Favorite Quotes

From Lyndon Johnson after 1968 race riots and the death of Martin Luther King Jr.

"What do you expect?  I don't know why we're so surprised.  When you put your foot on a man's neck for 300 years and then you let him up, what's he going to do?  He's going to knock your block off."

Water Water Nowhere

It's time to piss off libertarians (A favorite thing of mine.) while asking an obvious question.  California is in an ongoing, epic drought.  Governor Jerry Brown has signed an executive order mandating a 25% reduction in water use.  If we don't have enough water to grow tomatoes, can we allow water to be used to grow marijuana?   Environmentalists (I consider myself an enviro.) love to point out that it doesn't make a lot of sense to grow things like rice and almonds, two water intensive crops, in a semi-desert place like California's central valley.  How much sense does it make to brew beer during a drought?  It's not like we can't truck in Bud from the Midwest.

I'm Confused

I'm confused.  Republicans detest Attorney General Eric Holder, but they won't confirm his successor, Loretta Lynch, effectively keeping Holder in office.  My head hurts.

The Man Most Likely To Start World War 3

I Hate To Be Negative.....

I hate to be negative but won't the effects of human driven climate change be mitigated by a population die off.  I mean, come on, get real,  I'm 60 and the population of both the planet and the United States have doubled in my lifetime.  The idea that we can provide food, water, and health care for a few more billion people is ridiculous.  We can barely provide for everyone now, and it's only going to get worse.

Now, I know that a lot of people read stuff like this and assume that famine, disease, and all that will be the plague of the third world, and it won't happen here. ( Fill in any first world country for here.)  I don't know why first worlders make that assumption.  A massive drought, not enough water to grow food, knows no boundaries, and when push comes to shove, we can only buy so much food  from other countries.  And let's not forget our old friend war.  War over resources has already begun, and it will only get worse.

Talk about the four horseman.

Ebola

I've been sitting here reading articles about anti-vaxers and I started wondering, what happened to the Ebola scare?   I know there are American troops in west Africa helping to contain the outbreak, and because of that I would expect multiple news stories on the effort to stop the disease.  I've long felt that the United States would be far more secure if we converted an aircraft carrier task force or two from war to medical and disaster relief.

Meanwhile, cons in the U.S. have started blaming illegal aliens for the spread of measles, rather than Americans who are opposed to vaccinations.  I guess, when those same people predicted that terrorists would send Ebola infected illegals across the border because they hated our freedom didn't pan out, they moved on to some other  threat.  At least, measles is a real threat, even if we only have to look at self centered, upper middle class Americans for the true cause.

Hey, just thought I'd pass this along from my personal experience.  I grew up in a small, rural town in western Pennsylvania. My first grade class (1960, just so you know how old I am.)  had about fifty or so kids divided into two groups.  About 15 or so of those kids were mentally retarded.  There had been a rubella outbreak six years earlier, and women, infected with rubella, while pregnant, are at great risk of delivering mentally disabled children.

The Interview

Really want to piss-off Kim Jong Un?  The Interview is now eligible for Academy consideration.  Yes, I'm talking about a best picture nomination.  Come on Academy members, do us a favor.   You guys can give the actual award to one of those boring English films you love so much, but a nomination...why not?