Sanity on the War on Drugs

Charles Bowden is an author and journalist whose work has largely focused on the US/Mexico Border region. His writing has especially centered on the Mexican Drug War and Ciudad Juárez, the border city known as the epicenter of Mexican drug violence. His critically acclaimed book, Murder City: Ciudad Juárez and the Global Economy's New Killing Fields, was published in 2010 by Nation Books. His latest work, edited along with Molly Molloy, is El Sicario: The Autobiography of a Mexican Assassin and was just released, also by Nation Books.

How to be alone

Brilliant

Thank You Virtual I/O -1995

Thank you Virtual I/O for not accepting my application sometime in 1995. I answered an ad for a Novell Network Admin because my part time job was coming to an end. I had taken a class for Novell Netware and had worked with it for nearly a year at the Community College. Even upgraded the system from 3 something to 4.11 I think were the versions. (Is Netware still alive?).

This was the beginning of the "Internet thing" and so many things sounded exciting. There weren't that many people around with lots of hands on experience with servers or the latest interface. Internet Browsers were primitive then and Windows was probably 4.11 or '95

Luckily for me I followed one of my instructors advise when asked about my previous 10 years of work experience and proudly told the interviewer (CEO at this point) that I'd been an auto mechanic and completed a 2 year course in CNC machines.

Never heard from them again ... but my part time job suddenly opened up again to full time and that's where I spent the next 10 years

Virtual I/O closed it's doors within two years of my application because the cost of their product was above what the public could afford.  I also doubt the home user or Internet technology was up to the task.  We were still using modems then and DSL was almost unheard of.

Virtual I/O 1000 Lenora Street, Suite 600, Seattle, WA 98121 206.382.7410

Virtual I/O manufactures and sells a line of personal display systems, including the lightweight i-glasses. These head-mounted video systems use see-through optical technology and provide high-quality video and computer images.

I only got thinking about this because Google just won a patent on glasses

Google was awarded design patents on Tuesday for its Project Glass browser glasses. Project Glass is the company’s first venture into wearable computing.

Google Wins Patent for Project Glass

Romney Economics

Kansas City's GST Steel had been making steel rods for 105 years when Romney and his partners took control in 1993. They cut corners and extracted profit from the business at every turn, placing it deeply in debt. When the company eventually declared bankruptcy, workers not only lost their jobs but were denied their full pensions and health insurance, and the government was forced to step in and provide a bailout.

Google hurricane notices

Sometime last year I must have signed up for Google notices on hurricane activity and got my first of this season yesterday.  I hope they only come about Eastern Pacific or I could be swamped and I have no idea how to turn off or adjust Google notices.   Anyway here's on I got this morning from some Florida paper.

The Eastern Pacific hurricane season kicks off Tuesday and forecasters said chances were good that it could coincide with the first tropical depression.

The National Hurricane Center said there was an 80 percent chance that the system, designated 90E and located 623 miles south of Acapulco, Mexico, would spin up into the first tropical cyclone of 2012. If it becomes a tropical storm, it would be named Aletta. Most models have it moving toward the northwest or west-northwest.

Florida article

$hit My Dad Says

From another conversation with Dad about Internet comments

"Jesus H.  You're a bright kid but you sure like to wear an asshole's costume every once in a while.  It means that the future leaders of your country, I say your 'cause I'll have long decomposed, are gonna be people that have absolutely no experience with actual confrontation.  Thirty years from now the President of the most powerful country in the world is going to be some little shit who sat at his computer and hurled insults three feet away from his mommy's tit like it was no big deal.  I don't condone fighting, but when a human being understands that his or her actions might result in a giant fist up his or her ass, he or she learns a thing or two about acting before they speak.  All I'm saying is, I'm glad I'm going to be dead.  Also, happy birthday.  That's why I called."

Pretty crude but funny.  I'm sure there are Dad's like that

Why Internet Commenter's Will Eventually End The World

Making nasty remarks when you haven't a clue ... should get you in trouble!

'Mistake' To Let Women Vote?

Via The Raw Story: "Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, a tea party activist that's appeared several times on Fox News, and founder of an organization where Sean Hannity serves as an advisory board member, said in a sermon recently published to YouTube that America's greatest mistake was allowing women the right to vote, adding that back in "the good old days, men knew that women are crazy and they knew how to deal with them" ... Peterson, founder of the conservative religious group Brotherhood Organization of A New Destiny (BOND), appeared on the Fox News Channel on May 1, more than a month after giving his controversial sermon. Fox News host Kirsten Powers even confronted Peterson about his "mysogynistic" speech and challenged Hannity to repudiate it...".* Ana Kasparian and Brett Erlich break it down on The Young Turks.

Where do people like Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson come from ... unbelievable 

Rosemary Clooney

I was ready to go on about what Rosemary Clooney brought into this world along with my feelings about her music in the '50's.   It turns out that Rosemary was the sister of Nick Clooney who was George's father.   All the family in show business in one form or the other.

Rosemary's music was competing with Elvis and Rock n Roll in the '50's but I do remember a few of her songs.  A few because they were popular and also appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show.   She must have done better with my parents generation.

Anyway back to George.   Not many people or actors give me a good feeling like he does.  Liked all of his movies tho I've probably only seen half of them.  Always seems to be involved in the right causes including being a United Nations Messengers of Peace.  The man has a good mix of humor, intelligence and a sense for what is right.   Gives me a little more faith in the human race ... and we could use more like him.

Travel in my future?

I've thought about it and still do on occasion. Especially with my Blogging buddy Steve that lives near me in Mexico but seems to be constantly on a tour to somewhere. Right now he's on a sea cruise across the Atlantic and into the Mediterranean. Seems like they are lucky to get a day in each port they visit. If I were to travel I'd just get off the plane and start to wander with some kind of plan prepared. A boat full of retired people is not my style altho it's been a long time since I've been out on an ocean.

No ... for some reason the rest of the world does not seem as interesting to me as it once used to. Any place I think I might want to see is either too expensive, too cold or too politically unstable. My age seems to be contributing to a lack of patience with the types of things traveling entails.  I also don't need a vacation ... that's what retirement and Mexico are all about. My yearly trips up north are enough airports for me.

I just ran across this article called "4 reasons traveling is a waste of time" and while I don't agree with all of it ... it makes a lot of sense. Part of the article and link below.

4 reasons traveling is a waste of time

I’m growing sour on travel. I have always disliked it. When I was a kid my parents took us all over Europe and the Caribbean, and it really exhausted me. Now that I’m a grown up, I am better able to articulate why I think travel is a waste of time. Here are four reasons why I think the benefits of travel are largely delusional:

1. There are more effective ways to try new things.

While it’s true that learning and broadening your experience is important, doing that one time is quite different from consistently integrating something new into your life. It’s low risk to try something for a week. Which will make more impact on your life: going to Africa for a week and seeing wildlife and living in the jungle, or retooling your weekly schedule so that you take a walk through your local forest preserve once a week? You will have a stronger connection to the forest preserve than the jungle, and you will have a deeper sense of how it grows and changes and how you respond. So if you hope that travel will change how you see the world, doing something each week to see the world differently will have more impact than doing it one time, seven days in a row.

4 reasons traveling is a waste of time

Barack Obama Supports Gay Marriage - Finally!

Obama declares support for gay marriage
.
President Obama today announced that he now supports same-sex marriage, reversing his longstanding opposition amid growing pressure from the Democratic base and even his own vice president.

In an interview with ABC News' Robin Roberts, the president described his thought process as an "evolution" that led him to this place, based on conversations with his own staff members, openly gay and lesbian service members, and conversations with his wife and own daughters.

Steve Mulligan - Bull-shit artist

This sad sack of BS came to the College Campus I was the IT manager of in 2002-2003.   He bull shitted his way in with some grand plan for an IT educational department.  Problem is our campus had NO tech savvy and was starving for programs that could bring students in.

I challenged his bullshit ideas at one point and he threatened me with physical harm if I exposed him.   Gladly someone figured something out because he was only there for a little over a year and he accomplished nothing except a paycheck for himself.

Steve's BS BIO - A salesman and nothing more

He was also aided by a misfit named Michael Baker who scammed his way into teaching a computer tech class ... and Mike was only interested in his job.   I'll get back to Michael Baker on a later post.   I just hope these two have found used car salesman jobs somewhere because they don't seem to be able to do anything else.

The long time President of our small technical campus has now retired and I sure hope there is someone that knows something technical ... and/or the Seattle Community College District is overseeing our/my campus

Michael Baker

To a certain someone in Melaque Mexico

Your everlasting summer
You can see it fading fast
So you grab a piece of something
That you think is gonna last
You wouldn't know a diamond
If you held it in your hand
The things you think are precious
I can't understand


CHORUS:
Are you reelin' in the years
Stowin' away the time
Are you gatherin' up the tears
Have you had enough of mine

You been tellin' me you're a genius
Since you were seventeen
In all the time I've known you
I still don't know what you mean
The weekend at the college
Didn't turn out like you planned
The things that pass for knowledge
I can't understand

CHORUS

I spend a lot of money
And I spent a lot of time
The trip we made in Hollywood
Is etched upon my mind
After all the things we've done and seen
You find another man
The things you think are useless
I can't understand

CHORUS

Remember LSD?

Just another faze in my life from a long time back but definitely a memorable one. I left it behind for basically the same reasons as marijuana ... in that it became somewhere between boring and simply too confusing to be meaningful. Eventually in your 20's you need to ask what am I doing with my life. At least I did.

Not any serious bad trips but some strange experiences. Like driving in downtown San Francisco and the city had the depth appearance of a blackboard, my best friend jumping off our 2nd floor balcony because of something his girl friend said (landed in flower bed) and taking a machete away for a friend who heard his girl was sleeping with someone else. Crazy times. We would buy toys every week for the weekend parties, make strobe lights, collages, fluorescent anything ... just like kids!!

Marijuana just became boring with little more than laying on the floor listening to music. LSD not so simple and left me very confused. I eventually tried to commit myself to the Santa Clara mental health department. I walked in and presented my case to a very nice nurse ... and as sympathetic as she was she just pointed to a guy sitting on the floor, nodding and mumbling to himself. That's the kind of people we admit here; she said. Next thing I knew I found myself in Eugene Oregon going to college.