Can't we all just get along?

It's Crazy Season again - have you noticed?  Your friends' facebook feeds are full of political venom for whatever side they're not on, and the news is full of "talking heads" spewing vitriol and hatred.  I have been trying to bury my head in the sand and focus on things I like.  Like podcasts.  And Thomas Tallis.  And the UK Bachelor (Spencer Matthews seems like a total jerk, but he sure is a good looking jerk).  I've stopped listening to anything political.  I listen to Wait Wait Don't Tell Me to get the week's news, and that's it.  I listen to audiobooks in the car.  I don't look at HuffPo.  I basically live a life of blissful ignorance in my mountains.

But politics has come to me.

I have an Obama bumper sticker on my car from 2008.  When I still believed in the Hope and the Change.  I haven't taken it off because I still like Obama.  I'm just not in love with him anymore.  

So my friend Sandor is visiting from London with his girlfriend Lotta and her son.  Yesterday we're waiting in the car while Sandor goes into the grocery store to buy beer.  And these rednecks in a white Toyota Tundra drive past really slowly mouthing obscenities at us (two women and a 4 year old in the car - stay classy, rednecks) about how Obama is a F*cking A$*hole, piece of $hit, etc.  They are driving past all threateningly, and kept on with the yelling for a minute or so, I guess because I kept my sunglasses on and refused to show any recognition that it was going on.  Finally they drove away.

So here's the immediate result:

Obama got a higher weekly direct debit amount from me, because honestly, we need a Democrat to put more money into education so that the future generation isn't so fantastically and outrageously full of shit.

The secondary result is that I am becoming more and more aware of the vitriol in politics - on my facebook feed, for example, on any given day I see dozens of cartoons or bumper sticker slogans making it seem like we're at war with each other.  If the Aliens landed tomorrow, and saw this venom, they really would think that we were two countries at war with each other.   

Look: I'm a Democrat.  But more than that, I'm an American.  I am not ashamed to say that I love this country, and I tear up when I hear "I'm proud to be an American."  God, I love that song.  I think this is the greatest country in the world (even greater than Iceland) and if I were stranded anywhere on the planet with no money and no prospects, I'd be happy as a clam to be in a Wal-Mart parking lot, because I know someone would help me.  I'd take being American, even on the worst days, over any other country.  I feel truly blessed to live in this country because it's based on freedom; and I recognize that it doesn't always live up to those ideals.  But when I travel to other countries, my passport doesn't say, "Democrat."  My passport says, "United States of America."   

I love this country, and I am sick to death of all of us declaring war on each other.  There's a war on Christmas.  There's a war on liberty.  There's a war on free speech.  There's a bloody war on Christians.  There's probably a war on my socks being waged somewhere.  Why all the warfare?  Is it helping?  Does it help people to somehow feel victimized, like they're being attacked, and need to fight back from some enemy who is out to get them? Does that strengthen their resolve?  Why do we need to constantly feel so threatened?  Is fear the only thing we respond to?

Because honestly, I like peace.  And cozy security.

How many of us have ever stopped to think that it's in the media and elected officials' interest to have us all fighting with each other?  Because if we all got along, what would Fox or MSNBC report on?  What outrages would they uncover?  What culture wars would they discover?  If we all got along, what would politicians run for reelection on?  

Have you ever thought that it's just a big joke?  That the lobbyists in Washington sit around with news executives and segment us apart bit by bit, and it's actually in their interest to have us all hate each other?  

And so here's what I'm going to do.  I'm going to make peace.  Below is a list of 10 things I agree with conservatives on.  See, we aren't so different:

1)  If you have a better cell phone than me, you probably shouldn't get food stamps.

2)  You really shouldn't be getting food stamps if you're separately buying alcohol and cigarettes for yourself with cash.

3)  Abortions really shouldn't be handed out like candy.

4)  The deficit is a bad thing.  

5)  Terrorists are also bad.
6)  Illegal immigrants are, by definition, breaking the law.

7)  A family should be able to own a shotgun.

8)  The ACLU goes wonky sometimes.  If a town wants a nativity scene, for pete's sake, let them put up a nativity scene.

9)  The CEO of a company can believe whatever he wants to about gay marriage.  I don't care.  As long as he's not discriminating against anyone, he should be able to do business and create jobs anywhere he wants, and let the market decide if they want to patronize him.

10)  In a perfect world children would be raised by two parents.  Preferably one of them would be at home most of the time. They might have some kind of ritualistic worship of a higher power that unites them.  They would eat dinner together. 

Now, who wants to make peace back with me?  Any conservatives want to list things they can agree with liberals on?  Maybe we can realize that we aren't so different after all?  Here's an idea of places to start:

1) The planet's resources are finite?

2) In a country as rich as the US, no family should ever be hungry.  And the government might need to step in to help them if times are tough?

3) A lot of illegal immigrants come to the US because there are low-paying jobs waiting for them.

4) Things like roads, public schools, bridges, libraries and parks are generally positive things in a community.

5) We really spend a huge amount of our budget on defense.

Anything else?  

Can we start to focus on what unites us, rather than what we don't like about each other?  

Thank you for letting me rant.  That is all.  I'm done now.

In Which I Get Political

In case you don't live in California, the economic malaise we're in has hit libraries disproportionately, with some losing up to 75% of their funding in the past few years.  Given the fact that many more people are using the library than ever (in over 70% of towns the library is the only place where you can get free internet, for example), this is a bad thing.

So I hightailed it up to Sacramento on Wednesday for the California Library Association's Legislative Day, where I met with my Assemblyman and Senator to talk about how important libraries are.  There were two highlights of the day.  First, I found out that the State Capitol has a decent cafeteria in the basement with a good salad bar.  Second, we had a read-in on the east lawn.  I've never been to a read-in before.  It was kind of like a sit-in, only with quiet librarians who didn't make any demands, and read a lot.  It was kind of like the quiet-non-confrontational-person's sit-in.

Oh, and the third highlight is that the Sacramento airport has a massage-bar, and for $30 I got a half-hour massage from a giant Russian man who beat me up, and I loved it.

Man, I made a political difference AND got my shoulders to relax all in the same day.  Leg Day rocks.

Things that Piss Me Off

You know what would seriously piss me off?  If I was living in Japan, and eight days ago I was doing fine, living my life, shooting the shit, and then the next day, bam, I lose my house and all my possessions in an earthquake and tsunami, and then, let's say I look at a newspaper, and I see this headline:

Japan Raises Nuclear Crisis Warning Level Retroactively

But really, what are you supposed to do with that?  Retroactively stay inside?  Retroactively dust off your hair?  Retroactively do something?  

What a clusterf*ck.  There's nothing else to say about that.  

Ann Coulter just wrote a column saying that radiation is good for you.  Is she getting a little upset that Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman are suddenly gracing conservative pin-up posters, and she's feeling a little left out, so she has to up the crazy ante to get some attention?  

Found this online at a blog called The Final Thread, which is pretty conservative, but still funny

Two things:

First, I love how she says that this new science saying radiation is good for you gets no attention from the press, but then quotes articles in the New York Times...I guess that's not press.  But actually, maybe it's not, since she's usually so disparaging of the liberal-leaning New York Times.  Except when it serves her purposes.  Seriously, I can't follow the circular logic.  

Second, you know it's bad when Bill O'Reilly thinks you're a nutjob.

The more things change...

I've been listening to Bill Bryson's Home, a Social History of Private Life for a while now, and just finished it yesterday.  I love Bill Bryson.  I first discovered him when Notes from a Big Country (known in the US as I'm a Stranger Here Myself) was recommended to me.  It's a collection of his newspaper columns from the first few years after he moved back to the US after spending 20 years in the UK.  I had only been in the UK for two years, but I already identified with much of his wonder and curiosity of life in the US.  The first time I walked into a Wal-Mart when I got back to the US, for example, is a time I will never forget.  I was blown away.  Why do they need three aisles for cereal and granola bars?  At my local Tesco Metro, there's like 6 kinds to choose from, and that was plenty for me.  Capitalism run amok, say I.

Anyway, my old buddy Bill Bryson is currently living back in the UK, and writing more interesting books than ever.  Home is a journey through each of the rooms of his house, where he manages to expound upon things such as why we have salt and pepper shakers, and not salt and cinnamon.  Or is it true that the Victorians, as they like to claim, really invented childhood?  And what about paint.  What's the deal with our desire to paint walls, and how did we do it before modern technology?  And when did we start putting ice in our drinks, anyway?

Bill Bryson is perfect for my ADD-ness because any time I start to get even slightly bored with a topic, we're on to another one, lickety-split.

So the final chapter was about archeology and how people have cared for their historical monuments throughout history.  It turns out, we haven't cared for them very well at all.  In fact, Stonehenge was very nearly impaled by a railroad track, it being decided to be "useless in the modern day."  During the agricultural failure of the 1870's when English crops failed miserably several years in a row, almost 2,000 historical stately homes were literally taken apart, board by board, and shipped to wealthy Americans like the Vanderbilt's, Mellon's and Astor's.  Stonehenge - seemingly always in danger - was almost shipped to the US to be part of a theme park!

I think that's pretty much of a travesty.

But here's a gem.  Finally around the mid-19th-century many English nobility were starting to realize that they should care about their historical treasures.  And, you know, maybe make them public owned.

The landowners did not like this.  It was government takeover of private land!  How dare the government tell people what to do with their land, whether there was something of national interest on their land or not. What about property rights?!  Of course, the term Socialism didn't have the same sting then that it does today, but I can imagine that if that were proposed today, the proponents would be getting the S-bomb dropped all over them.

The Ancient Monuments Protection Act was finally passed through Parliament in 1882, and it provided for an Inspector of Ancient Monuments who would identify items of historical interest and give them government protection, attempting to take them into public lands.  It was slow going at first - the first Inspector General - Augustus Pitt Rivers - served from 1882 until his death in 1900, and identified only around 40 monuments that should be protected - barely 2 a year.  Now there are over 19,000 items on the register.

This is why I like Jon Stewart and the growing movement of reasonableness amongst people (like me) who are disgusted with the Tea Party Fascists.  I think that we can all agree that Stonehenge should not have a railway running through it.  So that leads me to believe that everyone could agree that there are at least some pieces of private land, or private property rights, that should be taken into public custody for the good of society at large.  So then we can have a civilized discussion of what makes something worthy of being taken into public custody, and come to some reasonable consensus.  We won't get there, though, with Tea Party Nutso's wanting to do away with government completely.

It just makes me laugh when I hear about people freaking out over the loss of rights 130 years ago.  This discussion is not new.  I'm sure the Romans had similar discussions about what belonged in the public arena, and what should stay private.  There are some things that benefit all society - like roads, infrastructure, libraries, education, defense - which we seem to have agreed on should not be largely in private ownership where profits and shareholders are the number one concern.  There are some areas where profits need to be set aside for a greater good for society.  I contend that health care is one of those areas as well, though I know many disagree with me.  The point is that once we can agree that there are some things that shouldn't be profit-driven, we can sit down and hammer out the details.

But you can't do that if you're just calling everything Socialist all the time.

Still, it's nice to see that those 19,000 monuments are protected, regardless of the freakouts of the landed nobility.  Things move forward towards the greater good, and eventually we will have national healthcare, despite all the fear-mongering-death-paneling of the Tea Party.  It's just a shame for the 2,000 stately homes that the UK didn't protect them sooner.

Why this non-pot-smoker favors prop 19

It's silly-season again, which in the Formula 1 world refers to the period of time when contracts are being renegotiated and no one is quite sure who will drive for which team next year.  But the way I'm using it refers to Election Mania.  This year is turning out to be quite nutty, what with the chick in Delaware who thinks there's mice with human brains running around; and, well, actually, she's the funniest thing going at the moment.  Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity should be fun, but it's not actually all that funny.

California has a couple of fun things happening.  I'm hoping that there's a high voter turnout for Proposition 19, which would legalize and regulate marijuana like alcohol or cigarettes.  I'm a fan of this.  And not because I smoke pot.  I don't.  I've tried it, and it makes me tired, and messes me up for days, and it's just not worth it.  I'm silly enough, and eat enough junk food as it is.  I don't need any other substances encouraging me in my life of sloth and video games.

Here's what I know about pot:

I know it's an ancient herb that has been smoked for five thousand years, and has proven medical uses.  I also know that Americans take a crapload of drugs from so-called "pharmaceutical" companies that haven't been around as long as pot, aren't natural, and haven't been proven in the long-term.

I know that pot helps people with many diseases, from cancer patients, to people suffering from AIDS, to people who have migraines.  It could actually be called an original wonder-drug.

Then I look at the people who are against Prop 19.  One of the biggest lobbies funding the No on Prop 19 cause is Big Alcohol.  Which leads me to another point.  Whether you smoke or not, whether you think it's right to smoke or not, please tell me how alcohol can be legal and pot can't.  How can it be that every nice restaurant around has a wine list, and pot isn't legal?  How can it be that people joke all the time about how smashed they got over the weekend, or they sit around on Sundays watching football and drinking beer, or they can go to clubs and freely get hammered, but pot is illegal.

Alcohol has no redeeming qualities about it.  It's a poison.  It's a toxin.  Pot, at least, has qualities that are natural, and medicinal.

Another thing.  When you drink too much, you do stupid things.  I know this from experience.  One time when I was living in England, I drank too much and started yelling at a guy for giving his girlfriend flowers because I assumed he was a jerk who had done something bad, worth apologizing with flowers.  I was angry then.  But my point is, people get drunk and they do stupid things like get into fights, or have affairs, or any other number of stupid things that people do when they're drunk.

When you smoke too much pot, here's what happens:  You eat a lot of Doritos, you watch some stupid Ashton Kutcher movie (ie Dude Where's my Car), and then you pass out and wake up with a kink in your neck.  And you stink.

Nobody smokes pot and then gets violent and beats people up.  Seriously.  Find me one person who has just smoked pot (ie doesn't have any other drugs or alcohol in their system) and has committed a violent crime.  Potheads pass out with their PS3 controller in one hand, and their other hand in the donut box.

The idea that we spend billions of dollars arresting people for this seriously Blows My Mind.  Are you kidding me?  Is that how you want your tax dollars spent?  Personally, in a state where the police are behind in testing rape kits (sometimes passing the statute of limitations for prosecuting), I think it's morally and criminally wrong that police resources go to arresting and prosecuting potheads.  It's beyond wrong.  It's disgusting.

Now I'm not saying that pot is completely benign.  Obviously it slows your reaction time, it can make you distracted, it can make you eat a lot of junk food.  So regulate it, like we do tobacco and alcohol.  That's what Prop 19 does.

Oh, I haven't even touched on the drug cartels yet.  It's estimated that up to 60% of the profits of drug cartels comes from marijuana.   Why do we continue wasting our tax money while we line the pockets of the Bad People when it could be the other way around?  Take the money from the Bad People, and use it in our schools.  And free up police man-hours and overcrowded jails while we're at it.  Two for one.

I mean, look at what happened to organized crime during prohibition.  Prohibition doesn't work, period.  

Some people say that legalizing marijuana is a slippery slope, and that pot is a gateway drug.  Maybe it's a gateway drug because kids get it from drug dealers.  Maybe, if you made it available freely, people wouldn't talk to drug dealers as much, and they wouldn't be drawn into other drugs.

Prop 19 supporters currently have a small edge with 6 weeks to go.  I'm hoping that common sense will outweigh fear tactics.  It will happen sooner or later.  We won't keep fighting this losing war on drugs forever.  It's just a matter of how much more money we're going to waste on it.

That's why I gave money to LEAP - Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.  They are responsible people with backgrounds in law enforcement who are countering the fear mongering that is being backed by pharmaceutical and alcohol companies. 

I used to go to a 7-11 that was across from a pot dispensary in Hollywood.  I asked the guy who owned it whether he liked the location, and he said he loved the marijuana customers.  They bought so much stuff, he said.  It was so good for business.  So maybe we can get the junk-food lobby throwing some money towards legalization???