Protest in Paradise

Posted on January 31, 2008

Fight the Power, San Marcos, California

Sharing: Kurt Vonnegut

Posted on January 30, 2008

I was once asked if I had any ideas for a really scary reality TV show. I have one reality show that would really make your hair stand on end: George W. Bush has gathered around him upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists…and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or PPs, the medical term for smart, personable people who have no consciences.

To say somebody is a PP is to make a perfectly respectable diagnosis, like saying he or she has appendicitis or athlete’s foot. The classic medical text on PP’s is The Mask of Sanity by Dr. Hervey Cleckley, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the Medical College of Georgia, and published in 1941. Read it!

Some people are born deaf, some are born blind or whatever, and this book is about congenitally defective human beings of a sort that is making this whole country and many other parts of the planet go completely haywire nowadays. These were people born without consciences, and suddenly they are taking charge of everything.

PP’s are presentable, they know full well the suffering their actions may cause others, but they do not care. They cannot care because they are nuts. They have a screw lose! And what syndrome better describes so many executives at Enron and WorldCom and on and on, who have enriched themselves while ruining their employees and investors and country and who still feel as pure as the driven snow, no matter what anybody may say to or about them? And they are waging a war that is making billionaires out of millionaires, and trillionaires out of billionaires, and they own television, and they bankroll George Bush, and not because he’s against gay marriage. Read more

“Egg on his face!”

Posted on January 29, 2008

“Egg on his face!”
“Egg on his face!”
“Someone dropped egg on the President’s face!”
“What an embarrassment!”
“What a disgrace!”
“The President wiping egg off of his face!”

“Stop all the presses! Loop the raw feed!
Get on the wire! We’ve got a new lead!”
The reporters and cameras all fight to keep pace
With the fast breaking news of egg splattered on face.

“This just coming in,” the news anchors exhort.
“To the White House we go for this special report.”

“We’re on the South Lawn,” the reporters exclaim,
“On what moments before was a typical day,
The sun shining bright, the scene festive and gay,
The Marine Band on hand getting ready to play.
It was billed by his staff as a keen photo-op.
The commander en route to the first of three stops:
A factory, school, and then he would fly straight
To a party fundraiser. Ten-thousand a plate. Read more

De Train! De Train!

Posted on January 27, 2008

Union Pacific: Truckee, California

Should marijuana be legalized?

Posted on January 26, 2008

Why Can’t You be More Like TiVo!?

Posted on January 22, 2008

Ah… procrastination. The nectar that plies the mind before Starbucks works its black magic. So while I wait for the alkaloid C8H10N4O2 to squeeze the jumper cables over my noodle, I’ll blog. I was on Myspace the other day, looking through profiles, when I came upon someone writing about TiVo.

“Oh, TiVo, you never let me down,” she wrote, or something to that effect. Which got me to thinking: What if people were more like TiVo? Wouldn’t it be Eden?

Consider some examples:

1. When you ask TiVo to do something, it motherfucking does it. Think of every hostile encounter that might be avoided if people acted the same? Imagine a world where everyone did everything-the-fuck-they-said-they-were-gonna-do? I know, I’m sounding like John Lennon.

2. TiVo is thoughtful. Not only will it record your shows, but it will record other shows that might be of interest to you. You might remember an episode of the King of Queens where Doug’s TiVo starts taping programs with predominantly gay themes? (”My TiVO Thinks I’m Gay!) Doug is so chagrined that he starts taping only war documentaries. Soon, he’s reclassified as a Nazi. ~sigh~ I wish I had friends who spent afternoons pondering whether to send me Hermann Göring videos or season four of The L World.

3. With TiVo, the picture is high definition. Crazy how we make televisions now where the line count is as sharp as the view out our window. When was the last time your life felt so clear?

4. Getting TiVo costs $5.99 per month. Hells ya! For less than two beers, I get an honest, dependable, thoughtful companion who is sensitive to my needs and interested in my wants. A best friend, selflessly giving, who asks nothing but for my financial honesty, and strives in its own way to make my life just a tiny bit better.

I’ve just re-read this. Is it any surprise that I’m single?

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The Room at the Top of the Stairs

Posted on January 20, 2008

Antique Stairway: Virginia City, Nevada

Walkabout Jones: Mission Improbable

Posted on January 14, 2008

Welcome to a new season of Walkabout Jones. Postponed is the trip across America–mostly since gas is about to eclipse $4 a gallon. Instead, WJ is getting primed to take you on a different kind of journey. What you’ll read in the next many months will be an eye-opener. It will be controversial, dangerous and totally unique within all media.

Get ready, my friends, to dive down a rabbit hole. Where it takes us, nobody knows. In the here and now, I can’t reveal much. We’ll be operating in a legal gray area and I’m consulting with attorneys. What I can say is that it’s a worthy project that’s non-violent and aspires to help people. There will be many twists and turns, you’ll be meeting some very colorful people, and together we’ll take a deep look at a timely political and social question.

Make us a habit. It won’t be boring.

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