COBB a Great Political cartoonist of the 60s and 70s had two cartoons which are burned in my memory.1. a silent cartoon showing two black astronauts on the moon with Apollo 33 patchs,they are sweeping up the crap left by previous missions.2. outside a supermarket,a line of protestors lay dead,shot by a National Police firing squad.a National Police officer, in a Gestapo type uniform and monocle, is pulling on kid gloves and sneering "Vell,so much for crime in de streets!" thank you Bush 43.

in other news, check out http://www.sharedadventures.org/ an organization which brightens the lives and horizons of the disabled with free airplane rides,surfing,picnics,art shows etc.DAY AT THE BEACH was last weekend which had kayaking,surfing and sailboarding for the disabled near the Boardwalk,including kids plus free food for all later. i usually go but my torn calf muscles vs. sand did not seem like a good idea.
my nose is running again,gotta go catch it. aloha.

namaste "Nigras"
semper gumbo
mega

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

ONE GIANT LEAP ?

"That's one small step for (a) man,one giant leap for mankind." Neil Armstrong Apollo 11

aloha again, i am trying to resist the urge to be Ultra Snarky as i am on a liquid diet until my colonoscopy tomorrow morning.SIGH.

RANDOM FACTS
i have no memory of where i was during the Moon Landing 40 years ago,probably out protesting the Viet Nam War,Tricky Dick was in the lily White House...
just a short aside, when i found out the Viet Namese resisted Chinese occupation for a 1000 years,i repeat ONE THOUSAND Years, i knew we were screwed.no amount of lethal weaponry or endless supply of ghetto cannonfodder can beat that kind of determination,esp. not us short haul Yankees.(Yanqui come home!)

why did we go to the moon then drop the ball? no wonder tales of 'the moon landing hoax' (did you know NASA "accidnetally erased" the original moon landing videotape,oh really? mentioned on CNN just last weekend) and rumors of crashed dead cosmonauts spread across the lunar surface abound ( the "Santa Claus IS on the moon" Apollo 11 comment).

why are we going back now? a million tons of Helium 3,as reported on NPR this morning, or an endless supply of green cheese? i honestly don't get it. what happened to the GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND??? look at the news for the last 40 years,if you can and not puke your guts out...let me not belabor the obvious, you get the idea. half of NASA is currently involved in secretive 'black launchs' of military and intelligence hardware out of Vandenberg AFB (near Jacko's Neverland) and even the Space Shuttle has a discrete Military Channel unbenownst to most American listeners. if we were really going into Deep Space we would have 2001 style rotating wheel stations in the L-5 Zones halfway to the moon,stationary and eternal with non degrading orbits. do we ? if we don't we should...

PAUSE, despite my best efforts i am getting totally pissed just thinking about it.BREATHE BREATHE...despite using my C PAP gear nightly i still have persistent bouts of insomnia,just as my PCP warned despite her earlier praise of prior C PAP users being 'HAPPIER', i am Happy damnit despite being old sick and miserable (Thanx Soul Mate) in a state misgoverned by morons who can't or won't balance a multibillion dollar checkbook... BREATHE BREATHE.

aw screw it.
in other news.
http://www.supportyourvet.org/ to help or cope with our returning vets with PTSD or TBI.they need all our help and understanding.

aloha, Mahayana wishes y'all.
P.S.if you are a sci fi fan and not watching the TORCHWOORD mini series on BBC AMERICA,then shame on you!
PAGANI that toon keeps me sane, well almost...

namaste
semper grumpy
mega

Friday, July 17, 2009

HYPOTHERMIA (SIC)

"There is no free lunch."Milton Friedman,cold blooded GOP economist guru
(unless of course you're rich then...)

aloha again, i have strained or maybe torn several muscle groups in my lower back atop my spinal arthritis so this blog may end abruptly, be warned.

FAILING UPWARDS
other than a sweetheart deal with the Texas Rangers baseball club, George W.Bush has bankrupted EVERY BUSINESS he has been associated with (check it out). you would think this would disqualify him from being President of anything,right? there is the EVIL GENIUS OF GROVER NORQUIST, MILTON FREIDMAN et al who aim to STARVE THE BEAST (govt) and MAKE GOVERNMENT SO SMALL YOU CAN DROWN IT IN THE BATHTUB (actual quote).so start a few unnecessary wars, disrupt or abolish all regulatory guidelines and agencies,rape the economy and pension funds mercilessly then subvert the Constitution as an added incentive then leave , frankly i thot they would never leave voluntarily. so look what we have now...an economy in the crapper, a coldhearted philosophy (Friedman's) of cutting back education and social services while maintaining outrageous prison budgets and populations (thanx to Three Strikes overkill). KALIfornia is the poster child for this mess, the eternal budget stalemate here focuses on no new taxes for the rich while shredding the safety net for the poor,disabled and elderly and the stealing of $11 BILLION from education funds ( Prop 98) while Gov.Anus seems to fighting NOT to ever repay it. when i was a child KALIfornia was in the Top Five educational systems, now it is 48th to 50th depending on survey methods. apparently this is not bad enough, while some schools here decry class sizes of 20 to 25 i heard on NPR yesterday an LA school district when the class size is 42, let me repeat that 42! what kind of learning can take place in total chaos? our state bonds are hovering around JUNK BOND STATUS,just wait...

ANOTHER PET PEEVE
this one makes my blood boil too.BRINKS HOME SECURITY ADS.sample scenario, a white woman of varying ages is alone or with a girl child at home and two miscreants (all white in the commls i've seen) kicks in a door, the alarm sounds and the felon is scared off then the BHS pepes call & promise to call the cops.
1.this promotes FEAR IN WOMEN ( is BHS owned by the GOP?)
2. this assumes one has time to reach a phone before trouble strikes.
3. this assumes the cops will come.

a true story.
this happened in Washington DC about a dozen years ago. three or four women shared a house and they heard, what they thot was someone breaking in downstairs.they called the cops then a woman went downstairs to investigate, she was raped then tied up. they called again, another woman went downstairs to be raped then tied up and so on.end result THE COPS NEVER CAME (sic) so the Women Sued in federal court AND LOST! apparently the cops are NOT obligated to protect you merely report crimes and accidents. so much for BHS promises...

SUICIDE AGAIN
thanks PAGANI for your observations & opinions.i agree (see prior blog Comments)
a story i forgot to mention,when i lived in the Haight (SF in the 70s) i had an English friend who decided to walk across the world famous Golden Gate Bridge one day.she was walking behind two friends who chatted casually then walked mostly in silence...about halfway across one turned and suddenly leapt off the bridge, the other kept walking as tho nothing had happened while my friend began freaking out! i assume the CHP looked for a body after my friend reported it.
which reminds me, i drove cab from about 1975 to 1980,also in SF, you become pretty calloused by the job and your life experiences.one night a newbie, in his first week on the job, was crying copiously.apparently he took a ride from the Marina Distirct to Sausalito with the passenger in the front seat chatty.halfway across the GGB the passenger grabs the wheel and tries to ram the cab off the bridge, the newbie fights him off and jams on the brakes at which point the passenger opens the door and leaps over the railing into the night.our reactions varied from NEXT TIME HAVE THEM PAY IN ADVANCE! to ASK-TOURISM OR JUMPING? the newbie was horrified then quit never to be seen again.

a personal experience
-daytime,Kearny Street in the Financial District heading toward the Bank of Ameirca World HQ (in those days) with a male passenger.i have green lights for several blocks ahead when i notice a tall white man in a grey suit standing on a street corner ahead,no problemo until he steps out ahead of me and stands right between my headlights...my passenger screams! utilizing the 360 degree training a CHP safety manual recommends i swerve and take the lane of a brand new Mercedes on my left and miss the guy by the width of a button (no exaggeration) at which point he then does the same with another vehicle...blocks later my passenger regains his composure.I THOT HE WAS DEAD. THOT HE WAS COMING THRU THE WINDSHIELD!
i gave some taciturn macho response but my hands were shaking...i have also had several dear friends committ suicide,so this is not merely hypothetical,maybe another time.

in other news,
i have no new websites to offer and i hear a cold ice pack calling my name.aloha Mahayana...


namaste
semper gimpy
mega

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

APRES BASTILLE DAY

"Life ain't Free, you gots to PAY Attention!" sage advice

aloha again, i have stopped bleeding.(see prior blog)

BASTILLE DAY
41 years since i first arrived in KALIfornia.Hurrah!

40 years since the ridiculous WAR ON DRUGS began,HALF A TRILLION DOLLARS WASTED on the Least effective strategy and now drugs are cheaper and stronger than ever!i read a summary of the report that was given Nixon (Tricky Dick) and the best advice was cut off the Demand to curtail the Supply.why do we 'self medicate' more than anyone else on the planet???
what do we lack that our opulent society and mores does not supply?
(fill in the blank...)

had something more i wanted to kvetch about but i've lost it.

in other news,
Gov.Anus Schwarzetenpoufer has a new NO NEW TAXES,KILL THE POOR!website and TV ad digging in his heels on the most recent budget attempt. somebody on talk radio yesterday compared him to a Weathervane or a Pendulum,since you never know where he's heading.I DID NOT VOTE FOR THE MAN AND I HAVE MET SOME WHO DID WHO NOW,FINALLY,REGRET IT...Big Whoop.
"dumb too long,too late smart."

plus my other least favorite politician,for today, WILLIE BROWN was cackling on NPR that if he was still in charge none of this would be happening.a long forgotten UC poli sci prof predicted this whole horrible mess before term limits were put in place. a prophet without honor in his own land...the thing about pessimists is that we are delighted to be proven wrong SIGH but we seldom are.

Nurse Jackie had a tasteful episode on ASSISTED SUICIDE,agree or disagree.? this is a Hot Button issue among the crip community with dread dreams of EUTHANSIA afloat. me, i like it but i'm in CHRONIC PAIN so i'm biased.No?
gotta go, my back is killing me.aloha.

namaste y'all
semper grumpy
MAHAYANA BOUND
mega

Friday, July 10, 2009

SICKO

"How do you expect to pay for this?" Kaiser after i had been off work for 3 months and lost my coverage,unbeknowst to me...

aloha again.
www.pbs.org see BILL MOYERS JOURNAL about mr.Wendell Potter ex CIGNA PR Veep who speaks honestly about the Health Inusrance/Denial industry this week.these creeps are spending $1.4 MILLION A DAY in a "charm offensive" lobbying against the PUBLIC OPTION while paying lip service to being accomodating to the O. costwise 3% for Medicare versus 20-30% for HMOs/health insurance overhead.the diff going to stockholders and private jets etc etc.

"we have the best healthcare in the world"...WRONG! according to the World Health Organziation the US ranks 37th in overall health and life expectancy.47 million uninusred and another 25 mil underinsured.Mr.Potter also details the lengths the industry went to discrediting Micheal Moore's SICKO doc before it gained any real traction in DC. various talking points from industry PR flacks were also shown being parroted by the Grabby Olde Poltroons.

in other news,
according to the SACRAMENTO BEE article by Susan Ferriss today, nobody can seem to substaniate the Gov's claim that 25% of IHSS clients are involved in "waste fraud and abuse". 2-5% is the generally accepted figure according to the LAO (non partisan Legal Analysts Office).

that's enuff outta me today.

namaste y'all
semper grumpy
mega

Monday, July 6, 2009

CAMELOT/LORIAN

"Mistakes are the portals of discovery." James Joyce

aloha again,
am typing carefully so as not to get blood in my keyboard.cut my middle finger deeply last night rinsing a can for recycling.last time i cut this deeply was doing the same in the 60s and still bear the L shaped scar to this day.also..in the New Normal, pretty sure now i tore a muscle in my calf while spasming in my sleep.Lyme fx probably.take meds to prevent spasming but they don't work that well anymore...

B4 WOLF GIRL,NEKKID CAMELOT
nyc 1970
i am a bookish solitary by inclination and literally have to force myself out to mingle. while in nyc i read the Village Voice, the East Village Other (now defunct) and The Rat (also defunct). one of which lead me to Greenwich Village where a commune from hippie mecca Taos had made a documentary about their lives.they had opened a free clinic, newspaper, radio station and other community services in addition to their communal lifetsyle.the scenes of them driving a snow cat (tractor) to navigate invisible roads in blizzardy snow storms really put me off. after the movie the producers Away Team came out to mingle with the audience. a beautiful long haired blonde in hippie garb sat down and talked to me. she was hot slender tall and sexy. we hit it off.the group was moving from Taos to Pennsylvania and were expanding their moviemaking,health services,sleep research etc etc.they were recruiting...i was in a communal state of mind & intrigued.

the blonde was a former street urchin turned nurse named Heather, she invited me to meet her the next day at an address on the Upper Eastside (Germantown), it was a highrise with a uniformed doorman. she met me outside and explained it belonged to the parents of some members.we went upstairs to a condo with wonderful views of the East River where she explained the rules of the game. 1,she liked me.it was mutual. 2,sex was equal, not just the sexes but sex itself. i would have to SLEEP WITH 30 WOMEN IF I JOINED THE COMMUNE! 3,anyone i had a conflict with would join me on an Away Team mission until we learned to get along and so on.
WOWSA!

I was still still trying to get my head around this when two other pretty blondes arrived from Long Island with a 'haul of clothes'.before i knew it they were all quickly naked,no lingerie, and trying on various outfits.one jested that people were always looking in to see them naked, which is how they stayed after all the clothes were sorted. Heather explained that she was Lady Heather of Camelot (AKA Lorian) since they were always running around naked and didn't want to lose respect for each other.Lady Heather wore a hunting knife on a sling between her small perfect tanned breasts,cool.

Heather took me into the bedroom to hang out and watch TV where a very naked very pregnant brunette smiled at me.OKAY...so the group of @60 was roughly divided between what i deemed Movers and Shakers. the dozen or so Movers were the brain trust and the driving force of the commune, they did the heavy lifting mentally. apparently i had impressed them,or Heather, so that if/when i joined i would be bringing new blood and energy to the Movers.the current Movers were starting to burn out, i met some and they seemed Exhausted.

"what is HE doing here?" a frizzy black haired slovenly woman demanded as soon as she entered. my first enemy apparently.another new yorker and long time commune resident,she had no use for me and i could guess who my first Away Team assignment would be with. Camelot was only in town for six days then were showing the movie elsewhere.i had to decide by then...
i agonized over the opportunity but i value my privacy and to sleep with one or several women was challenge enough let alone 30 routinely.it is one of the few major regrets of my life, 15 years later Wolf Girl was a very poor subsitute for Lady Heather.later that year (1970) the New Dawn commune fiasco unfolded and i met my Cheap Hotel Goddess,more on her later. i have a trite poem.

in other news,
http://www.californiaonecare.com/ is the statewide version of Single Payer being proposed again. they have a 15 minute video.back in the mid 90s i was in the one of the first videos.me and a black woman from oakland were driven up to ritzy Corte Madera (Marin County, at that time the richest in the US), the female director literally took the clothes off her back to outfit the black woman and i was instructed to remove my ghetto style neck chain as i was waaaay too big to re outfit. they taped us telling her stories in the lavish backyard of some supporter.i was seen limping with my cane next to a lap pool and oval swimming pool...when my kids saw this they laughed their little asses off.it was so ridiculous, they meant well, the Single Payer people and they still do.check it out.
gotta stop now, my bloody bandage is leaking.

namaste
semper gimpy
mega

Saturday, July 4, 2009

UNDER OUR SKIN

"Politics is show business for ugly people." Jay Leno

Sarah Palin Resigns...WTF???

aloha again,
gotta head full snot.side fx of C PAP apparently, buried deep in the How To pamphlet.SIGH.

UNDER OUR SKIN
a film about Lyme Disease (epidemic) by ANDY ABRAHAMS WILSON. saw it a few days ago with Soul Mate, who kept elbowing me for moaning Too Loud. wasn't even aware i was doing it and the theater seat were 'hella' uncomfortable. there are two Art Houses in downtown Santa Cruz, the comfy and refurbished DEL MAR and the bare bones old seated NICK (Nickelodeon).so of course we were at the Nick with my right leg and ankle throbbing to beat the band (which band exactly?) anyway the movie is a sobering and non alarmist view about why L:yme has been both politicized and ignored. long term Chronic Lyme, which i have, has been implicated in Alzheimers,Parkinsons,MS and ALS (Lou Gehrigs) OH GOODY...

it's in Limited Release so if it comes to a town near you consider seeing it.i am told people in our local Lyme Support Group cried when they saw it, not exactly sure why? unlike me and SM's experience people actually got better in the movie but supportive doctors were punished by Review Boards, which is common both for Lyme and Environmetal Illness (see the movie SAFE for a skewed view of EI).

um...in other news,
was going to mention Nekkid Camelot commune from the 70s, maybe next time.
check out www.nakedcapitalism.com for the latest skewed news about our faltering economy.have you checked out STORM LARGE on YouTube yet? Pls do.
to Pagani, the phsyics concept of ENTROPY means that evenutally everything turns into crap. we all are no different.(see Sturgeons' Law too, scifi reference) a co worker of mine usedta say IN A HUNDRED YEARS WHO'LL GIVE A SH*T?
good point, keeps you humble.if your taste run beyond mere decorative art check out PAGANI'S ART JOURNAL...GOOD STUFF!!! i, as an artist too, like it!
going back to my menthol cough drops now.

namaste y'all
happy? 4th
semper gimpy
mega

Friday, July 3, 2009

DISBELIEF

"I can't believe that Keith Richards outlived me." famous last words according to NPR this week

aloha again,
Happy July 4th weekend.
here the cops are closing beachfront roads and preparing for the usual illegal fireworks,brushfires,clogged traffic and stabbings.the Senile,our local GOP rag, has run a series of articles terrorizing the locals about gangs and gang violence.people will be burning their red and blue clothes along with their burgers this weekend.

DRAG ME TO HELL
missed the movie, was it a docu about Bad Government in the Fools Gold(en) State? the Dims and the Greedy Old Patriarchs are having a pissing contest in Sacto over the bodies of the populace. our billionaire Gov is steamed that the poor got Stim money so now he proposed fingerprinting caregivers AND THEIR CLIENTS for Fraud???!! gimme a break, the county knows to the penny how much i make and spend every month yet my SHARE OF COST has risen,over the last few years, from Zero to over $300 out of the thousand plus i get each month from SSDI, i have EXTRA MONEY according to some mysterious formula which tells them HOW CHEAP IT IS TO LIVE IN CALIFORNIA...(crip snark) SIGH.

KALI-pornia is the 8th largest economy on the planet and yet these bumbling bozos in Sacto have taken us over the cliff (hello Lemmings!) ignoring the crippling effects of Prop 13 and the Grover Norquist antics (drowning govt in the bath tub) insanity wing of the GOP. we have beome a Banana Republic (not a plug) with stolen elections, fraudulent government, unnecessary cash draining wars abroad,waste and corruption blamed (inevitably) on the poorest of the poor.Hitler called us Useless Eaters, maybe the Gov heard the term from his father??? Blackwater Blitzkreig anyone?

the Gov is blaming the Dims,unions and Special Interests (sic..sick?) for the budget impasse yet he promises to Veto anything which does not bleed the poor,the unemployed, the foreclosed,the children and the schools white.THIS IS INSANE!

am listening to Noam Chomsky drone on and on and on behind me on Democracy Now, somehow he still has hope that the USA can avoid the iceberg ahead (Titanic reference)...i heard on Randi Rhodes that O BAMA MAN'S economic policy is like paying the arsonist, who just burned down your house, to help you rebuild it. yeah right.

the Big O said that 'we are not starting from scratch' on Health Care Reform which is why Single Payer is OFF THE F*CKING TABLE, SIGH & SIZZLE. sure, lets continue to waste billions of dollars for CEO bonuses and third houses. the Gangrenous Oligarchs Poachers attack ads decry "letting some government bureaucrat decide your healthcare" as opposed to some HMO bureaucrat decline it? like the tobacco industry, the HMOs make money by killing people, to be fair sometimes they just cripple us.
sorry i was trying to be more upbeat today, God Knows Why (and she ain't telling)...

in other news,
try to catch SECRETS OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS on the History Channel,lotsa good sleazy stuff.also see HELLFIRE CLUB on Wiki.
and check out the singing of STORM LARGE on YouTube (thanx Soul Mate) which is a Pure Pleasure.you gotta BELIEVE in something, i believe i willl stop now...aloha.

P.S. read your blog ME...DEAD,Jesus Christ PAGANI and here i thot i was Depressed! thanx for sharing....
see Rampster blog about Jacko idolatry.
this is almost as bad as the endless Reagan funeral flummery.

namaste y'all
count yore fingahs
semper grizzled
mega