My 9-11

We were in Ojai for a short vacation
We slept in.
While at a housewares/decorating/novelty store, about 11AM, a clerk started following us around.
He needed to connect.
He was creepy.
I thought he was hitting on one of us, probably the blond one, Adam, not me.
He asked us if we heard what happened.
We were puzzled.
He told us a plane flew into the World Trade Center.
I thought he meant a small one. By mistake.
Then he told us another plane hit the second one.
Then I thought he was nuts and sort of like Mike White in Chuck and Buck.
Then he told us that both of the buildings fell down.
And while I was thinking that he was off his meds and just making stuff up I noticed that Adam had a hit of recognition on his face. He had caught something out of the corner of his eye on a television.
Adam turned to me and told me that he thought he saw or heard something happened in New York.
It started to seem real.
The clerk still seemed like a strange spastic who needed friends.
He was our messenger.
I went outside and called my father on my candy bar cell phone.
I asked my father if any of this was true.
He said, in his warm and strong Yonkers accent--Yes. It's unbelievable.
We continued to talk. My father's innocence was destroyed. Mine was.
We called other friends on our cell phones.
We only had cell phones for about fourteen months.
We went back to our room and watched the horror for a few hours.
Like everyone else, we called whoever we could, went into shock, checked on whoever we could.
We did not stay at the inn. It was paid for but we left. We felt like we had to go home.
Of course, we got off very easy.
Four weeks later, we got a dog.

Oh Mighty ISIS

You can look at ISIS as the enemy, or you can get even more grim about it:

Our species is fatally flawed.

If a brain can get so dogmatic as to want to kill anyone in its path that does not agree with it, then this is a biologically based problem.

Why does the brain need agreement? Or getting larger: Is this really just an example of the pecking order gone insane?  What is the mind trying to do here?  Why does it need this incredible one-way order? Is it the same drive that makes for slavery?

It is so wonderful that evolution took our minds to a place where we are able to think about so much and to do so much. But like everything, the process didn't necessarily stop at the nice spot.

Things fall apart.

Dance.

Just Take a Look at This

It is, pretty much, mind boggling, the link at the bottom of this post.

And the Right---has sort of shut up about it.

I love the Right. Just listen to what they are screaming about the most...it's always a death rattle.

What bullies. What monsters. What creeps.

Sore winner, I?

Okay, maybe.

Let's talk about what is good about the Right: Personal responsibility and incentives. They sort of invented carrots (but let's face it, sticks, too).

The Left gets mushy.

But damn, we on the left mostly get it right.

Eat my map.

http://www.freedomtomarry.org/states/

The Blog Did Not Die

Hello Blog Friends,

No, Open Trench did not die. What happened, as if I haven’t already inundated you enough with the fact, is this:

http://www.vrbo.com/615086

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/3827122

http://www.flipkey.com/los-angeles-vacation-rentals/p884897/

https://www.facebook.com/MansfieldHouseLosAngeles

It took five weeks, every bit of my middle aged muscle, the last bits of coin I had in my wallet and most of my nerves. But it took. And it is booking like hotcakes at a 1940s autumn fair. So though I could complain, instead I am going to say, “Tell your friends and neighbors and production companies.”

The blog continues. I am back online.

What was interesting is for most of July and August I did not read any news. Now that I have picked up the paper again, what the fuck has changed? Nothing. A few dead people that used to make some people laugh. The Islamic movement got an acronym. The Russians got more aggressive.  Shit. Humans. Are they really worth writing about?

I look forward to a bland news season. I imagine myself, two hundred years after my death, saying, “Finally, the Middle East has become Paramus, just like everywhere else, and people are too busy shopping to give a shit about their differences.”

Chant for Pan-Paramus.

And for rain in California.

Hello, from Sweden

News That Will Finally Put You at Ease

I have finally discovered my Drag Name:

Ausable Chasm

Don and God...at Yale

See you later.
I'm about to encounter experts.

Don

Syria- Slee?

It's pretty wretched and it's all getting a bit Hutu Power around those northern parts of Iraq.

Frigging lunatics.

You know, there may be a water shortage and there may be all sorts of other problems, both present and historical...but why, oh why, do we still resort to violence?

Being the super power sucks. We Americans have to do all this crap all over the world so we can continue to enjoy our cheap cotton T-shirts in peace. Sure. Fine. That's what we do.

But give a man a/teach a man to fish, right?  When are we going to teach these damn people how to fish? I think maybe never. Maybe, they are not teachable.  That killing is not the answer.

Plus, what do we know about Jihad, really, except that our violent Protestant and Catholic ancestors loved to go at it for decades at a time.  But they came to their senses, slowly but surely...the last sputtering stupidity in Ireland. (Well, like all these things, it wasn't just a religion thing.)

Friends in the Middle East, if you can hear me: Stop killing people. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. Like putting sugar in a gas tank or beer in a baby.  It's insane.

Why not this?  As soon as some group of people decides to go on a rampage...instead of us going in to protect...why don't we just drug them all with sleeping gas?  Just slow them down...then, while they are sleeping, we can brain wash them. Or lobotomize. Something.

All these centuries as homo sapiens and we still didn't get it right. Damn our luck. It's sickening. And to just stand by and say, "Oh, that's how we are. We go to war," is just cynical and pathetic.

New Way of Doing Things, Please.

Read This Friedman. Get Ready, Friends, It's Gonna Be Rough

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/11/opinion/friedman-the-real-war-of-ideas.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

June 11, some Truths, now. At least on this End

As you get older, it simply can't be all about you. That will make you sick.

The climate change reality has pretty much subsumed the deniers. The deniers are quieting down---as their cows and kids are being sucked up into tornado funnels. Whatever it takes...

True Capitalists, like mean teachers, try to separate everyone so they have no power, are completely alone, and yield all their energy to the leader. Don't let those bitches separate us. I Love You, Sheila! See you after school to figure out our plan!

Transgender Rights are on the rise. God Bless the Transgenders. (Only one of the nouns in that last sentence has been truly known to exist. Enjoy this empirical truth.)

I believe in dogs. But I won't do it! I won't! I don't care how intense my dogbido is.

People make fun of fame seekers. But when all the jobs go away because Google has automated everything, the only people who will feel connected are those that are witnessed by others DOING something. Keep filming and sharing.

I also love goats. But they eat everything in an apartment.

My Right Wing friends have left me alone on Facebook. Thank goodness. "Love ya, you bunch of Mussolinis, but I'd rather raise the minimum wage and give away free health care that we richer types can easily pay for than listen to your hatred and fear of people with fewer resources than you have. People can't become self starters when their untreated yeast infections are larger than their loaves of bread. Yeah, I just made that up and it is disgusting."

High Speed Rail!  Say it ten times to everyone you meet.

My neighborhood park is loaded with Ground Hogs. The Real Estate Agents should call this area, "UBilMu" for Upper Bill Murray.   We're here all week. Is this thing on? How's the prime rib?

My goldfish, though a fine animal, is not very affectionate. I feed her anyway. Love the cold blooded. Why the hell not?

I need to eat more peanuts. If not just because I like them, but to save the kids.

Plastic. It is plastic and chemicals that are destroying our gametes (eggs and sperm) and that is why the nervous systems of so many children are whacked. You don't think we're a delicate species? Why not? Why don't you think that?

My husband's shoulder is way better. Shoulder season is almost over.

Hillary in 2016. Come on now.

Must switch back to a Mac. Egad. I've been whipsawed by platforms for years. Can't face it.

Limes are more expensive because of supply and demand, not because of taxes. Get it, yet?

We're going to Sweden shortly. It's all about Midsummer. Sad to fly. Why do we fly? Why aren't we sliding to Europe on magnets?

Water. Water. Just think about this: We are made of water, mostly. So every day, when you wake up, think about every action you take and ask, "What does this do to the water?"  If you worry about the water, more than anything else, the air will end up being taken care of, too. And the land. The water is where it all gets mixed.

Water.

Eau.

Wasser.

Bitte.

Ready for More Enlightenment, Please

There were the Greeks.

The Renaissance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance

The Age of Enlightenment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment

The Sexual Revolution and Civil Rights movements of the mid to late 20th Century.


And now...we wait.  We wait for the next phase.

I hope it is math based with a great understanding of the human being's place in relation to nature. And that it celebrates, too, love, the kind of love that makes people calm and not so shut down and greedy.

Revolution of thought? Not really. Just a rejiggering.

Perhaps, too, in the understanding of math and the better qualities of humankind, people will be happy to repeal the second amendment of the American Constitution.

We can go to the next level. Don't you feel it?

Isn't This How You Feel?

http://www.wimp.com/goatgives/

Thanks, N.B.

Oh, Maureen...

Maureen Dowd got high and had the death trip. Sounds awful:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/04/opinion/dowd-dont-harsh-our-mellow-dude.html?ref=todayspaper

But let us remember, before we laugh at her too hard:

1) She really didn't know how much she was eating.
2) Marijuana IS a hallucinogen.

Friends, pot is here to stay.  Eat sparingly. Smoke smartly. And remember---if things get really bad, don't sit still. If you find yourself lying on the floor like Maureen, fingering your green corduroys, get the hell up and walk around and repeat to yourself over and over, "I am safe. This is temporary. I am safe. This is temporary."  And breathe. It will go away. Your heart will stop pounding. And there is no one who is really out to get you.

You know--our biobags are sensitive little things. We need to take care of them. Moderation.

Maureen--you made a big stupid mistake Bogey-ing that candy bar.  But I did like, for maybe the first time ever in your column, that you seemed vulnerable.  Maybe that's the lesson here:  Sometimes, you hit the edge of your personality and you find out that you are not in control and it is scary. And then, you get to be vulnerable. Which is good. And maybe what it took to get Maureen Dowd to get like that, publicly, was a nasty high gone wrong.

So glad she made it out alive. Hopefully, she won't be one of the very few who turn schizophrenic from a too solid dosing. I bet not. She sounds like a person who is all about cause and effect and its rational skeleton.

Or, maybe she'll conquer her dosing inadequacies and find her sweet spot and become a mild, sensual pothead. That would be interesting.

Pot: Sure.

"It's the tax revenue, stupid."

Health, Money, Everything Else

I prioritize by making sure I am basically healthy, have some money rolling around and then...everything else.

I wish I lived in a democracy that would reflect my way of thinking.

But here, in the lower 48 and everywhere else we hang our flag, money comes first. And with that---comes illness.

Illness for the planet. Illness for human beings. Because the priority is simply wrong.

I do believe that Obama did the right thing by laying down the new "Fuck-You-Carbon" law. But it is going to be complicated. States will not meet the requirements. And then what? The state goes to jail?

Obama is cagey. He understands in our horrendous divided country that letting states do their thing is the way to go.  Eventually, we will have single payer (or close to it) healthcare.  Eventually, we will have a single system of cap and trade for Carbon and other horrors.  But to get there, he had to let the states have their little ways.

And that is the pain of democracy. Especially one that does not reflect my good scientific and humanitarian instincts.

Look, I am all for money. Lots of it for everyone. Sure. Let it rain coin.
But if you are dead, how will you ever spend it?

Clean up this air, these rivers, these oceans, the damn subway platforms. Clean it all up. We have the technology to do this today. If you work for a big coal company, just spend some time figuring out how to do something entirely different.  The closing of 550 coal plants is not going to cause the End-Of-Days. Frankly, gorgeous West Virginia could become a Safari Park of wild beasts. Do that, West Virginia. Learn how to care for your land. Get healthy, you Scots-Irish-English-German friends of West Virginia. Money will show up. And then, you can do everything else.

Health first.

New York in June

How About You?

Have a Great Weekend

I'm really looking Forward to the Day...

http://www.nytimes.com/video/technology/100000002905026/demo-of-google8217s-self-driving-car.html?emc=eta1

Hunt the Wumpus: It's all Mainframes

Everything old is new again.

Right now, I am listening to some Brown noise (it's like white noise but at a lower frequency) on my computer. My pc is getting this stream from a server somewhere. I guess if I understood Al Gore's interwebs better I could figure out where that server is. I don't know.

But here I am, on earth, with a little noise going...and it comes from somewhere else. Some hard drive or thing or alien in another state.

During unit lunch in high school...that's what they called it because it started at 11:17 AM and went to 11:47 AM (approx)...the entire school was set free to eat. It was madness. My very close friend SS and I, at times, like others who were a bit bookish and preferred things calm, would escape to the science wing and log in to the mainframe computer. It was easy to do. There was a phone, the old kind with an ear part and a mouth part, black, and it was pushed into a black soft rubber suction cup holder and this phone received all its signals from Westchester County, I think Tarrytown, and instructed our terminal what to display.

It was displayed on a dot matrix printer. Yep. No screen. Just paper.

The game we played was called HUNT THE WUMPUS, which was some sort of geometric hunt through a dodecahedron (A polyhedron with 12 equal faces and 20 vertices) and by some process of elimination, you could figure out where this wumpus was hiding. There were rules about where it could move. The secret passageways from one face to another were defined by odd and even numbers or multiples of three, I don't remember exactly. SS often killed the Wumpus. Sometimes it got away. I was hopeless. To this day, I can barely find my car in a parking structure.

But it was a fun way to kill unit lunch (if not often, too, the Wumpus). And it was all done by mainframe.

The game was written in BASIC. You can read about it here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunt_the_Wumpus

It was beyond thrilling to have a phone pushed into a strange device that allowed us to play this game, the dot-matrix white and green striped paper printing out our turns as we typed.

Of course, the difference with a mainframe and a pc is the mainframe does all the computing, too. But, really, it won't be long before you won't both downloading anything any longer.

And if you don't believe me, stand still long enough and the Wumpus will eat you.

The English, From Whence it Came, Chucked it...So Why Don't We?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

It is time to rewrite this silly constitution that people hold so dear.

I do not believe the original framers meant for students to walk around killing each other. Of course, there have always been nuts who have killed people. Maybe this is to be expected.

But when people get in my face about the Constitution, you just have to figure they are verse and chapter types, afraid of change. Why are we being hijacked by such clay footed folks?

I say, rewrite it. Enough already. This thing gets us into too much trouble. It is TOO LOOSELY written and too open for debate.

And certainly, there is no need for people to be running around with all these guns.

Perhaps the only answer is to start assassinating the children of the NRA?  Then the chapter and verse types might understand?
(Note to officials of any kind---that was hyperbolic sarcasm, those last two lines.)

Senselessness. It is purely senseless to hold onto ideas that have not only outlived their usefulness but also presently cause undo harm.

Rewrite this thing. This silly piece of paper. It's so old. And this country is too full of self serving loons to have its organizing document be
1) something so open to discussion.
2) something that makes it so easy to just run around and kill people.

Apple Pie? Sure.
Gun loving?  Go kill your own children, you lunatics.

Time for a rewrite. And maybe even chopping this country into three.  North, South, West.

Enough.

To All My Highly Sensitive People Friends

http://www.salon.com/2014/05/21/6_signs_you_could_be_a_highly_sensitive_person_partner/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

Why not stay home this weekend and just finger the sofa?

If it's all too much, and it is, know you aren't alone.

Thank you, T, for sending this to me.

Luckily, I've got some good biPolarity in me and can transform into a Teflon warrior when needed.
The warrior pose, though, never lasts long.

Hugs. No wait. No hugs. Too much.

Air. Space. Calm.